The purpose of this blog is the creation of an open, international, independent and free forum, where every UFO-researcher can publish the results of his/her research. The languagues, used for this blog, are Dutch, English and French.You can find the articles of a collegue by selecting his category. Each author stays resposable for the continue of his articles. As blogmaster I have the right to refuse an addition or an article, when it attacks other collegues or UFO-groupes.
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Deze blog is opgedragen aan mijn overleden echtgenote Lucienne.
In 2012 verloor ze haar moedige strijd tegen kanker!
In 2011 startte ik deze blog, omdat ik niet mocht stoppen met mijn UFO-onderzoek.
BEDANKT!!!
Een interessant adres?
UFO'S of UAP'S, ASTRONOMIE, RUIMTEVAART, ARCHEOLOGIE, OUDHEIDKUNDE, SF-SNUFJES EN ANDERE ESOTERISCHE WETENSCHAPPEN - DE ALLERLAATSTE NIEUWTJES
UFO's of UAP'S in België en de rest van de wereld In België had je vooral BUFON of het Belgisch UFO-Netwerk, dat zich met UFO's bezighoudt. BEZOEK DUS ZEKER VOOR ALLE OBJECTIEVE INFORMATIE , enkel nog beschikbaar via Facebook en deze blog.
Verder heb je ook het Belgisch-Ufo-meldpunt en Caelestia, die prachtig, doch ZEER kritisch werk leveren, ja soms zelfs héél sceptisch...
Voor Nederland kan je de mooie site www.ufowijzer.nl bezoeken van Paul Harmans. Een mooie site met veel informatie en artikels.
MUFON of het Mutual UFO Network Inc is een Amerikaanse UFO-vereniging met afdelingen in alle USA-staten en diverse landen.
MUFON's mission is the analytical and scientific investigation of the UFO- Phenomenon for the benefit of humanity...
Je kan ook hun site bekijken onder www.mufon.com.
Ze geven een maandelijks tijdschrift uit, namelijk The MUFON UFO-Journal.
Since 02/01/2020 is Pieter ex-president (=voorzitter) of BUFON, but also ex-National Director MUFON / Flanders and the Netherlands. We work together with the French MUFON Reseau MUFON/EUROP.
ER IS EEN NIEUWE GROEPERING DIE ZICH BUFON NOEMT, MAAR DIE HEBBEN NIETS MET ONZE GROEP TE MAKEN. DEZE COLLEGA'S GEBRUIKEN DE NAAM BUFON VOOR HUN SITE... Ik wens hen veel succes met de verdere uitbouw van hun groep. Zij kunnen de naam BUFON wel geregistreerd hebben, maar het rijke verleden van BUFON kunnen ze niet wegnemen...
24-01-2020
OUDSTE INSLAG OP AARDE SUGGEREERT DAT EEN METEORIET DE IJZIGE AARDE LIET ONTDOOIEN
OUDSTE INSLAG OP AARDE SUGGEREERT DAT EEN METEORIET DE IJZIGE AARDE LIET ONTDOOIEN
Vivian Lammerse
Door de immense klap kwam er veel waterdamp vrij, wat een einde maakte aan de bevroren staat van onze aarde.
Onderzoekers hebben zich in een nieuwe studie gepubliceerd in het toonaangevende tijdschrift Nature Communications gebogen over de Yarrabubba-krater. Deze krater is te vinden in het binnenland van West-Australië en is ontstaan door een inslag van een meteoriet. De bevindingen zijn zeer interessant. Want niet alleen hebben de onderzoekers de leeftijd van de krater weten te achterhalen, het is ook gelukt om de gevolgen van de impact bloot te leggen.
Leeftijd Het team besloot allereerst de precieze leeftijd van de krater te bepalen. “Yarrabubba was al vele jaren erkend als inslagkrater,” zegt onderzoeker Chris Kirkland. “Maar tot nu toe wist men nog niet hoe oud deze eigenlijk was.” Na een grondige analyse van de aangetroffen mineralen zirkoon en monaziet, zijn de onderzoekers erachter gekomen dat de Yarrabubba-krater een slordige 2.229 miljard jaar oud is. En dat is bijzonder oud. Sterker nog, het betekent dat deze krater de oudste op aarde is. De Yarrabubba-krater blijkt daarnaast zo’n 200 miljoen jaar ouder dan de eerstvolgende inslagkrater
Het mineraal zirkoon dat werd onderzocht om de Yarrabubba-krater te dateren.
Afbeelding: Curtin University
Bovendien lukte het de onderzoekers om een beeld van de meteoriet-inslag te schetsen. Waarschijnlijk stortte de meteoriet neer in een met ijs bedekt landschap. Hierdoor verdampte een grote hoeveelheid ijs dat vervolgens naar de atmosfeer werd getransporteerd. De inslag vormde bovendien een enorme krater met een diameter van wel 70 kilometer.
Sneeuwbalaarde Door verschillende gegevens en informatie over onze aarde naast elkaar te leggen, kwamen de onderzoekers erachter dat de inslag een grote klimaatverandering teweeg heeft gebracht. En dat is interessant. Waarschijnlijk heeft de meteoriet-inslag er namelijk voor gezorgd dat de eens bevroren aarde begon te ontdooien. “De Yarrabubba-krater ontstond aan het einde van wat ook wel de sneeuwbalaarde wordt genoemd,” legt Kirkland uit. In die tijd was de aarde volledig bedekt met ijs en herbergde bevroren oceanen. Maar op een bepaald moment werden oceanen zuurstofrijker en verdween het ijs. En het zou best weleens kunnen dat de meteorietinslag in de Yarrabubba-krater daarvoor het startschot gaf. “De leeftijd van de inslagkrater komt overeen met de ondergang van een reeks oude ijstijden,” legt onderzoeker Nicholas Timms uit. “Na de inslag zien we in de data 400 miljoen jaar lang geen ijsafzettingen. Deze speling van het lot suggereert dat de grote meteorietinslag invloed kan hebben gehad op het wereldwijde klimaat.”
Waterdamp Om daar een goed beeld van te krijgen, besloten de onderzoekers er wat modellen op los te laten. “Berekeningen gaven aan dat een dergelijke inslag op een met ijs bedekt continent een half biljoen ton waterdamp – een belangrijk broeikasgas – de atmosfeer in stuurde,” zegt Timms. En het zou heel goed kunnen dat dit een einde heeft gemaakt aan de bevroren staat van onze planeet.
De bevindingen hebben belangrijke implicaties voor toekomstige ontdekkingen van inslagkraters. “De resultaten benadrukken dat het belangrijk is om de precieze leeftijd van kraters te achterhalen,” zegt onderzoeker Aaron Cavosie. “Het bestaan van de Yarrabubba-krater was al zeker twee decennia bekend, maar nu pas weten we hoe oud hij is.” En dankzij deze informatie krijgen wetenschappers een steeds beter beeld van de geschiedenis van de aarde. De vraag is nu of de Yarrabubba-krater de oudste zal blijven, of dat onderzoekers op nóg oudere inslagkraters gaan stuiten. “Het roept de vraag op of alle oudere inslagkraters zijn geërodeerd, of dat ze nog steeds wachten om ontdekt te worden,” besluit Cavosie.
The Earth could be headed for a 'mini ice age' researchers have warned.
A new study claims to have cracked predicting solar cycles - and says that between 2020 and 2030 solar cycles will cancel each other out.
This, they say, will lead to a phenomenon known as the 'Maunder minimum' - which has previously been known as a mini ice age when it hit between 1646 and 1715, even causing London's River Thames to freeze over.
Scroll down for video
A silent sun: In 2011 this image was captured showing an almost clear sun - which experts say could happen for almost a decade from 2030.
THE SOLAR CYCLE
Conventional wisdom holds that solar activity swings back and forth like a simple pendulum.
At one end of the cycle, there is a quiet time with few sunspots and flares.
At the other end, solar max brings high sunspot numbers and frequent solar storms.
It's a regular rhythm that repeats every 11 years.
Reality is more complicated.
Astronomers have been counting sunspots for centuries, and they have seen that the solar cycle is not perfectly regular.
The new model of the Sun's solar cycle is producing unprecedentedly accurate predictions of irregularities within the Sun's 11-year heartbeat.
It draws on dynamo effects in two layers of the Sun, one close to the surface and one deep within its convection zone.
