Physicist Michio Kaku believes alien life will be found within the century, but making contact is 'a terrible idea' that could lead a similar outcome to when Montezuma was defeated by Cortés

• Theoretical physicist Michio Kaku says we'll find alien life within the century 

• The October launch of the Webb telescope will offer thousands of planets to analyze 

• But 'we can't gamble' on aliens being friendly, he cautions, telling scientists to make contact very carefully

•  'We all know what happened to Montezuma when he met Cortés,' he added, referring to the Aztec ruler defeated by Spanish conquistadors

By DAN AVERY FOR DAILYMAIL.COM

Contact with alien life is just around the corner, according to leading physicist, but we shouldn't expect it to be friendly.

String theory expert and futurist Michio Kaku believes we'll find signs of life in the universe within the century.

But just blindly reaching out to extraterrestrials is 'a terrible idea,' he told The Guardian, comparing it to Montezuma meeting with Hernan Cortés before the Spanish decimated the Aztec in the 16th century.

Kaku, the author of several science best-sellers, advises making first contact 'very carefully.'   

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'I think that aliens out there would be friendly but we can't gamble on it,' said futurist Michio Kaku, author of The God Equation. Kaku calls blithely reaching out to extraterrestrials a 'terrible idea' 

The reference to Montezuma may spark fear among Earthlings, as the ancient ruler of the Aztecs in the 1500s who welcomed Cortés and was killed because of his good deed.

Cortés took advantage of the welcoming, took Montezuma hostage so that he could take the Aztec throne. 

Montezuma is said to have later been killed by his angry subjects who believed he had willing given up to Spanish rule. 

And Kaku warns that welcoming foreign beings to Earth may have the same outcome.  

With the planned October launch of the James Webb Space Telescope (pictured), 'We'll have thousands of planets to look at,' says Kaku, who has predicted humans will make contact with aliens within the 21st century

But just blindly reaching out to extraterrestrials is 'a terrible idea,' he told The Guardian , comparing it to Montezuma meeting with Cortés before the Spanish decimated the Aztec in the 16th century

Kaku is a professor of theoretical physics at City College in New York and a leading proponent of string theory.

He popularizes physics on TV and has written several New York Times best sellers, including Physics of the Future and The Future of the Mind, which postulates on the possibilities of telepathy and programmable memories.

His latest book, The God Equation, discusses the ongoing quest to develop a 'theory of everything' that unites the fundamental forces of nature.

But Kaku's scientific curiosity extends into other realms, including the search for intelligent life in the universe.

In a 2018 reddit AMA, he said he felt humanity would make contact with aliens 'within the century.'

His optimism comes from the planned October 2021 launch of the James Webb Space Telescope, which will offer even greater infrared resolution and sensitivity than the Hubble telescope.

'We'll have thousands of planets to look at, and that's why I think the chances are quite high that we may make contact with an alien civilization,' he said in a new interview with The Guardian.

But the noted futurist is ambivalent about ringing an ET's doorbell.

'There are some colleagues of mine that believe we should reach out to them,' he told the Guardian. 'I think that's a terrible idea.'

'We all know what happened to Montezuma when he met Cortés in Mexico so many hundreds of years ago.'

Montezuma II, the last emperor of the Aztecs, was defeated by Spanish conquistador Hernán Cortés in 1520.

'Now, personally, I think that aliens out there would be friendly but we can't gamble on it,' Kaku added. 'So I think we will make contact but we should do it very carefully.'

In our rush to communicate, he said in the reddit AMA, we also should think about their intentions: 'Are they expansive and aggressive, or peaceful?'

And communication may not be that easy.

Because we're using radio waves, 'talking to them will be difficult, since they could be tens of light years away,' he said in the AMA.

Kaku is hardly alone in having reservations about a close encounter. 'We don't know much about aliens, but we know about humans,' renowned physicist Stephen Hawkings (pictured) said in 2018

'[Another] possibility is that they land on the White House lawn and announce their existence,' he added. 'But I think that is unlikely, since we would be like forest animals to them.'

Kaku is hardly alone in having reservations about a close encounter.

'We don't know much about aliens, but we know about humans,' renowned physicist Stephen Hawkings said in 2018, Live Science reported.

'If you look at history, contact between humans and less intelligent organisms have often been disastrous from their point of view, and encounters between civilizations with advanced versus primitive technologies have gone badly for the less advanced.'

An alien civilization receiving a message from Earth could be 'billions of years' ahead of human development, he added.

'If so, they will be vastly more powerful, and may not see us as any more valuable than we see bacteria.'

But, like Kaku, Hawkins still supported the search for alien life.

In fact his comments were given at a press event announcing a ten-year, $100 million effort to listen for broadcast signals from the million closest stars, using two of the world's most powerful telescopes.

'It's time to commit to finding the answer - to search for life beyond Earth,' he said. 'We are alive. We are intelligent. We must know.'

Read more:

• String theorist Michio Kaku: 'Reaching out to aliens is a terrible idea' | Physics | The Guardian
• Reddit.com
• Stephen Hawking: Intelligent Aliens Could Destroy Humanity, But Let's Search Anyway | Live Science

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09-04-2021 om 21:07 geschreven door peter  

In the 21st century, we get a lot of our Earth political news on late night talk shows, and now we can get our space news there as well. Renowned physicist, string theorist and popular TV scientist Michio Kaku has been making the rounds lately talking about the James Webb Space Telescope, which is scheduled to be launched in the fall of 2021. Like a good scientist, he’s in favor of using new and better technology, but he’s also cautious about how some of his colleagues will use this particular tool for exploring the cosmos.

He told The Guardian this week:

“Soon we’ll have the Webb telescope up in orbit and we’ll have thousands of planets to look at, and that’s why I think the chances are quite high that we may make contact with an alien civilization. There are some colleagues of mine that believe we should reach out to them. I think that’s a terrible idea. We all know what happened to Montezuma when he met Cortés in Mexico so many hundreds of years ago.”

Montezuma

For those who only know of Montezuma from the bad joke about gastric problems, Moctezuma II (Montezuma) welcomed the alien known as conquistador Hernán Cortés to the Aztec empire, and both he and the empire died as a result. Montezuma reached out in peace, just as many of our SETI messages say “We come in peace,” and Kaku thinks this is a bad idea too because it implies we’re unarmed and could convince extraterrestrials to “come and rule us.” Or, as he said in 2018, come and “develop” our planet – building their own structures, planting their own plants and installing their own government. Gee, that’s never happened on Earth, has it?

“To be honest, I’ve get emails from people that say: ‘You’re wrong professor, the aliens are already here. They’ve been in the flying saucers, they have been kidnapped.”

Kaku followed up his Guardian interview with an appearance on “The Late Show with Stephen Colbert.” He anticipated and addressed the blowback from many people who believe UFOs are alien spaceships and Earth is already populated with extraterrestrials, both camouflaged and out in the open, abducting humans but returning them seemingly unharmed. How come they haven’t conquistadored us like Cortés?

“I tell them the next time you are kidnapped by an alien flying saucer, for God’s sake, steal something. I don’t care whether it’s a pen or a chip, steal something! Because there is no law against stealing from an extraterrestrial civilization.”

