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...
29-06-2021
LATEST UFO SIGHTINGS AND VIDEOS - 29 - 06 - 2021
LATEST UFO SIGHTINGS AND VIDEOS - 29 - 06 - 2021
UFO Sighted Over Mexico ( June 27, 2021 )
UFO was sighted over Mexico on June 27, 2021
STATEMENT : Ovni no Mexico 2021 Ovni in Mexico 2021
credit : Everton HEnr
UFO Sighted Over Fort Lee, New Jersey ( June 26,2021 )
Fast Moving UFO was sighted over Fort Lee, New Jersey on June 26,2021
Energy portal ? Strange Portal Connects Earth to Sun | Space : Oneidea is that on the side of Earth facing the sun, our magnetic field presses against the sun's magnetic field. And about every eight minutes, the two fields briefly reconnect,forming a portal through which particles can flow. The portal takes the form of a magnetic cylinder about as wide as Earth.
credit : Emery Pleiadian : Switzerland
UFO Sighted Over Turin, Italy ( June 26, 2021 )
UFO was sighted over Turin, Italy
STATEMENT : Recorded day 26/06/2021 Turin / Italy : What is this?
credit : Erika Cordeiro
UFO Sighted Over Bermuda ( June 21, 2021 )
UFO Sighted Over Bermuda Peninsula on June 21, 2021
STATEMENT : UFO flying over the Bermuda Peninsula ′′ June 21, 2021
credit : Ivan P Marra
UFO Sighted While Flying Over Nevada ( June 28, 2021 )
UFO was sighted while flying over Nevada on June 28, 2021
STATEMENT : Surprised : Flying over Nevada
credit : Ulysses Ribeiro
UFO Discovered in 1967 NASA Lunar Orbiter 3 Photograph.
Ufo Discovered in Lunar Orbiter 3 photograph frame number 3162.
UFO Invisible To The Naked Eye Filmed Over Sierra Madre del Sur Mountain Range In Guerrero Mexico
This footage was filmed on May 23, 2021 from Taxco a town in the state of Guerrero, Mexico. This object which appears invisible to the naked eye and other recording devices but was only picked up by his night vision camera. The night vision that was used to film this was "Sionyx Aurora Pro" and this enabled him and us to see this object. There is a extinct volcano that is part of the Sierra Madre Occidental mountain range named Cerro Mohinora and this is where this object was filmed hovering over, with the witness recording from his vantage point we get a good view from where he filmed and we can see that there is nothing there.... The witness stated the following "I took this video on may 23, 2021 in Taxco Guerrero around midnight from a well-known hotel next to the magic town of Taxco, watching the song appreciate some lights on the left side of the town which are only perceptible through the night vision of a camera with Sionyx aurora pro."
MUFON CASE : 116553 Taxco, Guerrero, Mexico ( June 28, 2021 )
Mutual UFO Network : MUFON SUBMISSIONS : UFO sighting in Taxco Guerrero. - Avistamiento de ovni en Taxco Guerrero.
Long Description of Sighting Report
I took this video on May 23, 2021 in Taxco Guerrero around midnight from a well-known hotel next to the magic town of Taxco, watching the song appreciate some lights on the left side of the town which are only perceptible through the night vision of a camera with Saionyx Aurora Pro.
Este vídeo lo tomé el 23 de Mayo de 2021 en Taxco Guerrero alrededor de la medianoche desde un hotel muy conocido al lado del pueblo mágico de Taxco, ver canción apreciar unas luces del lado izquierdo del pueblo los cuales únicamente perceptibles a través de la visión nocturna de una cámara con marca Saionyx Aurora Pro.
Date Submitted :2021-06-28 Date of Event : 2021-05-23 / 11:00PM MUFON SUBMITTER FILE : VIDEOOVNITAXCOPARAMUFON.mp4
US intelligence has released a much anticipated wide-ranging report on military and government agencies’ encounters with UFOs, or what the report calls unidentified aerial phenomena (UAP). The now declassified Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI) report which has been sent to Congress was made public late in the day Friday, and reveals the US government has encountered over 140 instances of UAP.
As The Hill notes of the report, out of 144 encounters listed since 2004, “just one was identified with high confidence while the others remain a mystery” — with varied explanations accounting for the bulk of the sightings including possible natural atmospheric phenomena, “airborne clutter” such as balloons for example, advanced aircraft or projectiles by foreign adversaries, or even experimental programs done under top secret classification by the US government. The one identified or explainable sighting was determined to “likely” have been “a large, deflating balloon”.
For 143 of the cases analyzed, the report concluded “lack sufficient information in our dataset to attribute incidents to specific explanations”. And it said there are “no clear indications that there is any non-terrestrial explanation” for the aircraft.
But as many UFO enthusiasts have pointed out, the report doesn’t rule out alien activity altogether either. Indeed what’s being dubbed the Feds’ UFO report is also leaving the possibility open to “other” explanations in its nine pages (including that objects might be extra-terrestrial), particularly in 18 of the instances for which there’s currently no plausible scientific explanation accounting for how the aerial objects moved:
In the 18 cases, U.S. government observers reported “unusual” movement or flight characteristics, the report released by the Office of the Director of National Intelligence stated.
The objects “appeared to remain stationary in winds aloft, move against the wind, maneuver abruptly, or move at considerable speed, without discernible means of propulsion,” the report stated. Some of them released radio frequency energy that was picked up and processed by U.S. military aircraft.
The strange flight characteristics “could be the result of sensor errors, spoofing or observer misperception and require additional rigorous analysis,” the report added. Of these, the report underscored that “We are conducting further analysis to determine if breakthrough technologies were demonstrated.”
Naval and other military aviators have recently gone public with their encounters with “UFOs”…
“There are probably multiple types of UAP requiring different explanations based on the range of appearances and behaviors described in the available reporting,” the report explained. “Although most of the UAP described in our dataset probably remain unidentified due to limited data or challenges to collection processing or analysis, we may require additional scientific knowledge to successfully collect on, analyze and characterize some of them,” it added.
In a separate statement the Pentagon sought to assure the public that it “takes reports of incursions – by any aerial object, identified or unidentified – very seriously, and investigates each one.”
This is particularly given the distinction possibility that some or many UAP sightings may represent “sophisticated collection against U.S. military activities by a foreign government or demonstrate a breakthrough aerospace technology by a potential adversary.”
For example, Russia has made huge leaps in its hypersonic missile program, with China also considered to be on the way.
Interestingly, both of these countries and their advancing, cutting-edge defense technology programs find explicit mention in the ODNI report.
Some Congressional leaders have already dubbed this new report “inconclusive” but have also said it’s a step in the right direction in terms of accounting for “risks to aviation” or possible secretive advanced programs of America’s enemies.
Meanwhile, some observers are questioning why it’s suddenly the case that UFO theories and speculation are going mainstream, even to the point that US intelligence is releasing a rare study to the public.
According to independent journalist and geopolitical commentator Caitlin Johnstone, “the fact that Russia or China magically leapfrogging US technology by centuries seventy years ago has been validated as a possibility by the report is a gift to cold warriors eager to ramp up aggressions and inflame a high-budget arms race.”
Massive "Dragon Man" skull found in China might be a new human evolutionary branch
Massive "Dragon Man" skull found in China might be a new human evolutionary branch
BY ALEXANDRA LARKIN
A gigantic fossilized skull that was hidden in a well in China for 90 years has just been discovered by scientists — and it's making them rethink human evolution.
The skull was originally found in 1933 by Chinese laborers building a bridge in Harbin, a northern Chinese city, during the Japanese occupation, researchers said. To prevent the skull from falling into Japanese hands, it was wrapped and hidden in an abandoned well. It was only rediscovered in 2018 when the old man who originally hid it told his grandson, shortly before his death.
The remarkably well-preserved fossil has been labeled a new human species, Homo longi, by Chinese researchers. The species has been dubbed "Dragon man," for the northern Chinese province where the skull was found, Heilongjiang — or in English, the "Black Dragon River" region.
