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!!!
Een interessant adres?
UFO'S of UAP'S, ASTRONOMIE, RUIMTEVAART, ARCHEOLOGIE, OUDHEIDKUNDE, SF-SNUFJES EN ANDERE ESOTERISCHE WETENSCHAPPEN - DE ALLERLAATSTE NIEUWTJES
UFO's of UAP'S in België en de rest van de wereld In België had je vooral BUFON of het Belgisch UFO-Netwerk, dat zich met UFO's bezighoudt. BEZOEK DUS ZEKER VOOR ALLE OBJECTIEVE INFORMATIE , enkel nog beschikbaar via Facebook en deze blog.
Verder heb je ook het Belgisch-Ufo-meldpunt en Caelestia, die prachtig, doch ZEER kritisch werk leveren, ja soms zelfs héél sceptisch...
Voor Nederland kan je de mooie site www.ufowijzer.nl bezoeken van Paul Harmans. Een mooie site met veel informatie en artikels.
MUFON of het Mutual UFO Network Inc is een Amerikaanse UFO-vereniging met afdelingen in alle USA-staten en diverse landen.
MUFON's mission is the analytical and scientific investigation of the UFO- Phenomenon for the benefit of humanity...
Je kan ook hun site bekijken onder www.mufon.com.
Ze geven een maandelijks tijdschrift uit, namelijk The MUFON UFO-Journal.
Since 02/01/2020 is Pieter ex-president (=voorzitter) of BUFON, but also ex-National Director MUFON / Flanders and the Netherlands. We work together with the French MUFON Reseau MUFON/EUROP.
ER IS EEN NIEUWE GROEPERING DIE ZICH BUFON NOEMT, MAAR DIE HEBBEN NIETS MET ONZE GROEP TE MAKEN. DEZE COLLEGA'S GEBRUIKEN DE NAAM BUFON VOOR HUN SITE... Ik wens hen veel succes met de verdere uitbouw van hun groep. Zij kunnen de naam BUFON wel geregistreerd hebben, maar het rijke verleden van BUFON kunnen ze niet wegnemen...
08-08-2022
Dwarf Galaxies Found Without Influence From Dark Matter
Dwarf Galaxies Found Without Influence From Dark Matter
Ask astronomers about dark matter and one of the things they talk about is that this invisible, mysterious “stuff” permeates the universe. In particular, it exists in halos surrounding most galaxies. The mass of the halo exerts a strong gravitational influence on the galaxy itself, as well as on others in the neighborhood. That’s pretty much the standard view of dark matter and its influence on galaxies. However, there are problems with the idea of those halos. Apparently, some oddly shaped dwarf galaxies exist that look like they have no halos. How could this be? Do they represent an observationally induced challenge to the prevailing ideas about dark matter halos?
Finding Perturbed Dwarf Galaxies
In the so-called “Standard Model” of cosmology, shells or halos of dark matter protect galaxies from the gravitational influence of nearby galactic neighbors. However, when astronomers at the University of Bonn and Saint Andrews in Scotland looked in the nearby Fornax Cluster, which lies some 62 million light-years away from us, they saw something strange. It contains a number of dwarf galaxies with distorted, perturbed shapes. This is odd, especially if they should be surrounded by dark matter halos.
Let’s take a quick look at dwarf galaxies. They’re small and faint and usually found riding along in galaxy clusters or near much larger companions. The Milky Way Galaxy has a coterie of dwarf galaxies around it,. It is, in fact, cannibalizing ones such as the Sagittarius Dwarf Spheroidal. Interestingly, recent studies show that at least one of the dwarf galaxies near ours, an ancient one called Tucana II, has an astoundingly massive dark matter halo.
So, what’s happening in Fornax that’s different? There, dwarf galaxies could be “disturbed” by gravitational tides from nearby larger ones in the cluster. Tides happen when gravity from one body pulls differently on different parts of another body. These are similar to tides on Earth when the Moon pulls more strongly on the side of Earth that faces it.
The distorted shapes of the dwarf galaxies seen by the team indicate a problem with our understanding of dark matter. “Such perturbations in the Fornax dwarfs are not expected according to the Standard Model,” said Pavel Kroupa, Professor at the University of Bonn and Charles University in Prague. “This is because, according to that model, the dark matter halos of these dwarfs should partly shield them from tides raised by the cluster.”
Dwarf galaxy NGC1427A, part of the Fornax galaxy cluster.
(ESO)
Explaining Distorted Dwarf Galaxies
Kroupa and Ph.D. student Elena Ascencio analyzed observations of the perturbed dwarfs in Fornax. They wanted to understand the extent of gravitational distortions these galaxies show and what causes them. The expected levels of distortion depend on a couple of factors. One is the internal characteristics of the dwarf galaxy. In addition, their distance to the center of the cluster is important. That’s where gravitational influences are much stronger. As a rule, galaxies with large sizes but not many stars could be easily disturbed by strong gravitational tides. The same is true for galaxies closer to the core of the cluster.
The team members compared what they saw in the cluster with observations made by the VLT Survey Telescope at the European Southern Observatory. Asencio pointed out that what they found seems to point to problems with the Standard Model. “The comparison showed that, if one wants to explain the observations in the standard model,” she said, “the Fornax dwarfs should already be destroyed by gravity from the cluster center even when the tides it raises on a dwarf are sixty-four times weaker than the dwarf’s own self-gravity.”
Not only is this counter-intuitive, she said, it also contradicts previous studies. The team also found that the force needed to disturb a dwarf galaxy is about the same as its self-gravity.
What Does This Mean for the Standard Model?
The research team points out that it’s difficult to explain these perturbed, disturbed shapes of the dwarf galaxies in Fornax if they’re surrounded by dark matter. In other words, they shouldn’t be misshapen if they do have halos. Yet, there they are with disturbed-looking shapes. That means that there are no dark matter halos around those galaxies.
Obviously, if what the astronomers found is confirmed, then the Standard Model needs some tweaking. And, there is at least one alternative explanation for the strange galaxy shapes. It’s called the MOND model (short for Modified Newtonian Dynamics). It suggests that Newton’s law of universal gravitation should be modified to account for the observed properties of galaxies. It could be applied to explain why misshapen galaxies look the way they do.
According to Hongsheng Zhao, a member of the research team from the University of Saint Andrews, finding disturbed dwarfs without dark matter halos is a major challenge to the current view. It states that galaxies have halos. It appears not all of them do, he points out. “Our results have major implications for fundamental physics,” he said. “We expect to find more disturbed dwarfs in other clusters, a prediction which other teams should verify”.
Gods, Extraterrestrials and Religion: From Ancient Atlantis to Today
Gods, Extraterrestrials and Religion: From Ancient Atlantis to Today
Ancient records and religious texts describe multiple "Gods" (aka extraterrestrials) creating humanity in a series of genetic experiments and warring among themselves over who would be dominant in influencing Earth's future.
The world's oldest known creation story, Sumer's Enuma Elish, and other ancient texts introduce the different creator Gods and how they formed grand assemblies to resolve their differences over the destiny of humanity.
This new video is the official trailer/short film for the "World Religions and Extraterrestrial Contact" webinar to be held on August 13. In addition to the above issues, the trailer discusses the rise and fall of Atlantis in relation to creator Gods/extraterrestrials alarmed over humanity's rapid technological development.
Finally, this short film covers the return of the creator Gods (Elohim/Anunnaki) to our solar system and what this means for us today.
Stationary blinking UFO over Boynton, Florida 31-May-2022
Stationary blinking UFO over Boynton, Florida 31-May-2022
This blinking unidentified flying object was filmed above the sea near Boynton in Florida. This happened on 31st May 2022.
Witness report:
Here’s the 12 minutes video of various times during the 45 + minute sighting. However, please study this at 10 minutes and 35 seconds into the video above when a very large Ufo streaks across the screen from top right to bottom left quadrant!
So, let’s use logic. This craft flew at least 2 1/2 miles over the sea (which is a VERY conservative estimate because it really appears to have gone over the horizon which is 35 miles away). Theirs 3,600 seconds in one hour. IF this craft only went 2 1/2 miles in 1/10 th of a second – that would put the speed of the Ufo at 90,000 per hour!
However, if it’s gone out of sight over the horizon (35 miles) in 1/10 th of a second , using the same equation…(3,600 seconds in one hour) that would put the speed of the Ufo at an Astounding 1,260,000 mph!!
RECENT UFO-VIDEOS FLORIDA, selected and posted by peter2011
Kosmisch overgewicht: waarom sterren, planeten en manen rond zijn
Kosmisch overgewicht: waarom sterren, planeten en manen rond zijn
Planeten, sterren en sommige manen zijn rond. Dat komt niet alleen omdat ze zwaar zijn, leren we van de onregelmatig gevormde maan Proteus en superzware neutronensterren.
