UFO Captured By Drone In Utah

What I don't understand is why does it make a turn like a plane, I mean UFOs don't have to do that as they have inertial dampeners or gravity nullifiers with that rotating like that is done because of the ailerons, this object is rotating to make a turn like a plane does and that's illogical, might be something from the Air force new type of plane with that.

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Interesting video

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10-03-2020 om 23:45 geschreven door peter  

Extraterrestrials Are Waiting For The Right Moment Before They Make Contact – Scientists Say

Cynthia McKanzie – MessageToEagle.com

If you were a member of an alien race would you think it’s wise to initiate contact with humans? Could humanity handle contact with extraterrestrials?

According to scientists, extraterrestrials are deliberately waiting for the right moment before they reveal themselves to Earthlings.

In a recent study published by the Astronomical Journal scientists have tried to shed new light on the Fermi paradox and the Aurora Effect by investigating the existence of alien civilizations on other planets.

Credit: Public Domain

“We model the settlement of the Galaxy by space-faring civilizations in order to address issues related to the Fermi Paradox. We are motivated to explore the problem in a way that avoids assumptions about the agency (i.e., questions of intent and motivation) of any exo-civilization seeking to settle other planetary systems,” researchers write in their study.

Scientists started by considering the speed of an advancing settlement front to determine if the Galaxy can become inhabited with space-faring civilizations on timescales shorter than its age.

They included the directed settlement of nearby settleable systems through the launching of probes with a finite velocity and range. In addition to this, researchers also considered the effect of stellar motions on the long-term behavior of the settlement front which adds a diffusive component to its advance.

“The results of these models demonstrate that the Milky Way can be readily filled-in with settled stellar systems under conservative assumptions about interstellar spacecraft velocities and launch rates,” scientists said.

The Fermi Paradox, a concept presented by physicist Enrico Fermi regarding the existence of extraterrestrial intelligence has intrigued all researchers searching for alien life. According to the Fermi Paradox due to the number of planets and stars in the galaxy, there should be another world teeming with intelligent extraterrestrial life. If this is true, then Earth should have already been visited or at least contacted by aliens.

However, since humans have not yet come across evidence of intelligent extraterrestrial life, many doubt the existence of alien civilizations.

See also:

• Are Extraterrestrials Capable Of Altering Our Reality?
• Extraterrestrial Material May Be Present On The Moon – Focus On Space Archaeology – Astronomy Professor Says
• Extraterrestrial Probes May Study Us Now But They’re Too Small To Spot – Astrophysicist Says
• More About Extraterrestrial Life

Researchers of the recent study say that it’s possible extraterrestrials are in close vicinity to the Earth, but they’re simply waiting for the time when Earth or the Solar System gets closer to their homeworld before sending out a probe or launching an expedition.

“If long enough is a billion years, well then that’s one solution to the Fermi paradox,” Carroll-Nellenback told Business Insider. “Habitable worlds are so rare that you have to wait longer than any civilization is expected to last before another one comes in range.”

“Every system could be habitable and could be settled, but they wouldn’t visit us because they’re not close enough,” he added.

Most people believe that humans will sooner or later establish open contact with aliens, but it’s possible certain requirements must be met before this meeting can take place. Science fiction authors and some scientists sometimes say humans will be invited to join the Galactic Club, but when this will happen is unknown.

Our world will change completely once we enter the Galactic Club.

Credit: Artist Unknown

According to David Schwartzman, a biogeochemist at Howard University in Washington D.C, there is a reason not to give up on SETI. Schwartzman thinks aliens are out there, despite the fact that the search for extraterrestrial intelligence (SETI) has only found silence. He also outlines what we need to do for planet Earth to be initiated into the Galactic Club.

“Our world will change completely once we enter the Galactic Club.

I submit that if we want to enter the Galactic Club, the challenge lies in reconstructing our global political economy. A few minor side benefits should result, like no more war, no more poverty, a future for all of humanity’s children with a substantial proportion of biodiversity intact. We should not expect the Galactic Club to save us from ourselves,” Schwartzman said.

Written by Cynthia McKanzie – MessageToEagle.com Staff Writer

{ http://www.messagetoeagle.com/ }

10-03-2020 om 23:20 geschreven door peter  

'Invisible UFOs' Fill the Skies

10-03-2020 om 21:58 geschreven door peter  

In my previous article on “Invisible UFOs,” I discussed three cases from the U.K., and all from the 1950s. It’s now time to take a look at a very similar case from the United States and also occurred in the 1950s. The documentation on this intriguing story can be found in the UFO section of the FBI’s website, The Vault. With that all said, let’s now take a look at the case itself.  It all goes back to 1951 and strange, aerial activity that occurred in the vicinity of a military installation, Fort Monmouth, New Jersey. The documentation on the incident starts as follows: “On September 20, Andrew J. Reid G-2 [Army Intelligence] Ft. Monmouth, NJ, provided following report of unconventional aircraft observed by radar at above Army installation. On Sept 10, fifty one], an AN/MPG-1 radar set picked up a fast moving low flying target, exact altitude undetermined at approximately 11:10 a.m., southeast of Ft. Monmouth at a range of about twelve thousand yards. The target appeared to approximately follow the coast line, changing its range only slightly but changing its azimuth rapidly. The radar set was set to full aided azimuth tracking which normally is fast enough to track jet aircraft, but in this case was too slow to be resorted to. Target was lost in the N.E. at a range of about fourteen thousand yards.”

Matters had barely begun, however, as the following extract from the official papers reveals: “This target also presented an unusually strong return for aircraft[,] being comparable in strength to that usually received from a coastal ship [italics mine]. The operator initially identified target as a ship and then realized that it could not be a ship after he observed its extreme speed. September 10, fifty one  an SCR-584 radar set, at 3:15p.m., tracking a target which moved about slowly in azimuth north of Ft. Monmouth at a range of about 42,000 yards at extremely unusual elevation angle.”

Notably, the movements of the vast craft  were also picked up by another radar expert: “Both sets found it impossible to track the target in range due to it speed and the operators had to resort to manual range tracking in order to hold the target. The target was tracked in this manner to the maximum tracking range of 32,000 yards. The operator said the target to be moving at a speed several hundred mph higher than the maximum aided tracking ability of the radar sets. The target provided an extremely strong return echo at times even though it was the maximum range. However, echo signal occasionally fell off to a level below normal return. These changes coincided with maneuvers of the target.”

There was more amazing activity to come: “On September 11, fifty one [sic] at about 1:30 p.m. the target was picked up on an SCR-584 radar set that displayed unusual maneuverability. Target was approximately over Navesink, NJ, as indicated by his 10,000 range, 6,000 feet altitude and due north azimuth. The target remained practically stationary on the scope and appeared to be hovering [italics mine]. The operator looked out of the vehicle housing the radar in an attempt to see the target, since it was at such a short range, however, overcast conditions prevented such observation.”

And we have this incredible data from the base’s staff: “Returning to their operating position the target was observed to be changing in elevation at an extremely rapid rate, but change in range was so slow the operator believed the target must have risen nearly vertically [italics mine]…Once again the speed of the target exceeded the tracking ability of the SCR-584 set so that manual tracking became necessary…The weather was fair when the observation was made September 10th and cloudy for the September 11th report.”

Truly, a fascinating and amazing early encounter of the UFO kind. And of the invisible type, too.

{ https://mysteriousuniverse.org/ }

10-03-2020 om 21:34 geschreven door peter  

Back in late 2013, Micah Hanks wrote a feature here with the title of:“Arnold’s Flying Saucers: Were They Saucers at All? He stated: “Despite the popularity this subject would garner in those golden years after the War, perhaps there is no early UFO incident that has proven to be quite as influential as that of Kenneth Arnold, a civilian pilot who spotted an entire fleet of strange aircraft while flying over Washington state in June of 1947.

