Dit is ons nieuw hondje Kira, een kruising van een waterhond en een Podenko. Ze is sinds 7 februari 2024 bij ons en druk bezig ons hart te veroveren. Het is een lief, aanhankelijk hondje, dat zich op een week snel aan ons heeft aangepast. Ze is heel vinnig en nieuwsgierig, een heel ander hondje dan Noleke.
This is our new dog Kira, a cross between a water dog and a Podenko. She has been with us since February 7, 2024 and is busy winning our hearts. She is a sweet, affectionate dog who quickly adapted to us within a week. She is very quick and curious, a very different dog than Noleke.
DEAR VISITOR,
MY BLOG EXISTS NEARLY 13 YEARS AND 4 MONTH.
ON /30/09/2024 MORE THAN 2.230.520
VISITORS FROM 135 DIFFERENT NATIONS ALREADY FOUND THEIR WAY TO MY BLOG.
THAT IS AN AVERAGE OF 400GUESTS PER DAY.
THANK YOU FOR VISITING MY BLOG AND HOPE YOU ENJOY EACH TIME.
The purpose of this blog is the creation of an open, international, independent and free forum, where every UFO-researcher can publish the results of his/her research. The languagues, used for this blog, are Dutch, English and French.You can find the articles of a collegue by selecting his category. Each author stays resposable for the continue of his articles. As blogmaster I have the right to refuse an addition or an article, when it attacks other collegues or UFO-groupes.
Druk op onderstaande knop om te reageren in mijn forum
Zoeken in blog
Deze blog is opgedragen aan mijn overleden echtgenote Lucienne.
In 2012 verloor ze haar moedige strijd tegen kanker!
In 2011 startte ik deze blog, omdat ik niet mocht stoppen met mijn UFO-onderzoek.
BEDANKT!!!
Een interessant adres?
UFO'S of UAP'S, ASTRONOMIE, RUIMTEVAART, ARCHEOLOGIE, OUDHEIDKUNDE, SF-SNUFJES EN ANDERE ESOTERISCHE WETENSCHAPPEN - DE ALLERLAATSTE NIEUWTJES
UFO's of UAP'S in België en de rest van de wereld In België had je vooral BUFON of het Belgisch UFO-Netwerk, dat zich met UFO's bezighoudt. BEZOEK DUS ZEKER VOOR ALLE OBJECTIEVE INFORMATIE , enkel nog beschikbaar via Facebook en deze blog.
Verder heb je ook het Belgisch-Ufo-meldpunt en Caelestia, die prachtig, doch ZEER kritisch werk leveren, ja soms zelfs héél sceptisch...
Voor Nederland kan je de mooie site www.ufowijzer.nl bezoeken van Paul Harmans. Een mooie site met veel informatie en artikels.
MUFON of het Mutual UFO Network Inc is een Amerikaanse UFO-vereniging met afdelingen in alle USA-staten en diverse landen.
MUFON's mission is the analytical and scientific investigation of the UFO- Phenomenon for the benefit of humanity...
Je kan ook hun site bekijken onder www.mufon.com.
Ze geven een maandelijks tijdschrift uit, namelijk The MUFON UFO-Journal.
Since 02/01/2020 is Pieter ex-president (=voorzitter) of BUFON, but also ex-National Director MUFON / Flanders and the Netherlands. We work together with the French MUFON Reseau MUFON/EUROP.
ER IS EEN NIEUWE GROEPERING DIE ZICH BUFON NOEMT, MAAR DIE HEBBEN NIETS MET ONZE GROEP TE MAKEN. DEZE COLLEGA'S GEBRUIKEN DE NAAM BUFON VOOR HUN SITE... Ik wens hen veel succes met de verdere uitbouw van hun groep. Zij kunnen de naam BUFON wel geregistreerd hebben, maar het rijke verleden van BUFON kunnen ze niet wegnemen...
12-03-2021
UFO Shoots Past helicopter Bangkok, Thailand, March 11, 2021, Video, UFO Sighting News.
UFO Shoots Past helicopter Bangkok, Thailand, March 11, 2021, Video, UFO Sighting News.
