Dit is ons nieuw hondje Kira, een kruising van een waterhond en een Podenko. Ze is sinds 7 februari 2024 bij ons en druk bezig ons hart te veroveren. Het is een lief, aanhankelijk hondje, dat zich op een week snel aan ons heeft aangepast. Ze is heel vinnig en nieuwsgierig, een heel ander hondje dan Noleke.
This is our new dog Kira, a cross between a water dog and a Podenko. She has been with us since February 7, 2024 and is busy winning our hearts. She is a sweet, affectionate dog who quickly adapted to us within a week. She is very quick and curious, a very different dog than Noleke.
DEAR VISITOR,
MY BLOG EXISTS ALREADY 13 YEARS AND 2 MONTH.
ON 06/08/2024 MORE THAN 2.161.100
VISITORS FROM 135 DIFFERENT NATIONS ALREADY FOUND THEIR WAY TO MY BLOG.
THAT IS AN AVERAGE OF 400GUESTS PER DAY.
THANK YOU FOR VISITING MY BLOG AND HOPE YOU ENJOY EACH TIME.
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.
Druk op onderstaande knop om te reageren in mijn forum
Zoeken in blog
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...
13-02-2020
Why is the planet-killer asteroid Pallas covered with impact craters? Study uncovers violent past
Why is the planet-killer asteroid Pallas covered with impact craters? Study uncovers violent past
A group of researchers discovered why a massive asteroid that's capable of destroying Earth is covered in impact craters
A new study was able to uncover why an asteroid that's big enough to wipe out an entire planet is covered in impact craters. The researchers attributed the massive asteroid's violent history to its natural orbit.
A study recently published in the journal Nature centred on Pallas, which is one of the largest known space rocks in the asteroid belt. It has an estimated diameter of 512 kilometres and is regarded as the largest asteroid that's not yet visited by a spacecraft.
Impact Craters On Pallas
Asteroid collisionNASA
Since it has not yet been observed up-close, researchers used the Very Large Telescope (VLT) in Chile to collect data on the asteroid. They discovered that the surface of the massive spherical asteroid is covered in craters that are about 29 to 121 kilometres wide. Based on computer simulations and data collected by the VLT, the researchers estimated that Pallas three times as many impact craters as Vesta, which is the second-largest known asteroid.
Due to the shape of the asteroid and the number of its craters, it looks like a giant golf ball floating in space. "Pallas is heavily cratered," the study's co-author Miroslav Broz told Space.com. "Its surface might resemble a golf ball."
Artist's rendering of asteroids and space dustNASA/JPL-Caltech
Pallas's Unusual Orbit
According to the researchers, most of the craters that collided with Pallas hit the asteroid while travelling sideways. Previous computer simulations revealed that the asteroids that pelted Pallas were travelling at speeds of over 40,000 kilometres per hour. This figure far exceeds the average speed of impacts in the asteroid belt, which is less than 21,000 kilometres per hour.
The researchers noted that Pallas' unusual orbit might have caused impact velocity and direction of the collisions. Through their observations, the researchers discovered that the massive asteroid travels at a tilted and elongated orbit.
The researchers explained that the asteroid's orbital inclination and eccentricity could be the main reasons why other space rocks are hitting it at high speeds. Since high-speed impacts are more likely to cause craters than slow ones, this could also explain why Pallas appears more pockmarked than other known asteroids such as Ceres and Vesta.
NASA Found Exotic Organic Molecules on Ancient Space Object 'Arrokoth'
NASA Found Exotic Organic Molecules on Ancient Space Object 'Arrokoth'
The latest data from ancient "Arrokoth," the most distant object ever visited by spacecraft, supports the idea that it's covered in organic molecules called "tholins" and gives us a window into deep cosmic time.
As NASA’s New Horizons spacecraft presses on into the dark and distant reaches of the Kuiper Belt, scientists have been exploring the trove of data collected during its recent encounter with Arrokoth, a mysterious and ancient space rock that, at 4.1 billion miles from Earth, is the farthest object ever visited by a spacecraft.
This week, three papers publishedin the journalScience report new findings on the ancient object that give us a unique window into deep cosmic time, including insights into how it formed and details on the exotic organic molecules that give it its red color.
With roughly ten times more data than was available for an initial report last year, the studies explore the distant rock’s geology, composition, and history in far greater detail. Among the highlights are a clearer picture of how Arrokoth formed in the early solar nebula, a cloud of gas and dust that surrounded the sun 4.5 billion years ago, and details of its chemistry, which seems to include both simple organic molecules and “tholins,” a class of carbon-based polymers that are believed to be prevalent throughout the Kuiper Belt.
The hazy ring is an artist’s view of the Kuiper Belt. The rocks that populate it revolve about the sun. They are known as KBOs, short for Kuiper Belt objects. The New Horizons spacecraft, which launched in 2006, has been bringing photos of the solar system’s outer reaches, including Pluto in 2015.
NASA; ADAPTED BY L. STEENBLIK HWANG
Overall, the new findings support the idea that Arrokoth is a primordial time capsule that can help lift the fog on the earliest chapters of our cosmic history.
Most of the new clues to Arrokoth’s origin story come from its outward appearance. As New Horizons approached Arrokoth in the lead up to the flyby, it became clear the object was bi-lobed; a “contact binary” that formed when two rocks touched. Using numerical models, a team led by astronomer Will McKinnon of Washington University in St. Louis has now fleshed out the picture further. Their results suggest the merger was less of a collision and more a very gentle joining of two objects that co-evolved as a cloud of nebula material collapsed under its own gravity.
According to McKinnon, the idea that objects like Arrokoth can form from collapsing dust clouds has been around for a while. But without seeing one up close, it was hard to rule out other theories, like a series of more violent collisions. With the alignment and shape of Arrokoth’s two lobes matching this calmer formation model, astronomers can be more confident that other Kuiper Belt Objects formed similarly.
Three images of the space rock. Methane or nitrogen ice may give the this Kuiper Belt object its reddish color.
SWRI/JHU-APL/NASA
A separate paper focused on Arrokoth’s geology argues that its cratering history is consistent with an object that formed over 4 billion years ago in the solar nebula. Finally, Arrokoth’s relatively uniform chemical composition and color support the idea that it evolved from a single blob of particles rather than a more jumbled assortment of rocks.
“All the characteristics of Arrokoth fit this theory,” McKinnon said. “And they don’t fit the other theory of something building up from small to large in a sequence of impacts.”
“I think Arrokoth is really neat because we’ve never seen an object that looks the way it would have right after forming by this mechanism,” said Lowell Observatory astronomer Will Grundy, who led up the analysis of Arrokoth’s chemistry.
But while Grundy’s results help solve the mystery of how Arrokoth formed, they also raise new questions about where the space rock’s exotic organic compounds came from.
As early as 2016 scientists had hints that Arrokoth was red. A study published last year confirmed this to be the case. At the time, the researchers’ best explanation was that Arrokoth was rich in tholins, complex organic polymers that are reddish in color and form in chilly outer solar system environments—including, scientists think, in Pluto’s atmosphere—when simpler carbon-bearing molecules interact with UV light or cosmic rays.
The new analysis, which examines far more of the data collected by the color camera and infrared spectrometer on New Horizons’ Ralph Instrument, supports the idea that Arrokoth is chock full of tholins. The study also found that Arrokoth is rich in methanol ice, a simpler organic molecule, and surprisingly little, if any, water ice.
Unpacking the history of Arrokoth’s exotic organics offers a different sort of window into deep time. Tholins, Grundy says, could have formed on Arrokoth’s surface or in the solar nebula. Or they could hail from even further back in time, to the giant molecular cloud that collapsed to form our Sun.
Ashley Walker, an aspiring astrochemist who did her senior thesis studying tholins on Saturn’s moon Titan with Johns Hopkins planetary scientist Sarah Hörst, said that even though we expect to these molecules to form in the outer solar system, “it’s really intriguing to see them in further out, colder places.” Sleuthing out their origins in the ancient proto-solar system, she said, “can give us clues to our very own Earth.”
While these latest papers “wrap up the [Arrokoth] encounter with a nice bow,” as McKinnon put it, the story isn’t over for New Horizons. The spacecraft continues to sail deeper into the Kuiper Belt on its way to interstellar space. And while there are no further encounters on the agenda for now, this summer, astronomers will use the Subaru telescope in Hawaii to scan the sky for any additional objects in the spacecraft’s vicinity. If they find one, they might be able to arrange a third rendezvous.
“It’s a low probability, but if we don’t look, the chances of us finding an object are zero,” McKinnon said. “So, we’re going to look, and we’ll tell you in a few months if we’ve found a target. It’s not over till it’s over.”
