Dit is ons nieuw hondje Kira, een kruising van een waterhond en een Podenko. Ze is sinds 7 februari 2024 bij ons en druk bezig ons hart te veroveren. Het is een lief, aanhankelijk hondje, dat zich op een week snel aan ons heeft aangepast. Ze is heel vinnig en nieuwsgierig, een heel ander hondje dan Noleke.
This is our new dog Kira, a cross between a water dog and a Podenko. She has been with us since February 7, 2024 and is busy winning our hearts. She is a sweet, affectionate dog who quickly adapted to us within a week. She is very quick and curious, a very different dog than Noleke.
DEAR VISITOR,
MY BLOG EXISTS NEARLY 13 YEARS AND 4 MONTH.
ON /30/09/2024 MORE THAN 2.230.520
VISITORS FROM 135 DIFFERENT NATIONS ALREADY FOUND THEIR WAY TO MY BLOG.
THAT IS AN AVERAGE OF 400GUESTS PER DAY.
THANK YOU FOR VISITING MY BLOG AND HOPE YOU ENJOY EACH TIME.
The purpose of this blog is the creation of an open, international, independent and free forum, where every UFO-researcher can publish the results of his/her research. The languagues, used for this blog, are Dutch, English and French.You can find the articles of a collegue by selecting his category. Each author stays resposable for the continue of his articles. As blogmaster I have the right to refuse an addition or an article, when it attacks other collegues or UFO-groupes.
Druk op onderstaande knop om te reageren in mijn forum
Zoeken in blog
Deze blog is opgedragen aan mijn overleden echtgenote Lucienne.
In 2012 verloor ze haar moedige strijd tegen kanker!
In 2011 startte ik deze blog, omdat ik niet mocht stoppen met mijn UFO-onderzoek.
BEDANKT!!!
Een interessant adres?
UFO'S of UAP'S, ASTRONOMIE, RUIMTEVAART, ARCHEOLOGIE, OUDHEIDKUNDE, SF-SNUFJES EN ANDERE ESOTERISCHE WETENSCHAPPEN - DE ALLERLAATSTE NIEUWTJES
UFO's of UAP'S in België en de rest van de wereld In België had je vooral BUFON of het Belgisch UFO-Netwerk, dat zich met UFO's bezighoudt. BEZOEK DUS ZEKER VOOR ALLE OBJECTIEVE INFORMATIE , enkel nog beschikbaar via Facebook en deze blog.
Verder heb je ook het Belgisch-Ufo-meldpunt en Caelestia, die prachtig, doch ZEER kritisch werk leveren, ja soms zelfs héél sceptisch...
Voor Nederland kan je de mooie site www.ufowijzer.nl bezoeken van Paul Harmans. Een mooie site met veel informatie en artikels.
MUFON of het Mutual UFO Network Inc is een Amerikaanse UFO-vereniging met afdelingen in alle USA-staten en diverse landen.
MUFON's mission is the analytical and scientific investigation of the UFO- Phenomenon for the benefit of humanity...
Je kan ook hun site bekijken onder www.mufon.com.
Ze geven een maandelijks tijdschrift uit, namelijk The MUFON UFO-Journal.
Since 02/01/2020 is Pieter ex-president (=voorzitter) of BUFON, but also ex-National Director MUFON / Flanders and the Netherlands. We work together with the French MUFON Reseau MUFON/EUROP.
ER IS EEN NIEUWE GROEPERING DIE ZICH BUFON NOEMT, MAAR DIE HEBBEN NIETS MET ONZE GROEP TE MAKEN. DEZE COLLEGA'S GEBRUIKEN DE NAAM BUFON VOOR HUN SITE... Ik wens hen veel succes met de verdere uitbouw van hun groep. Zij kunnen de naam BUFON wel geregistreerd hebben, maar het rijke verleden van BUFON kunnen ze niet wegnemen...
31-05-2020
2 new crop circles found in Wiltshire, UK – May 2020
2 new crop circles found in Wiltshire, UK – May 2020
These two crop circle were found in Wiltshire, United Kingdom on 28th and 30 May 2020. Crop circles are counted among the most weirdest and inexplicable phenomena that have ever challenged the great minds of humans. For those of you who don’t know what a crop circle is, it is a mysterious phenomena that happens overnight and is an extremely giant geometric pattern of flattened crops.
Every known crop circle is distinct from one another and what makes them strange is that nobody knows where the crop circles come from and who draws them and that too overnight. In a recent sighting , two crop circles were recorded in UK. Crop circles have been directly perceived as and related to alien invasion for centuries. They happen to form when a spaceship lands on a crop field and the shape of the base of the spaceship is embedded on the field, cutting the crops in an unrecognisable pattern. One theory states that the crop circle patterns denote some secret message the aliens leave for the interpretation of the denizens of earth.
Check the video below for more images!
Other videos, crop circles in Wiltshire, selected by peter2011
Multiple UFOs filmed during SpaceX launch yesterday!
Multiple UFOs filmed during SpaceX launch yesterday!
These three videos of unidentified flying objects were filmed in during SpaceX launch on 30th May 2020 when a rocket ship built by Elon Musk’s company lifted off with two astronauts on a history-making flight to ISS.
As if we needed more proof that aliens exist, we’ve got it anyway because here comes a harrowing tale from NASA astronaut Dr. Leroy Chiao, who in his last mission for NASA in 2005 had experienced some a very scary moments while working on the International Space Station.
During an episode of Science Channel’s NASA’s Unexplained Files, Chiao recounted how as a part of one experiment being conducted on the International Space Station he had to go outside the ISS for a spacewalk.
It was during this spacewalk that Chiao says he found himself in a situation he never expected, nor knew exactly how to handle.
“It’s clearly not a natural phenomenon,” recalled Chiao.
“He said, ‘I saw some really weird stuff down there flying past,'” added former NASA engineer James Oberg.
“At this point in the mission, this is kind of a shock,” said aerospace historian Chris Orwoll.
“You’re very aware, hyper-aware when you’re doing a spacewalk because you are in a pretty dangerous situation. It’s exciting on many levels and also stressful too because you don’t want to mess up your last one. That’s what they all remember you for,” Chiao continued. “If tethers become undone, you are just going to float away from the station and it’s pretty much curtains.”
PIXABAY
“Suddenly, I look up and I see these five lights and they seem to fly by,” Chiao explained.
“And he reports, ‘Wow, I’ve just had echelon formation of five lights,'” said Oberg.
“And there were four in a line…” Chiao continued.
“But one of them is slightly off-set from the others,” said Orwoll.
“My heart just leapt up into my throat and and they kind of go flying by, you know, by the station, and, you know, what are these lights?” Chiao added.
It was at that point that Chiao contacted Mission Control and spoke to Oberg about what he’d just seen.
“When you see something in space, the possibility always that it can bite you. Your life might be on the line,” recalled Oberg.
For years, the mystery of the fight lights remained unsolved until NASA engineer James Smith decided to take a look at satellite images from around the time of Chiao’s sighting.
It turned out that those images confirmed what Chiao claims to have seen.
After finding no record of satellite paths or military Air Force exercises, Smith finally settled on an explanation for the lights: South America commercial fishing fleets who use lights that are so bright they can be seen from space in an effort to attract cuttlefish and other kinds of squid.
“And so they were deployed in a line up the coast and it was the rotation of Earth that made it appear that they were flying,” said Chiao.
Chiao says he accepts that theory as an explanation for what he saw, but he also added, “I have no doubt there is other life in the universe, but what I doubt is I don’t think we’ve found each other yet.”
Panic in Brazil for the presence of hundreds of mysterious spheres in the skies
Panic in Brazil for the presence of hundreds of mysterious spheres in the skies
Something really strange is happening during the coronavirus pandemic and it is impossible to hide it. Thousands of people are already witnessing the presence of strange objects in our skies. They are not about drones, planes or helicopters, and so far there is no explanation. Even these sightings have been seen in full news, As we already published in MEP, on May 8 during the news of the Spanish television channel Telecinco , a luminous object in the form of a disc appeared passing over the Roman monument Castillo de Sant ‘ Angelo, located on the right bank of the Tiber River.
Generally, this type of evidence is not mentioned by the media involved, but in this particular case it was discredited a few days later by the television network itself due to the stir caused on social networks. According to the journalist’s explanation that was in the place, the strange object was simply a seagull, although he did not even see it since at that time it was on its back. This is simply one of the large number of sightings being seen during the pandemic and around the world. But it seems that “something” is about to happen, since having seen a single unidentified flying object we have passed hundreds, and in the same country.
Strange spheres on Magé
Brazilians in the Magé municipality, just north of Rio de Janeiro, reported seeing mysterious light objects in the night sky on Wednesday. Social networks were filled with dozens of videos of the strange objects, causing panic and all kinds of reactions to the presence of UFOs. Magé became trending on Twitter Wednesday morning when several people began sharing videos of bright lights in the sky. The images showed blue, red, and yellow orbs moving around the sky, even the lights in a triangular formation.
