No Big Bang? Quantum equation predicts universe has no beginning

by Lisa Zyga , Phys.org

{ https://phys.org/ }

12-03-2021 om 00:57 geschreven door peter  

6 OF THE MOST SPECTACULAR METEORS EVER CAUGHT ON CAMERA

6. meteor was caught on camera over australia on februari 14,2021

The celestial spectacle occurred on Valentine's Day, during the city's five-day lockdown

4.  a meteor on januari 16 , 2017 was visible from Missouri to Ontario

3.  a meteor over Arizona on June 2, 2016 glowed blue on camera 3

2.  a bright, fast meteor over Alberta, canada on februari 22, 2021

1. a fireball scattered around Chelyabinsk, Russia on februari  15, 2013

Feb 15,2013 - A "small" meteorite streaked through the skies above Russia's Urals region. The blast, equivalent to 300,000 tons of TNT, shattered windows, damaged more than 3,000 building and injured over 1,000 people.

8 months after the incident, the meteorite, weighing in at 570 kg, was pulled out of Lake Chebarkul, making it one of the biggest meteorites ever recovered.

RELATED VIDEOS, selected and posted by peter2011

{ https://www.inverse.com/ }

11-03-2021 om 23:08 geschreven door peter  

Is the future of deep-sea exploration soft? Researchers have developed a new type of soft robot designed to cope with the crushing pressures at the bottom the ocean.

Inspired by the deepest-living known fish, the Mariana snailfish (Pseudoliparis swirei), researchers used soft materials and distributed electronics to create a machine that can withstand extreme pressure. They say that a soft robot could be more versatile and reliable at depth than other machines which require bulk materials or pressure compensation systems.

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This silicone rubber robot can withstand the pressures in the ocean’s deepest abyss

Guorui Li

Soft robot fingers gently grasp deep-sea jellyfish

‘Squishy’ Robot Fingers Aid Deep-Sea Exploration

New ‘Poké Ball’ robot catches deep-sea critters without...

New robot travels across the seafloor to monitor the ...

{ https://www.nature.com/nature }

11-03-2021 om 21:59 geschreven door peter  

Forget Noah's Ark! Scientists want to send sperm and egg samples from 6.7 million Earth species to the MOON as a 'modern global insurance policy'

• To protect Earth's species diversity, we presently store genetic material in vaults 

• Material including seeds and spores could be used to recover lost species 

• But gene banks on Earth are vulnerable to the catastrophes they insure against

• US experts propose to more safely store specimens in lava tubes on the moon

• The deposits would be cryogenically frozen and tended by levitating robots

By IAN RANDALL FOR MAILONLINE

Sperm and egg samples from 6.7 million of Earth's species should be sent to an ark built on the moon as a 'modern global insurance policy', scientists have proposed.

The lunar gene bank — which could also house seed and spore samples — is envisaged as being built under the lunar surface, in a hollow, cooled lava tube. 

Specimens deposited in the ark would be kept refrigerated at cryogenic temperatures, with the facility powered by solar panels on the lunar surface.

The ark would preserve Earth's genetic diversity in the event of a global catastrophe, such as might be caused by climate change, a supervolcano or an asteroid impact.

Sperm (left) and egg samples from 6.7 million of Earth's species should be sent to an ark built on the moon (right) as a 'modern global insurance policy', scientists have proposed

The lunar gene bank — which could also house seed and spore samples — is envisaged as being built under the lunar surface, in a hollow, cooled lava tube. Pictured: a cross-section of how the lunar ark might look buried beneath the surface of the moon in a hollow lava tube

'Earth is naturally a volatile environment,' said study author and mechanical engineer Jekan Thanga of the University of Arizona.

'As humans, we had a close call about 75,000 years ago with the Toba supervolcano eruption, which caused a 1,000-year cooling period and, according to some, aligns with an estimated drop in human diversity,' he added.

'Because human civilization has such a large footprint, if it were to collapse, that could have a negative cascading effect on the rest of the planet.'

The idea of creating gene banks to restore lost biodiversity in the future is not new — more than a million seed samples are currently stored in the Svalbard Global Seed Vault on the island of Spitsbergen in the Artic Sea, for example.