Map shows the location that the Harbin cranium was discovered. QIANG JI
In a series of threearticles published in research journal the Innovation on Friday, scientists posited that the skull belonged to an approximately 50-year-old man. He would have had a wide nose to allow him to breathe uninhibited during heavy activity and probably would have been built sturdily to withstand the frigid regional winters, researchers wrote.
One of the most remarkable aspects of the Harbin cranium is its massive size, which, at 9 inches long and more than 6 inches wide, is significantly larger than the modern human skull.
The skull also has a cranial capacity of approximately 1,420 milliliters or 48 fluid ounces. That falls into the cranial capacity range of modern humans, but the skull also possesses many primitive features that make it a unique link between modern humans and Neanderthals.
A photo of the Harbin cranium.QIANG JI
Beneath the thick brow ridge, the face has large square eye sockets, but is delicate despite its size.
"It differs from all the other named Homo species," researchers wrote, noting that it has a mix of ancient and modern features like a "gently curved" but "massively developed" brow ridge and low, flat cheekbones with "shallow" depressions beneath them. And compared to today's more modern, round skull, researchers said the Harbin cranium was long and low.
The international research team, led by Professor Qiang Ji at the Hebei Geo University in China, used geochemical techniques to date the skull to at least 146,000 years old.
An illustration of what the "Dragon Man" may have looked like. QIANG JI
When the scientists compared the fossil to 95 other skulls using a software program, they found that the Harbin cranium and a few other Chinese skulls seemed to form a new branch that was closer to modern humans than Neanderthals.
The Chinese team said they think the Harbin cranium is sufficiently unique that it qualifies as a new species. However, others are not convinced. Professor Chris Stringer, a research leader at the Natural History Museum in London who also worked on the project, told the Guardian that the skull may be similar to another skull found in China in 1978.
He said, "The important thing is the third lineage of later humans that are separate from Neanderthals and separate from Homo sapiens."
400,000 Year Old Giant Skull Humanoid Species, Dubbed Dragon Man Found
400,000 Year Old Giant Skull Humanoid Species, Dubbed Dragon Man Found
A photo of the Harbin cranium.
QIANG JI
400,000 Year Old Giant Skull Humanoid Species, Dubbed Dragon Man Found
The Leak Project was created to offer awareness and information not found in the main stream news. With over 90% of the Worlds Media controlled by only 6 Enormous Conglomerates, many people are looking for more accurate information. The Leak Project offers a refreshing approach to the brain drain media.
Check back daily for new content as we thrive to bring you the cutting edge in news, current events, on scene video footage, interviews and information.
Op foto’s en video’s is onder andere te zien hoe bij de landing op 15 mei het valscherm opende. Een video toont ook hoe de robotjeep Zhurong een verkenningsrit maakt op het Marsoppervlak.
De Chinese ruimtevaartautoriteiten lieten zondag weten dat hun Marsverkenner toen al 42 Marsdagen in het getouw was en een afstand van 236 meter heeft afgelegd. Een dag op Mars is met 24 uur en 40 minuten iets langer dan een dag op onze planeet.
De Tianwen-1 is de eerste Chinese Marssonde. Ze is in juli gelanceerd en in februari in een baan om de Rode Planeet gekomen.
When searching through a Mars photo of Perseverance, I noticed some very important scientific artifacts that NASA clearly missed. The most significant of them was a gloved hand laying on the surface with its palm side up and hand open. The other thing I found was a centipede-like creature on top of a rock. This animal had an very big bump on is head that may have been a horn. Its color is a dark red...very similar in shape, size color to that of a centipede. This is 100% proof that life exists on Mars. It may not be intelligent life, but nevertheless its an animal form of life. I also found a few other anomalies that point out that life once existed on Mars.
Mysterious Lights Over Gujarat, India June 2021, Video, UFO Sighting News.
Mysterious Lights Over Gujarat, India June 2021,Video,UFO Sighting News.
Date of sighting: June 22, 2021
Location of sighting: Gujarat, India
People living in the city of Gujarat reported glowing lights over the city. The also reported hearing a large explosion when the lights first appeared. In the video there are two sets of hovering lights moving over the city. One will have 3-4 continuous glowing orange lights and then another begins to follow it. Each set of four lights are just one craft. The explosions heard are from the UFOs shooting away out of earths atmosphere or into earths atmosphere...at high speed. The speed had to have broken the sound barrier for the sonic boom to be that big. UFOs can easily do that. These are 100% real UFOs and are proof that an alien base exists somewhere near the city of Gujarat, India 5-6km below the surface.
UFO "Fastwalker" flying at high speed over Sandia Mountains, New Mexico captured on camera on May 23, 2021.
“Fastwalker” is a term used by NORAD and branches of armed forces to describe unidentified aerial phenomena moving and/or changing directions at high speed far beyond what current aerospace technology is capable of.
Roswell: The UFO mystery that still haunts America
Roswell: The UFO mystery that still haunts America
Americans’ fascination with UFOs has surged during the Covid pandemic and recent sightings are being taken more seriously with a Pentagon report into UFO sightings about to be released. But as Planet America’s John Barron explains, few UFO mysteries have inspired as much intrigue as the Roswell incident in New Mexico in 1947.
Scientific Evidence for the Many Myths of the Great Flood
Scientific Evidence for the Many Myths of the Great Flood
Have you ever heard about Noah's Ark story? This story of the great flood is one of the most popular stories from the Bible. But it is far from the only great flood story to be found in history. Christians are quite familiar with Noah's story when God destroyed all of creation through the great flood owing to the wickedness of men. While many people perceive all this as the great flood myth, scientists have found evidence of the great deluge. Before going to the scientific evidence, let's take a look at the known mythologies that relate to the flood myth.
The Great Flood: Myths in the Bible, Hindu Texts and More
Noah's story in the Hebrew Bible is probably the most well-known myth relating to the great flood. However, a number of other myths related to this event also exist.
According to the Gilgamesh flood myth, Enlil, the highest god, decided to completely destroy the whole world by means of a great flood as the humans had increasingly become noisy. Ea, the god who created human beings of divine blood and clay, warned Utnapishtim secretly about the flood and gave him instructions to build a boat and be saved.
In the Bible’s Book of Genesis , it is written that Yahweh (the name of the monotheistic god of the Israelites), who created man from dust, decided to bring the great flood to Earth because of mankind’s increasing corruption.
Yahweh was, however, pleased with Noah and instructed him to create an ark for saving humans and animals. On completion of the ark, Noah, his entire family, and two of every type of animal on earth entered the ark. Once the door of the ark was closed, the destructive flood started and cleared all other living beings from the face of the earth. After the flood ended, everyone inside the ark came out, and Yahweh promised never to subject humans to something like the great flood again. The rainbow is known as the symbol of Yahweh's promise.
A 3D illustration of Noah’s Ark in a storm during the Great Flood. Reality or myth?
According to Hindu mythology there is a story about "manvantara-sandhya," a great flood. In the story, Vishnu's Matsya Avatar warned Manu, the first man, about the impending flood and instructed him to construct a giant boat.
According to Zoroastrian Mazdaism, Ahriman tried to destroy the whole world by means of a drought. It is believed that Mithra shot an arrow at a rock, and the flood poured out. Only one man, along with his cattle, survived the flood in an ark.
As per Plato, Timaeus describes a flood myth that is quite similar to the other versions of the great flood. In the Timaeus version, the Bronze race of humans made Zeus angry with constant warring. Zeus decided to cause a flood to punish humanity. The Titan Prometheus , who created humans with clay, shared the plan with Deucalion and advised him to build an ark. It took nine days and nights for the water to recede, and the ark landed on a mountain.
Researchers study a ship graveyard discovered in the Black Sea that may be linked to the Great Flood.
Scientific Evidence of the Occurrence of the Great Flood
While there are a number of stories or myths relating to the great flood, scientists have recently found evidence of the flood. The scientists believe that the great flood did take place around 7,000 years ago in the Black Sea region.
