Did Anunnaki Ancient Aliens Build A Civilization On Earth Before Humans?

A lot of information in this one adding to my knowledge.

Whether out of place artifacts and structures are evidence of a Lost Civilization built by the Anunnaki Ancient Aliens before Human beings existed on Earth.

www.afrikaiswoke.com/...

‘Out-of-Place Artifact’ (OoPArt) is a term coined by American naturalist and cryptozoologist Ivan T. Sanderson for an object of historical, archaeological, or paleontological interest found in a very unusual or seemingly impossible context that could challenge conventional historical chronology by being too advanced for the level of civilization that existed at the time, or showing  human presence well before humans were supposed to exist.

The question that we are ultimately confronted with is who built the lost Civilization before human beings?

Was it the  Ancient Anunnaki Aliens as suggested by alternative historical theories or some other unknown entity/ies?

The question persistently posed by Out of Place Artifacts is whether they are evidence of advanced past Ancient Alien or Lost Human Civilization.

Zechariah Sitchin and other proponents of the Ancient Astronaut Theory suggest that such artifacts are evidence of an Ancient Alien Civilization, whilst on the other end of the unacknowledged History spectrum you have Graham Hancock and others taking the position that it is evidence of an advanced Human Civilization.

We’ve covered the Anunnaki angle considerably as part of the ongoing ‘Anunnaki Chronicles‘ series, and today, we shed light on the alternative Graham Hancock argument on whether the past reveals the presence of an Ancient Alien or Lost Human Civilization.

The Evidence For A Lost Civilization

According to Hancock, the Ancient Astronaut Hypothesis emerges from ancient texts and traditions when they are read in the light of modern space-exploration technology. However, at present NO ancient archaeological site and NO ancient text or tradition provides persuasive evidence for the ancient astronaut hypothesis.

In his view, if one examines the original source material upon which Sitchin drew, and comparing what you find to how Sitchin presented it in his Earth Chronicles series, you would see that Sitchin has created a gigantic work of science fiction masquerading as fact.

As such. Out of Place Artifacts, the anomalies of history and prehistory pointed to by advocates of the ancient astronaut hypothesis are far better and more elegantly explained as emanating from a lost, advanced HUMAN civilization of prehistoric antiquity than from high-tech alien visitors from another Planet.

His verdict on whether the past reveals an Ancient Alien or Lost Human Civilization is therefore that it is a lost Human Civilization that we should credit and not Ancient Aliens.

Top 5 Anomalies & Out Of Place Artifacts

1. Klerksdorp Spheres

Resembling the ‘Death Star’ in Star Wars, the Klerksdorp Spheres were found by Miners in South Africa and their origin remains unknown.

They were found in rock dated  2.8 billion years old and their presence in this Archaeological layer remains perplexing.

2. The Antikythera Mechanism

The next perplexing artifact was recovered by sponge-divers from a shipwreck off the coast of Antikythera, Greece. Its a sophisticated mechanism of gears whose existence 2000 years ago cannot be explained.

3. The Battery Of Babylon

The 2000 Ancient Battery of Babylon was unearthed in Baghdad in 1938. The device could create an electric charge, and this find is particularly remarkable since we only invented batters in 1799.

4. Egyptian Helicopoters & Inca Planes

The mystery of the flying machines of the Gods continues to reign. Our previous entry on the Vimana Epics of Ancient India also shed some light on this extraordinary question.

Hieroglyphs such as those at the Egyptian Temple at Abydos only add to the mystery as they depict Helicopters, submarines and supersonic jets…Meanwhile Golden Ancient Inca Model Aircraft suggest the presence of aviation technology amongst the Ancient Civilizations of South America.

The suggestion that Ancient Civilizations possessed advanced Aviation Technology which we are only beginning to understand today remains, and the jury is still out on how that will be eventually resolved.

5. The Piri Ries Map

Last but not least, is the Piri Ries Map.

In 1929, a group of historians found an amazing map drawn on a gazelle skin. Research showed that it was a genuine document drawn in 1513 by Piri Reis, a famous admiral of the Turkish fleet in the sixteenth century.

The controversy lies in that the Piri Reis map shows the western coast of Africa, the eastern coast of South America, and the northern coast of Antarctica. The northern coastline of Antarctica is perfectly detailed even though the map was drawn 300 years before it was discovered, drawing the coastline in perfect detail even though it was under ice.

Conclusion: Anunnaki Ancient Aliens or Lost Human Civilization?

Whether Historical anomalies like Ancient Megalith Structures and Out of Place Artifacts demonstrate the existence of an Ancient Alien or Lost Human Civilization remains contested…Perhaps the answer lies in combining both theories instead of adopting a mutually exclusive approach to either theory.

In Ancient Aliens Debunked, our previous entry based on a documentary by the same name which you can read here, we also noted that the Ancient Astronaut Theory was not always correct in its interpretation of certain Out Of Place Artifacts, sometimes making exaggerated claims in order to shore up support of itself.

Nevertheless, its clear that unanswered questions remain and various new lines of enquiry continue to develop, expanding and enriching our understanding of the Human story…That in itself is progress, and we will continue to follow the latest revelations in an effort to answer what is perhaps Humanity’s ultimate question.

The Anunnaki Ancient Astronuat Theory also continues to provoke interest and debate on the question of our origins and whether the Historical Timeline of Civilization provided by the current historical paradigm is correct.

In Realm Of The Elohim, our own E-Book based on Zechariah Sitchin’s Lost Book of Enki, an effort was made to provide accessible and digestible information on the Ancient Astronaut Theory and the activities of the Anunnaki from the landing on Earth, the setting up of the first Base station at Edin, the creation of man, great deluge and the Nuclear destruction of Sumer up to the rise of Babylon under Marduk.

It also explores the implications of the Anunnaki Ancient Astronaut Theory for the existence of God and Spirituality

Due to the ongoing debate and interest on the topic especially online, a list of online references and Documentaries is also included for further individual research and exploration.

For more on Out of Place Artifacts and the Lost Human Civilization argument, peep the Ancient Astronaut Archive video below, as well as Graham Hancock’s website and his seminal work on the lost ancient Human Civilization, ‘Fingerprints Of The Gods’.

If you would like to explore more interesting Alternative History on the Anunnaki, you can click the Archive links below:

• Complete Alternate History Archive
• The Lost Realms Of The Anunnaki
• Civilization Before The Great Flood
• Civilization After The Great Flood
• The Main Events Involving The Anunnaki In World History
• Sumerian Society, Mythology & Culture under the Anunnaki
• Unexplained Structures and Out Of Place Artifacts with links to the Anunnaki
• Anunnaki Wars & Rivalries

The Google Powered Search Box on the Home Page with custom links to official Egyptology and Sumerian Archaeological Texts, Records and Documentaries will also help you along your quest.

One!

{ https://afrikaiswoke.com/ }

11-11-2019 om 17:25 geschreven door peter  

ALIENS AMONG HUMANS AND THE PLANETARY TRANSMIGRATION

People have always wondered if there’s life in other planets, if aliens ever visited humans and if they left descendants on Earth somehow.

What people don’t always know, is that aliens might be closer than they imagine. They can be next door. According to many different cultures, there are alien souls trapped in human bodies.

What is Planetary Transmigration

In occult philosophy it is said that humans live on seven different planets, evolving continuously from minerals until the soul reaches its final destination, which involves reuniting with God, or unity. In Hinduism, planets are considered living beings and have a specific time to exist. Like all living things, they die at some stage.

When planets cease to exist, the creatures that live in that planet have two possible destinations: if they have evolved enough to continue their journey, they incarnate in a new planet, where they will develop other faculties in order to continue the process of evolution.

The Egyptian mythology is filled with references to beings with a certain knowledge and technology that could only be consistent with a more advanced civilization. There are also images of flying objects in the walls of Egyptian caves that look exactly like those described in the Vedas.

Mayan mythology also makes references to beings from other planets that arrived on Earth and genetically modified the earthlings, making the primitive human look more like them. Some argue that the Bible saying “God created men in His own image”, refers to these gods that engineered humans, helping in the transition from animal to man.

In short, the same history has been told in all religions and traditions, under different names and with the elements of each culture.

Extraterrestrials and Atlantis – the Lost Continent

Legends tell of aliens arriving on flying machines and genetically modified humans who mixed their DNA with normal humans and then…. what? If the original planets no longer existed, where did they go, and if they stayed, how come there is no trace of them anymore?

There are many possible explanations for that, but one possibility is that when the great cataclysm that destroyed Atlantis happened, the alien technology disappeared under the waters.

They escaped to Egypt, Europe and South America (it’s said that this is what allowed these people to have a great amount of information about alien visitors in their myths and legends) where they lived among humans. Without technology, they died.

The Reincarnation Process – Alien Souls, Human Bodies

Spiritism belief holds that that after death, the extraterrestrial visitors were reincarnated among humans, being orn again in human bodies. The reincarnation process is the same for every human being on Earth and with aliens it was no different.

Once born in human bodies, with human limitations, all memories from previous lives were erased from the conscious mind, as it is said that the brain doesn’t support all the information from all incarnations, keeping only what is necessary for one life (the rest remains in the unconscious mind and is never lost).

Until now the aliens continue to reborn among humans. Without knowing their true origins, these people live normally keeping only a slight sensation that there might be much more out there than their ordinary lives.

By Thais Campos

{ https://anomalien.com/ }

11-11-2019 om 16:43 geschreven door peter  

Bronze Age monument discovered in Forest of Dean using airborne laser scanning could have been ritual BURIAL ground, archaeologist claims

• Dating back to 2,000 BC the ritual ring was found during a LiDAR laser scan 
• Archaeologist Jon Hoyle discovered site, near Tidenham, Gloucestershire
•  The 'very significant' Bronze Age monument was hidden in the Forest of Dean

By MILLY VINCENT FOR MAILONLINE

A 'very significant' discovery of a Bronze Age monument has been uncovered after being hidden under foliage in the Forest of Dean.

