Astronomers have spotted a second interstellar object

It appears to be a comet from another star system

‘Oumuamua, shown in this artist’s illustration, became the first known interstellar object to visit the solar system when it was spotted in 2017. Now there seems to be a second visitor.

ESA/HUBBLE, NASA, ESO, M. KORNMESSER

By Lisa Grossman

An object that seems to be a comet from around another star is speeding through the solar system. This comet, dubbed C/2019 Q4 (Borisov), marks the second time that astronomers have seen an interstellar visitor on its way past the sun.

Ukrainian amateur astronomer Gennady Borisov spotted the comet on August 30. In the days that followed, other astronomers took enough observations of the comet to show that its orbit is not bound to the sun, a telltale sign that the object is from interstellar space, says astrophysicist Matthew Holman. He is the director of the International Astronomical Union’s Minor Planet Center in Cambridge, Mass., which reported C/2019 Q4’s trajectory September 11 in a public bulletin.

“There have been three or four different groups that have checked the orbit and poked at it from different directions, and everybody reaches the same conclusion,” Holman says. But he cautions that the comet is close to the sun and low on the horizon, which make it difficult to observe.

“This is an unusual thing. You always want to be extra careful when you get an answer that’s not typical,” he says. “That said, I think it will hold up.”

The first known interstellar object, named ‘Oumuamua, was spotted in October 2017 as it sped away from the solar system (SN: 10/27/17). Astronomers could only grab fleeting glimpses of ‘Oumuamua on its way out the door. That left many theories for what the object was — an asteroid, a fluffy ice fractal, a skeleton of a comet, even an alien spaceship. But little data existed to back up any of those ideas (SN: 2/27/19).

C/2019 Q4, on the other hand, is just past the solar system’s doorstep, on a trajectory that will take it between the orbits of Jupiter and Mars. It will make its closest approach to Earth (at about twice the distance between Earth and the sun) on December 29.

“It’s going to be a nice Christmas comet,” says astronomer Michele Bannister of Queen’s University Belfast in Northern Ireland. The object will remain in view for several months after that.

In total, “we’ll be able to observe it for probably a year, which is really different from ‘Oumuamua,” Holman says. ‘Oumuamua was tracked for a short 2.5 months before it became too faint to see.

Already, C/2019 Q4 looks different from its predecessor. ‘Oumuamua resembled an asteroid more than a comet, with no obvious cloud of gases. C/2019 Q4 is surrounded by a bright cometlike halo, indicating that it’s sloughing off gas and dust.

That cometlike appearance is more like what astronomers expected from the first interstellar object than ‘Oumuamua was, Bannister says. Comets are a type of leftover planetary building block, called planetesimals, and most planetesimals form far from their stars and are therefore icy. Most stars end up losing their small planetesimals, either while planets are forming or after the star dies. “Almost all the planetesimals that each planetary system makes end up being scattered out to go wander the galaxy,” Banister says.

Further observations will reveal more about C/2019 Q4’s orbit, size and origin. Astronomers will also be able to tease out the comet’s composition and see how different it is from our solar system’s comets.

{ https://www.sciencenews.org/ }

19-09-2019 om 00:55 geschreven door peter  

Sand Dunes Snake Near Mars' North Pole (Photo)

By Mike Wall 

The dark patches are caused by springtime defrosting.

Sand dunes ripple near Mars' north pole in this image captured by the European/Russian Trace Gas Orbiter. The photo was taken on May 25, 2019, and released on Sept. 16.

(Image: © ESA/Roscosmos/CaSSIS, CC BY-SA 3.0 IGO)

Rippling, dark-flecked sand dunes near Mars' north pole look like melting chocolate-chip ice cream in an image captured by the European-Russian Trace Gas Orbiter spacecraft (TGO).

The photo, which TGO snapped with its Colour and Stereo Surface Imaging System (CaSSIS), shows some effects of springtime warming in the Red Planet's far north.

"During winter in the polar regions, a thin layer of carbon dioxide ice covers the surface and then sublimates — turns directly from ice into vapor — with the first light of spring," European Space Agency (ESA) officials wrote about the image, which was taken May 25 but just released today (Sept. 16).

"In the dune fields, this springtime defrosting occurs from the bottom up, trapping gas between the ice and the sand," they added. "As the ice cracks, this gas is released violently and carries sand with it, forming the dark patches and streaks observed in this CaSSIS image."

• Related: Photos: The European-Russian ExoMars Missions to Mars in Pictures

The newly released photo depicts U-shaped "barchan dunes," visible at lower right, meeting up and merging into "barchanoid ridges," ESA officials said. 

"The curved tips of the barchan dunes point downwind," the officials added in the same statement. "The transition from barchan to barchanoid dunes tells us that secondary winds also play a role in shaping the dune field."

Barchan dunes aren't confined to the Martian poles; NASA's Curiosity rover has also encountered them on the floor of the 96-mile-wide (154 kilometers) Gale Crater, which sits just south of the Red Planet's equator.

TGO launched in March 2016 along with a landing demonstrator called Schiaparelli. Together, the two spacecraft comprised the first phase of the two-part ExoMars program, a collaboration between ESA and Roscosmos, Russia's federal space agency.

Schiaparelli crashed during its landing attempt in October 2016, but TGO arrived safely in orbit around the same time. TGO soon began sniffing the Red Planet's atmosphere for methane — which could be a sign of Mars life, if any has ever existed — and other low-abundance gases. 

