UFO activity over Panjab, India 25-Feb-2021

These unknown lights were filmed in the night sky above  Ludhiana, Panjab, India on 25th February 2021 and it was just submitted to us through our Facebook page.

RELATED VIDEOS AND INFORMATION, selected and posted by peter2011

UFO Spotted in Ludhiana? Residents Claim They Saw a Shiny Unidentified Object in Sky

Watch the video here:

Many others also captured the alleged UFO and shared it on Twitter. Here are those videos:

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

04-03-2021 om 14:58 geschreven door peter  

FBI 'aware of' American Airlines possible UFO sighting, stops short of confirming investigation

American Airlines flight 2292 was traveling from Cincinnati to Phoenix when pilot spotted 'long cylindrical object'

04-03-2021 om 01:13 geschreven door peter  

 Suzanne Rowan Kelleher - Forbes Staff

I write about travel trends and news you can use.

A radio transmission from an American Airlines from Cincinnati to Phoenix last weekend might have been ripped straight from the X-Files.

“Do you have any targets up here? We just had something go right over the top of us,” said the pilot at 1:19 p.m. CST on Sunday. “I hate to say this but it looked like a long cylindrical object that almost looked like a cruise missile type of thing moving really fast right over the top of us,” according to audio published on aviation blog Deep Black Horizon.

The blogger, Steve Douglass, intercepted the transmission accidentally as he was trying to pick up another aircraft with a radio scanner. “It was a pure coincidence,” he told The Arizona Republic.

Douglass used two flight tracking websites, Flightradar24 and Flight Aware, to determine that the exact position of the plane was “over the northeast corner of New Mexico west of Clayton, New Mexico” at an altitude of 37,000 feet.

Douglass’ blog post includes a link to download the audio MP3 file, which he named “UFO.”

Following a debrief with the flight crew, American Airlines confirmed that the radio transmission came from flight 2292.

Yesterday, the FAA released a short statement: “A pilot reported seeing an object over New Mexico shortly after noon local time on Sunday, Feb. 21, 2021. FAA air traffic controllers did not see any object in the area on their radarscopes.” 

While authorities may never be able to explain what the missile-like object was, it’s not the first time a pilot has spotted unexplained flying phenomena. In fact, it happens fairly regularly.

A remarkably similar incident occurred over the Sonoran Desert three years ago. On February 24, 2018, within minutes of each other, two pilots flying different aircraft — a Phoenix Air Group Learjet and an American Airlines commercial flight — both reported passing a mysterious object, according to audio recordings released by the Federal Aviation Administration to the Phoenix New Times several weeks later.

“Was anybody above us that passed us like 30 seconds ago?” the Learjet pilot asked an air traffic controller. “Negative,” replied the tower.

In November 9, 2018, a British Airways pilot flying over Ireland reported seeing “a very bright light that disappeared at very high speed,” reported The Guardian. A Virgin Airlines pilot confirmed seeing it, too: “Multiple objects following the same sort of trajectory – very bright from where we were.”

Experts say there is usually a very logical explanation for UFO sightings, and the U.S. government has had a famously long history of being tight-lipped on the subject. In recent years, however, there’s been some notable movement on that front.

In 2017, the Pentagon acknowledged the existence of a $22-million Advanced Aerospace Threat Identification Program that had investigated reports of “unexplained aerial phenomena” from 2007 until it was shut down in 2012.

In April 2019 the U.S. Navy announced it was modifying how pilots reported UFO sightings in favor of a more data-driven approach, telling Politico that there had been “a number of reports of unauthorized and/or unidentified aircraft entering various military-controlled ranges and designated air space in recent years.”

The next month, five Navy pilots told the New York Times that they had frequently seen unidentified flying objects that looked like white Tic Tacs or spinning tops off the Eastern seaboard from Virginia to Florida between 2014 and 2015. The objects, they said, reached hypersonic speeds and heights of 30,000 feet without any visible engine or exhaust trails.

One 10-year veteran, Lieutenant Ryan Graves, said he saw these objects on a daily basis. “These things would be out there all day,” Graves told the Times. “With the speeds we observed, 12 hours in the air is 11 hours longer than we’d expect.”

Of course, unexplained is not the same as extraterrestrial. “It's probably one part of the military not telling the other part of the military what they're up to,” speculated Bill Nye the Science Guy to CNN’s Brian Stelter at the time. (And to be fair, once in a while a military branch ‘fesses up.)

Last April, the Pentagon declassified and released three videos taken by Navy pilots — one from 2004 and the others from 2015 — in order to “clear up any misconceptions by the public on whether or not the footage that has been circulating was real, or whether or not there is more to the videos,” per a statement, noting “the aerial phenomena observed in the videos remain characterized as ‘unidentified.’”

Americans wondering if the truth is out there will likely learn a lot more about UFOs later this year.

Buried deep in last December’s Covid relief bill, tucked into the “committee comment” section of the Intelligence Authorization Act, is a provision that requires U.S. intelligence agencies to tell Congress what they know about UFOs by mid-2021.

READ MORE

• Why Ted Cruz’s United Airlines Flight Info Was Hiding In Plain Sight
• The First Large-Ship Cruise Line Announces Vaccine Requirement

{ https://www.forbes.com/ }

04-03-2021 om 00:59 geschreven door peter  

Parker Solar Probe reveals dazzling image of Venus

During a flyby, the NASA spacecraft surprised scientists with an image of the Venusian surface.

 by Paula Ferreira

 

Launched in 2018, the Parker Solar Probe is a NASA mission focused on observing the Sun’s corona, zooming closer and closer to our star. The spacecraft is currently the closest object to the sun made by humans and it’s already shown us the highest resolution image of the sun, revealing insights such as the stunning solar ‘campfires‘.

When not looking at the Sun, the Parker probe is focusing on comets. On 2019 September 2, it observed the comet 322P/SOHO in its closest approach to the sun. The spacecraft detected the dust particles being ejected through 322P’s tail. In 2020, a more interesting image showed the NEOWISE comet with its double tail — the brightest comet in the northern hemisphere since. The astonishing photo of NEOWISE depicted above was made with Wide-Field Imager the instrument aboard the Solar Probe (WISPR), designed to provide images of the corona and inner heliosphere in visible light.

