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...
01-02-2020
Scientists share new details about mysterious 'ghost particle'
Scientists share new details about mysterious 'ghost particle'
(CNN)Neutrinos, so-called "ghost particles" scattered across the universe, can be 10 million times lighter than the mass of an electron, according to a new study.
Neutrinos are referred to as ghostly because they are extremely volatile, or vaporous, cosmic particles that can pass through any kind of matter without changing. They have almost no mass -- but now scientists have calculated the mass of the lightest type of neutrino.
They can travel through the most extreme environments, like stars, planets and entire galaxies, and remain the same. But neutrinos, while highly energetic, have no charge. Not even the most powerful magnetic field can affect them.
Last year, scientists were able to trace the origins of a high-energy, tiny neutrino for the first time. It traveled 3.7 billion light-years to Earth. It was found by sensors deep in the Antarctic ice in the IceCube detector.
Scientists and observatories around the world were able to trace the neutrino to a galaxy with a supermassive, rapidly spinning black hole at its center, known as a blazar. The galaxy sits to the left of Orion's shoulder in his constellation and is about 4 billion light-years from Earth.
Different types of neutrinos appear as three different masses, but the lightest one was unknown until now. And astronomers still don't know much else about the differences in these three types.
"A hundred billion neutrinos fly through your thumb from the Sun every second, even at night," said Arthur Loureiro, study author and PHd student in the University College London's Physics & Astronomy department. "These are very weakly interactive ghosts that we know little about. What we do know is that as they move, they can change between their three flavours, and this can only happen if at least two of their masses are non-zero."
The mix of three different masses is like mixing ice cream flavors, he said.
"The three flavors can be compared to ice cream where you have one scoop containing strawberry, chocolate and vanilla," Loureiro said. "Three flavors are always present but in different ratios, and the changing ratio-and the weird behaviour of the particle-can only be explained by neutrinos having a mass."
The idea of neutrinos having mass garnered scientists Takaaki Kajita and Arthur McDonald the 2015 Nobel Prize in Physics.
In order to calculate the low mass of the lightest neutrino, data from 1.1 million galaxies collected by particle physicists and cosmologists was used. This allowed them to measure the expansion rate of the universe. Neutrinos are prevalent in the universe, but hard to spot. The scientists required as much data as possible to have every advantage in their research.
"We used information from a variety of sources including space- and ground-based telescopes observing the first light of the Universe, exploding stars, the largest 3D map of galaxies in the Universe, particle accelerators, nuclear reactors, and more," Loureiro said."As neutrinos are abundant but tiny and elusive, we needed every piece of knowledge available to calculate their mass and our method could be applied to other big questions puzzling cosmologists and particle physicists alike."
The supercomputer, known as Grace, at University College London allowed the researchers to create a mathematical model. The supercomputer crunched half a million computing hours, which would have taken 60 years on a single processor.
The researchers discovered the mass to be 10 million times lighter than an electron. Calculating this mass can help researchers who are studying dark matter, dark energy and the structure of the universe.
INSLAGEN VAN PLANETOÏDEN – EEN VOORSPELBAAR RISICO?
INSLAGEN VAN PLANETOÏDEN – EEN VOORSPELBAAR RISICO?
Karel van der Hucht
Kraters onthullen dat de aarde in het verleden getroffen is door planetoïde-inslagen. En die kunnen zich ook in de toekomst voordoen. Maar kunnen we ze aan zien komen?
In het tijdsbestek 1980-1990 kwamen geologen en astronomen een prehistorische inslagkrater voor de kust van Yucatán (Mexico) op het spoor. De krater bleek even oud als de massa-extinctie van 66 miljoen jaar geleden waarbij ongeveer 75% van al het leven op aarde het leven liet, waaronder de dinosauriërs. Deze uitstervingsgolf wordt algemeen aan de Yucatán-inslag toegeschreven, waardoor het besef doorbrak dat onze kosmische omgeving invloed heeft op leven en evolutie op aarde. Inslagen van planetoïden en kometen op aarde hebben de evolutie niet alleen in het verleden op dramatische wijze beïnvloed, maar zulke inslagen zullen zich ook in de toekomst voordoen. Sindsdien wordt hard gewerkt om zoveel mogelijk potentieel gevaarlijke planetoïden en kometen te ontdekken, te volgen en te karakteriseren.
Dit artikel is oorspronkelijk verschenen in het blad ZENIT, waarin je elke maand alles kunt lezen over sterrenkunde, weerkunde en ruimteonderzoek.
NEA’s Een planetoïde wordt Near Earth Asteroid (NEA) genoemd als zijn baan hem binnen 1,3 Astronomische Eenheden (AE: de gemiddelde afstand aarde-zon, 150 miljoen km) van de zon brengt. Near Earth Asteroids en Near Earth Comets (NEC) vormen samen de categorie Near Earth Objects. Het aan de Internationale Astronomische Unie (IAU) gelieerde Minor Planet Center is sinds 1947 het internationaal erkende registratiecentrum en archief van alle waarnemingen – waar ook ter wereld gedaan – van objecten kleiner dan planeten. Tot januari 1980 had het MPC de banen van 51 NEA’s en 44 NEC’s geregistreerd. Inmiddels zijn dat 21.465 NEA’s en 108 NEC’s (stand van 29 november 2019), waarvan de gegevens publiekelijk beschikbaar zijn op het internet. Dit dankzij het werk van NEO-waarnemers wereldwijd (beroeps en amateurs), het NASA/JPL Center for NEO Studies (CNEOS) en het ESA-SSA NEO Coordination Center (NEOCC). Omdat het aantal geregistreerde NECs minder is dan 1% van het aantal geregistreerde NEA’s, beperken we ons in dit artikel tot NEA’s (aardscheerders).
Tot 29 november 2019 werden 556 passages van NEA’s met afmetingen van 1 tot 325 meter binnen 1 maansafstand (d ≤ 1 Lunar Distance, LD: 384.400 km) geregistreerd, waarvan 30 passages met d ≤ 0,1 LD. De huidige ontdekkingsfrequentie van zulke nabije NEA-passages is momenteel ongeveer 75 per jaar. Zeven recente NEA-inslagen vonden plaats in 1908 (Tunguska), 2008 (2008 TC3, Soedan), 2013 (Chelyabinsk), 2014 (2014 AA, West-Afrika), 2018 (2018 LA, Botswana, zie Beekman 2018a; en Beringzee) en 2019 (2019 MO, Caribische Zee). De inslagen boven Soedan, Chelyabinsk en de Beringzee kwamen onverwacht. In de andere vier gevallen werden de NEA’s kort voor de inslag gedetecteerd.
Het cumulatieve aantal waargenomen Near-Earth Asteroids (NEA’s) per 18 november 2019.
Afbeelding: CNEOS.
Beschikbare baanberekeningen van de thans bekende NEA’s voorspellen 48 NEA-passages met d ≤ 1.00 LD tot het jaar 2200, dus slechts 0,25 per jaar (minstens een factor 4 × 75 = 300 te weinig). Maar hoe compleet is de NEA-inventaris momenteel? Van het geschatte aantal van 942 NEA’s met afmetingen groter dan een kilometer zijn er tot op heden 901 waargenomen (96%), met een inslagfrequentie van eens per half miljoen jaar. In de categorie van 140 m tot 1 km zijn er van het geschatte aantal van ongeveer 24.000 NEA’s 8.875 waargenomen (37%), met een inslagfrequentie van eens in de tienduizend jaar. In de categorie van 40 m tot 140 m zijn er van het geschatte aantal van ongeveer 500.000 NEA’s tot op heden ~ 6300 waargenomen (< 1%), met een inslagfrequentie van eens in de duizend jaar. Momenteel worden er jaarlijks ongeveer 2000 nieuwe NEA’s ontdekt, met afmetingen van een paar meter tot enkele kilometers. Het risico van catastrofale NEA-inslagen op aarde is niet zo zeer geassocieerd met de tot op heden bekende, maar met het gigantische aantal nog toe onbekende NEA’s.
“DE NEA-INSLAG VAN 66 MILJOEN JAAR GELEDEN WAS NIET DE EERSTE IN ZIJN SOORT, EN ONGETWIJFELD OOK NIET DE LAATSTE”
Enkele inslagen De Earth Impact Database vermeldt 160 erkende inslagkraters, met diameters van 10 tot 300 km en een ouderdom van 50.000 tot 2 miljard jaar. De jongste ontdekking, gepubliceerd in november 2018, betreft een ~30 km grote inslagkrater onder Hiawatha Glacier in Noord-West Groenland, onder een kilometerdikke laag ijs. Ieder van deze prehistorische NEO-inslagen had ongetwijfeld een dramatische invloed op zijn omgeving. Maar ook de relatief kleine NEO-inslagen sinds 1908 tonen aan dat onze plaats in het zonnestelsel niet zo veilig is als wij tot voor kort dachten. In het kader hieronder volgt een select overzicht van relevante NEO-inslagen.