If you like to lie on an inflatable raft in your swimming pool and scan the night sky for UFOs, you may want to read this before you jump in again. A large triangular UFO was seen recently by multiple witnesses hovering over swimming pools at a sports and social club in Mechita, Argentina, on what was described as an extremely hot night (it’s summer in Argentina). The next morning, a club worker discovered that water had been splashed out of the pools and, despite an entire night of intense heat, had not evaporated. Was the UFO attracted to the pools? Did it splash the water? What could it have done to give the water such power?
“They were 10:30 pm on the last Friday 22nd, I was next to a friend kneading pizzas inside his house with tremendous heat so I decided to leave and when I leaned against a car, I looked up and saw a huge object in the form of black triangle darker than the sky and with red tips. It moved from left to right and made no noise, there was no engine or turbine sound and it was located about 50 meters above the trees. ” (Google translation)
Witness Diego Sarquís told La Trocha what he saw on that hot January night – a triangle “about 10 or 15 meters in diameter” (33 to 50 feet) hovering 164 feet above the club’s large pools and making no noise. He called for friends who came out but may or may not have seen it “traveling very slow and rotating with an apparent SE-NW heading, going toward Junín.” Junín is about 90 km (56 miles) from Mechita – both cities are in the province of Buenos Aires and Junín has had a number of UFO sightings, according to Luis Burgos, a UFO investigator for FAO (Argentine Foundation for Ovnilogy). He talked to both Diego and other witnesses he uncovered.
“In Diego’s observation, the object is completely silent and when this family sees it about 600 or 700 meters from the place, it already perceives a rather intense noise as if it were a helicopter. It is the only difference there would be between both visions. This is not a contradiction since it could have been a bit of propulsion or the escape of the object that Diego did not perceive, because he was completely silent when he could see it.” (Google translation)
The most intriguing witness by far was a manager in charge of the pools at the Mechita Swim Club. She gave Burgos a photograph taken the morning after the UFO appeared showing the concrete surrounding the pools. Something splashed water out of the pools and, despite this being many hours later and the temperature being extremely hot, none of the water had evaporated. (See the photo here) Burgos explained to Noticia Baires that Argentine UFO’s are most seen above water (70% of them are over water), particularly swimming pools.
“It happens that when objects approach land or produce a landing, they are looking for something . When we do a zonal survey, the first thing we look for, beyond the witnesses, the geographical location and the environment, are the poles of attraction . We find swimming pools, Australian tanks, mills, laurel trees, eucalyptus mountains, railways, power lines.” (Google translation)
The “Mechita triangle” appeared over and splashed water out of swimming pools, not nearby lagoons. Burgos also noted that this geographic area, particularly along nearby Route 5, has historically had “a lot of UFO activity.”
“There in Bragado people remember the observation that the famous director, composer and pianist José Basso had in 1958 , who traveled with his orchestra one night in the vicinity of Bragado and observed a flying plate practically perched on the ground . Some of his musicians approached because the bus driver stopped the march and saw an object practically landed in a field. On the way back they stopped at the same place and noticed that there was a large area of calcined grass that was where the device had been. That case became very famous because the witness was very well known, but cases like that there are a lot.” (Google translation)
“Ufos and Water: Physical Effects of Ufos on Water Through Accounts by Eyewitnesses” by Carl W. Feindt contains many accounts of UFOs above, below, entering and exiting water, and the recent Tic Tac UFOs seen by Navy pilots were over the ocean. One popular theory is that these spaceships are water-fueled. However, the only water that seemed to be lost in the “Mechita triangle” pool incident was that splashed out of the pool. Was the UFO spooked by Diego Sarquís and the other witnesses? Could it have accidentally dumped something during the process into the pool, causing the water to resist evaporation? None of the accounts say the water was sampled and analyzed, and there don’t appear to be any follow-up investigations.
That’s too bad. This is one of the closest and most unusual triangle UFO sightings. Was it alien or of Earth? Whichever caused it, what happened to the water in the pool? Is what Burgos found enough to make you quit watching for UFOs from your pool or hot tub? What about bathtubs under skylights? Standing in a puddle? Snow? Drinking a cold glass of H2O? Should astronomers double down on searching for water on other planets?
Ten things we’ve learned about the sun from NASA’s SDO this decade
Ten things we’ve learned about the sun from NASA’s SDO this decade
This image from NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory on March 16, 2015, shows two dark spots, called coronal holes. The lower coronal hole, a polar coronal hole, was one of the biggest observed in decades.
Credit: NASA/SDO
In February 2020, NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory—SDO—is celebrating its 10th year in space, reports Phys.org.
Over the past decade the spacecraft has kept a constant eye on the sun, studying how the sun creates solar activity and drives space weather—the dynamic conditions in space that impact the entire solar system, including Earth.
Since its launch on Feb. 11, 2010, SDO has collected millions of scientific images of our nearest star, giving scientists new insights into its workings.
SDO’s measurements of the sun—from the interior to the atmosphere, magnetic field, and energy output—have greatly contributed to our understanding of our closest star.
SDO’s images have also become iconic—if you’ve ever seen a close up of activity on the sun, it was likely from an SDO image.
SDO’s long career in space has allowed it to witness nearly an entire solar cycle—the sun’s 11-year cycle of activity.
Here are a few highlights of SDO’s accomplishments over the years.
SDO has witnessed countless astounding flares—giant outbursts of plasma released from the solar surface—many of which have become iconic images of the ferocity our nearest star. In its first year and a half, SDO saw nearly 200 solar flares, which allowed scientists to spot a pattern. They noticed that around 15% of the flares had a "late phase flare" that would follow minutes to hours after the initial flare. By studying this special class, scientists gained a better understanding of just how much energy is produced when the sun erupts.
Credits: NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center
2. Solar Tornadoes
In February 2012, SDO captured images showing strange plasma tornados on the solar surface. Later observations found these tornadoes, which were created by magnetic fields spinning the plasma, could rotate at speeds up to 186,000 miles per hour. On Earth, tornadoes only reach speeds of 300 miles per hour.
3. Giant Waves
The churring sea of plasma on the solar surface can create giant waves that travel around the sun at up to 3 million miles per hour. Theses waves, named EIT waves after an instrument of the same name on the Solar and Heliophysics Observatory spacecraft that first discovered them, were imaged at high resolution by SDO in 2010. The observations showed for the first time how the waves move across the surface. Scientists suspect these waves are driven by coronal mass ejections, which spew clouds of plasma off the surface of the sun into the solar system.
This video, assembled from images taken by NASA’s SDO spacecraft, shows possible plasma tornadoes over a 30-hour period. Credit: NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center
4. Combustible Comets
Over the years, SDO has watched two comets fly by the sun. In December 2011, scientist watched as Comet Lovejoy managed to survive the intense heating as it passed 516,000 miles above the solar surface. Comet ISON in 2013 didn't survive its encounter. Through observations such as these, SDO has provided scientists with new information about how the sun interacts with comets.
5. Global Circulation
Having no solid surface, the entire sun is continually flowing due to the intense heat trying to escape and the rotation of the sun. Moving about at the mid-latitudes are large-scale circulation patterns called Meridonial circulation. SDO's observations revealed that these circulations are much more complex than scientists initially thought and are linked to sunspot production. These circulation patterns may even explain why at times one hemisphere might have more sunspots than another.
Comet Lovejoy is seen here exiting from behind the right side of the sun, after an hour of travel through its closest approach to the sun. By tracking how the comet interacts with the sun's atmosphere, the corona, and how material from the tail moves along the sun's magnetic field lines, solar scientists hope to learn more about the corona. This movie was filmed by the Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO) in 171 angstrom wavelength, which is typically shown in yellow. Credit: NASA/SDO
6. Predicting the Future
The sun's outpouring of material from coronal mass ejections, or CMEs, and the solar wind speed across the solar system. When they interact with Earth's magnetic environment, they can induce space weather, which can be hazardous to spacecraft and astronauts. Using data from SDO, NASA scientists have worked on modeling the path of a CME as it moves across the solar system in order to predict its potential effect on Earth. The long baseline of solar observations has also helped scientists form additional machine-learning models to try to predict when the sun might release a CME.
7. Coronal Dimmings
The sun's wispy superheated outer atmosphere—the corona—sometimes dims. Scientists studying coronal dimming have found that they are linked to CMEs, which are the main drivers of the severe space weather events that can damage satellites and harm astronauts. Using a statistical analysis of the large number of events seen with SDO, scientists were able to calculate the mass and velocity of Earth-directed CMEs—the most dangerous type. By linking coronal dimming to the size of CMEs, scientists hope to be able to study the space weather effects around other stars, which are too distant to directly measure their CMEs.
