The purpose of this blog is the creation of an open, international, independent and free forum, where every UFO-researcher can publish the results of his/her research. The languagues, used for this blog, are Dutch, English and French.You can find the articles of a collegue by selecting his category. Each author stays resposable for the continue of his articles. As blogmaster I have the right to refuse an addition or an article, when it attacks other collegues or UFO-groupes.
Druk op onderstaande knop om te reageren in mijn forum
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Deze blog is opgedragen aan mijn overleden echtgenote Lucienne.
In 2012 verloor ze haar moedige strijd tegen kanker!
In 2011 startte ik deze blog, omdat ik niet mocht stoppen met mijn UFO-onderzoek.
BEDANKT!!!
Een interessant adres?
UFO'S of UAP'S, ASTRONOMIE, RUIMTEVAART, ARCHEOLOGIE, OUDHEIDKUNDE, SF-SNUFJES EN ANDERE ESOTERISCHE WETENSCHAPPEN - DE ALLERLAATSTE NIEUWTJES
UFO's of UAP'S in België en de rest van de wereld Ontdek de Fascinerende Wereld van UFO's en UAP's: Jouw Bron voor Onthullende Informatie!
Ben jij ook gefascineerd door het onbekende? Wil je meer weten over UFO's en UAP's, niet alleen in België, maar over de hele wereld? Dan ben je op de juiste plek!
België: Het Kloppend Hart van UFO-onderzoek
In België is BUFON (Belgisch UFO-Netwerk) dé autoriteit op het gebied van UFO-onderzoek. Voor betrouwbare en objectieve informatie over deze intrigerende fenomenen, bezoek je zeker onze Facebook-pagina en deze blog. Maar dat is nog niet alles! Ontdek ook het Belgisch UFO-meldpunt en Caelestia, twee organisaties die diepgaand onderzoek verrichten, al zijn ze soms kritisch of sceptisch.
Nederland: Een Schat aan Informatie
Voor onze Nederlandse buren is er de schitterende website www.ufowijzer.nl, beheerd door Paul Harmans. Deze site biedt een schat aan informatie en artikelen die je niet wilt missen!
Internationaal: MUFON - De Wereldwijde Autoriteit
Neem ook een kijkje bij MUFON (Mutual UFO Network Inc.), een gerenommeerde Amerikaanse UFO-vereniging met afdelingen in de VS en wereldwijd. MUFON is toegewijd aan de wetenschappelijke en analytische studie van het UFO-fenomeen, en hun maandelijkse tijdschrift, The MUFON UFO-Journal, is een must-read voor elke UFO-enthousiasteling. Bezoek hun website op www.mufon.com voor meer informatie.
Samenwerking en Toekomstvisie
Sinds 1 februari 2020 is Pieter niet alleen ex-president van BUFON, maar ook de voormalige nationale directeur van MUFON in Vlaanderen en Nederland. Dit creëert een sterke samenwerking met de Franse MUFON Reseau MUFON/EUROP, wat ons in staat stelt om nog meer waardevolle inzichten te delen.
Let op: Nepprofielen en Nieuwe Groeperingen
Pas op voor een nieuwe groepering die zich ook BUFON noemt, maar geen enkele connectie heeft met onze gevestigde organisatie. Hoewel zij de naam geregistreerd hebben, kunnen ze het rijke verleden en de expertise van onze groep niet evenaren. We wensen hen veel succes, maar we blijven de autoriteit in UFO-onderzoek!
Blijf Op De Hoogte!
Wil jij de laatste nieuwtjes over UFO's, ruimtevaart, archeologie, en meer? Volg ons dan en duik samen met ons in de fascinerende wereld van het onbekende! Sluit je aan bij de gemeenschap van nieuwsgierige geesten die net als jij verlangen naar antwoorden en avonturen in de sterren!
Heb je vragen of wil je meer weten? Aarzel dan niet om contact met ons op te nemen! Samen ontrafelen we het mysterie van de lucht en daarbuiten.
25-09-2019
Ex-luchtmachtofficier beschrijft in deze video vier soorten buitenaardsen die bekend zijn bij de overheid (en die onze planeet hebben bezocht)
Ex-luchtmachtofficier beschrijft in deze video vier soorten buitenaardsen die bekend zijn bij de overheid (en die onze planeet hebben bezocht)
Richard Doty was lange tijd werkzaam als officier binnen het Amerikaanse Air Force Office of Special Investigations. Het was zijn taak om desinformatie over UFO’s te verspreiden.
Hij heeft toegegeven dat hij UFO-groepen moest infiltreren met zijn collega’s om ufologen en journalisten om de tuin te leiden.
In werkelijkheid weet de overheid dat er meerdere soorten buitenaardsen bestaan, aldus de ex-luchtmachtofficier.
Vier soorten
In een interview bespreekt Doty vier soorten die deze planeet hebben bezocht.
“Ze lieten ons vier soorten ruimteschepen zien, vier soorten buitenaardsen,” zei hij.
“Ze hebben ons nooit verteld waar ze die foto’s hebben gemaakt, maar het waren foto’s van vreemd uitziende buitenaardse wezens,” vervolgde hij.
Enorme ogen
Eén soort zag eruit als een insect, had enorme ogen, een groot hoofd en een klein lichaam, aldus Doty.
Ze waren ongeveer net zo groot als een mens en hadden twee handen aan iedere arm, lichtte hij toe.
“De tweede soort was heel lang, heel slank, mensachtig en had lange armen,” ging Doty verder.
Genetisch gemanipuleerd
“De armen reikten tot hun knieën en ze hadden normale handen,” zei hij. “Ze leken heel erg op mensen.”
“Ze hadden geen haar en katachtige ogen,” klonk het.
Dan was er nog een wezen dat genetisch gemanipuleerd was. “Ik heb geen idee hoe ze dat hebben gedaan, dat hebben ze ons nooit verteld.”
It’s yet another mysterious object spotted on the International Space Station’s live video feed which some people seem to be able to scrutinize 24/7 and pick up far more anomalies than NASA does – or at least is willing to admit to seeing before the feed gets mysteriously shut down for various and sundry reasons that seem puzzling and provocative to those looking for UFOs and conspiracies. Those people include someone named “Scott M,” who sent a segment of the live feed to “Your Earth Watchman,” — MrMBB333 – who posted it on his YouTube channel and expanded/expounded on it. (FYI — MrMBB333 hosts an interesting site and is a great source for unusual world weather and seismic phenomena in addition to the interesting videos he receives of UFOs, etc.)
“Huge craft spotted hovering about Earth on ISS Live feed. The real McCoy!”
The real McCoy? Really? That well-used axiom most likely originated in Scotland (where an ad referred to the real “McKay”) but the more popular explanation ties it to a Canadian-born African-American inventor and engineer named Elijah McCoy. That McCoy, who became a U.S. citizen and died in Detroit in 1929, held 57 U.S. patents, mostly for lubrication systems in steam engines, but also a couple of interesting ones for a folding ironing board and a lawn sprinkler. However, his lubrication inventions were said to be so good, engineers supposedly made sure they weren’t getting some cheapo knock-off by asking for “the real McCoy.”
Elijah McCoy – the ‘real McCoy’
“This is not a reflection, in fact, this object over here as you’ll see reflects light itself […] It seems to be some sort of large triangular craft.”
MrMBB333 magnifies the video of a video (you can watch it here) until the tiny blob looks like … a bigger blob. (It’s almost impossible to size objects seen outside the ISS.) To him, it’s triangular, which always leads to suppositions that this is a TR-3B or perhaps some next generation of the craft whose first generation we’re still not quite certain is the explanation for various triangular UFOs seen around the world. MrMBB333 (or perhaps Scott M – it’s not always clear when he’s quoting the person who sent him the video a week ago) identifies three points on the UFO which he’s convinced are not reflections, making them lights on the corners of whatever it is that was recorded on the ISS feed.
Was this what the ISS camera picked up?
As those who have seen videos of ISS feeds before pointed out in the comments, this one did not cut out but had the UFO in its field until it appeared to fly off, leaving just the NASA logo. Other commenters point out correctly that this comes at about the same time as the US Navy confirmed that those three famous “tic-tac” UFOs spotted by pilots and radar operators were real and they should not have been released. And of course, it’s just a few weeks after President Trump officially christened the Space Force.