Predictions from the model suggest that solar activity will fall by 60 per cent during the 2030s to conditions last seen during the 'mini ice age' that began in 1645, according to the results presented by Prof Valentina Zharkova at the National Astronomy Meeting in Llandudno.
The model predicts that the pair of waves become increasingly offset during Cycle 25, which peaks in 2022.
During Cycle 26, which covers the decade from 2030-2040, the two waves will become exactly out of synch and this will cause a significant reduction in solar activity.
'In cycle 26, the two waves exactly mirror each other – peaking at the same time but in opposite hemispheres of the Sun,' said Zharkova.
'Their interaction will be disruptive, or they will nearly cancel each other.
'We predict that this will lead to the properties of a 'Maunder minimum''
'Effectively, when the waves are approximately in phase, they can show strong interaction, or resonance, and we have strong solar activity.
'When they are out of phase, we have solar minimums.
'When there is full phase separation, we have the conditions last seen during the Maunder minimum, 370 years ago.'
THE MAUNDER MINIMUM
The Maunder Minimum (also known as the prolonged sunspot minimum) is the name used for the period starting in about 1645 and continuing to about 1715 when sunspots became exceedingly rare, as noted by solar observers of the time.
It caused London's River Thames to freeze over, and 'frost fairs' became popular.
This period of solar inactivity also corresponds to a climatic period called the 'Little Ice Age' when rivers that are normally ice-free froze and snow fields remained year-round at lower altitudes.
There is evidence that the Sun has had similar periods of inactivity in the more distant past, Nasa says.
The connection between solar activity and terrestrial climate is an area of on-going research.
Some scientists hypothesize that the dense wood used in Stradivarius instruments was caused by slow tree growth during the cooler period.
Instrument maker Antonio Stradivari was born a year before the start of the Maunder Minimum.
Maunder Minimum (also known as the prolonged sunspot minimum) is the name used for the period starting in about 1645 and continuing to about 1715 when sunspots became exceedingly rare, as noted by solar observers of the time
It is 172 years since a scientist first spotted that the Sun's activity varies over a cycle lasting around 10 to 12 years.
But every cycle is a little different and none of the models of causes to date have fully explained fluctuations.
The Frozen Thames, 1677 - an oil painting by Abraham Hondius shows the old London Bridge during the Maunder Minimum
Many solar physicists have put the cause of the solar cycle down to a dynamo caused by convecting fluid deep within the Sun.
Now, Zharkova and her colleagues have found that adding a second dynamo, close to the surface, completes the picture with surprising accuracy.
'We found magnetic wave components appearing in pairs, originating in two different layers in the Sun's interior,' she said.
'They both have a frequency of approximately 11 years, although this frequency is slightly different, and they are offset in time.
'Over the cycle, the waves fluctuate between the northern and southern hemispheres of the Sun. Combining both waves together and comparing to real data for the current solar cycle, we found that our predictions showed an accuracy of 97%,' said Zharkova.
Montage of images of solar activity between August 1991 and September 2001 taken by the Yohkoh Soft X-ray Telecope, showing variation in solar activity during a sunspot cycle.
Zharkova and her colleagues derived their model using a technique called 'principal component analysis' of the magnetic field observations from the Wilcox Solar Observatory in California.
They examined three solar cycles-worth of magnetic field activity, covering the period from 1976-2008.
In addition, they compared their predictions to average sunspot numbers, another strong marker of solar activity.
All the predictions and observations were closely matched.
VAN WIEG TOT GRAF: ZO ZIET HET LEVEN VAN EEN STER ERUIT
VAN WIEG TOT GRAF: ZO ZIET HET LEVEN VAN EEN STER ERUIT
Jurjen de Jong
Als je ze ziet twinkelen aan de hemel zou je het niet zeggen. Maar al deze sterren worden mede mogelijk gemaakt door catastrofale explosies. En velen ervan komen door zo’n zelfde explosie aan hun einde.
Je hebt vast wel eens naar de hemel gestaard en je misschien afgevraagd wat al deze lichtpuntjes die wij sterren noemen nu werkelijk zijn en hoe het leven van een ster, zoals onze zon, begint en verdergaat. Na het lezen van dit artikel heb je antwoorden op al deze vragen.
Geboorte Sterren ontstaan door het samentrekken van gaswolken (nevels) die wel enkele lichtjaren – de afstand die licht aflegt in een jaar tijd – breed kunnen zijn. De ineenstorting ontstaat onder de invloed van zijn eigen gewicht en de zwaartekracht. Dit proces kan enkele honderdduizenden jaren duren. Het grootste deel van zo’n gaswolk bestaat uit de lichtste elementen van ons universum: waterstof en helium. De rest zijn zwaardere elementen. Dit zijn overblijfselen van oudere sterren die aan hun einde gekomen zijn door middel van een supernova explosie. Hier komen we later op terug. Zodra zo’n gaswolk begint ineen te storten, zal ook de temperatuur stijgen. Niet al het materiaal beweegt zich naar één punt, maar een gaswolk splitst zich op in meerdere subgaswolken. In de kern van zo’n subgaswolk komt materiaal samen en begint steeds sneller rond te draaien. Als gevolg daarvan wordt er een compact lichaam gevormd dat we een protoster noemen. De hoeveelheid van het beschikbare materiaal bepaalt hoe heet en groot de ster wordt. Ook komt het regelmatig voor dat er een dubbelstersysteem of soms zelfs een meervoudig sterysteem ontstaat, waarbij er dus meerdere sterren gravitationeel aan elkaar gebonden zijn.
Niet al het materiaal van een subgaswolk vormt een protoster. Dit betekent dat een ander deel rond de protoster in banen blijft draaien. Dit wordt de protoplanetaire schijf genoemd, waaruit later planeten kunnen ontstaan. Ondertussen stopt langzaam de ineenstorting van het materiaal van de protoster, doordat er ook een uitwaartse stralingsdruk is vanuit de kern. Zodra de zwaartekracht en de stralingsdruk in balans zijn, is de protoster stabiel en wordt dan een ster genoemd. De temperatuur is door de samendrukking van de atomen hoog genoeg geworden om kernfusie op gang te laten komen. Je kunt dan ook wel zeggen dat een ster eigenlijk een natuurlijke kernfusiereactor is.
Kernfusie Als eerste worden waterstofatomen door kernfusiereacties gefuseerd tot heliumatomen. Vier waterstofatomen zijn gelijk aan één heliumatoom plus een resterende massa. Deze overgebleven hoeveelheid massa wordt door de welbekende formule van Einstein 𝐸 = 𝑚𝑐2 omgezet in energie. Deze energie zorgt voor extra weerstand tegen ineenstorting. Over het volledig omzetten van een waterstofkern naar helium doet een gemiddelde ster ongeveer 90% van zijn leven (een ster leeft miljarden jaren). Zodra de ster zijn waterstof volledig ‘opgebrand’ heeft in de kern, stoppen de kernfusies en heb je een heliumkern. Omdat de temperatuur nog niet hoog genoeg is om helium te gaan fuseren, begint de kern weer in elkaar te krimpen en de temperatuur te stijgen. Aan de buitenrand van de kern zit nog waterstof en deze temperatuur stijgt ook, totdat het hier warm genoeg is voor de fusie van waterstof. De kern krimpt in de tussentijd, waardoor de temperatuur steeds meer toeneemt en de waterstoffusie in de buitenrand van de kern versnelt. Uiteindelijk is de temperatuur in de kern hoog genoeg geworden om helium te gaan fuseren tot koolstof en zuurstof.
Kernfusie. Links tijdens waterstoffusie, rechts tijdens heliumfusie in de kern en waterstoffusie in een schil er omheen.
Rode reus Als er buiten de kern een fusieproces plaatsvindt, gaat de ster plotseling veel meer energie opwekken en begint op te zwellen. Doordat de oppervlakte toeneemt, neemt de oppervlaktetemperatuur af en verandert de ster van kleur. In dit stadium wordt de ster een ‘rode reus’ genoemd. Dit is een vrij instabiele periode in het leven van een ster. De ster is aan het opzwellen en inkrimpen. Als een ster lichter is dan 2,2 maal de massa van de zon en de temperatuur opgelopen is tot 100-200 miljoen, ontstaat er een plotselinge heliumflits. Tijdens zo’n heliumflits komt er net zoveel energie vrij als alle sterren in de Melkweg in dezelfde periode opwekken. Bij zwaardere sterren gaat de kernfusie van helium naar koolstof en zuurstof een stuk geleidelijker, waardoor er geen plotselinge heliumflits ontstaat.