The strange craft that Arnold observed would spark a flame that grew like wildfire, eventually forming the modern UFO phenomenon, and at the center of it all was the curious staple that became known as the flying saucer.” Arnold’s encounter took place near to Mt. Rainier and, in no time at all, resulted in the birth of the UFO phenomenon. Of course, there are numerous theories for what Arnold encountered: alien spacecraft, top secret of the U.S. military and even a flock of geese. Whatever the truth, for many Arnold’s experience is still perceived today as one of the most important UFOs cases of the 20th century.

It was said for a long time that the biggest problem with Arnold’s encounter was that it lacked any kind of corroboration. That may not have been the case, though. It’s now time to introduce you to a man named Fred Johnson, a prospector who just might have been in the right place – and at the right time – to see exactly what Arnold sighted. Both the military and the FBI took an interest in what Johnson had to say, as the following documentation – from the FBI – demonstrates: “Fred Johnson reported without consulting any records that on June 24, 1947, while prospecting at a point in the Cascade Mountains approximately five thousand feet from sea level, during the afternoon he noticed a reflection, looked up, and saw a disc proceeding in a southeasterly direction. Immediately upon sighting this object he placed his telescope to his eye and observed the disc for approximately forty-five to sixty seconds.”

Johnson “remarked that it is possible for him to pick up an object at a distance of ten miles with his telescope. At the time the disc was sighted by Mr. Johnson it was banking in the sun, and he observed five or six similar objects but only concentrated on one. He related that they did not fly in any particular formation and that he would estimate their height to be about one thousand feet from where he was standing. He said the object was about thirty feet in diameter and appeared to have a tail. It made no noise. According to Johnson he remained in the vicinity of the Cascades for several days and then returned to Portland and noted an article in the local paper which stated in effect that a man in Boise, Idaho, had sighted a similar object but that authorities had disclaimed any knowledge of such an object. He said he communicated with the Army for the sole purpose of attempting to add credence to the story furnished by the man in Boise.”

The FBI concluded: “Johnson also related that on the occasion of his sighting the objects on June 24, 1947 he had in his possession a combination compass and watch. He noted particularly that immediately before he sighted the disc the compass acted very peculiar, the hand waving from one side to the other, but that this condition corrected itself immediately after the discs had passed out of sight. Informant appeared to be a very reliable individual who advised that he had been a prospector in the states of Montana, Washington and Oregon for the past forty years.”

We may never for sure if Fred Johnson encountered the very same craft that Kenneth Arnold did. At the very least, however, it’s a fascinating and thought-provoking story.

{ https://mysteriousuniverse.org/ }

10-03-2020 om 21:22 geschreven door peter  

Linda Moulton Howe: Earthly Phenomena Thousands of Years Old Could Have an Alien Origin

Linda Moulton Howe – For thousands of years they have been monitoring human development and interacting with the selected, molding and changing historical outcomes. We have been the subject of guidance, manipulation, and experimentation.

They have been referred to as the Ancient Sky Gods and The Watchers. But we would now refer to them as ‘The ET Presence’. Archived Show – Awakening Expo, Manchester, UK.

Linda Moulton Howe…1000′s Of Years Old Earthly Phenomena That Could Have An Alien Origin?

{ https://beforeitsnews.com/ }

10-03-2020 om 20:55 geschreven door peter  

10-03-2020 om 20:44 geschreven door peter  

Black Ring UFO Seen Over Disneyland, Los Angeles, CA March 2020, Video, UFO Sighting News.

Date of sighting: March 8, 2020
Location of sighting: Disneyland, Los Angeles, California, USA

Here is an interesting video of a possible ring UFO over Disneyland theme park in LA, CA this week. In the past some rides at parks have been known to cause black rings, however there are also serious US military reports that do note seeing a ring UFO suddenly change into a saucer shaped cloud over a military base. 

What significance does this have to real UFOs? UFOs can create clouds around them, or so the evidence presented by the US government documents have stated since 1957 of the Fort Belvoir UFO Case, it's photos are below. The Condon Report (p.168) devoted 11 pages to this case. One morning in September, 1957 an Arm private at Fort Belvoir, Va. was called from his barracks by his buddies to witness what appeared to be a black, ring-shaped UFO approaching. The private grabbed his Brownie camera and snapped 6 pictures of it, of which this was the first. After about 5 minutes, the black ring, which appeared "solid" to the soldier and glided steadily along, began to be "engulfed in white smoke." Photos at end of this post. 
Scott C. Waring 

Eyewitness states: 

The following video is of what happening on earth date 3/8/2020 “Alien Portal.” Share it people got to know what’s coming 😰. That was not the only place that happened at, it happened at SD too.

Actual photos taken by a US solder of metal ring UFO making cloud around it. 

{ https://www.etdatabase.com/ }

10-03-2020 om 18:24 geschreven door peter  

Coronavirus Could Give Us an Idea What Will Take Place When ET Life Reaches Earth

It would be nice to find life on other worlds, no doubt about it! However, it may be wise to reconsider this entire thing. If we indeed find alien life, can we handle it epidemiologically, biologically, and emotionally?

We are currently in the middle of an alarming worldwide situation with previously unknown disease COVID-19. As of this writing, confirmed cases reach close to 90,000 in 68 countries, leading to over 3,000 deaths. Tokyo Olympics are threatened to be postponed, flights have been grounded, major international gatherings canceled, and a global recession looms. In the US, the Dow Jones Industrial Average had its worst week since the 2008 and 2009 recession, shedding one-third of its gains since the 2016 election. Most of these are due to fears of the negative impact of COVID-19.

Humanity is suffering the effects of the disease, but the Chinese and Asian-looking people are taking the big blow. The virus started in Wuhan, China, and ugly behaviors have surfaced around the world. At a California high school, an Asian-American 16-year old was assaulted and accused of carrying the virus. There’s an underlying anti-Chinese sentiment in South Korea, with some shops posting signs not allowing Chinese. In Vancouver, a Chinese boy playing at a school playground was taunted as being a virus carrier.

COVID-19 has nothing to do with space, as it is an entirely terrestrial problem. But the thing is, even its terrestrial origin, it leads to thousands of deaths around the world. What more if the virus came from the space? NASA is poised to launch in July a new rover to Mars that will hunt for microbial life and collect some soil and rock samples that will be bought to Earth. These samples are potentially containing that microbial life.

NASA has a long history of protecting the Earth from biohazards from other planets and vice versa, according to a column in Space.com. The agency has one division solely formed for that goal, which is formally known as the Office of Safety and Mission Assurance (OSMA) and commonly known as the Planetary Protection office.

Still, the risk exists. Even the strictest labs always have a non-zero chance that something could escape. Imagine it will, and many people will become infected. Aside from the impact of their health, they would not only be racialized but also extraterrestrialized, in the sense that they are not even fully human anymore.

The battle against SARS-CoV-2 shows that humanity can have a unified effort, and it will be the same if one of those alien living things threatens us all. Collectivism is among our highest qualities. On the other hand, the othering, racializing, directed at people of Chinese descent, is one of our lowest qualities.

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

10-03-2020 om 17:47 geschreven door peter  

The Fascinating and Terrifying UFO Incident Experience of Travis Walton (1975)

The Travis Walton UFO incident refers to an American logger who claims he was abducted by a UFO on November 5, 1975, while working with a logging crew in the Apache-Sitgreaves National Forest in Arizona. Walton reappeared after a five-day search. The Walton case received mainstream publicity and remains one of the best-known alleged alien abduction stories, although skeptics consider it a hoax.

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

10-03-2020 om 17:12 geschreven door peter  

Mohenjo-Daro: An ancient city destroyed by a nuclear attack thousands of years ago?

Is it possible that Mohenjo-Daro – an ancient city that belonged to the Indus Valley Civilization- was destroyed by a nuclear attack thousands of years ago?

Only seven years after the first atomic explosion in New Mexico, theoretical physicist Robert Oppenheimer, one of the people often named as “father of the atomic bomb” was giving a lecture at the University of Rochester. On that occasion, a student asked him if the first nuclear device that went off was the one at Alamogordo, during the Manhattan Project. Dr. Oppenheimer respond: Well … yes. In modern times, yes, of course.