Forced magnetic reconnection, caused by a prominence from the Sun, was seen for the first time in images from NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory, or SDO. This image shows the Sun on May 3, 2012, with the inset showing a close-up of the reconnection event imaged by SDO’s Atmospheric Imaging Assembly instrument, where the signature X-shape is visible. Credit: NASA/SDO/Abhishek Srivastava/IIT(BHU)
8. Death and Birth of a Solar Cycle
With a decade of observations, SDO has now seen nearly a complete 11-year solar cycle. Starting near the beginning of Solar Cycle 24, SDO watched as the sun's activity ramped up to solar maximum and then faded to the current ongoing solar minimum. These multiyear observations help scientists understand signs that signal the decline of one solar cycle and the onset of the next.
9. Polar Coronal Holes
At times the sun's surface is marked by large dark patches called coronal holes where extreme ultraviolet emission is low. Linked to the sun's magnetic field, the holes follow the solar cycle, increasing at the solar maximum. When they form at the top and the bottom on the sun they're called polar coronal holes and SDO scientists were able to use their disappearance to determine when the sun's magnetic field reversed—a key indicator of when the sun reaches solar maximum.
Capturing an image in 10 different wavelengths of light every 12 seconds, NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory — SDO — has provided an unprecedentedly clear picture of how massive explosions on the sun grow and erupt ever since its launch on Feb. 11, 2010. The imagery is also captivating, allowing one to watch the constant ballet of solar material through the sun's atmosphere, the corona. This year marks the 10th anniversary of SDO's launch and the start of its decade watching the sun. Credit: NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center
10. New Magnetic Explosions
At the end of the decade in December 2019, SDO observations enabled scientists to discover a whole new type of magnetic explosion. This special type—called spontaneous magnetic reconnection (versus previously observed more general forms of magnetic reconnection)—helped confirm a decades-old theory. It also may help scientists understand why the solar atmosphere is so hot, better predict space weather, and lead to breakthroughs in controlled fusion and lab plasma experiments.
In its 10th year, SDO will be joined by a new joint ESA-NASA mission, Solar Orbiter. With an inclined orbit, Solar Orbiter will be able to see the polar regions for which SDO has limited coverage. Solar Orbiter also has complementary instruments that will allow the two missions to work together to create 3-D images of structures below the visible surface of the sun, giving scientists an even greater understanding of solar activity in the years to come.
APReconstructie van een mannelijke en een vrouwelijke neanderthaler.
WETENSCHAP Wetenschappers hebben sporen gevonden van een onbekende voorouder van de mens in de genomen van West-Afrikaanse volkeren. Dat is bewijsmateriaal voor een ‘spookpopulatie’ die een half miljoen jaar geleden in Afrika leefde en waarvan de genen vandaag nog altijd terug te vinden zijn in de mens.
Onderzoekers University of California in Los Angeles ontdekten in de genomen van vier West-Afrikaanse populaties dat tot een vijfde van hun DNA afkomstig bleek van de ontbrekende, onontdekte voorouders. Genetici vermoeden dat de voorouders van de moderne West-Afrikanen tienduizenden jaren geleden zich genetisch vermengden met een archaïsche bevolking die nog niet bekend is en die zich nog voor de splitsing tussen neanderthalers en de moderne mens zou hebben afgescheiden. Net zoals de oer-Europeanen ooit paarden met neanderthalers.
Vandaag kennen we nog enkel de moderne mens, maar ooit liepen er op aarde verschillende mensensoorten rond. Als die elkaar tegenkwamen, waren seksuele contacten tussen beide niet uitgesloten. Als gevolg daarvan dragen wij hedendaagse Europese mensen in ons DNA nog altijd een beetje genen van de neanderthalers, zoals oorspronkelijke Australiërs, Polynesiërs en Melanesiërs die van de Denisovamens nog in kleine mate in zich hebben.
Eerdere studies wezen er al op dat een andere oude mensensoort ooit Afrika bevolkte, maar wetenschappers vonden nooit fossielen of DNA om het te bewijzen. Onderzoekers Arun Durvasula en Sriram Sankararaman lieten nu statistische technieken los op 405 genomen uit vier West-Afrikaanse volkeren om na te gaan hoe waarschijnlijk het was dat de aanvoer van genen door kruising in het verre verleden had plaatsgevonden. Uit hun analyse bleek dit wel degelijk in alle gevallen zo te zijn.
Daarna zochten ze in de Afrikaanse genomen naar stukjes DNA die er anders uitzagen dan de moderne menselijke genen. Zo konden ze er DNA-sequenties uithalen die heel waarschijnlijk van een of andere voorouder kwamen. Vergelijking met de genen van neanderthalers en van Denisovamensen leerde dat het DNA van een onbekende uitgestorven mensensoort moest komen.
Spookgenen met grote impact
“Ze hebben blijkbaar een behoorlijk grote impact gehad op de genomen van de moderne personen die we hebben bestudeerd”, aldus Sankararaman over die onbekende genen. “Ze vertegenwoordigen 2% tot 19% van hun genetische afkomst.” De vier bestudeerde volkeren kwamen uit drie landen: twee uit Nigeria, een uit Sierra Leone en een uit Gambia.
De wetenschappers schatten dat de spookpopulatie zich tussen 360.000 en 1 miljoen jaar geleden afsplitste van de voorouders van neanderthalers en van de moderne mens. De groep van misschien 20.000 individuen zou zich dan ergens tijdens de afgelopen 124.000 jaar voortgeplant hebben samen met de voorouders van moderne West-Afrikanen.
Sankararaman voegt eraan toe dat dit niet de enige verklaring is: “De kans is groot dat het ware plaatje veel ingewikkelder is”. Er kunnen ook verscheidene golven van voortplanting geweest zijn over een periode van duizenden jaren. Of misschien waren er verschillende populaties van tot nu toe onbekende prehistorische voorouders.
De onderzoekers willen zich nu storten op de functies van die oude genen. Mogelijk hebben moderne West-Afrikanen ze behouden omdat het hen hielp om te overleven en zich voort te planten.
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BUITENAARDS BEZOEK VOOR AMERIKAANSE LUCHTMACHTBASIS? ( VIDEO )
BUITENAARDS BEZOEK VOOR AMERIKAANSE LUCHTMACHTBASIS? ( VIDEO )
De Amerikaanse luchtmachtbasis in de buurt van Las Vegas is bij kenners beroemd vanwege de buitenaardsen die daar zijn gelegerd. Het is dan misschien ook niet zo vreemd dat er bij Nellis Airforce Base een groot ruimteschip opduikt.
Al heel lang doen er verhalen de ronde over buitenaardsen die zouden zijn gevestigd op de Amerikaanse luchtmachtbasis Nellis AFB, vlakbij Las Vegas in de stad Nevadea.
Grote ruimteschepen zouden enorm opvallen en wanneer er één van een kilometer lengte door talloze mensen zou worden waargenomen, dan zouden we een situatie krijgen die vergelijkbaar is met wat er in 1938 gebeurde door een hoorspel van Orson Welles waarin melding werd gemaakt van de landing van Marsmannetjes.
Dus, wat doen die schepen? Die verbergen zich, door zich onzichtbaar te maken, cloaken in het Engels. Een manier om dat te doen is om zich voor te doen als een wolk of zich verbergen in een bestaande wolk.
En dan krijg je iets wat er als volgt uit ziet:
Een beeld dat we al veel vaker hebben gezien: een wolkeloze lucht met daarin één (grote) wolk die daar niet thuis hoort.
Deze opname is gemaakt op een weg die men de "extraterrestrial highway" noemt, op een plek die ze noemen in "the middle of nowhere", op zo'n 150 kilometer afstand van Las Vegas, met daar vlakbij de Nellis AFB.
Volgens de berekeningen van Scott Waring is dit ruimteschip ongeveer een kilometer lang en volgt het de bergketen die je ziet in de achtergrond. En wanneer je dat doet, kom je rechtstreeks uit bij Nellis AFB.
Voor hen die denken dat zoiets niet kan, hierna nog even een voorbeeld uit een eerder artikel: van een wolk in een stralend blauwe lucht die geen wolk blijkt te zijn.
Een prachtig voorbeeld van een vermomming van een buitenaards ruimteschip vinden we in een waarneming dat is ingediend bij Mufon onder nummer 91551 door een man uit Ashburn in de Amerikaanse staat Virginia.
