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...
03-07-2021
LATEST UFO SIGHTINGS AND VIDEOS - 03 - 07 - 2021
LATEST UFO SIGHTINGS AND VIDEOS - 03 - 07 - 2021
UFO Sighted Over Volcán Irazú, Costa Rica ( July 2, 2021 )
STATEMENT : Wie opinan de esto esto es en el Volcán Irazú, Costa Rica
TRANSLATE : What do you think about this? This is in the Volcán Irazú
Costa Rica credit : Hector Rivera
UFOs Sighted Over China ( June 29, 2021 )
UFOs were sighted over China on June 29, 2021 : video was taken by Cheng.33313333 and posted on Tik Tok
RELATED VIDEO
UAPs / UFOs Sighted Over Kansas ( June 29, 2021 )
Amazing UFO / Unidentified Aerial Phenomena sighting over Kansas
Statement :These UAPs or UFOs were spotted in Kansas in 29/06/2021. I would like you to try explaining these objects!
original and following with approximation and speed reduction.
They are everywhere
credit : GA. B.A.
UFO Sighted Over Dinkelsbühl, Germany ( July 2, 2021 )
This is the most documented UFO that was recorded at night the location of capturing this UNIDENTIFIED object is Germany.... Dinkelsbuhl town recorded in 2.07 2021. It's the most authentic capture of a triangular object that appeared in the air right above the front of the car road, some people will think why the author of this video didn't stop and video because she was terrified and it was happening quickly, you would they stopped at night as if such an object flew over your head, the author of this not alone film, I want to remain anonymous I think she has reasons and I don't blame her
UFO Sighted Over California Beach ( July 1, 2021 )
UFO sighted over California beach on July 1, 2021
STATEMENT : Ovni o Avión??? UFO or Plane???
credit : Dracko Mcfly
UFO Sighted Over Courrières, France ( July 2, 2021 )
Massive UFO was sighted over Courrières, Hauts-de-France region of France on July 2, 2021. Video was taken by Reynald Wisniewski
NOTE PETER2011 : in my personal opinion that is clearly a ZEPPELIN, a blimp thus...
MUFON CASE : 116646 Upland, California ( July 2, 2021 )
Mutual UFO Network : MUFON SUBMISSIONS : Small blackened object descending over san bernadino mountains
Long Description of Sighting Report
When driving east bound on 210 freeway in upland. I Notice object falling leaving dark grey cloud like trail. Cloud remained and seemed to have internal structure partially visable.
Date Submitted : 2021-07-02
Date of Event : 2020-12-05 / 4:45PM
MUFON SUBMITTER FILE :
20201206162541.mp4 ( FILE 2 )
MUFON CASE : 116640 Mount Crested Butte, Colorado ( July 2, 2021 )
This was taken from my patio a couple days after the one I submitted to MUFON. This was filmed on my porch thru binoculars using a device that makes it possible. Sadly, I haven’t been able to video thru it when it’s dark though. This object is like many of the others. If you zoom in you can see that appears to be revolving. Also, it is clear from this video that the object flies into the cloud rather than the cloud obstructing the view of a celestial object.
Date Submitted :2021-07-02
Date of Event : 2021-04-19 / 4:18P
MUFON SUBMITTER FILE : MVI9247.MP4
MUFON CASE : 116639 Glendale, Arizona ( July 2, 2021 )
inc : 116464 Lumby, Canada : Mutual UFO Network : MUFON SUBMISSIONS : Red and Blue Flying saucer that appears to change shapes, but could be blurring?
Long Description of Sighting Report
Saw black speck hovering up high in the sky and zoomed in on it and recorded a red and blue colored saucer type event. Tried to put camera on tripod and by that time, the object was gone.
Date Submitted : 2021-07-02 Date of Event :2021-07-02 / 10:56AM MUFON SUBMITTER FILE : MVI9247.MP4
VIDEO 2 : MUFON CASE : 116464 : Lumby, Canada I have seen this a couple of times within the last weeks.
Long Description of Sighting Report
I have been seeing this for the past few weeks. Randomly. It’s after the sun has gone down completely.
Date Submitted : 2021-06-24 Date of Event : 2021-06-23 / 9:38PM MUFON SUBMITTER FILES :
Leaked Info on UAP Task Force Report - The Alien Threat Narrative
Leaked Info on UAP Task Force Report - The Alien Threat Narrative
The UAP Task Force Report was finally released to the public last week, generally being panned by the UFO community. For understandable reasons, considering how vague and tepid it was.
UFO historian Richard Dolan examines the report, especially in light of claims regarding the so-called alien threat narrative.
He examines whether or not this latest report fits with the thesis that much of the recent UFO information is part of a psychological operation (psyop) or even a false flag designed to frighten and manipulate the public.
He also shares information that was leaked to him describing the classified portion of the UAP report. This is unconfirmed and should be taken as such.
UFO caught on thermal camera in Wales as UK gov urged to come clean
UFO caught on thermal camera in Wales as UK gov urged to come clean
AUFO which appeared to travelling around 106mph and is said to have been only visible on a thermal camera was filmed by a police helicopter in the UK. The eerie footage - which is similar to recent UFOs videos captured by the US military - was released by cops after a Freedom of Information (FOI) request appears to show the object moving over the Bristol Channel.
Image credit: The Sun.
Video shows the object moving against the wind as it appears to travel at high speed and is tracked by the police helicopter's FLIR thermal camera near St Athan in Wales at around 9pm on September 17, 2016.
Snippets of the video filmed off a screen were originally shared by the NPAS team at the time.
But now the full video of the strange encounter has been revealed following on FOI request by former cop turned UFO investigator Gary Heseltine.
And after a protracted battle to get his questions answered, he has called on the UK government to finally come clean on what it knows about UFOs.
NPAS South West tweeted at the time the object was not detected by local air traffic control and was described as "hot" as it travelled against the wind - meaning it was unlikely to be a balloon or lantern.
It was flying around 1,000 feet and was only visible when the cops noticed it on the thermal camera which they were said to be testing by pointing it at planes heading into Cardiff Airport.
The encounter lasted around eight minutes and the footage shows the camera changing settings as the cops appear to try to identify the strange phenomena.
Cops also said in a tweet in 2019 - more than three years after they released the short clip - "a drone is possible, but they were unable to keep up with it so it would have to have been very fast.".
Mr Heseltine's attempts to obtain the audio recordings from inside the police chopper along with a map of the object's movements, but this information was not provided in the FOI response.
"This is verified police helicopter FLIR footage showing an object not seen with the naked eye but clearly seen in the infrared spectrum. It is moving against the wind, so it is not a balloon, nor is emitting any heat signature indicating a propulsion system," he told The Sun Online.
A teacher who claimed to see UFOs hovering over a Melbourne school says military officials threatened to have him fired if he ever spoke about the incident. Andrew Greenwood is talking publicly about the famous Westall High sightings 55 years ago for the first time in tonight’s 7NEWS ‘Spotlight’ program.
Experts are still searching for life on other planets and we may possibly even find it on one of them in our own Solar System. NASA just recently announced that there will be two missions sent to Venus to study our “sister planet”. Unfortunately for our planetary neighbor, a new study has pretty much dashed any hopes of finding life on Venus, but there is optimism for Jupiter.
According to the study, Earth’s most drought-tolerant microbes wouldn’t even be able to survive on Venus. The researchers came to this conclusion by studying data collected by probes that flew through Venus’ atmosphere. This data included temperatures, pressure, and humidity in the planet’s atmosphere – specifically in the clouds that contain sulphuric acid.
In a news conference, John Hallsworth, who is a microbiologist at Queen’s University in Belfast, U.K., explained this further, “When we looked at the effective concentration of water molecules in those clouds, we found that it was a hundred times too low for even the most resilient Earth organisms to survive,” adding that it is an “…unbridgeable distance.”
Venus
For example, microorganisms on Earth can survive in water activity with a value as low as 0.585; however, on Venus, the water activity level in the clouds was just 0.004. Chris McKay, who is a NASA Ames astrobiologist, went into further details about their findings, “Our conclusion is based directly on measurements.” “It’s not a model, it’s not an assumption. The missions that NASA just selected to go to Venus will do the same measurements again — temperature, pressure — and they are going to come to very much the same conclusions because Venus is not changing on that type of time scale.”
This is incredibly disappointing news, especially for the experts who were excited to find phosphine on the planet (this is a compound that is made up of atoms from phosphorus and hydrogen that is important in regards to life.)
Now onto Jupiter, the researchers analyzed data collected by the Galileo probe that flew between 26 and 42 miles (between 42 and 68 kilometers) from the surface of the planet and discovered that the water activity in the Gas Giant’s clouds was at 0.585 which means that there is enough water activity to possibly support life. Furthermore, the temperature is about minus 40 degrees Fahrenheit which is also within the range for life to survive.
Jupiter
McKay talked a bit about this discovery, “Jupiter looks much more optimistic.” “There is at least a layer in the clouds of Jupiter where the water requirements are met. It doesn’t mean that there is life, it just means that with respect to water, it would be OK.” There are, however, other problems for life to survive such as a lack of nutrients and high levels of ultraviolet radiation.
The study was published in the journal Nature Astronomy where it can be read in full.
June 25, 2021, might have been the day the United States government released its most significant report on unidentified aerial phenomena, more commonly known as UFOs, that the American public has seen in several decades.