Laatste levensfases Wat er volgt in het leven van een ster is sterk afhankelijk van de grootte van de ster. Je zou misschien verwachten dat een kleinere ster een korter leven heeft. Dit is niet zo. Hoe groter, hoe korter het leven, omdat de kernfusies langzamer gaan in kleinere sterren. Zo kan de lengte van het leven van een ster variëren tussen de 1 miljoen en 100 miljard jaar. Sterren met een massa tussen de 0,08 en 0,5 maal de massa van de zon, worden ‘rode dwergen’ genoemd. Over hun laatste levensfases is weinig bekend, omdat ons universum nog te jong is om dit type ster de tijd te geven om op een natuurlijke manier aan zijn einde te komen. Voor sterren die lichter zijn dan achtmaal de massa van onze zon, is er geen volgende stap nadat het helium in de kern uitgefuseerd is, omdat er geen temperatuur behaald kan worden die zorgt voor fusie van koolstof. Uiteindelijk zal de kern samendrukken totdat er geen samenpersing meer mogelijk is. Op dit moment heet de ster een ‘witte dwerg’. De witte dwerg kan zijn buitenste lagen niet meer vasthouden en deze worden afgestoten en vormen een planetaire nevel (dit heeft overigens niks met planeten te maken). Dit lot staat onze zon dus ook te wachten. Maar geen paniek: het duurt nog 5 miljard jaar voordat onze zon door zijn waterstofvoorraad heen zal zijn.
“BEDENK DAT BIJNA AL HET MATERIAAL DAT JE IN HET DAGELIJKS LEVEN OM JE HEEN ZIET, OF HET IJZER DAT IN JE BLOED ZIT, UITEINDELIJK GROTENDEELS GEPRODUCEERD IS IN ZWARE STERREN”
Voor sterren die grofweg zwaarder zijn dan achtmaal de massa van onze zon is het wel mogelijk om een temperatuur te bereiken waarbij koolstof gefuseerd kan worden tot neon. Verder vindt nog, in verschillende lagen rond de kern, fusie van de lichtere elementen (waterstof, helium en koolstof) plaats. Hoe dichter bij de kern, hoe warmer en hoe zwaarder de elementen zijn die gefuseerd worden. De kernfusies van steeds zwaardere elementen gaan door totdat ijzer in de kern ontstaat. Dit element wordt niet gefuseerd tot zwaardere elementen, omdat de fusie in plaats van energie oplevert, juist energie kost. Als gevolg valt de druk vanuit de kern weg en stort de ster in onder zijn eigen zwaartekracht. Dit resulteert in een heftige explosie, welke ook wel bekend staat als een supernova. Voor sterren met een kern lichter dan driemaal de massa van de zon, blijft de kern over als een neutronster. Dit is een ster met een enorme grote dichtheid. Het kan zijn dat zo’n ster misschien maar een diameter van 10 km heeft, terwijl het gelijk is aan de massa van de zon. Als de ster zwaarder is, dan zal de kern imploderen en veranderen in het welbekende – maar toch mysterieuze – zwarte gat. Dit is een extreem compacte ‘massa’, die de ruimtetijd heftig vervormt. Hieraan kan niks ontsnappen, zelfs licht niet.
De elementen die door een supernova uitgestoten worden, zijn de zware elementen die weer in andere gaswolken terechtkomen. De explosie van zo’n supernova kan ook een gaswolk weer triggeren om ineen te storten. Op deze manier ontstaan er weer nieuwe sterren en begint het hele verhaal weer van voor af aan…
Over de auteur Jurjen de Jong (1993) heeft een bachelor wiskunde en bachelor natuurkunde behaald in Utrecht en een master wiskundige natuur-en sterrenkunde in Gent afgerond. Onlangs rondde hij de master-na-master in Space Studies in Leuven af met een stage bij de ESA en momenteel werkt hij als data scientist. Jurjen leest graag over de verschillende ontdekkingen en ontwikkelingen op wetenschapsgebied en door er over te schrijven hoopt hij zijn kennis te delen met een groter publiek. Zijn artikelen verschijnen niet alleen op Scientias.nl, maar ook op een blog die hij recent lanceerde: Asbronomers.com. Eerder verscheen van Jurjens hand al dit interessante artikel waarin hij uitzoekt of het nodig is dat ook de ruimtevaart groener wordt. Ook zocht hij voor Scientias.nl uit of de ruimtelift werkelijk toekomst heeft. Recent publiceerde hij ook artikelen over ruimtemijnbouw en de slimme stad.
Bronmateriaal:
S. G. Ryan., A.J. Norton (2010). “Stellar Evolution and Nucleosynthesis”. Cambridge University Press
NASA. “The Life Cycles of Stars: How Supernovae Are Formed”,
ZIJN WE ONLANGS - ZONDER HET TE BESEFFEN - EEN NIEUWE ZONNECYCLUS INGEROLD?
ZIJN WE ONLANGS - ZONDER HET TE BESEFFEN - EEN NIEUWE ZONNECYCLUS INGEROLD?
Caroline Kraaijvanger
Het zou zomaar kunnen nu er recent – na een lange periode van afwezigheid – weer zonnevlekken op onze moederster zijn gespot.
De dag voor kerst zagen astronomen twee groepen zonnevlekken op onze moederster. Nu hoor ik je denken: zo bijzonder is dat toch niet? Nou, de astronomen keken er toch even van op. Want de zon was al sinds 14 november 2019 vrij van zonnevlekken. De laatste keer dat de zon zo’n lange periode zonnevlekvrij was, was in 1996.
Cyclus Die inactiviteit is te herleiden naar de cyclus van de zon. Onze moederster doorloopt namelijk een grofweg 11 jaar durende cyclus die gekenmerkt wordt door een zonneminimum – een periode waarin de zon heel rustig is en weinig zonnevlekken en zonnevlammen genereert – en een zonnemaximum, waarin de ster juist veel actiever is. Het zonnemaximum vond in 2014 plaats. Sindsdien neemt de activiteit op de zon af en is het wachten op het zonneminimum dat tevens het einde van deze zonnecyclus en het begin van een nieuwe markeert. Onderzoekers voorspelden eerder dat het zonneminimum zich rond april 2020 aan zou dienen. Maar dat kon ook zes maanden later of zes maanden eerder worden; de ervaring leert dat de zon het niet zo nauw neemt met de tijd.
Nu er na een lange periode van rust weer zonnevlekken op de zon opduiken, is de grote vraag of dit dan het zonneminimum was en daarmee dus een nieuwe zonnecyclus is aangebroken. Wetenschappers hebben meer data nodig om met zekerheid te kunnen zeggen dat deze zonnevlekken daadwerkelijk een nieuwe zonnecyclus inluiden, maar dat een nieuwe cyclus aanstaande is, staat vast en wordt door de komst van de zonnevlekken duidelijk onderschreven.
Wat brengt het ons? Wat die nieuwe zonnecyclus ons brengt, is altijd enigszins koffiedik kijken. De ene cyclus is namelijk de andere niet. Soms verloopt zo’n cyclus – zoals het exemplaar waar we nu nog net (of net niet meer) inzitten – vrij gemoedelijk en is de zon zelfs tijdens het zonnemaximum nog relatief rustig. Maar er zijn ook cycli geweest waarin het zonnemaximum gekenmerkt werd door een hoop onrust op de zon. Die onrust komt tot uiting in veel zonnevlekken, zonnevlammen, en meerdere zogenoemde coronale massa-ejecties per dag. Met name die coronale massa-ejecties kunnen nog weleens venijnig zijn; tijdens deze uitbarstingen op de zon worden energierijke deeltjes en magnetische velden de ruimte ingeslingerd. Deze kunnen behalve een fraai poollicht genereren, ook schade aanrichten aan satellieten in een baan rond de aarde en – in uitzonderlijke gevallen – zelfs voor problemen zorgen op aarde (zie kader).