What was I supposed to do?

Obviously, Michio Kaku is a scientist who values facts and proofs over speculations. Of course, stealing a writing quill from Cortés wouldn’t have saved Montezuma – he still had hundreds of troops, dreams of gold, superior weapons and infectious diseases. Kaku says he hopes aliens are friendly but let’s let them show it – don’t reveal our cards to them right up front.

Is he right? There are many who believe we’ve already alerted alien civilizations we’re here and not to bright by our industrial pollution and growing numbers of satellites doing nothing but orbiting – at least from their perspective.

And the biggest sign to aliens we’re not to bright and ready for conquest? We get our science knowledge from late night talk shows.

{ https://mysteriousuniverse.org/ }

09-04-2021 om 20:47 geschreven door peter  

When it comes to the matter of high-tech military devices that become mistaken for UFOs, there are a number of examples. Roswell, for example, was a top secret experiment using people in high-altitude flights in the skies of New Mexico in early July 1947. Not a UFO or an alien in sight. Then, there’s the Mantell case of 1948. Moving on, one of the most important examples (a case that has undeniable parallels with Roswell), is also one of the lesser-known cases. It is a fascinating story that was uncovered by U.K. ufologist Dr. David Clarke. It is well worth noting that in the early 1960s an event occurred in the wilds of Scotland which eerily mirrored the Roswell affair of 1947. Yes, we are talking about a clandestine balloon flight that was given nothing less than a spaceship-driven spin. In an excellent July 2012 article at his blog titled “The Scottish Roswell?” Dr. David Clarke said of this curious case: “Picture the scene: A shepherd visiting a remote area stumbles upon strange wreckage strewn across the ground which could be the remains of a crashed spaceship. The debris consists of pieces of unusual metal and strange drawings. On reporting his find at the local police station, search teams and military personnel descend on the area. The wreckage disappears – no one knows where – and civilians are told to ‘keep quiet about it.’ At this point, you are probably thinking ‘Roswell, New Mexico, 1947.’

Project Moby Dick balloon

“But no, this incident occurred in the Scottish Highlands one spring morning in 1962. It has uncanny links to its American cousin, even down to the ‘cover story’ used hide the true identity and purpose of the ‘crashed spaceship,'” says Clarke. The case to which Dr. Clarke refers occurred on the wild moorland in Ardgay, Scotland. In the same way that rancher William Ware “Mac” Brazel reported his find to the U.S. authorities outside of Roswell in 1947, a shepherd named Donald MacKenzie did likewise, albeit in Scotland: he contacted the local police and told them what he had found. A four-man Royal Air Force team – attached to the RAF Mountain Rescue Service – traveled to the area and found both the site and the odd materials. Attempts on the part of Squadron Leader John Sims, of Royal Air Force Kinloss, to learn what had come down, failed: he was told by the Air Ministry, London, that it was absolutely none of his business. Data that appeared in base logbooks was confiscated. The mystery was quickly and effectively hidden. The only thing missing from this saga was a bunch of dead aliens strewn across the moors of Ardgay. Nevertheless, it’s still a story that contains all the key ingredients of a ufological pot-boiler!

Except for one thing: at its heart was something very different to a UFO. Dr. Clarke decided to dig deep into the story. He did more than that: he solved the decades-old mystery. The wreckage found at Ardgay was not from a crashed flying saucer. It was, in reality, debris from a huge balloon attached to a CIA-funded, classified program called Moby Dick. Air Vectors notes: “The first Moby Dick launch was on 19 February 1953. 640 Moby Dick balloons were launched up to the end of the program on 30 June 1954. For whatever reasons, a range of different balloon configurations were used during the program, with balloon diameters ranging from 15 meters (49 feet) to 25 meters (83 feet), and shapes including cylinders.” The similarities between the Scottish event of 1962 and that which occurred at Roswell, New Mexico in 1947 are as clear as they are obvious. What we have here is the development of a mystery with clear UFO-themed overtones attached to it, but which actually had very down to earth – but highly secret – balloon-based origins. Maybe Roswell and Ardgay should become twin-towns.

{ https://mysteriousuniverse.org/ }

09-04-2021 om 20:41 geschreven door peter  

When it comes to the issue of what really happened on what was once known as the Foster Ranch, Lincoln County, New Mexico in early July 1947, there are things we know, things we suspect, and things we will probably never know. But, that something happened – something which caused the U.S. Air Force to offer multiple explanations for the event – is not a matter of any doubt at all. It was an incident that clearly concerned elements of not just the military, but the government, too, and to a highly significant degree. Eye-witnesses – both military and civilian – were warned not to talk about what they had seen and / or heard. More than a few of those warnings crossed the line and can only accurately be described as death threats. People were plunged into states of fear. Lives were changed forever; even scarred. Some lives may have ended; as in terminated. It was on July 8, 1947 that the strange event surfaced publicly. Associated Press (among many other news outlets) reported on the startling, then-breaking news:

“The many rumors regarding the flying disc became a reality yesterday when the intelligence office of the 509^th Bomb Group of the Eighth Air Force, Roswell Army Air Field, was fortunate enough to gain possession of a disc through the cooperation of one of the local ranchers and the sheriff’s office of Chavez County. The flying object landed on a ranch near Roswell sometime last week. Not having phone facilities, the rancher stored the disc until such time as he was able to contact the sheriff’s office, who in turn notified Major Jesse A. Marcel of the 509^th Bomb Group Intelligence Office. Action was immediately taken and the disc was picked up at the rancher’s home. It was inspected at the Roswell Army Air Field and subsequently loaned by Major Marcel to higher headquarters.” The story was quickly picked up not just across the United States, but across the planet, too. In barely no time at all, however, the flying disc angle was blown out of the sky: the whole thing was nothing but a huge, embarrassing mistake. The materials found on the massive ranch – by rancher William Ware “Mack” Brazel – were not the remains of a disc, after all. What had really been found, and subsequently collected and brought to the Roswell Army Air Field, was weather-balloon debris. Or, so the military was careful to try and assure everyone.

Nick Redfern

With Brazel at the time of the discovery – which had actually occurred days earlier – was a young boy named Dee Proctor. He would go on to be one of the most important people in the Roswell story. We also know for sure that three, key military men, all of whom were destined to become part and parcel of the Roswell affair, were also present at the ranch – and specifically before a veritable battalion was on-site and ordered to recover the massive amount of whatever-it-was. They were Major Jesse Marcel, the intelligence-office of the 509^th Bomb Group at Roswell; Captain Sheridan Cavitt, of the Counter-Intelligence Corps; and CIC Master Sergeant Lewis S. “Bill” Rickett. All three were at ground-zero. They all saw the wreckage. Years later Marcel would open up wide on the matter of the debris he saw and collected. Cavitt and Rickett may have seen more than debris. Way more. Possibly bodies, strange bodies. Brazel and little Dee may have seen one or more of those bodies, too.