Date of sighting: March 11, 2021 Location of sighting: Bangkok, Thailand
This eyewitness was recording a helicopter flying over the neighborhood just at the right moment. A small black UFO sees the helicopter and shoots close to it, curving slightly, then shooting away before the helicopter pilots notice it. This is 100% typical behavior of alien drones. They are programed to find, investigate, record all data of flying technology. Flying technology is a priority for aliens to gather data on...because this allows them to accurately predict when humans will be capable of long distance space travel.
The 6 Most Mysterious UFO Crashes That Happened BEFORE Roswell
The 6 Most Mysterious UFO Crashes That Happened BEFORE Roswell
Some skeptics would have you believe that the Roswell UFO crash set the trend for reporting this type of strange event. But that’s not true.
Unidentified objects had been falling from the skies years before that. Here are 6 of the most intriguing cases.
6. Aurora, Texas – 1897
A good 50 years before the Roswell event started the craze, a large UFO allegedly crashed in the small town of Aurora, Texas. The object was silver in color and shaped like a cigar.
According to an article published in the Dallas News, the UFO had been steadily losing altitude when it struck Judge Proctor’s windmill. The explosion wrecked the windmill tower and scattered debris over several acres.
The article also reported that a well had been also damaged in the crash and its water tainted, leading the locals to bury it.
The article read:
”the pilot of the ship is supposed to have been the only on board and, while his remains were badly disfigured, enough of the original has been picked up to show that he was not an inhabitant of this world.”
A small ceremony was held at the local cemetery where the small alien body was buried. The tombstone was stolen in 2012 but from the existing photos one can clearly see it depicted a crudely-carved cigar-shaped object with portholes on its sides.
Unfortunately for everyone, at the time of the crash, a spotted fever epidemic was wreaking havoc in the area so the event quickly faded out of view.
Another interesting aspect is that in 1945, Judge Proctor’s property was bought by Brawley and Etta Oates. The entire Oates family began suffering serious health problems because they had re-dug the well. Before her death, etta became convinced the water was radioactive.
5. Indian Ocean – September 1862
This unusual incident was reported in the May 2, 1897 issue of The Houston Daily Post and centered around a story told by one of the few men who had survived to tell the story – a Dutch sailor.
He had been part of the crew aboard a ship called Christine. In the autumn of 1862, following a storm in the Indian Ocean, the ship sank. The crew members who had been lucky enough to survive suddenly found themselves on a small, deserted island completely devoid of life.
While on the island, they witnessed an extraordinary event: a giant UFO fell from the sky, crashing into a jagged cliff. It was as big as a battleship and had four huge wings on its sides.
The men mustered the courage to examine the wreck and, amid the debris, found the bodies of several 12 foot-tall men with strange clothing and bronze-colored silky beards. This gruesome discovery was too much to bear for the starving, desperate men and some of them even went mad.
Only a handful of people survived until rescue came in the form of a Russian trawler, among them, the Dutchman.
While this might be nothing more than a sailor’s story, it makes for a very interesting one nonetheless.
4. Stavropol, Russia – late 1800s
In the 1960s, a Soviet investigation uncovered clues about a UFO crash landing that took place towards the end of the 19th century. Several witnesses reported that “a strange apparition flew into a village of the Stavropol province” and that its passengers had survived the crash.
“Three dark-skinned men came out of it. They were breathing hard, making signs and soon died since they could not breathe air. The village residents quickly pulled apart the thing in which they landed.”
As the investigation progressed, the officials began receiving letters corroborating the story. A woman named Irina Danilova recalled a story told by her grandfather, who had personally witnessed the event.
According to Danilova’s grandfather, the craft was shaped like an arrowhead and was quickly dismantled by the locals, who used the metal to manufacture household goods.
The bodies were “buried without cross or ritual.”
3. Carolinas – 1941
This report comes from noted UFO researcher Leo Stringfield’s book UFO Crash/Retrievals: Search for Truth in a Hall of Mirrors. Stringfield tracked down and spoke with the mother of Guy Simeone, a soldier in the 26th Infantry Division prior to the United States’ involvement into the Second World War.
In October 1941, Simeone was taking part in a military maneuver “in the Carolinas” when an unidentified object crashed in the area. Interests rapidly shifted towards recovering the “crashed round, metallic object” and “little dead bodies from space.”
