{ https://www.theguardian.com/ }

02-08-2022 om 23:49 geschreven door peter  

02-08-2022 om 23:37 geschreven door peter  

Former Navy Fighter Pilot Ryan Graves Speaks on Fighter Jets, UFOs and Aliens - Lex Fridman Video Podcast 308

Lt. Ryan Graves is a former Navy fighter pilot, who has worked on advanced research and development programs for DARPA, Office of Naval Research and Air Force Research Labs.

For this 1 August 2022 video, Lt. Graves talks on topics of multi-agent collaborative autonomy, AI-assisted air-to-air combat and manned-unmanned teaming technologies. He and other people in his squadron have detected and engaged with UFOs on multiple occasions, and Lt. Graves remains one of the few fighter pilots willing to speak publicly about these experiences. 

• https://youtu.be/qLDp-aYnR1Y

OUTLINE:

0:00 – Introduction
1:18 – Top Gun analysis
14:23 – Fighter jets
1:01:50 – UFO sightings
1:28:18 – Congressional hearing
1:36:19 – Tic Tac UFO & Gimbal UFO
1:50:45 – Alien life
2:04:07 – Autonomous weapon systems
2:21:15 – Advice for young people
2:29:30 – Meaning of life

RELATED VIDEOS, selected and posted by peter2011

{ https://beforeitsnews.com/ }

02-08-2022 om 22:22 geschreven door peter  

Caught U.S. Speaker Nancy Pelosi Plane Landing, Taipei, Taiwan, Video, Aug 2, 2022 World News.

{ https://www.ufosightingsdaily.com/ }

02-08-2022 om 21:52 geschreven door peter  

On July 27, 2022, the James Webb Space Telescope released an image of Jupiter’s Great Red Spot using one of its infrared cameras. 

 The image above contains a cylindrical-shaped object floating high above Jupiter’s atmosphere that appears to be more than a thousand miles long. The image corroborates claims of giant spacecraft recently arriving in our solar system and parking in the vicinity of Jupiter. 

These giant motherships are not only arriving and parking near Jupiter, they are also seen near other planets like Saturn and even the Sun as well as other places in space. 

Below images show some of these huge motherships captured near the Sun and in Space which are comparable in size to the UFO floating high above Jupiter’s atmosphere. 

There is clear evidence of the existence of interstellar alien spacecraft, but the US government and NASA are still silence about these giant motherships traveling through our solar system.

  

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

02-08-2022 om 21:38 geschreven door peter  

Astronautics Expert Reacts to UFO Videos

As the United States military releases new unseen footage of Unidentified Aerial Phenomena, or UAPs, otherwise known as UFOs, the general public has questions. USC lecturer Madhu Thangavelu breaks down the videos and helps us make sense of what we are seeing.

{ https://www.latest-ufo-sightings.net/ }

02-08-2022 om 21:23 geschreven door peter  

MICAH HANKS

In June, China announced the detection of high-pressure minerals in regolith samples recovered by its Chang’e-5 lunar exploration mission, evidence that points to impact ejecta near craters where the probe collected its samples.

As China’s first sample-return mission and its fifth lunar exploration effort, the minerals detected by the Chang’e-5 mission are helping scientists determine the origins of impact features on the Moon. According to the state-run Global Times, researchers with the Institute of Geochemistry Chinese Academy of Sciences detected fragments of two minerals—stishovite and seifertite—in samples collected.

“This marks the first time for seifertite to be found in the samples from outside the Earth,” the Times reported, adding that silicon dioxide and silica glass were also found in the samples. Based on heat and pressure application that simulated conditions of an impact, the scientists were able to narrow down the likely source of the silicon dioxide debris to one of Chang’e-5’s most interesting sampling areas: the Aristarchus crater.

One of the brightest features visible on the lunar surface, the Aristarchus crater exists on the northwesternmost portion of the Moon’s Earth-facing side. Comprising an impact feature that is deeper than the Grand Canyon, this region has long been a target of astronomers for its high albedo—that is, the amount of light it reflects—which is close to double the brightness of other features visible on the Moon.

However, the Aristarchus crater is known for more than just its unusually high albedo. Since the early 19th century, astronomers have reported observations of peculiar flashes of light that periodically emanate from near the center of the large impact feature, the source of which has long remained a mystery.

Wide Angle Camera (WAC) images captured by the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter of the Aristarchus crater, showing distinct color differences in the ejecta from the impact event which created it. Note the particularly bright area along the central peak, indicated by the arrow in the image above

(Credit: NASA/GSFC/ Arizona State University).

THE ARISTARCHUS ANOMALY: A BRIEF HISTORY OF AN ASTRONOMICAL PUZZLE

In 1836, Captain W. Smyth published a letter in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society where he told of seeing “a light, resembling that of a star of the 9th or 10th magnitude,” which he said, “appeared by glimpses, but at times was brilliant, and visible for several seconds together.” In his letter, Smyth remarked that “there can be no doubt of its being the identical spot mentioned by Cassini, Sir W. Herschel, and Captain Kater; and also that described by Dr. Maskelyne,” noting similar earlier observations dating back more than a century earlier.

Sightings of anomalous luminosity around or from within the Aristarchus crater have occurred in more recent times, also. In an account detailed by Ron Emanuel in the November 1965 edition of Understanding, the author noted observations of a single bright point of light, likened in appearance to a star, that seemed to originate from the center of the crater.

So what is the source of the unusual, “star-like” luminosity that so many astronomers have spotted while peering through telescopes at the Aristarchus crater?

When an impact occurs on the Moon, the peaks of craters are formed as the lunar crust rebounds following the immense pressures that such events produce. “The energies of impacts are so high that rocks no longer behave as brittle solids,” according to data included with a 2010 NASA Image Feature on the website of the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter, “but rather as deformable plastic.” This almost fluid-like behavior of the Moon’s crust causes the bottom of the crater to rebound, driving up material from deep below the surface and forming the central peak present within many lunar craters.

According to NASA, “In the case of Aristarchus crater, the central peak contains rocks with three very different albedos. As these materials erode out of the central peak they slide downslope, creating contrasting stripes.”

