According to the terrified photographer he was ducking and flinching as it flew past and could not believe what he witnessed. 

We can rule out that it would be an insect or bird that flies by just in front of the camera lens as the slow motion footage shows the object moving away from the photographer's location at a high speed until it disappears. Mufon. 

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

28-01-2021 om 15:59 geschreven door peter  

Triangle-shaped formation filmed over Naples, Florida 27-Jan-2021

This was filmed over Naples, Florida on 27th January 2021.

Witness report: 

Went to the beach for sunset. Noticed a very bright object.

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

28-01-2021 om 15:51 geschreven door peter  

Can you name the top 12 brightest objects in the solar system? How many have you seen without the aid of binoculars or a telescope?

South Carolina sunrise through a piece of beach glass.

Image via Fran Aquino.

What are the brightest objects in our solar system that you can see in your sky? The sun is the very brightest, of course, but you might be surprised by some of the other objects that make the list. You can see the first seven objects on this list using just your eyes, even from cities and suburbs. The last items on the list are fainter and therefore more challenging, and likely require a dark-sky site and some optical aid.

In astronomy, the brightness of objects is measured by what’s called magnitude. The lower the number, the brighter the object. So, 1st-magnitude objects indicate the brightest stars in our sky, 2nd-magnitude fainter ones, 3rd-magnitude fainter still, and so on. Note that some objects, some planets for example, are even brighter than 1st magnitude, peaking in negative numbers at their brightest.

Without optical aid, the human eye can see objects to around 6th magnitude, in optimum conditions and under dark skies. There are about a dozen natural solar system objects that are, in theory, visible to the unaided eye. In practice, the fainter ones are very difficult to see with the eye alone, but perhaps possible for those keen vision and true darkness.

Transient objects, such as very bright meteors or comets, aren’t included in this list. Extraordinary meteors can turn the night sky as bright as day, and some comets reach stunning brightnesses, too, such as Ikeya-Seki in 1965, which reached a whopping -10 magnitude and could be seen at noon. But because they’re only in the sky on a temporary basis, and not something that can regularly or consistently be observed, these objects aren’t included here. We also don’t include manmade objects, such as satellites and the International Space Station. Try the Heavens-Above website, if you’re interested in observing human-made Earth-orbiting objects.

Here are the top 12 brightest natural solar system objects, in order from brightest to dimmest:

1. The sun.

No surprise here. The sun shines at magnitude -26.7. Technically, the sun can’t even be looked at without special safety filters to protect your eyes. Gazing at the sun directly without special protective filters can cause blindness. That said, now would be a good time to equip yourself with filters for solar observing, and to begin a program of regular sun viewing. You might know that the sun increases and decreases in activity in a cycle lasting 11 years. The new cycle – Solar Cycle 25 – was officially announced in September 2020. At EarthSky Community Photos, we’re beginning to see more sunspots! And more are surely coming, increasing in number to a peak five or so years from now.

• Read more: Top 7 tips for observing the sun safely

View at EarthSky Community Photos. | Victor C. Rogus wrote on January 20, 2021: “The sunspot formerly known as AR2797 has split in two: AR2797 and AR2798. Trailing sunspot AR2798 is crackling with C-class solar flares.” Thank you, Victor!

2. The moon.

The moon varies in brightness depending on what phase it’s in. At its full phase when it’s the brightest, it tops out at magnitude -12.7. On the other hand, the moon in its crescent phase shines at only about magnitude -6. If you’re a deep-sky observer, the moon is bright enough to ruin your night vision, meaning it’ll prevent you from getting the best view of distant, faint star clusters, nebulae and galaxies. If you’re using a telescope, the moon should be your last stop during a night of observing. To the eye alone, though, there’s nothing more beautiful than a bright moon shining in the night sky, casting its light and creating moon shadows in the landscape all around you. Visit EarthSky’s moon phases page to learn the dates of major moon phases throughout 2020.

View at EarthSky Community Photos. | Kannan A in Singapore captured this image on January 26, 2021, and wrote: “The waxing gibbous moon rising from behind the apartment block. The moon was 94.1% illuminated and distance from Earth was 391,375 km [243,000 miles] away from Earth when this photo was taken. It was still very much a day moon, as the skies were still bright at this time.” Thank you, Kannan A!

3. Venus.

The closest planet to Earth, one step inward in orbit around the sun, is also the brightest planet. It can shine as brightly as magnitude -4.7, bright enough to be seen in daylight if you know just where to look. The brightness of Venus is thanks in part to its proximity to Earth and also, largely, to its thick, reflective clouds. As with all the other solar system objects, Venus varies in brightness depending on a number of factors, including how close it is to Earth and what phase it’s in. Yes, as a planet orbiting inward from Earth, Venus shows phases! Venus was in our morning sky – in the east before sunrise – throughout late 2020. Soon, though, it’ll be gone from our skies for a few months, traveling behind the sun from Earth. Venus will return to our evening sky in May 2021. Find Venus’ location for each month in EarthSky’s planet guide.

View at EarthSky Community Photos. | Catherine Evans caught Venus near daybreak on January 17, 2021, from the Edna Valley in San Luis Obispo, California. She wrote: “Closer and closer to the sunrise, so it won’t be seen much longer.” So true, Catherine! Thank you. Even into early February 2021, if you have a clear sky to the eastern horizon, you might still be able to snag a last look at Venus. Look very low in the east before sunup. If you can’t see it, try sweeping with binoculars.

4. Mars.

The red planet is the second-closest planet to Earth after Venus, and it doesn’t often reach its maximum magnitude of -2.9. But when it does … wow! What a sight to behold. Just like other planets outside Earth’s orbit, when Mars is brightest around the time of its opposition, when it’s opposite the sun from Earth, rising in the east as the sun sets in the west. Mars’ oppositions come when our faster Earth moves between Mars and the sun. That happens about every two years. Some Mars oppositions are better than others. Mars was particularly bright in 2018, and its last opposition – around mid-October 2020 – was a good one, too. For about a month around the 2020 opposition, Mars was brighter than Jupiter. At other times (in fact, most of the time), Mars is relatively faint. Sometimes it’s very faint indeed, when it’s on the far side of the solar system from us, shining across its nearly-maximum distance from Earth (about 250 million miles, or 400 million km). After all, Mars is just a little planet, littler than Earth. So its brightness waxes and wanes dramatically as we and Mars move around the sun. Find Mars’ location for each month in EarthSky’s planet guide.

View at EarthSky Community Photos. | Niko Powe in Kiwonee, Illinois, captured Mars next to the Harvest Moon on October 2, 2020. Niko said: “There was a layer of clouds but these two’s appearance would not be denied.”

5. Jupiter.

Because Jupiter is the largest planet in the solar system, some mistakenly believe it’s the brightest planet. But not so. Jupiter’s greater distance from us lets Venus and Mars, our neighbors, shine more brightly. Jupiter is nearly always brighter than Mars, though (except when Mars is at its best). At its maximum, Jupiter shines at magnitude -2.8, nearly as bright as Mars’s peak of -2.9, and brighter than Sirius, the sky’s brightest star, which shines at magnitude -1.4. Jupiter was named for the ancient king of the gods. And it has a king-like aspect, always shining at the same dazzling brightness, not changing in brightness like Mars. Plus Jupiter moves in a stately way around the sky; it isn’t tied to the sunrise or sunset like Venus. Come to know Jupiter, and you’ll enjoy spotting in your sky for much of every year. Find Jupiter’s location for each month in EarthSky’s planet guide.

6. Mercury.

Surprise! The rarely-seen planet Mercury shines more brightly than Saturn at its best. Mercury can reach -1.9 magnitude. That’s brighter than Sirius, the sky’s brightest star. But – because Mercury is our solar system’s innermost planet – this world, more than any other in our solar system, is tied to the sun in our sky. It’s always seen shortly before sunrise, or shortly after sunset, and never gets very high in the night sky. Therefore its brightness is often offset by the fact that you’re viewing the planet in twilight and not in a nice dark sky. Still, Mercury’s brightness will surprise you!

7. Saturn.

The ringed planet Saturn is stunning in a telescope, and it’s also an easy catch without optical aid. With the eye alone, you won’t see its rings, but you will see Saturn’s golden color and steady light. At magnitude +0.7, Saturn outshines most stars and is on a par with most of the brightest stars. Plus – because it orbits our sun beyond Earth’s orbit – it’s seen more often than Mercury by casual observers. Saturn is often around deep into the night, when its brightness contrasts with the depths of a dark night sky.

View at EarthSky Community Photos. | Dan Wyman in Oceanside, California, captured Mercury, Jupiter, Saturn and a flock of birds on January 11, 2021. Thank you, Dan! Find Jupiter, Saturn and Mercury each month in EarthSky’s planet guide.