By some measures, the report that arrived on this date was as significant as many had hoped that it would be. Nobody would deny that the document, produced by the U.S. Navy’s Unidentified Aerial Phenomena Task Force (UAPTF), had been both highly anticipated, and conveys that the United States military appears to be taking the subject of UFOs more seriously than it has in decades. The information it contained would have been especially significant for anyone new to the subject, who might have been surprised—if not a little concerned—to learn that our military believes there is reasonable evidence of unidentified technologies operating in our controlled airspace.
By contrast, the contents of the report left much to be desired of long-time advocates of the existence of unidentified flying objects, who probably looked at the report as being, loosely summarized, “the same old, same old.” In other words, little that the report conveyed in its brief, nine pages (just six pages, if we exclude the cover page and appendixes) was anything new to those who are well-read on the topic of UFOs. These folks have likely been hearing about the release of documents through the Freedom of Information Act now for decades, conveying similar instances where unusual aerial objects appear to be capable of entering our controlled airspace at their leisure, and with little regard for the national security concerns of our military.
Because of this, there have no doubt already been plenty of members of our military that have taken the subject seriously in years past, whether they ever voiced their interest or not. However, the appearance of a larger scale, coordinated effort to collect information about possible aerial threats, and analyze them within government, has never been more apparent in recent memory than it is now. This, following both the release of the UAPTF report, as well as a press statement on it from the Pentagon that referenced a memorandum from Deputy Secretary of Defense Kathleen Hicks outlining the objectives of the UAPTF as it moves forward. In addition to this, several Senators, and even NASA weighed in on the timely subject of UAP following the report’s release.
Where does all of this leave us though? Perhaps more importantly, where do we go from here, and what will the American military be doing in the years ahead as it continues to study this phenomenon?
While much of this remains to be seen, there are several things that the United States, as well as any other nation that endeavors to study the phenomenon, should consider in terms of transparency, as well as the possibility of threats that could arise from such studies. Below are just a few considerations related to the study of UAP and its implications in the years ahead.
Make at least some information about UAP available to the scientific community for analysis:
There has long been a significant disconnect between government and science on this subject. Since the UAP issue currently appears to remain within the purview of national security, a degree of government secrecy is warranted (especially as it relates to potentially classified technologies used to obtain information on the phenomena). However, if any of these objects should prove to represent novel or breakthrough technologies (especially in the unlikely event that they have exotic origins), it will be incumbent upon our government to coordinate with the scientific community on this issue and assess whether it has implications that are broader than the isolated space of national security, with potential ramifications for both the American public and maybe the entire world.
Along with its internal system of formal reporting, the U.S. Government should provide ongoing updates to the public:
The public version of this report, while limited, is a necessary step in the right direction toward government transparency on a timely issue. When it is possible to do so while maintaining national security protocols, future information about this area of study should be periodically conveyed to the public.
Our government should commit to the ethical use and management of technologies potentially derived from UAP:
Whatever the source of UAP may ultimately prove to be, the potential exists they may serve as the impetus for new innovations and disruptive technologies. This may hold true whether the technology is captured by our military, studied, and replicated, or even as a result of the mere observation of the devices and their operation. Such technologies may prove beneficial, although the possibility also exists that they could even hold the potential for escalating an arms race at some point in the future.
The problem outlined above is only one among several possibilities that military studies involving UAP might lead to, whether or not it was ever intended. If a significant technological breakthrough were ever to arise from the study of UAP, it indeed might prove to be beneficial to humankind. However, all-too-often in the past when new technological innovations have been acquired by militaries, their use in weapons systems development and other potentially destructive capacities has remained a consistent problem.
Transparency will be the key. In addition to being able to be studied by the scientific establishment, government studies of UAP could benefit greatly from the oversight and moral guidance that civilian organizations might be able to provide, ranging from think tanks, to media agencies and a host of other sources of valuable feedback. For that to happen, it also requires the government to be transparent with at least some of its UAP data.
The release of the UAPTF report in late June is already a step in the right direction in that regard, but will this trend continue? Or as information on military UAP studies begins to trickle out, will we merely see a bottleneck effect, where the pace of “disclosure” (if we dare even call it that) begins to steadily slow, and finally stop?
All of this remains to be seen, but for now, if nothing else, the U.S. government’s current UAP studies have injected a much-needed renascence of interest into the debate about unidentified aerial phenomena observed by pilots and others for decades. This, as well as a new awareness of the scientific possibilities—both potentially good, and bad—that the study of them might afford us in the years ahead.
The Pentagon’s long-awaited UFO report (and by ‘report’ we mean the public summary, not the full classified report) and the general consensus is that it’s weak on details and totally lacking on any information that kept the investigators from completely ruling out extraterrestrial origins. It’s as if this duck soup of a report is saying to those who have seen UFOs or claim to have been abducted by aliens and believe they’re not of this Earth, “Who are you going to believe … us or your lying eyes?” (Thank you, Marx Brothers.) Fortunately, we have a couple of psychics who claim they’ve used their abilities to confirm aliens are already here and predict that real ‘full and transparent disclosure’ is coming soon. Let’s start with the psychic who has seen evidence of alien presence on Earth for at least 50 years.
“I touched it and told Wernher, ‘this is not from our planet’. He said, ‘You’re right – this is a piece of a UFO that crashed on Earth’. I cannot reveal any more about what I saw in that refrigerator. I have signed non-disclosure documents. But I can tell you that we are in contact.’’
Did he see aliens?
That’s everyone’s favorite psychic spoonbender Uri Geller – fresh off of using his ‘powers’ to help England beat Germany in Euro 2020 (so he claims) – telling the Daily Star about a time in 1974 when he allegedly was invited to a NASA “base” in Maryland, possibly while his abilities were being tested by the U.S. government as part of the Stargate Project, to view what he was told was part of a crashed alien spacecraft … and more.
“I cannot reveal any more about what I saw in that refrigerator. I have signed non-disclosure documents. But I can tell you that we are in contact.’’
Geller is likely implying he saw a body or bodies of beings from the craft, a sight he claims shocked him. Geller says he doesn’t believe the Pentagon report is truthful because: “They DO know more!? Do they? Does he? Really? Or should he stick to football and spoon bending?
Moving on …
“I see more information being shared with the public about the known presence of alien life visiting our planet. I also see that more people will come forward to speak about strange lights in their homes and gardens and the public collectively will speak about this. It’s only through public demand that more information will be given. We are being visited now more than ever by life forms from other planets.”
Deborah Davies is the next generation of psychics – a reality star on “Real Housewives of Cheshire” who claims she’s the descendent of psychics, has had abilities since childhood and has been a working medium doing readings, paranormal consulting and predictions since 2009. No spoon-bending here – just claims she’s accurately predicted plane crashes, the coronavirus outbreak, Prince Philip’s death, advancements in the treatment of Parkinson’s disease and more. This appears to be her first prediction on UFOs and extraterrestrials, but she makes two important comments – there is information about the “known presence of alien life forms visiting our planet” and we are being visited now by “life forms from other planets.” Unfortunately, she seems to have nothing more to share on them and The Daily Mail did no follow-up.
Ask more questions!
Two well-known psychics say alien life is here – one claims to have firsthand, eyewitness knowledge. Are they any less believable than a 9-page summary that blames its lack of depth on the witnesses not providing enough information?
Who are you going to believe … the government or a spoon-bender, a real housewife and the tabloids? Tougher question than you thought, isn’t it?
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Linda Moulton Howe: Secrets of Antarctica and the Extraterrestrial Presence
Linda Moulton Howe: Secrets of Antarctica and the Extraterrestrial Presence
Linda Moulton Howe: Secrets of Antarctica and The Extraterrestrial Presence
Linda Moulton Howe in Manchester, UK: Awakening Expo Anniversary Release Special! Researcher, Author and Investigative Journalist Linda Moulton Howe reveals a startling incident involving military personnel and an extraterrestrial underground facility based in Antarctica.
Emmy and Peabody honored investigative journalist Linda Moulton Howe, Reporter and Editor of the award-winning Earthfiles news website and weekly YouTube Channel broadcasts, reports firsthand accounts by military and controlled remote viewers who already have information about and experiences with other intelligences of unknown origin or intent.
MUFON CASE : 116633 Seattle, Washington ( July 2, 2021 )
Mutual UFO Network : MUFON SUBMISSIONS : Noticed ball of light that turned into a barrell Long Description of Sighting Report
Ball of light that eventually turned into a black barrel coming from the he Olympic park direction towards west Seattle
Date Submitted : 2021-07-02 Date of Event : 2021-07-01 / 9:55PM MUFON SUBMITTER FILES :
20210701215758.mp4
20210701215719.mp4
20210701215504.mp4
MUFON CASE : 116625 Portland, Oregon ( July 1, 2021 )
Mutual UFO Network : MUFON SUBMISSIONS : 3 hovering twinkling lights in diagonal formation, then each take off in different directions
Long Description of Sighting Report
Did anyone else see interesting lights last night? We saw these beauties looking south from Mt. Tabor. Started off as 3 giant bright lights in a diagonal line. They hovered there for about 10 minutes. One by one, they peeled off in different directions, about 5 minutes apart.
Date Submitted : 2021-07-01 Date of Event :2021-06-23 / 11:03PM MUFON SUBMITTER FILE :
trim.0CD65C64DA3343C4810337DC741A01AE.MOV
MUFON CASE : 116623 Cleveland, Ohio ( July 1, 2021 )
Mutual UFO Network : MUFON SUBMISSIONS : Saw over 10 UFO/Star Like move thru the sky, from southwest to Southeast.
Long Description of Sighting Report
Observed over ten UFO/Starlike objects move across the night sky, from Southwest to Southeast. The day had been stormy and cloudy. The event was filmed with a regular Cellphone. Objects made no sound and at the end of The sighting, A Helicopter entered the area.