What did Dr. Oppenheimer want to say? If we look at the theoretical physicist’s answer literally, it means that in ancient times nuclear bombs –or variations of them— existed among ancient civilizations.

Consequently, this brings us to one of the most important questions most of us have tried never to ask: Was mankind visited in the distant past by other civilizations beyond earth. And if so, did these ancient civilizations really have advanced technologies like nuclear bombs?

In modern-day Pakistan, in the vicinity of the banks of the Indus River, we can find one of the most enigmatic archaeological sites on the surface of the planet –which once belonged to one of the oldest civilizations on the planet, the Indus Valley civilization— Mohenjo-Daro.

Together with Harappa located some six hundred kilometers further northeast, Mohenjo-Daro and Harappa are two of the most prominent ancient cities that belonged to the Indus Valley Civilization.

Interestingly, if there is something surprising at Mohenjo-Daro, then it is the complete absence of buildings that can be identified as temples or palaces or any kind of symbolism that may be associated with such.

Archaeologists sustain that all buildings follow a uniform pattern, highlighting its construction in adobe bricks with no ornaments and windows, all within an urban planning far more advanced than that of any other ancient civilization thousands of years ago, with wide avenues and straight roads (many of them perfectly paved), with rectangular buildings which were all equipped with a network of drainage systems, canals, pipes and sewers, etc.

Interestingly, just as the ancient Sumerian civilization, the Indus Valley seemed to have emerged all of a sudden, without any trace of an earlier evolution prior to the apparition of Harappa and Mohenjo-Daro.

But if the appearance of such amazing civilization remains a mystery, their disappearance is even more fascinating and was initially attributed to the arrival of invading peoples of Indo-European origin.

But many researchers argue that something entirely different happened at Mohenjo-Daro.

We only have to take a look at ancient Vedic texts, a set of antique Sanskrit writings which are considered legacies of the gods, where we find references which may help get to the bottom of the numerous mysteries that surround Mohenjo-Daro and the Indus Valley Civilization.

One of the ancient texts, the Mahabharata, an extensive poem of some 215,000 verses details events that occurred in the city of Mohenjo-Daro where both gods and mortals were wrapped in an epic war, overshadowing the remote origins of the city since the Mahabharata places the ancient city in the years 3103 BC during the Kali Iuga or ‘Black Age0 –a kind of apocalypse that occurred in the distant past that modified much of the ancient history of India.

There are hundreds and hundreds of unanswered questions, but there are ancient texts that offer many answers despite being considered as heretic and misinterpreted by modern scholars.

Interestingly, many ancient texts shed light onto the numerous enigmas of history and if not almost entirely, they illuminate the path of a truly untold story that bends the possibilities of our written history.

As we mentioned above, one of such texts is the ancient Mahabharata.

“Gurkha, flying a swift and powerful vimana,
hurled a single projectile
charged with the power of the Universe.

An incandescent column of smoke and flame,
as bright as ten thousand suns,
rose with all its splendor.

It was an unknown weapon,
an iron thunderbolt,
a gigantic messenger of death,
which reduced to ashes
the entire race of the Vrishnis and the Andhakas.

The corpses were so burned
as to be unrecognizable.

Hair and nails fell out;
Pottery broke without apparent cause,
and the birds turned white.

…After a few hours
all foodstuffs were infected…
…to escape from this fire
the soldiers threw themselves in streams
to wash themselves and their equipment.”

 A second passage:

“Dense arrows of flame,
like a great shower,
issued forth upon creation,
encompassing the enemy.
A thick gloom swiftly settled upon the Pandava hosts.
All points of the compass were lost in darkness.
Fierce wind began to blow
Clouds roared upward,
showering dust and gravel.

Birds croaked madly…
the very elements seemed disturbed.
The sun seemed to waver in the heavens
The earth shook,
scorched by the terrible violent heat of this weapon.

Elephants burst into flame
and ran to and fro in a frenzy…
over a vast area,
other animals crumpled to the ground and died.
From all points of the compass
, the arrows of flame rained continuously and fiercely.”

— The Mahabharata

According to many researchers, this controversial ancient text perfectly describes the use of nuclear weapons 5,000 years before the Americans utilized them on the cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

Similarly, there are plenty of texts that relate to all kinds of details that illustrate the existence of airships (vimanas) and rockets or missiles capable of reaching long distances.

While as always we must remain with a minor sense of skepticism, we can argue that the above-mentioned text is not original, or its translation is not the most accurate. However, there are many other details that point towards an abrupt end of the inhabitants of Mohenjo-Daro.

It is necessary to mention there is a great contradiction when assessing the reasons and causes that could have caused the sudden disappearance from the maps of an ancient city like Mohenjo-Daro.

Although on one hand it has been speculated that a possible invasion resulted in the slaughtering of its people at the hands of invading hordes, archaeologists have only found around 30 skeletons in the streets. The obvious question we need to ask here is: Where is the rest of the population then? Where does the name ‘mound of the dead’ come from?

Is it possible that most of the population of Mohenjo-Daro escaped before the terrible invasion?

While invading forces is one theory, some archaeologists speculate that the city may have been abandoned due to a sudden change in the course of the Indus River, some tie around 1700 BC, but it does not explain other mysteries that surround Mohenjo-Daro.

Although very few skeletons found, it seems that death came to them very quickly.

Interestingly, there is a so-called epicenter of around 45 meters in diameters at the center of the city where the terrain and buildings appear to be crystallized as if they were exposed to a massive heat source.

On the buildings located near the center of the city, researchers have found that the bricks of the walls that are faced towards the exterior and looking away from the epicenter are also fused or melted.

However, this could have only been achieved, according to researchers, by exposing the buildings to a temperature of above 1500 ° centigrade.

What kind of weapons could have caused such devastating effects on both people and the surrounding buildings? Is it possible that as some people sustain, Mohenjo-Daro was really destroyed by a nuclear explosion?

Due to the fact that this hypothesis is considered extremely sensationalist and many believe it to be impossible, there isn’t a single serious study which tackles the presence of radioactivity present at the location of the city of Mohenjo-Daro.

The presence of objects and surfaces which appear to be melted or fused have been associated with forces of nature as observed in other locations such as Scotland, Australia and Egypt, all product of rays and electric arcs of great power.

Regrettably, as with other discoveries that challenge our history, many researchers have ignored the numerous mysterious surrounding Mohenjo-Daro and have not tried to answer the mysteries behind its sudden disappearance and fascinating history.

When you think about Mohenjo-Daro and mention it in the same sentence with Nuclear Weapons you would then be called a conspiracy theorist.

Interestingly not only are Harappa and Mohenjo-Daro the only locations were we can discuss this extravagant hypothesis and question whether it is plausible, there are several locations where researchers have detected the “footprints” of what they are calling ‘possible nuclear explosions in ancient times’.

As it turns out, there are at least three major points in the area between the mountains of Rajmahal and the Ganges River where scientists have spotted large layers of ash and a presence of radiation which is higher than the average normal.

But stay curious and ask questions no one else is willing to ask, stay focused and always come to your own conclusion, Who knows, maybe after all the secrets of the atom and nuclear power were known to the ancients thousands of years ago.

• Featured image by KPEKEP

µ

{ https://www.ancient-code.com/ }

10-03-2020 om 01:22 geschreven door peter  

The huge asteroid known as (52768) 1998 OR2 will pass closest on April 29, 2020. Observers peering through telescopes will see it as a slow-moving “star.” Charts, tips – plus how to watch online – here.

Orbit of asteroid (52768) 1998 OR2. It requires 3 years and 8 months to orbit the sun onc. It gets nearly as far from the sun as Jupiter (about 5 times Earth’s distance from the sun).

Image via NASA/ JPL.

