Dit is ons nieuw hondje Kira, een kruising van een waterhond en een Podenko. Ze is sinds 7 februari 2024 bij ons en druk bezig ons hart te veroveren. Het is een lief, aanhankelijk hondje, dat zich op een week snel aan ons heeft aangepast. Ze is heel vinnig en nieuwsgierig, een heel ander hondje dan Noleke.
This is our new dog Kira, a cross between a water dog and a Podenko. She has been with us since February 7, 2024 and is busy winning our hearts. She is a sweet, affectionate dog who quickly adapted to us within a week. She is very quick and curious, a very different dog than Noleke.
DEAR VISITOR,
MY BLOG EXISTS ALREADY 12 YEARS AND 11 MONTHS.
ON 06/05/2024 MORE THAN 1.972.210
VISITORS FROM 134 DIFFERENT NATIONS ALREADY FOUND THEIR WAY TO MY BLOG.
THAT IS AN AVERAGE OF 400GUESTS PER DAY.
THANK YOU FOR VISITING MY BLOG AND HOPE YOU ENJOY EACH TIME.
The purpose of this blog is the creation of an open, international, independent and free forum, where every UFO-researcher can publish the results of his/her research. The languagues, used for this blog, are Dutch, English and French.You can find the articles of a collegue by selecting his category. Each author stays resposable for the continue of his articles. As blogmaster I have the right to refuse an addition or an article, when it attacks other collegues or UFO-groupes.
Druk op onderstaande knop om te reageren in mijn forum
Zoeken in blog
Deze blog is opgedragen aan mijn overleden echtgenote Lucienne.
In 2012 verloor ze haar moedige strijd tegen kanker!
In 2011 startte ik deze blog, omdat ik niet mocht stoppen met mijn UFO-onderzoek.
BEDANKT!!!
Een interessant adres?
UFO'S of UAP'S, ASTRONOMIE, RUIMTEVAART, ARCHEOLOGIE, OUDHEIDKUNDE, SF-SNUFJES EN ANDERE ESOTERISCHE WETENSCHAPPEN - DE ALLERLAATSTE NIEUWTJES
UFO's of UAP'S in België en de rest van de wereld In België had je vooral BUFON of het Belgisch UFO-Netwerk, dat zich met UFO's bezighoudt. BEZOEK DUS ZEKER VOOR ALLE OBJECTIEVE INFORMATIE , enkel nog beschikbaar via Facebook en deze blog.
Verder heb je ook het Belgisch-Ufo-meldpunt en Caelestia, die prachtig, doch ZEER kritisch werk leveren, ja soms zelfs héél sceptisch...
Voor Nederland kan je de mooie site www.ufowijzer.nl bezoeken van Paul Harmans. Een mooie site met veel informatie en artikels.
MUFON of het Mutual UFO Network Inc is een Amerikaanse UFO-vereniging met afdelingen in alle USA-staten en diverse landen.
MUFON's mission is the analytical and scientific investigation of the UFO- Phenomenon for the benefit of humanity...
Je kan ook hun site bekijken onder www.mufon.com.
Ze geven een maandelijks tijdschrift uit, namelijk The MUFON UFO-Journal.
Since 02/01/2020 is Pieter ex-president (=voorzitter) of BUFON, but also ex-National Director MUFON / Flanders and the Netherlands. We work together with the French MUFON Reseau MUFON/EUROP.
ER IS EEN NIEUWE GROEPERING DIE ZICH BUFON NOEMT, MAAR DIE HEBBEN NIETS MET ONZE GROEP TE MAKEN. DEZE COLLEGA'S GEBRUIKEN DE NAAM BUFON VOOR HUN SITE... Ik wens hen veel succes met de verdere uitbouw van hun groep. Zij kunnen de naam BUFON wel geregistreerd hebben, maar het rijke verleden van BUFON kunnen ze niet wegnemen...
26-10-2022
Warriors of the Pharaoh
Warriors of the Pharaoh
The Ancient Egyptians faced many foes during their long history, including the Hyksos, the Hittites and the ‘Sea Peoples’, all of which stimulated advancements in military technology.
Hemmed in by natural barriers – the desert, the Mediterranean and the Red Sea – the ancient Egyptians were mostly concerned with staving off threats from the desert tribes and the Nubians to the south.
A ‘forward policy’ emerged, by which the Egyptians pushed aggressively into neighbouring territories, and this evolved until the Egyptians were campaigning in Syria, Libya, Nubia and the Kush. The pharaoh’s status as a warrior king became of paramount importance.