De man in kwestie is bouwvakker en stond op 15 maart van dit jaar op de vijfde verdieping van een gebouw in aanbouw, toen hij besloot een foto te nemen. Hij was het verder vergeten en pas op 21 april heeft hij de foto bekeken.
Tot zijn grote verbazing ontdekte hij een wel hele vreemde wolk in de lucht. De foto die hij nam ziet er zo uit.
Wanneer je de wolk dichterbij haalt, dan zie je de bekende UFO vorm en ook dat het allesbehalve een wolk is.
Ship Found On Mars Using Google Map, UFO Sighting News.
Ship Found On Mars Using Google Map, UFO Sighting News.
Date of discovery: February 12, 2020
Location of discovery: Mars
Source: Google Mars map
Google coordinates: 0°51'6.25"S 18°30'21.02"W
While searching Google Mars map, I found something that just was irritating...because it shouldn't be there and yet...it was. I found a ship with structures along it sailing through the sand. I am confident that these are structures sticking up from the ship. Its possible that this ship was taken from Earth and left here when they were done with it. Thousands of ships have been lost at sea, never again being seen. This would explain some of those loses. The ships metallic grey metal is shiny and stands out really well, much like a WWI or WWII battleship. The back part of the ship is partly buried under the sand, so it is pointy like the front...just partly hidden.
This could also be proof of an ancient ocean on Mars. This could be a sea vessel that they used long ago and it kept its shape. Perhaps they used some kind of rust proof material that cannot degrade.
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- Gemiddelde waardering: 0/5 - (0 Stemmen) Categorie:Ruins, strange artifacts on other planets, moons, ed ( Fr, EN, NL )
UFO Fleet Seen During Overcast Weather At Yuma, Arizona, Video, UFO Sighing News.
UFO Fleet Seen During Overcast Weather At Yuma, Arizona, Video, UFO Sighing News.
Date of sighting: Jan 20, 2020 Location of sighting:Yuma, Arizona, USA This video was posted by my friend on Youtube going by the name of Willease. He's a trustworthy guy who insures he posts original and authentic footage. This UFO fleet was recorded by a eyewitness who watch as one by one the lights in the sky disappeared. UFOs such as these have been seen around the world from Taipei city to Rapid City, South Dakota, similar sightings have occurred. However we have to take into account that there is a Marine Core Air Station in Yuma which could be dropping flares over their 3,000 acres of military land. Its hard to say unless the eyewitness went in that direction to find out. I really wish he did or gave us some indication of the exact location. Can these be UFOs? Oh hell yeah, such reports, videos and photos of this type of glowing alien craft exist going back many decades. I just cant see the military flying and dropping flares in such bad overcast foggy weather...so I'm calling it a UFO fleet. Also the fact that these lights are in triangle formation makes me confident its not flares. Flares are most often dropped in lines. Scott C. Waring
Star Wars Ship Seen About Taipei 101 Building, Taiwan, Feb 2020, UFO Sighting News.
Star Wars Ship Seen About Taipei 101 Building, Taiwan, Feb 2020, UFO Sighting News.
Date of sighting: Feb 2, 2020 Location of sighting: Taipei, Taiwan Source:Me Hey guys, sorry I forgot to post this on my site, but I did post it on my twitter feed. I was looking outside the window and took a picture of the famous Taipei 101 building, once the world 2nd tallest, and noticed a strangely shaped cloud above the building. The could resembles the Star Wars Tie fighter ship used by Darth Vader. After I took the photo, I realized the cloud may be a ship, so I switched my phone to video, but before I could aim...the cloud disappeared. Now I watched this area and never saw any other cloud disappear with such speed. I say I had less than 30 seconds before it was gone. I'm sorry, I just don't believe it. Its not a cloud at all. Only a cloaked alien ship could disappear that fast. As I have said before, UFOs often cloak and become invisible, but also make themselves look like clouds in order to get up close and personal...to see with their own eyes, instead of computer screens. Yet, time and time again, people catch this cloud cloaked UFOs. It appears that aliens are less intelligent than we give them credit for. Why would aliens want to visit Taipei? Its the capital of Taiwan, its 30 min flight from China, so they may be checking to see how neighboring countries deal with the threat of the coronavirus. Its an amazing city all around. Scott C. Waring - Taiwan
Fast moving V-shaped UFO caught on NASA live stream
Fast moving V-shaped UFO caught on NASA live stream
During NASA's ISS live stream on February 10, 2020 a glowing V-shaped UFO appears on the horizon and flies at high speed through space until it disappears.
It is certainly not a reflection or some sort of flare since the recording clearly shows that the UFO is moving at high speed from the right to the left on the screen.
It's always the question, whether this v-shaped UFO belongs to the secret space fleet or if it is of extraterrestrial origin.
Over 60 Percent of American People Want The Government To Make UFO-Related Information Public
Over 60 Percent of American People Want The Government To Make UFO-Related Information Public
The majority of American people want government information on UFOs to be released to the public. Piplsay study revealed that 61 percent of people want the U.S. government to release any information it might have on aliens and UFOs to the public.
The study also found that 58 percent of people believe the government investigates aliens and UFOs, and 27 percent think the sightings are real.
UFO enthusiasts express their support on what the Americans want on UFO disclosure. They want the government to release the files from Area 51 and elsewhere. They are excited for the information to flow through the streets and into the minds of the people.
People are becoming more interested in UFOs after the Navy videos showing a “tic-tac” UFO became public.
How about you? Do you think UFOs and aliens are real? Some people do not have a clue and others don’t know anything more than the general public does.
UFO does not naturally mean it is an alien. It just means an unidentified flying object. However, it is possibly ET-related as well.
Either way, the majority of the people want the government to live on the edge, declassify everything and embrace the chaos.
Zealandia, the world’s 8th continent, linked to the forging of the Pacific Ring of Fire
Zealandia, the world’s 8th continent, linked to the forging of the Pacific Ring of Fire
A map of Zealandia. Credit: Nick Mortimer et al.
In 2017, geologists made a convincing case that Earth has, in fact, eight continents if you also include Zealandia. Although it is mostly beneath the ocean, with the exception of New Zealand and New Caledonia, Zealandia is mostly made of continental crust rather than the magnesium- and iron-rich ocean crust. For this reason, many believe Zealandia qualifies as a continent.
Now, in a new study, researchers have revealed how the long-lost undersea continent evolved since its formation. In the process, they found that Zealandia’s upheaval may have been responsible for the birth of the Pacific Ring of Fire.
Forging the Ring of Fire
A new continent in the 21st century? Did it just pop overnight? “This is not a sudden discovery, but a gradual realization,” wrote 11 geologists who authored a 2017 paper published in GSA Today, recommending that ‘Zealandia’ be considered a continent.
The researchers claim that New Zealand and New Caledonia aren’t just some islands chains — they’re just 5 percent of what’s visible above the ocean’s surface, the rest of the 5-million-square-kilometer continent is submerged underwater. That makes Zealandia about as big as greater India. It would also be the ‘youngest, thinnest, and most submerged’ of the continents,’ according to the authors of the 2017 study.
Zealandia itself isn’t something new. It was coined by one of the authors of the 2017 paper, Bruce Luyendyk, a geophysicist at the University of California at Santa Barbara, back in 1995. However, originally, Zealandia was used to describe New Zealand, New Caledonia, and a collection of submerged pieces and slices of crust that broke off a region of Gondwana, the supercontinent from 200 million years ago.
“If we could pull the plug on the oceans, it would be clear to everybody that we have mountain chains and a big, high-standing continent,” said Nick Mortimer, a geologist at GNS Science.
Yet, we still know very little about the submerged continent. But a new study suggests that the story Zealandia is even more amazing than meets the eye.
An international team of researchers recovered sediments from drilling beneath the ocean floor during a 2017 expedition, then sent them to the lab for analysis. Some of the sediments below the Tasman Sea were laid down as long ago as 100 million years ago.
The entire expedition lasted nine weeks and involved 32 scientists from all over the world onboard the research vessel JOIDES Resolution. This wasn’t a walk in the park, though — the researchers had to drill as a deep as 5 km (3.1 miles) using a drill that weighed 300 tonnes.
Encased inside the sediments are tiny fossils, which the researchers used in order to determine the elevation of the sediments when they were deposited. This way, the researchers hoped, they might be able to find out why Zealandia is so different from all the other continents.
Sites where scientists with the International Ocean Discovery Program drilled for sediments in Zealandia. Credit: JOIDES Resolution Science Operator.
Three sites in the northern region of the continent had the kind of fossils that indicated a shallow reef ecosystem between 35 million and 50 million years ago. Perhaps, some of the areas were terrestrial during that time. Today, these sites are found smack in the middle of the Tasman Sea, close to the Lord Howe Rise deep-sea plateau.
