Helft meer ufomeldingen in ons land dan vorig jaar: hier zag u ze allemaal vliegen -

HLN.be

Koen Van De Sype 

De stijging is hoofdzakelijk terug te voeren tot enkele kleine waarnemingsgolven. “Op 25 mei zorgde een groep van 60 satellieten die door het ruimtebedrijf SpaceX (van Elon Musk, red.) in een baan rond de aarde werd gebracht voor 33 meldingen”, klinkt het bij het UFO-Meldpunt. “En ook een tweede lancering in november van 2019 veroorzaakte verwarring.”

Sliert van sterren

De ‘slierten van sterren’ zullen ook in de nabije toekomst nog voor extra ufomeldingen zorgen, zo verwacht het meldpunt. “SpaceX is immers van plan om maar liefst 12.000 (!!) van deze Starlink satellieten rond de aarde te laten vliegen”, klinkt het in het jaarverslag.

Een andere waarnemingspiek was er op 14 september, toen een Ierse weerballon boven Gent explodeerde. “Dat incident was goed voor 37 meldingen in één avond tijd”, aldus het meldpunt. “Dat is een absoluut record voor één dag.” (lees hieronder verder)

Verder bleken veel meldingen vorig jaar uiteindelijk ballonnen (57 meldingen), satellieten, het internationaal ruimtestation ISS (46) of meteoren (29) te zijn. Voor 55 meldingen was er voldoende informatie om tot een conclusie te komen en één melding is nog in onderzoek. Twee meldingen werden niet verklaard: het ging om “een fel oranje draaiend licht dat geprojecteerd leek op de rijbaan” en “een donkere driehoek die over windmolens vloog”. 

Chirurg

Een van de interessantste, met fotomateriaal gedocumenteerde waarnemingen die het meldpunt afgelopen jaar ontving, dateert van 10 januari 2019 in Deinze. Als een chirurg rond 7.15 uur samen met zijn vrouw en vier kinderen zijn woning verlaat, ziet het gezin hoog in de lucht een onbeweeglijke lichtgele rechthoek met in het midden een donker kruis en op het snijpunt van de armen een gele bol. De rechthoek is “ongeveer 25% van de volle maan” groot. Na 10 minuten wordt de waarneming gestaakt omdat de kinderen naar school moeten.

Onderzoek van het UFO-meldpunt kon de waarneming niet verklaren. Vermoedelijk ging het om de reflectie van spots (van de nabijgelegen school of een bouwwerf in de buurt) in ijskristallen. (lees hieronder verder) 

UFO-meldpunt

Een foto van de waarneming (rechts ingezoomd).

Het was zes jaar geleden dat er nog eens zo veel meldingen binnenliepen bij het UFO-meldpunt. In 2013 klokte de organisatie af op 267 waarnemingen en ook de twee jaren daarvoor waren er erg bewogen.

Het Franstalige COBEPS (Comité Belge pour l’Etude des Phénomènes Spatiaux) ontving in 2019 ‘maar’ 85 ufomeldingen. 

{  https://www.hln.be/ }

02-01-2020 om 14:33 geschreven door peter  

Unsolved Archaeological Mysteries That Will Creep You Out!

Strange archaeological discoveries that are still unsolved mysteries to this day. Unexplained artifacts, creepy mummies, ancient mysteries, strange and incredible fossils with unbelievable stories. History can be downright weird and scary!

{ https://beforeitsnews.com/ }

02-01-2020 om 01:19 geschreven door peter  

Secret Space Mysterious Object With Huge Trail of Fire Spotted In The Florida Sky On New Years Day

FORT PIERCE, Fla. — Early risers on New Year’s Day walking along the beach to see the sunrise on the Treasure Coast also saw what appeared to be a mysterious rocket launch.

With no scheduled launches at Cape Canaveral, it is not immediately known what occurred.

Photo taken by John Simard of Fort Pierce seems to show the object going up with a long trail of fire behind it.

Several viewers from Vero Beach to Fort Pierce said they saw the object, which was located east of the shore and out in the Atlantic Ocean.

{ https://beforeitsnews.com/ }

02-01-2020 om 01:04 geschreven door peter  

Latest UFO Sightings 2020 – UFO In Dubai New Year’s Eve

Here’s one possible UFO sighting 2020 recorded in Dubai, city in the United Arab Emirates. It happened just after the midnight.

What do you think this is? Strange alien activity or just a sky jumpers?

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

02-01-2020 om 00:55 geschreven door peter  

2020 in Space! Astronauts Ring in New Year (and Decade) from Orbit

By Tariq Malik 

Happy New Year from SPACE!

The six astronauts of Expedition 60 on the International Space Station celebrated 2020 earlier than you might think. Pictured here: (foreground from left) NASA astronauts Jessica Meir, ESA astronaut Luca Parmitano (center) and NASA astronaut Christina Koch (right). Background from left: Russian cosmonauts Alexander Skvortsov, Oleg Skripochka and NASA astronaut Andrew Morgan.

(Image: © NASA)

The people of Earth weren't the only ones ringing in the year 2020 at midnight. Six explorers in orbit celebrated the new  year's arrival - and indeed, a new decade - aboard the International Space Station. 

"Happy New Year from low Earth orbit!" NASA astronaut Andrew Morgan wrote on Twitter as Earth began the year 2020. 

Morgan celebrated 2020's arrival with crewmates Christina Koch and Jessica Meir (both of NASA), European Space Agency astronaut Luca Parmitano, and Russian cosmonauts Oleg Skripochka and Alexander Skvortsov. Parmitano commands the crew, known as Expedition 60. 

• Related: The Space Missions to Watch in 2020
• More: The 10 Must-See Skywatching Events in 2020

Celebrating a new year in space is a bit different than ringing in Jan. 1 on Earth. For starters, astronauts orbit the Earth 16 times a day, meaning they see 16 sunrises and sunsets as the circle the planet every hour and a half. Then there's their time zone, which meant the station crew saw 2020's arrival before flight controllers at NASA's Mission Control center in Houston. 

"The space station operates on Greenwich Mean Time, or GMT, meaning it will only be 7 pm ET when the orbiting astronauts' clock strikes midnight to ring in the new year," NASA officials said in a Twitter statement. 

Andrew Morgan

✔@AstroDrewMorgan

Happy New Year from low Earth orbit!

https://twitter.com/space_station/status/1212070921533566977 …

Intl. Space Station

✔@Space_Station

3, 2, 1... #HappyNewYear! We're usually counting down to liftoff, but today, we're counting down to 2020. The space station operates in Greenwich Mean Time, or GMT, meaning it will only be 7 pm ET when the orbiting astronauts' clock strikes midnight to ring in the new year!