8. Ganymede.

If you’re a sky-watcher, you’ve probably seen all the objects mentioned so far without optical aid, knowingly or not. But have you seen Jupiter’s largest moon, Ganymede? Binoculars will let you spot Ganymede circling Jupiter when the satellite is at its brightest, approximately 4.6 magnitude. Ganymede takes about seven Earth-days to complete an orbit around Jupiter, and the other Galilean moons take varying amounts of time (Io nearly two days, Europa about four days, Callisto 17 days). So on any given night, you’ll find the moons in ever-shifting locations with respect to Jupiter. They look like little “stars” strung out in a line that bisects Jupiter. Thus you’ll want to use software, for example SkyandTelescope.com’s interactive Jupiter moon page, to let you know which dot circling Jupiter is Ganymede, from the location, date and time at which you’re looking. Which leads us to …

9. Io.

The next item on the solar system brightness list is Jupiter’s volcanic satellite, Io. At a little larger than our moon, Io is the innermost Galilean satellite and shines at magnitude 5.0 when it’s at its best. Can you see Io – or Ganymede – with the eye alone? In theory, you should be able to. But in practice they’re not that easy to see in the glare from Jupiter itself. Some observers with renowned vision (for example, Steven James O’Meara) have claimed to have seen Ganymede with the unaided eye. But such claims are rare. You’ll likely need binoculars for Ganymede or Io, or Europa (see below). Small telescopes show all four Galilean moons in their never-ending dance around Jupiter.

View at EarthSky Community Photos. | John Nelson was at Puget Sound, Washington, on September 24, 2020, when he captured this image. See Jupiter and its moons in the upper left? You might need to view this photo larger to see Jupiter’s moons. John wrote: “All four Galilean moons were visible. I brightened them up just a bit in Photoshop Elements so they would be easier to see in a photo that you can’t zoom in on. From left to right, the moons are Callisto, Ganymede, Europa and just to Jupiter’s right is Io.” Thank you, John.

10. Vesta.

The fourth asteroid to be discovered, Vesta, is the only asteroid to make our list of brightest solar system objects. Vesta is the second-largest asteroid, after Ceres. Vesta can reach magnitude 5.1 at its closest approach to Earth. Its opposition – a highlight of the year for asteroid observers – is coming up on March 4, 2021. This is when Earth will sweep more or less between Vesta and the sun, bringing the asteroid closest to us for this year. Because it doesn’t have a bright nearby locator, as Ganymede and Io have with Jupiter, it’s best to watch for Vesta for a couple of nights in a row to see which dim “star” in the area appears to move slowly in front of the fixed star background. Try TheSkyLive for charts and other information on how to observe Vesta.

11. Europa.

We bounce back out to Jupiter for the next item on the list, Europa, another of Jupiter’s four large Galilean moons. Europa is a great object to attempt to view and ruminate on, because it may harbor an ocean – and possibly life – beneath its icy crust. Europa just makes our list of the brightest objects in the solar system at magnitude 5.2. Again, we recommend using observing software, such as SkyandTelescope.com’s interactive Jupiter moon page, to know which Galilean moon is which.

12. Uranus,

finally. Many know that planet Uranus is theoretically visible to the unaided eye. The seventh planet from the sun appears at magnitude 5.6 at its best. Uranus is most easily picked up with the unaided eye after first pinning down its location with binoculars or a telescope. It has a disk instead of a pinpoint image through an optical device and may even appear faintly bluish green. It is particularly easy to find on the occasions that it pairs up closely with objects easier to locate, such as Mars.

View at EarthSky Community Photos. | Victor C. Rogus in Sedona, Arizona, captured this image of Uranus and Mars through his telescope on January 20, 2021. He wrote: “The sky this evening was fair at best, but I was able to capture this image of an over-exposed Mars and the planet Uranus through thin clouds. Light takes 2 hours, 43 minutes and 27 seconds to travel from Uranus and arrive to us.” Thank you, Victor!

• Bottom line: Here are the top 12 brightest natural solar system objects, in order from brightest to dimmest. If you’ve seen every one of these objects, with or without optical aid, congrats!

{ https://earthsky.org/ }

28-01-2021 om 00:26 geschreven door peter  

NASA’s space helicopter is one month away from landing on Mars

Helicopter to Mars, submarine to Titan, what’s next? A subway on Venus?

 by Alexandru Micu

Did you ever dare to dream of the day you’d see a helicopter in space? Well, rest easy, your watch has come to an end — NASA’s Ingenuity, the “Mars Helicopter”, is one month away from touching down on the red planet.

Ingenuity is currently onboard NASA’s Perseverance rover, the US’ latest Mars-bound rover. It’s the first American mission to Mars since 2018’s InSight, but it was only one of three missions sent out to Mars in 2020 alongside the UAE’s Hope orbiter and China’s Tianwen-1 orbiter, lander, and rover.

While all of them are very exciting, Ingenuity will be the first helicopter to actually be sent to space, ever. NASA is expecting it to touch down on Mars on February 18.

Flying on new horizons

“NASA’s Ingenuity Mars Helicopter is the first aircraft humanity has sent to another planet to attempt powered, controlled flight,” NASA explains in a press kit. “If its experimental flight test program succeeds, the data returned could benefit future explorations of the Red Planet – including those by astronauts – by adding the aerial dimension, which is not available today.”

The helicopter is pretty small, similar to a medium-large commercial drone, and comes equipped with two carbon-fiber rotors. These will spin at around 2,400 rpm in different directions so as to stabilize the craft in flight. That speed of rotation is many times faster than those used by passenger helicopters on Earth, due to their smaller size and Mars‘ thinner atmosphere both. Since the air is thinner there, rotors have to put in a lot of extra work to generate the same lift they would produce on our planet.

If all goes well, Ingenuity could completely change how we explore Mars, and other planets with atmospheres. Up to now we’ve been using rovers, which have quite a few benefits (ground vehicles have great energy efficiency since they don’t need to stay aloft, and weight is much less of an issue, for example). However, they’re also much slower than any other vehicles in general, as they have to contend with terrain features. If Ingenuity manages to do its job, and do it well — and, especially, if it can withstand Mars’ harsh environment — space helicopters will definitely become much more common in the future.

But until then, Perseverance still needs to reach its target, and Ingenuity still needs to prove it can fly on Mars. Fingers crossed.

{ https://www.zmescience.com/ }

27-01-2021 om 23:59 geschreven door peter  

Although the intelligence communities, military and government agencies of numerous nations have undertaken countless official (and off-the-record, too) projects pertaining to both mind-control and mind-manipulation, without any doubt whatsoever, the most notorious of all was Project MKUltra: a clandestine operation that operated out of the CIA’s Office of Scientific Intelligence, and that had its beginnings in the Cold War era of the early 1950s. It was, I believe, MK-Ultra that created the fabricated “alien encounters” of 1950s-era “UFO Contactee” Orfeo Angelucci. The date of the project’s actual termination is a somewhat hazy one; however, it is known that it was definitely in operation as late as the latter part of the 1960s – and, not surprisingly and regretfully, has since been replaced by far more controversial and deeply hidden projects.

To demonstrate the level of secrecy that surrounded Project MKUltra, even though it had kicked off at the dawn of the fifties, its existence was largely unknown outside of the intelligence world until 1975 – when the Church Committee and the Rockefeller Commission began making their own investigations of the CIA’s mind-control-related activities – in part to determine if (a) the CIA had engaged in illegal activity, (b) the personal rights of citizens had been violated, and (c) if the projects at issue had resulted in fatalities – which they most assuredly and unfortunately did. Rather conveniently, and highly suspiciously, too, it was asserted at the height of the inquires in 1975 that two years earlier, in 1973, CIA Director, Richard Helms had ordered the destruction of the Agency’s MKUltra files. Fortunately, this did not stop the Church Committee or the Rockefeller Commission – both of whom had the courage and tenacity to forge ahead with their investigations, relying on sworn testimony from players in MKUltra, where documentation was no longer available for scrutiny, study and evaluation.

The story that unfolded was both dark and disturbing –in equal degrees. Indeed, the scope of the project – and allied operations, too – was spelled out in an August 1977 document titled The Senate MK-Ultra Hearings that was prepared by the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence and the Committee on Human Resources, as a result of its probing into the secret world of the CIA. As the document explained: “Research and development programs to find materials which could be used to alter human behavior were initiated in the late 1940s and early 1950s. These experimental programs originally included testing of drugs involving witting human subjects, and culminated in tests using unwitting, non-volunteer human subjects. These tests were designed to determine the potential effects of chemical or biological agents when used operationally against individuals unaware that they had received a drug.”

The Committee then turned its attention to the overwhelming secrecy that surrounded these early 1940s/1950s projects: “The testing programs were considered highly sensitive by the intelligence agencies administering them. Few people, even within the agencies, knew of the programs and there is no evidence that either the Executive Branch or Congress were ever informed of them. The highly compartmentalized nature of these programs may be explained in part by an observation made by the CIA Inspector General that, ‘the knowledge that the Agency is engaging in unethical and illicit activities would have serious repercussions in political and diplomatic circles and would be detrimental to the accomplishment of its missions.'”

The research and development programs, and particularly the covert testing programs, resulted in massive abridgments of the rights of American citizens, and sometimes with tragic consequences, too. As prime evidence of this, the Committee uncovered details on the deaths of two Americans that were firmly attributed to the programs at issue; while other participants in the testing programs were said to still be suffering from the residual effects of the tests as late as the mid-1970s. And as the Committee starkly noted: “While some controlled testing of these substances might be defended, the nature of the tests, their scale, and the fact that they were continued for years after the danger of surreptitious administration of LSD to unwitting individuals was known, demonstrate a fundamental disregard for the value of human life.”

RELATED VIDEOS, selected and posted by peter2011

{ https://mysteriousuniverse.org/ }

27-01-2021 om 23:42 geschreven door peter  

That's according to the founding documents of Way of the Future, a group intended to "develop and promote the realization of a Godhead based on artificial intelligence and through understanding and worship of the Godhead contribute to the betterment of society", according documents published by Wired. Mr Levandowski is the group's CEO and president, and it isn't clear how many members it has or what it is actually doing.