When the media revealed the weather-balloon explanation, something amazing happened: Roswell was largely, and very quickly, forgotten. Granted, those implicated in the affair never forgot what they saw and experienced. But, the media certainly moved on to other things. Plus, back in 1947 there were no UFO research groups around to look into the case. The result? Aside from a few, occasional, brief references in books and magazines in the 1950s and 1960s, Roswell was for all intents and purposes dead and buried – which is precisely how those charged with keeping the disturbing secret wanted it. Things changed, however, in the mid-to-late 1970s. Both William Moore and Stanton Friedman were eagerly pursuing the Roswell story by then; it was a story that was slowly but surely destined to be resurrected. It was Friedman who found the now-elderly Jesse Marcel. The long-retired major had a most interesting story to tell:

Nick Redfern

“I saw a lot of wreckage but no complete machine. It had disintegrated before it hit the ground. The wreckage was scattered over an area about three quarters of a mile long and several hundred feet wide. I was pretty well acquainted with most everything that was in the air at that time, both ours and foreign. I was also acquainted with virtually every type of weather-balloon or radar-tracking device being used by either the civilians or the military. What it was we didn’t know. We just picked up the fragments…it certainly wasn’t anything built by us.” Mack Brazel’s son, Bill, would later say that what was found on the Foster Ranch was “…something on the order of tinfoil except that [it] wouldn’t tear…You could wrinkle it and lay it back down and it immediately resumed its original shape. Quite pliable, but you couldn’t crease or bend it like ordinary metal. Almost like a plastic, but definitely metallic in nature.”

When Friedman spoke with Bill Rickett, in 1985, the also-long-retired Counter-Intelligence Corps man revealed a few snippets of information on what happened, but practically froze like a deer caught in headlights when Friedman brought up the matter of bodies. It was clearly an issue Rickett had no intention of discussing – and he didn’t. As for Sheridan Cavitt, he proved to be one of the trickiest players in the entire story. He revealed very little of substance. On occasion, he even denied having ever been at Roswell or at the crash site. Cavitt may even have withheld what he knew of the incident when, in 1994, the Air Force came knocking on his front-door, wanting answers. As for Dee Proctor, well, he had the fear of God put into him by the military – and to the extent that he barely ever talked about the mysterious events of July 1947. Back then, a lot of people knew something of the case. The men above, however, knew more than most. Much more.

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{ https://mysteriousuniverse.org/ }

09-04-2021 om 20:35 geschreven door peter  

Many strange objects move through our sky that simply cannot be explained. What are these objects? 

A photographer took a lot of images of the sky in Wisconsin. It was the first photo that showed a mysterious black square UFO hanging in the sky below the clouds.  

Flying Saucer with transparent shield photographed near Roswell, New Mexico. Photographer heard a strange sound like whoosh-whoosh, displaced air. 

Photographer captured an unknown cigar-shaped UFO over Amarillo, California. Object has no wings or other visible parts characteristic of an aircraft.

Photographer took several photos within seconds of a beautiful landscape near Slade, Kentucky Only one photo showed something remarkable. Tree rock-like anomalies apparently hanging in the sky. Holographic representation of objects from a parallel universe? 

Photographer from Cornwall Ontario, Canada captured an object that looks like a black knight craft passing the moon 

During a cloudy day, a photographer captured a huge dark triangular shape (cloaked triangle craft) over Kansas City, Missouri 

Photographer caught a strange flying object above plane near Cairns airport, Australia. The object looks like a flying humanoid carrying something on his back.  

Source:

• www.mufon.com

  

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

09-04-2021 om 18:48 geschreven door peter  

Our old friend Tom Horn has brought us another exciting future prophecy, straight out of the pages of the Book of Revelation. 

Signs in the heavens … Asteroids hurtling toward our planet … earthquakes … volcanoes … poisoned rivers, … echoes of God’s judgment on Egypt in the days of Moses and Pharaoh. 

The Bible tells us of a time in the future when the powers of heaven will be shaken and our world will face the judgment of God. If you’re not familiar with Bible prophecy, it’s called The Tribulation Period and it lasts for 7 long years. 

The good news? The Bible tells us how we can escape this terrible time of judgment.

  

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

09-04-2021 om 18:35 geschreven door peter  

“Aliens Are Real” says Harvard Astronomer

When an object called ʻOumuamua’ was detected flying through our solar system in 2017, scientists were baffled by its strange behavior. Many said it was just a bizarre space rock, but Harvard astrophysicist Avi Loeb believes it was most likely a relic of an alien civilization. And he thinks you should believe that too. In this episode of The Space Show, Motherboard reporter Becky Ferreira speaks with Professor Avi Loeb, chair of Harvard’s astronomy department and author of the new book “Extraterrestrial.” (Amazon link)

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09-04-2021 om 18:24 geschreven door peter  

Mars Helicopter Ingenuity snaps 1st color photo on Red Planet

09-04-2021 om 01:49 geschreven door peter  

Ex-CIA director believes UFOs could exist after pal’s plane ‘paused’

Former CIA Director R. James Woolsey said he believes UFOs could exist after his friend’s plane was “paused at 40,000” feet – and hopes humans would be friendly to extraterrestrials if they ever make contact, according to a report.

The former chief spook — who ran the agency from 1993 to 1995 — spoke Friday to the Black Vault’s YouTube channel, where he promoted his new book with co-author Ion Mihai Pacepa, “Operation Dragon: Inside the Kremlin’s Secret War on America.”

“There have been over the years now events of one kind of another, usually involving some kind of aircraft-like airframe,” Woolsey said in the interview.

“I never thought there was anything to all this, it always seemed pretty far out to me,” he continued.

“But there was one case in which a friend of mine was able to have his aircraft stop at 40,000 feet or so and not continue operating as a normal aircraft,” Woolsey continued, adding that the source was someone he “respects.”

“What was going on? I don’t know. Does anybody know?” he said. “There had just been enough things like that that have occurred that I think there will be a lot of examination of what’s going on over the course of several months or years.”

He added: “I’m not as skeptical as I was a few years ago, to put it mildly, but something is going on that is surprising to a series of intelligent aircraft, experienced pilots.”

During the interview, Black Vault podcaster John Greenwald Jr. said other intelligence chiefs also have left open the possibility of extraterrestrial life.

In December, ex-CIA Director John Brennan said it was “presumptuous and arrogant” to believe there are no other forms of life than the ones on Earth.

“I think some of the phenomena we’re going to be seeing continues to be unexplained and might, in fact, be some type of phenomenon that is the result of something that we don’t yet understand and that could involve some type of activity that some might say constitutes a different form of life,” he said on the podcast “Conversations with Tyler.”

In April 2020, the Department of Defense released a statement confirming three unclassified Navy videos from 2004 and 2015, each showing “unidentified aerial phenomena.”

Brennan commented on the videos, calling them “quite eyebrow-raising.”

“You try to ensure that you have as much data as possible in terms of visuals and also different types of maybe technical collection of sensors that you have at the time,” he added.

Last month, former Director of Intelligence John Ratcliffe said on Fox News that “there are a lot more sightings than have been made public,” adding that “some of those have been declassified.”

“And when we talk about sightings, we are talking about objects that have been seen by Navy or Air Force pilots, or have been picked up by satellite imagery that frankly engage in actions that are difficult to explain,” Ratcliffe said.