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The year 2020 is a major milestone for the International Space Station. In November, the station will celebrate 20 years of continuous operation with a human crew. (The first station crew Expedition 1 arrived in 2000.)

SpaceX and Boeing are expected to begin flying astronauts to the station for NASA on commercial spacecraft. SpaceX's Crew Dragon will fly an uncrewed in-flight abort test in early January as part of that work. 

Meanwhile, Christina Koch is on a record-breaking mission to spend nearly a year in space (328 days to be exact) and has already set a new record for the longest single spaceflight by a woman. 

Jessica Meir

✔@Astro_Jessica

This incredible photo by @Astro_Christina as my #Soyuz headed to @Space_Station in September sums up 2019 – my most extraordinary year yet. #TheJourney was certainly not only my own, I remain in debt to countless individuals on the ground. #HappyNewYear to all on (& off) #Earth!

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Meir celebrated the new year on Twitter with a photo of her own launch as seen by Koch in space in September. The image, Meir said, summed up 2019 as her "most extraordinary year yet."

 "The journey was certainly not only my own, I remain in dept to countless individuals on the ground," Meir said. "Happy New Year to all on (& off) Earth!"

• The 100 Best Space Photos of 2019
• 10 Things That Blasted Through Space in 2019
• The Greatest Spaceflight Moments of 2019

Email Tariq Malik at tmalik@space.com or follow him @tariqjmalik.

Follow us @Spacedotcom, Facebook and Instagram.

{ https://www.space.com/ }

01-01-2020 om 18:36 geschreven door peter  

Archaeological Discoveries Are Occurring Faster Than Ever

In 1924, a 3-year-old child’s skull found in South Africa forever changed how people think about human origins.

The Taung Child, our first encounter with an ancient group of proto-humans or hominins called australopithecines, was a turning point in the study of human evolution. This discovery shifted the focus of human origins research from Europe and Asia onto Africa, setting the stage for the last century of research on the continent and into its “ Cradles of Humankind.”

Few people back then would’ve been able to predict what scientists know about evolution today, and now the pace of discovery is faster than ever. Even since the turn of the 21st century, human origins textbooks have been rewritten over and over again. Just 20 years ago, no one could have imagined what scientists know two decades later about humanity’s deep past, let alone how much knowledge could be extracted from a thimble of dirt, a scrape of dental plaque or satellites in space.

Human fossils are outgrowing the family tree earliest hominin 

In Africa, there are now several fossil candidates for the earliest hominin dated to between 5 and 7 million years ago, when we know humans likely split off from other Great Apes based on differences in our DNA.

Although discovered in the 1990s, publication of the 4.4 million year old skeleton nicknamed “Ardi” in 2009 changed scientists’ views on how hominins began walking.

Rounding out our new relatives are a few australopithecines, including  Australopithecus deryiremeda  and Australopithecus sediba , as well as a  potentially late-surviving species of early Homo that reignited debate about when humans first began burying their dead.

Fossils like that of Australopithecus sediba, discovered in South Africa by a 9-year-old boy, are reshaping the human family tree. 

Photo by Brett Eloff. Courtesy Prof Berger and Wits University,  (CC BY-SA / The Conversation )

Perspectives on our own species have also changed. Archaeologists previously thought  Homo sapiens  evolved in Africa around 200,000 years ago , but the story has become more complicated. Fossils discovered in Morocco have pushed that date back to 300,000 years ago , consistent with  ancient DNA evidence. This raises doubts that our species emerged in any single place .

This century has also brought unexpected discoveries from Europe and Asia. From enigmatic  “hobbits” on the Indonesian island of Flores  to the  Denisovans in Siberia, our ancestors may have encountered a  variety of other hominins when they spread out of Africa . Just this year, researchers reported a  new species from the Philippines .

Anthropologists are realizing that our  Homo sapiens  ancestors had much more contact with other human species than previously thought. Today, human evolution looks less like Darwin’s tree and more like a muddy, braided stream.

The rise of biomolecular archaeology means new opportunities for interdisciplinary collaboration among field- and lab-based scientists. 

Christina Warinner,  CC BY-ND / The Conversation

Ancient DNA reveals old relationships

Many recent discoveries have been made possible by the new science of ancient DNA .

Since scientists fully sequenced the first ancient human genome in 2010, data from thousands of individuals have shed new insights on our species’ origins and early history.

One shocking discovery is that although our lineages split up to 800,000 years ago, modern humans and Neanderthals mated a number of times during the last Ice Age. This is why many people today  possess some Neanderthal DNA .

The 2010 excavation in the East Gallery of Denisova Cave, where the ancient hominin species known as the Denisovans were discovered. 

Bence Viola. Dept. of Anthropology, University of Toronto,  CC BY-ND

Ancient DNA is how researchers first identified the mysterious Denisovans, who interbred with us  and Neanderthals. And while most studies are still conducted on bones and teeth, it is now possible to extract ancient DNA from other sources like cave dirt and  6,000-year-old chewing gum .

Genetic methods are also reconstructing individual and family relationships, and connecting ancient individuals to living peoples to end decades long debates.

The applications go far beyond humans. Paleogenomics is yielding surprising discoveries about plants and animals from ancient seeds and skeletons hidden in the backrooms of museums.

Natural history museums hold a wealth of information, some of which can only be tapped through new biomolecular methods. Scientists analyze modern and fossil animal skeletons to ask questions about the past using ancient proteins. 

Mary Prendergast at National Museums of Kenya,  CC BY-ND / The Conversation

Biomolecules are making the invisible visible

DNA is not the only molecule revolutionizing studies of the past.

Paleoproteomics, the study of ancient proteins, can determine the species of a fossil and recently linked a  9-foot tall, 1,300-pound extinct ape  that lived nearly 2 million years ago to today’s orangutans.

Dental calculus – the hardened plaque that your dentist scrapes off your teeth – is particularly informative, revealing everything from who was drinking milk 6,000 years ago to the surprising diversity of plants, some likely medicinal, in Neanderthal diets. Calculus can help scientists understand ancient diseases and how the human gut microbiome has changed over time. Researchers even find cultural clues –  bright blue lapis lazuli  trapped in a medieval nun’s calculus led historians to reconsider who penned illuminated manuscripts.

Scientists unexpectedly found lazurite pigment in calcified plaque clinging to a 11th- to 12th-century woman’s tooth, challenging the assumption that male monks were the primary makers of medieval manuscripts. 

Christina Warinner,( CC BY-ND / The Conversation

Lipid residues trapped in pottery have revealed the origins of milk consumption in the Sahara and showed that oddly shaped pots found throughout Bronze and Iron Age Europe were  ancient baby bottles .