While the videos themselves are truly impressive, the real controversy started after the posts inexplicably disappeared , including the hashtag #MageUFO. On the other hand, in the Reddit category on UFOs, the publications of the Brazilian videos also began to disappear. Users accused Twitter and Reddit moderators of censorship. Twitter also declined to give any explanation.
While the Brazilian press reports that no one reported these objects to local authorities, there were many who said they had heard loud explosions and gunshots , in addition to witnessing how the military cordoned off the aurea and arrested anyone who tried to approach the place where the strangers appeared. lights.
The truth is that more and more UFOs are being seen around the world, but the recent event is the most puzzling to date. It must also be said that Brazil is considered an important point for UFO activity . In 1957, journalist Ibrahim Sued received an envelope containing small pieces of metal from an anonymous source claiming that they were remnants of Ubatuba, in the Brazilian state of São Paulo, where an UFO had allegedly crashed. Although they were of extraterrestrial origin, the fragments were very pure magnesium.
It is unclear where the metal came from and it remains a mystery. The “UFO alert” Colares 1977 made headlines when residents on the island of Colares began to report strange objects in the sky and mysterious injuries on their bodies. According to researcher and computer scientist Jacques Vallee, the objects witnessed on the island allegedly killed several people. Reports of radiation and thermal burns, as well as strange scars, filled the Brazilian government’s file on the incident.
After an official investigation, the government concluded that it found no evidence of unusual phenomena. But one of the strangest cases occurred in 1996 when several people claimed to have witnessed a strange alien creature wandering the streets of the city of Varginha. Described as the “devil” the 1.5-meter-long, big-skinned, brown-skinned being was first seen by three women on a January afternoon. Several other sightings were reported, and even the US Wall Street Journal reported the story.
While this latest UFO incident from Brazil will likely add to the countless mysteries that haunt the skies of South America, skeptics say the lights on Magé were simply paratroopers equipped with pyrotechnics, Chinese lanterns, or drones. But many of us feel that “something” is about to happen , and the pandemic is simply a “smokescreen.”
What do you think about the strange lights on Magé? Are you one of those who feel that something is about to happen?
International Space Station Records Thousands Of Alien Spacecrafts Leaving Earth
International Space Station Records Thousands Of Alien Spacecrafts Leaving Earth
On May 18, 2020, a camera from the International Space Station (ISS) recorded something really unusual, thousands of strange objects that simultaneously shoot out from the surface of our planet and fly into outer space.
This can be seen in the original video published on the project channel “High Definition Earth Visualization (HDEV)” on the Ustream platform or below we have posted the part of the video showing the alien spacecraft, the objects seem to take off at high speed and the remains are not the remains of liquid fuel rockets.
Skeptics believe that these are ice particles that detach from the ISS and that are reflected in the camera thanks to sunlight.
But for experts in the field there is no doubt about it, it is the massive evacuation of thousands of UFOs leaving our planet.
Skeptics believe that these are ice particles that detach from the ISS and that are reflected in the camera thanks to sunlight. But for experts in the field there is no doubt about it, it is the massive evacuation of thousands of UFOs leaving our planet.
For them the images show that aliens have been very present on our planet since ancient times. This civilization or civilizations of other worlds have their own underground and submarine bases on Earth, but the question some ask is, what has led them to evade Earth massively?
They consider that this strategy can only be carried out if our planet is doomed and it is very dangerous to be on it. But the threat would not be the coronavirus pandemic, as some have suggested, rather it would be from our closest star. NASA scientists have confirmed that the solar minimum they predicted three years ago has been met.
And scientists have warned that the Dalton minimum, one of the most extreme weather periods in history, will repeat itself. It lasted more than three solar cycles, from 1790-1830, and resulted in heavy snowfall, deep frost, and general cooling worldwide, in addition to drastic weather changes, earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, and famine. It was hell on Earth.
And if the worst predictions are unfortunately fulfilled, perhaps we would find ourselves facing a mass extinction, just as happened with dinosaurs. The truth is that we do not know if this will be the case, but all the events that are happening in the last months seem to indicate that something will happen on our planet. And this video may be evidence that there isn’t much time left.
The Discovery of the 12,000-Years-Old Mountain Sized Statue Lady of Mali
The Discovery of the 12,000-Years-Old Mountain Sized Statue Lady of Mali
No doubt about it, this is one of the greatest time periods to live in if you’re a fan of ancient architectural wonders. Every day we find more and more of these behemoths of ancient civilization simply lying around. Today we will be focusing mostly on a peculiar stone that was first discovered by professor Angelo Pitoni in Sierra Leone, West Africa, in a diamond mine back in 1990.
Upon discovery he rightfully so named it the sky stone, and upon further research specialists came to the conclusion that there is no other explanation for its composition other than that it is made out of pure oxygen which was given color by an unknown agent. This agent is a complete mystery to this day, regardless if you believe the oxygen theory or not what is indisputable is the fact that it is unlike anything we’ve ever seen before.
Angelo Pitoni was a man of many talents, he was an agronomist, a botanist, but most of all he was a geologist. He had made many discoveries in his time, emeralds, gold mines and more were all part of his life at that point already, but he had never expected to come into contact with such an incredible mystery regardless.
Unfortunately though, he did not live to find out everything that there was to this discovery since he passed away back in 2009, and with him all of the secrets that he spoke of having finally gotten the answers to were buried off with him. Video:
SpaceX Raptor Engine Explodes In Texas Day Before Scheduled Manned Launch
“It Felt Like An Earthquake”: SpaceX Prototype Starship Blows Up In Massive Explosion Day Ahead Of Manned Launch. The Raptor engine in SpaceX’s Starship SN4 prototype blew up on its test stand in Boca Chica, Texas. “SpaceX just experienced the biggest explosion yet at its Texas site, where it’s testing prototypes for a Mars rocket,” The Atlantic’s Marina Koren reported Friday afternoon. “A resident who lives nearby — just 2 miles away — said it felt like an earthquake,” she added. Koren noted that at this point it doesn’t appear anyone in the surrounding community was hurt in the massive blast which shook the area for miles.https://bit.ly/3eDzNSJ
Was SpaceX Rocket Destroyed by UFO (2016)
Note that the explosion occurs near the top of the rocket, where there aren’t any fuel tanks, the explosion is also far hotter than would be caused by rocket fuel – note the bright white blob on the video bright enough to cause a lens flare (the four diagonal streaks). The rocket fuel burning comes several frames later and is quite different looking – the colours are reds and oranges with black and grey smoke, this is a secondary explosion where the rocket fuel was ignited by the primary explosion further up the rocket.
Now for the really shocking bit – the craft responsible for this destruction was caught in the video – a small spherical object that flies from right to left on the screen and appears to have fired some kind of laser or beam weapon at the rocket.
So now the big question is this: Just what had the Israelis built into that satellite that someone decided had to be destroyed before it could be placed in orbit? Our working theory is that it was some kind of weapon, quite possibly a laser as we received intelligence some time ago that a space based laser had been used to cause several mysterious explosions in Iran.
The search for alien life has been one of the last great frontiers. We push out into the dark reaches of space desperately seeking any sign that we are not a lone rock with the only life in the universe. There has been much discussion of what form they would take, what their intentions would be, and how we would communicate with these creatures. Yet, what if they are not creatures at all, but rather highly advanced, sophisticated robots?
There are several possible forms that robotic aliens could take. A much-discussed possibility is that they might be essentially drones sent by their extraterrestrial masters. This makes a lot of sense, as we ourselves use probes to explore the reaches of our solar system and beyond, places where it is not practical or possible to send manned missions. If aliens simply wanted to check us out or scout our planet, why go through all of the trouble, resources, and danger of traversing light years of space with a living crew when you can just basically send a drone instead? This idea has been toyed with in UFO circles and one idea is that they are already here, and that UFOs themselves could really be just drones sent from across the sea of stars. As to their intentions, they might be here to take samples or collect scientific data, study our kind, or perhaps even be used as a way to make contact with us. After this, perhaps the operators of the drones might decide to pay a visit themselves, and one can only hope it is for friendly reasons.
Another possibility is that these robots could be the aliens themselves, and this could play out in a few ways. In one scenario they could be AI intelligences that either coexist with or have usurped their biological creators. This could be due to what is often referred to as a technological singularity, which is basically a hypothetical point in time when technological growth reaches a point of no return, uncontrollable and exploding at a rate faster than we can keep up with, disrupting society as we know it in ways we may not even be fully able to predict. In the case of AI, this accelerating growth could spawn a superintelligence that would upgrade and improve itself at an astronomical rate, beyond that of its creators’ ability to monitor or control, quite likely gaining self awareness in the process. Such an intelligence could very well self-replicate and spawn others, a race of AIs eventually turning against their biological originators to destroy them and continue on, possibly for millions of years to the point that the original species of their planet is a faded memory relegated to fossils and history books. It makes sense, as it would be the next step up in evolution from the confines of biology, and robots would be perfect for the rigors of space and the vast distances involved with travelling to other worlds.
