In the heart of Mars’ canyon system called Valles Marineris, the ESA-Roscosmos ExoMars Trace Gas Orbiter has detected significant amounts of water. Measuring more than 2,500 miles in length, Valles Marineris stretches out nearly a quarter of the planet’s circumference around the equator. It is the largest canyon in our Solar System.

The water beneath the soil of the canyon was detected by the Trace Gas Orbiter’s (TGO) FREND instrument. The area in which it was detected overlaps a deep valley in the canyon called Candor Chaos. And the water-rich region is massive as it’s approximately the same size as the Netherlands.

Water ice has previously been detected in the cold polar regions of the Red Planet, so the fact that it was found near the equator where the canyon is located is even more astonishing.

Image of Valles Marineris from the 2001 Mars Odyssey.

(Via Wikipedia)

Igor Mitrofanov from the Space Research Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences in Moscow, Russia, and the principal investigator of the FREND (Fine Resolution Epithermal Neutron Detector) neutron telescope, went into further details, “With TGO we can look down to one metre below this dusty layer and see what’s really going on below Mars’ surface – and, crucially, locate water-rich ‘oases’ that couldn’t be detected with previous instruments,” adding, “FREND revealed an area with an unusually large amount of hydrogen in the colossal Valles Marineris canyon system: assuming the hydrogen we see is bound into water molecules, as much as 40% of the near-surface material in this region appears to be water.”

The team of experts studied observations made by FREND between May of 2018 and February of 2021 and that’s when they found neutrons as explained by Alexey Malakhov from the Space Research Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences, “Neutrons are produced when highly energetic particles known as ‘galactic cosmic rays’ strike Mars; drier soils emit more neutrons than wetter ones, and so we can deduce how much water is in a soil by looking at the neutrons it emits.”

Another image of Valles Marineris from the 2001 Mars Odyssey.

(Via Wikipedia)

Malakhov went on to say, “We found a central part of Valles Marineris to be packed full of water – far more water than we expected. This is very much like Earth’s permafrost regions, where water ice permanently persists under dry soil because of the constant low temperatures.” “Overall, we think this water more likely exists in the form of ice.” Further analysis needs to be conducted in order to know for certain which form of water is present.

Their study was published in the journal Icarus where it can be read in full.

Have you seen the photograph of what looks like a flying saucer that skidded across the surface of Mars before embedding itself in a pile of dirt? You haven’t? Take a look at it here while we point out that it has been making the rounds for the past few days under headlines like “Pretty Convincing Footage Of A UFO Crash On Mars,” “Mars orbiter image shows a crashed flying saucer…. or something else entirely” and “Could this be a Crashed Disc-Shaped Object Spotted Near Ceti Mensa on Mars?” That last one is from the YouTube video of Jean Ward, a system administrator and website developer whose hobbies include “Mars anomaly hunting.” It’s that hobby that gave him a bit of notoriety on the Internet when he posted his analysis of a photo taken in 2006 by NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter.

The original photo –  can you find the crashed flying saucer?

“This image shows spectacular layers exposed on the bottom of Candor Chasma, a large canyon in the Valles Marineris system.”

That’s the official NASA description of the photo taken by the HiRISE (High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment) camera on the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter on December 29, 2006. (You can see many versions of it here, including one with an arrow pointing to the “saucer” location.)

Here is a cropped and compressed blow-up of the alleged anomaly.

Here is a cropped and compressed blow-up of the alleged anomaly.

Here is a cropped and compressed version of the entire image, with an arrow pointing to where the anomaly is, so you can find it easier.

NASA called it the “Swirls of Rock in Candor Chasma” because of the intricate swirls of sand- and dust-sized particles approximately 4 kilometers below the rim of one of the largest canyons on Mars. That was impressive enough for NASA, but Jean Ward is one of those people with time, interest and magnifying software, and when he started digitally digging into the swirls of Candor Chasma, he found something he believes resembles a crashed flying saucer.

“The anomaly looks like a disc-shaped object which hit the surface of Mars at a very low angle and left a trench behind it. The disc-shaped object measures approximately 12 to 15 metres in diameter.”

“Alternatives: Could this possibly be a ramp leading into an underground entrance or is this an incomplete Project Ice-Worm structure? Or are we seeing a strange arc-shaped dune?”

Ward is kind enough to link to the HiRiSE site and provides instructions on seeing the original photo. He also provides his speculations on what it might be. While the Internet obviously likes the crashed flying saucer explanation, he also suggests it could be a designed structure – a ramp or part of tunnel for moving around nuclear weapons – that’s what the U.S. Army’s Project Iceworm was in Greenland in the early 1960s during the height of the Cold War.

“As always, until we get to see these anomalies up close and personal, I can only speculate as to what these objects might be.”