Beeld: NASA
Door de kosmos zweven planeten zoals Mars en onze aarde, ijzige manen zoals Proteus en hete sterren zoals de zon. Planeten en sterren verschillen erg van elkaar, maar toch zijn ze allemaal rond. Veel manen zijn dat trouwens ook. Hoe komt dat? Je hoort weleens dat dit komt door het gewicht of de grote afmetingen van die objecten. Maar de zware en onregelmatig gevormde maan Proteus en de kleine en gigantisch zware neutronensterren leren ons dat gewicht en afmetingen niet alles zeggen. Drie aspecten zijn belangrijk. Ten eerste heb je de zwaartekracht die de massa van objecten naar binnen trekt (dat kon je al leren uit een video die eerder op EOS verscheen). Ten tweede is er een interne druk nodig die weerstand biedt tegen de samentrekking. Ten slotte moet het object ook voldoende vervormbaar zijn om rond te kunnen worden. Deze kennis heeft trouwens een belangrijke rol in mijn (Hans) leven gespeeld, dus die wil ik daarom niemand onthouden!
Alleen zwaartekracht is niet genoeg
De zon, de maan en de planeten zijn gevormd uit het samenklonteren van gassen en ruimtestof. Deze klonters zijn nadien rond geworden. De interne zwaartekracht zorgt ervoor dat de objecten samentrekken, maar daarmee krijg je nog niet zomaar een bol. Stel je voor dat er enkel samentrekking zou zijn. De planeet- of sterklonter zou dan blijven ineenkrimpen. Dat is duidelijk niet wat er gebeurt. Daarnaast zien we in het zonnestelsel dat sommige ruimteklonters ondanks hun sterke zwaartekracht niet altijd rond worden. Er zijn dus ook andere aspecten nodig voor het volledige plaatje: interne druk en vervormbaarheid.
De eerste andere noodzakelijke factor om een ruimteklonter rond te laten worden, is de interne druk die de zwaartekracht tegenwerkt. Terwijl de zwaartekracht van het object voor een samentrekking zorgt, ‘duwen’ de gesteenten, vloeistoffen of gassen waaruit de nieuwe ster of planeet bestaat in tegengestelde richting.
De tweede factor is de vervormbaarheid. In een vervormbaar object zal de zwaartekracht de inhoud van de planeet zo dicht mogelijk bij het centrum van de zwaartekracht proberen te brengen, terwijl de interne druk probeert te verhinderen dat het volume van de planeet kleiner wordt. Daaruit zal uiteindelijk een evenwicht ontstaan dat overeenkomt met een bolvormige planeet, maan of ster. Dat is niet toevallig, want een bol is de vorm waarvoor de afstand van alle inhoud tot het centrum van de zwaartekracht zo klein mogelijk is voor een bepaald volume. Daarmee zijn zowel de zwaartekracht als de interne druk ‘tevreden’. Dit is niet het geval voor bijvoorbeeld een vierkant met hetzelfde volume, waarin sommige punten zich verder van het centrum bevinden dan andere. Stel dat je planeet start als een (vervormbaar) vierkant, dan zullen de uiterste punten langzaam naar binnen getrokken worden tot het uiteindelijk een bol wordt.
Je kan dit proces een beetje vergelijken met een ballon. Enerzijds heeft de ballon, door de lucht die erin zit, een inwendige druk die naar buiten duwt. Anderzijds zorgt de spanning van het vel voor een samentrekking. Het resultaat? Een bolvormige ballon. Stop je in plaats van lucht een baksteen in een ballon, dan zal de ballon dezelfde vorm als de harde baksteen aannemen. De samentrekkende kracht van de ballon krijgt namelijk niet de kans om de baksteen te vervormen. Verbrijzel je de steen tot zand, dan duwt het zand nog even hard tegen de ballon. Maar de zandkorrels kunnen wel makkelijk bewegen ten opzichte van elkaar. Op die manier krijgt de samentrekkende kracht toch de kans om de inhoud te vervormen. Het evenwicht dat dan bereikt wordt, lijkt al meer op een bol.
Wat maakt planeten dan vervormbaar? Dat kan te maken hebben met hun verschillende samenstellingen (gesteente, ijs of vloeibare lagen). Maar als de zwaartekracht voldoende sterk is, kan zelfs hard gesteente op geologische tijdschaal vervormen.
Zwaar genoeg, maar toch niet rond
Proteus (rechts) is niet rond, maar gek genoeg toch zwaarder dan Mimas (links).
Credit: NASA
Is de interne zwaartekracht voldoende sterk, maar het object niet vervormbaar, dan wordt een planeet ook niet bolvormig. Dit is niet zomaar een wetenschappelijk gedachtespelletje. Kijk bijvoorbeeld naar de manen Mimas en Proteus. De bolvormige Mimas is 20% procent lichter dan Proteus. Je zou dan verwachten dat Proteus ook zeker rond is. Desondanks is Proteus onregelmatig gevormd. Dit komt omdat de structuur van Proteus moeilijker vervormt onder invloed van de zwaartekracht dan die van Mimas. In het voorbeeld van hierboven kan je Proteus dus meer vergelijken met de rigide ‘baksteen’ en Mimas meer met de ‘verbrijzelde baksteen’. In werkelijkheid zijn beide eerder ijzige objecten en is Mimas mogelijk gedeeltelijk vloeibaar binnenin en daarom meer vervormbaar.
Heel klein maar toch (niet) rond
De maan Amalthea (250 km groot) is onregelmatig gevormd, maar een neutronen ster van 20 km (rechts) is helemaal rond.
Credit: NASA
De afmetingen van een object vertellen je niet altijd of het object rond is. Vergelijk bijvoorbeeld de 250 km lange onregelmatig gevormde Jupitermaan Amalthea met een 20 km grote bolvormige neutronenster. De massa van Amalthea wekt niet voldoende zwaartekracht op om haar rigide structuur te vervormen. Neutronensterren (exotische sterren die uit neutronen bestaan) zijn wel bolvormig en slechts 20 km groot. Dat is een heel stuk kleiner dan Amalthea. Het verschil is dat neutronensterren heel erg zwaar zijn. Miljoenen keren de massa van de aarde zelfs! De interne zwaartekracht is dus veel hoger dan bij Amalthea en zorgt voor voldoende samentrekking om de neutronen te laten bewegen. Dit gebeurt in korte stoten die ‘starquakes’ heten. De samentrekking kan niet blijven doorgaan omdat de opeengepropte neutronen tegen de zwaartekracht inwerken. Het samenspel tussen de zwaartekracht en de druk resulteert in een bol.
Sollicitatietip
Deze kennis heeft ooit een ‘cruciale’ rol in mijn (Hans) carrière als wetenschapper gespeeld. Op mijn allereerste jobinterview stelde een professor van een Zweedse onderzoeksgroep een vraag die hij tijdens elk interview stelt om de kandidaten het vuur aan de schenen te leggen. Die vraag is ‘waarom zijn planeten rond?’. Zwaartekracht op zich is niet het volledige antwoord, er is ook een tegenwerkende druk nodig. Dat wist ik gelukkig en de professor was danig onder de indruk. Hoe belangrijk het antwoord op die vraag echt was weet ik niet, maar die eerste job was wel de springplank voor de rest mijn carrière.
Objecten in de ruimte zijn dus rond door een evenwicht dat optreedt tussen de inwaartse zwaartekracht die de massa samentrekt en de uitwaartse interne druk. Een bijkomende voorwaarde is dat het object voldoende vervormbaar is.
Hoe het voelt om dood te gaan zullen we pas echt weten als het zover is. Al krijgt de wetenschap wel steeds meer inzicht in wat er in de hersenen gebeurt rond het moment van overlijden. ‘We hebben de activiteit van het brein in het proces van doodgaan lang onderschat.’
Voor ons levende mensen is het een groot mysterie: hoe is het om dood te gaan? Maken we dat laatste moment bewust mee? Aanwijzingen druppelen binnen dat het antwoord op die laatste vraag misschien positief kan zijn. Het licht gaat niet meteen uit op het moment dat we onze laatste adem uitblazen.
Over die stelling wordt al eeuwenlang gespeculeerd. Sommige aannames en hypotheses zijn louter gestoeld op anekdotisch materiaal. In de tijd dat terdoodveroordeelden werden onthoofd met de guillotine beweerden sommige toeschouwers bijvoorbeeld dat ze de ogen nog zagen knipperen als het hoofd de grond al had geraakt.Maar er zijn ook wetenschappelijke bevindingen. Onderzoekers hebben al meerdere keren geobserveerd dat onze hersenen er niet gelijk mee ophouden wanneer ons hart tot stilstand komt. Ze blijken postmortaal zelfs nog urenlang actief te kunnen zijn. Het roept de vraag op: wat voor rol spelen de hersenen in het overlijdensproces? En wat kan dat betekenen voor onze beleving van doodgaan?
Samenwerkende neuronen
Het was eigenlijk puur toeval. In een ziekenhuis in Canada onderging een epilepsiepatiënt een behandeling voor zijn aanvallen. Op bepaalde momenten werd hij continu gemonitord. Artsen bevestigden dan elektrodes op zijn hoofd voor een eeg-meting, die de elektrische activiteit in het brein registreert. Net tijdens zo’n sessie overleed de patiënt. De eeg-meting was doorgegaan. De artsen hadden het bewuste moment waarop de patiënt stierf vastgelegd in hersenscans.