Looking at how fast technology is progressing here on Earth, there are many futurists and writers who believe that not only is such a singularity possible, but that it is inevitable. Some of the leading minds in AI and the future of the planet, such as Nick Bostrom, Vincent C. Müller, and Elon Musk, predict that this will happen for us within the next few decades, and great minds like Musk and the renowned Stephen Hawking have long told of how the rise of artificial intelligence will most likely lead to our downfall. If this hypothetical situation is an inexorable byproduct of technological advancement, it could even mean that robotic civilizations that have gotten to the stage of travel across the stars could significantly outnumber biological ones and be the dominant type of civilization in the universe. Even more frightening than this, perhaps technologically advanced biological races reach this singularity or destroy themselves before they ever have time to reach the stars to any appreciable degree, essentially leaving all space faring intelligent races to be robotic artificial intelligences. One Professor Susan Schneider from the University of Connecticut and the Institute for Advanced Studies at Princeton thinks that this would be the norm, and that such robotic alien civilizations could feasibly be even billions of years old, and has said:
I do not believe that most advanced alien civilizations will be biological. The most sophisticated civilizations will be post-biological, forms of artificial intelligence or alien superintelligence. Other civilizations may be vastly older than us – earthlings are galactic babies. All lines of evidence converge on the conclusion that the maximum age of extraterrestrial intelligence would be billions of years, specifically ranges from 1.7 billion to 8 billion years.
Even if such AI intelligences did not violently overthrow their masters and cause a robotic apocalypse or seek to replace them like in a science fiction movie, it is possible that they could at least outlast them. Planetary cataclysms, changing climates or environments, drought, famine, and diseases would all mean nothing to them. Their makers could wither away and die or kill themselves in war to fade into history as their robotic creations went on to inherit the planet and become a spacefaring civilization of its own, again perhaps even forgetting over the eons that there were ever even biological creators at all. They could very well believe that they are the original life, and have lost all sense of ever having had other intelligences come before them. To them their original creators could be mere myths and legends.
Yet another possibility is that the robots are, in a sense, their own creators. The idea here is that the original species that designed these robots have merely downloaded their own consciousnesses into these new forms. It is not a new idea, thrown around in science fiction for quite some time now, and looking ever more possible as our technology makes leaps and bounds. It seems only a matter of time before someone on Earth attempts this, so it is not completely far-fetched to think that a super advanced race would have already perfected the process. They may have decided to take on a robotic form from a desire to be immortal, to escape harsh conditions on their planet, to move on to the next evolutionary step, or any number of other reasons we will probably never understand. They may even do it specifically for space travel, downloading into robotic bodies for these excursions to withstand the rigors of covering such vast distances and eliminating the need to operate life support systems, sort of like a super advanced spacesuit, while their physical bodies remain behind in stasis. In the end, the idea here is that these are just robots in physical form, with the minds of living entities inside them.
If aliens were actually AI robots, it poses a few potential problems if we ever met them. Our way of thinking and interacting with the world around us is heavily influenced by our biological processes, needs and our physiology, so how would a self-aware robot with none of these biological cues think? Would we even be able to comprehend what they are saying to us or what their thought processes are? This would also affect their intentions towards us, as what would a race of robots think of intelligent biological organisms and how would they react to us? If they were purely, coldly logical it might make sense for them to just wipe us out, unless they wanted to study us for some reason. This poses the question of why they would even want to come here in the first place, and with a purely robotic intelligence this might be hard to fathom. Whatever their motivations are, we could only hope that after millions or even billions of years of self-awareness they might have developed a sense of empathy and altruism, but this seems it would be far less likely with robots than it would for biological organisms, because again, altruism and empathy are often seen as traits that at the heart of it evolved at least in part from biological needs. Would a race unfettered from these have a need for such things? Who knows?
There is also the problem of communication with these robots. Besides the fact that their thought processes would be far different than ours, would we be able to communicate with them in any conventional sense? We already have a lot of possible hurdles to overcome with communicating with aliens, but with robots would it even be possible at all? They could be so far beyond the usual biological communication methods and have minds that work so amazingly fast and are so far beyond our own capabilities that we might not even comprehend them. Perhaps mathematics could provide some common ground, but if their minds were so advanced it still might be hard to find a way to relate to each other.
In the end, this is of course all speculation, but based on current trends in technology on our planet and our own increasing use of robotics, it seems more than plausible that other intelligent civilizations should do the same. What happens after hundreds, millions, or even billions of years of this inexorable progress? We can only guess, and wonder if, instead of alien creatures we might run into the robots they have made, or have even been replaced by.
I found a pyramid building with a doorway into it. The structure is small, about 1 meter tall. I also found a face on a hillside that is about 1 meter tall. The face is placed inside of a box and is sitting upright to view over the area. I also found something that looks like a large spindle or table. There is so much evidence in this one photo thats just blows my mind.
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- Gemiddelde waardering: 0/5 - (0 Stemmen) Categorie:Ruins, strange artifacts on other planets, moons, ed ( Fr, EN, NL )
Amazing New Archaeological Discovery In Australian Cave
Amazing New Archaeological Discovery In Australian Cave
Recent survey in the Gulf of Carpentaria region of northern Australia has identified a unique assemblage of 17 miniature and small-scale stenciled motifs depicting anthropomorphs, material culture, macropod tracks and linear designs.
The unusual sizes and shapes of these motifs raise questions about the types of material used for the stencil templates.
What stands out is a strange human-like figure, a huge face next to the human-like figure and an alien face at the bottom left of the image.
Drawing on ethnographic data and experimental archaeology, the authors argue that the motifs were created with a previously undocumented stenciling technique using miniature models sculpted from beeswax.
The results suggest that beeswax and other malleable and adhesive resins may have played a more significant role in creating stenciled motifs than previously thought.
The report published by cambridge.org does not describe who made these figures but it seems like the creators have been in contact with an alien race.
Extraterrestrials, Aliens, life from other worlds. Creatures that have evolved or been engineered on planets with completely different atmospheres and dare I say ecosystems to those found here on earth.
Many have speculated as to what unusual forms these planets could produce. I want to limit this idea to the highest evolved intelligence that could have originated from different planets to detail a complete ecosystem of an alien world would take way too long, this thenLeaving us with the question
What do super-intelligent aliens look like?
Extraterrestrials have been depicted across cultures and countries for thousands of years, appearing in different shapes and sizes as people understanding and beliefs change. From the little green men of the fifties to today's Greys and the idea that the gods of old were from another world.
In ancient times these ETs were often shown to be human-like in their appearance but said to possess incredible powers.The gods of ancient Greece and Egypt being a perfect example of this belief and something I have looked at before.
These gods displayed abilities that were far beyond humans and could point to the use of advanced technology or biological abilities that could have come to be from them originating in another part of the universe. The immense strength and invulnerability which the Gods displayed may have come from an advanced, possible engineered immune system and cells.This would allow them to heal rapidly, as well as defend against harmful things such as radiation and gravity, problems faced when a biological being travels to space.This need to survive the perils of deep space travel would call for some bodily modification even the use of artificial bodies and the possible transmission of a Consciousness into artificial bodies.The possibilities of creating an artificial or biological body for space travel means that there could be an endless number of shapes and forms utilized by being from other worlds.We have been somewhat programmed by Movies and television to think that aliens would look somewhat like us. The differences being a large head, green skin, and giant almond eyes. For the moment at least, the only planet we can look to for answers is our own. The earth offers a huge range of biodiversity from single-celled organisms to the blue whale, life comes in an almost immeasurable range of shapes and sizes and displays such a wide range of abilities that if we were on the outside looking in, we may say the life on this planet sounded like the work of a science fiction writer.
Again we have to focus on intelligence as a measure, one thing that seems to be true so far is that brain size dictates intelligence. Remember that intelligence can be measured in several different ways, it does not necessarily mean beings which create technology some may say that shows a level of unintelligence, as it often harms the environment but that for another time. To evolve a level of advanced brain function some other adaptions are thought to be needed.
Firstly some kind of appendage that can manipulate the environment around the alien species. It doesn't have to be a hand and fingers tentacles could easily fit the bill or even a body that could morph into the shapes needed by the creature to accomplish its goal thought up by the prerequisite large brain.
They would most likely need some kind of visual organ or organs again taking into mind that we only see in a narrow part of the light spectrum they could see in another or many others. The same would be likely for the senses of smell hearing and taste.
All of these senses would be developed or engineered to reflect the environment in which these aliens were from, and possibly modified for the space travel which would bring them to our world.
To helps us narrow down the body formsLet's stick with some of the principles that the majority of life on this planet follows and apply them to these extraterrestrials. The first is that the body pattern will more than likely be symmetrical.Everything we know of that grows follows a symmetrical pattern. Cut a tree in half lengthwise, the branches and roots on one side would be fairly similar to the other. The same applies to humans and all living growth, even inorganic growth such as crystals and galaxies.