During the New Kingdom period, ancient Egyptian military might reached its zenith, with war chariots and siege craft increasingly important, although the use of actual siege engines appears to have been limited.
Charioteers
Chariots were not a traditional part of the ancient Egyptian army until they encountered them in their expeditions into Asia, along with other new military technologies.
The ancient Egyptians of the Old and Middle Kingdoms did not even make much use of horses, except for scouting and delivering messages.
The Hyksos invasion of ancient Egypt, which resulted in them gaining control over areas in the eastern delta, was originally thought to have been facilitated by the widespread use of chariots, but that is now disputed.
What is clear is that the ancient Egyptians learned about chariots and quickly embraced the concept. Steady improvements in design – the wheels were at first solid, then made with four spokes and later with six – made chariots sturdier and faster, but they remained primarily a missile platform in the ancient Egyptian army.
This contrasted with the use of chariots by other peoples. The Hittites, for example, manned heavy chariots with three men – a driver and two spear-wielding troops. For the ancient Egyptians, two-man crews in a lighter chariot worked best, with a driver and an archer teaming up.
Thousands of these chariots could harass an enemy effectively from a safe distance, and by the time of the New Kingdom, arrowheads were bronze rather than the original flint.
The chariot soon became the most prestigious element on the battlefield, and pharaohs are often depicted wielding a bow from a chariot. The gold-plated example found in the tomb of Tutankhamun confirms that they were highly regarded symbols of military prowess.
Weaponry
The heavy spear was the main weapon throughout the different phases of the ancient Egyptian army. It was used as a thrusting weapon rather than being thrown like a javelin, and used in conjunction with a wide, wooden shield. Spearheads were originally flint or copper, becoming bronze in later periods.
Heavy infantry would advance towards an enemy in formation, presenting a wall of shields over which the spears could be thrust.
This should not be mistaken for the highly disciplined use of shields and spears in the Greek phalanx tactics, however – Egyptian spears were far shorter.
A shield would typically be about 85cm (33in) in length, and heavily decorated ceremonial shields were often buried with pharaohs and other dignitaries. They were also carried by chariot drivers.
Axes were an important secondary weapon, and a variety of axehead designs were developed. Strictly a close-range weapon, a bronze axehead would be affixed to a wooden pole and used in a slashing motion.
Bows were originally made from animal horn, then wood, and the composite design had been adopted by the time of the New Kingdom.
This design added range and power, but made the weapon harder to wield, so simpler bows never fell out of use completely.
Infantry
During the New Kingdom, the ancient Egyptian military became a far more organized and effective fighting force. Nowhere was this more apparent than within the ranks of the infantry.
By the time of Ramesses II this was a highly sophisticated arm. Troops were divided into divisions of around 5,000 men. In the army Ramesses took into battle at Kadesh, he had four such divisions, named ‘Amun’, ‘Ra’, ‘Ptah’ and ‘Sutekh’.
Each division was divided into 20 companies of 250 men each, with further divisions down to platoons of 50. Platoons were commanded by the ‘great ones of the fifty’.
The heavy infantry wore no armour, but carried large shields and had spears as their main weapon, along with axes and swords.
Complementing the heavy foot soldiers were archers, by now recruited in ancient Egypt and armed with composite bows. Their job was to disrupt the enemy from a distance while the heavy infantry formations closed to engage.
Archers often went into battle on chariots, enabling them to keep their distance from the enemy. If forced to fight, they had small shields and daggers.
There was a solid logistical system to keep the men and horses fed and watered, including a sizeable baggage train and supply ships.
Navy
The ancient Egyptian navy was originally limited mainly to use on the Nile, but it did serve a function as a supply and transportation arm. It was never considered separate from the army itself.
Ships could either be made from reeds or from wooden planks, the latter being more suited to engaging in battle.
During the reign of Ramesses III, ancient Egypt was threatened by the ‘Sea Peoples’, and naval engagements were fought in which the ancient Egyptians appear to have won through superior tactics, despite having inferior ship designs.
In an echo of Egypt’s chariot tactics, they employed lighter ships to harass the enemy from a distance, peppering them with fire from bows and slingshots.
Source:
David Smith. All About History – Book of Pharaohs
Bas-relief of Thutmose III dominating his enemies. Karnak temple pylon.
