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.
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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!!!
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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...
13-04-2022
The James Webb Space Telescope Is Going to Stare Straight Into Jupiter
The James Webb Space Telescope Is Going to Stare Straight Into Jupiter
There's a lot we know about Jupiter. But even more we don't.
Image by NASA
After launching late last year, NASA’s revolutionary James Webb Space Telescope is finally getting ready to fixate its numerous golden mirrors on distant targets.
Intriguingly, though, one of its 13 early targets isn’t so distant at all — at least in the grand scheme of things. It’ll be looking at Jupiter, the iconic gas giant in our own star system. Of course, we already know quite a bit about the planet already— so why investigate it using the JWST if it can have a closer look at far more distant objects?
“We’ve been there with several spacecraft and have observed the planet with Hubble and many ground-based telescopes at wavelengths across the electromagnetic spectrum (from the UV to meters wavelengths),” Berkeley astronomer Imke de Pater, leader of the Jupiter observation team, told Digital Trends, “so we’ve learned a tremendous amount about Jupiter itself, its atmosphere, interior, and about its moons and rings.”
“But every time you learn more there are things you don’t yet understand — so you always need more data,” she added.
For instance, we still don’t know how an awful lot about the gas giant’s atmosphere, with massive storms roiling on its surface. The planet’s Great Red Spot, in particular, has fascinated astronomers since its discovery in 1830. It’s a storm so massive, in fact, that you could easily fit the Earth in the area it takes up.
“We’ll be looking for signatures of any chemical compounds that are unique to the [Great Red Spot]… which could be responsible for the red chromophores,” Leigh Fletcher, senior research fellow in planetary science at the University of Leicester in the UK, said in a 2018 NASA statement about the project, referring to particles responsible for the storm’s unusually red color.
“If we don’t see any unexpected chemistry or aerosol signatures… then the mystery of that red color may remain unresolved,” Fletcher added.
The JSWT will also take a closer look at Jupiter’s moons Io and Ganymede, the latter being the only known moon that has its own magnetosphere.
The space telescope is the ideal candidate for the job.
“The biggest advantage is at the mid-infrared wavelengths,” de Pater told Digital Trends. “We can observe at some of these wavelengths from the ground, but the Earth’s atmosphere is so turbulent that what we get on the ground, we can’t calibrate the observations very well.”
Right now, the JSWT is still busy aligning its mirrors — but soon, it’ll finally be prime time.
“In the first year of science operations, we expect Webb to write entirely new chapters in the history of our origins — the formation of stars and planets,” Klaus Pontoppidan, the Space Telescope Science Institute project scientist for Webb, said in a recent NASA blog post.
Before gazing at Jupiter, the observatory’s Mid-Infrared Instrument (MIRI) will have to be cooled to about 7 Kelvin, or about -447 Fahrenheit, to adjust to its frosty surroundings in deep space.
But once it’s ready, astronomers are already excited about what it will be able to see.
“The imager promises to reveal astronomical targets ranging from nearby nebulae to distant interacting galaxies with a clarity and sensitivity far beyond what we’ve seen before,” Alistair Glasse, Webb-MIRI Instrument Scientist at the Astronomy Technology Center in the UK, said in a recent post.
And considering it’s proximity, Jupiter should be child’s play for the JWST.
Updated to correct an error in the temperature the James Webb’s MIRI instrument will eventually be cooled to.
Jupiter’s Twin: NASA’s Kepler Space Telescope Delivers New Planetary Discovery From the Grave
Jupiter’s Twin: NASA’s Kepler Space Telescope Delivers New Planetary Discovery From the Grave
ByUNIVERSITY OF MANCHESTER
Artist’s conception of the Kepler Space Telescope observing planets transiting a distant star. On October 30, 2018, NASA announced that Kepler ran out of fuel and would be retired within its current and safe orbit, away from Earth. Kepler leaves a legacy of more than 2,600 exoplanet discoveries.
Credit: NASA Ames/W Stenzel
A new study by an international team of astrophysicists, led by the Jodrell Bank Centre for Astrophysics has presented the amazing new discovery of a near-identical twin of Jupiter orbiting a star at a colossal distance of 17,000 light years from Earth.
The exoplanet, K2-2016-BLG-0005Lb, is almost identical to Jupiter in terms of its mass and its distance from its sun was discovered using data obtained in 2016 by NASA’s Kepler space telescope. The exoplanetary system is twice as distant as any seen previously by Kepler, which found over 2,700 confirmed planets before ceasing operations in 2018.
The system was found using gravitational microlensing, a prediction of Einstein’s Theory of Relativity, and is the first planet to be discovered from space in this way. The study has been submitted to the journal Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society.
The view of the region close to the Galactic Centre centered where the planet was found. The two images show the region as seen by Kepler (left) and by the Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope (CFHT) from the ground. The planet is not visible but its gravity affected the light observed from a faint star at the center of the image (circled). Kepler’s very pixelated view of the sky required specialized techniques to recover the planet signal.
Credit: University of Manchester
PhD student, David Specht from The University of Manchester is the lead author on the new research. To find an exoplanet using the microlensing effect the team searched through Kepler data collected between April and July 2016 when it regularly monitored millions of stars close to the center of the Galaxy. The aim was to look for evidence of an exoplanet and its host star temporarily bending and magnifying the light from a background star as it passes by the line of sight.
“To see the effect at all requires almost perfect alignment between the foreground planetary system and a background star,” said Dr. Eamonn Kerins, Principal Investigator for the Science and Technology Facilities Council (STFC) grant that funded the work. Dr. Kerins adds: “The chance that a background star is affected this way by a planet is tens to hundreds of millions to one against. But there are hundreds of millions of stars towards the center of our Galaxy. So Kepler just sat and watched them for three months.”
“To see the effect at all requires almost perfect alignment between the foreground planetary system and a background star. The chance that a background star is affected this way by a planet is tens to hundreds of millions to one against. But there are hundreds of millions of stars towards the center of our Galaxy. So Kepler just sat and watched them for three months.”
— Dr. Eamonn Kerins
Following the development of specialized analysis methods, candidate signals were finally uncovered last year using a new search algorithm presented in a study led by Dr. Iain McDonald, at the time an STFC-funded postdoctoral researcher, working with Dr Kerins. Among five new candidate microlensing signals uncovered in that analysis, one showed clear indications of an anomaly consistent with the presence of an orbiting exoplanet.
An animation of the gravitational lensing signal from Jupiter twin K2-2016-BLG-0005Lb. The local star field around the system is shown using real color imaging obtained with the ground-based Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope by the K2C9-CFHT Multi-Color Microlensing Survey team. The star indicated by the pink lines is animated to show the magnification signal observed by Kepler from space. The trace of this signal with time is shown in the lower right panel. On the left is the derived model for the lensing signal, involving multiple images of the star caused by the gravitational field of the planetary system. The system itself is not directly visible.
Credit: University of Manchester
Five international ground-based surveys also looked at the same area of sky at the same time as Kepler. At a distance of around 135 million km from Earth, Kepler saw the anomaly slightly earlier, and for longer, than the teams observing from Earth. The new study exhaustively models the combined datasets showing, conclusively, that the signal is caused by a distant exoplanet.
“The difference in vantage point between Kepler and observers here on Earth allowed us to triangulate where along our sight line the planetary system is located”, says Dr. Kerins.