However, Professor Thanga and colleagues explained that locating such facilities on Earth leaves them also vulnerable to accidental loss.

Climate change, for example, has the potential to push many species into terminal decline in the future — and, at the same time, the rising sea levels which will accompany global warming will see the Svalbard vault lost beneath the waves.

Removed but still accessible, the moon may present a safer location. 

Building a genetic storage facility on the moon would be a significant undertaking — but one that Professor Thanga says would be possible. 

The idea of creating gene banks to restore lost biodiversity in the future is not new — more than a million seed samples are currently stored in the Svalbard Global Seed Vault (the entrance to which is pictured) on the island of Spitsbergen in the Arctic Sea, for example

According to his 'back-of-an-envelope' calculations, transporting some 50 samples for each of the 6.7 million target species would require 250 rocket launches.

For comparison, it took a total of 40 rocket launches to assemble the International Space Station in low-Earth orbit.

'It's not crazy big. We were a little bit surprised about that,' Professor Thanga said.

The team propose to establish the lunar ark within a lava tube (pictured, bottom left) — a hollow tunnel formed billions of years ago when molten rock flowed underground, ultimately leaving behind a network of hundreds of tubes each some 100 metres in diameter

The team propose to establish the lunar ark within a lava tube — a hollow tunnel formed billions of years ago when molten rock flowed underground, ultimately leaving behind a network of hundreds of tubes each some 100 metres in diameter.

Despite the sci-fi image of glass habitation domes adorning the lunar surface, it is much more likely that future lunar residents would want to settle underground, where they would be shielded from solar radiation, meteorites and temperature flux.

In the researchers' proposal, the ark facility would be accessible via two or more elevator shafts to the surface — one of which would be dedicated for the moving of construction materials into the base, so it can be extended along the lava tube.

The initial setting up of the base could be aided by another project from Professor Thanga's team, specifically tiny flying and hopping robots dubbed 'SphereX'.

These machines could be used to enter lava tubes in teams to collect samples of lunar dust and rock and collect data on the layout, temperature and makeup of the caverns which could be used to determine suitability for construction.

The initial setting up of the base could be aided by another project from Professor Thanga's team, specifically tiny flying and hopping robots dubbed 'SphereX' (left). These machines could be used to enter lava tubes in teams (right) to collect samples of lunar rock and collect data on the layout, temperature and makeup of the caverns before construction commenced

The main backbone of the base would be a series of cylindrical 'cryo-preservation' modules, in which stacked rows of petri dishes containing the sample material would be neatly archived. 

The seeds, the team said, would need to be cooled to a chilly -292°F (-180°C), while stem cells would need to be kept colder at -320°F (-196°C).

(For comparison, the Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine is stored at just -94°F [-70°C].)

Operating a facility at such temperatures comes with its own problems — risking metal base components freezing up, jamming or even cold-welding together.

On the other hand, such conditions could let us to take advantage of a special phenomenon called quantum levitation— allowing shelves of samples to float above metal surfaces, tended to by robots similarly flying above magnetic tracks.

The main backbone of the base would be a series of cylindrical 'cryo-preservation' modules, in which stacked rows of petri dishes containing the sample material would be neatly archived. The seeds, the team said, would need to be cooled to a chilly -292°F (-180°C), while stem cells would need to be kept colder at -320°F (-196°C)

The ultracold conditions needed to store the samples could let us to take advantage of a special phenomenon called quantum levitation — allowing shelves of samples to float above metal surfaces, tended to by robots similarly flying above magnetic tracks (left). Quantum levitation is achieved by placing a cryo-cooled superconductor above a powerful magnet, at which point the former will to float a fixed distance above the latter (as pictured right)

Quantum levitation is achieved by placing a cryo-cooled superconductor material above a powerful magnet, at which point the former will float a fixed distance above the latter, as if they were connected.

'It's like they're locked in place by strings, but invisible strings. When you get to cryogenic temperatures, strange things happen,' said Professor Thanga.

'Some of it just looks like magic but is based on tried and laboratory-tested physics principles at the edge of our understanding.'