Researchers use collagen-based “barcodes” of different animal species to answer questions ranging from when Asian rats arrived as castaways on Africa-bound ships to what animals were used to produce medieval parchment or even to detect microbes left by a monk’s kiss on a page.

Big data is revealing big patterns

While biomolecules help researchers zoom into microscopic detail, other approaches let them zoom out. Archaeologists have used aerial photography since the 1930s, but widely available satellite imagery now enables researchers to discover new sites and monitor existing ones at risk. Drones flying over sites help investigate how and why they were made and combat looting.

Archaeologists increasingly use technology to understand how sites fit into their environment and to document sites at risk. Here, a drone captured a tell (a mound indicating build-up of ancient settlements) in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq. 

Jason Ur,  CC BY-ND / The Conversation

Originally developed for space applications, scientists now use LIDAR – a remote sensing technique that uses lasers to measure distance – to map 3D surfaces and visualize landscapes here on Earth. As a result, ancient cities are emerging from dense vegetation in places like Mexico, Cambodia and  South Africa .

Technologies that can peer underground from the surface, such as Ground Penetrating Radar, are also revolutionizing the field – for example, revealing previously unknown structures at Stonehenge. More and more, archaeologists are able to do their work without even digging a hole.

• Five Things We Learned About Our Human Origins in 2018
• Were Other Humans the First Victims of the Sixth Mass Extinction?
• World’s First Human-Monkey Hybrid Created In China

Geophysical survey methods enable archaeologists to detect buried features without digging large holes, maximizing knowledge while minimizing destruction. 

Mary Prendergast and Thomas Fitton,  CC BY-ND / The Conversation

Teams of archaeologists are combining big datasets in new ways to understand large-scale processes. In 2019, over 250 archaeologists pooled their findings to show that humans have altered the planet for thousands of years, for example, with a  2,000-year-old irrigation system  in China. This echoes other studies that challenge the idea that the Anthropocene, the current period defined by human influences on the planet, only began in the 20th century.

New connections are raising new possibilities

These advances bring researchers together in exciting new ways. Over  140 new Nazca Lines , ancient images carved into a Peruvian desert, were discovered using artificial intelligence to sift through drone and satellite imagery. With the wealth of high-resolution satellite imagery online, teams are also turning to crowdsourcing to find new archaeological sites.

Although new partnerships among archaeologists and scientific specialists are not always tension-free, there is growing consensus that studying the past means reaching across fields.

The Open Science movement  aims to make this work accessible to all. Scientists including archaeologists are sharing data more freely within and beyond the academy.  Public archaeology  programs, community digs and digital museum collections are becoming common. You can even print your own copy of famous fossils from freely available 3D scans, or an archaeological coloring book in more than 30 languages.

Archaeologists are increasingly reaching out to communities to share their findings, for example at this school presentation in Tanzania. 

Agness Gidna,  CC BY-ND / The Conversation

Efforts to make archaeology and museums more equitable and engage indigenous research partners are gaining momentum as archaeologists consider whose past is being revealed. Telling the human story requires a community of voices to do things right.

Studying the past to change our present

As new methods enable profound insight into humanity’s shared history, a challenge is to ensure that these insights are relevant and beneficial in the present and future.

In a year marked by youth-led climate strikes and heightened awareness of a planet in crisis, it may seem counterproductive to look back in time.

Yet in so doing, archaeologists are providing empirical support for climate change  and revealing how ancient peoples coped with challenging environments.

As one example, studies show that while industrial meat production has serious environmental costs,  transhumance – a traditional practice of seasonally moving livestock, now recognized by UNESCO as intangible cultural heritage – is not only light on the land today, but helped promote biodiversity and healthy landscapes in the past.

Archaeologists today are contributing their methods, data and perspectives toward a vision for a less damaged, more just planet. While it’s difficult to predict exactly what the next century holds in terms of archaeological discoveries, a new focus on “ usable pasts ” points in a positive direction.

• Top image: Oldupai (Olduvai) Gorge in Tanzania, one of Africa’s ‘cradles of humankind’.  Source: CC BY 2.0

This article was originally published under the title ‘ Archaeological discoveries are happening faster than ever before, helping refine the human story’ by Elizabeth Sawchuk and Mary Prendergast on The Conversation , and has been republished under a Creative Commons License.

Videos, peter2011

{ https://www.ancient-origins.net/ }

01-01-2020 om 18:16 geschreven door peter  

Irene Jiang

US Air Force

• Mysterious swarms of giant drones have dotted the Colorado and

Nebraska night sky since last week, The Denver Post first reported.

• The drones appear and disappear at roughly the same time each night

in swarms of at least 17 and up to 30. The drones appear to measure

about 6 feet across.

• Local and federal government authorities say they have no idea where

the drones are coming from. They do not appear to be malicious,

however, and a drone expert says they appear to be searching or

mapping out the area.

• Visit Businessinsider.com for more stories.

Something strange has been happening in Eastern Colorado at night.

Since the week of Christmas, giant drones measuring up to 6 feet across have been spotted in the sky at night, sometimes in swarms as large as 30. The Denver Post first reported these mysterious drone sightings in northeastern Colorado on December 23. Since then, sightings have spanned six counties across Colorado and Nebraska.

Phillips County Sheriff Thomas Elliott had no answer for where the drones came from or whom they belonged to but did have a rough grasp on their flying habits. "They've been doing a grid search, a grid pattern," he told The Denver Post. "They fly one square and then they fly another square."

The drones, estimated to have 6-foot wingspans, have been flying over Phillips and Yuma counties every night for about the past week, Elliott said Monday. Each night, at least 17 drones appear at about 7 o'clock and disappear at about 10 o'clock, staying 200 to 300 feet in the air.

Óscar J.Barroso/Europa Press via Getty Images

The Federal Aviation Administration told The Post it had no idea where the drones came from. Representatives for the Air Force, the Drug Enforcement Administration, and the US Army Forces Command all said the drones did not belong to their organizations.

As the airspace where the drones are flying is relatively ungoverned, there are no regulations requiring the drone operators to identify themselves. Elliott, however, said the drones did not appear to be malicious.

The Post spoke with the commercial photographer and drone pilot Vic Moss, who said the drones appeared to be searching or mapping out the area. Moss said drones often flew at night for crop-examination purposes. The drones might also belong to a local Colorado drone company, which could be testing new technologies.

In the meantime, Moss urges residents not to shoot down the drones, as they are highly flammable.

"It becomes a self-generating fire that burns until it burns itself out," he told The Post. "If you shoot a drone down over your house and it lands on your house, you might not have a house in 45 minutes."