The craft was taken to a nearby Army post. It measured about 15 feet in width and 10 feet in height and housed a control room with four seats. The silver UFO had otherworldly inscriptions both on its exterior shell as well as inside.
The four recovered bodies were described as small and with large, insect-like eyes.
Unfortunately, there is little evidence to support this incident, apart from the accounts of second-hand witnesses. Nobody knows what happened to the craft or the body of its passengers.
2. Dundy County, Nebraska, 1884
The June 8th, 1884 edition of The Nebraska State Journal ran an article about the crash of a mysterious object and subsequent retrieval of very unusual debris.
According to the journal, local rancher John Ellis and other locals witnessed a burning object similar to a meteor falling from the sky.
The men rode their horses to the crash site in order to investigate the incident. When they arrived, they found a large number of incandescent objects strewn across the crash site.
The objects were so hot and burned so bright that none of the men dared approach them. The ranchers resolved to come back the following day.
When they returned, the men noticed the objects were, in fact, mechanical parts resembling gears, wheels and propeller blades. All of them appeared to have been made from an extremely light and durable metal. No bodies were found.
Nobody knows what became of the wreckage.
1. England – WWII
Former intelligence officer and Flying Saucer Review editor Gordon Creighton launched an investigation into the crash of a UFO on British soil, at the height of the Second World War.
The craft wreckage was reportedly retrieved and studied by British authorities.
He learned about the incident from a 1955 article published in the Los Angeles Examiner by journalist Dorothy Kilgallen.
Here’s an excerpt:
“I can report today on a story which is positively spooky, not to mention chilling. British scientists and airmen, after examining the wreckage of one mysterious flying ship, are convinced these strange aerial objects are not optical illusions or Soviet inventions, but are flying saucers which originate on another planet.
“The source of my information is a British official of cabinet rank who prefers to remain unidentified.
‘We believe, on the basis of our inquiry thus far, that the saucers were staffed by small men—probably under four feet tall. It’s frightening, but there’s no denying the flying saucers come from another planet.’
“This official quoted scientists as saying a flying ship of this type could not have possibly been constructed on Earth. The British Government, I learned, is withholding an official report on the ‘flying saucer’ examination at this time, possibly because it does not wish to frighten the public.”
After the article was published, Creighton attempted to contact Dorothy Kilgallen and ask for further information.
She died shortly after, leading the researcher to believe that “she had been effectively silenced.” But as it turns out, Kilgallen was not the only source of information regarding this incident.
Brazilian UFO researcher Olavo T. Fontes also claimed to found out about this retrieval from sources inside Brazil’s Naval Intelligence but had only sparse details.
Another interesting detail was revealed in 1988 by former CIA pilot John Lear. His sources revealed that the UFO had been “strapped to a Boeing B-17 and transported to the States.”
It seems the British Government managed to keep a tight lid on this enigmatic crash, because nothing else is known about it.
Perseverance keeps notching milestones on the Red Planet.
Our growing list of sounds on Mars now includes lasers.
NASA's Perseverance rover has begun using its rock-zapping SuperCam instrument on the Red Planet, mission team members announced today (March 10). SuperCam is equipped with a microphone, which has picked up the gentle whoosh of the Martian wind as well as the not-so-gentle snaps generated by the laser when it hits a rock target.
"These recordings have demonstrated that our microphone is not only functioning well, but we also have a very high-quality signal for our scientific studies," SuperCam team member Naomi Murdoch, a researcher at the Institut Supérieur de l'Aéronautique et de l'Espace in Toulouse, France, said during a live webcast today.
"In the SuperCam team, we're extremely excited about the perspectives and the scientific investigations that we're going to be able to do with the microphone data," Murdoch said.
Join our forums here to discuss the Perseverance Mars rover landing. What do you hope finds?
The car-sized Perseverance, the centerpiece of NASA's $2.7 billion Mars 2020 mission, landed on the floor of Jezero Crater on Feb. 18. The rover's main tasks involve hunting for signs of ancient life within the 28-mile-wide (45 kilometers) Jezero, which harbored a deep lake and a river delta billions of years ago, and collecting dozens of samples for future return to Earth.