De metingen boden een zeldzaam inzicht in het patroon van hersenactiviteit vlak voor, tijdens en na het moment van overlijden. Wat de onderzoekers zagen? In de 30 seconden voor- en nadat het hart tot stilstand kwam, was er een plotselinge piek in een bepaald soort hersenactiviteit. Het ging om zogeheten gammagolven, schreven de onderzoekers in een paper, die eind februari is gepubliceerd.
Als neuronen in de hersenen samenwerken, doen ze dat gesynchroniseerd. Ze produceren zo samen hersengolven in een bepaalde frequentie. Die hersengolven kunnen we meten met een eeg. Op basis van frequentie (of golflengte) zijn ze op te delen in categorieën, van laag naar hoog: delta-, thèta-, alfa-, bèta- en gammagolven.
Je brein produceert deltagolven vooral wanneer je diep aan het slapen bent. Thètagolven zien we wanneer je slaapt maar niet heel diep, of wanneer je wakker en ontspannen bent. Bij alfagolven ben je kalm maar wel alert. Bètagolven komen voor wanneer je gefocuste activiteiten uitvoert, zoals logisch redeneren, maar ook bij motorische taken. Simpel gesteld: bij dingen waar je je hoofd bij moet houden.
‘Bewustzijn is een van de grote mysteries van de wetenschap. Dat kan je niet reduceren tot een gammagolfje’
En de gammagolven? Die zouden te zien zijn bij een sterke vorm van focus en alertheid. Wanneer je op het puntje van je stoel zit en naar een verhaal zit te luisteren dat zo interessant is dat je er opgewonden van raakt. In verschillende studies zagen onderzoekers dat gamma-activiteit betrokken is bij aandacht, leren, werkgeheugen en langetermijngeheugen.
Het is verleidelijk om te denken dat de piek in gammagolven bij de epilepsiepatiënt betekent dat hij vlak voor en na zijn ‘officiële’ dood een opflakkering van bewustzijn beleefde. De hoofdauteur van de studie, Ajmal Zemmar, speculeerde zelfs dat de piek erop kon wijzen dat zijn leven als het ware aan hem voorbijflitste. Dat een hele reeks aan herinneringen nog een laatste keer voorbijzoefde.
‘Je zou kunnen aannemen dat het moment van verhoogde hersenactiviteit gepaard gaat met een subjectieve ervaring van gedachtepercepties en emoties’, zegt neuroloog Steven Laureys (ULiège). ‘Maar goed, de man is overleden. We kunnen het niet meer navragen. Het is en blijft een hypothese.’
Veel van Zemmars collega’s uit de neurologie vinden de theorie nogal voorbarig. Ze wijzen erop dat het gaat om een meting bij een enkel individu – een 87-jarige man met een beschadigd brein, met bloedingen en zwellingen, die leed aan epileptische aanvallen. Het is bekend dat epilepsie ook de gamma-activiteit in de hersenen kan beïnvloeden. Op basis van deze casus zijn dus geen algemene aannames te maken.
‘Over de snelle gammagolven bestaat hoe dan ook nogal wat discussie’, vult Laureys aan. ‘Volgens sommige wetenschappers zijn ze een soort handtekening van bewuste processen. Maar zo eenvoudig lijkt het niet te zijn. Bewustzijn is een van de grote mysteries van de wetenschap. Dat kan je niet reduceren tot een gammagolfje.’
Laureys erkent wel dat de gammagolven een interessant onderzoeksonderwerp zijn. ‘Ze lijken iets belangrijks te doen voor ons bewustzijn. Dat maakt het fascinerend dat we ze zo vlak voor en na het moment van overlijden zien opkomen.’
Ook bij ratten
Toch staat de casus van de Canadese epilepsiepatiënt niet geheel op zichzelf. Wetenschappers hadden al vaker gerapporteerd over pieken in de hersenactiviteit rond het moment van overlijden – bij mensen, maar ook bij dieren. Al werden zulke zogeheten end-of-life electrical surges (ELES) lang niet bij elk subject gemonitord. En het ging ook niet altijd om gammagolven. Soms registreerden de onderzoekers andere golven van een hoge frequentie.
In een studie uit 2017 aan het George Washington University Medical Center observeerden onderzoekers 35 patiënten tot na het moment dat ze hun laatste adem uitbliezen. Ze wilden bestuderen hoe universeel het verschijnsel van zulke pieken was.
Dat deden ze voor een deel met het oog op orgaandonatie. Want wat als zo’n piek in breinactiviteit onderdeel is van het overlijdensproces? Sommige artsen en wetenschappers vinden dat een patiënt in dat geval niet van zijn organen mag worden ontdaan voordat de piek optreedt. Anderen werpen tegen dat wachten de kwaliteit van de organen negatief kan beïnvloeden.
Onder de 35 patiënten waren er zeven die klinisch gezien als hersendood werden gecategoriseerd. Bij geen van deze patiënten was een piek in hersenactiviteit te zien rond het moment van overlijden. Van de 28 resterende patiënten waren er dertien bij wie de onderzoekers wel een piek zagen. Het ging om gesynchroniseerde hersenactiviteit in een hoge frequentie. De wetenschappers konden niet uitmaken of het ging om gammagolven.
‘Een mens is niet per se bewust of onbewust, dood of levend. Er lijkt ook een soort een overgangsfase te bestaan’
Dat een piek niet voorkwam bij hersendode patiënten ondersteunt volgens de onderzoekers het idee dat voor een piek in activiteit een zekere mate van hersencapaciteit vereist is. Ook de synchronisatie van de hersengolven zou erop wijzen dat de piek niet zomaar een soort laatste stuiptrekking van het brein is, waarbij alle aanwezige energie nog een laatste keer losgelaten moet worden. Die theorie werd al meermaals door wetenschappers geopperd. Waarschijnlijk is het geavanceerder dan dat. De onderzoekers konden overigens niet verklaren waarom een piek bij een deel van de niet hersendode patiënten wel voorkwam en bij een ander deel niet.
In 2013 bekeek een team van Amerikaanse wetenschappers de hersenactiviteit van ratten rond het moment van overlijden. Bij negen proefdieren deden de onderzoekers een eeg-meting. Dertig seconden na het overlijden was een piek in hersenactiviteit te zien. De onderzoekers registreerden daarbij activiteit in de frequentie van gammagolven. Volgens de wetenschappers suggereren de data dat het ook hier niet gaat om een stuiptrekking. Daarvoor was de hersenactiviteit te zeer gesynchroniseerd.
In een andere Canadese studie werden vier patiënten bij hun levenseinde gemonitord. Onderzoekers maten de eeg-activiteit in de 30 minuten voor en 30 minuten na het moment dat ze van de apparatuur werden gehaald die hen kunstmatig in leven hield. Bij twee van de vier patiënten zagen de onderzoekers een piek in hersenactiviteit rond het moment van overlijden. Het waren hersengolven met een hoge frequentie, maar het waren niet gammagolven.
Flitsen van herinneringen en licht aan het einde van een tunnel
Een verschijnsel dat vaak is gerapporteerd maar vooralsnog een groot mysterie blijft: de bijna-doodervaring (zie ook Eos nr. 6, 2020). Er bestaat geen officiële definitie voor het fenomeen. Meestal wordt gerefereerd aan bepaalde visioenen die mensen ervaren wanneer ze op het randje van de dood balanceren. Flitsen van herinneringen uit het leven, of licht aan het einde van een tunnel. Vaak gaan die ervaringen gepaard met een soort euforisch gevoel.
De wetenschap is er nog niet over uit wat een bijna-doodervaring precies is – en of ze überhaupt bestaat. Een biologische verklaring is er in elk geval nog niet voor te vinden. ‘We kunnen niet stellen: een bijna-doodervaring komt door een tsunami aan endorfines, of heeft te maken met zuurstoftekort in de cellen. Het is niet te linken aan één hersengebied of één neurotransmitter’, zegt neuroloog Steven Laureys (ULiège). In een studie uit 2019 hebben Laureys en zijn collega’s wel aanwijzingen gevonden die kunnen wijzen op welke mechanismen en receptoren mogelijk betrokken zijn bij een bijna-doodervaring. In de studie tekenden ze de verhalen op van 625 bijna-doodervaringen. Met behulp van artificiële intelligentie vergeleken ze die met meer dan 1.500 verhalen van ervaringen met verschillende psychedelische drugs.
Hun conclusie was dat de ervaringen met de drug ketamine, een antagonist van de zogeheten NMDA-receptor in het brein, de meeste gelijkenis vertoonden met bijna-doodervaringen. Gevolgd door de plant Salvia divinorum, en een aantal psychedelische drugs die inwerken op een bepaalde serotonine-receptor, waaronder de drug DMT. De resultaten kunnen erop wijzen dat de receptoren en mechanismen betrokken bij bijna-doodervaringen dezelfde zijn als die bij de bovengenoemde middelen. Het zijn interessante hypotheses, zegt Laureys, maar voorlopig niks meer dan dat.