“Movements that are hard to replicate that we don’t have the technology for. Or traveling at speeds that exceed the sound barrier without a sonic boom,” he added.

A new Pentagon report expected to be released by June 1 will also detail any threats posed by the aerial phenomena and whether foreign adversaries are suspected of controlling them.

In December, then-President Donald Trump signed the $2.3 trillion COVID-19 relief and government funding bill, which started a 180-day countdown for the Pentagon and spy agencies to say what they know about UFOs.

The Navy videos were first leaked to The Stars Academy, a UFO research group founded by former Blink-182 singer Tom DeLonge, and then obtained through efforts by the New York Times.

The UFOs were seen moving at incredible speeds and performing seemingly impossible aerial maneuvers. One of the clips showed a dark circular object flying far in front of a jet, while a second caught a small object racing over land.

The third captured a circular object first speeding, then appearing to slow down — and moving closer to the pilot’s camera.

The Pentagon announced in September that it created an Unidentified Aerial Phenomena Task Force.

Greenwald, the Black Vault host, has claimed that the trove of records on UFOs unsealed by the CIA appeared to be intentionally difficult to sift through since they used an “outdated” file format.

“The CIA has made it incredibly difficult to use their records in a reasonable manner,” he said. “In my opinion, this outdated format makes it very difficult for people to see the documents, and use them, for any research purpose.”

The latest developments come amid rising interest in UFOs, which has been indicated by a surge in sightings.

Sightings were up in 2020 compared to the previous year — with more than 6,600 recorded during that period, according to National UFO Reporting Center data.

• For more on UFOs, check out The Post’s video series about the phenomenon.

{ https://nypost.com/ }

09-04-2021 om 01:32 geschreven door peter  

Top image: Spring Goddess

(Nejron Photo / Adobe Stock)

The Ancient Pagan Origins of Easter

Easter is a festival and holiday celebrated by millions of people around the world who honor the resurrection of Jesus from the dead, described in the New Testament as having occurred three days after his crucifixion at Calvary. It is also the day that children excitedly wait for the Easter bunny to arrive and deliver their treats of chocolate eggs.

The date upon which Easter is held varies from year to year, and corresponds with the first Sunday following the full moon after the March equinox. It occurs on different dates around the world since western churches use the Gregorian calendar , while eastern churches use the Julian calendar.

While Easter, as we know it today, was never a  pagan festival , its roots and many of its traditions have associations with ancient pagan customs and beliefs.

According to the New Unger’s Bible Dictionary: “The word Easter is of Saxon origin, Eastra, the goddess of spring, in whose honour sacrifices were offered about Passover time each year. By the eighth century Anglo–Saxons had adopted the name to designate the celebration of Christ’s resurrection.” However, even among those who maintain that Easter has pagan roots, there is some disagreement over which pagan tradition the festival emerged from. Here we will explore some of those perspectives.

• The Very Strange History of the Easter Bunny
• Curious Reverence of the Chicken and the Hare by Iron Age Brits
• Why are so few people born on Christmas Day?

Christian’s today celebrate Easter Sunday as the resurrection of Jesus.

Credit: James Steidl / Adobe Stock

Resurrection as a Symbol of Rebirth

One theory that has been put forward is that the Easter story of crucifixion and resurrection is symbolic of rebirth and renewal and retells the cycle of the seasons, the death and return of the sun.

According to some scholars, such as Dr. Tony Nugent, teacher of Theology and Religious Studies at Seattle University, and Presbyterian minister, the Easter story comes from the Sumerian legend of Damuzi ( Tammuz) and his wife Inanna ( Ishtar), an epic myth called “The Descent of Inanna” found inscribed on cuneiform clay tablets dating back to 2100 BC. When Tammuz dies, Ishtar is grief–stricken and follows him to the underworld. In the underworld, she enters through seven gates, and her worldly attire is removed. "Naked and bowed low" she is judged, killed, and then hung on display. In her absence, the earth loses its fertility, crops cease to grow and animals stop reproducing. Unless something is done, all life on earth will end.

After Inanna has been missing for three days her assistant goes to other gods for help. Finally one of them Enki, creates two creatures who carry the plant of life and water of life down to the Underworld, sprinkling them on Inanna and Damuzi, resurrecting them, and giving them the power to return to the earth as the light of the sun for six months. After the six months are up, Tammuz returns to the underworld of the dead, remaining there for another six months, and Ishtar pursues him, prompting the water god to rescue them both. Thus were the cycles of winter death and spring life.

The Descent of Inanna.

Credit: intueri / Adobe Stock

Dr. Nugent is quick to point out that drawing parallels between the story of Jesus and the epic of Inanna “doesn't necessarily mean that there wasn't a real person, Jesus, who was crucified, but rather that, if there was, the story about it is structured and embellished in accordance with a pattern that was very ancient and widespread.”

The Sumerian goddess Inanna is known outside of Mesopotamia by her Babylonian name, "Ishtar". In ancient Canaan Ishtar is known as Astarte, and her counterparts in the Greek and Roman pantheons are known as Aphrodite and Venus. In the 4th Century, when Christians identified the exact site in Jerusalem where the empty tomb of Jesus had been located, they selected the spot where a temple of Aphrodite (Astarte/Ishtar/Inanna) stood. The temple was torn down and so the Church of the Holy Sepulchre was built, the holiest church in the Christian world.

Dr. Nugent points out that the story of Inanna and Damuzi is just one of a number of accounts of dying and rising gods that represent the cycle of the seasons and the stars. For example, the resurrection of Egyptian Horus; the story of Mithras, who was worshipped at Springtime; and the tale of Dionysus, resurrected by his grandmother. Among these stories are prevailing themes of fertility, conception, renewal, descent into darkness, and the triumph of light over darkness or good over evil.

Easter as a Celebration of the Goddess of Spring

A related perspective is that, rather than being a representation of the story of Ishtar, Easter was originally a celebration of Eostre, goddess of Spring, otherwise known as Ostara, Austra, and Eastre. One of the most revered aspects of Ostara for both ancient and modern observers is a spirit of renewal.

Celebrated at Spring Equinox on March 21, Ostara marks the day when light is equal to darkness, and will continue to grow. As the bringer of light after a long dark winter, the goddess was often depicted with the hare, an animal that represents the arrival of spring as well as the fertility of the season.

According to Jacob Grimm’s Deutsche Mythologie , the idea of resurrection was ingrained within the celebration of Ostara: “Ostara, Eástre seems therefore to have been the divinity of the radiant dawn, of upspringing light, a spectacle that brings joy and blessing, whose meaning could be easily adapted by the resurrection-day of the christian’s God.”

Most analyses of the origin of the word ‘Easter’ agree that it was named after Eostre, an ancient word meaning ‘spring’, though many European languages use one form or another of the Latin name for Easter, Pascha, which is derived from the Hebrew Pesach, meaning Passover.

Easter and Its Connection to Passover

Easter is associated with the Jewish festival of Passover through its symbolism and meaning, as well as its position in the calendar. Some early Christians chose to celebrate the resurrection of Jesus on the same date as Passover, which reflects Easter having entered Christianity during its earliest Jewish period. Evidence of a more developed Christian festival of Easter emerged around the mid-second century.