Onze aarde wordt omringd door een magnetisch veld dat ons onder meer beschermt tegen de grillen van de zon. Maar heel soms schiet dat aardmagnetisch veld tekort. Dat kan gebeuren als er sprake is van een samenloop van omstandigheden die leidt tot een extreme, op de aarde gerichte, uitbarsting op de zon. Dat gebeurde bijvoorbeeld in 1859. Een coronale massa-ejectie raakte toen de aardse magnetosfeer – de invloedssfeer van het magnetisch veld dat de aarde zelf genereert – waardoor deze verstoord raakte. Het leidde tot het uitvallen van de telegraafverbinding tussen Europa en Amerika. En in 1989 zorgde de zon er zo voor dat een elektriciteitsnetwerk in Canada werd uitgeschakeld en zo’n zes miljoen mensen meer dan negen uur zonder stroom zaten.
Gezien de impact die een actieve zon op de aarde en omgeving kan hebben, is er onderzoekers veel aan gelegen om te kunnen voorspellen wat een zonnecyclus gaat brengen. Maar dat is zo gemakkelijk nog niet. Want nog steeds weten we niet precies hoe onze ster met name diep van binnen werkt. Toch wagen sommige onderzoekers zich wel aan een voorspelling. En die is enigszins geruststellend. Naar verwachting wordt de volgende zonnecyclus net als de cyclus waar we nu in zitten (of net uit zijn gerold) vrij rustig. Sterker nog: NASA voorspelde vorig jaar dat het wel eens de zwakste zonnecyclus in 200 jaar tijd zou kunnen worden, waarbij de intensiteit van het zonnemaximum – gemeten in het aantal zonnevlekken – 30 tot 50% lager ligt dan in de meest recente zonnecyclus. Het zou goed nieuws zijn voor de plannen van NASA, die in 2024 – dus rondom het zonnemaximum – mensen naar de maan wil sturen en daar geen gevaarlijk ruimteweer bij kan gebruiken.
NASA abruptly cuts live feed ISS after THIS appears over the U.S.
NASA abruptly cuts live feed ISS after THIS appears over the U.S.
The ISS live feed was interrupted by NASA at the moment a weird UFO-like anomaly appears in front of the the camera.
Jujubee's Adams had just turned on his ISS app to take a look when some kind of object appeared on the live feed, so Adams took some photos and a video of the strange anomaly, just before NASA abruptly cuts the live broadcast.
And it is not the first time NASA cuts the live feed from the International Space Station. At the moment alien objects appear on camera, they switch over to the well known screen and text that there is a sudden loss of signal between the station and the communications network.
The following video recorded by Adams on January 22, 2020 is a clear example of how NASA is trying to disguise the existence of UFOs and other unknown advanced objects in space.
It's not the first time... other videos selected by peter2011
Pilot captures unusual cigar-shaped object soaring over Utah from cockpit
Pilot captures unusual cigar-shaped object soaring over Utah from cockpit
A plane pilot appears to have captured a cigar-shaped UFO at 40,000ft soaring through the air above Utah.
The footage – taken over Zion National Park in the US state – shows the strange white object making its way across the sky.
Its shape appears much like a cigar or even a tic-tac – matching dozens of similar sightings over the past few months.
Given the altitude of the craft, it is difficult to see how fast it is travelling.
The clip was taken back in September 2019, but the footage only surfaced yesterday after being posted by YouTube channel Tales From Out There.
In the video description, the uploader said: “Video recording is taken from a cockpit at 40,000ft of an object flying at a lower altitude over the terrain.
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“Not sure what it is.” He added in the title he believed it could be a “flying disc”.
Viewers soon flooded in to voice their thoughts, with one writing: “That’s an alien ship.”
“Nice proof,” another said, believing the extraterrestrial explanation.
Another wrote: “Where is the flying disc? I only see a white stripe.”
Others were less convinced, though. One sceptic suggested the distance and angle meant it “could easily be another plane”.
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A second claimed it was nothing more than a “smudge on a window” while a third believed it was a “weather balloon”.
The footage comes days after footage emerged of a mysterious tube-shaped object hovering in the skies above Massachusetts.
Cameraman John Baglio told Daily Star Online the craft had “two big lights” at the front and was “the size of a bus”.
A new research study suggests that K-type dwarf stars (smaller and cooler than our sun) are the best place to search for alien life. These stars are not too hot, not too cool, and not too violent for life to evolve.
Size comparison of G dwarfs (sunlike) stars, K dwarfs and M dwarfs.
Astronomers use the term Goldilocks zoneto describe a star’s habitable zone, where temperatures can allow liquid water to exist on a rocky planet. This zone around a star is generally thought to be the best place to search for life beyond our solar system. Now, scientists are also speaking of Goldilocks stars that are not too hot, too cool, or too violent for life to evolve on any suitable planets. This emerging scenario is based on three decades of observations of exoplanets and their stars.
The new program, called the GoldiloKs Project, is being led by Edward Guinan and Scott Engle of Villanova University in Pennsylvania. The project involves undergraduate students measuring the age, rotation rate, and X-ray and far-ultraviolet radiation in a sampling of mostly cool G dwarf (sunlike yellow dwarfs) and K dwarf (orange dwarf) stars. Data was obtained from various telescopes and satellites, including Hubble Space Telescope, Chandra X-ray Observatory, and XMM-Newton. Hubble in particular is valuable for this research, these astronomers said; Hubble is sensitive to radiation from hydrogen, and it has measured hydrogen radiation from 20 different K-type dwarf stars.
Comparison of M, K and G stars in terms of habitable zone, X-ray irradiance, relative abundance, and longevity. New research supports the idea that K stars are the most friendly for habitable planets.
The research suggests that these types of stars are the most likely to have habitable planets. They are slightly smaller and cooler than our sun, which is a G dwarf star. It’s easy to think, of course, that sunlike stars would be the most ideal, but that might not be the case, after all. As Guinan explained in a statement:
K dwarf stars are in the ‘sweet spot,’ with properties intermediate between the rarer, more luminous, but shorter-lived solar-type stars (G stars) and the more numerous red dwarf stars (M stars). The K stars, especially the warmer ones, have the best of all worlds. If you are looking for planets with habitability, the abundance of K stars pumps up your chances of finding life.
This is encouraging news for those hoping to find extraterrestrial life, since there are about three times as many K dwarf stars in our galaxy as there are sunlike stars. Some of them are fairly close by, as well, with about 1,000 of them within 100 light-years. That’s close enough for any planets orbiting them to be studied by telescopes.
These stars also live a lot longer than our sun will, from 15 billion to 45 billion years. That provides a much longer time period for evolution, as compared to our sun, which is already halfway through its lifetime of 10 billion years. Guinan said:
Solar-type stars limit how long a planet’s atmosphere can remain stable.
Artist’s concept of a habitable planet orbiting an orange K dwarf star.
Image via NASA Ames/ JPL-Caltech/ Tim Pyle/ NASA Ames.
What about red dwarfs? They are the most abundant type of stars, and have even longer lifetimes, but they are very violent places for planets. The X-ray and ultraviolet (UV) radiation from red dwarfs, or M dwarfs, can be up to hundreds of thousands of times more intense than what Earth receives from its sun. Even planets in the habitable zone could have their atmospheres stripped away. Needless to say, not the most ideal location for life to evolve, at least advanced forms of life, as Guinan noted:
We’re not so optimistic anymore about the chances of finding advanced life around many M stars.
K dwarfs, on the other hand, are much less active and hostile, with lower levels of radiation. During the same period of time as the lifetime of our sun, about 10 billion years, they only increase in brightness from about 10-15%. This, with their already longer lifetimes, gives evolution much more time to evolve into higher lifeforms.
Kepler-442 is noteworthy in that this star (spectral classification, K5) hosts what is considered one of the best Goldilocks planets, Kepler-442b, a rocky planet that is a little more than twice Earth’s mass. So the Kepler-442 system is a Goldilocks planet hosted by a Goldilocks star!
Artist’s concept of the view from one of the seven known planets in the TRAPPIST-1 red dwarf star system . Red dwarfs are very common, but hostile to planets orbiting them.
Tau Ceti and Epsilon Eridani were also targets for Project Ozma in 1960, the first attempt to detect radio signals coming from advanced alien civilizations. That search came up empty, but based on the new research and what we have learned about these kinds of stars since then, these stars may yet turn out to have habitable planets.