ExoMars' second phase centers on a life-hunting rover called Rosalind Franklin, which is scheduled to launch toward the Red Planet next summer and land in March 2021. NASA is planning to launch a life-hunting rover of its own during the same window — the 2020 Mars rover, which will get a more memorable name of its own soon via a student naming competition.

• The Sand Dunes of Mars Move in a Weird Way
• Latest News About the ExoMars Missions
• 7 Biggest Mysteries of Mars

Mike Wall's book about the search for alien life, "Out There" (Grand Central Publishing, 2018; illustrated by Karl Tate), is out now. Follow him on Twitter @michaeldwall. Follow us on Twitter @Spacedotcom or Facebook. 

{ https://www.space.com/ }

19-09-2019 om 00:19 geschreven door peter  

Ancient Artists Left Signs For us to Decode. Did they Witness UFOs?

Did ancient artists leave us clear signs of otherworldly interference in our lives and in our culture?

Art can be considered a record of history, culture, and science as it reveals man in his many aspects, offering a more complete insight and a unique viewpoint. Since the beginning of man, humans have always felt a need to reproduce celestial events, first on the walls of caves and then on canvas. It is not the case that history, art, archaeology, and anthropology were rewritten in art, but these interpretations should be viewed in light of new elements whose existence had not previously been suspected.

Much has been written about the representation of strange objects placed in the sky in works of art from the Renaissance period, but little has been written about some ancient tapestries of the medieval period—and what has been discussed is controversial because it challenges the orthodox perspective.

Mysterious Medieval Tapestries

In eastern France, Cote d’Or department, in the little town of Beaune, (the wine capital of Burgundy), there is the Notre Dame Basilica . The original building was constructed about 1120-1149. Inside, besides frescos of the 15th century, there is a library that houses a set of tapestries from the 15th to the 18th centuries.

Among them, the eyes of an attentive observer are struck by “The Life of the Virgin Mary” and “Magnificat”, two medieval tapestries which are part of a group of five of important moments in the Virgin Mary’s life.

Life of the Virgin Mary, medieval tapestry from Tournai, Belgium.

(Notre Dame Basilica Beaune / Public Domain )

In both of these tapestries there is one unidentified flying object ‘flitting’ across the sky in the background. Even in “Magnificat”, made in 1330, this black object is depicted in the typical way of many UFO sightings.

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Magnificat, 15 ^th medieval tapestry from Tournai, Belgium, object circled in upper right corner. (

Notre Dame Basilica Beaune / Public Domain )

But there are many who state they are priest hats. But logic asks why include floating and lonely ecclesiastic hats in the sky?

Therefore, it is reasonable to wonder, considering the historical period, whether personal experiences or popular stories could have influenced an artist to include an odd event in the depths of a sacred image, hoping in this way to increase a halo of mysticality.

There are discs or UFOs which cannot be mistaken for ‘priest hats’ – given they do not fly in ‘religious skies’. A good example is the tapestry “ Summer Triumph ”, depicting allegoric and symbolic images of the season.

This tapestry certainly was part of a series that originally depicted the four seasons. It is not known if any of the other tapestries have survived. This tapestry, (perhaps created in Bruges), is located at the Bayerisches National Museum in Munich, Germany, which unfortunately has little information about it. They do know it was brought to the museum in 1971 by an art dealer. There was no information about the workshop, the designer, the patron, or the circumstances of its production.

The date 1538 is woven into the border on both the right and the left sides of the tapestry. In the upper border, there is an inscription in old Latin saying: “REX GOSCI SIVE GUTSCMIN”. This translates as “King Gosci of Gutscmin”. If this is a hint to the patron who ordered the tapestry to be made, nobody knows for sure.

As usual, almost hidden in the background, there are some black discs or UFOs in the blue sky.

Summers Triumph on display at the Bayerisches National Museum in Munich, Germany.

(Hurley / Public Domain )

Dr. Birgitt Borkopp from the Bayerisches Museum, in a letter sent to the author, states that “As the style of the tapestry is rather unusual,  even for its period, I would doubt if this is the right object to illustrate the history of art, but of course this is your decision entirely.”

Of course, she wasn’t aware that the link between UFOs and history in art is discussed in many books and articles.  It is interesting to note strange or unusual art generally is not considered with curiosity by the ‘experts’ and they seem to prefer to ignore them.

The Tapestry of the Two Crusaders

An interesting example that displays ‘knowledge ahead of its time’ is what was written about the images of the two crusaders in the " Annales Laurissenses " (books about historical and religious events), composed in the beginning of the 8th century.

In 776, during one of the innumerable raids of the Saxons in Frank territory, an odd event happened. While Charlemagne, in a rare moment, was resting from battle and devoting himself to the cause of the Holy Church, the Saxons left their lands with a great army and invaded the Franks.

They reached the chapel at Frisdilar, founded by Saint Bonifacio, preacher and martyr who had predicted the chapel would never be burned. The Saxons surrounded the chapel, entered it and started to set it alight. But at the very last moment, two men dressed in white appeared in the sky. They were seen by the Christians who had taken refuge in the castle and by the pagans who were outside.

The two men were said to have protected the chapel from the fire. The pagans were not able to set fire to it, neither inside nor outside, and this terrified them so much they ran away – even though no one was pursuing them.

But one crusader remained during the hasty escape and was found dead, in flames, in front of the chapel. His dead body was positioned prone on his knees and elbows, with his mouth covered by his hands, showing what seemed to be clear signs of death from asphyxia.

