Here's how Europe's JUICE spacecraft will look for alien oceans

An artist's depiction of the JUICE spacecraft traveling through the Jupiter system.

(Image: © ESA)

The JUICE team aims to address that question using a few different methods.

One of the spacecraft's techniques is straightforward but only applies to one of Jupiter's moons. Scientists suspect, but haven't confirmed, that Europa may be shooting plumes out through its icy crust. If that is the case, JUICE may be able to fly through those plumes and study the liquid they contain during its two passes over the world. "We need to be lucky," Witasse said. "The plumes need to be there, it's still a matter of debate."

JUICE's other tactics are less subject to luck and are not limited to Europa, he said. Witasse walked through how the spacecraft's tactics will play out at Ganymede, the only moon that JUICE will directly orbit, as an example of the mission's methods.

First, there's a long-standing approach, which relies on measuring the magnetic field around a moon. If a bunch of liquid that conducts electricity is sloshing around inside a world, it interferes with the magnetic field of both the moon itself and Jupiter's in a way that should allow JUICE to measure it. However, with this method, JUICE will need to take measurements throughout its entire stay in the Jupiter system to produce enough data. A previous NASA mission, Galileo, which explored the Jupiter system between 1995 and 2003, carried a similar instrument.

JUICE will also measure how each of Jupiter's moons is stretched by tidal interactions with other worlds in the system. Jupiter is so massive that it tugs on all four of its large moons, and three of those moons orbit in such synchronized choreography that they exert serious pulls on each other.

And just as Earth's dance with the moon creates tides, all of this tugging around should distort Jupiter's moons. That should remain true whether or not these moons have oceans, but the magnitude of these tides would be different if they are ocean worlds or not — to the tune of tides just 3 feet (1 meter) high for an ocean-free moon compared to perhaps between 26 feet (8 m) and 33 feet (10 m) for an ocean world, Witasse said.

"That's a powerful technique to measure what is inside the icy moons," he said — although it will require the spacecraft to approach the moon quite closely and to map the full surface multiple times. These requirements mean that the Ganymede measurements will likely not be taken until the last phase of the mission, three months during which JUICE is in its lowest orbit around the moon.

JUICE's last technique for searching for alien oceans is perhaps also its strangest. This method relies on measurements of the auroras that ring, for example, Ganymede's poles. These dazzling lights don't circle the moon's poles totally symmetrically, instead, they are tilted like the brim of a hat perched askew, spinning around the moon.

According to scientists' models, the degree to which that ring wobbles will vary based on the moon's internal structure, influenced by the same magnetic field changes that the first technique will target. The band will wobble about three times more if no ocean is hidden below the moon's icy shell. And that technique should require fewer measurements than some of JUICE's other options.

None of these methods will quickly resolve scientists' questions about these distant worlds, of course, since deep-space exploration takes time. JUICE is currently scheduled to launch in 2022, then will take more than seven years to reach the Jupiter system. If the spacecraft launches on time, it will conduct the bulk of its observations between 2029 and 2033.

• Photos of Ganymede, Jupiter's largest moon
• First map of Jupiter's giant moon Ganymede unveiled (photos, video)
• Decades-old data shows auroras on Jupiter's moon Ganymede in a new light

Email Meghan Bartels at mbartels@space.com or follow her @meghanbartels. Follow us on Twitter @Spacedotcom and on Facebook.

{ https://www.space.com/ }

08-04-2020 om 23:35 geschreven door peter  

A Black Hole’s Energy Beam is Seemingly Breaking the Laws of Physics

The radiant jets are erupting from a galaxy called 3C 279, located five billion light years from Earth. Even across this immense distance, 3C 279 shines like a cosmic beacon because it is a “blazar,” which means its galactic core is among the brightest and most energetic objects in the universe.

At the center of 3C 279 lies a supermassive black hole that is about one billion times as massive as the Sun. When clumps of matter fall into the hole, they become super-hot and energetic, sparking the enormous jet explosion that scientists see blasting out of the blazar’s pole.

3C 279 is so bright that astronomers have been able to observe it, and its illusory superluminal jet, since the 1970s. But Kim’s team, which consists of hundreds of co-authors, has the advantage of a new type of ultrasensitive observatory: The Event Horizon Telescope (EHT).

The EHT collaboration is best known for capturing the very first image of a black hole almost exactly one year ago. The telescope consists of a global network of radio arrays that combine to form one ultra-sensitive observatory that is the size of Earth itself. These colossal dimensions enable the EHT to image distant objects in unprecedented detail.

Kim’s team observed 3C 279 with the EHT for four nights in April 2017 at an extremely high resolution of 20 microarcseconds, which is equivalent to spotting an orange on the Moon from Earth. The observations produced “new and more detailed maps of the core region of 3C 279” including the “finest details” of the base of one of its jets.

These observations reveal something so strange as to be impossible: the black hole’s jet appeared by all indications to be traveling faster than the speed of light. As it turns out, this curiosity is due to a mega-scale optical illusion in space.

This blazar jet shoots from the galactic center with so much force that it reaches 99.5 percent the speed of light, about as close to the cosmic speed limit as possible. However, because the jet is oriented toward Earth, it looks like it is traveling 15 to 20 times faster than light speed.

“This extraordinary optical illusion arises because the material is racing toward us, chasing down the very light it is emitting and making it appear to be moving faster than it is,” said co-author Dom Pesce, a postdoctoral fellow at the Harvard–Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, in a statement.

In other words, the blazar jet is not actually defying the laws of physics, though it does put on a pretty good show of it.

The observations also revealed that the jet appears to be twisted at the point where it emerges from the galactic center, which offers the first clear glimpse of a blazar jet’s base. The discovery suggests that the black hole somehow deforms the jet as it is emitted, perhaps into a helical structure that is distinct from the straight jet that forms further from the galactic center.

“Follow-up work combining the results from this paper with other multiwavelength data obtained close in time, will provide a more detailed understanding of the physical processes in the jet, allowing detailed tests of the potential curvature in the innermost jet, and possible jet acceleration and alternative physical scenarios,” the team said in the paper.

For decades, scientists have marveled over the ultra-luminous center of 3C 279 and puzzled over how such blinding amounts of light could be generated. The EHT collaboration has now brought the answer to that question one step closer to resolution.

Related Articles

• An Ancient Black Hole as Heavy as a Billion Suns Is Pointed Right At Us

• Scientists Have Detected the Biggest Explosion Ever in the Universe's History

{ https://www.vice.com/en_us }

08-04-2020 om 23:11 geschreven door peter  

There have been a surprising number of UFO crashes reported over the decades, and these can be pretty spectacular, indeed. Among these some of them take the weirdness up a notch, with Roswell-style scenarios of finding aliens among the wreckage, both alive and dead. There are also numerous reports of alien abductions out there, wherein helpless victims are beamed aboard these otherworldly craft and have a variety of experiences including the infamous examinations as well as sometimes more benevolent ones. This is all strange enough as it is, but what about when it gets even odder? Have you ever wondered if the two have ever come together? Have you ever thought about what if one of these UFOs crashed with an abductee aboard? Well, wonder no more, because there is at least one case where an alleged UFO crashed in the desert complete with aliens and a dazed human woman they had abducted.

It was a calm summer evening in 1971, when California resident Debbie Clayton was relaxing in her home just north of Edwards Air Force Base when she was startled by a deafening roar, followed by a thunderous noise like an explosion that reverberated through the air. Exiting her home, she found neighbors out on the street warily looking about and scanning the sky as a symphony of barking dogs played in the background. Then they saw it, a plume of smoke snaking up into the air from the direction of the base, accompanied by the flickering of what they assumed to be the flames of a fire. Something had happened, an airplane crash perhaps, and Clayton’s curiosity drew her and a few others towards the eerie glow and smoke in the distance. What they would find would be no normal aircraft, and would be an experience they would never forget.

Edwards Air Force Base

Just outside of the base, an area of scrubland was burned, and in the center of this charred earth was what Clayton described as a mushroom shaped craft of some sort, fashioned of what appeared to be a dull gray metal of some type, which had green flashing lights spaced out upon it. She noticed how smooth the texture of it all was, with no markings, noticeable seams, or doors or windows, seemingly made of one uniform piece of metal, although it did seem to be damaged from its plummet to earth. More bizarre than any of this was that she then noticed some smallish, thin gray humanoids strewn about on the ground, and more puzzling then even this was the sight of a woman who stumbled about in the fog of smoke, dressed in what looked like a tight-fitting pink jumpsuit. The mysterious woman looked dazed and confused as she meandered about the crash zone, but before Clayton could call to her or do anything at all the military from the nearby base were already descending upon the site. Helicopters buzzed over, searchlights pierced the gloom, and soldiers told the gathered, gawking witnesses to disperse or face the consequences.