• NOW WATCH: Watch the Navy's LOCUST launcher fire a swarm of drones

{ https://www.businessinsider.com/ }

01-01-2020 om 17:29 geschreven door peter  

NASA satellite shares a new image of Marree Man, an Australian carving that has puzzled scientists for decades

By Lauren M. Johnson, CNN

It is unclear who created the giant geoglyph or why, but the large earthen figure has drawn attention to a remote part of South Australia for two decades.

(CNN) - NASA confirms one of the greatest modern art mysteries is still going strong in Australia.

A pilot discovered the mysterious 2.6-mile-long geoglyph of an aboriginal hunter in 1998, etched into the earth, and to this day no one knows how it got there.

The Marree Man gained new life in 2016 when a group from the figure's namesake town of Marree plowed the lines to keep the man from fading due to erosion. Now, NASA is sharing an image taken in June showing the success of their efforts.

So far, the restoration team's belief that their preservation will last longer than the original holds up. They created wind grooves, designed to trap water and encourage the growth of vegetation, according to NASA. They hope that eventually the man will turn green.

Many have tried to discover the origin of the Marree Man.

CNN previously reported that Dick Smith, founder of Dick Smith Electronics and Dick Smith Foods, decided to tackle the mystery in 2016, and for two years his team pored over all the evidence to see what they could find.

He believed it was professionally done, so in 2018 he offered a reward of $5,000 Australian dollars ($3,712) for anyone with information regarding its existence.

No one has come forward, but several believe it was made by an artist living in Alice Springs, though other clues suggest the creator may have been an American.

Regardless, the Marree Man mystery lives on.

{ https://edition.cnn.com/ }

01-01-2020 om 17:05 geschreven door peter  

Where do the 2020 Democratic presidential candidates stand on UFOs? In front of the nearest ET camera, of course! Bada-bing! Sorry, couldn’t help myself. But seriously, what do the people running for president on the Democratic side think about UFOs, the possible existence of extraterrestrials and the disclosure of secret files on those and other related subjects? Minnesota Senator Amy Klobuchar was recently interviewed by Draymond Steer, a reporter for New Hampshire’s The Conway Daily Sun and someone known for asking politicians those tough UFO questions. Steer asked Klobuchar about the USS Nimitz UFO incident – one of the witnesses was New Hampshire’s own David Fravor. Here’s what she had to say:

“I’ve read some articles about it. And, you know, I think we don’t know enough. I don’t know. I mean, I don’t know what happened, not just with that sighting, but with others. And, I think one of the things a President could do is to look into what’s there; in terms of what does the science say; what does the military say? Here’s the interesting part of that answer, is that some of the stuff is really old, these sightings. So, why can’t you see if you can let some of that out for the public? So, earnest journalists like you, who are trying to get to the bottom of the truth would be able to see it?”

Senator Amy Klobuchar

She explained that a president should be able to figure out what information still needs to be hidden and what can be released, implying that she would be that kind of president. What about the other Democratic candidates? Earlier this year, The Conway Daily Sun asked Andrew Yang and he said:

“I’m very curious about UFOs. I have a feeling they probably do exist.”

No word on whether extraterrestrials from other parts of the universe would qualify for Yang’s $1000-per-month ‘universal’ income. When asked about Bernie Sanders, Steer said, “Bernie had no interest in the UFO question.” However, in a later interview with Joe Rogan, Sanders himself said he’d reveal UFO information if he found it and “Alright, we’ll announce it on the show. How’s that?” Did Bernie flip or is he just flippant?

Many will remember the 2016 campaign when both Hillary Clinton and her campaign manager and former chief-of-staff to her husband, John Podesta, promised to open the X-files if elected. That didn’t happen, and the current president shows no sign of opening them. When asked about the briefing he received on the USS Nimitz UFO incident, President Trump commented:

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

The other candidates don’t seem to have been asked any UFO questions or, if they have, are avoiding giving an answer. They may remember 2008 when then candidate Dennis Kucinich admitted during a debate that he had once seen a UFO Over the house of actress Shirley MacLaine and that he “felt a connection in his heart and heard directions in his mind.”

“It was an unidentified flying object, OK? It’s, like, it’s unidentified. I saw something. I’m also going to move my campaign office to Roswell, New Mexico, and other one in Exeter, New Hampshire, OK? And also, you have to keep in mind that more – that Jimmy Carter saw a UFO and also that more people in this country have seen UFOs than I think approve of George Bush’s presidency.”

Dennis Kucinich

Kucinich dropped out of the race shortly after and some say his poll numbers plunged because of the comments.

Is this an endorsement of Senator Amy Klobuchar or Andrew Yang because of their UFO beliefs? No. Will any other Democratic candidate give us full disclosure if elected? Partial disclosure? Let’s just say it would be wise to base your voting decision on some other criteria.

{ https://mysteriousuniverse.org/ }

01-01-2020 om 15:22 geschreven door peter  

If you don’t want your car to get hit by a bus, you move it out of its way. If you don’t want your house to get hit by a tsunami, you move it out of its way. If you don’t want your solar system to get hit by a supernova … believe it or not, you move it out of its way. How? According to a recent paper by Matthew E. Caplan of the Department of Physics at Illinois State University, published by Acta Astronautica, entitled “Stellar engines: Design considerations for maximizing acceleration,” with a giant stellar engine.

“Stellar engines, megastructures used to control the motion of a star system, may be constructible by technologically advanced civilizations and used to avoid dangerous astrophysical events or transport a star system into proximity with another for colonization.”

That’s probably the easiest-to-understand sentence in the entire scientific report. Fortunately, a German design studio called Kurzgesagt – German for “In a nutshell“ – has released an animated YouTube video explaining Caplan’s stellar engine in a way the rest of the world can understand. (Watch the video here.)

The real question is, after watching the video and attempting to read the paper, can the rest of the world – or anyone in the world or universe – build one?

“Stellar engines are a class of hypothetical megastructures which use a star’s radiation to create usable energy. Some variants use this energy to produce thrust, and thus accelerate a star, and anything orbiting it, in a given direction. The creation of such a system would make its builders a Type-II civilization on the Kardashev scale.”

Wikipedia points out that developing a working stellar engine to move the Sun – dragging the solar system behind it – out of the way of a rogue supernova – would bestow on its inventors the title of “Type-II civilization,” which Soviet astronomer Nikolai Kardashev defined as a civilization that can use and control energy at the scale of its stellar system. For comparison, our current civilization (us) is nowhere near Type-I — a planetary civilization capable of using and storing all of the energy available on our planet.

Wait a minute, you say, what about that guy Matthew E. Caplan? Didn’t he develop a plan?