Have you heard the buzz about a big – very big – asteroid that’ll pass close in April? We have! No, it won’t hit our planet. In fact, it won’t have any effects on Earth. Still, excitement is building among both professional and amateur astronomers about the upcoming flyby of asteroid (52768) 1998 OR2 – the biggest asteroid due to fly by Earth this year – coming closest on April 29, 2020. This space rock is probably at least a mile wide (1.8 km) and maybe 2 1/2 times that big (4.1 km). Closest approach is April 29 around 5:56 a.m. Eastern Daylight Time (09:56 UTC; translate UTC to your time). Professional observatories are already pointing their telescopes at the huge space rock. Amateur astronomers with smaller telescopes will have an opportunity to see it as a slow-moving “star” very soon; if that’s you, we give charts and tips for observers at the bottom of this post that should help.

No access to a telescope? No problem. The Virtual Telescope Project in Rome will host a free, online public viewing of the asteroid on April 28, 2020.

The Virtual Telescope Project will present an online viewing of Potentially Hazardous Asteroid (52768) 1998 OR2 on April 28, 2020. As the time approaches, check this page for more details.

Image via Gianluca Masi/ Virtual Telescope Project.

Let’s make absolutely clear that there’s no chance of a collision between this asteroid and Earth. Asteroid (52768) 1998 OR2 will pass at some 4 million miles (6 million km), or about 16 times the Earth-moon distance. It’s true the object is classified as a Potentially Hazardous Asteroid. The Center for Near Earth Objects defines such an object as one that comes as close to Earth as:

… 0.05 AU or less [about 19.5 lunar distances] and an absolute magnitude of 22.0 or less …

In other words, such objects are reasonably close and reasonably big. And do we need to say there are a bunch of objects like this? Wikipedia lists 22 of the largest here. Recent decades have revealed more and more asteroids orbiting the sun, as the video below from NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory shows:

None of the 22 Potentially Hazardous Asteroids listed by Wikipedia is known to be on a collision course with Earth in the foreseeble future. In fact, none of the asteroids in the video above is known to be on a collision course. Likewise, asteroid (52768) 1998 OR2 isn’t on a collision course with Earth, not anytime soon. The orbit of this asteroid is well known for at least the next 200 years. Its closest approach to Earth in this century and the next will happen in 2079, when it’ll swoop to within about a million miles of Earth (still about four times farther away than the moon). That 2079 sweep past Earth will still be a big deal. Asteroid (52768) 1998 OR2 is the largest known of all large Near-Earth Objects that’ll pass less than five times the Earth-moon distance over the next two centuries!

Astronomers at Arecibo Observatory in Puerto Rico will study asteroid (52768) 1998 OR2 from April 8 to 24, 2020, as the space rock travels through space at 19,461 miles per hour (31,320 km/h).

The high resolution radar images that will be obtained from Arecibo should provide scientists a better estimate of the space rock’s size and shape.

Astronomers with reasonably sized telescopes are already capturing images of asteroid (52768) 1998 OR2. This March 6, 2020, image of the asteroid comes from a single 30-second exposure, remotely taken with Elena, a 17-inch robotic telescope. At the imaging time, (52768) 1998 OR2 was at about 22 million miles (36 million km) from Earth. At its closest in late April, it’ll be about 4 million miles (6.4 million km) away.

Image via Gianluca Masi/ Virtual Telescope Project.

How to see asteroid (52768) 1998 OR2 with a small telescope

During its April 2020 pass, this asteroid will at no time be bright enough to view with the unaided eye. However, it’s estimated to reach a visual magnitude of around 10 to 11, which means observers with at least 6-inch or 8-inch telescopes (the number indicates the size of the primary mirror) will see the asteroid (very slowly) moving in front of the stars!

Sky enthusiasts can initially use a wide-angle (32mm or 35mm) eyepiece to point the telescope to a reference star in the asteroid’s path (charts below). After being assured that the instrument is pointing at the correct patch of the sky, a 26mm or 27mm eyepiece is recommended to detect the asteroid’s slow motion. You will want to note the star field, and watch for the object that moves over a period of about 10 to 15 minutes. Yes, that’ll be the space rock.

This illustration shows the location of asteroid (52768) 1998 OR2 on the night of April 24, 2020 around 11:45 p.m. central time. As seen from central U.S., facing west, southwest.

Illustration by Eddie Irizarry using Stellarium.

On April 24, 2020 at 11:45 p.m. central time, observers using small computerized telescopes can point their instruments at these reference stars, to observe asteroid (52768) 1998 OR2. Compare the views 10 or 15 minutes later to detect an apparent star that has changed position.

Illustration by Eddie Irizarry using Stellarium.

There will be closer approaches of asteroids in the future, including Apophis, which – although smaller – will pass very close to Earth in 2029. Another, larger space rock – 2 miles (3 km) wide – designated as asteroid (415029) 2011 UL21 will pass slightly farther than (52768) 1998 OR2 in June 2024.

But the upcoming flyby in April 2020 of asteroid (52768) 1998 OR2 is the most significant close approach of an asteroid until 2027, as another huge asteroid known as (4953) 1990 MU will safely pass by Earth at 12 lunar distances.

Astronomers first discovered asteroid (52768) 1998 OR2 on July 24, 1998, from Haleakala Observatory, Hawaii.

Have a Go-To Telescope? Point your instrument at star HIP 48674 on April 25, 2020 at 10 p.m. central time to find the huge asteroid, which will appear as a slow-moving star. To see its movement, compare the views over about 10 to 15 minutes.

Illustration by Eddie Irizarry using Stellarium.

Location of asteroid (52768) 1998 OR2 on the night of April 27, 2020. The space rock passes close to star HIP 50745 around 9:15 p.m. central time.

Illustration by Eddie Irizarry using Stellarium.

Location of asteroid (52768) 1998 OR2 around the nights of closest approach (April 28-29, 2020). Facing south, as seen from the central U.S.

Illustration by Eddie Irizarry using Stellarium.

Showtime! On April 29, 2020, around its closest approach to Earth, asteroid (52768) 1998 OR2 will pass close to galaxy NGC 3463 and star HIP 53416. Around 9:30 p.m. CT, point your small computerized telescope to these reference objects. Compare the views 10 to 15 minutes later to detect the apparent “star” that changed position. That’s the asteroid.

Illustration by Eddie Irizarry using Stellarium.

On April 30, 2020 at 9:30 p.m. asteroid (52768) 1998 OR2 is located close to stars HIP 54875 and 55201. Use a GoTo telescope to locate these reference stars to be able to locate the slow moving asteroid.

Illustration by Eddie Irizarry using Stellarium.

• Bottom line: The huge asteroid known as (52768) 1998 OR2 will pass closest to Earth on April 29, 2020. Observers peering through telescopes will see it as a slow-moving “star.” Charts, tips – plus how to watch online – here.

{ https://earthsky.org/ }

10-03-2020 om 00:58 geschreven door peter  

Are Humans the Meanest Species in the Universe?

NASA/ESA

Melinda Snodgrass got the idea for her science fiction novel The High Ground when she started thinking about how awful human beings can be.

“I had a sudden vision of this nine-foot-tall alien ant-like creature with mandibles and claws—just a hideous, horrifying creature,” Snodgrass says in Episode 370 of the Geek’s Guide to the Galaxy podcast. “And it was cowering in absolute terror from a small human holding a machine gun. And I got to thinking about humanity and our tendency to be really mean, mean monsters.”

The novel takes place in a universe in which a human empire called the Solar League has subjugated five alien species, who now live as servants and second-class citizens. Snodgrass thinks this is a pretty plausible first contact scenario.

“If we do invent a faster-than-light drive, and go out into the universe, and meet other aliens, I am convinced that the first thing we will do is kick the holy crap out of them,” she says. “So instead of us always fighting off the invading aliens, we are the invading aliens.”

She also believes that any moral progress humans have made is much more tenuous than people realize, and that women’s rights could quickly vanish if childbearing became a priority, as is the case in the Solar League. “When you’re going out into space and colonizing planets, if you happen to end up on a planet that isn’t a goldilocks planet—a very Earth-like world—where there’s a harsh environment, the thing that becomes a precious commodity is your ability to sustain the population,” she says. “So over the ensuing years, women fall back into a much more traditional role.”

