Artemis: How ever changing US space policy may push back the next moon landing

Another eight years would pass before, in 2004, President GW Bush, partly as a response to the Space Shuttle Columbia disaster, announced a revitalised Vision for Space Exploration. In response, Nasa began the Constellation program, which would oversee the completion of what was now the International Space Station and then retire the Space Shuttle. It would also involve the development of two new crewed spacecraft: the Orion Crew Exploration Vehicle and the Altair Lunar Surface Access Module.

Orion, optimised for extended trips beyond low-Earth orbit, was to be developed by 2008, with the first crewed mission no later than 2014, and the first astronauts on the Moon by 2020. To lift the Orion and Altair spacecraft a new series of launchers would be developed under the name Ares, with Ares V having lift capability more akin to the massive Saturn V rockets of the Apollo era.

President Obama took office in 2009 and in 2010 instituted a review of US human spaceflight - the Augustine Commission. It found that the Constellation programme was unsustainable with current Nasa funding levels, was behind schedule, and that a human Mars mission was not possible with current technology. The prototype of the Ares I rocket was nonetheless launched on a successful test flight from the Kennedy Space Centre on October 28 2009.

The Constellation program was cancelled by President Obama in 2010. This was the same year in which private company SpaceX made their first flight with the Falcon 9 rocket. Obama’s space plans were praised by some, including SpaceX’s founder Elon Musk, but criticised by others, including several Apollo astronauts.

The only significant survivor of Constellation was the Orion spacecraft which was repurposed and renamed the Orion Multi-Purpose Crew Vehicle or Orion MPCV. The Augustine Commission recommended a series of more modest space exploration goals for the US, which included Orion flights to near-Earth asteroids or to the moons of Mars, rather than the planet’s surface. Orion’s first, and so far, only test flight in space (without astronauts) took place on December 5 2014.

The future of Artemis

In December 2017, President Donald Trump signed “Space Policy Directive 1”, which reoriented Nasa to a lunar landing by 2024. Nasa implemented the Artemis programme in the same year and it has been endorsed by the new Biden administration. This is the first time in decades that a new US administration has continued with the deep space human spaceflight policies of the previous one.

Artemis is also an international programme, with the Lunar Gateway - an international orbital outpost at the Moon - being an essential part of the project. The international nature of Artemis might make the programme more robust against policy changes, although the Lunar Gateway has already been delayed.

Officially, the first uncrewed test flight of Orion to lunar orbit, Artemis 1, is scheduled for later this year, with the 2024 return to the lunar surface still on the books. The effects of the pandemic and recent engineering concerns with the new and still unflown Space Launch System, may push this back. Furthermore, in 2020 Nasa requested US$3.2 billion (£2.3 billion) in development costs for the Human Lander System, a critical component of the first lunar landing mission, Artemis 3. Congress approved only a fraction of what was requested, putting the 2024 landing date in further jeopardy.

A delay of any more than a year would move Artemis 3 beyond the end of President Biden’s first term in office. This would make it vulnerable to the many vagaries of US deep space human spaceflight policy that we have seen for most of the spaceflight era.

By contrast, Nasa’s Mars Exploration Program, which began in 1993 and whose goals are driven primarily by scientists rather than politicians, has resulted in a series of highly successful robotic orbiters and landers, most recently the spectacular landing of the Perseverance Rover at Jezero Crater. Undoubtedly, the robotic exploration of Mars carries less political weight than human missions and is considerably cheaper – with no inherent risks to astronauts.

If the current Artemis 3 schedule holds, then 52 years will have passed between Cernan and Schmitt departing the lunar surface in Challenger and the next human visitors to the Moon, in 2024.

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

• Follow all of the Expert Voices issues and debates — and become part of the discussion — on Facebook and Twitter. The views expressed are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher. 

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11-03-2021 om 18:46 geschreven door peter  

Severed Head of Stone Age Woman Found Lodged in Rocks of Italian Cave

Archaeologists arrived at Marcel Loubans cave near  Bologna, Italy, in 2017 to embark on  a unique rescue mission . Their goal was to extract a solitary human skull that had somehow become marooned on a rocky ledge deep inside the  cave, at the top of a 40-foot (12 m) vertical shaft that could only be reached with specialized climbing equipment. Fortunately, the archaeologists were able to successfully retrieve the severed head, which consisted of a  cranium with no jawbone attached. It was found encrusted within multiple layers of sediment and covered with a thin layer of calcite cave rock, suggesting that water had been flowing over the top of it for centuries.

After retrieval, the cranium was shipped to the Laboratory of Physical Anthropology at the University of Bologna. Over the past three years a team of researchers from the Department of Biological, Geological, and Environmental Sciences at the University of Bologna have been playing the role of historical detectives, applying the very latest in advanced exploratory technology to unlock the secrets of the detached skull, and reveal more about the life and experiences of its former owner. In a study just published online in the open access, peer reviewed journal  PLOS ONE , the scientists have revealed their full findings to the public for the first time—and they have quite the tale to tell. 

Archaeologist Lucia Castagna recovered the ancient severed head within the Marcel Loubans cave in Italy.

(Belcastro et al. - PLOS ONE /  CC-BY 4.0 )

Severed Head Provides Clues to a Stone Age Life and Death

Through radiocarbon dating, the researchers were able to establish that the person it belonged to died sometime between the 3630 and 3380 BC. This meant she lived during a period of the  Neolithic Age  known as the Eneolithic Age (or alternatively as the  Copper Age , in recognition of the metalworking practices most common to that time). 

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By performing a CT (computed tomography) scan, they were able to determine that the  skull had belonged to a young female, who was between the ages of 24 and 35 when she met with her demise. There was no way to tell exactly how her head had become disconnected from her body. But a set of lesions on the cranium revealed that the tissue on her face had been cut and scraped off sometime shortly after she had died. 

These scrape marks, plus the separation of the head from the body, allowed the researchers to make a definitive conclusion about the cranium’s origin and the young woman’s fate. They knew that her head had been severed from her body, and the skin and underlying tissue removed from her face, in preparation for an elaborate  Neolithic era funeral ritual . Her head would have been buried separately from the rest of her skeletal remains, which also may have been split up and buried in multiple locations.

The scientists have done an in-depth analysis of the severed head discovered in a cave in Italy to understand more about its unique history.

(Belcastro et al. - PLOS ONE /  CC-BY 4.0 )

Similar Funerary Practices Discovered in Northern Italy

Other Neolithic finds in the same region of Northern Italy had already provided evidence of this type of funeral practice. In Re Tiberio cave, in Italy’s Emilia-Romagna region, the arm and leg bones of 17 deceased Neolithic Age individuals were found neatly arranged, in a manner that suggested ritual significance. But their heads were nowhere in sight. 

In other  caves in the region, Neolithic Age skulls with post-mortem cutting and scraping marks had been found, in contexts that indicated they had been prepared for interment. Combining geological knowledge with anthropological insight, the Italian scientists developed a plausible story to explain how the young woman’s skull had ended up in its final precarious resting place. 

The shaft with the ledge where her skull had been resting had once been located near the entrance to a sinkhole, where water and mud had rushed in continuously until it had carved out a larger cave beneath the initial opening. If the woman’s head had been buried nearby, the regular runoff and flooding that created and gradually deepened the sinkhole could have washed the skull loose from its original resting place. From there, the skull would have ridden on a wave of flowing water and mud on down into the earth, where its descent was halted when it became lodged on a rocky ledge. 

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Based on a careful analysis of the sediment layers deposited on top of the cranium, and on the thickness of the calcite rock that covered the sediment, the scientists concluded that the skull must have plunged over the edge of the sinkhole approximately 1,370 years earlier. And there it had remained stuck in the accumulating muck for centuries, waiting to be discovered.

A Perilous Journey through the Neolithic Age 

According to  Live Science , study of the severed head has revealed additional details about the life of its owner. The Marcel Loubens skull belonged to a young woman. Overall, it seems her health had not been good. The woman had miniscule holes on the top of her skull, which may have been a side effect of inflammation caused by chronic anemia. 