Those are all interesting dots and fun to connect, but would inventor Elijah McCoy or ‘Scotty’ McKay, given just this video, call the first dot — the blob in the video — “the real McCoy”?
“In the most extreme regions of the Universe, galaxies are being killed. Their star formation is being shut down and astronomers want to know why.”
It sounds like a great opening to a science fiction thriller … but it’s real. A team of Canadian astronomers is concerned enough about this phenomenon (maybe they realized that WE live in a galaxy?) and has launched a project to study a nearby galaxy in hopes of determining what mysterious force is destroying massive galaxy clusters in a way that sounds pretty painful on a galactic level.
“This process leads to a slow, inexorable shut down in star formation known, somewhat morbidly, as starvation or strangulation.”
Toby Brown, Post Doctorate Fellow in Astrophysics at McMaster University, describes in The Conversation what he and other astronomers have observed happening to galaxy clusters – groups of thousands of galaxies exerting massive gravitational forces on each other that propel them to travel at high speeds (thousands of km-per-second) and heat the plasma between them until it glows ultravioletly. It’s the makings of a film industry CGI developer’s wildest dreams. In reality, it’s not the place you want to be.
“It is these interactions that can kill off — or quench — their star formation.”
Brown is leading 30 colleagues in a new program called the Virgo Environment Traced in Carbon Monoxide survey (VERTICO). They’ll be using the Atacama Large Millimeter Array (ALMA) – a cluster of connected radio dishes in Chile’s Atacama desert — to map molecular hydrogen gas in 51 galaxies in the Virgo Cluster, the galaxy cluster closet to the Milky Way.
Milky Way
Did they chose the Virgo Cluster because it’s the closest or because it’s about to strangle itself to death in a blaze of cosmic glory that could impact the Milky Way?
I can see you’re getting a little worried. According to Brown, Virgo is an ideal cluster to study because it’s in the process of forming stars. That sounds contradictory to stars dying, but that happens during formation as new galaxies travel (or fall) through the cluster.
“As galaxies fall through clusters, the intergalactic plasma can rapidly remove their gas in a violent process called ram pressure stripping. When you remove the fuel for star formation, you effectively kill the galaxy, turning it into a dead object in which no new stars are formed. In addition, the high temperature of clusters can stop hot gas cooling and condensing onto galaxies. In this case, the gas in the galaxy isn’t actively removed by the environment but is consumed as it forms stars.”
While “ram pressure stripping” sounds like something that requires a heavy-duty stripper pole, Brown says it and “starvation” are the two big ways to kill a galaxy in a cluster, and the Virgo Cluster looks like the perfect location for VERTICO to use ALM to look for and map hydrogen molecules, which will guide the team in the direction of possibly solving the mystery of what’s killing galaxies at the edge of the universe.
Note to VERTICO: it will make a better movie if you can find some aliens fleeing the ram pressure stripping or maybe sending a ship with a baby on it to Earth.
Croc-like Creature Terrorized Triassic Dinosaurs 210 Million Years Ago
Croc-like Creature Terrorized Triassic Dinosaurs 210 Million Years Ago
Rauisuchians fed on vegetarian dinosaurs according to Wits student Rick Tolchard.
Giant, predatory croc-like animals that lived during the Triassic period in southern Africa preyed on early dinosaurs and mammal relatives 210 million years ago. These predators, known as “rauisuchians” preyed on early herbivore dinosaurs and their mammal relatives living at the time, according to Wits Masters student Rick Tolchard.
“These ancient fossils provide us with evidence of how at least two predator species hunted these vegetarian dinosaurs 210 million-years-ago. It is amazing to follow the clues left behind in fossilised teeth, jaws, limbs and other fossils to help us tell the ancient story of life in southern Africa,” says Tolchard.Artist’s reconstruction of two rauisuchians fighting over a desiccated corpse of a mammal-relative in the Triassic of southern Africa. In the background, dinosaurs and mammal-like reptiles form other parts of the ecosystem.
Credit: Viktor Radermacher, owns copyright
The fossils studied by Tolchard include teeth, pieces of jaws, hind limbs and body armour, all of which are can be described as parts of rauisuchians.
Rauisuchians are closely related to crocodiles as we know them today. They had a diversity of body shapes and sizes during the Triassic period. The specimens described in this research include some of the largest carnivorous members of this group, that were possibly up to 10 metres long, with huge skulls full of serrated, curved teeth.
Example of rauisuchian teeth in the Wits collections
Credit: Wits University
The study, published online in the Journal of African Earth Sciences last week, shows that the rauisuchians were some of the latest-surviving members of their group, and that when they were alive, they were thriving close to the Antarctic Circle – the theoretical limit for their physiology.
“In the Triassic period, rauisuchians were widespread and their fossils are known from all continents except Antarctica,” adds Tolchard. “They went extinct about 200 million years ago, paving the way for dinosaurs to become the dominant large land animals.”
“Rick’s study demonstrates the value of re-examining old specimens, and now we finally know what was preying on all those herbivorous dinosaurs!” says Professor Jonah Choiniere, Rick’s advisor and Professor of Comparative Palaeobiology at the Wits Evolutionary Studies Institute.
Rick Tolchard studying rauisuchians in the Geological Survey in Namibia.
Credit: Helke Mocke
Tolchard studied fossils from collections based at the the University of the Witwatersrand, the Iziko South African Museum and the National Museum in Bloemfontein. He was joined in the research by an international team, including researchers from the USA, Argentina and the UK.
Contacts and sources:
Rick Tolchard
University of Witwatersrand
Citation:
‘Rauisuchian’ material from the lower Elliot Formation of South Africa and Lesotho: Implications for Late Triassic biogeography and biostratigraphy Journal of African Earth Sciences Volume 160, December 2019, 103610
We shall call our experiencer Eve. Eve was only 12 years old when she had an eerie encounter with the unknown. She was living with her Aunt and her cousins in Gulfport, Mississippi during the summer (July) of 1966. Gulfport is only a short distance down the coast from Pascagoula, which would be host to the landmark 1973 abduction of Charles Hickson and Calvin Parker.
At the bewitching age between childhood and adulthood, Eve would portray both roles this particular day. Playing in the back yard with her cousins, she began to feel a strange sensation… like something or someone was calling her, or watching her.
She turned to look behind her, and was stunned by the sight of a craft in the distance. The craft had an array of colored lights, a pretty and alluring sight to a twelve-year-old girl. The lights were blinking on and off. They encircled the strange craft, and these lights seemed to be of a color she had not seen before, and were extremely bright and clear. In her own words, “The more I looked, the more I wanted to keep looking.”
Though the onset of the sighting had been unnerving, she now felt a strange sense of contentment. The sight of the beautifully colored lights made her happy. She could not take her eyes off the craft and its twinkling lights.
The sighting had interrupted the children’s game of “hide and seek.” Eve was “it,” and since she was taking too long to find anyone, the others began to call for her. Eve could hear their cries, but she could not respond to their pleas. She was so strongly drawn to the craft, it was if she was glued to its presence… its charm.
The importance of her game was now insignificant compared to the strange object that had her mesmerized. Finally one of the impatient children found her and tapped her on the shoulder to get her attention. This jolted her back to reality, and she was then able to move. Eve was asked, “Why weren’t you trying to find us?” She responded, “I don’t know, but isn’t it pretty?” still drawn to the object.
She had not even turned toward her playmate, the craft still holding her attention. Eve pointed to the hovering, distant object. She said, “Look at that!” Her friend asked, “What is it?” The rest of the “hide and seek” gang was now on the scene, staring at the UFO. Mostly frightened, they wanted to leave, afraid it would “get them.”
One of the kids told Eve to come inside, but Eve refused, wanting to continue her watch.
Being warned that she might get into trouble by being outside after dark, Eve had watched her friends run to the back door, and then as she turned back to get one more look at the craft, she noticed it was much closer now. She could see two beings inside through a window! She could make out part of one of their bodies, and another being seemed to be controlling the UFO. The two appeared to be conversing with each other.