SuperCam, which sits on Perseverance's headlike mast, is one of the seven science instruments the rover will use to do this off-world work. SuperCam fires a laser at targets up to 23 feet (7 meters) away, generating a cloud of vaporized rock, the composition of which can be determined by the instrument's cameras and spectrometers.
As Murdoch and her colleagues announced today, such rock zapping has already begun. SuperCam fired on a target named Máaz, the Navajo word for Mars, on March 2. (Perseverance is exploring a part of Jezero the team has dubbed Canyon de Chelly, after a national monument on Navajo land in northeastern Arizona.)
The SuperCam observations allowed the team to determine that Máaz has a basaltic composition. Basalts are igneous, or volcanic, rocks that are common on Mars as well as Earth. But it's unclear at the moment if Máaz itself is volcanic, said SuperCam principal investigator Roger Wiens of Los Alamos National Laboratory, a U.S. Department of Energy facility in New Mexico.
It's also possible that Máaz "is a sedimentary rock composed of igneous grains that were washed downriver into Jezero Lake and cemented together," Wiens said during today's update.
The SuperCam mic recorded audio of the Martian wind during Perseverance's first few days on Mars, the instrument team announced today. The microphone also captured the countless rapid-fire snaps of the Máaz work, which came from shock waves generated by the heat and vibration of the rock vaporization.
Such audio will be quite useful to the SuperCam team, Murdoch said. For example, details of the snaps will reveal the hardness of each rock target, a detail that cannot be determined from composition alone. (Chalk and marble have the same chemical composition, as Murdoch pointed out.)
SuperCam recordings will also help the Perseverance team keep tabs on the rover and its various subsystems and allow researchers to better understand the thin, carbon-dioxide dominated Martian atmosphere, Murdoch said.
Perseverance carries another microphone as well — one that's built into its entry, descent and landing (EDL) camera system. The EDL mic didn't record sound during the rover's "seven minutes of terror" touchdown on Feb. 18, but it has captured audio on the Martian surface.
These two microphones are the first ever to record true audio on Mars. And they may work together at some point; mission team members have discussed the possibility of operating both mics simultaneously to capture stereo sound on the Red Planet.
Perseverance has not begun its science work in earnest yet. The first big task for the rover involves finding a suitable airfield for the rover's helicopter, a 4-lb. (1.8 kilograms) craft named Ingenuity, to make its technology-demonstrating flights.
Perseverance will attempt to document Ingenuity's forays into the Martian sky. And this might even be a multimedia extravaganza: It's possible that one or both mics could capture the sounds of Ingenuity's rotors churning through the thin Martian air, mission team members have said.
On March 9, the mission released three SuperCam audio files. Obtained only about 18 hours after landing, when the mast remained stowed on the rover deck, the first file captures the faint sounds of Martian wind.
The wind is more audible, especially around the 20-second mark, in the second sound file, recorded on the rover’s fourth Martian day, or sol.
SuperCam’s third file, from Sol 12, includes the zapping sounds of the laser impacting a rock target 30 times at a distance of about 10 feet (3.1 meters). Some zaps sound slightly louder than others, providing information on the physical structure of the targets, such as its relative hardness.
“I want to extend my sincere thanks and congratulations to our international partners at CNES and the SuperCam team for being a part of this momentous journey with us,” said Thomas Zurbuchen, associate administrator for science at NASA Headquarters in Washington. “SuperCam truly gives our rover eyes to see promising rock samples and ears to hear what it sounds like when the lasers strike them. This information will be essential when determining which samples to cache and ultimately return to Earth through our groundbreaking Mars Sample Return Campaign, which will be one of the most ambitious feats ever undertaken by humanity.”
Mike Wall is the author of "Out There" (Grand Central Publishing, 2018; illustrated by Karl Tate), a book about the search for alien life. Follow him on Twitter @michaeldwall. Follow us on Twitter @Spacedotcom or Facebook.
No Big Bang? Quantum equation predicts universe has no beginning
No Big Bang? Quantum equation predicts universe has no beginning
by Lisa Zyga , Phys.org
(Phys.org) —The universe may have existed forever, according to a new model that applies quantum correction terms to complement Einstein's theory of general relativity. The model may also account for dark matter and dark energy, resolving multiple problems at once.