She also had two thick, ivory spots on her skull, an effect consistent with the presence of benign tumors. In her mouth she had multiple cavities and poorly developed tooth enamel, indicating that she suffered from malnutrition during childhood and had continued to consume a less-than-optimal diet in adulthood. 

An additional indentation was found on the skull, surrounded by parallel grooves that indicated possible  cranial surgery . She may have undergone an  ancient medical procedure  known as trepanation, which involves the intentional drilling or scraping of holes in the head to relieve pressure caused by head injuries or painful inflammation. 

Somewhere between five and 10 percent of all Neolithic skulls recovered from across the world exhibit damage consistent with trepanation, which highlights just how common this practice was at that time. It is impossible to tell for sure how the woman died. But this  cave discovery  has uncovered a life was filled with peril—as was the journey of her disembodied skull after she had passed away.

• Top image: The new study explores how the severed head ended up within the Marcel Loubens save in Italy.                    
• Source: Belcastro et al. - PLOS ONE /  CC-BY 4.0

By Nathan Falde

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11-03-2021 om 18:24 geschreven door peter  

Major Megalithic Cemetery Discovered with Dozens of Tombs

Archaeologists have discovered a large and unique megalithic cemetery in south-central Poland. It has been dated to 5,500 years old, contains dozens of tombs, and researchers say, “a similar establishment is unknown in Poland.”

How Did Archaeologists Find the Megalithic Cemetery?

Researchers first noticed the site by studying  satellite imagery  of a field. A geophysical survey of the area and excavations carried out in the summer of 2019 and 2020 revealed a megalithic tomb and dozens of burials surrounding it.

Researchers first noticed the megalithic cemetery by studying satellite imagery.

( M. Przybyła and M. Podsiadło )

Archaeologist Marcin M. Przybyła, part of the  megalithic cemetery discovery team,  says that this may be “one of the largest megalithic cemeteries in Poland.” He  describes the site  as having “longer walls reinforced with  wooden palisades , while the short eastern walls contained the entrance to a kind of tomb chapel - a vestibule.”

Discovery Highlights

• The megalithic cemetery is near a village called Dębiany in Świętokrzyskie Province.
• It is 5,500 years old and one of the largest megalithic cemeteries in the country.
• Unlike other Polish megalithic cemeteries, this one was lined with wooden poles, not stone.
• The raised burial mound has an elongated trapezoid shape and a wooden palisade with outer ditches that are 40-50 meters long (131.23-164.04 ft.)
• Most of the remains and grave goods are gone.
• A square defensive feature found around some of the tombs suggests the site may have served as a temporary military camp in 9th-10th century BC.

The site is believed to be 5,500 years old and one of the largest megalithic cemeteries in Poland.

( J.Bulas)

What Happened to the Artifacts?

Speaking on the lack of artifacts at the site, Przybyła  said, “Unfortunately, most of the remains of the deceased and grave goods were removed from these burials while the cemetery was still in use. It was a ritual behavior that  we often encounter in cemeteries from that period.”

Most of the human remains and grave goods are gone, but this was a common ritual behavior at the time.

( J.Bulas)

Polish Pyramids Making Archaeological News

Another Polish megalithic complex is currently making archaeological news – the so- called “Polish pyramids”  in Kujawy. This site has been studied for over 100 years, but it is only now that archaeologists have discovered the builders’ settlements.  Polish News  reports that archaeologists have identified 150 small settlements which probably housed no more than 10 families each. Archaeologists  say that the inhabitants of several villages likely banded together  to build the large tombs.

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Megalithic Polish burial mounds  discovered in the forest area of Góry in Wielkopolska have also made the headlines over the years. But unfortunately, that set of 5,500-year-old megalithic tombs was built on  top of a coal deposit . This has sparked debate between people who want to save the structures built by  the Funnel Beaker culture  and those who back the coal mining company.

The so-called “Polish pyramids” are an important part of the country’s history and researchers plan to continue studying the  megalithic cemetery  near Dębiany, where they expect more tombs will be discovered.

• Top Image: Excavations at the megalithic cemetery found in  south-central Poland. 
• Source: J.Bulas

By Alicia McDermott

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11-03-2021 om 18:01 geschreven door peter  

Pavlopetri: 5,000-Year-Old Town Discovered Underwater in Greece

Nothing sparks the imagination of history enthusiasts quite like underwater discoveries, ranging from sunken cities to the millions of shipwrecks still unexplored on the seabed. The bottom of the seas and oceans of the world have been described as the biggest museum of the world, with less than 1% of the ocean floor having been surveyed to date. The remains of the Bronze Age port of Pavlopetri were discovered as recently as the 1960s and some argue that they may have been the basis for the legendary story of Atlantis.

The ruins of Pavlopetri are located a short distance from the coastline, just a few meters underwater in Vatika Bay in southern Greece.

( World Monuments Fund )

Discovery of Pavlopetri: The Oldest Underwater Town in the World

In the 1960s, Nic Flemming from the Institute of Oceanography at the University of Southampton, rediscovered the remains of a submerged settlement believed to date back as far as 5,000 years ago. Located in the Peloponnesus region of southern Greece, near a small village called Pavlopetri, the archaeological site lies 4 meters (13.12 ft) underwater and is now believed to be the oldest known planned underwater town in the world. It therefore joined the ranks of other mysterious underwater settlements, towns, and cities which have captured the imagination of history enthusiasts including:

• The perfectly preserved ancient Chinese city of Shi Cheng (the Lion City)
• The mythical submerged temples of Mahabalipuram in India
• The ancient Egyptian city of Heracleion
• The 9,000-year-old Neolithic site of Atlit Yam in Israel
• The 17th century pirate city of Port Royal , Jamaica

Could the Pavlopetri site in southern Greece have been the inspiration for Plato’s story of Atlantis? 

( NMaverick / Adobe Stock)

The site had been originally identified by the geologist Folkion Negris in 1904, but after Flemming rediscovered the site, it was surveyed in 1968 by a team of archaeologists from the University of Cambridge. Then in 2009, under the direction of John C. Henderson, the University of Nottingham began a five-year project with the Ephorate of Underwater Antiquities of the Hellenic Ministry of Culture and Tourism and the Hellenic Centre for Marine Research to study the town at Pavlopetri.

The resulting Pavlopetri Underwater Archaeology Project used a novel combination of archaeology, underwater robotics and state-of-the-art graphics to survey the seabed and bring the ancient town back to life before the fragile remains are lost forever due to lack of protection, pollution, waves, currents, and tourism. Thanks to the project, Pavlopetri became the first underwater town to be digitally surveyed in 3D using sonar mapping technology . This fusion of cutting edge marine technology and movie industry computer graphics allowed them to generate stunning photorealistic 3D digital reconstruction images which revolutionized underwater archaeology.

The resulting research project used a novel combination of archaeology, underwater robotics, and state-of-the-art graphics to survey the seabed and bring the ancient town back to life.

( Pavlopetri Underwater Archaeology Project )

What Did They Find at Pavlopetri?

The research project identified thousands of artifacts at the site which help create a deeper understanding of everyday life at Pavlopetri from about 3000 BC until it “sank” around 1100 BC, probably due to earthquakes that are common in the region, erosion, rising sea levels, or even a tsunami. The remains are the first of a sunken city in Greece that predates Plato’s story of Atlantis.

As a snapshot of life 5,000 years ago, Pavlopetri was incredibly well designed with roads, two storey houses with gardens, temples, a cemetery, and a complex water management system including channels and water pipes. In the center of the city, there was even a square or plaza measuring about 40 by 20 meters (131 x 65 ft) and most of the buildings had up to 12 rooms inside. “There are older sunken sites in the world but none can be considered to be planned towns such as this, which is why it is unique,” explained Dr. Jon Henderson, from the University of Nottingham team who managed the Pavlopetri Underwater Archaeology Project, in The Guardian .

The city is so old that it existed in the period that the famed ancient Greek epic poem Iliad was set in. Research in 2009 revealed that the site extends for about 9 acres (36,421 m2) and evidence shows that it had been inhabited prior to 2800 BC. Despite sinking so long ago, the arrangement of the city is still clearly visible and at least 15 buildings have been found. The city’s arrangement is so clear that the head of the archaeological team from Nottingham were able to create what they believe is an extremely accurate 3D reconstruction of the city.