Next up is when things begin to vary depending on factors such as gravity the density of matter and the availability of energy.
The size of an alien would be dictated by these outside factors, here on earth we see how the shapes and sizes of lifeforms change. Deep-sea creatures being very different from their surface-dwelling cousins. Aliens from worlds with higher gravity being shorter and stouter with high bone density to resist the gravitational forces. The opposite applies to life on planets with less gravity they would be tall and of a lighter build.
This is where those that believe in convergent evolution say ultimately the alien body form would evolve into a pattern similar to our own, bipedal with two arms and two legs being the most biological efficient design.
But as we know here on Earth many lifeforms do not follow this pattern, if an organism like them continued to evolve and become intelligence why would they need to morph so greatly from a body type which leads them to be successful in their environment.Bilateral symmetry is not the ultimate design for a body.Having two sides the same does provide a level of redundancy but wouldn't several different types of body parts also be of an advantage?
Multiple eyes that surround ahead, maybe more than one head, why have only arms and hands when you could have arms hands tentacles or some other type of limb for manipulating the world around you.
After all the old saying is "many hands make light work"Of course the more body parts there are to control the bigger the brain and sense needed to control them are, so we can also see the effects of energy here.
If there is easy access to energy to support a more complex body type there is no reason for it not to exist after all it would seem that natural law favours efficient body design.All life on Earth is carbon-based, but that wouldn't be the case elsewhere. Life forms could be silicon-based or iron-based or anything else at all. This would mean how energy is obtained could vary widely. Most life on this planet consumes its energy by eating other biological matter, but without some kind of producer's "botanical life" converting energy the ecosystem would come crashing down.
Alien life may be like the former, and as with plants absorb energy from light or another source.
There is even the possibility that they have evolved without physical form or with no fixed form—perhaps there are extraterrestrials that are nothing more than sentient clouds, or who have mutable bodies that can alter to suit the needs of the moment.
On this planet, we have an animal that already does this, the octopus.Octopuses make for a good alien analogue they are surprisingly intelligent, some have claimed they may even be as intelligent as us!
Evolution has gifted them with a form which can change to size shape and colour if we weren't so used to seeing them these abilities would seem alien to us. We are used to having a fixed form this coming from our evolutionary path, a path which is said to have separated from that of the Octopus around 800 million years ago. And yet in an example of parallel evolution in nature, the eye of the octopus is identical to that of a human being.
We have gone onto develop technology whereas the octopus has remained in their watery abode, maybe having no need or drive to advance.
If we use technology as a measure of intelligence then another path is opened up, as with natural evolution technology must also evolve and thus shares some steps that it must go through to reach certain markers.This also points to the need for the entity building the technology to have the physical means to do so Hands with fingers for delicate, precise manipulation of detailed objects. A form of locomotion that leaves limbs free to touch hold and move things in the environment.
The need for at a minimum binocular vision to judge distance these Eyes being close to the brain to reduce the time delay and degradation of the visual signal.Also, the other four senses that are needed for survival- used to detect food, mates, and predators, the development of extra senses adding to the basic senses needed to be successful, like dolphins and bats who have evolved echolocation.
Or a sense that has developed to replace one which is not needed think of animals that live in dark caves or the ocean depths that can light up or exude chemicals to communicate.
There is no reason to think that advanced alien intelligence may not have these senses.
These senses may even go as far as allowing these aliens to be shape-shifters, beings that have consciousness control of their body to a molecular level.
This control would mean instant adaptation to new environments, the possibility to ingest any type of other molecular structure as sustenance.
If they had control of these building blocks we could assume that their technology would bridge the artificial with the biological and would be far ahead of our own. We see something similar on this planet with the gears found in planthoppers' legs.
The idea of biology and evolution already using cogs leads one to wonder what else might exist. Maybe something like naturally evolved silicon circuitry?
Some speculate that if aliens had or have evolved to have a civilization similar to ours they would have a similar body form.
All of the focus thus far has been purely on the physical characteristics but what would play an equally important part of any alien-human interaction would be the psychological.
What would alien behaviour be like?
We as a species find it almost impossible to communicate with intelligent animals here on our planet, heck we have a hard enough time talking to one another sometimes.
We are left with questions. What will an alien encounter be like?
How will an interaction go?
What will they be like, will they be solitary, a part of a herd or arrive in small bands?
What do think these aliens will look and behave like, do we already know because they have been here all along let me know what you think in the comments below.
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- Gemiddelde waardering: 0/5 - (0 Stemmen) Categorie:ALIEN LIFE, UFO- CRASHES, ABDUCTIONS, MEN IN BLACK, ed ( FR. , NL; E )
UFO Mysteries: Who Are The Key Figures Behind The Pentagon Release?
UFO Mysteries: Who Are The Key Figures Behind The Pentagon Release?
The recently released Navy UFO videos have been out for years now, so why are they suddenly making news now? We break down the key figures behind the ongoing real-life UFO saga.
Talk of the “unidentified” was once relegated to backchannels, joked about in tabloids, and kept shrouded in mystery by government agencies. But recently the UFO phenomenon has come to the forefront of national news. Headlines are ablaze with news about three UFO videos released by the U.S. Navy. While it is true that these videos have been made available for download by the Department of Defense (DOD), the videos themselves began making waves back in 2017. One of them has been online since 2007. However, perhaps more surprisingly, the Navy admitted that the objects in the videos remain “unidentified.”
In popular culture, depictions of UFOs have blurred the lines between fact and fiction for dramatic effect. While this has evolved from “The Invaders” of The Twilight Zone to the little green men in The X-Files, sci-fi storytelling has long explored the potential existence of “extraterrestrial” beings.
It’s good fun to speculate about aliens, but the real engine drivers behind UFO storytelling are themes of mystery, suspense, and fear—a curiosity of the unknown. Amazon Studios’ latest feature, The Vast of Night, pulls inspiration from science fiction of a bygone era for a story set in 1950s New Mexico about a switchboard operator (Sierra McCormick) and charismatic radio DJ (Jake Horowitz) who discover a strange audio frequency that could change their small town and the future forever.
The film, which is now streaming on Prime Video, brings viewers back to the infancy of UFO curiosity and mythology. Set in the 1950s American heartland with a premise that could be right out of The Twilight Zone, The Vast of Night shows how a fateful radio frequency draws two people into a world of unearthly visitors and possibility. It draws on America’s dawning UFO obsession of the era that accelerated into the mainstream during the days of Sputnik, Cold War hysteria, and the beginning of the space race.
However, it also draws on a long history of stories about encounters and inexplicable phenomena. Those stories take on new context with the U.S. government now acknowledging the credibility of videos of unidentified flying objects.
In December 2017, the New York Times broke the story of a secretive program inside the Pentagon that researched military UFO reports. The project was called the Advanced Aerospace Threat Identification Program (AATIP). AATIP’s existence was exposed just a few months earlier in October 2017. That is when rocker Tom DeLonge, former frontman of Blink-182, announced the creation of a UFO and paranormal focused organization called the To the Stars Academy (TTSA). Among an impressive list of former government and intelligence officials joining the project was a man named Luis Elizondo, who claimed to have run a UFO program while working at the Office of the Secretary of Department of Defense (OSD).
Some UFO enthusiasts were shocked by this claim. Those who have used the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) or have contacted the military about UFO cases were typically told the U.S. government has had no interest in UFO cases since the closing of Project Blue Book in 1969, despite documents showing otherwise.
A 2017 New York Times article referred to a UFO encounter that spanned a few days in November 2004. While conducting training exercises off the coast of San Diego, the USS Nimitz Carrier Strike Group encountered strange radar readings. At one point, radar supervisor Kevin Day was able to scramble jet fighters to check out one of the objects. Among them was Wing Commander David Fravor, the highest-ranking pilot on board. When they reached the area of the radar target, Fravor spotted an object near the water over a disturbance.
“It was calm that day, but the waves were breaking over something that was just below the surface,” described the Times. “Whatever it was, it was big enough to cause the sea to churn.”
The object itself, Fravor said, looked like a 40-foot long “giant white Tic Tac.” Fravor pursued the object, but he says it soon “accelerated like nothing I’ve ever seen” and was gone.
Within a couple of hours of Fravor’s encounter, a second pilot encountered another unidentified object that he captured on his infrared video system. This video is referred to as the “FLIR” video, or “USS Nimitz FLIR1” video, and it is one of the videos recently posted by the DOD.
The other two videos are referred to as the “GIMBAL” and “GO FAST” videos. They were both captured in 2015 by the USS Theodore Roosevelt Carrier Strike Group. Like the Nimitz, the Roosevelt Strike Force encountered unknown objects during training exercises, this time off the east coast, from Virginia to Florida.
The New York Times included the “FLIR” and “GIMBAL” videos in the December 2017 article. “GO FAST” was released by TTSA a few months after.