The widely accepted age of the universe, as estimated by general relativity, is 13.8 billion years. In the beginning, everything in existence is thought to have occupied a single infinitely dense point, or singularity. Only after this point began to expand in a "Big Bang" did the universe officially begin.
Although the Big Bang singularity arises directly and unavoidably from the mathematics of general relativity, some scientists see it as problematic because the math can explain only what happened immediately after—not at or before—the singularity.
"The Big Bang singularity is the most serious problem of general relativity because the laws of physics appear to break down there," Ahmed Farag Ali at Benha University and the Zewail City of Science and Technology, both in Egypt, told Phys.org.
Ali and coauthor Saurya Das at the University of Lethbridge in Alberta, Canada, have shown in a paper published in Physics Letters B that the Big Bang singularity can be resolved by their new model in which the universe has no beginning and no end.
Old ideas revisited
The physicists emphasize that their quantum correction terms are not applied ad hoc in an attempt to specifically eliminate the Big Bang singularity. Their work is based on ideas by the theoretical physicist David Bohm, who is also known for his contributions to the philosophy of physics. Starting in the 1950s, Bohm explored replacing classical geodesics (the shortest path between two points on a curved surface) with quantum trajectories.
In their paper, Ali and Das applied these Bohmian trajectories to an equation developed in the 1950s by physicist Amal Kumar Raychaudhuri at Presidency University in Kolkata, India. Raychaudhuri was also Das's teacher when he was an undergraduate student of that institution in the '90s.
Using the quantum-corrected Raychaudhuri equation, Ali and Das derived quantum-corrected Friedmann equations, which describe the expansion and evolution of universe (including the Big Bang) within the context of general relativity. Although it's not a true theory of quantum gravity, the model does contain elements from both quantum theory and general relativity. Ali and Das also expect their results to hold even if and when a full theory of quantum gravity is formulated.
No singularities nor dark stuff
In addition to not predicting a Big Bang singularity, the new model does not predict a "big crunch" singularity, either. In general relativity, one possible fate of the universe is that it starts to shrink until it collapses in on itself in a big crunch and becomes an infinitely dense point once again.
Ali and Das explain in their paper that their model avoids singularities because of a key difference between classical geodesics and Bohmian trajectories. Classical geodesics eventually cross each other, and the points at which they converge are singularities. In contrast, Bohmian trajectories never cross each other, so singularities do not appear in the equations.
In cosmological terms, the scientists explain that the quantum corrections can be thought of as a cosmological constant term (without the need for dark energy) and a radiation term. These terms keep the universe at a finite size, and therefore give it an infinite age. The terms also make predictions that agree closely with current observations of the cosmological constant and density of the universe.
New gravity particle
In physical terms, the model describes the universe as being filled with a quantum fluid. The scientists propose that this fluid might be composed of gravitons—hypothetical massless particles that mediate the force of gravity. If they exist, gravitons are thought to play a key role in a theory of quantum gravity.
In a related paper, Das and another collaborator, Rajat Bhaduri of McMaster University, Canada, have lent further credence to this model. They show that gravitons can form a Bose-Einstein condensate (named after Einstein and another Indian physicist, Satyendranath Bose) at temperatures that were present in the universe at all epochs.
Motivated by the model's potential to resolve the Big Bang singularity and account for dark matter and dark energy, the physicists plan to analyze their model more rigorously in the future. Their future work includes redoing their study while taking into account small inhomogeneous and anisotropic perturbations, but they do not expect small perturbations to significantly affect the results.
"It is satisfying to note that such straightforward corrections can potentially resolve so many issues at once," Das said.
Ahmed Farag Ali and Saurya Das. "Cosmology from quantum potential." Physics Letters B. Volume 741, 4 February 2015, Pages 276–279. DOI: 10.1016/j.physletb.2014.12.057. Also at: arXiv:1404.3093[gr-qc].
Saurya Das and Rajat K. Bhaduri, "Dark matter and dark energy from Bose-Einstein condensate", preprint: arXiv:1411.0753[gr-qc].
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.