“The highest albedo material reflects about four times as much light as the lowest albedo rocks,” the NASA FAQ page says, describing conditions that very likely can account for the appearance of a much brighter region within the Aristarchus crater that, under the right conditions, might even appear to be star-like in its bright appearance.

And as it turns out, some of the mineralogical data collected by the Chinese Chang’e-5 mission may be able to offer additional insights into the phenomenon behind the centuries-old Aristarchus anomaly.

NEW PERSPECTIVES ON A CENTURIES-OLD MYSTERY

According to the NASA data, “The high albedo material is most likely a common lunar rock type, anorthosite,” a material that is already known to form most of the lighter areas of the lunar crust, while darker areas are formed from basaltic material.

“On the other hand,” the article suggests, “perhaps we are seeing a more silicic rock akin to granite? Such silica-rich rocks are known to form on the Moon, we just do not know much about their origin and locations.”

Intriguingly, in the recent samples collected by China’s Chang’e-5 probe, “it was determined that the silicon dioxide debris may have come from the Aristarchus impact crater in the Chang ‘e-5 sampling area,” the Global Times reported. Based on the likelihood that the silicon dioxide debris recovered by the Chinese probe has its origins from within the Aristarchus crater, it would appear to lend weight to NASA’s previous speculations about the presence of silicic rock accounting for some of the high albedo observed in the center of the crater.

Another clue regarding the conditions that may give rise to the peculiar light effects of the Aristarchus crater involves the central uplift area within the crater, where much of the higher albedo material is exposed. When sunlight strikes these lighter areas—which, as has been suggested, may be rich in both bright silica-rich rocks and minerals, as well as darker (but potentially reflective) pyroclastic glasses—the effect under proper conditions might indeed produce what resembles a bright flash of light from the center of the crater.

The central peak located within the center of the Aristarchus crater

(Credit: NASA/GSFC/ Arizona State University).

Although humans have yet to visit Aristarchus during manned Moon missions, the prominent crater was considered as a possible landing site during the Apollo era, and the same would no doubt hold true for future missions to Earth’s natural satellite. Fortunately, learning about the unique geology of the crater may not require astronauts to have to actually climb the massive central peak of the crater to learn more about this unique region of the lunar surface.

“Future astronauts exploring Aristarchus crater could easily sample materials from the highest point of the central peak without actually having to climb to the summit,” reads a NASA FAQ page. Rather, astronauts on such missions “will simply browse the samples delivered to the base!”

RED MOON RISING: OTHER ARISTARCHUS ANOMALIES

Interestingly, the Aristarchus crater is host to more than one unusual luminous phenomenon that astronomers have observed over the years. There are also several recorded observations of an odd, reddish haze or glow that astronomers have witnessed around the crater. One such instance occurred on October 13th, 1959, as astronomer E.H. Rowe was observing the moon at approximately 7 PM from near Devon, UK.

“While observing the Moon with a 36-inch telescope my attention was directed to the crater Aristarchus,” Rowe said, describing a flash of light he said was “brilliantly white in color.” However, following his sighting of the bright flash, Rowe observed something even more spectacular.

“I was surprised to see a delicate yet bright reddish-amber glow in or near Aristarchus clearly outlined against the white background,” Rowe later wrote of his observation. “It was visible for only a few seconds. After it disappeared no trace remained to show it had been there.”

Rowe was not the last observer who would describe seeing red or amber-colored lights appear near the Aristarchus crater. Just four years later, clusters of red lights were observed by astronomers at the Lowell Observatory between October 29 and November 27 over the nearby Herodotus crater, followed by a series of reddish spots observed “clustered in an oval formation along the south rim of the crater Aristarchus” on the evening of November 27.

The following month, a similar observation was made by astronomer T. Sato at the Rakurakuen Planetarium in Hiroshima, Japan. Sato’s observation followed a similar observation by seven astronomers who similarly described seeing a pinkish haze over the southern edge of Aristarchus, which they said began to drift in the direction of the Herodotus crater. Then, less than a year later, Saul Genatt, at the time the station manager of the on-site optical research facility at Goddard Space Flight Center, along with an electronic technician named Edwin Reid, observed similar bands of colored light that appeared over Aristarchus.

Aristarchus crater (left) and the nearby Herodotus crater (right), located near the southernmost edge of the Cobra head, a feature produced by an ancient volcanic vent

(Credit: NASA/GSFC/ Arizona State University).

“Mr.Genatt said that through a 16-inch telescope they saw two distinct reddish bands over the southern part of the crater and a bluish band over the northern part,” read an account of their observations in the November 1965 edition of Understanding. “The bands were roughly parallel and the reddish bands were of equal thickness – about four or five miles. The longest reddish band was about 35 miles in length.”

The colors were very prominent at first,” Genatt was quoted saying. “The reddish bands were really red and the other was quite blue. As time passed the intensity of the colors weakened.”

The cause behind these peculiar, colorful observations likely also has their source in the unique mineral content of the Aristarchus crater. “The area has long been known to be among the reddest spots on the Moon,” reads a FAQ page with data about the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter Camera (LROC), “meaning its reflectance strongly increases from short to long wavelengths.” Wide Angle Camera (WAC) images obtained by the LROC have offered excellent color images in recent years featuring this red-hued region of the crater, which, like the crater’s highly reflective central peak, “is largely blanketed by the glass-rich products of explosive volcanic eruptions.” (Editor’s Note: For another possible explanation of these and other transient lunar phenomena, or TLPs, see this FAQ page made available at the website of Columbia University which proposes lunar outgassing as another possible mechanism for such events).

While the Moon certainly keeps a few mysteries that will serve as fodder for future explorations—both of the manned variety, and those carried out remotely—it seems that our expanding knowledge of lunar geology is helping us close in on the peculiar Aristarchus anomalies, which have captured the imaginations of curious astronomers now for centuries.

• Micah Hanks is Editor-in-Chief and Co-Founder of The Debrief. Follow his work at micahhanks.com and on Twitter: @MicahHanks. 