All of that creates a lot of conflict for her character Mercedes de Arango, one of the first women to attend the Solar League’s elite military academy. It’s a predicament Snodgrass can relate to, having once been the only female lawyer at her law firm.

“I literally had a bunch of male lawyers from this big office building run downstairs, and I heard them calling, ‘We hear Charlie’s hired himself a girl. Where’s the girl?'” Snodgrass says. “And they all came and looked at me in my office like I was a creature in a zoo. It was very bizarre.”

Listen to the complete interview with Melinda Snodgrass in Episode 370 of Geek’s Guide to the Galaxy (above). And check out some highlights from the discussion below.

Melinda Snodgrass on her father:

“My dad was just fantastic, he was the center of my life. I loved him so much, and he gave me every opportunity—to study opera in Europe, to ride horses, when I was 16 he sat me down and said, ‘We’re opening a checking account and you have to manage it,’ and on and on. At the time of his death he was managing a small natural gas and oil company, and now I actually manage the company. I took it over in 2002, and I’ve been running it ever since. So I have this sense of history with being the heir apparent—or the heiress apparent—to a business. … It is weird though, because at times my dad would slip. I had a half-brother, who was a great deal older than I was, and dad would sometimes say, ‘My other son, John.’ And then people like Senator Montoya, who was having lunch with us that day, was laughing and saying, ‘Wait a minute, what’s she?'”

Melinda Snodgrass on Roger Zelazny:

“Roger and I became very close in the final two years of his life. He joined our gaming group, he would come and have dinner at our house many, many evenings. He was just the most charming, kind person I’ve ever known. … When I had just started writing, this literary agent that I had—who was also Victor Milan‘s and Bob Vardeman‘s agent—we were all at this dinner, at the local science fiction convention, and she said, ‘You have to change your name.’ And Roger immediately said, ‘No. No she doesn’t.’ He said, ‘Look at my name. Even though I’m on the bottom shelf in every bookstore, nobody forgets my name.’ And he turned to me and he said, ‘Don’t you change your name, because nobody will ever forget that name.’ And I kept it.”

Melinda Snodgrass on the Jean Cocteau Cinema:

“[George R.R. Martin] has turned it into probably the best science fiction independent bookstore in the Southwest. Because in addition to the little movie theater, there’s a bar—they have a liquor license—and then there’s concessions, and he has artists come in and hang their art for a few weeks, so you get to see various Santa Fe artists, and he has all of our books. And when they’re not doing movies, he’ll have events. Connie Willis will come down, and I’ll interview her, and then she’ll do a signing afterward. … So you can go in and buy some books, and have a White Walker Cocktail while you’re there, watch an independent movie, and when George is in town you’ll often find him there, ensconced in his armchair by the fireplace, in the evenings, to visit with people.”

Melinda Snodgrass on Star Wars: Episode V—The Empire Strikes Back:

“I was in this law office, and I hated it. I would get into work in the morning, close my door, cry for about 15 minutes, and then get control of myself and get on with work. … [Victor Milan and I] went to see The Empire Strikes Back, and we got to the scene with Yoda and Luke, and Luke says, ‘I’ll try,’ and Yoda says, ‘Do or do not. There is no try.’ And for some reason it was like a thunderbolt for me, and I was like, ‘I can spend the rest of my life in this law firm, and in a few years maybe I’ll have the big office and I’ll be terrorizing some young associate the way I’m being terrorized, or I can try to chart my own life. ‘Do or do not, there is no try.’ So I walked into the office the next morning, I typed off a letter of resignation, I packed up my plants and my diplomas, I laid it on my boss’s desk, and I walked out.”

{ https://www.wired.com/ }

10-03-2020 om 00:22 geschreven door peter  

One of the biggest mysteries out there in the Universe is inching closer to answers. An astonishing eight new repeating radio signals known as fast radio bursts (FRBs) have been detected flaring from deep space.

At the start of 2019, just one of these mysterious signals, FRB 121102, was known to flash repeatedly. In January, scientists reported a second repeating one (FRB 180814).

This new paper - available on preprint server arXiv, and submitted to The Astrophysical Journal Letters - describes eight new repeating signals detected by the Canadian Hydrogen Intensity Mapping Experiment (CHIME) radio telescope.

This brings the known total of repeating FRBs to 10. It means we're starting to build a statistical database of repeaters, which could help astronomers to figure out what these signals actually are.

Fast radio bursts are certainly perplexing. They are detected as spikes in radio data, lasting just a few milliseconds. But, in that time, they can discharge more energy than 500 million Suns.

Most FRBs are only detected once and can't be predicted, so tracing them back to their source is really tricky (although, as demonstrated earlier this year for the first time, not impossible).

That's why repeaters are so important. And the news that they are not as rare as we thought means it might be possible to trace more back to their source galaxies, and determine what kinds of environments they come from.

We can also start looking for similarities and differences between repeating FRBs.

"There is definitely a difference between the sources, with some being more prolific than others," physicist Ziggy Pleunis of McGill University told ScienceAlert.

"We already knew from FRB 121102 that the bursts can be very clustered: sometimes the source doesn't burst for hours and hours and then suddenly you get multiple bursts in a short amount of time. We have observed the same thing for FRB 180916.J0158+65, for which we report ten bursts in this paper."

On the other side of the scale, six of the FRBs reported in the paper only repeated once, and the longest pause between signals was over 20 hours. The eighth one (FRB 181119) repeated twice after the initial detection, pinging a total of three times.

We don't yet know what this means, but it could indicate - as hypothesised in a paper last month by Harvard-Smithsonian astrophysicist Vikram Ravi - that all FRBs are actually repeaters, but some are a lot more active than others.

"Just as some volcanoes are more active than others, and you can think a volcano is dormant because it has not erupted in a long time," Pleunis noted.

But there are similarities between FRBs, too. The individual bursts from repeaters seem to last a little bit longer than the bursts from one-off FRBs. That's pretty interesting.

There's also the frequency drift. The first two repeaters - FRB 121102 and FRB 180814 - showed a downward drift in frequency, with each burst getting successively lower. Think of a sad trombone sound effect.

Most of the eight new repeaters,also demonstrated this downward frequency drift. This could be a clue as to what's producing the signals.

"I just think it is so amazing that nature produces something like that," Pleunis said. "Also, I think that there is some very important information in that structure that we just have to figure out how to encode and it has been a lot of fun to try to figure out what exactly that is."

CHIME is optimised for monitoring a very broad swathe of the sky, across a lower range of frequencies than radio telescopes like ASKAP or the Parkes Observatory in Australia, which have also detected FRBs.

So far, CHIME's approach is proving remarkably effective at detection. In addition to these repeaters, and the repeater announced in January, CHIME has detected a number of one-off bursts, too. It's not optimised for tracing those detections to a source, though.

That's where the broader scientific community comes in. Just today, a different team of researchers, including Ravi, announced they had made headway localising the eight new repeaters to known galaxies, just based on the direction the signals came from.

We can even roughly tell how far away the bursts may have originated based on how dispersed the signal is - the higher these measures, the farther the distance.

In fact, this is where it gets intriguing, because one of the signals, FRB 180916, has the lowest dispersion seen yet, indicating that it could be nearby.

"Even with the biggest telescopes, if it's closer to you, you always get a better view than if it's something farther away," astronomer Keith Bannister from Australia's national science agency CSIRO, who was not involved in the research, told ScienceAlert.

"So that particular low dispersion measure was super exciting, because there's a good chance that that will be nearby. And that means it will be easier to look at, once we really know exactly where it is in the sky."

The polarisation of the signals (how twisted the signal is) is informative, too. If the signal is really twisted up, it means it came from an extreme magnetic environment, such as can be found around a black hole or neutron star. This is what the signal from FRB 121102 was like.