In 325 AD, Emperor Constantine convened a meeting of Christian leaders to resolve important disputes at the Council of Nicaea. Since the church believed that the resurrection took place on a Sunday, the Council determined that Easter should always fall on the first Sunday after the first full moon following the vernal equinox. Easter has since remained without a fixed date but proximate to the full moon, which coincided with the start of Passover.

While there are distinct differences between the celebrations of Pesach and Easter, both festivals celebrate rebirth – in Christianity through the resurrection of Jesus, and in Jewish traditions through the liberation of the Israelites from slavery.

A Jewish family celebrating passover.

Credit: Inna / Adobe Stock

The Origins of Easter customs

The most widely-practiced customs on Easter Sunday relate to the symbol of the rabbit (‘Easter bunny’) and the egg.  As outlined previously, a hare was a symbol associated with Eostre, representing the beginning of Springtime. Likewise, the egg has come to represent Spring, fertility, and renewal. In Germanic mythology, it is said that Ostara healed a wounded bird she found in the woods by changing it into a hare. Still partially a bird, the hare showed its gratitude to the goddess by laying eggs as gifts.

The Encyclopedia Britannica clearly explains the pagan traditions associated with the egg: “The egg as a symbol of fertility and of renewed life goes back to the ancient Egyptians and Persians, who had also the custom of colouring and eating eggs during their spring festival.” In ancient Egypt, an egg symbolised the sun, while for the Babylonians, the egg represents the hatching of the Venus Ishtar, who fell from heaven to the Euphrates.

Relief with Phanes, c. 2nd century A.D. Orphic god Phanes emerging from the cosmic egg, surrounded by the zodiac.

Public domain

So where did the tradition of an egg-toting Easter Bunny come from? The first reference can be found in a German text dating to 1572 AD: “Do not worry if the Easter Bunny escapes you; should we miss his eggs, we will cook the nest,” the text reads. But it wasn’t until the tradition made its way to the United States via the arrival of German immigrants, that the custom took on its current form. By the end of the 19th century, shops were selling rabbit-shaped candies, which later became the chocolate bunnies we have today, and children were being told the story of a rabbit that delivers baskets of eggs, chocolate and other candy on Easter morning.

In many Christian traditions, the custom of giving eggs at Easter celebrates new life. Christians remember that Jesus, after dying on the cross, rose from the dead, showing that life could win over death. For Christians, the egg is a symbol of the tomb in which the body of Jesus was placed, while cracking the egg represents Jesus' resurrection. In the Orthodox tradition, eggs are painted red to symbolize the blood Jesus shed on the cross .

• What and Where is Heaven? The Answers Are at the Heart of the Easter Story
• The Surprising Truth About Fasting for Lent
• Hanukkah Origins: ‘Miracle of Oil’ Exalted a Religious Freedom Victory in Ancient Jewish Temple

Regardless of the very ancient origins of the symbol of the egg, most people agree that nothing symbolizes renewal more perfectly than the egg – round, endless, and full of the promise of life.

While many of the pagan customs associated with the celebration of Spring were at one stage practised alongside Christian Easter traditions, they eventually came to be absorbed within Christianity, as symbols of the resurrection of Jesus. The First Council of Nicaea (325 AD) established the date of Easter as the first Sunday after the full moon (the Paschal Full Moon) following the March equinox .

Whether it is observed as a religious holiday commemorating the resurrection of Jesus Christ, or a time for families in the northern hemisphere to enjoy the coming of Spring and celebrate with egg decorating and Easter bunnies, the celebration of Easter still retains the same spirit of rebirth and renewal, as it has for thousands of years.

By Joanna Gillan

• Updated on April 9, 2020.

{ https://www.ancient-origins.net/ }

09-04-2021 om 01:21 geschreven door peter  

Tiny Astroscale satellite will test space junk cleanup tech with magnets

Astroscale just launched the first commercial space junk cleanup mission designed to locate and retrieve used satellites and other debris orbiting Earth. 

The Japan-based company's End-of-Life Services by Astroscale-demonstration (ELSA-d) mission lifted off from Russia's Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan on March 22. It was among the 38 payloads that were carried into space by a Soyuz rocket as part of the first all-commercial rideshare mission for Russian company GK Launch Services. 

The ELSA-d mission will test new technology developed by Astroscale, which consists of two satellites stacked together: a 385-lb. (175 kilograms) "servicer" and a 37-lb. (17 kg) "client." The servicer is designed to safely remove debris from orbit, while the client spacecraft will serve during the demonstration as a piece of debris to be cleaned up. Once the two satellites separate, they will perform a cosmic game of cat and mouse over the next six months.

• Related: Space junk clean up: 7 wild ways to destroy orbital debris

"I am pleased to confirm that Astroscale's Mission Operations team at the In-Orbit Servicing Centre in Harwell, U.K., has successfully made contact with our ELSA-d spacecraft and established that all initial system checks are satisfactory," Seita Iizuka, ELSA-d project manager, said in a statement from Astroscale. "I congratulate our team and look forward to moving into the first phase of our technical demonstrations."

Using a series of maneuvers, Astroscale will test the satellite's ability to snatch debris and bring it down toward the Earth's atmosphere, where both servicer and debris will burn up. The servicer is equipped with a magnetic docking plate, as well as GPS technology to estimate the exact position and motion of its target. This debris removal demonstration project is the first of its kind by a commercial satellite operator, according to the statement. 

During the trial mission, the company will test whether the servicer can catch the client satellite in three separate demonstrations. 

In its first maneuver, the servicer will gently release the test debris then quickly catch it. Next, the servicer will attempt to capture the client as it tumbles through space at up to 18,000 miles per hour. 

Finally, Astroscale will simulate an actual mission, in which the servicer will need to search for, locate and capture the client from a distance. If successful, ELSA-d's magnetic capture mechanism could be installed on future satellites launched into space, allowing future servicers to safely remove these spacecraft when they are no longer in service. 

"While leading the way in proving our debris removal capabilities, ELSA-d will also propel regulatory developments and advance the business case for end-of-life and active debris removal services," Nobu Okada, Astroscale founder and CEO, said in the statement. "This successful launch brings us closer to realizing our vision of securing the safe and sustainable development of space for the benefit of future generations."

• Follow Samantha Mathewson @Sam_Ashley13. Follow us on Twitter @Spacedotcom and on Facebook. 

RELATED VIDEOS, selected and posted by peter2011

{ https://www.space.com/news }

09-04-2021 om 01:00 geschreven door peter  

Space-based solar power getting key test aboard US military's mysterious X-37B space plane

By Leonard David  

And some preliminary results are already in.

The U.S. Space Force's robotic X-37B space plane carries a power-beaming experiment on its latest mission to Earth orbit. 

(Image credit: Boeing)

A U.S. military space plane is being used to flight-validate the best ways to gather the sun's energy for power beaming from Earth orbit. 

In mid-March, the latest classified mission of the U.S. Space Force's X-37B robotic space plane winged past 300 days in Earth orbit. 

Most of the robotic space drone's duties on this mission, known as Orbital Test Vehicle-6 (OTV-6), are a tightly held secret. However, one known bit of research that the craft carries is the Photovoltaic Radio-frequency Antenna Module Flight Experiment, or PRAM-FX. 