The fire was there and was witnessed. It did not cause any damage to the chapel, but it killed the crusader who remained while the others escaped. This event could be interpreted in a variety of ways and it could be irrelevant if it had not been followed, after a short time, by another strange event.

It was the year 776, and it happened during the siege of the Sigiburg castle. The Saxons besieged and surrounded the Franks but in this circumstance the French garrison snuck out and suddenly attacked the Saxons from the rear. The Saxons were unprotected in that direction, since they were intent on the attack of the castle. In the midst of battle, something appeared in the sky.

Ruin of Hohensyburg castle, on the site of the Sigiburg.

(Erich Ferdinand/ CC BY 2.0 )

Witnesses saw in the air two flaming shields, one after another. These appeared to hover over the top of the church as though spectral knights were bringing them into battle. Because of this miracle, it seemed the Franks were protected by the sky, and because of the assault the French had launched at their rear, the Saxons became so frightened that they all turned and ran.

For this last event, apart the chronicle of the text, there is pictorial documentation depicting two crusaders. In the miniature it shows the crusader with his arms up and clearly depicts an object in the sky, shaped like a sphere, with little circles like portholes around it. It is interesting to note the representation of light or energy emitting from the object seems to convey movement.

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These tapestries of two crusaders dates from the 12th century.

(RayLovesRomania / YouTube)

But it is only when observing the image [above, on the left] that it is possible to understand the attempt of the artist to portray the image in artistic perspective – but in those historical times, the concept of artistic perspective did not exist yet. Images were represented only in one dimension, flatly.

Observing the other image [above, right], the one of the crusader with the crown on his head (maybe a noble leader or even Charlemagne, though the chronicles tell us he was not present at this event) riding the horse and pointing to the object in the sky , it is possible to determine that the object inside the burst of light cannot be anything but an unidentified flying object – as we can confirm from the witness tales and from graphic documentation in circulation.

The Mysterious Objects Depicted in the Urbinate Bible

Another unusual flying object is found in a beautiful miniature from the Renaissance period, in the Urbinate Bible. This manuscript is kept in the Vatican museum; it is the most famous document relating to the Holy Scriptures.

The Urbinate Bible (or Urbino Bible) is divided into two books, the Old and New Testament . Hugo de Cominellis (or Hugues de Cominellis de Mazieres) has been identified as the scribe of these volumes which were commissioned by Frederico da Montefeltro, Duke of Urbino. It was written at the studio of Vespasiano da Bisticci, the renowned Florentine bookseller, who was the primary provider of manuscripts for the Urbino library. The manuscript is a transcription of the canonical text of the Vulgate – a famous text translated by Saint Girolamo from Ebraic and Aramaic in 390 AD.

A number of different artists, panel painters, fresco painters, and miniature painters worked together in decorating these volumes. The Urbinate Bible is a rare example of artistic collaboration in Florence at the end of the 15th century.

Among the beautiful images in this Bible is the subject of this text – Saint Geremia’s Contemplation. The image is a perfect example of how mystic representation, the anomalous factor, and daily reality are brought together.

Medieval tapestry - Saint Geremia’s Contemplation.

(Hurley / Public Domain )

We have the mountains, the surrounding countryside, the town, and the men and horses as examples of objective reality. We also have the divine mystic element falling into classic patterns of religious iconography. What interests us in this painting is the unusual object in the top right.

It is a round body emitting blazing rays. From the flames surrounding the object we witness a straight yellow beam of light (laser?). There are no perfectly straight lines in nature. In this example, the object is clearly out of the religious context. Straight beams originating from flying objects are no strangers to Ufology.

Medieval tapestry - Saint Geremia’s Contemplation - close up of the right hand top corner.

(Hurley / Public Domain )

For this miniature, any analysis cannot state for certain whether the artist had seen or heard something in reality, but one thing is apparent, he wanted to tell us something…

It’s not likely that today someone seeing a flying object at a distance to witness advanced characteristics such as shape, movement, controllability, or luminosity, would think, as the Saxons did, that it’s a sign we are protected by God or by gods. Thanks to our technical knowledge, we might immediately think it is some secret military aircraft or even extraterrestrial. Also, the Franks, although ignorant of aerial technology, didn’t think of it as a simple celestial phenomenon but as something more particular: “as though knights were bringing them into battle”. This presupposes the idea that the two discs were driven by ‘knights’ who seemed to want to take part in the battle.

Was there the deliberate intention to alter the result of that battle? Or was it just by chance the two flaming discs appeared in that moment? After all, these two events as quoted in the chronicles influenced the result of two different assaults/aggressions by the Saxons, (called pagans in that period). Thus, it seems right to wonder if the battles during which these sightings occurred were so critical for the still forming empire of Charlemagne, promoter of Christianity.

How important was it that the Saxons were driven away? How important was it that Charlemagne won? And if the Saxons had won, what kind of civilization would we have today?

Could our civilization, and by consequence, the present/actual social-political structure have been ‘driven’ in its development since remote times ? And why?

• Top image: Medieval tapestry in Ecouen Castle, Ecouen, France.
• Source: photogolfer / Adobe Stock.

By Daniela Giordano

{ https://www.ancient-origins.net/ }

18-09-2019 om 23:49 geschreven door peter  

Piri Reis Map - How Could a 16th Century Map Show Antarctica Without Ice?

On October 9, 1929, a German theologian named Gustav Adolf Deissmann was cataloguing items in the Topkapi Palace library in Istanbul when he happened across a curious parchment located among some disregarded material. On the gazelle skin parchment was a map, now referred to as the Piri Reis map .