It should be noted that the “FLIR””video first made it onto the internet in 2007. However, very little was known about it. Fravor confirmed the video’s authenticity in a 2015 interview on the military website SOFREP.com. In the interview, Fravor shared details of his UFO encounter and how the video was captured. However, it remains unknown how the footage initially made it onto the internet.
As for the New York Times versions of the videos, they credit AATIP and the Department of Defense. However, the DOD later claimed the “DOD has not released videos related to this program.”
In response, former DOD employee Elizondo told me, “The videos were released in accordance with the strict manner that DOD prescribes to DOD manuals and regulations involving the release of information. It went through the official DOPSR process…”
Leslie Kean, one of the authors of the Times articles, told me they had vetted the videos and she had seen a form (DD1910) submitted by Elizondo to the Navy that was approved and demonstrated the videos were released. The DD1910 was later leaked to Las Vegas investigative reporter George Knapp. The DOD verified the DD1910 was real but claimed the videos were not approved for public release.
The DD1910 is titled “Clearance Request for Public Release of Department of Defense Information.” And the approval stamp states, “Cleared for Open Publication.” In response to my FOIA request, I received a copy of the DD1910 along with email correspondence between Navy officials and Elizondo. There is no indication the Navy had any issue releasing the videos.
Now the DOD is finally acknowledging the videos are real but claim this is the first authorized release. They have not given specifics as to how Elizondo’s request was unauthorized.
The DOD’s track record for accuracy regarding AATIP has not been stellar. They had previously claimed AATIP had nothing to do with UFOs, and Elizondo was not even a part of the program. The DOD has since recanted both claims. So perhaps the big news is not that the video is real, or that the Navy considers them “unidentified.” We already knew that. Maybe the real story is that the DOD is continuing to undermine the facts presented in the New York Times article, despite their past efforts on this front turning out to be misinformation.
Although today it is big news that Navy jet fighters chased UFOs and caught them on camera, at the dawn of the UFO age in the 1950s UFOs made headlines as well. In the late 1950s jet fighters chasing UFOs over the White House in Washington D.C made the front page. In the era for the setting of The Vast of Night, it was still OK to wonder out loud about UFOs. When the U.S. Air Force closed their official investigations, the topic became taboo for decades. Now, after all of this time, UFOs are once again becoming a legitimate topic of discussion.
The Vast of Night is now streaming on Amazon Prime.
Scientists in Europe have found that some features on Mars that were thought to be lava flows may actually have been flows of muddy water.
We know that Mars used to be volcanically active in the past. The planet is dotted with enormous now-dormant volcanoes, and the remains of old lava flows can still be seen today. Now, it seems, some of those lava flows weren’t composed of lava at all, but rather mud, according to researchers in Europe. The finding is evidence for what are called sedimentary volcanism, where liquid mud – water-rich sediments – ruptured from Mars’ subsurface, flowing like lava before refreezing. These features have often been seen on Earth, in association with smaller conical hills that resemble mud volcanoes.
The intriguing peer-reviewed results were published in the journal Nature Geoscience on May 20, 2020.
A possible mud volcano on Mars, just one of thousands. Ancient flows from such features and other volcanic spots had previously been assumed to be lava, but a new study suggests that at least in some cases, it was mud instead. That would mean these landforms really are mud volcanoes, not smaller magmatic volcanoes.
Image via NASA/ JPL-Caltech/ University of Arizona/ DLR.
From the paper:
Large outflow channels on ancient terrains of Mars have been interpreted as the products of catastrophic flood events. The rapid burial of water-rich sediments after such flooding could have led to sedimentary volcanism, in which mixtures of sediment and water (mud) erupt to the surface.
Tens of thousands of volcano-like landforms populate the northern lowlands … on Mars. However, it is difficult to determine whether the edifices are related to igneous or mud extrusions …
Here we investigate the mechanisms of mud propagation on Mars using experiments performed inside a low-pressure chamber at cold temperatures. We found that low viscosity mud under Martian conditions propagates differently from that on Earth, because of a rapid freezing and the formation of an icy crust. Instead, the experimental mud flows propagate like terrestrial pahoehoe lava flows, with liquid mud spilling from ruptures in the frozen crust, and then refreezing to form a new flow lobe.
We suggest that mud volcanism can explain the formation of some lava-like flow morphologies on Mars, and that similar processes may apply to cryovolcanic extrusions on icy bodies in the solar system.
The low-pressure vacuum chamber used in the experiments.
An example of mud frozen in simulated Mars conditions. The mud froze on the outside but remained liquid on the inside, and formed cavities and shapes similar to lava on Earth.
The new study was led by researchers from the Institute of Geophysics at the Czech Academy of Sciences (CAS). It involved Lancaster University, the Open University and the Rutherford Appleton Laboratory in the U.K., CNRS in France, DLR and Münster University in Germany, and CEED in Norway.
Ernst Hauber of the DLR Institute of Planetary Research in Berlin-Adlershof said in a statement:
We have long been aware that in the early history of Mars, several billion years ago, large amounts of water were released over a short period of time, eroding very large valleys in the landscape, which have long since dried up. Extensively eroded masses of fragmented rock were transported through these outflow channels and into the northern lowlands of the planet, where they were quickly deposited. Later, these rocky masses were covered by younger sediments and volcanic rocks.
Many of the mud flows are found in locations where massive channels were carved by water a few billion years ago. These floods were huge, comparable to the largest floods known on Earth. Water would then seep back into the subsurface, where it could then re-emerge as mud.
How did the researchers determine that some of the lava flows were not really lava, but mud? Lionel Wilson, Emeritus Professor of Earth and Planetary Sciences at Lancaster University, explained:
We performed experiments in a vacuum chamber to simulate the release of mud on Mars. This is of interest because we see many flow-like features on Mars in spacecraft images, but they have not yet been visited by any of the roving vehicles on the surface and there is some ambiguity about whether they are flows of lava or mud.
What they found was quite interesting. Flowing mud on Mars didn’t behave at all like flowing mud on Earth, due to the very thin atmosphere and cold temperatures. The vacuum chamber re-created current Martian conditions. The flowing mud on Mars would freeze quickly and form an icy crust. In the vacuum chamber, the mud flows formed shapes similar to pahoehoe lava, which is common in Hawaii and Iceland. After the mud spilled out of ruptures in the ground, it refroze and formed smooth, undulating surfaces. The outer surface of the mud would freeze on contact with the air, while the inner core remained liquid. This liquid can break the frozen crust to form a new flow lobe that then refreezes.
More conical hills thought to be mud volcanoes, in Coprates Chasma on Mars.
Image via Petr Bro¸/ Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter/ NASA/ JPL/ University of Arizona/ The Conversation.
Rock slab called Old Soaker, found by the Curiosity rover in Gale Crater on Mars, which is covered with what are thought to be mud cracks from when a layer of mud dried out about 3 billion years ago.
In another test where the atmospheric pressure was the same as Earth’s, the mud did not form those shapes, even though it was just as cold in the vacuum chamber. Petr Bro¸, lead author of the new study, said:
Under the low atmospheric pressure of Mars, the mud flows behave in much the same way as pahoehoe, or ‘ropy’, lava, which is familiar from large volcanoes on Hawaii and Iceland. Our experiments show that even a process as apparently simple as the flow of mud – something that many of us have experienced for ourselves since we were children – would be very different on Mars.
Hauber added:
However, the impact of this familiar effect on mud has never been investigated in an experiment before. Once again, it turns out that different physical conditions must always be taken into account when looking at apparently simple surface features on other planets. We now know that we need to consider both mud and lava when analyzing certain flow phenomena.
There are tens of thousands of small conical hills in the northern highlands of Mars that may be mud volcanoes. It isn’t clear whether any of them may still be pumping out mud today, but the findings overall show that mud and wet sediments were common on the planet, at least in the past. In Gale Crater, the Curiosity rover has also found cracked, dried rock slabs that look exactly like dried out mud from the bottom of the lake that used to exist there.
Petr Bro¸ of the Czech Academy of Sciences, lead author of the new study.
Mars isn’t the only place where this kind of sedimentary volcanism is thought to occur. There is also evidence for a similar process on the dwarf planet Ceres, which may have once had a muddy ocean beneath its outer icy crust. According to Bro¸:
We suggest that mud volcanism can explain the formation of some lava-like flow morphologies on Mars, and that similar processes may apply to eruptions of mud on icy bodies in the outer solar system, like on Ceres.
Last year it was reported that Ceres likely had subsurface salty muddy meltwater reservoirs that lasted millions of years. The bright spots on Ceres’ surface are now thought to be salt deposits left over from when cryovolcanoes – ice volcanoes – erupted, with the water quickly sublimating away due to the almost complete lack of an atmosphere. Similar features thought to be cryovolcanoes were also discovered on Pluto by the New Horizons spacecraft, and on Saturn’s moon Titan by Cassini. If the flows and conical hills on Mars are really also related to Martian mud, then that would show such processes are common in our solar system (including Earth of course), and could potentially provide valuable clues as to how life originated and evolved on our own planet.