In a book named "Noah's Flood: The New Scientific Discoveries about the Event that Changed History," two marine biologists Walter Pitman and William Ryan, describe a flood that took place several thousand years ago, before the Biblical story was written by the ancient Hebrews .
According to the two marine biologists , nearly 12,000 years ago, after the last Ice Age, the Black Sea was a partially dried freshwater lake. It was separated from the Mediterranean Sea by the Bosporus Strait , which is a land strip.
The shore of the Black Sea was fertile and was used by the people to start large farming societies. When the ice sheets that covered the Northern Hemisphere started melting, the levels of the sea began rising. It is believed that the Mediterranean Sea broke through the Bosporus Strait about 7,600 years ago.
With a force about 200 times that of Niagara Falls, the seawater had started rushing in. The level of the Black Sea was increasing by 6 inches (15 cm) every day. Within one year, about 60,000 square miles (15,539,929 hectares) was engulfed and disappeared beneath the rising waters. The settlers of the land moved to different high grounds and never returned.
Pitman and Ryan hypothesize that this trauma story was handed down for about 3,000 years and has been recorded in the form of myths and songs. One of the versions is believed to be the story of Noah's Ark found in the Bible.
The hypothesis of the two marine biologists is mainly based on the sediment cores of the Black Sea as well as seismic profiles. The cores did tell a strange and unique story. Pitman and Ryan discovered a single mud layer that was typically left after the great flood.
It lay over sediment layers that were at one time land surface. The surface contained mud cracks, plant root fossils, and freshwater mollusks that were similar to the dried-out lakeshore. The ancient shoreline was submerged about 460 feet (140 meters) below the Black Sea.
The marine biologists have also pointed out that according to the study of ancient civilizations made by archaeologists, during the flood several peoples with new customs appeared at different places. They were even found in Egypt, as well in the foothills of the Himalayas, and around Paris and Prague. The majority of these “new” people were Indo-European speakers. According to Ryan and Pitman, these peoples might be the Black Sea farmers who had to leave their homes due to the great flood.
The Great Flood (Die Sintflut, Suendflut), a painting by Lesser-Ury (1861-1931), depicts the “horror” of what the deluge of the Bible might have looked like.
In addition to the evidence offered by Pitman and Ryan, there are also other pieces of evidence that support the occurrence of the great flood. One such significant piece of evidence was provided by the world-famous underwater archaeologist Robert Ballard. He is especially known for locating and exploring the Titanic wreck.
Ballard found evidence of people who had perished in the great flood that took place in the Black Sea and linked it with Noah's Ark story.
Ballard and his team made use of advanced robotic technology to find evidence that might support the Noah story. They were able to unearth an ancient coastline that was about 550 feet (168 meters) under the water surface. It was considered significant proof of the catastrophic event. Ballard took some samples including saltwater and freshwater mollusks from the ancient beach for testing.
When radiocarbon dating of the samples was done, it was revealed that the freshwater mollusks were relatively older in comparison to the saltwater ones. All the freshwater mollusks that were taken for sample testing were of the same age.
It could be assumed that all the mollusks died due to the occurrence of a sudden flood. This is because if they had died due to the slowly rising water, the ages would have differed. It was found that the mollusks died somewhere around 5,600 BC. It is approximately the same time when the great flood during Noah's time is believed to have occurred.
About 310 feet (94 meters) below in the Black Sea, Ballard and his team were also able to find an ancient house that had collapsed. In addition to the house, they also unearthed a number of stone tools, storage vessels made of ceramic, and ancient mud. The archaeologists believe that the culture found at the bottom of the sea was thousands of years old.
The evidence collected by Robert Ballard and his team suggests that the traumatic great flood story was handed down from generation to generation. This eventually inspired Noah's Ark story that is mentioned in the Bible.
"The Deluge" drawing was used as the frontispiece to Gustave Doré's illustrated edition of the Bible. Based on the story of Noah's Ark, the drawing shows humans and a tiger doomed by the flood futilely attempting to save their children and cubs.
While there is scientific evidence that supports the occurrence of the great flood, there is also scientific evidence that argues against it. Some believe that the great flood may have occurred during Noah's time, but that it happened over the entire Earth rather than some regional parts.
As per the Bible, the rain during the great flood lasted for 30 days, and the Earth was flooded for 150 days. Only after one year, two months, and twenty-seven days, did the Earth dry and thus Noah, his entire family, and all the animals were able to move out of the ark.
The great flood was intended to completely destroy all life on Earth. As the sedimentary rocks over all the continents do contain fossils, the great flood could represent the destruction of all living beings. Thus, the story of the global flood mentioned in the Bible might have been true.
However, the sedimentary rocks have interlayers of gypsum, evaporite rock salt, anhydrite, and magnesium and potash salts. All these are related to red beds that contain fossilized mud cracks. The red beds and mineral compounds have a measurable combined thickness on various continents.
The red color of the red beds is mainly due to the presence of hematite, an iron oxide that is formed from oxidized magnetite grains when the mud gets exposed to oxygen present in the open air. Mud cracks can only occur under severe drying conditions that result in the shrinking of mud and the formation of polygonal cracks.
The evaporite deposits are believed to occur when a marine sea that existed disappears and becomes completely dry. In such a case, the evaporites are expected to be found at the top of the flood deposits of the great flood. However, the evaporites were found in different layers and not on the top of the flood deposit. This makes certain scientists believe that the great flood never took place.
Moreover, it is written in the Bible that at some time the flood waters started receding and left the ground completely dry. There were no repeated cycles of floods of this size. According to this, it is quite logical that the red beds and evaporite deposits in different levels of the flood deposit could only be formed in local climates having desert drying conditions.
However, it is not possible this was formed at the same time the great flood covered the surface of the whole Earth. On this basis, it can be said that a massive regional flood could have occurred but not a whole-Earth flood.
The Matsya Avatar of Vishnu Uttar Pradesh, India. Matsya is an avatar of the Hindu god Vishnu. Often described as the first of Vishnu's ten primary avatars, Matsya is said to have rescued the first man Manu from a great deluge. The Matsya Avatar is often depicted as a giant fish.
While much debate surrounds the “truth” of the great flood, it is quite hard to say whether it actually occurred or not. As per the Bible, Noah used to live in the Mesopotamian desert , but the coastline of the Black Sea was forested and lush back then.
More and more geologists are coming up with different revised theories and trying to build solid proof for an event that occurred during ancient times. Geological expeditions continue to search the Black Sea. These very expensive geological expeditions are also getting funded by people who are interested in knowing the truth of the Noah's Ark story mentioned in the Bible.
Scientists and archaeologists are still trying to locate ancient villages beneath the surface of the seas. It will be very interesting to see what additional evidence for the great flood is revealed in the coming years.
Top image: The Deluge (1840), a painting by Francis Danby, part of the Tate Gallery collection, which shows how horrible the Great Flood must have been, if, and when, it happened.
AI Finds New Neanderthal and Denisovan DNA Mutations in Human Genome
AI Finds New Neanderthal and Denisovan DNA Mutations in Human Genome
Scientists affiliated with the GLOBE Institute’s GeoGenetics Centre at the University of Copenhagen in Denmark have created an Artificial Intelligence program that is helping them identify ancient mutations in the human genome. As they explain in an articlein the online journal eLife, they are using this program to find out more about the genetic materials modern humans inherited from archaic hominin species, particularly noting the DNA inherited from our long-extinct cousins the Neanderthals and the Denisovans.
The scientists use the term “adaptive introgression” to describe this type of cross-species inheritance. Introgression refers to the process by which outside genetic material is absorbed into the human genome, while adaptive refers to the evolutionary advantage humans gain from possessing such material.
This new AI program is uniquely suited for identifying instances of adaptive introgression. In the years ahead, it may dramatically expand our knowledge about the relationships that were formed between ancient Homo sapiens (modern humans) and their nearest living relatives.