RELATED VIDEOS, selected and posted by peter2011

{ https://thedebrief.org/ }

02-08-2022 om 00:42 geschreven door peter  

Footprints of 88 adults and children dating back 12,000 years to the ICE AGE are discovered in salt flats of Utah desert

• Ghost tracks are given to ancient footprints that only appear when there is enough water in the ground, but then disappear when the area becomes dry again

• These footprints were discovered in the Utah desert on an Air Force base and were made 12,000 years ago

• Researchers found a total of 88 human footprints that belonged to both adults and children ages five to 12 

• The team found two open-air fire pits and evidence of the earliest human tobacco use just a half-mile away 

By STACY LIBERATORE FOR DAILYMAIL.COM

Approximately 88 human 'ghost tracks' have been discovered in salt flats of Utah's Great Salt Lake desert that are believed to be more than 12,000 years ago and only appear when there is just the right amount of moisture – and then disappear when there it is not.

A team of researchers led by Cornell University determined the prints belonged to adults and children who were walking through shallow water during the Ice Age, when the now dry landscape was cloaked in wetlands. The sand in the water quickly filled in their footprints, but mud underneath kept the prints intact.

Because the sand holds more moisture than the surrounding sediment, the right amount of water will make the footprints stand out among the tan colored ground - but then disappear again when the ground dries up.

However, the group found much more than they bargained for – a half-mile away was the oldest evidence of human tobacco use.

Scroll down for video 

Pictured are a set of the ghost tracks. The prints can be seen moving away from the closest and are visible in a darker shade than the ground

Ghost tracks in the sand: The 12,000-year-old human footprints were discovered on a US Air Force base in Utah. Experts say they were made by both adults and children 

About 33 percent of Utah is desert and is the second driest state in the US after Nevada, but thousands of years ago the area was damp and even after the end of the last Ice Age when glaciers retreated the area was still wetter than it is today.

A shift in climate turned the wetlands into a wasteland, along with Utah's landlocked location that cut off moisture-laden ocean winds.

The change in landscape, however, is what kept the 12,000-year-old ghost tracks preserved.

Cornell's Thomas Urban was called to the US Air Force's Utah Testing and Training Range when someone spotted bizarre formations appearing on the ground.

The ancient humans were walking through shallow waters at the time. Their prints were filled in by sand, but mud at the bottom kept the formation. Because the sand holds more moisture than the surrounding sediment, when there is enough water in the ground the prints become darker on the surface

Experts investigated the subsurface of the ground and when dug out the prints when they could confirm their location. Pictured on the right is Daron Duke with the Far Western Anthropological Research Group. He confirmed the prints were made by adults and children

Urban instantly knew he was looking at ancient prints because he had previously investigated the earliest known human footprints in the Americas that were unearthed at White Sands National Park in New Mexico.

The researchers deployed a ground-penetrating radar survey, which provides a non-invasive way of investigating the subsurface, on two visible sets of tracks.

Daron Duke, of Far Western Anthropological Research Group, who worked alongside Urban, carefully excavated a subset of the prints.

The team used a method to investigate the subsurface without disturbing this, allowing them to locate the prints. Pictured is a model the technology created

Afterwards, Duke confirmed the individuals were barefoot and included young children from the age of five through 12.

Urban was working at the request of Duke, who had previously found two open-air hearths, the floor of a fireplace, on the military base that also dated to the end of the Ice Age - and one is where he discovered evidence of human tobacco use. 

'We have long wondered whether other sites like White Sands were out there, and whether ground-penetrating radar would be effective for imaging footprints at locations other than White Sands, since it was a very novel application of the technology,' Urban said in a statement. 'The answer to both questions is 'yes.''

While the Utah site is not as old and may not be as extensive as White Sands, Urban said there may be much more to be found, and the team said they will release a full study in the near future.

The New Mexico footprints were discovered in 2021 and dated to be 23,000 years old.

While the Utah site is not as old and may not be as extensive as White Sands (pictured), Urban said there may be much more to be found, and the team said they will release a full study in the near future. The New Mexico footprints were discovered in 2021 and dated to be 23,000 years old

British and American archaeologists uncovered the prints in soft mud adjoining Alkali Flat, a dry lakebed in the southern region of the state.

Using radiocarbon dating of seed layers above and below the tracks, experts from the U.S. Geological Survey dated the footprints as having been made over a period of at least 2,000 years.

For decades it's been generally held that homo sapiens first entered North America between 13,000 and 16,000 years ago — after the melting of the North American ice sheets opened up migration routes and much later than study co-author Sally Reynolds and her colleagues suggest.

Few archaeologists have claimed reliable evidence for human habitation older than about 16,000 years.

Read more:

• Ice Age human footprints discovered in Utah desert | Archaeology Program

{ https://www.dailymail.co.uk/ }

01-08-2022 om 23:37 geschreven door peter  

{ https://mysteriousuniverse.org/ }

01-08-2022 om 23:17 geschreven door peter  

 NOTE PETER2011

{ https://mysteriousuniverse.org/ }

01-08-2022 om 23:01 geschreven door peter  

Planet 9 is Running out of Places to Hide

We have a pretty good idea of what lurks within our solar system. We know there isn’t a Mars-sized planet orbiting between Jupiter and Saturn, nor a brown dwarf nemesis heading our way. Anything large and fairly close to the Sun would be easily spotted. But we can’t rule out a smaller, more distant world, such as the hypothetical Planet 9 (or Planet 10 if you want to throw down over Pluto). The odds against such a planet existing are fairly high, and a recent study finds it even less likely.

Many astronomers have wondered about the existence of planets that might hide at the edge of our solar system, particularly when the power of our telescopes were fairly limited. But as large sky surveys started to scan the heavens they found nothing beyond asteroid-sized worlds. But the orbits of the worlds we did find seemed to be clustered in a statistically odd way, as if they were being gravitationally perturbed by a larger object. If that were the case, this “Planet 9” would have a mass of about five Earths, and an orbital distance of a few hundred to a thousand astronomical units. In other words, just small enough and distant enough that it wouldn’t be easily seen in sky surveys.