Close to the New Caledonia Trough, the fossils contained plankton species known to inhabit deeper waters. This indicates that the elevation of Zealandia had dropped in the 35- to 50-million-year time frame.
The authors of the new study suspect that after northern Zealandia rose and the New Caledonia Trough subsided, the entire continent sunk another 1 km beneath the sea.
Since the 1970s, the prevailing theory of Zealandia’s formation claimed that its low profile is due to the thinning of its crust after it separated from the supercontinent Gondwana about 85 million years ago. However, these latest findings presented by the expedition of scientists show that portions of the Zealandia rose by 1-2 km while others subsided about the same amount.
Rupert Sutherland, geophysicist at Te Herenga Waka-Victoria University of Wellington and co-author of the new study, claims that this topographic upheaval may be due to the reactivation of ancient faults linked to the formation of the Pacific Ring of Fire — a region known for its relatively frequent earthquakes and volcanic activity
“Although subduction drives Earth’s plate tectonic cycle, scientists don’t yet understand how it starts,” Dr. Sutherland said.
“One of the amazing things about our observations is that they reveal the early signs of the Ring of Fire were almost simultaneous throughout the western Pacific,” he added.
“Because this timing predates the global tectonic plate reorganization, scientists need to find an explanation for how subduction began across such a broad area in such a short time.”
Sutherland and colleagues have proposed a radical new mechanism that explains these observations: a ‘subduction rupture event’ — a massive but super-slow earthquake, in the researchers’ words. This geological event essentially resurrected ancient subduction faults that had laid dormant for millions of years.
“We don’t know where or why, but something happened that locally induced movement, and when the fault started to slip, like in an earthquake the motion rapidly spread sideways onto adjacent parts of the fault system and then around the western Pacific,” Dr. Sutherland said.
“But unlike an earthquake, the subduction rupture event may have taken more than a million years to unfold.”
Although the ‘subduction rupture event’ is still a new theory, the evidence so far suggests that such events can quite possibly alter the geography of continents. What’s more, the same events that triggered changes in Zealandia may have to the formation of the Ring of Fire subduction zones around the western Pacific.
“Ultimately, Zealandia’s sedimentary record should help us determine how and why this event happened and what the consequences were for animals, plants, and global climate,” Dr. Sutherland said.
“The process has no modern analogue and because the subduction rupture event is linked to a time of rapid, global plate tectonic change, other instances of such change in the geologic record may imply that comparable events have occurred in the past,” Dr. Sutherland said.
“Geologists generally assume that understanding the present is the key to understanding the past. But at least in this instance, this may not hold.”
View the high resolution version of this incredible map by clicking here
For centuries, Mars has been mythically defined by its characteristic red appearance.
In Babylonian astronomy, Mars was named after Nergal, the deity of fire, war, and destruction. In Chinese and Japanese texts, the planet was known as 火星, the fire star.
Although this unique reddish hue has been a key defining characteristic of Mars in culture for centuries, today we now know that it’s the iron oxide soil of the Martian landscape that makes it the “Red Planet” – and that there is much more to Mars than its color upon closer observation.
Above, today’s map, posted and created by Reddit user /hellofromthemoon, brings together the data from centuries of observation and the numerous missions to the Red Planet to map out its geology on a grand scale.
A Red Dot in the Sky
Egyptian astronomers first observed the planet Mars four thousand years ago and named it “Horus-the-red.” Babylonian astronomers marked its course through the night sky to track the passage of time. But it was not until 1610, when Galileo Galilei witnessed Mars with his own eyes through a telescope, that Mars was revealed as a whole other world.
Over the centuries with improving technology, a succession of astronomers observed and crudely mapped out everything from polar ice caps to yellow clouds, and white and dark spots denoting varying elevations across the Martian surface. Some of the earliest maps of Mars date to 1831. But there is only so much you can accurately observe from the surface of the Earth.
On July 14, 1965, NASA successfully received the first up-close images of Mars from the Mariner 4 spacecraft, passing within 9,844 kilometers (6,117 miles) of Mars’ surface. Mariner 4 captured the image of a large ancient crater and confirmed the existence of a thin atmosphere composed largely of carbon dioxide.
Since then, four space agencies have successfully made it to Mars: NASA, the former Soviet Union space program, the European Space Agency and the Indian Space Research Organization. From orbital satellites to surface exploration with robots, each successful mission has brought back important data to develop an evolving picture of the planet.
Here is a complete list of both the successful and failed missions to Mars.
Martian Geology
On Mars, we see volcanoes, canyons, and impact basins much like the ones on Earth. The yellows scattered across the map indicate meteor impacts of varying size while the swaths of red indicate volcanoes and their associated lava flows. The varying colors of brown indicate the cratered highlands and midlands that make up most of the southern hemisphere.
The planet appears asymmetric. Most of the southern hemisphere is heavily cratered and resembles the moon’s highlands. In contrast, the northern hemisphere is sparsely cratered and has many large volcanoes.
Mars is approximately one-half the diameter of the Earth, but both planets have the same amount of dry land. This is because the current surface of Mars has no liquid water.
Mars and Earth are very different planets when it comes to temperature, size, and atmosphere, but geologic processes on the two planets are eerily similar. The sheer size of some landforms on Mars would shadow over similar features on Earth because of the lack of water erosion. This lack of erosion has preserved billion year-old geologic features.
The tallest mountain on Mars and in the solar system is Olympus Mons, and it is two and a half times taller than Mt. Everest. A Martian canyon system, called Valles Marineris, is the length of the entire continental United States and three times deeper than the Grand Canyon.
Mars Colony: Location, Location, Location
The first step to building a colony is to figure out where the best chance of survival is. For Mars, some researchers have identified the planet’s poles, which contain millennia-old ice deposits. These are thought to contain large amounts of ice, which mars settlers could extract and turn into liquid water.
The poles also host other natural resources, such as carbon dioxide, iron, aluminum, silicon and sulfur, which could be used to make glass, brick and plastic. Furthermore, the planet’s atmosphere contains enough hydrogen and methanol for fuel.
Closing the Distance
The map above represents the culmination of centuries of work which we are lucky enough to view here on a computer, conveniently online for us to appreciate and wonder what life’s like on the surface of Mars.
Huge, silent, black triangle or boomerang shaped craft have been reported and even filmed flying over populated areas all across North America and Europe for decades. In the early 1980s, hundreds of nighttime sightings were reported in rural New York. In 1989, ten thousand witnesses watched and photographed several huge black triangle craft fly silently over Belgium. Belgian Air Force F-16 jets couldn’t keep up with the triangles’ virtually impossible maneuvers. In 1997, thousands watched a gigantic triangle-shaped craft fly over the Phoenix night sky. Military officials first said they hadn’t seen anything, and then claimed that it had been a National Guard unit training with flares at night. The public didn’t buy it.
Large black triangle craft were seen over Russia as early as the 1970s. Recently, the mystery triangles have been seen in every US state, flying low and slow over cities. The National Institute for Discovery Science (NIDS), a private Las Vega organization, has a database of more than 1,000 black triangle reports. NIDS’ Dr. Colm Kelleher headed a four-year investigation of the black triangles. He notes that “These things are huge …football-field size. [S]ometimes they’re stealthy, but a lot of the times they’re flying with extremely bright lights. They’re always silent.” Radar have documented these craft dropping 20,000 feet in a matter of seconds. Said Kelleher, “Why would unacknowledged aircraft be flying at 500 to 1,000 feet over populated areas? …If they’re a classified military project, why are military jets scrambled to go after them?”
In 2019, Las Vegas journalist Cateland White watched as a dark behemoth flew over her backyard. Said White, “It was triangular shaped, and there were rectangular reflectors. There was no interior light coming out of it at all. …It was really slow. And I couldn’t figure out how it was staying in the air.” It seemed to be heading toward nearby Nellis Air Force Base. When White contacted the base, a base representative told her, ‘Ma’am, I’m going to tell you one more time and this is the last time I’m gonna tell you. You will forget what you saw. And you won’t tell anybody.’ “The man said, ‘I don’t want you to talk about this anymore’”.
These black triangles have often been seen near military installations. One huge craft was spotted on a runway at Groom Lake (Area 51), part of Nellis Air Force Base. Some speculate that these are secret advanced military blimps, capable of carrying large deployments of troops or tanks to remote locations. The Pentagon has awarded three contracts for the development of big airships. Others think that the Department of Homeland Security may be using them to spy on suspected domestic terrorists within the United States. A high tech airship could suck up every fax, phone call and email as it passes over.