Dating back to about 2,000 BC the circular ritual ring was found during a LiDAR laser scan of the area.

The findings, known as a ring cairn, consist of a circular bank with limestone standing stones.

Archaeologist Jon Hoyle discovered the site, near the village of Tidenham, Gloucestershire, which he first believed could be a World War Two gun emplacement due to its 'extremely circular' nature. 

Archaeologist Jon Hoyle said nobody knows precisely what ring cairns were used for. An artists impression of the 2,000 BC the circular ritual ring

Dating back to about 2,000 BC the circular ritual ring was found during a LiDAR laser scan of the area

This is the only Bronze Age monument of its type to be discovered in Gloucestershire, however the cairns are common in Derbyshire, Northumberland and Wales, said Mr Hoyle.

 Mr Hoyle told the BBC: 'It was very exciting. I was expecting to find quite a lot of new sites with the LiDAR, but nothing as interesting as this.'

Adding: 'Nobody knows precisely what they were used for. 

'Some have been found in association with burials, and often there appear to be residues of charcoal in places like this, suggesting rituals that involved fire.' 

This is the only Bronze Age monument of its type to be discovered in Gloucestershire, however the cairns are common in Derbyshire, Northumberland and Wales

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Archaeologist Jon Hoyle discovered the site, near the village of Tidenham, Gloucestershire

The large ring is about 80ft wide and contains a circular bank formed with rubble that is 16ft wide.  

White limestone standing stones were found on top of the bank, about 3ft high each.'

LiDAR (light detection and ranging) can be used to expose structures hidden by folliage or other structures by bouncing light off a target to measure distances and build a 3D map.

The archaeologist first believed the ring could be a World War Two gun emplacement due to its 'extremely circular' nature

WHAT IS LIDAR TECHNOLOGY AND HOW DOES IT WORK?

LiDAR (light detection and ranging) is a remote sensing technology that measures distance by shooting a laser at a target and analysing the light that is reflected back.

The technology was developed in the early 1960s and uses laser imaging with radar technology that can calculate distances.

It was first used in meteorology to measure clouds by the National Center for Atmospheric Research.

The term lidar is a portmanteau of 'light and 'radar.'

Lidar uses ultraviolet, visible, or near infrared light to image objects and can be used with a wide range of targets, including non-metallic objects, rocks, rain, chemical compounds, aerosols, clouds and even single molecules.

A narrow laser beam can be used to map physical features with very high resolution. 

This new technique allowed researchers to map outlines of what they describe as dozens of newly discovered Maya cities hidden under thick jungle foliage centuries after they were abandoned by their original inhabitants.

Aircraft with a Lidar scanner produced three-dimensional maps of the surface by using light in the form of pulsed laser linked to a GPS system. 

The technology helped researchers discover sites much faster than using traditional archaeological methods. 

Read more:

• Bronze Age monument discovered in Forest of Dean - BBC News

{ https://www.dailymail.co.uk/ }

11-11-2019 om 14:01 geschreven door peter  

There are some parts of England where you can’t throw a stone without hitting a stone circle. There are other parts where you won’t hit a single one. Gloucestershire recently joined the ranks of stone circle locations with the discovery of a Bronze Age ring cairn hidden by thick foliage in the Forest of Dean. Who’s Dean? Did he know about it?

“Nobody knows precisely what they were used for. Some have been found in association with burials, and often there appear to be residues of charcoal in places like this, suggesting rituals that involved fire.”

Part of the mystery of stone circles, found primarily in the UK but others are scattered around the world, is that there are so many dating to a relatively short period in history … and yet, we know so little about them. That sentiment is echoed by archaeologist Jon Hoyle, who told the BBC how he found yet another one in Gloucestershire’s Forest of Dean.

“It was very exciting. I was expecting to find quite a lot of new sites with the LiDAR, but nothing as interesting as this.”

The Forest of Dean

Indeed, Hoyle wasn’t even looking for stone circles, since Gloucestershire is about 70 miles from Avebury and Stonehenge and, until now, had no ring cairns. In fact, it appears he was just conducting a general aerial survey using LiDAR (the light detection and ranging equipment which uses laser beams to erase ground cover and create a 3D picture of what lies hidden and beneath the surface) when he spotted something “interesting.” (Photos here.)

The stones are much smaller than those seen at Stonehenge

Credit: BBC Gloucestershire

The ring cairn can be seen here on the LiDAR scan

Credit: Forest Commision

This screenshot from the BBC shows an artists impression of what a ring cairn may have looked like

Credit: BBC / Anne Leaver

The Gloucestershire monument could have been constructed at a similar time to Stonehenge

Credit: Alamy

At first, Hoyle suspected the “extremely circular” mound in a naked Forest of Dean was a World War Two gun emplacement. That might make sense since the Forest of Dean was an important English mining area, with extremely productive coal and iron mines, foundries to process them and a network of railways and tramroads to distribute them. However, when Hoyle visited the site at a secret location near the village of Tidenham, he realized this mound hid something that dated much earlier than the 1940s – something from the Bronze Age between 2,500 BCE and 1,500 BCE.

This shouldn’t be surprising, since the Forest of Dean (historians debate whether ‘Dean’ is a corruption of the Welsh ‘din’, which means ‘hillfort’, or ‘Dane’ as in ‘Land of the Danes’ which refers to the Viking settlements in the area) was occupied by humans in the Mesolithic Age (15,000 to 5,000 BP – Before Present or 1950) and signs of Bronze Age agricultural field systems have been found there. Remnants of stone megaliths have also been discovered, but no rings … until now.

“The ring cairn is about 25m (80ft) in diameter and made up of a 5m-wide (16ft) rubble bank, with at least 10 white limestone standing stones, each no more than 1m (3ft) high, standing on top.”

Hoyle told the BBC that ring cairns were “common in upland areas, in places like Derbyshire, Northumberland and Wales” but this is a first for Gloucestershire and the Forest of Dean. It’s an area Hoyle knows well – his new book is “Hidden Landscapes of the Forest of Dean.” However, even with his extensive knowledge of the archaeological sites in the Forest of Dean, the purpose of this ring is a mystery to him.

One thing is for certain – The Forest of Dean would make a great title for an album by a progressive rock band named Stoned Circles.

{ https://mysteriousuniverse.org/ }

11-11-2019 om 13:49 geschreven door peter  

What Earth creature is best-suited for space travel? If you said the one with the smartest brain and opposable thumbs, you’d be half right. If you said the eight-legged one that looks like a micro-sized water bear, is found thriving in the most hostile environments on the planet, and has already survived in the vacuum of outer space without the benefit of a million-dollar space suit, you’d be half right as well. Researchers are seriously studying ways to combine human and tardigrade DNA to create a radiation-resistant hybrid to colonize Mars. Will their spacesuits need more legs?

“If we have another 20 years of pure discovery and mapping and functional validation of what we think we know, maybe by 20 years from now, I’m hoping we could be at the stage where we would be able to say we can make a human that could be better surviving on Mars.”

While humans might visit Mars before 2039, that date is well-within the projections for setting up a permanent settlement there, and it’s the survival of those humans Chris Mason, a geneticist and associate professor of physiology and biophysics at Weill Cornell University in New York, is focused on. In a presentation at the 8th Human Genetics in NYC Conference, Mason talked about what he learned as a member of the NASA team studying the twin astronauts Mark and Scott Kelly and how his physiology changed after Mark spent a year in space. That research highlighted the damaging effects of cosmic radiation on the human body. In an interview with Space.com after his presentation, Mason discussed his radical idea for gene-splicing human cells with the mighty tardigrade.

“Genetically editing humans for space travel would likely be a part of natural changes to the human physiology that could occur after living on Mars for a number of years, Mason said. “It’s not if we evolve; it’s when we evolve,” he added.”

Mark and Scott Kelly

(Credit: NASA)

The way Mason sees it, putting humans in space in large numbers would trigger the usual survival-of-the-fittest evolutionary changes to their physiology, one of which would be that the survivors would have slightly more radiation protection which would be passed down to their offspring and grow stronger over generations. By genetically altering humans ahead of time, that evolution would be accelerated artificially. The real question is … would natural evolution create a human with tardigrade characteristics like Mason and other researchers want to create themselves?

Here’s another question. Despite the tardigrade’s universal survivalist body, would a human-tardigrade hybrid lose its ability to survive on Earth? Would these hybrids be doomed to die on Mars and never return to Earth?

“In terms of a question of liberty, you’re engineering it [a future human] to have lots more opportunities, again assuming we haven’t taken away opportunities. If we learned that, in some way, when we decided to try and prove the ability of humans to live beyond Earth, and we take away their ability to live on Earth, I think that would be unjust.”

Unjust, yes. However, if we’re talking human ethics, we know from past experience that human profits influence human ethics. While this might cause NASA to ponder whether it’s right for a Martian colony, would it stop a space corporation from offering an obscene amount of money to volunteers on a suicide mission to mine an asteroid loaded with rare minerals – money that might set their family up for life – even for generations?

Would ethics really win out?

Based on past experience, will we see a human-tardigrade hybrid?

To paraphrase a suitable adage: the water bear is already out of the bag.

{ https://mysteriousuniverse.org/ }

11-11-2019 om 13:22 geschreven door peter  

Human Face On Huge Goldfish Proof Of Alien Experiments In China, Video, UFO Sighting News.