Eve felt as if they were talking about her, the lone person drawn to their presence. Both of the beings had long, slender arms, and the pilot of the object seemed to be focusing on Eve now.
Her happiness was beginning to turn into fright and she began running. She fled not in the direction of her house, but toward some bushes near the house. She was trying to lure the object’s attention away from her family inside the house. The UFO moved even closer to the ground now. Eve could hear no sound, but felt she was being targeted.
In her frantic run for safety, she looked back to see where the house-sized object was. A white beam was now projected from the bottom of the object, obviously searching for Eve.
She made it to the bushes before the beam could find her. She was now kneeling, shaking, and crying to herself. She prayed for God to help her, as the craft edged even closer to her hiding place.
“Had the craft found her?” she asked herself. The beam was moving…scanning the ground close to her. The object was totally motionless as the beam angled toward the ground. Soon the light disappeared up into the craft, not turned off, but drawn into the craft in one motion. Within a moment, the craft was gone.
She could barely make it out and it rose further into the sky. There were now three other craft just like the first one she saw. Eve could sense they were working in unison. The four craft were now moving slowly. Should she make a run for the house? No, not yet. Oh no!
Another craft now filled the place of the first one, and began searching the ground around the house and the bushes. After a few short moments, the beam was drawn back into the craft just like the first one had been. The second search craft now reunited with the remaining three. After what Eve estimated as some 20 seconds, the objects made a type of jerking motion, and in flash, they were gone. This was her chance. She ran for the house, and tried to open the screen door.
It was locked. She couldn’t believe she was locked out of her own house, and she began banging on the door, shaking the screen door, making all the noise she could.
“Where was everybody?” she thought. She called to her Aunt, who eventually came to the back door in her bed clothes. She asked Eve, “Who are you?” Eve said, “It’s me.” Her Aunt asked her what she was doing out so late. Eve told her that her cousins had just came in a few minutes before. Her Aunt’s reply shocked her, “Everyone has been in bed for a while.”
In Eve’s mind, she had only been outside about five minutes after her cousins had ran into the house. She wondered, “What had happened?”
Her Aunt explained that she remembered Eve was in the house when she locked the doors. Eve went to her and her cousin’s bedroom, and woke her cousin to ask her what had happened.
Her cousin also stated that she thought Eve was safe inside the house with the others before the doors were locked. The strange UFO and its occupants are gone now, but Eve’s haunting memories are not. She, to this day, does not understand what exactly occurred or why.
She turned her story in to one UFO investigative group, but no follow-up was done, and she was basically ignored. The case was not recent enough, she was told. The significance of what happened to Eve is not diminished by the passing of time. It is as important today as it was then.
Did Eve go into the house as the others claimed? Was she then abducted by the occupants of the UFO? Eve was too afraid and traumatized at the time to tell anyone what happened that summer night in Mississippi. Eve now wants to tell her story. Who will listen?
Cigar Shaped UFO Shoots Into Cloud Over Costa Rica, Video, UFO Sighting News.
Cigar Shaped UFO Shoots Into Cloud Over Costa Rica, Video, UFO Sighting News.
Date of sighting: May 7, 2019 but reported this week
Location of sighting: Costa Rica
The eyewitness caught a UFO shooting across the sky and into some clouds over a mountain. The UFO is very long and cigar shaped. The speed is incredibly fast and the object can only be seen clearly when the video is stopped and viewed one frame at a time. Costa Rica is an island and actually has a high frequency of UFO sightings compared to the norm. Its probably because a lot of alien bases exist below the ocean floors. 100% proof that aliens have an extreme interest in Costa Rica.
UFO Over Freeway Causes Car Crash In Australia, Video, UFO Sighting News.
UFO Over Freeway Causes Car Crash In Australia, Video, UFO Sighting News.
Date of sighting: March 2019 Location of sighting: Austrailia Source:Terrys Theories, Youtube Hey here is a great sighting recorded by a car cam. As the cam recorded a crash...a octopus like UFO appears in the upper right of the screen for a few seconds. As the UFO appears...it actually changes shape! I believe the UFO is rotating slowly so the object appears to change shape, yet its edges to seem to change. Its my personal belief that someone driving noticed this UFO and accidentally lost control of his car...causing a crash on the freeway. Bad place for a UFO to appear...so aliens do make mistakes...this video is proof of that. Scott C. Waring
In the below original video jump to 35 seconds in...to see the UFO.
Huge Triangle Craft spotted hovering above earth on ISS Live Feed!
Huge Triangle Craft spotted hovering above earth on ISS Live Feed!
The ISS live feed from about a week ago shows what appears to be a huge triangle craft hovering above Earth.
According to Mrmb333 who uploaded the live footage, it is not a reflection since the object has three distinct points of light on. A t a certain moment the triangle craft speeds up and disappears.
Some people wonder whether it is a craft of the new branch of military, Space Force, because of what they already know is hovering around our planet.
The first video starts with the triangle craft and continues with the announcement that the Californian company The Gateway Foundation has released plans for the Von Braun Station, a cruise ship-style hotel floating among the stars. The aim is to get the hotel off the ground by 2025 and make it fully operational for travel by 2027.
Video: Michio Kaku On UFOs. “The Evidence Is Overwhelming.”
Video: Michio Kaku On UFOs. “The Evidence Is Overwhelming.”
JAZZ SHAW
This is another intriguing interview I wanted to share with those of you who may have missed it. It deals with those three videos of UFOs (they want us to say Unidentified Aerial Phenomenon these days but I don’t care for it) captured on film by the military. As you may have seen already, the Navy has finally come forward and confirmed that not only are the videos real with a full chain of custody, but they alsoconsider them “unidentified” objects.
Since that time, noted astrophysicist Michio Kaku has been wading into that discussion, originally bringing it up during a conference in Spain. This caught the attention of the mainstream media and he’s since been doing some interviews where he expounds on the subject. This weekend he was on Fox News talking to Tucker Carlson, and he’s definitely seen enough evidence at this point to draw at least some scientific conclusions.
I just wanted to highlight a couple of points from this interview before we get to the video. First of all, having previously said that the onus was now “on the government” to prove that these UAPs are not extraterrestrial in origin, this weekend Kaku declared the videos to be “a gamechanger.” His reason is that reviews of the videos and reports of the pilots have given us some hard, testable science to work with. This includes velocities and acceleration rates. He calls the evidence “overwhelming.”
But having said all of that, when Tucker hits him with the hard question (twice) Professor Kaku seems to step back just a bit. Tucker asks him if, based on what we know of physics, the craft could have been built by humans. The first time, he responds by talking about all of the millions of planets orbiting other stars and the exciting possibility that someone up there “might be watching us.” The second time he comes a bit closer, but still won’t call it impossible that people made these machines.
I’m still waiting for someone to explain how humans can make a machine that can hover in place over the ocean with no visible means of propulsion and then take off at Mach 5. But hey… I won’t argue with Professor Kaku here. Let’s get to the interview. After it concludes, the website that published this clip includes the three Navy videos with full tech explainers from To The Stars Academy in case you’ve never seen them.
Video: Netizen Claims NASA's Live Feed Captured 'Large Triangular' UFO Hovering Over Earth
Video: Netizen Claims NASA's Live Feed Captured 'Large Triangular' UFO Hovering Over Earth
A bizarre object was spotted on NASA's live footage from the International Space Station (ISS) by a netizen, prompting online debates that the 'triangular' UFO may be a real US Space Force ship.
YouTube user dubbed MrMBB333 shared a controversial video showing the UFO purportedly flying in the vicinity of the ISS.
According to the netizen, "this is not a reflection, in fact, this object over here as you'll see reflects light itself [...] It seems to be some sort of large triangular craft".
The user claimed that the UFO sped up before "disappearing" in the live feed. "You'll see when I zoom in and put it in slow motion, you're going to see light reflecting off it and it glistens", they add.
The intriguing video instantly attracted the attention of UFO pundits and other conspirators who have suggested - apart from being an alien space ship - that this particular clip could reveal evidence of the existence of the US Space Force.