Date Submitted : 2021-07-01 Date of Event :2021-06-30
MUFON SUBMITTER FILE :
20210630213343.mp4
MUFON CASE : 116619 Sofia, Bulgaria ( July 1, 2021 )
Mutual UFO Network : MUFON SUBMISSIONS : Hello this video is filmed at 18th of June Long Description of Sighting Report
This video is filmed by 2 of my colleagues 10 min after I left the office. We all thing that this may be some sort of drones but not sure about it this is why I send it to mufon so more people can give their opinion.
My colleagues speak in Bulgarian and many times during the clip they say that the objects can't be seen anymore with a naked eye just from the phones zoom. We have 2 videos from 2 phones that ware filming it. My colegue say that this objects are hovering where usually plains fly and approach for landing on the nearby airport and that there was no plains ~2 or more hours
Date Submitted : 2021-07-01 Date of Event :2021-06-18 / 5:11PM MUFON SUBMITTER FILE :
UFO Sighted Over Chapada dos Veadeiros National Park, Brazil ( May 29, 2021 )
UFO captured at Chapada dos Veadeiros National Park, Goiás, Brazil : recorded in May 29, 2021
STATEMENT : object apparently shaped like a glowing disk and it moves quite quickly and looks like it had some sort of trouble in flight and looks like it would crash behind these mountains
PROOF ALIENS EXIST? | First, it was UFOs, but could extraterrestrial life be next?
PROOF ALIENS EXIST? | First, it was UFOs, but could extraterrestrial life be next?
The US Government and Pentagon made global news when they confirmed the existence of UFOs after leaked footage surfaced online. But what about aliens? The search for extraterrestrial life has never been more important, or more valued than right now.
A US Navy pilot whose plane filmed the famous "tic-tac" UFO footage has revealed how his weapons system was disabled during the eerie encounter.
Seventeen years on, Lieutenant Commander Chad Underwood said when he tried to track the "target of interest", he began seeing "strobe lines" on his cockpit radar.
Screenshot from the eerie and unexplained 'Tic Tac' video filmed by the US Navy and released by the Pentagon
Commander Chad Underwood encountered a bizarre object moving 'erratically' at incredible speeds
It followed the Pentagon confirming Mr Underwood’s in-flight "tic-tac" video from 2004, recorded by his F/A-18 Super Hornet, was authentic.
The incident unfolded during a USS Nimitz carrier group exercises off the coast of Mexico.
Crew aboard the Ticonderoga-class guided missile cruiser USS Princeton, had been spending the past two weeks tracking mysterious aircraft on and off with an advanced AN/SPY-1B passive radar.
Now, speaking to filmmaker Jeremy Corbell, Mr Underwood has revealed how his weapons system was suddenly crippled after he attempted to track the "tic-tac" object which was moving at incredible speeds.
He said: "Once I got the target of interest on my radar I took a lock and that’s when all the kinda funky things started happening.
Once I got the target of interest on my radar I took a lock and that’s when all the kinda funky things started happening
Commander Chad Underwood, US Navy
"The erratic nature of the tic-tac. The air speed was very telling to me.
"Then we started seeing what we call jam strobe lines.
"Strobe lines are vertical lines that show up on your radar that are indications that you are being jammed."
Mr Corbell's extraordinary interview with Mr Underwood detailing the "act of war" UFO encounter will appear in full at a later date.
French warplane pilots have also reported heir weapons systems being disabled during UFO encounters, according to an official investigation.
After releasing the bombshell report last week, it appears the US Department of Defense (DoD) is preparing to set up a new unit dedicated to the strange phenomena, similar to secretive agencies in hit TV show The X-Files and movie series Men in Black.
DoD officials released a memo on Friday which stated they will now seek to "formalise" the investigations of UFOS, often now referred to as Unidentified Aerial Phenomena (UAPs).
UAPs are currently the main brief of the UAP Task Force, a body set up after a series of stunning leaked videos show strange encounters between the phenomena and US warplanes.
And a memo released by the DoD set out a three point plan to pull together US investigations to try and work out exactly what these mysterious objects that defy normal understanding could be.
The first point states the DoD wants to "synchronize collection, reporting and analysis" of UAPs, and to "secure" military test and training ranges.
And then next it states it wants to set aside resources and staffing to continue the probe, seemingly confirming the establishment of a formal office.
Finally, it states there must be "coordination" between all arms of the US military and the intelligence services on the issue.
Pentagon press secretary John Kirby confirmed the US military would be taking a deeper look at UFOs after a report was released detailing hundreds of encounters
Some of the numerous sightings by the US military
What is going on with UFOs in the US?
UFOS have stepped from fringe conspiracy theories to a genuine national security debate in the US.
Pentagon officials last year took the unprecedented step to confirm a trio of remarkable videos which showed US encounters with UFOs.
The debate is still open as to what the phenomena caught on film were – but it made clear to everyone, something is in the skies.
Perhaps the most striking was a video known as the "Tic-Tac" – which showed an unidentified object being pursued by fighter planes.
The US also confirmed the existence of the Advanced Aerospace Threat Identification Program (AATIP) – a Pentagon programme set up to study UFOs before being disbanded in 2017.
However, it was replaced by the UAP Task Force in June 2020 after a vote by the US Senate Intelligence Committee.
Defence chiefs have since confirmed a number of leaked UFO videos and photos which were submitted to the Task Force for investigation.
Why this sudden rush for transparency?
No outside the secretive wings of the US government currently knows for sure.
And as a tacked on addendum to a 5,500 page Covid relief bill passed in December, the the Director of National Intelligence’s office was ordered to compile a report on UFOs within 180 days.
The UAP report dropped as expected on June 25, and while not giving much away - it did not rule anything out either as much of it remains classified.
The US appear to have acknowledged that UFOs - whatever they are - are real and are a potential threat to national security as they appear to be able to enter restricted airspace with total impunity.
Is it aliens? Officially the US position is simply, "we don't know yet" as further disclosure is expected in the coming months and years.
DoD staff will also have to report an apparent encounter with a UAP within two weeks to allow it to be more properly investigated, the memo reads.
It was signed off by deputy secretary of defense Kathleen Hicks.
The move is a major win for campaigners who have been calling on the US to take the issue of UFOs more seriously, and is being sent as another step on the road to potential disclosure.
Most of the sightings bear similarities. Some are tic-tac shaped while others are triangular or circular.
Footage taken by FA-18 pilots on March 4, 2019
An FA-18 pilot and a Weapons Systems Officer spotted mysterious objects in the sky
Filmmaker Jeremy Corbell received information about a third sighting which happened on March 4, 2019
Footage captured by a US Navy destroyer shows several mysterious flashing objects
Accounts of alien abductions have been around for a while, and they always serve to amaze, stir debate, and raise eyebrows. Some such accounts can definitely be more bizarre than others, and one of the truly outlandish ones comes to us from a supposed alien contactee in the U.S. state of New Mexico, who has a very amazing, and some might say unbelievable, story to tell. The rather bizarre tale here begins in July of 1987, when a woman named Christa Tilton had an inexplicable bout of missing time, with three hours of her life simply gone and with no reasonable explanation. After suffering from nightmares and finding herself constantly pondering why she had lost this time, Tilton underwent hypnosis and this was where she would find her lost memories surging into her consciousness, and would weave an outlandish account of alien abductions, secret underground bases, and strange experiments.
Under hypnosis, Christa would remember being approached by two small humanoid creatures, who grabbed her by the arms and somehow rendered her unconscious. When she awoke, she found herself lying on a table within a small craft, where she was approached by what she calls a “guide.” This guide gave her some sort of liquid to drink, which immediately woke her up and energized her, after which he took her outside onto what appeared to be a small hill. She would say of what happened next:
It was dark, but I saw a faint light near a cavern. We walked up to this area and it is then that I saw a man, dressed in a red military-type jump suit [like a pilot would wear]. My guide seemed to know this man as he greeted him as we came closer. I also noticed he wore some type of patch and was carrying an automatic weapon. When we walked into the tunnel, I realized we were going right into the side of a large hill or mountain. There we were met with another guard in red and I then saw a computerized check-point with two cameras on each side. To my left was a large groove where a small transit vehicle carried you further inside.
To my right it looked like a long hallway where there were many offices. We took the transit car and went for what seemed to be a very long time to another secured area. It was then that I was told to step onto some type of scale-like device that faced a computer screen. I saw lights flashing and numbers computing and then a card was issued with holes punched into it. I would later realize it was used as identification inside a computer. I asked my guide where we were going and why. He didn’t say too much the whole time except that he was to show me some things that I need to know for future reference. He told me that we had just entered Level One of the ‘facility’. I asked what kind of facility it was and he did not answer.