This time, WISPR brought us an incredible view of Venus. Parker Solar Probe is tightly intertwined with Venus, as the planet sustains the spacecraft’s orbit, and sometimes there is a good opportunity for a flyby. Scientists didn’t lose the opportunity of photographing the planet and the result was a stunning image of the Venusian surface.

The shot was taken when the spacecraft was 12,380.68 km (7,693 miles).  What grabs attention first is the aura-like around the planet which makes the dark sky a little brighter. Scientists believe it is like Earth’s airglow, an emission of light caused by particles in the atmosphere. This is notoriously difficult to overcome in astronomy photography.

If you take a closer look, you will notice a darker region on the surface of the planet. This is the Aphrodite Terra, a highland area roughly as big as the African continent. It seems darker because it is cooler than the surroundings. Aphrodite Terra also features some large mountains and lava flows, which you can’t really see in this photo.

It is however possible to see streaks all around the surface, although scientists are not sure yet what they mean. There are many possibilities, they could be cosmic rays, dust reflected by sunlight or even ejected by the spacecraft itself.

The team had already taken a similar shot with the latest flyby on 2021 February 20, This time they decided to observe in the near-infrared as well. This wavelength is the one used in remote controls of your TV. It is not absorbed by dust, so will be able to see a clear image of the surface of the planet. The results will be received by the end of April, so fingers crossed for more surprising announcements from Venus.

RELATED VIDEOS, selected and posted by peter2011

{ https://www.zmescience.com/ }

04-03-2021 om 00:36 geschreven door peter  

Russian Astronaut On The ISS Allegedly Sees 5 UFOs In New Footage

I’m not sure this story would have been so widely covered if it had happened 3 or 4 years ago, but given the rise in public awareness around UFOs, Russian cosmonaut Ivan Vagner’s footage of what appears to be 5 lights ‘flying’ in unison was met with mainstream media curiosity.

Vagner referred to the lights as:

“Space guests, or how I filmed the new time-lapse […] you will see something else, not only the aurora”

He made these statements in a Tweet showcasing footage of a breathtaking time-lapse of aurora australis over the earth taken from the International Space Station (ISS) where he is stationed. Vagner does admit that these are only potentially UFOs as he writes in a follow up Tweet:

“At 9-12 seconds, 5 objects appear flying alongside with the same distance,” Vagner wrote in a follow-up tweet. “What do you think those are? Meteors, satellites or … ?”

In the footage, which you can see below, we see the aurora australis passing near Antarctica and Australia. At around the 9 second mark, you see what looks like 5 lights flying in unison coming up from the Earth horizon. The video you see below was shot in a time-lapse, therefor the brief images of the 5 objects you see coming up over the horizon lasted for about 52 seconds.

This is not the first time ISS related footage of what appear to be UFOs has been brought to public awareness. Although in previous incidents, the mainstream media was less interested in reporting on it. Perhaps due to the general lack of public acceptance? We wrote back in 2015 and 2016, about two separate occurrences where NASA cut live video feeds of the ISS following what appeared to be strange phenomenon caught on tape. Both incidents are linked above, and while neither can be proven as being an actual craft, it is interesting to note that live feed footage was cut on both occasions.

“There is abundant evidence that we are being contacted, that civilizations have been visiting us for a very long time, that their appearance is bizarre from any kind of traditional materialistic western point of view, that these visitors use the technologies of consciousness, they use toroids, they use co-rotating magnetic disks for their propulsion systems, that seems to be a common denominator of the UFO phenomenon.”

 Dr. Brian O’Leary, former NASA astronaut and Princeton physics professor (source)

The Takeaway

It is no secret that UFOs have become a much more widely accepted topic in recent years. This is primarily due to widespread mainstream media coverage of recent US Navy footage that was released and confirmed to be UFO in nature. This essentially means they do not know what these flying objects are. The next plausible question is “who is manning these craft?”

For those interested in exploring this topic further, it’s important to note that the evidence available in the realm of the UFO, ET and contactee phenomenon is extremely vast. It’s not a fringe topic where cheap evidence is brought forth in the form of grainy images or videos online, it’s a realm where high ranking military, government personnel, astronauts and more high profile figures have personally blown the whistle to share evidence with the public that western governments refuse to share at this time. We’ve covered this topic in great detail over the last 11 years and you can find tons of information going through our archives or by watching our coverage on CETV. 

RELATED VIDEOS, selected and posted by peter2011

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

03-03-2021 om 20:40 geschreven door peter  

{ https://www.techexplorist.com/ }

03-03-2021 om 18:48 geschreven door peter  

By Stacy Liberatore For Dailymail.com  

© Provided by Daily Mail MailOnline logo

Singapore-based Kelley Aerospace has officially launched the world's first supersonic unmanned combat aerial vehicle (UCAV).

Called 'Arrow,' the drone is designed with a single-shell made of lightweight carbon fiber that allows it to reads speeds up to Mach 2.1 – exceeding the speed of sound.

The UCAV is fitted with a reduced radar cross-section and infra-red signature, and is designed for multiple combat or reconnaissance roles.

The firm says it has already received more than 100 pre-orders for the war machine, which costs between $9 million to $16 million.

Scroll down for video 

© Provided by Daily Mail Singapore-based Kelley Aerospace has officially launched the world's first supersonic unmanned combat aerial vehicle

'The Arrow is designed to complement manned aircraft and be a force multiplier in the aerial battlefield,' Kelley Aerospace shared on its website.

A manned combat aircraft would control 'multiple' Arrow UAVs, tasking 'each with a different missions.'

This would allow military officials to add a variety of weapons depending on the mission.

Kelley also says that Arrow can launch autonomously or be remotely controlled by two ground station controllers.

© Provided by Daily Mail Called 'Arrow,' the drone is designed with a single-shell made of lightweight carbon fiber that allows it to reads speeds up to Mach 2.1 – exceeding the speed of sound

© Provided by Daily Mail The firm says it has already received more than 100 pre-orders for the war machine, which costs between $9 million to $16 million

Arrows maximum weight is 37,038 pounds, but its monocoque design 'endows the Arrow with outstanding strength and stiffness,' the firms shared in a statement.

Video: Drones are growing into a $100 billion industry (CNBC)

However, what makes this machine so special is that it is the first to travel faster than the speed of sound, which is Mach 1 – but Arrow can reach Mach 2.1.