Swirls of Rock in Candor Chasma

(credit: NASA)

Or … it could be an unusual dune. As always, anomalies are in the eye of the beholder, and if the beholder is a pareidoliac – one who sees faces in tortillas or on the surface of Mars – then it’s easy to see a crashed flying saucer. Most of us have a touch of pareidolia and a bit of wishful thinking, which explains why this ‘flying saucer’ photo won’t go away soon. Ward doesn’t say how close the Candor Chasma is to the Perseverance rover and its Ingenuity helicopter, but that would be an excellent road trip for the little chopper that could … and is still flying. After all, the Chinese space program is sending its lunar rover to inspect what appears to be a hut on the Moon.

The betting money right now is on a natural anomaly, but the really long odds are on whether NASA takes up the challenge and gets “up close and personal” to it. You’re probably better off buying a lottery ticket.

A team of international astronomers have discovered four new giant exoplanets with very short orbital periods. The four planets, which have been named HATS-74Ab, HATS-75b, HATS-76b, and HATS-77b, are all about the same size as Jupiter.

The discoveries were made during the HATSouth photometric survey. HATSouth includes six astrograph telescope systems that are in South America, Africa, and Australia. Launched in 2009, the telescopes are trained to discover exoplanets that are orbiting bright stars that can be seen from the Southern Hemisphere and they have already found dozens of transiting exoplanets.

The four new giant planets were revealed with the HATSouth telescopes and were later confirmed by additional observations conducted by NASA’s Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) as well as several other facilities. The planets were found by transiting signals coming from four stars — HATS-74A, HATS-75, HATS-76, and HATS-77.

(Not any of the planets mentioned in this article.)

As for the newly discovered planets, HATS-74Ab is located about 934 light-years away from us and is approximately the same size as Jupiter but with 46% more of its mass. It is situated 0.024 Astronomical Units (AU) away from its host star (one AU is the distance that Earth is to our sun) with an orbital period of just 1.73 days. Its equilibrium temperature is 895 Kelvin (1,151 degrees Fahrenheit or 622 degrees Celsius). The 11-billion-year-old parent star has a radius around 0.57 of our sun and about 0.6 solar masses with a temperature of 3,777 Kelvin (6,339 degrees Fahrenheit or 3,504 degrees Celsius). Interestingly, it has a companion star that is approximately 80% less massive than our sun.

Located about 637 light-years away, HATS-75b is the smallest of the four exoplanets with a radius of about 0.88 of Jupiter and 0.49 of its mass. It is about 0.032 AU from its star and takes 2.79 days to complete a full orbit around it. It has an equilibrium temperature of 772.3 Kelvin (930 degrees Fahrenheit or 499 degrees Celsius). The 15-billion-year-old parent star has a radius of 0.58 of our sun and 0.6 of its mass with a temperature of 3,790 Kelvin (6,362 degrees Fahrenheit or 3,517 degrees Celsius).

The third planet is called HATS-76b and is located about 1,271 light-years away. It is approximately 2.63 times more massive than Jupiter and 1.08 of its radius. It is found 0.026 AU from its star with an orbital period of 1.94 days. It is the hottest planet of the four with an equilibrium temperature of 939.8 Kelvin (1,232 degrees Fahrenheit or 667 degrees Celsius). The 4.6-billion-year-old host star has 0.66 solar masses with 0.62 of its radius and a temperature of 4,016 Kelvin (6,769 degrees Fahrenheit or 3,743 degrees Celsius).

(Not any of the planets mentioned in this article.)

The fourth star named HATS-77b is located about 1,349 light-years away. It is around 16% bigger than Jupiter with a 37% greater mass. It travels around its host star at a distance of 0.036 AU and takes 3.09 days to complete a full orbit. Its temperature is 828.3 Kelvin (1,031 degrees Fahrenheit or 555 degrees Celsius). The 12.1-billion-year-old star is about 35% smaller and less massive than our sun with a temperature of 4,071 Kelvin (6,868 degrees Fahrenheit or 3,798 degrees Celsius).

The study on these four new planets can be read here.

Having discussed the matter of the Bigfoot-UFO issue – and of the Loch Ness-UFO angle, too – I thought it would be a good idea to share with you the data that suggests a UFO connection to another monster: the creepy Dog-Man. Yes, really! Before I get to the strange link, however, here’s some background on the matter the beast. Certainly, wolf-like, upright creatures have been described for centuries. I am , of course, talking about werewolves. However, the relatively recent phenomenon of the Dog-Man takes things to another, much more intriguing, angle. Linda Godfrey is the key figure in this controversy and she has written a number of books on the phenomenon. But, there’s more than that. There’s one particular Dog-Man-themed story that needs to be aired, as it has an alien angle to it. Believe it or not. While there are numerous theories for what the Dogmen are (demonic entities, shape-shifters, a rare/unique kind of wolf; the list goes on) the strangest of all the theories is that which suggests the creatures are extraterrestrials. Yes, you did read that right. In 2005, Linda Godfrey was contacted by a man – a military whistle-blower, we might say – who was an expert in the field of remote-viewing. According to Godfrey’s Edward Snowden-like source, the U.S. Government has uncovered data suggesting that the Dogmen are a very ancient, extraterrestrial race that closely resembles the ancient deity of the Underworld. And who might that be? It’s Anubis, that’s who. Linday’s informant also discovered – via remote-viewing – that the Dogmen can “jump” from location to location via portals or doorways in the fabric of space and time. That’s quite a story told to Godfrey: Dogmen from the stars that have a connection to Anubis. The story isn’t finished, though.