Voor een volgende studie is Laureys nog op zoek naar mensen die ooit een bijna-doodervaring hebben beleefd. Ervaringsdeskundigen kunnen zich aanmelden op nde@uliege.be.
Tussen dood en leven
In een studie uit 2021 hebben Laureys en zijn collega’s de hersenactiviteit gemeten in personen bij het overlijden. Ze wilden nagaan in hoeverre de inschatting van het bewustzijn van een patiënt overeenkomt met de data van monitors.
‘We vroegen zorgverleners en familieleden naar wat zij dachten dat het bewustzijnsniveau van een patiënt was, en wat de patiënt volgens hen zou ervaren’, zegt Laureys. ‘Hun antwoorden vergeleken we met wat we zagen op de hersenscans van de patiënt.’
‘In veel gevallen zagen we op de monitor meer reactiviteit dan de bevraagde individuen verwacht hadden. Als een verzorger of familielid aan het bed van een patiënt vaststelde dat die niet reageerde, dan viel op de monitor te zien dat het brein nog wel reageerde op signalen vanuit de omgeving. Er was nog elektrische activiteit – al was die wel afwijkend.’
Die bevindingen geven volgens Laureys aan dat we vaak onderschatten wat iemand in zo’n toestand bewust kan ervaren. ‘Bij patiënten die ontwaken uit de anesthesie of coma hoor je weleens dat ze nadien zeggen dat ze in die toestand van alles hebben opgepikt. Terwijl de zorgverleners overtuigd waren: die ervaart helemaal niks.’
In zijn studies zag Laureys geen pieken van gammagolven vlak voor en vlak na het overlijden van patiënten. Zijn metingen waren wel anders dan die in de bovenvermelde studies. Het waren langdurige eeg-metingen. Daarin zijn gammagolven moeilijk te onderscheiden van andere activiteiten, zoals van de spieren.
Is er dan werkelijk meer aan de hand met het brein van patiënten die buiten bewustzijn lijken? ‘Het is niet zo zwart-wit als we misschien denken. Een mens is niet per se bewust of onbewust, dood of levend. Er lijkt ook een soort overgangsfase te bestaan. Ik denk dat we de activiteit van het brein in het proces van doodgaan lang hebben onderschat.’
Activiteit op het kleinste niveau
Ook Jeffrey Loeb, neuroloog aan de University of Illinois (VS), is overtuigd dat we niet van het ene op het andere moment dood zijn. ‘Het lichaam heeft tijd nodig om te sterven.’ In zijn onderzoek van het afgelopen jaar zag hij hoe bepaalde hersencellen in de 24 uur na de dood actief blijven, en hoe ze zelfs toenemen in aantal.
Met de studie wilde hij nagaan wat voor verschillen je kan zien in genetische activiteit bij ‘vers’ hersenweefsel en hersenweefsel dat al een tijdje dood is. Loeb kreeg van een aantal epilepsiepatiënten toestemming om kleine stukjes hersenweefsel, die werden verwijderd als onderdeel van een operatie, te onderzoeken. Hij mat wat er gebeurde met de genetische activiteit, van de eerste seconde na de afname tot 24 uur daarna.
Loeb vond dat hersenweefsel niet zomaar stopt als het wordt afgesloten van de bloedtoevoer. In de samples zag hij in bepaalde genen nog activiteit – in ieder geval gedurende de eerste 24 uur na de afname. Bij sommige genen nam de activiteit zelfs toe, zag Loeb. Bepaalde hersencellen groeiden daardoor in aantal.
Wat voor genen waren dit? En wat betekent dat voor ons overlijdensproces? ‘Bij de genenset waarbij we activiteit maten, keken we naar verschillende types hersencellen. De activiteit voor de neuronen betrokken bij processen als leren en geheugen ging snel naar beneden. Maar de activiteit voor de zogeheten gliacellen ging juist omhoog’, zegt Loeb. Het ging om twee typen gliacellen: de astrocyten en de microglia.
De piek in activiteit zou niet zomaar een laatste stuiptrekking van het brein zijn, waarbij alle aanwezige energie nog een keer losgelaten wordt
Met de toegenomen genetische activiteit zagen Loeb en zijn collega’s ook het aantal van die gliacellen stijgen. ‘We checkten de genetische activiteit in de cellen, maar bekeken ook de celpopulaties in stukjes weefsel onder de microscoop. En we zagen dat de populaties van die twee types cellen heel snel begonnen te groeien.’ Een van de functies van astrocyten is om beschadigingen in het brein te repareren. De microglia hebben als taak om beschadigd weefsel op te ruimen.
Vandaar dat het eigenlijk helemaal niet zo verrassend is, volgens Loeb, dat die cellen na de dood vermeerderen. ‘De gliacellen hebben niet door dat het hele brein beschadigd is en dat het eigenlijk al een verloren zaak is. Ze blijven als een gek al het beschadigde weefsel opdweilen dat ze tegenkomen.’
Doodgaan is een complex biologisch proces, daarover zijn Laureys en Loeb het met elkaar eens. Het is niet iets dat van het ene op het andere moment gebeurd is. Ook in ons brein lijkt er rond het moment van overlijden nog heel wat te gebeuren. ‘De hersenen bestaan uit duizenden miljarden synapsen, in een soep van talloze neurotransmitters’, zegt Laureys. ‘Doodgaan in de hersenen staat gelijk aan een stortvloed van gebeurtenissen. Waarschijnlijk zullen we daar nooit helemaal vat op krijgen.’
Future Space Travelers May Follow Cosmic Lighthouses
Future Space Travelers May Follow Cosmic Lighthouses
An image of NICER on the exterior of the space station with one of the station’s solar panels in the background.
Credits: NASA
For centuries, lighthouses helped sailors navigate safely into harbor. Their lights swept across the water, cutting through fog and darkness, guiding mariners around dangerous obstacles and keeping them on the right path. In the future, space explorers may receive similar guidance from the steady signals created by pulsars.
Scientists and engineers are using the International Space Station to develop pulsar-based navigation using these cosmic lighthouses to assist with wayfinding on trips to the Moon under NASA’s Artemis program and on future human missions to Mars.
Pulsars, or rapidly spinning neutron stars, are the extremely dense remains of stars that exploded as supernovas. They emit X-ray photons in bright, narrow beams that sweep the sky like a lighthouse as the stars spin. From a great distance they appear to pulse, hence the name pulsars.
An X-ray telescope on the exterior of the space station, the Neutron star Interior Composition Explorer or NICER, collects and timestamps the arrival of X-ray light from neutron stars across the sky. Software embedded in NICER, called the Station Explorer for X-ray Timing and Navigation Technology or SEXTANT, is using the beacons from pulsars to create a GPS-like system. This concept, often referred to as XNAV, could provide autonomous navigation throughout the solar system and beyond.
Depiction of a pulsar or rapidly spinning neutron star. It emits X-ray photons or radiation particles in bright narrow beams that sweep the sky like a lighthouse as the star spins.
Credits: Bill Saxton, NRAO/AUI/NSF
“GPS uses precisely synchronized signals. Pulsations from some neutron stars are very stable, some even as stable as terrestrial atomic clocks in the long term, which makes them potentially useful in a similar way,” says Luke Winternitz, a researcher at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland.
The stability of the pulses allows highly accurate predictions of their time of arrival to any reference point in the solar system. Scientists have developed detailed models that predict precisely when a pulse would arrive at, for example, the center of Earth. Timing the arrival of the pulse to a detector on a spacecraft, and comparing that to when it is predicted to arrive at a reference point, provides information for navigating far beyond our planet.
“Navigation information provided by pulsars does not degrade by moving away from Earth since pulsars are distributed throughout our Milky Way galaxy,” says SEXTANT team member Munther Hassouneh, navigation technologist.
“It effectively turns the ‘G’ in GPS from Global to Galactic,” adds team member Jason Mitchell, director of the Advanced Communications and Navigation Technology Division in NASA’s Space Communication and Navigation Program. “It could work anywhere in the solar system and even carry robotic or crewed systems beyond the solar system.”
Pulsars also can be observed in the radio band but, unlike radio waves, X-rays are not delayed by matter in space. Additionally, detectors for X-rays can be more compact and smaller than radio dishes.
But because X-ray pulses are very weak, a system must be robust enough to collect a signal sufficient for navigating. NICER’s large collection area makes it nearly ideal for XNAV research. A future XNAV system could be made smaller, trading size for longer collection time.
“NICER is roughly the size of a washing machine, but you could dramatically reduce its size and volume,” Mitchell says. “For example, it would be interesting to fit an XNAV telescope into a small satellite that could independently navigate the asteroid belt and characterize primitive solar system bodies.”
As published in a 2018 paper, SEXTANT already has successfully demonstrated real-time pulsar-based navigation aboard the space station. It also studied the use of pulsars for time-keeping and clock synchronization and is helping expand the catalog of pulsars to use as reference points for XNAV.
The SEXTANT team also includes Samuel Price, Sean Semper and Wayne Yu at Goddard; Naval Research Lab partners Paul Ray and Kent Wood; and NICER principal investigator Keith Gendreau and science lead Zaven Arzoumanian.