It is estimated that it will not cost more than $16 million with prices going as low as $9 million.

Kelley notes that this 'allows more airframes to be purchased and yet, have a multi-role supersonic UCAV to perform high-risk missions as it does not necessarily need to return home.'

The firm conducted the first scale prototype test flights in 2014, Flight Global reports.

Kelley Aerospace plans to be a big player in the supersonic area, and its Arrow UCAV may be the push it needs to take over the space.

© Provided by Daily Mail A manned combat aircraft would control 'multiple' Arrow UAVs, tasking 'each with a different missions.' This would allow military officials to add a variety of weapons depending on the mission

At a launch event in Singapore in December 2020, the company disclosed it was also developing a supersonic business jet. 

And two prototypes are reporting undergoing testing in the USA and Sweden.

Kelley Aerospace chief executive Ian Lim says: 'UAVs are known for their persistence…loitering, [but] are never known for their speed. So with the Arrow supersonic UAV, you will overcome the issues of speed and reach.'

Other fighter jets do have the ability to reach supersonic speeds, but most are only capable of doing so for short bursts.

© Provided by Daily Mail Last year, the Pentagon announced plans to commission a prototype for prototype of a new supersonic Air Force One that could one day ferry the president around the world at nearly twice the speed and half the time currently required to travel

And new F-35 fighter jets is one of them.

The jets, which have also been bought by the US Navy and Marine Corps, are at risk of 'structural damage' when hitting their top speeds of around 1,200mph, potentially hindering their ability to intercept other planes, according to a report by the US Department of Defense.

Last year, the Pentagon announced plans to commission a prototype for prototype of a new supersonic Air Force One that could one day ferry the president around the world at nearly twice the speed and half the time currently required to travel – but the innovation is still in early developmental phases.

{ https://www.dailymail.co.uk/ }

03-03-2021 om 18:29 geschreven door peter  

There can be very few people – if any at all – who have never experienced the phenomenon of Déjà vu. There are two overriding theories for what causes Déjà vu: one is that now and again time itself has a glitch, albeit usually a very brief glitch that leaves us feeling slightly weird and a bit uneasy. The other theory is far more down to earth: that Déjà vu is caused by the occasional misfiring of the brain. Healthline have addressed the matter and provide us some fascinating material: ‘”‘Déjà vu’ describes the uncanny sensation that you’ve already experienced something, even when you know you never have. Say you go paddleboarding for the first time. You’ve never done anything like it, but you suddenly have a distinct memory of making the same arm motions, under the same blue sky, with the same waves lapping at your feet. Or perhaps you’re exploring a new city for the first time and all at once feel as if you’ve walked down that exact tree-lined footpath before. You might feel a little disoriented and wonder what’s going on, especially if you’re experiencing déjà vu for the first time.”

Scientific American have tackled this slightly jarring phenomenon, too: “Carrie-Anne Moss, as Trinity in The Matrix trilogy, tells us (and Keanu Reeves as Neo) that déjà vu is a ‘glitch in the Matrix’’ – the simulated reality that keeps humanity unaware that intelligent machines have actually taken over the world. That explanation is perfect for cyberpunk science fiction, but it doesn’t give us any scientific understanding of the phenomenon. We associate the feeling of déjà vu with mystery and even the paranormal because it is fleeting and usually unexpected. The very things that intrigue us about déjà vu are the same things that make it hard to study. But scientists have tried using tricks like hypnosis and virtual reality.”

Frontiers for Young Minds offer these words: “The percentage of people who experience déjà vu is probably somewhere between 30% (about 8 in a class of 30) and 100% (everyone in a class of 30). We are not sure about the exact percentage for two important reasons. First, we cannot ask everyone in the world so we have to use the results of surveys of small groups of people. This is a problem because surveys can give us quite different results depending on who we ask. Second, people can give very different answers depending on the definition we give of déjà vu. Asking the question in different ways can get very different results. We can also get an idea of how often déjà vu happens by asking people. Again, the answers they give depend on who they are and how we ask them the question, but most people report déjà vu somewhere between every few weeks and every few months. Typically, this means that déjà vu is not very common so if you have experienced it recently you are very lucky!”

Going back to the matter of the mind itself causing Déjà vu, Penn Medicine have some interesting data: “Though much rarer, déjà vu is sometimes a sign of a seizure, specifically an epileptic seizure. ‘About 60 percent of people with epilepsy have something called a focal seizure, which is in just one part of the brain. This can be in the same part of the brain where memory is stored: the temporal lobe,’ says Dr. Spears. Focal seizures can be hard to recognize as seizures because they are short and you remain conscious throughout. A person having one may look like they are having a staring spell or daydreaming.

“Some people who have focal seizures may experience intense feelings of déjà vu. This is often accompanied by: Motor feelings, which impact your ability to control your muscles, like twitching or the inability to move certain muscles; Sensory feelings, involving taste, touch, smell, vision, and hearing, like tasting or hearing something that’s not real; Sudden and unexplainable feelings of joy, anger, sadness, or nausea; Strange, repetitive behaviors, such as blinking, twitching, or moving your mouth involuntarily; An unusual sensation that a seizure is about to occur, called an aura.”

Despite the medical explanations for Déjà vu, what about the movie-themed explanation for the mystery? Did the Matrix movies inadvertently play into a real situation: that reality is not what it appears to be? And, just like the situation in the movies, time is not as we perceive it to be?

{ https://mysteriousuniverse.org/ }

03-03-2021 om 17:32 geschreven door peter  

Two Suns Seen Over Isle Of Man, England On Feb 2, 2021, Video, UFO Sighting News.

 

Date of sighting: Feb 2, 2021

Location of sighting: Isle of Man, England

 

The eyewitness goes by the name GoldeNLemonZ on Youtube. He posted a video back on Feb 2 of not one, but two suns seen during sunset. The video was taken at Isle of Man, an island belonging to England. Now I believe that second sun is actually a round UFO that is trying to go unnoticed slowly into the ocean...matching speed with the sun setting, so everyone believes its a reflection, but its not. It's a cloaked UFO lowering into the ocean. Its also proof that there is an alien base in that location, about 5-6km below the ocean floor. 