After forcefully chasing off the civilian witnesses the military reportedly quickly covered the craft with a large canvas tarp and some of the personnel could be seen gathering the three still bodies of those strange entities, but after that the area was closed to further scrutiny. Curious as to what had happened, the baffled Clayton checked the newspaper first thing the following morning, but found no mention at all of the huge boom and the subsequent crash near the base. There was in fact no mention of any incident in the area at all. Turning on the TV also showed no news at all on the incident, and so concerned citizens began calling the base directly to demand what had happened. They all got the same, curt response, that it had been a crashed military vehicle that had gone down due to a technical malfunction and that it was a minor accident. Nothing to see here. Move along. There were no answers about what kind of vehicle it had been, and more importantly no clue given as to what those humanoid bodies were or who that woman in the pink suit had been. Amazingly, it all gets even stranger from here.

The whole thing might have remained hidden, covered-up, and forgotten to fade away into the mists of time forever if it weren’t for the intrepid UFO researcher Albert Rosales. He was able to track down the mysterious woman in pink, who was identified as Lorraine Dvorak Cordini. She admitted that she was the one in the wreckage, but that she had little memory of how she had gotten there or what had happened next, other than that she had been told she had been in an accident and dropped off at her home by military personnel, so Rosales convinced her to undergo hypnotic regression to try and salvage any memories that might be lurking in her subconscious. She agreed, and would have a very bizarre story to tell, indeed.

Under hypnosis, Cordini said that her ordeal had started when she was abducted by strange creatures from her home one evening, apparently being somehow phased right through the wall to be brought into a craft of some sort, which then brought her to an enormous “mother ship,” where she was dressed in the pink jumpsuit. The beings she was with were described as “short, thin, rather translucent” humanoids, and she also was able to remember that these creatures had visited her before when she was a child, and that she felt a sort of non-threatening familiarity with them. Although they seemed mostly androgynous, she would explain that they seemed to have either male or female “essences,” and that the one she took to be their leader was decidedly more human in appearance than the others, looking almost like a normal woman. Cordini also said that although they had mouths they spoke to her telepathically. She could not remember much of her time aboard the mother ship, but when says that she was aboard another, smaller transport craft on her way home when her memory would jump to the crash. She would explain:

I was physically on board a mother spacecraft working. When it was time to return to earth three “ETs” (short, thin, rather translucent in appearance like in Close Encounters of the Third Kind), one female essence and two of male essence were the crew. We were either shot down or crashed near Edwards Air Force Base in California. I remember standing in the wreckage, suddenly in conscious memory, confused, disoriented and filled with sorrow as military personnel kicked the bodies of the two dead ETs. I remember hearing in my mind the captain of the mother ship saying how sorry she was that they could not help us for fear of being detected. The female crewman was standing to my left. I had on a pink body suit. I cried as the military cursed my dead comrades. I don’t yet remember what the parts of the ship looked like.

The next thing she would remember was being approached by the military, handcuffed and stuffed into the back of a black, unmarked limousine. After this they brought her to some sort of sterile military facility where there was another alien with them, apparently not one of the ones she had been with and apparently of a different species, with a seemingly different agenda. This one was described as being about 4 feet tall, with wet brown skin and a bulbous, oversized head. She has said of this surreal and terrifying experience:

At first I think they (military) might have thought I was a local witness who would not leave and so they arrested me. They handcuffed me and threw me in the backseat of a black limousine. I was taken to an empty hanger. I remember it was cold and had a hollow sound to the noise. I was placed on a cold metal table. Two military to my left, one military to my head along with an ET whom I call Mr. Pumpkin Head Man. The military were dressed in fatigue uniforms and the ET had on a blue kind of two-piece jogging suit with a thin red and white stripe going around the chest area and then another set of two thin lines going up and down on the jacket. At the intersection right above where the human heart would be was either a brooch or insignia. My first thoughts were “brooch”.

They drugged me. I was so confused and disoriented. I struggled to lift my arms and to get up, but I couldn’t, my speech was slurred. I tried to scream but could not. I felt drunk. I heard in my mind Pumpkin Head thinking how great he was and how important he was to these military men. The military man next to him was thinking “What an asshole.” They treated me with great disrespect. Eventually two of them grabbed me under the arms and yanked, pulled and tugged me off the table. They dragged me to the opening of the hanger. The light hurt my eyes.

She claims that after this her memories become murky again, and the next thing she remembers is being dumped in San Francisco, California, wandering around in a confused state and not sure how she had gotten there. It is unclear why she should be dropped off here, as she says she didn’t know anyone in the city and it is far from her own home in the Los Angeles area. She finally did manage to find her way home, and for years this was just an odd experience that constantly haunted her, but which she could not explain. Large portions of her memory were missing, and it was only when bits and pieces became coming back to poke through the surface and she found herself facing frequent nightmares that she knew something was wrong with her. After seeing a program on alien abductions by chance she reached out to the Mutual UFO Network (MUFON) in 1995 and that was when she was approached by Rosales.

The story has leaked out over the years and Cordini has written her own accounts of the events that unfolded, but it has still managed to remain a relatively obscure case and even for those who know about it have often looked at it with raised eyebrows. It is at once a spectacular and unique, yet ultimately frustrating account for a variety of reasons. It is intriguing because it is probably one of the only accounts of a UFO crash involving an abductee that was onboard at the time, and what’s more was recovered alive. If the story is true than it is truly unique and rare. There is also the interesting suggestion that there are several different species of aliens visiting Earth that are perhaps at odds with each other and with different motivations. However, it is at the same time just a little bit too good of a story, and there is very little to corroborate it. There are no news reports of anything unusual near Edward’s AFB at the time, no physical evidence at all, and scarce few corroborating witnesses, which more or less in the end leaves us with Cordini’s own account of what happened.

So, what are we looking at here? Was this lady really snatched away from her home by aliens, only to be shot down along with her captors and then whisked away by the military? Was this perhaps some sort of military experiment that planted these memories in her head? Did she really indeed have some sort of accident and her mind conjured this up out of trauma? Or is this all just the delusional ramblings of a woman who has a tenuous grip on reality? It is all a pretty wild and outlandish report no matter what the case may be, and one wonder just what in the world was going on here.

{ https://mysteriousuniverse.org/ }

08-04-2020 om 22:29 geschreven door peter  

Komende woensdag grootste supermaan van het jaar te zien - HLN.be

De vorige supermaan was, zo blijkt uit de voor België geldende maankalender, op 9 maart te zien maar toen was de afstand iets langer: 363.972 kilometer. 

Wil je dé supermaan van de eeuw zien dan moet je volgens de meteorologen van Weerplaza alvast 6 december 2052 in je agenda omcirkelen. Dan staat de volle maan op 356.426 km van de aarde. Het verschil zal je dan zeer waarschijnlijk niet met het blote oog waarnemen, maar je kunt wel zeggen dat je er bij was.

Wat is een supermaan?

Een supermaan is een volle maan die veel groter lijkt dan normaal. Ook is het maanlicht feller dan bij een gebruikelijke volle maan. Dat komt omdat de afstand tussen de maan en de aarde een beetje kleiner is dan normaal.

De afstand tussen de maan en de aarde verandert gedurende het jaar. Dat komt doordat de maan geen cirkelvormige, maar een elliptische baan om de aarde heeft. Om de 29 dagen bereikt de maan een minimale afstand tot de aarde. Als dat moment samenvalt met een volle maan, spreken we van een ‘supermaan’.

In ons land is zo’n maan maar drie à vier keer per jaar te zien. 

{ https://www.hln.be/ }

08-04-2020 om 21:56 geschreven door peter  

Close Encounter Of The Fourth Kind In Italy

AUGUST 14, 1947 ……….VILLA SANTINA ITALY

It was around 9 am on the 14^th August 1947 when R L Johannis was stood by the Chiarso creek in Villa Santina, painting as was his profession. It was as he was scanning his surroundings that morning that he would gaze upon something that would completely change his world view. There, in front of him, was a disc-shaped object at least 30 feet across.

What’s more, next to the object on the ground were two small humanoid figures, approximately three feet in height. Still a little in shock, he kept his focus on the scene unfolding in front of him. Each of the small figures had on a dark blue coverall-type suit which had a red belt around the waist, as well as a red collar. What’s more, although they were covered with a round helmet, their heads appeared to be significantly larger than one would expect when compared to their bodies.

He couldn’t see clearly, but the skin under the helmet and on their hands appeared to be a “greenish” color. This is an interesting detail in that while most would imagine these types of aliens to be grey in color (hence they are usually referred to as The Greys) many accounts exist that specifically state the color of the respective creature’s skin was a distinct green.

What’s more, and this sighting was before such descriptions of the Grey alien were in the public psyche as it is today, Johannis would describe their eyes as large, dark, and with no eyelashes or eyebrows. Very similar to descriptions given by many who would experience alleged close encounters over the decades that would follow.

Still very much in the moment, the painter then called out to the strange creatures, raising his arm as he did so.

A Welcoming Gesture Mistaken For Aggression And Hostility?