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.
RELATED VIDEOS, selected and posted by peter2011
This silicone rubber robot can withstand the pressures in the ocean’s deepest abyss
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
HOW WOULD YOU GET 6.7MILLION SPECIES TO THE MOON?
Building a genetic storage facility on the moon would be a significant undertaking — but one that Professor Thanga says would be possible.
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.
'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.'
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.
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.”
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.
'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
An asteroid is a large chunk of rock left over from collisions or the early solar system. Most are located between Mars and Jupiter in the Main Belt.
A comet is a rock covered in ice, methane and other compounds. Their orbits take them much further out of the solar system.
A meteor is what astronomers call a flash of light in the atmosphere when debris burns up.
This debris itself is known as a meteoroid. Most are so small they are vapourised in the atmosphere.
If any of this meteoroid makes it to Earth, it is called a meteorite.
Meteors, meteoroids and meteorites normally originate from asteroids and comets.
For example, if Earth passes through the tail of a comet, much of the debris burns up in the atmosphere, forming a meteor shower.
The meteorite, which was discovered in the Algerian part of the Sahara Desert, dates from 4.6 billion year ago — before the Earth was truly formed. It’s one of the first building blocks of our solar system. It’s not just any old meteorite: analysis shows it formed volcanically so it was once part of a proto-planet, maybe even one that never really made it.
“Numerous stones containing distinctive large greenish crystals were found in May 2020 near Bir Ben Takoul, southern Algeria, within the Erg Chech sand sea,” reads a rather dull entry regarding the meteorite. But right from the get-go, researchers knew something was unusual.
No known asteroid looks like EC 002 (the official name of the meteorite) — because almost none of these ancient relics still exist. Since they were formed so long ago, they’ve been either reintegrated into planets or smashed to bits. Meteorites like EC 002 are also very rare, due to its composition.
Most meteorites we’ve found so far are chondritic: stony (non-metallic) meteorites that haven’t been melted. Meanwhile, EC 002 is essentially anigneous rock— an andesite, to be more precise, which is also unusual. Out of theover 50,000 meteoritesdiscovered so far, just3,179are 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.
Gareth Dorrian, Post Doctoral Research Fellow in Space Science, University of Birmingham
Harrison Schmitt and Eugene Cernan blasted off from the Taurus-Littrow valley on the Moon in their lunar module Challenger on December 14 1972. Five days later, they splashed down safely in the Pacific, closing the Apollo 17 mission and becoming the last humans to visit the lunar surface or venture anywhere beyond low-Earth orbit.
Now the international Artemis programme, lead by Nasa, is aiming to put humans back on the Moon by 2024. But it is looking increasingly likely that this goal could be missed.
History shows just how vulnerable space programmes, which require years of planning and development spanning several administrations, are. After Apollo 17, Nasa had plans for several further lunar Apollo missions, even including a possible flyby of Venus. But budget cuts in the early 1970s and a reprioritising of human spaceflight to focus on the Skylab project precluded any further lunar missions at that time.
It was not until July 20 1989, the 20th anniversary of the Apollo 11 landing, that President HW Bush inaugurated the Space Exploration Initiative. This involved the construction of a space station called Freedom, which would later become the International Space Station, aimed at returning humans to the Moon, and eventually undertaking crewed missions to Mars.
The project was to take place over an approximately 30-year time frame. The first human return flights to the Moon would take place in the late 1990s, followed by the establishment of a lunar base in the early 2010s. The estimated cost for the full programme, including the Mars missions, was US$500 billion (£350 billion) spread over 20-30 years. This was a fraction of what would be spent on the Iraq War in 2003 but, the project nevertheless ran into opposition in the Senate, and was later cancelled by the Clinton administration in 1996.
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.
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.
Severed Head of Stone Age Woman Found Lodged in Rocks of Italian Cave
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.
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).
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.
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.
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.
Major Megalithic Cemetery Discovered with Dozens of Tombs
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Pavlopetri: 5,000-Year-Old Town Discovered Underwater in Greece
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.
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 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.
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.
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.
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
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 Todayput 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.
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 onTedium, a twice-weekly newsletter that hunts for the end of the long tail. Also published at https://www.vice.com.