• The US Military's secretive X-37B space plane: 6 surprising facts

PRAM-FX is a Naval Research Laboratory (NRL) experiment that's investigating transforming solar power into radio frequency (RF) microwave energy. PRAM-FX is a 12-inch (30.5 centimeters) square tile that collects solar energy and converts it to RF power.

Paul Jaffe, the innovation power beaming and space solar portfolio lead at NRL, said that PRAM-FX is not beaming microwave energy anywhere. Rather, the experiment is gauging the performance of sunlight-to-microwave conversion. To be measured is how the PRAM is performing from an efficiency standpoint and also from a thermal performance stance, he said.

Preliminary results

That in-space task is relatively simple. But PRAM-FX helps advance a more ambitious objective — soaking up the sun's energy and broadcasting that power to an energy-hungry Earth.

The first preliminary results from PRAM-FX aboard OTV-6 were published in January as part of a review paper co-authored by Jaffe in the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) Journal of Microwaves.

"Though these results are preliminary, they compare favorably with the performance documented in ground testing, which also demonstrated 8% total module efficiency. As the experiment proceeds, a full picture of the module's performance under different illumination and temperature conditions in the space environment will be uncovered," the IEEE paper points out.

PRAM-FX is a key orbital test for space solar architectures. But what's next?

• Related: How the secretive X-37B space plane works (infographic)

Step-by-step phases

The Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL) has blueprinted a major demonstration project that aims to beam power collected in space to expeditionary forces on Earth. That project is called the Space Solar Power Incremental Demonstrations and Research (SSPIDR). 

As outlined in the IEEE paper, SSPIDR's demonstrations include experiments called Arachne, SPINDLE, and SPIRRAL.

"Arachne will be the world’s first space-to-ground power beaming demonstration of a solar-to-RF modular panel with in-situ surface-shape measurement to optimize beam formation. The solar-to-RF panel technology is designed to scale to very large apertures and to support high volume, low-cost manufacturing," the paper reads. 

Arache is scheduled to fly in 2024. AFRL received the first flight hardware component of the Arachne spacecraft from Northrop Grumman last December. 

SPINDLE will test on-orbit deployment of a sub-scale version of the operational system. And SPIRRAL "will test thermal management approaches to ensure a long-lasting, high-performance system," the paper reads. 

If all goes according to plan, SPIRRAL will launch in 2023 as part of the Materials International Space Station Experiment (MISS-E) Flight Facility. MISS-E is an in-orbit platform from Alpha Space Test and Research Alliance that's designed to be deployed externally on the International Space Station.

Limitless and sustainable energy

John Mankins is a longtime advocate of space power beaming and author of "The Case for Space Solar Power" (Virginia Edition Publishing, 2014). He worked at NASA for 25 years and is now president of Artemis Innovation Management Solutions, LLC.

Space solar power has the potential to transform humankind's future in space, and it might provide a new source of virtually limitless and sustainable energy to markets across the world. So, Mankins said, why wouldn't we pursue such technology?

"There is an array of new players in wireless power transmission — both via radio frequency and laser — in the U.S. and internationally," Mankins told Space.com. "China has just approved the formation of a national-level committee on space solar power and wireless power transmission, which will increase the prominence of their already strong research and development program."

Mankins also points to the United Kingdom. That nation is now exploring the possibility of joining the international space solar power and wireless power transmission community, with a major assessment completed in January of this year.

Looking outward beyond Earth, new applications of wireless power transmission are emerging in lunar exploration planning, Mankins said, where the ice deposits are located exclusively in permanent shadowed regions at temperatures around minus 390 degrees Fahrenheit (minus 234 degrees Celsius).

"But hundreds of kilowatts of power will be needed to mine and process the water ice to make useful materials, such as propellants. Wireless power might be the answer to providing that power," Mankins suggested.

Highly valued asset

Overall, the prospects look encouraging that space power beaming may be a highly valued asset in the commercial sector. 

The technology may have a future akin to that of the United States' Global Positioning System, which started out as a military asset and transitioned to a globally utilized technology, experts say. Perhaps solar power beaming will become widely used down the road, providing plentiful solar energy everywhere regardless of the local weather, time of day or latitude.

By the way, for you techno-history buffs: Nikola Tesla originated the concept of large-scale power transfer via free space at the turn of the 20th century!

• Leonard David is author of "Moon Rush: The New Space Race," which was published by National Geographic in May 2019. A longtime writer for Space.com, David has been reporting on the space industry for more than five decades. Follow us on Twitter @Spacedotcom and on Facebook. This version of the story published on Space.com.

{ https://www.space.com/ }

08-04-2021 om 22:06 geschreven door peter  

Mars helicopter Ingenuity unlocks its rotor blades to prepare for 1st flight on Red Planet

08-04-2021 om 21:42 geschreven door peter  

08-04-2021 om 21:23 geschreven door peter  

A fifth force of nature has been found and it violates the laws of physics – why are we still in existence? “Muon g-2” sounds like a villainous robot in a sci-fi movie, but it’s actually the experiment conducted at the U.S. Department of Energy’s Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory in Chicago that resulted in the discovery that muons – massive cousins of electrons – wobble while spinning through a strong magnetic field and the force created is not known under the Standard Model of particle physics. That would make it a fifth fundamental force of nature. Is that a bad thing?

“This quantity we measure reflects the interactions of the muon with everything else in the universe. But when the theorists calculate the same quantity, using all of the known forces and particles in the Standard Model, we don’t get the same answer. This is strong evidence that the muon is sensitive to something that is not in our best theory.”

Renee Fatemi, a physicist at the University of Kentucky and the simulations manager for the Muon g-2 experiment, doesn’t sound too concerned in the press release that he may have helped create a force in the universe that isn’t gravity, electromagnetic, weak or strong forces. Then again, he may be playing the odds that the numbers are wrong — there is a one in a 40,000 chance that the result could be a statistical fluke. On the other hand, Professor Ben Allanach from Cambridge University, who was not involved with the study, sounds positively giddy in his interview with the BBC.

“My Spidey sense is tingling and telling me that this is going to be real.I have been looking all my career for forces and particles beyond what we know already, and this is it. This is the moment that I have been waiting for and I’m not getting a lot of sleep because I’m too excited.”

Allanach and other physicists are hoping a fifth fundamental force might help explain dark matter and other mysteries and puzzles of the Universe. Gordan Krnjaic, a cosmologist at Fermilab, told The New York Times he thinks this will also help find new subatomic particles, like the theoretical leptoquark or the Z-prime boson.

“If the central value of the observed anomaly stays fixed, the new particles can’t hide forever. We will learn a great deal more about fundamental physics going forward.”

Since it’s a possible new force of nature, it needs a name. Allanach has already given the possible fifth force various names in his theoretical models — the “flavour force,” the “third family hyperforce” and “B minus L2.”

Needless to say, Gravity and Electromagnetic aren’t impressed with any of those. However, they probably agree that Leptoquark would make a great name for a band.