(Relatief) recente inslagen op een rij – 66 Mjr BC: de Chicxulub-krater (Mexico). Deze ~150 km grote en ~20 km diepe krater, deels begraven onder het Yucatán-schiereiland, werd veroorzaakt door de inslag van een NEA met een diameter van ongeveer 10 tot 15 km. De tijd van inslag correspondeert goed met de Krijt-Tertiairgrens (de K–T grens is de overgang tussen de geologische tijdperken Krijt (K) en Paleogeen (Pg)), iets minder dan 66 miljoen jaar geleden. De inslag veroorzaakte een wereldwijde verstoring van het aardse klimaat en het uitsterven van ruwweg 75% van alle levensvormen op aarde (massa-extinctie), inclusief de dinosauriërs. Was deze inslag onvermijdelijk? De aarde legt in haar baan om de zon een afstand gelijk aan haar eigen diameter af in ongeveer zeven minuten. Dus als de NEA die de massa-extinctie veroorzaakte zeven minuten eerder of later langs was gekomen, dan zou die de aarde gemist hebben. Dan waren de dinosauriërs toen niet uitgestorven en zouden wij er nu misschien helemaal niet zijn. De NEA-inslag van 66 miljoen jaar geleden was niet de eerste in zijn soort, en zeker ook niet de laatste. – 50.000 B.C.: Meteor Crater (Arizona, VS). Meteor Crater werd veroorzaakt door de inslag van een ijzer-nikkel-NEA met afmetingen van 40 tot 50 m ~50,000 jaar geleden, heeft een diameter van 1,2 km en is 170 m diep. – AD 1490: meteorietenregen in China. In februari-maart van het jaar 1490 regende het stenen van 1 kg tot 1,5 kg uit de hemel in het Chíng-yang-district van de provincie Shansi (China). Volgens toenmalige bronnen zouden hierbij meer dan 10.000 mensen zijn omgekomen. – AD 1803: meteorietenregen in L’Aigle (Frankrijk). In de vroege middag van 26 april 1803 regenden meer dan 3000 meteorieten neer op de stad L’Aigle in Normandië. – AD 1908: explosie boven Tunguska (Rusland). Op 30 juni 1908 explodeerde een NEA met een diameter van ~40 m op een hoogte van ~8,5 km in de omgeving van de rivier de Tunguska (Siberië), waarbij een energie van ~4 megaton TNT vrij kwam, die ~2.000 km2 bosoppervlak verwoestte. – AD 2008: inslag van NEA 2008 TC3 boven Soedan. NEA 2008 TC3, met een diameter van ~4 m, werd slechts 19 uur voor inslag ontdekt en ontplofte vervolgens boven de Nubische woestijn in het noorden van Soedan. Direct na de NEA-ontdekking en nog vóór de explosie ontving het MPC 570 waarnemingen van dit object, verricht door 27 waarnemers wereldwijd. Na de inslag werden in de woestijn 280 meteorieten gelokaliseerd met een gezamenlijk gewicht van ruim 4 kg. – AD 2013: inslag boven Chelyabinsk (Rusland). Op 13 februari 2013 explodeerde een NEA met afmetingen van 17-20 m en een massa van ~11.000 ton op een hoogte van ~23 km boven de stad Chelyabinsk (Rusland), waarbij een hoeveelheid energie van ~440 kT TNT vrijkwam. De drukgolf van de ontploffing arriveerde 88 sec. later in de stad, beschadigde meer dan 7.000 gebouwen en verwonde ~1600 personen als gevolg van gesprongen vensters (glaswonden). De NEA moet vlak voor de inslag van de 24ste magnitude zijn geweest en benaderde de aarde binnen 15° van de richting naar de zon met een snelheid van ~19 km/s. – AD 2018: inslag boven de Beringzee. In december 2018 ontplofte een NEA met een energie van bijna 200 kT TNT (meer dan 10 keer de Hiroshima-bom) onverwacht boven de Beringzee.
Het inslagrisico Het risico dat wij op de korte termijn lopen, op de tijdschaal van een mensenleven, komt voornamelijk van NEA’s met afmetingen van 20 tot 40 meter. Kleinere NEA’s, hoewel groter in aantal, verbranden bij inslag geheel in de aardatmosfeer; grotere NEA’s komen minder vaak voor.
Een NEA met Tunguska-afmetingen (~40 m) scheert een aantal keren per jaar binnen de maansafstand langs de aarde en slaat ongeveer eens in de 500 jaar in. Een NEA met Chelyabinsk-afmetingen (~20 m) scheert bijna eens per week langs de aarde binnen de maansafstand en eens per twee jaar binnen de gordel van de geostationaire satellieten (~36.000 km). Ongeveer 10 miljoen NEA’s met Chelyabinsk-afmetingen hebben banen die de aardbaan snijden; hun inslaginterval is van de orde van 50 jaar. Zie de tabel hieronder voor de gevolgen van NEA inslagen als functie van hun afmetingen.
Gemiddelde gevolgen van NEA inslagen als functie van hun afmetingen.
Afbeelding: Yeomans, 2013, p. 115.
NEO-surveys NEO waarneemstations bevinden zich voornamelijk in de VS en worden gefinancierd door NASA, daarin geleid door de George E. Brown Object Survey Act uit 2005, een initiatief van het Amerikaanse Congres. Die wet eist van NASA om vóór het jaar 2020 90% van alle NEO’s met afmetingen groter dan 140 m te ontdekken, te volgen en te karakteriseren om vast te stellen hoe groot de kans op inslagen van deze NEO’s is. Karakterisering (bepaling van hun fysische eigenschappen) is essentieel voor een goed begrip van het effect van NEO-inslagen en wordt verkregen met fotometrie, spectroscopie, radarwaarnemingen en metingen ter plaatse, zoals momenteel op de NEA’s Ryugu en Bennu plaatsvinden door de sample return-ruimtemissies Hayabusa2 en OSIRIS-REx. De meest productieve NEO-surveys zijn de Amerikaanse Catalina Sky Survey (CSS, sinds 1999) en het Panoramic Survey Telescope and Rapid Response System (Pan-STARRS, sinds 2011). De NEO-survey NEOWISE opereert vanuit de ruimte. CSS is onderdeel van het Lunar and Planetary Laboratory van de University of Arizona (Tucson, VS). De drie CSS-telescopen staan op het Santa Catalina-gebergte ten noorden van Tucson en behoren tot het Steward Observatory van de University of Arizona: een 1,5 m reflector, een 1,0 m reflector en een 0,7 m Schmidt-telescoop. Tot 2013 werd samengewerkt met de aanverwante Siding Spring Survey en diens 0,5 m Uppsala Schmidt-telescoop op het Siding Spring Observatory in Australië. De CSS 1,5 m survey-telescoop is een f/1,6 reflector met een 10.560 × 10.560 pixels CCD-detector in het primaire focus. Per nacht kan een gezichtsveld van 1000 vierkante graden worden waargenomen met een grensmagnitude van V ≈ 21,5 met een belichtingstijd van 30 sec. per opname.
Pan-STARRS op Hawaii.
Afbeelding: Rob Ratkowski.
Pan-STARRS is een observatorium van de University of Hawaï gelegen op Mount Haleakala (Maui, VS). Pan-STARRS heeft twee telescopen, PS1 en PS2, elk met een spiegel van 1,8 m diameter. Deze telescopen observeren gelijktijdig hetzelfde gebied aan de hemel. Elke spiegel heeft een gezichtsveld van drie graden en een CCD-camera met 1,4 miljard pixels. De resolutie aan de hemel bedraagt 0,3 boogseconden. Voor NEO-waarnemingen overziet men een gezichtsveld van 6000 vierkante graden per nacht. Met een belichtingstijd van 30 à 60 sec. kan Pan-STARRS objecten waarnemen tot een magnitude van V ≈ 26. NEOWISE maakt gebruik van de NASA Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE) ruimtemissie. De sonde werd gelanceerd in december 2009 en maakte in vier infrarood-golflentebanden (3,4, 4,6, 12, 22 μm) een survey van de hele hemel, tot in september 2010 de koelvloeistof was uitgeput. De missie werd tot februari 2011 vervolgd als NEOWISE bij 3,4 en 4,6 μm, waarna de ruimtesonde in winterslaap werd gebracht. NEOWISE werd in september 2013 uit haar winterslaap gewekt en heeft tot midden oktober 2019 meer dan 860.000 infraroodwaarnemingen aan het MPC geleverd van 35.277 verschillende objecten in ons zonnestelsel, waaronder 1044 NEO’s en 179 kometen.
Geen zorgen om Apophis Zo af en toe duiken er planetoïden op die mensen (in eerste instantie) zorgen baren. Apophis is er eentje van. Apophis is een NEA met diameter van 370 meter, waarvan de eerste waarnemingen in december 2004 een golf van bezorgdheid veroorzaakte. Het leek erop dat Aphopis met een kans van 2,7% op vrijdag 13 (!) april 2029 met de aarde in botsing zou komen. Vervolgwaarnemingen leidden al spoedig tot minder zorgwekkende voorspellingen, maar het duurde nog tot 2013 voordat waarnemingen met de Goldstone-radartelescoop een al te groot risico uitsloten: de inslagkans in 2029 is hooguit 1 op 500.000. Recente berekeningen voorspellen dat Apophis die dag op 31.356 km langs de aarde zal scheren, zichtbaar met het blote oog als een object van magnitude +3,1. Niettemin is deze unieke close encounter van groot wetenschappelijk belang; plannen voor waarneemcampagnes zijn in de maak. Een inslag van een NEA met Apophis-afmetingen kunnen we eens in de 80.000 jaar verwachten. Een datum van grotere zorg is 16 maart 2880 wanneer NEA 1950 DA (afmetingen: 1,39 × 1,46 × 1,07 km) met een inslagkans van 1 op 8330 (0,012%) langs de aarde zal scheren.
Toekomstige surveys De huidige NEO-inventarisatie is marginaal, zoals hierboven gekwantificeerd. Daardoor is het nog niet mogelijk de risico’s van NEO-inslagen goed te bepalen. Twee ambitieuze projecten moeten op korte termijn enigszins soelaas bieden: LSST op aarde en NEOCam in de ruimte. De Large Synoptic Survey Telescope is een 8,4 m optische telescoop, in aanbouw op het Cerro Pachón-gebergte in het noorden van Chili en moet vanaf 2022 operationeel zijn. LSST zal echter slechts gedeeltelijk beschikbaar zijn voor NEO-waarnemingen. LSST wordt geacht om 62% van de potentieel gevaarlijke NEA’s groter dan 140 m in kaart te brengen in een tijdsbestek van 10 jaar. In 12 jaar zou dat mogelijk 90% kunnen worden.
De Large Synoptic Survey Telescope.
Afbeelding: LSST.org.
Alleen met permanente, optische en infrarood observatoria in de ruimte zal het ontdekken, volgen en karakteriseren van NEO’s kunnen leiden tot een zo volledig mogelijke inventarisatie. Het NASA-JPL NEOCam-project behelst een 50 cm telescoop met een groothoek-infraroodcamera voor waarnemingen bij 4 tot 10 μm, met passief gekoelde detectoren tot 40 K. NEOCam zal opereren in het zon-aarde Lagrange punt L1 (ongeveer vier keer verder dan de maan) gedurende minimaal vier jaar, om 66 % van de NEA’s groter dan 140 m te inventariseren en zo mogelijk 90% in 10 jaar. Veertien jaar heeft het NEOCam-voorstel moeten concurreren met andere ruimteonderzoek-voorstellen. Totdat het besef doorbrak dat NEOCam niet alleen van groot wetenschappelijk, maar vooral ook van groot maatschappelijk belang is: de bescherming van aarde en mensen tegen NEO-inslagen. In september 2019 werd het project goedgekeurd en heet nu NEO Surveillance Mission. De lancering is op zijn vroegst in 2025.
Tot slot NEO-inslagen zijn uniek onder de natuurrampen, omdat zij met grote nauwkeurigheid kunnen worden voorspeld, mits er een voldoende complete NEO-inventarisatie beschikbaar is. Omdat NEO-inslagen zich niets van nationale grenzen aantrekken, ligt internationale samenwerking in NEO-surveys voor de hand. De 100-jarige IAU kan hierin een belangrijke rol spelen. Er zullen grote investeringen gedaan moeten worden om een serie NEO-observatoria in de ruimte te installeren rond de zon tussen de banen van Venus en Mars, met als doel om 90% van alle NEOs groter dan 40 m te inventariseren. Alleen dan zal het mogelijk zijn om tijdig waarschuwingen uit te doen gaan voor NEO-inslagen van Tunguska-niveau en zwaarder. In Resolution 3B van de 28ste Algemene Vergadering van de IAU in 2012 wordt aanbevolen om een dergelijk International NEO Early Warning System te stichten. Als verzekeringspremie voor planeet Aarde tegen inslagen van Near Earth Objects, de ongeleide projectielen van de kosmos. In de woorden van oud-directeur van het NASA JPL Center for NEO Studies Donald K. Yeomans (2013, p. 153): “Near Earth Objects are among the smallest members of the solar system, but their diminutive size is in no way proportional to their importance… We better find them, before they find us.”