The NIDS database shows that in the past two years sightings of giant triangles over major cities have skyrocketed. Whoever’s flying them isn’t worried about their existence being known. When NIDS posted its study online it was swamped with nearly 100,000 inquiries, mostly from the aerospace industry. “So there’s a tremendous amount of interest in this topic,” says Kelleher. “Are these aircraft ours are they somebody else’s?[And] if not ours, who’s?”
[Editor’s Note] In chapter 15 of Dr Michael Salla’s 2019 book: US Air Force Secret Space Program – Shifting Extraterrestrial Alliances & Space Force, he discusses the origin of the US Air Force’s top secret Aurora Program which developed the TR-3B triangle craft, able to perform both in the earth’s atmosphere and in near space. Salla cites Edgar Fouche who confirms that the TR-3B, code named ‘Astra’, was a tactical reconnaissance craft developed in the 1970s and built by private aerospace companies for the Air Force during the 1980s. Fouche served with the US Air Force from 1967 to 1987 and then spent another eight years with defense contractors working on a number of classified aviation programs at Groom Lake Area 51.
From November 1989 to April 1990, prototype black flying triangles, approximately 250 feet in length, were sighted and photographed in Scotland and Belgium by hundreds of witnesses including police officers. On March 30, 1990, the Belgium Air Force sent F-16 fighter jets to intercept a flying triangle. According to Fouche the 600-foot wide model TR-3B became operational in the early 1990’s, and three were flying by 1994.
The TR-3B employs a “Magnetic Field Disrupter” which rotates highly pressurized mercury-based plasma around a circular accelerator ring, reducing the craft’s weight by a factor of 89%. Three rocket engines using conventional fuel sources like hydrogen, oxygen and/or methane provide the thrust. The TR-3B is a high altitude, stealth, reconnaissance platform with an indefinite loiter time. Fouche claimed that the TR-3B was able to silently hover for at least 10 minutes and gave off “a corona of silver blue light” that glowed around it while hovering.
Corey Goode asserts that the TR-3B was a “hand me down” to the USAF’s military space program and to cabal “elites” from an even more highly classified space program controlled by NASA along with the Antarctic German Space Program.
Huge, silent, unknown craft have been reported flying over populated areas dating back decades. What are they?
Black triangles or boomerang shaped objects, some larger than any known aircraft, have been documented, even filmed, over cities all across North America, as well as in Europe. If they’re a classified military project, investigators wonder, then why are military jets scrambled to go after them?
Dr. Colm Kelleher
“They launched on several occasions top-of-the-line military aircraft against these things and they were left in the dust,” says Dr. Colm Kelleher of the National Institute for Discovery Science. “One minute they’re overhead, and the next they’re over the horizon.
Dr. Kelleher managed an investigation of the black triangles back in 2004, which coincidentally is the same year the U.S. Navy encountered a now-famous UFO known as the “Tic Tac.”
So what were those black triangles, and who, if anyone, was flying them? A special 2-Part report, only on mysterywire.com.
PART 1
MYSTERY WIRE — In 1997, thousands of eyewitnesses watched in awe as a boomerang-shaped formation of lights cruised slowly and silently over the city of Phoenix. “They’re lined up in a pattern,” one witness said as a camera recorded the event.
Cateland White
Witnesses first thought these were separate lights flying in formation, but quickly realized the lights were all part of a single gigantic something. Military officials were asked about the Phoenix lights but said they hadn’t seen anything.
Months later, they explained that a National Guard unit had been training with flares near the city. The public in general didn’t buy it.
Eight years earlier, the airspace over Belgium was repeatedly violated by huge unidentified black triangles. Ten thousand witnesses saw them. Several of the triangles were photographed. The Belgian Air Force dispatched F-16s to intercept and destroy the unknown intruders, but the triangles performed maneuvers that seemed virtually impossible.
Research scientist Dr. Colm Kelleher recounts the Belgium incident. “On several occasions they launched the top-of-the-line military aircraft against these things, and they were left standing. They were left in the dust.”
“One minute these things are overhead and the next minute they’re on the horizon,” Kelleher said.
Kelleher spent several years with the National Institute for Discovery Science, or NIDS, a private Las Vegas science organization. A four-year NIDS study of the mystery triangles has found that these craft have been seen for decades all over the world.
In the early ’80s, there were hundreds of nighttime sightings in rural New York. Belgium was inundated in the late ’80s. But more recently, the mystery triangles have really come out of the closet and have been seen in every state, including Nevada, flying low and slow over cities.
“These things are huge,” Kelleher said. “These things are football-field size, sometimes they’re stealthy, but a lot of the times they’re flying with extremely bright lights. They’re always silent.”
NIDS now has a database of more than 1,000 black triangle reports, 17 of them from Nevada. The witnesses often say the craft seemed to float like a blimp or airship. But they’re also capable of aeronautical magic.
Fossil of a 'weird' iguana-like reptile with a needle-sharp snout found in Alaska is identified as a 200 million-year-old species of thalattosaur previously unknown to science
Fossil of a 'weird' iguana-like reptile with a needle-sharp snout found in Alaska is identified as a 200 million-year-old species of thalattosaur previously unknown to science
Gunakadeit joseeae is the most complete thalattosaur found in North America
Thalattosaurs were a group of marine reptiles from over 200 million years ago
This species may have died out as sea levels dropped and it could no longer hunt
An iguana-like creature with a needle-sharp snout has been confirmed from a fossilised skeleton as a species of the extinct marine reptile thalattosaur.
The new species, previously unknown to science, roamed the coast of what is now Alaska some 200 million years ago.
The new creature has been named Gunakadeit joseeae, after a Native Tlingit name for a legendary sea monster.
It dates from the Triassic period more than 200 million years ago and has been identified from a lone fossil found in the Tongass National Forest in Alaska.
It is the only intact fossil from the thalattosaur group ever found in North America.
An artist's depiction of Gunakadeit joseeae, a species of thalattosaur that may have died out when waters became to shallow for them to hunt
'This animal is striking because it's got this super-sharp pointed snout,' said paleontologist Pat Druckenmller, director of the University of Alaska Museum of the North and lead author of the study.
'Literally, it´s needle-like.'
'Thalattosaurs were among the first groups of land-dwelling reptiles to readapt to life in the ocean,' said Neil Kelley from Vanderbilt University and co-author of the study, published in Scientific Reports.
'They thrived for tens of millions of years, but their fossils are relatively rare so this new specimen helps fill an important gap in the story of their evolution and eventual extinction.'
Thalattosaurs grew to lengths of up to 9 to 13 feet and lived in equatorial oceans worldwide until they died out near the end of the Triassic period when their distant relatives – dinosaurs – were first emerging.
WHAT ARE THE THREE GEOLOGIC ERAS?
The Mesozoic Era is a the name given to the period from 250 million to 65 million years ago.
The era is divided into three major periods: Triassic, Jurassic and Cretaceous.
The new species discovery dates back to the Cretaceous period – 145 million to 66 million years ago.
Mesozoic was the age of the dinosaurs and lasted almost 180 million years.
The Mesozoic Era followed the Paleozoic Era, during which arthropods, molluscs, fish and amphibians all evolved.
Mesozoic was followed by the Cenozoic Era, during which the continents assumed the configuration that we know today.
ThalattosaursWikimedia commons
The snout and the fine bones in the throat of this new species suggest a reptile that dug into cracks in submerged reefs to suck out food - mostly small crustaceans and squid.
Its fossil was uncovered through a stroke of luck, when an extremely low tide in 2011 exposed the typically submerged rock where it was embedded on an island beach as scientists happened to be surveying the area.
Fully separating the fossil from rock took years, said US Forest Service geologist Jim Baichtal, one of the scientists who found the specimen.
Positively identifying it as a new species included a trip by Druckenmiller to China, one of the few places where intact thalattosaurs have been discovered.
That work confirmed what was obvious to those who saw the fossil's skull and snout in 2011.
They could tell right away that it was something new because of its extremely pointed snout, which was likely an adaptation for the shallow marine environment where it lived.
'We knew right away that it was totally different,' Druckenmiller said.
'It was probably poking its pointy schnoz into cracks and crevices in coral reefs and feeding on soft-bodied critters.'
Once the sample was back at the UA Museum of the North in Fairbanks, a fossil preparation specialist worked in two-week stints over the course of several years to get the fossil cleaned up and ready for study.
Only now have the results been presented in a research paper as a new species.
The fossil of Gunakadeit joseeae, which was found in Southeast Alaska. About two thirds of the tail had already eroded away when the fossil was discovered
But its specialisation may have been what ultimately led to its extinction.