Scott C. Waring - Taiwan 

 

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

03-03-2021 om 16:53 geschreven door peter  

NASA's Mars Perseverance rover captured this (low resolution) image using its onboard Left Navigation Camera (Navcam) on 3/1/2021 (Sol 9).

The image shows something in the Martian sky that doesn't look natural.

The object is not a speck of dust on the camera lens since 4 images taken at the same time show that the object only appears in the third image. 

It looks like there is something flying in the sky. Could the object be of alien origin?

Links:

https://mars.nasa.gov/mars2020-raw-

images/pub/ods/surface/sol/00009/ids/edr/browse/ncam/NLE_0009_0667755959_167ECM_N

0030000NCAM05000_05_0LLJ02_320.jpg 

Link below, check out Sol 9.

https://mars.nasa.gov/mars2020/multimedia/raw-images/

  

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

03-03-2021 om 14:14 geschreven door peter  

UFO Orb filmed over Encinitas, CA 28-Feb-2021

This bright unidentified flying object or orb was hovering in the daytime sky above Encinitas, California on 28th February 2021.

Witness report: 

White orb travelled across sky. Stopped. Then changed direction and came towards us before ascending and vanishing from sight. On Sunday late afternoon, we watched and partially filmed a prominent white orb travel across the sky. It was moving from North to South, when we first saw it. I called for my son to go grab my cell phone. When he retrieved the phone he began to film it. He pointed the phone towards the eastern sky. At this time, the object stopped moving North/South and hovered in the eastern sky. It then proceeded to move from east to west towards the coast. We followed if for a couple of minutes before it ascended and disappeared from our view. In the video, the erratic movement is due to my son not holding the phone still. The object did not move erratically. it moved in a straight and deliberate path and hovered before changing direction (90 degrees). It was very high in the sky (near to wear we see airplanes). It was much larger than a balloon and smaller than an aircraft by my estimation. It was white, spherical, very reflective, and had no visible characteristics of a plane, common drone, or hot air balloon.

Approximately 15 minutes after it disappeared, a small non-military personal aircraft circled the exact location in the eastern sky where the object hovered. It did multiple, tight circular passes, which seemed odd. It then left the area. 5 minutes later, 3 military ‘Osprey’ aircraft came into the same airspace (heading from west to east). This may have been unrelated, as we often see military planes heading in this direction frequently going to and from Air Station Miramar.

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

03-03-2021 om 14:06 geschreven door peter  

Perseverance Rover's Descent and Touchdown on Mars: Onboard Camera Views

{ http://www.nasa.gov/ }

03-03-2021 om 01:52 geschreven door peter  

Evidence for a Great Evolutionary Leap Finally Found?

Humans, chimpanzees, and gorillas all move similarly, and they share common anatomies. However, until now, it’s remained unknown how exactly humans were related to these other primates. That mystery of the “evolutionary leap” has now been solved, and the implications are Biblical.

Professor Thomas Cody Prang is a name you might hear more about very soon. He is an assistant professor of anthropology at Texas  A&M University  and he led the team of scientists who recently made the breakthrough in evolutionary sciences. The researchers analyzed a 4.4 million-year-old skeleton from an Ardi hominid ( Ardipithecus ramidus , Ardipithecus)  that was discovered in Ethiopia, and their new observations were made in its “exceptionally well preserved hands.”

Ardipithecus ramidus, ‘Ardi.’ ( Fair Use ) Studying Ardi’s skeleton was key in discovering more about the evolutionary leap.

Well-Preserved Hands Holding Clues for an Evolutionary Leap

The so-called “Ardi’s” hands were compared with hundreds of others hand specimens from “recent humans, great apes, and dry-nosed primate.” The researchers looked at the types of  locomotor behavior and hand restrictions experienced by the earliest hominins (fossilized human ancestors). The results of the study were published in  Science Advances and show how early first humans  began walking upright.  Furthermore, it demonstrates how humans came to perform the range of movements we still use today.

• Why are humans unique? It’s the small things that count
• New Study Solves Flower Mystery that Baffled Charles Darwin

Confirming Darwin’s Evolutionary “Theory” was a “Fact”

Study author Thomas Cody Prang  says that among other things the study, as a whole, “confirms  Darwin’s theory  of the origin of man from apes.” This conclusion was reached after the scientists analyzed hundreds of bone samples and compare hand shapes, which reflect  adaptations to primate habits  and lifestyles. And with this new knowledge of how bone shape reflects behaviors, Dr. Prang says his team of researchers were able to draw inferences about the behavior of extinct species, such as the  Ardipithecus.

Examination of the hand bones in this particular skeleton have given scientists deep insights into early hominin stone  tool making and use.  The aforementioned “large evolutionary leap,” however, was found when Dr. Prang compared Ardi’s hand with those of later hominins, including the species to which  Lucy belonged ( Australopithecus).

Left: Scientific paleoartist Jay Matternes' rendition of Ardi. ( Fair Use ) Right:  A reconstruction of a female Australopithecus  afarensis.

( Public Domain )

Looking at the evolutionary timeline this observed genetic “leap” occurred at what the researchers calls “a critical juncture when the  hominins evolved  to adapt to a more human form of upright walking.” According to the new paper the fact that Ardi represents an earlier phase in human evolutionary history, “is important because it potentially sheds light on the species of ancestors from which humans and chimpanzees descended.”

The evolution of hominin hands and feet reflects an evolutionary shift toward enhanced manipulative capabilities and obligate bipedalism, respectively.  Partial hands, partial feet, and stone tool exemplars are depicted here and supplemented by reference to more fragmentary specimens preserving functionally relevant anatomies. Gray bars, facultative bipedalism; black bars, obligate bipedalism; red bar, approximate timing of hypothesized hominin evolutionary shift.  

(Prang, T.C. et al./ Science Advances 2021 )

Cementing Darwinism for Future Generations

What is perhaps the most impactful aspect of this new research project is that supports classic  Darwinism. In 1871 Charles Darwin had little understanding of genetics, and less so about the use of hands in pre-history. He noted that upper limbs were used for manipulation and that they appeared in early human relatives in connection with upright walking in ancient humans. However, until now not everyone has been a fan of Darwin’s theory, and perhaps he has experienced no less fierce an enemy than the might of the Catholic Church.