A range of scientific experts and technology billionaires, including Stephen Hawking and Elon Musk, have warned that our relaxed attitude towards artificial intelligence could mean we're at risk of being killed by it. Mr Musk has likened artificial intelligence to "summoning the demon", suggesting that while we might think we could control such a force we ultimately couldn't – and has founded an organisation called OpenAI focused specifically on stopping such a thing from happening.

Wired, which revealed the strange new church as part of a long profile on Mr Levandowski, pointed out that his interest in self-driving cars and our robot god are far from separate from each other. The engineer is among the foremost experts on self-driving cars in the world – and those vehicles give artificial intelligence its most powerful embodiment, as well as being a look at how AI will change the world.

{ https://www.independent.co.uk/ }

27-01-2021 om 23:24 geschreven door peter  

Here's what we learned about aliens in 2020

By Brandon Specktor - Senior Writer

An artist's illustration of the evolution of the interstellar object 'Oumuamua, whose weird, elongated shape may have come from tidal forces.

(Image: © YU Jingchuan from Beijing Planetarium)

In a year when mysterious monoliths literally appeared out of nowhere, you'd think the first real detection of alien life would be a stone's-throw away. Well, 2020 didn't bring any little green men, but it did bring astronomers closer to finding extraterrestrial life than ever before. From organic molecules turning up around the solar system to mysterious radio signals finally being traced back to their source, here are some of the biggest findings of the year about where aliens may be (and definitely aren't) hiding in the universe.

1. There could be alien life in the clouds of Venus

In September, Venus became the most popular planet on Earth when scientists discovered possible traces of the molecule phosphine in the planet's atmosphere. On Earth, phosphine (made from one phosphorous atom and three hydrogen atoms) is mostly associated with non-oxygen-breathing bacteria, as well as some human activities. The molecule is produced naturally by gas giants, but there's no good reason why it should be on the hot and hellish world of Venus, the researchers concluded — unless, perhaps, there is some sort of life breathing it into the planet's mysterious clouds?

2. … But it's not likely

Exciting as it was, the phosphine discovery was met with strong skepticism from the scientific community. For starters, it's not even clear that the researchers detected phosphine at all; their observations contained so much noise that something mimicking phosphine's chemical signature could have appeared by accident, John Carpenter, an observatory scientist at the Atacama telescope in Chile, previously told Live Science. 

And even if the reading was accurate, phosphine could very easily be created totally randomly through a number of geological processes that don't involve life at all, said Lee Cronin, a chemist at the University of Glasgow in the United Kingdom. The processes that shape Venus' scorching surface and sky are largely a mystery, and one trace of an inexplicable molecule is, sadly, not enough to confirm alien life exists there. Significant study of the planet is required to solve this chemical conundrum.

3. There could be 36 alien civilizations sharing our galaxy

How many intelligent alien civilizations are lurking among the hundreds of billions of stars in the Milky Way? According to a study published June 15 in The Astrophysical Journal, the answer is 36.

How did the researchers arrive at that number? By taking a fresh stab at a decades-old alien-hunting riddle known as the Drake equation. Named for astronomer Frank Drake, who debuted the equation in 1961, the puzzle attempts to guess the likely number of alien civilizations in our galaxy based on variables like the average rate of star formation, the percentage of stars that form planets and the much-smaller percentage of planets that have the right stuff for life. Most of these variables are still unknown, but the authors of the new study tried to resolve them with the most up-to-date information on star formation and exoplanets available.

Their result? There are precisely 36 planets in the Milky Way that could host intelligence life similar to that on Earth. But even if the researchers nailed all those unknown variables, it'll still be a while before we meet one of our intelligence neighbors; assuming an even distribution of civilizations throughout the galaxy, the closest one is 17,000 light-years away from Earth.

4. And more than 1,000 alien stars could be watching us

Will they find us before we find them? We could find out in this lifetime. Two stars on the list host known exoplanets, one of which will have a direct line of sight to Earth in the year 2044.

But while we hunt for alien worlds, are aliens also hunting for us? That's the question that motivated an Oct. 20 study in the journal Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, in which astronomers calculated the number of alien star systems that have a direct line of sight to Earth — and therefore could be watching us right now.

The team calculated that approximately 1,000 star systems within about 300 light-years of Earth could feasibly see our planet as it passes between their location and Earth's sun. Those sky-watching aliens would see our sun dim as Earth passes over it, just as humans have detected thousands of exoplanets by watching for suddenly-dimming stars in the night sky. What's more, if those alien astronomers have similar technology to ours, they could even detect traces of methane and oxygen in Earth's atmosphere, which would be potential signs of life, the researchers noted.

5. Aliens aren't responsible for FRBs (at least, not this one)

Fast radio bursts (FRBs) are millisecond-long pulses of radio light that blast through space thousands of times a day. Until recently, nobody had any idea what they were. Could it be aliens, pulsing the jets on their hyper-speed spacecraft? The idea had crossed at least one astronomer's mind. But for better or worse, that idea may be dead after astronomers successfully traced an FRB to a known source in the Milky Way for the first time ever.

The source, it turns out, was a magnetar: the fast-spinning, highly magnetized corpse of a long-dead star. For thousands of years after their formation, these temperamental objects cycle through periods of violent activity, beaming powerful pulses of X-ray and gamma-ray radiation into the universe around them at seemingly random intervals. While astronomers were watching one such outburst, they also caught an FRB beaming out of the dead star. Perhaps not all FRBs in the universe come from magnetars (aliens, you're still on notice), but this discovery goes a long way toward solving a decade-old mystery of the cosmos.

6. White dwarfs may be alien strongholds

About 4 billion years from now, Earth's sun will swell into a red giant, then collapse into a small, smoldering white dwarf. This fate is inescapable, and the odds of humankind fleeing to another star system are near-impossible. Maybe, if we're still around at the time, we could find a way to harness the dim light of our dead star and keep on trucking as a civilization. And maybe, a paper published earlier this year to the preprint database arXiv suggests, other alien civilizations are already doing the same.

White dwarfs have been largely ignored in the search for extraterrestrial intelligence (SETI), the paper's authors claim, as a dead star is unlikely to host a thriving civilization. But white dwarfs do sometimes have planets in their orbit – and a highly advanced civilization might be able to make their tiny sun work for them, even after death. Astronomers therefore shouldn't cut white dwarfs out of their SETI equations, the authors write; in fact, maybe we should be looking to them first.

7. Aliens might not breathe oxygen

Another underrated target in the search for alien life: oxygen-free planets. While it has been long assumed that alien life needs air to breathe, a study published May 4 in the journal Nature Astronomy argues that maybe "air" and "oxygen" aren't always synonymous. Hydrogen and helium are far more common elements in our universe (Jupiter's atmosphere is 90% hydrogen, for example), so what if an alien species evolved to breathe that stuff instead?

It turns out, it may be possible. The study authors exposed a type of non-oxygen-breathing bacteria called E. coli to two different "atmospheres" fabricated inside some test tubes. One set of flasks was pure hydrogen, the other pure helium. They found that the bacteria were able to survive in both conditions, though their growth was stunted. This experiment "opens the possibility for a much broader spectrum of habitats for life on diverse habitable worlds," study author Sara Seager, a planetary scientist at MIT, wrote in the paper.

8. Aliens (probably) didn’t build 'Oumuamua

The strange, cigar-shaped rock named 'Oumuamua has puzzled scientists since it was first spotted in our solar system in October 2017. The object was traveling too fast to have originated in our solar system, and seemed to be accelerating for no good reason. Some astronomers — particularly Harvard University astrophysicist Avi Loeb — said it could be an alien spacecraft, powered by a paper-thin sail. That theory met with ongoing skepticism this year, however, thanks to several studies that describe the object's potential natural origins.

One of the leading theories: 'Oumuamua is a "hydrogen iceberg" – essentially, a solid chunk of hydrogen gas that strayed away from its local star and into the icy heart of a giant molecular cloud. After leaving the core of the cloud, the berg was battered by radiation and molded into an elongated shape. Once it entered our solar system, hydrogen began boiling off of the icy rock, causing it to accelerate without leaving a visible trail of gas. It's a tantalizing theory that explains many of 'Oumuamua's quirks; still, Loeb believes aliens are the more likely explanation.

9. Four worlds hold the most promise

In our solar system, four worlds seem to have the right stuff for the possibility of life. The foremost is Mars — one of the most Earth-like worlds in our solar system. Earlier this year, a large lake was detected beneath the southern polar ice cap, giving new hope that tiny microbes could be present there (assuming they have something to eat).

The other three candidates are all moons: Jupiter's moon Europa, and Saturn's moons Enceladus and Titan. Like Mars, Europa hold the promise of water; its surface is a vast expanse of ice, which may conceal a gargantuan global ocean more than 60 miles (100 kilometers) deep. Enceladus, too, is an icy world that may holds liquid water deep beneath its surface. Recently, gargantuan geysers were spotted spraying water, grains of rocky particles and some organic molecules off of the moon and into space. Titan, meanwhile, is the only moon in our solar system with a substantial atmosphere, which is rich in nitrogen — an important building block of proteins in all known forms of life.