Bottom line: Some features on Mars that were thought to be lava flows may actually be mud flows, according to a new study.
Scientists studying data from the Curiosity rover have found evidence for an ancient ice-covered lake in Gale Crater on Mars. The findings support the theory of alternating warmer and colder climates on early Mars.
Artist’s concept of Gale Crater when it was filled by a lake a few billion years ago. The Curiosity rover had previous evidence for the lake or series of lakes over time. Now a new study suggests that the lake could have been covered by ice during colder climate periods.
Image via NASA/ JPL-Caltech/ ESA/ DLR/ FU Berlin/ MSSS.
A few billion years ago, Gale Crater on Mars held a lake or series of lakes. There was even a river that once fed into this lake. That’s the conclusion of scientists working with data from NASA’s Curiosity rover on Mars, which landed inside Gale Crater in August 2012 and has been exploring the region ever since. Now, a new study of Curiosity data by NASA scientists has added more pieces to the puzzle of what conditions on ancient Mars were like.
NASA announced the study on May 19, 2020. The peer-reviewed paper detailing these findings was published on January 27 in the journal Nature.
The results come from a comprehensive analysis of data from a multi-year experiment onboard the rover, in a chemistry lab called Sample Analysis at Mars (SAM). SAM has been analyzing the chemistry and minerals in rock samples, including organic compounds – the building blocks of life – to determine the habitability of this part of Mars early in its history. This testing has previously confirmed abundant liquid water in the past, as well as a variety of organic molecules preserved in Martian rocks.
Diagram of the proposed carbon cycle on Mars. With little water and no abundant surface life on the planet, the cycle is quite different from the one on Earth.
The latest analysis has found evidence for a previous ice-covered lake in Gale Crater, thought to have possibly existed in a colder period between two warmer periods of time. Heather Franz, a geochemist at Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC) who led the new study, said in a statement:
At some point, Mars’ surface environment must have experienced a transition from being warm and humid to being cold and dry, as it is now, but exactly when and how that occurred is still a mystery.
The evidence supports the idea that Mars’ climate alternated between warmer and colder before finally becoming permanently cold and dry as we see it today. Changes in the axial tilt of the planet and volcanic activity could have played a major part in that instability. Indeed, chemical and mineralogical changes in Martian rocks also show this, with some rock layers being formed in warmer conditions, but others in colder climates.
The Quisquiro salt flat in Altiplano, South America. Scientists think this may be similar to the lake(s) that once existed in Gale Crater on Mars.
So how did Franz and her team find the evidence for an ice-covered lake?
Over five years, Curiosity collected 13 rock and dust samples. From these, the gases carbon dioxide and oxygen were extracted inside SAM. Each sample was heated to 1,650 degrees Fahrenheit (900 degrees Celsius), in order to liberate the trapped gases. The temperatures of the SAM oven at the time provided clues as to the kinds of minerals the gases were coming from. This provided insight into Mars’ carbon cycle, where the gas is exchanged between Mars’ subsurface, surface rocks, polar caps, water and atmosphere. While Mars still has a carbon cycle today, it is a lot different than Earth’s, since it has little water and no abundant surface life. As Paul Mahaffy, principal investigator on SAM, explained:
Nevertheless, the carbon cycling is still happening and is still important because it’s not only helping reveal information about Mars’ ancient climate. It’s also showing us that Mars is a dynamic planet that’s circulating elements that are the buildings blocks of life as we know it.
Mars doesn’t seem to have a lot of carbonates left – minerals composed of carbon and oxygen – which would be evidence for Mars once having a much thicker atmosphere, probably mostly carbon dioxide like today. Such an atmosphere would be needed to help explain how the planet could have once had long-lasting lakes and rivers. But, even though the carbonates may be sparse where Curiosity landed, the ones it has found so far have provided valuable clues about the ancient Martian climate.
Comparison of a carbonate molecule and an oxalate molecule.
Image via James Tralie/ NASA/ Goddard Space Flight Center.
By examining the isotopes of the oxygen and carbon dioxide – versions of each element with different molecular masses – scientists can learn what chemical processes were involved in the formation of the rocks, including whether any biological activity might have been involved, as happens on Earth. The analysis showed that in some of the carbonates, the oxygen isotopes were lighter than those found in the Martian atmosphere.
Why is that significant? It suggests the carbonates formed in a cold, likely ice-covered lake. If the carbonates had formed in a warmer lake, then the isotopes should have actually been slightly heavier than the ones from the air. The researchers say that the ice might have sucked up the heavy oxygen isotopes, leaving behind the lighter ones that would eventually be found in the carbonates.
This is puzzling though, because it might mean the atmosphere was still thinner than thought. But without a thicker, warmer atmosphere, how could there have been lakes, rivers and maybe even a northern hemisphere ocean back then, as other other studies have shown?
The answer may be in the form of minerals called oxalates. Franz and her team suggest that some of the carbon may have been stored in oxalates rather than carbonates. The temperatures at which the carbon dioxide was released from some samples inside SAM was too low for carbonates, but just right for oxalates. The ratios of carbon and oxygen isotopes found also support this hypothesis.
Heather Franz at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, who led the new study.
If it could be proven that oxalates were involved, that would be intriguing, since they are the most common mineral produced by plant life on Earth, synthesized by the incomplete oxidation of carbohydrates. That in itself wouldn’t prove life on early Mars, however, since they can also be produced by the interaction of carbon dioxide with surface minerals (inorganic or organic catalysts), water and sunlight. This is a process that “mocks” photosynthesis, called abiotic photosynthesis. It may even have paved the way for actual photosynthesis to be used by microbes on Earth.
Additional analysis of these and future SAM samples will be necessary to further figure out what role oxalates played, if any. The upcoming Perseverance rover mission to Jezero Crater, scheduled to launch this summer, should be able to shed more light on the Curiosity findings. Jezero Crater is similar to Gale Crater in that it also used to contain a lake, and an ancient delta is still clearly visible where a river once emptied into the lake. Perseverance is designed to specifically look for evidence of ancient microbial life on Mars, so it will be very interesting to see what it finds.
Bottom line: A new study of results from the Curiosity rover provides evidence for an ice-covered lake once existing in Gale Crater on Mars.
This animation demonstrates the salty ponds and streams that scientists think may have been left behind as Gale Crater dried out over time. The bottom of the image is the floor of Gale Crater, with the peak being the side of Mount Sharp.
Credit:ASU Knowledge Enterprise Development (KED), Michael Northrop > Download larger gif
If you're frustrated that you now have to wait until Saturday (May 30) to see SpaceX's first crewed launch, you can blame Mother Nature and orbital mechanics.
Elon Musk's company was poised Wednesday afternoon (May 27) to launch Demo-2, a crucial test mission that will send NASA astronauts Bob Behnken and Doug Hurley to the International Space Station (ISS) aboard a Crew Dragon capsule. But the weather didn't cooperate, forcing SpaceX to cancel Crew Dragon's planned liftoff atop a Falcon 9 rocket with less than 20 minutes left in the countdown.
The next available launch opportunity doesn't come until Saturday, at 3:22 p.m. EDT (1922 GMT). That's when the space station will be in the desired place relative to NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida, Demo-2's launch site, explained Hans Koenigsmann, SpaceX's vice president of mission assurance.
"The two days in between — it's just a matter of phasing and how the orbital mechanics work out," Koenigsmann said during a news conference on Monday (May 25). "And there are some other factors that play into that, too — traffic on the station, and so on and so forth."
The weather looked like it was clearing up in the late stages of the countdown Wednesday, and the mission likely could have gotten off the ground if the launch team had about 10 more minutes to work with, SpaceX representatives said. But such leeway isn't available for Demo-2, which has an instantaneous launch window.
"We do the flight analysis assuming that the temperatures of the propellants are below a certain amount, so that we know how much performance is available to the rocket — how much margin we're going to have," SpaceX principal integration engineer John Insprucker said during Wednesday's launch webcast.
"Once you get into propellant loading at T-35 minutes, you have to go as soon as you get to zero," Insprucker said.
Even waiting for a few minutes past T-0 would cause propellant temperatures to rise slightly, he added, "and that changes how much performance you get carrying into orbit. And we don't want to cut into those margins."
You probably don't want to contemplate yet another scrub, but there's good news if that does indeed come to pass: The next launch opportunity after Saturday is Sunday (May 31), at 3:00 p.m. EDT (1900 GMT).
Demo-2 will be the first crewed orbital flight to launch from the U.S. since NASA's space shuttle fleet was grounded in 2011. Since then, American astronauts have flown to and from the ISS aboard Russian Soyuz spacecraft, the only available option.
NASA, SpaceX and Boeing have been working for years to end that dependence. In 2014, the two companies signed multibillion-dollar contracts with NASA's Commercial Crew Program to finish development of their astronaut taxis and fly six operational crewed missions to and from the orbiting lab.