“Kepler was also able to observe uninterrupted by weather or daylight, allowing us to determine precisely the mass of the exoplanet and its orbital distance from its host star. It is basically Jupiter’s identical twin in terms of its mass and its position from its Sun, which is about 60% of the mass of our own Sun.”
Later this decade NASA will launch the Nancy Grace Roman Space telescope. Roman will find potentially thousands of distant planets using the microlensing method. The European Space Agency’s Euclid mission, due to launch next year, could also undertake a microlensing exoplanet search as an additional science activity.
Dr. Kerins is Deputy Lead for the ESA Euclid Exoplanet Science Working Group. “Kepler was never designed to find planets using microlensing so, in many ways, it’s amazing that it has done so. Roman and Euclid, on the other hand, will be optimized for this kind of work. They will be able to complete the planet census started by Kepler,” he said.
“We’ll learn how typical the architecture of our own solar system is. The data will also allow us to test our ideas of how planets form. This is the start of a new exciting chapter in our search for other worlds.”
Reference:
“Kepler K2 Campaign 9: II. First space-based discovery of an exoplanet using microlensing” by D. Specht, R. Poleski, M.T. Penny, E. Kerins, I. McDonald, Chung-Uk Lee, A. Udalski, I.A. Bond, Y. Shvartzvald, Weicheng Zang, R.A. Street, D.W. Hogg, B.S. Gaudi, T. Barclay, G. Barentsen, S.B. Howell, F. Mullally, C.B. Henderson, S.T. Bryson, D.A. Caldwell, M.R. Haas, J.E. Van Cleve, K. Larson, K. McCalmont, C. Peterson, D. Putnam, S. Ross, M. Packard, L. Reedy, Michael D. Albrow, Sun-Ju Chung, Youn Kil Jung, Andrew Gould, Cheongho Han, Kyu-Ha Hwang, Yoon-Hyun Ryu, In-Gu Shin, Hongjing Yang, Jennifer C. Yee, Sang-Mok Cha, Dong-Jin Kim, Seung-Lee Kim, Dong-Joo Lee, Yongseok Lee, Byeong-Gon Park, Richard W. Pogge, M.K. Szymański, I. Soszyński, K. Ulaczyk, P. Pietrukowicz, Sz. Kozlowski, J. Skowron, P. Mróz, Shude Mao, Pascal Fouqué, Wei Zhu, F. Abe, R. Barry, D.P. Bennett, A. Bhattacharya, A. Fukui, H. Fujii, Y. Hirao, Y. Itow, R. Kirikawa, I. Kondo, N. Koshimoto, Y. Matsubara, S. Matsumoto, S. Miyazaki, Y. Muraki, G. Olmschenk, C. Ranc, A. Okamura, N.J. Rattenbury, Y. Satoh, T. Sumi, D. Suzuki, S.I. Silva, T. Toda, P.J. Tristram, A. Vandorou, H. Yama, C. Beichman, G. Bryden and S. Calchi Novati, Submitted, Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society. arXiv:2203.16959
New findings in astronomy are making some astronomers doubt our basic model of the universe.
Alignments of celestial objects suggest that they may be embedded in large-scale structures.
Galaxies too far apart to be influencing each other are moving through space together.
Solidity is a function of magnification. We know that anything we experience as solid is actually a structure of atoms packed closely enough that to our eyes they appear to be a single solid thing. If we were small enough, we’d see the spaces between them; if we were even smaller, those spaces might seem vast. Likewise, in 1989 Margaret Geller and John Huchra, analyzing redraft survey data, discovered the immense “Great Wall,” a “sheet” formed from galaxies many light years apart. That first large-scale structure is 500 million light-years long, 200 million light years wide, and with a thickness of 15 million light years.
Other gigantic large-scale structures been discovered since — sheets, filaments, and knots, with bubble-like voids intersperse among them. They appear to be connected by clouds and filaments of hydrogen gas and dark matter. Though the bodies that comprise the structures are not gravitationally bound to each other — the distances between them are too great — evidence is piling up that they are linked by something.
Recent observations indicate that galaxies far, far apart are somehow synchronously moving. Something appears to be binding large-scale structures, many light years apart, together after all. Is the currently accepted view of the universe as various clumps of material simply expanding outward from the Big Bang and gravitationally pulling on each other wrong?
The large-scale structures revealed in one segment of sky
The existence and mechanics of large-scale structures are a tantalizing puzzle with obviously major implications for our understanding of the universe. As Noam Libeskind, of the Leibniz-Institut for Astrophysics (AIP) in Germany tells VICE, “That’s actually the reason why everybody is always studying these large-scale structures. It’s a way of probing and constraining the laws of gravity and the nature of matter, dark matter, dark energy, and the universe.”
The identification and study of large-scale structures is a product of analyzing and modeling simulations of redshift survey for specific regions of the sky that visually reveal these immense structures.
Several pieces of research are causing interest in these large-scale structures to heat up. The most mind-blowingly distant synchronized motion was reported in 2014, when the rotation axes of 19 super-massive black holes at the centers of quasars — out of 100 quasars studied — were found to be in alignment, billions of light years apart. According to the study’s lead author, astronomer Damien Hutsemékers of the University of Liège in Belgium, “Galaxy spin axes are known to align with large-scale structures such as cosmic filaments but this occurs on smaller scales. However, there is currently no explanation why the axes of quasars are aligned with the axis of the large group in which they are embedded.”
Astronomer Joon Hyeop Lee of the Korea Astronomy and Space Institute is the lead author of “Mysterious Coherence in Several-megaparsec Scales between Galaxy Rotation and Neighbor Motion,” published in October of this year in Astrophysical Journal. Comparing data from two catalogs of redshift survey data — the Calar Alto Legacy Integral Field Area (CALIFA) and NASA-Sloan Atlas (NSA) catalogs — the researchers’ analysis of 445 galaxies revealed, surprisingly, that galaxies six meparsecs, or 20 million light years, apart were moving in the same way. Those observed, for example, a galaxy moving toward the Earth was mirrored by other distant galaxies moving in the same direction.
“This discovery is quite new and unexpected,” according to Lee, “I have never seen any previous report of observations or any prediction from numerical simulations, exactly related to this phenomenon.”
Since the galaxies are too distant for their gravitational fields to be influencing each other, Lee poses another explanation: That the linked galaxies are both embedded within the same, large-scale structure.
FLATNESS
Another puzzle suggesting the influence of large-scale structures has become clear over recent years. It’s been observed that galaxies surrounding our own Milky Way are weirdly arranged in a single, flat plane. Big-Bang thinking would suggest that they should be circling us at all different sorts of angles. Obviously, for adherents of that way of viewing the galaxy — known as the ΛCDM model — this at the very least a troubling anomaly.
The hope that it was an anomaly weakened with the discovery of the same thing occurring around the Andromeda galaxy, and then again around Centaurus A in 2015. By the time “A whirling plane of satellite galaxies around Centaurus A challenges cold dark matter cosmology” was published in 2018, the phenomenon was starting to seem quite common, and possibly universal. The idea that the satellite galaxies might part of a large-scale structure had become even worthier of serious consideration.
JUST THE BEGINNING
As more astronomers embrace the notion of large-scale structures and related research accelerates, we can only hope that these perplexingly oddball movements and associations are eventually made clear. Certainly, imagining a vast arrangement of utterly gigantic structures in which galaxies are embedded paints a very different picture of the universe, and one that makes one wonder if these structures are themselves embedded in something even larger. In this mid-boggling case, we are indeed small enough to see only the space between objects — in this case galaxies. We’ve been no more aware of them than whatever it is that may be living between our own atoms.