Yes, he did. And in fact, his “Caplan thruster” uses something that has been proposed as an explanation for those blinking or dimming stars, like Tabby’s star, that astronomers have been discovering with greater frequency – a Dyson sphere cluster. Caplan first considered a giant solar sail which would passively move the Sun via its own solar energy. However, “At full throttle, the solar system could probably be moved by about a hundred light-years over 230 million years” – too slow to save the Sun and solar system from most catastrophes. For that we’ll need a star-sized Brussard ramjet – a fusion rocket which compresses hydrogen from massive electromagnetic fields until thermonuclear fusion occurs, causing energy to blast out of the exhaust, thrusting the Sun in the opposite direction at a speed of 50 light-years per million years – fast enough to save civilization – provided it survives the move.

That doesn’t sound too complicated, you say, so when can we start building a Caplan thruster … just in case?

Well, the Brussard ramjet – despite approval by great minds including Carl Sagan – is still theoretical. The magnetic sail is also theoretical, but much closer to reality. And the Dyson sphere or star-circling cluster of electromagnetic-energy-collecting mirrors is a daunting project for a civilization still struggling with solar energy panels.

However … if a dimming orb like Tabby’s star is already surrounded by one, that means a Type II civilization already exists in a nearby solar system and, upon seeing our potential demise, it might come over and build one for us in a galactic-sized barn-raising or “help us move our apartment” kind of way. How much beer and pizza would that cost us?

So, what does our Type .0001% of I civilization have to save our sorry butts from a supernova apocalypse? A possible but far from plausible theory. An excellent design paper and entertaining animation to help us. And two great names for bands – the Caplan Thrusters and the Brussard Ramjets.

Also great porn star names … which are probably what we really need because we’re screwed.

{ https://mysteriousuniverse.org/ }

01-01-2020 om 15:10 geschreven door peter  

Linda Moulton Howe: Reptilians, Blondes, and Greys via Coast to Coast AM

Linda Moulton Howe is a graduate of Stanford University with a Masters Degree in Communication. She has devoted her documentary film, television, radio, writing and reporting career to productions concerning science, medicine and the environment. Ms. Howe has received local, national and international awards, including three regional Emmys, a national Emmy nomination and a Station Peabody award for medical programming. Linda’s documentaries have included A Strange Harvest and Strange Harvests 1993, which explored the worldwide animal mutilation mystery. Another film, A Prairie Dawn, focused on astronaut training in Denver. She has also produced documentaries in Ethiopia and Mexico for UNICEF about child survival efforts and for Turner Broadcasting in Atlanta about environmental challenges.

In addition to television, Linda produces, reports and edits the award-winning science, environment and earth mysteries news website, Earthfiles.com. In 2003, Earthfiles received an Award for Standard of Excellence presented by the Internet’s WebAward Association. Earthfiles also received the 2001 Encyclopaedia Britannica Award for Journalistic Excellence. Linda also reports science, environment and earth mysteries news for Clear Channel’s Premiere Radio Networks and Unknowncountry.com. In 2005, she traveled to Amsterdam, Hawaii, and several other U. S. conferences to speak about her investigative journalism.

In 2004, Linda was on-camera TV reporter for The History Channel’s documentary investigation of an unusual August 2004 cow death in Farnam, Nebraska. In November 2009, Linda was videotaped in Roswell, New Mexico, to provide document research background for a 1940s American policy of denial in the interest of national security about spacecraft and non-human body retrievals for a 2010 History Channel TV series, Ancient Aliens.

In 2010, Linda was honored with the 2010 Courage In Journalism Award at the National Press Club in Washington, D. C., by the Paradigm Research Group’s X Conference. She has traveled in Venezuela, Peru, Brazil, England, Norway, France, Switzerland, The Netherlands, Yugoslavia, Turkey, Ethiopia, Kenya, Egypt, Australia, Japan, Canada, Mexico, the Yucatan and Puerto Rico for research and productions.

Other videos selected by peter2011

{ https://beforeitsnews.com/ }

01-01-2020 om 14:52 geschreven door peter  

AMAZING footage of a triangular-shaped UFO over New York

Another triangle UFO video was recorded over New York a few days ago. This one over Rome on 21st December.

What’s you opinion?

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

01-01-2020 om 01:34 geschreven door peter  

Daytime triangle filmed over Ilion, New ork 27-Dec-2019

Check out this really interesting daytime footage of a triangular shaped formation in the sky above Ilion in New York. This was filmed on Friday, 27th December 2019.

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

01-01-2020 om 01:17 geschreven door peter  

What we now know (and still don't) about life on Mars

By Lauren Kent, CNN

(CNN)For decades, space was the final frontier. But as space exploration advanced, scientists increasingly set their sights on a new frontier: Mars.

The first lander to reach Mars was launched nearly 50 years ago, but much about the red planet remains a mystery. Scientists are still attempting to bring samples of Mars' red soil back to Earth for further study, and human trips to Mars are still years from being feasible.

After decades of roving, research, and taking illuminating photos of the red planet, the biggest question remains: Could there be life on Mars?

Breakdown of a planet

To understand Mars' potential for life, we need to go back in time about 3 or 4 billion years.

At that time, Mars and Earth shared many of the same characteristics. The red planet was warm and wet, with a robust atmosphere -- a far cry from the cold, unforgiving place it is today.

"Mars is a planet that started with all the same raw materials as Earth, but along the way has suffered changes," said the European Space Agency's Director of Human and Robotic Exploration, David Parker. "You could say it's kind of broken down."

Because it was once Earth's sister planet, Parker said scientists must ask themselves, "When life got going on Earth, did it get going on Mars?"

Mars lost its magnetic field, meaning nothing shields the planet (or potential life forms) from radiation. Mars also lost most of its atmosphere -- another deviation from Earth, where the atmosphere supports life by giving us oxygen and acting as a blanket for the planet.

"Mars still has an atmosphere but it's very thin and mostly carbon dioxide, so it's colder," explained Parker.

That means the average temperature on Mars is -81 degrees Fahrenheit, which makes it an unforgiving planet for most life forms.

 

Signs of life

But just because Mars is cold and unprotected doesn't mean scientists have ruled out finding life.

In 2018, NASA's Curiosity rover found organic matter on Mars, which could mean that the building blocks for life once existed, or still exist, on Mars.

A self-portrait taken by NASA's Curiosity rover taken on Sol 2082 (June 15, 2018). A Martian dust storm has reduced sunlight and visibility at the rover's location in Gale Crater.

Image Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

"Organic matter preservation is central to understanding biological potential on Mars through time," wrote NASA researchers in the journal Science. "Whether it holds a record of ancient life, is the food for extant life, or has existed in the absence of life, organic matter in martian materials holds chemical clues to planetary conditions and processes."

NASA's rover has also detected methane on Mars, which is considered the most simple organic molecule and could be another chemical clue of life.