The guide then wordlessly took her to a large elevator that had no door and they descended, with him merely remarking that they were going to “Level 2.” Here she says there were offices and people walking about, all of them human and seemingly oblivious to her presence, just going about their business as if she wasn’t there. It all looked rather like a normal office building other than for the armed guards in colored jumpsuits interspersed throughout, and at one point they passed what looked like a huge factory of some sort, which had what looked like “small alien-type craft” parked there. As she looked at this factory and the strange craft, she saw what looked like typical “grey-type aliens” going about some sort of maintenance on the craft, which also ignored her as if she had every right to be there in the world. After this she was taken to another elevator to “Level 5,” where she was asked to change clothes. By this point she was starting to feel terrified, but her guide assured her that nothing bad would happen to her. She put on a hospital gown and was weighed and scanned with some sort of electrical device, after which she was led past another guard station and down another hall. It was here where she says she was suddenly hit with a wave of overpowering stench that smelled to like what she thought might be formaldehyde, something she knew from her days as a former nurse. The guide reassured her that everything was alright but the smell was oppressive, and she says of what happened next:
We came to a large room and I stopped to look inside. I saw these huge large tanks with computerized gauges hooked to them and a huge arm-like device that extended from the top of some tubing down into the tanks. The tanks were about 4 feet tall so standing where I was I could not see inside them. I did notice a humming sound and it looked as if something was being stirred inside the tanks. I started to walk closer to the tanks and it was at that time that my guide grabbed my arm and pulled me roughly out into the hall. He told me that it wasn’t necessary to see the contents of the tanks; that it would only complicate matters. So we went on down the hallway and then he guided my arm into a large laboratory. I was amazed because I had worked in a laboratory before and I was seeing machines that I had never seen before. It was then I turned and saw a small grey being with his back turned doing something at a counter. I heard the clinking of metal against metal. I had only heard this when I was preparing my surgical instruments for my doctor in surgery.
Christa was then told to sit on a table in the middle of the room, and she was now getting the very strong sense that something wasn’t right, the fear beginning to grip her more tightly. As she sat there wondering what to do and what was going on, a human doctor then entered the room, greeted the guide, and turned his gaze to her. She explains the next part of her very odd tale:
My guide smiled at me and told me he would be waiting outside and I would only be there for a few minutes. I began to cry. I cry when I get scared. The grey alien looked at me and turned around to continue what he was doing. The doctor called for more assistance and it was then that one other grey alien came in. The next thing I knew I was very drowsy. I knew I was being examined internally and when I lifted my head, I saw this horrid grey alien glaring at me with large black eyes. It was then I felt a stabbing pain. I screamed and then the human doctor stood next to me and rubbed something over my stomach. It was cold. The pain immediately subsided. I could not believe this was happening to me all over again.
I begged for them to let me go, but they just kept on working very fast. After they were finished, I was told to get up and go into this small room and change back into my other clothes. I noticed blood, as if I had started my period. But, I continued to get dressed and when I came out I saw my guide speaking to the doctor in the corner of the room. I just stood there… helpless. I felt more alone then than I ever had in my life. I felt like a guinea pig. After we left that laboratory I was silent. I was angry at him for allowing this to happen to me ‘again’. But he said it was necessary. Told me to forget. I see more aliens pass us in the hall. Again, it is as if I was a ghost. I asked my guide to please explain this place to me. He told me it was a very sensitive place and I would be brought back again in the next few years. I again asked where I was and he told me I could not be told for my own safety.
She then got into a sort of transit car with her guide and they moved on to what she considers to be the most unsettling thing she saw during the whole weird encounter, saying:
I saw what looked to me to be people of all different types standing up against the wall inside a clear casing-like chamber. I went closer and it looked ‘as if they were wax figures. I could not understand what I was seeing. I also saw animals in cages. They were alive. They looked as if they were in suspended animation. I went up to the clear casings that they were being held in. I put my hands on the casing and leaned towards them to see if I could get some kind of a response. I did not. I could not discern whether they were dead or alive at that point in time. They were just not moving, and I could not see whether or not there was any fluid. I think that the casings were free of any fluid in this particular case.
She says that after this, her guide took her back outside to the waiting alien craft that had abducted her, and she was taken back to where they had found her and her memory was wiped. Remembering this experience through the hypnosis marked the beginning a nearly obsessive search for answers as to what had happened to her. Although she was never explicitly told where she had been taken, she would come to the conclusion that she had likely been brought to a secret underground base beneath the town of Dulce, New Mexico, a place that has been at the center of all manner of conspiracy theories since at least the 1970s and is a hotbed of UFO activity, cattle mutilations, and talk of top secret underground bases. In addition to this, Christa claims that after this initial experience she would be abducted on numerous other occasions and taken to different underground facilities, which she claims the government keeps a network of across the country. She explains of this:
I am aware of many, many, many underground facilities or bases that are being used for different purposes. Most of the underground bases are being used for covert purposes or otherwise purposes involving governments who are doing certain types of testing that they consider would be safer to do underground. And then there are the bases, one in particular north of Tucson, Arizona, where I’m almost positive I was taken to, it goes under the cover or name of “Evergreen Aviation”. They have all the planes there and everything, but what I found during my ten years of research is that this is a CIA-backed or based facility. I got very, very close to the facility, I climbed over the wired fence and sneaked in with a pilot friend of mine not long ago and got some great photographs of some black helicopters. These black helicopters were unmarked. There were other types of aircraft there, and so we really believe that there are many many bases in many states. I’ve heard of bases in almost every state here in the United States.
Christa has written a book of her experiences at Dulce, rather straightforwardly called Underground Alien Bio Lab At Dulce, and has been very vocal about these underground bases and aliens in general. Her stories have gotten increasingly eye-brow raising over the years, with her claiming to be an alien hybrid, and she has written extensively on her encounters with various types of alien beings, including what she calls “Light Beings,” Reptilians, blonde-haired humanoid Nordics, and more, with agendas that from range strict non-interventionists to imperialistic factions who want to conquer Earth. Then there are of course the Greys, which she has made abundantly obvious she doesn’t care much for. She has not minced words when she has said of the Greys:
The Greys seem to do things like a massive collective consciousness. I’ve noticed that they do things together, there is almost no discussion among themselves. They seem to be working on projects or on certain things that are given to them by higher-ups, or higher alien beings and/or humans. I can tell you right now that the main weakness of the Greys is that they have no soul, they are soulless. Do not allow them to tell you otherwise. Some of them have been known to try to impart some type of false religious philosophies on people that they’ve abducted, and the thing is you have to realize that these aliens have their own agenda, and its not something that I feel is a positive one really. Certainly I have to believe that the Greys are, the only way I can describe it is that they are an empty, empty case… There’s nothing there other than a superior technology type of brain apparatus up in their skull area. Otherwise they are of no use to us really, they are really of no use. They are used to impart different technologies and give us information, but as far as trusting them, I do not trust them as far as I could throw them.
It is hard to know what to do with this rather spectacular case, and with all of the added details and science fiction-sounding claims made over the years, Tilton has gained just as many skeptics and detractors as believers. It is all certainly a compelling and oddball case, but is there anything to it all? Whatever you might think, it manages to stand on the fringe end of alien abduction cases, and true or not it manages to point out just how deep the rabbit hole can go.
Imagine you're walking into a forest, and you roll over a fallen log with your foot. Fanning out on the underside, there is something moist and yellow – a bit like something you may have sneezed out, if that something was banana-yellow and spread itself out into elegant fractal branches.
What you're looking at is the plasmodium form of Physarum polycephalum, the many-headed slime mold. Like other slime molds found in nature, it fills an important ecological role, aiding in the decay of organic matter to recycle it into the food web.
This bizarre little organism doesn't have a brain, or a nervous system – its blobby, bright-yellow body is just one cell. This slime mold species has thrived, more or less unchanged, for a billion years in its damp, decaying habitats.
And, in the last decade, it's been changing how we think about cognition and problem-solving.
"I think it's the same kind of revolution that occurred when people realized that plants could communicate with each other," says biologist Audrey Dussutour of the French National Center for Scientific Research.
"Even these tiny little microbes can learn. It gives you a bit of humility."
P. polycephalum – adorably nicknamed "The Blob" by Dussutour – isn't exactly rare. It can be found in dark, humid, cool environments like the leaf litter on a forest floor. It's also really peculiar; although we call it a 'mold', it is not actually fungus. Nor is it animal or plant, but a member of the protist kingdom – a sort of catch-all group for anything that can't be neatly categorized in the other three kingdoms.
It starts its life as many individual cells, each with a single nucleus. Then, they merge to form the plasmodium, the vegetative life stage in which the organism feeds and grows.
In this form, fanning out in veins to search for food and explore its environment, it's still a single cell, but containing millions or even billions of nuclei swimming in the cytoplasmic fluid confined within the bright-yellow membrane.
Cognition without a brain
Like all organisms, P. polycephalum needs to be able to make decisions about its environment. It needs to seek food and avoid danger. It needs to find the ideal conditions for its reproductive cycle. And this is where our little yellow friend gets really interesting. P. polycephalum doesn't have a central nervous system. It doesn't even have specialized tissues.
"We're talking about cognition without a brain, obviously, but also without any neurons at all. So the underlying mechanisms, the whole architectural framework of how it deals with information is totally different to the way your brain works," biologist Chris Reid of Macquarie University in Australia tells ScienceAlert.
"By providing it with the same problem-solving challenges that we've traditionally given to animals with brains, we can start to see how this fundamentally different system might arrive at the same outcome. It's where it becomes clear that for a lot of these things – that we've always thought required a brain or some kind of higher information processing system – that's not always necessary."
P. polycephalum is well known to science. Decades ago, it was, as physicist Hans-Günther Döbereiner of the University of Bremen in Germany explains, the "workhorse of cell biology". It was easy to clone, and keep, and study.
However, as our genetic analysis toolkits evolved, organisms such as mice or cell lines such as HeLa took over, and P. polycephalum fell by the wayside.
In 2000, biologist Toshiyuki Nakagaki of RIKEN in Japan brought the little beastie out of retirement – and not for cell biology. His paper, published in Nature, bore the title "Maze-solving by an amoeboid organism" – and that's exactly what P. polycephalum had done. Nakagaki and his team had put a piece of plasmodium at one end of a maze, a food reward (oats, because P. polycephalum loves oat bacteria) at the other, and watched what happened.