After 404 Days on Mars, Perseverance Has Finally Spotted Its Parachute
NANCY ATKINSON, UNIVERSE TODAY
More than 13 months after the Perseverance rover landed on Mars (on 18 February 2021), the rover's cameras have finally spotted some of the parts of the Mars 2020 landing system that got the rover safely to the ground.
The parachute and backshell were imaged by Perseverance's MastCam-Z, seen off in the distance, just south of the rover's current location. The image was taken on Sol 404, or 6 April 2022 on Earth.
Normally, the rover might have taken a brief side-trip early on in the mission to take images of the remains of the landing system. But Perseverance had to drive around some hazardous terrain to get to a large area of Jezero Crater that the science team wanted to study, called South Séítah.
That was near the area where the parachute landed, and the rover finally got there. The parachute was jettisoned during the landing sequence so the Skycrane could lower the rover down to the surface on its wheels.
You can see the traverse map below, and below that is an image taken by the HiRISE camera on the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter showing the location of the parachute and backshell, along with the rover and other items from the landing. This image was taken a day after Perseverance landed.
Screenshot of Perseverance's location map on Sol 405.
This HiRISE image of the Perseverance Rover on the surface of Mars also shows the many parts of the descent system. Each inset shows an area about 650 feet (200 meters) across.
The rover itself sits at the center of a blast pattern created by the hovering Skycrane (labeled as "descent stage") that lowered it there. The Skycrane flew off to crash as at a safe distance creating a V-shaped debris pattern.
And now, Perseverance is backtracking to reach the next target location for the mission's second science campaign, an area that looks like a large river delta. The choice to study South Séítah first was a choice the team made knowing they would have to backtrack later to reach the delta.
Perseverance is now in a drive campaign to reach the delta, going faster than any previous rover, although it is only going under a tenth of a mile per hour. Perseverance is using an auto-nav feature to 'make tracks,' and is making comparatively rapid progress by devoting several hours per day to driving on very smooth terrain.
Perseverance has now broken previous rovers' records for the distance traveled in one day by driving 319.8 meters on Sol 351.
Curiosity made a number of drives over 100 meters, but none over 200 meters. That was due in part to rockier terrain. Opportunity, which landed way back in 2004, had some very smooth patches of terrain, allowing it to travel up to 228 meters in one day using solar power just a year after its landing.
This great video by Dr Steve Ruff from Arizona State University explains the landing system and why Perseverance was able to find the various parts now.
UFO emits circular beam of light caught over Tokyo, Japan
UFO emits circular beam of light caught over Tokyo, Japan
Witness states: On April 1, 2022 I noticed a black UFO moving at high speed above Asakusa Kaminarimon, Tokyo, Japan.
If you look carefully then you see that the UFO emitted a circular beam of light, something like an energy field, around the craft, before it disappeared in a split second.
HOGERE DIMENSIE MAAKT BEREISBAAR WORMGAT EEN OPTIE
HOGERE DIMENSIE MAAKT BEREISBAAR WORMGAT EEN OPTIE
Jean-Paul Keulen
Een wormgat waar je daadwerkelijk doorheen kunt vliegen, is wel degelijk mogelijk, stellen Indiase wetenschappers. Tenminste: als we aannemen dat ons heelal een extra dimensie heeft.
In sciencefictionverhalen is het altijd fijn als je een snelle manier hebt om de enorme afstanden in ons heelal in korte tijd af te leggen. Eén populaire manier om dat te doen – zie bijvoorbeeld de films Contact en Interstellar – is een wormgat: een korte weg tussen twee punten in de ruimte.
Probleem is alleen: om daadwerkelijk door zo’n wormgat te kunnen reizen, is exotische materie nodig. En die materie is er voor zover we weten niet. Rikpratik Sengupta van de Aliah-universiteit in India en collega’s hebben nu een manier bedacht om dat soort materie overbodig te maken. Maar: daar moeten ze dan wel voor aannemen dat er een extra dimensie is.
Minuscuul effectje
Op zich zijn wormgaten toegestaan door de algemene relativiteitstheorie van Albert Einstein, onze huidige zwaartekrachtstheorie. Wat heet, Einstein schreef er zelf over, samen met zijn assistent Nathan Rosen, in 1935. Later bleek echter dat zo’n wormgat ‘dichtknijpt’ voordat er iets doorheen kan reizen. Dat leek het verschijnsel – waarvan toch al niet duidelijk is of het echt bestaat – te ontdoen van enig praktisch nut voor ruimtereizigers.
Fast forward naar de jaren tachtig, toen de beroemde sterrenkundige Carl Sagan voor zijn later verfilmde roman Contact een manier nodig had om zijn hoofdpersoon snel naar een andere plek in het heelal te brengen. Hij vroeg natuurkundige – en latere Nobelprijswinnaar – Kip Thorne om hulp. Thorne bedacht vervolgens dat je een wormgat wél open kunt houden als je de beschikking hebt over exotische materie. Dat wil zeggen: materie met een negatieve massa of energie.
Die oplossing was goed genoeg voor Sagans verhaal, maar niet erg bevredigend voor natuurkundigen. In principe is er namelijk helemaal geen materie met zulke eigenschappen. Ja, dankzij de quantummechanica is het mogelijk om op héél kleine schaal de energie negatief te krijgen. Maar hoe je dat minuscule effectje ‘op zou moeten blazen’ om er een heel wormgat mee te bouwen, is totaal onduidelijk.
Hogerdimensionale ruimte
Sengupta en collega’s gaan in hun artikel daarom niet uit van het bestaan van exotische materie. Wel maken ze gebruik van een theorie die minstens zo exotisch klinkt: het zogenoemde Randall-Sundrum II-model. Dat model veronderstelt dat ons heelal, dat drie ruimtelijke dimensies kent (plus tijd), niet het hele verhaal is. In plaats daarvan zweeft het rond in een ruimte met één dimensie meer.
Nu is dat niet zomaar een gek idee. Sowieso geldt dat de snaartheorie – waarin de natuur op de kleinste schaal uit snaartjes bestaat – meer dimensies vereist dan de dimensies die wij ervaren. Bovendien zou je ermee kunnen verklaren waarom de zwaartekracht zoveel zwakker is als andere krachten. Deze kracht is als enige niet gebonden aan ons heelal, zo valt uit de snaartheorie af te leiden, maar kan ook reizen door die hogerdimensionale ruimte. Daardoor raakt hij als het ware ‘verdund’.
Niet uit elkaar getrokken
Ben je bereid om aan te nemen dat het Randall-Sundrum II-model klopt? Dan kun je ineens een wormgat bouwen zónder exotische materie, laten Sengupta en zijn team zien in hun artikel. Feitelijk zorgt die hogere dimensie voor de benodigde negatieve energie, schrijven ze. Daar heb je dan dus geen gek spul meer voor nodig dat nergens te vinden en waarschijnlijk ook niet te maken is.
Nu heb je alsnog niets aan zo’n wormgat als je gelijk aan stukken wordt gescheurd als je erdoorheen probeert te reizen. Maar dat is hier niet het geval, schrijven de Indiase fysici. “De versnelling ten gevolge van getijdekrachten is klein genoeg in de hals van het wormgat om ervoor te zorgen dat een reiziger erdoorheen kan reizen zónder uit elkaar getrokken te worden.” Fijn.
