Forget Area 51

There are way more important planetary concerns to direct your attention to

30-09-2019 om 23:10 geschreven door peter  

They Discovered Something on Mars and Phobos that Cannot Be Explained ...

The now dubbed “Phobos monolith” is a large object on the surface of Mars's moon “Phobos”. The giant structure stands 90 meters tall. Only 3 meters less than that of the Statue of Liberty Monument in New York.

First discovered by “Efrain Palermo” who noticed the distinct shadow of the anomaly while analysing images taken from the “Mars Global Surveyor orbiter” lanched in November 1996. This peculiar and solitary large rock was also confirmed by “Lan Fleming”, an imaging sub-contractor at NASA Johnson Space Center. Also Noting the possibility that the monolith is artificial in nature.

Along with the mysterious Monolith photographed on the Martian moon “Phobos”.. A similar looking structure can also be seen upon the surface of Mars...

Featuring David Childress, Billy Carson, Mike Bara and Michael Salla

[The 5th Kind]

30-09-2019 om 20:45 geschreven door peter  

30-09-2019 om 20:37 geschreven door peter  

30-09-2019 om 20:31 geschreven door peter  

January 1950 Was A Peak Month For Ufo Sightings

One of the first officially recorded sightings of the 1950 UFO wave occurred on the afternoon of 6^th January at a little after 2 pm over the town of Howard in Kansas. Three United States Air Force crew were piloting a C-47 on their way to Offut Air Force Base in Omaha, Nebraska.

They would describe the object as between 30 and 60 feet long and “shaped like a football”. They would also note how it was a “bright silver color” which would shine in the afternoon sun. It was in their sights for around two minutes, moving between 300 to 500 miles per hour at an altitude of approximately 2,000 feet.

Whether there is a connection or not, later that day at 9:45 pm over Mundy Point in Virginia, two witnesses would report seeing a strange object moving through the sky, remaining visible for around 30 seconds.

Strange Sightings Over Air Bases Across America

The following evening, at around 10:15 pm at Holloman Air Force Base in Corona, New Mexico, another bizarre sighting occurred.

 This time, several strange balls of light were seen traveling through the sky, changing color as they did so from yellow-white to a distinct orange. Bizarrely, as it approached the mountain ranges in the area it would “level off” and change color once again to a blue-green color.

Of course, this last detail would dismiss the notion that the objects were merely “falling” and were in fact under some kind of control. The lights would return on the evening of the 12^th January, once more changing direction before disappearing out of sight.

Less than 24 hours after the initial sighting over Holloman Air Force Base, on the morning of the 10^th January at a little after 10 am in Las Vegas, two civilian pilots at the Las Vegas Air Force Base – a father and son – would observe two F-80 fighter jets approaching the base as they came in to land.

However, at an altitude of around 2,000 feet, each of the witnesses would also observe a strange round balloon-like object of “pure silver” and seemingly of solid metal. They would further estimate that the object was between 25 and 30 feet across and made no noise whatsoever. Furthermore, they could see no antennas or any other external fittings of any kind. It would move calmly through the skies, seemingly uninterested in the two fighter jets, and then began to accelerate somewhat before disappearing over a nearby mountain range.

On the evening of the 11^th January at the Ohio Air National Guard at Norwood in Ohio, several members would happen to point their searchlight at a “space platform” in the night sky above the city.

The Gulf of Mexico Incident

On the evening of 12^th January, at 11:25 pm, the crew of a B-29 aircraft would notice three strange objects on their onboard radar while flying over the Gulf of Mexico.

As an example as to the speed with which these strange objects were moving, the radar screen onboard covered a 100-mile radius. The objects would clear the screen from one side to the other in no more than 20 seconds. The overall estimated speed of these bizarre, metallic and most definitely solid objects was between 2,500 and 3,000 miles per hour.

While two of the objects would eventually disappear from sight, the other would continue to follow the B-29. Even more concerning were the two near approaches from the craft before it halted and hovered only 20 miles away. It would then move back into a pursuing position.

The object would disappear after around half-an-hour. However, the plane’s radar systems would remain jammed for around ten minutes after.

Interestingly, despite the wealth of radar information, no visual sightings of the object were made by any of the crew. This, of course, leaves open the possibility, however, remote it might be, that the incident was down to radar malfunction. A chink that many skeptics will point out.

Sightings Spreading Out Into Urban Areas

Sightings would continue throughout the United States following the incident, however. For example, in Peoria in Illinois on the evening of the 14^th January, an aerial object was witnessed overhead. And while it didn’t move in a manner that would suggest it wasn’t a normal aircraft, residents would report “electromagnetic effects” as it passed.

Earlier the same day, just before 5 pm in Oak Ridge, Tennessee, several workers at the town’s nuclear facility witnessed a “fiery ball of light” hover for several moments over restricted military airspace.

Although further afield than the United States, the 15^th January brought three more reports. A saucer-shaped object was witnessed hovering and rotating just off the coast of Newfoundland in Canada. On the same afternoon at Sierra de Comechingones in Argentina, a silver cigar-shaped object emerged from nearby mountains and remained visible for several minutes.

Later that evening, back in the United States, multiple witnesses would report “several strange objects” hovering over Tacoma, Washington. The following evening in Portland, Oregon, a husband, and wife would watch a similar object for almost two hours.

During the early evening of 17^th January, just off the coast of Kauai Island in Hawaii, another silver disc-shaped object was reported hovering over the water. Then, it would shoot “straight-up” and vanish into the early evening sky. The following evening, on the other side of the United States in Summit, New Jersey, several witnesses observed a “spherical UFO” glowing a “reddish-orange” color moving slowly over the region.

On the same evening six military pilots, including Lieutenant Webb, would witness a “round reddish-white” object moving slowly through the evening sky over Denver, Colorado.

The Kodiak, Alaska Incident

In the early hours of 23^rd January 1950 at around 2:40 am, Navy Patrol pilot, Lt. Smith was guiding his plane near the Bering Sea at Kodiak, Alaska in what was a routine security flight. He would pick up an unidentified object on his radar on two separate occasions.