Very rarely, a gravity wave rising up in the atmosphere can be filtered and bent to travel between the mesopause and an inversion layer intermittently formed below the mesopause. The mesopause and the inversion layer are colder than the other layers of the atmosphere. In the wave channel established between these two layers, gravity waves coming from below can travel long distances without subsiding. Dune-shaped auroral emissions are created when solar wind charges the oxygen atoms surging through the channel. Credit: Jani Närhi
Working together with space researchers, Finnish amateur photographers have discovered a new auroral form. Named "dunes" by the hobbyists, the phenomenon is believed to be caused by waves of oxygen atoms glowing due to a stream of particles released from the Sun.
In the recently published study, the origins of the dunes were tracked to a wave guide formed within the mesosphere and its boundary, the mesopause. The study also posits that this new auroral form provides researchers with a novel way to investigate conditions in the upper atmosphere.
The study was published in the first issue of the high-impact journal AGU Advances.
An unknown fingerprint appears in the sky
Minna Palmroth, Professor of Computational Space Physics at the University of Helsinki, heads a research group developing the world's most accurate simulation of the near-Earth space and space weather that cause auroral emissions.
The sun releases a steady flow of charged particles, known as the solar wind. Reaching the Earth's ionised upper atmosphere, the ionosphere, they create auroral emissions by exciting atmospheric oxygen and nitrogen atoms. The excitation state is released as auroral light.
In late 2018, Palmroth published a book entitled "Revontulibongarin opas" ("A guide for aurora borealis watchers"). The book was born out of Palmroth's cooperation with Northern Lights enthusiasts and the answers she provided to questions about the physics of the phenomenon in the hobbyists" Facebook group.
Thousands of magnificent photographs of the Northern Lights taken by hobbyists were surveyed and categorized for the book. Each auroral form is like a fingerprint, typical only of a certain phenomenon in the auroral zone. During the classification, hobbyists pointed out that a certain auroral form did not fit into any of the pre-existing categories. Palmroth set aside these unusual forms for later consideration.
By an almost unbelievable coincidence, just days after the book was published, the hobbyists saw this unusual form again and immediately informed Palmroth. The form appeared as a green-tinged and even pattern of waves resembling a striped veil of clouds or dunes on a sandy beach.
"One of the most memorable moments of our research collaboration was when the phenomenon appeared at that specific time and we were able to examine it in real time," says Northern Lights and astronomy hobbyist Matti Helin.
Waves newly revealed by the aurora
Investigations into the phenomenon were launched, with hobbyist observations and scientific methods coming together to explain the waves.
"It was like piecing together a puzzle or conducting detective work," says Helin. "Every day we found new images and came up with new ideas. Eventually, we got to the bottom of it…"
The phenomenon was photographed at the same time in both Laitila and Ruovesi, southwest Finland, with the same detail observed in the auroral emission in both images. Maxime Grandin, a postdoctoral researcher in Palmroth's team, identified stars behind the emission and determined the azimuths and elevations of the stars with the help of the astronomy software program Stellarium. This made it possible to use the stars as points of reference when calculating the altitude and extent of the auroral phenomenon.
Grandin found that the auroral dunes occur at a relatively low altitude of 100 kilometers, in the upper parts of the mesosphere. The wavelength of the wave field was measured to be 45 kilometers.
A total of seven similar events—where a camera had recorded the same even pattern of waves—were further identified from the "Taivaanvahti" ("Sky Watch') service maintained by the Finnish Amateur Astronomer Association, Ursa.
Unexplored region
The part of the auroral zone where the Earth's electrically-neutral atmosphere meets the edge of space is an extremely challenging environment for satellites and other space-borne instruments. Palmroth says this is why it is one of the least studied places on our planet.
"Due to the difficulties in measuring the atmospheric phenomena occurring between 80 and 120 kilometers in altitude, we sometimes call this area 'the ignorosphere,'" she says.
The dunes were observed precisely in that particular region of the auroral zone. The observed phenomenon guided the researchers towards a middle ground between atmospheric research and space research, as the usual methodology of space physics could not explain it alone.
"The differences in brightness within the dune waves could be due to either waves in the precipitating particles coming from space, or in the underlying atmospheric oxygen atoms," says Palmroth. "We ended up proposing that the dunes are a result of increased oxygen atom density."
Next, the team had to determine how the variability in the density of the oxygen atoms caused by gravity waves in the atmosphere results in such an even and widespread field of waves. Normally at the altitude of study there are many different kinds of gravity waves traveling in different directions at different wavelengths, which is why they do not easily form the even wavefields exhibited by the dunes.
The Northern Lights illuminate a tidal bore
The study suggests that the phenomenon in question is a mesospheric bore, a rare and little-studied phenomenon that takes place in the mesosphere. The tidal bore phenomenon is a wave common to many rivers, where the tide travels up the river channel.
Various types of gravity wave are born in the atmosphere and then rise. In very rare cases, gravity waves can get filtered as they rise between the mesopause and an inversion layer that is intermittently formed below the mesopause. The inversion layer makes the filtered waves bend and enables them to travel long distances through the channel without attenuation.
When the oxygen atoms in the bore collide with the electrons precipitating down upon the atmosphere, they become excited. When releasing this excitation, they create the auroral light. This is why mesospheric bores—a phenomenon thus far considered a very challenging subject of research—can occasionally be seen with the naked eye.
Space researchers focus on the atmosphere
Prior to this discovery, mesospheric bores were not observed in the auroral zone, nor have they been investigated via auroral emissions.
"The auroral zone as a whole is usually discounted in studies focused on the bore, as auroral emissions impair the technique used to identify mesospheric bores," says Palmroth.
Traditionally, researchers specializing in the atmosphere and space have largely investigated their topics of interest separate from each other. This is because there are only a handful of known mechanisms of interaction between the ionosphere bathing in the precipitating electrons, and the neutral atmosphere.
With the help of measuring devices operated by the Finnish Meteorological Institute, the dunes were found to occur simultaneously and in the same region where the electromagnetic energy originating in space is transferred to the ignorosphere.
"This could mean that the energy transmitted from space to the ionosphere may be linked with the creation of the inversion layer in the mesosphere," says Palmroth. "In terms of physics, this would be an astounding discovery, as it would represent a new and previously unobserved mechanism of interaction between the ionosphere and the atmosphere."
ADEMBENEMEND MOOI: DEZE NIEUW ONTDEKTE VARIANT VAN HET NOORDERLICHT
ADEMBENEMEND MOOI: DEZE NIEUW ONTDEKTE VARIANT VAN HET NOORDERLICHT
Vivian Lammerse
Het groen getinte licht lijkt wel wat weg te hebben van golvende duinen op een zandstrand.
Onderzoekers hebben samen met Finse amateurfotografen een nieuwe variant van het prachtige noorderlicht ontdekt. Het fenomeen dat niet leek te passen binnen bestaande categorieën van het noorderlicht is ‘de duinen’ genoemd. Een bijpassende naam. Het licht dat aan de nachtelijke hemel verschijnt lijkt namelijk wel wat op golvende duinen op een zandstrand.
Boek De vondst van de nieuwe variant van het noorderlicht is te danken aan duizenden hobbyfotografen die voor een nieuw boek foto’s van het noorderlicht verstrekten. Opvallend genoeg bleek dat een bepaald type licht dat door de fotografen vastgelegd was, niet in een van de reeds bestaande categorieën paste. Slechts een paar dagen na publicatie van het boek zagen hobbyisten dit ongebruikelijke licht opnieuw. “Eén van de meest gedenkwaardige momenten was toen het fenomeen op dat specifieke moment aan de hemel verscheen en we het in realtime konden onderzoeken,” zegt amateurastronoom Matti Helin.
Verklaring Wetenschappers en amateurs verenigden zich om de bijzondere golvende patronen te verklaren. “Het leek op het leggen van een puzzel of het uitvoeren van speurwerk,” herinnert Helin zich. “Elke dag vonden we nieuwe afbeeldingen en kwamen we met nieuwe ideeën. Uiteindelijk kwamen we erachter…” In een nieuw wetenschappelijk artikel doen onderzoekers hun bevindingen uit de doeken. Zo ontdekten ze dat de ‘duinen’ voorkomen op een relatief lage hoogte van ongeveer 100 kilometer boven de grond, in de bovenste regionen van de mesosfeer.
Wat is het noorderlicht? Het noorderlicht ontstaat wanneer geladen deeltjes afkomstig van de zon door het aardmagnetisch veld in de buurt van de noord- en zuidpool worden afgebogen. De deeltjes dringen vervolgens met hoge snelheid de atmosfeer nabij de polen binnen en botsen op verschillende gassen. Daarbij ontstaat het veelkleurige licht dat wij het noorderlicht of poollicht noemen.
De studie suggereert dat het fenomeen in kwestie een zogenoemde mesosferische branding (in het Engels mesospheric bore) is. Dit is een zeldzaam en nog maar weinig bestudeerd fenomeen dat zich in de mesosfeer afspeelt. Het manifesteert zich wanneer golven van zuurstofatomen in de atmosfeer worden opgewekt door interacties met zonnewind, waardoor er een gloeiend, duinachtig effect ontstaat. “De verschillen in helderheid van de duingolven hebben mogelijk te maken met neerslaande deeltjes uit de ruimte, of met onderliggende atmosferische zuurstofatomen,” legt onderzoeker Minna Palmroth uit. “Uiteindelijk kwamen we tot de conclusie dat de duinen het gevolg zijn van een verhoogde dichtheid van zuurstofatomen.”
Energie Met behulp van geavanceerde meetapparatuur bleek dat de duinen gelijktijdig en in hetzelfde gebied voorkomen waar de elektromagnetische energie uit de ruimte wordt overgedragen aan de mesosfeer. “Dit kan betekenen dat de energie die vanuit de ruimte naar de ionosfeer wordt overgebracht kan worden gekoppeld aan het ontstaan van de inversielaag in de mesosfeer,” stelt Palmroth. “In termen van de fysica zou dit een verbazingwekkende ontdekking zijn, omdat het een nieuw en voorheen niet waargenomen mechanisme van interactie is tussen de ionosfeer en de atmosfeer.”