Date of sighting: Nov 2019
Location of sighting: Miao, China

A tourist who was in a town in southern China was stunned after seeing a fish with a human face . The video, which has become a trend in social networks, shows a face with mouth, nose and eyes, very similar to a person's face. The woman who recorded the video was so amazed that she burst into tears. "The fish has become a fairy, it has a human face," said the woman who wanted to remain anonymous. The strange animal was discovered this week by a visitor in the town of Miao, a tourist destination near the city of Kunming. The images became viral in China after they were published on the popular Weibo social network, with numerous users offering all kinds of opinions and theories about the strange creature. Some said it was a mutant fish escaped from a laboratory , while the most skeptical said there was nothing sinister or supernatural in the unique condition of the fish, since the spooky face was simply the result of matching body markings. 

But the truth about this fish is that alien have been doing experiments on all forms of life on earth for millions of years, often causing evolution to take days for what normally would take millions of years. Sure aliens have abducted humans to do experiments and even cut up cows and sheep on farms, but the experiments have a more sinister side. As you see this fish with a human face is evidence of that. When it pokes its head out of the water, its eyes, nostrils and mouth all come into focus. This is an alien experiment. 

Scott Waring-Taiwan

{ https://www.etdatabase.com/ }

11-11-2019 om 09:56 geschreven door peter  

Alien Invasion Over Texas, Fleet Of Motherships Seen On Radar, Video, UFO Sighting News.

Date of sighting: Nov 2, 2019
Location of sighting: Texas, USA
News Source: 

• https://www.wfaa.com/article/news/local/aliens-just-what-exactly-was-on-the-weather-radar-saturday-night/287-4c62646a-8fc2-4b6b-9ced-1ef53338f251

These giant mother ship UFOs were seen over several cities in Texas on Saturday Nov 2. The UFOs showed up on weather radar. The radar caught three UFOs that were miles in diameter over Texas late at night around 9:45-10:30pm. The UFOs were so big the radar bounced off of each of them...causing a series of rings to show up around the UFO. Each UFO had six thick refracted rings around it, caused by the radar bouncing of of them. 

Twitter lit up this on Sat with people tweeting to @wfaweatehr that it looked like an alien invasion.  They were worried about the rings seen over cities of Waco, Austin, and more. They are correct in believing its aliens. 

Now WFFA news is trying to convince people in the video that they have the answer...that its super refraction, yet they are grasping at straws trying to explain away the truth before them. 

Alien UFOs do sometimes get caught in weather radar maps. This is 100% proof that several huge UFOs were over Texas this week. As you see on the screenshot above, the empty circle at the center of the rings is the true size of the UFOs. They are each big enough to cover one entire county. The UFO motherships must have hovered in place for up to 15 minutes...allowing them to be seen on radar. I believe they came from the Gulf of Mexico from an underwater alien base. I also believe that they were testing their cloaking devices against our human technology to see if they would be noticed...and yes, our technology is catching up to them fast. Doppler radar does make larger ships visible. Where did they go you ask? Probably straight up and out of our atmosphere. 
Scott C. Waring-Taiwan

WFFA News states:

DALLAS — "Are we being invaded? Crop rain circles? WHY AREN'T YOU TALKING ABOUT THIS!!???" These were the types of questions that came flooding in on social media to WFAA on Saturday night. While it make look extraterrestrial, there is actually a simple answer for what the radar is showing. The reason the radar looked this way is from something called superrefraction.

Stephen Morales@smorales13

Y'all there's weird sounds goin on outside, then a buddy of mine posted these lights in the sky, and someone else posted this radar image (sorry ch8 but I want your take)...what's going on in North Texas #livePD @wfaa @MansfieldScan1 @wfaaweather @FOX4

• 1

4:47 AM - Nov 3, 2019

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Becca@rharkreader

@wfaaweather what is happening on radar right now?

3:56 AM - Nov 3, 2019

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Drew McMullen@drew_mcmullen

@wfaaweather What’s going on with the radar? Never seen anything like it.

3:54 AM - Nov 3, 2019

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Phillip Daurio@mrdaurio

Hey @wfaaweather what is happening with the radar? Alien invasion?

• 11

3:50 AM - Nov 3, 2019

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"Are we being invaded? Crop rain circles? WHY AREN'T YOU TALKING ABOUT THIS!!???"

These were the types of questions that came flooding in on social media to WFAA on Saturday night.

While it make look extraterrestrial, there is actually a simple answer for what the radar is showing.

The reason the radar looked this way is from something called superrefraction.

Normally, when a radar beam travels away from the radar, it becomes higher off the ground the farther away from the radar it travels because of the curvature of the earth.

This is normal, and it is called "normal refraction".

© Provided by TEGNA Inc.

However, when there are calm, cool, and dry conditions-- even more specifically, when moisture and temperature decrease sharply with height-- "superrefraction" can happen to the radar beam.

These conditions were in North Texas on Saturday night.

When superrefraction occurs, the atmospheric conditions cause the radar beam to curve back closer to the surface of the earth. The beam travels lower than it would under normal circumstances.

© Provided by TEGNA Inc.

This causes the beam to hit things that are closer to the ground as well. Things like birds, bugs and dust. If conditions are ideal, it can even hit buildings, trees and cars.

And that gives us the green rings you might have seen on the radar Saturday night. We had clear skies, so it was not rain. 

The radar was hitting birds, bugs and so on, but the radar made it look like rain. We call this "ground clutter" instead.

So there ya go! A simple explanation much more boring than an alien invasion.

©Provided by TEGNA Inc.

{ https://www.etdatabase.com/ }

11-11-2019 om 09:51 geschreven door peter  

For a brief time in 1976, it seemed as if NASA’s Viking landers had found microbes on Mars! Those results have been vigorously disputed in the years since, but the original experiment’s principal investigator, Gilbert Levin, still maintains they really did detect Martian microbes.

Water frost on Mars rocks and soil near the Viking 2 lander, May 18, 1979.

Image via NASA/JPL/Ted Stryk/The Planetary Society.

Did NASA find evidence of life on Mars way back in the 1970s? That is a question that has been much debated for the past few decades, regarding the positive-yet-inconclusive results from the biology tests of the two Viking landers in 1976. Both landers reported positive results when the Martian soil was tested for the possible presence of microbes, but now, most scientists have concluded that those results were caused by unusual chemistry in the soil, not life.

But not all scientists. Gilbert Levin, who was the principal investigator for the Labeled Release (LR) life detection experiment for both landers, still maintains that Viking really did discover life in the red sands of Mars after all. He outlined his stance in an opinion piece in Scientific American on October 10, 2019.

As Levin noted, both landers sent back positive results for the detection of microbial respiration:

On July 30, 1976, the LR returned its initial results from Mars. Amazingly, they were positive. As the experiment progressed, a total of four positive results, supported by five varied controls, streamed down from the twin Viking spacecraft landed some 4,000 miles apart. The data curves signaled the detection of microbial respiration on the Red Planet. The curves from Mars were similar to those produced by LR tests of soils on Earth. It seemed we had answered that ultimate question.

The experiments seemed to be saying that there were living, breathing microbes in the Martian soil. But there was one big problem: neither lander had found organics in the soil, which any life would be made of and without which you couldn’t have life at all.

• EarthSky 2020 lunar calendars are available! They make great gifts. Order now. Going fast!

Viking 1 with its sampling arm in the foreground and deep trenches dug into the soil. Experiments on the lander – as well as on Viking 2 – seemed to indicate the presence of Martian microbes in the soil.

Image via NASA/Roel van der Hoorn/Forbes.

There were three experiments on each lander, including LR, that tested for life:

The Gas Chromatograph – Mass Spectrometer (GCMS), which would heat the soil to varying temperatures and measure the molecules that turned into a gaseous form, capable of measuring a huge variety of molecular compounds down to densities of a few parts-per-billion.

The Gas Exchange (GEX) experiment took an incubated sample of Mars soil and replaced the Martian atmosphere with helium, an inert gas. They then applied both nutrients and water, and looked for signatures of biological activity: absorption or emission of oxygen, carbon dioxide, nitrogen, hydrogen and methane.

The Labeled Release (LR) experiment took a sample of Martian soil and applied a drop of nutrient solution to it, where all of the nutrients were tagged with radioactive carbon-14. Radioactive carbon-14 would then be metabolized into radioactive carbon dioxide, which should only be detected if life were present.

The consensus from most scientists in the years since then has been that there was something in the soil mimicking life, but it wasn’t life itself. As a result, none of the following missions over the next few decades carried any life detection experiments like Viking did. Instead, they have focused on past habitability, whether or not Mars could have supported life in the past. That has been an unpopular strategy for many people, as it seemed that NASA was abandoning any actual additional search for life on Mars.

The complete biological experiment package, identical for each lander.

Image via NASA/Forbes.

The LR experiment had been quite simple: moistening samples of soil with a special nutrient “broth”and seeing if it was consumed by any microbes; it was designed to detect and monitor the metabolism of any microbes present. The nutrients were tagged with radioactive carbon. The LR experiment was sensitive to very low populations of microbes, and each run of the experiment lasted for seven days. Comparison with similar test on Earth seemed to support the biological interpretation of the results, as Levin explained:

The Viking LR sought to detect and monitor ongoing metabolism, a very simple and fail-proof indicator of living microorganisms. Several thousand runs were made, both before and after Viking, with terrestrial soils and microbial cultures, both in the laboratory and in extreme natural environments. No false positive or false negative result was ever obtained. This strongly supports the reliability of the LR Mars data, even though their interpretation is debated.

In the years since Viking, perchlorate salts had been found in the Martian soil, which have been suggested as an explanation for the lack of organics seen by Viking, since they can destroy organics. But more recently, organics have now been found in Martian rocks by the Curiosity rover, both simple ones and others a bit more complex. Some of them also hint at having come from previously more complex organic molecules, but Curiosity isn’t equipped to determine whether these have a biological origin or not.