When he radioed the control tower at Kodiak to enquire if there were other aircraft in the area, he was informed by the operator not only wasn’t there any other craft, but the interference on the communication line was some of the worst he had witnessed.

Around 20 minutes later, on board the USS Tillamock slight to the south of Kodiak, came the first visual confirmations of the incident. One of the on-duty personnel on the deck of the vessel would report seeing a “very fast-moving red glow light”. What’s more, the object appeared to circle the Kodiak region. Another member of the crew then came to the deck and also witnessed the bizarre object for around 30 seconds. Bizarrely, no sound whatsoever came from the glowing craft.

At 4:40 am – two hours after first noticing the strange activity – Lt. Smith was still experiencing problems with his onboard systems. However, he would notice another read on the radar. One that moved so fast that it “left a trail on the screen”. When Smith notified his crew, they would witness the object visually.

It made some bizarre maneuvers in the sky and appeared to be moving somewhere in the region of 2,000 miles per hour. General descriptions of the craft were of “two orange lights rotating around a common center”.

After heading toward his plane following a sudden sharp turn, the object disappeared from sight.

NOTE: The above image is CGI.

KEN PFEIFER WORLD UFO PHOTOS AND NEWS

HTTP://WWW.WORLDUFOPHOTOS.ORG

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THANKS TO https://www.ufoinsight.com

Source:

•  http://worldufophotosandnews.org/?p=24964

see also - The 1952 UFO Wave – A Case Study - ufoinsight.com

>> https://www.ufoinsight.com/the-1952-ufo-wave-a-case-study

{ https://beforeitsnews.com/ }

30-09-2019 om 20:24 geschreven door peter  

On September 28, 2019 the photographer captured from an unknown location a long bright object in the sky when suddenly a flash of light illuminates the sky.

Directly after the flash the cigar-shaped object seems to have changed into a ring-shaped object.

Immediately after the flash on which the cigar-shaped object turns into a ring-shaped UFO object starts at the 1.47 mark in the video.

  

30-09-2019 om 18:01 geschreven door peter  

NASA Probes a Video Showing a UFO Rapidly Moving in a Spanish City

An interesting video that shows a UFO moving fast over the Spanish city of Alicante has reportedly attracted the attention of the primary state-run American space agency.

The footage was reportedly shot during an electrical storm that engulfed the city recently. Alejandro Molla, a local computer scientist, was the one who captured the video.

Molla reportedly suffered the bad weather, which resulted in his sleepless night. He decided to record the incredible lightning show in the sky instead. After creating some video files, he noticed he had recorded on video something mysterious rapidly moving behind the clouds.

The clip shows an apparent silver disc looping through the clouds. Spanish news outlet Agencia 6 broadcasted the controversial video and Molla claimed that NASA filed an official request for the original copies of the video to the Spanish news outlet.

NASA is now reportedly investigating the incident through the video.

Meanwhile, some UFO enthusiasts have suggested that this specific sighting is evidence of an extraterrestrial spacecraft approaching the Earth for regular recharging, using the storm’s electric energy.

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

30-09-2019 om 01:22 geschreven door peter  

According to numerous writings and oral legends of Native American tribes, a race of ‘White Giants’ existed in the distant past. Interestingly, similar accounts of Giants existing on Earth in the distant past can be found all around the world.

Image Credit

There are numerous legends among various Native American tribes, from the Comanches in the north to other tribes in the south, which speak of a mysterious race of white-skinned giants who inhabited North America thousands of years ago, before mysteriously vanishing from the face of the planet.

In his book “History of the Choctaw Indians, Chickasaw and Natchez” (1899), Horatio Bardwell Cushman writes: “The tradition of the Choctaws . . Told of a race of giants that once inhabited the now State of Tennessee, and with whom their ancestors fought when they arrived in Mississippi in their migration from the west. … Their tradition states the Nahullo ( a race of giants) was of wonderful stature.”

Cushman stated that, over time, the term “Nahullo” became common to refer to all white people, but originally, the term was used to designate a race of white giants with which the Choctaws fought after crossing the Mississippi River.

There is plenty of evidence today which suggests that Giant beings did, in fact, walk on Earth.

Interestingly, according to an account in 1857, Chief Rolling Thunder of the Comanche said:

“Innumerable moons ago, a race of white men, 10 feet high, and far more rich and powerful than any white people now living, here inhabited a large range of country, extending from the rising to the setting sun. Their fortifications crowned the summits of the mountains, protecting their populous cities situated in the intervening valleys. “They excelled every other nation which was flourished, either before or since, in all manner of cunning handicraft—were brave and warlike—ruling over the land they had wrested from its ancient owners with a high and haughty hand. Compared with them the palefaces of the present day were pygmies, in both art and arms. …” (source)

According to the Comanche chief, a Great Spirit wiped out the White Giants when they forgot all about justice and mercy, becoming too proud.

The Navajo are another ancient tribe that offers evidence of Giants walking the Earth. The Navajo speak of a rave of ‘white giants’ called the Starnake people, describing them as a “regal race of white giants endowed with mining technology who dominated the West, enslaved lesser tribes, and had strongholds all through the Americas. They were either extinguished or ‘went back to the heavens.’”

The mysterious Starnake were either extinguished or “went back to the heavens.” The name may be a corruption of the Biblical race known as Anakim (Num. 13:33, Deut. 1:28). The name Og (Hebrew “chief”) appears to be characteristic (see Zimmerman, pp. 188-91). The ogham alphabet is attributed to this cultural founder. (Source)

However, more stories of White Giants can be found in numerous other accounts of ancient North-American tribes. The Choctaw also happen to mention the mystery giants. According to the Choctaw tribe, in that, is now known as Tennesee, a race of giants dominated the land in the distant past. It is said that their ancestors fought against them when they arrived in Mississippi during their westward migration.

Interestingly the Paiutes have oral legends that speak of red-haired giants, white cannibals that stood above 10 feet in height inhabiting the Lovelock Cave, in Nevada.  Interestingly, in the past, archaeologists have discovered remains of people with red hair in the region.

In what is now modern-day Mexico, Ancient Aztec legends also happen to mention the existence of a race of giants.