The map was drawn and signed by Turkish cartographer Hagji Ahmed Muhiddin Piri , aka Piri Reis, and is dated to 1513 AD. Reis was an admiral in the Turkish navy, an experienced sailor, and a cartographer, who claimed to have used 20 source maps and charts to construct the map, including 8 Ptolemaic maps, 4 Portuguese maps, an Arabic map, and a map by Christopher Columbus.

Since its discovery, the Piri Reis map has stirred both intrigue and controversy, mostly due to the presence of what appears to be a representation of Antarctica 300 years before it was discovered. Another—if not even more intriguing facet of the appearance of Antarctica—is that it appears to show the land mass before it was covered in ice, over 6000 years ago.

Evidence of Ancient Technology?

The great debate was sparked by Professor Charles Hapgood when he published his theory on the Piri Reis map in his book Maps of the Ancient Sea Kings in 1965. He and a team of students at the University of New Hampshire studied the map and found many anomalies, such as the use of mercatorial projection and the inclusion of a pre-ice Antarctica.

The Greeks were able to create cylindrical maps based on their knowledge of a spherical earth, though mercatorial projection was not used by Europeans until later in the 16 ^th century, and were also able to use astronomy and geometry to calculate latitude and longitude, though absolute accuracy was not possible until the invention of the chronometer in 1760. While these two feats—amazing as they are—could be explained by use of Greek source maps and charts from the age of Alexander, nothing could explain the inclusion of Antarctica. As a result, Hapgood proposed that the map was based on materials that pre-date 4000 BC, before any known developed languages or progressive civilizations.

This theory implies that a prehistoric civilization had the technology to navigate major seaways and fairly accurately chart the globe. Hapgood also suggested that the topographic depiction of the interior of the continents required aerial capabilities, implying the prehistoric ‘super’ civilization to be both nautical and aerial masters and leading to the further speculation of either an Atlantean or alien civilization. No evidence has been found to support such theories.

South America vs Antarctica

Skeptics of Hapgood’s theory point out that the map is a representation of the South American coastline, pointing to modern physical features of the coast and interior included on the 16 ^th century map. Otherwise, argue critics, the image would indicate that Antarctica and South America had once been connected at Uruguay, and that Argentina did not yet exist.

While this argument possibly dismisses the presence of Antarctica on the Piri Reis map,  other anomalous maps have been found that are identical to the the ice free continent as only 20 ^th century satellite technology has been able to identify.

Other theories of Hapgood’s have already been dismissed, such as his polar shift theory in which he claimed a sudden shift in the inclination of the Earth's axis of rotation in 9,500 BC could have resulted in the displacement of Antarctica, sending it hundreds of miles south and resulting in the alteration of its climate from semi-temperate to freezing. All evidence suggests that this shift could not, and did not, occur.

Undiscovered Civilization?

The true question is whether or not Antarctica is the identifiable continent on the Piri Reis map, or any of the other anomalous maps. If it is, could the Piri Reis map have been based on the documents of a yet undiscovered, prehistoric civilization, one that could possess technology enabling them to travel and accurately chart the globe? Regardless of the true origin of the sources, one thing is for certain: this map opens up the debate over how we view our own history and what, if any, of those views are accurate. Perhaps someday the truth will be discovered.

• Top image: The Piri Reis Map. Credit: Mehmetilker / Adobe Stock

By Beth

{ https://www.ancient-origins.net/ }

18-09-2019 om 23:19 geschreven door peter  

Last month, rafts of pumice, spewed from an undersea volcano and spanning an area about the size of Washington, D.C., appeared in the South Pacific.

Satellite image of a pumice raft floating near the Kingdom of Tonga.

Image via NASA Earth Observatory.

In early August 2019, an unnamed volcano in the South Pacific Ocean near the Kingdom of Tonga erupted roughly 130 feet (40 meters) underwater. As lava spewed from the volcano, it cooled into pumice — porous rock filled with gas bubbles — and floated to the surface. This volcanic debris, with some fragments tiny and some as large as beach balls, aggregated into pumice rafts spanning an area of about 60 square miles (200 square km) — almost as big as Washington, D.C.

These temporary islands of volcanic rock are shaped and moved by ocean currents, wind, and waves, and provide a literal toehold for marine life, such as barnacles, coral, seaweed and mollusks, say scientists.

Several sailing crews have encountered the rocks. In a video, below, posted on YouTube on August 17, Shannon Lenz said:

On August 9, 2019, we sailed through a pumice field for 6-8 hours, much of the time there was no visible water. It was like plowing through a field. We figured the pumice was at least 6-inches thick.

An Australian couple, Michael Hoult and Larissa Brill, were sailing a catamaran to Fiji, when they encountered the raft on August 16. The couple said in a Facebook post:

We entered a total rock rubble slick made up of pumice stones from marble to basketball size.

Pumice rafts aren’t that common, according to Martin Jutzeler, a volcanologist at the University of Tasmania in Hobart. He told EOS:

We see about two per decade.

Jutzeler told EOS that not all undersea eruptions produce them, but the rafts that do form tend to stick around. They can last for months or years until the pumice abrades itself into dust or finally sinks. And floating pumice can traverse long distances. For example, he said, when the same unnamed volcano near Tonga erupted in 2001, the pumice raft it created eventually arrived in Queensland, Australia.

August 13, 2109. See detail below.

Image via NASA Earth Observatory.

Detail of above image, taken August 13, 2109.

Image via NASA Earth Observatory.