In 2013, the Curiosity rover found some interesting textured rocks – the Gillespie Lake outcrop – in Gale Crater’s Yellowknife Bay region. The rocks resemble stromatolites or microbial mats on Earth.

Image via NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS/Astrobiology Magazine.

As Levin summarized:

In summary, we have: positive results from a widely-used microbiological test; supportive responses from strong and varied controls; duplication of the LR results at each of the two Viking sites; replication of the experiment at the two sites; and the failure over 43 years of any experiment or theory to provide a definitive nonbiological explanation of the Viking LR results.

The Viking LR results will probably still be in dispute for years to come, especially if an updated version of the experiment isn’t sent back to Mars in the near future. The lack of any follow-up experiments in the years since has been disappointing, but it seems that NASA is now starting to take the possibility of life on Mars seriously again, even if incrementally. The Mars 2020 rover, due to launch next year and land in 2021, will look for evidence of life as its prime mission, but will focus on past life, not current biology. That may not be as ambitious as many people would like, but it’s a step in the right direction.

Apart from the organics, other, more recent findings on Mars would also seem to support at least the possibility that microbes really were present in the soil samples that Viking analyzed. These include the existence of methane, found and documented by the Curiosity rover, orbiters and telescopes on Earth. We don’t yet know the origin of the Martian methane, but on Earth at least, it comes primarily from microbes (and cows!), as well as other geological processes. Curiosity also came across rock formations in the Yellowknife Bay region of Gale Crater that resemble stromatolites or microbial mats on Earth, which are produced by microorganisms. The finding was the subject of an extensive analysis by Nora Noffke at Old Dominion University. On a similar note, the Spirit rover found silica formations that resemble those created by microorganisms in hot spring environments.

Gilbert V. Levin, Ph.D.

Image via Gilbert Levin.

None of these have been proven to be evidence of life yet, but they are tantalizing. Plus there are the findings from multiple rovers, landers and orbiters that continue to show that Mars once had a much more habitable environment than it does now, with rivers, lakes and maybe even an ocean.

There is also new evidence for subsurface water still existing on Mars today, including below the south polar ice cap and perhaps even in a global reservoir. That would, of course, have direct implications for the possibility of life – at least microbial – on Mars today.

Levin listed other possible positive clues to life on Mars as well, in his article.

While life on Mars, either past or present, still hasn’t been proven, the work of Gilbert Levin and other discoveries keep bringing us closer to the point when we may know for sure.

More information about Levin’s work is available on his website.

• Bottom line: Gilbert Levin, the principal investigator for the Labeled Release (LR) life detection experiments on the Viking landers on Mars in the 1970s, still maintains that they really did find evidence of current microbial life in Martian soil.
• Via Scientific American

{ https://earthsky.org/ }

10-11-2019 om 23:56 geschreven door peter  

Is a New Particle Changing the Fate of the Universe?

Look to the dark side

Perhaps, one or both measurements are incorrect or incomplete; plenty of scientists on either side of the debate are slinging the appropriate amount of mud at their opponents. But if we assume that both measurements are accurate, then we need something else to explain the different measurements. Since one measurement comes from the very early universe, and another comes from more relatively recent time, the thinking is that maybe some new ingredient in the cosmos is altering the expansion rate of the universe in a way that we didn’t already capture in our models.

And what's dominating the expansion of the universe today is a mysterious phenomenon that we call dark energy. It's an awesome name for something we basically don't understand. All we know is that the expansion rate of the universe today is accelerating, and we call the force driving this acceleration "dark energy."

In our comparisons from the young universe to the present-day universe, physicists assume that dark energy (whatever it is) is constant. But with this assumption, we have the present disagreement, so maybe dark energy is changing.

I guess it's worth a shot. Let’s assume that dark energy is changing.

Scientists have a sneaking suspicion that dark energy has something to do with the energy that's locked into the vacuum of space-time itself. This energy comes from all of the “quantum fields” that permeate the universe. 

In modern quantum physics, every single kind of particle is tied to its own particular field. These fields wash through all of space-time, and sometimes bits of the fields get really excited in places, becoming the particles that we know and love — like electrons and quarks and neutrinos. So all the electrons belong to the electron field, all the neutrinos belong to the neutrino field, and so on. The interaction of these fields form the fundamental basis for our understanding of the quantum world.

And no matter where you go in the universe, you can’t escape the quantum fields. Even when they’re not vibrating enough in a particular location to make a particle, they’re still there, wiggling and vibrating and doing their normal quantum thing. So these quantum fields have a fundamental amount of energy associated with them, even in the bare empty vacuum itself.

• Related: The 11 Biggest Unanswered Questions About Dark Matter

If we want to use the exotic quantum energy of the vacuum of space-time to explain dark energy, we immediately run into problems. When we perform some very simple, very naive calculations of how much energy there is in the vacuum due to all the quantum fields, we end up with a number that is about 120 orders of magnitude stronger than what we observe dark energy to be. Whoops.

On the other hand, when we try some more sophisticated calculations, we end up with a number that is zero. Which also disagrees with the measured amount of dark energy. Whoops again.

So no matter what, we have a really hard time trying to understand dark energy through the language of the vacuum energy of space-time (the energy created by those quantum fields). But if these measurements of the expansion rate are accurate and dark energy really is changing, then this might give us a clue into the nature of those quantum fields. Specifically, if dark energy is changing, that means that the quantum fields themselves have changed. 

A new enemy appears

In a recent paper published online in the preprint journal arXiv, theoretical physicist Massimo Cerdonio at the University of Padova has calculated the amount of change in the quantum fields needed to account for the change in dark energy.

If there is a new quantum field that's responsible for the change in dark energy, that means there is a new particle out there in the universe.

And the amount of change in dark energy that Cerdonio calculated requires a certain kind of particle mass, which turns out to be roughly the same mass of a new kind of particle that's already been predicted: the so-called axion. Physicists invented this theoretical particle to solve some problems with our quantum understanding of the strong nuclear force.

This particle presumably appeared in the very early universe, but has been "lurking" in the background while other forces and particles controlled the direction of the universe. And now it's the axion's turn ...

Even so, we've never detected an axion, but if these calculations are correct, then that means that the axion is out there, filling up the universe and its quantum field. Also, this hypothetical axion is already making itself noticeable by changing the amount of dark energy in the cosmos. So it could be that even though we've never seen this particle in the laboratory, it's already altering our universe at the very largest of scales.

• 11 Fascinating Facts About Our Milky Way Galaxy
• Big Bang to Civilization: 10 Amazing Origin Events
• Spaced Out! 101 Astronomy Photos That Will Blow Your Mind

Originally published on Live Science.

{ https://www.space.com/ }

10-11-2019 om 23:31 geschreven door peter  

NASA Opens Untouched Apollo Moon Rock Sample for First Time in 40 Years

By Robert Z. Pearlman - Spaceflight

Apollo sample processors Andrea Mosie (left), Charis Krysher and Juliane Gross unseal Apollo 17 previously-untouched lunar sample 73002 inside a science glovebox at Johnson Space Center's Lunar Curation Laboratory in Houston on Nov. 5, 2019.

(Image: © NASA/James Blair)

NASA has unsealed one of its last untouched samples of Apollo moon rock to prepare for the return of new material by future lunar missions.

Scientists at Johnson Space Center's Lunar Curation Laboratory in Houston opened the Apollo 17-recovered sample on Tuesday (Nov. 5). The 1.5-inch-wide (4-centimeter) tube holding the small stash of moon rocks and dust was sealed by astronauts Gene Cernan and Harrison Schmitt during the second of their three moonwalks on Dec. 12, 1972.

The 15 ounces (430 grams) of moon material, collected as part of a core sample taken near the rim of Lara Crater, had remained unopened but not under vacuum since being brought to Earth 47 years ago.

• Related: Apollo 11 at 50: A Complete Guide to the Historic Moon Landing Mission

"The analysis of these samples will maximize the science return from Apollo, as well as enable a new generation of scientists and curators to refine their techniques and help prepare future explorers for lunar missions anticipated in the 2020s and beyond," said Sarah Noble, the program scientist for NASA's Apollo Next-Generation Sample Analysis (ANGSA) initiative at the agency's headquarters in Washington, D.C.

"We are able to make measurements today that were just not possible during the years of the Apollo program," said Noble in a statement.

(Image credit: NASA/James Blair)

Exposing the moon 

The Apollo program brought a total of 842 pounds (382 kilograms) of moon rock and regolith (or soil) back to Earth. Most of those samples, which were gathered by 12 astronauts on six moon-landing missions, have been the subjects of past and present studies. The majority of the samples are held today at Johnson Space Center, with a smaller collection stored off-site for safe keeping.

The sample opened on Tuesday, assigned the ID number 73002, was the upper segment of a 2-foot-long (0.6-meter) "drive tube." The bottom segment, sample 73001, is slated to be opened in January. Together they are the first untouched Apollo moon rock samples to be opened since the 1970s.

The drive tube was used to collect core samples that preserved the vertical layering within the soil, including information about landslides on the moon, and a record of the volatiles trapped within the lunar regolith, perhaps even those escaping from along the Lee-Lincoln Scarp, a fault at the Apollo 17 landing site.

(Image credit: NASA/UT Austin)

"Opening these samples now will enable new scientific discoveries about the moon and will allow a new generation of scientists to refine their techniques to better study future samples," said Francis McCubbin, NASA's astromaterials curator at Johnson.

Advances in research techniques, including non-destructive 3D imaging, mass spectrometry and ultra-high resolution microtomy, will allow for a coordinated study of samples 73001 and 73002 at an unprecedented scale. In March, NASA chose nine science teams at agency centers, federal laboratories and universities to examine the pristine samples using these new technologies and processes.

Two other drive-tube samples, one each from Apollo 15 and Apollo 16, will become the only lunar material caches to be kept untouched.