Realising such a lunar ark, however, is still a long way off — with researchers first needing to determine, for example, how the facility would communicate with the Earth and what impact the low-gravity environment would have on the samples.

'Projects like this […] make me feel like we are getting closer to becoming a space civilization and to a not-very-distant future where humankind will have bases on the moon and Mars,' added Álvaro Díaz-Flores, also of the University of Arizona. 

'Multidisciplinary projects are hard due to their complexity, but I think the same complexity is what makes them beautiful.'

The full findings of the study were presented at the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) Aerospace Conference, which is being held virtually from March 6–13, 2021. 

WHO HAS BEEN TO THE MOON?

In total twelve people have walked on the moon.

1 + 2. Apollo 11 - July 21, 1969

Neil Armstrong made history by becoming the first person to set foot on the moon.  

Edwin 'Buzz' Aldrin followed Neil Armstrong on to the surface of the moon.  His popular nickname gave itself to the animated characte Buzz Lightyear. 

3 + 4. Apollo 12 - November 19 and 20, 1969

Pete Conrad and Alan Bean were the moon walkers on the Apollo 12 mission. 

The Apollo 12 crew experienced two lightning strikes just after their Saturn V rocket launched.

5 + 6. Apollo 14 - February 5, 1971 

Alan Shepard and Edgar Mitchell who were part of the Apollo 14 mission. They launched on January 31, 1971, and landed in the Fra Mauro region of the moon, the original destination for Apollo 13.

7 + 8. Apollo 15 - July 31, 1971

David Scott and James Irwin landed on the moon and stayed for three days, until August 2nd. 

 9 + 10. Apollo 16 - April 21 1972

John Young and Charles Duke were the next men to walk on the moon. When the crew reached lunar orbit, the mission almost had to be aborted because of a problem with Command/Service Module’s main engine.

11 + 12. Apollo  17 - December 11, 1972

The final people to walk on the moon were Eugene (Gene) Cernan and Harrison (Jack) Schmitt. 

Before he left the moon, Cernan scratched the initials of his daughter Tracy into the lunar regolith. Since the moon does not experience weather conditions like wind or rain to erode anything away, her initials should stay there for a very long time. 

All the men who have been to the moon

Read more:

• AeroConf 2021 IEEE Aerospace Conference |

{ https://www.dailymail.co.uk/ }

11-03-2021 om 21:24 geschreven door peter  

‘Lunar ark’ might store DNA from millions of species in Moon’s lava tubes

A backup plan in case we screw up this planet for good.

 by Tibi Puiu

 

Researchers at the University of Arizona have proposed an audacious plan to backup Earth’s biodiversity in the event of a planetary obliteration, i.e. nuclear war. The idea is to store the genetic material from millions of species below the moon’s surface in lava tubes, which could act as a ‘lunar ark’ that preserves Earth’s most cherished resource: the evolution of billions of years of life.

This project is similar to Norway’s “Doomsday” Seed Vault, which hosts more than 850,000 different seed samples in the frigid Arctic. Seeds are kept at -18 °C (-3 °F) and should be protected against a number of potential disasters, ranging from global warming to nuclear war.

Likewise, the lunar ark would deposit cryogenically frozen seeds, spores, sperm, and egg samples from millions of species of animals. In order to protect these precious samples, the ark would be stored inside one of the more than 200 lava tubes identified so far beneath the moon’s surface.

A lava tube, or pyroduct, is a natural conduit formed by flowing lava from a volcanic vent that moves beneath the hardened surface of a lava flow.

These yawning, subterranean caverns can have heights that dwarf Dubai’s Burj Khalifa. Untouched for the last billions of years, these lava tubes provide the perfect shelter from punishing solar radiation, which is why they’ve been identified as sites for future human bases.

But if we ever colonize the moon in a lava tube, why not take the extra step and build a genetic ark. Besides the ample space and radiation shielding, the temperature inside the lava tubes hovers around a constant  -25° Celsius (-15° F), which is ideal for storing sensitive biological samples.

Earth also has lava tubes formed during its early years, but these are much smaller, about the size of subway tunnels, and have been eroded over time by earthquakes, plate tectonics, and other natural processes. The lunar caverns are much better suited to acting as a genetic vault.