The team now is studying the possibility of using XNAV autonomous navigation as a technique on NASA’s Gateway platform, to study support for crewed missions to Mars.
These kinds of experiments could bring cosmic lighthouses to guide spacecraft to their destinations another step closer to reality.
Imagine a technology that would allow space travelers to transmit gigabytes of data per second over interplanetary distances or to navigate to Mars and beyond using powerful beams of light emanating from rotating neutron stars. The concept isn't farfetched. In fact, Goddard astrophysicists Keith Gendreau and Zaven Arzoumanian plan to fly a multi-purpose instrument on the International Space Station to demonstrate the viability of two groundbreaking navigation and communication technologies and, from the same platform, gather scientific data revealing the physics of dense matter in neutron stars.
Credits: NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center/Rich Melnick
Hubble Space Telescope finds evidence for water around Jupiter’s largest moon.
Depiction of Ganymede centered over 45° W. longitude.
Credit: National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration
An international team of astronomers has used Hubble to peer into the atmosphere of Jupiter’s biggest moon, Ganymede – and find evidence for water vapour there.
Ganymede is the biggest of our Solar System’s moons, with a diameter of 5,200km – 1.5 times bigger than our own satellite. It’s a cold world, made up of equal amounts of rock and water, with an ocean below the surface that may contain more water than all of Earth’s oceans combined.
But it’s also the largest body in the Solar System without any kind of substantial atmosphere. When the Voyager 1 spacecraft soared by in 1979, it didn’t detect any atmosphere, although a couple of decades later the Hubble Space Telescope managed to spot a very thin and tenuous one comprised primarily of oxygen molecules (O2).
These molecules are thought to be created when charged particles and solar radiation hit the icy surface of Ganymede. This splits up the water molecules into various groups of molecules and atoms, including atomic hydrogen (H) and molecular oxygen. The lighter hydrogen is quickly lost, while the moon’s gravity holds onto the heavier oxygen molecules.
Astronomers have long suspected that there must be some water in Ganymede’s atmosphere, too, created from the same process on the surface. In particular, the icy surface “sublimates”, with ice turned directly into water vapour (H2O) and skipping the liquid stage.
Modelling has suggested that H2O should dominate the atmosphere at Ganymede’s subsolar point – that is, the warmest part of the atmosphere where the Sun’s radiation directly hits – while molecular oxygen dominates the rest.
Now, this new research has turned Hubble’s eyes back to the Jovian moon to settle this. The team, led by Lorenz Roth from the KTH Royal Institute of Technology in Sweden, used Hubble’s Cosmic Origins Spectrograph to study the chemical composition of Ganymede’s atmosphere.
Their findings were consistent with the modelling: spectral signatures indicated that H2O was more abundant around the subsolar point, but O2 was more abundant elsewhere.
The team notes that finding water in Ganymede’s atmosphere will inform future space missions, including the European Space Agency’s Jupiter Icy Moons Explorer (JUICE). Expected to reach the gas giant in 2031, JUICE will make several fly-bys of the moons before settling into orbit around Ganymede in 2034 for at least 280 days.
“Several science instruments are equipped to measure Ganymede’s neutral gas environment and particularly the H2O abundance by remote sensing of UV, optical, infrared and submillimetre emissions, as well as in situ sensing with the neutral particle detector,” the authors explain in their paper.
“Our results place observational constraints on the contribution of sublimation to the atmosphere, and provide the JUICE instrument teams with valuable information that may be used to refine their observation plans.”
60 UNSOLVED MYSTERIES THAT CANNOT BE EXPLAINED – PREMIERED 2022
60 unsolved mysteries that cannot be explained | compilation.Today, we take a look at 60 unsolved mysteries that cannot be explained.
There is nothing more tantalising to the human species than a good mystery. Thrillers in the forms of novels, movies, and even campfire tales are often consumed by the thousands by those who love the adrenaline rush of solving a mystery. However, some of the most pervasive mysteries are those that occur in real life, and these are the ones that are often most difficult to solve. So today, here at unexplained mysteries, we take a look at these 60 unsolved mysteries that cannot be explained.
Elon Musk says Tesla would continue to do very well even if he was kidnapped by aliens or 'went back to my home planet' UFO Sighting News.
Elon Musk says Tesla would continue to do very well even if he was kidnapped by aliens or 'went back to my home planet' UFO Sighting News.
Date of announcement: Aug 6, 2022
During a live Tesla interview with Elon Musk, he stated that he is an alien from another planet. Now he says it with a smile and there is laughter, but I have long said he is an alien and not of this world. Here, he admits it 100%.
Scott C. Waring - Taiwan
"We have a very talented team here. So I think Tesla, you know, would continue to do very well even if I was kidnapped by aliens, or went back to my home planet," the Tesla CEO said at the firm's 2022 Cyber roundup meeting of stock owners. He was responding to a question from stockholder Gary Black, a managing partner of the Future Fund, concerning how Tesla's board would potentially handle his succession.
Plane Buzzes UFO Over Airport, El Paso, Texas, Aug 4, 2022, Video, UFO Sighting News.
Plane Buzzes UFO Over Airport, El Paso, Texas, Aug 4, 2022, Video, UFO Sighting News.
Date of sighting: Aug 4, 2022 Location of sighting: El Paso, Texas, USA
Here is an interesting video from Texas, one of the top 3 UFO hotspots of America. Someone caught a UFO over the airport during sunset, then the UFO flew closer and began to pass over the neighborhood. He even said when he went to start his truck...it just would not start and had to leave it till morning. This has all the signs of a real UFO.
Scott C. Waring - Taiwan
Eyewitness states:
Hovered over mountain not moving, plane went by, started moving south along the mountain, stopped again, descended until visual was lost. My truck didn’t turn on after. Left it over night, it started in the morning.
Here is a rare report of some unknown objects falling into the mountains of Australia. This same week, at the time of this falling, reports of Chinese space debris falling to earth were reported world wide. I believe this is not SpaceX but the Chinese space debris. No reports of SpaceX debris were reported...until they found the objects. This is 100% proof that China is trying to pass USA in the space program, and may one day succeed.
Scott C. Waring - Taiwan
News states:
About three weeks ago, residents in the Snowy Mountains reported hearing a mysterious loud boom. Others saw debris falling from the sky. Now, two farmers have found the likely cause — large and rare pieces of space junk that landed on their properties. It's thought to be debris from a SpaceX capsule, and has excited experts in the field who say it's an extremely unusual event.
Producer James Fox and his team travel the globe, interviewing eyewitnesses and high-ranking military & government personnel about their UFO knowledge and experiences. As narrator, actor Peter Coyote guides the viewer through these interviews and through new and historic film footage & information related to the UFO Phenomenon.
A condensed version of an ancient Egyptian legend goes as follows: the wise servant tells his master how he survived the shipwreck and came ashore on a mysterious island where he met a great talking serpent who called himself the Lord of Punt. All good things were on the island and the sailor and the snake converse until a ship is hailed and he can return to Egypt.
A number of the myth’s fragments lead to some interesting reflections. The size of the enigmatic reptile is the first thing that strikes you as astonishing. The surviving sailor recounts his misadventures in this manner:
“The trees were cracking, the ground was shaking. When I opened my face, I saw that the serpent was approaching me. Its length is thirty cubits. His beard is more than two cubits long. His scales are of gold, his eyebrows are of lapis lazuli, his body is curved upwards.”
This myth’s serpent is quite fascinating. Signs point to him having a beard and eyebrows thick enough to resemble the legendary golden Chinese dragons of Chinese mythology. However, a little beard was occasionally depicted on sacred snakes in Egypt. Ancient Egyptian and East Asian traditions about enormous reptiles appear to be derived from the same source.
The second unusual thing you notice is that, there is a reference made in the legend to a particular star that was responsible for the death of the entire serpent family. This is what the last serpent told the man:
“Now since you have survived this accident, let me tell you of a tale of calamity that befell me. I once lived on this island with my family – 75 serpents in all without counting an orphan girl who was brought to me by chance and who was dear to my heart. One night a star came crashing down from heaven and they all went up in flames. It happened when I wasn’t there – I wasn’t among them. Only I was spared, and behold, here I am, utterly alone.”
What kind of star was it that burnt down seventy-five enormous creatures all at once? – let’s remember the size of the serpent. What an accurate and effective hit and what a powerful striking factor!
Let us recall another myth from ancient Egypt, in which Sekhmet, the dreadful eye of the deity Ra, is said to have severed the head of a giant snake or serpent Apep (also known as Apophis). Apep was viewed as the greatest enemy of Ra, and thus was given the title Enemy of Ra, and also “the Lord of Chaos”.
In this particular instance — the tale of Serpent Island — this destruction of serpents by a star resembles a real celestial punishment, in the literal sense of the word!
Let’s take a step back from the myth for a moment and concentrate on the specifics. The last surviving sailor describes waves of eight cubits, and he estimates the length of the snake to be thirty cubits. These are key comparative measurements that can be used to estimate the scale:
“And now the wind is getting stronger, and the waves are eight cubits high. And then the mast fell into the wave, and the ship was lost, and no one survived except me.”