Scanned then unsealed 

Before opening sample 73002, the still-sealed tube underwent X-ray computer tomography at the University of Texas Austin to produce a high-resolution, 3D image of the regolith within. The imaging helped scientists understand the sample's structure before unsealing the container and will aid in the dissection and distribution of the sample to the research teams now that it is open.

The scan will also help protect fragile soil components from damage during the tube's processing and provide details of the individual grains and smaller samples, known as "rocklets."

Following the X-ray analysis, the samples will be removed from their tube using specialized tools inside a science glovebox filled with ultra-pure dry nitrogen. The regolith will be portioned into 0.25 inch (0.6 cm) segments, providing scientists the opportunity to understand variation along the length of the core.

This is the first time that NASA has processed a drive tube like this in more than 25 years and curation scientists have been hard at work over the past few months rehearsing the process.

(Image credit: NASA)

"I grew up on the stories of Apollo, they inspired me to pursue a career in space and now I have an opportunity to contribute to the studies that are enabling the next missions to the moon," said Charis Krysher, the lunar sample processor who was tasked with unsealing the tube on Tuesday. "To be the one to open a sample that hasn't been opened since it was collected on the moon is such an honor and heavy responsibility, we're touching history."

Unlike 73002, the lower drive tube sample 73001 was sealed on the moon in a special vacuum container and then placed in another vacuum container and sealed again once on Earth. According to NASA, that sample will be opened after scientists finetune their plan for capturing the moon's gases that were caught in the container along with the sample itself.

Once 73001 is unsealed, it will be processed in a science glovebox and similarly shared with the scientific teams selected for the ANGSA research.

Click through to collectSPACE to watch an X-ray scan of the Apollo 17 core sample.

•  NASA's Historic Apollo 11 Moon Landing in Pictures 
•  Reading Apollo 11: The Best New Books About the US Moon Landings 
•  NASA Fed Apollo 11 Moon Rocks to Cockroaches (And Then Things Got Even Weirder) 

Follow collectSPACE.com on Facebook and on Twitter at @collectSPACE. Copyright 2019 collectSPACE.com. All rights reserved. 

{ https://www.space.com/ }

10-11-2019 om 23:10 geschreven door peter  

Why Astronomers Worry About the Brightness of SpaceX's Starlink Satellite Megaconstellation

By Meghan Bartels -  Science & Astronomy 

A photograph showing SpaceX's first batch of Starlink satellites during launch on May 23, 2019.

(Image: © SpaceX)

SpaceX is planning to launch the second installment of its Starlink megaconstellation on Monday (Nov. 11), and astronomers are waiting to see — well, precisely what they will see.

When the company launched its first set of Starlink internet satellites in May, those with their eyes attuned to the night sky immediately realized that the objects were incredibly bright. Professional astronomers worried the satellites would interfere with scientific observations and amateur appreciation of the stars.

"That first few nights, it was like, 'Holy not-publishable-word,'" Jonathan McDowell, an astrophysicist at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, told Space.com. "That kind of was the wake-up call."

• Related: SpaceX's 1st Starlink Internet Satellite Megaconstellation Launch in Photos!

SpaceX and its leader, Elon Musk, reassured astronomers that once the satellites settled into place, they would stop masquerading as the stars they are named for. McDowell wanted to confirm the accuracy of Musk's statement, so he asked an email Listserv of amateur astronomers to wait for the first batch of Starlink satellites to reach their final orbit, then compare the brightness of specific satellites to the stars around them.

Those observations started in July. McDowell hasn't completed an exhaustive analysis, but he said the preliminary results are concerning, with Starlink satellites regularly clocking in at magnitudes between 4 and 7, which is bright enough to see without a telescope. "The bottom-line answer is, you can consistently see these things," he said.

The initial Starlink launch carried 60 satellites, but that's just a tiny fraction of what SpaceX has described as its long-term plan, of launching tens of thousands of the devices in orbit. "When you're talking about 30,000 satellites, and many above the horizon at any one time, that's what's new about this," McDowell said. "It's not going to be just the occasional interference, it's going to be continual."

McDowell and his colleagues specializing in optical astronomy aren't used to having to ignore technology masquerading as astronomy. But it's a position radio astronomers are quite familiar with, since satellites send data back to their humans in radio frequencies. "That was something that people realized was coming," he said, "whereas the light-pollution aspect caught us by surprise."

In response to the outcry, Musk said in May that he "sent a note to Starlink team last week specifically regarding albedo reduction," which refers to the amount of light reflected by the satellites. In a separate tweet regarding the issue, Musk also said that SpaceX doesn't intend to interfere with optical astronomy. "That said, we’ll make sure Starlink has no material effect on discoveries in astronomy. We care a great deal about science," he wrote.

But McDowell complained that SpaceX hasn't provided any details about what modifications the satellites could endure and how much they would dim. He hopes to repeat his brightness check once the Starlink satellites that SpaceX plans to launch next week reach their final orbits.

"We can hope that that will improve things, but let's see, the proof is in the pudding, right?" he said. "All we can do right now is go on what they've actually put up there. And what they've actually put up there are really bright satellites that if you had many thousands of them would represent a serious change to the night sky."

For McDowell, the concern is about more than Starlink or SpaceX specifically. "This whole new scale of space industrialization means that this is a problem that we have to start worrying about, and in fact, should have started worrying about 10 years ago," he said. "I'm not trying to say we absolutely shouldn't do megaconstellations. But let's phase it in, let's assess the degree of light pollution, let's manage it as a resource."

He hopes that the space community adopts general practices about how much light pollution individual projects can produce, paralleling existing guidelines for managing space debris. "We thought we could ignore the space age in astronomy, but it's here," McDowell said. "Now we have to take it seriously and deal with the impacts on ground-based astronomy."

• 'Losing the Dark': Video Illuminates Threat of Light Pollution
• Spectacular Time-Lapse Video Shows Wonders of the Night Sky
• Hawaii Night Sky Revealed in Stunning New Video

Email Meghan Bartels at mbartels@space.com or follow her @meghanbartels. Follow us on Twitter @Spacedotcom and on Facebook.

{ https://www.space.com/news }

10-11-2019 om 22:49 geschreven door peter  

India Has a New Planetary Target in Mind: Venus

By Meghan Bartels

An image of Venus based on data from Akatsuki, the Japanese spacecraft currently orbiting our neighbor.

(Image: © Planet-C Project Team/JAXA)

India has launched just three planetary-science spacecraft, but the country is already eyeing a new destination: Venus.

Scientists and engineers at the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) have sent plans for a Venus orbiter to the Indian national government and are hoping they'll get approval to go ahead with the mission. The spacecraft could launch in just a few years and would carry more than a dozen instruments.

"The major objective is to map the Venusian surface and subsurface," Nigar Shaji, an ISRO scientist, told a group of Venus experts during a meeting held this week in Colorado.

• Related: The Strange Case of Missing Lightning at Venus

According to Shaji, the Venus orbiter that ISRO is designing would be able to create such a dataset for Venus in about a year. In addition to mapping the surface itself, looking a bit deeper into the planet should help scientists identify volcanic hotspots scattered across Venus.

Instruments onboard the spacecraft would also study the planet's atmosphere and ionosphere, as well as how Venus interacts with the surrounding environment, Shaji said. ISRO has identified 16 instruments from Indian scientists that it would like to fly. Those include instruments focused on monitoring clouds, identifying lightning strikes, studying the eerie airglow of the planet and measuring the highly charged plasma particles passing by Venus on their way out from the sun.

Another few instruments came from international partnerships. Three of those were proposed by U.S. scientists, but Shaji said ISRO understands that the funding for those instruments is not viable, so the agency is currently assuming the trio won't fly.

If the mission is approved, the spacecraft could launch in June 2023 on one of ISRO's Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicles, the same type of vehicle that launched India's Chandrayaan-2 mission to the moon this summer.

In India's history of launches, that spacecraft followed its predecessor, which launched in 2009, and the Mars Orbiter Mission, which launched in 2013. ISRO has also discussed returning to the Red Planet, but preliminary timelines suggest that such a mission would likely launch after the Venus orbiter.

•  Should We Land on Venus Again? Scientists Are Trying to Decide 
•  Life on Venus? Why It's Not an Absurd Thought 
•  Can Venus Teach Us to Take Climate Change Seriously? 

Email Meghan Bartels at mbartels@space.com or follow her @meghanbartels. Follow us on Twitter @Spacedotcom and on Facebook. 

{ https://www.space.com/ }

10-11-2019 om 18:40 geschreven door peter  

The terrifying 'alien creatures' of the deep: Russian fisherman becomes online hit after revealing his bizarre catches on Twitter

• Murmansk-based Roman Fedortsov has revealed a trove of terrifying catches
• The fisherman works on a trawler based out of a port in northwest Russia
• The catches include eight-legged arthropods and fish with dagger-like teeth

By CHEYENNE MACDONALD FOR DAILYMAIL.COM 

It can be easy to forget that an alien world lives right beneath us – the mysterious ecosystem of the deep ocean, where the creatures of your nightmares lurk far below the surface. 

But, the Twitter feed of one Russian fisherman could make you think twice before ever dipping your toes at the beach again.

Murmansk-based Roman Fedortsov has revealed a trove of terrifying catches, from eight-legged arthropods to fish with dagger-like teeth. 

Among the many creatures brought to light is the frilled shark – an elusive eel-like shark with rows of terrifying teeth. The frilled shark is often called a living ‘relic’ due to its primitive features

The fisherman works on a trawler based out of a port in northwest Russia, and began sharing his remarkable finds earlier this year, the Moscow Times reports.

Along with his Twitter account, Fedortsov has also shared stunning images of his catches on Flickr.