Naturally, this motivated folks to search for the world, but it isn’t easy. Planet 9 would be too distant to be seen by reflected light, so you’d have to look for it by its faint infrared glow. And with a mass of only five Earths, it wouldn’t give off much heat. Adding to this is the fact that such a distant planet would orbit very slowly, such that within a single set of observations you wouldn’t notice it move at all. This is where this new study comes in.

To look for distant planets, the team used two infrared sky surveys, one from the InfraRed Astronomical Satellite (IRAS) and one from the AKARI Space Telescope. The two surveys were taken more than twenty years apart, giving any hypothetical planet plenty of time to move to a slightly different part of the sky. They assumed any distant planets would be fairly close to the equatorial plane, then combed through the data taking note of potential planets.

Surprisingly, they found more than 500 candidates. Based on the energy distribution of their spectra, most of these candidates had orbital distances less than 1,000 AU, and masses less than Neptune, which is exactly the range expected for Planet 9. But you shouldn’t get too excited. When the team looked at the infrared signatures by hand, they found none of them were that compelling. Most of them tended to be either within or near a faint integrated flux nebula, also known as galactic cirrus. They are diffuse clouds of interstellar gas that aren’t easily seen at visible wavelengths, but rather emit infrared light.

So it turns out these candidates aren’t planets, but rather the echoes of a faint nebula. Which pretty much rules out Planet 9. Hopes of another planet lost in the clouds.

Reference: 

• Sedgwick, Chris, and Stephen Serjeant. “Searching for giant planets in the outer Solar System with far-infrared all-sky surveys.” arXiv preprint arXiv:2207.09985 (2022).

The post Planet 9 is Running out of Places to Hide appeared first on Universe Today.

Source: 

• https://www.universetoday.com/156975/planet-9-is-running-out-of-places-to-hide/

RELATED VIDEOS, selected and posted by peter2011

{ https://beforeitsnews.com/ }

01-08-2022 om 21:42 geschreven door peter  

• https://www.universetoday.com/156972/stellar-flybys-leave-a-permanent-mark-on-newly-forming-planetary-systems/

01-08-2022 om 21:31 geschreven door peter  

“It was freakin’ huge!” Tim Ley and family on witnessing the Phoenix Lights

Tim Ley, his wife Bobbi and son Hal talk about witnessing the Phoenix Lights on March 13 1997. Interview courtesy of PhoenixLightsUFO.com / William W. Warwick IV.

RELATED VIDEOS, selected and posted by peter2011

{ https://www.latest-ufo-sightings.net/ }

01-08-2022 om 20:56 geschreven door peter  

Artificial intelligence has mapped out every protein known to science

Nina Massey

Artificial intelligence has mapped out the shape of virtually every protein known to science.

The breakthrough will help to tackle major global challenges such as developing malaria vaccines and fighting plastic pollution, experts say.

Proteins are the building blocks of life, and their shape is closely linked to their function.

Being able to predict a protein’s structure gives scientists a better understanding of what it does and how it works.

The research was conducted by DeepMind and EMBL’s European Bioinformatics Institute (EMBL-EBI), which used the AlphaFold AI system to predict a protein’s 3D structure.

The AlphaFold Protein Structure Database – which is freely available to the scientific community – has been expanded from nearly one million protein structures to more than 200 million structures, covering almost every organism on Earth that has had its genome sequenced.

The expansion includes predicted shapes for the widest possible range of species, including plants, bacteria, animals, and other organisms, opening up new avenues of research across the life sciences.

Demis Hassabis, founder and CEO of DeepMind, said: ‘We’ve been amazed by the rate at which AlphaFold has already become an essential tool for hundreds of thousands of scientists in labs and universities across the world.

‘From fighting disease to tackling plastic pollution, AlphaFold has already enabled incredible impact on some of our biggest global challenges.

‘Our hope is that this expanded database will aid countless more scientists in their important work and open up completely new avenues of scientific discovery.’

In December 2020, AlphaFold was recognised as a solution to the 50-year-old grand challenge of protein structure prediction by the organisers of the Critical Assessment of protein Structure Prediction (Casp).

At the time, it demonstrated that it could accurately predict the shape of a protein, at scale and in minutes, to atomic accuracy.

The database works like an internet search for protein structures by providing instant access to predicted models.

This cuts down the time it takes for scientists to learn more about the likely shapes of the proteins they are researching, speeding up experimental work.

Earlier predictions have already helped scientists in their quest to create an effective malaria vaccine.

Scientists at the University of Oxford and the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases have been researching a protein called Pfs48/45, which is one of the most promising candidates for inclusion in a transmission-blocking malaria vaccine.

Existing technology alone did not allow them to fully understand the structure of the protein in order to see where the most effective transmission-blocking antibodies bind across its surface.

Matthew Higgins, professor of Molecular Parasitology and co-author of that study, said: ‘By combining AlphaFold models with our experimental information from crystallography, we could reveal the structure of Pfs48/45, understand its dynamics and show where transmission-blocking antibodies bind.

‘This insight will now be used to design improved vaccines which induce the most potent transmission-blocking antibodies.’

DeepMind and EMBL-EBI said they will continue to refresh the database periodically, with the aim of improving features and functionality.

MORE : 

• Letting artificial intelligence into farming could open world’s food supply to hackers, study says

MORE : 

• Japanese researchers plan on building artificial-gravity buildings on the moon

{ https://metro.co.uk/ }

01-08-2022 om 01:42 geschreven door peter  

Discovery of eight planets makes alien system the first to tie with our solar system

With the discovery of an eighth planet, the Kepler-90 system is the first to tie with our solar system in number of planets. Artist’s concept.

Credit: NASA/Ames Research Center/Wendy Stenzel

Our solar system is tied for most number of planets around a single star, with the 2017 discovery of an eighth planet circling Kepler-90, a Sun-like star 2,545 light-years from Earth. The planet was discovered in data from NASA’s Kepler Space Telescope.