As soon as he gestured to the apparently alien visitors they appeared to react. And what’s more, it appeared as though they mistook the gesture by the artist as one of aggressiveness. In response, one of the creatures reached to his belt. A moment later, a “thin vapor” emanated from it and “hit” Johannis within seconds.

He immediately began to feel disorientated and confused. The next thing he knew, he was falling to the ground. As he hit the surface with a thump, he noticed the two creatures approaching him. They would stop at the painter’s easel, looking at it quite quizzically.

It is perhaps worth noting the files of the previously mentioned Bowen here, who would highlight how the descriptions of the belt in the incident were very similar to the occupant encounter of Antonio Villas Boas in Brazil a decade later in 1957.

As the artist struggled to his hands and knees, he noticed that the figures were now holding the painting before placing it back on the easel where it had been. They then, panting heavily Johannis recalled, turned around and walked calmly to the waiting, hovering disc-shaped object. It would rise slightly upon them first entering it. Then, after a moment or two, it shot directly into the sky and disappeared within seconds.

By the time the painter had fully come back to his senses, he realized that the easel was now missing. To the best of our knowledge, it wasn’t found.

The witness would ultimately gather himself. He would then return home where he would make notes of the encounter before ultimately forgetting the incident. At least publicly. When he arrived in America, as we will examine later, Johannis would begin to realize the gravity of what he had witnessed.

Further Reasons To Consider The Merging Of Space, Dimensions, And Time?

The witness would later recall that a “tremendous blast of wind” hit him within seconds of the craft vanishing. He would also recall that he believed the craft got smaller as opposed to disappearing into the distance.

This is an intriguing detail to consider. Did the craft actually disappear and it just appeared to get smaller to the witness? He was, after all, in a confused and disorientated state of mind at the time. Or might it really have grown smaller? Perhaps not physically but as it traveled through some kind of portal or wormhole? One artificially created by advanced technology.

While it is pure speculation on ours and other researcher’s parts, there are many theories that suggest UFOs are actually traveling here through these cosmic shortcuts from their world to ours. This, for example, would remove the need to travel at beyond astronomical speeds to traverse the vast reaches of space. NOTE: The above image is CGI.

• http://worldufophotosandnews.org/?p=25778

{ https://beforeitsnews.com/ }

08-04-2020 om 20:58 geschreven door peter  

The Secret of Skinwalker Ranch

‘The Secret of Skinwalker Ranch’ revealed: How a 420-acre patch of land in Utah became a ‘paranormal hotspot’

The series will have some never-before-seen footage of the ranch and what’s in it along with experts who will go through the massive 512-acre property in Utah

The series will have some never-before-seen footage of the ranch and what’s in it along with experts who will go through the massive 512-acre property in Utah. But what is it that makes this ranch such a mystery to tackle?

{ https://beforeitsnews.com/ }

08-04-2020 om 20:29 geschreven door peter  

Mysterious Cigar-Shaped UFO is Back, and It’s Glowing in Nebraska Sky

A strange cigar-shaped UFO has been seen again in the US, and this time it was over the city of Omaha, Nebraska. The long, slender mysterious object has frequently been observed in recent months in North America, including Washington, Wyoming, and New York. It has also spotted in other parts of the world, including Latin America and Europe.

However, the cigar UFO in Omaha City raced through the sky instead of floating in the air. Also, its colour was different. The past videos show black cigar UFO, but now it’s blue and glowing.

The latest incident was captured on video by an amateur astronomer, who passed the video to YouTube channel MrMBB333, which is famous for featuring mysterious events. The video then became viral with thousands of views.

Many viewers agree that the unusual thing in the sky is a sign of space alien life. One user believes that it’s not a meteorite. Another one suggests the cigar-shaped UFOs are different kind of extra-terrestrial vehicle or drone; instead of the typical round UFO’s.

One netizen says that aliens decided to check out the situation on Earth in the middle of the coronavirus pandemic.

Others claim they had seen similar objects in the sky in the South Mountain area.

Cigar-shaped or snake UFOs have been spotted quite often in recent months in the US, but they have also been observed in Scotland and Brazil recently, where it had a strange colour.

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

08-04-2020 om 17:43 geschreven door peter  

Beyond the Pyramid Ramp: Unravelling Egypt’s Most Elusive Enigma

The mystery of how the Pyramids of Giza in Egypt were built continues to elude scholars, even in the 21 ^st century. As famed Egyptologist Flinders Petrie records in his The Pyramids and Temples of Gizeh (1883): “The means employed for raising such masses of stone is not shown to us in any representations.” The brightest minds in the world still wrestle with competing ideas, offering educated guesses based on incomplete evidence.

Every theory begins with the inclined plane, or the pyramid ramp. This idea was first mentioned two millennia ago by the Greek historian Diodorus Siculus, who recounted what the Egyptians told him about the pyramids: "It is said that … the construction was undertaken with the help of ramps of earth, since at that time cranes had not yet been invented." (Library of History 1. 63).

Many Theories for the Pyramid Ramp

By the end of the 19 ^th century, Petrie had carefully measured the Pyramids of Giza , particularly the Great Pyramid of Khufu, and determined that the likeliest manner of their construction was using a single, long ramp, with a smaller zig-zag ramp near the summit. Since then, this idea has largely been discredited due to lack of evidence, and other theories have taken its place.

Three types of single, straight pyramid ramps to build that could have been used in the construction of the ancient site.

(Smuckola / CC BY-SA 4.0 )

Late German Egyptologist Uvo Hölscher believed the Egyptians employed a short ramp that zig-zagged all the way up the face of the pyramid, while Dieter Arnold, the German archaeologist who wrote the famous Building in Egypt (1991) believes a long ramp was used, but that it cut through the center of and was partially composed of the pyramid itself.

Meanwhile, Giza archaeologists Zahi Hawass and Mark Lehner believe the material evidence most clearly points to a spiral ramp that would have twisted up the exterior of the pyramid, either resting against the structure or on a large earthen mound. They suggest that water or milk would have been used to lubricate wooden sleds strapped with stone blocks, similar to a scene from the Middle Kingdom tomb of Djehuti-hotep (~1900 BC).

Three different pyramid ramp proposals, by Uvo Hölsher (left), Dieter Arnold (center) and Mark Lehner (right).

(Althiphika / CC BY-SA 3.0 )

Numerous recent experiments have confirmed this possibility, including a study in 2014 by Daniel Bonn and other scientists from the FOM Foundation and the University of Amsterdam that demonstrated the right proportion of water on sand could reduce the required people hauling a block by half. There is also a depiction on a New Kingdom stela showing six oxen pulling a block on a sled (~1575 BC), and many actual sleds have been recovered.

What About the Evidence?

Evidence of earth ramps do exist in Egypt. The best example comes from the Temple of Karnak at Thebes, where it can be found still leaning against the back of the towering First Pylon. Made of mud brick, it was never completely disassembled, and it stands today as testament to the manner in which these large stone structures were built and decorated. Further examples come from the abandoned step pyramid of Sinki at Abydos. Likely built by Huni, Sneferu’s father and Khufu’s grandfather, this pyramid has four construction ramps still in place, composed of two outer mud-brick walls with an interior fill of debris and stone chips.

Remains of an ancient mud-brick ramp at the Temple of Karnak at Thebes (First Pylon, New Kingdom).

( Vermeulen-Perdaen / Adobe stock)

Amazingly, the potential construction ramp of the Great Pyramid has already been discovered, and it was similar to these other ramps. In 1995, the Giza Inspectorate “excavated trenches through thick layers of limestone debris south of the southwest corner of Khufu’s pyramid. Remains of fieldstone walls were found running north-northwest that could have been the accretions or retaining walls of the foundation of (such) a supply ramp.” (Lehner, 2017; 440).

According to Hawass, this lower section of the ramp: “consisted of two walls built of stone rubble and mixed with “tafla” (a calcareous clay). The area in between was filled with sand and gypsum forming the bulk of the ramp.” (Hawass, 1998; 58). He calculated the ramp would have reached ~30m (98ft) above the pyramid’s base, or roughly 20% of the pyramid’s original total height of 146.7m (481.3ft). Beyond that he believes the ramp would have spiraled up the exterior of the structure.

Map of the Giza Plateau, showing newly-discovered ancient ramp in red line at southwest corner of Khufu’s pyramid, and quarry and authors’ proposed wooden scaffolding running up to the top (red and brown lines added by author).

(MesserWolland / CC BY-SA 3.0 )

In late 2018, the remains of a ramp were found in the ancient alabaster quarry at Hatnub, from the very time of Khufu. It reveals how the Egyptians could have moved tremendously heavy blocks of stone by using physics to aid them. Archaeologists from the French Institute for Oriental Archaeology and the University of Liverpool excavated a ramp with flights of stairs on either side, and with post-holes near the stairs running all the way up the ramp.

It has been suggested by the excavating team that by using ropes tied around wooden posts, ancient workers could have hauled large blocks much easier by using gravity to pull down rather than pulling up. They could also control the blocks better, which are imagined as having rested on wooden sleds attached to the ropes.