Early human migrations from Africa and onwards across planet Earth, measured in thousands of years ago (kya), included Homo sapiens, Neanderthals and Denisovans. And now we know the modern human genome, as a result of hominin species interbreeding, has a lot of genetic material from Neanderthals.
The Human Genome: Early Human Migrations and Interbreeding
When humans migrated from Africa to Europe, Asia, and beyond more than 60,000 years ago, they met the Neanderthals, who were already living in those areas. Moving eastward they eventually encountered the mysterious Denisovans, who resided in what is now southern and eastern Asia and in Oceania (Australia, New Zealand, and the nearby islands of Melanesia, Polynesia, and Micronesia).
While these were separate species, they were closely related to Homo sapiens , close enough to make interbreeding possible. Neanderthals and Denisovans went extinct tens of thousands of years ago, but at least some of their genetic material has survived inside human DNA because of the interactions that took place in prehistoric times.
Only a few traces of Denisovan DNA are likely to be found in the collective human gene pool. But scientists believe that up to 40 percent of Neanderthal DNA may have survived inside the genomes of humans. It is widely spread out, meaning that Neanderthal DNA makes up no more than two percent of any individual’s total genetic material.
An image of the DNA helix that hints at the powers of AI or deep learning methods in learning more about the evolution of the human genome.
Those 40 percent and two percent figures are estimates, not precise measurements. Scientists don’t know for certain exactly how much Neanderthal or Denisovan DNA human beings have inherited, or how it might be distributed ethnically or geographically. They also aren’t sure where all of it is located inside the human genome. Most importantly, they still aren’t sure which functions it performs. These are the issues the GLOBE Institute scientists are trying to remedy.
"We developed a deep learning method called 'genomatnn' that jointly models introgression, which is the transfer of genetic information between species, and natural selection,” Fernando Racimo, a GeoGenetics Centre geneticist and the co-author of the eLife paper, told the author of a University of Copenhagen article about this new study. “The model was developed in order to identify regions in the human genome where this introgression could have happened."
“Deep learning” is a general form of artificial intelligence (AI). The specific form of AI applied in this case is known as a convolutional neural network (CNN), which is a type of deep learning program used for image recognition .
In this experiment, the researchers ran hundreds of thousands of simulations as a way to teach the CNN to identify patterns in genomes that would be created by adaptive introgression. The AI network was specially trained to spot mutations traceable to interactions with Neanderthals or Denisovans.
“Our method is highly accurate and outcompetes previous approaches in power,” Racimo said. “We applied it to various human genomic datasets and found several candidate beneficial gene variants that were introduced into the human gene pool.”
DNA sequences in colored letters on a black background containing the word "mutation." Based on the recent AI study of the human genome at the University of Copenhagen, researchers are now focusing on mutations more and more to understand the evolution of the modern human genome.
So far, some of what the scientists have discovered confirms existing theories about where Neanderthal DNA could be found. But in the process they uncovered some new and surprising information as well.
“We recovered previously identified candidates for adaptive introgression in modern humans, as well as several candidates which have not previously been described,” said GeoGenetics Centre researcher Graham Gower, the lead author of the eLife article.
Some of the newly discovered candidates involve mutations that impact human metabolism and immunity system functioning.
“In European genomes, we found two strong candidates for adaptive introgression from Neanderthals in regions of the genome that affect phenotypes related to blood, including blood cell counts,” Gower explained. “In Melanesian genomes, we found candidate variants introgressed from Denisovans that potentially affected a wide range of traits, such as blood-related diseases, tumor suppression, skin development, metabolism, and various neurological diseases.”
Gower is quick to point out that these are preliminary findings. As of now, the scientists aren’t completely sure what impact these mutations might have on those who carry them. They might cause positive responses, negative outcomes, or have no significant effect at all.
In general, scientists assume that when mutations last for tens of thousands of years, they will do so because they are in some way beneficial. Humans who interbred with their archaic cousins likely improved the gene pool overall, adding new genetic material from species that had been surviving in environments that were relatively new to African-born Homo sapiens .
A Neanderthal skull (left) next to a Homo sapiens skull. Though the skulls are very different, it turns out that the modern human genome is almost 40% related to interbreeding and mutations related to Neanderthals.
Finding Prehistoric Facts with Future Technologies
As their study continues, the University of Copenhagen researchers hope to learn more about the actual effects of the mutations they’ve found (and those they’ve yet to find, but soon will) in the human genome.
Also, they plan to work backward from the mutations to trace the histories of the ancient people who introduced them into the gene pool. By studying which mutations developed in which population groups, they may be able to determine where Neanderthal, Denisovan, and Homo sapiens interactions occurred in the distant past, and where they were the most extensive.
This type of knowledge will give anthropologists, evolutionary biologists, and archaeologists a better idea about where fossilized remains of various species might be found, along with any artifacts they might have created and left behind.
Top image: A drawing of a Neanderthal man looking to the horizon and wondering if he will meet another "human" and, if so a human woman. The human genome it turns out has a lot of Neanderthal genes and now a Danish AI program is proving it.
Our planet’s shadow against the Sun could have been seen from thousands of nearby solar systems.
Radio towers like these, clustered on a hillside in Arlington, Virginia in the 1920s, have been leaking signals into space for decades. Our neighbors could be listening. (Arlilngton Public Library)
Usually it’s we who are searching for planets outside our own Solar System. Lisa Kaltenegger from the Carl Sagan Institute at Cornell University and Jackie Faherty from the American Museum of Natural History in New York looked at it the other way around. Assuming aliens have the same level of technology that we do, would they be able to detect us?
To try to answer that question, the authors consulted a huge data set of precise star positions, from the European Space Agency’s Gaia mission. Taking into account the past, present, and future locations of stars and changing viewing geometry, they determined how many star systems would be in position for observers to see Earth transiting in front of the Sun—an important technique for deducing the presence of life. Their analysis identified 1,715 stars within 100 parsecs (about 326 light years) from the Sun that were in the right position to have spotted life over the past 5,000 years, with an additional 319 stars entering this special vantage point in the next 5,000 years.
Most of these stars can be assumed to host planets, many of which could be in the habitable zone, and perhaps could even be Earthlike. The authors estimate that 29 potentially habitable worlds might exist within 100 light years from us. All of them would, in theory, be able to detect radio signals from our planet, which we started to send out about 100 years ago.
We already know that some of the stars in this sample have exoplanets, including the Ross 128 system, the Teegarden’s star system, and the Trappist-1 system, with an astounding seven terrestrial-size exoplanets. Ross128 is only about 11 light years away, and is the 13th closest system to ours. From there, an Earth transit would have been observable for 2,158 years, up until 900 years ago. From the Teegarden’s star system we are currently not observable, but we will be starting in 2050, for another 410 years.
Life has existed on our planet for four billon years, and widespread oxygen-breathing life has been here since the Great Oxidation Event about 2.6 billion years ago. So, in principle, many more star systems could have detected life on our planet before humans came along by analyzing the gases in our atmosphere during transit events. And even within our cosmic neighborhood, a substantial number of alien civilizations could have been watching as life evolved on Earth.
In the end, all such speculations come down to the prevalence of life in the Universe. Based on some estimates, life—and perhaps even complex life—could certainly exist on some of the planets that have been swept by radio signals from Earth or may have seen our planet transiting against the Sun. Whether intelligent, technologically advanced life exists on these worlds is much more questionable. But it remains a possibility.
RUSSIA AND CHINA ARE RACING TO BEAT NASA BACK TO THE MOON
RUSSIA AND CHINA ARE RACING TO BEAT NASA BACK TO THE MOON
A new space race is now underway.
IN THE COMING YEARS, MULTIPLE SPACE AGENCIES will be sending astronauts to the Moon for the first time since the closing days of the Apollo Program.
For NASA, this will represent the long-awaited “return to the Moon,” while every other space agency will see it as a tremendous step for their space programs.