10. Alien hunting just got a little harder

On Tuesday, Dec. 1, the Arecibo Observatory's iconic radio telescope in Puerto Rico finally collapsed, after hanging on by a literal thread for nearly five months (two mysterious cable-snapping incidents in August and November left the telescope in dire condition).

The tragic collapse ends Arecibo's 57-year legacy of searching the cosmos for signs of extraterrestrial life. In 1974, the telescope broadcast the now-famous "Arecibo Message," declaring the technical prowess of humanity to any intelligent extraterrestrials that might be listening. So far, there have been no answers – but that message to the stars inspired the 1997 film "Contact," in which the Arecibo telescope plays a starring role. The telescope's loss leaves a gap in SETI that won't easily be filled.

• Originally published on Live Science

{ https://www.livescience.com/ }

27-01-2021 om 22:56 geschreven door peter  

'Resident Alien' launches from comics to Syfy this week

27-01-2021 om 22:36 geschreven door peter  

EXPERTS: WE SHOULD HIDE FROM THE APOCALYPSE IN UNDERGROUND CITIES

JULIAN HERZOG

{ https://futurism.com/the-byte }

27-01-2021 om 22:13 geschreven door peter  

Were Unveiled New English Government Documents, Previously Secret, Related To UFOs

Were unveiled new English government documents, previously secret, related to UFOs. They were published by the National Archives. The documents reveal atañidas cards with a massive UFO landing in the early sixties, involving multiple “places shock” throughout the country.

The documents were published as part of the wider dissemination of the Ministry of Defence (MoD). Among the thousands of pages of files is a letter to the Ministry of Defense of filmmaker John Keeling, who has been investigating the case, and the response of the MoD. The letter asks permission to speak with officials from the Ministry of Defence and the response of one of the officers says:

“Investigations of UFO sightings were one of my duties at that time. However, I say that the measure of my support may be limited by the requirements of the Official Secrets Act.

“When the original incident occurred there had been reports generated by witnesses, but all are lost. I was told some time that there is more information out ago, which is disappointing. It’s also instructive to see your name at the top of the secret archives of the Government! “

Police, scientists and Royal Air Force were sent to the area to examine a number of flying discs that had appeared in the fields of Britain. The documents reveal that Westland Whirlwind helicopter was sent from the RAF base at Manston to investigate the “alien spacecraft” who had “landed” in Sheppey.

They also show that 30 years after the incident senior officials of the Ministry of Defence thought muzzling the retired group captain of the Royal Air Force who was the intelligence officer who dealt with UFO sightings as part of their duties Ministry Defense at that time. National Archive files include letters of 1997 between the Ministry of Defense and the intelligence officer belonging to the Directorate of Scientific and Technical Intelligence.

The man claimed to have gone down to the police station and Bromley have examined a flying saucer that landed in that city, and wrote to the Ministry of Defense saying that he intended to participate in a television documentary on the case.

When he approached the Ministry of Defence in 1997, for permission to talk about the event, they considered gag him, but decided that would be the laughingstock if they did: “If we can not trust a former ripe official Defence Intelligence Secretariat, go astray, “he advised a senior defense chief.

The retired captain of the group, whose name is included in the files, described the deception as “very intelligent”.

“The fraud was executed with intelligence and seems destined to appear in a TV movie of the future and therefore deserves and needs accurately recorded. Can I get help with that goal? “.

Whitehall documents published in the National Archives show that in Whitehall “cheating flying saucer 1967″ was considered at the Ministry of Defense as a “bad joke obviously very successful.”

But let’s stop here for a moment. That summer of love, hippies and psychedelia, was also the year of an apparent alien invasion. The secret documents of the Ministry of Defense reveal fears of an alien invasion in the UK and details of a six flying saucers landing: Clevedon, Somerset; in Elm Tree, Lacock, Patterdown, Chippenham, Wiltshire farm; Welford, Newbury, Berkshire; in Nyewood House, Winkfield, Berkshire; in Bromley, Kent; and on the Isle of Sheppey, Kent.

Does the Ministry of Defence was trying to hide the facts? Did conceal the invasion and prevent the captain of the RAF speak? ¿As in Roswell, they labeled the case as a fraud, to hide the reality UFO? What he was behind that story?

THE NIGHT INVASION

It all started the night of 3 to 4 September 1967. The alien invaders arrived noiselessly. No spacecraft leaving gigantic shadows of miles wide about our great cities. They were not huge, circular ships, constructed from exotic alloys, but bright pods fiberglass and plastic that looked like giant fried eggs, and they were light enough to be carried by two burly men. There was no death rays or anything to make clear the prompt annihilation of mankind.

For beachhead on Earth, these modest aliens chose not Central Park in New York, or the gardens of the White House in Washington DC. Instead, this would be a close encounter very British. After traveling for tens of light years through interstellar space, a small armada of six flying saucers chose to land on the southern English soil, about equidistant points along the same latitude in the parallel 51 ° 30′N . Something magical and mysterious must have this parallel.

The flying saucer landed on the green of a golf course near Bromley, southeast London, and other areas scattered throughout the south of England and a hill in Somerset.

ThePiperAtTheGatesOfDawnPero see a little context that made their appearance these flying saucers. It was September 1967, three months before the appearance of the Magical Mystery Tour Beatles, and just a few weeks after the appearance of the first seminal disk space rock of Pink Floyd The Piper at the Gates of Dawn. The Cold War was at its peak. Five years ago the Cuban missile crisis had occurred and the space race kept everyone looking skyward. The interest in new technologies and innovations was at its highest point. UFOs were one of the hot topics in England. There were 360 ​​”sightings” British that year, almost one a day, and the media were taking seriously the issue of extraterrestrials.

It was also a time when the aliens had a prominent place in TV programming of the time, Dr. Who of the Quatermass series, a factor known to increase the reported sightings of aliens.

Under this context is not uncommon for a woman named Cynthia Tooth woke up in the middle of the night by a strange noise coming from the night sky. The woman got up and went to her bedroom window and saw a strange light, a UFO, she says, that “down behind some trees.” She alerted the local press the next day.

Bromley1Pero was not until the morning that a caddy named Harry Huxley, discovered an “egg” in the golf Bromley in South East London. Huxley had gone out early in search of lost balls. The boy decided to carry out the search of golf balls before reporting their finding.

But later that morning a policeman named Gordon Hampton ( “Flash” to his friends and colleagues  Huxley saw while patrolling the streets around the area in his panda car. Huxley spoke of his encounter with the “egg”.

BromleyCuando Hampton police officer left his car, he heard a “creepy noise” from the UFO. He radioed the station, convinced that this was something alien, but at first was careful not to use the words “spaceship” or “UFO” on the airwaves (this was a time when police radios not were routinely encrypted and were heard by radio amateurs).

“I found a strange object” he told his boss, who asked him to describe. As the conversation was difficult, eventually the Hampton agent admitted that he had found a flying saucer. A support group was sent Bromley station to see if he was drunk or telling the truth.

BromleyMás later, the decision of the police to bring the dish through the streets of Bromley to the season, earned them a serious reprimand of senior Scotland Yard officers, who were concerned that might have contaminated the city.

Once the UFO was in custody, the officer in charge of the operation, Superintendent Sheppard, telephoned someone in Scotland Yard known as the “Back Hall Inspector”. BHI work was to answer the unusual requests of police forces in the country, and contact the relevant government departments. He called the bomb disposal team of Scotland Yard, in order to review it with portable X-ray equipment The report landed on a desk at the Ministry of Defense, just after 9 am.

The mystery deepened when several similar objects were found in other sites across southern England, spread in a line along the same latitude.

Clevedon1Cuando southern England awoke, they report that the country was under attack filtered. Clevedon, Somerset, in a paperboy, Neal Batey, 15 years old, he found a flying saucer in Dial Hill. This guy ran to his shop and told his boss. Everyone laughed. But in fact discovered on that hill of Somerset flying saucer eventually worked his way up the chain of command of the defense industry to be analyzed by the designer in chief of the division of guided weapons in the British Aircraft Corporation [but I had no idea what they were.

Clevedon2El Sergeant John Durston said it was “identical to the class of spaceships seen in the television science fiction.”

But Sergeant Durston was skeptical that the flying saucer had come from outer space.

“I think it’s a kind of experimental object, but what purpose ?, I’m afraid I do not know”.

{ https://dailymysteries.com/ }

27-01-2021 om 21:58 geschreven door peter  

The stories of people within the government or military coming forth with tales of encounters with UFOs or alien beings are numerous. They always seem to come from someone who claims to be in the know, and a first hand witness to what the government is up to behind closed doors, making them seem to be the best witnesses there are. Yet many times such reports go off to derail into the truly outlandish, to the point that even the most open-minded individual might take pause, and one of these must certainly be the story of an ex-Air Force man who tells of the mysterious entities he calls the “Tall Whites.”

One of the stranger stories to come from a supposed insider revolves around an ex-U.S. Air Force personnel by the name of Charles Hall, who says that in 1964 he was stationed at Nellis Air Force Base in Nevada when he first became aware that the government had had ongoing contact with extraterrestrials since the 1950s. He says that there were three main types of aliens on Earth talking with the military and meeting with them at a top secret base. According to him there are the Greys, some of which actually have yellow or orange skin, the Nordics, who look completely human and have 24 teeth, and then there are the very mysterious entities he calls the “Tall Whites.” It is the latter that Hall has spent much of his time talking about, and he says of his first acquaintance with them:

In 1964, when I was a weather observer at Nellis Air Force Base in Nevada, I witnessed interactions between the military and a group of mysterious tall, white, human-like extra-terrestrials. Their craft are capable of traveling faster than the speed of light because Einstein was wrong about relativity. When you encounter the ‘tall whites’ it’s such a shock, you are not sure if you are looking at a ghost or an angel, or if you are dreaming.