According to a 2001 article in the  Irish Times , the president of the Centre des Etudes et de Prospective sur la Science ( CEP), a 700-strong Catholic organization linked to scientists  contesting evolution,  said “Evidence does not support the theory of evolution.” They added that Darwin’s theory was “on the way out.”

• Java Man and the Discovery of the ‘Missing Link’ in Evolutionary Theory
• The Feet and Hands of Homo Naledi were Similar to those of Modern Humans – Could this be the Evolutionary Link Paleontologists Were Waiting for?

These Catholic scientists maintained “No empirical proof exists that macro-evolution (that is, evolution from one distinct kind of organism into another) is occurring at present, or has ever happened in the past. No one, throughout recorded history, has ever seen it.” Furthermore, they argue that if evolution “had taken place” there should have been a great many transitional structures preserved in fossilized form recording the stages of development from one type of organism to another type.

Well. Guess what? That evidence has now been provided. Major changes in the anatomy of Ardi’s hands, and in the way all later hominins evolved, between approximately 4.4 and 3.3 million years ago, coincides with the earliest evidence for the loss of the  grasping big toe  in human evolution, according to the researchers. And if this is not the required hard evidence of evolution, then nothing will ‘work’.

• Top Image: Scientists have found important evidence for an evolutionary leap between ancient hominids.
• Source:  David Carillet  / Adobe Stock

By Ashley Cowie

{ https://www.ancient-origins.net/general }

03-03-2021 om 01:40 geschreven door peter  

Scientists Bring Global Pole Shift Fears Into Focus

Scientists have published a paper revealing the catastrophic effects of a “Laschamps excursion” around 42,000-years-ago. A Lascah-what? A “Laschamps excursion” is better known in today’s vocabulary as a pole shift event. The “Cataclysmic Pole-Shift Hypothesis” is largely regarded as a fringe theory about a shifting of the relative positions of the Earth’s geographic poles. The results of pole shifts are often presented in popular culture as great tectonic events that spark global calamities such as floods and landslides.

However, now, a new scientific study suggests that the last time the Earth’s magnetic field “flipped around, then flopped back again,” the effects on Earth’s surface were just like how literature and the movies portray pole shifts.

An ancient kauri (Agathis australis) tree log from Ngawha, New Zealand, which was used as primary evidence in the recent scientific pole shift study.

( Nelson Parker )

Poles Shifts And The Earth’s Flipping Magnetic Field

The new study was published in the journal Science and reviewed in Science News . Opening with an analysis of fossilized Kauri (Agathis australis) trees from New Zealand that died over 41,000 years ago the researchers present new data about the Earth’s atmosphere at that time. The authors say our planet suffered a series of “unfortunate events” which overlapped with a “Laschamps excursion” event when the Earth's magnetic field flipped, resulting in a pole shift.

In 2006, the disaster movie Absolute Zero featured a “polar shift” that brought on an Ice Age in Florida. The 2009 Polar Storm film also explored the effects of rapid pole reversal. However, the recently published Science study is the first academic paper to consider such a wide swath of possible post-pole shift consequences.

• Prehistory Decoded at Gobekli Tepe: From a Cataclysmic Event Dawns the Origin and Perhaps the End of Civilization
• Viking Runestone Uncovers Climate Fears That Fed Ragnarök Myth

The chemicals preserved within the fossilized Kauri tree rings served the researchers as an ancient library of atmospheric records detailing the Earth's magnetic field’s effect on the ozone layer . Furthermore, the researchers were able to derive data about solar activity and space weather in different periods of time that they say all “impacted ancient people and wildlife on Earth.”

How incredible that an ancient kauri tree log from  New Zealand can tell us so much about what the Earth was like 42,000 years ago during a pole shift.

( Nelson Parker )

The Last Pole Shift? 800 Years Of Wonky Magnetics!

Last January, the New Zealand Herald announced the discovery of the 41,000 years old Kauri trees and the new study reveals that they had lived during the entirety of the last Laschamps excursion event. This pole shift event is thought to have lasted about 800 years after which the Earth’s magnetic field corrected itself “by flipping backwards.”

The study revealed that between 41,600 to 42,300 years ago the Earth’s magnetic field was only “six percent of its full strength.” The mean date for the pole shift event was calculated at about 42,000 years ago. This fact inspired the researchers to call the last pole shift “The Adams Event,” after author Douglas Adams who wrote Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy , which famously states “the number 42 is the answer to the ultimate question of life, the universe and everything.”

• Huge Penguins Added to the List of New Zealand’s Extinct Species
• Chaos and Cover-ups: What Evidence Exists of an Ancient Pole Shift?

Taking all this right back to Earth one wonders how did the so-called Adam’s Event affect our ancient forebears who were busy hunting, trapping, fishing and developing survival technologies ? Co-author of the new study, University of New South Wales geoscientist Chris S.M. Turney, told the New York Times that “it must have seemed like the end of days.”

Explaining this dramatic statement Turney said it would have been bad enough if just the Earth’s magnetic field was weakened, but ice core data revealed the sun was also in a period of lowered activity. With fewer solar flares, the sun’s protective shield would have been bombarded with cosmic rays meaning “the heliosphere" (the vast, bubble-like region of space that surrounds and is created by the sun,) was also weakened.”

According to the researchers comments on the Conversation, with both its magnetic field and heliosphere diminished Earth was “doubly at risk from cosmic radiation.” With a thinner ozone layer, the aurora borealis would have appeared closer to the equator.

Furthermore, the paper says the increased ultraviolet radiation reaching the Earth’s surface would have translated into a human experience of “raging electrical storms, and Arctic air reaching across continents.”

Measuring Up The Prospects Of A Pole Shift Today

Environmental effects linked to the last pole shift include “the extinction of large animals in Australia, and the demise of Neanderthals, and humans using red ocher pigments in their cave arts and as sun screens.”

Scientists generally agree that any such changes in the magnetic field today, including reversals, “probably don’t pose a threat to life.” The main modern threat is our electronic infrastructure on Earth and in the sky. This is because space weather events such as geomagnetic storms, arising from the interaction between the magnetic field and incoming solar radiation, could seriously disrupt satellite communications, GPS and power grids.