RELATED VIDEOS, selected and posted by peter2011

{ https://mysteriousuniverse.org/ }

08-04-2021 om 21:04 geschreven door peter  

“I do not believe that most advanced alien civilizations will be biological. The most sophisticated civilizations will be postbiological, forms of artificial intelligence or alien superintelligence.”

Does that speculation on the existence of other intelligent life forms sound scientific or philosophical? If your answer was the latter, you’ll be pleased to know it was made by philosopher Susan Schneider, who is the William F. Dietrich Professor of Philosophy at Florida Atlantic University, a recipient of the National Endowment for the Humanities Public Scholar Award, and NASA’s chief philosopher. Wait … what? NASA has a philosopher? How did that get snuck into the budget?

“As the NASA chair, Schneider has recently completed a two year project with NASA on the future of intelligence. She now works with Congress on AI policy.”

Susan Schneider holds the Baruch S. Blumberg NASA/Library of Congress Chair in Astrobiology, Exploration, and Scientific Innovation, the position which makes her NASA’s philosopher. She’s also the author of “Artificial You: AI and the Future of Your Mind” and “Science Fiction and Philosophy: From Time Travel to Superintelligence.” With that resume, it’s no surprise she’s a regular guest on numerous scientific TV shows and conference panels. The Daily Galaxy reviewed her recent study for NASA on how an alien intelligent civilization might think and whether they would have conscious experiences similar to our own. Her beginning point is where most other thinkers end.

“Artificial Intelligence is billions of years old.”

If it’s that old, Schneider believes it’s postbiological – a combination of life and machine. Since that’s where we humans appear to be heading as well, it doesn’t seem farfetched. However, she sees this as postbiological form as just the first stage or “window” of alien life – the bodily form. The second “window” takes into account that the alien life could be 8 million years old – nearly as old as the universe itself. That kind of development time would make them superintelligent when compared to our measly seven-figure years of existence. And that superintelligence would also be both life form and machine – artificial intelligence many orders of magnitude beyond what we know. Then she opens “window three” and answers the question of if they will be anything like us.

“… they will not be carbon based.”

This also should not be surprise. Carbon is not the sturdiest of materials – that’s one reason why microprocessors are silicon and why we’re already working to upload our intelligence to computers in an attempt to achieve a longer lifespan or even immortality. She also points out that peak brain neuron speed is 200 Hz, which is “seven orders of magnitude slower than current microprocessors.” In her book, “Artificial You: AI and the Future of Your Mind,” Schneider uses that to address the questions: “Is the mind just a program?” and “Can robots really be conscious?” Where does that leave us?

“We are galactic babies.”

Let’s hope the 8-billion-year-old postbiological AI beings that find us offer to babysit and educate us instead of looking at us like veal, piglets or salad sprouts. If they’re almost machine, maybe they won’t need to eat. We can only hope.

RELATED VIDEOS, selected and posted by peter2011

{ https://mysteriousuniverse.org/ }

08-04-2021 om 18:45 geschreven door peter  

History is full of odd and eccentric individuals. Countless people have managed to make their mark with their odd behavior, abilities, claims, and achievements, very often scurrying off into the mists of time to leave behind more questions than answers, their stories cut short and incomplete. One such strange individual went out into a desert in South America, built a UFO landing pad, and then vanished off the face of the earth to take any answers to his bizarreness with him to never be known.

Not known is much about the earlier life of the man named Werner Jaisli, and he seems to have been pretty much a nobody until one day in 2008, when he had a life-changing experience. Jaisli had travelled from his native Switzerland to the country of Argentina, where he seems to have been living at the time in the town of Forte Alto. On the evening of November 24, 2008, he was hanging out with his neighbor Luis when the power suddenly cut out and the night fell completely silent. He would say of what happened next:

I was there, at Forte Alto, at midnight on November 24, 2008. Suddenly, everything was silent and the power was cut off. At that moment, two luminous objects advanced about 200 meters above the Calchaquí River. They were solid, circular, and had the color of burnished metal. They stood about 100 meters above our heads and projected a powerful beam of light. The strange thing is that this extraordinary light did not affect our vision at all. At that moment, something began to boil through my brain: it was an order.

The locals of Cachi have not seen him in the streets as they did during the construction.
Some are even saying that he has since been abducted by aliens! However, others say that he simply got tired of all the attention and returned to his life back in Switzerland.

Werner Jaisli

A man has built an alien UFO landing pad in an Argentinian desert and claims extraterrestrials telepathically told him to construct it.
He claims the alien contact occurred after he witnessed a recent UFO sighting in the area.
The UFO landing strip was built near the town of Cachi, Argentina. Werner Jaisli constructed the pad. The Swiss man traveled to the South American country after receiving orders from an extraterrestrial source.

This order was telepathically beamed into his head loudly and clearly, nearly seared into him, and it told him to build a landing and launching pad for their spaceships, directing him to a remote area of desert near Cachi, a village in the Argentinian province of Salta. This telepathic message was so strong and compelling that Werner went about purchasing a plot of land in Salta, where he got to work building the vision that had been given to him by the aliens. It was to be a massive, sprawling construction he called the “Ovniport,” and over the next several years he would tirelessly and obsessively construct a huge, a 36-pointed star with a diameter of 160 feet, as well as a smaller 12-point star in the center and others around it, all of it laboriously handmade by himself out of piles of white and brown rocks. As this was going on, Werner became quite the sight wandering around the area wearing Druid robes and sporting a large, bushy beard. When it was completed in 2012, the Ovniport was an undeniably impressive feat which could clearly be seen from the air, and before long it was attracting quite a lot of attention from both locals and visitors alike.

The Ovniport

When news got out about this bizarre UFO landing pad out in the desert, it became a minor sensation, with people flocking in from all over the world to see it. Many of the UFO enthusiasts who came here also reported that there were several UFO sightings made in the area after the construction of the Ovniport, making it quite a mysterious place, indeed. Then, just as his fame was growing, Werner Jaisli just suddenly vanished without a trace. He didn’t tell his neighbor Luis, made no mention of travelling to any of his few friends, he just disappeared into thin air. Authorities searched for him but his house remained untouched, with all of his belongings still there and no hint as to where he could have possibly gone, which started rumors that perhaps he had joined his alien friends and been taken away aboard their spacecraft. More likely is that he simply went back to Switzerland, or that he was worried about the law and fled. It turns out that in 2011 he had a run-in with police when he was arrested for stealing wallets from tourists, so perhaps he was feeling the heat. One person claimed that he had mentioned going to Bolivia on the run, but this could not be confirmed. No one has seen Werner since, and his whereabouts are unknown.

The Ovniport he built is still there, and continues to be a tourist attraction in this remote, desolate area with not much else to see. Why did he toil away in the hot sun building this thing? Was this really due to messages from aliens, or was he just a derailed individual with a strange obsession? Why did he suddenly leave and where did he go? Did he go off with aliens or is he sitting around somewhere having a good laugh about it all? We will probably never know for sure.

Alien abduction
Did aliens abduct Werner? Image credit: The Conversation.
Since his mysterious disappearance, the UFO landing area is owned by the Municipality of Cachi. They promote the area as a tourist destination.

Nowadays the site attracts hundreds of UFO enthusiasts a year.