The results were stunning. This weird little acellular organism managed to find the fastest route through every maze thrown at it.
"That triggered a wave of research into what other kinds of more difficult scenarios we can test the slime mold with," Reid says.
"Virtually all of those have been surprising in some way or another, and surprised the researchers in how the slime mold actually performed. It revealed some limitations as well. But mostly, it's been a voyage of revelation on how this simple creature can do tasks that have always been given to and thought to be the domain of higher organisms."
Full of surprises
Nakagaki recreated the Tokyo subway, with the station nodes marked out with oats; P. polycephalumrecreated it almost exactly – except the slime mold version was more robust to damage, wherein if a link got severed, the rest of the network could carry on.
Yet another team of researchers found that the protist could efficiently solve the traveling salesman problem, an exponentially complex mathematical task that programmers routinely use to test algorithms.
Earlier this year, a team of researchers found that P. polycephalum can "remember" where it has previously found food based on the structure of the veins in that area. This followed previous research from Dussutour and her colleagues, who discovered that blobs of slime mold could learn and remember substances that they didn't like, and communicate that information to other blobs of slime mold once they fused.
"I'm still amazed by how, in a way, complex they are because they always surprise you in an experiment, they would never do exactly what you choose to do," Dussutour says.
In one instance, her team was testing a growth medium used for mammal cells, and wanted to see if the slime would like it.
"It hated it. It started to build this weird three-dimensional structure so it could go on the lead and escape. And I'm like, 'oh my gosh, this organism'."
A processing network
Although it's technically a single-celled organism, P. polycephalum is considered a network, exhibiting collective behavior. Each part of the slime mold is operating independently and sharing information with its neighboring sections, with no centralized processing.
"I guess the analogy would be neurons in a brain," Reid says. "You have this one brain that's composed of lots of neurons – it's the same for the slime mold."
That brain analogy is a really intriguing one, and it wouldn't be the first time P. polycephalum has been compared to a network of neurons. The topology and structure of brain networks and slime mold blobs are very similar, and both systems exhibit oscillations.
It's not entirely clear how information is propagated and shared in the slime mold, but we do know that P. polycephalum's veins contract to act as a peristaltic pump, pushing cytoplasmic fluid from section to section. And oscillations in this fluid seem to coincide with encounters with external stimuli.
"It's thought that these oscillations convey information, process information, by the way they interact and actually produce the behavior at the same time," Döbereiner tells ScienceAlert.
"If you have a network of Physarum go to a certain food, it changes oscillation pattern when it encounters sugar: it starts to oscillate quicker. Because of these quicker oscillations, the whole organism starts changing its oscillation pattern and starts to flow into the direction where the food was found."
He and colleagues recently published a paper demonstrating that these oscillations are extraordinarily similar to the oscillations seen in a brain, only a hydrodynamic system rather than electrical signals.
"What's relevant is not so much what oscillates and how the information is transported," he explains, "but that it oscillates and that a topology is relevant – is one neuron connected to 100 neurons or just to two; is a neuron connected just to its neighbors or is it connected to another neuron very far away."
P. polycephalum growing on a life-sized model of a human skull.
As exciting as its escapades may seem, any researcher working with it will tell you that P. polycephalum is not, in itself, a brain. It's not capable of higher-level processing or abstract reasoning, as far as we can tell.
Nor is it, as intriguing as the notion may seem, likely to evolve into something like a brain. The organism has had a billion years to do so and shows no sign of going in that direction (although if any science fiction writers out there like the idea, feel free to run with it).
In terms of overall biology, slime mold is extremely simple. And by that very fact, it's changing how we understand problem-solving.
Just like other organisms, it needs food, it needs to navigate its environment, and it needs a safe place to grow and reproduce. These problems can be complex, and yet P. polycephalum can solve them with its extremely limited cognitive architecture. It does so in its own simple way and with its own limitations, says Reid, "but that in itself is one of the beautiful things about the system".
In a sense, it leaves us with an organism – a wet, slimy, damp-loving blob – whose cognition is fundamentally different from our own. And, just like the Tokyo subway, that can teach us new ways to solve our own problems.
"It's teaching us about the nature of intelligence, really, challenging certain views, and basically widening the concept," Reid says.
"It does force us to challenge these long-held anthropocentric beliefs that we are unique and capable of so much more than other creatures."
If UFOs are out there, feds want to know what they are and where they're from
More frequently reported sightings of unidentified flying objects by pilots have made government officials more serious about finding out what they are.
(File Photo)
If UFOs are out there, feds want to know what they are and where they're from
WASHINGTON — It’s an idea that has tantalized civilization for ages: Is there intelligent life beyond Earth? For years, it has preoccupied the Pentagon and intelligence agencies, too.
What You Need To Know
House, Senate intelligence leaders briefed on report on UFOs
The report is expected to be released at end of June
Sightings not confirmed or ruled out as alien spacecraft in report
Nation must know whether they're a safety concern, Demings and Rubio say
NASA will investigate sightings scientifically, administrator says
The growing number of sightings of unidentified flying objects, or UFO's, by military and commercial pilots is now drawing the attention of the federal government. Members of the House and Senate Intelligence Committees on Capitol Hill have now been briefed on the much-anticipated UFO report that is expected to be released at the end of this month.
“We do have reason to be concerned until we are able to rule out any threat to the traveling public, to those military pilots, to our military facilities,” said Rep. Val Demings (D-Florida District 10), a member of the House Intelligence Committee.
Demings was briefed Wednesday by Naval and FBI officials on their findings, which did not confirm or rule out the sightings as alien spacecraft.
“It’s an ongoing investigation — I think they are competent and capable of identifying those unidentified objects,” Demings said in an interview with Spectrum News.
The Department of Defense has been keeping track of these kinds of reports for decades but only recently acknowledged their existence.
“There was a taboo on discussing technological civilizations beyond Earth for a while,” said Harvard University science professor Dr. Avi Loeb. “It was considered a little crazy, perhaps in the realm of science fiction, but I think we're getting to the time where it will be part of the mainstream discussion.”
For years, Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) has been urging the federal government to take UFOs seriously. He’s been demanding answers and added language into former President Donald Trump’s last spending bill that mandated the Pentagon to compile the UFO report.
“People can speculate about, well, it’s space aliens,” Rubio said. “My biggest concern frankly is that it’s another country. They’ve made some technological leap that will catch us by surprise by perhaps one of our adversaries. That would be deeply concerning.”
NASA Administrator Bill Nelson said the space agency is also launching an investigation of its own.
“Now that I’m here at NASA, I’ve turned to our scientists, and I’ve said, ‘Would you look at it from a scientific standpoint?’” Nelson said. “NASA is going to appropriately look at it through the lens of its scientists.”
The UFO report is expected to be released to the public by the end of the month. It’s unclear how much the government will reveal of its findings because of national security concerns.
After years of waiting, an armada of spacecraft are headed to Venus. US scientists were thrilled earlier this month when NASA approved not one, but two new missions to our closest planetary neighbour. Now, Europe has followed suit and approved its own mission. The explorations raise the prospect that major questions about this planet — from whether it once had oceans and was therefore habitable to whether it still has active volcanoes — could finally be answered.
On 2 June, NASA announced it would send two spacecraft to Venus this decade: VERITAS, an orbiter that will map the planet’s surface, and DAVINCI+, which includes a probe that will dive into Venus’s atmosphere. On 10 June, the European Space Agency (ESA) announced its own orbiter, EnVision, that would launch in the early 2030s to take high-resolution radar images of the planet’s surface.
“We’re delighted that all our hard work has paid off,” says planetary scientist Colin Wilson at the University of Oxford, UK, one of the deputy lead scientists on EnVision.
NASA’s pair of spacecraft will be its first missions to Venus since its Magellan orbiter in 1989; EnVision is ESA’s first since Venus Express in 2005. Only one probe currently orbits the planet: Japan’s Akatsuki spacecraft, which arrived in 2015 and is studying the planet’s atmosphere. “Venus has been a forgotten planet for too long,” says ESA’s Håkan Svedhem, the former project scientist on Venus Express.
As the planetary-science community celebrates the approvals, Nature explores the questions that scientists hope these missions might answer.
Why are Venus and Earth so different?
One of the major questions about Venus is why, despite being a similar size to Earth and a similar distance from the Sun, is it a hellish locale with a poisonous atmosphere composed mostly of carbon dioxide and surface temperatures that are hot enough to melt lead, rather than a pleasant oasis for life.
“Why is Venus, our sibling planet, not our twin planet?” says Paul Byrne, a planetary scientist at North Carolina State University in Raleigh. “How is it you can have a world that’s functionally the same as Earth, but with a vastly different history?”
To find out, scientists will use the missions to probe the planet’s geological past to see how it evolved. VERITAS and EnVision will both be crucial in that aim — each will study the geological record of the planet by imaging its surface with their radar instruments.
The DAVINCI+ mission, meanwhile, will include an orbiter that images the planet using ultraviolet and infrared light. It will also drop a small spherical probe into the atmosphere. This will sample the atmosphere, including looking for unreactive noble gases such as helium and xenon, which persist for a long time. “They are clues as to the early formation and evolution of the planet,” says Wilson. “Do they come from magma in the interior, were they there from formation, were they brought by comets?”
Did Venus once have oceans?
Working out whether Venus ever had bodies of liquid water on its surface is crucial to understanding why Venus and Earth are different. Astronomers can see hints of past water in the planet’s atmosphere, but it’s unclear whether this water comes from ancient oceans on the surface that were lost as the planet warmed, or whether water existed only as vapour early in the planet’s history. The former would suggest the planet was once habitable, like Earth.