One thing they all have in common is that this time around, the goal is to build the necessary infrastructure that will allow for a long-term human presence.
However, amid all the excitement of this approaching moment in history are concerns about the lack of an international framework that will ensure our efforts are for the sake of “for all humankind.”
Whereas NASA is seeking partners for its Artemis Program through bilateral agreements, Russia and China are pursuing an agreement of their own. They call it the International Lunar Research Station (ILRS), and they too are looking for partners in this endeavor.
As the first volume in what is clearly an evolving mission architecture, the Guide lays out the purpose and intent of the Sino-Russian agreement and establishes a roadmap and a timeline for the ILRS’ development.
According to the Guide, the ILRS represents a merger of Russia and China’s plans for lunar exploration, something that has been in the works for many years.
In 2019, the two countries signed bilateral agreements to establish a common data center for lunar and deep-space exploration.
They also agreed to cooperate with their respective Chang’e 7 and Luna 26, both of which will explore the Moon’s South Pole-Aitken Basin in 2024.
As is stated in the Preface to the Guide:
“Considering the fruitful experience from the People’s Republic of China and the Russian Federation in the areas of space technology, space science and space application, China National Space Administration (CNSA) and the State Space Corporation “Roscosmos” (ROSCOSMOS) jointly initiated the International Lunar Research Station (ILRS) based on their [respective] existing lunar exploration plan.
“The most efficient and productive investigation, exploration and use of the Moon can be achieved only in a broad international partnership with an attraction of other countries, international organizations and international partners. CNSA and Roscosmos jointly invite all interesting international partners to cooperate and contribute more for the peaceful exploration and use of Moon in the interests of all humankind, adhering to the principles of equality, openness and integrity.”
In this respect, the Guide constitutes the official reply of China and Russia to the Artemis Accords, the series of bilateral agreements designed to establish common principles for lunar exploration.
The Accords are grounded in the Outer Space Treaty of 1967, the historic charter that established that “the exploration and use of outer space shall be carried out for the benefit and in the interests of all countries and shall be the province of all mankind.”
To date, twelve countries have signed the Accords:
the United States
the United Kingdom
Canada
Australia
New Zealand
Italy
Japan
Luxembourg
South Korea
Ukraine
the United Arab Emirates
Brazil
However, when the Accords were first announced in May of 2020, Roscosmos director-general Dmitry Rogozin stated they were “US-centric” and strayed too far from the framework for the ISS. As such, Russia would not participate.
“The most important thing here would be to base this program on the principles of international cooperation that we’ve all used. If we could get back to considering making these principles as the foundation of the program, then Roscosmos could also consider its participation.”
On March 3rd, 2021, Russian and China made it clear they intended to follow when they announced that they would be partnering to create an ILRS, which they described as “a comprehensive scientific experiment base with the capability of long-term autonomous operation, built on the lunar surface and/or on the lunar orbit.” With the release of the Guide, Russia and China have made the details of their plan public for the first time.
Similar to the Artemis Program, the ILRS calls for the creation of multiple facilities to enable long-term missions to the lunar surface. For Artemis, one of the most vital components is the Lunar Gateway, an orbital habitat that will provide a dock for the Orion spacecraft.
The next is the Human Landing System (HLS), a reusable lunar lander that will carry astronauts to and from the surface. Last, there is the Artemis Base Camp that will support the long-term exploration of the surface.
Timeline of the Artemis Program. Credit: NASA
China and Russia have a similar idea in mind for the ILRS, which is defined thusly in the Guide. [Note: some corrections appear in brackets due to translation issues]:
“[The] ILRS is a complex experimental research [facility] to be constructed with [the] possible [involvement] of partners on the surface and/or in orbit of the Moon. [It is] designed for multi-discipline and multi-purpose scientific research activities, including exploration and use of the Moon, moon-based observation, fundamental research experiments[,] and technology verification, with the capability of long-term unmanned operations with the prospect of subsequent human presence.”
According to the design, five facilities will make up the ILRS, starting with the Cislunar Transportation Facility (CLF) — an orbital station that mirrors the purpose of the Gateway.
The second is the Support Facility on a lunar surface (similar to the Artemis Base Camp) that will include a command center, a global Telemetry, Tracking, and Command (TT&C) network, an energy supply system, a thermal management system, and various support modules.
The third is the Lunar Transportation and Operation Facility (LTOF), where lunar vehicles will be stowed and maintained when not in use. This will include transporting cargo to other facilities, conducting exploration missions on the surface, or missions to explore the interior of stable lava tubes.
The fourth is the Lunar Scientific Facility, which will support lunar science operations on the surface, in-orbit, or in deep space.
The fifth and final facility mentioned is the Ground Support and Application Facility (GSAF), which is intended to offer operational support to communications and missions. It will also serve as a data center for lunar and deep-space missions, which China and Russia previously agreed to establish as part of their joint lunar efforts.
TIMELINE & OBJECTIVES — Overall, the Guide lays out the eight objectives for the ILRA, which are similar to what NASA hopes to accomplish with the Artemis Program. They include the characterization of lunar topography, geomorphology, and the geological structure of the surface.
In addition, the joint Chinese-Russian program will seek to characterize the physics and chemistry of lunar materials and the body’s internal structure to get a better understanding of its geological record.
Beyond that, the IRLS will serve as a base for conducting lunar astronomy and Earth observation, in-situ resource utilization (ISRU), and vital biological and medical researcher.
These objectives and the development of the ILRS itself are to be met during a three-phase process that will unfold between today and 2035. These include the Reconnaissance, Construction, and Utilization phase, and each incorporates future missions into their planning.
PHASE I — RECONNAISSANCE (2021 TO 2025)
This is currently underway and is expected to last until mid-decade. The objectives in this phase include exploring the South Pole-Aitken Basin for potential sites for the ILRS, as well as refining the design of the base itself.
Another important objective is the verification of technologies that will allow for precise soft landings in the southern polar region. Past and future missions that will (have) contributed are also indicated.
On the Chinese side, these include the Chang’e-4, Chang’e-6, and Chang’e-7 missions. The Chang’e-4 mission, which arrived on the Moon in 2018 and is still operational, consists of the Chang’e Lander, the Yutu 2 (Jade Rabbit 2) rover, and the Queqiao relay satellite. The missions will be launched sometime in 2023/2024 and will return samples from the Moon’s southern polar region and scout out locations for a base.
On the Russian side, missions related to the ILRS include the Luna-25, Luna-26, and Luna-27, consisting of two landers and one orbiter (Luna 26). These missions will launch beginning in October 2021 (Luna-25), followed by the second and third in 2024 and August 2025 (respectively). If all goes well, China and Russian will be able to begin the next phase of operations by the middle of this decade.
PHASE II — CONSTRUCTION (2025 TO 2030)
At this point, one of the main goals will be the verification of technologies related to the command center of the ILRS. Similarly, the samples obtained by the Chang’e-6 and Chang’e-7 missions will be returned to Earth for analysis, which will give mission planners a better idea of where the safest and richest resource environment can be found. This will be followed by the delivery of massive amounts of cargo to build the base and the commencement of joint operations.
Missions of note in this phase include China’s Chang’e-8 mission that will launch by 2027. This mission will test technologies like 3D regolith printing and others necessary for the construction of the ILRS. Russia will also be sending its Luna-28 mission that year, a sample return mission that (like Chang’e 6 and 7) will obtain regolith from the southern polar region to determine its composition and the presence of resources.
PHASE III — UTILIZATION (2030 TO 2035)
This final phase will involve the completion of all in-orbit and surface facilities that provide energy, communication, research, exploration, and transport services. It will also involve the verification of all ISRU-related and other potential technologies. Once the ILRS is complete, China and Russia hope to maintain and expand it as needed. This phase will involve five jointly-developed IRLS missions to establish the base architecture:
IRLS-1: establishment of the command center, basic energy, and telecommunications facilities
IRLS-2: establishment of lunar research exploration facilities(sample collection, lunar physics, geology, lava tubes)
IRLS-3: establishment of lunar ISRU technology verification facilities
IRLS-4: verification of general technologies like biomedical experiments, sample collection, and return
IRLS-5:establishment of lunar-based astronomy and Earth observation facilities
Illustration of NASA astronauts on the lunar South Pole. Credit: NASA
PARTNERSHIPS — The Guide also establishes that partner organizations will have the opportunity to conduct their own missions as part of each phase.