And while our lives might not be washed away in floods this is a troubling prospect when we consider the economic cost of a collapse of the US power grid due to a space weather event has been estimated at “around one trillion dollars.” And the pole shift threat is deemed serious enough in the UK that it is regarded as a high priority on the national risk register.

RELATED VIDEOS, selected and posted by peter2011

• Top image: An abstract depiction of Earth with its magnetic rings, which are affected by pole shifts.        
• Source: Petrovich12 / Adobe Stock

By Ashley Cowie

{ https://www.ancient-origins.net/ }

03-03-2021 om 01:25 geschreven door peter  

Newfound Comet Leonard will blaze into view this year

A new comet is on its way in toward the sun, with prospects that it may become bright enough to see with the unaided eye by year's end. 

The object in question is Comet Leonard, catalogued C/2021 A1 and was discovered by astronomer Gregory J. Leonard on Jan. 3 at the Mount Lemmon Observatory, also known as the Mount Lemmon Infrared Observatory. The observatory is located on Mount Lemmon in the Santa Catalina Mountains, approximately 17 miles (28 kilometers) northeast of Tucson, Arizona. Mr. Leonard is a senior research specialist for the observatory's Lunar and Planetary Laboratory's Catalina Sky Survey. 

When Mr. Leonard found the comet's image, it was an exceedingly faint object of magnitude 19. That is nearly 160,000 times dimmer than the faintest stars visible to the unaided eye. Not surprisingly, when it was first sighted the comet was some 5 astronomical units from the sun (one astronomical unit, or AU, is equal to the Earth's average distance from the sun of 92.855 million miles, or 149.565 million km). So, at a distance of 5 AU, Comet Leonard was out near the orbit of Jupiter, far from the sun, but just beginning to feel the effects of its warming rays and slowly beginning the process for it to blossom into a conspicuous celestial object. 

• Related: The 9 most brilliant comets ever seen 

Evolution of a "hairy star" 

Today we know comets to be made primarily of frozen gases that are heated as they approach the sun and made to glow by the sun's light. As the gases warm and expand, the solar wind — subatomic particles radiating out from the sun — blow the expanding material out into the comet's beautiful tail. 

To observers of antiquity, the tails resembled a head of flowing hair, so they called comets "hairy stars." Professional astronomers can observe anywhere from half a dozen to a dozen comets on any given night. But comets bright enough to excite those of us without big telescopes are rather unusual, perhaps appearing on an average of one or two years to every 10-15 years. 

Of course, memories are still fresh from the striking appearance last summer of Comet NEOWISE. And some are no doubt hoping that we might have a December redux with Comet Leonard.

Coming from a long way out

When Comet Leonard was first sighted, it was about at that distance from the sun that methanol (CH3OH) and water start sublimation; in other words, going directly from a frozen state into a gas. And in some images, there was even evidence of a faint tail. 

The first calculations demonstrated that it is traveling in an exceedingly long, flattened elliptical orbit taking it out as far as 3,500 AU from the sun — 325 billion miles (523 billion km). "Out there," temperatures are just a fraction of a degree above absolute zero: minus 459.67 degrees Fahrenheit (minus 273.15 degrees Celsius) — so cold that particles stop moving. In essence, after being in a frozen state for tens of thousands of years, Comet Leonard was beginning to awake from its long slumber. 

Guarded optimism

There are a couple of reasons for being optimistic about Comet Leonard brightening up to naked-eye brightness. First is the comet's orbit itself. Its orbit demonstrates that it is not a "new" comet coming directly from the Oort cloud — an icy shell around the solar system where comets appear to originate before swoop around the sun — and experience the effects of sunlight — for the first time. 

Rather, Comet Leonard is traveling in a closed orbit and probably visited the vicinity of the sun at least once before, about 70,000 years ago. That in itself is good news. A "new" comet in a parabolic orbit — that is, a comet that has never passed near the sun before — may have its surface covered with very volatile material such as frozen carbon dioxide, nitrogen, and carbon monoxide. These ices tend to vaporize far from the sun, giving a distant comet a surge in brightness that can raise unrealistic expectations. Then as they draw closer to the sun, their rapid brightening suddenly slows and they end up falling far short of brightness expectations. 

Comet Leonard does not fall into that category.

The other reasons for expecting a bright show from this comet are its close approaches to both the Earth and the sun. On Dec. 12, it will pass within 21.7 million miles (34.9 million km) of Earth, and on Jan. 3, 2022 — exactly one year after discovery — it will pass within 57.2 million miles (92 million km) of the sun. 

When using standard power-law formulas, taking into account how bright the comet is now versus how much closer it will be by year's end (to both Earth and the sun), the current expectation is that the comet could reach as bright as fourth magnitude, making it bright enough to see without optical aid in a dark sky.

Where and when to look

During the first two weeks of December, Comet Leonard will be accessible to early risers, visible a couple of hours before sunrise, low in the east-northeast sky. It will track through the constellations Coma Berenices, Boötes and Serpens Caput. 

It should be an easy object to see with a small telescope or a pair of binoculars — and with any luck, with the unaided eye. During the latter half of December, as the comet gets closer to the sun, it will gradually get absorbed into the light of dawn and finally disappear from view.

But temper your expectations ... 

Will Comet Leonard evolve into another NEOWISE? Unfortunately, from my many years of observing comets, I would have to say no. Most comets are at their best after reaching their closest point to the sun (perihelion) and heading back out into deep space. This is when comets release their maximum amount of dust and gas and when they are intrinsically at their brightest and their tails at their longest. 

Comet Leonard will be hidden by the brilliant solar glare during this time, rapidly receding from both the sun and Earth after Jan. 3 of next year and quickly fading away. The best, I think, we can hope for is a modestly bright naked-eye comet that will be available to anyone who cares to get up before sunrise during early and mid-December mornings.

I have seen other websites stating that Comet Leonard will be a "once in a lifetime" sight. That is true, for once it rounds the sun it will be thrown out of the solar system, never to be seen again, according to EarthSky.org. Another claim suggests that it could be "the most brilliant and dramatic" comet of this year. If you compare it to the other "faint fuzzies" due to appear this year, that also is true, although to use words like "brilliant" and "dramatic" are hyperboles. 

But since all new comets are notoriously unpredictable, we can only guess just how bright Comet Leonard will get and its tail will get. We're just going to have to wait and see. Space.com will keep you posted on its development in the coming months. Stay tuned! 