But the team was able to measure the polarisation of one of the new signals, FRB 180916, and it was really low. This tells us that not all repeating FRBs come from extreme environments.

We don't know what this means yet. We don't know if there are several different classes of objects or events producing these signals. We don't know if they all repeat, or why they repeat. But these results are bringing us tantalisingly close to finally having some answers.

"I think (and I hope!) the paper will prompt other astronomers to point their telescopes to these newly discovered sources," Pleunis said.

"Then, there is a lot of information here for model builders to work with. I think it will help them figure out what produces repeating FRBs.

"Also, I think our findings will influence the search strategy of other teams that try to discover repeating FRBs."

• The research has been submitted to The Astrophysical Journal and is available on arXiv.

{ https://www.sciencealert.com/ }

09-03-2020 om 23:54 geschreven door peter  

Designing 'Avenue 5': HBO's epic space cruise ship comedy's look explained

Avenue 5 concept imagery for a 2-mile space cruise ship at the heart of of HBO's space comedy.

(Image: © HBO)

( Image credit: HBO )

• The world's first space tourists in pictures
• SpaceX to fly private astronauts to space station for startup Axiom in 2021
• Bigelow Space wants to launch you into orbit with SpaceX for $52 Million

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

Follow us @Spacedotcom, Facebook and Instagram.

{ https://www.space.com/ }

09-03-2020 om 23:36 geschreven door peter  

This gas-giant exoplanet has water-rich clouds. Here's why it thrills astronomers.

Three teams of astronomers have been fascinated by an alien world known as K2-18b. But what's all the fuss about?

In September, two teams announced that they had found signs of liquid water in the planet's atmosphere — a landmark discovery in the search for potentially habitable alien worlds. But the mere presence of water isn't the only condition necessary for life. Other conditions, like temperature and pressure, can also affect a planet's habitability. Now, a third team reports that the pressures of liquid water on the same world may be good for life to evolve — another intriguing development for scientists.

"We recognized pretty early on that this is a very unique target," Björn Benneke, an astronomer at the University of Montreal, told Space.com. Benneke led one of the teams that announced the atmospheric analysis in the September 2019 study, which was published in The Astrophysical Journal Letters in December. He presented the findings in January at a meeting of the American Astronomical Society.

• Related: 7 ways to discover alien planets

Benneke and his colleagues used the Hubble and Spitzer space telescopes to study K2-18b a dozen times over a three-year period, to collect precise observations of its atmosphere.

Although scientists have studied exoplanet atmospheres before, those worlds have been larger than K2-18b, which is only about 2.6 times the size of Earth and 8.5 times its mass. The planet's small size made the observations especially challenging, requiring multiple detailed measurements that, combined, could provide a more in-depth probe of the world. 

"Nothing like this has been done before," Benneke said.

"Similar to Earth"

K2-18b is 110 light-years away, in the constellation Leo, where it orbits a small but active type of star that can hurl bursts of radiation at orbiting planets. Although the star is smaller and dimmer than the sun, K2-18b's 33-day orbit means the planet receives roughly the same amount of energy from its star as Earth receives from the sun.

The star's small size makes it easier to detect details of a diminutive planet like K2-18b because observations of a planet depend on how much light it blocks as it passes in front of its star from Earth's perspective. A smaller planet blocks less light than a larger one, but a smaller star has less light to block, making that small signal somewhat easier to see. (The planet's orbit also helped scientists capture multiple passes across its star.)

In the Hubble and Spitzer observations, Benneke and his team found the signature of water in the exoplanet's atmosphere — and not just any form of water. "Even more exciting, we discovered in the data that there's a cloud deck on the planet," Benneke said.

The clue was that starlight beaming through the atmosphere came to an abrupt stop at a certain altitude. Benneke and his colleagues used models to determine that the height was the perfect pressure and temperature for water to survive.

"The only plausible explanation is that these are liquid water clouds, very similar to what we have on Earth," Benneke said.

As the clouds fill with water droplets, they most likely create rainfall. But that rain would never touch the ground. Instead, it would fall until temperatures and pressures caused it to evaporate once again, the researchers said. Benneke compared rainfall on K2-18b to terrestrial virga, which occurs when high temperatures and pressures cause rain to evaporate before it reaches the ground.

Finding a similar weather pattern on an exoplanet is an intriguing prospect to Benneke.

"[K2-18b] is the coldest planet with [atmospheric] detection, the smallest planet, the least-massive planet," he said. "To me, it's the most exciting one."

A common mystery

Although K2-18b has the right conditions for Earth-like clouds to form, that doesn't make the planet itself Earth-like. Instead, it is classified as a sub-Neptune, a gas giant without a surface. NASA's Kepler spacecraft determined that sub-Neptunes are likely the most common type of exoplanets in the Milky Way, making up more than three-fourths of the planetary population.

Nonetheless, astronomers are having a difficult time understanding the relatively small gas giants, and that's one reason the K2-18b findings are so exciting. "We don't quite know what's going on with these planets," Benneke said. "It's probing this regime of planets that we have a very poor understanding of right now."

Sub-Neptunes have masses that fall somewhere between Earth and Neptune, and there's no analogue in the solar system. Understanding worlds like K2-18b can help improve scientists' knowledge of how planets grow and evolve. "If you want to understand planets as a whole, the diversity of planets, it's very critical that you understand the most common ones," Benneke said.

• The biggest alien planet discoveries of 2019
• Another day, another exoplanet, and scientists just can't keep up
• An Earth-size planet in the habitable zone? New discovery is one special world.

Follow Nola Taylor Redd on Facebook and on Twitter at @NolaTRedd.

Follow us on Twitter @Spacedotcom and on Facebook. 

{ https://www.space.com/ }

09-03-2020 om 23:03 geschreven door peter  

'They Are Already Here' author explains the spread of UFO belief: Q&A

By Meghan Bartels 

"They Are Already Here" by Sarah Scoles.

(Image: © Pegasus Books)

Do you remember reading a New York Times story in 2017 that claimed to unveil a Pentagon program dedicated to investigating UFOs? Did you hear rumors about why the FBI closed a solar observatory the next year for then-undisclosed reasons? Are you confused about why there seem to be so many documentaries about alien sightings?

"They Are Already Here: UFO Culture and Why We See Saucers" (Pegasus Books, 2020), by freelance journalist Sarah Scoles, tackles these questions and many more. (Read an excerpt from "They Are Already Here.")

After reading that New York Times story, Scoles was suspicious and wanted to figure out what was really going on with the Pentagon program. She didn't solve that mystery, but she did end up writing a book about contemporary UFO culture. This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

• Related: Best space books and sci-fi for 2020

They Are Already Here (Pegasus Books, 2020) | $14.99

Journalist Sarah Scoles takes a close look at UFO culture and why so many people, like Fox Mulder, just want to believe.

Space.com: When did you know that this was going to be a book?

Sarah Scoles: I wrote two articles for Wired … but then after those were done and published, I was still on my computer late at night trying to figure out what was going on with why UFOs were so popular right now and what was going on with this Pentagon program. I didn't think that all of that research really had a place in an article or that an article could be long enough to encompass it. And so I talked to my editor, and I said, "Books are generally a bad idea. Should I do this one?" She said, "You know, if it's something you're going to be Googling late at night no matter what, you might as well write something about it." That was kind of the moment where I was like, "I guess I just am down this rabbit hole and can't stop so I might as well share what I find with other people."

Space.com: Talk about the importance of traveling to reporting for this project. Where did you visit that most influenced your thinking about UFO culture?

Scoles: I realized at some point that I, on my own, was not going to solve whatever the mystery of UFO sightings or this investigation program was and I would have to take a different tactic, which was understanding the people and the kind of culture surrounding it. Especially since I'm a freelancer, I had more freedom to go places and do things. And I thought that it would be the best way to do justice to that community, to go and actually experience the places and events that they take part in. And so, for most of the chapters, I think I ended up going somewhere. And so the on-the-ground reporting was important to me. 