“Earth is naturally a volatile environment,” said Jekan Thanga, a professor of aerospace and mechanical engineering at the University of Arizona College of Engineering. “As humans, we had a close call about 75,000 years ago with the Toba supervolcanic eruption, which caused a 1,000-year cooling period and, according to some, aligns with an estimated drop in human diversity. Because human civilization has such a large footprint, if it were to collapse, that could have a negative cascading effect on the rest of the planet.”

Of course, building an ark on the moon is a huge undertaking. By Thanga’s calculations, it would take at least 250 rocket launches to carry about 50 samples from each of the 6.7 million species on Earth. For comparison, it took about 40 rocket launches to build the International Space Station.

These samples would be housed in an underground facility powered by solar panels positioned on the moon’s surface. Two or more elevator shafts would lead down to the facility where biological samples would be housed in various cryogenic preservation modules.

Inside the modules, the samples would float above metal surfaces thanks to a phenomenon known as quantum levitation. Maintenance would be ensured by robots navigating above magnetic tracks.

All of this may sound wack, but it definitely is in the realm of possibility — we already have the technology at our disposal after all. It’s just a matter of directing resources and gaining public support.

Just the other day, China and Russia  announced that they have plans to build a lunar outpost together. Elsewhere, the US has plans for its own lunar base called Artemis after it lands astronauts back on the moon in 2024.

“What amazes me about projects like this is that they make me feel like we are getting closer to becoming a space civilization, and to a not-very-distant future where humankind will have bases on the moon and Mars,” said Álvaro Díaz-Flores Caminero, a University of Arizona doctoral student leading the thermal analysis for the project. “Multidisciplinary projects are hard due to their complexity, but I think the same complexity is what them beautiful.”

The project was described in a paper presented over the weekend during the IEEE Aerospace Conference.

{ https://www.zmescience.com/ }

11-03-2021 om 20:55 geschreven door peter  

Oldest meteorite ever found: 4.6 BILLION-year-old space rock discovered in the Sahara could shed light on the early solar system

• Experts analyzed a meteorite discovered last year in the Sahara desert

• The rock weighs 70 pounds and is tan in color with green spots throughout

• It consists mostly of volcanic rock, but also silicon dioxide that is found on Earth

• Named EC 002, it is 4.6 billion years old and was once part of an early planet 

By STACY LIBERATORE FOR DAILYMAIL.COM

An ancient, meteorite, or achondrite, was discovered in the Sahara desert last year that has now been identified as chunk from a protoplanet that formed before Earth came into existence.

The space rock, named EC 002, dates back 4.6 billion years and consists mostly of volcanic rock, leading experts to believe it came from the crust of a very early planet.

The team of French and Japanese scientists determined that the rock was once liquid lava, but cooled and solidified over 100,000 years to form the 70-pound piece that eventually made its way to our planet.

Researchers also note that no asteroids have been found with similar properties, which suggests the protoplanet it came from has since disappeared by either becoming parts of larger bodies or 'were simply destroyed.'

Scroll down for video 

An ancient achondrite was discovered in the Sahara desert last year that has now been identified as chunk from a protoplanet that formed before Earth came into existence. The stony meteorite, named EC 002, dates back 4.6 billion years

Anchondrites originate from early planetary bodies that have reformed from molten fragments and were flung into space as a result of another collision.

These rocks also resemble those on Earth at first glance, deeming them a rare discovery in the scientific community.

The latest anchondrite has been named after its landing site in Algeria's Erg Chech dune sea, which consist of several meteorites that collectively weight some 70 pounds, Motherboard reports.

Only a few thousands of these have been analyzed, most of which are basaltic, but EC 002 is made mostly of volcanic rock - making it rich in sodium, iron and magnesium.

The rock consists mostly of volcanic rock, leading experts to believe it came from the crust of a very early planet. The team describes EC 002 as 'relatively coarse grained, tan and beige,' noting that it was also spotted with yellow and green bits

The latest anchondrite has been named after its landing site in Algeria's Erg Chech dune sea, which consist of several meteorites that collectively weight some 70 pounds

With this in mind, the team says EC 002 'is also the oldest magnetic rock ever observed.'