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In Aztec mythology, these giants are referred to as the Quinametzin.

The ruler of the Giants was, according to some versions of the myth, the god Tlaloc. Interestingly, the Quinametzin were believed to be the builders of the city of Teotihuacan and Tlachihualtepetl. The ‘Tlaxcaltecas’ recounted that, near the time of the Spanish Conquest, they themselves had fought the last Quinametzin on Earth.

If we travel to South America, we will find that the ancient Manta people of Peru, speak of a race of giants that in the distant past, coexisted with them.

Their legend says that: “There arrived on the coast, in boats made of reeds, as big as large ships, a party of men of such size that, from the knee downwards, their height was as great as the entire height of an ordinary man, though he might be of good stature.

• Their limbs were all in proportion to the deformed size of their bodies, and it was a monstrous thing to see their heads, with hair reaching to the shoulders. Their eyes were as large as small plates.” (Source)

{ https://www.firsttoknowledge.com/ }

30-09-2019 om 00:49 geschreven door peter  

Mars rovers being launched next summer WILL find life on the red planet, Nasa's chief scientist predicts - but he warns Earth is not prepared for the 'revolutionary' discovery

• Europe's ExoMars Rover and NASA's Mars 2020 rover will be launched in March
• The vehicles will drill down in to rock formations to search for organic matter 
• Dr Jim Green, a scientist working on both rovers, says Earth is not prepared 

By EMER SCULLY FOR MAILONLINE

Alien life could be discovered in less than two years but the world is 'not prepared for the results', NASA's chief scientist says.

Europe's ExoMars Rover, which has been named Rosalind in memory of British chemist Rosalind Franklin, will be launched with NASA's rover Mars 2020 in March.

They will search for extraterrestrial life and organic matter by targeting rock formations, with the ExoMars drilling 6.5ft in to Mars' core to extract samples.

Signs of life could be found within months of their arrival on Mars in March 2021, Dr Jim Green, a scientist working with both missions told the Sunday Telegraph.

Europe's ExoMars Rover, which has been named Rosalind in memory of British chemist Rosalind Franklin, will be launched with NASA's rover Mars 2020 in March. Pictured, an artist's impression of the ExoMars Trace Gas Orbiter and its entry, landing and descent module

But the 'revolutionary' discovery will 'start a whole new line of thinking' and Dr Green says: 'I don't think we're prepared for the results.'

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Questions about whether humans can move between planets and what other life is like will be sparked by the breakthrough.

When Europe's ExoMars rover lands on Mars the core samples it extracts will be broken up and examined for organic matter.

NASA's rover will drill in to rock formations on the surface of the planet before sending test tubes filled with these samples back to earth.

Signs of life could be found within months of their arrival on Mars in March 2021, Dr Jim Green, a scientist working with both missions told the Sunday Telegraph

It will be the first time Martian matter is brought onto this planet.

Scientists will be specifically looking for the 300 minerals that can only be created by life and will focus the search around the site of the ancient Martian ocean.

'When environments get extreme, life moves into the rocks,' Dr Green added.

Earlier this year scientists detected the first geological evidence of a system of water reservoirs deep beneath the surface of Mars.

The study on data from the Mars Express satellite revealed the extent of the former underground lakes based on features at the bottom of deep craters.

‘Early Mars was a watery world, but as the planet’s climate changed this water retreated below the surface to form pools and “groundwater,”’ said lead author Francesco Salese of Utrecht University, in the Netherlands.

‘We traced this water in our study, as its scale and role is a matter of debate, and we found the first geological evidence of a planet-wide groundwater system.’

In the study published to the Journal of Geophysical Research: Planets, researchers investigated 24 deep, enclosed craters in Mars’ northern hemisphere.

Each of these craters dip down to roughly 4,000 meters below Martian ‘sea level’ – which scientists have defined based on elevation and atmospheric pressure.

Numerous features seen on the crater floors at depths of 4,000-4,500 meters are suggestive of water, with evidence of pools and flows that changed over time.

This includes channels, valleys, curved deltas, ridged terraces, and fan-shaped deposits of sediments.

According to the researchers, the levels indicated by the crater features line up with predictions for the shorelines of a Martian ocean that’s thought to have existed three to four billion years ago. 

The European Space Agency's ExoMars rover being prepared to leave Airbus in Stevenage. The ExoMars 2020 rover Rosalind Franklin is Europe's first planetary rover and will search for signs of past or present life on Mars

'The bottom line is where there is water there is life', says Dr Green. Scientists believe if there used to be water on Mars then there could also have been life. 

It comes just a week after never-seen-before bursts of magnetic energy on Mars puzzled astronomers.

The magnetometer fixed to the cutting-edge NASA InSight spacecraft detected a bizarre jump in pulsations on the surface of the planet at nighttime.

Since November 2018, the InSight capsule has been harvesting information from the Red Planet - including recording the ferocity of so-called 'Marsquakes' and taking the temperature of its upper crust.

And scientists have not yet determined the causes behind the sudden magnetic pulses, which were 20 times stronger than previous observations, according to National Geographic.

A working prototype of the newly named Rosalind Franklin ExoMars rover at the Airbus Defence and Space facility in Stevenage, north of London

However the baffling aspect of these most recent findings was the clockwork-like frequency of the midnight pulses.

The InSight lander is currently placed on Mars's equator. On Earth's equator, no such pulses have ever been recorded. 

A team from California University presented their paper at the European Planetary Science Congress annual meeting.

They wrote: 'The nighttime continuous pulsations found by InSight FluxGate are unexpected because they are distinct from what are typically observed on the Earth's surface at the same local time.'

The lander expedition also revealed there is a two-mile thick layer deep below Mars's surface capable of conducting electricity.

It is thought this could be a body of water, but that has not been confirmed.

{ https://www.dailymail.co.uk/home/index.html }

30-09-2019 om 00:26 geschreven door peter  

Boeing's planned hypersonic airliner could fly from NYC to London in two hours

The ultra-fast plane would be capable of flying five times the speed of sound.