Ancient ramp discovered at Hatnub, Eastern Egypt, in 2018, similar in shape but smaller in dimensions than the pyramid ramps that could have been used to build the contemporaneous site at Giza.

(Yannis Gourdon / IFAO)

The addition of ropes and wooden poles to change the direction of force could have effectively doubled the ramp grade, meaning any ramps on the pyramids would have only needed to have been half their projected size. This could have potentially doubled the grade of Khufu’s ramp, discovered in 1995, up to ~60m (197ft), or 40% of the pyramid’s original height (and most of the volume).

However, problems persist. A ramp that spiraled around the pyramid would be impractical because of the inability to back-sight each corner to remain true, its massive size (rivalling the pyramid itself), and the lack of any archaeological evidence. So if the builders did use a ramp, where was it? An ingenious architect named Jean-Pierre Houdin thought he had the answer.

A Hidden Ramp Inside

Perhaps no other theory in recent years has garnered as much attention as that of the Great Pyramid’s supposed ‘internal ramp’, an idea first proposed by the French architect Jean-Pierre Houdin in 2005. Aided in his exploration by Egyptologist Bob Brier, they flew to Egypt to hunt for evidence of this proposed inside-ramp.

In essence, Houdin proposed that the Egyptians had built an internal ramp just inside the perimeter of the structure that wound its way up as the pyramid rose, composed of corbelled ceilings and corner notches in which the blocks would be rotated on rope cranes. This would seemingly eliminate the need for external ramps, levers, cranes or scaffolding.

Several lines of evidence jumped out at the researchers as proof of their idea. First, Houdin detected faint ‘phantom’ lines within the masonry of the pyramid that ran at ~7°, the exact angle he determined the internal ramp must run at.

Second, there is a mysterious ‘notch’ on the northeastern edge of the pyramid, where Houdin had predicted was an original ‘corner block-turning station’. This ‘notch’ was explored by Brier, who found a small irregular chamber (‘Bob’s Room’) but nothing more.

Third, in 1986 a French team completed a microgravimetric study of the pyramid, and the resultant CG-image of low- and high-density areas revealed an image consistent with an internal ramp.

Attractive Theory But Where is the Evidence?

Despite how attractive this theory seemed at first, many noted it was an unlikely scenario. Egyptologist David Jeffreys called it “far-fetched and horribly complicated,” for it proposed the pyramid is vastly more complicated than presently believed. Instead of having four internal chambers and corridors, it would actually have the equivalent of dozens of internal chambers. Instead of having one impressive and corbelled Grand Gallery, it would have the equivalent of over thirty grand galleries winding up through the monument, all corbelled corridors of impressive masonry.

It seems absurd, considering how amazing a feat the Grand Gallery itself was, that there would still be thirty more of them to discover somewhere inside the pyramid, all connected together. And despite much indirect evidence, Brier and Houdin have not found any specific hard data for their ramp. Even their much-lauded microgravimetric scan could be interpreted differently, such as via the model of internal ‘steps’.

The Grand Gallery in the Great Pyramid of Giza. Houdin’s theory would require another 30 of these inside the pyramid.

(Keith Adler / CC BY-SA 4.0 )

Now, despite the difficulties with the idea, it remained a promising theory in need of independent verification. Fortunately, the ‘Scan Pyramids Mission’ ( scanpyramids.org) would be its ultimate test. Beginning in 2015, this study was based on the idea of using cosmic particles called muons to remotely scan the pyramid for void spaces, an idea first employed by famed physicist Luis Alvarez in the late 1960s on Khafre’s pyramid.

Large collectors were set up in the Great Pyramid and the muons that streamed through the structure were measured in the hopes of identifying any hidden chambers. The idea that a beautiful internal passageway snaking up through the structure would be revealed had millions of excited archaeology buffs on the edge of their seats. Then the results came in.

While a large void was detected above the Grand Gallery, no internal ramp was detected. Nada. This deflationary news was relayed by the theory’s first expert supporter, Bob Brier himself: “these data suggest that the ramp is not there. I think we’ve lost.” So if there was no internal ramp inside the Great Pyramid, then how was it actually built? How were the stones lifted skyward hundreds of feet, beyond the ramp?

New research looking at the density of particles called muons has found an empty space (shown in this illustration) more than 98 feet (30 meters) long right above the Great Pyramid's Grand Gallery, but no internal pyramid ramp was found. 

( Scan Pyramids Mission )

A Ramps and Levers Combination

Any theory based on ramps, whether internal or external, runs into problems near the apex of the pyramid. Lehner and Hawass admit that: “the fact that the four sides of the pyramid narrow towards closure at the top means that the builders ran out of room for ramps.” (Lehner 2017; 418), and that: “it is very possible that levering was the only means to raise the blocks of the highest courses, near the apex, once the builders had brought them as high as they could on ramps.” (Lehner, 2017; 417).

Other archaeologists have suggested a combination of ramps and levers, including Martin Isler in On Pyramid Building I & II (1985 & 1987).

The idea the ancient Egyptians used other technologies besides ramps was first put forth by Herodotus in 425 BC. He describes the construction of the Great Pyramid thusly: “This pyramid was made after the manner of steps, which some call ‘rows’ and others ‘bases’: and when they had first made it thus, they raised the remaining stones with machines made of short pieces of timber, raising them first from the ground to the first stage of the steps, and when the stone got up to this it was placed upon another machine standing on the first stage, and so from this it was drawn to the second upon another machine.” (Histories 2. 125).

“Construction of the Great Pyramid According to Herodotus”, lithograph depicting multiple so-called ‘Herodotus Machines’ operating on the Great Pyramid

(Antoine- Yves Goguet (1820) / Public domain ).

This description calls to mind a ‘liftjack’ tool, which uses levers and small shims, or wedges, to gradually lift a large block in many small increments. This was first suggested by Petrie in 1883: “for the ordinary blocks, of a few tons each, it would be very feasible to employ the method of resting them on two piles of wooden slabs, and rocking them up alternately to one side and the other by a spar under the block, thus heightening the piles alternately and so raising the stone.”

Several other scholars have noted this theory as well, including Isler, who actually tested this theory during a 1991 Pyramid building project filmed for NOVA. He discovered it was harder and took much longer than he anticipated, but mainly due to his lack of experience and the instability of his wooden support cribbing.

Assisting with this method may have been mysterious rounded wooden objects colloquially called “Petrie rockers”. Found by the famed Egyptologist at Thebes, he proposed these semi-circular wooden devices could have been used to help jack up heavy blocks by allowing them to tilt back and forth easier ( “rocking them up alternately to one side and the other”) , allowing successive planks to be inserted on either side and lifting the block.

Others like Paul Hai imagine the Egyptians actually “rolled” the large blocks by lashing a Petrie rocker to each side of the block, creating a cylinder. Again, there is no evidence for this, and there have never been found any of these wooden rockers near the pyramids.

A model wooden “rocker” device found by Flinders Petrie at Thebes, from the New Kingdom, ~1450 BC.

(Metropolitan Museum of Art / CC0)

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Alternatively, the Egyptians could have employed a counter-weight levering mechanism, similar to the shaduf, which has been used for millennia to lift water from the Nile. The machines described by Herodotus could have been composed of wooden beams with counterweights, used to see-saw the blocks up course-by-course.

Tomb painting showing an ancient Egyptian gardener using a shaduf (Tomb of the Royal Sculptor Ipuy, Deir el-Medina, 19th Dynasty, 1279-1213 BCE). The shaduf relies on the same principles of counter-weight leverage as the so called “Herodotus Machines” imagined by Goguet and other artists.

(Metropolitan Museum of Art / CC0)

Did the Egyptians Use Scaffolding?

Other researchers such as Peter Hodges, Julian Keable, Louis Croon, and Robert Scott Hussey-Pailos have all made improvements on these designs, decreasing Isler’s original lifting time of over an hour down to only minutes. Whether the Egyptians used a rocker-shim-lever or counter-weight-lever method, they would have also needed some degree of wooden scaffolding.

We have no painting or material remains of any of these proposed lifting devices, but we do have evidence the Egyptians were familiar with wooden scaffolding.  In a painted scene from the tomb of the Vizier Rekhmire in Thebes (~1450 BC), we can see several workers standing (and even sitting) on a scaffold while they polish and paint a large statue.

Depiction of wooden scaffolding from the Tomb of the Vizier Rekhmire, ~1450 BC.

(Metropolitan Museum of Art / Nina De Garis Davies / Public domain )

An earlier scene from the Fifth Dynasty Saqqara tomb of Khaemhesit shows a vertical wooden ladder with workers perched along it, and surprisingly wheels and an axle at its base! This is the only known Old Kingdom depiction of wheels, and the Egyptians did not use them to move the heavy pyramid blocks: wheels would have sunk into the ground, and there was no material strong enough for the axles.