De foto’s en video’s van het nieuw ontdekte fenomeen zijn hoe dan ook adembenemend. Daarnaast kunnen ze helpen om de de omstandigheden in de moeilijk te bestuderen mesosfeer te onderzoeken. Het is trouwens niet voor het eerst dat onderzoekers een nieuw type poollicht ontdekten. Eerder werd ook al het mysterieuze verschijnsel STEVE afgedaan als een nieuwe variant. Helaas werd dat idee ontkracht en bleek het eerder te gaan om een soort ‘luchtgloed’.
The wreckage of a ship that mysteriously went missing in the Bermuda Triangle almost 100 years ago has been discovered off the coast of Florida, a team of researchers has said.
The SS Cotopaxi—an American merchant steamer—left Charleston, South Carolina on November 29, 1925, loaded with coal. But the vessel vanished without a trace before arriving at its final destination, Havana, Cuba.
The fate of the Cotopaxi and the 32 people on board has long puzzled experts, and the ship's disappearance has become one of the famous stories associated with the legend of the Triangle—a notorious region of the western North Atlantic Ocean where several ships and aircraft are said to have gone missing in strange circumstances.
"The Cotopaxi was on a routine voyage," marine biologist and underwater explorer Michael Barnette told Newsweek. "She was employed in the coal trade and so this was just another trip at the end of November of 1925. We know that on that voyage something happened because she delivered a mayday message early December saying she's in distress.
"And then that was it. They never found any wreckage. They never found any lifeboats, bodies or anything. The vessel just disappeared after that point. So we've been trying to determine what happened."
The story of the disappearance of the Cotopaxi has had a colorful past. Film director Steven Spielberg included the vessel in his sci-fi classic Close Encounters of the Third Kind, in which it was discovered in the Gobi Desert, having apparently been placed there by extraterrestrials. In 2015, a news report said the ship had reappeared near a restricted military zone off the coast of Cuba. Various versions of this story emerged in the years that followed. All have been dismissed as hoaxes, however.
Now, after almost a century of uncertainty and speculation, a more realistic explanation has emerged. Barnette and colleagues say they have located the wreck around 35 miles off the coast of St. Augustine, on Florida's northeast coast.
The discovery is revealed in an episode of Shipwreck Secrets, a new Science Channel series that starts next month.
"I've always been fascinated by history," Barnette, who has discovered the wrecks of numerous lost ships over the course of his career, said. "I'm a marine biologist by profession. But maritime history is my real passion. I like going out and trying to identify wrecks because every one has a fascinating story. I'm just a very curious guy."
The search for the wreck began thousands of miles away from the Bermuda Triangle in London, England. Barnette contacted British historian Guy Walters and asked him to dig through the archives of Lloyd's of London, which contains insurance documents related to the ship's fateful voyage.
During his search, Walters managed to uncover evidence that the Cotopaxi had sent out a distress signal on December 1, 1925—a key piece of information that historians had not previously known about.
"A lot of times, it's more important to spend more time in the archives researching than it is on the water, because that's when you will make the discoveries in all these articles for insurance or things of that nature," he told Newsweek.
According to the documents he uncovered, the distress signals were picked up in Jacksonville, Florida, placing the ship in the vicinity of the so-called Bear Wreck—located off the coast of St. Augustine—which has baffled experts for decades.
The waters off the coast of St. Augustine—a thriving port in colonial times—are filled with 16th and 17th century shipwrecks. The Bear Wreck, however, stands out from these in a number of ways. Firstly, it appears to be from the late 19th or early 20th century, and is located much further off the coast than most of the other older shipwrecks. The ship's real name and the reason it sank have long remained a mystery.
Michael Barnette diving the Bear Wreck.DISCOVERY COMMUNICATIONS, LLC
With the evidence uncovered by Walters, Barnette and his dive partner Joe Citelli decided to conduct a series of dives at the Bear Wreck in order to look for an artifact that could link it to the Cotopaxi. Specifically, they wanted to find an object with the vessel's name on it—something commonly found on the bell of ships.
However, such discoveries are rare and despite the use of a remotely operated underwater vehicle, the divers did not find what they were looking for, in part, because the wreck is covered in large quantities of sand.
Barnette got in touch with Al Perkins, a diver who has been exploring the Bear Wreck for more than three decades, collecting numerous objects from it in the process. One of the items in his collection seemed to provide a clue to the wreck's origins.
The object was a valve that had been manufactured by a company based around 12 miles from where the Cotopaxi was built—in Ecorse, Michigan. But was this a coincidence or a piece of evidence linking the Bear Wreck to the Cotopaxi?
Barnette reached out to Chuck Meide and Brendan Burke from the St. Augustine Lighthouse & Maritime Museum—two experts on the shipwrecks in the waters surrounding the city.
Under the guidance of Meide and Burke, Barnette conducted more dives to collect measurements of the Bear Wreck. These were then compared with the original plans of the Cotopaxi. The team discovered that numerous features—including the length of the vessel and dimensions of the boilers—matched the measurements they had taken.
Finally, Barnette received a crucial piece of information from Walters, who had been carrying out research at the National Archives of New York. There, the historian found documents from a legal case that the families of some of the missing crewmen had brought against the Cotopaxi's operator—the Clinchfield Navigation company. They argued the ship was unseaworthy and unsuited to rough ocean conditions.
In the documents, the president of the company countered that this was not the case and the only reason the ship sunk was because she had been caught in a large storm off the Florida coast—one that is attested in historical weather records on the day that the Cotopaxi sent out distress signals.
In his testimony the president reported the last known coordinates of the Cotopaxi, which were dated to November 30, 1925. Barnette plotted these coordinates on a map, placing the ship 22 miles north of the Bear Wreck on this date, on what would appear to be the vessel's expected course if it was traveling its regular route from Charleston to Havana.
For the team, this was the final piece of the puzzle linking the Cotopaxi to the Bear Wreck. Given that a storm would strike the area the next day—and the evidence from the legal documents indicating that the vessel was not seaworthy—the researchers also appeared to have uncovered a possible explanation for the ship's sinking.
The team believes these final coordinates, coupled with a distress signal being sent from the ship the next day, and historic records showing a storm had hit the area, are further evidence to show the Bear Wreck the site of the sunken Cotopaxi.
"We approach all these shipwrecks kind of like a cold case murder case, right? You know, you have the body there. You try and gain whatever information you can. There's a whole bunch of tools that we use to try to identify these wrecks," Barnette said.
He described the moment of realization that the Bear Wreck is probably the final resting place of the Cotopaxi as like a "jolt of electricity."
A remotely operated underwater vehicle which the team used to explore the Bear Wreck.DISCOVERY COMMUNICATIONS, LLC
"A lot of times it is very emotional because first you are excited that your theory is correct. There's also an emotional rollercoaster because you realize, 'wait a second, this is a grave site which marks the final resting spot spot of the crew members that went down with the vessel.' So there's a responsibility to try and reach out to the families so we can help give closure to them," he said.
"Myself and other wreck divers around the world, when we identify these wrecks, sometimes we're writing the final chapter in the story or sometimes we're actually rewriting history," he said. "What people assume actually happened sometimes is not the case."
Barnette adds that paranormal explanations for the disappearances of ships and aircraft in the Bermuda Triangle—which have frequently been debunked by experts—often distract from what's really important.
"Each one of these shipwreck stories is their own saga, and a lot of times you kind of hit on the Bermuda Triangle. But the Bermuda Triangle is not the story, it's the drama that unfolds on these individual shipwrecks, and aircraft."
The way the fabric of space and time swirls in a cosmic whirlpool around a dead star has confirmed yet another prediction from Einstein's theory of general relativity, a new study finds.
That prediction is a phenomenon known as frame dragging, or the Lense-Thirring effect. It states that space-time will churn around a massive, rotating body. For example, imagine Earth were submerged in honey. As the planet rotated, the honey around it would swirl — and the same holds true with space-time.
Satellite experiments have detected frame dragging in the gravitational field of rotating Earth, but the effect is extraordinarily small and, therefore, has been challenging to measure. Objects with greater masses and more powerful gravitational fields, such as white dwarfs and neutron stars, offer better chances to see this phenomenon.
Scientists focused on PSR J1141-6545, a young pulsar about 1.27 times the mass of the sun. The pulsar is located 10,000 to 25,000 light-years from Earth in the constellation Musca (the fly), which is near the famous Southern Cross constellation.
A pulsar is a fast-spinning neutron star that emits radio waves along its magnetic poles. (Neutron stars are corpses of stars that died in catastrophic explosions known as supernovas; the gravity of these remnants is powerful enough to crush protons together with electrons to form neutrons.)
PSR J1141-6545 circles a white dwarf with a mass about the same as the sun's. White dwarfs are the superdense Earth-size cores of dead stars that are left behind after average-size stars have exhausted their fuel and shed their outer layers. Our sun will end up as a white dwarf one day, as will more than 90% of all stars in our galaxy.
The pulsar orbits the white dwarf in a tight, fast orbit less than 5 hours long, hurtling through space at about 620,000 mph (1 million km/h), with a maximum separation between the stars barely larger than the size of our sun, study lead author Vivek Venkatraman Krishnan, an astrophysicist at the Max Planck Institute for Radio Astronomy in Bonn, Germany, told Space.com.
The researchers measured when pulses from the pulsar arrived at Earth to an accuracy within 100 microseconds over a period of nearly 20 years, using the Parkes and UTMOST radio telescopes in Australia. This allowed them to detect a long-term drift in the way the pulsar and white dwarf orbit each other.
After eliminating other possible causes of this drift, the scientists concluded that it was the result of frame dragging: The way the rapidly spinning white dwarf pulls on space-time has caused the pulsar's orbit to change its orientation slowly over time. Based on the level of frame dragging, the researchers calculated that the white dwarf whirls on its axis about 30 times an hour.
Previous research suggested that the white dwarf formed before the pulsar in this binary system. One prediction of such theoretical models is that, before the pulsar-forming supernova occurred, the progenitor of the pulsar shed nearly 20,000 Earth masses' worth of matter onto the white dwarf over the course of about 16,000 years, boosting its rate of spin.
"Systems like PSR J1141-6545, where the pulsar is younger than the white dwarf, are quite rare," Venkatraman Krishnan said. The new study "confirms a long-standing hypothesis of how this binary system came to be, something that was proposed over two decades ago."
The researchers noted that they used frame dragging to yield insight into the rotating star that caused it. In the future, they said, they can use a similar method to analyze binary neutron stars to learn more about their internal composition, "which, even after more than 50 years of observing them, we do not yet have a handle on," Venkatraman Krishnan said. "The density of matter inside a neutron star far exceeds what can be achieved in a lab, so there is a wealth of new physics to be learnt by using this technique to double neutron-star systems."
The scientists detailed their findings online today (Jan. 30) in the journal Science.