By Denise Chow

Boeing has unveiled plans for what could be the world’s first hypersonic airliner, a sleek, futuristic-looking craft that the Seattle-based company said would be capable of flying five times the speed of sound, or about 3,800 miles per hour.

At that speed — Mach 5 in aviation parlance — it would be possible to travel from New York City to London in about two hours instead of the eight hours the trip takes on a conventional airliner.

That means someone could conceivably fly overseas for a meeting and return home in a single day.

“Humankind has always wanted to go faster — always wanted to do things faster,” said Kevin Bowcutt, chief scientist of hypersonics at Boeing. “People cannot make time, so there’s an inherent value in time.”

The as-yet-unnamed plane would be much faster not only than conventional airliners, which cruise at about 550 miles an hour, but also the supersonic Concorde aircraft that flew routes across the North Atlantic Ocean from 1976 to 2003. Concorde, produced by a British-French consortium, could reach Mach 2.04, meaning the New York City-London trip took just under four hours.

Boeing’s proposed plane, described in broad strokes at an industry conference in Atlanta this week, could be used for military applications as well as commercial aviation. But it might take 20 to 30 years to take to the skies, Bowcutt said.

Related

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These planes could jet you around the world at hypersonic speed

Supersonic and hypersonic (meaning five times the speed of sound or faster) have been hyped as the next era of commercial aviation since at least the 1950s. But with the exception of the Concorde, which was permanently grounded three years after a deadly crash in France, building such airplanes has proven to be an elusive goal.

“It’s been a dream for a while now,” said Stuart Craig, an assistant professor of aerospace and mechanical engineering at the University of Arizona, who is not affiliated with Boeing. “We’ve been striving for this hypersonic technology for the better part of half a century, but in recent years, advances in computational technology and materials technology have made it much more in grasp.”

One key question for Boeing and other aircraft manufacturers will be whether airline passengers would be willing to pay the higher ticket prices that hypersonic air travel would command.

High prices, along with limited routes, played a role in the demise of the Concorde, said Mike Sinnett, Boeing’s vice president of future airplane development. “We can do all kinds of cool things, but those cool things have to lead to something that creates value, or at the end of the day it’s not going to be all that successful,” he said. “In general, people flew on [the Concorde] as a novelty — it didn’t change the world, and the economics weren’t right.”

But Craig said new technologies and designs for supersonic and hypersonic aircraft are making high-speed air travel more attractive to travelers.

The Concorde’s routes were limited in part because regulators barred supersonic travel over populated areas to protect people on the ground from hearing the loud sonic booms that the plane created. But in the years since the Concorde’s retirement, Craig said researchers at NASA and elsewhere have made significant strides in mitigating sonic booms caused by supersonic and hypersonic craft.

As for what it would be like to experience a hypersonic flight, Bowcutt said it would be a lot like flying in a conventional jet — but with a few key differences.

Rather than cruising at 30,000 to 40,000 feet, as is typical for conventional airliners, a hypersonic craft like the one proposed by Boeing would cruise at 90,000 to 95,000 feet.

“At that altitude, you’re going to see the curvature of the Earth below you,” Bowcutt said. “You won’t see the entire Earth, but you will see the curvature — and above you, you’ll have the blackness of space. It’s also a very smooth ride because there isn’t atmospheric turbulence at that altitude.”

But while there would be less turbulence, more time would be needed to accelerate to Mach 5. On a conventional airline flight, passengers feel the sensation of being pushed back in their seats for about a minute or so during and shortly after takeoff. On a hypersonic flight, Bowcutt said, that sensation would last for about 12 minutes.

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29-09-2019 om 23:58 geschreven door peter  

NASA proof of aliens? Did NASA photograph a flying bird on Mars? UFO expert stunned

NASA’S Curiosity Mars Rover has photographed an unexpected anomaly amid the Red Planet’s rocky surface – an terrestrial bird seemingly in flight, which a UFO expert claims could be proof Curiosity is not on Mars at all.

29-09-2019 om 22:56 geschreven door peter  

Elon Musk presenteert zijn ruimteschip voor trip naar Mars - HLN.be

Bron: AD.nl, AP, Belga

Starship ziet eruit als een roestvrijstalen kogel met twee vinnen aan de onderkant en drie motoren. Het ruimteschip is bijna 50 meter hoog, 9 meter breed en zou voorlopig tot zo’n 20 kilometer hoogte kunnen vliegen. Binnen een half jaar moet een hoogte van 200 kilometer kunnen worden gehaald, waardoor officieel sprake is van een ruimtevlucht. En op termijn moet het tuig mensen en vracht naar pakweg overal in ons zonnestelsel kunnen brengen.

De bedoeling is dat Starship ook weer veilig terugkeert op aarde en hergebruikt wordt. Volgens Musk is dat de enige manier om ruimtevaart rendabel te krijgen.

Lees ook

‘Starman’ in Tesla Roadster heeft eerste rit rond de zon afgerond

Tot honderd passagiers

Starship zal tot honderd - jawel, honderd - mensen naar de maan, Mars of andere bestemmingen kunnen brengen. En terugbrengen. Ook vrachtvervoer is mogelijk, wat de bouw van een basis op de natuurlijke satelliet van de aarde, of Mars, al wat dichterbij brengt.

Het ruimteschip kan niet zelf de ruimte in gaan. Het heeft daarvoor een enorme eerste trap nodig die de naam Super Heavy kreeg (eveneens herbruikbaar), en die uiteindelijk zelf ook de bekende commerciële ruimteraket Falcon naar de geschiedenisboeken kan verwijzen. Naargelang de aard van de missie is het aantal Raptor-motoren van het gevaarte aan te passen, tot 37 stuks als het nodig is, en minimaal wellicht 24. Met als nieuwigheid ook dat die op methaan draaien.

 AFP

AFP

 Vanaf 2025 al naar Mars?

SpaceX maakt zich sterk al vanaf 2025 mensen naar de rode planeet te kunnen brengen, terwijl het Amerikaanse ruimtevaartbureau NASA pas ten vroegste in de jaren dertig een bemande missie naar Mars voor mogelijk acht. 