SpaceX will be able to start flying those contracted missions after Demo-2 is in the books. Boeing has a bit more work to do, however; the company's CST-100 Starliner capsule still needs to ace an uncrewed mission to the ISS, a milestone Crew Dragon notched in March 2019.
Starliner launched on such a mission this past December but suffered a glitch with its onboard timing system and ended up stranded in an orbit too low to meet up with the space station. Starliner will refly the uncrewed ISS flight before taking astronauts aboard.
.Visit Space.com for complete coverage of SpaceX's Crew Dragon Demo-2 flight.
Mike Wall is the author of "Out There" (Grand Central Publishing, 2018; illustrated byKarl Tate), a book about the search for alien life. Follow him on Twitter @michaeldwall. Follow us on Twitter@Spacedotcom orFacebook.
This destructive cosmic event has puzzled scientists for more than a century
A mysterious blast in 1908, thought to have been caused by a meteor, flattened a Siberian taiga forest. This photo was taken in 1938, during an expedition by Russian mineralogist Leonid Kulik, investigating the event.
A new explanation for a massive blast over a remote Siberian forest in 1908 is even stranger than the mysterious incident itself.
Known as the Tunguska event, the blast flattened more than 80 million trees in seconds, over an area spanning nearly 800 square miles (2,000 square kilometers) — but left no crater. A meteor that exploded before hitting the ground was thought by many to be the culprit. However, a comet or asteroid would likely have left behind rocky fragments after blowing up, and no "smoking gun" remnants of a cosmic visitor have ever been found.
Now, a team of researchers has proposed a solution to this long-standing puzzle: A large iron meteor hurtled toward Earth and came just close enough to generate a tremendous shock wave. But the meteor then curved away from our planet without breaking up, its mass and momentum carrying it onward in its journey through space.
On the morning of June 30, 1908, the sky above Siberia flared so bright and hot that a witness standing dozens of kilometers from the site thought that his shirt had caught fire, said Vladimir Pariev, co-author of the new Tunguska study and a researcher with the P. N. Lebedev Physical Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences in Moscow.
Following the bright light, which lasted for about 1 minute, was an explosion that smashed windows and knocked people off their feet in a town more than 35 miles (60 km) away, the BBC reported. "The sky was split in two, and high above the forest the whole northern part of the sky appeared covered with fire," another witness said in a testimonial. Energy released by the blast was later estimated by scientists to be 185 times greater than that of the atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima in 1945, according to NASA.
Initial explanations for the blast included volcanic eruptions and mining accidents, according to NASA, but those claims were not supported by physical evidence. Other later suggestions were more far-fetched, such as a crashed UFO or a black hole collision with Earth — a study describing the black hole hypothesis was published in the journal Nature in 1973 (and was soundly debunked in another Nature study published just a few months later).
The most widely accepted scientific explanation is that a rocky asteroid or comet entered Earth's atmosphere and then disintegrated with a bang about 3 to 6 miles (5 to 10 km) above the ground, Pariev told Live Science in an email. But such an explosion should have strewn the ground with rocky debris, which no one has ever found. By comparison, a meteor that exploded over Chelyabinsk, Russia, in February 2013 broke into fragments that were discovered within a week, Pariev said.
What if, the researchers questioned, the Tunguska meteor were made of iron rather than rock? Could a massive iron meteor "graze" Earth's atmosphere, approaching close enough to generate a powerful shock wave, then yank free of the planet's gravitational pull and escape without fragmenting?
To test that hypothesis, the scientists calculated meteor paths using computer models. They looked at objects that were as small as 164 feet (50 meters) across and as large as 656 feet (200 m) in diameter. Objects were made of rock, ice or iron, and approached in a trajectory that brought them within 6 to 10 miles (10 to 15 km) of Earth's surface.
The scientists' calculations showed that space bodies made of rock and ice would completely disintegrate under the enormous pressures generated by their passage through the tropospheric altitudes. "Only asteroids made of iron larger than 100 m [328 feet] in diameter can survive and not get cracked and fragmented into many separate pieces," they said.
The researchers estimated that the Tunguska meteor likely measured between 328 and 656 feet (100 and 200 m) in diameter, and hurtled through Earth's atmosphere at roughly 45,000 mph (72,000 km/h). During its fiery passage, the meteor would lose some of its mass. But iron shed by a meteor traveling at such speeds would have escaped as gas and plasma, oxidized in the atmosphere and then dispersed on the ground, becoming nearly indistinguishable from terrestrial iron oxides, according to the study.
Prior studies have calculated the power of shock waves produced by meteors based on the object entering Earth's atmosphere at a very steep angle "and either hitting the ground or exploding in midair," Pariev said.
In the case of the Tunguska meteor, the iron-rich space object could have entered Earth's atmosphere at a very shallow angle — about 9 to 12 degrees tangential to the surface. It then would have grazed through the atmosphere, creating a shock wave at an altitude of around 6 to 10 miles (10 to 15 km) above the ground, capable of flattening trees for hundreds of kilometers and scorching the surface. But because of the meteor's mass and momentum, it didn't break up; it then exited the atmosphere and returned to space, the researchers reported.
However, some lingering questions about this scenario remain, said Mark Boslough, a research professor at the University of New Mexico and physicist with Los Alamos National Laboratory.
Boslough, who was not involved in the study, told Live Science in an email that if an object "skimmed through the atmosphere" and didn't blow up, the resulting shock wave would be significantly weaker than an explosion's blast wave.
"An object that survived such a transit through the atmosphere could not have descended close enough to the surface for a sonic boom to do the kind of damage that was observed at Tunguska," Boslough said.
What's more, the pattern of felled trees at the site is radial — emanating from a single point of tremendous energy release, he said. That's something you'd expect to see after an explosion rather than a sonic boom, "even if it had been strong enough to blow trees over." Boslough added that eyewitness accounts at the time of the incident "are consistent with an object that was descending toward the surface before it exploded."
While the study authors didn't numerically calculate the impact of a shock wave that a "grazing" iron meteor of this size could produce, their estimates still suggest that such a wave would be powerful enough to flatten trees and damage the ground as the Tunguska event did, Pariev said in the email.
"Detailed calculations of the shock waves from a grazing asteroid is the subject of our ongoing research," he added.
We spotted some wild and wacky details leading up to SpaceX's now-delayed Demo-2 test flight today (May 27).
Today's mission scrubbed and was delayed for this Saturday at 3:22 p.m. EDT (1922 GMT). However, today's events, which served as a sort of "wet dress rehearsal" for the actual launch, had some interesting highlights. From the minute that veteran NASA astronauts Bob Behnken and Doug Hurley arrived this morning, ready to strap into their spacesuits and launch to the International Space Station, to the moment the launch was called off, today's events were chock-full of excitement.
During a preflight news conference Monday (May 26), it was revealed that no one knew yet what the astronauts would eat for breakfast before the launch. Since the earliest days of human spaceflight, the preflight breakfast has been a tradition, with the Apollo astronauts famously eating steak and eggs before lifting off.
The internet lit up with guesses as to what the astronauts would eat before launching and, starting out early in the morning on launch day, Hurley put this mystery to rest: "Steak and eggs. Question answered!" he tweeted.
2. Kelly Clarkson
Pop stardom and spaceflight collided on launch day as Grammy award-winning pop artist Kelly Clarkson sang the national anthem. Her gorgeous belt rang clear and true, even though she wasn't actually at NASA to sing. That's right, like many things right now, Clarkson's performance was conducted virtually through a live video broadcast.
Still, while she may not have been on-site for the launch, her voice was a perfect note to start the day off on.
3. Tesla to the launch pad
Astronauts Bob Behnken and Doug Hurley rode to the launch pad in style in this modified Tesla Model X, complete with a NASA Worm logo and a license plate reading "ISSBND."(Image credit: NASA/YouTube)
After breakfast and in their spacesuits, the pair of astronauts said goodbye to their families and hopped into a Tesla Model X, modified with NASA's iconic Worm logo. But, as many people noticed online, the logo, plastered across the back of the vehicle, wasn't the only space touch.
The vehicle's license plate read "ISSBND," or ISS (International Space Station) bound. The plate is a cheeky nod to the fact that the astronauts are set to launch from Florida to the space station.
4. Rock out with AC/DC
NASA astronauts Doug Hurley and Bob Behnken arrive at the launchpad for the Demo-2 mission on May 27, 2020. (Image credit: NASA TV)
Now, this drive to the launch pad wasn't some silent, stoic drive. The astronauts had a perfectly curated playlist to amp them up as they rode to board Crew Dragon, which was placed high atop the Falcon 9 rocket.
According to SpaceX commentator Lauren Lyons during May 27 live launch coverage, the pair started their drive off with AC/DC's classic song "Back in Black." She shared that the reason they chose to start off their drive with this song is that "they are back," on launch pad 39A, which the astronauts haven't launched from since the end of NASA's space shuttle program in 2011.