WETENSCHAP & PLANEETWetenschappers hebben de meest gedetailleerde beelden van de zon ooit gemaakt. Ze komen van een gloednieuwe Inouye-zonnetelescoop op Hawaï en laten zien hoe de zon uit een soort poffende maïskorrels bestaat.
Projectdirecteur Thomas Rimmele is zeer verheugd met de beelden die door de 344 miljoen euro kostende telescoop van het National Solar Observatory zijn gemaakt. “Dit zijn de meest gedetailleerde beelden die ooit van het zonneoppervlak gemaakt zijn!’’, jubelt Rimmele in The Guardian.
De borrelende ‘gouden’ celachtige structuren zijn opstijgende delen plasma van ongeveer 6.000 graden Celsius warm. Eén zo’n ‘blokje’ i ongeveer zo groot als Frankrijk en stijgt op naar de oppervlakte, ontploft als het ware en laat zijn hitte los, om vervolgens weer ‘afgekoeld’ de zon in te verdwijnen en plaats te maken voor ander opstijgend plasma.
“Eerst leek het erop alsof we naar een helder punt keken, naar één enkele structuur. Maar nu zien we die uiteenvallen in veel kleinere structuren”, legt Rimmele uit.
EPA
IJsbad
De zonnetelescoop staat op de top van de drie kilometer hoge Haleakala-vulkaan op Hawaï en de spiegel heeft een doorsnee van vier meter, de grootste ter wereld. Omdat deze spiegel extreem heet kan worden, staat de telescoop in een ijszwembad zodat het apparaat niet oververhit kan raken. Er is voor twaalf kilometer aan waterleidingen aangelegd om het ijsbad aan te vullen.
Met de nieuwe beelden kunnen wetenschappers beter onderzoek doen naar de natuur- en scheikundige functies van de zon en daarmee het ruimteweer beter voorspellen. En dat is niet alles, zegt Rimmele: “Met de nieuwe instrumenten die de komende zes maanden in gebruik genomen gaan worden, kunnen we de magnetische velden rond het zonoppervlak meten.”
via REUTERS
Rep. Ed Case✔@RepEdCase
Amazing first-ever photos of our Sun by the brand-new world-class Daniel K. Inouye Solar Telescope (DKI-ST) on Maui’s Haleakalā. With this Hawai’i continues on the cutting edge of astronomy & leads a new era of solar science with broad real-world applications. #SolarVision2020
This new aurora, discovered by citizen scientists and dubbed "the dunes" extends out horizontally in waves. Scientists hypothesize that they are visible representations of underlying gravity waves.
When mysterious glowing stripes of green lit up Finnish skies in 2018, it didn't go unnoticed by avid aurora chasers. The pattern of light was unfamiliar and strangely perfect, reaching out toward the horizon like a set of celestial sand dunes.
Sure enough, the light show dubbed by the citizen scientists as "the dunes" turned out to be a new type of aurora. This aurora is formed by the dramatic dance of gravity waves and oxygen atoms, according to new findings published today (Jan. 29) in the journal AGU Advances.
The path to discovery began years ago when a group of aurora enthusiasts emailed Minna Palmroth, a professor of computational space physics at the University of Helsinki, asking her to join their Facebook group. The goal? Have Palmroth explain the physics behind the auroras they were photographing.
Palmroth was happy to do so. After a while, she realized her answers were becoming repetitive — so she went on to publish an aurora guidebook. But in October 2018, the aurora chasers came back to her with images of a puzzling aurora.
"Then I realized that oh no ... I haven't seen these before," Palmroth told Live Science. Upon first look, these stripes looked to be the result of gravity waves, or density disturbances in the upper atmosphere. The upper atmosphere is streaked with many different gravity waves that run in different directions and are of different frequencies and sizes. But that explanation didn't seem possible, because the waves were so evenly spread.
So Palmroth and her team organized a campaign for the evening of Oct. 7, gathering scientists and citizens throughout Finland to photograph the dunes. By analyzing these photographs, the team began to understand the physics behind the phenomenon.
This isn't the first time aurora chasers have identified a new celestial phenomenon; citizen scientists also discovered the sky glow affectionately dubbed STEVE in 2018.
"Collaborations with citizen scientists are getting increasingly important because they can become 'mobile sensors' that chase interesting aurora easily and catch new features that scientists didn't notice before," said Toshi Nishimura, a research associate professor of electrical and computer engineering at Boston University's Center for Space Physics, who was not part of the study.
The dunes (marked by the magenta circles) as seen from two different locations in Finland (Ruovesi and Laitila) on Oct. 7. (Image credit: AGU Advances/Palmroth et. al.)
Invisible gravity waves
Auroras result when the sun hurls charged particles toward our planet. Those particles travel along the magnetic field lines at our planet's poles and slam into the atoms and molecules in our atmosphere, causing those molecules to emit light. These stunning light shows can come in many different shapes and colors; oxygen glows in green and red while nitrogen glows in blue and purple, according to NASA. Astronomers also use the shape of auroras to learn what's happening in the upper atmosphere where they form.
While most auroras extend vertically, the dunes extend out toward the equator horizontally in undulating waves. No one had observed such a wave-like structure in an aurora before, Palmroth said.
The scientists theorize that the dunes are lighting up a type of rare atmospheric gravity wave called mesospheric bores. These mesospheric bores occur when a gravity wave that's rising up in the atmosphere becomes bent and sandwiched between two relatively colder layers of the atmosphere — the inversion layer, 49.7 miles (80 kilometers) high, and the mesopause, 62 miles (100 km) high.
In this channel, the waves propagate horizontally and over long distances without subsiding, creating alternating folds that are either enriched with oxygen or depleted of oxygen. When the electrons from the sun stream in, the folds with higher oxygen levels light up more than the places lacking in oxygen, creating the characteristic stripes.
Rarely, a gravity wave rising up in the atmosphere can be sandwiched between the mesopause and an inversion layer, causing it to propagate horizontally and travel long distances without subsiding. (Image credit: Jani Närhi)
"This is a very interesting observation," said Steven Miller, the deputy director of the Cooperative Institute for Research in the Atmosphere at Colorado State University, who was not a part of the study. "My first reaction when seeing the pictures were that those might be atmospheric gravity waves that are being 'highlighted' by the auroral activity — it appears that this is the hypothesis of the authors as well."
Mesospheric bores can account for the patterns seen in the dunes, but "I surmise that [these] 'dunes' are in fact a subset of a much more widespread region of atmospheric gravity waves that happen to be highlighted by the aurora," Miller told Live Science.
By using stars in the photos as reference points, the team was able to calculate the altitude of the dunes to be around 62 miles (100 km) high, which is typical of auroras. But this poorly studied region of the atmosphere is too high to measure with radars and balloons, and too low to send spacecraft without them burning up. So it's sometimes called the "ignorosphere," Palmroth said.
"This is the first time these gravity waves are observed," Palmroth said. "In general the bores are rather a rare phenomenon." But observing the dunes could reveal more about the bores, Palmroth said.
For instance, scientists found that the dunes occur at the same time and in the same region where electromagnetic energy from space transfers to the upper atmosphere, which Palmroth suspects could be connected to the creation of the inversion layer mesospheric bores. "We want to see whether this is really true," she said.
Amateur Astronomers Discover New Type Of Aurora Borealis
This new aurora, discovered by citizen scientists and dubbed "the dunes" extends out horizontally in waves. Scientists hypothesize that they are visible representations of underlying gravity waves.
Amateur astronomers have found a new type of aurora borealis that looks like sand dunes and has been appropriately nicknamed “the dunes”. This new type of aurora is the result of gravity waves and oxygen atoms dancing in the night sky.
Interestingly, it was by pure chance that this new type of light show was discovered. When Minna Palmroth, who is a professor of computational space physics at the University of Helsinki, asked the public to send her pictures of the Northern Lights for an aurora guidebook, she was surprised to find that one of the photos taken in Finland didn’t match any previous known types of auroras.
“Then I realized that oh no … I haven’t seen these before,” Palmroth told Live Science in reference to the photo which captured the stripes that were spread so evenly. The majority of auroras extend upwards, but “the dunes” stretched out horizontally in smooth waves which had never been observed before.
“This is the first time these gravity waves are observed,” she said, adding, “In general the bores are rather a rare phenomenon.” The team was able to calculate that “the dunes” were approximately 62 miles up in the sky.
Aurora Borealis
Scientists believe that “the dunes” illuminate a gravity wave that’s called mesospheric bores that are quite rare. When a gravity wave ends up being bent and caught between two cooler layers of atmosphere – the inversion layer (49.7 miles up) and the mesopause (62 miles up) – that’s when mesospheric bores happen.
The stripes in the aurora occur when the sun’s electrons stream into the waves and the folds that contain higher levels of oxygen which show brighter colors than those with little oxygen which ultimately causes the stripe patterns. The researchers’ study was published in the journal AGU Advances and can be read in full here.
“This is a very interesting observation,” Steven Miller, who is the deputy director of the Cooperative Institute for Research in the Atmosphere at Colorado State University, told Live Science, adding, “My first reaction when seeing the pictures were that those might be atmospheric gravity waves that are being ‘highlighted’ by the auroral activity — it appears that this is the hypothesis of the authors as well.” He went on to say, “I surmise that [these] ‘dunes’ are in fact a subset of a much more widespread region of atmospheric gravity waves that happen to be highlighted by the aurora.”
STEVE (Strong Thermal Emission Velocity Enhancement)
As exciting as this is, this isn’t the first time in recent years that a new type of light show has been discovered in the night sky. A “sky glow” named “STEVE” (Strong Thermal Emission Velocity Enhancement) was discovered and it was a non-aurora mysterious type of phenomenon. An aurora borealis typically shines green, blue or reddish colors, but STEVE is a slim beam of purplish-white light which extends up to 600 miles in the sky.
New Hampshire is a mandatory stop on all presidential campaigns … in fact, multiple visits are generally required before the state’ early and influential primary (held on February 11 this year). However, some candidates stumping in the “Live Free or Die” state have been opting to ‘sneak out and live’ when it comes to answering tough questions about UFO, X-files and full disclosure by an intrepid reporter for The Conway Daily Sun, which has been holding informal question-and-answer sessions for all presidential campaign visitors. Amy Klobuchar,Pete Buttigieg, Andrew Yang and some of the lesser-known candidates have already given a variety of answers. The latest were Bernie Sanders and Tulsi Gabbard. Let’s see if their UFO views can influence your vote.
“I have not. To be very honest with you. It’s not something that I’ve been spending a lot of time on.”
Tulsi Gabbard
That’s Tulsi Gabbard’s entire answer to Daymond Steer’s question about whether she’s given any thoughts to the recent revelations about UFO encounters in 2004 with US military jets (a New Hampshire resident was one of the pilots) from the USS Nimitz. (Watch the entire interview here. Question is around 42:30.) That brief response was surprising, given Gabbard’s openness in the rest of her interview, her own personal experience as a veteran still serving and her current membership on many congressional defense committees. Gabbard served in the Hawaii Army National Guard and had a 12-month deployment in Iraq in 2004. After being commissioned as a second lieutenant, she served in Kuwait in 2008 and 2009. Gabbard is now a major in the Hawaii Army National Guard.