Historians believe that the ancient city was a center for commerce for the Minoan and Mycenaean civilizations. Scattered all over the site there are large storage containers made from clay, statues, everyday tools, and other artifacts.

The original name of the city is unknown, as well as its exact role in the ancient world. “It’s a rare find, and it is significant because, as a submerged site, it was never reoccupied and therefore represents a frozen moment of the past,” explained Elias Spondylis of the Greek Ministry of Culture in the New Scientist .

A digital reconstruction of the buildings at Pavlopetri being submerged by the sea about 1100 BC.

( Pavlopetri Underwater Archaeology Project )

Pavlopetri Today

Probably the most surveyed seabed in the world, the coverage the Pavlopetri site has been channeled into protecting the archaeological remains. In 2011, the BBC produced a stunning documentary entitled Pavlopetri – The City Beneath the Waves , which focused on the way technology was used by the University of Nottingham team to create a photorealistic impression of the seabed. In 2016 Pavlopetri was included on the World Monuments Watch , a global program which works to protect heritage locations under threat, to support local conservation and protection efforts - which included a Watch Day organized by the Greek Chapter of ARCH International to raise awareness about the site.

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Since then the Watch Day has incorporated the Pavlopetri Eco-Marine Film Festival , which showcases films and documentaries about the marine environment, as well as underwater snorkel tours over the ancient city. Thanks to these actions, in August 2016 the area was demarcated by buoys to protect it from small vessels and in 2018 the site became the first in Greek waters to be included in marine charts provided to mariners by the Hydrographic Service of the Greek Navy.

• Top Image: The University of Nottingham conducted a research project at Pavlopetri which combined archaeology, underwater robotics and state-of-the-art graphics. This allowed them to generate stunning images to rebuild the ruined town. Here you can see the underwater remains and the digitally reconstructed pillars and walls of one of the buildings. Source: Pavlopetri Underwater Archaeology Project

Updated on March 2, 2021.

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11-03-2021 om 16:52 geschreven door peter  

Since the advent of analog TVs, channel 37 has always been static. Here’s why.

By Ernie Smith

IMAGE: GETTY IMAGES

I’m endlessly fascinated by stories of the quirks that were built into the TV system where the well-laid plans of the system simply fell apart because it was asked to do too many things.

Nearly five years ago, I wrote about one of them, the tale of how radio broadcasters were able to shoehorn an additional FM station into the radio because of the proximity of TV’s channel 6 to the rest of the radio feed.

So when I was informed that there was another oddity kinda like this involving the TV lineups, I decided I had to take a dive in.

It’s a tale that centers around channel 37, which was a giant block of static in most parts of the world during the 20th century.

The reason for that was simple: it couldn’t fend off its scientific competition.

1952

The year that the U.S. Federal Communications Commission opened up the television system to use UHF, or ultra high frequency signals. The practical effect of this addition of bandwidth was that the total number of potential TV stations increased dramatically, from 108 to 2,051, overnight. The first UHF applications were granted on July 11, 1952, according to The History of UHF Television, a site dedicated to the higher-frequency television offerings.

The radio telescope that became a headache for the television industry

Within a 600-mile radius of the city of Danville, Illinois, population 31,246, are numerous major cities — among them Chicago, Detroit, Milwaukee, Atlanta, Minneapolis, Pittsburgh, St. Louis, Toronto, and Washington, DC.

Nearly the entire length of the Mississippi River fits into that radius. If Danville was located just a little farther to the east, the radius would also include Philadelphia and New York City. For all intents and purposes, a 600-mile radius from Eastern Illinois covers basically the entire East Coast except the state of Florida and the Northeast.

(Importantly to this story, New Jersey generally does not fall into this 600-mile radius.)

But there was something located in Danville that was important enough to scientists that they didn’t want to share it with anyone else.

And that thing was a 400-foot-wide radio telescope, operating along the 610 MHz frequency. It was something of a monster of astronomy at the time, operating 12 to 16 hours per day, and researchers at the University of Illinois aimed to keep it that way.

The research that led to the creation of the radio telescope was, basically, an accident — but a fundamental one that taught us more about the universe than we might have learned with a mere optical telescope.

In 1931, a radio engineer and Bell Laboratories employee named Karl Jansky was trying to uncover the source of static that was interfering with radio waves … and found it had an extraterrestrial source, particularly at the center in the Milky Way galaxy.

Jansky wasn’t an astronomer, but an engineer, and despite discovering a new field of astronomy, his position at Bell Labs did not allow him to pursue it further.

But after World War II ended, others eventually did pursue radio astronomy, including George C. McVittie, a British cosmologist who built the astronomy department at the University of Illinois in the 1950s, and George Swenson, who helped to build the university’s radio telescope.

Speaking to the Royal Astronomical Society as part of an oral history in 1978, McVittie, who played a central role in the creation of the telescope, stated that the device was developed in the late 1950s with a goal of being cost effective:

Well, we wanted to build this parabolic cylinder. I sent George Swenson on a tour of radio astronomy outfits in the world, Australia, England and so on, and he came back with the idea of the parabolic cylinder, a fixed transit instrument that sweeps out the sky simply by the earth rotating. And we decided for engineering reasons that we could only build a really big one if we had a frequency round about 600 megahertz. Otherwise, the perfection of the reflector, if we went to a shorter wavelength, was not something that you could [do] by the acre, at least not at that time, which was the late 1950s. And so we picked upon this 610 megahertz band as the observing frequency.

(The telescope was more expensive to maintain than to build, McVittie added.)

The area around the 610 MHz band has, over the years, gained a reputation as being important to scientific research because of its placement in the context of two other frequencies important to radio astronomy, 410 MHz and 1.4 GHz.

As space and astronomy writer Bob King of Universe Today put it in 2013: “Without it, radio astronomers would lose a key window in an otherwise continuous radio view of the sky. Imagine a 3-panel bay window with the middle pane painted black. Who wants THAT?”

There was just one problem — the sudden, high popularity of television made the general bandwidth area where the telescope operated, 608–614 MHz, a bit of a hot commodity. It was literally the spot where channel 37 was supposed to go — and broadcasters wanted access to that channel.

It threatened to cover up a key window.

18

The number of stations that had been allocated to use channel 37 in the U.S. in 1952, according to The History of UHF Television. One of those communities was Paterson, New Jersey, located within the New York City metro area — which is relevant to this story. In the end, no channel 37 actually ended up on the air in analog form in the U.S., though you may find a digital equivalent today thanks to differences in how signals are allocated.

Why the existence of channel 37 became such a problem for scientists

At the time the University of Illinois had built out its radio telescope, television was still in its infancy, and not every TV could actually access UHF signals. But soon, UHF went from optional upgrade to standard feature on television sets, and that meant this radio telescope was in the way.

Fortunately for the scientists that relied on this telescope, they had the support of the global community. A meeting of the International Telecommunication Union in 1959 set aside a series of frequencies that were important for different scientific and technical uses. One of those frequencies was where channel 37 sat.

The University of Illinois, wanting to protect its radio telescope investment, went to the FCC basically immediately after the ITU meeting. In 1960, it asked that channel 37 be allocated to radio telescopes exclusively.

As McVittie recalled, fellow scientists considered the push to block out an entire television channel a big ask:

Most of our radio astronomy friends said, “Look here, you two, Swenson and McVittie, you are just crazy. Do you mean to say you are asking the American public to give up one television channel for science? Who ever heard of anything so absurd?” So we said, “Well, the channel isn’t being used.” “Yes, that’s true, it’s not being used very much but it is being used in the neighborhood of New York, and places like that.” So I said, “We’re not in the neighborhood of New York.” Anyway, we got laughed at.

The FCC disagreed with the university’s assessment, feeling that it was too early to make such a call.

But just a couple of years later, stations were starting to call the FCC up for access to that specific station — particularly one directly outside of the antenna’s 600-mile radius, in New Jersey. (According to reports from the era, prospective broadcasters wanted to put a Spanish-language network in the spot.)

Because of FCC rules and limitations elsewhere, the city of Paterson had no other options to bring a TV station on air other than channel 37. But even with the channel being located hundreds of miles away and targeted at the New York City market, there was concern among scientists that even far-away interference could get in the way of scientific research.