Those missions are to conform to the objectives of each phase in question, with possible roles ranging from assisting with exploration to the construction of necessary infrastructure in orbit and on the surface, and the creation of base facilities. As it is summarized in the Guide:
“All Partners are encouraged to join ILRS project based on their own situation. Any Partner willing to contribute to the ILRS, through a jointly coordinated negotiation with China and Russia, can participate including co-lead status in any part of the project. The objective, plan, interface, standards, interoperability and scientific application of the participating project(s) or missions shall be aligned with generation architecture and functions of ILRS.”
The Guidelines and Opportunities for these partnerships are laid out in the last two sections of the Guide. The duties of prospective partners are spelled out using a five-tiered alphabetic classification system.
1. For Category A: Space Mission Cooperation, partners are asked to contribute to the “development of the general architecture, scientific objectives, road-map of ILRS, and participate with scientific or engineering missions of ILRS.”
2. Those partners classified as Category B: Space System Cooperation, must cooperate with China and/or Russia on one or more space systems based on the general architecture and functions of the ILRS.
Examples include the ILRS’s power system, a launcher system for another party’s spacecraft, or an independent lunar probe to piggyback on a CNSA or Roscosmos mission. Alternately, they can choose to participate in one or more of the missions led by the CNSA or Roscosmos.
Artist’s impression of surface operations on the Moon. Credit: NASA
3. For Category C: Subsystem Cooperation, partners will be required to develop one or more space subsystems depending on the specific mission or ILRS system.
4. Much the same is true for Category D: Equipment Cooperation, where partners will provide one or more sets of equipment based on the defined mission or ILRS subsystem.
5. Last, Category E: Ground and Application Cooperation applies to partners cooperating on the building of the CLF, LTOF, and/or GSAF.
Overseeing these partnerships is the Joint Working Group established by the CNSA and Roscosmos, which has designated subgroups for handling legal affairs, scientific objectives, and engineering objectives. Specific opportunities for collaborating on various missions are also laid out, as is a list of contacts for interested parties.
One thing that is abundantly clear from this Guide is the similarities it has to the Artemis Program and the Artemis Accords. These are evident in terms of the mission architecture, but also in terms of the stated purpose of the joint venture and the desire to forge partnerships.
As noted, the language used in the preface is indicative of the Outer Space Treaty, especially where it states that the overall aim is “the peaceful exploration and use of the Moon in the interests of all humankind.”
As a comparison, consider Section 1 of the Artemis Accords (Purpose & Scope):
“Adherence to a practical set of principles, guidelines, and best practices in carrying out activities in outer space is intended to increase the safety of operations, reduce uncertainty, and promote the sustainable and beneficial use of space for all humankind.”
Illustration of Artemis astronauts on the Moon.
Credits: NASA
In both cases, the language is an attempt to call forth the spirit of the Outer Space Treaty. However, as many critics have stated, the Artemis Accords suffer from the fact that they are tied to a specific space agency and program. This was certainly the basis of Rogozin and Russia’s resistance when the Accords were first announced, hence why Russia and China have come together to do the same.
In short, they have decided to establish a set of bilateral agreements that would allow others to participate in their program of lunar exploration. While it’s not clear what the long-term implications of this will be, it could possibly lead to tensions and territorial disputes down the road. After all, one of the hallmarks of the current era of space exploration is its plurality, where multiple space agencies (and commercial space) are involved instead of two competing superpowers.
But when three of the five major space powers create two competing frameworks and ask others to join them, one can be forgiven for concluding that there’s a new Space Race in town!
It also makes the need for a truly international legal framework — as advocated by the Space Generation Advisory Council (SGAC) — all the more pressing. If we truly want our future in space to be “for the good of all humankind,” steps need to be taken to prevent it from becoming the Wild West 2.0.
Evidence on UFOs 'largely inconclusive': US intelligence report
Evidence on UFOs 'largely inconclusive': US intelligence report
An image from of US military pilot's sighting of an "unidentified aerial phenomena"
A highly awaited US intelligence report on dozens of mysterious unidentified flying object sightings said most could not be explained, but did not rule out that some could be alien spacecraft.
The unclassified report said researchers could explain only one of 144 UFO sightings by US government personnel and sources between 2004 and 2021, sightings that often were made during military training activities.
Eighteen of those, some observed from multiple angles, appeared to display unusual movements or flight characteristics that surprised those who saw them, like holding stationary in high winds at high altitude, and moving with extreme speed with no discernable means of propulsion, the report said.
Some of the 144 might be explained by natural or human made objects like birds or drones cluttering a pilot's radar, or natural atmospheric phenomena, the report said.
Others could be secret US defense tests, or unknown advanced technologies created by Russia or China, it said.
Yet others appeared to require more advanced technologies to determine what they are, it said.
The sightings of what the report calls unidentified aerial phenomena (UAP) "probably lack a single explanation," said the report from the Office of the Director of National Intelligence.
"We currently lack sufficient information in our dataset to attribute incidents to specific explanations."
The report made no mention of the possibility of—or rule out—that some of the objects sighted could represent extra-terrestrial life.
The military and intelligence community have conducted research on them as a potential threat.
"UAP clearly pose a safety of flight issue and may pose a challenge to US national security," the report said.
Some could be US rivals' intelligence collection operations or represent other technology so advanced that the United States military has nothing similar.
The report was ordered after more UFO sightings by military pilots became public and pilot and radar videos leaked out showing flying objects behaving strangely with no explanation.
It stressed that pilots and their aircraft are ill-equipped to identify out-of-the-ordinary objects floating around the skies.
The only one of the 144 incidents in the years covered by the report that was explained turned out to be a large deflating balloon.
The nine-page report released Friday did not discuss any specific incidents.
It was the public version of a more detailed classified version being supplied to the armed services and intelligence committees of Congress.
Mark Warner, chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, said the frequency of UFO reports "appears to be increasing" since 2018.
"Today's rather inconclusive report only marks the beginning of efforts to understand and illuminate what is causing these risks to aviation in many areas around the country and the world.," Warner said in a statement.
"The United States must be able to understand and mitigate threats to our pilots, whether they're from drones or weather balloons or adversary intelligence capabilities," Warner said.
At the Pentagon, Deputy Secretary of Defense Kathleen Hicks issued a memorandum ordering more systematic reporting of UAPs encountered during military training and testing.
"Incursions into our training ranges and designated airspace pose safety of flight and operations security concerns, and may pose national security challenges," said Pentagon spokesman John Kirby.
The department "takes reports of incursions—by any aerial object, identified or unidentified—very seriously, and investigates each one," Kirby said.
Ovni : des scientifiques français dressent l'état des lieux
Ovni : des scientifiques français dressent l'état des lieux
INFOGRAPHIE - En publiant une étude après huit ans de recherche, les experts français de la commission Sigma2 apportent un regard scientifique sur des cas inexpliqués observés dans le monde entier.
Le Pentagone a confirmé que des militaires de l'US Navy avaient pris des photos d'un phénomène aérien non identifié en 2019.
US Navy
Issue de l'Association Aéronautique et Astronautique française, une des rares sociétés savantes nationale, la commission Sigma2 vient de publier un rapport sur les Ovnis (ou PAN pour Phénomènes aérospatiaux non identifiés). Depuis 2013, elle se penche sur les cas aériens inexpliqués en sollicitant l'analyse d'experts, ingénieurs, spécialistes de la défense aérienne, anciens du CNES, de la DGA, de l'Onera, de l'ESA parmi lesquels l'astronaute Jean-François Clervoy.