They are described as being 7 feet tall or over, very slender and with alabaster white skin, thin, straight blond hair, and large piecing blue eyes that gradually turn pink as they grow older, which can take a long time as they are claimed to live for up to 800 years. Despite their freakish height, Hall claims that they can more or less blend into human society with the right disguises, and although they communicate with each other with barking or whistling sounds, they are able to emulate human speech. They are so more or less human-looking in fact, they Hall has claimed that the Tall Whites would often head into Las Vegas to go to Casinos along with a CIA entourage, with the Stardust being their favorite place to go. One suspects they’d fit right in in Vegas.

Hall claims that the Tall Whites are from the star system called Arcturus, which is about 100 light-years from Earth, and that they gave the U.S. military much technology. In exchange for this, the U.S. built bases for the aliens, specifically designed for their height and with very precise environmental settings in order to make them as comfortable on our world as possible. Hall even says that there were play areas made for the Tall Whites’ children. However, according to Hall, the aliens only ever really spoke to higher level officials, and were very wary and nervous around human beings in general. He says that they were paranoid, and all carried with them a pencil-like device that could “influence ions in the human body” to stun or kill a person, mesmerize them, cause pain, or control their muscular responses, although they thankfully rarely used them. He would say of his experience living with them and trying to communicate with them:

You can’t go hunting for them or approach them. They have to come to you and the children are especially curious by nature. It was a traumatic experience being isolated in the desert, alone with someone so different and obviously more advanced than us. At first I thought I was going insane. But I learned over time how to communicate, how to approach them and to never try and force them to do anything. Their nervous systems operate very quickly and they are very protective, very suspicious of our intentions.

Hall claims he had some rather weird and often frightening incidents with the Tall Whites. He says that they would sometimes hypnotize him for reasons he couldn’t understand, and that they would often berate him, calling him a lesser being and a “teacher’s pet.” The most terrifying experience he had with them was the time he claims a group of Tall Whites jumped him in the desert and physically assaulted him. The aliens allegedly injured him very badly, explaining later that they had merely wanted to observe a human being in the midst of fighting for his life. In general, the Tall Whites seem to be rather indifferent to the humans, merely trying to maintain a peaceful, symbiotic relationship so that they may continue to use our planet as a stopover base and strategic location.

It all sounds like pure, science fiction mumbo jumbo, and indeed Hall originally wrote of the Tall Whites as fiction in his series of science fiction novels Millennial Hospitality, but according to him this is all real and he merely wrote the story under the guise of fiction because he had feared coming forward with his experiences. He has said that he has not seen the Tall Whites since he went off for a tour of duty in Vietnam, and that he did not feel truly safe to come forward with his information until his children had grown up and moved out. Hall, who also claims to be a nuclear physicist, has continued to give talks on his experiences with the Tall Whites and we are left to puzzle over what to make of all of this. It all seems so absurd, and to many it is, but there have been others who have held on to it as a genuine case. Is there anything to this at all, or is it just delusional ranting? No matter what one might think, the story of the Tall Whites has remained impressed upon the landscape of ufology, and will probably not go away any time soon.

RELATED VIDEOS, selected and posted by peter2011

{ https://mysteriousuniverse.org/ }

27-01-2021 om 20:36 geschreven door peter  

Whitley Strieber’s Alien Abduction & Encounter With Stranger Who Told Him Universe Secrets

Born in Texas, USA, Whitley Strieber is famous for his horror novels “The Wolfen,” “The Hunger,” and “Communion.” He has been known for his fiction and non-fiction works, but the Communion is actually based on a real incident that happened with Strieber in the 1980s.

Read also:

• British Politician Claimed E.T. Race Mantids Wants To Repopulate Earth With Alien Hybrids
• Aliens From Andromeda Told US Army Personnel That Humans Are Composite of 22 different E.T. races
• After Ex-US Marine Captured UFO In His Cell Phone In 2007, He Experienced Multiple Alien Abductions
• Story Of ‘Star People’ By Indian Elder & Alien Ship Crashed In 1945, Rescued By Mothership After Months

Strieber’s work was also featured in many movies and TV shows. He is a world-acclaimed best-selling author, but his popularity went up after his non-fiction novel “Communion” got published in 1987, which tells about the author’s encounter with non-human intelligent species. It became a big hit in Strieber’s career and was The New York Times’ No. 1 non-fiction bestseller novel.

A movie based on the “Communion” book was created in 1989, starring Christopher Walken and Lindsay Crouse.

The author’s real encounter with aliens happened on December 26, 1985, when he was sleeping alone in his cabin in the woods, upstate New York. That night, he was awakened by an unusual noise. When he opened his eyes, he saw a small alien creature approaching his bed.

The next thing he remembered was that he felt disoriented and aggressive, as he had no clue what did happen. After few months, he went through regressive hypnosis and recalled that he had been abducted and physically assaulted by someone whom he designated as “Visitors” to keep the possibility of extraterrestrials’ involvement low.

Whatever he had recalled in the hypnosis became the story of his best-selling novel. Since that night, he was full of curiosity about the unknown visitors.

Another strange incident witnessed by Streiber happened on June 6, 1988, at the Delta Chelsea Hotel in Toronto. It was 2:30 in the morning, and he woke up by the knock at the door. He thought it was room service, but there was a strange man.

Strieber said: “It was a man I described as about 5 and a half feet tall, older-looking, like someone in his 70s. He wore dark-colored clothing, a turtleneck and charcoal slacks.”

Strieber discussed this incident in his novel “The Key: A True Encounter,” published in 2000. He said the stranger stood near the window and did not move for long. He wrote everything that the strange man spoke.

“Mankind is trapped,” the stranger told Strieber. “I want to help you spring the trap.” He was not sure who this man really was, a “Master of Wisdom” or someone from a different dimension, but the one thing Strieber was sure in was that this encounter was real.

The conversation between them was about a life lesson, science, and ethics, where the stranger tried to tell him why humans had been caught in a cycle of repeat violence and self-destruction, and the small, but the very real, possibility for release.

When the author asked him about technologies, the strange man replied:

“An intelligent machine will always seek to redesign itself to become more intelligent, for it quickly sees that its intelligence is its means of survival.

At some point, it will become intelligent enough to notice that it is not self-aware. If you create a machine as intelligent as yourselves, it will end by being more intelligent.”

A lot of things happened that night in Toronto as Strieber said. He asked many questions, and the visitor told him many things in detail related to Universe and catastrophic events that occurred in the Earth’s history.

The most interesting part of the conversation was when the stranger told the author about the presence of multiple universes. “There are more galaxies in your universe than there are stars in your galaxy, and more universes in the firmament than there are galaxies in your universe,” the stranger told Strieber.

The conservation was 45 minutes long. The more the stranger spoke, the more author’s curiosity rose. At one point, Strieber wanted to ask him something else, but the stranger asked him to drink something that he was holding in his hand. He drank it without hesitating and fell asleep immediately.

The identity of the stranger has never been found out, and this incident made the author look into the future and think about where humanity is going. The stranger talked about science which is yet to be discovered by humans.

Strieber’s claim of alien abduction is still doubtful for many people, but John B. Alexander, a former Green Beret Commander and developer of weapons at Los Alamos, New Mexico said:

“For more than two decades, I have been interacting with Whitley Strieber and found him to be one of the most intelligent and thoughtful researchers in the field.”

References:

• coasttocoastam.com/show/2013-04-06-show/
• https://www.huffpost.com/entry/communion-author-whitley-strieber_n_943681

RELATED VIDEOS, selected and posted by peter2011

{ https://www.howandwhys.com/ }

27-01-2021 om 17:26 geschreven door peter  

Charlie Red Star: Alien Spaceship Visited Canadian Nuclear Site Every Night In 1975

A Winnipeg-based report says that in the last 200 years, 2000 UFO sightings have been reported in the Canadian province Manitoba. In the mid-1970s, there were hundreds of UFO sightings all over the US-Canadian border. The places where a huge number of UFOs were spotted are Ontario, Manitoba, Wisconsin, Minnesota, and North Dakota.

Read also:

• British Politician Claimed E.T. Race Mantids Wants To Repopulate Earth With Alien Hybrids
• Aliens From Andromeda Told US Army Personnel That Humans Are Composite of 22 different E.T. races
• Whitley Strieber’s Alien Abduction & Encounter With Stranger Who Told Him Universe Secrets
• Story Of ‘Star People’ By Indian Elder & Alien Ship Crashed In 1945, Rescued By Mothership After Months

These sightings included the highest number of cattle mutilations, and the UFOs were often seen over restricted areas where nuclear activities were performed. Canadian UFO researcher Chris A. Rutkowski spent more than 25 years studying the UFO sightings in Canada. He concluded that Manitoba has a long history of close alien encounters.