Following the heavy metal tune, the pair listened to "the elevator music from the Blues Brothers film," Lyons shared, the song "The Girl from Ipanema," a Brazilian bossa nova standard written by Antônio Carlos Jobim and Vinícius de Moraes in 1962.
Rounding out their playlist, the astronauts blasted (it can only be assumed) the Star-Spangled Banner, "the army French horns version," Lyons said, adding that this is "for very obvious reasons," because astronauts both served in the U.S. military.
5. May I have your autograph?
NASA astronaut Doug Hurley uses a black sharpie to sign SpaceX's White Room, a new tradition, before boarding the Crew Dragon fort the Demo-2 test flight on May 27, 2020. Crew mate Bob Behnken signed is own name a moment later. (Image credit: NASA TV)
Once at the launch pad, before strapping into Crew Dragon, the pair started a brand new tradition: They signed their names on the walls of the white room with a sharpie.
The white room, which was painted white and nicknamed as such during NASA's Gemini program, is the last place that the astronauts visit before entering the spacecraft for launch.
"Yeah, we didn't do that," retired NASA astronaut Leland Melvin said during live commentary.
6. Hitchhiking dino
A small stuffed animal hitched a ride on the Demo-2 mission, strapped in next to NASA astronaut Bob Behnken on May 27, 2020. (Image credit: NASA TV)
The fun didn't stop once the astronauts strapped into Crew Dragon. The capsule can fit up to four passengers but because this is the craft's first crewed test flight, only two astronauts will fly aboard this mission. However, if you looked close enough, you might've spotted a third crew member buckled into the capsule.
The astronauts brought along a small stuffed animal that appears to be a plush dinosaur (or maybe dragon? how fitting), which they buckled into one of the astronaut passenger seats. This fuzzy little astronaut isn't just for fun, however. Astronauts typically bring up items, like this plush dino, as a measure to show the effects of zero gravity to signify that the astronauts have reached space.
Many people, even those who nothing about the paranormal or New Age beliefs, are probably aware of the concepts of auras. They are supposedly extensions of our spiritual energy that surrounds us with a glow that people who are attuned to such things claim they can see. These auras can be different colors depending on one’s mood or personality, and this is sometimes referred to as one’s “life color,” with common colors for adults being blue or violet. Then, in the 1970s a psychic claimed to have discovered a new color of aura, which it was believed marked someone as a highly evolved soul with amazing mental abilities and in some cases paranormal powers.
It began in the mid-1970s, when a psychic specializing in reading auras by the name of Nancy Ann Toppe began to claim that she was finding more and more children with auras that were Indigo in coloration, a color that she had never seen before. She believed that these “Indigo Children” were special souls who had been perfected and reborn on Earth at the time in order to help the earth and start a spiritual evolution in human beings to lead them to enlightenment and expand their consciousness. These Indigo Children displayed numerous exceptional personality traits, and heightened psychic abilities including telepathy, clairvoyance, and astral projection, as well as superior intellect and creativity, and Toppe predicted that, considering the rate in which she was noticing this new color of aura, Indigo Children would become the new norm with just a few generations. The idea was pretty fringe and obscure at the time, but it was picked up and dusted off by authors and self-help lecturers Lee Carroll and Jan Tober, with a little help from a channeled spirit they call Kyron, who wrote a popular book on it in 1998 called The Indigo Children: The New Kids Have Arrived, and another book followed in the 2000s by a famous psychic Doreen Virtue, The Care and Feeding of Indigo Children, further propelling it into the mainstream and gained it a good deal of popularity.
So, you might be wondering just what traits an Indigo Child has, and it is a bit complicated as their traits and abilities have undergone changes from author to author in the many books and articles written on them since, but there are a few tendencies that remain fairly standard. One of their main characteristics is their extreme capacity for empathy, sensitivity, curiosity, and creativity, as well as their very strong will. They are also fiercely independent, proud, and highly intelligent, quite often wise beyond their years, leading them to often be described as “old souls.” They have very good, sometimes photographic memories, are supposedly very intuitive, and are very good at figuring out ways to do things and thinking outside of the box. They are very often described as having at least some sort of psychic abilities or the potential for it.
Indigo Children supposedly have quite a few negative traits as well. They are often described as self-important and self-absorbed. They are often rebellious against authority, impatient, easily bored and easily frustrated. Indigo Children are also usually seen as eccentric loners, and do not make friends easily, with antisocial tendencies, although they easily bond with animals. They have an inflated sense of self-worth and can often be narcissistic. Their self-sufficiency and clear sense of purpose can also make them very stubborn and headstrong, and they are often resistant to change. A lot of these negative aspects are said to be direct side effects of their gifts in other areas, for instance they are often frustrated and annoyed that other normal people can’t keep up with their sharp minds and different ways of thinking, which can also make them seem arrogant. Authority bothers them because they often truly believe they have a better way of doing things, and their unconventional views of how things work alienate them from others who are not on the same page.
The whole concept of Indigo Children has really taken off in the mainstream and in popular culture, with numerous books, articles, and even films made about the phenomena, and it is common for celebrities to claim they have an Inigo Child or claim to be one themselves. Despite there being no real evidence of Indigo Children actually existing, the notion has become such a popular New Age belief that it is sometimes labelled as being almost like a religious movement, but of course there is much skepticism in the idea of spiritually awakened people that are presented as the next step of human evolution.
One of the most popular ideas is that this is simply a misdiagnosis of a mental disability such as attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) or autism. After all, back when the term “Indigo Child” was first coined there was very little understanding of these disorders, and as the movement grew it would be seen by most parents as better to view their child as a special chosen one with magical powers rather than suffering from a disability and a neuro-biological condition. They are not suffering a disorder; they are gifted and special. Belief in the Indigo Child phenomenon could even be making things worse, since making this claim robs the kid of a proper diagnosis and medication, leaving them without the help they really need and raised with a false sense of security. Are these people really just misunderstood people with behavioral defects that have been marked as something more? Or are the Indigo Children actually real? Either way, it is a concept that has really caught on, and will likely be discussed for some time to come.
At the time of this writing, Elon Musk’s SpaceX rocket had not yet launched humans into space, but even a successful mission probably won’t quell the wrath of the head of Russia’s space agency. No, he’s not just mad about losing the business of taking astronauts to the ISS and back – it’s much worse than that.
“We understand that one thing stands behind all this demagogy: this is a cover for deployment of nuclear weapons in space. We see such attempts, we consider them unacceptable and we will oppose them as much as we can.”
In an interview on the YouTube podcast “Solovyov LIVE” (watch it here in Russian), Dmitry Rogozin, the head of Russian state space agency Roscosmos, told host Vladimir Solovyov that he believes Musk is serious about detonating 10,000 nuclear warheads on Mars to terraform the planet into one with an atmosphere and climate that can support humans, and Musk’s SpaceX partnership with NASA is proof that the U.S. government approves of it.
“We have commented on each and every such anti-Russian attack which are all nothing but the United States’ attempt to divert public attention from real threats in space and to justify its moves to deploy weapons in outer space and obtain extra financing for such causes.”
Russian Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova told TASS last month that Russia is not happy with the Space Force, especially with its announcement of the unveiling of its first weapon (a satellite jammer) and its first mission with the mysterious X-37B space plane – both occurring within the past month. And now … SpaceX and its CEO and founder’s grandiose nuclear plans for Mars, with no denunciation by NASA or the U.S. government. In fact, President Trump had this to say about Elon Musk back in February:
“He likes rockets. And he does good at rockets, too, by the way.”
So does Roscosmos, which has managed to shuttle crews and cargo reliably to the ISS ever since NASA shut down the space shuttle program. Roscosmos has announced that it is lowering its costs for launches, which are already less that SpaceX, so it knows this escalation of a Cold War in space is not about money.
“We see such attempts, we consider them unacceptable and we will hinder this to the greatest extent possible.”
“Hinder” … what could that entail? Deploying its own space weapons – both known and secret? Cyberwarfare? Accelerating Russia’s own plans to send humans to Mars? For now, it’s a battle of words where Russia is taking the human rights side for a change.
“It is absolutely obvious that the idea to bomb Mars with nuclear charges is absolutely abhorrent from a humanitarian standpoint. Who gave him right to destroy a planet?”
That’s a good question, Dmitry Rogozin. Does Earth money talk on Mars?
If the first launch of humans by SpaceX is successful, we may soon find out
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Over mijzelf
Ik ben Pieter, en gebruik soms ook wel de schuilnaam Peter2011.
Ik ben een man en woon in Linter (België) en mijn beroep is Ik ben op rust..
Ik ben geboren op 18/10/1950 en ben nu dus 74 jaar jong.
Mijn hobby's zijn: Ufologie en andere esoterische onderwerpen.
Op deze blog vind je onder artikels, werk van mezelf. Mijn dank gaat ook naar André, Ingrid, Oliver, Paul, Vincent, Georges Filer en MUFON voor de bijdragen voor de verschillende categorieën...
Veel leesplezier en geef je mening over deze blog.