{ https://mysteriousuniverse.org/ }

08-04-2021 om 18:13 geschreven door peter  

Is this the oldest map in Europe? Giant stone slab with markings etched 4,000 years ago depicts a region of France during the Bronze Age

• A stone slab forgotten for a century has been deemed the oldest map in Europe

• The stone slab dates back to some 4,000 years ago during the Bronze Age 

• It was first discovered in France in 1900 and then sat in a castle cellar until 2017

• Experts recently analyzed the slab, which shows etchings of West Brittany

• There is a 3D shape to represent the valley of the River Odet in France 

By STACY LIBERATORE FOR DAILYMAIL.COM

A Bronze Age stone slab unearthed in France in 1900 has been rediscovered in a new analysis that deems it to be the oldest known map in Europe.

A team of French scientists determined the markings were etched 4,000 years ago and depict an area in Western Brittany, France.

The slab, dubbed Saint-Bélec Slab, includes elements the team says they would expect in a prehistoric map - including 'repeated motifs joined by lines to give the layout of a map.

The engraved surface suggests that the slab's topography was purposely 3D-shaped to represent the valley of the River Odet, while several lines appear to depict the river network.

Scroll down for video 

A Bronze Age stone slab unearthed in France in 1900 has been rediscovered in a new analysis that deems it to be the oldest known map in Europe

A team of French scientists determined the markings were etched 4,000 years ago and depict an area in Western Brittany, France. Pictured: the team's interpretation of the engravings on the Saint-Bélec Slab (top left) as compared with the early Bronze Age structures known in the Montagnes noires area (top right) and known river and princely barrow features (bottom left). The final map (bottom right) shows the area of France depicted on the map with respect to other barrow locations and their corresponding theorised territories

'A map is 'a drawing or plan of the earth's surface or part of it,' the team wrote in the announcement.

'The Saint-Bélec Slab does indeed bear the three elements that are most probative of prehistoric cartographic representation: homogenous composition with engravings that are identical in technique and style and repetition of motifs.'

The slab had been forgotten throughout time as it moved to different locations around France.

It was first re-used in a burial structure during the end of the early Bronze Age.

A team of French scientists determined the markings were etched 4,000 years ago and depict an area in Western Brittany, France

Using high-resolution 3D surveys and photogrammetry of the slab, the team was able to confirm the engravings matched 80 percent of an area that surrounds the 18-mile long River Odet

The slab formed one of the walls of a stone-made coffin that held a number of bodies with the engravings turned toward the inside of the tomb.

When first unearthed in 1900, experts moved it to Museum of National Antiquities in 1924 and then it was relocated to a caste in France until it was found in 2014.

However, it wasn't until 2017 did researchers from the French National Institute for Preventive Archaeological Research (Inrap), Bournemouth University and University of Western Brittany lay eyes on the carved slab.

Using high-resolution 3D surveys and photogrammetry of the slab, the team was able to confirm the engravings matched 80 percent of an area that surrounds the 18-mile long River Odet.

The slab, dubbed Saint-Bélec Slab, includes elements the team says they would expect in a prehistoric map - including 'repeated motifs joined by lines to give the layout of a map.

When first unearthed in 1900, experts moved it to Museum of National Antiquities in 1924 and then it was relocated to a caste in France until it was found in 2014. However, it wasn't until 2017 did researchers uncover its true meaning

'This is probably the oldest map of a territory that has been identified,' Dr Clément Nicolas from Bournemouth University, one of the study's authors, told the BBC.

'There are several such maps carved in stone all over the world. Generally, they are just interpretations. But this is the first time a map has depicted an area on a specific scale.'

The sheet of rock is five feet by 6 feet long and is said to highlight that the area was a territory of hierarchical political entity that tightly controlled a territory in the early Bronze Age, and breaking it may have indicated condemnation and deconsecration.

{ https://www.dailymail.co.uk/ }

08-04-2021 om 17:50 geschreven door peter  

An ancient engraving on a very old stone slab has been called the oldest 3D map of Europe.

The stone, which measures 2 meters by 1.5 meters (6.6 feet by 5 feet), has been named the Saint-Bélec Slab. It was initially found back in the year 1900 by archaeologist Paul du Chatellier during a dig at a prehistoric burial ground in Finistère, western Brittany, and was rediscovered in the cellar of the French castle, Château de Kernuz, over a century later in 2014.

Recent analysis of the stone revealed that it dates back approximately 4,000 years (between 1900 BC and 1650 BC during the early Bronze Age) and contains what archaeologists believe is an ancient map of an area in France’s northwestern region of Brittany.

The map was engraved on a large stone slab (not the stone mentioned in this article).

According to the Bulletin of the French Prehistoric Society, the “presence of repeated motifs joined by lines” indicates that it was engraved to represent an area of Finistère. Furthermore, experts who analyzed the stone believe that the indentations on the slab depict the River Odet valley and additional lines seemingly show the river network. As a matter of fact, thanks to high-resolution 3D surveys and photogrammetry, the experts were able to determine that the engravings on the stone are about 80% accurate to a location in Brittany that surrounds an 18-mile long stretch of the River Odet.

The 2.2-metre by 1.53-metre stone was first discovered in 1900 but then lost until 2014. 

Photograph: Denis Gliksman

The slab is believed to have been used as one of the walls of a stone tomb. 

Photograph: Denis Gliksman

In an interview with the BBC, Dr. Clément Nicolas from Bournemouth University stated, “This is probably the oldest map of a territory that has been identified.”

He went on to explain the slab in further detail, “There are several such maps carved in stone all over the world. Generally, they are just interpretations. But this is the first time a map has depicted an area on a specific scale,” adding, “It was probably a way to affirm the ownership of the territory by a small prince or king at the time.”

River Odet

It’s incredible to think that someone who lived around 4,000 years ago created such a detailed three-dimensional map on a stone slab. “We tend to underestimate the geographical knowledge of past societies. This slab is important as it highlights this cartographical knowledge,” Dr. Nicolas noted.

Pictures of the stone slab with the engraved map can be seen here.

image captionThe slab is covered in patterns of engravings

image captionThe slab was first discovered in Brittany in 1900.

image captionMarkings on the rock are believed to depict an area of western Brittany

image captionThe "map" matches a a stretch of the River Odet valley

{ https://mysteriousuniverse.org/ }

08-04-2021 om 17:38 geschreven door peter  

CLOSE FOOTAGE UFO IN MEXICO/ Could This Be "The BEST" UFO Sighting EVER? Believe me!

CLOSE FOOTAGE UFO IN MEXICO

Could This Be “The BEST” UFO Sighting EVER? Believe me

UFO abducting a helicopter to another dimension | @SECRET SPACE TUBE​

UFO sightings floating above the sea - April 2021 |   @SECRET SPACE TUBE

[ MUFON Case ] Twin soul orbs meet fuse and disappear - Austria - Jan, 28, 2021 |  @SECRET SPACE TUBE

Two Snake UFO dancing in the sky - Mexico - March 2021 | @SECRET SPACE TUBE

{ https://beforeitsnews.com/ }

08-04-2021 om 17:07 geschreven door peter