Andere recepten
Nu zijn Sengupta en collega’s niet de eersten die hun toevlucht nemen tot het Randall-Sundrum II-model om een ‘realistisch’ wormgat te creëren. Eerder deden de natuurkundigen Juan Maldacena en Alexey Milekhin hetzelfde. Over die studie zegt Maldacena zelf: “Er is geen goede reden om aan te nemen dat juist dit model de natuur beschrijft. We hebben het alleen maar gebruikt omdat het a) wormgaten toelaat en b) niet is uitgesloten door experimenten.” Hij noemt zijn eerdere artikel dan ook “een theoretische exercitie”. Hetzelfde zou je met alle recht kunnen zeggen over het nieuwe artikel van Sengupta.
Toch lijken de Indiase fysici de mogelijkheid van een heelal dat rondzweeft in een ‘ruimte’ met een extra dimensie serieuzer te nemen dan Maldacena. “Als er ooit een wormgat wordt gevonden”, schrijven ze zelfs, “dan is de kans groot dat ons heelal een driedimensionaal object is, ingebed in hogere dimensies.”
Feitelijk zeggen ze daarmee: als wormgaten daadwerkelijk bestaan, dan móéten ze haast wel volgens ons recept tot stand zijn gekomen. Maar daar zullen de vele fysici die andere recepten voor wormgaten bedacht hebben, het ongetwijfeld niet zomaar mee eens zijn.
NEPTUNUS DOET GEK: WETENSCHAPPERS ZIEN DE TEMPERATUUR OP DE IJSREUS ONVERWACHT DALEN
NEPTUNUS DOET GEK: WETENSCHAPPERS ZIEN DE TEMPERATUUR OP DE IJSREUS ONVERWACHT DALEN
Caroline Kraaijvanger
En dat kunnen ze op dit moment niet verklaren.
Net als de aarde kent Neptunus – terwijl deze om de zon draait – verschillende seizoenen. Maar waar onze planeet slechts 1 jaar nodig heeft om een rondje om de zon te voltooien, doet Neptunus daar 165 jaar over. Het betekent dat ook de seizoenen op de planeet véél langer duren: ongeveer 40 jaar. Sinds 2005 is het zomer op het zuidelijk halfrond van de gasreus. En onderzoekers houden de planeet sinds die tijd nauwlettend in de gaten; ze zijn namelijk benieuwd hoe de temperaturen in reactie op de start van de zomer veranderen. Natuurlijk hadden ze daar voorafgaand aan hun waarnemingen wel ideeën over. “Omdat we Neptunus tijdens zijn vroege zuidelijke zomer hebben waargenomen, verwachten we dat de temperaturen geleidelijk zouden stijgen in plaats van dalen,” aldus onderzoeker Michael Roman.
Verrassing! Maar verrassend genoeg gebeurde dat niet; opnames van verschillende grondtelescopen wijzen uit dat het grootste deel van Neptunus de afgelopen 20 jaar geleidelijk koeler is geworden; tussen 2003 en 2018 daalde de gemiddelde temperatuur van de gasreus met 8 graden Celsius. “Deze verandering kwam onverwacht,” stelt Roman.
Opwarming van de zuidpool Maar er gebeurde nog iets: de verrassende daling van de globale temperatuur werd gevolgd door een sterke opwarming van de zuidpool. Die opwarming openbaarde zich tussen 2018 en 2020; in een paar jaar tijd stegen de temperaturen in deze regio met maar liefst 11 graden Celsius. En ook dat heeft onderzoekers verbaasd; nog niet eerder zagen ze de pool van Neptunus zo snel opwarmen.
Opnames De verrassende temperatuurveranderingen zijn zoals gezegd waargenomen dankzij opnames van verschillende grote grondtelescopen, zoals de Very Large Telescope, de Gemini South-telescoop (beiden in Chili) en de Keck- en Gemini North-telescoop (beiden op Hawaii). “Dit soort onderzoek is alleen mogelijk met gevoelige infraroodbeelden van grote telescopen zoals de VLT, die Neptunus duidelijk kunnen waarnemen, en die zijn pas sinds een jaar of twintig beschikbaar,” legt onderzoeker Leigh Fletcher uit.
Hier zie je warmtebeelden van Neptunus, gemaakt tussen 2006 en 2020. De beelden laten duidelijk zien dat de planeet geleidelijk afkoelt. En in 2018 begint de zuidpool flink op te warmen.
Afbeeldingen: ESO / M. Roman, NAOJ / Subaru / COMICS.
De onderzoekers analyseerden de opnames die de verschillende grondtelescopen in de afgelopen 20 jaar van Neptunus hadden gemaakt. Daarnaast maakten ze ook gebruik van opnames van de ruimtetelescoop Spitzer. Ze keken daarbij specifiek naar het infrarode licht dat door Neptunus’ stratosfeer wordt uitgezonden. Aan de hand daarvan konden de onderzoekers namelijk de temperatuur van de planeet vaststellen en nagaan hoe deze door de tijd heen veranderde. En de resultaten van dat onderzoek hebben wetenschappers dus op meerdere manieren verrast. “Onze gegevens bestrijken minder dan de helft van een Neptunus-seizoen, dus niemand verwachtte grote en snelle veranderingen te zullen zien,” aldus onderzoeker Glenn Orton.
Neptunus is een tamelijk mysterieuze planeet die zich in de buitenste regionen van ons zonnestelsel bevindt; het is de achtste en dus de verst van de zon verwijderde planeet. De planeet kan – net als Uranus – gerekend worden tot de ijsreuzen: dat betekent dat deze groter is dan rotsachtige planeten (zoals de aarde en Mars), maar kleiner dan gasreuzen (zoals Saturnus en Jupiter). De gemiddelde temperatuur van de planeet is ongeveer -220 graden Celsius.
Dat er nu snelle en grote temperatuurveranderingen zijn waargenomen, is opzienbarend en op dit moment nog lastig te verklaren. Mogelijk zijn de temperatuurveranderingen te herleiden naar veranderingen in de stratosfeer of willekeurige weerpatronen. Ook zou het nog te maken kunnen hebben met de zonnecyclus (een gemiddeld 11 jaar durende cyclus die de zon doorloopt en die gekenmerkt wordt door een periode van verhoogde en een periode van verlaagde zonneactiviteit). Om meer helderheid te krijgen over de oorzaak van de opmerkelijke temperatuurveranderingen zien onderzoekers onder meer hoopvol uit naar de ingebruikname van de Extremely Large Telescope. Deze zou de temperatuurveranderingen nog gedetailleerder moeten kunnen waarnemen. Ook de recent gelanceerde James Webb-telescoop zou een nieuw licht op de kwestie kunnen werpen door de temperatuur en samenstelling van de atmosfeer (en veranderingen daarin) te onthullen.
Bronmateriaal:
"ESO-telescoop registreert verrassende veranderingen in temperatuur van Neptunus" - ESO
Afbeelding bovenaan dit artikel: ESO / M. Roman, NAOJ / Subaru / COMICS.
A 'Dead' Sunspot Just Exploded, Launching a Plasma Ball Toward Earth
STEPHANIE PAPPAS, LIVE SCIENCE
The "corpse" of a sunspot exploded Monday (April 11), triggering a mass ejection of solar material that is headed in Earth's direction.