More interesting is the list of congressional committees Gabbard serves on. At the top are the Subcommittee on Emerging Threats and Capabilities and Subcommittee on Readiness – both would seem to be places where Gabbard might have heard about military encounters with UFOs, whether they be alien or foreign military crafts. She is also the founder and co-chair of the Diversifying Technology Caucus, co-chair of the Range and Testing Center Caucus and a member of the Missile Defense Caucus. While it’s true that she’s also a member of dozens of other caucuses, as an active member of the military it would seem obvious that she’d have an interest in and exposure to military UFO encounters. Perhaps she does … and doesn’t want to or can’t talk about them. Would that change if she’s elected?
Bernie Sanders
Another candidate who was a little more loquacious was Bernie Sanders. While he exclaimed “Let’s not jump the gun here!” when asked if he’d be interested if UFOs were using green technology, Sanders admitted that “my wife would never forgive me” if he didn’t look into UFOs if elected. (Watch the entire interview here. Question is around 42:00) He also we should look into unexplained encounters like the Nimitiz incident” if they’re true.” Sanders had fun with the question but gave a serious answer.
Who’s next on New Hampshire’s UFO hotseat? They haven’t yet heard from Joe Biden or Elizabeth Warren. Whoever the Democratic nominee might be, will President Trump answer the same question? He’s already said “Not particularly” when asked if he believes in UFOs. Would he be able to avoid answering if asked again by Daymond Steer?
If you’re someone who watches for UFOs (and who isn’t these days), you may want to avoid doing it in the state of New York. The Empire State isn’t prone to abductions (at least, not of the alien kind) but it is prone to requiring permits for everything (ask any New York street vendor) and now it’s requiring permits for spotting UFOs. Before you ask … we are NOT making this up!
STARGAZING PERMIT Requirements: Fee of $35.00, $60-Out of State – Vehicle Registration and Driver’s License Required Permit allows after sunset parking for stargazing only, valid January 1 – December 31 at: Hither Hills – Except July & August Jones Beach – West End 2 and Field 6 Montauk Point – Upper Parking Lot Robert Moses – Field 2 Gov. Alfred E. Smith/Sunken Meadow – Field 1 & Field 3 Wildwood – Main Parking Lot Sold at: Babylon Headquarters-Permit Office (beginning January 2nd), Jones Beach, Montauk Downs, Robert Moses, Governor Alfred E. Smith/Sunken Meadow and Wildwood Stargazing Permits are only sold January 1 – March 31 and the Tuesday after Labor Day – December 31.
Obviously, you don’t want to tell the park ranger you don’t need a permit because you’re UFO spotting, not stargazing. Both involve looking up at the night sky, which seems to be the logical issue here. The permit from the Park, Recreation and Historic Preservation Department is obviously designed to cut down on night traffic in some popular parks on Long Island, although it’s not for ‘driving’ but for ‘stargazing’, so it affects those who walk, Uber or take public transportation too. It also doesn’t say of the permit is for one vehicle or one person. Oh, and before you ask … yes, these are public parks paid for with your (if you’re a New Yorker) tax dollars.
You have the right to remain silent …
There are so many questions, it’s hard to pick a place to start. Why charge out-of-staters extra? Do stargazers and UFO spotters from New Jersey litter more than New Yorkers? Why does it require a driver’s license? That seems to be discriminatory against those without licenses for whatever reason. What do those license go towards? Will the park use them to remove curbs, logs, boulders and other obstructions so stargazers and UFO watchers don’t trip while not looking where they’re walking? Some cities are doing this for walking cellphone users … why not make THEM get a permit first? They definitely outnumber stargazers and UFO watchers. How soon before this gets applied to other New York parks? Public streets? Rooftops of government housing?
There’s more. How will a park ranger decide if a person who face is turned towards the night sky is looking at stars or bats or UFOs or something else? Isn’t this unfair to the person on the bottom of a couple having traditional missionary sex on the grass? Will displaying the permit allow them to have traditional missionary sex without being bothered if one (or if they’re kinky, both) are facing skyward?
Crowd surfer or illegal UFO spotter?
Is this fair? Is this American? Is this extortion? Is this New York gouging its citizens and tourists again?
Neil deGrasse Tyson @neiltyson No. Back in the day, you didn’t need permission to look up at the sky
This is not a left or right issue – the permit fees will be collected no matter who is in office. If you live in New York, contact Governor Cuomo’s office and voice your concerns. If you plan to visit New York, be careful where you look up. If you get stopped, tell the ranger you have a stiff neck. If he asks for a doctor’s note … welcome to New York. You’re screwed.
The skies are free. Looking for stars, UFOs or whatever you seek in the heavens is a right. Keep your heads up!
My previous article was focused on the latest episode of History Channel’s Project Blue Book. That same episode was on the subject of Roswell. It mentioned a story – near the end of the show – told in Annie Jacobsen’s 2011 book, Area 51. In her book, Jacobsen tells of how she was able to speak with an elderly man who would have been in the right place and at the right time to know what really happened at Roswell in July 1947. According to Jacobsen’s source/whistle-blower (who was outed by UFO researcher Tony Bragalia as an elderly man named Alfred O’Donnell) what came down outside of Roswell, New Mexico in July 1947 was not a UFO from another world. Nor was it a weather-balloon or a Mogul balloon. And, apparently, there was not even a single crash-test dummy anywhere in sight. O’Donnell made the controversial claim that the craft and its creworiginated in the Soviet Union.
O’Donnell said that Joseph Stalin – the General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union from 1922 to 1952 and Premier from 1941 to 1953 – was the driving force behind what was, supposedly, a diabolical, manipulative plot designed to make the U.S. government and the people of the United States think that an alien invasion was underway. The purpose: to plunge America into a state of overwhelming terror. And how did the Soviets supposedly try and achieve this? By (A) having Josef Mengele (one of the most vile, evil, deranged figures who ever lived) surgically alter a number of children, to make them appear alien-like; and (B) using the aircraft designs of a pair of brothers in the world of aviation (Reimar and Walter Horten), and have them create a strange-looking aircraft. The plot, then, was to try and make the U.S. government believe that aliens had come to Earth – and, in the process, causing terror and hysteria in the United States. The story continues that the whole thing collapsed when the “alien spacecraft” fell to earth outside of Roswell, and was promptly and secretly retrieved by the U.S. military. The outcome: the Russians’ plot collapsed and what happened at Roswell was quickly hidden.
There are significant reasons to believe that the story O’Donnell told was not true. Without doubt, one of the most important official documents in the saga of the story told to Annie Jacobsen by Alfred O’Donnell is a certain December 1947 document. It addresses U.S. Intelligence’s deep interest in the Horten brothers – as well as the U.S. Government’s determination to confirm or deny that the brothers had created a flying saucer-style craft. The document is so important (and lengthy!) that I have presented it below, in full. The author of the document was Lieutenant Colonel Harry H. Pretty, and the title of the document was Horten Brothers (Flying Saucers). Prepared by the HQ Berlin Command, Office of Military Government for Germany (US), it was sent to the Deputy Director of Intelligence, European Command, Frankfurt, U.S. Army. And it reads as follows:
‘The Horten brothers, Reimar and Walter, are residing in Goettingen at present. However, both of them are traveling a great deal throughout the Bi-Zone. Walter at present is travelling in Bavaria in search of a suitable place of employment. It is believed that he may have contacted USAFE Headquarters in Wiesbaden for possible evacuation to the United States under ‘Paper Clip.’ Reimar is presently studying advanced mathematics at the university of Bonn, and is about to obtain his doctor’s degree. It is believed that when his studies are completed he intends to accept a teaching position at the Institute for Technology (Technische Hochschule) in Braunshweig sometime in February or March 1948.
“Both brothers are exceedingly peculiar and can be easily classified as eccentric and individualistic. Especially is this so of Reimar. He is the one who developed the theory of the flying wing and subsequently of all the models and aircrafts built by the brothers. Walter, on the other hand is the engineer who tried to put into practice the several somewhat fantastic ideas of his brother. The clash of personalities resulted in a continuous quarrel and friction between the two brothers. Reimar was always developing new ideas which would increase the speed of the aircraft or improve its maneuverability; Walter on the other hand was tearing down the fantastic ideas of his brother by practical calculations and considerations.
Horten IX engineering drawing
“The two men worked together up to and including the ‘Horten VIII’ a flying wing intended to be a fighter plane powered with two Hirt engines (HM-60-R) with a performance of approximately 650 horsepower each. After the ‘Horten VIII’ was finished, one of the usual and frequent quarrels separated the two brothers temporarily. Walter went to work alone on the ‘Horten IX,’ which is a fighter plane of the flying wing design, with practically no changes from the model VIII except for the engines. Walter substituted the Hirt engines with BMW Jets of the type TL-004. The plane was made completely of plywood and was furnished with a Messerschmitt ME-109 landing gear.
“The model of this aircraft (Horten IX) was tested extensively in the supersonic wind tunnel (Mach No. 1.0) of the aero-dynamic testing institute (Aerodynamische Versuchsanstalt), located in Goettingen. The tests were conducted in the late summer of 1944 under the personal supervision of Professor Betz, chief of the institute. Betz at that time was approximately sixty years old and next to Prandtel (then seventy-eight years old), was considered to be the best man on aerodynamics in Germany. Betz’s attitude toward the flying wing is very conservative to say the least. Basically he is against the design of any flying wing. According to the official reports about the tests, air disturbances were created on the wing tips, resulting in air vacuums, which in turn would prevent the steering mechanism from functioning properly. This seems logical as, of course, neither the ailerons nor the rudders could properly accomplish their function in a partial vacuum created by air disturbances and whirls.
“In spite of that, two Horten IX’s were built and tried out by a test pilot, Eugen (now living in Goettingen) at Rechlin in the fall of 1944. One of the two planes, piloted by another test pilot, developed trouble with one of the jet engines while the pilot was trying to ascertain the maximum rate of climb. The right jet stopped suddenly, causing the aircraft to go into an immediate spin and subsequent crash in which the pilot was killed. Eugen, however, was more fortunate in putting the other ship through all the necessary paces without the least trouble. He maintains that the maximum speed attained was around 950 km per hour, and that there were no steering difficulties whatsoever, and that the danger of both head and tail spins was no greater that any other conventional aircraft.