The regulators, faced with a conflict that pitted a niche use case against a massive commercial windfall, tried to come up with a compromise. The compromise included:

• No stations on channel 37 within a 600-mile radius of the antenna until at least 1968, allowing one specific scientist, McVittie, to complete a survey of radio star sources he was doing on the 610 MHz frequency.
• No stations anywhere listed under channel 37 could air anything between midnight and 7 a.m. Keeping in mind time zones, this effectively would give McVittie four hours a night that were open to allowing for such research.

The FCC’s attempt to balance science and commerce was not well-accepted by said scientists, who took their story to the media.

The controversy was such that it appeared on the front page of The New York Times. Not the top, of course.

What initially was seen as an absurd ask, even a silly one, gained momentum among fellow scientists. A letter sent to the FCC in regards to the debate puts the passion around the conflict into focus: “The FCC Docket suggests an appalling lack of comprehension within the FCC of the nature and needs of radio astronomy and yet the Commission has power to cripple and perhaps even destroy radio astronomy.”

That’s from an October 1963 document from the FCC that announced the commission’s decision to bar the use of channel 37 in the U.S. — while encouraging its neighbors in Canada and Mexico to do the same.

(The FCC did defend itself against the observer’s claim, writing: “Assertions charging the Commission with a lack of comprehension of the nature and needs of radio astronomy and implications that the Commission might cripple and even destroy radio astronomy are unjustified and can not be supported by facts.”)

The FCC agreed to a 10-year moratorium on channel 37 being used, which eventually became permanent.

The fun part about this is that McVittie, who helped to set the wheels in motion for the blanket ban of channel 37 in the U.S., never learned exactly why the FCC made the decision to flip its mindset on this issue. He speculated that media attention put the issue in front of the average person, allowing for wide-scale public support to mount up in favor of radio astronomy:

Somehow the news got around that here was this new way of listening to little green men on Mars. This is what radio astronomy seemed to the ordinary public. And the FCC was preventing it from being developed in the United States. We got rumors, George particularly from friends he knew, that gradually a huge accumulation of letters arrived at the FCC, protesting against this nonsupport of this new science, whatever it was. And that this finally persuaded the FCC that they’d better give in. Nobody knows.

Fortunately, we have the document explaining its thinking, and the thinking was essentially this:

It is probable that channel 37 operations at Paterson, New Jersey would interfere with observations at Danville to a certain extent. Also, (since interference from different sources would probably not occur simultaneously) the situation would be complicated by interference from other channel 37 stations if auth­orized. Moreover, any interference which would exist, even though for only a small percentage of time, might occur at critical times in the observing process. To the extent that observation programs would be interfered with, the time of completing them might well be sub­stantially increased, so that a longer period of protection would be required to achieve the same results.

In other words, the commission didn’t necessarily know how putting channel 37 on the dial was going to impact scientific research in the long run, so best not risk it.

Ultimately, channel 37 went completely unused throughout the analog era in much of North America as well as most other countries — with a handful of exceptions, particularly in the Caribbean countries of the Dominican Republic and Trinidad and Tobago. (Today, channel 37 technically can appear as an over-the-air digital channel, but it is usually a so-called “virtual channel,” allowing a network to be positioned there no matter its position in the spectrum.)

In the end, the scientists won.

2000

The year that the FCC allowed for the use of wireless medical telemetry services (a.k.a. devices that allow for the tracking of patient vitals, like heartbeat, wirelessly) on the same band as channel 37. “Despite existing constraints in these bands, this allocation is flexible enough to allow spectrum to be available for medical telemetry services in all locations while protecting radio astronomy and government operations currently operating in the allocated spectrum,” the commission said at the time. Despite occasional rumors that the spectrum would go unlicensed eventually, it has yet to happen.

The tale of channel 37 reflects one thing: Without resistance, a commercial use case will usurp a noncommercial use case for a given resource.

A 1963 op-ed in The Harvard Crimson put it best: “Because the communication industries try to send strong signals to all parts of the globe and radio astronomy tries to receive weak extra-terrestrial signals, the growth of these two fields must inevitably lead to conflict.”

Think about this in terms of other things that have nothing to do with astronomy, like the internet. A year or two ago, there was a big conflict involving who owned the .org top-level domain, with commercial interests attempting to hone in on something intended to support nonprofits. The only reason it didn’t happen, just like the Channel 37 saga, was because people in the world of nonprofits and technology came together to lobby against it.

Ultimately, in the case of channel 37, scientists were able to save a small sliver of what was mostly going to be otherwise used commercially. Perhaps it looked like static to everyone else — but it was worth fighting for.

• A version of this post originally appeared on Tedium, a twice-weekly newsletter that hunts for the end of the long tail. Also published at https://www.vice.com.

{ https://medium.com/vice? }

11-03-2021 om 16:09 geschreven door peter  

Have You Seen a UFO? I Have, And Was Investigated by Project Blue Book

Unidentified flying objects or UFOs are back in the news again. During the first week of February a couple of Evansville Police officers saw a string of strange lights while sitting in their patrol car. The same lights were reported in Louisville. These reports brought up memories for me of something I saw in 1967. It even made the official US Government investigation of UFOs.

In '67 I was working as the 6PM to midnight DJ on a radio station in Orlando Florida. Here I am standing in front of the studio and transmitter building of radio station WHOO on my first day at work.

The important thing to know is that the transmitter and broadcast studio that you see in the polaroid were located together on the very flat west side of Orlando with not too many lights to pollute the night sky. The station was 50,000 watts east-west directional which meant several very tall towers were located within a few hundred feet of the building.

The Milwaukee Braves baseball team had recently moved to Atlanta and on the night I spotted my UFOs we were carrying a Braves game. I had plenty of time to kill as I waited to insert local commercials into the broadcast. Suddenly the phone lit up. This was odd because not that many people could have been listening to the Braves getting clobbered again. Caller after caller asked about strange lights in the sky over the western part of the city. I knew McCoy air force base was located just a few miles away and since the Vietnam war had heated up in '67, heavy traffic in the sky wasn't uncommon. Also Cape Canaveral was sending space rockets up frequently. But the calls didn't stop. More and more people wanted to know what these strange sights in the night sky were.

When I had a break in the game I ventured outside and immediately I could see the lights. There were several travelling very fast in formation and would frequently change colors. they seemed to be able to dip and swerve faster than any plane possibly could. I watched as long as I could and headed back inside to the windowless studio where the phone was still lit up with more calls, I called McCoy air force base and they couldn't give me any information but they did take my name a the phone number at the radio station.

The next day I got a call from the radio station receptionist to tell me an air force officer was waiting in the lobby to see me. Since I lived just a short drive away I got there in just a few minutes. I was greeted by a very stern  US air force major. He represented the official US air force UFO investigation--Project Blue Book.

The reason the major wanted to interview me that day in '67 was that our radio towers were all logged on the air force maps of the Orlando area. The tower heights and exact locations were all plotted on those official charts. The Major had me take him to the exact location where I was standing when I saw the UFOs. He asked me where the lights were in relation to our towers. I remember his question about the size of the lights, "If you held a match at arms' length, how big was the light compared to the match head?". He had me fill out a questionnaire that was several pages long. At the end of our interview I asked him, "Did anyone at McCoy air force base see the lights"? He just looked at me with a little smile and said something that would be the modern equivalent of "Have a nice day". I never heard anything else from him.

Project Blue Book had begun in 1949 and ended in 1969, not long after I filed my sighting. The report was confidential until just recently. The main goal of the Blue Book investigation was to determine if the UFOs were any threat to US national security. It was determined that they were not. The project did collect a bunch of home movies of various sightings. Here are a couple of still shots of the better ones

photo from national archives www.archives.gov

If you want to take a look at the de-classified videos you are welcome to by going to the national archives site. That will get you started and there's a lot to read.

• Read More: What Happened When You Reported a UFO in the 1960s? | https://wkdq.com/have-you-seen-a-ufo-i-have-and-was-investigated-by-project-blue-book/?trackback=twitter_mobile&utm_source=tsmclip&utm_medium=referral

{ https://wkdq.com/ }

11-03-2021 om 15:49 geschreven door peter  

11-03-2021 om 15:18 geschreven door peter  

11-03-2021 om 15:04 geschreven door peter  

Did Supermassive Black Holes Form Directly From Dark Matter?