DAVINCI+ will be useful in answering this question when it studies the planet’s atmosphere. Its probe will descend for about an hour, sampling the atmosphere up to every 100 metres at lower altitudes and making high-precision measurements to reveal which gases are present, says James Garvin, chief scientist for NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, and mission lead for DAVINCI+ . This will surpass data on Venus’s atmosphere taken by the Soviet Union’s Venera probes in the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s.
“The chemical signatures will tell us the history, permanence and nature of past oceans,” he says. “Those will provide boundary conditions for everyone. Then we can tailor the big climate models, and ask questions with other missions like VERITAS and EnVision, with their global mapping.”
Did Venus have continents?
About 7% of Venus is covered in highland regions known as tesserae, plateaus that rise above the surrounding surface. These “might be the equivalent of continents on Earth”, says Byrne.
To find out, VERITAS will study the composition of the tesserae, including comparing their content of the volcanic rock basalt with regions at lower elevation. “On Earth when continents form, the massive amounts of basalt in the oceanic crust melt in the presence of water,” says Suzanne Smrekar, the mission lead for VERITAS at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California. “If we can test this hypothesis, we can show that these huge plateaus are effectively fingerprints of a time when water was present,” with the tesserae being the continental landmasses that were once surrounded by water.
The DAVINCI+ probe will also descend over a tessera called Alpha Regio, taking up to 500 images as it falls to the surface. Although the spacecraft will eventually be destroyed, there is a small chance that it could survive on the surface for several minutes before it is wiped out by the intense pressure and temperature. These pictures of the tessera could be enlightening. “Our final images should have a resolution of tens of centimetres,” says Garvin.
Is Venus still volcanically active?
Earlier probes have shown that volcanoes are present on Venus, but it’s unclear whether any have been geologically active in the past few thousand years — or whether they are still active today. Both VERITAS and EnVision will help to answer this question by mapping the surface. EnVision’s high-resolution images in particular are expected to reveal previously unseen surface features.
The mapping will include looking for volcanic features such as lava flows, and the amount of weathering they have encountered could reveal when they erupted. “Fresh lava flows may appear particularly dark or black,” says Wilson.
The Akatsuki spacecraft has seen recent changes in the amount of ultraviolet light absorbed by Venus’s atmosphere, which could be an indicator of recent volcanic activity. “The changing climate of Venus [today] may depend on volcanic activity,” says Masato Nakamura at the Institute of Space and Astronautical Science in Sagamihara, Japan, who is the project manager for Akatsuki.
The result has since been called into question, and the presence of phosphine has been hotly debated. The argument might ultimately be put to rest with DAVINCI+, which might detect phosphine when it samples the atmosphere.
“If there’s a ton of phosphine, we’ll be able to measure it,” says Garvin.
Is there ‘snow’ on Venus?
The planet’s mountaintops above 2.6 kilometres look strangely reflective, like those on Earth do, “where you have snow and frost deposited above a certain altitude”, says Wilson. But Venus is much too hot for water to exist, leading scientists to wonder whether the reflective regions might be something else.
One possibility is a substance called semiconductor snow — a mix of exotic metals such as bismuth tellurium and sulfur, which can condense at these higher altitudes and are all known to be produced by volcanic activity. DAVINCI+ might detect these materials in the atmosphere, whereas VERITAS and EnVision will search for deposits near any volcanic vents.
Perhaps one day, researchers will sample these mountaintops directly, with a lander. “It’s certainly something which is technically possible,” says Wilson.
Chichen Itza: Ancient Maya City Built Above A Gateway to the Underworld
Chichen Itza: Ancient Maya City Built Above A Gateway to the Underworld
Chichen Itza is an ancient Mayan city located in the northern part of Mexico’s Yucatan Peninsula. The city is though to have been founded around the 6th century AD. Nevertheless, it only rose to prominence several centuries later. Chichen Itza dominated the Yucatan Peninsula during the early part of the postclassic Mayan period, from about the 10th to 13th centuries AD. The supremacy of the city during this period is reflected by the great monuments that were constructed by its rulers. By the time the Spanish arrived in the 16th century, Chichen Itza had been largely left abandoned. Since the 19th century, the site has been explored and excavated by archaeologists. Apart from being an active archaeological site, Chichen Itza is one of the most popular tourist destinations in Mexico.
Where does the name Chichen Itza come from?
The name Chichen Itza comes from a combination of three separate Mayan words. Chi means “mouth” or “edge”, chen means “well,” and Itza is the name of the Mayan ethnic group that settled at the site. Therefore, the name of this ancient city may be said to mean “the mouth of the well of the Itzas.” The word Itza can also be translated to mean “magicians of the water”. This is because Itza itself is a combination of two words, itz, meaning “magic”, and a, meaning “water”.
Chichen Itza is thought to have been founded during the 6th century AD, presumably by the Maya peoples who had occupied the Yucatan Peninsula since the preclassic period, which lasted from around 1500 BC to 300 AD. There is evidence that during the 10th century the city was invaded by foreigners. It was around this time that the Maya cities of the southern lowlands were collapsing. The identity of these invaders, however, is not entirely clear. Some scholars, for instance, believe the invaders were the Itza, whilst others believe that they were Maya who were influenced by the Toltecs of central Mexico, or even the Toltecs themselves. There is also a suggestion that the Itza came to occupy the site, though only two or three centuries after this initial invasion.
Relief sculpture in the Great Ball Court at Chichen Itza showing sacrifice by decapitation.
Interestingly, there is evidence in the Books of the Chilam Balam (“Chilam Balam” meaning “Secrets of the Soothsayers”) that Chichen Itza had a different name prior to the arrival of the Itza. Since there is no single standard of orthography for the Yucatec Maya, the original name for the site has been represented in different ways, including Uuc Yabnal , Uuc Habnal , Uuc Hab Nal , or Uc Abnal . Whilst Uuc or Uc means “seven”, the meaning of the second word varies. Yab, for instance, means “many”, whilst an ab is a type of fruit.
The Sacred Cenote: Ritual Sinkhole Becomes Treasure Trove for Archaeologists
One of the factors that led to the establishment of a settlement at Chichen Itza is the presence of several cenotes at the site. These are large, natural sinkholes that serve as a source of water. Considering that the northern Yucatan is arid, and that its interior has no above-ground rivers, cenotes would have played an important role in the survival of the people who lived there. The most famous cenote at Chichen Itza is the Cenote Sagrada or Sacred Cenote, which was formed by a collapsed cave in the limestone bedrock.
The Sacred Cenote is considered one of the largest repositories of offerings in the Americas.
As its name suggests, the Sacred Cenote was not just a source of water, but was also a place of ritual significance. According to sources written during the Spanish period, the Maya deposited luxury goods, and made human sacrifices at cenotes as a means of worshipping Chaac, the Maya rain god. Over time, researchers have found truth in these claims, as a variety of luxury goods have been found deposited in the cenote. As a matter of fact, the Sacred Cenote is considered to be one of the largest repositories of offerings found in the Americas during the pre-Columbian period.
During the 20th century, the Sacred Cenote has been investigated by archaeologists. Between 1904 and 1910, for example, a controversial dredging project was undertaken by the American archaeologist Edward Herbert Thompson. The project recovered a large quantity of artifacts, including pottery, gold objects, and goods made of jade. In addition, human remains, which displayed wounds consistent with ritual sacrifice, were found.
Deciphering History Through Architecture at Chichen Itza
As mentioned earlier, Chichen Itza was established during the 6th century AD, but was later captured by foreign invaders. This change in the city’s occupants is physically visible in the structures that have survived. Before the coming of the Itza, the inhabitants of Chichen Itza constructed their buildings in an architectural style known as Puuc. This style is named after the Puuc Hills to the southwest of Chichen Itza, and may be identified by several characteristics. For instance, Puuc buildings normally face inwards towards the city’s ceremonial plaza, and are grouped around a general north-south axis. Apart from that, Puuc buildings consist of a solid core of stone and plaster, covered by well-cut, worked stone that serves a purely ornamental function.
Aerial view of Chichen Itza, UNESCO World Heritage site.
The buildings of Chichen Itza that were constructed in the Puuc style are located to the south of the main plaza, in the area known today as Chichen Viejo , or Old Chichen. The structures of Old Chichen are considered to be the oldest in the site, and include el Caracol , la Iglesia , and the Akabtzib. El Caracol , which means “the snail”, named as such after the stone spiral staircase within it. The structure consists of a round building (where the staircase is found) on a square platform, and it served as a sophisticated astronomical observatory. La Iglesia , meaning “the church,” is a small temple decorated with elaborate masks of Chaac, whereas the Akabtzib, which is Maya for “House of the Dark Writing’, was the home of the city’s administrator. The name of the latter is derived from the intricately carved glyphs found on the lintel above one of the structure’s doorways. Incidentally, the building was once known as “The Flat House with the Excessive Number of Chambers.”
Temple of Kukulcan: The Mesoamerican Step-Pyramid at the Heart of Chichen Itza
The most famous monuments at Chichen Itza, however, were only built after the arrival of the foreign invaders. These include El Castillo , the Great Ball Court, and the Temple of the Warriors. El Castillo, meaning “the castle,” is arguably the most recognizable monument of Chichen Itza. This structure, known also as the Temple of Kukulcan, is situated at the center of the city. The prominence of the temple is enhanced by the fact that it is the tallest structure at the site. The pyramid itself is 24 m (78.7 ft.) in height, whilst the temple on the platform is 6 m (19.7 ft.). Thus, the entire monument is 30 m (98 ft.) high. In addition, the Temple of Kukulacan is the largest temple in Chichen Itza, having a base measuring 53.3 m (174.9 ft.) on all four sides.