Nog veel dichterbij hoopt het bedrijf volgens de gezaghebbende website space.com al binnen een half jaar een prototype van Starship in een baan rondom onze planeet brengen. Indien het testprogramma naar wens verloopt, kunnen al volgend jaar of zo mensen ermee reizen.

AFP

{ https://www.hln.be/ }

29-09-2019 om 22:17 geschreven door peter  

Why does Venus’ upper atmosphere circle the planet in just 4 Earth-days, while the planet itself takes 243 Earth-days to spin once? Japan’s Akatsuki spacecraft probed the mysterious “super-rotation” of Venus’ clouds.

Venus dayside in false color via PLANET-C Project Team/ EuroPlanet.

Japan’s Akatsuki spacecraft – aka the Venus Climate Orbiter – got off a rocky start but has been sending back useful data from Venus for several years now. Akatsuki launched in May, 2010, but failed to enter orbit around Venus in December of that year. Space engineers saved the day with a 20-minute firing of the craft’s attitude control thrusters, placing the craft into an alternative orbit around Venus – albeit a highly elliptical one – five years later, in 2015. This month, at the EPSC-DPS Joint Meeting 2019 in Geneva, Switzerland, Kiichi Fukuya of the University of Tokyo reported on new insights into the mysterious super-rotation of Venus’ atmosphere, made possible by Akatsuki’s data. That is, the upper atmosphere of Venus rotates around the planet much faster than the planet spins; the atmosphere rotates around the planet in just 4 Earth-days, while the planet itself takes 243 Earth-days to spin once.

Fukuuya said:

The most exciting discovery is the frequent occurrence of equator-ward motions [of the atmosphere] on the nightside. This is in contrast to the strong poleward circulation on the dayside we have observed previously at other wavelengths.

Overall, these scientists reported that data from Akatsuki show:

… striking variety in wind speeds year-on-year and between the planet’s northern and southern hemispheres.

Takeshi Horinouchi of Hokkaido University, Japan, and Yeon Joo Lee of JAXA/ISAS and TU Berlin also detected planetary-scale atmospheric waves at the cloud tops, which may interact with the super-rotation. For these studies they used:

… advanced cloud-tracking and quality control techniques to analyze with high accuracy the direction and speed of cloud top winds using data collected by [Akatsuki’s] Ultraviolet Imager instrument over three years.

Equator-wards motion of clouds on night side.

Image via University of Tokyo.

Pole-wards motion of clouds on day side.

Image via University of Tokyo.

And they said the difference they observed in Venus winds between the planet’s hemispheres might be linked to a second mystery at Venus: an as-yet unidentified chemical in the atmosphere that strongly absorbs ultraviolet radiation from the sun. You might know that Venus is considered Earth’s “twin” in size and desnity. It’s a world very similar to Earth in many ways, but its atmosphere sets it apart. The atmosphere of Venus – which is mostly carbon dioxide – is extremely dense and hot; atmospheric pressure on Venus’ surface is some 90 times that of Earth. This as-yet-unknown ultraviolet absorber in the atmosphere is interesting to these scientists because its variability in Venus’ atmosphere might cause the asymmetry in wind speeds between the planet’s northern and southern hemispheres. Thus the scientists commented:

Our results provide new questions about the atmosphere of Venus, as well as revealing the richness of variety of the Venus atmosphere over space and time.

Artist’s concept of Akatsuki in orbit around Venus.

Image via ISAS/JAXA.

• Bottom line: Japan’s Akatsuki spacecraft has provided new insights on the mysterious super-rotation of Venus’ dense atmosphere.
• Via Europlanet Society

{ https://earthsky.org/ }

29-09-2019 om 21:09 geschreven door peter  

New insights on Venus’ cloud-tops and super-rotation 

The article here notes that: ‘The atmosphere of Venus – which is mostly carbon dioxide – is extremely dense and hot; atmospheric pressure on Venus’ surface is some 90 times that of Earth.’ An extremely dense atmosphere with enormous atmospheric pressure is always going to be hot, regardless of its composition. Just a thought, but maybe it needs a lot of convection (wind) to offset the heat.

Why does Venus’ upper atmosphere circle the planet in just 4 Earth-days, while the planet itself takes 243 Earth-days to spin once?

Japan’s Akatsuki spacecraft probed the mysterious “super-rotation” of Venus’ clouds, reports EarthSky.org.

The spacecraft – aka the Venus Climate Orbiter – got off a rocky start but has been sending back useful data from Venus for several years now.

Akatsuki launched in May, 2010, but failed to enter orbit around Venus in December of that year. Space engineers saved the day with a 20-minute firing of the craft’s attitude control thrusters, placing the craft into an alternative orbit around Venus – albeit a highly elliptical one – five years later, in 2015.

This month, at the EPSC-DPS Joint Meeting 2019 in Geneva, Switzerland, Kiichi Fukuya of the University of Tokyo reported on new insights into the mysterious super-rotation of Venus’ atmosphere, made possible by Akatsuki’s data.

That is, the upper atmosphere of Venus rotates around the planet much faster than the planet spins; the atmosphere rotates around the planet in just 4 Earth-days, while the planet itself takes 243 Earth-days to spin once. Fukuuya said:

The most exciting discovery is the frequent occurrence of equator-ward motions [of the atmosphere] on the nightside. This is in contrast to the strong poleward circulation on the dayside we have observed previously at other wavelengths.

Overall, these scientists reported that data from Akatsuki show:

… striking variety in wind speeds year-on-year and between the planet’s northern and southern hemispheres.

Takeshi Horinouchi of Hokkaido University, Japan, and Yeon Joo Lee of JAXA/ISAS and TU Berlin also detected planetary-scale atmospheric waves at the cloud tops, which may interact with the super-rotation. For these studies they used:

… advanced cloud-tracking and quality control techniques to analyze with high accuracy the direction and speed of cloud top winds using data collected by [Akatsuki’s] Ultraviolet Imager instrument over three years.

And they said the difference they observed in Venus winds between the planet’s hemispheres might be linked to a second mystery at Venus: an as-yet unidentified chemical in the atmosphere that strongly absorbs ultraviolet radiation from the sun.