Many researchers have suggested scaffolding was used to help build the pyramids, as far back as Somers Clarke and R. Engelbach in their classic Ancient Egyptian Construction and Architecture (1930). Hawass, Lehner, and Isler have likewise voiced limited support for the idea, along with James Frederick Edwards in his article Building the Great Pyramid: Probable Construction Methods Employed at Giza (2003). He notes in particular the likely use of scaffolding by the masons to dress the fine-white Tura casing stones, generally believed to have been the final stage of construction. Perhaps the most vocal supporter of the idea of wooden scaffolding is the Welsh structural engineer Peter James, who was called upon to save the Step Pyramid after being damaged in a 1992 earthquake.

As detailed in his 2018 book Saving the Pyramids, James and his team worked deep under the Step Pyramid in Djoser’s burial, using large air bags in conjunction with wooden scaffolding to prop up the sagging ceiling. They carefully drilled narrow holes into the superstructure, inserting steel rods and then cementing them in place, finally securing the 4,700-year-old building - the world’s oldest stone building - from collapse.

Modern wooden scaffolding set up around Djoser’s Step Pyramid at Saqqara

(David Broad / CC BY 3.0 )

However, it was the abundant wooden scaffolding that was set up around the Step Pyramid to restore its crumbling façade that gave James an idea about its construction. He thought that similar scaffolding could have been used in the past, composed of pieces of timber lashed together: “In recent restoration work on the pyramids, traditional timber lashed together has been used as scaffolding, which demonstrates that it clearly would have been possible to use scaffolding to construct them in the first place.”

“We Have People, We Need Wood”

Most scholars dispute the notion that scaffolding served any primary construction role, relegating it to a minor function, such as dressing the casing stones or laying the very top courses of masonry. It remains an unpopular idea for one simple reason: most Egyptologists believe that the ancient Egyptians, with their dry and relatively treeless environment, had limited access to timber.

However, several scholars have demonstrated that the Egypt of the Old Kingdom, ~2550 BC, would have had more vegetation than today. Researchers have demonstrated that a major climate change accompanied or perhaps caused the end of the Old Kingdom of Egypt around 4200 years ago. For example, Jean-Daniel Stanley and his colleagues, using strontium isotopes and petrologic data, showed in their 2003 study that Nile levels, and consequently tree populations, dropped drastically between 2200-2000 BC.

As D.M. Dixon states in his article Timber in Ancient Egypt (1974), “in antiquity, Egypt possessed, and still does, a number of trees capable of providing timber.” These include the date palm, acacia, tamarisk, persea, willow, sidder, moringa, and sycamore-fig. These trees were used for boat construction, to make furniture, huge temple doors, coffins, bows, arrows, and ramps, as described on the Papyrus Anastasi I: “There is to be constructed a ramp … consisting of 120 compartments filled with reeds and beams.”

Left: acacia tree, similar to what would have been found in Egypt and across the Levant during Khufu’s time, Israel’s Negev Desert. (Mark A. Wilson / Public domain ). Right: avenue of acacia trees leading towards the pyramids in 19th century Cairo  

(William Henry Jackson (1894) / Public domain )

Archaeological evidence of wood inside ancient ramps has been found at Lahoun, Lisht, and Deir el-Bahri. We also know that Egypt imported huge beams of cedar and cilician fir from Lebanon, confirmed by the discovery in 1954 of two deconstructed funeral boats of Khufu buried beside his pyramid.

Al Arzz above Bsharri (Forest of the Cedars of God), Lebanon.

(BlingBling10 / CC BY-SA 3.0 )

Made of gigantic beams of cedar, they were lashed together with rope and would seal by swelling in the water. We know from the Palermo Stone inscription that Pharaoh Sneferu , father of Khufu, sent an expedition of forty ships to Lebanon to collect prized cedar beams: “Bringing forty ships filled [with] cedar logs … Shipbuilding [of] cedar wood, one ship, 100 cubits [long].” 100 cubits was roughly equivalent to 50 meters (164ft), even longer than Khufu’s boat at 43.6m (143ft).

The magnificent Boat of Khufu, Solar Boat Museum, Giza.

(David Berkowitz / CC BY 2.0 )

We can still see the massive fifty-foot (15m) cedar beams that Sneferu’s engineers wedged between the walls of the Bent Pyramid’s burial chamber to keep it from collapsing. He could have easily used similar beams to construct wooden scaffolding for the construction of his two pyramids at Dashur (and earlier structure at Meidum).

Ancient wooden beams still inside the Bent Pyramid of Sneferu at Dashur.

(Ivrienen / CC BY 3.0 )

The Secret to Building the Pyramids

An interesting feature of the solar boats is that their beams were held together entirely with hemp rope, which was also preserved beside the boat. Having cedar beams and sturdy rope, the Egyptians could certainly have built a robust scaffolding capable of supporting large stone blocks and multiple workers.

I believe the secret to building the pyramids, beyond the ramps anyways, was actually very simple: a relatively narrow section of wooden scaffolding, lashed together with ropes and anchored securely at the base. This would have rendered unnecessary large external mud brick ramps, internal stone ramps, and the need to dress the stone from the top down. The entire structure could have been completed level-by-level, with the exterior stone dressed before the next layer was begun (or even in the quarry when first removed, when it is softer and easier to carve, as noted by Bob Brier).

I believe work gangs would have used a combination of levers, rockers, and wedges to lift the blocks up through the scaffolding to the active building surface, where other gangs would have taken over. The scaffolding itself would have had dedicated wood-working teams building it as the pyramid rose. Each level of scaffolding would have had separate teams, while the teams operating on the pyramid would have likely been divided again.

Most work gangs would have focused on the inner fill and less precise masonry of the interior, some would have focused on the core blocks and grout, while the most skilled would have been stationed around the exterior to set and finish the precisely-angled and highly polished Tura limestone casing blocks. I therefore imagine an assembly-line type of process, from quarry to pyramid, with teams remaining at their spots and the rocks moving between them.

There is no good reason the Egyptians couldn’t have built a narrow stretch of scaffolding up the south side of the Great Pyramid through which to lever-up all the necessary blocks for its construction. It could then have been removed very quickly and re-used at further pyramid projects or alternatively used for solar boats, coffins, etc. The re-use of wood was common in Egypt, as demonstrated by Pearce Paul Creasman in his article: Ship Timber and the Reuse of Wood in Ancient Egypt (2013).

The Great Pyramids of Giza, Egypt.

( sculpies / Adobe stock)

The pyramids were built with the available technology during the Old Kingdom: ramps, bronze chisels, stone pounders, levers, ropes, poles, plumb bobs, cubit rods, mallets, adzes, wedges, and squares. To these primitive yet capable tools, I believe, we can add wooden scaffolding, the final missing piece to the puzzle of their construction.

It was more than this technology, however, that helped realize these massive building projects. It was the organization and hierarchy of workers, overseers, priests and scribes that helped to bring to fruition these huge state dreams. It was the skilled coordination of this hard-working society, all based on the careful measurements by priests of the seasons, sky and Nile, that ultimately built the pyramids. It was a nation-wide effort, one of the largest in our history, to serve the kings, the gods, and to preserve balance in the land, so that their names and works would last forever.

End Note

Interestingly, Welsh architect and pyramid rescuer Peter James does dispute the idea the Egyptians used poles and ropes to increase their ramp grades at pyramid sites, as suggested by the new ramp discovery at Hatnub. In a personal email communication he discusses several flaws he has identified with this model:

“The question of the size and diameter of the ropes needed to haul the heavy blocks is an issue and also their durability on the edges of square blocks. The method of attaching the ropes to the blocks that would avoid twisting the blocks as they are lifted would also be a problem.

How would you make sure that the two sets of operatives pulling up the blocks would be able to provide the same tension in the ropes to control the lift and not induce twisting and movement of the blocks, particularly as they are on temporary constructed steps? This would be a very dangerous operation.

The same goes for the temporary wooden post that may have been good in a permanent position in a quarry but would be prone to movement under load on unconsolidated substrate and again would cause difficulties controlling the blocks; also the leading edge of the block would dig into the soil and any force used to move it would rotate the block into the soil and prevent further movement.”

• Jonathon Perrin is the author of Moses Restored: The Oldest Religious Secret Never Told , available in print or as an e-book from Amazon.com.
• Top image: We must go beyond the ‘pyramid ramp’ to unravel Egypt’s most elusive engineering enigma. Source: Givaga / Adobe stock

By Jonathon Perrin

{"Ancient Origins"}

08-04-2020 om 01:43 geschreven door peter  

By Lisa Grossman

{ https://www.sciencenews.org/ }

08-04-2020 om 01:00 geschreven door peter  

GLORIOUS NASA PHOTO SHOWS “THIN BANDS” RUNNING ACROSS JUPITER

NASA/JPL-CALTECH

North Of Jupiter

NASA just released a dramatic image that its Juno spacecraft took of Jupiter’s “tumultous northern regions” during a close flyby in February. The image was taken from 15,610 miles (25,120 kilometers) away from the gas giant — a distance about twice the diameter of Earth, making this the planetary equivalent of a close-up shot of the gas giant.