These transient, movable islands play an important role in marine ecosystems, scientists say, moving barnacles, coral, and seaweed that cling to the pumice to new homes. Some news outlets are reporting that the pumice might make it to Australia to help restore the Great Barrier Reef’s corals , half of which have been killed in recent years as a result of climate change. According to Denison University volcanologist Erik Klemetti, the long-distance journeys of pumice rafts are

… definitely a way to get organisms to disperse widely.

But the idea that the stowaways aboard pumice rafts might replenish the Great Barrier Reef’s corals is wishful thinking, Klemetti told EOS. He said:

That’s probably an oversell.

Researchers are keeping a close watch on how the rafts are moving. Satellite imagery provides nearly daily updates. Ocean currents, wind, and waves sculpt and power the rafts, which now number in the hundreds.

7NEWS Gold Coast

✔@7NewsGoldCoast

A raft of rock, the size of 20,000 football fields is floating towards Queensland. The pumice was created when an underwater volcano erupted off Tonga. Scientists say it'll bring millions of new coral to the Great Barrier Reef. @ErinEdwards7 @QUT #7NEWS

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Bottom line: In August 2019, rafts of pumice, spewed from an undersea volcano and spanning an area about the size of Washington, D.C., appeared in the South Pacific.

Via EOS

{ https://earthsky.org/ }

18-09-2019 om 22:41 geschreven door peter  

Stephen Hawking Was Wrong. Black Holes Are Bald.

18-09-2019 om 22:07 geschreven door peter  

What Causes an Ice Age?

18-09-2019 om 21:09 geschreven door peter  

UFOs Are Real — and You Were Never Supposed to See Them, Military Official Says

By Brandon Specktor - Senior Writer 

Remember those viral UFO videos you saw last year? The government would like you to forget them, please.

A still from one of the notorious Navy UFO sighting videos.

(Image: © To The Stars Academy of Arts and Science)

In December 2017 and March 2018, The New York Times released three allegedly declassified videos showing U.S. Navy pilots trailing some unidentified flying objects. The mystery crafts moved at hypersonic speeds, flying tens of thousands of feet above the Earth with no distinct wings, engines or visible signs of propulsion whatsoever. Were they flying saucers? Incredibly high-tech drones? The pilots had no idea — and, according to a recent statement from Navy intelligence officials, neither does the U.S. government.

In a statement delivered to the intelligence news website The Black Vault, Joseph Gradisher, a spokesperson for the Deputy Chief of Naval Operations for Information Warfare, announced that the Navy officially considers the craft in these three videos "unidentified aerial phenomena." That means that the eerie videos are authentic — and that the objects, which were detected in restricted military training airspaces in 2004 and 2015, were not supposed to be there. The objects still have not been successfully identified as any known type of aircraft.

The UFO footage was also never cleared for public release, Gradisher told The Black Vault — meaning these are three unidentified phenomena you were never supposed to know about.

• Related: 7 Things Most Often Mistaken for UFOs

According to The Black Vault, the videos may have been improperly released by a former Pentagon employee who had applied for permission to share them across several government agencies as part of a database on unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV) he was allegedly compiling. The man received permission to share the videos for "[US Government] Use Only," paperwork obtained by The Black Vault shows. However, Navy officials never declassified the footage for public release, Gradisher said.

What was the Navy trying to withhold, specifically? Only some very bizarre aerial acrobatics. In one incident filmed in 2004, for example, the unidentified objects "appeared suddenly at 80,000 feet, and then hurtled toward the sea, eventually stopping at 20,000 feet and hovering," The New York Times wrote. "Then they either dropped out of radar range or shot straight back up."

To be clear, nobody is saying that these mystery aircraft have anything to do with alien visitors; they simply can't be identified or explained by current aeronautical knowledge. Comforted? Good — because this sort of thing probably happens way more often than we know.

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Originally published on Live Science.

{ https://www.livescience.com/ }

18-09-2019 om 20:22 geschreven door peter  

18-09-2019 om 19:49 geschreven door peter  

Is Rh-Negative Blood Alien In Origin?

As humans, we believe we evolved from apes and the Rh factor in our blood even derives its name from the Rhesus Macaque. But when it comes to the antigens in our blood there’s a small percentage of the population with a strange anomaly, leading some to question if Rh-negative blood is alien in origin.

Where Does Rh Negative Blood Come From?

There are 35 blood group systems organized by our genetic structure to carry the information that produces antigens. Antigens are molecules that produce an immune response, so when a foreign substance or toxin enters our system, antigens tell our bodies to attack them.

Within the Rh system there are 61 antigens, with the D antigen determining whether one is Rh-positive of Rh-negative. This antigen is a sensitive protein that exists on the surface of red blood cells and can react negatively if it comes in contact with Rh-positive blood.

If a woman with Rh-negative blood becomes pregnant with an Rh-positive baby, her body will produce antigens signaling to her immune system that her fetus is essentially toxic. Oddly, the woman’s body will kill its own fetus, unless given a rare antibody known as Rh-D immunoglobulin. This complication is known as hemolytic disease.

Some believe Rh-negative blood is simply a mutation that came about at some unknown time in our evolution. But, as strange as it sounds, others have speculated at the possibility that it may have come from an alien species that interbred with humans or engineered us in some way, producing a hybrid bloodline.

When we look at hybrid animals in other species, there are similar incompatibilities and sometimes even complete infertility. When a horse and donkey mate, the genetic differences result in a sterile mule. The same goes for a liger – the progeny of a lion and a tiger – the two species chromosomes don’t match, so they produce infertile offspring. Could there be a similar incompatibility between Rh-negative mothers and Rh-positive babies?