You might know that Venus is considered Earth’s “twin” in size and density. It’s a world very similar to Earth in many ways, but its atmosphere sets it apart. The atmosphere of Venus – which is mostly carbon dioxide – is extremely dense and hot; atmospheric pressure on Venus’ surface is some 90 times that of Earth.

This as-yet-unknown ultraviolet absorber in the atmosphere is interesting to these scientists because its variability in Venus’ atmosphere might cause the asymmetry in wind speeds between the planet’s northern and southern hemispheres.

Full report here.

Source: 

• https://tallbloke.wordpress.com/2019/09/29/new-insights-on-venus-cloud-tops-and-super-rotation/

{ https://beforeitsnews.com/ }

29-09-2019 om 20:41 geschreven door peter  

On September 25, 2019 a resident of Louveciennes in France noticed unidentified blue lights moving through the sky on which she started to film the weird phenomenon.

Like many other people who have been witnessed a similar phenomenon, also the resident of Louveciennes wonders what it might have been.

This sky phenomenon has been going on for a while and nobody knows where it comes from or what it could be.

  

{ http://ufosightingshotspot.blogspot.com/ }

29-09-2019 om 19:46 geschreven door peter  

Some of the weirdest and most controversial supposed ancient artifacts of the world are the numerous crystal skulls of Mexico and Central America, mysterious items that have spurred all kinds of debate amongst scientists, archeologists, and indeed those in the field of the paranormal. The skulls themselves are typically life-sized and fashioned in great detail out of clear or smoky colored quartz crystal, often with movable jaws and painstakingly carved and ground, and their origins are just about as mysterious as their appearance. One of these crystal skulls in particular has long been associated with magical powers, curses, and mysteries, and has remained debated and discussed to this day.

Typically, crystal skulls are said to have been made many thousands of years ago in pre-Columbian Mesoamerica, mostly said to come from the Aztec or Maya civilizations, and there is supposedly much legend and lore surrounding them to drive their mystique. One of the most popular legends regarding the crystal skulls is that they were forged not from human hands, but through thought alone, and that they contain vast stores of mystical knowledge, receptacles for the ancient wisdom of the gods. It was said that these skulls could speak, sing, and project telepathic thoughts, and that they also held great magical powers beyond comprehension. According to this legend, there are 13 original crystal skulls, each containing the souls of the ancients, and that if they are ever brought together they will teach us the answers to the great mysteries of the universe.

While this sounds like just a bunch of spooky legend and myth, there are indeed many crystal skulls in collections which are said to have paranormal powers orbiting them. By far the most well-known individual crystal skull was purportedly discovered in 1924 inside the ruins of a pyramid in the ancient Mayan city of Lubaantun, in what is now called Belize. The skull was allegedly found by Anna Mitchell-Hedges, the adopted daughter of famed British adventurer F.A. Mitchell-Hedges, as they were exploring an ancient Mayan pyramid in what was then called British Honduras. She would claim that she had snuck out to climb up the pyramid, and that as she had reached the top she had spied something glinting down in the darkness of a crack in the pyramid.

After telling her father of what she had seen she allegedly went with him the next morning to see what it was. Since the crack could not be accessed easily, they went about moving stones until there was enough of an opening to send young Anna to squeeze into a gloomy passageway leading into a collapsed temple, where she could see something glinting in the light of her lamp. When she examined it closer she could see that it was an exquisite skull made of scintillating pure crystal, almost completely transparent, which she described as unreal and “the most beautiful thing I had ever seen.” The skull itself, when examined, was found to be about the size of a small human skull, measuring 5 inches (13 cm) high, 7 inches (18 cm) long and 5 inches (13 cm) wide, and was thought to be extremely old. F.A. Mitchell Hedges would later write of what he called “The Skull of Doom” his 1954 memoir Danger My Ally:

It is at least 3,600 years old and according to legend it was used by the High Priest of the Maya when he was performing esoteric rites. It is said that when he willed death with the help of the skull, death invariably followed. It has been described as the embodiment of all evil. I do not wish to try and explain this phenomenon.

In the years after its discovery, the skull was said to have various supernatural powers, such as glowing in the dark or projecting images as if it were a film projector, or to even implant visions directly into the mind, and is was also said to have healing abilities and to be able to read the future or manipulate the emotions of those who gazed upon it. Anna would over the years make several bold and incredible claims, such as that the skull could be used to kill a person with a thought, that it could cure cancer, and even that she had predicted the assassination of John F. Kennedy. When her father died in 1959, Anna took the mysterious skull on tour, where its ethereal, unearthly quality mesmerized throngs of curiosity seekers, and it became a popular topic for TV programs, newspaper articles, and books. This new found popularity launched the crystal skull into the popular consciousness, and all manner of wild theories swirled, such as that it was an artifact from the lost continent of Atlantis or that it had been made by aliens. However, by this time there had never really been any scientific analysis of it done.

Anna’s crystal skull

Despite the years of mystery it was providing, it was not until the 1960s that any careful analysis would be done on what was by then called the Mitchell-Hedges skull, when it was examined by art restorer and expert in quartz crystals Frank Dorland. He carefully looked at the skull and determined that it had been crafted without the use of any noticeable metal tools, as it displayed no scratch or buff marks at all. He theorized that it had been first roughly shaped out of a lump of quartz and then painstakingly sanded away by hand over a period of 150 to 300 years, speculating that it could be over 12,000 years old.

This was curious enough, but an even more in-depth analysis would be carried out in 1970, when the skull was submitted for testing by Hewlett-Packard’s crystal laboratories in Santa Clara, California. They found that the skull was composed of a single large piece of quartz, and that it was devoid of markings from machine tools except for some grinding on the teeth. It was deemed to be a work of art that would be very difficult to recreate even with modern technology, which only further deepened the mystery. The skull was also found to have some other odd properties, such as that it had positive and negative polarity and could produce an electrical charge under mechanical stress, as well as that it harbored strange optical qualities that caused light shone under it to project from the eye sockets and for reflections of the surroundings to be contained within it. Indeed, these phenomena convinced Dorland that through its electrical and optic capabilities the skull “triggered certain reflexes in the brain,” which could explain some of its supposed supernatural powers.