In August, US President Donald Trump proposed the establishment of a United States Space Command (SPACECOM), declaring that US military assets must have the freedom to operate in space in order to detect and destroy missiles launched against the United States.
Trump is pressing for the Department of Defence to create an independent Space Force. The existing Space Command - or SPACECOM - is not that force, but integrates existing space fighting units and capabilities under its direction from the five branches of the US armed forces.
It’s a huge bipolar gas structure, hundreds of light-years across, centered on our galaxy’s center and near the galaxy’s central supermassive black hole. Astronomers found it with the new, supersensitive MeerKAT telescope in South Africa.
The complex radio emission from the galactic center, as imaged by the South African MeerKAT radio telescope. The newly-discovered giant radio bubbles are the structures running top to bottom in this image.
Image via SARAO/Oxford.
Our Milky Way is considered to be a relatively quiescent galaxy, and yet – at its heart – it’s known to have a 4-million-solar-mass black hole: the source of many fascinating and dynamic processes. Yesterday – September 11, 2019 – astronomers announced the discovery in that region of what they’re calling “one of the largest features ever observed” in the center of the Milky Way. This feature is a pair of enormous radio-emitting bubbles, towering above and below the central region of our galaxy. Scientists described it as hourglass-shaped. The entire structure stretches some 1,400light-years, or about 5% of the distance between our sun and the galaxy’s center.
This new discovery was announced today in the journal Nature, which also published the initial study of the feature. They said in a statement that it:
… dwarfs all other radio structures in the galactic center [and] is likely the result of a phenomenally energetic burst that erupted near the Milky Way’s supermassive black hole a few million years ago.
In other words, said these scientists, they believe features have formed from a violent eruption, presumably emanating from the vicinity of the galactic center and its supermassive black hole, which – over a short period of time – punched through the interstellar medium in opposite directions. As explained in Nature:
The bubbles are gas structures that can be observed because electrons stirring inside them produce radio waves as they are accelerated by magnetic fields.
Image via SARAO/Oxford.
The team of astronomers that made the discovery was led by Ian Heywood of the University of Oxford in England. They used the new and supersensitive South African Radio Astronomy Observatory (SARAO) MeerKAT radio telescope to map out broad regions in the center of the galaxy. They conducted their radio observations at wavelengths near 23 centimeters (about 9 inches), which, they said:
… indicates energy generated in a process known as synchrotron radiation, in which free-floating electrons are accelerated as they interact with powerful magnetic fields. This produces a characteristic radio signal that can be used to trace energetic regions in space. The radio light seen by MeerKAT penetrates the dense clouds of dust that block visible light from the center of our galaxy.
Heywood, who processed the large amount of observational data leading to this result, said:
The center of our galaxy is relatively calm when compared to other galaxies with very active central black holes. Even so, the Milky Way’s central black hole can become uncharacteristically active, flaring up as it periodically devours massive clumps of dust and gas. It’s possible that one such feeding frenzy triggered powerful outbursts that inflated this previously unseen feature.
Previously unseen? Yes, in the radio part of the spectrum. But there’s another hourglass-shaped structure previously known by astronomers that might (or might not) be related to the MeerKAT bubbles. And that is the so-called Fermi Bubbles, confirmed by high-energy gamma ray observations in 2010.
Hints of the Fermi Bubbles’ edges were first observed in X-rays (blue) by ROSAT, a joint German, U.S. and British X-ray observatory, which operated in space throughout the 1990s. Later, the Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope – launched in 2008 – confirmed the outlines of 2 vast bubbles extending for tens of thousands of light-years on either side of our galaxy’s core. Those observations are marked in magenta in this illustration.
Image via NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center.
I asked one of the authors on this new paper – Fernando Camilo, SARAO Chief Scientist in Cape Town, South Africa – how the new discovery relates to the Fermi Bubbles. He replied by email:
That’s a very good question.
The Fermi bubbles are much larger than the MeerKAT radio bubbles (about 50 times larger: some 75,000 light years in size for Fermi, 1,400 light years for MeerKAT). They are also much more energetic: the amount of energy involved in the event that inflated the MeerKAT bubbles is no more than 1% of the energy content of the Fermi bubbles.
However, they are both huge bi-polar structures, symmetric about the galactic center, near the central supermassive black hole, and so your question does arise.
Our view is that the MeerKAT bubbles may well represent a less energetic version of a process similar to that which created the Fermi Bubbles (the origin of the Fermi bubbles themselves continues to be greatly debated, and I expect that the origin of the MeerKAT bubbles will likewise elicit a range of views).
If that’s the case, the MeerKAT bubbles may well be an example of a series of such intermittent events that occasionally take place near the center of the Milky Way, governed by the black hole, the cumulative effect of which is responsible for other large scale structures seen at higher galactic latitudes (that is, away from the plane of the Milky Way), including structures seen in X-rays and, indeed, the Fermi gamma-ray Bubbles.
Camilo added:
These enormous bubbles have until now been hidden by the glare of extremely bright radio emission from the center of the galaxy. Teasing out the bubbles from the background ‘noise’ was a technical tour de force, only made possible by MeerKAT’s unique characteristics and propitious location in the Southern Hemisphere. With this unexpected discovery we’re witnessing in the Milky Way a novel manifestation of galaxy-scale outflows of matter and energy, ultimately governed by the central black hole.
A composite of the radio bubbles and the MeerKAT telescope. A radio image of the center of the Milky Way with a portion of the MeerKAT telescope array in the foreground. The plane of the galaxy is marked by a series of bright features, exploded stars and regions where new stars are being born, and runs diagonally across the image from lower right to top center. The black hole at the center of the Milky Way is hidden in the brightest of these extended regions. The radio bubbles extend from between the two nearest antennas to the upper right corner. Many magnetized filaments can be seen running parallel to the bubbles. In this composite view, the sky to the left of the second nearest antenna is the night sky visible to the unaided eye, and the radio image to the right has been enlarged to highlight its fine features.
Image via SARAO/Oxford.
Bottom line: Radio astronomers have spied a pair of enormous radio-emitting bubbles that tower hundreds of light-years above and below the central region of our galaxy.
SIX GALAXIES JUST SUDDENLY IGNITED INTO VORACIOUS QUASARS
SIX GALAXIES JUST SUDDENLY IGNITED INTO VORACIOUS QUASARS
ESO/M. KORNMESSER
KRISTIN HOUSER
Speed Run
Researchers have spotted not one but six previously quiet galaxies suddenly transforming into voracious quasars — a transition that could force astronomers to revisit what they thought they knew about one of the brightest, most energetic types of objects in the universe.
“Theory suggests that a quasar should take thousands of years to turn on,” researcher Suvi Gezari of the University of Maryland said in a press release, “but these observations suggest that it can happen very quickly. It tells us that the theory is all wrong.”
Zwicky Situation
According to the researchers’ paper, which was recently published in The Astrophysical Journal, the team made the discovery while looking at data gathered by the Zwicky Transient Facility during its first nine months surveying the sky.
During that short period of time, the survey caught six low-ionization nuclear emission-line region (LINER) galaxies — a common, mildly active type of galaxy — transforming into bright, energetic quasars.
Researchers at University of Maryland spotted quiet LINER galaxies (left) fire up into quasars (right) in a matter of a few months.
(Image source: ESA/Hubble, NASA)
Galactic Mystery
Follow-up observations with the Discovery Channel Telescope provided the researchers with more information about the six LINER galaxies’ transformations. Now, they’re trying to use what they’ve learned to figure out why the transitions happened so suddenly and dramatically.
“It will take some work to understand what can disrupt a galaxy’s accretion structure and cause these changes on such short order,” researcher Sara Frederick said in the press release. “The forces at play must be very extreme and very dramatic.”
Artist’s illustration of a Breakthrough Starshot probe arriving at the potentially Earth-like planet Proxima Centauri b. A representation of laser beams is visible emanating from the corners of the craft’s lightsail.
Interstellar space travel. Fantasy of every five-year-old kid within us. Staple of science fiction serials. Boldly going where nobody has gone before in a really fantastic way. As we grow ever more advanced with our rockets and space probes, the question arises: could we ever hope to colonize the stars? Or, barring that far-flung dream, can we at least send space probes to alien planets, letting them tell us what they see?