“After extensive tests, the Horten IX was accepted by the German Air Force as represented by Goering, who ordered immediate mass production. The first order went to Gothaer Waggon Fabrik, located in Gotha (Thuringia) in January 1945. Goering requested that ten planes be built immediately and that the entire factory was to concentrate and be converted to the production of the Horten IX. The firm in question received all the plans and designs of the ship. In spite of this explicit order, production of the Horten IX was never started. The technical manager of the firm, Berthold, immediately upon receipt of the plans, submitted a number of suggestions to improve the aircraft. It is believed that his intention was to eliminate the Horten brothers as inventors and to modify the ship to such an extent that it would be more his brain child than anybody else’s. Numerous letters were exchanged from High Command of the German Air Force and Dr. Berthold, which finally were interrupted by the armistice in May 1945. When US troops occupied the town of Gotha, the designs of the Horten IX were kept in hiding and not handed over to American Military authorities. The original designs in possession of the Horten brothers were hidden in a salt mine in Salzdettfurt, but the model tested by Eugen was destroyed in April 1945. The original designs were recovered from Salzdettfurt by British authorities in the summer of 1945.
The Horten IX
(Wikipedia)
“The Horten brothers, together with Dr. Betz, Eugen and Dr. Stueper (the test pilot of the aerodynamic institute in Goettingen), were invited to go to England in the late summer of 1945 where they remained for approximately ninety days. They were interrogated and questioned about their ideas and were given several problems to work on. However Reimar was very unwilling to cooperate to any extent whatsoever, unless an immediate contract was offered to him and his brother. Walter, on the other hand, not being a theoretician, was unable to comply and Reimar was sufficiently stubborn not to move a finger. Upon their return to Goettingen Walter remained in contact with British authorities and was actually paid a salary by the British between October 1945 and April 1946, as the British contemplated but never did offer him employment. Walter subsequently had a final argument with his brother and the two decided to part. Reimar then went to the university of Bonn to obtain his degree, and Walter organized an engineering office in Goettingen which served as a cover firm to keep him out of trouble with the labor authorities. Walter married Fraulein von der Groeben, an extremely intelligent woman, former chief secretary to Air Force General Udet.
“In the spring of 1947 Walter Horten heard about the flying wing design in the United states by Northrop and decided to write Northrop for employment. He was answered in the summer of 1947 by a letter in which Northrop pointed out that he, himself, could not do anything to get him over to the States, but that he would welcome it very much if he could come to the United States and take up employment with the firm. He recommended that Walter should get in touch with USAFE Headquarters in Wiesbaden in order to obtain necessary clearance.
“As can be seen from the above, most of the Hortens’ work took place in Western Germany. According to our source, neither of the brothers ever had any contact with any representative of the Soviet Air Force or any other foreign power. In spite of the fact that Reimar is rather disgusted with the British for not offering him a contract, it is believed very unlikely that he has approached the Soviet authorities in order to sell out to them. The only possible link between the Horten brothers and the Soviet authorities is the fact that a complete set of plans and designs were hidden at the Gothaer Waggon Fabrik and the knowledge of this is known by Dr. Berthold and a number of other engineers. It is possible and likely that either Berthold or any of the others having knowledge of the Horten IX would have sold out to the Soviet authorities for one of a number of reasons. However, this will be checked upon in the future, and it is hoped that contact with the Gothaer Waggon Fabrik can be established.
“As far as the ‘flying saucer’ is concerned, a number of people were contacted in order to verify whether or not any such design at any time was contemplated or existed in the files of any German air research institute. The people contacted included the following: Walter Horten. Fraulein von der Groeben, former Secretary to Air Force General Udet Guenter. Heinrich, former office for research of the High Command of the Air Force in Berlin. Professor Betz, former chief of Aerodynamic Institute in Goettingen. Eugen, former test pilot.
“All the above mentioned people contacted independently and at different times are very insistent on the fact that to their knowledge and belief no such design ever existed nor was projected by any of the German air research institutions. While they agree that such a design would be highly practical and desirable, they do not know anything about its possible realization now or in the past.”
Unloading a captured Horten IX
( Wikipedia)
That’s where we end with the text of the document. It is valuable on two counts: it’s clear that certain elements of U.S. Intelligence and the military were interested in, and concerned by, the possibility that the Horten brothers had developed some kind of radical, flying saucer-type aircraft. But, as the document also shows, no such evidence was ever found. Of course, those who buy into the Stalin-Mengele angle would likely say that the truth of the Roswell affair was buried so deeply that not even the team that went searching for the answers, and which appear in Lieutenant Pretty’s report, had access to such highly-classified data. The fact is, though, that none of the available data or documentation at all confirmed the Horten brothers succeeded in creating and flying a craft that most people would describe as a UFO. It was all rumor.
When it comes to the story as told to Annie Jacobsen by Alfred O’Donnell, there are two, main possibilities: the story of the Russian/Nazi saucers, the terribly-altered children, and the plan to destabilize the United States by creating a faked alien intrusion, is either (A) true or (B) disinformation. Personally, I find the scenario of surgically-altered children remotely flown to the United States, and all the way from Russia, to be far more unlikely than the idea that aliens crashed. And, also with regard to my skepticism, there are the two most important questions of all. The first goes like this: if the Russians had indeed got their hands on a Horten-built – or a Horten-inspired – aircraft that could perform all kinds of aerial feats, and out-perform anything that the United States was flying at the time, then why on earth would they allow such a technologically-advanced craft to fall into the hands of the U.S. military? That angle makes no sense at all. It would be akin to the United States, in the Second World War, handing over the secrets of the atomic bomb to Adolf Hitler. When those poor children exited the craft and stood before shocked government officials – which was surely a major part of the Soviet plan – U.S. authorities would have grabbed the craft immediately. And the Russians must have known that the American military would do exactly that.
That latter point leads into the second and final question: if the Soviets were so intent on having the U.S. Government believe that the object which came down at Roswell was extraterrestrial, what the hell would have prompted them to have on display, inside the craft, what Jacobsen described as “Russian writing,” and as “letters from the Cyrillic alphabet?” Such an instant giveaway would have completely and quickly ruined Stalin’s plans to deceive America. Unless, of course, you believe that aliens speak and write in Russian, which is an even more bullshit scenario. Over the years, Ufology has been infiltrated by Nazi-loving scum. It would not surprise me at all if O’Donnell may have been deceived by just such a figure;, someone in Ufology looking to fly the flag of those pathetic, scum-fucks known as the “master race.”
Triangle UFO video – Schenectady, NY – 30-Jan-2020
Triangle UFO video – Schenectady, NY – 30-Jan-2020
Amazing 2020 UFO sighting of a triangular-shaped formation in the night sky above Schenectady, New York. Date: 30th January 2020.
Witness report:
I was outside letting my dogs out when I spotted a boomerang flying towards me, what grabbed my attention was the one green light blinking on a wing and a red one blinking next to it on the same side, it flew over my head, I did not have my phone on me but my wife did, as we got video, the red and green light stopped, and it banked west and slowly dissapeard, I’ve never seen a stealth bomber, it could of been one.
Meagan Shrewsbury and Kim Galyen dress as aliens during the solar eclipse ( Reuters )
Humans will actually be very happy to meet aliens, according to new research.
Hollywood might have led us to expect that an alien invasion would be greeted with tanks and guns. But some of the first serious research into how people would feel about meeting extraterrestrials shows that we would be far more positive than you might think.
"If we came face to face with life outside of Earth, we would actually be pretty upbeat about it," said Arizona State University Assistant Professor of Psychology Michael Varnum. "So far, there's been a lot of speculation about how we might respond to this kind of news, but until now, almost no systematic empirical research."
To explore how people might react, scientists had them read news reports about a number of potential alien discoveries. They then found out how they were feeling after doing so – exploring whether they seemed excited or fearful – using a special software programme that could analyse people's language.
Their reactions were very positive, the researchers found. Subjects said they would be excited even if the life was primitive or happening elsewhere – as any encounter with extraterrestrials is likely to actually be
Further work had people describe how they thought microbial life would be found on another planet, and how they would react. Again, the software found that people were more positive about that news than negative.
Another study divided into people two groups, and had them read stories about the potential discovery of alien life or the possible creation of synthetic human life in a lab. It found they were very excited to read about the alien life – far more excited than they would be about the creation of life on Earth.
And additional research looked at one of the most famous pieces of news about the potential of alien life in recent weeks. Scientists had people read about the suggestion that a a rock flying past Earth – known as Oumuamua – could in fact be an alien spacecraft, in news that sounded like something out of science fiction.
It found that people were very excited about that possibility, despite the fact it could mean aliens were headed towards Earth.
Professor Varnum said that taken together the studies seemed to suggest "if we find out we're not alone, we'll take the news rather well".
Volcanoes have been a favourite site for alien hunters over the years.
Now a strange series of lights above the Popocatepetl volcano in Mexico have got conspiracy theorists excited once again.
The sightings, they say, suggest aliens are studying Earth's geothermal activity so that they can understand how it works.
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Volcanoes have been a favourite site for alien hunters over the years. Now a strange series of lights (pictured) above the Popocatepetl volcano in Mexico has got conspiracy theorists excited once again. The sightings, they say, suggest aliens are studying Earth's geothermal activity to understand how it works
Unusual circular orbs and a long cigar-shaped anomaly were spotted on the cameras of Webcams Mexico above the Popocatepetl volcano, according to a report in The Express.
The lights appeared at the same time as the 18,000ft volcano released four explosions which released gas vapour.
Webcams Mexico recently uploaded the video which has become popular on social media and UFO forums.
Sceptics claim the bright lights are probably volcanic material being ejected from the volcano or an atmospheric phenomenon.
In a more radical theory, some scientists say the material from which these UFOs are formed could trigger hallucinations, which may explain the bizarre first hand accounts of alien sightings.
Unusual circular orbs a long cigar-shaped anomaly were spotted on the cameras of Webcams Mexico above the Popocatepetl volcano. The lights appeared at the same time as the 18,000ft volcano released 4 explosions. Acigar-UFO is seen in this image horizontally over the same volcano in February this year
'There is a combination of geophysical and geopsychological factors at work that can produce UFOs,' Nigel Watson, author of 'UFOs of the First World War', told DailyMail.com.
'In this case it might be that the proximity of fault lines volcanic activity on a fault line in the Earth's crust has helped produce a UFO composed of plasma that glows at night and appears metallic or black in daylight.
'These type of UFOs cast out electromagnetic (EM) fields that can initiate poltergeist-like events (such as objects being thrown about) and they can even react to witnesses as if acting in an intelligent or playful manner.'
Michael Persinger, a cognitive neuroscience researcher, has experimented with the possibility that UFO EM fields can trigger hallucinations or trance states in people who get to near to them.
This would explain the many stories of 'alien' abductions and other strange encounters that are experienced after a witness has seen a light in the sky, added Watson.