An earlier study from last year by researchers at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center had also come to the conclusion that K dwarf stars would be the most likely to have habitable planets. According to Giada Arney at Goddard:
I like to think that K stars are in a ‘sweet spot’ between Sun-analog stars and M stars. I find that certain nearby K stars like 61 Cyg A/B, Epsilon Indi, Groombridge 1618, and HD 156026 [part of the 36 Ophiuchi system] may be particularly good targets for future biosignature searches.
Edward Guinan of Villanova University, who led the new project.
Over 4,000 exoplanets have been confirmed so far orbiting distant stars, and some of those are in K dwarf star systems. With K dwarfs being so abundant, and with the ever-increasing numbers of Earth-sized worlds being found, including in habitable zones, it would seem to be only a matter of time before a truly habitable planet is discovered. And perhaps, not only habitable, but actually home to some form of life, whether it be intelligent aliens or microbes.
Bottom line: New research shows that Goldilocks stars – K dwarfs, or orange dwarfs – are the most likely to have planets that can support life.
The Budj Bim aquatic system, located in southeastern Australia, was built over 6,000 years ago -- older than Egypt's pyramids.
(Courtesy Visit Victoria/YouTube)
The aquatic system of the Budj Bim Cultural Landscape – an elaborate series of stone-lined channels and pools crafted by ancient indigenous people in Australia - has long been known to archaeologists, and was finally added to UNESCO's World Heritage List in July 2019.
Budj Bim Cultural Landscape.
(gunditjmirring.com/CNN)
Raging bushfires in Australia have revealed extra sections of an ancient aquaculture system built by indigenous people in south-west Victoria, Australia thousands of years ago.
The fires, that started back in December and were brought under control only recently, ripped through the state, burning away the thick vegetation in the area to lay bare the remarkable discovery.
The Bent pyramid, listed on UNESCO's world heritage list as part of the Memphis necropolis.
(AP Photo/Maya Alleruzzo)
The Budj Bim Cultural Landscape, consisting of extensive water channels and dams built by indigenous Australians from volcanic rocks to trap and harvest eels for food, is one of the world's most extensive and oldest aquaculture systems.
Gunditjmara representative Denis Rose, project manager at the non-profit group Gunditj Mirring Traditional Owners Aboriginal Corporation said the recent discovery revealed the system was significantly larger than previously recorded.
"When we returned to the area, we found a channel hidden in the grass and other vegetation. It was about 25 meters (82 feet) in length, which was a fairly substantial size," Rose told CNN.
According to the official, new structures were now distinctly seen in the burnt landscape, resembling channels and ponds.
"It was a surprise continually finding new ones that the fires revealed," he said.
Initially, the fire in the vicinity of the national park was caused by a lightning strike in late December. Spreading rapidly, it engulfed an area of around 790 hectares (3 square miles), according to Mark Mellington, district manager for Forest Fire Management Victoria.
Firefighters and local groups, he said, had joined efforts to identify culturally important sites and use "low impact techniques" to replace heavy machinery when dousing the flames.
UVic Anthropology
@UVicAnthro Fire reveals ancient structures for mass harvesting of eels by the Gunditjmara people in Budj Bim Cultural Landscape, an Australian @UNESCO World Heritage Site
The bushfires in this area did not cause the same level of devastation as in other parts of Australia, and locals hope now they will make ample use of this opportunity to further explore the ancient aquaculture system.
"Over the next few weeks, we are hoping to conduct a comprehensive cultural heritage survey to check areas that were not previously recorded. It's important because it provided a rich, sustainable life for the traditional people, and has continued to be an important part of our cultural life," said the Gunditjmara representative.
The aquatic system at Budj Bim has long been known to archaeologists, and was added to UNESCO's World Heritage List last July. Constructed by the Gunditjmara people more than 6,600 years ago, it is believed to be older than Egypt's pyramids
sophie
@sophieadamsmelb
Well worth the trip to Heywood- Gunditjmara land. World heritage eel traps, homes and the remains of Lake Condah mission. Braydon is a national treasure. #budjbim
Budj Bim or Mount Eccles is an extinct volcano near Macarthur in southwestern Victoria, Australia. The Gunditjmara name, Budj Bim, translates as “High Head”.
The peak is a scoria hill that was thrown up near a group of three overlapping volcanic craters that now contain Lake Surprise.
The Budj Bim lava flows provided the basis for the complex system of channels and dams developed by the Gunditjmara in order to trap, store and harvest kooyang (short-finned eel – Anguilla australis) from Lake Condah.
This aquaculture system provided an economic and social base for Gunditjmara society for six millennia, believe scientists. Initially with a population believed to be in the thousands, the Gunditjmara was one of several indigenous groups of people that used to reside in the southern parts of the present-day Victoria state before the European settlement.
Budj Bim is believed to convincingly uproot the myth that all indigenous people were nomadic and not agriculturally inclined.
"The Budj Bim Cultural Landscape bears an exceptional testimony to the cultural traditions, knowledge, practices and ingenuity of the Gunditjmara," says the UNESCO World Heritage Centre site.
Bosbranden Australië leggen bouwwerken ouder dan de piramides bloot. Maar wat zijn het?
Foto: Wikimedia Commons CC0
Bosbranden Australië leggen bouwwerken ouder dan de piramides bloot. Maar wat zijn het?
Het Budj Bim-landschap in het zuidwesten van Australië, dat vorig jaar op de Werelderfgoedlijst is gezet, is een groot natuurgebied bestaande uit kanalen, vulkaangebieden en moerassen.
Het gebied was 6000 jaar lang een belangrijke plek voor de Aboriginals.
Door de verwoestende bosbranden zijn bouwwerken onthuld die duizenden jaren geleden in het gebied zijn neergezet door de inheemse bevolking.
Aanzienlijk groter
Door de hevige branden verdween de dichte begroeiing en kwamen de opmerkelijke bouwwerken bloot te liggen.
Het Budj Bim-landschap bestaat uit een systeem van kanalen en dammen die door de Aboriginals zijn aangelegd met behulp van vulkanisch gesteente.
Dit systeem blijkt nu aanzienlijk groter te zijn dan altijd is gedacht.
Ouder dan de Egyptische piramides
Het is ruim 6600 jaar geleden aangelegd door het Gunditjmara-volk en zou daarmee ouder zijn dan de Egyptische piramides.
Het complexe systeem van kanalen en dammen is door de Gunditjmara ontworpen om alen te vangen die uit een nabijgelegen meer afkomstig waren.
“Toen we terugkeerden naar het gebied ontdekten we een verborgen kanaal in het gras met een lengte van 25 meter,” zei projectmanager Denis Rose tegen CNN.
Verrassing
Onderzoekers hebben in het verbrande landschap meerdere nieuwe bouwwerken ontdekt, die lijken op kanalen en vijvers.
“Het was een verrassing om steeds weer nieuwe [bouwwerken] te ontdekken die door de branden zijn blootgelegd,” zei Rose.
De bosbranden in dit deel van Australië zijn eind december vorig jaar ontstaan als gevolg van blikseminslag.
“Anybody else see this tonight? The sky was flashing pink and purple – super bright. Thought it might be lightning, but it’s fairly cold (40 degrees), and there was no thunder.”
Well, that certainly sounds strange and the witness has a video from his doorbell camera – the 2020’s replacement for the dash cam, Google Maps and security cameras for capturing strange phenomena. (Watch it here.) One would think that giving it broad media coverage would quickly identify the source of these flashing lights in the sky over Bethel, Ohio. Weather anomaly? Fireworks? Transformer explosions? Meteor? Military? Aliens? Yet it’s been over a week and no one has solved the mystery of the flashing lights of Bethel.
“The first thing that came to mind was what just happened with Iran, and I thought it might be a nuclear explosion. It was that bright and that powerful. I was in the Army and it reminded me of phosphorescent flares we used that light up the whole sky.”
Tim Walker and his daughter Carolyn Walker saw the flashes on the evening of January 12. Walker got the video from Ring.com and posted it on Facebook, where it was picked up by multiple media sites. Over a week later, the comments on the video are still speculative with no confirmed cause. Another witness, Charles Rogers, sent his video to local station FOX19 NOW, which contacted all of the usual suspects and experts.
“We contacted Clermont County Emergency Management. They have no explanation but did hear from plenty of people reporting the flash. Bethel Police had the same response. We also reached out to Duke Energy. According to them, 584 customers lost power for two minutes just before 7 p.m. Sunday. Crews drove that line Monday and found no issues. We also asked an astronomer if this could be a meteor. He says no because a meteor would flash above the clouds rather than below. As for lightning, the nearest strike was hundreds of miles away.”