Anna would go on to continue to stand by the skull’s authenticity and magical powers all of her life, and many New Agers also stood by her, believing the skull to have been fashioned by some ancient advanced technology or even aliens. Anna frequently gave interviews about the skull, and maintained that she received potent visions through it, that spirits used it to communicate to her, and that it had extended her life. Indeed, she would live to the ripe old age of 100, after which the skull would fall under the ownership of her younger husband, Bill Homann, who continued to keep the mystique and legend of the crystal skull alive.

Anna Mitchell-Hedges and her crystal skull

It is all a very strange odyssey for a very unique artifact, but in more recent years there has been quite a lot of skepticism aimed at the purported powers and origins of the Mitchell-Hedges skull, and indeed the phenomenon of crystal skulls in general. Pertaining to Anna’s skull, the story becomes immediately suspicious when one realizes that her father, F.A. Mitchell-Hedges, makes only one mention of the skull in all of his writings, that single passage in Danger My Ally, and there is no mention of where or by whom it was found or what had happened to it. Considering he wrote extensively and enthusiastically about his exploits at Lubaantun this seems like an odd omission. In fact, there is no actual mention of the skull by any of the others present at the dig, and there is doubt that Anna was even ever at the dig at all. Furthermore, in later years it would be found that the crystal skull had likely been purchased by her father from a Sotheby’s auction in London on October 15, 1943, after which his well-known penchant for telling tall tales of the mysterious had gotten the better of him.

This is all pretty damning evidence against Anna’s claims of having found it in a collapsed chamber of a mysterious ancient Mayan pyramid, and it is thought that she more or less made the whole thing up. Considering that the tales only really started to come out after F.A. Mitchell-Hedges’ death, it is very likely that she merely crafted this amazing tale around her father’s crystal skull, with further embellishments added over the years. Further unraveling the whole tale is the fact that it seems that the skull was almost definitely not a pre-Columbian artifact at all, but a modern fake.

Crystal skull at the British Museum

Although we have been mostly focused on the Mitchell-Hedges skull there are others in museums around the world as well, such as one at the Musée del’Homme’s in Paris and also at The British Museum, among others, and in more recent times these have been analyzed with more advanced techniques such as electron microscopes, X-ray crystallography, and CT scans. The results have shown that the skulls do indeed seem to have been worked with some sort of modern jeweler’s rotary tool, which would use an abrasive substance such as corundum or diamond spun at high speeds with a metal tool to polish and carve the object, and this analysis puts them at no older than the 19th century. It has therefore been supposed that the Mitchell-Hedges crystal skull is the same way, possibly even a direct copy of the skull at the British Museum, although widely regarded as of better craftsmanship. It is thought that these skulls were probably fashioned in Germany in the 19th century and then later found their way to Mexico, where they were sold as curios and the legends subsequently took off around their otherworldly weirdness. This fits in with the fact that none of the known skulls on display are from recognized excavation digs, and there is additionally no verified ancient legends associated with them, meaning that there is a very good possibility that every single one of them is not pre-Columbian at all, but rather faked using modern techniques.

This has not stopped some people from believing that these are in fact ancient artifacts crafted by advanced lost civilizations or aliens. The fact that crystal cannot be dated through usual means males it so that it is impossible to know the true age of these skulls, and the presence of machine working to the believers only means that someone had access to such technology long before modern times. Therefore, the modern analysis has done little to discourage those who really believe, and there is still much talk of the crystal skulls, their origins, and there powers to this day. Who made these artifacts? Is it, as mainstream science asserts, that they are clever medorrn fakes? Or is there something more mysterious going on here? The debate goes on.

{ https://mysteriousuniverse.org/ }

29-09-2019 om 19:28 geschreven door peter  

29-09-2019 om 19:06 geschreven door peter  

Earliest life on Earth from billions of years ago has been discovered in an ancient Australian desert. What’s even more incredible is that it could have also lived on Mars.

The rock formations contained organic matter, which indicates that small living microbes made them

Credit: BAUMGARTNER ET AL / GEOLOGY

It can be difficult to tell whether stromatolite rock structures like this one were made by organisms or just occurred naturally

Credit: GETTY - CONTRIBUTOR

The 3.5 billion-year-old fossils were discovered at the Dresser Formation fossil site of the Pilbara region in the 1980s but only recently did the experts finally confirm what they actually were. There were small traces of organic matter found in the stromatolites (which are ancient fossilized microbe formations).

“This is an exciting discovery – for the first time, we’re able to show the world that these stromatolites are definitive evidence for the earliest life on Earth,” stated geologist Raphael Baumgartner who is from the University of New South Wales.

Pilbara Region, Australia

One of the biggest challenges in looking for fossilized microbes is that they look very similar to natural folds that are often found in rocks. In fact, that’s exactly what happened in Greenland when researchers claimed to have found 3.7 billion-year-old fossils but were instead just creases in the rock.

The discovery in the Australian desert has been proven to contain organic matter which means that something would have been living inside of the rocks in order to create the matter. “The organic matter that we found preserved within pyrite of the stromatolites is exciting – we’re looking at exceptionally preserved coherent filaments and strands that are typically remains of microbial biofilms,” explained Baumgartner. Their researched was published in the journal Geology and can be read in full here.

He went on to say that he was quite surprised at the evidence they uncovered. Another surprising fact is that this evidence suggests that there could be life on Mars because the crust on the Red Planet is the same age as the deposits found in the Australian desert. In fact, NASA has even been studying the geological signatures in Australia’s Pilbara region in order to get a better understanding of stromatolites possibly being present on Mars. It is believed that the fossilized organisms found in Australia once lived in hot springs and there has been evidence found that strongly suggests that Mars once had hot springs.

The fossils discovered in Australia suggest that Mars could also have life.

Baumgartner finished off by saying, “Understanding where life could have emerged is really important in order to understand our ancestry,” adding, “And from there, it could help us understand where else life could have occurred – for example, where it was kick-started on other planets.”