Kepler-90i – a sizzling hot, rocky planet that orbits its star once every 14.4 days – was found using machine learning from Google. Machine learning is an approach to artificial intelligence in which computers “learn.” In this case, computers learned to identify planets by finding in Kepler data instances where the telescope recorded changes in starlight caused by planets beyond our solar system, known as exoplanets.

NASA hosted a Reddit Ask Me Anything on this discovery.

“Just as we expected, there are exciting discoveries lurking in our archived Kepler data, waiting for the right tool or technology to unearth them,” said Paul Hertz, director of NASA’s Astrophysics Division in Washington. “This finding shows that our data will be a treasure trove available to innovative researchers for years to come.”

The Kepler-90 star system is like a mini version of our solar system.

The discovery came about after researchers Christopher Shallue and Andrew Vanderburg trained a computer to learn how to identify exoplanets in the light readings recorded by Kepler – the miniscule change in brightness captured when a planet passed in front of, or transited, a star. Inspired by the way neurons connect in the human brain, this artificial “neural network” sifted through Kepler data and found weak transit signals from a previously-missed eighth planet orbiting Kepler-90, in the constellation Draco.

Machine learning has previously been used in searches of the Kepler database, and this continuing research demonstrates that neural networks are a promising tool in finding some of the weakest signals of distant worlds.

• [Kepler finds Largest batch of Earth-size, habitable zone planets]

Other planetary systems probably hold more promise for life than Kepler-90. About 30 percent larger than Earth, Kepler-90i is so close to its star that its average surface temperature is believed to exceed 800 degrees Fahrenheit, on par with Mercury. Its outermost planet, Kepler-90h, orbits at a similar distance to its star as Earth does to the Sun.

Artist’s concept of the Kepler-90 system compared with our own solar system.

Credit: NASA/Ames Research Center/Wendy Stenzel

“The Kepler-90 star system is like a mini version of our solar system. You have small planets inside and big planets outside, but everything is scrunched in much closer,” said Vanderburg, a NASA Sagan Postdoctoral Fellow and astronomer at the University of Texas at Austin.

Shallue, a senior software engineer with Google’s research team Google AI, came up with the idea to apply a neural network to Kepler data. He became interested in exoplanet discovery after learning that astronomy, like other branches of science, is rapidly being inundated with data as the technology for data collection from space advances.

• [Stand on the surface of another planet with our 360 virtual reality]

“In my spare time, I started Googling for ‘finding exoplanets with large data sets’ and found out about the Kepler mission and the huge data set available,” said Shallue. "Machine learning really shines in situations where there is so much data that humans can't search it for themselves.”

Kepler’s four-year dataset consists of 35,000 possible planetary signals. Automated tests, and sometimes human eyes, are used to verify the most promising signals in the data. However, the weakest signals often are missed using these methods. Shallue and Vanderburg thought there could be more interesting exoplanet discoveries faintly lurking in the data.

First, they trained the neural network to identify transiting exoplanets using a set of 15,000 previously vetted signals from the Kepler exoplanet catalog. In the test set, the neural network correctly identified true planets and false positives 96 percent of the time. Then, with the neural network having "learned" to detect the pattern of a transiting exoplanet, the researchers directed their model to search for weaker signals in 670 star systems that already had multiple known planets. Their assumption was that multiple-planet systems would be the best places to look for more exoplanets.

“We got lots of false positives of planets, but also potentially more real planets,” said Vanderburg. “It’s like sifting through rocks to find jewels. If you have a finer sieve then you will catch more rocks but you might catch more jewels, as well.”

Kepler-90i wasn’t the only jewel this neural network sifted out. In the Kepler-80 system, they found a sixth planet. This one, the Earth-sized Kepler-80g, and four of its neighboring planets form what is called a resonant chain – where planets are locked by their mutual gravity in a rhythmic orbital dance. The result is an extremely stable system, similar to the seven planets in the TRAPPIST-1 system.

Their research paper reporting these findings was published in The Astronomical Journal.

Kepler produced an unprecedented data set for exoplanet hunting. After gazing at one patch of space for four years, the spacecraft operated on an extended mission and was retired in 2018.

“These results demonstrate the enduring value of Kepler’s mission,” said Jessie Dotson, Kepler’s project scientist at NASA’s Ames Research Center in California’s Silicon Valley. “New ways of looking at the data – such as this early-stage research to apply machine learning algorithms – promise to continue to yield significant advances in our understanding of planetary systems around other stars. I’m sure there are more firsts in the data waiting for people to find them.”

Ames managed the Kepler and K2 missions for NASA’s Science Mission Directorate in Washington. NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, managed Kepler mission development. Ball Aerospace & Technologies Corporation operates the flight system with support from the Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics at the University of Colorado in Boulder. This work was performed through the Carl Sagan Postdoctoral Fellowship Program executed by the NASA Exoplanet Science Institute.

For more information on this announcement, visit:

• https://www.nasa.gov/mediaresources

For more information about the Kepler mission, visit:

• https://www.nasa.gov/kepler

Media contacts:

• Felicia Chou
  Headquarters, Washington
  202-358-0257
  felicia.chou@nasa.gov
• Alison Hawkes
  Ames Research Center, California’s Silicon Valley
  650-604-0281
  alison.j.hawkesbak@nasa.gov

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{ http://www.nasa.gov/ }

01-08-2022 om 01:14 geschreven door peter  

Our tiny brains can't even comprehend the true scale of these astronomical giants.

This Video About The Scale of Black Holes Will Crush Your Poor, Tiny Brain

Black holes are vast, matter-annihilating objects that seem to defy physics by their very existence. They're so weird, that when Albert Einstein's equations first predicted the existence of these beasts, he didn't believe they could actually be real.

{ https://www.thespaceacademy.org/ }

31-07-2022 om 23:49 geschreven door peter  

Titan is the farthest world where a man-made machine has landed. And sent back some amazing images and videos of the surface.

Ever since man ventured into space, he has sent his technology to many corners of the solar system. Before the end of the 20th century, our probes had already touched the surfaces of Mars and Venus, but it would not be until 2005 that a spacecraft would land on the most distant world to date: Titan, Saturn's largest moon.