"With our current measurements, we have no way of telling if the methane source is biology or geology, or even ancient or modern," said Paul Mahaffy, director for NASA Goddard's Solar System Exploration Division, in a June press release.

Meanwhile, Europe and Russia's ExoMars Trace Gas Orbiter launched in 2016 with the aim of detecting atmospheric gases that could mean there's active, biological life on Mars. The ESA's Parker said that while the Curiosity Rover found methane on parts of the surface, they have not detected methane all across Mars' atmosphere.

The ExoMars 2016 lifts off on a Proton-M rocket in Baikonur, Kazakhstan. One of the scientific objectives of the collaborative project between the European Space Agency (ESA) and the Russian Federal Space Agency is to search for signs of past and present life on Mars.

(Photo by Stephane Corvaja/ESA via Getty Images)

"We have not seen methane globally on Mars, which means methane gas is being produced somehow," Parker said. "So is there a methane cycle on Mars?"

The discovery of localized methane presents an exciting breakthrough because a common source of methane on Earth is microbial life, according to NASA.

 

Water is key

Water and ice on Mars also provide valuable clues that suggest Mars might be more habitable than once thought.

In 2015, NASA scientists thought they found evidence of occasional flowing, salty water flows across the surface of Mars. However, another NASA study in 2017 determined that the flows were most likely grains of sand and dust.

But another breakthrough came in 2018 when the European Space Agency detected a small lake of liquid water beneath the southern polar ice cap of Mars, which the ESA said could further contribute to knowledge about Mars' evolution and habitability.

And this year, NASA's Curiosity rover found evidence in Mars' Gale Crater that there were once ancient salty lakes on the surface -- another hint that the red planet could have once supported microbial life.

"Water is key because almost everywhere we find water on Earth, we find life," wrote NASA on their website.

It's not just liquid water that space scientists are interested in, but also ice. Parker said the ESA is currently working on research about the ice below Mars' surface.

"We're getting more and more information about subsurface water ice ... it's further from the poles than we thought," Parker told CNN.

Ice could be further evidence of habitable conditions, and it could also be a valuable resource if space agencies send humans to Mars one day.

Human missions to Mars?

To unravel the more complex mysteries surrounding life on Mars, scientists want to collect samples, which would require a round-trip mission.

"Because the really powerful scientific instruments are huge, we can't take them and never will be able to take them to Mars. So we need to bring Mars back to Earth," Parker said. "By bringing Mars back, we can study it for the next 50 years."

Scientists are still attempting to bring samples of Mars' red soil back to Earth for further study, and human trips to Mars are still years from being feasible. NASA is aiming to send astronauts to Mars by 2035.

(Credit NASA/JPL-Caltech)

 

Although no space agency has yet figured out how to launch an unmanned craft from the surface of Mars to get samples back to Earth, one way to bring back Martian samples would be for astronauts and cosmonauts to collect them in person.

But reaching Mars, which at its closest point is still about 33.9 million miles away from Earth, would be a feat of engineering.

"It's is an order of magnitude farther away. You're talking about a 3-year round-trip mission," said NASA spokeswoman Stephanie Schierholz.

If reaching the Moon was one giant leap for mankind, reaching Mars would be more like an Olympic long jump. And unlike traveling to the International Space Station (a mere 250 miles above Earth), traveling to Mars would potentially require a lot more packing.

"We send up resupply missions every few months (to the space station)," Schierholz said. "We don't have the luxury of doing that if we go to Mars."

Despite the challenges, NASA is aiming to send astronauts to Mars by 2035. That means the first life on Mars could be us.

{ https://edition.cnn.com/ }

31-12-2019 om 18:54 geschreven door peter  

by Alex Hollings

(U.S. Navy photo by Electrician's Mate 2nd Class Brian J. Hudson)

Last month, the United States Navy confirmed formally that two high profile videos allegedly captured from the nose of an F/A-18 Super Hornet attempting an intercept on an Unidentified Aerial Phenomena were real and notably, weren’t meant for release to the public. The Navy did not suggest that the strange craft shown in the videos was alien in origin, but rather did acknowledge that they truly didn’t know what they were seeing that night in January of 2015.

“I truly thought the official word on these videos would be ‘drones’ or something similar; but explainable,” John Greenewald, Jr, who runs the popular website The Black Vault, told SOFREP at the time. Greenewald was the man that got the Navy to discuss the videos, leading to a landslide of headlines throughout the media in the weeks that followed.

“We have official documents that have surfaced through FOIA that state just that. However, for the Navy to contradict that, and say that this ‘phenomena’ represents something ‘unidentified’ – that’s pretty amazing to me and proves yet again why we can’t lock ourselves into any one way of thinking or assume anything.”

Reports of unusual lights in the sky date all the way back to the beginning of recorded history, but there’s another unusual phenomena that often seems to coincide with these strange sightings that gets far less attention in the press: USOs, or Unidentified Submerged Objects. Like UFOs (Unidentified Flying Objects), USO is a sort of catch-all term used to describe anything seen operating beneath the surface of a body of water that defies explanation. Legends of USOs have permeated the maritime community for centuries, and remain a common facet of discussion among UFO researchers to this day. In fact, many UFO witness statements, including those provided by military aviators, have suggested that the unusual crafts they’ve spotted flying in the sky seem to operate just as readily in the far denser medium of water — suggesting that these unusual objects can function beneath the surface of the ocean just as well as they can in the air.

Even Christopher Columbus reportedly had a USO sighting during his 1492 voyage to the Americas. According to Columbus’ log, he spotted “a small wax candle that rose and lifted up, which too few seemed to be an indication of land.” They soon determined that it wasn’t a light source from land, but had instead been out at sea — leading to a centuries-long mystery that stands to this day. A more contemporary sighting near Shag Harbor in the Canadian province of Nova Scotia saw a UFO apparently crashing into the harbor’s waters in front of a number of witnesses in 1967. The Royal Canadian Mounted Police even launched rescue efforts early on, assuming the sightings were of a downed aircraft. Their efforts however, turned up nothing.

If the idea of an unidentified, fast moving craft operating under water seems just a bit too out of this world, you should know that USOs may not even be all that uncommon — the U.S. Navy just doesn’t make a habit of keeping track of them (much like UFOs or UAPs until recently).

Earlier this year, Tylor Rogoway at The War Zone interviewed a number of veteran U.S. Navy submariners, some of whom were SONAR operators with first hand experience spotting these unidentified underwater anomalies. Rogoway was looking for more information pertaining to an unsubstantiated story posted to social media by Tom Delonge, former Blink 182 front man turned UFO researcher and founder of To the Stars Academy — a high profile media think tank that champions disclosure of UFO related materials..