Researchers determined its age by studying the rock's magnesium and aluminum isotopes, which showed it formed about 4.566 billion years ago – while Earth is said to be 4.543 billion years old.

The team describes EC 002 as 'relatively coarse grained, tan and beige,' noting that it was also spotted with yellow and green bits.

They also note that when they looked at other celestial bodies, focusing on their wavelengths, they found nothing that matched the wavelength reflected by EC 002.

The meteorite is also 58 percent silicon dioxide, making it even rarer than others previously found on Earth, as this mineral is commonly found in volcanic regions on our planet.

'Protoplanets covered by andesitic crusts were probably frequent,' the team wrote in the study published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

'However, no asteroid shares the spectral features of EC 002, indicating that almost all of these bodies have disappeared, either because they went on to form the building blocks of larger bodies or planets or were simply destroyed.'

Explained: The difference between an asteroid, meteorite and other space rocks

Read more:

• Scientists Discover Chunk of Protoplanet Older Than Earth In Sahara Desert
• A 4,565-My-old andesite from an extinct chondritic protoplanet | PNAS

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{ https://www.dailymail.co.uk/ }

11-03-2021 om 20:40 geschreven door peter  

The oldest meteorite ever found is older than the Earth itself

It's so ancient it could help us understand the building blocks of planets.

Most meteorites we’ve found so far are chondritic: stony (non-metallic) meteorites that haven’t been melted. Meanwhile, EC 002 is essentially an igneous rock — an andesite, to be more precise, which is also unusual. Out of the over 50,000 meteorites discovered so far, just 3,179 are not chondrites. Out of these, most are basalts, which makes EC 002 very rare.

Basalt is a common igneous rock not just on Earth but also elsewhere in the solar system. It’s formed by the rapid cooling of basaltic lava, often at the surface (or very close to the surface).

Andesite shares some similarities to basalt, but it has a different chemical make-up and is characteristic of areas where tectonic plates are either sliding by each other or being destroyed one under another. This makes it even rarer because it takes a very special set of circumstances for andesite to reach meteorites. But the surprises kept coming in.

The rock was once molten, and it solidified some 4.565 billion years ago, in a parent body that accreted 4.566 billion years ago. The Earth is 4.54 billion years old, so it’s already older than the Earth. We’re not sure where it formed, but whatever celestial body it formed on, it must have been in its very early days, a part of its primordial crust.

“This meteorite is the oldest magmatic rock analysed to date and sheds light on the formation of the primordial crusts that covered the oldest protoplanets,” the researchers wrote in their paper.

Further analysis also showed that it took the lava over 100,000 years to solidify, indicating that the lava must have been unusually viscous. A lava’s viscosity is given by its temperature, chemical composition, and volatile gas content, so already, geologists can infer certain properties.

It’s always difficult when studying something so old, but finds like this can help shed new light on how our corner of the universe formed and evolved.

• The study was published in PNAS.

{ https://www.zmescience.com/ }

11-03-2021 om 20:25 geschreven door peter  

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. 

{ https://www.space.com/ }

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). 

• First Evidence of Defleshing of Human Bones in Neolithic Europe Found in Italy Cave
• Bizarre Burials Uncovered in Ancient Georgia Cemetery Include Headless Skeletons and Decapitated Skull on a Plate

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. 

• Trephination: The Oldest Evidenced Surgery Still in Use Today?
• The Obscure Mangiapane Cave in Sicily: Prehistoric Cave and Site of Modern Feasts

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

{ https://www.ancient-origins.net/ }

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.

• Polish Pyramids: Ruins of Megalithic Tombs from the Time of Stonehenge Discovered in Poland
• Mysterious Megalithic Monument Found at Carrowmore is Unlike Anything Seen in Ireland
• Can Gobekli Tepe Reveal Prehistoric Masonic Secrets?

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.

• 10 Sensational Sunken Kingdoms: Atlantis’ Companions Beneath the Waves
• Ten Legendary Lost Cities that Have Emerged from the Past

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.

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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

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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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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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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.

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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