Rh Negative Characteristics

About 15 percent of the world’s population has the Rh-negative distinction, with the D-antigen absent in their veins. But this percentage of the population is not spread evenly across all areas of the planet. While humans are thought to all share a common ancestor, originating in sub-Saharan Africa, the number of Rh-negative Africans is disproportionately low compared to others – about three percent. In Asia, that proportion is even lower with only about one percent of the population possessing this rare blood type.

The gene that produces Rh-negative is largely present in Caucasians, with the highest concentration found in a small region on the Iberian Peninsula between France and Spain, known as the Basque region. Here, straddling the Pyrenees mountains, up to 40 percent of the population is Rh-negative, and that’s not the only distinguishing feature of the region.

Those from the Basque are also the only people of Western Europe who continue to speak an indigenous Indo-European language – an isolated tongue not spoken anywhere else in Europe. But this language is not just isolated, it’s completely unrelated to other European languages.

A more mundane explanation for the homogenous traits of people from the Basque region is the idea that early farmers, during the start of the agricultural revolution, mixed with local hunters, before becoming isolated for thousands of years preserving their language and genetics. Others have posited the idea that the Basques could have been the pure descendants of the first modern humans to arrive in Europe.

But another theory that falls in the more ethereal category is that the Nephilim of biblical lore are responsible for Rh-negative blood types. In the Book of Enoch, the Nephilim, also known as the Watchers, descend from the heavens and mate with humans, creating a human-angel hybrid. This group of angels and their offspring were wiped out in the great biblical deluge, though some were said to have survived, leaving the Rh-negative blood distinction.

Another otherworldly theory is that the Anunnaki, the extraterrestrial race that helped establish ancient Mesopotamian civilizations, engineered or crossbred with humans, and that some part of this process created the Rh-negative blood type.

It’s alleged that people with Rh-negative blood have distinct physical features paired with a predilection for psychic phenomena and alien abductions. Some of those features are:

•      Higher than average IQ
•      Lower body temperature
•      Higher blood pressure
•      Red or reddish hair
•      Extra vertebrae
•      Sensitive vision and particular sensitivity to sunlight
•      Elevated intuition

Could there be any validity behind this, or is it an elitist idea that there might be a small percent of the population that has advanced, extraterrestrial genetics? While there’s not much grounding evidence of these alleged characteristics, some have pointed to instances of red-haired rulers in ancient civilizations throughout the world as potentially having some connection.

In South America, some of the bizarrely-shaped, oblong Paracas skulls were found to have red hair in an area where that hair color isn’t native. The gene for red hair originates in the Middle East and Europe. Breakaway archeologists, like L.A. Marzulli have connected these red-haired skulls to the Nephilim. Could the Rh-negative blood type be another connecting factor?

{ https://www.gaia.com/ }

18-09-2019 om 19:41 geschreven door peter  

18-09-2019 om 19:22 geschreven door peter  

Dulce Secret Underground Bases That Go Way Below The Surface of the Earth

Once we go below the crust of the planet past five or six miles, there’s thousand of miles more, and we don’t know or understand exactly what could be down there, he pointed out.

There’ve long been rumors about a secret underground base at Dulce, NM, and that area has had a large number of strange lights seen on the mesas, Strieber noted, adding that the local Jicarilla tribe has a legend they were created inside the mesa.

A media phenomenon, Coast to Coast AM deals with UFOs, strange occurrences, life after death, and other unexplained (and often inexplicable) phenomena.

{ https://beforeitsnews.com/ }

18-09-2019 om 19:13 geschreven door peter  

American Government Is Silently Monitoring Snake-Like UFOs Spotted Across the Nation

 An ex-police officer believes the American government is well aware of the snake-like UFOs that have appeared over multiple different states.

People from different parts of the US have claimed to have spotted mysterious objects in the skies on camera, which bear a resemblance to snakes in their movement.

The sighting began in June when a famous YouTube personality was puzzled to find a bright light over the Mojave Desert in California.

Since then, they have reportedly been observed during a meteor shower in Wyoming and above New York moving like it has life.

Former detective constable Gary Heseltine said that cigar-shaped UFOs had been spotted for decades and some reports involve snake-like objects.

Mr Heseltine went on the claim that the American government and military have controlled the UFO arena around the world since the 1940s.

He certainly believes that the US military and government know much more about space alien visitation. He suspects that the public only knows 10 percent of the truth about ET and UFOs.

He pointed out that the sightings are numerous and have many different witnesses. With this data, he firmly believes that someone in authority is silently monitoring the activity of snake-like UFOs.

Gary went on the claim that he has met many individuals who were military pilots and have had UFO encounters. He said that around 3 percent of UFO reports involve space alien visitation.

Gary worked in the British Transport Police for 24 years until 2013 and now a researcher of UFO sightings.

{ http://www.latest-ufo-sightings.net/ }

18-09-2019 om 18:26 geschreven door peter  

Fungus Structures On Dark Side Of Moon, UFO Sighting News.

Source: Book...Lunar Orbiter Photographic Atlas by Charles Byrne.