He said:

“It’s not a recent phenomenon. It’s not a phenomenon that’s a product of television and movies that are going on right now. These things go back quite a number of years. People have been fascinated with things in the sky and wondering, ‘Are we alone in the universe?”‘

Rutkowski donated his UFO research, which contains 30,000 UFO reports, to the University of Manitoba in Canada. His reports include information about the Falcon Lake incident which, according to him, is the best-documented UFO case of Canada.

Author Grant Cameron published his book “Charlie Red Star: True Reports of One of North America’s Biggest UFO Sightings” in 2017, in which he described in detail how the Manitobans had witnessed the largest UFO sightings in history. The province was stunned by the object known by the name “ Charlies Red Star,” which had been seen almost every night in 1975.

Cameron said that he personally witnessed Charlie Red Star multiple times at night, even tried to chase it. According to him, a glowing red plasma-looking ball used to visit a small town called Carman, Manitoba, near Winnipeg almost every night. It is the same time period when Travis Walton claimed to have been abducted by UFO for 5 days.

Once, a Winnipeg TV station captured footage of Charlie Red Star which made Cameron chase it. He was in his car when the red ball flew very close in front of it. He said that moment had changed his life forever.

Cameron noted: “I took pictures and analyzed them painstakingly. I investigated the sites the object had reportedly landed. There were so many reports it was hard to talk to everyone.”

He stated that one of the US media outlets wanted to name Carman “The UFO Capitol Of The World,” but it never happened as the sightings suddenly stopped.

Cameron believes that Manitoba UFO sightings have connections with Nuclear weapons because 35 years later, he found out that there were restricted areas where the government secretly installed nuclear missiles and other weapons just south of the border at the beginning of 1975. Later in November, the missiles were removed and so the sightings also stopped.

In the last 75 years, military pilots have reported unexplained aerial phenomena (UAPs) near the sites associated with nuclear weapons, power, and technology.

According to journalist George Knapp, UFOs had been seen in almost every nuclear facility (Los Alamos, Livermore, Sandia, Savannah River).

The author thinks the nuclear technology that humans possess could be created after extraterrestrial contact.

References:

• https://www.livescience.com/canadian-ufo-collection-falcon-lake-incident.html
• https://www.dundurn.com/news/Nuclear-Secret-Brought-Aliens-Manitoba-1975
• https://www.history.com/news/ufos-near-nuclear-facilities-uss-roosevelt-rendlesham

{ https://www.howandwhys.com/ }

27-01-2021 om 17:09 geschreven door peter  

27-01-2021 om 16:18 geschreven door peter  

UFO dropping orbs over Phoenix, Arizona 23-Jan-2021

This strange phenomenon was filmed in the sky above Phoenix, Arizona. Larger UFO was dropping smaller orbs, this happened on 23rd January 2021.

RELATED VIDEO, selected and posted by peter2011

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

27-01-2021 om 15:22 geschreven door peter  

Earth lost a record 28 TRILLION tonnes of ice between 1994 and 2017 — equivalent to a sheet over 300 feet thick covering the whole of the UK

• Experts from the University of Leeds surveyed global ice loss using satellite data

• They found the annual rate of ice melt has increased by 65 per cent since 1994

• Increases have been mainly driven by losses from the polar ice sheets, they said

• Melting ice raises sea levels across the globe, threatening people and wildlife

By IAN RANDALL FOR MAILONLINE

A record-breaking 28 trillion tonnes of ice — enough to cover the whole of the UK in a sheet over 300 feet thick — melted from the face of the Earth between 1994–2017.

Researchers from the University of Leeds carried out the first ever global survey of ice loss using data collected from satellites orbiting our planet.

The team found that the annual rate of ice loss increased by 65 per cent over the 23-year period — going from 0.8 trillion tons in the nineties up to 1.3 trillion tons. 

The accelerating melt — which continues to get worse — has been driven largely by steep increases in losses from the polar ice sheets in Antarctica and Greenland.

Ice melt serves to raise sea levels across the globe, increases the risk of flooding to coastal communities and endangers natural habitats that wildlife depend upon.

Scroll down for video

A record-breaking 28 trillion tonnes of ice — enough to cover the whole of the UK in a sheet over 300 feet thick — melted from the face of the Earth between 1994–2017. Pictured, a stream of meltwater cuts through the ice sheet in Greenland, one of the areas examined in the study

Researchers from the University of Leeds carried out the first ever global survey of ice loss using data collected from satellites orbiting our planet, the results of which are pictured

'Although every region we studied lost ice, losses from the Antarctic and Greenland ice sheets have accelerated the most,' said paper author and earth scientist Thomas Slater, of the University of Leeds.

The ice sheets are now following the worst-case climate warming scenarios set out by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.'

'Sea-level rise on this scale will have very serious impacts on coastal communities this century.'

'Over the past three decades there's been a huge international effort to understand what's happening to individual components in Earth's ice system,' he added.

This endeavour, he explained, has been 'revolutionised by satellites which allow us to routinely monitor the vast and inhospitable regions where ice can be found.'

'Our study is the first to combine these efforts and look at all the ice that is being lost from the entire planet.'

According to Dr Slater and colleagues, the rising ice loss is due to the warming of Earth's atmosphere and oceans — which have, respectively, seen temperature increases of 0.5°F (0.26°C) and 0.2°F (0.12°C) each decade since the 1980s.

The majority — 68 per cent — of global ice loss was driven by atmospheric melting, while the remaining 32 per cent of losses have been driven by oceanic melting.

The team's survey covered 215,000 mountain glaciers spread around the planet, the polar ice sheets in Greenland and Antarctica, the ice shelves floating around Antarctica and sea ice drifting in the Arctic and Southern Oceans.

'Sea ice loss doesn't contribute directly to sea level rise but it does have an indirect influence,' said paper author and earth scientist Isobel Lawrence, also of Leeds.

'One of the key roles of Arctic sea ice is to reflect solar radiation back into space which helps keep the Arctic cool.'

'As the sea ice shrinks, more solar energy is being absorbed by the oceans and atmosphere, causing the Arctic to warm faster than anywhere else on the planet.

'Not only is this speeding up sea ice melt, it's also exacerbating the melting of glaciers and ice sheets which causes sea levels to rise.'

The accelerating melt — which continues to get worse — has been driven largely by steep increases in losses from the polar ice sheets in Antarctica and Greenland. Pictured: an artist's impression of a 1 trillion tonne cube of ice — each face 10 km wide — looming over New York City. The Earth's glaciers and ice sheets have lost 28 times this amount since the early nineties

Experts have estimated that for every centimetre of sea level rise, approximately a million people are placed at risk of being displaced from their low-lying homelands.

Despite storing only one per cent of the Earth's total ice volume, glaciers were found to have contributed to almost a quarter of the global ice losses over the study period — with all glacier regions around the world losing ice.

'As well as contributing to global mean sea level rise, mountain glaciers are also critical as a freshwater resource for local communities,' said paper author and climate scientist Inès Otosaka, also of the University of Leeds.

'The retreat of glaciers around the world is therefore of crucial importance at both local and global scales.'

The full findings of the study were published in the journal The Cryosphere.

WIND-BLOWN MINERAL DUST FUELS MICROBES ACCELERATING MELT OF GREENLAND ICE SHEET

Pictured: algal blooms on Greenland's ice

Phosphorus dust blowing across the Greenland ice sheet may be fuelling ever-larger blooms of microscopic algae that lower the reflectiveness — or 'albedo' — of the ice, resulting in faster melting, a study has found.

Researchers led from the University of Leeds took samples from the southwestern margin of the Greenland ice sheet over a two-year period. 

The team found that phosphorus in surface dust — contained within a mineral known as 'hydroxylapatite' is a vital nutrient for the algal growth and is responsible for a low-albedo band of ice dubbed 'the Dark Zone'.

The melt season in the Dark Zone, the team explained, has been occurring earlier and lasting longer each year since the turn of the millennium. 

The hydroxylapatite is being blown out onto the ice from local rock outcrops, the researchers explained — a trend which will increase with climate change as dryland areas in the northern latitudes become drier still.

'The photosynthesis rate of the ice algae improved significantly when we provided them with a source of phosphorus,' said paper author and geomicrobiologist Jenine McCutcheon.

'Our mineralogy results revealed that the phosphorus used by ice algae may be coming from the hydroxylapatite we identified in the mineral dust.'

'It's important to understand the controls on algal growth because of their role in ice sheet darkening.'

'Although algal blooms can cover up to 78 per cent of the bare ice surfaces in the Dark Zone, their abundance and size can vary greatly over time.'

'From one season to the next, algal blooms may change and vary in intensity, making them difficult to model year-to-year.'

'The findings of this study will improve how we predict where algal blooms will happen in the future, and help us gain a better understanding of their role in ice sheet albedo reduction and enhanced melting.'

The full findings of the study were published in the journal Nature Communications.

Read more:

• TC - Review article: Earth's ice imbalance
• Mineral phosphorus drives glacier algal blooms on the Greenland Ice Sheet | Nature Communications

{ https://www.dailymail.co.uk/ }

27-01-2021 om 12:17 geschreven door peter  

Ice Is Disappearing Across the Planet at Record Rate

By UNIVERSITY OF LEEDS

Meltstream cuts through Greenland ice sheet.

Credit: Ian Joughin

The rate of global ice loss is speeding up, according to new research.

And the findings also reveal that the Earth lost 28 trillion tonnes of ice between 1994 and 2017 – equivalent to a sheet of ice 100 meters thick covering the whole of the UK.