The spectacular image shows “thin bands” that run from top to bottom, representing layers of “haze particles” that drift underneath a cloud cover. We still don’t actually know what exactly they are or how they are formed.

Download 

For the first time, a jet stream on Jupiter is seen catching an atmospheric wave.

Jupiter is the largest and most massive planet in our solar system. You might not think of it as a place to learn about Earth's atmosphere and weather, but Jupiter, like our home planet, has cyclones (the Jovian equivalent of hurricanes) and anticyclones, along with fast-moving jet streams that circle its globe. Revealed in a sequence of black-and-white images taken by the Cassini spacecraft during its flyby of Jupiter are chevrons, dark V-shaped features that travel within a band of powerful winds near the equator. By tracking chevrons, NASA scientists were not only able to gauge the jet stream's speed, but also witness its subtle, wavelike movement as it zoomed around the planet—something never before seen. Studying this motion can help scientists better understand similar weather patterns on Earth. Learn more about this discovery and see footage of Jupiter's jet streams by watching the videos below.

Download 

The wavelike movement spotted in one of Jupiter's jet streams can be seen in this footage taken by Cassini.

Download 

Studying Jupiter's atmosphere helps us understand what's unique, and what's not, about Earth's weather.

Download 

Jupiter's jet streams tend to zoom around the globe in lines so neat and straight that the planet appears striped.

Download 

This jet stream on Jupiter is 100 to 1,000 times wider than any jet stream on Earth and would cover one-quarter of our planet.

Download 

Tracking chevrons in the jet stream revealed winds traveling at speeds of 325 mph.

Jupiter Jet Streams

Jet streams on either side of the hazy bands may have something to do with the phenomenon, according to NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory.

In 2017, NASA scientists figured out that east-west jet streams on Jupiter tend to reverse course on a predictable schedule.

On Earth, jet streams are shifted by changing temperatures. Warmer temperatures force jet streams to flow eastwards, while cooler temperatures force it westwards. On Jupiter, a similar cycle takes about four Earth years and is mostly caused by gravity waves.

• READ MORE: High-Altitude Hazes on Jupiter [JPL]
• More on Jupiter: Something Enormous Just Smashed Into Jupiter

{ https://futurism.com/the-byte }

08-04-2020 om 00:46 geschreven door peter  

Top 15 Interesting Facts About Ancient Egypt That You May Not Know

One of the greatest civilizations in our history belonged to the ancient Egyptians. It flourished in the fertile valleys of the world’s longest river - the Nile, where a magnificent civilization rose from the surrounding sands and lasted for roughly 3,000 years. Rising above beast and nature, these ingenious people became a unique culture of the world.

The ancient Egyptians brought to life a variety of gods and goddesses, and fashioned a colorful and natural mythology by which they governed their lives. As time went on and their advancements grew, the Egyptians pioneered some of the world’s first technologies - mathematics, papyrus making, writing systems, medicine and pyramid building. They gave us some of the finest achievements of humanity - which remain stunning and marvelous to this very day. And to celebrate this grand ancient civilization, we are going over the top 15 interesting facts about ancient Egypt!  

Our List of the Top 15 Interesting Facts About Ancient Egypt

A civilization that flourished for approximately 3000 years had to be rich, well developed, vast and inspiring.  And the ancient Egyptians were all this and more. To get better acquainted with this, we have assembled a list of the most amazing aspects of ancient Egypt.

From arts and entertainment, to religion and law, all the way to war and science - we will delve deeper into the most astonishing achievements of one of the world’s most amazing ancient civilization. Of course, it is difficult to put 3 millennia into a single article, but it should be enough to give you an idea that there are a lot of truly interesting facts about ancient Egypt, and that it definitely bears a passionate study.

The Pantheon

One of the most astonishing features of the ancient Egyptian civilization is their pantheon and in particular, the sheer amount of diverse deities and beings - today we know more than 1,500 of them by name.

Ancient Egyptian gods (Amun-Ra and goddess Mut can be seen to the right) and pharaohs found in the Khonsu Temple.

(kairoinfo4u / CC BY-NC-SA 2.0 )

The Egyptian deities were closely entwined with the daily lives of the people, and were often the personification of everyday items, occurrences and natural phenomena. Moreover, they were for the most part the personification of animals that dominated the valleys of the Nile. And the minor deities were usually connected to seemingly trivial, everyday things.

The Mummification

Another unique and interesting fact about the ancient Egyptians is this astonishing part of their burial rites, mummification. Almost all of their burial practices and rites were connected to the belief in immortality. In the earliest days, the mummification was natural - bodies were desiccated by the harsh desert environment.

But as time went on, the mummification process became elaborate and to an extent artificial. Preservation of the bodies was often reserved for the wealthiest individuals, and involved organ removal, covering in natron salts and linen wrapping. The process took 70 days in its most advanced state.

Ancient Egyptian mummy.

( Jaroslav Moravcik / Adobe stock)

The Age

The very age of the ancient Egyptian civilization and the timeline in which it spanned is a fact worthy of mention and awe. With its Early Dynastic Period having generally emerged around ~3000 BC, and the dynastic periods on the whole ending with Cleopatra in 30 BC, the age of this civilization came close to 3 millennia. And that in itself is incredible. It shows us the power and the importance of Egypt, and how it managed to persevere, for such a long time, through superiority and advanced technologies.

The Pyramids
Everyone knows about the pyramids - the immortal heritage of ancient Egypt. These immense structures of stacked stone served as royal burial chambers, and exuded a great sense of power and royalty. Even today, the pyramids continue to baffle all visitors. They perfectly display the wealth and the sheer power of the ancient Egyptians and their industry, as well as a clear emphasis of their belief in afterlife. Here is another pyramid-related fact: Did you know that it took around 10,000 workers close to 30 years to build a single pyramid?

The Pyramids of Giza and the Sphynx in Egypt.

( merydolla / Adobe stock)

The Medicine

Some of the earliest medicinal advancements came from ancient Egypt. Surviving hieroglyphic writings detail some of the techniques and methods used in treating wounds and illnesses. Furthermore, some of the earliest medicinal specializations appeared in Egypt, with certain doctors focusing only on certain types of afflictions.

Amputation was common, as was wound stitching and infection prevention. Also, some of the oldest artificial limbs appeared in Egypt, where wooden carvings replaced amputated limbs. Although primitive by modern standards, medicine in Egypt was highly developed for its time and covered a broad area of expertise.

The Mathematics 

Even in the Pre-Dynastic period in Egypt, early mathematical calculations appeared - with a fully functional numerical system. Four basic mathematical operations were well known to the Egyptians - addition, multiplication, division and subtraction. Alongside basic knowledge of algebra and geometry, fractions, volume and area calculation.

They also had knowledge of the Pythagorean theorem - in their own way - and their buildings usually displayed the golden ratio. Today, there are several surviving mathematical papyrus scripts, including the famous ‘ Rhind Mathematical Papyrus ’, and the astronomical chart of Senemut’s tomb.

The Rhind Mathematical Papyrus.

(The British Museum /  CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 )

The Writing

The Egyptians were well known for their writing system - the hieroglyphs. Hieroglyphic writing goes back as far as 3000 BC, and it consisted of several hundred symbols. But did you know that the hieroglyphs were not the only form of writing in ancient Egypt? They were usually only used in a formal way - as inscriptions on tombs and monuments.

But in fact, there was a simpler script, called hieratic, a cursive version, which was used in everyday situations, by scribes, priests and officials. It was much simpler and faster to write than the hieroglyphs. It was dominant until roughly 1000 BC, when the demotic script took over, perhaps an even simpler script.

Ancient Egyptian hieroglyphic carvings.

( mikolajn / Adobe stock)

The Earliest Peace

The fact that the earliest peace treaty in history was made by the Egyptians is also very important and needs to be on our list. This treaty dates to around 1259 BC, and was made between the Egyptians and the Hittites, after almost two centuries of conflict and enmity. At that time, both sides had ample reasons to cease conflicts and sue for peace, since the Egyptians were under threat from the infamous ‘Sea Peoples’, and the Hittites from the encroaching Assyrian Empire. Both versions of the treaty text survive to this day, fully translated. This peace treaty is known as the Eternal Peace.

The Faience

Did you know that the Egyptians developed a unique style of ceramic that was known as faience? This was a sintered quartz ceramic that displayed vitrification, meaning it had a bright luster of several colors, mostly blue and green. This is somewhat similar to glazing, and was used in all forms of ceramic ware, from ornaments to jewelry and to monuments. It was also widely exported throughout the ancient world, and built locally throughout Egypt. It is often described as the first high technology ceramic, and today survives in numerous archaeological finds.

The Shipbuilding

Even by 3000 BC, the ancient Egyptians had mastered fully their shipbuilding techniques. They used these both for sailing up and down the Nile - which was an immense part of their economy, and also for seafaring trade with neighboring nations. In their earliest form these were plank ships, but they developed steadily into unique barges and transport vessels.