In other words, based on the narrative, there can be no doubt regarding the size; the waves are big, and the snakes are at least three times larger than the waves. And with one swift strike from a certain “star,” all of this enormous “snake pit” of the seventy-five giant serpents is eradicated. It is clear that the explosion had a significant amount of power.
What struck the intelligent serpents? Somehow, it is difficult to accept a “crazy” asteroid hitting at random.
There is no doubt that ancient sources that tell about the history of peoples often include fictional tales in their folklore. We believe that this story parallels the ancient mythology of peoples that lived a long way from Egypt, where gods or heroes fought with reptiles or dragons in ancient stories. Why were such myths popular among ancient cultures?
The discovery was made by scientists from the Siberian Section of the Russian Academy of Sciences (СО РАН) conducted radiocarbon analyses of reindeer antler fragments found at the Kushevat Paleolithic site in the Lower Ob region.
In addition to the antler bones, scientists also examined a woolly mammoth (Mammuthus primigenius), a steppe bison (Bison Priscus), Elk (Alces alces), deer (Cervus elephus sibiricus), and, potentially, a musk ox (Ovibos moschatus). Analyses of the bones dated them back to a series of 20 different radiocarbon dates, all ranging from the period between 20 and 40 thousand years ago.
Although this finding solely points to animals, and not humans, inhibiting the Arctic region 40,000 years back, the discovery has now become the basis of further analyses, which currently date human activity in the Ob region back to 40,000 years ago. This is because two reindeer antlers held traces of human activity amongst this group of bones, which have only recently been analyzed.
The question of the initial settlement of the Arctic and Subarctic by an ancient man of the modern type (Homo sapiens sapiens) has long been of interest to scientists. The valley of the Ob River is often considered a potential migration route for Paleolithic man. It is believed that modern man came to Europe and Asia 50,000-60,000 thousand years ago.
What is still unclear is where the modern man lived before and how he crossed the Urals? For a long time, the hypothesis prevailed that 12,000-30,000 years ago, the north of Western Siberia was covered by a large glacier (just like the north of America and Europe). To the south of this glacier was a dammed basin reaching 130 meters.
For this reason, it was believed that looking for archaeological sites dating back to the period of 30-40 thousand years ago in the north was pointless. It was confirmed by the almost complete absence of finds (tools, sites, organic matter).
Thanks to the international research program using AMS dating and optical-stimulating luminescence, researchers from Europe and Russia proved that there was no ice cover in the north of Western Siberia 12,000-30,000 years ago. It was much earlier: 90,000-60,000 years ago north of Salekhard. The level of the ice-dammed basin in the Ob valley did not exceed 60 meters.
This is an entirely different paleogeographic picture. For thirty years, I was convinced that in the north of Western Siberia, there were all the conditions for the existence of an ancient person. Now we had the opportunity to try to prove it: to find traces of Homo sapiens in the north of the Ob 30,000-50,000 years ago, – the project manager, head of the laboratory of the Institute of Geology and Mineralogy named after V.I. V.S commented in a press statement.
As reported by the Barents Observer“the analysis suggests that Homo sapiens and not only Neanderthals inhabited the Arctic Circle in the Upper Paleolithic age. About two decades ago, it was only certain that Neanderthals, and not Homo sapiens, were occupants in the region during the period.”
This was discovered by radiocarbon dating a set of bones unearthed in 2001 at the Yakutia site. The radiocarbon analysis suggested that the Neanderthals had found themselves in the region approximately 28,500-27,000 years ago.
The new AMS analysis has hence provided two major breakthroughs. The first one is that Homo sapiens, as well as Neanderthals, inhabited the Arctic circle during the Paleolithic Age, and the second finding is that Homo sapiens lived north of the Arctic circle already 40,000 years ago.
The discovery was made by scientists from the Siberian Section of the Russian Academy of Sciences (СО РАН) conducted radiocarbon analyses of reindeer antler fragments found at the Kushevat Paleolithic site in the Lower Ob region.
In addition to the antler bones, scientists also examined a woolly mammoth (Mammuthus primigenius), a steppe bison (Bison Priscus), Elk (Alces alces), deer (Cervus elephus sibiricus), and, potentially, a musk ox (Ovibos moschatus). Analyses of the bones dated them back to a series of 20 different radiocarbon dates, all ranging from the period between 20 and 40 thousand years ago.
Although this finding solely points to animals, and not humans, inhibiting the Arctic region 40,000 years back, the discovery has now become the basis of further analyses, which currently date human activity in the Ob region back to 40,000 years ago. This is because two reindeer antlers held traces of human activity amongst this group of bones, which have only recently been analyzed.
The question of the initial settlement of the Arctic and Subarctic by an ancient man of the modern type (Homo sapiens sapiens) has long been of interest to scientists. The valley of the Ob River is often considered a potential migration route for Paleolithic man. It is believed that modern man came to Europe and Asia 50,000-60,000 thousand years ago.
What is still unclear is where the modern man lived before and how he crossed the Urals? For a long time, the hypothesis prevailed that 12,000-30,000 years ago, the north of Western Siberia was covered by a large glacier (just like the north of America and Europe). To the south of this glacier was a dammed basin reaching 130 meters.
For this reason, it was believed that looking for archaeological sites dating back to the period of 30-40 thousand years ago in the north was pointless. It was confirmed by the almost complete absence of finds (tools, sites, organic matter).
Thanks to the international research program using AMS dating and optical-stimulating luminescence, researchers from Europe and Russia proved that there was no ice cover in the north of Western Siberia 12,000-30,000 years ago. It was much earlier: 90,000-60,000 years ago north of Salekhard. The level of the ice-dammed basin in the Ob valley did not exceed 60 meters.
This is an entirely different paleogeographic picture. For thirty years, I was convinced that in the north of Western Siberia, there were all the conditions for the existence of an ancient person. Now we had the opportunity to try to prove it: to find traces of Homo sapiens in the north of the Ob 30,000-50,000 years ago, – the project manager, head of the laboratory of the Institute of Geology and Mineralogy named after V.I. V.S commented in a press statement.
As reported by the Barents Observer“the analysis suggests that Homo sapiens and not only Neanderthals inhabited the Arctic Circle in the Upper Paleolithic age. About two decades ago, it was only certain that Neanderthals, and not Homo sapiens, were occupants in the region during the period.”
This was discovered by radiocarbon dating a set of bones unearthed in 2001 at the Yakutia site. The radiocarbon analysis suggested that the Neanderthals had found themselves in the region approximately 28,500-27,000 years ago.
The new AMS analysis has hence provided two major breakthroughs. The first one is that Homo sapiens, as well as Neanderthals, inhabited the Arctic circle during the Paleolithic Age, and the second finding is that Homo sapiens lived north of the Arctic circle already 40,000 years ago.
In 1942, physicist Enrico Fermi and a team of workers built what they thought was the first nuclear reactor in a Chicago racket ball court. Unfortunately, nature had beaten them to the punch — by eons.
Truth be told, self-sustaining nuclear power reactor was invented in Africa, 2 billion years ago! It’s a 100-kilowatt nuclear plant that produced pulses of power every three hours for a period of about 150,000 years.
The discovery of the prehistoric Oklo nuclear plant
On June 2, 1972, a French nuclear fuel reprocessing plant discovered that 200 kg of uranium from a uranium mine in the Oklo region of Gabon Republic had been refined. Fearing that someone (or a secret organization) would build a nuclear bomb, the French Atomic Energy Commission immediately opened an investigation.
Finally, researchers and scientists from all over the world, after conducting detailed investigation, came to the conclusion that, six large nuclear reactors as old as 2 billion years old are located near Gabon’s uranium mine, and has been active for at least 150,000 years!
The advanced process self-sustaining fission
The ancient nuclear reactors use surface water and groundwater to modulate and reflect sequenced fission neutrons, its operation is much more advanced than that of modern nuclear reactors. Moreover, scientists found geological evidence that uranium in lens-shaped veins of uranium ore had undergone self-sustaining fission chain reactions, generating intense heat.
In this process, subatomic neutrons released by radioactive decay of uranium atoms induce decay of other uranium atoms, leading to a cascade of nuclear fission and substantial release of energy as heat. This is what modern nuclear reactors use to produce power.
The puzzle, however, is why the Oklo reactors didn’t plunge straight into a runaway chain reaction, leading to meltdown of the veins or even to an explosion. In nuclear plants the reaction is kept under control by using ‘moderators’. These are substances that either slow down the chain reaction by absorbing some of the fission neutrons or encourage it by adjusting the neutron energies.
It needs the pure natural water
Former head of the United States Atomic Energy Commission and Nobel laureate Dr. Glenn T. Seaborg points out: For uranium to continue to “burn”, all conditions must be completely free of bias. The water involved in the nuclear reaction must be very pure, a few parts per million of pollutants will create a “toxic” reaction that causes the reactor to stop working. Nowhere in the world is there such pure natural water.