That was the latest from them as of January 14. On January 20, the Lexington Herald-Leader picked up a story by Mark Price of the Charlotte Observer, who asked Walker if the flashes had been identified. Walker said they hadn’t. Other witnesses have posted on his Facebook page, but no confirmed explanations. Price had no answers either.
“I’ve done a lot of reporting on UFOs and other strange phenomenon, and this is really the strangest light show I’ve ever seen caught on video.”
It’s too bad David Letterman is no longer doing his show with the popular segment, “Is this anything?” Bandleader Paul Schaefer always had interesting, speculative comments on the strange things Dave would show him. That seems to be better than asking government agencies or local authorities these days, as the fine folks in Colorado, Nebraska and Wyoming are finding out with the mysterious drone formations they’ve received no answers on despite their presence in the night sky since before Christmas.
Which brings us back to Tim Walker’s first reaction when he saw the lights over Bethel, a small village east of Cincinnati near the Kentucky border.
“The first thing that came to mind was what just happened with Iran.”
There’s no doubt Walker was in the majority in having that first reaction … one that the people in Colorado have while watching their own mysterious things in the sky.
Perhaps it’s time to accept the obvious … getting no answer is now the new norm.
The mysterious giant drones that have been flying in formation over parts of Colorado, Nebraska and Wyoming just got a possible explanation … and it may create more mysteries than it solves … if it solves any. A member of a group of amateur UFO trackers claims they’ve been flying drones in formation over Colorado in an organized search for the “unidentified aerial phenomenon” that has become known as the Tic Tac UFOs. Yes, the ones seen by USS Nimitz pilots in 2004 on the east coast. What are they doing in Colorado, you ask? Let’s find out.
“If there was any interference with any other aircraft, that absolutely was not ours.”
In what appears to be an exclusive report by the Sterling Journal-Advocate (Sterling is in far northeastern Colorado where many of the drone sightings have occurred), Michael Spicer of Durango (a long way from Sterling in far southwest Colorado) takes an obviously defensive position as he talks the drone formations he and his group have been flying in and around Sterling. Spicer says the group is known as ArchAngleRECON and they’re headquartered in Wichita, Kansas – almost 500 miles from Sterling. He admits the group has been flying groups of 6 to 12 drones along longitude and latitude lines in northeast Colorado – the “grid pattern” many witnesses have described. Of course, he didn’t think they were doing anything wrong. Until …
“Spicer said the group was unaware of the stir caused by drones until he was contacted recently by the Federal Aviation Administration. He said he was interviewed by special Agent Michael Bumberger of the FAA’s Investigations and Law Enforcement Assistance Program. He said none of ArchAngelRECON’s drones were ever flown anywhere near any airport, and they did not encounter any other civilian aircraft.”
That was probably as part of the multi-government-agency investigation that ended recently with the “no harm, no foul” conclusion that they still don’t know whose drones they are, but they’re not illegal, so go back to what you were doing and forget about them. Despite that, Spicer seemed shaken by the contact and was probably questioned about reports that a drone may have interfered with a hospital helicopter and others were seen over Sterling Municipal Airport – an obvious FAA violation.
Before you ask, there’s not much info about ArchAngelRECON. There’s a 75th ArchAngel Recon “Multi game clan” with some videos on YouTube, but they’re related to gaming, not drones or UFOs. As usual these days, Spicer claims the group is tracking the new technology aircraft which is what the infamous Tic Tac UFOs from the 2004 incident are suspected by many of being. However, he’s quick to point out that not all of the drones seen recently belong to his group. He doesn’t say how many are and the report is pretty empty of any additional investigative evidence. Spicer also gives no information on whether they saw any of the drones/Tic Tacs.
It’s almost as if “looking for Tic Tac UFOs” is the new cover for any nefarious activities, and heading to Colorado to hunt the drones is becoming this year’s “Storm Area 51.” Will ‘Storm Sterling’ solve the mystery or end up in a failed rock concert too?
“That absolutely was not ours.”
OK, Michael Spicer, we’re not blaming you for that. In fact, you’re not the first to connect the drones to the Tic Tac. That honor belongs unofficially to Mike Turber, the investigative journalist and cybersecurity expert who made the link earlier this week.
So, despite the government’s plea to “move along, nothing to see here,” the Colorado/Nebraska/Wyoming/??? Drone mystery isn’t going away.
Have You Ever Seen Someone Showing Unidentified Flying Objects In Their Videos?
Have You Ever Seen Someone Showing Unidentified Flying Objects In Their Videos?
With the recent explosion of UFO footage in recent years, many people wonder if it is possible to identify a UFO in someone’s video. You may be able to tell the difference between your own UFO and the strange lights in someone’s video, but what do you think a “Truther” might do if they could find your video? Would they tell everyone on the internet that you are a professional con man?
We have all heard the stories of deception in the past and will continue to do so, especially when we hear information about things that are not real, and people getting fooled by these people. I guess you could say that a UFO is like the golden goose in the movie The Wizard of Oz, if you think about it; a hoax is just like a hoax, however, if you could disprove something that people claim is real you could convince the masses of its fakery.
Of course, the only way you can do this is to make a person think that you have proof that someone else has proven something to them. Now, if the skeptics like yourself had something, like videos of UFOs, then you could definitely convince some of the skeptics. But, you do not, so how do you proceed?
If you are the guy that says, “Look at my photos!” then I would recommend that you hold off on making any videos until you get someone to believe you. You see, I have to put the picture of this subject out there, in order for people to believe what I have to say, if they can prove something to me, then I will have no need for them.
If you can prove that people have been seen in the photos, then you will have convinced more people than you know that the UFO phenomenon is real, but, it is probably not, that’s why they all go to the movies to see alien aliens. Some have pointed out to me that since UFOs are just that; they could justbe pictures of old mountain ranges or clouds.
Then again, maybe these are not real, and a more reliable source of UFOs is a web site with videos. If you are sure that these UFO videos are real, then the last thing that I would want to do is to convince anyone of the reality of aliens.
So you see, you do not have to be so sure. If you cannot find any evidence, then simply say that they are in the same category as the pictures you see in your mind’s eye, no one needs to know!
Even though he passed away in 1566, Nostradamus correctly predicted many events that happened after his death, such as the rise of Hitler and Napoleon, in addition to the 9/11 attacks on America. And based on recent events, it seems as though another one of the French prophet’s predictions has come true.
In one of his passages, he wrote, “The great plague of the maritime city will not cease until there be avenged the death of the just blood, condemned for a price without crime, of the great lady outraged by pretense.” It seems as though he was predicting the SARS-like outbreak that’s happening right now in the world. An outbreak of a new coronavirus started in China and has spread to different countries around the world: Thailand, Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, and the United States.
Nostradamus
As for the “maritime city” that was mentioned in the passage, a conspiracy theorist has an idea of what location Nostradamus was referring to. “The start of SARS and preponderance of cases are in China, many of which are in Hong Kong. Therefore it is reasonable to view Hong Kong as ‘the maritime city’.”
And the “great lady” could possibly be Wu Yi who was previously the Chinese Health Minister and who helped to control the SARS virus.
So far, the deadly Chinese coronavirus – which has flu-like symptoms that include coughing, fever, shortness of breath, and difficulty breathing – has affected approximately 500 people with 17 deaths. What’s even more frightening is that scientists have warned the public that as many as 10,000 people could have caught the SARS-like virus while visiting Wuhan, China.
There has so far been one diagnosed case in the United States (Washington State) as a man in his 30s caught the virus while visiting Wuhan.
So where did this virus come from? According to a new study (which can be read in full here), it is believed that the virus originated in snakes and spread to humans. There are two types of snakes that are commonly found around the area in which the outbreak originated: Bungarus multicinctus (or the many-banded krait) and Naja atra (or the Chinese cobra).
Nostradamus predicted many disturbing things in history, and this new SARS-like virus is one of the scariest predictions he has made, as more and more people are being affected by this deadly strain.
Something big recently happened in space, but astronomers have no idea what it was. Whatever happened, it was powerful enough to stretch the fabric of reality itself, sending a brief instance of gravitational waves rippling through space-time, and picked up here on Earth. The burst of gravitational waves was unusually brief and lacked other qualities astronomers usually see in gravitational waves.