The figures have been published today (Monday, January 25, 2021) by a research team which is the first to carry out a survey of global ice loss using satellite data.

The team, led by the University of Leeds, found that the rate of ice loss from the Earth has increased markedly within the past three decades, from 0.8 trillion tons per year in the 1990s to 1.3 trillion tons per year by 2017.

Ice melt across the globe raises sea levels, increases the risk of flooding to coastal communities, and threatens to wipe out natural habitats which wildlife depend on.

The findings of the research team, which includes the University of Edinburgh, University College London and data science specialists Earthwave, are published in European Geosciences Union’s journal The Cryosphere.

The research, funded by UK Natural Environment Research Council, shows that overall, there has been a 65 % increase in the rate of ice loss over the 23-year survey. This has been mainly driven by steep rises in losses from the polar ice sheets in Antarctica and Greenland.

Lead author Dr. Thomas Slater, a Research Fellow at Leeds’ Centre for Polar Observation and Modelling , said: “Although every region we studied lost ice, losses from the Antarctic and Greenland ice sheets have accelerated the most.

“The ice sheets are now following the worst-case climate warming scenarios set out by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. Sea-level rise on this scale will have very serious impacts on coastal communities this century.”

Dr. Slater said the study was the first of its kind to examine all the ice that is disappearing on Earth, using satellite observations .

He added: “Over the past three decades there’s been a huge international effort to understand what’s happening to individual components in Earth’s ice system, revolutionized by satellites which allow us to routinely monitor the vast and inhospitable regions where ice can be found.

“Our study is the first to combine these efforts and look at all the ice that is being lost from the entire planet.”

The increase in ice loss has been triggered by warming of the atmosphere and oceans, which have warmed by 0.26°C and 0.12°C per decade since the 1980, respectively. The majority of all ice loss was driven by atmospheric melting (68 %), with the remaining losses (32%) being driven by oceanic melting.

The survey covers 215,000 mountain glaciers spread around the planet, the polar ice sheets in Greenland and Antarctica, the ice shelves floating around Antarctica, and sea ice drifting in the Arctic and Southern Oceans.

Rising atmospheric temperatures have been the main driver of the decline in Arctic sea ice and mountain glaciers across the globe, while rising ocean temperatures have increased the melting of the Antarctic ice sheet. For the Greenland ice sheet and Antarctic ice shelves, ice losses have been triggered by a combination of rising ocean and atmospheric temperatures.

During the survey period, every category lost ice, but the biggest losses were from Arctic Sea ice (7.6 trillion tons) and Antarctic ice shelves (6.5 trillion tons), both of which float on the polar oceans.

Dr. Isobel Lawrence, a Research Fellow at Leeds’ Centre for Polar Observation and Modelling, said: “Sea ice loss doesn’t contribute directly to sea level rise but it does have an indirect influence. One of the key roles of Arctic sea ice is to reflect solar radiation back into space which helps keep the Arctic cool.

“As the sea ice shrinks, more solar energy is being absorbed by the oceans and atmosphere, causing the Arctic to warm faster than anywhere else on the planet.

“Not only is this speeding up sea ice melt, it’s also exacerbating the melting of glaciers and ice sheets which causes sea levels to rise.”

Half of all losses were from ice on land – including 6.1 trillion tons from mountain glaciers, 3.8 trillion tons from the Greenland ice sheet, and 2.5 trillion tons from the Antarctic ice sheet. These losses have raised global sea levels by 35 millimeters.

It is estimated that for every centimeter of sea level rise, approximately a million people are in danger of being displaced from low-lying homelands.

Despite storing only 1 % of the Earth’s total ice volume, glaciers have contributed to almost a quarter of the global ice losses over the study period, with all glacier regions around the world losing ice.

Report co-author and PhD researcher Inès Otosaka, also from Leeds’ Centre for Polar Observation and Modelling, said: “As well as contributing to global mean sea level rise, mountain glaciers are also critical as a freshwater resource for local communities.

“The retreat of glaciers around the world is therefore of crucial importance at both local and global scales.”

Just over half (58 %) of the ice loss was from the northern hemisphere, and the remainder (42 %) was from the southern hemisphere.

Reference: “Earth’s ice imbalance” by Thomas Slater, Isobel R. Lawrence, Inès N. Otosaka, Andrew Shepherd, Noel Gourmelen, Livia Jakob, Paul Tepes, Lin Gilbert and Peter Nienow, 25 January 2021, The Cryosphere.
DOI: 10.5194/tc-15-233-2021

Funding: UK Natural Environment Research Council

 { https://scitechdaily.com/ }

27-01-2021 om 12:02 geschreven door peter  

Made of stone, the temple has three mud-brick warehouses on its southeastern side that held offerings made to the queen and her husband. 

Near the pyramid, the team of Egyptian archaeologists also found a series of burial shafts containing the remains of people who lived during the 18th and 19th dynasties of Egypt (1550 BCE - 1186 BCE), the ministry said in the statement, which was released Jan. 16.

These burials were likely part of a Teti-worshipping cult that formed after the pharaoh's death. The cult seems to have remained active for more than a millennium, with people wanting to be buried near the pharaoh's pyramid. So far, the team has uncovered more than 50 wooden coffins in these shafts, along with a wide array of objects. 

• Related: In photos: A look inside an Egyptian mummy 

Book of the Dead

One of the most fascinating objects found in the burial shafts is a 13-foot-long (4 meters) papyrus that contains Chapter 17 of the 'Book of the Dead', a manuscript that ancient Egyptians used to help guide the deceased through the afterlife.

The name of the papyrus's owner, Pwkhaef, is written on it; that same name was also found on one of the wooden coffins and on four shabti figurines meant to serve the deceased in the afterlife. 

Though scientists are currently analyzing the text, other copies of Chapter 17 contain a series of questions and answers – a cheat sheet of sorts for people trying to navigate the afterlife. Whether the newly found copy of Chapter 17 has the same question-and-answer format remains to be seen. 

Inside the burial shafts, the archaeological team discovered a stela that belonged to a man named Khaptah, who is identified as the overseer of the pharaoh's military chariot, and his wife, Mwtemwia.

The top part of the stela shows the couple paying homage to Osiris, the Egyptian god of the underworld, while the lower part shows the couple seated on chairs with six of their children in front of them. Their three daughters are shown seated and smelling lotus flowers, while their three sons are shown standing.

The archaeologists aren't certain which pharaoh(s) Khaptah served. It's possible that he served Ramesses II (who reigned from 1279 BCE to 1213 BCE), a pharaoh known for his military campaigns that expanded Egypt's empire as far north as Syria.

An inscription on the stela says that two of Khaptah's children are named after family members of Ramesses II. One of Khaptah's daughters is named Nefertari (the same name as Ramesses II's main wife) and one of his sons is named Khaemweset (the same name as one of Ramesses II's sons). 

Board games and mummies

Other discoveries in the burial shafts near the pyramid included a bronze ax, board games, statues of Osiris and several mummies, including the mummy of a woman who appears to have suffered from familial Mediterranean fever, a genetic disorder that causes recurring fever and inflammation of the abdomen, joints and lungs. 

(Egyptian Antiquities Ministry)

Above: The top of the stela shows the couple paying homage to Osiris; the bottom shows the couple seated with six of their children.

A shrine dedicated to Anubis – the god of the cemetery – was also found near the burial shafts, as were statues of the god. 

The Egyptian team that made the discovery includes archaeologists from the Egyptian antiquities ministry and the Zahi Hawass Center of Egyptology at the Bibliotheca Alexandrina. 

Related content:

• 16 of the most interesting ancient board and dice games
• Photos: Mummies discovered in tombs in ancient Egyptian city
• Photos: Ancient Egyptian general's tomb discovered in Saqqara

This article was originally published by Live Science. Read the original article here.

{ https://www.sciencealert.com/ }

26-01-2021 om 23:59 geschreven door peter  

Encounters With Star People: Three Native Indians Describe An Encounter Of The “First Kind”

Dr. Ardy Sixkiller Clarke, a Professor Emeritus at Montana State University who is Cherokee/Choctaw has been researching the Star People and collecting encounters between them and Native Indians for many years. In her book, “Encounters With Star People, Untold Stories of American Indians” she details many of these stories, and explains how her fascination with Star People came from stories told to her by her older relatives, like her grandmother, when she was a child. Be sure to visit her website to find out more about her work.

I’ve been reading the book for quite some time now and I find myself having a great deal of trouble actually finishing it because everytime I come across a new story, I want to share it with our readers. I’ve written multiple articles that take excerpts from her book. So far I’ve written about a story she shared regarding an elder who told her about a ship that crashed on his reservation. You can read that story here. I wrote about another elder who shared a story of a petrified alien heart, which he claimed belonged to the Star People, and you can read that one here. I’ve written one about an elder who claimed to have been told that humans were one of four violent species in the universe, you can read that here. I wrote about a fascinating story  regarding a man who had an encounter  during an Alaskan blizzard, you can read that here, and another one where a gentlemen was told “not to be afraid.” You can read that here.

This particular story comes from three American Indians who are military veterans. All three of them were stationed together at an Air Force base when this event occurred. An encounter of the “first kind” refers to a UFO sighting in close proximity.