Supermassive black holes are just a little bit too supermassive – astronomers have difficulty explaining how they got so big so quickly in the early universe. So maybe it’s time for a new idea: perhaps giant black holes formed directly from dark matter.

The biggest black holes in the universe are frighteningly big, topping out at over a hundred billion times more massive than the sun. To make things even more frightening, we see these kinds of monsters very early in the history of the universe, when our cosmos was only 800 million years old.

This presents a bit of a challenge, since the only way we know how to make black holes is for giant stars to die. Then, those small black holes (usually only a few times more massive than the sun) need to grow, either by feeding on surrounding material or merging with other black holes.

That’s fine, but for the supermassive black holes to appear so early, it means that these processes have to go unnervingly fast after the formation of the first stars – perhaps too fast.

But what the early universe lacked in stars it more than made up for in dark matter, the mysterious substance that makes up 85% of all the mass in the universe.

It’s possible, according to new research led by Carlos R. Argüelles at the Universidad Nacional de La Plata and ICRANet, that dark matter itself grew dense enough to collapse directly into black holes in the early universe, skipping the usual star-based story.

According to Argüelles, “This new formation scenario may offer a natural explanation for how supermassive black holes formed in the early Universe, without requiring prior star formation or needing to invoke seed black holes with unrealistic accretion rates.”

As a further consequence of this model, the smallest galaxies wouldn’t have giant black holes. Instead, they would just have ultra-dense cores of dark matter.

“Here we’ve proven for the first time that such core–halo dark matter distributions can indeed form in a cosmological framework, and remain stable for the lifetime of the Universe,” added Argüelles.

The post Did Supermassive Black Holes Form Directly From Dark Matter? appeared first on Universe Today.

Source: 

• https://www.universetoday.com/150432/did-supermassive-black-holes-form-directly-from-dark-matter/

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{ https://beforeitsnews.com/ }

11-03-2021 om 12:55 geschreven door peter  

UFOs filmed over Washington state – March 2021

These unknown lights in the sky were filmed over Washington a few days ago.

Witness report: 

I saw Strange lights in Washington state,around Vashon Island.I recorded them for around 35 minutes going from 2 lights perfectly diagonal and then 3 suddenly.With them exchanging colors from white to orange subtly.Not moving at all, while helicopters and planes go past them without problem. Moving from close to far apart suddenly multiple times.Then eventually completely disappearing at 45 minutes of looking at it. Idk wut this is lol but i’m pretty sure stars don’t disappear and same with you and space stations after barley moving.

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

11-03-2021 om 12:26 geschreven door peter  

'Gravity portals' could morph dark matter into ordinary matter, astrophysicists propose

By Paul Sutter 

(Image credit: Shutterstock)

Astrophysicists have an idea that could help to solve two mysteries: the reason for the bizarre abundance of super-high-energy radiation shooting from the center of our galaxy and the identity of invisible stuff called dark matter that has perplexed the world since its discovery some 50 years ago.

And the idea has a super-cool name: gravity portals. The idea goes, when two dark matter particles (whatever they are) get sucked into one of these portals, they obliterate each other and spit out shockingly strong gamma rays. 

This line of thinking can potentially explain why the galactic center — where dense clusters of dark matter are thought to lurk — is full of gamma rays; and it could shed light on how the dark matter behaves and might occasionally interact with the normal matter of our universe.

• Related: The 11 biggest unanswered questions about dark matter

What dark matter has to be

More than 80% of the matter in our universe is of a form unknown to the standard model of particle physics. Scientists call it "dark matter," because it does not interact with light. The first hint of dark matter's existence came in the 1970s, when astronomer Vera Rubin noticed that galaxies were rotating far too quickly — without an additional, hidden source of gravity, they should have torn themselves apart eons ago.

For decades, astronomers didn't know if they needed to change their understanding of gravity, add more regular-but-really-dim matter to the universe, or include a brand new ingredient. But year after year, observation after observation have limited the choices. No theory of modified gravity can explain all observations. And physicists have placed firm limits on the amount of normal matter (bright, dim and everything in between) in the cosmos.

That leaves dark matter to explain the speedy galaxies. This matter would be a new kind of particle, with some unknown identity (or identities). It doesn't interact with light, otherwise we would've seen it by now. It doesn't interact with the strong nuclear force — which binds together particles of matter — otherwise scientists would have detected its influence in atomic experiments. It might talk to the weak nuclear force, but that force is so feeble and short-range that observing any deviations in the expected results is challenging.

Trillions of dark matter particles may be streaming through you right now, invisible and silent.

However, dark matter betrays its presence through gravity, because every single form of mass and energy in the universe exerts some sort of gravitational influence. So the only surefire way to study dark matter is through its gravitational interactions with normal matter, such as the motions of stars inside galaxies.

But there may be another way.

The case of the excess electrons

In a study published Jan. 28 to the preprint database arXiv, physicists proposed a new theory to explain what dark matter is and how it behaves. But before diving into their idea, we have to introduce one more clue into this dark-matter hunt. The clue comes in the form of a strange abundance of gamma rays observed emanating from the center of our Milky Way galaxy.

• Related: 11 fascinating facts about our Milky Way galaxy

Gamma rays are the highest-energy form of radiation possible, and they usually only come into existence from some seriously high-energy events, such as stars going supernova. But there are more gamma rays than you'd expect in the galactic center given how rare such cataclysmic events there are. So, it's possible, this theory proposed, that gamma rays may emerge as a byproduct of high-energy electrons.

These high-energy electrons, which are a kind of particle known as "leptons" and much easier to produce than gamma rays directly, emanate from some source and travel throughout the galactic center. The electrons themselves are undetectable (they are very, very tiny), but as they flood through interstellar space, they can occasionally slam into a random passing photon (a light particle).

That photon, most likely something innocuous and low-energy, collides with the aggressive electron; the collision boosts the photon's energy so much that it begins to give off gamma rays that we can see.

Those collisions potentially explain the excess gamma rays, but where do those high-energy electrons come from?

Jumping through the portal

Let's recap what we know. One, dark matter interacts only through gravity. Two, high-energy leptons floating around the galactic center could explain the extra gamma rays we see there. Three, because in our own galaxy the core has the highest density of matter, we think that there is also a large concentration of dark matter there.

Coincidence? Or conspiracy?

The link between these two observations has a suitably awesome name: leptophilic gravity portals, as detailed by Sun Xu-Dong and Dai Ben-Zhong, of the China Key Laboratory of Astroparticle Physics, in their arXiv paper. The study has yet to be peer-reviewed.

Let's start with the "gravity portals" part. As far as we understand gravity, it just pulls on stuff. Earth pulls on the moon; the sun pulls on Earth; stars in a galaxy pull on each other, and so on. And gravity does a really, really good job of pulling.

So on the face of it, the only thing gravity can do to dark matter is … pull. 

But our understanding of gravity is incomplete. Physics can explain gravity operates on the large scale, but there's no so-called quantum theory of gravity, which would describe strong gravity operating at very tiny scales. And in this regime, gravity might have some surprises in store.

The other forces of nature are capable of annihilating, transforming and creating particles all the time. The weak nuclear force, for instance, can change a proton into a neutron, triggering radioactive decay. A particle and its antiparticle can connect via the electromagnetic force, annihilating each other in a burst of radiation.

So maybe gravity, in extreme cases, can bring two dark matter particles together and destroy them, turning them into … anything, really.

• The 12 strangest objects in the universe
• From Big Bang to present: Snapshots of our universe through time
• The 18 biggest unsolved mysteries in physics

And according to the theoretical model outlined by the researchers, maybe those dark matter particles can transform into leptons. Hence the "leptophilic" part of the name, which means "lepton-loving." 

According to the new theory, dark matter particles can occasionally annihilate each other through nothing more than chance gravitational interactions. These chance interactions are known in the physics jargon as "gravity portals," since they offer a way for particles to interact through gravity alone. The product of that collision is a high-energy electron. These interactions would be much more common in the galactic center, where the density of dark matter is likely highest. Those electrons would then travel on, eventually striking a low-energy photon and turning into a gamma ray, causing the excess that we observe.