On January 14, astronomers at the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory (LIGO) and the Virgo interferometer detected a burst of gravitational waves lasting 14 milliseconds. Scientists have attempted to locate the source of the waves, but so far they have no idea what caused them.
Gravitational waves tend to stick around a little longer than the recently observed burst. Most detected gravitational waves are the result of two massive objects colliding with each other. As the two bodies of mass get closer and closer on their collision course, the gravitational waves change in frequency. On January 6, researchers published their observations of a collision between two neutron stars that occurred in 2017.
Like this, but through all of space-time.
It’s possible this burst of gravitational waves resulted from a quicker, more immediate event like a collapsing star. However, researchers have never observed the gravitational waves from a collapsing star. Andy Howell, a staff scientist at Los Cumbres Observatory Global Telescope Network told Live Science:
“[The burst] seems a little too short for what we expect from the collapse of a massive star. On the other hand, we’ve never seen a star blowing up in gravitational waves before, so we don’t really know what it would look like.”
What’s more, a supernova would produce neutrinos—subatomic particles with no charge—and researchers detected no neutrinos alongside the gravitational waves. Some speculated that the waves may have been a signal from the star Betelgeuse which has recently been acting strange and is nearing the end of its life. However, as Live Science points out, Betelgeuse is still there.
A supernova would likely release neutrinos alongside its gravitational wave burst.
esultedIt’s possible the burst of waves may have been the result of an immediate black hole collision, an event that LIGO was specifically looking for. However, it is believed that while an immediate black hole collision would be shorter than that of a neutron star collision, it would still be possible to see the changing frequencies of the gravitational waves as the collision happened.
Yet another possibility is that it was a supernova that immediately turned into a black hole without producing any neutrinos, but that is highly speculative and with the possibility-realm of “what-if-it’s-a-thing-we-know-that-doesn’t-do-what-we-know-it-should.”
Astronomers are now pointing telescopes at that region of the sky to try and ascertain what caused the burst of gravitational waves. They say it could be an entirely new type of astronomical event.
It seems the more telescopes and gadgets we have up in the sky, the more anomalous events seem to occur. It’s a good reminder that we don’t know all that much about what happens outside our pale blue dot.
Anyone who has been on a European river cruise or an organized bus tour through cities with ruins dating back thousands of years has no doubt felt that they were traveling back in time and probably wished it were possible to go back in time and see these cities when they were alive with our ancestors. If we feel that way, it’s not hard to imagine that our future descendants will have the same yearnings. What they may also have is the technology to pull off such a time-traveling tour package. A professor of biological anthropology believes UFOs are actually identified tour ‘buses’ from the future and lays out a case on how to prove it.
“Undoubtedly in the future, there are those that will pay a lot of money to have the opportunity to go back and observe their favorite period in history. Some of the most popular tourist sites are the pyramids of Giza and Machu Picchu in Peru … old and prehistoric sites.”
Michael Masters is a professor of biological anthropology at Montana Technological University in Butte and the author of “Identified Flying Objects: A Multidisciplinary Scientific Approach to the UFO Phenomenon.” In a presentation at the 2019 International UFO Congress and a more recent interview with Space.com, Masters lays out his reasons to believe that aliens are future human tourists. The ‘human’ part is certainly plausible – he points out that most “extratempestrials” are described as bipedal beings with human features who can communicate in our languages and travel in ships that seem to be based on current technology … like a Ferrari resembles a Model T.
“We know we’re here. We know humans exist. We know that we’ve had a long evolutionary history on this planet. And we know our technology is going to be more advanced in the future. I think the simplest explanation, innately, is that it is us. I’m just trying to offer what is likely the most parsimonious explanation.”
Masters sees the stories of alien abductees as indicators that many of the UFO time machines contain anthropologists doing what he wishes he could do if he had the technology – meeting ancient civilizations and perhaps picking up a few samples. Space.com adds credence to the connection to abductee stories by bringing in Larry Lemke, a retired NASA aerospace engineer and ufologist who points out that some abductee experiences coincide with what might happen if they were taken onboard a ship that was able to defy the usual laws of aerodynamics and Newtonian mechanics.
“There’s a group of thinkers in the field of UFOs that point out that phenomena reported around some UFOs do, in fact, look exactly like general relativity effects. Missing time is a very common one.”
Just like today, once the explorers and scientists are done analyzing (and looting) ancient sites, people with a lot of money start visiting them. Eventually, the costs go down and these tours become available to the masses. Have our future selves reached that point yet? Were those recent Tic Tac UFOs merely time-traveling tour buses filled with extratempestrials – noses pressed to the windows, future cell phones taking selfies as they try to see ten cities in ten … minutes?
“Our job as scientists is to be asking big questions and try to find answers to unknown questions. There’s something going on here, and we should be having a conversation about this. We should be at the forefront of trying to find out what it is.”
Not to mention selling souvenirs to these time-traveling tourists.
UFO encounters run the range between those of a benevolent type, and others that are more sinister in nature. Throughout accounts of such encounters one kind find a wide range of experiences lying along this scale, to the point that it is often difficult to know what to make of it all. One very odd and frightening case supposedly played out over an expanse of the Australian Outback, and which has not been solved to this day. It is the tale of a mundane trip across the desert that would turn into a nightmare from possibly another world.
On January 20, 1988, Faye Knowles, her adult sons Patrick (24), Sean (21) and Wayne (18), and their two dogs were making their way towards Melbourne, Australia across a vast expanse of limestone bedrock called the Nullarbor Plain. The area is a remote desert moonscape of a place, with no one around for miles and other cars a rarity, so it was considered odd when in the very early morning hours a light was spotted some distance ahead, just outside of the tiny town of Mundrabilla. The light seemed to get steadily brighter as they watched it, and as they got closer they could see that it was semi-spherical or egg shaped and was most certainly not another vehicle as it was just a single bright light and seemed to be hovering in the air over that desolate expanse.
Nullarbor Plain
As the family struggled to comprehend what they were seeing, the strange object allegedly emitted a beam of light that swept towards their vehicle and caused the driver, Sean, to take evasive maneuvers. The beam missed the car, but this is when Sean would claim the object had begun to follow them down that lonely roadway, easily keeping pace with them no matter how fast they went. They apparently passed another car going the other direction, after which the mysterious object stopped pursuing them and followed the other vehicle. Sean the reportedly turned the car around to follow the other car and its UFO pursuer to figure out what was going on, but thought better of it and turned around yet again. The object then must have decided to go after them again, because it was soon ominously closing in on them once again.
It purportedly got brighter and closer, passing them a few times to circle around to approach again before positioning itself right above their car as the terrified family within screamed out in fright. There was then a thump on the roof, and the car slowed down as if something very heavy were sitting atop it, leading them to the horrible realization that it had actually lowered itself to make contact with the vehicle. According to the witnesses, it then issued a shrill, ear piercing sound, and Faye would say that they were overcome with the sense of something invading their minds, later saying, “It felt like something was going into our heads,” and Patrick would say “I felt like my brain was being sucked out.” They also claimed that their voices became distorted and that they moved sluggishly, as if underwater or experiencing a slowing of time itself. Things would intensify when they then felt the car physically lift off of the road, after which they were shaken violently from side to side as a grey mist filled the car and dropped back down with such force that it blew one of their tires and disabled the vehicle to leave to leave it lying in that unforgiving place like a wounded beast. Fay Knowles would say of the otherworldly encounter:
I wound down the window and I felt this thing on the roof… all of this smoke stuff started coming into the car, the car was covered in black stuff. It was a small light and all of a sudden it became big like this, like a big ball. We thought we were dying, then we got out the car and we hid behind a little tree and the bushes and it couldn’t find us.
When the cowering family were sure the object was gone, they warily went back to their car, changed the tire, and got out of there as fast as they could, eventually making their way to Mundrabilla, where they excitedly told of what had happened to them. Interestingly, a trucker at the gas station there would tell them that he had also seen the strange, eerie light out over the desert as well. When their car was examined, it was found to be banged up, and both the exterior and interior covered with a fine film of black material like soot or ash that had an unusual odor like “a blown fuse.” The Knowles were able to get some truckers to go with them out to where the incident had supposedly occurred, where they allegedly found odd skid marks on the road that seemed to show that the vehicle has been dragged sideways by some powerful force, making it all even stranger.