That story can be traced back to UFO researcher Marc D’Antonio, who claimed to be given a courtesy ride on a U.S. Navy fast attack submarine, during which he was present as a sonar operator identified a “fast mover” moving at hundreds of knots under the water in close proximity to the sub. D’Antonio’s story doesn’t quite add up in a number of ways (as one former submariner points out in Rogoway’s piece, “we don’t give ‘rides’ as favors”) but his account of a fast moving, unidentified object spotted by Navy personnel and then disregarded seems to ring true with those that have spent time operating America’s undersea vessels.

I don’t know what they are… We usually logged it as seismic or biologic. We were instructed that nothing is ever ‘unknown.'” Explained a former submariner turned professional gamer that now goes by the name “Jive Turkey.”

“That’s the thing, it’s so quick you can’t measure the speed. In the examples I am thinking of, it is a detection that lasts a few seconds on the towed array. There is no way to measure the speed accurately because there isn’t enough data… I agree it’s odd. There are a lot of odd things in the ocean. Mainly, submariners!”

Jive Turkey’s funny name notwithstanding, he’s not the only former submariner to acknowledge unusual readings from America’s nuclear submarines that suggested they weren’t alone in the water. Unsurprisingly, however, these anomalies tend to go ignored unless they represent a threat to the vessel or an obstacle between the crew and accomplishing their mission. The ocean is vast, full of man made ships and living creatures, and things like sound travel differently through water than they do through air. As a result, living and working beneath the waves comes with a certain acceptance of the eerie as a new “normal.” In other words, strange is just a part of business when you’re operating a fast attack sub.

In the minds of some, these sightings are related to other unexplained ocean phenomena, like the infamous “Bloop” — which was a massive underwater sound recorded in 1997. The sound was so loud that it was recorded simultaneously on underwater microphones located more than 3,000 miles apart. In the years since, the Bloop has been explained away as an underwater earthquake or tectonic shift, but some remain unconvinced.

According to Navy submariners, standard operating procedure doesn’t allow for the exploration of strange readings that pop up on sonar or other systems, and there is no procedure established for the further investigation of these sightings. That means that unusual objects beneath the surface of the ocean largely go unreported altogether, provided whatever is spotted doesn’t appear as though it will interfere with the mission.

Without reporting guidelines and government disclosure, we may never know if USO sightings are highly rare or entirely commonplace, but submariner accounts confirm that weird stuff is normal in the dark depths of Earth’s oceans. Just like with sightings in the sky, weird doesn’t have to mean alien — it just means unexplained… for now.

{ https://sofrep.com/ }

31-12-2019 om 18:34 geschreven door peter  

by Corbin Black

You never know what you could find in the depths of the ocean. Never-before-seen alien-like organisms are discovered all the time. This time, a diver exploring the depths of a fjord in Orstafjord Norway came across a huge alien blob. The video has captivated the internet with over 491K views to date.

Diver Ronald Raasch with the research vessel REV Ocean was exploring the site of a WWII shipwreck in early October. As a group of divers returned to the boat, Raasch and captain Nils Baadnes came across the blob about 55 feet beneath the surface. Inside, the transparent egg contains thousands of squirming babies.

See the mesmerizing video below:

Later on Twitter, the REV Ocean team posted a Tweet:

#Mystery solved! #REVOcean captain @Nils Baadnes & Ronald Raasch discovered this giant gel ball while diving in Orstafjord #Norway, which is actually an eggmass of 10-armed #squid 🦑👀

REV Ocean@rev_ocean

#Mystery solved! #REVOcean captain @Nils Baadnes & Ronald Raasch discovered this giant gel ballwhile diving in Orstafjord #Norway, which is actually an eggmass of 10-armed #squid

More info from @Halldis Ringvold/Sea Snack Norway/Geleballprosjektet https://youtu.be/wJMHsi0HBUo 

• 209

1:28 PM - Oct 7, 2019

Twitter Ads info and privacy

• 134 people are talking about this

Although the researchers identified the blob as an egg sac produced by a 10-armed squid, that doesn’t identify which species it might be. All squid have ten arms.

These alien squid sacs are rarely seen since they are thought to be laid deep down in the ocean, sinking ever-lower to 500 feet. At these depths, the babies hatch and start their lives in the cover of darkness.

Science Alert noted different squid species have different egg sacs. Scientists suspect the female squids lay a small mass that expands to a larger size.

One species has been seen inflating the egg with water.

“Squids that live in the Norwegian Sea that the fjord connects to include the European flying squid (T. sagittatus) and the much smaller Boreoatlantic armhook squid (Gonatus fabricii). However, another Gonatus species, G. onyx, has been observed actually brooding its eggs, so it may be a less likely candidate.

Interestingly, G. onyx has also been observed pumping seawater into her egg mass to inflate it, so that may be another clue about how the masses get so big.”

Another even bigger squid sac was discovered in 2015. National Geographic shared a video of a 13-foot-wide egg sac from a neon flying squid.

(pictured above)

The jellylike substance helps protect the eggs from predators as well as infection and bacteria.

See the National Geographic video below:

Featured image: Screenshot via YouTube, Ronald Raasch

{ https://www.ancient-code.com/ }

31-12-2019 om 18:16 geschreven door peter  

The Existence of Reptilians Was Confirmed By Romanian General

Romanian Army General Strainu is an ex counterintelligence officer that before 1989 he was hunting CIA and KGB operatives in Romania. Since 2004, Romania is a full NATO member and a strong ally of the USA. Also, General Strainu is a specialist in radiolocation and a doctor in Geophysical warfare.

General Strainu had access to some of the most terrifying secrets of the cold war and also at classified information about UFO and aliens.

General Strainu claims that the reptilian aliens exist and that they live in huge underground basses.

A good friend of Strainu, an active Romanian Colonel that is also a colonel in NATO, called General Strainu to tell him a story about how he accidentally met with a reptilian. As a side note, this Colonel has served in Iraq, Afganistan, Africa and also South America and because he is still active he asked Strainu to keep his identity confidential.

Near Bucharest.

Colonel X was returning from a short camping trip from Brasov, and around 5 O’clock in the morning, his car was out of gas, and he stopped to refuel at a small gas station right outside of Bucharest, when he noticed a khaki US military Humvee with black windows, parked outside the station with the motor running.

One of the doors was opened and he could see inside a huge reptilian, while a US private was fueling the car. The reptilian had no clothes, only military boots, was completely covered in scales and had a crest on his head. This also confirms that on some special occasions, maybe in some black ops, the US military is cooperating with these reptilians. After refueling, he paid and went to his truck.