Yes, this idea is a stretch. But given that physicists are in the dark when it comes to the identity of dark matter, new ideas are always welcome. And this theory was specifically designed to match the observation of the gamma rays. But once that doorway has been opened, allowing dark matter particles to transform into regular matter (leptons, in this case), more theoretical work can be done to see if there are other ways to test the theory.

• Originally published on Live Science.

{ https://www.space.com/ }

11-03-2021 om 01:24 geschreven door peter  

SCIENTISTS BELIEVE THEY FOUND A CHUNK OF AN ANCIENT PLANET IN AFRICA

AN ASTONISHING DISCOVERY.

Ancient Planet

According to a new analysis, ScienceAlert reports, a meteorite found last year in Algeria is actually older than the Earth itself.

Instead, an international team of scientists behind the research say, it appears to be a remnant of an ancient protoplanet — making the space rock an extraordinary curiosity that could offer unprecedented insights into the early years of our solar system.

Stuffed Crust

ScienceAlert reports that the rock asteroid was quickly identified as unusual after its discovery in the Erg Check sand sea last May, since unlike most meteorites, it had clearly been formed by a volcano — a suggestion that it had originated as part of a planet’s crust.

But as described in a new paper published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, an analysis of radioactive decay of the sample’s isotopes now shows that it formed around 4.566 billion years ago. That’s a bit longer than the Earth has been around, meaning that it’s likely part of a different — and probably now long-gone — world.

Distant Past

It’s not immediately clear what protoplanet the asteroid might have originated from.

But since it’s now the oldest magmatic rock ever identified, the researchers wrote in their paper, it’s almost certain to be an object of intense further analysis. And what scientists find by studying the ancient shard could shed new light on the history of our star system.

READ MORE: 

• This Is a Piece of a Lost Protoplanet, And It’s Officially Older Than Earth [ScienceAlert]
  

More on ancient planets

• Jupiter May Have Absorbed a Smaller Planet

{ https://futurism.com/the-byte }

11-03-2021 om 01:09 geschreven door peter  

Neil deGrasse Tyson is Wrong!  

Dave Scott

UFOs/UAPs in the mainstream crept up again when famous scientist Neil deGrasse Tyson was recently asked in an interview as to whether or not aliens exist

On March 4th, Tyson wrote a tweet stating

This tweet sent UFO Twitter into a frenzy, because Tyson has been very critical of the idea that space ships and little grey men are visiting the planet. As a scientist, he wants proof. He wants the landing on the front of the White House lawn. Now I am not a scientist, nor do I try to play one like some in the UFO community. But Tyson’s ignorance to look deeply into the topic really highlights some of the pitfalls we have in bringing the subject of ufology into the mainstream limelight. Like it or not, the To The Stars Academy was able to crash through that barrier with the media. But for scientists like Tyson, who have a lot of pull with the mainstream, it’s still a work in progress.

It doesn’t take a genius to be able to see the brilliant minds that are working on this subject from a scientific perspective. It’s actually quite easy. Harvard Theoretical Physicist Avi Loeb took a lot of heat from the scientific community for coming out and saying that Omuamua was likely something alien entering our solar system. There was no official picture of Omuamua, however, Loeb was convinced that this was some sort of visitation that couldn’t be ruled out, especially with the way the foreign object was acting and reacting to planetary gravity as it flew on by. Does this mean Loeb could be wrong? Of course it does. However, the possibility that Loeb is right, and we did get visited, well, to be honest it can’t be ruled out.

But back to Tyson. Over the last few years he has been highly critical of the evidence or lack there of when it comes to UFOs. He dismissed the three Nimitz videos, (Go Fast, Tic Tac and Gimbal), has too hazy to determine what the objects could be. He has dismissed, almost with an arrogance, all the pilots both commercial and military who’ve had close encounters with strange objects. Pilots are like Doctors, they are some of the most highly trained and brightest individuals on this planet. They work in an area where they can tell the difference between a batman balloon and an object making maneuvers and flying at speeds that are undeniable and go against established physics. How does a scientist, whose job it is to test the limits and to push to find what’s unknown, be so negative towards the ample amounts of evidence that is out there? But it goes further than this.

It’s obvious Tyson also ignores the work of the SCU, otherwise known as the Scientific Coalition for UAP Studies. This is a group of scientists from around the world that has come together to further the study of this phenomenon. On the SCU website, explorescu.org, it states “The Scientific Coalition for UAP Studies (SCU) is a think tank of scientists, researchers and professionals stretching across organizations, governments and industries to scientifically and publicly explore anomalous phenomena known around the world as UAPs, UFOs, USOs and OVNIs.” What they do? “We conduct, promote and encourage the rigorous scientific examination of Unidentified Aerospace Phenomena (UAP), commonly known as Unidentified Flying Objects (UFOs). We utilize scientific principles, methodologies and practices in the study of Unidentified Aerial Phenomena observed and reported around the globe. We provide scientific case analysis to support witness cases, other scientific organizations, and government entities who are looking for the certitude of facts for this phenomenon.”

Let’s talk about the other scientists and engineers that are working diligently on this subject to try and understand what’s going on? Dr. Diana Pasulka has been working on the history of ET and UFO phenomenon. What about Steve McDaniel who has engineered a machine, called SkyHub, that is working on tracking anomalous aerial phenomenon. Dr. Bob McGwier, who retired last year as one of the science and mathematics board members at Virginia Tech University. Is Bob all of the sudden not credible because he’s now searching for alien life? What about Dr. Eric Davis who has worked closely with the U.S. Government, as an Astrophysicist and advisor to the Pentagon regarding off-world vehicles? What about the late Stanton Friedman? The nuclear physicist, who was known in the scientific community for his research into everything from Roswell to dozens of UFO sightings and alien encounters around the world. Did he all of the sudden lose his credibility because he went into the world of ‘Woo’? Credible people from the late Ben Rich to Steve Justice, both formerly of Lockheed Skunkworks seemed to believe in the technology that was out there. You have to be pretty smart to be in the positions they were in. This list goes on and on. Has Tyson had conversations with Lue Elizondo, Chris Mellon, Stanford’s Dr. Gary Nolan, Jacques Vallee, Jim Semivan, Dr. Hal Puthoff, Dr. Michael Masters, and hundreds of others who are enlightened to the fact that the current evidence does show there is something going on! Apparently NDT didn’t get the memo!

Now I don’t know too much about science or how things work, but I’m bright enough to know that science is not opinion. To break science down to terminology the majority of us can understand, it’s the proving or disproving of theory. Yet when it comes to UFOs and the UAP Phenomenon, science really does seem to be thrown out the window. It’s about grants. It’s about tenure. It’s about position of authority to be a voice of reason. Tyson shows that he’s a brilliant man, but his opinion overtakes the reality of the evidence that is out there. Is it arrogance? Is it ignorance? I don’t know? I’ve never talked to the man. But it’s not doing him any favours to refute evidence when he refuses to believe the subject is very real.

{ https://www.uapresearch.com/ }

11-03-2021 om 00:49 geschreven door peter  

Reptilians: The Serpent Connection From Ancient Myths To Modern Science

This is a highly controversial and thought-provoking subject.

We will therefore investigate the topic from a scientific and mythological point of view. The human reptilian connection is very old. Reptilian-like humanoids and “Lizard- people” are described in many ancient texts and religions.

“As long as humanity has kept records of its existence, legends of a serpent race have persisted. These myths tell of a mysterious race of superhuman reptilian beings who descended from the heavens to participate in creating humankind and to teach the sciences, impart forbidden knowledge, impose social order, breed with us, and watch over our development.

“The serpent like beings were not alone, but were part of a retinue of super beings thought to be gods by the ancients.

“Yet, in cultures as widespread and diverse as those of Sumeria, Babylonia, India, China, Japan, Mexico, and Central America, reptilian gods have been feared and worshipped.

“To this day the dragon or serpent signifies divine heritage and royalty in many Asian countries, while in the West, the serpent represents wisdom and knowledge.