Egyptians mastered the use of trennels (wooden pegs for connection) and also the use of pitch for caulking. Mortise and tenon joints were also used, showing their understanding and mastery of woodworking. The most famous fully intact surviving ancient Egyptian ship is the ‘ Khufu Ship ’, found sealed in the Pyramid of Giza. It measures almost 44 meters in length (143 feet).

The magnificent Boat of Khufu, Solar Boat Museum, Giza, Egypt.

(David Berkowitz / CC BY 2.0 )

The Military

There is a reason why the Egyptians managed to dominate the ancient Near East and create a vast realm for such a long time. And this reason was their skilled military. For the most part the soldiers were trained civilians from the general populace, but over time, many mercenaries also filled the ranks. These came from Nubia, Libya, Kush and other places.

The Egyptian military relied on the use of bows and arrows, but also on use of shields, spears, and unique khopesh swords. They were also well known for their use of war chariots, which they adopted from their Hyksos enemies.

The Diet

You might be surprised to know one unique fact about the Egyptian diet - it was simple. Most commonly it consisted of bread and beer, and also great amounts of vegetables - mainly onion and garlic, which the Egyptians believed was highly beneficial to health. Dates, figs, carobs and other fruits were also common.

For the common folk, meat was reserved mostly for festivities, while the upper classes had it more often. Fish and fowl were common foods, especially with the proximity of the Nile. Interestingly, Egyptian beer was the most common, staple part of their diet - consumed daily and often. But don’t be mistaken, it was far from today’s beer. It was rich and nutritious, quite similar to a mash or gruel.

Representation of Ancient Egyptians brewing beer.

( Mary Harrsch / CC BY-NC-SA 2.0 )

The Entertainment

Contrary to popular belief, the ancient Egyptians really knew how to have fun. They enjoyed music greatly, and mastered the use of cymbals, tambourines, drums and bells, while importing other instruments from afar, such as lutes and lyres. They also had their iconic sistrum instrument, which was like no other, and closely resembled a rattle.

Other than music, the Egyptians enjoyed boardgames. Many different types are known today, such as senet and mehen, which are boardgames where pawns were moved about. Another highly unique boardgame was “Hounds and Jackals,” which spread from Egypt to many far places. Did you know that senet is one of the oldest known board games?

Faience senet board and playing pieces inscribed with the name of Amunhotep III. Reportedly from Thebes, and possibly from his tomb.

(Keith Schengili-Roberts / GNU Free Documentation License )

The Literature

Even though the early Egyptian writings were the inscriptions from tombs and monuments, dealing with religious aspects and afterlife, later on they became more complex, and slowly Egyptian literature began to develop. A sort of autobiographical writing became popular, and was incised on tomb walls. Another unique genre of ancient literature was developed, and was known as Sebayt (teachings, instructions), which documented ethical teachings for a true way of living.

One of the finest examples of ancient Egyptian literature is known as the Story of Sinuhe , written around 1800 BC. Its author is unknown, but is widely heralded as the “Egyptian Shakespeare.” The work is written in a form of verse, and can be performed as well. It survived in numerous fragments, which tells us that it was extremely popular in its time.

“Does a lowly man become loved when fate makes him a master? Does a marsh-reed flourish on the mountain-side?”

Ostracon CG 25216, one of the biggest ostracon ever found. Found in 1886 in the tomb of Sennedjem (Deir el-Medina, Tomb Nr. 1), today in the Egyptian Museum Cairo, it is broken into two pieces, one side contains the Story of Sinuhe and the other a private letter.

(Georges Daressy / Public domain )

The Law

One important fact about the ancient Egyptians is that they had a well-developed legal system. At its head was usually the ruler - a pharaoh - who brought new laws, ensured order, and delivered justice. In all court cases that dealt with minor disputes and offenses, a special council of elders presided - it was known as kenbet. And when the cases were serious, a great kenbet presided, at whose head was the pharaoh.

A key part of this system was the scribes. They kept all records, assessed taxes and dealt with administration. Around the coming of the New Kingdom, oracles began to play a major role in the legal system. At this time, the gods were asked for justice, where an effigy of a god had to give an answer - yes or no - through various orchestrated means.

• Cleopatra’s Perfume Recreated – A Scent That Once Masked The Odor Of Sour Donkey Milk!
• Walk Like An Egyptian… Scientists Preserve Modern Human Leg using Ancient Egyptian Methods
• Ancient Egyptian Egg Ovens That Are Better Than Modern Tech

Dreaming of Ancient Times

And thus ends our short list of 15 interesting facts about ancient Egypt. There is no doubt that this magnificent civilization truly left enormous marks on our world, and that they have remained even to this day. The tales of this era in history can keep us occupied for days on end, and the sheer amount of archaeological wonders will continue to intrigue us for generations to come. Because we are often unaware at just how advanced and marvelous these ancient people truly were - all those millenniums before us.

• Top image: Top 15 interesting facts about ancient Egypt.            Source: Maurizio / Adobe stock

By Aleksa Vučković

{  "Ancient Origins" }

07-04-2020 om 23:56 geschreven door peter  

Every Black Hole Contains Another Universe – Equations Predict

Like part of a cosmic Russian doll, our universe may be perfectly nested inside a black hole that is itself part of a larger universe.

In turn, all the black holes found so far in our universe—from the microscopic to the supermassive—may be ultimate doorways into alternate realities.

According to a mind-bending new theory, a black hole is actually a tunnel between universes—a type of wormhole. The matter the black hole attracts doesn’t collapse into a single point, as has been predicted, but rather gushes out a “white hole” at the other end of the black one, the theory goes.

In a paper published in the journal Physics Letters B, Indiana University physicist Nikodem Poplawski presents new mathematical models of the spiraling motion of matter falling into a black hole. His equations suggest such wormholes are viable alternatives to the “space-time singularities” that Albert Einstein predicted to be at the centers of black holes.

According to Einstein’s equations for general relativity, singularities are created whenever matter in a given region gets too dense, as would happen at the ultra-dense heart of a black hole. 

Einstein’s theory suggests singularities take up no space, are infinitely dense, and are infinitely hot—a concept supported by numerous lines of indirect evidence but still so outlandish that many scientists find it hard to accept. If Poplawski is correct, they may no longer have to.

According to the new equations, the matter black holes absorb and seemingly destroy is actually expelled and becomes the building blocks for galaxies, stars, and planets in another reality.

{ https://www.nationalgeographic.com/ }

07-04-2020 om 23:31 geschreven door peter  

What smacked Uranus on its side? Something icy and as massive as Earth, scientists say.

By Mike Wall

Uranus likely got whacked by a body one to three times as massive as the modern Earth.

Uranus is uniquely tipped over among the planets in our solar system. Uranus' moons and rings are also orientated this way, suggesting they formed during a cataclysmic impact which tipped it over early in its history.

(Image: © Lawrence Sromovsky, University of Wisconsin-Madison/W.W. Keck Observatory/NASA)

The impactor that knocked Uranus on its side long ago isn't quite so mysterious anymore.

Uranus is tipped over more than 90 degrees relative to the plane of the solar system, and so are the gaseous planet's ring system and the orbits of its 27 known moons. Astronomers think this unique configuration is evidence of a violent collision Uranus suffered shortly after it was born, which also apparently supercharged the planet's rotation. (Uranus spins around its axis once every 17 hours, significantly faster than Earth does.)

Details of that collision have remained elusive, however, because simulations have struggled to generate the Uranus system that we see today. For example, the mass of the post-impact debris disk tends to be quite big in these models — much bigger than it "should" be, given the total mass of Uranus' moons today.

• Related: How did Uranus form?

Until now, that is. A team of researchers has had success with a novel modeling strategy devised to investigate the formation of moons around frigid planets, a new study reports.

The frigid part is key. Giant impacts in the cold and dark outer solar system have different consequences than smashups much closer to the sun, such as the long-ago collision that resulted in the formation of Earth's moon, the researchers found.

This latter encounter involved the proto-Earth and a Mars-size body called Theia, both of which were primarily rocky (rather than icy). The material blasted into space by the impact therefore solidified rather quickly, allowing the newborn moon to snare quite a bit of it gravitationally.

But the material liberated during the Uranus collision was much more volatile — stuff like water and ammonia — and remained gaseous longer. The growing proto-Uranus gobbled most of this gas up, leaving less of it around to form moons, according to the new study, which was published online last week in the journal Nature Astronomy.

The researchers' model, which takes all of this into account, suggests that the body that slammed into Uranus was icy and big, with a mass between one and three times that of the modern Earth.

"This model is the first to explain the configuration of Uranus' moon system, and it may help explain the configurations of other icy planets in our solar system such as Neptune," study lead author Shigeru Ida, of the Earth-Life Science Institute at the Tokyo Institute of Technology in Japan, said in a statement.