Have You Seen a UFO? I Have, And Was Investigated by Project Blue Book
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.
NASA deelt nieuwe geluidsopnames van Mars (en je kan nu ook horen hoe jouw stem er zou klinken)
NASA deelt nieuwe geluidsopnames van Mars (en je kan nu ook horen hoe jouw stem er zou klinken)
De Amerikaanse ruimtevaartorganisatie NASA heeft enkele nieuwe geluidsopnames gedeeld die de robotjeep Perseverance maakte op Mars. Daarop zijn de allereerste geluiden te horen die de rover opnam na zijn aankomst, maar ook de wind en een laser. Met een speciale toepassing kan je nu ook horen hoe jouw stem zou klinken op de Rode Planeet.
Koen Van De Sype
“Een verre, eenzame wind... alleen onderbroken door het geluid van een laser”, omschrijft de NASA de meest recente opname die ze gisteren online zette. Ze werd op 2 maart gemaakt door de SuperCam op Perseverance. De laser in kwestie wordt gebruikt om informatie te verzamelen over de structuur van stenen in de Jezerokrater, het uitgedroogde meer waarin de rover op 18 februari landde. Hij schiet in dit geval stralen af op een rots die 3,1 meter ver ligt. Op de opname zijn dertig inslagen te horen, sommige luider dan andere.
Er is nog een tweede opname waarop de wind te horen is. Die dateert al van 22 februari en achtergrondgeluiden werden daarop weggefilterd.
Het derde fragment geeft het allereerste geluid weer dat op Mars werd opgenomen. Dat dateert van een dag na de landing van de rover. Het geluid is een beetje gedempter omdat de mast met de microfoon nog niet uitgeklapt was. Ook hier is wind te horen, alleen een beetje stiller.
Om je gerust te stellen: je zal je stem nog herkennen, maar het gaat om een stillere en gedemptere versie van jezelf. Dat komt doordat de atmosfeer op Mars honderd keer minder dicht is dan die op Aarde. Het zou ook iets langer duren eer je het geluid zou horen als je ter plaatse was. Ook dat komt door de atmosfeer, die maakt dat geluidsgolven zich veel trager verplaatsen.
Het grootste verschil in geluid zit overigens in de hoge tonen. Enkele geluiden zoals fluitjes of de zang van sommige vogels zijn bijna onhoorbaar op Mars.
0
1
2
3
4
5
- Gemiddelde waardering: 0/5 - (0 Stemmen) Categorie:HLN.be - Het Laatste Nieuws ( NL)
Perseverance Rover's SuperCam Science Instrument Delivers First Results
Perseverance Rover's SuperCam Science Instrument Delivers First Results
Data from the powerful science tool includes sounds of its laser zapping a rock in order to test what it’s made of.
The first readings from the SuperCam instrument aboard NASA’s Perseverance rover have arrived on Earth. SuperCam was developed jointly by the Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) in New Mexico and a consortium of French research laboratories under the auspices of the Centre National d’Etudes Spatiales (CNES). The instrument delivered data to the French Space Agency’s operations center in Toulouse that includes the first audio of laser zaps on another planet.
“It is amazing to see SuperCam working so well on Mars,” said Roger Wiens, the principal investigator for Perseverance’s SuperCam instrument from Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico. “When we first dreamed up this instrument eight years ago, we worried that we were being way too ambitious. Now it is up there working like a charm.”
“The sounds acquired are remarkable quality,” says Naomi Murdoch, a research scientist and lecturer at the ISAE-SUPAERO aerospace engineering school in Toulouse. “It’s incredible to think that we’re going to do science with the first sounds ever recorded on the surface of Mars!”
On March 9, the mission released three SuperCam audio files. Obtained only about 18 hours after landing, when the mast remained stowed on the rover deck, the first file captures the faint sounds of Martian wind.
The wind is more audible, especially around the 20-second mark, in the second sound file, recorded on the rover’s fourth Martian day, or sol.
SuperCam’s third file, from Sol 12, includes the zapping sounds of the laser impacting a rock target 30 times at a distance of about 10 feet (3.1 meters). Some zaps sound slightly louder than others, providing information on the physical structure of the targets, such as its relative hardness.