El Castillo, know as the Temple of Kukulcan, at the center of Chichen Itza.
The Temple of Kukulcan is not only impressive for its size, but also for the mathematical brilliance of its architects. According to legend, twice a year, when day and night are in balance, Kukulcan (the Maya version of Quetzalcoatl) would visit this temple. The god would commune with his followers, give them his blessings, and continue into the sacred waters. After taking a bath there, he would continue his journey to the Underworld. The architects of the Temple of Kukulcan designed the pyramid in such a way that during the equinox, those who came to the temple would be treated to a magical spectacle of light and shadow. For five hours on those days, the shadow of seven triangles would appear on the side of the staircase, starting from the top, and making its way down to the giant stone head of Kukulcan at the bottom. The top and the bottom of the pyramid are connected by the shadows for 45 minutes, before it slowly descends, and disappears. For the ancient Maya, this must have been proof of the legend. Interestingly, this phenomenon has been recreated artificially in modern times on a nightly basis, so that tourists need not wait for the equinox to see it.
Great Ball Court and the Temple of a Thousand Warriors
To the northwest of the Temple of Kukulcan is located the Great Ball Court. Although seven ball courts have been discovered at Chichen Itza, this one is considered to be the most impressive. The Great Ball Court measures 166 m (544.6 ft.) by 68 m (223.1 ft.), making it the largest ball court in Mesoamerica. The walls of the court are 12 m (39.4 ft.) high, on the top of which are rings carved with intertwining serpents. The walls are also decorated by sculpted reliefs. One of these reliefs has been interpreted as depicting the victors of a game holding the decapitated head of a member of the losing team.
As for the Temple of a Thousand Warriors, this is a large, stepped pyramid with rows of carved columns portraying warriors. The columns are located in front and on the side of the temple. Similarities in design have been noted between this temple and Temple B at Tula, the Toltec capital. This has led to the suggestion that there were cultural contacts between the peoples of the two cities.
Decline of Chichen Itza and the Spanish Conquest
Scholars believe that Chichen Itza dominated the Yucatan Peninsula between the 10th and 13th centuries. According to written sources, a revolt and civil war broke out about 1221 in Chichen Itza, leading to the city’s decline. This is corroborated by the archaeological evidence, as the wooden roofs of the Temple of the Warriors and the Great Market were found to have been burned around this time. In more recent years, however, archaeologists have suggested that Chichen Itza went into decline around the 11th century, 200 years earlier than originally thought.
After its decline, Chichen Itza was replaced by Mayapan, a neighbouring city to its west, as the dominant power on the peninsula. For a period of time, Chichen Itza joined Mayapan and Uxmal to form a political confederacy called the League of Mayapan. The league, along with the supremacy of Mayapan, came to an end around 1450. During the 16th century, the Spanish arrived on the Yucatan Peninsula, and began their conquest of the Maya. Chichen Itza was claimed by the conquistador Franciso de Montejo in 1531. Although de Montejo intended to make the city the capital of Spanish Yucatan, he failed to do so, as the Spanish were driven out by a native Maya revolt several months later.
Page from the illustrated book Incidents of Travel in Yucutan by John Lloyd Stephens.
In any case, by the time of de Montejo’s arrival, Chichen Itza had been largely abandoned, as its inhabitants had moved to smaller towns. The situation remained as such in the centuries that followed, and the site was gradually reclaimed by the jungle. Although Chichen Itza remained sacred to the Maya, it was slowly forgotten by the rest of the world. The site, however, entered popular imagination during the 19th century. In 1843, Incidents of Travel in Yucatan was published by the American explorer, John Lloyd Stephens. As a result of Stephens’ book, which recounted his journey in the Yucatan Peninsula, other explorers began to visit the ancient Maya city.
In the decades that followed, various archaeological excavations were conducted at Chichen Itza . As a result of these investigations, the site’s ruins were mapped, and some monuments were restored. The archaeological work at the site has also led to a greater understanding of Chichen Itza. Archaeologists continue to work at Chichen Itza even today, on the hunt for new discoveries. In 2019, for instance, archaeologists were searching for a sacred well under the city. Instead, as they were exploring the Balamku, or ‘Jaguar God’ cave system, they stumbled upon a trove of over 150 ritual objects.
Chichen Itza has become an extremely popular tourist attraction. Stephens’ book not only prompted archaeologists to explore the site, but tourists were not far behind. In the early 1920s, for example, Yucatan’s first official tourism business was established. In recent years, it has been estimated that up to two million tourists visit Chichen Itza annually, which makes it one of the most visited archaeological sites in Mexico. Chichen Itza is also a UNESCO World Heritage Site . In 2007 it was voted as one of the New Seven Wonders of the World in a global survey of more than 100 million people.
Top image: The Maya pyramid of Kukulcan at Chichen Itza in Mexico.
Hyperborea: Mythical Land That Fascinated Writers of the Ancient World
Hyperborea: Mythical Land That Fascinated Writers of the Ancient World
Hyperborea is a location in Greek mythology. The inhabitants of this mythical land are known as Hyperboreans, whom the ancient Greeks believed enjoyed extremely long lives. Hyperborea is mentioned by a number of Greek and Roman writers, including Herodotus, Pliny the Elder, and Pindar. Although Hyperborea is a mythical land, there has been speculation over the ages that it is a real place on earth. This has led to a number of theories about its exact location. In addition, attempts have been made to connect the Hyperboreans with real, historical peoples.
The name ‘Hyperborea’ may be translated to mean ‘Beyond the North Wind’, which is an indication of where the ancient Greeks thought this land was located. According to Greek mythology, the North Wind, personified by the godBoreas, lived inThrace. Therefore, Hyperborea would logically be placed to the north of Thrace. Hyperborea, however, was one of theterrae incognitae(Latin for ‘unknown lands’) of the ancient Greeks and Romans. These were regions which have neither been mapped nor documented. In other words, Hyperborea might very well be a place that exists only in myth. And many of the stories told about Hyperborea and theHyperboreansare quite unbelievable.
Hyperborea Mentioned Repeatedly by Herodotus
One of the ancient writers who mentions Hyperborea many times in his work is the Greek historian Herodotus. The so-called ‘father of history’ wrote about the Hyperborea in Book IV of his Histories. In one part of this book, Herodotus writes:
“Aristeas the son of Caystrobus, who came from Proconnesus, claimed in a poem that he visited the Issedones in a state of inspiration by Apollo, that beyond the Issedones lived a one-eyed race called the Arimaspians, beyond them there is the land of the gold-guarding griffins, and beyond them the Hyperboreans, all the way to the sea. All these people, from the Arimaspians on, except the Hyperboreans, are constantly attacking their neighbors.”
Ancient north pole map of mythical lands including the central continent of Hyperborea.
Herodotus seems to be skeptical about the existence of Hyperborea, but nevertheless informs his readers that this mythical land has been mentioned by two of ancient Greece’s most revered poets, Hesiod and Homer:
“None of the tribes living there, including the Scythians, have anything to say about the Hyperboreans. Perhaps the Issedones do, but I do not think so, because if they did the Scythians would have stories about them too, just as they do about the one-eyed people. Hesiod, however, has mentioned the Hyperboreans, and so has Homer in the Epigoni (if indeed Homer is the author of this poem).”
Herodotus then points out that most of the stories about Hyperborea are told by the inhabitants of the sacred island of Delos, “The overwhelming majority of the stories about the Hyperboreans come from Delos.” The historian goes on to relate some of the tales about the Hyperboreans, in which Delos, as one might expect, plays a prominent role. One of these, for instance, relates to the way sacred objects were transported from Hyperborea to Delos:
“The Delians say that sacred objects are tied up inside a bundle of wheat straws and are transported from the Hyperboreans first to Scythia, then westward as far as possible – that is, to the Adriatic – through a chain of successive neighbouring tribes, then south to Dodona (which is the first Greek community to receive them), then to the Gulf of Malia, where they cross over to Euboea, where they are passed from town to town until they reach Carystus, at which stage Andros is omitted, because the Carystians are the ones taking them to Tenos, and from Tenos the objects are conveyed to Delos. So this is how these sacred objects are said to reach Delos.”
The next story provided by Herodotus explains why the sacred objects were delivered in such a manner. According to the historian, the first time the sacred objects were sent to Delos, they were carried by two Hyperborean women, Hyperoche and Laodice (according to the Delians). The women were accompanied by five Hyperborean men who protected them and served as their escorts. These envoys, however, never returned home, causing the rest of the Hyperboreans to worry that the people they sent to deliver sacred objects in the future would not come back either. Therefore, they devised the method in which the objects were passed from one group of people to another, until they arrived in Delos.
Herodotus states that Hyperoche and Laodice accomplished their mission, and stayed in Delos, rather than returning home. After their deaths, the women were worshipped by the Delians and commemorated in a special ritual:
“Now, the death of the young women who came from the Hyperboreans is commemorated on Delos by a hair-cutting ritual performed by the girls and boys of the island. Before they get married, the girls cut off a lock of hair, wind it around a spindle and put in on the tomb (which is inside the sanctuary of Artemis, on the left as one enters, and an olive-tree has grown over it), and the Delian boys wind some of their hair around a twig and put it on the tomb as well. So that is how these Hyperborean women are worshipped by the inhabitants of Delos.”