One of my favorite places is this small tourist attraction in Colorado called the UFO Watchtower, which gets its own chapter in the book and was a place I had been before just because I live here and I go on lots of road trips. But I hadn't never tried to understand it as a cultural phenomenon. It's this weird, small attraction in the middle of nowhere. And once I went there with a reporting mindset, rather than just a tourist mindset, it was cool to see it as kind of a community gathering place and where people with lots of different opinions on lots of different things can interact with each other in a peaceful way, which I think is kind of lacking in general in society right now.

Another place that was really formative for my thinking about all this was going to the International UFO Congress outside of Phoenix. And it was my first interaction with people who were really into UFOs. And also there, you find skeptics, you find hardcore believers, you find people who believe that there's a bunch of aliens in the basement talking to politicians all the time, and even people who just think it's classified military projects. And just seeing that there was this thing that drew all these people with these widely varying opinions and relationships to evidence, a thing that brought them together was informative, I think.

Space.com: You end up writing a lot about information, authority and trust. How did working on the book change the way you think about those topics?

Scoles: I came into it with a pretty traditional science-journalist mindset: Why do people not value scientific expertise, why do they subscribe to conspiracy theories, and why do they think about evidence in illogical ways? — just like fundamentally not understanding that. I think I came away from it having looked at the history of UFOs, and specifically the way the government agencies have dealt with the topic in the past, which is some bad-faith investigation projects and a lot of hiding of documents and proceedings for one reason or another.

I came to understand why it was that people didn't trust the government on this topic or didn't trust scientists. And a lot of it was because, in the past, federal agencies and scientists had kind of dismissed the topic, been untruthful about the topic or, in some cases, spread false information, and I think also coming to think of UFOs as a belief system instead of actually a scientific topic helped me understand the ways that other people think about other things like vaccinations or climate change. People don't interact with it like you would a scientific experiment. And while I don't think that's great, I feel like I came away understanding why people think that way.

Space.com: Why did you think it was so important to approach these people on your own terms and to try to understand them?

Scoles: It actually comes from a story that I won't name that I did kind of early in my science journalism career, where I took this kind of pseudoscience subculture and just ripped it apart and wasn't very nice to the people who were part of it. I didn't really like the feeling that I had after publishing that article. I didn't like the way that people thought that I had entered it in bad faith, which I probably had, and that I had spent 2,000 words making fun of what they believed, which even if it was a thing that I didn't think was valid, was important to them.

I've kind of kept that with me. When you're not talking about people who have power or money, I guess I didn't want to punch down is the journalism lingo. And so when I set out to [write this book], it was very important to me not to write a book that was just making fun of people, which I think it would have been easy to do. [I wanted] to actually try to engage with people who thought differently than I did and to understand where they were coming from and not just say that where they were coming from didn't make sense.

As I was choosing people to talk to, sometimes I would encounter people who weren't powerful or weren't making money off of people, but who had beliefs or experiences that I didn't think that I could treat respectfully while maintaining my own credibility. And so in that case, I would just not write about them and instead choose people who I thought I could do journalistic justice to while also not just making fun of what they thought.

Space.com: You talk about two recent moments in particular, the New York Times story on the alleged Pentagon program and the Sunspot investigation. What similarities stood out to you about the two events, and what do you think that tells us about society in the past few years?

Scoles: The biggest thing I took away from the commonalities between those two is the influence that the media has on the way that information becomes public. So after the New York Times story happened, it disclosed this supposed UFO investigation program. And then all of a sudden, there were hundreds of other articles kind of repeating the same thing. Because it was a compelling story, because it gets clicks and because journalists don't have time to re-report everything that someone else reported, so a lot of times, things just get summarized again and again and again and kind of mutate over time.

I kind of tell the same thing at Sunspot. There was an evacuation of an observatory, the FBI was there, no one knew what was going on. All of a sudden, in the headlines, there was this idea that it was because the observatory found something about aliens, and then also the refutation of that idea. And it just kind of spread, the way that things spread on the internet. And all of a sudden, there's this whole narrative. I think just the way that information propagates on the internet, because people click them, because people love aliens and UFOs and are interested, whole new stories and myths can kind of pop up out of not a whole lot of information. Although that's always been true, that's also what happened at Roswell. So maybe history just repeats itself.

Space.com: Do you think there's been a surge in interest in UFOs, or does it just feel like it?

Scoles: Honestly, it's hard to tell exactly, especially once you're in the bubble of something. The people who I'm paying attention to because I'm reporting on this feel like there's been an upsurge in information, but they're part of that community. … I think there is an exaggerated sense of people's interest in it. 

Throughout UFO history, the media coverage of UFOs has been disproportionate to the actual interest in UFOs. But then, when there is media coverage, people do become more interested, and this is kind of this cycle. The polls about belief in UFOs kind of have people holding steady on par with the interest in the '90s. So maybe the interest is larger than it was in the early 2000s, but it's not disproportionate to what it has been in the past.

Space.com: What do you hope a reader takes away from the book?

Scoles: I think the biggest thing I hope that people come away with, which I think is what I came away with, is a little more empathy for people who believe things that you might think are ridiculous or ill-informed. People are motivated by all kinds of factors in their personal lives or in history or surrounding culture. You can't just dismiss people's deeply held beliefs because they don't agree with yours. … 

I think, especially because of belief systems around topics that are scientific or kind of science-adjacent, we see a lot of issues around that now, where scientific topics become belief-centric or conspiracized and politically influenced. Instead of just throwing out what lots and lots of people think, it might be better to engage with it a little bit.

The other thing is, the reporting has made me think a lot about government transparency and accountability and the way that federal agencies treat topics and treat information — which is a lot of hiding of things or not talking about things or giving statements that people can't interpret. I don't think that really serves us, the taxpayers, very well.

You can buy "They Are Already Here" on Amazon.

• UFOs are real, but don't assume they're alien spaceships
• I watched an entire flat-Earth convention — here's what I learned
• Eclipse superstitions are a thing of the past, and the present

Email Meghan Bartels at mbartels@space.com or follow her @meghanbartels.

Follow us on Twitter @Spacedotcom and on Facebook.

{ https://www.space.com/ }

09-03-2020 om 22:45 geschreven door peter  

Many people are convinced that UFOs piloted by aliens are real but there are also unidentified flying objects equipped with advanced propulsion technology which belong to the military.

Most of these military UFOs are still secret. Now on March 9, 2020 a visitor to the Grand Canyon in Arizona has taken a photo of an object traveling extremely fast suggesting that this craft could be such a secret military UFO.

The UFO was not visible when the photo was taken and there was no sound. After viewing the photo the UFO showed up.

Could it be that the photographer, who has uploaded the image to Mutual UFO Network (MUFON), has accidentally photographed such a secret man-made craft?

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

09-03-2020 om 21:49 geschreven door peter  

“Oh, the places you’ll go when you can surf a supernova!”

While that sounds like a great title for a fictional children’s book on space travel by the late Dr. Seuss, it’s actually a real idea for near-speed-of-light space travel by a renowned theoretical physicist who has lately been thinking way outside the box. Will humans someday travel in spaceships propelled by the power of supernovas?

“In this paper, we explore the possibility of using natural astrophysical sources to accelerate spacecrafts to relativistic speeds. We focus on light sails and electric sails, which are reliant on momentum transfer from photons and protons, respectively, because these two classes of spacecrafts are not required to carry fuel on board.”

“By considering a number of astrophysical objects such as massive stars, microquasars, supernovae, pulsar wind nebulae, and active galactic nuclei, we show that speeds approaching the speed of light might be realizable under broad circumstances.”

Theoretical physicist Abraham “Avi” Loeb tore himself away from theorizing that interstellar comets might be alien spaceships to join brains with astrobiologist Manasvi Lingam to ponder ways humans might accomplish the same type of travel at much higher speeds. In a pre-published paper, “Propulsion of Spacecrafts to Relativistic Speeds Using Natural Astrophysical Sources” summarized in Scientific American, Loeb and Lingam propose using the already real technology of laser-pushed light sails with some massive propellants far more powerful than lasers. Loeb explains to Universe Today how he got the idea.