I found these structures in a book about the moon about ten years ago, and I don't believe I have made a video about it yet, so here it goes. The objects are not glitches in the photo process as some would say. They actually have shadows thrown a long ways. The photo above is actually  a hill like structure that turns into this fungus structure. Amazing huh? Watch the video to see the other 7 photos of these objects on the dark side of the moon. These photos were taken down by NASA over 15 years ago, but this book has a CD in the back with those photos and index ID numbers still on them. Absolute proof of life on the dark side of the moon. 
Scott C. Waring

{ https://www.ufosightingsdaily.com/ }

18-09-2019 om 01:25 geschreven door peter  

6 Stories Of Alien Abduction That Will Make You Want To Believe

Best read late at night, of course.

ajreeves / Via Flickr: ajreeves

The "Hill Abduction," as it is commonly known, is the first widely publicized American case of alien abduction. At its center were Betty and Barney Hill, a married couple living in New Hampshire. The Hills claimed they witnessed a UFO while driving back on the night of September 19 from a trip to Niagara Falls. They followed the movement of the craft for some time; eventually, it descended sharply, causing Barney to stop the car in the middle of the highway. When he saw creatures peering at them through the craft's windows, he ran back to his car. The craft then lifted over their vehicle, and the Hills reported hearing and feeling buzzing. The Hills' consciousness went blurry; when they awoke, they'd traveled 35 miles south with no memory of having done so. They arrived home and realized their watches were broken. Betty reported the incident to the Pease Air Force Base. She began having dreams about the incident; later, both Barney and Betty would be interviewed at length while under hypnosis.

The story became national news after a story was published in the Boston Traveler in 1965; a book about their story, called The Interrupted Journey was published in 1987.

3. Pascagoula Abduction (1973), coworkers who claimed they were abducted by a craft while fishing.

Via youtube.com

youtube.com

On November 6, 1975, a then-22-year-old Travis Walton and his crew of fellow loggers had finished working and were driving home when they spotted a large silvery disc floating in the sky above a clearing. The driver stopped the car and Walton jumped out, running toward the object. The craft began to move, and, according to others in the car, Walton began to step back, when a blue-green beam shot out and "struck" Walton. What happened next is unclear, but it seems that Walton's crew left the area, as one of his co-workers called the police from near the town where they lived. When the crew and police officers returned to the site, Walton had disappeared. A search party looked for Walton while news of the case spread internationally. He reappeared five days later, returning with apparent weight loss and a story about his time inside the UFO.

In 1978 Walton published a book about his experience, aptly called The Walton Experience. His story was also the (loose) basis for the 1993 film Fire in the Sky, though the narrative surrounding what happened in the UFO differs substantially from Walton's account. In 2013, Walton was on an episode of Keeping Up With The Kardashians, which appeared uncomfortable for everyone involved.

5. Frederick Valentich (1978), a pilot who reported a strange craft to Air Traffic Control before disappearing without a trace.

youtube.com

amazon.com

Whitley Strieber, an author of horror novels, alleges that he was abducted by non-human visitors from his home in upstate New York in December, 1985. (Strieber does not specifically state that "the visitors" are alien in nature, though most read his account — the 1987 book Communion — as such.) Communion became a #1 Times bestseller, granting the topic of alien abduction a renewed, widespread public interest. Strieber wrote several non-fiction follow-ups to the story, as well as a number of novels about similar topics. He is currently the host of a pararnormal-themed internet podcast called "Dreamland."

{ https://www.buzzfeed.com/ }

18-09-2019 om 01:16 geschreven door peter  

18-09-2019 om 00:53 geschreven door peter  

Dit is hoe het eerste ruimtehotel eruit zal zien - HLN.be

Bron: CNN, Business Insider

Hoewel reizen naar de ruimte momenteel nog als verre toekomstmuziek klinkt, zou het binnen dit en een jaar of zes al werkelijkheid kunnen worden. The Gateway Foundation wil tegen 2025 het eerste ruimtehotel af hebben, dat de naam ‘The Von Braun Station’ zou meekrijgen. Het hotel werd gebaseerd op een concept uit de jaren 50 van Wernher von Braun, en zal bestaan uit een roterend wiel met een diameter van ongeveer 190 meter. De technologie die er gebruikt wordt zal gelijkaardig zijn aan die van het International Space Station, maar de kunstmatige zwaartekracht zal ervoor zorgen dat een verblijf er een pak aangenamer wordt.

Het roterende wiel van het ruimtehotel zal bestaan uit 24 individuele modules, uitgerust met levensondersteunende systemen en slaapplekken. De Gateway Foundation verwacht dat het hotel plaats zal hebben voor ongeveer 400 gasten, en is van plan om modules te verkopen als privéwoningen, andere aan overheden te verhuren voor onderzoeksdoeleinden en de resterende modules te veranderen in een luxueus ruimtehotel.

Het hotel zal dezelfde look en feel krijgen als luxueuze hotels in New York, Tokyo en Parijs. Er zullen ook vele faciliteiten aanwezig zijn die je normaliter ook op een cruiseschip vindt, zoals restaurant, bars, een concertruimte, een bioscoop en vergaderzalen. Dankzij de kunstmatige zwaartekracht zal het hotel ook een volledig restaurant bezitten en kan je er op een normale manier naar het toilet gaan en douchen. Om het ruimtegevoel compleet te maken zullen er echter ook plekken in het hotel zijn waar je het gebrek aan zwaartekracht optimaal kan ervaren, zoals een basketbalveld met beperkte zwaartekracht en ruimtes waar je kan trampolinespringen of muurklimmen. 

{ https://www.hln.be/ }

18-09-2019 om 00:35 geschreven door peter  

Sign near Helena warns people to brace for UFO disclosure

HELENA -- Have you seen it? It’s out there, and maybe a little bit out of this world, and it's waiting for you.