Among the many creatures brought to light is the frilled shark – an elusive eel-like shark with rows of terrifying teeth.

The frilled shark is often called a living ‘relic’ due to its primitive features.

The fisherman has also revealed photos of the bizarre chimaera, a fish commonly known as the ‘ghost shark.’

On a photo of a bizarre, alien-like creature with a massive jaw and sharp teeth, the fisherman wrote, ‘We’re still arguing about this one. What is it?’ On Twitter, some argue that the specimen in question is a stoplight loosejaw, a deep-sea dragonfish from the genus Malacosteus

The fisherman has also revealed photos of the bizarre chimaera, a fish commonly known as the ‘ghost shark.’ Their eyes glow only when exposed to light. In the darkness of the sea, ghost sharks appear to have sunken, ‘dead’ eyes

Chimaera are known for their winged fins and long, whip-like tails – and an image captured by Fedortsov reveals their haunting green eyes. 

But, these glow only when exposed to light. In the darkness of the sea, ghost sharks appear to have sunken, ‘dead’ eyes.

Like sharks and rays, chimaeras have a skeleton made of cartilage. 

While he may be better versed in deep sea creatures than most people, some catches had even Fedortsov stumped.

With one photo of a bizarre, alien-like creature with a massive jaw and sharp teeth, the fisherman wrote, ‘We’re still arguing about this one. What is it?’ 

A terrifying fish with massive teeth is also among the many remarkable catches. According to Fedortsov, the creature is a black scabbardfish

Murmansk-based Roman Fedortsov has revealed a trove of terrifying catches, from eight-legged arthropods to fish with dagger-like teeth

One picture reveals a massive orange ‘sea spiders’ – a marine arthropod with long, spindly legs that’s roughly the size of a human hand

On Twitter, many have chimed in with their thoughts, with some arguing that the specimen in question is a stoplight loosejaw, a deep-sea dragonfish from the genus Malacosteus.

And, not all of the catches are fish.

One picture reveals a massive orange ‘sea spider’ – a marine arthropod with long, spindly legs that’s roughly the size of a human hand.

Creatures of a similar appearance were recently discovered in the Arctic and Southern Oceans, where they’ve been observed at a staggering leg-span of nearly 25 centimetres.

Another bizarre fish, with bulging red eyes and drooping red lips, was identified as a type of grenadier. These are also known as rattails, and can be found deep below the surface from the Arctic to the Antarctic

The fisherman works on a trawler based out of a port in northwest Russia, and began sharing his remarkable finds earlier this year, The Moscow Times reports

While the expert has identified a number of the specimens, some remain a mystery. On this clear creature, he remarked ‘who are you?’

Along with his Twitter account, Fedortsov has also shared stunning images of his catches on Flickr, including this deep sea shark

These sea 'spiders' are actually pycnogonids, a type of primitive marine arthropod, and they grow to massive sizes in a phenomenon known as polar gigantism — but scientists don't know why.

A terrifying fish with massive teeth is also among the many remarkable catches. According to Fedortsov, the creature is a black scabbardfish.

Another bizarre fish, with bulging red eyes and drooping red lips, was identified as a type of grenadier.

These are also known as rattails, and can be found deep below the surface from the Arctic to the Antarctic.

The Twitter feed of one Russian fisherman could make you think twice before ever dipping your toes at the beach again

The fisherman tweeted a photo of this remarkable creature, noting its 'beautiful' color

While deep-sea creatures tend to have an alien-like appearance to begin with, it’s also known that changes in pressure can affect the appearance of some when they’re brought to the surface.

Thousands of feet below the sea, they are subjected to extremely high pressures.

While some are able to withstand dramatic vertical migrations, the lower pressures of the world above are known to cause metabolic problems for others, and can even alter their shape.

This effect can be seen most famously in the case of the blobfish – a creature voted the world’s ‘ugliest animal.’

Not all of the catches are fish. The deep-sea fisherman tweeted this photo, writing 'I'm watching you'

It can be easy to forget that an alien world lives right beneath us – the mysterious ecosystem of the deep ocean, where the creatures of your nightmares lurk far below the surface

Read more:

• ¿¿¿¿¿ ¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿ (@rfedortsov) on Twitter
• ¿¿¿¿¿ ¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿ | Flickr
• Russian Deep-Sea Fisher Shares His Monster Discoveries on Twitter

{ https://www.dailymail.co.uk/ }

10-11-2019 om 18:25 geschreven door peter  

Light leaking from a distant galaxy hints at a cosmic makeover’s origins

Harsh ultraviolet radiation suggests how hydrogen got ionized in the universe long ago

Visible and infrared light shine from a single star-forming region in the Sunburst Arc galaxy (center). The spot of light is duplicated six times in the arc in this Hubble Space Telescope image, thanks to the gravity of a separate galaxy cluster (not shown).

T.E. RIVERA-THORSEN, HUBBLE SPACE TELESCOPE

By Christopher Crockett

{ https://www.sciencenews.org/ }

10-11-2019 om 17:45 geschreven door peter  

Scientists Confirm The Discovery Of A Mysterious Interstellar Space Boundary

Abstract imagr of space  - Nasa image / shutterstock

NASA scientists behind the Voyager mission are on the brink of something huge – literally. Recent findings from the Voyager 2 probe confirm there is a distinct – albeit mysterious – boundary known as the heliopause between the local space we are in and interstellar space.

Spacecraft Voyager 2 joined its sister craft Voyager 1 on November 5, 2018, when it passed through the interstellar medium. It’s only now that researchers are learning about the space environment the craft is currently moving through.

“This is a watershed moment in our exploration of space: we have for the first time left the confines of ‘home’ and are taking our very first tentative steps into the interstellar space – the Milky Way galaxy of which we are a part,” explained NASA astrophysicist Jeffrey Hayes to IFLScience. “That’s an amazing distance to come in only 62 years, since the launch of the first satellite. Who knows what the next 62 will bring?”

The Voyager 2 probe was launched by NASA on August 20, 1977, and is the second spacecraft to enter interstellar space to study the edge of our solar system. Five studies released this week each identifies findings from one of Voyager 2's five operating science instruments. Altogether, these help us to understand the “cosmic shoreline”, where our Sun ends and the “vast ocean of interstellar space begins,” writes NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory.

“Inside is the space we live in, which is the very extended influence of the Sun and the solar wind that it generates, and outside is a region that is not under that same influence,” said Hayes. “Both Voyagers found this to be the case. The original model was that the solar wind would just gradually fade away until one was in the interstellar medium; clearly that’s not the case.” 

“The heliopause acts as a somewhat porous boundary that only allows some particles to traverse it," said Hayes. “Because we have only very recently passed through it – in 2012 with Voyager 1, and now with Voyager 2, there are still a lot of aspects of this we don’t understand.”  

Voyager 2 also observed that the magnetic field outside of the heliopause is slightly stronger than measurements taken by Voyager 1, which seems to indicate that the interstellar magnetic field changes over small distances. Unexpectedly, charged particles carried by solar wind also appear to “leak” out into interstellar space.  

Before Voyager 2 took the first direct measurements of interstellar space, scientists had to infer findings with data taken from a spacecraft much closer to Earth. Hayes said that the current observations are “totally new” and will take time to understand fully.

“In terms of space exploration, it means that we have only barely scratched the surface of what it means to be in interstellar space,” said Hayes.

“All told, we have entered a new era of exploration that is posing as many new questions as it has answered our older ones,” said Hayes, adding that it has taken some 42 years to travel about 143 Astronomical Units (or 143 times the distance from the Earth to the Sun) and only just now have we reached the beginning of interstellar space. If humans as a species hope to explore space, Hayes said we must either learn to be patient or learn to travel faster.

NASA’s Heliophysics Division is set to launch the Interstellar Mapping and Acceleration Probe (IMAP) mission by 2024, carrying with it instruments designed to follow up on the discoveries made by the Voyager probes. In the 2030s, Hayes said that NASA is studying an Interstellar Probe concept mission that would travel out 10 times the distance that the Voyagers are at now. 

{ https://www.iflscience.com/ }

10-11-2019 om 16:41 geschreven door peter  

10-11-2019 om 16:20 geschreven door peter  

'Aliens are controlling the SUN': UFO hunters say they have spotted strange ships near the solar surface in latest bizarre claim

• 6-7 years ago Russian scientist had claimed to see UFOs by sun everyday 
• Images originally capture by Solar Heliospheric Observatory
• Shows glowing orbs floating around the sun in different spots
• Some claim they may be harvesting 'a rare and powerful element' 

By STACY LIBERATORE FOR DAILYMAIL.COM

The sun's light and heat keeps our planet alive and a Martian researcher believes UFOs are actually controlling how much is released to Earth.

A YouTuber and 'UFOlogist’ has spotted what he claims to be numerous UFOs traveling around the sun this week in images sent back from the Solar Heliospheric Observatory.

And this might not be their first trip around the sun, as Russian scientists have claimed to have seen the same event ‘six to seven’ years ago.

Scroll down for video 

A YouTuber and 'UFOlogist’ has spotted what he claims to be numerous UFOs traveling around the sun this week in images sent back from the Solar Heliospheric Observatory. And this might not be their first trip around the sun, as Russian scientists have claimed to have seen the same event ‘six to seven’ years ago

‘People should know the truth that hides Nasa,’ Myunhauzen writes underneath the video on his YouTube channel. 

The video was released to the public yesterday and shows images with strange green lit objects floating around the bright glowing ball of gas.

‘They stated the UFOs would increase and decrease their speed suddenly for no reason and they would make sudden hard right 90 degree turns without slowing down’.

One would hope if aliens are constantly traveling through space that their vehicles were far more advanced than our spacecraft.

Waring continued to explain that the new story about the discovery by the Russian scientists ‘has long vanished’ from the web.