"Beyond this, astronomers have now discovered thousands of planets around other stars, so-called exoplanets, and observations suggest that many of the newly discovered planets known as super-Earths in exoplanetary systems may consist largely of water ice," Ida said. "And this model can also be applied to these planets."

• Photos of Uranus, the tilted giant
• Old gas blob from Uranus found in vintage Voyager 2 data
• How the moon formed: 5 wild lunar theories

Mike Wall is the author of "Out There" (Grand Central Publishing, 2018; illustrated by Karl Tate), a book about the search for alien life. Follow him on Twitter @michaeldwall. Follow us on Twitter @Spacedotcom or Facebook. 

{ https://www.space.com/ }

07-04-2020 om 22:45 geschreven door peter  

According to a new study, scientists think that an exoplanet candidate may be shaped like an American football. The planet, named KOI 1843.03, orbits its red dwarf star at such a close proximity that the gravitational force is what’s causing its odd football-like shape. The discovery of the exoplanet was made public in 2013.

The red dwarf star KOI 1843 is located approximately 395 light-years away from Earth and is a little less than half the mass of our sun. The exoplanet KOI 1843.03 measures around 60% of Earth’s diameter and has about 44% of its mass. It’s also believed that the planet is more than likely made up of 66% iron (compared to Earth being made up of around 32% iron) because if it contained less iron it would be ripped apart being so close to its star. “KOI 1843.03 is one of the most iron-enhanced exoplanets discovered to date,” stated Leslie Rogers who is an astrophysicist at the University of Chicago as well as the senior author of the new study (which can be read in full here).

(Not KOI 1843.03)

And it has an extremely fast orbit – in fact, it makes its way around its star much closer than any other planet previously studied. Rogers went into further detail by explaining to Space.com, “Whizzing around its star in only 4.245 hours, a ‘year’ for this planet is just over one-sixth of a day on Earth.”

By conducting 3D simulations of the planet’s interior structure in order to find out what type of effects such a close orbit would have on KOI 1843.03, researchers discovered that it may very well be shaped like a football. “KOI 1843.03 is the most aspherical exoplanet discovered to date,” Rogers explained, adding, “Our models show that KOI 1843.03 is significantly elongated along the direction toward its star, having an aspect ratio of up to about 1.8.” For comparison, a wide-screen television has an aspect ratio of 1.7 while a chicken egg has a 1.3 aspect ratio.

(Not KOI 1843.03)

Another fact that the researchers mentioned was that they studied nine exoplanets with orbits that last less than an Earth day and they found that four of them are rich in iron. They also mentioned that the planets could possibly be more spherical-shaped than those with the same orbit that contain less iron. Ellen Price, who is an astrophysicist at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics in Massachusetts as well as the lead author of the study, explained to Space.com, “We expect that more iron-rich compositions will lead to less distorted planets,” adding, “There is a trade-off between how extreme the shape of the planet is and how extreme its composition is.”

More research needs to be done on tidally distorted exoplanets, such as how they appear when they travel in front of their stars and if scientists will be able to determine if a planet is distorted based solely on how its shadow appears.

{ https://mysteriousuniverse.org/ }

07-04-2020 om 21:42 geschreven door peter  

UFOs come in all sorts of shapes: flying saucers, cigar-shaped craft, flying triangles, and rocket-like vehicles. And that’s just the start of it. There is also the matter of the sizes of some of these craft. Indeed, there are a number of cases that suggest at least some UFOs are massive in size. And that’s what today’s article is all about. With that said, let’s take a look at some cases that fall into that giant-sized category. As its staff state: “The Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) is responsible for the regulation of aviation safety in the U.K., determining policy for the use of airspace, the economic regulation of Heathrow, Gatwick and Stansted airports, the licensing and financial fitness of airlines and the management of the ATOL financial protection scheme for holidaymakers.” Over the years the CAA has received more than a few UFO reports, which is hardly surprising. Let’s take a look at one such CAA report that is focused on a UFO of huge proportions. The summary of the report reads as follows: “12 Jun 82 Dinkelsbuhi – Large translucent object 500 feet long at 41,000 feet. ATCC [Air Traffic Control Center] requested subject aircraft to investigate this object which was found to have the form of a double rectangle surmounted by a globe (egg shape) crowned by a silver cone. Object observed by all on board.”

Now, let’s take a leap back to the 1950s. On the morning of April 4, 1957 – according to now-declassified British Royal Air Force documents housed at the National Archive, Kew, England – radar operators at Balscalloch, Scotland reported to RAF West Freugh, Wigtownshire that they had detected a number of “unidentified objects on the screens of their radars.” And it quickly became apparent this was no Cold War penetration of British airspace by Soviet spy-planes or bombers. As the mystified radar-operators watched their screens, they were amazed to see a large, stationary object hovering at 50,000 feet that then proceeded to ascend vertically to no less than 70,000 feet. According to the files: “A second radar was switched on and detected the object at the same range and height.” Most significant of all at this stage was the assessment by the radar experts of the incredible proportions of the UFOs: “It was noted by the radar operators that the sizes of the echoes were considerably larger than would be expected from normal aircraft. In fact they considered that the size was nearer that of a ship’s echo.”

Consider this case from 1951, which is described in the files of Fort Monmouth, New Jersey: ““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. “This target also presented an unusually strong return for aircraft, being comparable in strength to that usually received from a coastal ship. The operator initially identified target as a ship and then realized that it could not be a ship after he observed its extreme speed.”

In 1952, radar operator William Maguire had an extraordinary, radar-based UFO encounter in 1952. It was while he was stationed at Royal Air Force Sandwich in Kent, England. Of his experience, Maguire said: “The mechanics were being blamed for not calibrating the instruments properly; we were being blamed for not interpreting the readings properly. But the obvious answer staring us in the face, on every single instrument on the base, was the fact that there was sitting up at an unbelievable height, this enormous thing with the equivalent mass of a warship.” Similarly, there are the words of John Oliver, who had his encounter with a huge UFO in 1949. Once again, it was a radar-based encounter. He recalled: “The general consensus regarding its size, among the very experienced radar personnel engaged in the operations, was that the object offered an echo similar to that of a large passenger or freighter surface vessel, something in the region of 15,000 or 20,00 tons.”

Definitive Mother-Ships? Don’t bet against it.

Videos, selected by peter2011

{ https://mysteriousuniverse.org/ }

07-04-2020 om 21:16 geschreven door peter  

Asteroid warning issued by the Bible. Scripture expert addresses claims of space rock

Asteroid Apophis will come exceptionally close to our planet on April 13, 2029, giving astronomers a chance to study it in great detail. Although scientists have ruled-out any odds of impact, some Christians evangelists believe the 1,200ft-wide (370m) space rock is a biblical harbinger of doom

Other videos about this asteroisd peter2011

{ https://beforeitsnews.com/ }

07-04-2020 om 18:43 geschreven door peter  

Anew sighting of a huge UFO flying in deep space. While recording with his telescope Viewfinder a sky-watcher caught an object moving from the Southern sky to Northern sky in the western part of Omaha, Nebraska.

He said that he is pretty familiar with most objects in the sky but this one just seems very strange to him.

The cigar shaped UFO that seemly leaves a blue trail behind, flies in deep space right though the Pleiades which is located in the constellation of Taurus. It is among the star clusters nearest Earth and is the cluster most obvious to the naked eye in the night sky.

The first part of the video shows the UFO when it suddenly comes very quickly from left to the right, check it out.

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

07-04-2020 om 18:07 geschreven door peter  

Another mass UFO sighting: Cleveland, Ohio – 4-Apr-2020

This UFO video was submitted to me today through our Facebook page. It was recorded over Cleveland, Ohio on 4th April 2020. Similar footage was recorded in the sky above Detroit on April 3rd.

Mass UFO sighting during coronavirus quarantine in Detroit, Michigan 3-Apr-2020

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

07-04-2020 om 17:53 geschreven door peter  

Ex-Military Medical Officer Reveals the Truth About Advanced Extraterrestrial Technologies

Does the U.S. government know more than they are saying when it comes to Extraterrestrial Technology? Ex-Military medical officer reveals the startling truth behind some of the incredible technology we now have in our possession.

Ex-Military Medical Officer Reveals The Truth About Advanced Extraterrestrial Technologies

Presented by Emery Smith Filmed by StarWorks USA

{ https://beforeitsnews.com/ }

07-04-2020 om 00:58 geschreven door peter  

Secret UFO Files! Modern Day Military UFO Footage and the Mystery of Long Island

Incredible military film footage of UFOs are becoming more commonly released to the general public. Strange crafts that defy all rational explanation are being sighted and are still being secretly investigated by the U.S. authorities. Key locations as to where such strange activity is reported include Long Island.

Secret UFO Files… Modern Day Military UFO Footage And The Mystery of Long Island

Presented by Joseph Flammer Filmed by MUFON MAINLINE

Other videos, peter2011

{ https://beforeitsnews.com/ }

07-04-2020 om 00:48 geschreven door peter