'We think these animals were highly specialised to feed in the shallow water environments, but when the sea levels dropped and food sources changed, they had nowhere to go,' Druckenmiller said.
At the time Gunakadeit joseeae was living, what is now the rugged temperate rainforest of southeast Alaska was a much warmer place – a coastal region only about 10-20 degrees north of the equator.
The newly identified thalattosaur is the latest among several important paleontological discoveries in the Tongass National Forest.
They include the 1996 discovery of a 10,300-year-old human skeleton in a cave in the southern part of the largest US national forest.
Those remains, of a young man with a fish-based diet, contributed to knowledge about people who migrated to North America by coastal routes rather than over the Bering Land Bridge.
WHAT WERE THE THALATTOSAURS?
Thalattosaurs are an extinct group of prehistoric marine reptiles.
They lived during the mid-late Triassic period around 200 million years ago.
They grew to lengths of up to 9 to 13 feet (around 3-4 meters) and lived in equatorial oceans worldwide
Thalattosaurs, translated as ‘ocean lizards’, had long, paddle-like tails and slender bodies.
The most unusual features of thalattosaurs are their narrow snouts.
They died out near the end of the Triassic period, which lasted from 252 million years ago until 201 million years ago, when it was succeeded by the Jurassic period.
Thallattosaur remains have been found in Europe, China and North America.
The Thalattosauria (and family Thalattosauridae) were named by American paleontologist John C. Merriam in 1904, at the time containing only the first known species, Thalattosaurus.
Scientists raced against a rising tide to recover a tantalizing fossil on an island in southeast Alaska. It turned out to be a species new to science.
From the left, Gene Primaky, Jim Baichtal, and Patrick Druckenmiller at the excavation site of the new fossil in the Keku Islands of southeastern Alaska. It was just after they’d extracted the fossil, minutes before the site was submerged by a rising tide. “We rock-sawed like crazy and managed to pull it out,” Druckenmiller said.
In 2011, scientists worked against a rising tide to excavate a remarkable fossil on an island in southeast Alaska. Subsequent studies revealed that the fossil was a new species of thalattosaur, a marine reptile that lived more than 200 million years ago. This specimen has since been named Gunakadeit joseeae (pronounced ghu-nuh-kuh-DATE JOE-zee-ay; the first syllable’s vowel sounds like the “oo” in “good”). It’s the most complete thalattosaur skeleton ever found in North America and has added substantial new information to this little-known group of extinct reptiles.
Details of the discovery were published in the journal Scientific Reports on February 4, 2020.
It’s a wonder the fossil was ever found; the specimen was in an intertidal area at the Keku Islands, near the village of Kake. It was submerged most of the time, except during very low tides that happened for a few hours on only a few days of each year.
On one such occasion, on May 18, 2011, Jim Baichtal, a U.S. Forest Service geologist with the Tongass National Forest, was out hunting for fossils with colleagues. With him was Gene Primaky, an information technologist, who first spotted the fossil on a rocky outcrop.
A month later, Druckenmiller and his team were on site to excavate the fossil. They had a narrow window for their work: two days when low tides were low enough, during daylight, to expose the fossil for about four hours on each day. The next opportunity would not come around for nearly another year. Druckenmiller said:
We rock-sawed like crazy and managed to pull it out, but just barely. The water was lapping at the edge of the site.
The fossil turned out to be a new thalattosaur species, now called Gunakadeit joseeae. The skeleton was fully intact, except for two-thirds of its tail that was lost to erosion.
It took several years at the University of Alaska Museum of the North for a fossil preparation specialist to clean the specimen and prepare it for study.
The first indication that this was a new species of thalattosaur was the shape of the fossil’s skull. It had a very pointed snout, which Druckenmiller suggested was a likely adaptation to the shallow seas in which the animal once lived. He thinks that shape may have ultimately led to the demise of the species, saying:
It was probably poking its pointy schnoz into cracks and crevices in coral reefs and feeding on soft-bodied critters. We think these animals were highly specialized to feed in the shallow water environments, but when the sea levels dropped and food sources changed, they had nowhere to go.
Today, the name of the newly found creature reflects both the place where it was found, and its discovery story. The genus name, Gunakadeit, is that of a sea monster from the lore of the Tlingit people, who were indigenous to the Pacific Northwest of North America. The species name, joseeae, is in honor of Joseé Michelle DeWaelheyns, mother of the fossil’s discoverer, Gene Primaky.
Thalattosaurs lived during the mid to late Triassic Period, about 247 to 201 million years ago. Found in tropical seas around the world, these marine reptiles reached lengths of 3 to 4 meters (10 to 13 feet). They became extinct at the end of the Triassic Period, about 201 million years ago.
Prior to the discovery of Gunakadeit joseeae, it had been 20 years since scientists had taken an exhaustive look at thalattosaurs. In paleontology, this involved studying the detailed anatomical characteristics of other thalattosaur fossils found around the world, and using computers to analyze the possible relationships between the different species. Patrick Druckenmiller, who led the study of this creature, said in a statement:
When you find a new species, one of the things you want to do is tell people where you think it fits in the family tree. We decided to start from scratch on the family tree.
In the study of living things, a “family tree” is a body of knowledge, represented as a diagram, that shows evolutionary relationships between related organisms, including their common ancestry.
Druckenmiller worked with Neil Kelley of Vanderbilt University on the analysis of the fossil’s place on the thalattosaur family tree. The results took them by surprise. Druckenmiller commented:
It was so specialized and weird, we thought it might be out at the furthest branches of the tree. Instead it’s a relatively primitive type of thalattosaur that survived late into the existence of the group.
Kelley added:
Thalattosaurs were among the first groups of land-dwelling reptiles to readapt to life in the ocean. They thrived for tens of millions of years, but their fossils are relatively rare so this new specimen helps fill an important gap in the story of their evolution and eventual extinction.
Artist’s depiction of the new thalattosaur species, Gunakadeit joseeae. It lived 200 million years ago.
Bottom line: Scientists have discovered a new species of thalattosaur, a marine reptile that lived more than 200 million years ago in warm tropical seas around the world. This specimen, named Gunakadeit joseeae, is the most intact North American thalattosaur ever found, and has helped scientists better understand how thalattosaur species are related to each other.
NASA Advances Plans to Bring Samples Back From Mars
NASA Advances Plans to Bring Samples Back From Mars
February 10, 2020
Collecting samples from Mars and bringing them back to Earth is a historic undertaking that starts with the launch of NASA's Mars 2020 rover. That rover will collect samples and leave them ready for a future mission to retrieve and return to Earth. The future stages of Mars Sample Return involve the collaboration of NASA and the European Space Agency to develop a lander, a fetch rover, an ascent vehicle to launch the sample container to Martian orbit, and a retrieval spacecraft for carrying the samples to Earth. In this video, visit some of the labs at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory where prototypes and engineering models involved in the Mars Sample Return campaign are being tested.
TRANSCRIPT
Raquel Villanueva: Hi, I'm Raquel Villanueva, here at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory. Now, it has been a dream of scientists for generations to bring back samples from the surface of Mars. Right now, the Mars 2020 rover is laying the groundwork for that to happen.
And, that's why I'm in the In-Situ Instrument Laboratory with Jessica Samuels. And, she's here to tell us what's going on here.
Jessica Samuels: Well, we use this facility to develop and design our hardware and software systems for our Mars missions.
Raquel: And, how does the sampling system work.
Jessica: So, we have a drill on the end of our robotic arm. And, as we are drilling the surface of Mars, we will be collecting pieces of Mars into the sample tube at that time. We'll then transfer that sample tube into the inside of the rover and then seal it for storage as we continue to explore the surface. After we've collected a diverse set of samples, we will drop them off onto the surface...
Raquel: Yeah.
Jessica:...and then have them there for a future sample return mission to continue.
Raquel: Well, I know you have some tests to keep doing and I'm actually gonna go check out the next phase at a different lab.
We're in a testing lab affectionately known as the "Sand Box" and I'm here with Austin Nicholas. Now, can you explain how we are gonna bring back samples from Mars?
Austin Nicholas: So, starting from after 2020 has deposited tubes on the surface, there are two more missions to go in bringing the tubes back to Earth.
The first is a lander mission. It carries three major elements: a Sample Fetch Rover and a Sample Transfer Arm that lets you transfer the samples from the Fetch Rover into the rocket, and a Mars Ascent Vehicle which is a rocket that brings the samples from Mars into space. Meanwhile, the orbiter has also launched from Earth in 2026 and is making its way towards Mars and it'll be in position by the time the rocket's fully loaded. The orbiter will then go to the sample container that the rocket's put into space and then capture it, ultimately bringing them to Earth in 2031.