“Back in December 2019, my wife and two daughters were on travel and I had the luxury of staying at home alone for a week and thinking about science. While taking a shower, I thought on how the Sun is not effective at launching lightsails to high speed, but a brighter source of light might be. I followed this thought with detailed calculations on supernovae, which are billions of times brighter than the Sun for a week and realized that lightsails with existing parameters can reach the speed of light if they are strategically placed ahead of time around the massive star that is about the explode.”

How hot WAS that water? Loeb shared his idea with colleague Lingam, who helped determine (apparently without the benefit of a shower) that a supernova was the best source of speed-of-light, or even one-tenth speed of light, power. It doesn’t take a rocket scientist in a hot shower to see some big non-black holes in this idea – like finding supernovas when they’re just about to explode, positioning the sailing ship and insuring it and its crew survive the trip, regardless of how fast they arrive at their destination. Lingam says none of this is a problem.

“There are many challenges such as sail stabilization, maintaining high reflectance and preventing heating, and avoiding damage while traveling in the source environment as well as the interstellar medium. Most of these issues may be overcome, at least in principle, by utilizing electric sails instead of light sails. Alternatively, if one decides to stick with light sails, then one will have to fold the sail during some stages of the voyage, choose an unusual sail architecture, and rely upon nanophotonic structures to improve stability.”

Nuclear-powered cars once made sense too – have you seen any of those lately? That’s not a problem for deep, out-of-the-box thinkers like Loeb and Lingam. In fact, they invoke the name of the late Frederick Dyson in revealing the other, more attainable benefit of this kind of thinking – if our piddly human brains can come up with these ideas, advanced civilizations have probably implemented them already and are using them to get around the galaxy. If that’s the case, signs of them, like Dyson spheres, might point SETI researchers in the right direction for finding their location and putting a marker on the map for when we finally invent the ships ourselves. Better yet, we can aim our instruments at these spots to send messages to come and get us – kind of an interstellar Uber call. That assumes these aliens are benevolent. Otherwise, it could be more like a message telling extraterrestrials that their dinner is ready for pickup.

Food for deep thought.

Getting back to a human level of thinking, Supernova Surfers would be a great name for a band.

{ https://mysteriousuniverse.org/ }

09-03-2020 om 18:54 geschreven door peter  

If you have read my 2017 book, The Roswell UFO Conspiracy, you’ll know that I largely gave up – years ago – on the theory that what has popularly become known as “The Roswell Incident” involved extraterrestrials and an alien spacecraft. If the truth does surface one day, I strongly suspect that the decades-long controversy will shown to have been something very different. I’m talking about secret, high-altitude experiments using human guinea-pigs, in the summer of 1947 in New Mexico. Of course, I may be wrong. And, if Roswell does turn out to have been an extraterrestrial event, I’ll be very pleased, as it will vindicate the research of all those who believe that aliens have visited Earth. But, I just don’t see it happening. As my research into Roswell continues at a steady pace, I’m getting more and more data that suggests Roswell was a dark and disturbing, secret test that went catastrophically wrong.

There’s no doubt that one of the biggest and most controversial”spin-offs” from the original story is that of the Majestic 12 documents. For those who may know, Majestic 12 – or MJ12 – was said to have been a top secret group created in 1947 by President Harry Truman. Essentially to keep the Roswell bodies and craft under wraps, and to investigate concerns relative to alien intrusions. It was 1987 when the Majestic 12 documents became public knowledge, something that led many UFO investigators to believe that this was finally the smoking-gun everyone was looking for. Indeed, Tim Good gave the documents significant coverage in his 1987 book, Above Top Secret. There’s no doubt, though, that the late Stanton Friedman was the one person – more than any other – who flew the flag for Majestic 12.

In the same way that I once believed Roswell involved aliens, I was also of the opinion – for quite a while – that the Majestic 12 documents were the real thing. My views, however, began to change as time went by and as new revelations surfaced. Eventually, to the point where – today – I’m convinced the documents and the story they tell are pure bullshit – something I addressed to a lengthy degree in my 2019 book, Flying Saucers from the Kremlin. It demonstrates how and why the Majestic 12 papers just don’t stand up as real documents. It’s not just UFO researchers like me who have shot down the documents. The National Archives have done a praiseworthy job of doing exactly that, too.

National Archives staff state that they have “…received many requests for documentation and information about ‘Project MJ-12.’ Many of the inquiries concern a memorandum from Robert Cutler to Gen. Nathan Twining, dated July 14, 1954. This particular document poses problems for the following reasons: The document was located in Record Group 341, entry 267. The series is filed by a Top Secret register number. This document does not bear such a number. The document is filed in the folder T4-1846. There are no other documents in the folder regarding ‘NSC/MJ-12. Researchers on the staff of the National Archives have searched in the records of the Secretary of Defense, the Joint Chiefs on Staff, Headquarters U.S. Air Force, and in other related files. No further information has been found on this subject.”

The National Archives adds: “Inquiries to the U.S. Air Force, the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and the National Security Council failed to produce further information. The Freedom of Information Office of the National Security Council informed the National Archives that ‘Top Secret Restricted Information’ is a marking which did not come into use at the National Security Council until the Nixon Administration. The Eisenhower Presidential Library also confirm that this particular marking was not used during the Eisenhower Administration. The document in question does not bear an official government letterhead or watermark. The NARA conservation specialist examined the paper and determined it was a ribbon copy prepared on ‘diction onionskin.’ The Eisenhower Library has examined a representative sample of the documents in its collection of the Cutler papers. All documents in the sample created by Mr. Cutler while he served on the NSC staff have an eagle watermark in the bond paper. The onionskin carbon copies have either an eagle watermark or no watermark at all. Most documents sent out by the NSC were prepared on White House letterhead paper. For the brief period when Mr. Cutler left the NSC, his carbon copies were prepared on ‘prestige onionskin.'”

And the questionable issues continue, as the National Archives make abundantly clear: “The National Archives searched the Official Meeting Minute Files of the National Security Council and found no record of a NSC meeting on July 16, 1954. A search of all NSC Meeting Minutes for July 1954 found no mention of MJ-12 nor Majestic. The Judicial, Fiscal and Social Branch searched the indices of the NSC records and found no listing for: MJ-12, Majestic, unidentified flying objects, UFO, flying saucers, or flying discs. NAJA found a memo in a folder titled ‘Special Meeting July 16, 1956’ which indicated that NSC members would be called to a civil defense exercise on July 16, 1956.”

Finally, there is this from the National Archives: “Robert Cutler, at the direction of President Eisenhower, was visiting overseas military installations on the day he supposedly issued this memorandum— July 14, 1954. The Administration Series in Eisenhower’s Papers as President contains Cutler’s memorandum and report to the President upon his return from the trip. The memorandum is dated July 20, 1954 and refers to Cutler’s visits to installations in Europe and North Africa between July 3 and 15. Also, within the NSC Staff Papers is a memorandum dated July 3, 1954, from Cutler to his two subordinates, James S. Ia and J. Patrick Cone, explaining how they should handle NSC administrative matters during his absence; one would assume that if the memorandum to Twining were genuine, Lay or Cone would have signed it.”

I could just about accept one or two slight errors in the Majestic 12 documents – after all, I have found occasional errors in 100 percent genuine files relating to UFOs – but the Majestic 12 papers are absolutely overwhelmed by errors and problems. Namely, the very ones the National Archives detailed above. I get it why people are drawn to the Majestic 12 material: it’s exciting, it gets conspiracy-theorists fired up, and it offers data that suggests aliens really did come down on the Foster Ranch, Lincoln County, New Mexico in the summer of 1947. The fact is, though, the documents are bogus and aliens did not crash at Roswell. Move on.

{ https://mysteriousuniverse.org/ }

09-03-2020 om 18:39 geschreven door peter