The protagonist of the feat was the Huygens probe, designed by the European Space Agency (ESA) and launched into space on October 15, 1997, as part of the Cassini-Huygens mission (orbiter and landing probe, respectively).

The objective of this joint project with NASA and the Italian Space Agency (ASA) was to get to know Saturn in depth: its rings, climates, geology and dozens of moons. But the Huygens instrument pointed to the most gigantic Saturnian satellite of all.

Why is this distant body in the outer solar system still so interesting today?

An amazing moon

Titan is a special world for astronomers not only because it is the second largest moon in the solar system after Ganymede, on Jupiter; but because of its very similar conditions to the primitive Earth.

Similar to the blue planet, Titan has a 600 kilometer thick atmosphere that is made up of nitrogen (95%) and methane (5%). It is also the only other place in the solar system where a rain cycle similar to Earth's has also been seen, with the exception that it is based on methane instead of water.

Images taken by Cassini show the changing surface of Titan.

Photo: NASA/JPL/University of Arizona

Continuous precipitation—which varies depending on the seasons on the planet, also tilted like Earth—makes Titan's surface changeable. Mainly at its south pole, there are liquid reserves (lakes and seas) and hard ice rocks due to the extreme cold of -180 ºC.

Astronomers believe that in 6 billion years, when the Sun becomes a red giant star and its size brings it closer to the outer solar system, conditions on Titan may be favorable for stable oceans.

All these characteristics make Titan one of the best candidates for have harbored (or harbor) extraterrestrial microbial life that depends on methane instead of water.

Landing on titan

Seven years after the launch of the Cassini-Huygens mission, the Cassini module was inserted into the orbit of Saturn. Then, in December 2004, it ejected the Huygens probe, its traveling companion who had been 'asleep' for all those years, towards Titan.

The violent entry into Titan's atmosphere in January 2005 took almost two and a half hours. Once on the surface, its useful life was very short but valuable: for one hour and ten minutes it worked automatically and captured 350 photographs of the terrain before losing communication with Cassini, which moved away from the landing point and followed its orbit.

The computer and postal data of the impressive descent to Titan were recorded for history and, years later, could be recreated in an ESA video.

The images show rocks similar to boulders, so it is believed that there was a fluid that ran through there and eroded them.

But the interest in this giant satellite has not ended.

Dragonfly, the dragonfly that will fly over Titan

Continuing the legacy of Cassini-Huygens, in 2026 NASA will send the Dragonfly mission to Titan to study the satellite's atmosphere, its prebiotic chemical processes and its subsurface ocean reserves.

NASA's Dragonfly rover will arrive on Titan in 2034 to study its atmosphere and pre-life chemical processes.

Photo: NASA

This flying instrument - similar to the Ingenuity on Mars - will land in 2034 in Shangri-La , a region with dunes similar to those of Namibia in southern Africa.

From then on, Dragonfly will make long jumps of up to 8 kilometers in different locations and, in each one of them, will stay one Titan day (16 Earth days). Your ultimate goal will be Selk Crater , a region where evidence of ancient liquid water exists.

“Visiting this mysterious marine world could revolutionize what we know about life in the universe. This state-of-the-art mission would have been unthinkable even a few years ago, but now we are ready," former NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine said in astatement.

Dragonfly is part of NASA's ambitious News Frontier program, which includes other missions such as News Horizon to Pluto and the Kuiper Belt, Juno to Jupiter, and OSIRIS-REX to asteroid Bennu.

RELATED VIDEOS, selected and posted by peter2011

{ https://www.thespaceacademy.org/ }

31-07-2022 om 23:11 geschreven door peter  

‘Spaghettified’ star wrapped around a black hole spotted for the first time

A black hole enjoyed one stellar spaghetti dinner and astronomers were able to witness the event from 215 million light-years away in a spiral galaxy in the Eridanus constellation.

Astronomers saw the light from a star being devoured and ripped apart by a supermassive black hole using telescopes at the European Southern Observatory in Chile. Although it sounds incredibly far away, this event was the closest flaring death throes of a star astronomers have seen to date.

And apparently, what the astronomers witnessed was the "spaghettificaton" of the star.

"When an unlucky star wanders too close to a supermassive black hole in the center of a galaxy, the extreme gravitational pull of the black hole shreds the star into thin streams of material," said Thomas Wevers, study coauthor and an ESO fellow in Santiago, Chile, in a statement. Wevers was at the University of Cambridge's Institute of Astronomy as he worked on this research.

When these thin strands of the star's material fall into the black hole, they release a bright energetic flare that can be detected by astronomers.

Spaghettification events are much more rare to observe and harder to study. But the researchers had the European Southern Observatory's Very Large Telescope and New Technology Telescope aimed in the right place after spying a new flash of light last year that was located close to a supermassive black hole.

"The idea of a black hole 'sucking in' a nearby star sounds like science fiction. But this is exactly what happens in a tidal disruption event," said Matt Nicholl, lead study author and a lecturer and Royal Astronomical Society research fellow at the University of Birmingham in the UK, in a statement.

The study published Monday in the Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society.

Although the light from the star was incredibly bright, it was still difficult for the astronomers to study because dust and debris created by the event helped to obscure it from view. Energy released during the black hole's mealtime actually pushed out the star's debris in a type of curtain.

"We found that, when a black hole devours a star, it can launch a powerful blast of material outwards that obstructs our view," said Samantha Oates, study coauthor and researcher at the University of Birmingham, in a statement.

Astronomers began observing the event shortly after the star was ripped apart and continued to use different telescopes and instruments to study it in detail over six months as the light from the star initially grew and then faded.

"Because we caught it early, we could actually see the curtain of dust and debris being drawn up as the black hole launched a powerful outflow of material with velocities up to 10,000 km/s," said Kate Alexander, study coauthor and NASA Einstein fellow at Northwestern University, in a statement. "This unique 'peek behind the curtain' provided the first opportunity to pinpoint the origin of the obscuring material and follow in real time how it engulfs the black hole."