The radioactive rock samples
In April 2018, two rock samples recovered during drilling campaigns in Oklo were donated to the Vienna Natural History Museum. The donation (and ceremony) was made possible with funding from nuclear fuel company Orano and France’s Alternative Energies and Atomic Energy Commission (CEA). The French Permanent Mission to the UN in Vienna supported the effort.
According to the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), which helped monitor radioactivity levels and handling of those samples, the two samples emit a radiation of about 40 microsieverts per hour “if you stand 5 centimetres away from them, which roughly compares to the amount of cosmic radiation a passenger would receive on an eight-hour flight from Vienna to New York.”
The incredible hypotheses
The Oklo nuclear reactor in Gabon has been operating for 1500,00 years. How to produce water of such high purity has become another unsolved mystery. The rationality of the structural design of prehistoric nuclear reactors is absolutely baffling to experts.
Some scientists and theorists believe that the reactor is extremely advanced, suggesting that highly intelligent beings existed 2 billion years ago. While another hypothesis is that it was constructed by prehistoric human civilization (like described in the Silurian Hypothesis by NASA scientists) using techniques that were lost to subsequent humans.
However, most of the mainstream researchers believe that Oklo is the world’s only identified naturally occurring reactor which was created by accident. As scientists Norman Schwers and John A. Miller from Sandia National Laboratories explain in a 2017 paper, the concept of a naturally occurring reactor was originally documented in 1956 using reactor theory or the infinite multiplication constants.
Scientists Successfully Sent A Particle Back in Time Using A Quantum Computer
Scientists Successfully Sent A Particle Back in Time Using A Quantum Computer
Time travel was fiction before Einstein, but his calculations took us into the quantum world and we were introduced to a more complex picture of time. Einstein’s equations permitted time travel into the past, as Kurt Gödel discovered. The issue? None of the hypothesized time travel systems were ever physically feasible.
So, before sending a particle back through time, Argonne National Laboratory, Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology, and ETH Zurich scientists wondered, “Why stick to physical grounds?
Many physics laws treat the future and the past as continuous. A closed system progresses from order to disorder according to the second rule of thermodynamics (or entropy). If you scramble an egg to produce an omelet, you’ve added a lot of chaos to the closed system that was the egg.
The arrow of time is an essential consequence of the second law. A process that develops entropy, like whisking an egg, is irreversible. An omelet won’t turn back into an egg, and billiard balls won’t spontaneously reassemble a triangle. Entropy, like an arrow, goes in one direction, and we see it as time.
The second rule of thermodynamics holds us captive, but an international team of scientists sought to test it in the quantum world. Since nature cannot do such a test, scientists utilized an IBM quantum computer.
Ordinary computers, such as the one you’re reading this on, work with bits of data. A bit is either a 1 or a 0. A qubit is a fundamental unit of information used by quantum computers. A qubit may be both a 1 and a 0, allowing the system to process data considerably quicker.
The researchers used qubits to simulate subatomic particles in a four-step experiment. They entangled the qubits first, such that whatever occurred to one affected the others. Then they utilized microwave radio pulses to evolve the quantum computer’s initial order into a more sophisticated state.
A specific algorithm changes the quantum computer to bring order out of chaos. They’re zapped by another microwave pulse, but this time they go back to their old selves. That is, they are de-aged by a millionth of a second.
Argonne National Laboratory researcher Valerii M. Vinokur compares it to pushing against a pond’s waves to restore them to their source.
Success was not guaranteed since quantum mechanics is about probability. In a two-qubit quantum computer, however, the algorithm accomplished a time leap 85 percent of the time. With three qubits, the success rate decreased to around 50%, which the scientists blamed on flaws in current quantum computers.
The results are exciting but don’t go buying flux capacitors just yet. This experiment also illustrates that manipulating even a simulated particle in time is difficult. Our ability to produce such an external force to influence even one quantum wave is limited.
To time-reverse even ONE quantum particle is impossible for nature alone, says research author Vinokur. “The system comprising two particles is even more irreversible, let alone the eggs — comprising billions of particles — we break to prepare an omelette.”
A press release from the Department of Energy notes that the “timeline required for [an external force] to spontaneously appear and properly manipulate the quantum waves” to appear in nature and unscramble an egg “would extend longer than that of the universe itself.” In other words, this tech specifically binds to quantum computation.
But the study isn’t just a high-tech exercise. While the approach won’t help us build real-world time machines, it will improve quantum computation.
Einstein’s equations don’t prohibit time travel, but they make it a difficult task, as Kurt Gödel demonstrated.
Alex Birch whose photographs of UFOs puzzled experts on both sides of the Atlantic has released a film about his experiences – that he claims included meetings with the British royal family and a phone conversation with JFK.
In Beyond Perception Sheffield-born Alex says he attended private meetings with Prince Philip, who died age 99 in 2021 and Lord Mountbatten of Burma who asked the then 14-year-old Alex to call him Dickie. Both men were known for their fascination with the UFO mystery at that time.
But in the new film Alex, now 74, also claims he took part in a transatlantic telephone conversation with President John F Kennedy in 1962 after his photo of a fleet of flying saucers made news headlines across the world.
In the 30-minute film Alex says a military car collected him and his father from their home near Sheffield from where they were taken to a US military base. On arrival they met USAF officials and the base commander. During the visit he was taken to an adjoining room where he was put through to a man he believes was JFK.
The man quizzed Alex ‘asking if there was any visible markings on the objects, also how high were the objects and how big they were and many other questions’. He says Kennedy was concerned the Russians had ‘secret weapons and were already exploring space’. Kennedy was assassinated in November 1963 after launching NASA’s Apollo space programme that put the first men on the moon.
Shortly before the call Alex, then 14 years old, had travelled to London with his father where his black and white photograph and Box Brownie camera were examined by officials at the Air Ministry. A MoD file documenting the meeting was released at The National Archives in the 1990s.
After the media furore surrounding this photograph Alex faded from the public eye. But flying saucers, and UFOlogists, continued to haunt him. He was taunted at school and everywhere he went he was known as ‘the lad who had photographed flying saucers.’
So in 1972, when he was 24 years old, he contacted the Daily Express and confessed it was a hoax. He even appeared on TV with the pane of glass on which the ‘saucers’ had been painted. For ten years he had fooled his family, friends and even the Air Ministry who had them tagged as ‘ice crystals’.
The ruse, for according to Alex it was a ruse, worked. Alex says he knew the photo was genuine but his manipulation of the media removed the heat; interest in him diminished and he was able to concentrate on building a career and supporting a family. But his interest in photography remained and over the years he became an accomplished practitioner, entering and wining numerous competitions.
Meanwhile his iconic flying saucer photograph continued to be reproduced in books and magazines worldwide. In 1998 Alex, who no longer possessed a copy of the original negative, decided to step back into the public spotlight to reclaim his own copyright on the image. He also wanted the world to know the truth: he really did see, and photograph, flying saucers in 1962.
After a short flurry of media and UFOlogical interest, his U-turn was again quickly forgotten. Alex didn’t care who believed him and, now a grandfather, he believed his adventures in UFOlogy were now a thing of the past.
Until Tuesday, 27 January 2004. On that evening Alex, now 55, was sitting in his bungalow watching TV with his wife when it began snowing heavily. At the time Alex was trying to think of a suitable photograph to enter in his local photographic society’s competition and this unexpected snowfall made him think he might get an unusual night time shot.
Leaving the house at 9.15 pm, without even telling his wife, Alex drove through heavy snow to the market town of Retford, in rural Nottinghamshire, where he parked in the square. The thick snow and the relatively late hour meant the square was completely deserted and silent. Alex spent some time taking a variety of photographs of the square, road and buildings that were covered in snow and reflecting lights from lampposts and buildings. He was using 35mm Fujia Sensia 200ASA reversal film (a slide film).
After using the roll of thirty six frames Alex returned home and shortly afterwards sent the film for processing. When the slides were returned he spent some time looking at them on a small battery operated viewer, trying to identify a suitable slide for entry in his local photography club’s competition. He found three shots that were perfect and then noticed an odd image on one of the slides. To his amazement when he looked closer he saw a UFO, a saucer shaped UFO at that, just to the side of Retford Town Hall. The Town Hall clock fixes the image in time at 23.08.
Alex was naturally keen to tell us about his new photograph. We were, naturally, skeptical. After all, the chances of someone taking a photograph of a genuinely anomalous UFO once are massive. To do so twice in a lifetime would be, well, Fortean. We recalled the furore over Alex’s 1962 photograph, his 1972 confession and his subsequent revelation that it was genuine after all. What was going on?
Alex wasn’t going to let the problems which plagued his 1962 photograph affect this new one and he decided to eschew any publicity. He just wanted to know what he had caught on film. The first time we saw the new UFO image was on a copy of a slide he sent to us.
We thought it was obviously a lens flare; there are numerous lights on lamps and buildings and even though we couldn’t prove it, a lens flare of some kind seemed to be the only logical conclusion. Most tellingly Alex did not see the object whilst taking the photographs and it is axiomatic that an image which is noticed only after processing is almost always a bird, lens flare, camera or film fault. Alex disagreed and told us he firmly believed the image on the film was of an object in the sky: a real UFO.