Joe Rao serves as an instructor and guest lecturer at New York's Hayden Planetarium. He writes about astronomy for Natural History magazine, the Farmers' Almanac and other publications. Follow us on Twitter @Spacedotcom and on Facebook. 

RELATED VIDEOS, selected and posted by peter2011

{ https://www.space.com/ }

03-03-2021 om 01:01 geschreven door peter  

Brilliant yellow-green fireball lights up sky above England (video, photos)

03-03-2021 om 00:25 geschreven door peter  

Future interstellar comet? Gas-spewing object spotted in asteroid group near Jupiter

Researchers spotted a celestial object strangely outgassing far from the sun — like a comet — during a long road trip through our solar system that could conclude in interstellar space, NASA says.

The object is temporarily circling the sun in a group of ancient asteroids called Trojans, which are trapped by Jupiter's gravity and moving alongside the planet. New images from the Hubble Space Telescope revealed the cosmic interloper in its temporary parking spot, merrily spewing gas into space despite its great distance from the sun.

Simulations suggest the object originated in the icy Kuiper Belt beyond Neptune, and then flew closer to the sun from a "bucket brigade" of comets kicked in to a region between Jupiter and Neptune. The object, called a "Centaur", will only stay by Jupiter for a couple of years before the planet punts it out of the Trojan zone and forces the outgassing object towards the sun, for further adventures.

• Video: Comet with 400,000-mile tail captured near Jupiter's Trojan asteroids
• Related: 'Oumuamua and Borisov are just the beginning of an interstellar object bonanza

It was new observations from Hubble that revealed the shroud of gas and dust, confirming earlier suspicions of this activity spotted with NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope days before Spitzer's retirement in early 2020.

"Only Hubble could detect active comet-like features this far away at such high detail, and the images clearly show these features," lead Hubble researcher Bryce Bolin, of the California Institute of Technology, said in a NASA statement. Bolin noted that the tail of the Centaur is roughly 400,000 miles (640,000 kilometers) in length, which is a little less than twice the average distance between Earth and our moon.

The outgassing so far away from the sun puzzles researchers, since water ice only barely starts to sublimate in Jupiter's neighborhood — that's roughly 465 million miles (750 million km) away from the sun. A typical water-ice comet only outgasses in earnest at 200 million miles (320 million km) away, so the tail may not be indicative of water. Spitzer's observations instead suggested the presence of carbon monoxide and carbon dioxide gases, which don't need as much heat as water to start sublimating.

• Related: A first-of-its-kind asteroid thrilled astronomers. But it was just a comet fraud.

Bolin said even though this is the first Centaur spotted in a Trojan group, this might be a normal pit stop for objects slinging from the outer solar system to the inner solar system, where Earth and the other rocky planets reside. That said, figuring out the comet's origin story and future was a complicated tale. 

Computer simulations from the team suggest the object, more formally known as P/2019 LD2, flew close to Jupiter about two years ago. Jupiter then did what Jupiter often does to small objects, which was slingshot it in a new direction; in this case, the object landed in the Trojan asteroid group leading Jupiter in its orbit by about 437 million miles (703 million km).

Numerous telescopes caught P/2019 LD2 at various stages in its journey. The first to spot it in June 2019 was the University of Hawaii's Asteroid Terrestrial-impact Last Alert System (ATLAS) telescope system in Hawaii, and the comet activity was spotted by Japanese amateur astronomer Seiichi Yoshida. 

• Related: Comet ATLAS disintegrates into pieces as Hubble telescope watches

The study team found archival images of the object from a wide-field survey at California's Palomar Observatory, called the Zwicky Transient Facility, dating to April 2019. They did more research using the Apache Point Observatory in New Mexico, and then the Spitzer Space Telescope in January 2020. Hubble, however, was the first to show the comet's tail, the structure of the coma, the size of the dust particles, and the ejection velocity of the particles.

Studying P/2019 LD2 could also give more detail as to how the so-called "bucket brigade" of comets work. Researchers believe these comets come from the Kuiper Belt and bounce between planets while moving ever-closer towards the sun, warming up along the way. Given the number of comets that pass by Earth, a short-period comet is delivered to Earth's neighborhood from the Kuiper Belt every 100 years or so, simulations suggest.

Once the object circles around the sun, simulations suggest a 90% chance that the gravity of Jupiter — the largest planet in the solar system — will scoop P/2019 LD2 back up sometime in the next 500,000 years. Then the planet may kick the object out of the solar system for good, sending P/2019 LD2 on a one-way trip into interstellar space. Of course, that scenario assumes the comet manages to avoid smacking into the sun or some other planet during its journey, or simply disintegrating from the heat of the sun.

• A paper based on the research appeared Feb. 11 in The Astronomical Journal.

Follow Elizabeth Howell on Twitter @howellspace. Follow us on Twitter @Spacedotcom and on Facebook.  

{ https://www.space.com/ }

02-03-2021 om 23:51 geschreven door peter  

Rare red sprite and blue jet create otherworldly light show above Hawaii

Sprites and jets are fleeting atmospheric phenomena, hard enough to witness, let alone photograph. 

But a new image from an observatory in Hawaii captures both a red sprite and a blue jet in the same shot. The photo, released on Feb. 24, comes courtesy a "cloud cam" at the Gemini North telescope, part of the International Gemini Observatory located on Maunakea. 

Sprites and jets are upper-atmospheric phenomena caused by electrical discharges. Sprites, which are typically reddish-orange and sometimes blue-green, occur in the mesosphere, between 30 and 50 miles (50 and 80 kilometers) in altitude. They're often triggered by regular, lower-altitude lightning, but are much cooler in temperature. They're also sometimes shaped like jellyfish. Blue jets also occur at high altitude, triggered by a discharge of electricity from the positively-charged upper portion of a storm cloud to the negatively-charged cloud top, according to a paper published Jan. 20 in the journal Nature. They typically appear as blue streamers shooting spaceward. 

• Related content: Elves, sprites and blue jets: Nature's weirdest lightning

The camera that captured the red sprite and blue jet was a modified consumer-grade DSLR (digital single-lens reflex), customized to take photographs within a fraction of a second to 30 seconds after lightning strikes. The cameras are mounted on the roof of the observatory, pointed toward the most likely locations of incoming storms. The Gemini North Observatory sits at 13,800 feet (4,200 meters), affording a fabulous view of the surrounding weather.