After a few kilometers on the road to Bucharest, Colonel X was terrified by what he has seen but the adventure was not over yet. Down the road, he had seen again the same Humvee stationed outside the road, this time with all 4 doors opened and near the car, he saw two dark huge reptilians arguing. He passed by the Humvee and tried to understand what he has just seen.

After this event, he started an investigation on his own to see if there were other witnesses but he found none.

{ http://yourminds.org/ }

31-12-2019 om 17:56 geschreven door peter  

In The Year 2019 UFOs Became a Little More Legit

We didn’t find ETs in 2019, but the U.S. government did become a little more chatty about flying saucers.

31-12-2019 om 17:44 geschreven door peter  

There Might Be Cracks in the Universe — But We Can't See Them from Earth

By Rafi Letzter - Staff Writer

The cracks, if they exist, are old, remnants of a time shortly after the Big Bang.

(Image: © Optical image – A. Mellinger, U.Central Michigan; radio image – E. Carretti, CSIRO; radio data – S-PASS team; composition – E. Bresser, CSIRO)

There might be cracks in space-time, but humanity's telescopes can't see them.

The cracks, if they exist, are old — remnants of a time shortly after the Big Bang when the universe had just shifted from a hotter, more alien state to the cooler, more familiar one we see today. That great cool-down, what physicists call a "phase transition," started earlier in some places than others, the theory goes. Bubbles of cooler universe formed and spread, blooming across space until they met other bubbles. Eventually, all of space transitioned, and the old universe disappeared. 

But that old, high-energy state might have lived on at the borders between the bubbles, cracks in the fabric of space-time where those cooling regions met and didn't perfectly fit together. Some physicists thought we might still see evidence of those cracks or defects — known as "cosmic strings" — in the cosmic microwave background (CMB), the heat left over from the universe's violent emergence. But according to a new paper, that evidence would simply be too faint for any telescope to ever pick out against the noise.

• Related: From Big Bang to Present: Snapshots of Our Universe Through Time

Cosmic strings are difficult objects to imagine, said Oscar Hernández, a physicist at McGill University in Montreal and co-author of the paper. But they have analogs in our world.

"Have you walked on a frozen lake? Have you noticed cracks laced through the frozen lake ice? It's still quite solid. There's nothing to be afraid of, but there's cracks," Hernández told Live Science 

Those cracks form through a similar phase-transition process as cosmic strings.

"Ice is water that has gone through a phase transition," he said. "Molecules of water were free to move as a fluid, and then all of a sudden, somewhere, they start to form into a crystal. … It starts to tile itself in tiles, which are [often] hexagons. Now, imagine having tiles that are perfect hexagons and tiling [the lake] with that. If somebody at the other end of the lake starts to tile [it] again," there's essentially zero chance that your tiles will line up.

Imperfect meeting places on a frozen lake surface form long cracks. In the fabric where space and time intersect, they form cosmic strings — if the underlying physics is correct.

In space, researchers believe, there are fields that determine the behavior of fundamental forces and particles. The first phase transitions of the universe brought these fields into being.

"There could be a field relating to some particle that has to, in some sense, 'pick a direction to freeze and cool in.' And since the universe is really big, it could pick different directions in different parts of the universe," he said. "Now, if this field obeys certain conditions … then when the universe has cooled down there will be lines of discontinuity, there will be lines of energy that cannot cool down."

Today, those meeting points would appear as infinitesimally thin lines of energy through space.

Finding those cosmic strings would be a big deal because they would be another piece of evidence that physics is bigger and more complicated than the current model allows, Hernández said.

Right now, the most advanced theory of particle physics that researchers feel has been conclusively proven is known as the Standard Model. It includes the quarks and electrons that make up atoms, as well as more exotic particles like the Higgs boson and neutrinos. 

However, most physicists believe the Standard Model is incomplete. As Live Science has reported previously, there are all sorts of ideas on how to expand on it, from supersymmetric particles (i.e., the "stau slepton") to superstring theory — the idea that all particles and forces can be explained as vibrations of tiny, multidimensional "strings." (Note: The "strings" of superstring theory are not the same sort of thing as cosmic "strings." There are only so many metaphors available and sometimes physicists in different fields reuse one.)

"Many extensions of the Standard Model that people really like — like a lot of superstring theories and others — naturally lead to cosmic strings after [post-Big Bang] inflation takes place," Hernández said. "So what we have is an object that is predicted by very many models, so if they don't exist then all these models are ruled out. And if they do exist, oh my god, people are happy."

Since 2017, there's been a flurry of interest in trying to spot strings in the CMB, Hernández and his co-author wrote in their paper, published Nov. 18 to the arXiv database and not yet peer-reviewed.

Hernández, together with Razvan Ciuca of Marianopolis College in Westmount, Quebec, had argued in the past that a convolutional neural network — a powerful type of pattern-finding software — would be the best tool for spotting evidence of the strings in CMB.

Assuming a perfect, noise-free map of the CMB, they wrote in a separate 2017 paper, a computer running that sort of neural network should be able to find cosmic strings even if their energy levels (or "tension") are remarkably low.

But revisiting the subject in this new 2019 paper, they showed that in reality, it's almost certainly impossible to provide clean enough CMB data for the neural network to detect these potential strings. Other, brighter microwave sources obscure the CMB and are difficult to fully disentangle. Even the best microwave instruments are imperfect, with limited resolution and random fluctuations in their recording accuracy from one pixel to the next. All those factors and more, they found, add up to a level of information loss that no current or planned method of recording and analyzing the CMB will ever be able to overcome, they wrote. This method of hunting cosmic strings is a dead end.

That doesn't mean all is lost, though, they wrote.

A new method for hunting cosmic strings is based on measurements of the expansion of the universe in all directions across ancient parts of the universe. This method — called 21 centimeter intensity mapping — doesn't rely on studying the movements of individual galaxies or on precise images of the CMB, Hernández said. Instead, it's based on measurements of the speed at which hydrogen atoms are moving away from Earth, on average, in all parts of deep space.

The best observatories for 21-cm mapping (so named because hydrogen emits electromagnetic energy with a telltale 21-cm wavelength) aren't yet online. But when they arrive, the authors wrote, there's hope for clearer evidence of cosmic strings in their data. And then, Hernández said, the hunt can begin anew.

• The 9 Biggest Unsolved Mysteries in Physics
• The Large Numbers That Define the Universe
• Twisted Physics: 7 Mind-Blowing Findings

Originally published on Live Science.

{ https://www.livescience.com/ }

31-12-2019 om 17:22 geschreven door peter  

Astronomers Discover Exoplanets with Cotton Candy Density in Kepler 51 Star System

{ https://sputniknews.com/ }

31-12-2019 om 17:01 geschreven door peter