Since Earth was formed 4.6 billion years ago and the earliest life form has been found in Australia from 3.5 billion years ago is quite an astonishing discovery.

{ https://mysteriousuniverse.org/ }

29-09-2019 om 18:12 geschreven door peter  

Before you start screaming, “How do you known it’s an alien?”, tell me what other Earth species has three sexes? And can survive 500 times the lethal human does of arsenic? And can live in a lake with only two other species in water three times as salty as the ocean? And gives birth to its young like a kangaroo? Go ahead … google away. I’ll wait.

Finished? Find anything? Then it’s an alien, right? Or at least an “alien.”

“Arsenic resistance is something we can study in the lab, but maybe that’s not the most interesting part of the story. The most important thing is that there’s this diversity of life in extreme environments that we just haven’t appreciated before.”

Paul Sternberg, Bren Professor of Biology at CalTech, is so respected in the field of nemotodes that he has a lab named after him, and that’s where he led a team of researchers in a search for any type of weird tiny worms that could live in the harsh waters of California’s Mono Lake — a salty, alkaline, arsenic-rich body of water known to be home to just two species: brine shrimp and diving alkali flies.

Mono Lake

Mono Lake has the world’s highest concentration of alkali flies – another strange species that takes its head off to emerge from its pupal stage and then puts it back on to become a fly. This didn’t bother the native Kutzadika’a people whose name means “fly eater” and … you can figure the rest of it out.

Back to the aliens. Researchers at the Sternberg lab like to look for extremophiles — organisms that live and thrive in conditions unsuitable for most other life forms. Since nemotodes (roundworms) are the most abundant creatures on Earth, and since those are their specialty, that’s what Paul Sternberg and his lab assistants looked for in Mono Lake. While they expected they might find one, they were surprised to find eight different species of nemotodes. And they were shocked at the unique characteristics of one of them.

“One species, Auanema sp., is new, culturable, and survives 500 times the human lethal dose of arsenic.”

As the study, published in Current Biology and described in a CalTech press release, points out, Auanema sp. has three sexes – male, female and hermaphrodite – and gives birth to its young live instead of in eggs. It’s now the most dominant species in a lake so hostile, it only has two others.

So, is it an alien?

“Understanding biodiversity is important for so many reasons: many organisms can act like canaries in a coal mine, alerting us to danger. Others can teach us how to thrive under what seem to be harsh conditions: chemicals, temperature, acidity or alkalinity, salt, radiation, you name it. Also, there are so many mysteries about life: each species has an interesting story to tell us.”

Sternberg hints that we don’t yet know the whole story about Auanema sp. It sounds like the kind of tough survivor like tardigrades that can survive in outer space – making it a prime candidate for panspermia … traveling to Earth from another planet.

Tardigrade

Did they? Who knows? In the meantime, the researchers at Sternberg lab will certainly be watching them to see how the three sexes have sex, not to mention trying to figure out how they survive. And we should be watching them too because … if something starts killing off the toughest creatures on Earth who can have sex three ways, what does the future hold for us?

{ https://mysteriousuniverse.org/ }

29-09-2019 om 17:39 geschreven door peter  

One of the largest craters in our Solar System is found on the far side of the Moon’s south pole and it’s called Aitken basin. While it was previously thought that a large impact billions of years ago caused the crater, scientists now say that it couldn’t have been created by a meteor.

The gigantic oval-shaped crater that’s nearly the size of the United States is leaving scientists completely baffled as to how it got there. The crater has a depth of 8.1 miles, making it approximately six times deeper than it is wide.

The original theory was that a huge, fast meteor slammed into the Moon billions of years ago which caused huge chunks of the lunar’s mantle to be thrown across its surface. However, a new study conducted by the Chinese seemingly disproves that theory.

Aitken basin

When China’s Yutu-2 Moon rover landed in the Aitken basin in January, it collected six soil samples from the bottom of the crater. After analyzing them, the researchers believe that the soil samples were made up of crust and not from the Moon’s mantle. If their theory is correct, it would mean that the meteor that created Aitken basin did not hit hard enough to cause parts of the mantle to be scattered across the lunar surface.

“We are not seeing the mantle materials at the landing site as expected,” stated Dr. Hao Zhang, who is a planetary scientist at the China University of Geosciences. Their research has been published in the journal Geophysical Research Letters which can be read in full here.

Had the Moon been hit by a large, fast meteor, chunks of the mantle would still be scattered across the lunar surface even to this day. But since scientists are arguing that theory, what do they think caused Aitken basin?

Scientists now claim that a meteor couldn’t have caused the Moon’s Aitken basin.

Researchers have not given an alternate explanation as to what caused the gigantic crater, but the idea of a meteorite colliding with the Moon is the most likely reason. Instead of a full on impact to the Moon, the meteorite could have grazed the lunar surface hard enough to cause a crater but not so hard as to cause chunks of the mantle to be thrown across the surface.

This isn’t the only question surrounding Aitken basin, as just a few months ago, it was announced that a large chunk of metal five times bigger than Hawaii’s Big Island had been discovered embedded in the crater.

What's the difference between an asteroid, meteor and comet?

Here's what you need to know, according to Nasa...

• Asteroid: An asteroid is a small rocky body that orbits the Sun. Most are found in the asteroid belt (between Mars and Jupiter) but they can be found anywhere (including in a path that can impact Earth)
• Meteoroid: When two asteroids hit each other, the small chunks that break off are called meteoroids
• Meteor: If a meteoroid enters the Earth's atmosphere, it begins to vapourise and then becomes a meteor. On Earth, it'll look like a streak of light in the sky, because the rock is burning up
• Meteorite: If a meteoroid doesn't vapourise completely and survives the trip through Earth's atmosphere, it can land on the Earth. At that point, it becomes a meteorite
• Comet: Like asteroids, a comet orbits the Sun. However rather than being made mostly of rock, a comet contains lots of ice and gas, which can result in amazing tails forming behind them (thanks to the ice and dust vapourising)

 

{ https://mysteriousuniverse.org/ }

29-09-2019 om 16:46 geschreven door peter