South Australian Police in Ceduna were notified, and analyses of the soot on the car would be carried out that later prove to be divisive, with some saying it was merely sand and dust particles from the desert, while others claimed that there were also traces of an explosive compound called Potassium Chlorate, as well as a radioactive chemical called Astatine. Yet another analysis found that the dust on the outside of the car and that of the interior were different. The surprising differences of these results seem like they would deserve more follow-up, but oddly the South Australia police were apparently very eager to distance themselves from it all, finish the investigation, and sweep it under the carpet, and the whole case was just sort of filed away even as it was hitting the news in a big way. This would cause Faye Knowles to lament:
We are all angry. Everybody knows that this happened to us but the people who should be concerned have just ignored it. There has been a cover-up. The government owes us and the public an explanation.
Theories on what might have happened to the Knowles family out on that lonely and forbidding stretch of road have swirled ever since, ranging from the mundane to the far-out. One idea is that they had been tired from a 13-hour car ride all night along an isolated road in the middle of nowhere, and had then perhaps misidentified some natural phenomenon in their fatigued state. This has been speculated as perhaps being a truck’s headlights in the distance or the planet Venus, that were distorted by a temperature inversion, which is basically a layer of warm air over cooler air that can cause mirages and tricks of light. However, this in no way explains their car being picked up off of the ground and dropped.
It has also been suggested that they might have experienced a meteor that just happened to disintegrate and cause a shockwave near their car, or even a rocket fired from a military base at nearby Woomera. Other theories include that they were caught in a dust storm or some sort of electromagnetic storm, but none of these really fits all of the details of the encounter. Of course there is the idea that this was an actual UFO abduction, and a possibly even weirder idea is that it was an attack by a secret government organization using a helicopter and a powerful, technologically advanced electromagnet to lift the vehicle up. Researcher William Buckley has said of this strange idea:
The attack on the Knowles family was orchestrated and carried out by a well-resourced paramilitary organization operating in Australia, using a sophisticated helicopter with specialized lifting equipment. The Knowles’ involvement was purely accidental. They were not the intended target and were attacked only because they resembled the real target group who were also travelling on the same road that night. The nature of this covert action by this paramilitary group and the importance of the assassination attempt on the real target group are now shrouded in secrecy and cover-up and nobody wants the truth to be revealed.
This is obviously a case of attempted murder of four people who were all extremely traumatised by this hour-long attack. There was plenty of forensic evidence and witnesses to prove that the family was attacked and a major police investigation should have been triggered to uncover the truth.
Not quite as interesting as any of these is the idea that the family was trying to pull an insurance scam or even that it was just a flat-out hoax. For their part, the Knowles family has always insisted that what they experienced was very real, and very frightening, and they have never sought to gain fame or large amounts of money from any of it, mostly lying low about the whole thing. What happened to this family out on that bleak stretch of road? What forces came calling for them to follow them around and terrorize them? Was this aliens, a weather phenomenon, or something else? No one really knows, and the case remains controversial and debated to this day.
THE ASTEROID THAT KILLED THE DINOSAURS ALSO CREATED A MASSIVE VOLCANIC ERUPTION
THE ASTEROID THAT KILLED THE DINOSAURS ALSO CREATED A MASSIVE VOLCANIC ERUPTION
New study reconsiders that one time the universe got a little too excited about catastrophes.
About 65 million years ago, the dinosaurs went extinct. We know this. And scientists suspect the reason was an asteroid coming to an abrupt halt just off the Yucatan Peninsula. But new research suggests there was another layer to the cataclysm: The asteroid hit the earth so hard that it spurred a massive volcanic eruption on the Indian subcontinent that helped eradicate other dinosaurs who might have survived as well as killing 70 percent of the Earth’s entire species.
At least those are conclusions from a new study published Thursday in Science, authored by American and Indian researchers spread across the globe.
The consensus among scientists is that a huge asteroid crashed into the planet and spurred the mass extinction of life at the end of the Cretaceous period, and resulted in the Chicxulub crater at the edge of the Yucatan peninsula in Mexico.
At the same time, India was rife with volcanic activity in a place known as the Deccan Traps, a 200,000 square mile region that used to be basically covered in lava flow. More than 65 million years ago, the Deccan Traps began forming after a series of volcanic eruptions that are thought have lasted about 30,000 years.
The Deccan Traps, east of Mumbai
Nichalp, via Wikimedia Commons
The asteroid isn’t thought to have outright caused the initial volcanic eruptions, but rather augmented the intensity. The impact from the Chicxulub crash most likely caused earthquakes of about a magnitude 11, which would have shaken the planet’s crust up enough so molten rock could begin flowing out. The more magma was flowing up to the surface, the more unstable the things got. Cue explosions, fire, and dinopocalypse.
The research is an early stepping point to bridging the gap between the asteroid and the volcanic activity. Scientists will need to do a lot more work before we have a better picture about how all of this went down long ago. What’s for certain is that both of these events, individually, were capable of profoundly changing the world as it was. The odds of them happening together are extraordinarily rare — and the consequences were that much more transformative for the future of the Earth.
Scientists Find Mechanism That Extends Worm Lifespans by 500 Percent
Scientists Find Mechanism That Extends Worm Lifespans by 500 Percent
CARLY CASSELLA
A few simple genetic changes is all it takes to prolong a worm's life span by 500 percent, a new study has found.
That's much longer than we ever expected, and scientists working the problem think results such as these might help us understand our own ageing process a little better.
That's because worms like the nematode Caenorhabditis elegans can actually tell us a lot about the workings of the human body. Compared to mammals, these simple little fellas live for only two or three weeks, which makes them perfect for studying various genes and metabolic pathways also shared by humans.
In the past, for instance, scientists have shown that altering the insulin signalling pathway (IIS) in worms yields a 100 percent increase in their lifespan; meanwhile, changes in the so-called TOR pathway (target of rapamycin) result in a 30 percent increase.
This latest study has managed to genetically alter both pathways in just the right way to cause a result four or five times greater than the sum of their separate effects.
"The synergistic extension is really wild," says molecular biologist Jarod Rollins from the the MDI Biological Laboratory in Maine.
"The effect isn't one plus one equals two, it's one plus one equals five."
These findings show that ageing is not simply the result of one individual gene or pathway acting on its own, but rather a confluence of networks all working together in the long-term.
This could certainly explain why no one gene or cellular pathway has been found that can provide longer life for either worms, humans or any other animal for that matter.
When tweaks were made to both the IIS and the TOR pathways, the authors found their downstream activity worked synergistically, inducing a mitochondrial stress response that promoted longevity.
Whether or not something like this mechanism proves directly useful in humans remains to be seen, but knowledge of this relationship has certainly opened up new avenues for research.
Unfortunately, because of the long lives of humans, scientists find it quite hard to study our own ageing (it's also not ideal to play around with our genes just to see what happens), so we have to rely on animal proxies like mice, flies and worms instead. In fact, last year researchers were able to extend the lifespan of a mouse and decrease its chances of cancer by extending its telomeres.
But even with all the scientific limitations on human ageing research, we've had some progress. This year a human clinical trial is going to test the drug metformin, a widely-used treatment for type 2 diabetes that has the potential to delay the onset of age-related diseases like cancer, cardiovascular disease, and Alzheimer's disease.
Perhaps this new research on C. elegans will open similar doors for clinical trials in the future.
"Despite the discovery in C. elegans of cellular pathways that govern ageing, it hasn't been clear how these pathways interact," says nephrologist Hermann Haller, president of the MDI Biological Laboratory.
"By helping to characterise these interactions, our scientists are paving the way for much-needed therapies to increase healthy lifespan for a rapidly ageing population."
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Over mijzelf
Ik ben Pieter, en gebruik soms ook wel de schuilnaam Peter2011.
Ik ben een man en woon in Linter (België) en mijn beroep is Ik ben op rust..
Ik ben geboren op 18/10/1950 en ben nu dus 74 jaar jong.
Mijn hobby's zijn: Ufologie en andere esoterische onderwerpen.
Op deze blog vind je onder artikels, werk van mezelf. Mijn dank gaat ook naar André, Ingrid, Oliver, Paul, Vincent, Georges Filer en MUFON voor de bijdragen voor de verschillende categorieën...
Veel leesplezier en geef je mening over deze blog.
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UVic Anthropology