“The symbol of two serpents coiled around a staff (originally signifying the tree of knowledge of ancient myth), known as the caduceus, is today used by the American Medical Association as its logo,” wrote Joe Lewels, Ph.D in his article “The Reptilians: Humanity’s Historical Link to the Serpent Race”.

The subject of reptilians has become popular since some decades when, David Icke, stated that some human beings on Earth are not normal like us and they are reptilians.

So is it possible that we evolved from reptilians?

There are certain physiological similarities between humans and reptilians. We have what is known as the “reptilian brain”.

It controls vital functions such as heart rate, breathing, body temperature and balance.

Our reptilian brain also includes the main structures found in a reptile’s brain, namely the brainstem and the cerebellum.

The reptilian brain is reliable but tends to be somewhat rigid and compulsive.

Our eyes are also constructed like the eyes of reptiles. In both humans and reptiles, the eye acts as a box with a lens to focus the light that passes through it. Cells within the eye process the light and turn it into useful information.

Scientists have for long been aware of that the lizard has a heart that is virtually indistinguishable from a human embryonic heart. While the structure of the human heart has been known for a long time, the evolutionary origin of our conduction system has nevertheless remained a mystery.

Now, a century-old mystery has thereby finally been unravelled about the evolution of the human heart.

Researchers have finally succeeded in showing that the spongy tissue in reptile hearts is the forerunner of the complex hearts of both birds and mammals.

The new knowledge provides a deeper understanding of the complex conductive tissue of the human heart, which is of key importance in many heart conditions.

“The heart of a bird or a mammal – for example a human – pumps frequently and rapidly.

This is only possible because it has electrically conductive tissue that controls the heart.

Until now, however, we haven’t been able to find conductive tissue in our common reptilian ancestors, which means we haven’t been able to understand how this enormously important system emerged,” says Bjarke Jensen, Department of Bioscience, Aarhus University.

Along with Danish colleagues and colleagues from the University of Amsterdam, he now reveals that the genetic building blocks for highly developed conductive tissue are actually hidden behind the thin wall in the spongy hearts of reptiles.

Since the early 1900s, scientists have been wondering how birds and mammals could have developed almost identical conduction systems independently of each other when their common ancestor was a cold-blooded reptile with a sponge-like inner heart that has virtually no conduction bundles.

“We studied the hearts of cold-blooded animals like lizards, frogs and zebrafish, and we investigated the gene that determines which parts of the heart are responsible for conducting the activating current,” Dr Jensen.

• 
  Are Reptilians Really Controlling the World?
• 
  Reptoids – Reptilian Bipeds Cryptids or Space Aliens?

“By comparing adult hearts from reptiles with embryonic hearts from birds and mammals, we discovered a common molecular structure that’s hidden by the anatomical differences,” he added.

Considering the number of similarities we share, such as the reptilian heart, brain and eyes, it’s wise to say there are strong indications that ancient reptilian-like humanoids hold secrets of mankind’s origin.

Sources: 

• in5d.com/did-humans-evolve-from-reptilians

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{ https://anomalien.com/ }

10-03-2021 om 20:42 geschreven door peter  

Reports of so-called hybrid children and hybrid babies are particularly notable, in the sense that encounters with these somewhat unsettling creatures more often than not follow certain, distinct pathways that crop up time and again. There is, for example, most assuredly a greater percentage of female abductees who have had interactions with the hybrids than there are male abductees. There appears to be a very good reason for this. Under hypnotic regression, numerous women have reported been taken on board a UFO, or, on more than a few occasions, to an underground installation, where they are introduced to the hybrids. Of course, the underground component/”little people” issue adds to the centuries-old fairy encounters, and the changeling phenomenon that has its undeniable parallels to today’s UFO scene. In such situations the woman will either be laying on something akin to an operating-room table, or sitting in a chair that resembles a dentist’s chair. It’s then that something remarkable happens – although, admittedly, others might call it terrifying.

As the abductee looks on, a group of three or four small, alien Grays will approach, with one of them holding in their hands a tiny baby that is clear not entirely human, even though it exhibit certain, physical, human traits. The abductee is then encouraged to take the baby from the Gray and to cradle it. Researchers of the phenomenon have suggested, probably correctly, that this procedure is undertaken to try and instill an emotional bond between the abductee and the hybrid. If this all sounds very calm and tranquil, it often is not. Many of the female abductees who report this bonding process – or attempt at bonding – were, months earlier, pregnant themselves. For a while, at least, they were. There are many reports on record where a pregnant abductee has experienced a sudden, unexplained miscarriage; a tragic event, to be sure. Or is there just an assumption they were miscarriages? Quite possibly, yes.

Those same abductees, when presented with a hybrid baby, develop sudden, unexplained suspicions that what they are being shown is the baby they were once carrying and which they assumed had miscarried. In this scenario, abduction researcher suggest, the abductees are impregnated during an earlier abduction, they then carry the fetus for a number of months, and then it is removed from the mother during a later abduction, and essentially “grown” in what we might call an artificial womb. A sensation – some might say outrageous – scenario, to be sure, but it’s not a possibility that can be dismissed. The reason why is as amazing as it is controversial: we, the Human Race, are now working – and working hard and fast – to develop artificial wombs.

The process of growing a fetus, and bringing it to full term in an artificial womb, is called ectogenesis. Much of the research is still at a theoretical stage, predominantly because of restrictions and regulations that govern the ethical, or non-ethical use, of human embryos in experimentation. But, not all of it is. As just two perfect examples, we have to first turn our attentions to Japan, and experimentation undertaken in 1997, at the Bunkyo, Tokyo-based Juntendo University. The program was led by Yoshinori Kuwabara – the Chairman of the Department of Obstetrics at the university – who was successful in growing goat embryos that were contained in a machine filled with amniotic fluid, a yellow-colored fluid contained in the amniotic sac and which surrounds the growing fetus. Then there is the work of Cornell University’s Reproductive Endocrine Laboratory. In both 2003 and 2011 significant success was had by sustaining embryos in artificial wombs. In the 2003 experiment, the embryo was that of a mouse. Eight years later, however, it was nothing less than a human embryo, which was allowed to develop for ten days – with fourteen days being the absolute, legal time-limit on experimenting with human fetuses.

There is, however, one potential disadvantage, and it may prove to be a big one, should we, as a species, ever decide to go down this emotionless pathway. It is the matter of the deep bonding between the mother and the unborn fetus that quickly develops when pregnancy begins. Or, in the future, what might very well be a distinct lack of that bonding. Might we see a 23^rd Century or a 28^th Century in which, as a result of a factory-like environment in which babies are grown to order, specification, and design, that bond is completely lost? Might we see the Human Race, hundreds of years from now, reduced to nothing but cold, emotionless entities – in fact, just like the Grays – that will have no understanding of, or care for, the emotional angle of what it means to be pregnant? Such a thing, given that research in this field is pressing ahead, is not at all out of the question. This same situation may also explain why the Grays are forced to present hybrid children to human mothers, in an effort to induce bonding: the Grays are utterly incapable of comprehending how to make that bond themselves.

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{ https://mysteriousuniverse.org/ }

10-03-2021 om 18:40 geschreven door peter  

Anyone who has spent time studying UFOs and pondered the possible existence of and possible visitation by extraterrestrials has undoubtedly hear of the Fermi Paradox proposed by the renowned physicist Enrico Fermi, who one day looked up at the billions of stars that these ETs could have come from – or even just sent us greetings from – and asked (paraphrased), “So, where are the aliens?” If Enrico were alive today, he’d probably make a visit to China, where a new radio telescope was put into operation last year and has already detected enough fast radio bursts from those billions of stars that astronomers estimate Earth is hit by 120,000 a day or more. If these are sent by intelligent civilizations … Enrico? “So, where are the aliens?”

Enrico Fermi

“We report three new FRBs discovered by the Five-hundred-meter Aperture Spherical radio Telescope (FAST), namely FRB 181017.J0036+11, FRB 181118, and FRB 181130, through the Commensal Radio Astronomy FAST Survey (CRAFTS).”