‘They are out there… around our sun, doing god knows what,’ Waring wrote.

‘They may actually be controlling the sun, to keep a steady temperature here on Earth, or they could be harvesting a very rare and powerful heavy element.’

‘Let’s hope they don’t make a mistake and Barbecue our planet.’

I heard in a news story about 6-7 years back about two Russian scientists that discovered that there were numerous UFOs around the sun at the same time, 24 hours a day, every day,’ reports Scott C. Waring from UFO Sightings Daily

‘They stated the UFOs would increase and decrease their speed suddenly for no reason and they would make sudden hard right 90 degree turns without slowing down’.Waring continued to explain that the new story about the discovery by the Russian scientists ‘has long vanished’ from the web

Another alien hunter found something similar far away from the sun.

An enormous alien structure was, they claim seen moving in the direction of Jupiter’s moon Europa which, according to some, resembles an ‘interstellar mothership’ or ‘an intergalactic cruiser’.

The image was taken by a Canon 650D camera with a 7D-300mm telescopic lens mounted on a tripod in someone’s backyard garden last week.

‘They are out there… around our sun, doing god knows what,’ Waring wrote. ‘They may actually be controlling the sun, to keep a steady temperature here on Earth, or they could be harvesting a very rare and powerful heavy element'

‘Jupiter has long been shrouded in mystery along with its moon and particularly that of Europa,’ says UFO researcher from SecureTeam, Tyler, in a YouTube video – who does not give his full name.

‘There has been a lot of scientific talk about alien life likely existing in the vast oceans that currently exists under its icy surface.’

WAR OF THE WORLDS CAUSED MASS HYSTERIA  

'The War of the Worlds' broadcast consisted of simulated news bulletins, which suggested an actual alien invasion by Martians was currently in progress

'The War of the Worlds' was an episode of the American radio drama anthology series The Mercury Theater on the Air.

It aired as a Halloween special on October 30, 1938 over the Columbia Broadcasting System (CBS Network) by Orson Welles.

The broadcast consisted of simulated news bulletins, which suggested an actual alien invasion by Martians was currently in progress.

The public was in a extreme panic as they really believed the world was being invaded by aliens.

Legend has it that some of the radio audience may have been listening to Edgar Bergen and tuned in to "The War of the Worlds" during a musical interlude.

This means they missed the opening of the show which stated it was just a story.

But recent research suggests this only happened in rare instances.

The video was sent to SecureTeam from Louis Read, a Martian researcher from the city of Bristol in the UK, reports Mirror Online.

The image shows Jupiter glowing on the left and a strange anomaly shining brightly to the right of it, which they suggest is approaching Europa.

Tyler notes that the UFO comes very close to Europa and nothing like this has ever been seen in our solar system – until now.

An enormous alien structure was, they claim seen moving in the direction of Jupiter’s moon Europa which, according to some, resembles an ‘interstellar mothership’ or ‘an intergalactic cruiser’. The image was taken by a Canon 650D camera with a 7D-300mm telescopic lens mounted on a tripod in someone’s backyard garden

SecureTeam is very excited about this ‘amazing find’ because they say there is no doubt that the glowing orbit is a structure and could actually be multiple structures put together. One thing for sure is that this definitely doesn’t belong there and it wouldn’t surprise me in the least if this was some sort of alien craft,’ says Tyler.

SecureTeam has expressed their belief about life on fifth planet and believe the icy world of Europa is also on the top of Nasa scientists’ list for next exploration mission.

Read more:

• Codename Santa Claus: 'Three UFOs were on moon during lunar landings' claims NASA worker | Science | News | Daily Express
• UFO SIGHTINGS DAILY: UFOs Near Earths Sun In SOHO/NASA Photos, March 3, 2016, Video, UFO Sighting News.
• A must see! Huge UFOs near the Sun in the survey 03/03/2016 - YouTube
• Secure Team on Twitter: "Same object spotted near Jupiter from different source who just sent in this image, along with the original. https://t.co/bjEKKXtIhK"
• Mysterious and eerie UFO makes an appearance near Jupiter's moon Europa - Mirror Online

{ https://www.dailymail.co.uk/ }

10-11-2019 om 16:14 geschreven door peter  

On November 5, 2019, during sunset UFO researcher Pedro Ramírez recorded two huge unknown objects approaching and crossing the sun.

When he saw two enormous bright UFOs approaching the sun he started to follow them. Then the earth-sized intergalactic starships seem to come even closer to the sun, as if it were a huge sunspot.

Apparently the spacecraft crossing the sun until the moment they are leaving the sun again into deep space.

Not only these new images are again proof that there is a lot of extraterrestrial activity near the sun, but it also indicates that these UFOs may also be able to withstand the enormous pressure and temperature of the sun.

  

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

10-11-2019 om 15:47 geschreven door peter  

Voyager 2 left the realm of the sun’s influence a year ago today, becoming the 2nd craft ever to do so. This week, the journal Nature Astronomy published 5 new papers describing what Voyager 2 has been seeing on its journey into the unknown.

View a larger, annotated image. | Look closely at the blue ball. Inside you’ll see a yellow dot representing our sun, and some white ovals representing the orbits of the planets orbiting our sun, including Earth. The lighter blue oval represents the heliosphere, or realm of the sun’s influence, as our sun moves through the space of the Milky Way galaxy. In this artist’s depiction, Voyagers 1 and 2 – launched from Earth in 1977 – are depicted just outside of the heliosphere, on the boundary of interstellar space. The image – not to scale – is via NASA. Both spacecraft are still heading outward …

Voyager 1 crossed the heliopause, or the edge of the heliosphere – the protective bubble of particles and magnetic fields created by our sun – in August 2012. Heading in a different direction, Voyager 2 crossed another part of the heliopause on today’s date a year ago, November 5, 2018. Thus Voyager 2 became only the second earthly spacecraft to cross into interstellar space, at a distance of some 11 billion miles (18 billion km) from Earth, well beyond the orbit of Pluto. Today, five new research papers in the peer-reviewed journal Nature Astronomy describe what scientists observed during and since Voyager 2’s historic crossing (see links to the papers below).

A statement from NASA said:

Each paper details the findings from one of Voyager 2’s five operating science instruments: a magnetic field sensor, two instruments to detect energetic particles in different energy ranges and two instruments for studying plasma (a gas composed of charged particles). Taken together, the findings help paint a picture of this cosmic shoreline, where the environment created by our sun ends and the vast ocean of interstellar space begins.

Before their historic crossing into interstellar space, the Voyagers had already served humanity well. Taking advantage of a rare alignment of planets in the outer solar system, both Voyagers visited mighty Jupiter and ringed Saturn, and Voyager 2 performed the first – and only – flybys of the ice giants Uranus and Neptune.

Consider that – before Voyager 1 reached the edge of the heliosphere in 2012 – this edge was entirely theoretical in nature. We had never been to the boundary of interstellar space before. Scientists weren’t entirely sure how far this boundary was located from our sun, although their predictions turned out to be amazingly precise. You might know that the sun undergoes an 11-year cycle of activity. Scientists expected the heliopause – or boundary region of the heliosphere – to move with the changes in activity on the sun:

… sort of like a lung expanding and contracting with breath. This was consistent with the fact that the two probes encountered the heliopause at different distances from the sun.

And so – due to the malleable nature of the heliopause – the two Voyagers crossed into interstellar space at different times, one six years before the other, and at different distances from the sun. The new papers now confirm that Voyager 2 is not yet in undisturbed interstellar space. Like its twin, Voyager 1, Voyager 2 appears to be in a perturbed transitional region just beyond the heliosphere. Ed Stone, project scientist for Voyager and a professor of physics at Caltech, commented:

The Voyager probes are showing us how our sun interacts with the stuff that fills most of the space between stars in the Milky Way galaxy. Without this new data from Voyager 2, we wouldn’t know if what we were seeing with Voyager 1 was characteristic of the entire heliosphere or specific just to the location and time when it crossed.

EarthSky 2020 lunar calendars are available! They make great gifts. Order now. Going fast!

Both Voyagers carry a golden record, designed to give any alien civilization that might someday encounter the craft a glimpse of Earth and its abundant life. 

Read more from NASA about the making of the golden record.

The five new papers in Nature Astronomy describe various measurements made by Voyager 2. According to NASA:

The two Voyager spacecraft have now confirmed that the plasma in local interstellar space is significantly denser than the plasma inside the heliosphere, as scientists expected. Voyager 2 has now also measured the temperature of the plasma in nearby interstellar space and confirmed it is colder than the plasma inside the heliosphere.

In 2012, Voyager 1 observed a slightly higher-than-expected plasma density just outside the heliosphere, indicating that the plasma is being somewhat compressed. Voyager 2 observed that the plasma outside the heliosphere is slightly warmer than expected, which could also indicate it is being compressed. (The plasma outside is still colder than the plasma inside.) Voyager 2 also observed a slight increase in plasma density just before it exited the heliosphere, indicating that the plasma is compressed around the inside edge of the bubble. But scientists don’t yet fully understand what is causing the compression on either side.

Speaking of Voyager 2’s findings, NASA also said:

If the heliosphere is like a ship sailing through interstellar space, it appears the hull is somewhat leaky. One of Voyager’s particle instruments showed that a trickle of particles from inside the heliosphere is slipping through the boundary and into interstellar space. Voyager 1 exited close to the very ‘front’ of the heliosphere, relative to the bubble’s movement through space. Voyager 2, on the other hand, is located closer to the flank, and this region appears to be more porous than the region where Voyager 1 is located.

And NASA explained:

An observation by Voyager 2’s magnetic field instrument confirms a surprising result from Voyager 1: The magnetic field in the region just beyond the heliopause is parallel to the magnetic field inside the heliosphere. With Voyager 1, scientists had only one sample of these magnetic fields and couldn’t say for sure whether the apparent alignment was characteristic of the entire exterior region or just a coincidence. Voyager 2’s magnetometer observations confirm the Voyager 1 finding and indicate that the two fields align, according to Stone.