'There is a combination of geophysical and geopsychological factors at work that can produce UFOs,' Nigel Watson, author of 'UFOs of the First World War', told DailyMail.com. 'In this case it might be that the proximity of fault lines volcanic activity on a fault line in the Earth's crust'
Michael Persinger, a cognitive neuroscience researcher, has experimented with the possibility that UFO EM fields can trigger hallucinations or trance states in people who get to near to them. Pictured are orbs in the foreground with the volcano behind
Popocatépetl is an active volcano, located in the states of Puebla, Mexico, and Morelos, in Central Mexico
'The UFO probably isn't an intergalactic starship, but could well be a rare atmospheric phenomenon captured on film,' he said.
UFO hunter Paul Seaburn told The Express: 'Sightings of UFOs around volcanic eruptions and earthquakes is a common occurrence.
'Why do we see so many UFOs near volcanoes, earthquakes and nuclear power plants? Are we being watched? Controlled? Cared for? Warned?'
This isn't the first time alien hunters believe they have seen ET visiting volcanoes in Mexico.
In January, a UFO that resembled a flying horse was spotted close to one of Mexico's most active volcanoes.
The dark object appeared to have two legs and was seen hovering into view out of nowhere as volcano Colima, 300 miles west of Mexico City, spewed out smoke.
Captured on webcam after Colima erupted, the enigmatic 'equine' vanished moments later.
Witness Loyola Quintanilla Rosas, 24, said: 'When I first saw it, I thought it looked like a horse.
ET WILL 'CONQUER AND COLONISE' HUMANITY, WARNS STEPHEN HAWKING
Professor Stephen Hawking claims that if AI doesn't conquer humanity, an advanced alien civilisation may do so instead.
Professor Stephen Hawking has previously said artificial intelligence could control humans in 100 years.
in his latest dire warning, the physicist claims that if AI doesn't conquer humanity, an advanced alien civilisation may do so instead.
'If aliens visit us, the outcome could be much like when Columbus landed in America, which didn't turn out well for the Native Americans,' Professor Hawking said in a recent interview.
'Such advanced aliens would perhaps become nomads, looking to conquer and colonise whatever planets they can reach,' Hawking told El Pais.
Hawking is currently heading up a major search for intelligent alien life using two of the world's most powerful telescopes.
The telescopes will scour one million of the closest stars to Earth for faint signals thrown out into space by intelligent life beyond our own world.
'To my mathematical brain, the numbers alone make thinking about aliens perfectly rational,' said Hawking. 'The real challenge is to work out what aliens might actually be like.'
It had a very large body and seemed to be an animal. It had a thin top, a bulging middle and two extremities at the bottom.
'But the legs weren't moving so it clearly wasn't a modern-day Pegasus.'
In 2012, a 'cigar-shaped' object was filmed flying inside Popocatepetl volcano in central Mexico by a television camera crew.
And last November, a 'blurry, white object' was caught on camera flying around the same volcano.
Alien enthusiast Eufrasio Gonzales Carrasco, 35, said: 'There has been a fair bit of activity around these volcanoes and this latest sighting just adds to the mystery.
'There must be something about volcanoes that draws extra-terrestrials to them. Perhaps they are collecting samples from our planet to take back home.'
This mysterious white light was spotted spotted hovering near Chile's erupting Calbuco volcano in April. Tens of thousands of people speculated on what the UFO could be, suggesting everything from police or emergence services helicopters, to a kind of optical illusion or even an alien craft
The dark horse-shaped object seen earlier this year appeared to have two legs and was seen coming into view out of nowhere before quickly disappearing
“We all know that it (the volcano) is an alien headquarters, they only “close” the door to scare us so that nobody goes there.”
There are two things you can count on with Mexico’s Popocatepetl volcano – it will erupt frequently and there will be UFOs in video footage of the eruption. The latest incident of both occurred January 27th when the government webcams which keep Popocatepetl under constant surveillance captured the latest eruption and a mysterious UFO streaking across the sky at the same moment. (Watch the video here.) This is where you’re allowed to join the above Twitter commenter and shriek: “Aliens!” Was it?
Let’s get the facts straight first. The video shows just part (15 seconds) of the eruption which began at 23:18 (11:18 pm) local time on January 27. As of this writing, Mexico’s National Center for Disaster Prevention (Cenapred) reported there were “78 exhalations, 563 minutes of tremor, a moderate explosion, a minor explosion and a volcanotectonic earthquake” in the 24 hours following the eruption. After it was posted on the Twitter feed of Webcams de Mexico, which provides the round-the-clock video feeds, it spread across the Internet, where the UFO streaking across the viewing area was picked up by many sites.
Popocatepetl on a quiet day
Popocatepetl is Mexico’s second-highest peak (5,426 meters or 17,802 ft) and one of its most active volcanoes, with over 15 major eruptions since 1519 (when the Spanish arrived) and many more since it first erupted over 2000,000 years ago. With its high and mighty recent activities and close proximity to Mexico City, it’s no wonder the government has it under close webcam watch for signs of potential eruptions.
And aliens. The webcams see everything going on in the sky above Popocatepetl and have recorded plenty of unidentified objects flying past it or hovering over it. There were a number of sightings during a recent active period in 2017 and speculation then and now on the ‘alien spacecraft’ side tended to see them as proof that aliens or subterrestrials use volcanoes as fuel stations or entry and exit ports to underground facilities. However, this one appears to be passing by as if observing the eruptions – something that many believe is because benevolent aliens are watching out for our safety during disasters.
On the skeptical side, it’s obvious that a lot of bright objects are being spewed by Popocatepetl and the videos are generally dark due to the time of day or dense smoke. They also use time-lapse photography, so unidentified objects appear to be moving faster than they really are.
That’s the case with the latest video. It’s obvious that the stars are moving quickly as well. The elongated shape means it could be a plane or one of those ubiquitous drones – it IS a newsworthy eruption. Or, as some suggest, it could be a meteor or the ISS or a satellite. Since it seems to pass behind the smoke of the Popocatepetl eruption, a bug or bird can probably be eliminated.
So, what is it? The needle is on the skeptical side with this one – probably a plane or satellite. However, if it IS an alien craft, it might be wise to take it as one of those benevolent ones and stay away from Popocatepetl for a while.
The age-old question of are we alone in the universe may not be answered any time soon, but the fact that Britain is planning on declassifying its UFO files for the first time puts us one step closer to the truth.
The Royal Air Force (RAF) ran a UFO unit for 50 years that took in public sighting reports but it was shut down in 2009 after it was determined none of the reports offered evidence of a real threat. The records from the unit were then given to the British National Archives where they were classified.
A spokesman for the RAF said that “it had been assessed that it would be better to publish these records, rather than continue sending documents to the National Archives, and so they are looking to put them on to a dedicated gov.uk web page.”
A clearance process for the documents is currently underway before publication, which is expected to take place “sometime within the first quarter of 2020,” according to the Telegraph.
“Given the massive public interest in this subject, I’m pleased that these files will be released and made available online,” said Nick Pope, who used to investigate UFO sightings for the country’s Ministry of Defense (MoD).
In June 2013, the MoD previously reported it was releasing the final UFO files in the UK’s possession. However, we now know that’s not true thanks to a Freedom of Information Request by PA News.
In response to the FOI, the RAF described the files it held as “comprising entirely of correspondence with members of the public.”
“The MoD has no opinion on the existence or otherwise of extraterrestrial life and does not investigate UFO reports.”
While the attempts to hide the truth about the existence of UFOs is dying down, disclosure is ramping up. As TMU previously reported, U.S. Navy officials have acknowledged that video footage showing UFOs flying is real.
In the video below, Lt. Col Lawrence J. Tacker and Maj Hetor Quintanilla, Jr., speak about unidentified flying objects (UFOs) and Project Blue Book, which relates to the investigation of UFOs in the United States.
Just like RAF, the Blue Book commission determined that UFOs did not pose a security risk and that they were identifiable in 1966 under hearings. However, Dr. J. Allen Hynek who was the lead scientist on the Blue Book commission confessed years later that there was a cover-up.
It’s no wonder that they were called “serious business” because years prior in 1942, the incident known as the Battle Of Los Angeles took place where the U.S. military shot at an unknown disk over California that they later called a weather balloon—just like the infamous Roswell incident in 1947 which was first reported as a saucer, later changed to a balloon filled with crash dummies.
Another high-ranking official Major Donald Keyhoe alleged in an earlier 1958 interview that the Air Force was deliberately dismissing and covering up UFOs, confirming Hillenkoetter and Hynek’s claims made years later. Major Keyhoe also exposes the CIA life that all of the UFO sightings were the agency when he says that “one pilot was killed in 48 chasing one.” He also said that if they don’t exist “why do they rush to these crash sites?” A report also exists stating that the Air Force was ordered to shoot down flying saucers in 1952.
While the RAF is prepared to disclose its UFO files, the U.S. Navy has stated the opposite—that it would be a national security threat to disclose the Nimitz incident and the release would result in “exceptionally grave damage.”
UFOs are frequently seen around missile silos causing nuclear weapon stations to go haywire and even go offline, disabling them since 1948, according to Captain Robert Salas.
The truth is out there and X-Files fans everywhere are itching for disclosure. However, if history is any guide, we are unlikely to get anything of value from the RAF reports on citizen sightings.
I found loads of ancient artifacts from an intelligent civilization in a Mars photo today, but one thing really caught my attention...this white rose. The white rose is in the lower left side of the photo. This white rose is actually a rose bud...thats a semi closed rose. It has a long stem and a single leaf on its right side. It even appears to have a baby one growing not far from it. I did have to take the photo which nasa put into false color (red/brown) and made it normal again. But this is amazing to me. Proof that a type of life, probably plant based still exists on Mars today, a white rose of hope.
Hey everyone, I posted this on my ET DATA Base channel but forgot to put it up on this site so here it goes. I found some structures in this NASA photo from our moon. The photo is very big, 90MB in size so it does give some great detail. The city has what looks like ancient roads or collapsed tunnels leading from it to other buildings further away from it. There was also a monolith similar to the one I found on a moon of Mars. Astronaut Buzz Aldrin give me the heads up on that one so wasn't to hard to find. But this does look the same. I said in the video that the city appears to be .5km across, but on when looking at the photo measurements, I may actually be 2.0km across. That would make that monolith .5 km high. Absolutely proof that intelligent aliens did once living on the surface of our moon. Scott C. Waring
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- Gemiddelde waardering: 0/5 - (0 Stemmen) Categorie:Ruins, strange artifacts on other planets, moons, ed ( Fr, EN, NL )
Cube like UFO flying at high altitude captured by Pilot Viva Air
Cube like UFO flying at high altitude captured by Pilot Viva Air
During a commercial flight over Medellin, Colombia, a pilot of Viva Air noticed a strange object flying towards the plane on which he decided to record it.
The UFO that looks like a cube then passes the aircraft at a safe distance.
What are these objects flying at hypersonic speed and the ability to fly with no obvious wings, tail or exhaust.
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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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