Raquel: That sounds complicated.
Austin: It is complicated but fortunately we're not doing it alone. So, we have a great partnership with the European Space Agency and they're providing some major pieces of this mission. Within NASA, we've actually got a number of centers working on all of the different pieces. So, we're partnering with Marshall Space Flight Center for the Mars Ascent Vehicle, Langley and Ames for the Earth Entry Vehicle, Glenn for the Sample Fetch Rover wheels and we're partnering with Goddard for the orbiter payload. And so there's really a...it's a whole NASA effort to get Mars Sample Return done.
Raquel: Sounds like there is a lot of work to be done, but this all kicks off with the launch of Mars 2020 this summer in Cape Canaveral, Florida and there's lots of excitement here as we get ready to make history.
The oldest material on Earth has been found in a meteorite
The oldest material on Earth has been found in a meteorite
Ashley Strickland - CNN
After stars die, they expel their particles out into space, which form new stars in turn. In one case, stardust became embedded in a meteorite that fell to Earth. This illustration shows that stardust could flow from sources like the Egg Nebula to create the grains recovered from the meteorite, which landed in Australia.
(NASA/W. Sparks (STScI)/R. Sahai)
Fifty years ago, a meteorite fell to Earth and landed in Australia, carrying with it a rare sample from interstellar space. A new analysis of the meteorite revealed stardust that formed between five to seven billion years ago. That makes the meteorite and its stardust the oldest solid material ever discovered on Earth.
Our sun is around 4.6 billion years old, meaning this stardust existed long before our sun or solar system were even a reality. The stardust found on the meteorite are called presolar grains because they formed before our sun.
Stars are born when gas, dust and heat combine in just the right way. They can exist for millions or even billions of years before dying and expelling their key ingredients into space. This in turn helps new stars to be born, creating a space daisy chain.
Meteorites, if they don't knock into too many things, can act like time capsules of the materials trapped within them, like stardust. That's why the discovery of the presolar grains is such a rarity -- only 5% of meteorites found on Earth contain them. Their impossibly tiny size is difficult to fathom.
One hundred of the largest found presolar grains could fit on a period, according to a release by the Field Museum in Chicago.
A new study of presolar grains from the Murchison meteorite recovered in Australia published Monday in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences journal.
"This is one of the most exciting studies I've worked on," said Philipp Heck, lead study author and a curator at the Field Museum. "These are the oldest solid materials ever found, and they tell us about how stars formed in our galaxy. They're solid samples of stars."
The meteorite was recovered in 1969 and presolar grains were isolated from it.
"It starts with crushing fragments of the meteorite down into a powder," said Jennika Greer, study co-author and a graduate student at the Field Museum and the University of Chicago. "Once all the pieces are segregated, it's a kind of paste, and it has a pungent characteristic. It smells like rotten peanut butter."
Dissolving the paste in acid reveals the presolar grains, allowing the researchers to determine their age and the type of star they once belonged to.
The researchers were able to measure the exposure of the grains to cosmic rays, highly energized particles zipping through our galaxy.
"Some of these cosmic rays interact with the matter and form new elements," Heck said. "And the longer they get exposed, the more those elements form. I compare this with putting out a bucket in a rainstorm. Assuming the rainfall is constant, the amount of water that accumulates in the bucket tells you how long it was exposed."
Many of the grains recovered were between 4.6 and 4.9 billion years old, while others were older than 5.5 billion years.
They also learned that seven billion years ago, more stars began forming.
"We have more young grains than we expected," Heck said. "Our hypothesis is that the majority of those grains, which are 4.9 to 4.6 billion years old, formed in an episode of enhanced star formation. There was a time before the start of the solar system when more stars formed than normal."
Astronomers have argued about the rate of star formation. Some believe it's steady and unchanging, while others believe there are peaks and dips.
"Some people think that the star formation rate of the galaxy is constant," Heck said. "But thanks to these grains, we now have direct evidence for a period of enhanced star formation in our galaxy seven billion years ago with samples from meteorites. This is one of the key findings of our study."
They also determined that the presolar grains have a habit of clumping together in granola-like clusters, which they didn't think possible, Heck said.
Understanding the grains has shed light not only on stars and how long their stardust can last but also more on galaxies and their timelines.
"With this study, we have directly determined the lifetimes of stardust. We hope this will be picked up and studied so that people can use this as input for models of the whole galactic life cycle," Heck said. "It's so exciting to look at the history of our galaxy. Stardust is the oldest material to reach Earth, and from it, we can learn about our parent stars, the origin of the carbon in our bodies [and] the origin of the oxygen we breathe. With stardust, we can trace that material back to the time before the sun."
The Space Force has been caught on camera training its fleet, conspiracy theorists have claimed after seeing footage of strange lights appearing over Arizona.
Footage taken above Yuma shows six bright UFOsseemingly hovering in formation in the sky.
As the camera rolls, the lights start to disappear and after several minutes they are reduced to three in a triangle formation.
When the clip comes to an end there is just one object in the sky.
The mysterious footage was posted to YouTube by Devil_Travels on January 23, before being picked up by popular conspiracy channel MrMBB333.
Thousands of people have seen the clip, with many noting that a large base belonging to the US Marines is stationed in the same region.
The mysterious lights over Arizona
(Image: YOUTUBE/DEVIL_TRAVELS)
And the unusual trajectory and formation of the sights led many to suggest it could be evidence of the Space Force in action.
One commented: “It’s US Space Force training.”
The training theory went down well with fellow viewers, with another adding: “You’ve nailed it.”
An image of the Phoenix Lights
And a third added: “An example of Space Force.”
But there may be another explanation for the mystery lights.
Our models of how things in the universe are supposed to work have a bad habit of turning out completely wrong. Recently astronomers tossed a few more models in the garbage after discovering an enormous, ancient galaxy, they’ve described as “the monster” due to its size, age and the incredible rate at which it formed stars—over 1,000 times faster than the Milky Way. But the confusing thing is that one day it just stopped making stars altogether. And astronomers have no idea what caused the death of this strange cosmic monstrosity.
The technical name for this galaxy is XMM-2599. It was discovered by astronomers using the W. M. Keck Observatory’s Multi-Object Spectrograph for Infrared Exploration, or MOSFIRE. Ben Forrest, postdoctoral researcher at UC Riverside, describes what makes this galaxy so strange and unique:
“Even before the universe was 2 billion years old, XMM-2599 had already formed a mass of more than 300 billion suns, making it an ultramassive galaxy. More remarkably, we show that XMM-2599 formed most of its stars in a huge frenzy when the universe was less than one billion years old, and then became inactive by the time the universe was only 1.8 billion years old.”
When XMM-2599 was active, it was producing stars 1,000 times faster than the Milky Way.
According to Gillian Wilson, a professor of physics and astronomy at UC Riverside, galaxies this old and this massive are predicted to exist by the numerical models, although rarely. The numerical models, however, predict that such galaxies should still be actively forming stars. The mysterious death of XMM-2599 throws a wrench into those models. Wilson says:
“The mere existence of ultramassive galaxies like XMM-2599 proves quite a challenge to numerical models. Even though such massive galaxies are incredibly rare at this epoch, the models do predict them. The predicted galaxies, however, are expected to be actively forming stars. What makes XMM-2599 so interesting, unusual, and surprising is that it is no longer forming stars, perhaps because it stopped getting fuel or its black hole began to turn on. Our results call for changes in how models turn off star formation in early galaxies.”
The astronomers don’t know, however, what XMM-2599 will do in the future. Or, rather, the rest of the past. The weird thing about observing a galaxy like XMM-2599 is, due to its distance from Earth, they are looking at this galaxy as it was 11.7 billion years ago. Wilson says:
“We have caught XMM-2599 in its inactive phase. We do not know what it will turn into by the present day. We know it cannot lose mass. An interesting question is what happens around it. As time goes by, could it gravitationally attract nearby star-forming galaxies and become a bright city of galaxies?”
Artist’s impression of what the strange, early galaxies looked like.
(Credit: James Josephides/Swinburne Astronomy Productions, Christina Williams/University of Arizona, Ivo Labbe/Swinburne)
According to Michael Cooper, professor of astronomy at UC Irvine, and co-author of the new study describing XM-2599, this outcome is a strong possibility:
“Perhaps during the following 11.7 billion years of cosmic history, XMM-2599 will become the central member of one of the brightest and most massive clusters of galaxies in the local universe. Alternatively, it could continue to exist in isolation. Or we could have a scenario that lies between these two outcomes.”
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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 73 jaar jong.
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