The truth is that interstellar travel and exploration is technically possible. There's no law of physics that outright forbids it. But that doesn't necessarily make it easy, and it certainly doesn't mean we'll achieve it in our lifetimes, let alone this century. Interstellar space travel is a real pain in the neck.
If you're sufficiently patient, then we've already achieved interstellar exploration status. We have several spacecraft on escape trajectories, meaning they're leaving the solar system and they are never coming back. NASA's Pioneer missions, the Voyager missions, and most recently New Horizons have all started their long outward journeys. The Voyagers especially are now considered outside the solar system, as defined as the region where the solar wind emanating from the sun gives way to general galactic background particles and dust.
So, great; we have interstellar space probes currently in operation. Except the problem is that they're going nowhere really fast. Each one of these intrepid interstellar explorers is traveling at tens of thousands of miles per hour, which sounds pretty fast. They're not headed in the direction of any particular star, because their missions were designed to explore planets inside the solar system. But if any of these spacecraft were headed to our nearest neighbor, Proxima Centauri, just barely 4 light-years away, they would reach it in about 80,000 years.
I don't know about you, but I don't think NASA budgets for those kinds of timelines. Also, by the time these probes reach anywhere halfway interesting, their nuclear batteries will be long dead, and just be useless hunks of metal hurtling through the void. Which is a sort of success, if you think about it: It's not like our ancestors were able to accomplish such feats as tossing random junk between the stars, but it's probably also not exactly what you imagined interstellar space travel to be like.
To make interstellar spaceflight more reasonable, a probe has to go really fast. On the order of at least one-tenth the speed of light. At that speed, spacecraft could reach Proxima Centauri in a handful of decades, and send back pictures a few years later, well within a human lifetime. Is it really so unreasonable to ask that the same person who starts the mission gets to finish it?
Going these speeds requires a tremendous amount of energy. One option is to contain that energy onboard the spacecraft as fuel. But if that's the case, the extra fuel adds mass, which makes it even harder to propel it up to those speeds. There are designs and sketches for nuclear-powered spacecraft that try to accomplish just this, but unless we want to start building thousands upon thousands of nuclear bombs just to put inside a rocket, we need to come up with other ideas.
Perhaps one of the most promising ideas is to keep the energy source of the spacecraft fixed and somehow transport that energy to the spacecraft as it travels. One way to do this is with lasers. Radiation is good at transporting energy from one place to another, especially over the vast distances of space. The spacecraft can then capture this energy and propel itself forward.
This is the basic idea behind the Breakthrough Starshot project, which aims to design a spacecraft capable of reaching the nearest stars in a matter of decades. In the simplest outline of this project, a giant laser on the order of 100 gigawatts shoots at an Earth-orbiting spacecraft. That spacecraft has a large solar sail that is incredibly reflective. The laser bounces off of that sail, giving momentum to the spacecraft. The thing is, a 100-gigawatt laser only has the force of a heavy backpack. You didn't read that incorrectly. If we were to shoot this laser at the spacecraft for about 10 minutes, in order to reach one-tenth the speed of light, the spacecraft can weigh no more than a gram.
This is where the rubber meets the interstellar road when it comes to making spacecraft travel the required speeds. The laser itself, at 100 gigawatts, is more powerful than any laser we've ever designed by many orders of magnitude. To give you a sense of scale, 100 gigawatts is the entire capacity of every single nuclear power plant operating in the United States combined.
And the spacecraft, which has to have a mass no more than a paper clip, must include a camera, computer, power source, circuitry, a shell, an antenna for communicating back home and the entire lightsail itself.
Thatlightsailmust be almost perfectly reflective. If it absorbs even a tiny fraction of that incoming laser radiation it will convert that energy to heat instead of momentum. At 100 gigawatts, that means straight-up melting, which is generally considered not good for spacecraft.
Once accelerated to one-tenth the speed of light, the real journey begins. For 40 years, this little spacecraft will have to withstand the trials and travails of interstellar space. It will be impacted by dust grains at that enormous velocity.
And while the dust is very tiny, at those speeds motes can do incredible damage. Cosmic rays, which are high-energy particles emitted by everything from the sun to distant supernova, can mess with the delicate circuitry inside. The spacecraft will be bombarded by these cosmic rays non-stop as soon as the journey begins.
Is Breakthrough Starshot possible? In principle, yes. Like I said above, there's no law of physics that prevents any of this from becoming reality. But that doesn't make it easy or even probable or plausible or even feasible using our current levels of technology (or reasonable projections into the near future of our technology). Can we really make a spacecraft that small and light? Can we really make a laser that powerful? Can a mission like this actually survive the challenges of deep space?
The answer isn't yes or no. The real question is this: are we willing to spend enough money to find out if it's possible?
The volcanic atmosphere may be all the moon needs.
An active volcanic eruption on Jupiter's moon Io, captured by NASA's Galileo spacecraft in false color. White and orange areas are newly erupted hot lava, while the two small, bright spots are exposed molten rock. The orange and yellow ribbon is a cooling lava flow more than 37 miles (60 km) long.
The most volcanic body in the solar system may not boast a magma ocean beneath its surface after all.
Scientists had thought that magnetic field variations around Jupiter's moon Io, as measured years ago by NASA's Galileo spacecraft, resulted from interactions between Io's magma ocean and the gas giant's magnetic field.
But recent research suggests that the same variations could be caused by interactions between Jupiter's magnetic field and Io's volcano-fed atmosphere. A magma ocean on Io, while not ruled out, is therefore not required, the study reports.
As king of the planets, Jupiter boasts the solar system's largest magnetosphere, the envelope of charged plasma around an object where its magnetic field dominates. Most of Jupiter's moons, including Io, are embedded in the magnetosphere, and their atmospheres and magnetic fields can interact with the larger structure.
Galileo made six flybys of Io between 1999 and 2002 while exploring the Jovian system. Those flybys revealed the moon's interaction with the planet's magnetic field and, along with its extensive volcanism, led researchers to conclude that Io concealed amagma ocean beneath its surface.
But ongoing studies of the moon's atmosphere have allowed a separate team of scientists to take new stock of Galileo's data. The recent research suggests that the volcanically modified atmosphere alone could be responsible for the changes seen by Galileo.
The original research, published in 2011, assumed a much thinner atmosphere than subsequent observations by a variety of instruments revealed.
"We considered a thicker atmosphere with asymmetries and find that a magnetic field from a magma ocean is not needed to explain the same data," Aljona Blocker, a researcher at Germany's University of Cologne and the lead author on the study, told Space.com by email.
A volcanic explosion on the Jupiter moon Io captured by NASA's Voyager 1 spacecraft.
(Image credit: NASA/JPL)
Patchy magnetic fields
With more than 150 known volcanic hotspots, Io easily qualifies as the most volcanic body in the solar system. Gas and dust plumes from 16 different volcanic centers have been observed climbing up to an altitude of 250 miles (400 kilometers), creating a patchy, sulfur-rich atmosphere. When Io travels through Jupiter's shadow, the atmosphere collapses into frost, evaporating back into gas once the moon emerges.
Since the conclusion of the Galileo mission, researchers have used Earth- and space-based instruments to probe Io's atmosphere. These observations revealed how the density of the atmosphere changes based on its location over the moon, with the atmosphere thinner over the poles than at the equator.
Unlike Earth, whose spinning iron core generates a planet-wide magnetic field, Io has no magnetic field of its own. Instead, it is shrouded beneath Jupiter's massive magnetosphere.
"Io would not have any magnetic fields if it was taken out of the magnetosphere of Jupiter and put in empty space," Blocker said.
Blocker and her colleagues modeled interactions between Io's atmosphere to determine how the air affects the surrounding Jovian magnetosphere. They primarily probed how the plumes created by the volcanoes Tvashtar and Pele affect the plasma environment of the moon. Tvashtar is located near the northern pole of Io, while Pele lies closer to the equator. The two lie on nearly opposite sides of the moon, so that when one sits in daylight, the other is in darkness.