Despite the prospect of fresh media attention and money from this photograph Alex wasn’t interested. He wanted to get to the bottom of it privately and, rather than trust the photograph to the care of the UFO community, of whom he has a profound mistrust, he set about investigating it himself.
Sheffield University’s Department of Physics and Astronomy ruled out any celestial or astronomical phenomena and local airfields confirmed there were no aircraft over Retford that night. He then took the slide to the Kodak Laboratories in Lincoln. Their technical analysis ruled out any possibility of lens flare, double exposure, drying stains, re-touching or a host of other possibilities. Indeed, the Kodak analysis found that the UFO image had the same density pattern, colour and grain as the surrounding picture. This suggested to the Kodak analysts that whatever ‘it’ was, it was in the sky when photographed. Robert Smith of Kodak’s labs went so far as to write on the back of the photograph, ‘This image has not been altered or manipulated in any way.’
Then he tried his old bete noir, the Ministry of Defence. After several phone calls to the MoD’sWhitehall building Alex made an appointment to see the UFO desk officer, Linda Unwin. She suggested a meeting and told Alex that ‘defence experts’ would be interested in viewing the slide.
A meeting was duly arranged for 9 March 2004 and Alex asked Andy Roberts to accompany him. It is highly unusual for a UFO witness to be interviewed by MoD personnel and even more unusual for them to be invited to visit the MoD Main Building. The last time this had happened was in 1962 when Alex, then a schoolboy, visited the Air Ministry with his father and allowed experts to examine his Box Brownie camera and his other picture of ‘flying saucers.’
The 2004 visit did not go to plan. Alex and Andy were met in the reception area by Linda Unwin and a colleague, who seemed to be unaware of the promised ‘meeting’ or the possibility of defence experts viewing the slide. She was happy to take a copy for analysis, but Alex and Andy got no further than the ornate reception area. Alex believes the meeting was cancelled because he had not told them he was bringing guests (his son in law was also present).
In a follow-up letter Unwin asked for a copy of the negative for scrutiny by a ‘defence imagery analyst.’ Using the Freedom of Information Act we discovered that a copy of the slide was sent by Unwin’s branch to the MoD’s Defence Geographic and Imagery Intelligence Agency (DGIA), based at RAF Brampton in Cambridgeshire. Experts there analyse aerial photographs and other military-sourced images for intelligence purposes. In this case, Alex was told that UFO photographs are ‘not within the normal course of work’ for the imagery experts ‘but [they] have agreed to fit this in around essential defence work.’
The Graphics and Digital Imaging Section completed their assessment on 2 August 2004. A scan at 2,400dpi allowed them to investigate ‘at greater magnification the structure of the anomaly’ but found no indication of reflections or lens flares. The brief report ends with these words: ‘No definitive conclusions can be gathered from evidence submitted, however, it may be coincidental that the illuminated plane of the object passes through the centre of the frame, indicating a possible lens anomaly e.g. a droplet of moisture.’
Alex claims he has subsequently had other meetings and conversations with MoD personnel, but maintains that neither he nor they are any closer to resolving what he has captured on film. When we visited Alex in the spring of 2007 he was enthusiastic about his new photograph and remained convinced that, based on the evidence from Kodak and other experts, he had captured an unknown aerial object on film.
But now there was more. Alex had previously told us that he had, over the years, been subject to what can only be described as psychic phenomena. He had been plagued by poltergeists and bizarre audio and electromagnetic anomalies. Lights in the sky appeared to follow him around and on one occasion he had been struck by lightning. These phenomena had been witnessed by other members of his family who were happy to confirm it to us.
Alex was now telling us that there was something else unusual about his second saucer photograph. He had experienced flashbacks to that snowy night in Retford; flashbacks involving visions of a gigantic saucer hovering over the square. He also suspected there may have been a period of missing time.
What to make of all this? Is Alex a complete fantasist who has repeatedly tried to fool the media, UFO investigators and possibly his family for over 45 years? The simple fact is, we just don’t know. It would be easy to dismiss Alex as a hoaxer and a fantasist, partly because everyone ‘knows’ real UFOs don’t exist and partly because of his (later retracted) admission that he had hoaxed the 1962 photograph.
But no-one could prove exactly how – if – his original photo was hoaxed and no-one, not even the MoD’s imagery experts can say with certainty what is on the photograph he took on 27 January 2004.
Alex has thought long and hard before allowing his second photograph to be revealed to a wider audience. He is not interested in public exposure or in financial gain, although this does not rule him out as a hoaxer. He is only concerned that his stories are told factually and objectively. As skeptical forteans we have known Alex for more than 20 years and find him and his family to be completely normal, open and honest. We are perplexed. But there has to be an answer, now matter how prosaic or extraordinary. So what is it?
Speaking after the release of his film on YouTube and Vimeo, Alex told us:
‘Its basically a documentary which explains what happened within my life from early childhood regarding UFO’s and the paranormal. Although the doc only scratches the surface and there is much more to tell. I had to think long and hard about publishing certain things within the documentary film. I am now hardened towards the remarks of skeptics, trolls, and those who seek a living from defaming people, when in reality they know absolutely zero about me.’
Artemis I Becomes Cultural, Educational Time Capsule for Trip Around Moon
Artemis I Becomes Cultural, Educational Time Capsule for Trip Around Moon
When NASA’s Orion spacecraft travels beyond the Moon duringArtemis I, boosted by the Space Launch System rocket on its maiden voyage, the spacecraft will carry a host of mementos for educational engagement and posterity in the Official Flight Kit.
NASA spacecraft, both crewed and uncrewed, have carried mementos from Earth since the 1960s. NASA’s Voyager probe carried with it a gold record with Earth sounds, and the Perseverance rover that landed on Mars included a microchip with 10.9 million names that people submitted for inclusion in the journey. The agency flew metal on the last space shuttle mission that was later melted down and made into awards for employees.
A small Moon rock from Apollo 11 that also was aboard the final space shuttle flight will fly aboard Orion, marking the significance of the return of a spacecraft built for humans to the Moon. The National Air and Space Museum is lending an Apollo 8 commemorative medallion, a bolt from the Apollo 11 mission, and an Apollo 11 mission patch to the kit. The Apollo items contributed by the museum will be displayed in an exhibit after they are returned to Earth.
The bolt from one of Apollo 11’s F-1 engines that is included in the Artemis I Official Flight Kit.
Credits: Smithsonian’s National Air and Space Museum
Many of the items included in the flight kit are symbols of cultural significance or NASA’s collaborative efforts with STEM-focused organizations. The agency and the Girl Scouts of the USA collaborated to include space science badges to inspire scientific and career exploration in the STEM fields. Four LEGO minifigures also will catch a ride on the flight – NASA and the LEGO Group have partnered on collaborative efforts over the past two decades to engage children and adults alike in STEM and space exploration, including a free online Artemis I “Build to Launch” lesson series.
Digitized entries from NASA’s Artemis Moon Pod essay contest, in recognition of students’ efforts and contributions, as well as pledges from teachers to educate students about space exploration will also be included in the flight kit. Around 100 miniature Artemis I patches will be included and given after the flight for team recognitions to some participants in Artemis Student Challenges, an annual series of engineering challenges for middle school through undergraduate students. A variety of tree seeds will fly and will be distributed to educational organizations and teachers as a learning opportunity after the mission. Tree seeds were flown aboard the Apollo 14 mission and were germinated and grown into “Moon Trees” after being returned to Earth as an experiment to understand the effects of deep space on seeds.
Employees examine Artemis I mission patches to be included in the Official Flight Kit.
A pen nib from the Charles M. Schulz Museum and Research Center in Santa Rosa, California, will make the trek on Artemis I. NASA has shared an association with Schulz and his American icon Snoopy since Apollo missions began in the 1960s. Schulz created comic strips depicting Snoopy on the Moon, illustrating public excitement about America’s achievements in space. NASA renewed its relationship with Snoopy in 2019, the 50th anniversary of Apollo 10. The nib, used by Schulz himself, will be wrapped in a space themed comic strip.
NASA has a strong history of international collaboration and is extending many of its international partnerships to Artemis. Several items from other space agencies will be included in the flight kit. ESA (European Space Agency), which is providing the service module that powers and fuels Orion around the Moon and on its way home, will fly Shaun the Sheep, a small animal from the children’s television series spinoff from “Wallace and Gromit” that was broadcast in 180 countries. ESA has a long-standing partnership and Shaun the Sheep has flown on its parabolic flight campaign to generate awareness of space.
A 3D-printed replica of the Greek goddess Artemis will fly for later display in the Acropolis Museum in Greece. The Israel Space Agency is contributing a pebble from the shore of the Dead Sea, the lowest dry land surface area on Earth, to symbolize humanity’s continuing drive for exploration. The German Space Agency will fly digitized versions of student visions of lunar exploration as part of a nationwide educational activity.
The kit will also include a variety of flags, patches, and pins to be distributed after the mission to stakeholders and employees who contributed to the flight.
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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.