Herodotus’ last story about the Hyperboreans is that of Arge and Opis, a pair of women who also travelled from Hyperborea to Delos. The women are said to have made the journey before Hyperoche and Laodice, though for a different purpose. Arge and Opis went to the island in order to pay tribute to Eileithyia, the Greek goddess of childbirth, in exchange for a quick and easy labor at childbirth.
According to Herodotus, the Delians claimed that the two women were accompanied by the gods themselves, and received different honors when they came to Delos. The women of the island begged gifts for Arge and Opis, whilst calling on the pair by name in the words of the hymn composed by Olen of Lycia in their honor. This practice has spread from Delos to the other Aegean islands and Ionia. Like Hyperoche and Laodice, the tombs of Arge and Opis are also found on the island: “This tomb of theirs is situated behind the grounds of the sanctuary of Artemis, facing east, right next to the banqueting-hall of the Ceans.”
Head of Herodotus, the “father of history” who wrote the most about Hyperborea.
Before ending his discussion about Hyperborea, Herodotus mentions in passing a figure called Abaris. As the historian says that he was not going to repeat the story of Abaris, it may be assumed that Herodotus’ readers were familiar with this tale. In any case, we learn from Herodotus that this Abaris was believed to be a Hyperborean, and that he “carried an arrow all the way around the world without eating anything.” Herodotus ends this section with a playful suggestion about people living beyond the South Wind, “But if there are Hyperboreans, there should also be Hyperenotians, people living beyond the south wind.”
Pliny The Elder and Hyperborea
Although Herodotus provides several stories related to the Hyperboreans, he does not talk much about Hyperborea itself, apart from its general location. Therefore, one has to rely on other ancient sources to fill in the gaps left by Herodotus. One such source is Natural History , written by Pliny the Elder, the Roman naturalist and natural philosopher. Pliny mentions the Hyperboreans in Book IV of his work, and begins with the general location of Hyperborea:
“Along the [Black Sea] coast [of Europe], as far as the river Tanais [known today as the Don], are the Mæotæ, from whom the lake derives its name, and the last of all, in the rear of them, the Arimaspi. We then come to the Riphæan mountains, and the region known by the name of Pterophoros, because of the perpetual fall of snow there, the flakes of which resemble feathers; a part of the world which has been condemned by the decree of nature to lie immersed in thick darkness; suited for nothing but the generation of cold, and to be the asylum of the chilling blasts of the northern winds.
Behind these mountains, and beyond the region of the northern winds, there dwells, if we choose to believe it, a happy race, known as the Hyperborei.”
Pliny the Elder of Rome who also wrote a lot about Hyperborea
Like Herodotus before him, Pliny seems to express his doubts about the existence of the Hyperboreans. Unlike the Greek historian, however, Pliny does not go straight into Delian-related Hyperborean stories. (Incidentally, the story about the Hyperboreans sending sacred objects to Delos via neighboring tribes can be found at the end of Pliny’s account of Hyperborea.) Instead, Pliny provides his readers with more details about Hyperborea itself:
“At this spot are supposed to be the hinges upon which the world revolves, and the extreme limits of the revolutions of the stars. Here we find light for six months together, given by the Sun in one continuous day, who does not, however, as some ignorant persons have asserted, conceal himself from the vernal equinox to autumn. On the contrary, to these people there is but one rising of the sun for the year, and that at the summer solstice, and but one setting, at the winter solstice. This region, warmed by the rays of the sun, is of a most delightful temperature, and exempt from every noxious blast.”
Pliny continues his account with information about the Hyperboreans themselves. Apart from referring to the Hyperboreans “a race that lives to an extreme old age,” earlier on, Pliny also wrote the following:
“The abodes of the natives are the woods and groves; the gods receive their worship singly and in groups, while all discord and every kind of sickness are things utterly unknown. Death comes upon them only when satiated with life; after a career of feasting, in an old age sated with every luxury, they leap from a certain rock there into the sea; and this they deem the most desirable mode of ending existence.”
From Pliny’s work, it is clear that even in ancient times the exact location of Hyperborea was a puzzle. Several competing hypotheses about Hyperborea’s actual whereabouts are mentioned by the Roman writer. For instance, Pliny mentions some ancient writers claimed that Hyperborea is located on the edge of the shores of Asia. These writers argued that a people called the Attacori, who resemble the Hyperboreans, lived in that region, which has very similar conditions to Hyperborea. Other writers argued that the region lies “midway between the two suns, at the spot where it sets to the Antipodes and rises to us.” Pliny discounts this hypothesis, considering the “vast tract of sea which there intervenes” A third hypothesis states that Hyperborea is located “nowhere but under a day which lasts for six months,” and that the Hyperboreans sow in the morning, reap at mid-day, gather the fruits of the trees at sunset, and conceal themselves in caves at night.
Bust of the lyric Roman poet Pindar whose poems mention Hyperborea
Hyperborea is also mentioned in works by ancient poets. These poetic works provide us with more information about this mythical land. The Hyperboreans, for instance, appear in Pindar’s Olympian Ode III . In his poem, Pindar claims that Heracles had travelled to Hyperborea to obtain an olive tree from its inhabitants. The hero begged for the tree “to make shade for all men to share, and for brave deeds of valorous spirits, a crown.” In another poem, Pythian Ode X , Pindar places the slaying of Medusa by Perseus in Hyperborea, and paints the region as a place of great happiness:
“The Muse is not absent from their customs; all around swirl the dances of girls, the lyre’s loud chords and the cries of flutes. They wreathe their hair with golden laurel branches and revel joyfully. No sickness or ruinous old age is mixed into that sacred race.”
Herodotus, Pliny the Elder, and Pindar were not the only ancient authors who wrote about Hyperborea. Other well known figures who mention this mythical region include Pausanias, Diodorus Siculus, Ovid, and Strabo.
The large amount of work written about Hyperborea by these ancient authors shows that there was a great fascination with this land. As a matter of fact, this fascination has survived till this day, as some have sought to identify the location of Hyperborea, which may help to prove its existence. Nevertheless, there is still no consensus to the location of Hyperborea, assuming this paradise even exists in the first place.
Top image: Boreas, Greek God of the North Wind, who is strongly connected with the mythical land of Hyperborea, abducting Oreithyia. Source: Giovanni Francesco Romanelli / Public domain .
I cover aerospace, astronomy and host The Cosmic Controversy Podcast.
For the past two decades, planetary scientists have been trying to solve the mystery surrounding measurements of atmospheric methane on Mars. This includes repeated detections of this potential biosignature right above the surface of Mars’ Gale Crater by NASA’s Curiosity rover.
But as yet, the European Space Agency’S (ESA) ExoMars Trace Gas Orbiter (TGO) has come up empty when looking for methane higher in the Martian atmosphere, says NASA.
“When the Trace Gas Orbiter came on board in 2016, I was fully expecting the orbiter team to report that there’s a small amount of methane everywhere on Mars,” Chris Webster, lead of the Tunable Laser Spectrometer (TLS) instrument in the Sample Analysis at Mars (SAM) chemistry lab aboard the Curiosity rover, said in a statement.
But now NASA thinks it may have found a solution.
Because it needs a lot of power, TLS operates mostly at night when no other Curiosity instruments are working, says NASA. That’s when the Martian atmosphere is calm at night and methane seeping from the ground builds up near the surface where Curiosity can detect it, the agency notes.
ESA’S Trace Gas Orbiter, on the other hand, requires sunlight to pinpoint methane about 3 miles above the surface.
So, NASA made specific measurements using the TLS instrument during daytime and also confirmed a non-detection of the methane gas. Webster and colleagues detailed their results this week in The Astronomy and Astrophysics Journal.
Over the past two decades, the authors point out, Mars measurements from a wide variety of platforms (ground-based telescopes, orbiters, and rover) have reported methane values from zero to some 45 parts per billion by volume.
We report that the very low methane levels measured at night —- possibly from a subsurface seep —- are dissipated and dispersed when the sun comes up, Paul Mahaffy, the principal investigator of SAM, who’s based at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, told me. Our daytime measurements also give a null detection just like those from ESA’s orbiting TGO spacecraft, he says.
As for the methane measured in Gale Crater, the site which Curiosity has been exploring for nearly the past decade?
“With no evidence for methane production by the rover itself, we propose that the source is one of planetary micro-seepage,” the authors write.
Methane seepage from Gale Crater might possibly be from present or past microbial life of the variety that produces methane (methanogens) on Earth, says Mahaffy. But he says it’s equally plausible that this methane could be from past subsurface abiotic water rock interactions that also produced methane.
If the methane we measure comes from a methane seep in Gale Crater, Mahaffy expects that this would also be happening in many places on Mars since, there are many similar deep craters on Mars.
Methane is a stable molecule that is expected to last on Mars for about 300 years before getting torn apart by solar radiation, says NASA. The agency notes that experiments are underway to test whether very low-level electric discharges induced by dust in the Martian atmosphere could destroy methane, or whether abundant oxygen at the Martian surface quickly destroys methane before it can reach the upper atmosphere.
Since we have seen occasional large spikes of methane orders of magnitude more intense than most of our measurements, I would encourage our European colleagues to just keep looking out for this signal as they orbit Mars, says Mahaffy. Methane release from the subsurface may be episodic and a sudden big burp may enable a TGO detection of this transient signal, he says.
Such methane detections are too important to do otherwise since most of the methane in Earth’s atmosphere originates from microbial activity.
“But Earth teaches us that there are multiple pathways by which methane can be produced in the complete absence of biology,” Timothy Lyons, a distinguished professor of biogeochemistry at the University of California, Riverside, who was not a part of the team, told me. “We simply don't yet know which is the case for the methane on Mars.”
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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..
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