The researchers found that the changes generated by the atmosphere's interaction with the plasma are sufficient to explain the measurements made by Galileo. Polar plumes had a stronger effect on the magnetic field surrounding the moon, while plumes near the equator caused much weaker changes. They also determined that Io's ionosphere — the upper atmosphere where charged particles tend to live — changes, due to volcanic activity. Such changes alone are sufficient to explain Galileo's observations, the team concluded
This result matches with the team's2017 discovery that Io's auroral spots are inconsistent with a magma ocean.
It's still possible that a magma ocean flows beneath Io's surface; the new findings simply rule it out as a necessity. Further geophysical observations that do not rely on measurements of the charge environment could help reveal the presence of a magma ocean, if one exists, Blocker said.
"We require more measurements from Io's environment fromfuture spacecraft missions to constrain Io's interior structure and … atmosphere," she said.
US MILITARY THREATENED TO BOMB “MILLENNIALS” STORMING AREA 51
US MILITARY THREATENED TO BOMB “MILLENNIALS” STORMING AREA 51
U.S. AIR FORCE/VICTOR TANGERMANN
KRISTIN HOUSER
Joke Bombed
On Friday, approximately 75 alien-enthusiasts gathered in the Nevada desert for Storm Area 51, a jokey Facebook event that went viral back in June.
But just before those folks met up for what ended up being afar smaller event than expected, a public relations unit within the U.S. military took to Twitter to share a “joke” of its own — threatening to kill attendees with a stealth bomber.
And I Oops
On Friday, Defense Visual Information Distribution Service (DVIDS) tweeted a photo of a B-2 stealth bomber along with the caption “the last thing #Millennials will see if they attempt the #area51raid today.”
The unit later deleted the tweet and apologized for posting it in the first place.
“Last night a DVIDSHUB employee posted a Tweet that in NO WAY supports the stance of the Department of Defense,” DVIDS tweeted on Saturday. “It was inappropriate and we apologize for this mistake.”
Come In Peace
The tweet was clearly in very poor taste, but had anyone actually attempted to raid Area 51, the military would have legally been allowed to use deadly force against them.
Thankfully, it didn’t come to that. In fact, the whole event seems to have gone peacefully. Law enforcement arrested just one person, and even that attendee didn’t attempt to breach Area 51’s gates — they just got caught urinating near them.
If you’re a nerd like me, the image of a half-constructed, almost skeletal second Death Star from Return of the Jedi is permanently lodged in your brain as one of the most majestically ominous creations in all of cinema.
George Lucas’ vision of building massive superstructures directly in outer space is iconic, but it’s hardly the first of its kind. The idea of manufacturing whole spacecraft or space stations that never touch Earth, that are fabricated and assembled directly out in the void where they will be operating, is one of humanity’s oldest science fiction dreams, dating back to antiquity, before the genre of sci-fi as we know it was even invented.
But now, outer space manufacturing is about to become a reality, albeit at a much smaller scale than the Death Star. The real-life Florida startup Made in Space recently won a $73.7 million contract from NASA to use, over the next three years, what’s essentially an advanced space-grade 3D printer to print out wings for a spacecraft while it orbits Earth.
Made in Space is pursuing something altogether more ambitious: producing whole new pieces of working equipment from raw materials in outer space — and doing so in a matter of days.
“We’re focused on the industrialization of space and moving the means of production into space,” said Justin Kugler, vice president of advanced programs and concepts at Made in Space, in a phone interview with OneZero.
To be clear, humanity has already gotten fairly good at assembling stuff in space — connecting one craft or piece of equipment to another using specialized tools, computers, physics, and robotics. That’s how the International Space Station and orbital laboratories from China and Russia were all put together over the years. But Made in Space is pursuing something altogether more ambitious and trickier: actually producing whole new pieces of working equipment from raw materials in outer space—and doing so in a matter of days.
Made in Space was founded nearly a decade ago in Silicon Valley by a quartet of entrepreneurial dudes: Aaron Kemmer, Jason Dunn, Mike Chen, and Michael Snyder. They were all part of some of the first graduate studies programs offered by Singularity University, a “benefit corporation” focused on nurturing advanced technologies that will move humanity toward the technology singularity, started by entrepreneur Peter Diamandis and futurist Ray Kurzweil.
Fittingly, given its lofty origins, Made in Space’s ultimate goal is that its 3D-printing-like technology will eventually be used to construct entire space settlements, cities even, at relatively lower cost than would be possible if those same structures were built on the ground first and then launched into space. (You’re paying a lot more for rocket fuel in those cases.)
The way Kugler describes it, using Made in Space’s technology, you’ll be able to launch small spacecraft and satellites that, once in orbit, could autonomously create the kinds of equipment normally restricted to larger, heavier satellites, at least when limited to traditional, Earth-bound production processes.
“You’re talking tens of millions [of dollars] compared to hundreds of millions,” said Kugler, referring to the cost savings Made in Space is envisioning.
NASA, whose funding yo-yos quite dramatically year over year, obviously sees the appeal of the cost-savings aspect of Made in Space’s approach.
“The benefit to the taxpayer is more efficient and affordable spacecraft and space vehicle designs that are not overdesigned (for launch) and that do not require the hardware needed to deploy the spacecraft into a usable configuration,” said Dayna Ise, a program executive at NASA’s Space Technology Mission Directorate division, in an emailed statement.
That same Made in Space tech could and likely will be used to build space weaponry and battle stations — though hopefully not on the mass-destruction scale of the Death Star. Northrop Grumman — the aerospace and defense contractor that makes the Global Hawk military drone, among other weaponry — is one of Made in Space’s key business partners.
First, though, there needs to be a working proof-of-concept of the idea, which is coming soon.
In 2022 or shortly thereafter, a rocket made by the aptly named company Rocket Lab Electron will launch from New Zealand and release Made in Space’s smaller spacecraft, the Archinaut One, which is about the size of a small refrigerator that you’d see in a college student’s dorm room.
It’s a cylindrical craft with some complicated-looking equipment strapped to the side and two tiny solar arrays sprouting on opposite sides like square robotic bat wings. But the relatively benign appearance hides some groundbreaking technology onboard. Archinaut One will carry its own additive manufacturing facility.
Additive manufacturing refers to a wide range of technologies and building processes, among them 3D printing, that all share in common the ability to fabricate objects with relatively high precision by applying layers of material on top of one another, adding them together to form a more complex object.
Desktop 3D printers have been around for years, sold by the likes of MakerBot (a subsidiary of Stratasys) and XYZprinting.
Made in Space has already built a printer slightly larger than these desktop models. In 2014, the company launched it aboard a SpaceX Dragon commercial cargo vessel, which it sent, along with some mice, to the International Space Station.
That printer, which Made in Space called a zero-gravity printer, printed more than a dozen items and ended up serving as the basis for all of its subsequent technology. It was succeeded by Made in Space’s more advanced additive manufacturing facility printer (AMF printer), launched to the space station in 2016 and since used to print more than 100 different tools, including everything from specialized wrenches to finger splints for astronauts. (They’re prone to injuring their fingers on all the finicky equipment aboard the space station.)
Now Made in Space plans to take the success of that very same technology and run a variation of it outside of the space station—in the even more inhospitable vacuum of space, on the side of the free-flying Archinaut One spacecraft. After decoupling from the Rocket Lab rocket, the Archinaut One will enter low-earth orbit (LEO to space industry folks, defined by NASA as the first 100 to 200 miles of space above Earth’s surface) and begin circling our home planet more than 11 times per day.
A few days later, the Archinaut One will conduct the historic, first-ever free-flying additive manufacturing demonstration in space, using a spool of polymer filament to print two 32-foot-long (64 feet total) semirigid beams extending from either side of the spacecraft.
The beams will be much larger than those the Archinaut One could otherwise support if it were relying on traditional space assembly methods, such as bringing them folded up into space from Earth, and will be used to act as a kind of scaffolding for long solar arrays that extend outward. “Like Venetian blinds,” according to Kugler.
Robotic arms will weave the electrical junctions through the solar arrays and connect them back into the spacecraft, providing working power. And all of this will happen automatically, controlled by software algorithms, with humans overseeing it back on the ground in Texas and Florida.