Arlan:

Clarke knew Arlan 15 years before he told her his story. She describes how they first met while he served on the interview committee established by her school (Montana State University) in the hiring of a new faculty position that would recruit American Indian students and teach in the College of Education. Arlan was on the hiring committee, and after Clarke was hired she stayed in contact with him and became part of his extended family,

He frequently stopped by my office at the University on his monthly trip to Helena to meet with the governor’s liaison on Indian Affairs. On one such visit, we sat in my office discussing tribal politics, when I noticed he was staring at the poster hanging on the wall. It pictured a UFO with words underneath it that read, “I believe.” “Do you believe?” he asked, pointing to the poster. “I do,” I replied. “I believe too,” he began.”

“When I was in the service, I was in the Air Force, most indians join the army, but I joined the Air Force. One night the whole base was on alert. An unidentified object appeared on radar. It was headed straight for the base. Several jet fighters scrambled in pursuit. They returned but the base remained on alert. That meant we were all in full combat uniform and dispersed around the perimeters.”

This story corroborates with information that has now been declassified by multiple governments and intelligence agencies around the world. It’s a well known fact than when a UFO, or as they are termed within the mainstream now, “Unidentified Aerial Phenomenon” (UAP) is tracked on radar, the military scrambles jets to take a closer look. One (out of thousands of similar cases) great example comes from a case I’ve shared a number of times. This incident occurred on the night of September 18th, 1976. A U.S. Defense Intelligence Agency and NSA report describes the encounter in detail. Furthermore, both of the pilots involved discussed the event years later.

Residents of the city  (Tehran, Iran) noticed a big bright object in the sky. The airport traffic controller also noticed, “it was an intensely bright object that was not supposed to be there.” The Iranian Air Force was contacted and they dispatched two F-4 fighter jets to check out the object.

Both of the F-4 interceptor pilots reported seeing the object visually, it was also tracked on their airborne radar. Both planes experienced critical instrumentation and electronics go offline at a distance of twenty-five miles from the object. Here is an excerpt from the report:

“As the F-4 approached a range of 25 nautical miles it lost all instrumentation and communications. When the F-4 turned away from the object and apparently was no longer a threat to it, the aircraft regained all instrumentation and communications. Another brightly lighted object came out of the original object. The second object headed straight toward the F4. ”

Back to the story. I just wanted to provide a brief example.

Arlan continues:

Around 2 a.m., a spacecraft appeared. It hovered over the base for a good 30 minutes. There were windows where you could see shadows moving, like someone walking around. We all stood there, our rifles ready to fire. The order never came. The UFO just hovered there, not moving, not making a sound. One foolish airman broke rank and ran in the direction of the craft, shouting and waving his rifle in the air. A beam of light shot out of the craft. He was frozen on the spot. When the light retracted, he fell on his face. A few seconds later, the craft flew away. Two hours later, we were called together and told it was a test and ordered not to talk about the event. I never did. I kept it a secret until this moment.”

“Why now” Clarke asked.

It’s that poster. That craft looked identical to the one we saw that night. “After the incident, did you ever talk to your buddies about it?” I asked. I never did. Within hours of the sighting, I was transferred to a different base. My friends were transferred out the same day. We were given 12 hours to prepare for our transfers. There was a lot of paperwork. We didn’t have much time to talk about the transfers or about the UFO. Some of us exchanged home addresses, but you know how it is when you’re 18. You think you’ll write, but you never do. I never saw or heard from any of those guys again.

Arlan did however know the names and addresses of the men when they were enlisted, and through that Clarke was able to track them down for a chat. Keep in mind this incident occurred decades ago.

Max:

Clarke asked Max about the UFO incident.

Yes, I remember. The brass told us never to talk about it. In fact, they said if we did talk, they would come after us. They told us we had witnessed a top-secret test to determine how we would react under unusual and stressful situations. I never believed them. It was a barefaced lie, and they thought we were so inexperienced and dumb that we would buy into anything…They said it was an experimental craft. It was all lies. Not even the big boys knew what that craft was or where it originated. They were shaking in their boots and the last thing they wanted was for the word to get out.

The idea that this could be some sort of experimental craft/technology that the military possesses is not so far fetched. There are documents, for example, that show the U.K. was “desperate” to get their hands on UFO technology. There are interesting statements from interesting people, like Apollo 14 astronaut Dr. Edgar Mitchell who once said that “yes, there have been crashed craft and bodies recovered.” Even an article in the New York Times from last year covered the story about retrievals of “off-world vehicles not made on this Earth” in a serious manner. (You can read more about “mainstream UFO disclosure” here.) In his book, “Forbidden Science 4,” Dr. Jacques Vallee explains how he came in possession documents showing that forced “UFO abductions” were conducted by the CIA as psychological warfare experiments. I obtained a document from the CIA’s electronic reading room that details a story about a famous German Engineer, George Klein, describing his experience with “Flying Saucer” technology in Germany, claiming that it’s been operational since 1941.

The point is there is a lot of information out there suggesting that governments, or even more powerful institutions have had and do have this type of capability.

But for some reason, I do believe Max in this case. Despite all of the evidence that we have suggesting some of this technology is in our possession, UFO lore is littered with stories like this from military bases and nuclear weapons facilities.

Max continues:

Arlan, Hank and me – we were sent to protect the entrance to the base. We took our positions and waited for an unknown enemy. We must have been there for over an hour. I was cold and my teeth were chattering. That’s when it happened. The craft came out of nowhere. Not a sound. Suddenly it just appeared hovering silently over the base. We didn’t know what to do. We are all nervous as hell. Our commanding officer told us not to fire, but to be ready to respond if something happened. This one guy, I don’t know if he lost his mind or what, went running toward the craft shooting. A light came out of the craft and he was stopped in his tracks for just a moment as though he was paralyzed, and then he dropped to the ground unconscious. A few moments later, the craft moved silently upward and disappeared into the night.”

A couple of years later, after I re-enlisted, I ran into one of the medics who was on-duty at the hospital that night when the UFO appeared. He told me that the guy was burned all over this face and body. He said he heard a doctor say it was radiation. He said they kept him in a sleep-induced coma for a while, and then they just let nature take its course. He died within a month of the incident.”

This is interesting and it also corroborates with other incidents out there. Stefan Michalak, for example, was involved in a UFO incident in Manitoba, Canada. It’s known the “Falcon Lake Incident” and is quite famous among Canadian UFO researchers. Stefan also suffered severe burns from the crafts he encountered.

According to Stefan’s son, Stan Michalak, who co-authored a book detailing his father’s encounter titled When They Appeared: “I recalled seeing him in bed. He didn’t look good at all. He looked pale, haggard. . . .When I walked into the bedroom there was a huge stink in the room, like a real horrible aroma of sulphur and burnt motor. It was all around and it was coming out of his pores. It was bad.”

Below. you can see the burn marks left from the encounter. Stefan is of many who have had this type of ‘evidence’ left on their body after an alleged encounter. Below is a sketch done by Stefan of the craft he encountered. You can read more about this story here.

Max continues:

Clarke asks Max to describe the craft.

It was huge. Bigger than anything I had ever seen. It just hung there in the sky. Like it was suspended on strings. It made no sound. I would say it was probably about 50 or 60 feet around. Maybe 25-to-35 feet tall. There were windows but you couldn’t see through them. Very small windows but only a dull light emitted from them. The craft was gray metal, perfectly smooth. No angles. Just a perfect circle. It was dark but all the lights at the base were on so we had a good view. I couldn’t see any seams on the craft. That was unusual. It was like it was one piece or there was a skin stretched over it to make it look that way. I saw blue and white lights when it hovered over the base. There were reddish-orange flashing lights that came on as it moved away. It flew upward at first and then disappeared into the night sky within seconds.”

We saw them in Vietnam sometimes. Frequently we would see several at a time, but they never came close. They just flew over, sometimes, in formation. It was like they were observing the war. The pilots talked among themselves. Those of us who worked on the planes heard their conversations. The pilots were concerned about the UFOs. At first they thought they were some kind of communist aircraft sent to scare us out of Vietnam. There were stories of jets that crashed when they pursued them, but most pilots knew what we all knew: these craft were not from this planet. We were no match for them.

Clake goes on to find the third man, Hank, and he tells the exact same story as Max and Arlan. If you want to read more stories like this, make sure you check out the book. The link is at the top of this article.

The Takeaway: 

I’ve said it many before, so I apologize if this is a repeat for you but I’ll say it again, the ET phenomenon truly leaves no aspect of humanity untouched and greatly expands human consciousness and the way we perceive ourselves, the cosmos, and the nature of reality. Just think of all that would change when we consider not only the existence of off-world civilizations but also the technology they use to get here. Perhaps other races use their technology for discovery, advancement, service to others and more instead of simply using it to profit in some way, or use it to make weaponry like we do? I don’t know. At the end of the day what we need more on our planet is to question the way we live here, what we are doing here and why we live the way we do when we have so much potential to create a human experience where everybody can thrive. The question of “are we alone” is a big one, but thousands of other questions will come forth when we realize, for sure, that we’re not and that we are being visited and have been visited for quite some time.

Cover Photo Credit:

• Billy Meier. Supposed authentic picture of a UFO he captured. 

{ https://www.collective-evolution.com/ }

26-01-2021 om 23:31 geschreven door peter  

Microsoft Granted Patent to Reanimate Dead People as 3D ‘Chatbots’

Literally straight out of a Black Mirror episode.

26-01-2021 om 22:51 geschreven door peter