Though sprites and jets are rarely witnessed from the ground, they're not uncommon above thunderstorms. In 2017, an astronaut aboard the International Space Station witnessed 245 blue flashes in 160 seconds over one storm. Scientists debate whether these phenomena are simply transient or whether they have any lasting effects. For example, if their passage alters the chemistry of the upper atmosphere, they might have an effect on the ozone layer, researcher Hans Stenbaek-Nielsen of the University of Alaska at Fairbanks told Live Science in 2011.

Studying sprites and jets is difficult, physicist Ryan Haaland of Fort Lewis College in Colorado told Live Science in 2015. Scientists take measurements from ground-based observatories and sometimes fly specially-instrumented research aircraft close to storms to detect them. But as the phenomena last just tens of milliseconds, they remain mysterious.

• Originally published on Live Science.

{ https://www.space.com/ }

02-03-2021 om 22:08 geschreven door peter  

SpaceX is ready to launch more astronauts with Crew-2 next month

By Chelsea Gohd 

LIftoff is set for April 20.

The Crew-2 mission astronauts — from left, ESA's Thomas Pesquet, NASA's Megan McArthur and Shane Kimbrough, and JAXA's Akihiko Hoshide — train for their upcoming mission on a SpaceX Crew Dragon capsule, which is scheduled to launch April 20, 2021. SpaceX's second fully-crewed astronaut flight, Crew-2, is prepared for launch, mission team members said today (March 1) during a news briefing. 

(Image credit: SpaceX)

SpaceX's second fully-crewed astronaut flight, Crew-2, is prepared for launch, mission team members said Monday (March 1) during a news briefing. 

Crew-2, which is set to launch April 20, follows the company's Demo-2 launch in May 2020, the first crewed test flight for SpaceX's Crew Dragon spacecraft, and Crew-1 launch in November 2020, which saw the company's first fully crewed mission to space. Like Crew-2, these missions took place as part of NASA's Commercial Crew Program.

"Everybody is on track and ready," SpaceX director of crew mission management Benji Reed said during the briefing.

• Related: NASA announces astronauts to launch on SpaceX's Crew-2 Dragon in 2021

The mission will launch NASA astronauts Megan McArthur and Shane Kimbrough, who will act as spacecraft pilot and commander, respectively, Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) astronaut Akihiko Hoshide and European Space Agency (ESA) astronaut Thomas Pesquet, both of whom will serve as mission specialists. The quartet will spend a little more than six months on to the International Space Station. 

"This flight exemplifies the [international] partnership," Kathy Lueders, NASA's associate administrator of the Human Exploration and Operations Mission Directorate, said today during the briefing about the inclusion of JAXA and ESA astronauts in Crew-2. It exemplifies, she continued, "how we are continuing to advance human spaceflight with what we do every day," and how missions like this "lead us to not only doing great things on the space station, but doing even more in our space exploration programs going forward."

• More: SpaceX's historic Demo-2 crewed test flight in photos

The Crew Dragon vehicle used for Crew-2 will deliver not just the four astronauts, but over 440 lbs. (200 kilograms) of pressurized cargo to the space station, supporting science and technology development on the orbiting lab, space station program manager Joel Montalbano said today. 

"Last year, we celebrated 20 years of continuous human presence on board the International Space Station," Montalbano said, adding that including the commercial space sector has allowed them to bring more people to the International Space Station. "It's an exciting time," he said. 

"It's a sacred honor to make sure that we're going to carry this crew safely to the space station," Reed said of the upcoming launch. 

Passing the torch

To prepare for Crew-2's arrival at the space station, the four astronauts making up Crew-1, who are still living in orbit, will don their spacesuits and relocate their Crew Dragon capsule to another port attached to the station, allowing the incoming spacecraft to dock where they have been "parked." This will also give the crew an opportunity to "get into their suits and check the suits out and make sure those suits are functioning and working fine," program manager for Commercial Crew Steve Stich  told Space.com. 

Now, while this is all happening in space, mission teams will be prepared here on the ground as well, just in case anything were to not go as planned. For the maneuver, "SpaceX will have their recovery ship ready to go for the Atlantic sites off the coast of Florida," Stich added. "It's the first time we've done this in the U.S. I would say the SpaceX and NASA teams are taking this operation very seriously and [are] working through checking all the procedures … and just making sure we're ready to go do this. It's something that we'll do quite often, but it's the first time we'll have done it with the Dragon vehicle."

Once the capsule has been moved to another port, making room for the Crew-2 craft, and the Crew-2 mission launches and docks and the astronauts board the space station, a handover will take place between the astronaut crews that will take place over five to seven days, Montalbano told Space.com. 

While the astronauts flying to the station with Crew-2 are no strangers to the station, this handover gives the crew finishing their mission the opportunity to go over emergency procedures for possible events like fire or depressurization with the new crew and help them acclimate to life on the space laboratory, walking them through everyday essential activities, odd challenges that present themselves and necessary maintenance. 

Possible delays

While the teams behind Crew-2 are ready for the April 20 launch, it's possible that the launch may be delayed a few days, Stich said during the conference. SpaceX is one of two companies 

The next launch for Boeing's crew capsule, OFT-2, the second uncrewed test launch with the company's crew capsule Starliner, which will test the vehicle after its first uncrewed flight failed to reach the space station due to software issues. OFT-2 is currently targeting April 2, but will likely be delayed further, due partly to unforeseen challenges that came with unusually harsh winter weather and resulting power outages across Texas. 

"We had some unfortunate weather here in the Houston area, where we lost about a week of time and some critical software testing," Stich said. "The vehicle's coming together nicely .. we're about two weeks down from where we'd like to be and we're in the process of figuring out the next step on OFT-2."

• Email Chelsea Gohd at cgohd@space.com or follow her on Twitter @chelsea_gohd. Follow us on Twitter @Spacedotcom and on Facebook.

{ https://www.space.com/ }

02-03-2021 om 21:57 geschreven door peter  

NASA's Perseverance Rover Gives High-Definition Panoramic View of Landing Site

{ http://www.nasa.gov/ }

02-03-2021 om 20:51 geschreven door peter