“Space being a difficult and unusual medium is 90% of the challenge we face,” Kugler told OneZero.
Although Made in Space likes to brag that it doesn’t have any competition when it comes to its specific space-grade additive manufacturing systems, the commercial space industry at large is broadly focused on developing technologies to reduce the weight, cost, and time it takes to put craft into orbit and beyond.
SpaceX has its impressively successful Falcon reusable rockets, while other companies, including Virgin Galactic and Sierra Nevada, are working on private reusable space shuttle–type craft. Bigelow Aerospace, the company founded by billionaire hotel magnate and UFO aficionado Robert Bigelow, has launched an inflatable human habitat to the space station and proven that the concept — using fabric lighter than traditional spacecraft materials to construct tentlike rooms in orbit — is viable for reducing weight at launch and, therefore, rocket fuel and cost.
These companies all face the same challenges humanity has encountered since we first started shooting rockets up into the sky—namely, that beyond Earth’s atmosphere is an inhospitable environment for pretty much everything, even strong materials like metal and plastic.
There’s the strong force of gravity exerted on the payload of a rocket launch, then all the speed and motion to get objects into space, and once they get there, they typically move at thousands of miles per hour. The atmosphere also helps protect objects on Earth from a number of damaging space forces, like debris, cosmic radiation, and the more unfiltered radiation and heat of the sun. So, designing systems that work in space requires solving for problems in physics, math, chemistry, electromagnetism, thermodynamics, computation, and materials science, among other disciplines.
In many ways, space is fundamentally opposed to the kinds of finicky and delicate 3D-printing processes that companies have developed for Earth, with extremely precise and even fragile moving parts.
Fortunately for Made in Space, its employees have already managed to solve some of the fundamentals. The company says it prudently designed its zero-gravity additive manufacturing to work in a wide range of differing gravity environments, from “more than one G to negative G,” according to Kugler — that is, gravity both stronger and weaker than what’s felt on Earth’s surface.
“For the future of building deep-space transit vehicles that will take people to far-off destinations and land, this is vital technology.”
In fact, even though the Archinaut One demo will be the first of its kind, it may be easier in some ways to accomplish than Made in Space’s previous feat of putting a printer aboard the space station, where it was more prone to jostling and other interference (“perturbations,” as Kugler calls them) from the astronauts going about their tasks, such as running on the space station treadmill.
If the company can pull off this demo, what’s next?
“In the near term, we can directly apply the tech from the Archinaut One to making small satellites that have larger, more efficient solar arrays or larger, more efficient active arrays, like antennas, reflectors, laser arrays,” Kugler said.
Made in Space thinks that within a few years after that, it will be able to build solar collection stations that can beam power to other spacecraft or customers down on Earth.
NASA, for one, is bullish on using Made in Space’s technology to create human-crewed spacecraft. “The timeline depends on a variety of factors, but the in-space robotic manufacturing and assembly capability could be matured to this level within the next decade,” Ise said.
“For the future of building cities in space and deep-space transit vehicles that will take people to far-off destinations and land, this is vital technology,” Kugler went on. “We will need a couple of miracles between now and then, but it’s possible.”
Made in Space isn’t talking up the potential for its technology to be used in Death Star–like superweapons—or any smaller weapons, for that matter. But it is open to developing craft and technology that can be used by the U.S. military.
Asked about the possibility of using the technology for defense purposes, Made in Space spokesperson Austin Jordan provided the following statement via email: “Our vision is that Made in Space will continue to be a close partner to the U.S. government across both defense and civil organizations. As it relates to national security and defense, in-space assembly and manufacturing capabilities could address key national security space priorities, including improving asset resilience, enhancing satellite capabilities, and providing rapid-response equipment. I think innovative technology platforms like Archinaut One will open up the playbook for us to engage with various agencies within the defense community to incorporate these capabilities into future missions.”
It may take a while, but if Made in Space’s visions pan out at all close to how the company hopes, future generations may look at the Death Star scenes in Star Wars as more realistic — perhaps worryingly so — than George Lucas could have ever anticipated.
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India’s first attempt to land on the moon appears to have failed
India’s first attempt to land on the moon appears to have failed
The Vikram lander likely crashed onto the lunar surface on September 6.
India's Chandrayaan 2 spacecraft (illustrated) searched for the Vikram lander from orbit. Chandrayaan 2 will continue observing the moon for about a year.
The sun is setting on India’s first attempted lunar landing. As night fell over the lunar south pole on September 20, scientists’ hopes that the solar-powered Vikram lander would contact Earth before the end of one lunar day have been dashed.
Officials at the Indian space agency ISRO reportedly believe that the Vikram lander died on impact with the lunar surface on September 6. The probe lost contact shortly before it was meant to touch down near the moon’s south pole (SN: 9/6/19), according to the Times of India.
Still, there was hope that Vikram or its onboard rover would perk up and reestablish contact. ISRO spent two weeks — the equivalent of one lunar day — trying to communicate with Vikram. The lander and its rover, Pragyan, were designed to last one lunar day before the lack of sunlight and cold temperatures shut them down.
ISRO said that its Chandrayaan 2 orbiter took pictures on September 10 showing the lander lying flat or tilted on its side. Those images, however, were not publicly released.
NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter also flew over the landing site on September 17. But “lunar local time was near dusk; large shadows covered much of the area,” the space agency said in an e-mail. “The exact location of the lander was not known, so the lander may not be in the camera field of view.” NASA said that it would search again on October 14, when the sun is higher in the lunar sky.
After the sun completely sets on Vikram’s landing site, temperatures there will drop to about –180° Celsius for another two weeks. The solar-powered lander’s electronics are not expected to survive the frigid night.
ISRO has yet to put out an official statement. But the Times of India reported on September 20 that the team analyzing the mission’s failure believes that it was caused by an error in the spacecraft’s automatic landing program. The newspaper quoted an unnamed scientist as saying that the lander may have started spinning on its way to the lunar surface so that thrusters meant to slow the descent instead accelerated it.
Dust devils are common are common on Earth, but ubiquitous on Mars, a desert world. Scientists are using drones carrying cameras and other instruments to gain new insights.
The video above shows scientists’ encounter with a dust devil in May 2019, in the Alvord Desert in southeastern Oregon. These scientists – members of the Boise State Dust Devil Collaboration – have been flying drones through active dust devils, in part to understand earthly dust devils better, and also to understand dust devils on Earth’s neighbor planet, Mars.
Dust devils, while common in arid climates on Earth, are ubiquitous on Mars, where they may be responsible for much of the planet’s haze that helps heat its atmosphere. Dust devils have been observed from landers the ground and from orbiting spacecraft all over the surface of Mars. A better understanding of dust devils on Earth will help scientists understand their influence on Mars’ climate.
In the video above, acquired with a drone, you can see how the drone tilts and drops once inside the dust devil. It’s also fun to see the drone chase the dust devil as it moves away. Jackson reported on these May 2019 observations via drone on September 19, 2019, at a joint meeting of the European Planetary Science Congress and the AAS Division for Planetary Sciences in Geneva, Switzerland. He said the drone struggled as air pressure dropped inside the dust devil. Camille M. Carlisle of SkyandTelescope.com, who apparently heard Jackson speak at the meeting, explained:
The pressure drop matches what’s expected for the wind speed twirling round the dust devil’s funnel.
Yet, Jackson said, despite the fact that dust devils have been studied for decades, scientists still aren’t entirely clear on the physics of how dust devils lift dust into the atmosphere. He said:
When we compare theoretical predictions of how much dust a devil should lift to how much it does lift, the numbers just don’t add up.
That’s why Jackson’s team thought of the drones to study dust devils. The drones carry not just cameras, but also other lightweight instruments, including pressure and temperature loggers. They measure the structures of the dust devil while taking particle samples to determine how much material the dust devil is carrying.
Dust devil research in the Alvord desert of Eastern Oregon.