The Jesse A. Marcel Library (JAML) and Crop Circles Research Foundation near Montana City has placed this billboard along Highway 12 near Helena to call attention to the ongoing mystery of Unidentified Flying Objects.

“… something not from this world,” it quotes USS Nimitz pilot David Fravor.

This sign along Highway 12 near Helena calls attention to the UFO phenomenon.

DR. RICHARD O'CONNOR

“UFO disclosure is in progress. Get ready. Get informed” and it tells passersby to learn more online at www.jaml.org.

In a Dec. 18, 2017, story in The Washington Post, Fravor, a  Navy commander and former pilot, said he saw a UFO in 2004 off the coast of California, and described it as a "Tic Tac" and it maneuvered in the air like nothing else he had ever seen.

“It was a real object, it exists and I saw it,” he told The Post.

Dr. Richard O’Connor, founder and director of JAML, told members in an email Friday that the sign should get 46,000 viewings a month. He said it is on Highway 12 and can only be seen by those traveling west, past the car dealerships. He has asked them to share photos of the sign with others.

He said the cost of the sign is $2,500 for six months and people can make donations online. He told members the first comment to his Facebook posting was "fake sign!" 

Are UFOs real? It's a topic that has gone under eternal debate. The magazine "Popular Mechanics" and online news website Politico reported in June that three senators received a classified Pentagon briefing about reported encounters by the Navy with unidentified aircraft.

President Donald Trump told ABC News that he has also been briefed on the reports.

"I did have one very brief meeting on it,” he said. “But people are saying they’re seeing UFOs. Do I believe it? Not particularly.” 

JAML serves as a UFO library and meeting place for those who want to learn more about UFOs and other possibly-related phenomena happening in the world today.

Richard O’Connor sits in his Clancy home and discusses a photo, shown in the foreground, that one of his cameras has captured. He believes it is of a UFO.

Tribune photo/Phil Drake

O’Connor said the object of the sign was not to primarily recruit more members, but to ultimately place the billboards in major cities to remind passersby “the UFO / UAP phenomenon is real and it merits their attention.”

“If this effort becomes successful we may entrain the attention of many, many people who will help us move this effort forward and thereby help accelerate UFO disclosure,” he wrote.

JAML is named for the late-Dr. Jesse Marcel Jr., perhaps best known for being a longtime physician in Helena. His father, a major, was sent by his base commander to investigate the crash of a UFO on a ranch outside of Roswell Army Air Field in 1947. He loaded some of the wreckage into his vehicle and drove it home to show Jesse Jr., who was then 10.

The U.S. Army Air Corps issued a press release saying a “flying saucer” was found, but public uproar forced them to retract the statement and say a weather balloon had been found instead.

Those who were at the crash site were then sworn to secrecy. But in the ‘70s Marcel Sr. and his son began speaking about what they had seen, believing the coverup was a grave injustice to the public.

•  Reporter Phil Drake is our eye on the state capitol. For tips, suggestions or comment, he can be reached at 406-231-9021 or pdrake@greatfallstribune.com. To support his work, subscribe today and get a special offer.

See for yourself

Visit the JAML Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/JAMLibrary and the webpage at https://www.jaml.org/

{ https://eu.greatfallstribune.com/ }

18-09-2019 om 00:17 geschreven door peter  

17-09-2019 om 23:52 geschreven door peter  

Man who questions whether crop circles are all man-made to explain why in Burgess Hill talk

Are crop circles all man-made? Andy Thomas will explore the issue in his talk

By  CONNOR GORMLEY Email

Crop circles – sophisticated patterns hewn into crop formations seemingly overnight – have fuelled mystery in Sussex for decades.

The circles, which were first discussed as far back as the 17th century, appeared under mysterious circumstances in Sussex last year, when ‘map-like markings’. appeared in fields around Ifield, Crawley.

While pranksters Doug Bower and Dave Chorley dispelled some of the mystery behind their appearance in the 1970s and 80s – one man still questions the assumption crop circles are all man-made.

Andy Thomas, one of the UK’s best-known mysteries researchers and authors, will visit Burgess Hill next week to explain why.

He said: “The belief that all the crop circles were invented by two elderly gentlemen with rope and planks in the 1980s – a story which has recently reemerged in the media – is provably untrue.

“The crop circles were there long before them, and continued long after they ‘retired’.

“Yes, some designs are indeed man-made, but it is very hard to explain all of them that way, as eye-witness sightings, scientific evidence, geometrical observations and bizarre circumstances make very clear.

“By looking at this year’s events, I will discuss many aspects of this very persistent and intriguing phenomenon.”

Andy has been researching and writing about crop circles for nearly 30 years but has a variety of specialisms.

His books – the most famous of which are The Truth Agenda and Conspiracies – also cover UFO landings, the origin of the pyramids and mystifying paranormal activity. He has also appeared on television, representing his views on The One Show, Richard and Judy and GMTV.

Andy, who discovered his passion for the crop circle controversy while on holiday in Wiltshire in 1991, is also a public speaker, having lectured everywhere from Eastbourne’s Congress Theatre to Rio de Janeiro.

In his talk, at Cypress Hall on Tuesday (September 17) from 8pm, he will explore crop circles in particular.

Entitled Crop Circles of 2019, he will look at all the crop circle formations of the last year, both in England and abroad, and share insights.

For more information on the talk and Changing Times themselves, visit https://www.changingtimes.org

{ https://www.midsussextimes.co.uk/ }

17-09-2019 om 23:44 geschreven door peter