The explosion comes courtesy of a dead sunspot called AR2987, according to SpaceWeather.com. The sunspot explosion released loads of energy in the form of radiation, which also led to a coronal mass ejection (CME) – explosive balls of solar material – both of which could spur more intense northern lightsin Earth's upper atmosphere. The material in that CME is likely to impact Earth on April 14, according to SpaceWeather.
Sunspots are dark regions on the surface of the Sun. They are caused by intense magnetic flux from the Sun's interior, according to the Space Weather Prediction Center. These spots are temporary and can last anywhere from hours to months.
The idea of a "dead" sunspot is more poetic than scientific, said Philip Judge, a solar physicist at the High Altitude Observatory at the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR), but the convection of the Sun breaks these spots apart, leaving in their wake magnetically-disturbed bits of quiet solar surface.
"Occasionally," Judge wrote Live Science in an email, "sunspots can 'restart,' with more magnetism appearing later (days, weeks) at the same region, as if a weakness was made in the convection zone, or as if there is an unstable region under the surface that is particularly good at generating magnetic fields beneath."
Whatever the future of AR2987, the sunspot let out a C-class solar flare at 5:21 Universal Time Monday (April 11). Such flares happen when the plasma and magnetic fields above the sunspot give way under stress; they accelerate outward, Judge said, because they would run into dense material if they went downward toward the Sun's interior.
C-class flares are fairly common and rarely cause any impacts on Earth directly. Sometimes, as with today's eruption, solar flares can trigger coronal mass ejections, which are huge eruptions of plasma and magnetic fields from the Sun that travel outward into space at millions of miles per hour. C-class solar flares rarely trigger CMEs, according to SpaceWeatherLive, and when they do, the CMEs are usually slow and weak.
When CMEs hit the magnetic field surrounding Earth, the charged particles within the ejection can travel down the magnetic field lines that emanate from the North and South Poles and interact with the gases in the atmosphere, releasing energy in the forms of photons and creating the shifting, dazzling curtains known as the aurora – the northern and southern lights.
During quiet times on the Sun's surface, a stream of particles known as the solar wind is enough to trigger the aurora in the polar regions. During a large CME, the greater disturbance to the planet's magnetic field means that the aurora may appear over a much broader range.
A so-called cannibal CME raced toward Earth at the end of March, triggering auroras in Canada, the northern US, and New Zealand, Space.com reported.
The CME released Monday might yield a minor (G1) geomagnetic storm on April 14, meaning that there could be minor impacts on satellite operations and weak fluctuations in the power grid, according to SpaceWeather. The aurora may become visible at lower latitudes than usual, as far south as northern Michigan and Maine.
All of this activity is fairly par for the course for the Sun, according to the Solar Influences Data Analysis Center, part of the Royal Observatory of Belgium. It's a time of increased activity for our nearest star, which goes through periods of quiet and activity known as solar cycles.
The Sun is currently in Solar Cycle 25, the 25th since formal observations began in 1755. The number of sunspots during this cycle is on the upswing and is expected to peak in 2025, which means more opportunities for solar storms – and auroras.
Strong geomagnetic storms were also observed on Sunday (April 10). But according to the Solar Influences Data Analysis Center, there have been no other Earth-directed CMEs observed in the past 24 hours other than the one spit out by AR2987's remnants.
SpaceX to launch NASA’s SWOT water topography satellite on reused Falcon 9
SpaceX to launch NASA’s SWOT water topography satellite on reused Falcon 9
NASA has modified a contract with SpaceX to allow the company to launch the international Surface Water and Ocean Topography (SWOT) mission on a flight-proven Falcon 9 booster.
NASA announced its original decision more than half a decade ago. The agency awarded SpaceX an unusually expensive $112 million contract in November 2016 to launch SWOT on a Falcon 9 rocket in April 2021. SWOT is expected to weigh less than two tons (~4400 lb) and is headed to a fairly ordinary low Earth orbit (LEO), meaning that the launch won’t be particularly challenging or performance-intensive for SpaceX or Falcon 9. Most importantly, the company will almost certainly be able to recover the mission’s Falcon 9 booster and may be able to perform a return-to-launch-site landing for even greater efficiency.
SWOT’s launch should be almost identical to Sentinel 6A, a similarly light spacecraft that SpaceX successfully delivered to a similar orbit from the same launch pad in November 2020. In fact, both SWOT and Sentinel 6A are essentially flying altimeters designed to use radar altimeters to measure the surface height of Earth’s oceans and other bodies of water. Both also carry microwave-based instruments to determine the amount of water vapor present in Earth’s atmosphere. While Sentinel 6A was largely built by France’s CNES space agency, SWOT is more of a joint effort, with NASA’s Jet Propulsion laboratory providing the main altimeter instrument and completing a significant amount of preliminary integration work.
Sentinel 6A’s Falcon 9 launch and landing.
(SpaceX)
Nonetheless, SWOT’s parts were sent to CNES facilities in France for final integration. Currently scheduled to launch no earlier than November 2022 after a roughly 1.5-year delay, SWOT will need to be delivered from France to California at least a month or two prior to complete final launch preparations. It remains to be seen if the mission will avoid additional delays in the interim. Prior to most of the mission’s recent delays, NASA’s Office of the Inspector General (OIG) estimated [PDF] that SWOT would cost its partners around $1.15 billion over the spacecraft’s lifetime. Sentinel 6A’s total cost is also expected to be around $1.1 billion.
Once launched, SWOT will operate in a circular ~890-kilometer (~550 mi) orbit with an inclination of around 78 degrees, allowing the spacecraft to singlehandedly observe 86% of Earth’s surface. Sentinel 6A operates in a slightly higher 1336-kilometer (830 mi) orbit at a 66-degree inclination,
Bible Secret Codes: The Watchers of the Garden of Eden & the Shiny Ones of the Babylon - Documentary Coast to Coast AM
Bible Secret Codes: The Watchers of the Garden of Eden & the Shiny Ones of the Babylon - Documentary Coast to Coast AM
COAST TO COAST AM 2022. The Watchers of the Garden of Eden & The Shiny Ones of the Babylon, Courtesy of Reality Films Distribution: Ancient History Documentary – Sacred divine messages are hidden within the Holy Bible that we are only now beginning to decipher. The truth about the human race are explored with new insight into the Bible Secret Codes.
I've Discovered An New Alien Species That Lives In Space! And Its Tiny, Space Station Video, UFO Sighting News.
I've Discovered An New Alien Species That Lives In Space! And Its Tiny, Space Station Video, UFO Sighting News.
Date of sighting: April 12, 2022
Location of sighting: Space Station live cam
I want to introduce you to an alien species. Now I have watch the space station cam for about 15 years, reporting some of the more interesting sightings, but letting go of the less interesting ones. During this whole time, once every few weeks something strange would happen when the space station entered the dark side of earth...small creatures would begin swarming around in front of the camera. It was clear to me that these objects were alive, and my old partner (RIP) Streetcap1 agreed with me on it. But we never really talked about it, except with each other. It seemed impossible to prove, but I think it's time we try. NASA would of course dismiss it as glitches, since they are in denial mode.
Things about this species.
Colors are usually solid, but sometimes one makes a different color trail behind it.
Colors are usually red, blue, green, or white.
They very in shape, size, but are about .5cm long.
They swarm, meaning they are in groups, like gnats in a park.
Their speed is incredibly fast, so fast, most humans would ignore them.