In summer 2017, Jackson and his team were awarded a grant from the NASA Idaho Space Grant Consortium to launch drones into dust devils. In 2018, they also received a three-year, $217,000 grant from NASA’s Solar System Workings Program. Why is NASA interested in dust devils? These scientists explained:
NASA currently has three active rovers on Mars, two of which are powered by solar panels. Martian dust has been a concern, falling on the panels and reducing the amount of energy generated, and the static charges that can build up in the dust devils may pose a hazard to electrical equipment deployed on Mars.
And why drones? The scientists said:
Previous studies of Martian dust devils have relied on passive sampling of the profiles via meteorology packages on landed spacecraft. Past studies of terrestrial devils have employed more active sampling (instrumented vehicles or manned aircraft) but have been limited to near-surface or relatively high-altitude sampling.
Drones promise a new and powerful platform from which to sample dust devils at a variety of altitudes. Measurements made aloft are more directly relevant for evaluating the dust that is injected into the atmosphere.
NASA may have dust on its mind since the official demise of its Mars Opportunity rover earlier this year. Opportunity – fondly nicknamed Oppy – was built to last 90 days, but spent 15 years exploring Mars, until a Mars-wide dust storm hit in June 2018. The rover relied on solar power. Its solar panels are now thought to be blanketed with dust. Engineers in the Space Flight Operations Facility at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory sent more than a thousand commands to Mars throughout this past fall and early winter, in an attempt to restore contact with the rover. It didn’t work. The rover sits silent on Mars’ surface now, in Mars’ Perseverance Valley.
The tweet below, from 2016, offers a particularly beautiful and poignant view of the Opportunity rover in relationship to a Mars dust devil.
If you want more about Mars’ dust devils, check out the video below. The navigation cameras aboard NASA’s Curiosity Mars rover captured images of a few of them moving dust across Gale Crater in 2017. Dust devils result from sunshine warming the ground, prompting convective rising of air. All the dust devils in the video below were seen in a southward direction from the rover. Timing is accelerated and contrast has been modified to make frame-to-frame changes easier to see.
Area 51 bestormen? Ans Hoornweg 'weet' al lang wat er daar gebeurt
Area 51 bestormen? Ans Hoornweg 'weet' al lang wat er daar gebeurt
Wat gebeurt er precies in het geheimzinnige ‘Area 51’? Twee Nederlandse Youtubers reisden er speciaal voor af naar Amerika en werden opgepakt. Niet nodig, want Ans Hoornweg heeft het allemaal al gehoord van de aliens zelf.
Over Ans later meer, maar eerst: waar komt die plotse aandacht voor Area 51 nu eigenlijk vandaan?
Is er een ufo neergestort?
Rond de streng verboden en zwaarbeveiligde militaire basis in Nevada hangt al decennia een hardnekkige zweem van geheimzinnigheid. Wat er zich binnen de hekken van het afgeschermde terrein afspeelt, houdt mensen al generaties bezig.
Zo wordt er gefluisterd dat in 1947 een vliegende schotel zou zijn neergestort. Ook zouden er illegale experimenten worden uitgevoerd op buitenaardse wezens.
Om voor eens en voor altijd te weten wat er in Area 51 gebeurt, willen mensen het gebied vrijdag bestormen. Een oproep daartoe gaat viraal op Facebook en wordt overspoeld met reacties.
De lokale autoriteiten maken zich ernstig zorgen over het aanstaande ‘evenement’ en waarschuwen iedereen om niet in de buurt van het geheime terrein te komen. De Amerikaanse overheid doet de geruchten steevast af als onzin.
‘Mijn alienvriend zit in Area 51’
Daar gelooft de 77-jarige Ans Hoornweg dus helemaal niets van. Sterker nog, ze weet dat het niet waar is. Man bijt hond sprak de vrouw, die al van kinds af aan ‘contact’ heeft met ruimtewezens. “Ik ben zelf een alien geweest”, verklaart ze.
Ans is namelijk ‘geïncarneerd’ vanaf een andere planeet en heeft sinds haar kindertijd goed contact met een speciale vriend, die toevallig in Area 51 gevangen wordt gehouden. “Dat wezen is daar binnen.”
En zoals mensen met elkaar praten, laten buitenaardse wezens elkaar dingen weten via beelden. Zo heeft Ans als kind al ‘gezien’ wat er zich in het complex afspeelt. “Ik ben er niet naartoe gevlogen. Nee, ik heb mijn zesde zintuig.”
Wat kan haar vriend vertellen over de geruchten over ruimteschepen en aliens? “Wat ik kan zien is dat ze daar gecrashte ufo’s hebben. Ook hebben ze buitenaards wezens in hun bezit die ze gevangen houden.”
Tekst loopt verder onder de foto
Feestje voor de bestorming
Ans vindt het verschrikkelijk wat haar vriend moet doorstaan, maar voelt zich machteloos. “Wat kan ik doen?” Buitenaardse beschavingen zijn volgens haar dan ook blij met de aandacht, zodat ‘alles’ naar buiten kan komen.
Inmiddels zijn de eerste bestormers gezien in het afgelegen gebied op zo’n 130 kilometer van gokstad Las Vegas. Mensen zijn met campers gekomen omdat er in de wijde omtrek geen hotels zijn.
Ze houden feestjes bij de geheime militaire basis. De politie houdt er rekening mee dat er weleens 30.000 mensen zouden kunnen komen.
Youtubers Govert Sweep (21) en Ties Granzier (20) besloten vorige week al een kijkje te nemen en moesten dat bekopen met een paar dagen cel en een boete van 4500 dollar. Ze vlogen vrijdag terug naar Brussel.
Ans is vol lof over de Nederlanders. “De jongens die het op de kaart gezet hebben, ja geweldig. Dat vind ik echt fantastisch. Die jongelui hebben we nodig.”
Het hele verhaal van Ans kun je bovenaan dit artikel bekijken. Het begint na vijftien seconden.
Wat ik kan zien is dat ze daar gecrashte UFO’s hebben. Deze vrouw zegt te weten wat er gebeurt in het geheimzinnige Area 51
Wat ik kan zien is dat ze daar gecrashte UFO’s hebben. Deze vrouw zegt te weten wat er gebeurt in het geheimzinnige Area 51
De aangekondigde ‘bestorming’ van de militaire basis Area 51 in de Amerikaanse staat Nevada is rustig verlopen, zo laat de politie weten.
Er zijn enkele mensen opgepakt vanwege het betreden van het terrein rond de basis, wat streng verboden is.
Zo’n twee miljoen mensen hadden zich opgegeven voor een Facebookevenement om de basis te bestormen. Uiteindelijk zijn slechts enkele duizenden op komen dagen.
Hele leven
Sommige mensen beweren dat er op het terrein UFO’s en buitenaardse wezens zijn.
Eén van hen is de 77-jarige Ans Hoornweg. Tegen Man bijt hond zegt ze al haar hele leven contact te hebben met ruimtewezens.
Die zouden haar als kind al hebben laten zien wat er gebeurt in Area 51.
Gecrashte UFO’s
“Wat ik kan zien is dat ze daar gecrashte UFO’s hebben,” zegt Hoornweg. “Ook hebben ze buitenaardse wezens in hun bezit die ze gevangen houden.”
Ze vertelt verder dat buitenaardse beschavingen blij zijn dat Area 51 zo in de openbaarheid komt.
Opgepakt
Daarnaast vindt ze het fantastisch dat twee populaire Nederlandse YouTubers de basis op de kaart gezet hebben.
Ties Granzier en Govert Sweep werden vorige week opgepakt voor het betreden van Area 51.
Ze hadden camera’s, een laptop en een drone bij zich om opnames van het gebied te maken.
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Over mijzelf
Ik ben Pieter, en gebruik soms ook wel de schuilnaam Peter2011.
Ik ben een man en woon in Linter (België) en mijn beroep is Ik ben op rust..
Ik ben geboren op 18/10/1950 en ben nu dus 74 jaar jong.
Mijn hobby's zijn: Ufologie en andere esoterische onderwerpen.
Op deze blog vind je onder artikels, werk van mezelf. Mijn dank gaat ook naar André, Ingrid, Oliver, Paul, Vincent, Georges Filer en MUFON voor de bijdragen voor de verschillende categorieën...
Veel leesplezier en geef je mening over deze blog.