(Nick Redfern)

Linda Godfrey with Nick Redfern

On March 24, 2017, “The Emoluments of Mars” blog ran an article that said: “Mike Bara, the world-renowned geneticist and physiologist, was invited once again to blather for three hours on Jimmy Church’s podcast Fade to Black this week. 90% of it was discussion of a series of images of odd-looking artifacts on Mars. There was the pistol, the sarcophagus, the fossilized dinosaur, and my personal favorite the 20ft high cat playing air guitar.” In my book, The Martians, I wrote of this: “An upright cat, standing precariously on a huge hill, on none other than Mars? That is what one particular and peculiar photograph, secured by the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, seems to show. The word ‘seems’ is the most important one in all of this. The picture shows what looks like a thin, humanoid-type figure – and that is so skinny it appears to resemble a classic, cartoon-like stick-man. We can see two arms (one of them raised), two legs, possibly two feet, and a head. Admittedly, the head is cat-like, and it has a pair of eyes and pointed ears. And, the “creature” appears to be standing in front of what looks like a shadowy entrance to a cave.” I have to say that Bizarre” is the word. Or, beyond bizarre.

(Nick Redfern)

Anubis from Mars?

I showed the picture to a well-known figure in the ““ancient aliens” world who, on seeing it, practically foamed at the mouth. I’ll avoid mentioning his name, as he has since moved on and relegated it to the “pareidolia basket.” Before doing so, however, he spent a couple of weeks working on a paper titled “Anubis on Mars?” The reason: the person in question felt that the “upright cat” looked far more like none other than Anubis. And who, precisely, was Anubis?  Let us take a look: “Anubis is the Egyptian name for a jackal-headed god associated with mummification and the afterlife in Egyptian mythology,” Crystalinks state. “Anubis was the god to protect the dead and bring them to the afterlife. He was usually portrayed as a half human, half jackal, or in full jackal form wearing a ribbon and holding a flail in the crook of its arm.” I’ve had people tell me that the Dog-Men and Anubis might have a connection. I have no evidence, at all, to support such a controversial thing. But, it’s worth keeping things in mind when it comes to the words of Linda Godfrey’s “Deep Throat”/whistleblower.

RELATED VIDEOS, selected  and posted by peter2011

Recent analysis of lunar rock samples that were brought back from the Apollo 17 mission have revealed even more information regarding our moon’s evolution, specifically how long it took for it to completely cool down after forming.

Scientists studied a rock called “troctolite 76535” and what they found has changed previous theories regarding the evolution of the moon. It was previously believed that after the moon formed, it took approximately 100 million years to completely cool down. However, new studies have dramatically lessened that time frame to around 20 million years.

The experts chose the troctolite 76535 sample because it wouldn’t have been altered much while on the moon as explained by William Nelson who is a researcher at the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa, “It has not been strongly modified by impacts during its time on the moon’s surface.” “Such pristinity is rare for lunar rocks.”

Apollo 17 mission

(Via Wikipedia)

While measuring how much phosphorus was in the rock, the researchers also discovered other chemical variation patterns in the mineral grains, such as plagioclase and olivine. “This was unexpected, as previous studies had reported both of these minerals to lack any chemical variation,” Nelson told Space.com, adding that the variations found in the grains “could not have survived for as long as previously thought.”

In regards to the 20-million-year cooling period rather than the previous estimate of 100 million years, Nelson noted that “If the sample had cooled as slowly as previously suggested, then it should have no variations in P [phosphorus] content and that the variations would have been “ironed out” a very long time ago.

Even though it’s been nearly 50 years since the sample was collected, it is still revealing fascination information regarding the history of our moon, especially with help from new technology. “I believe quite a bit can still be learned from the Apollo sample collection,” Nelson said. “First and foremost, as demonstrated by this study, analytical techniques are always improving.” “Signals that were previously hidden because they were subtle can now be detected and leveraged in new ways.”

The lunar landing site from the Apollo 17 mission.

(Via Wikipedia)

It’s incredible to think that this new study has changed the timeline of about 80 million years in regards to how long it took the moon to cool down and solidify. And with more lunar missions, additional samples will be brought back to Earth to be analyzed. We will surely find out even more fascinating information regarding our lunar companion. The study was published in the journal Nature Communications where it can be read in full.

A photo of the moon rock troctolite 76535 can be viewed here.