They seem to be either chasing food, or mating.
Russian astronauts already reported finding giant plankton living and thriving on the space stations solar panels...which NASA said may have come from the ocean. Of course they did not, they came from space! Thats how they got to Earth in the first place. These creatures, are similar to plankton, but much smaller at .5cm being the biggest. And they glow so that they can find each other, similar to deep sea fish, shrimp, and jellyfish that glow to both hunt and find each other.
I will call these organisms Firegnats, which are similar to fireflies on earth, which also create their own glow. In the video below, I slowed the speed by 10X so that they are easier to see, however, being so small, its best to make it full screen.
Location of sighting: Kennedy Space Center, Florida, USA
There were three paying costumers heading to the space station. Each paid about 55 million US dollars...which was the preview price, but Axiom refused to disclose the actual price, 55 was the advertised price in a few months ago.
I noticed that when the camera changed to a camera further away, a UFO was visible in the video. The UFO showed up for only 3 seconds, but its enough to see its big. The Falcon Heavy rocket is 104 meters tall by 17 meters wide. This UFO is just a little less than the width of the rocket. Which makes the UFO at least 15 meters. Thats huge, its way too big to be a camera drone, which are usually 1 meter or less. Also no drone has a cloaking device, since this UFO was visible less than 3 seconds! Sounds like 100% proof of aliens watching the SpaceX Falcon Heavy launch to me!
Same UFO That Was REC In Hong Kong Was Also Witnessed In Nottingham UK.
A luminous UFO sighted in Hong Kong and quite possibly the same or at the very least maybe the same type of UFO or object that was recorded in Nottingham UK a month prior.
In its position 2.8 billion miles away from the Sun, it's no surprise that Neptune is one of the coldest planets in the Solar System, with average temperatures of -373°F (-207°C).
Now, a new study has revealed that the ice giant may be even colder than we originally thought.
Researchers from NASA analysed thermal infrared images of Neptune from multiple observatories over almost 20 years.
Their analysis revealed that average temperatures in Neptune's stratosphere unexpectedly dropped by roughly 14°F (8°C) between 2003 and 2018.
Dr Michael Roman, Postdoctoral Research Associate at the University of Leicester and lead author on the study, said: 'This change was unexpected. Since we have been observing Neptune during its early southern summer, we would expect temperatures to be slowly growing warmer, not colder.'
Researchers from NASA analysed thermal infrared images of Neptune from multiple observatories over almost 20 years. Their analysis revealed that average temperatures in Neptune's stratosphere unexpectedly dropped by roughly 14°F (8°C) between 2003 and 2018
Neptune: The most distant planet in our solar system
Dark, cold, and whipped by supersonic winds, ice giant Neptune is the eighth and most distant planet in our solar system.
More than 30 times as far from the Sun as Earth, Neptune is the only planet in our solar system not visible to the naked eye and the first predicted by mathematics before its discovery. In 2011 Neptune completed its first 165-year orbit since its discovery in 1846.
NASA's Voyager 2 is the only spacecraft to have visited Neptune up close. It flew past in 1989 on its way out of the solar system.
In the study, the researchers studied thermal infrared images from a range of observatories, including the European Southern Observatory's Very Large Telescope and Gemini South telescope in Chile, the Subaru Telescope, Keck Telescope, and the Gemini North telescope, all in Hawaii, and NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope.
The images revealed that between 2003 and 2018, temperatures in Neptune's stratosphere – the second layer of the atmosphere as you move upward – dropped by 14°F (8°C).
Like Earth, Neptune experiences seasons.
However, while Earth takes 365 days to complete an orbit around the sun, Neptune takes over 165 years.
This means that seasons on the icy giant change much more slowly, lasting over 40 Earth-years each.
Dr Glenn Orton, Senior Research Scientist at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, and co-author of the study, said: 'Our data cover less than half of a Neptune season, so no one was expecting to see large and rapid changes.'
While the thermal data revealed that temperatures across the stratosphere had dropped from 2003 to 2018, surprisingly, the opposite was true for Neptune's south pole from 2018 to 2020.
In the study, the researchers studied thermal infrared images from a range of observatories, including the European Southern Observatory's Very Large Telescope and Gemini South telescope in Chile, the Subaru Telescope, Keck Telescope, and the Gemini North telescope, all in Hawaii, and NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope
The images revealed that between 2003 and 2018, temperatures in Neptune's stratosphere – the second layer of the atmosphere as you upward – dropped by 14°F (8°C)
There, the stratosphere actually warmed by roughly 20°F (11°C) – something that has never been observed before.
The researchers are currently unsure what is causing these temperature changes.
'Temperature variations may be related to seasonal changes in Neptune's atmospheric chemistry, which can alter how effectively the atmosphere cools,' Dr Roman explained.
'But random variability in weather patterns or even a response to the 11-year solar activity cycle may also have an effect.'
Like Earth, Neptune experiences seasons. However, while Earth takes 365 days to complete an orbit around the sun, Neptune takes over 165 years. This means that seasons on the icy giant change much more slowly, lasting over 40 Earth-years each
The Sun follows an 11-year cycle, during which its activity and sunspots vary. Previous research has suggest that Neptune's visible brightness fluctuates based on this cycle, and the new study reveals a possible link between the planet's temperatures too
The Sun follows an 11-year cycle, during which its activity and sunspots vary.
Previous research has suggested that Neptune's visible brightness fluctuates based on this cycle, and the new study reveals a possible link with the planet's temperatures too.
The team now hopes to use the James Webb Space Telescope to further observe the temperature and cloud patterns on Neptune.
Professor Leigh Fletcher, co-author of the study, added: 'The exquisite sensitivity of the space telescope's mid-infrared instrument, MIRI, will provide unprecedented new maps of the chemistry and temperatures in Neptune's atmosphere, helping to better identify the nature of these recent changes.'
Bijna-doodervaringen zijn geen hallucinaties, blijkt uit de eerste studie ooit van zijn soort
Een fel wit licht, doffe stemmen en omgevingsgeluiden, je eigen lichaam zien liggen terwijl je er naast staat,... In films en series wordt een ‘bijna-doodervaring’ heel vaak op dezelfde manier voorgesteld. Bijna iedereen die het zelf heeft meegemaakt, beschrijft het ook op deze manier. Maar wetenschappelijk is zo’n ervaring nog niet officieel gedefinieerd. Daarom hebben wetenschappers uit verschillende disciplines er nu voor het eerst een onderzoek naar gevoerd.
De nieuwe consensusverklaring over het bestuderen van de dood, die werd gepubliceerd in het academisch tijdschrift ‘Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences’, is ontworpen om “inzicht te verschaffen in potentiële mechanismen, ethische implicaties en methodologische overwegingen voor systematisch onderzoek” en “kwesties en controverses te identificeren” in het onderzoeksgebied.
Hoewel wetenschappelijke studies tot nu toe niet in staat zijn geweest om de realiteit van bijna-doodervaringen te bewijzen, kunnen ze ze evenmin weerleggen. Opvallend is dat deze ervaringen, waarvan er honderden miljoenen zijn opgetekend in culturen over de hele wereld, consequent dezelfde thema’s en verhaallijnen volgen. In het algemeen houdt de gemiddelde bijna-doodervaring in dat je je eerst afgescheiden voelt van je lichaam en een verhoogd bewustzijn hebt en de dood herkent. Vervolgens heb je een gevoel van reizen naar een bepaalde bestemming, gevolgd door een zinvolle en doelgerichte analyse van je daden, bedoelingen en gedachten naar anderen toe gedurende je leven. Daarna voel je je alsof je op een plaats bent die aanvoelt als thuis, voordat je uiteindelijk terugkeert naar de echte wereld.