L'étude est publiée quelques jours avant celle très attendue du renseignement américain qui doit être remise au Congrès le 29 juin 2021. Aux États-Unis, on assiste en effet depuis quelques années à une inflexion majeure de la communication sur ces phénomènes. Plusieurs vidéos de PAN filmés par les pilotes de l'US Navy ont été authentifiées et partagées par les autorités militaires. C'est ce qui a conduit le New Yorker en avril dernier à titrer : « Le Pentagone prend les Ovni au sérieux ».
Sigma2 dresse un état des lieux. En étant allé fouiller pendant huit ans dans les bases de données françaises et étrangères, qui répertorient des cas sur des décennies, ses recherches confirment que les observations des phénomènes aérospatiaux non identifiés sont certes exceptionnelles mais largement répandues. Les autorités russes, britanniques et même chinoises constatent la même chose, leurs présences récurrentes dans leur espace aérien. Les rapports du ministère de la Défense britannique confirment l'existence des PAN ainsi que leurs mouvements étonnants : vol stationnaire, accélérations instantanées, absence apparente d'inertie. C'est aussi ce genre de mouvements que l'on peut voir sur les vidéos dévoilées par le Pentagone. L'étude des travaux russes révèle les très nombreuses observations de la marine soviétique entre 1977 et 1980 d'objets volants ou aquatiques. Ils mentionnent aussi des cas de recueil de matériaux aux propriétés particulières. Sigma2 confirme que la Chine s'intéresse au sujet à travers les rapports de la CIA ou à la tenue de symposiums. Ayant fait un constat similaire d'incursions régulières, les Chinois ont eux aussi, mis en place leur propre groupe d'experts.
Après avoir passé en revue ce vaste ensemble de témoignages, la commission précise qu'aucune preuve n'a jamais été donnée d'une technologie d'origine extraterrestre, c'est-à-dire apte à confirmer l'Hypothèse extraterrestre (HET). Mais elle reconnaît que la sécurité de l'espace aérien est bien mise en doute par ces incursions non expliquées.
À VOIR AUSSI
Le Pentagone déclassifie des vidéos semblant montrer des ovnis (28/04/2020)
Pour tenter de caractériser les PAN, elle recense les phénomènes naturels qui pourraient être à leur origine, comme la foudre en boule, les plasmas, les météores, les rentrées atmosphériques d'objets artificiels… Elle effectue un inventaire des théories physiques standards, des possibilités de propulsions exotiques. Mais elle constate que les phénomènes observés ne respectent pas les lois connues de la physique. Qu'aucune théorie ne peut éclairer les déplacements constatés. Comment expliquer les fortes vitesses, les accélérations brutales propulsant instantanément un objet à Mach 10, les changements de trajectoire à angle droit, les rebroussements, les plongées dans l'eau…
C'est en améliorant le recueil de données, en partageant davantage l'information, comme semblent l'avoir décidé les responsables américains, que des avancées pourront être envisagées. Car la qualité des observations est un préalable nécessaire à la résolution des défis lancés par les PAN. C'est parce qu'ils disposaient de relevés radar et infrarouge suffisants que le groupe d'experts de Sigma2 a pu en 2017 lever le mystère « cougar ». Leurs analyses ont pu montrer que l'observation d'un PAN par l'équipage d'un hélicoptère chilien n'était autre qu'un Airbus A340 de la compagnie espagnole Iberia.
Mysterious skull fossils expand human family tree — but questions remain
Mysterious skull fossils expand human family tree — but questions remain
Fossilized bones found in Israel and China, including a specimen named ‘Dragon Man’, could belong to new types of ancient human. But the findings have sparked debate.
Excavation site near Nesher Ramla in central Israel.Credit: Yossi Zaidner
Fossils found in China and Israel dating from around 140,000 years ago are adding to the ranks of hominins that mixed and mingled with early modern humans.
The fossils from Israel hint that a previously unknown group of hominins, proposed to be the direct ancestors of Neanderthals, might have dominated life in the Levant and lived alongside Homo sapiens1,2. Meanwhile, researchers studying an extremely well-preserved ancient human skull found in China in the 1930s have controversially classified it as a new species — dubbed Dragon Man — which might be an even closer relative to modern humans than are Neanderthals3,4.
But both findings have sparked debate among scientists. The studies are based on analyses of the size, shape and structure of fossilized bones — methods that are subject to individual judgement and interpretation. As is often the case for fossil finds, there is no DNA evidence.
Separating early hominin specimens into unique species, working out if and how they interacted with others, and tracing their evolution are all difficult and contentious: “It’s very messy,” says Jeffrey Schwartz, an anthropologist and evolutionary biologist at the University of Pittsburgh in Pennsylvania.
Ancestor to Neanderthals
Since 2000, the view of human evolution during the past half a million years has become ever-more complicated as researchers have added to the list of species in the genus Homo that lived in the Middle and Late Pleistocene. The family tree now includes the Indonesian H. floresiensis, discovered in 2003; Siberian Denisovans, identified in 2010; South African H. naledi, described in 2015; and Filipino H. luzonensis, detailed in 2019.
These species overlapped in time with modern humans (H. sapiens), which are thought to have emerged from Africa and spread into Israel and other regions some 200,000 years ago, and Neanderthals (H. neanderthalis), which had a stronghold in Europe 300,000 years ago and were outcompeted by, or subsumed into, modern humans by around 40,000 years ago.
However, some hominin fossils from this time period still don’t fit neatly into any existing categories. Now, researchers studying some of these odd-ball fossils, found in Israel, think they might have identified a new group of hominins. Physical anthropologist Israel Hershkovitz at Tel Aviv University and his colleagues focused on skull fragments found at the site of Nesher Ramla in central Israel — parts of parietal bones and a jaw, probably belonging to the same individual — that date to between 140,000 and 120,000 years ago.
Conventional thinking is that only H. sapiens lived in the Levant at this time, the team says; the earliest conclusive evidence of Neanderthals being there is from 70,000 years ago. “What we expected to find was Homo sapiens,” says co-author Hila May, also at Tel Aviv University. “At first glance, for sure it wasn’t.” The jaw and teeth were Neanderthal-like, but the skull shape was more archaic — an unusual combination.
The oddity seems to match up with a handful of other fossils found around Israel, some dating back 400,000 years, none of which had previously been classified. “We couldn’t assign them to any Homo group,” says May. “It was a mystery.” In a pair of studies1,2 published in Science on 24 June, the group proposes that all of these fossils belong to a newly named hominin population — the Nesher Ramla people — who might have dominated this region for hundreds of thousands of years. The team says the Nesher Ramla people belonged to an unknown umbrella species, rather than constituting a new species themselves.
A mandible and skull found at Nesher Ramla. Researchers suggest these specimens belonged to a previously unknown group of ancient hominins.
Credit: Avi Levin and Ilan Theiler, Sackler Faculty of Medicine, Tel Aviv University
The Nesher Ramla population seems to have mastered the same stone tools as H. sapiens living in the area. Artefacts found near the fossils suggest that these people napped flints, bringing in material from up to 10 kilometres away, and re-sharpened the tools when needed. Their use of similar technology hints that they lived together with modern humans and perhaps interbred.
But not all researchers agree with the team’s findings. To palaeoanthropologist Philip Rightmire at Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts, the skull looks like an “early, rather archaic-appearing, Neanderthal”. Rightmire says he would not be surprised to see Neanderthals in this region at this time.
Hershkovitz and colleagues argue that the Nesher Ramla people could have established early, pre-Neanderthal communities in Europe, injecting archaic genes from Africa or Asia into a species that has conventionally been thought of as evolving in Europe. “Neanderthals are no longer an exclusive European story,” says Hershkovitz.
But Rightmire argues that the flow could have gone in the other direction. “I don’t see any reason why these early Neanderthals, if that’s what they are, couldn’t have come from Europe,” he says.