Observations were taken in multiple wavelengths of light, including optical, X-ray, ultraviolet and radio light. These different wavelengths revealed a direct link between the bright flare witnessed as the star was consumed by the black hole and the material flowing out from the star.

"The observations showed that the star had roughly the same mass as our own Sun, and that it lost about half of that to the monster black hole, which is over a million times more massive," Nicholl said.

The study furthers how astronomers understand black holes and this particular event, dubbed AT2019qiz, could be used as a "Rosetta stone" for similar events in the future.

{ https://www.thespaceacademy.org/ }

31-07-2022 om 22:47 geschreven door peter  

Triangular UFOs: New Historical Cases and Validated Insights -David Marler

NOTE ANDRE SKONDRAS

Do you want to hear some "common sense" in terms of critical rational thinking about UFOs? Then pay close attention to researcher and archivist David Marler's most recent presentation on Triangular UFOs throughout history. He factually refutes the UFO debunking claims in this presentation. Well-done job, David!

Description video

For over 20 years, David Marler has been investigating a particular subset of the UFO phenomenon – triangular UFOs. In his 2013 groundbreaking book, Triangular UFOs – An Estimate of the Situation, he established a working profile of these anomalous aerial objects by highlighting their repeatedly-reported characteristics and flight dynamics. Those conclusions were derived from his vast historical UFO materials and research at the time.

Since then, The David Marler Historical UFO Archive Collection has grown by leaps and bounds. Of particular note was the receipt of the world’s largest historical UFO case file collection in November of 2020. This consists of hundreds (if not thousands) of case files from: Civilian Saucer Intelligence of New York (CSI-NY), The National Investigations Committee on Aerial Phenomena (NICAP), and The Center for UFO Studies (CUFOS). In addition, it includes the personal Air Force Project Blue Book files of Dr. J. Allen Hynek.

In reviewing this vast treasure trove of historical UFO case files dating back to the late 1940s, David noted there were triangular UFO case reports that had never been seen by the general public. When reading these accounts, they served as the best outside validation for what David outlined in his book. Namely, the reported details and characteristics matched what other witnesses had described in reference to these triangular UFOs. However, the vast majority of these accounts date back from the 1950s, 60s, and 70s.

This presentation will share with the public, for the first time, historical UFO case files and audio recordings relating to triangular UFO reports that pre-date stealth technology and the modern period of UFO reporting. Enjoy this journey back to the early years of the UFO phenomenon where we see that the past was indeed prologue for the future of triangular UFO reports.

Presentation from the 2022 Ozark Mountain UFO Conference.

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{ https://www.youtube.com/ }

31-07-2022 om 22:23 geschreven door peter  

Narcissus: An Ancient Tragic Story with Many Modern Parallels

The Greek tale of the self-absorbed yet staggeringly handsome Narcissus is a famous and ancient one. Despite its age, the myth remains famous to this day and provides a moral warning against becoming selfish and uncaring towards others.

The Narcissus story is so influential, in fact, that his name has been given to the mental condition narcissism which is characterized by an inflated sense of self-importance and a lack of empathy for others. Narcissus’ life has also influenced popular culture for centuries and even provided the inspiration for the name of the Harry Potter character Narcissa Malfoy.

Whilst the most popular and well-known versions of the myth contain nymphs, warnings from the Gods and blind seers, the integral moral of the story remains influential. The story also acts as an explanation for the origin of the Narcissus flower (daffodil) and for the origin of echoes.

Primary Sources Give Some Info About Narcissus’ Life

There are a couple of surviving stories about Narcissus’ life, all of which differ somewhat but have the same central story with the same moral teachings.

The main primary source of the myth is Ovid’s Metamorphoses where the story is told in Book III. Ovid was a Roman poet who was born in the city around 43 BC and died in 16 or 17 AD. He traveled throughout his life to a number of Greek territories like Asia Minor and Athens.

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In 2 AD he began his Metamorphoses which is considered his magnum opus comprising 11,995 lines, 15 books and over 250 myths. This colossal poem chronicles the history of the world from its beginning until the deification of Julius Caesar. It also contains the longest version of the myth.

Another earlier but less complete source for the story of Narcissus is a version composed in 50 BC and thought to be the work of the poet Partenius of Nicaea. This work was discovered in 2004 by Dr Benjamin Henry within the Oxyrhynchus papyri at Oxford. The only difference between this telling and Ovid’s is the ending.

A third source for the tale of Narcissus’ life was composed by Conon who was a Greek grammarian and mythographer. His ending is similar to that of Partenius. The tale is also told by the Greek traveler and geographer Pausanias in Book IX of his Description of Greece .

Echo and Narcissus in painting from 1627 by Nicolas Poussin.

(Nicolas Poussin / Public domain )

Narcissus in Ovid’s Metamorphoses

Ovid’s telling of Narcissus’ life is perhaps the most well know version today. It begins with the birth of Narcissus. His parents were the God of the River, Cephissus, and the nymph Liriope. Ovid claims that Cephissus was not a nice man and had forced Liriope into his bed, and consequently the nymph became pregnant.

Narcissus, from his birth and throughout his life was incredibly handsome . When Liriope consulted a seer (named Tiresias) after his birth and asked if her son would live a long life, the seer stated that Narcissus would live a long life if he did not look at himself.

Narcissus managed to live his early life and not discover himself. His beauty became known, and men and women alike were said to be throwing themselves at him. However, Narcissus was not fazed by any of them and ignored all of their advances.

One day he was walking in the woods when an Oread (a mountain nymph) named Echo spotted him. Echo, like so many women before her, instantly fell deeply in love with the handsome Narcissus. She proceeded to follow him through the wood.

However, she was hesitant to speak to this beautiful man because, according to Ovid, the nymph suffered from a speech impediment that was a result of a curse by Juno (or Hera), the wife of Zeus. It was known that Zeus had a particular fondness for nymphs, and this had made Juno extremely jealous. It was said that every time Juno would almost catch Zeus with a nymph Echo would distract the unknowing wife.