De onderzoekers beweren dat uit dit onderzoek blijkt dat bijna-doodervaringen niets of weinig gemeen hebben met hallucinaties, illusies, of psychedelische drugservaringen, hoewel die vaak wel resulteren in dezelfde soort positieve psychologische transformatie op lange termijn.
Dood is een omkeerbaar proces
Anders Sandberg, een researcher aan de Universiteit van Oxford, schreef al in 2016 dat de dood “technologie-afhankelijk” is geworden. “Lange tijd werden een gebrek aan ademhaling en polsslag beschouwd als kenmerken van de dood, totdat reanimatiemethoden verbeterden. Vandaag de dag kunnen verdrinkingsslachtoffers die lijden aan extreme onderkoeling, zuurstofgebrek en een gebrek aan polsslag en ademhaling gedurende meerdere uren weer tot leven worden gewekt.” Ook zegt hij dat de moderne geneeskunde fundamenteel veranderd heeft hoe we over de dood denken. “Plotseling leren we hoe weinig we weten over dit meest universele deel van het leven.”
“Een hartstilstand is geen hartaanval”, stelt Sam Parnia, directeur van Critical Care and Resuscitation Research aan de NYU Grossman School of Medicine, en hoofdauteur van de nieuwe studie, in een verklaring. “In plaats daarvan vertegenwoordigt het het laatste stadium van een ziekte of gebeurtenis die een persoon doet sterven”, vervolgde hij. “De komst van reanimatie heeft ons laten zien dat de dood geen absolute toestand is, maar eerder een proces is dat mogelijk kan worden omgekeerd, zelfs nadat het is begonnen.”
Verhoogd bewustzijn
Volgens Parnia weten we door de wetenschappelijke studie van de dood dat hersencellen niet onomkeerbaar beschadigd raken binnen enkele minuten na zuurstoftekort wanneer het hart stopt. “In plaats daarvan ‘sterven’ hersenen over een periode van uren. Dit stelt wetenschappers in staat om objectief de fysiologische en mentale gebeurtenissen te bestuderen die plaatsvinden in relatie tot de dood.”
De moderne wetenschap heeft al inzicht gegeven in een deel van de bijna-doodervaring. Zo hebben elektro-encefalografiestudies bijvoorbeeld het ontstaan van gamma-activiteit en elektrische pieken aangetoond in relatie tot de dood. Dat is een fenomeen dat gewoonlijk wordt geassocieerd met een verhoogd bewustzijn, een van de beschreven thema’s bij een bijna-doodervaring. Met toekomstig onderzoek hopen Parnia en zijn collega’s deze twee met zekerheid aan elkaar te kunnen linken. “Er zijn maar weinig studies die op een objectieve en wetenschappelijke manier hebben onderzocht wat er gebeurt als we sterven”, zei Parnia. “Dit onderzoek biedt intrigerende inzichten in hoe bewustzijn bestaat bij mensen en kan de weg vrijmaken voor verder onderzoek.”
Earth's interior is not a uniform stack of layers. Deep in its thick middle layer lie two colossal blobs of thermo-chemical material.
To this day, scientists still don't know where both of these colossal structures came from or why they have such different heights, but a new set of geodynamic models has landed on a possible answer to the latter mystery.
These hidden reservoirs are located on opposite sides of the world, and judging from the deep propagation of seismic waves, the blob under the African continent is more than twice as high as the one under the Pacific ocean.
After running hundreds of simulations, the authors of the new study think the blob under the African continent is less dense and less stable than its Pacific counterpart, and that's why it's so much taller.
"Our calculations found that the initial volume of the blobs does not affect their height," explains geologist Qian Yuan from Arizona State University.
"The height of the blobs is mostly controlled by how dense they are and the viscosity of the surrounding mantle."
3D view of the blob in Earth's mantle beneath Africa.
(Mingming Li/ASU)
One of the principal layers inside Earth is the hot and slightly goopy mess known as the mantle, a layer of silicate rock that sits between our planet's core and its crust. While the mantle is mostly solid, it behaves sort of like tar on longer timescales.
Over time, columns of hot magma rock gradually rise through the mantle and are thought to contribute to volcanic activity on the planet's surface.
Understanding what's going on in the mantle is thus an important endeavor in geology.
The Pacific and African blobs were first discovered in the 1980s. In scientific terms, these 'superplumes' are known as large low-shear-velocity provinces (LLSVPs).
Compared to the Pacific LLSVP, the current study found the African LLSVP stretches about 1,000 kilometers higher (621 miles), which supports previous estimates.
This vast height difference suggests both of these blobs have different compositions. How this impacts the surrounding mantle, however, is unclear.
Perhaps the less stable nature of the African pile, for instance, can explain why there is such intense volcanism in some regions of the continent. It could also impact the movement of tectonic plates, which float on the mantle.
Other seismic models have found the African LLSVP stretches up to 1,500 kilometers above the outer core, whereas the Pacific LLSVP reaches 800 kilometers high at max.
In lab experiments that seek to replicate Earth's interior, both the African and Pacific piles appear to oscillate up and down through the mantle.
The authors of the current study say this supports their interpretation that the African LLSVP is probably unstable, and the same could go for the Pacific LLSVP, although their models didn't show this.
The different compositions of the Pacific and African LLSVPs could also be explained by their origins. Scientists still don't know where these blobs came from, but there are two main theories.
One is that the piles are made from subducted tectonic plates, which slip into the mantle, are super-heated and gradually fall downwards, contributing to the blob.
Another theory is that the blobs are remnants of the ancient collision between Earth and the protoplanet Thea, which gave us our Moon.
The theories are not mutually exclusive, either. For instance, perhaps Thea contributed more to one blob; this could be part of the reason why they look so different today.
"Our combination of the analysis of seismic results and the geodynamic modeling provides new insights on the nature of the Earth's largest structures in the deep interior and their interaction with the surrounding mantle," says Yuan.
"This work has far-reaching implications for scientists trying to understand the present-day status and the evolution of the deep mantle structure, and the nature of mantle convection."
Long before the Incas rose to power in Peru and began to celebrate their sun god, a little known civilization was building the earliest known astronomical observatory in the Americas.
While not quite as old as sites like Stonehenge, these ancient ruins, known as Chankillo, are considered a "masterpiece of human creative genius", holding unique features not seen anywhere else in the world.
Based in the coastal desert of Peru, the archaeological site famously contains a row of 13 stone towers, which together trace the horizon of a hill, north to south, like a toothy bottom grin.
The Thirteen Towers of Chankillo.
(David Edgar/Wikipedia/CC BY-SA 3.0)
Apart from this remarkable structure, known as the Thirteen Towers, the ruins of the observatory also include a triple-walled hilltop complex called the Fortified Temple and two building complexes called the Observatory and the Administrative Center.
Completed over 2,300 years ago and abandoned in the first century of the common era, the site has remained a mystery to travelers for centuries.
Against a barren desert landscape and in broad daylight, the hilltop stone structures, which span roughly 300 meters (980 feet), don't look like much. But it's another story at dawn and dusk.