Dragon Man
In China, an assessment of a Middle Pleistocene hominin skull that was unearthed decades ago could also shed new light on our ancestors.
The Harbin skull is an extremely well-preserved cranium that dates to about 140,000 years ago and is thought to belong to a 50-year-old male. The skull was originally dug up in 1933 before being hidden from the Japanese army in a well, and was donated to Hebei GEO University in Shijiazhuang in 2018. The skull is particularly large and thick, with big, squarish eye sockets, low cheek bones, large teeth and a wide pallet.
In work published in The Innovation on 25 June, palaeontologist Ji Qiang at Hebei GEO University and colleagues propose that the unique features of the Harbin skull are enough to classify it as a new species3,4. They suggest the species name Homo longi (Dragon Man) after the common name of Heilongjiang Province, Long Jiang (Dragon River), where the fossil was found.
A virtual reconstruction of the Harbin skull (still from video).
Credit: Xijun Ni
However, naming a new species on the back of a single skull — particularly one that has been removed from its original context and comes with no artefacts — is controversial. “I think that there were more species running around Asia than people have allowed themselves to think about,” says Schwartz. But there isn’t enough evidence to convince him that this skull represents a new species.
The Harbin fossil is one of several odd Middle Pleistocene Homo skulls found in China over the years. In Rightmire’s view, these skulls probably represent what became of some of the early Neanderthals who marched from Europe through the Middle East, China and Siberia, eventually becoming the Denisovans. “These Asian bits and pieces probably belong to the same group as Denisovans,” he says. “I bet that’s what we’re talking about here.” Hershkovitz argues that some of these Asian skulls might better fit into the Nesher Ramla group.
In the study, Qiang and colleagues say that, given the Harbin skull’s similarity to some early H. sapiens fossils, H. longi might be an even closer relative to modern humans than Neanderthals are. But Schwartz thinks some of these fossils have been inappropriately lumped into the H. sapiens category. “Many of these fossils are very, very different from each other,” he says.
Overall, the current hominin classifications make little sense, argues Schwartz, because they bundle too much diversity together into species such as H. sapiens. “I think we should start from scratch,” he says. “Some people aren’t bold enough to say: ‘let’s look at everything from the beginning.’”
The FAA directs commercial airline pilots to report UFO sightings to a civilian organization.
GETTY
The government’s highly anticipated report on unexplained aerial phenomena (UAPs) finally dropped yesterday, but the truth remains out there. “The limited amount of high-quality reporting on unidentified aerial phenomena (UAP) hampers our ability to draw firm conclusions about the nature or intent of UAP,” concludes the unclassified reportcompiled by the Office of the Directorate of National Intelligence (ODNI).
After examining nearly 150 reports of UAPs, also known as UFOs, intelligence officials say they don't know what the vast majority of the phenomena are — though they have a handful of theories. Among the possibilities offered: airborne debris, natural atmospheric conditions, technology from foreign adversaries or top-secret U.S. government technology. There is also a catch-all miscellaneous category that the report’s authors simply call “other.” The verdict is that there is simply not enough data to identify these objects.
The ODNI report focuses on unidentified objects spotted by U.S. Navy pilots and other military sources from 2004 to 2021, and notes that a UAP task force is currently working with the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA).
“The FAA generally ingests this data when pilots and other airspace users report unusual or unexpected events to the FAA’s Air Traffic Organization,” says the report.
That may be news to the FAA. The agency that operates air traffic control and navigation for both civil and military aircraft insists it does not deal directly with UAP sightings from commercial pilots. “The FAA doesn’t track these reports. The National UFO Reporting Center is your best source,” an FAA spokesperson told Forbes. The FAA website also steers the general public to report UFO sightings to NUFORC.
“It has always struck me is very telling that the Federal Aviation Administration itself actually tells pilots to contact a civilian UFO organization,” says Micah Hanks, whose popular eponymous science podcast often discusses unexplained phenomena like UFOs.
“The FAA and the government took the position that people like me were crazy,” says Peter Davenport, a commercial pilot and a former flight instructor who has run NUFORC since 1994. “But they were nevertheless willing to hand over the and over the information coming to them to me.”
“We serve as a clearinghouse for sightings of suspected UFOs — whether it be a senior pilot for an airline or whether it be grade-school kid — we take their calls over our hotline,” explains Davenport. “And then I encourage them to submit a written report, and the report you see on our website is the result of that process.”
The work keeps Davenport extremely busy. Since 1998, when he set up the NUFORC website, “I have succeeded in collecting — I'm estimating now — about 280,000 written reports,” he says.
Davenport says he regularly receives reports of UAP sightings from FAA headquarters in Virginia, estimating that he received six to eight reports between November 2020 and May 2021.
Some incidents made headlines. For example, in February, the FAA could not explain a UAP sighting by an American Airlines pilot over the New Mexico desert. The agency referred the incident to Davenport, who in turn noted in NUFORC’s database: “On Feb 21, 2021 at 1918 zulu American 2292 was at the TBE180030 (lat 36.8/ long -103.56) at FL360 westbound. The pilot observed a long cylindrical, cruise missile looking thing, fly right over the top of them eastbound. The report was reported to air traffic control who showed no traffic above the aircraft.”
For Davenport, reports from pilots hold special value. “They give excellent reports,” he says. “That's why they're of very great interest to me.”
For UFO-curious civilians interested in delving deeper into sightings by pilots, Hanks also recommends the National Aviation Reporting Center on Anomalous Phenomena (NARCAP), which has documented confidential reports by aviation professionals since 1999. Many pilots wait until they retire to report UAP incidents because of a prevalent stigma of reporting such events, according to the NARCAP website, which states bluntly that the FAA “offers no leadership or guidance to civil or commercial aviation.”
“[NARCAP has] logged probably more pilot and aviation related reports than any other organization and also attempt to very cautiously analyze these kinds of reports,” says Hanks. “Based on the collection of similar incidents by those two civilian agencies, that tells me quite evidently that there are more incidents being reported by pilots who are willing to come forward in various capacities.”
In addition to NUFORC and NARCAP, there’s a third organization where commercial pilots can confidentially report UAP incidents. NASA runs the Aviation Safety Reporting System, which also captures anonymous reports from pilots, dispatchers, air traffic control, cabin crew and other aviation professionals, then analyzes the data and disseminates the information to the aviation community.
A search of its database, filtered for airline pilots reporting unusual sightings, returned over 2,400 results, comprising everything from flocks of birds, clusters of helium balloons, hang gliders, freefalling skydivers and, yes, a number of UAPs.
In one event tagged as “inflight event/encounter other/unknown,” a pilot reported cruising at 36,000 feet in an Airbus A320 when a bright light caught his eye. “It went from dim to extremely bright in just a few seconds. It was above the horizon about 20 degrees inclination and around my 12:30 o’clock position. It was not close to us, but seemed out there a bit. I have never seen such intense, bright, white and silver light in my life. It actually had a very defined 360 degree halo around it at one point. Then it made a 45 degree sharp change in direction and faded away as it went out of view in about 3 seconds time. During the next 50 minutes, we experienced almost the exact same scenario 4 more times,” wrote the pilot. “Object started out as a very weak-looking star, but would move slowly left to right and grow much brighter than any star I have ever seen.”
Hanks suspects he knows why FAA takes a hands-off approach to investigating UFOs. “It is seen as beneficial to have the NASA-maintained ASRS data database outside of the FAA — but run for the FAA — so that pilots would be more likely to come forward,” he says.
And to that end, it appears to be working. “As you dig into the database, you will find from time to time reports of very unusual things,” says Hanks.
NASA Administrator: 'Are we alone? Personally, I don't think we are'
NASA Administrator: 'Are we alone? Personally, I don't think we are'
NASA Administrator Bill Nelson tells CNN's Pamela Brown that he has read the classified version of the US intelligence report on the series of UFO sightings by Navy pilots and others, and that he feels that we may not be alone in this galaxy.
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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.
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