“I want to extend my sincere thanks and congratulations to our international partners at CNES and the SuperCam team for being a part of this momentous journey with us,” said Thomas Zurbuchen, associate administrator for science at NASA Headquarters in Washington. “SuperCam truly gives our rover eyes to see promising rock samples and ears to hear what it sounds like when the lasers strike them. This information will be essential when determining which samples to cache and ultimately return to Earth through our groundbreaking Mars Sample Return Campaign, which will be one of the most ambitious feats ever undertaken by humanity.”
The SuperCam team also received excellent first datasets from the instrument’s visible and infrared (VISIR) sensor as well as its Raman spectrometer. VISIR collects light reflected from the Sun to study the mineral content of rocks and sediments. This technique complements the Raman spectrometer, which uses a green laser beam to excite the chemical bonds in a sample to produce a signal depending on what elements are bonded together, in turn providing insights into a rock’s mineral composition.
“This is the first time an instrument has used Raman spectroscopy anywhere other than on Earth!” said Olivier Beyssac, CNRS research director at the Institut de Minéralogie, de Physique des Matériaux et de Cosmochimie in Paris. “Raman spectroscopy is going to play a crucial role in characterizing minerals to gain deeper insight into the geological conditions under which they formed and to detect potential organic and mineral molecules that might have been formed by living organisms.”
More About the Mission
SuperCam is led by Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico, where the instrument's Body Unit was developed. That part of the instrument includes several spectrometers, control electronics and software.
The Mast Unit was developed and built by several laboratories of the CNRS (French National Centre for Scientific Research) and French universities under the contracting authority of CNES. Calibration targets on the rover deck are provided by Spain’s University of Valladolid.
A key objective for Perseverance’s mission on Mars is astrobiology, including the search for signs of ancient microbial life. The rover will characterize the planet’s geology and past climate, pave the way for human exploration of the Red Planet, and be the first mission to collect and cache Martian rock and regolith (broken rock and dust).
Subsequent NASA missions, in cooperation with ESA (European Space Agency), would send spacecraft to Mars to collect these sealed samples from the surface and return them to Earth for in-depth analysis.
The Mars 2020 Perseverance mission is part of NASA’s Moon to Mars exploration approach, which includes Artemis missions to the Moon that will help prepare for human exploration of the Red Planet.
JPL, which is managed for NASA by Caltech in Pasadena, California, built and manages operations of the Perseverance rover.
Did Supermassive Black Holes Form Directly From Dark Matter?
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.
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.
Beste bezoeker, Heb je zelf al ooit een vreemde waarneming gedaan, laat dit dan even weten via email aan Frederick Delaere opwww.ufomeldpunt.be. Deze onderzoekers behandelen jouw melding in volledige anonimiteit en met alle respect voor jouw privacy. Ze zijn kritisch, objectief maar open minded aangelegd en zullen jou steeds een verklaring geven voor jouw waarneming! DUS AARZEL NIET, ALS JE EEN ANTWOORD OP JOUW VRAGEN WENST, CONTACTEER FREDERICK. BIJ VOORBAAT DANK...
Druk op onderstaande knop om je bestand , jouw artikel naar mij te verzenden. INDIEN HET DE MOEITE WAARD IS, PLAATS IK HET OP DE BLOG ONDER DIVERSEN MET JOUW NAAM...
Druk op onderstaande knop om een berichtje achter te laten in mijn gastenboek
Alvast bedankt voor al jouw bezoekjes en jouw reacties. Nog een prettige dag verder!!!
Over mijzelf
Ik ben Pieter, en gebruik soms ook wel de schuilnaam Peter2011.
Ik ben een man en woon in Linter (België) en mijn beroep is Ik ben op rust..
Ik ben geboren op 18/10/1950 en ben nu dus 74 jaar jong.
Mijn hobby's zijn: Ufologie en andere esoterische onderwerpen.
Op deze blog vind je onder artikels, werk van mezelf. Mijn dank gaat ook naar André, Ingrid, Oliver, Paul, Vincent, Georges Filer en MUFON voor de bijdragen voor de verschillende categorieën...
Veel leesplezier en geef je mening over deze blog.