As the Sun rises in the east, an orb of light emerges somewhere along the ridge of towers. As the year proceeds, so too does the position of the sunrise, almost as though the light is flossing the toothy horizon.
On the summer solstice, for example, the sunrise emerges to the right of the rightmost tower. Whereas on the winter solstice, the sunrise emerges to the left of the leftmost tower.
The Towers of Chankillo were so carefully placed, that when an onlooker stands at a specific observation point below the ridge, they can predict the time of year within two or three days based just on sunrise or sunset. The observation point looking west towards the ridge – this is the Observatory structure – uses the sunset. At what's thought to be the east observation point, all that's left is the incomplete stone outline of a room, but it's in a symmetrical location and would have used the sunrise.
The September equinox, for example, is defined when the Sun sets between the sixth and the seventh tower, as captured in the image below.
The ancient civilization that designed the solar observatory is barely known, but it would have been one of the oldest cultures in the Americas. In fact, this culture predates the Inca culture, which also excelled at astronomy, by more than 1,000 years.
Because the Chankillo ruins attributed to this civilization are based in the coastal desert between Peru's Casma River and the Sechin river, the original builders are now known as the Casma-Sechin culture.
According to archaeological excavations, the observatory was probably built sometime between 500 and 200 BCE. Then, for some reason, the site was abandoned, and the towers fell into disrepair. In their heyday, archaeologists say the structures would have been plastered yellow, ochre or white and painted with graffiti or fingerprints.
Even when stripped of decoration and falling apart, however, the remains of these stone towers still faithfully record the days of the year. Conservation efforts are now under way to uphold the accuracy of the ancient calendar.
In 2021, the Chankillo Archaeoastronomical Complex officially joined the UNESCO World Heritage List for its outstanding craftsmanship and its insight into the worldview of ancient societies.
"Unlike architectural alignments upon a single astronomical target found at many ancient sites around the world, the line of towers spans the entire annual solar rising and setting arcs as viewed, respectively, from two distinct observation points, one of which is still clearly visible above ground," reads the UNESCO description.
"The solar observatory at Chankillo is thus a testimony of the culmination of a long historical evolution of astronomical practices in the Casma Valley."
De verre kant van de maan heeft beduidend meer kraters, wetenschappers beweren te weten waarom
We kunnen altijd maar één kant van de maan zien, waar ter wereld we ons ook bevinden. De andere kant is altijd van onze planeet afgekeerd en deze kant heeft veel meer kraters dan de kant die we kunnen zien. Wetenschappers beweren nu in een nieuw onderzoek, gepubliceerd in Science Advances, dat dat iets te maken heeft met de lavastromen.
De kant van de maan die we kunnen zien, is bedekt met maan maria, dat zijn uitgestrekte vlaktes van vulkanisch basalt die als donkere vlekken verschijnen als we naar een satelliet kijken. De reden voor deze tweeslachtige verschijning is al sinds het eerste ruimtevaartuig in de jaren zestig in een baan om de maan vloog een mysterie geweest. Maar wetenschappers beweren dat een nieuwe simulatie nu misschien de puzzel uit het Apollo-tijdperk heeft opgelost.
Computermodellen hebben de verschillende kenmerken in elkaar gepuzzeld en ondersteunen het idee dat een enorme maaninslag ooit de voorkant van de maan in lavastromen aan de oppervlakte heeft gebracht. De verschillen zijn niet alleen huiddiep, ze komen ook tot uiting in de verschillende geologische samenstellingen aan beide kanten van de maan.
De SPA-botsing
Astronomen vermoeden al lang dat de voorkant van de maan ooit bedekt was met een zee van magma die afgekoeld het rotsachtige landschap gladstrijkt, waardoor de donkere vlekken ontstaan die we nu zien. Maar de oorzaak van deze vulkanische activiteit is omstreden. Een enorme krater op de zuidpool van de maan, bekend als het Zuidpool-Aitkenbekken (SPA), zou de verschillen kunnen verklaren, stellen wetenschappers nu.
Dit bekken is een overblijfsel van één van de grootste en oudste botsingen op de maan. Uit simulaties blijkt dat de SPA-botsing, die ongeveer 4,3 miljard jaar geleden plaatsvond, precies op het juiste moment op de juiste plaats plaatsvond om veranderingen in gang te zetten aan slechts één kant van de maanmantel. De immense hitte die door de inslag werd geproduceerd, zou de bovenmantel aan de dichtstbijzijnde kant zo hebben opgewarmd dat wetenschappers denken dat dit zou hebben geleid tot een concentratie van kalium, zeldzame aardelementen, fosfor en warmte-producerende elementen zoals thorium.
Tot nu toe is dat precies de samenstelling die wetenschappers hebben aangetroffen in maangesteentemonsters van de zijde die we kunnen zien, met name in het Procellarum KREEP Terrane (PKT), een groot gebied dat bekend staat om deze anomalie in de samenstelling. “Wat we laten zien is dat onder alle aannemelijke omstandigheden ten tijde van de vorming van SPA, het uiteindelijk deze warmte-producerende elementen concentreert aan de dichtstbijzijnde kant”, legt planetair wetenschapper Matt Jones van de Brown University uit. “We verwachten dat dit heeft bijgedragen aan het smelten van de mantel, waardoor de lavastromen zijn ontstaan die we aan het oppervlak zien.”
Honderden miljoenen jaren
De fall-out van de SPA-gebeurtenis zou waarschijnlijk honderden miljoenen jaren hebben geduurd. In simulaties is de oudste vulkanische vlakte aan de rand 200 miljoen jaar na de inslag tot uitbarsting gekomen. Sterker nog, intense episodes van vulkanische activiteit bleven aan de andere kant van de maan tot 700 miljoen jaar na de inslag voortduren.
Volgens wetenschappers is de reden dat deze kant van de maan meer op de inslag reageerde zowel te verklaren door de plaats waar de inslag het transport van warmte-producerende materialen centreerde, door aan lichte veranderingen in de zwaartekracht.
In elk scenario dat onderzoekers onderzochten, warmde de bovenmantel op het zuidelijk halfrond op en begonnen de elementen in de richting van het noordelijk halfrond te stromen, via de dichtstbijzijnde kant. Ondertussen bleef de bovenmantel aan de andere kant te koel om hetzelfde materiaal op een vergelijkbare manier te verspreiden. Dit verschil zou heel goed de asymmetrie kunnen hebben veroorzaakt die in de twee gezichten van de maan is waargenomen. “Hoe de PKT is ontstaan, is waarschijnlijk de belangrijkste open vraag in de maanwetenschap”, zegt Jones. “En de Zuidpool-Aitken-inslag is een van de belangrijkste gebeurtenissen in de geschiedenis van de maan. Dit werk brengt die twee dingen samen, en ik denk dat onze resultaten heel opwindend zijn.”
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Over mijzelf
Ik ben Pieter, en gebruik soms ook wel de schuilnaam Peter2011.
Ik ben een man en woon in Linter (België) en mijn beroep is Ik ben op rust..
Ik ben geboren op 18/10/1950 en ben nu dus 74 jaar jong.
Mijn hobby's zijn: Ufologie en andere esoterische onderwerpen.
Op deze blog vind je onder artikels, werk van mezelf. Mijn dank gaat ook naar André, Ingrid, Oliver, Paul, Vincent, Georges Filer en MUFON voor de bijdragen voor de verschillende categorieën...
Veel leesplezier en geef je mening over deze blog.
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