When Juno eventually found out she punished Echo by removing her ability to communicate properly so she could only say the last few words that were spoken to her. She could therefore not talk to Narcissus first and instead had to wait for him to talk to her.

Another version of the hopeless heartbreak “bubble” Echo lived in because Narcissus was more interested in himself, from a painting by Francesco Xanto Avelli from 1535.

(Francesco Xanto Avelli / CC BY-SA 2.0 )

After some time, Narcissus heard Echo following him through the wood and he called out “Who’s there?” Echo repeated his questions and was eventually convinced by Narcissus to reveal herself.

Echo then immediately attempted to embrace Narcissus, however, he refused and stepped away from the nymph.

“Away with these encircling hands! May I die before what’s mine is yours. She answers,
“What’s mine is yours!” 

(Metamorphoses, Book III)

The heartbroken Echo spent the rest of her life in misery, she lived alone in the glens until nothing remained of her but an echo.

Narcissus continues to break the hearts of numerous lovers. One even went as far as to curse him that he may suffer as he has caused others to suffer. The Goddess of Revenge, Nemesis, eventually heard of this tale and noticed Narcissus’ behavior. She decided to punish the selfish man. During the summer when Narcissus became thirsty, she lured him to a pool and when he leaned down to the water he gazed upon his own reflection. Not realizing it was his own reflection, Narcissus fell deeply in love with himself, believing it was someone else.

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He was unable to remove himself from looking at his own reflection but soon realized that his love could not be reciprocated when he attempted to kiss or hold the reflection. However, his confusion is amplified when the image in the pool reciprocated his winks and waves. Narcissus could not understand why he could not secure what he so desperately desired.

Narcissus was tormented by this and by the time he realized it was his reflection it was too late, and he had already fallen in love with himself. Because he now knew he could never obtain what he truly wanted his body melted away from the passion he felt burning inside him.

When Echo returns to the place where Narcissus had been staring into his own eyes to recover his body for the funeral, she found in his place a gold and white flower. This flower would become known as the Narcissus flower, or the daffodil.

Ameinias spurned lover of Narcissus, who committed suicide as his love turned to madness, sculpted by Malcolm Lidbury for the 2016 Cornwall LGBT History project.

(Pinkpasty / CC BY 4.0 )

Narcissus According to Other Stories about Him

Parthenius tells much of the same story, however, rather than slowly decaying because of his yearning, Narcissus lost his will to live and committed suicide.

Canon’s version of the story was written at roughly the same time as Ovid’s however, this also differs slightly. First of all, rather than a nymph named Echo, a young man by the name of Ameinias falls in love with Narcissus after the latter had already turned away many male suitors.

Like those before him, Narcissus rejects Ameinias and gives him a sword. As a result of this rejection, Ameinias commits suicide on Narcissus’ doorstep. Ameinias had prayed to the gods to give the selfish Narcissus a lesson and make him learn from all the pain he had caused.

Narcissus then walked to a pool of water and decided to have a drink. As he bent down, he gazed upon his own reflection and fell in love. When he realized this love was futile, he killed himself because he could not obtain what he desired most.

In his work, Pausanias summarized Ovid’s story. Pausanias did not believe that a man old enough to fall in love would be stupid enough to not realize it was his own reflection upon which he was staring. So, Pausanias changed the story slightly, to make it more believable. Rather than falling in love with a nymph named Echo or a man named Ameinias, Narcissus was actually mourning the death of his beloved twin sister and was gazing at his own reflection to recall her features. In this telling, the spring in front of which Narcissus wastes away is located on a mountain top and is part of the river Lamus in a place called Donacon.

What all the versions share, however, is the inherent negative link between Narcissus and the act of gazing upon his reflection. It is possible that this was derived from the ancient Greek superstition that it was unlucky and sometimes even fatal to see your own reflection.

A fine Narcissus fresco from Pompeii showing the pool reflection he was in love with.

( CC0)

Narcissus’ Legacy

The myth of Narcissus has had a lasting effect on humans. He was a very popular subject in Roman art and appears prominently in 50 paintings from Pompeii alone. His name has been given, in Freudian psychiatry and psychoanalysis, to the mental condition that leaves one with an “inflated sense of their own importance, a deep need for excessive attention and admiration, troubled relationships and a lack of empathy for others.” The myth also had a huge influence on Dante and Shakespeare.

After losing influence after the Renaissance, it came back and inspired more creatives. The myth appears in a number of 20th-century works of art and music and provides a warning against self-obsession which was particularly influential during the age of individualism.

The Origins of Narcissus’ Story

Because there is a lack of stories based on Narcissus and Echo, many scholars today believe that the myth may have originated with Ovid. According to Ingo Gildenhard and Andrew Zissos, this story actually interrupted the poetic pattern of Metamorphoses suggesting that the story may have been an afterthought and placed in the work to verify the validity of the prophet Tiresias (the seer). Ovid’s version, nevertheless, was then retold by later poets and has become not only an explanation for where the flower originated but also why echoes exist.

W. S. Anderson has argued that the language used in Ovid’s tale is formed in a way to discourage the audience from feeling any kind of sympathy for Narcissus. The poet stresses that he deserved everything that happened to him because of the horrible way he treated those who fell in love with him, particularly Echo.

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In Pausanias’ telling, however, the author takes a different stance. By rationalizing the story, Pausanias expresses his belief that Ovid’s version is foolish. Here, Echo and the will of the Gods are omitted. He even argues that the flower had existed long before Narcissus and his story. He effectively warped the story from one which explained the origins of the flower and of echoes into one purely for entertainment.

Despite this, and as already mentioned, both stories end with Narcissus’ death as a result of gazing into the pool and at his own reflection. Because of this he dies completely alone with no awareness of his surroundings. Both authors are conveying the same moral message that it is not good to be self-absorbed. The story warns that being so will only end in loneliness.

• Top image: Echo and Narcissus in a painting by John William Waterhouse, and one senses that Narcissus has already fallen in love with himself for all time.                       
• Source: John William Waterhouse / Public domain

By Molly Dowdeswell

{ https://www.ancient-origins.net/ }

31-07-2022 om 21:06 geschreven door peter