Voyager 1, the faster of the two probes, is currently over 13.6 billion miles (22 billion kilometers) from the sun.

Voyager 2 is 11.3 billion miles (18.2 billion kilometers) from the sun. Traveling at the speed of light, a signal from Voyager 2 requires about 16.5 hours to travel to Earth. By comparison, light traveling from the sun takes about eight minutes to reach Earth. The 22.4-watt transmitter on Voyager 2 has a power equivalent to the light that pops on when you open your refrigerator door. This dim signal from Voyager – which is more than a billion billion times dimmer by the time it reaches Earth – is picked up by the 70-meter antennas at three facilities spaced equidistant from each other – approximately 120 degrees apart in longitude – around the world. These are the sites of NASA’s Deep Space Network at Goldstone, near Barstow, California; near Madrid, Spain; and near Canberra, Australia.

The two Voyagers are powered by steadily decaying plutonium batteries. NASA scientists have been slowly powering down the crafts’ scientific instruments for some years now, attempting to stretch out the amount of time we can continue to communicate with them. Both craft are projected to drop below critical energy levels in the mid-2020s, after which they will fall silent.

In this artist’s concept, a Voyager spacecraft looks back toward our solar system, from its vantage point in interstellar space. The circles represent the orbits of the major outer planets, all visited by Voyager 2: Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune.

Image via NASA, ESA, and G. Bacon (STScI).

• Bottom line: Voyager 2 crossed into interstellar space on November 5, 2018 – one year ago today – becoming the 2nd craft ever to do so. This week, the journal Nature Astronomy published 5 new papers describing what Voyager 2 has been seeing on its journey into the unknown.
• Source: Voyager 2 plasma observations of the heliopause and interstellar medium
• Source: Cosmic ray measurements from Voyager 2 as it crossed into interstellar space
• Source: Magnetic field and particle measurements made by Voyager 2 at and near the heliopause
• Source: Energetic charged particle measurements from Voyager 2 at the heliopause and beyond
• Source: Plasma densities near and beyond the heliopause from the Voyager 1 and 2 plasma wave instruments

Via NASA

{ https://earthsky.org/ }

10-11-2019 om 01:43 geschreven door peter  

NASA's TESS Spacecraft is Finding Hundreds of Exoplanets — And is Poised to Find Thousands More

By Daniel Apai, Benjamin Rackham

This artist's impression shows a view of the planet Proxima b orbiting the red dwarf star Proxima Centauri, the closest star to the solar system.

(Image: © M. Kornmesser/ESO)

This article was originally published at The Conversation. The publication contributed the article to Space.com's Expert Voices: Op-Ed & Insights.

Daniel Apai, Associate Professor of Astronomy and Planetary Sciences, University of Arizona. Benjamin Rackham, Postdoctoral Fellow, Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Within just 50 light-years from Earth, there are about 1,560 stars, likely orbited by several thousand planets. About a thousand of these extrasolar planets – known as exoplanets – may be rocky and have a composition similar to Earth's. Some may even harbor life. Over 99% of these alien worlds remain undiscovered — but this is about to change.

With NASA's new exoplanet-hunter space telescope TESS, the all-sky search is on for possibly habitable planets close to our solar system. TESS — orbiting Earth every 13.7 days — and ground-based telescopes are poised to find hundreds of planets over the next few years. This could transform astronomers' understanding of alien worlds around us and provide targets to scan with next-generation telescopes for signatures of life. In just over a year, TESS has identified more than 1,200 planetary candidates, 29 of which astronomers have already confirmed as planets. Given TESS's unique ability to simultaneously search tens of thousands of stars for planets, the mission is expected to yield over 10,000 new worlds.

These are exciting times for astronomers and, especially, for those of us exploring exoplanets. We are members of the planet-hunting Project EDEN, which also supports TESS's work. We use telescopes on the ground and in space to find exoplanets to understand their properties and potential for harboring life.

Undiscovered worlds all around us

Worlds around us await discovery. Take, for example, Proxima Centauri, an unassuming, faint red star, invisible without a telescope. It is one of over a hundred billion or so such stars within our galaxy, unremarkable except for its status as our next-door neighbor. Orbiting Proxima is a fascinating but mysterious world, called Proxmia b, discovered only in 2016.

Scientists know surprisingly little about Proxima b. Astronomers name the first planet discovered in a system "b". This planet has never been seen with human eyes or by a telescope. But we know it exists due to its gravitational pull on its host star, which makes the star wobble ever so slightly. This slight wobble was found in measurements collected by a large, international group of astronomers from data taken with multiple ground-based telescopes. Proxima b very likely has a rocky composition similar to Earth's, but higher mass. It receives about the same amount of heat as Earth receives from the Sun.

And that is what makes this planet so exciting: It lies in the "habitable" zone and just might have properties similar to Earth's, like a surface, liquid water, and — who knows? — maybe even an atmosphere bearing the telltale chemical signs of life.

NASA's TESS mission launched in April 2018 to hunt for other broadly Earth-sized planets, but with a different method. TESS is looking for rare dimming events that happen when planets pass in front of their host stars, blocking some starlight. These transit events indicate not only the presence of the planets, but also their sizes and orbits.

Finding a new transiting exoplanet is a big deal for astronomers like us because, unlike those found through stellar wobbles, worlds seen transiting can be studied further to determine their densities and atmospheric compositions.

(Image credit: NASA Ames)

Red dwarf suns

For us, the most exciting exoplanets are the smallest ones, which TESS can detect when they orbit small stars called red dwarfs – stars with masses less than half the mass of our Sun.

Each of these systems is unique. For example, LP 791-18 is a red dwarf star 86 light-years from Earth around which TESS found two worlds. The first is a "super-Earth," a planet larger than Earth but probably still mostly rocky, and the second is a "mini-Neptune," a planet smaller than Neptune but gas- and ice-rich. Neither of these planets have counterparts in our solar system.

Among astronomers' current favorites of the new broadly Earth-sized planets is LHS 3884b, a scorching "hot Earth" that orbits its sun so quickly that on it you could celebrate your birthday every 11 hours.

Artist's impression of an exoplanet transiting a red dwarf star.

(Image credit: L. Calçada/ESO)

No Earth-like worlds yet

But how Earth-like are Earth-sized planets? The promise of finding nearby worlds for detailed studies is already paying off. A team of astronomers observed the hot super-Earth LHS 3884b with the Hubble Space Telescope and found the planet to be a horrible vacation spot, without even an atmosphere. It is just a bare rock with temperatures ranging from over 700 C (1300 Fahrenheit) at noon to near absolute zero (-460 Fahrenheit) at midnight.

The TESS mission was initially funded for two years. But the spacecraft is in excellent shape and NASA recently extended the mission through 2022, doubling the time TESS will have to scan nearby, bright stars for transits.

However, finding exoplanets around the coolest stars — those with temperatures less than about 2700 C (4900 F) — will still be a challenge due to their extreme faintness. Since ultracool dwarfs provide our best opportunity to find and study exoplanets with sizes and temperatures similar to Earth's, other focused planet searches are picking up where TESS leaves off.

(Image credit: NASA Goddard Space Flight Center)

The worlds TESS can’t find

In May 2016, a Belgian-led group announced the discovery of a planetary system around the ultracool dwarf they christened TRAPPIST-1. The discovery of the seven transiting Earth-sized exoplanets in the TRAPPIST-1 system was groundbreaking.

It also demonstrated how small telescopes — relative to the powerful behemoths of our age — can still make transformational discoveries. With patience and persistence, the TRAPPIST telescope scanned nearby faint, red dwarf stars from its high-mountain perch in the Atacama desert for small, telltale dips in their brightnesses. Eventually, it spotted transits in the data for the red dwarf TRAPPIST-1, which — although just 41 light-years away — is too faint for TESS's four 10-cm (4-inch) diameter lenses. Its Earth-sized worlds would have remained undiscovered had the TRAPPIST team's larger telescope not found them.

Two projects have upped up the game in the search for exo-Earth candidates around nearby red dwarfs. The SPECULOOS team installed four robotic telescopes – also in the Atacama desert – and one in the Northern Hemisphere. Our Exoearth Discovery and Exploration Network – Project EDEN This artist's concept shows what the TRAPPIST-1 planetary system may look like, based on available data about the planets' diameters, masses and distances from the host star, as of February 2018.– uses nine telescopes in Arizona, Italy, Spain and Taiwan to observe red dwarf stars continuously.

The SPECULOOS and EDEN telescopes are much larger than TESS's small lenses and can find planets around stars too faint for TESS to study, including some of the transiting Earth-sized planets closest to us.

(Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech)

The decade of new worlds

The next decade is likely to be remembered as the time when we opened our eyes to the incredible diversity of other worlds. TESS is likely to find between 10,000 and 15,000 exoplanet candidates by 2025. By 2030, the European Space Agency's GAIA and PLATO missions are expected to find another 20,000-35,000 planets. GAIA will look for stellar wobbles introduced by planets, while PLATO will search for planetary transits as TESS does.

However, even among the thousands of planets that will soon be found, the exoplanets closest to our solar system will remain special. Many of these worlds can be studied in great detail – including the search for signs of life. Discoveries of the nearest worlds also represent major steps in humanity's progress in exploring the universe we live in. After mapping our own planet and then the solar system, we now turn to nearby planetary systems. Perhaps one day Proxima b or another nearby world astronomers have yet to find will be the target for interstellar probes, like Project Starshot, or even crewed starships. But first we've got to put these worlds on the map.

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

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10-11-2019 om 01:25 geschreven door peter