The latest edition of the Astrophysical Journal Letters reports that Dr. Niu Chenhui, co-author from the National Astronomical Observatories of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, discovered three new FRBs (Fast Radio Bursts) using the data from FAST – the Five-hundred-meter Aperture Spherical radio Telescope ) in southwest China’s Guizhou Province that just became operational last year. With its size, new technology and the collapse of Arecibo Observatory in Puerto Rico, astronomers looking for signs of extraterrestrial intelligence are going to FAST and coming away excited … and possibly frustrated. Excited because these signals were sent billions of years ago and are now being detected with a frequency that suggests they could hear 120,000 a day. Frustrated, because …

“More discoveries from FAST will thus help reveal the yet unknown origin of FRBs.”

Dr. Niu Chenhui’s paradox is similar to Fermi’s — if we’re seeing so many FRBs that could be created by intelligent life forms for billions of years … where are they?

The FAST telescope

“The phenomenon is a mystery to astronomy. We have clues about their origin but in reality we do not know well what it is. The information that the experts handle is that they are radio emissions. These radio waves constantly arrive from the deep Universe. They are like explosions that occur in the electromagnetic spectrum : a strong glow from a radio source is emitted for a few seconds very intensely.” (Google translation)

Aire Digital (Argentina) interviewed Dante Paz, a doctor in Astronomy and researcher at Conicet (The National Scientific and Technical Research Council) who was not part of the study, explains that FRBs are suspected of being created by intelligent civilizations because they are emitted in a very specific direction, as if being sent from an antenna. The intensity needed to travel billions of light years suggests equipment far greater that we can imagine, so most astronomer attribute them to natural phenomena with strong magnetic fields, like black holes, neutron stars or magnetars. However, those are also theoretical causes. Which brings us back to ETs. Which brings us back to Fermi.

“Where are they?”

Discoveries of FRBs are coming “FAST” and furious. Will we – and Enrico – see an answer soon? You may not be a brilliant physicist, but you can still be like Fermi – he hated paradoxes too.

{ https://mysteriousuniverse.org/ }

10-03-2021 om 17:20 geschreven door peter  

Meteor Over Vermont! Bigger Ones on the Way!

Meteor Over Vermont! Bigger Ones on the Way! 

About The Marfoogle Network: Does your family think you are nuts? If so, then you probably belong here! The Marfoogle Network is a safe place to share your views and opinions about anything from the D**P State to aliens! Make yourself at home and meet like-minded friends. 

RELATED VIDEOS, selected and posted by peter2011

A brightly lit meteor sped through the night sky in the US state of Vermont on Sunday, March 7. The meteor created a giant fireball and looked like a big light show over the Vermont skies. Read further ahead to know more details.

© Provided by Live Science An illustration shows a meteor passing through the atmosphere.

{ https://beforeitsnews.com/ }

10-03-2021 om 15:04 geschreven door peter  

Currently, the amount of energy required for this new type of space propulsion drive is still immense. Lentz explains, “The energy required for this drive travelling at light speed encompassing a spacecraft of 100 meters in radius is on the order of hundreds of times of the mass of the planet Jupiter. The energy savings would need to be drastic, of approximately 30 orders of magnitude to be in range of modern nuclear fission reactors.” He goes on to say: “Fortunately, several energy-saving mechanisms have been proposed in earlier research that can potentially lower the energy required by nearly 60 orders of magnitude.” Lentz is currently in the early-stages of determining if these methods can be modified, or if new mechanisms are needed to bring the energy required down to what is currently possible.

Contacts and sources:

• Erik W Lentz,
  Göttingen University

Publication: 

• Breaking the warp barrier: hyper-fast solitons in Einstein–Maxwell-plasma theory Erik W Lentz2,1 Published 9 March 2021 • © 2021 IOP Publishing Ltd Classical and Quantum Gravity, Volume 38, Number 7 Citation Erik W Lentz 2021 Class. Quantum Grav. 38 075015  https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1088/1361-6382/abe692
  http://dx.doi.org/10.1088/1361-6382/abe692

{https://beforeitsnews.com/ }

10-03-2021 om 14:36 geschreven door peter  

Gigantic Jet Found From Supermassive Black Hole in Early Universe

Astronomers have discovered evidence for an extraordinarily long jet of particles from a supermassive black hole in the early Universe, using NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory.

If confirmed, it would be the most distant supermassive black hole with a jet detected in X-rays, coming from a galaxy about 12.7 billion light years from Earth. It may help explain how the biggest black holes formed at a very early time in the Universe’s history.

X-ray: NASA/CXO/JPL/T. Connor; Optical: Gemini/NOIRLab/NSF/AURA;
Infrared: W.M. Keck Observatory; Illustration: NASA/CXC/M.Weiss
Press Image, Caption, and Videos

The source of the jet is a quasar — a rapidly growing supermassive black hole — named PSO J352.4034-15.3373 (PJ352-15 for short), which sits at the center of a young galaxy. It is one of the two most powerful quasars detected in radio waves in the first billion years after the Big Bang, and is about a billion times more massive than the Sun.

How are supermassive black holes able to grow so quickly to reach such an enormous mass in this early epoch of the Universe? This is one of the key questions in astronomy today.

PJ352-15 breaks a couple of different astronomical records. First, the longest jet previously observed from the first billion years after the Big Bang was only about 5,000 light years in length, corresponding to the radio observations of PJ352-15. Second, PJ352-15 is about 300 million light years farther away than the most distant X-ray jet recorded before it.

“The length of this jet is significant because it means that the supermassive black hole powering it has been growing for a considerable period of time,” said co-author Eduardo Bañados of the Max Planck Institute for Astronomy (MPIA) in Heidelberg, Germany. “This result underscores how X-ray studies of distant quasars provide a critical way to study the growth of the most distant supermassive black holes.”

The light detected from this jet was emitted when the Universe was only 0.98 billion years old, less than a tenth of its present age. At this point, the intensity of the cosmic microwave background radiation (CMB) left over from the Big Bang was much greater than it is today.

As the electrons in the jet fly away from the black hole at close to the speed of light, they move through and collide with photons making up the CMB radiation, boosting the energy of the photons up into the X-ray range to be detected by Chandra. In this scenario, the X-rays are significantly boosted in brightness compared to radio waves. This agrees with the observation that the large X-ray jet feature has no associated radio emission.

“Our result shows that X-ray observations can be one of the best ways to study quasars with jets in the early Universe,” said co-author Daniel Stern, also of JPL. “Or to put it another way, X-ray observations in the future may be the key to unlocking the secrets of our cosmic past.”

A paper describing these results has been accepted for publication in The Astrophysical Journal and a preprint is available online. The other co-authors of the paper are Chris Carilli (NRAO, Socorro, New Mexico); Andrew Fabian (University of Cambridge, UK); Emmanuel Momjian (NRAO); Sofía Rojas-Ruiz (MPIA); Roberto Decarli (INAF, Bologna, Italy); Emanuele Paolo Farina (Max Planck Institute for Astrophysics, Garching, Germany); Chiara Mazzucchelli (ESO, Chile); Hannah P. Earnshaw (Caltech, Pasadena, California).

NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center manages the Chandra program. The Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory’s Chandra X-ray Center controls science from Cambridge Massachusetts and flight operations from Burlington, Massachusetts.

Other materials about the findings are available at:

• http://chandra.si.edu

For more Chandra images, multimedia and related materials, visit:

• http://www.nasa.gov/chandra

Contacts and sources:

• Megan Watzke
  Chandra X-ray Center, Cambridge, Mass.
• Molly Porter
  Marshall Space Flight Center, Huntsville, Alabama

{https://beforeitsnews.com/ }

10-03-2021 om 14:26 geschreven door peter  

On March 9, 2021 the LASCO C2 satellite recorded an enormous explosion on the Sun. Seconds before the explosion an unknown reddish triangular object appears from behind the black occulting disc near the area where the blast occurred.

What follows is an enormous explosion that almost crippled the satellite. 

A few seconds after the explosion, the triangular object has turned from reddish to white and although it may just be a glitch, it remains very strange and does not explain the massive explosion on the sun 

If we compare the blast to a solar flare, then we know it was not a normal solar eruption, so what caused this outburst, did something hit the Sun?

  

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

10-03-2021 om 12:51 geschreven door peter