Expedition ship to Punt: The ancient Egyptians sailed the high seas in large ships with oars and square sails, like this one. Papyrus copy of one of the ships sent to the country of Punt by Queen Hatshepsut, depicted at Deir el-Bahari.
Bronze Egyptian Khopesh with the name of Pharaoh Ramses II.
NASA detecteert meer dan 50 superuitstoters van methaan vanuit de ruimte: “Unieke kans om uitstoot van menselijke activiteiten te verminderen”
WETENSCHAP - De Amerikaanse ruimteorganisatie NASA heeft vanuit de ruimte meer dan 50 superuitstoters van methaan gedetecteerd op aarde. Het gaat om olie- en gasfaciliteiten en stortplaatsen in onder andere Iran, Turkmenistan en de VS. Van bepaalde uitstootwolken was het bestaan nog niet bekend bij de wetenschappers. “Sommige van de methaanpluimen die EMIT heeft gedetecteerd, behoren tot de grootste die ooit gezien zijn”, vertelt onderzoeker Andrew Thorpe aan persbureau Reuters.
EMIT staat voor Earth Surface Mineral Dust Source Investigation en is een meettoestel dat sinds juli aan het internationaal ruimtestation ISS hangt. Het instrument werd de ruimte ingeschoten om het effect van stof in de atmosfeer op klimaatverandering te onderzoeken, maar het blijkt nog een andere kwaliteit te hebben. EMIT kan ook erg nauwkeurig de aanwezigheid van methaan, een krachtig broeikasgas, op aarde opsporen, meldt NASA.
Sinds de installatie van de beeldspectrometer op het ISS in juli hebben wetenschappers al meer dan 50 superuitstoters van methaan in kaart kunnen brengen. Meestal gaat het om sites of sectoren in Centraal-Azië, het Midden-Oosten en het zuidwesten van de Verenigde Staten die met landbouw, afvalverwerking of fossiele brandstoffen te maken hebben.
Zo werd in de atmosfeer ten zuiden van de Iraanse hoofdstad Teheran een methaanpluim van net geen vijf kilometer bij een grote stortplaats waargenomen. Methaan is een van de stoffen die bij afvalverwerking vrijkomen. In Turkmenistan werd een cluster van twaalf methaanpluimen gespot bij een olie- en gasinfrastructuur. Sommige van die wolken zijn meer dan 30 kilometer lang, aldus NASA. Een olieveld in de Amerikaanse staat New Mexico kwam ook uit de bus als superuitstoter: ten zuiden van de stad Carlsbad kon EMIT een methaanpluim van drie kilometer blootleggen.
De enorme methaanpluimen in Iran en de VS waren nieuw voor de wetenschappers, schrijft Reuters.
Methaan is een krachtig broeikasgas dat bijdraagt aan klimaatverandering. In tegenstelling tot koolstofdioxide - dat eeuwenlang in de atmosfeer blijft hangen - blijft methaan slechts ongeveer tien jaar bestaan. Het betekent dat de vermindering van de methaanuitstoot een directer effect heeft op de opwarming van de aarde.
En dat beseffen ook de NASA-onderzoekers. “Het inperken van de methaanemissies is de sleutel tot het beperken van de opwarming van de aarde”, zegt Bill Nelson van de Amerikaanse ruimtevaartorganisatie. “Deze nieuwe ontwikkeling zal onderzoekers niet alleen kunnen helpen om methaanlekken beter te detecteren, maar ook inzicht geven in hoe ze sneller aangepakt kunnen worden.” Onderzoeker David Thompson spreekt van uitzonderlijke resultaten. “Het is een unieke kans om methaanbronnen aan te wijzen en de uitstoot van menselijke activiteiten te verminderen”, zegt hij.
Bekijk ook.
Polar bears scavenge on garbage to cope with climate change
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25-10-2022
Scientists Detect Unexpected Element Around 2 Exotic Exoplanets
Scientists Detect Unexpected Element Around 2 Exotic Exoplanets
One planet rains liquid gems, and the other experiences flurries of iron. And now another surprise has shown up in their atmospheres.
Monisha Ravisetti
An artists's illustration shows the night-side view of exoplanet WASP-76 b. The rain you see is made of iron droplets. To the left of the image, we see the evening border of the exoplanet, where it transitions from day to night.
M. Kornmesser/ESO
On Thursday, astronomers working with the European Southern Observatory's Very Large Telescope announced a perplexing discovery. Two exoplanets, both of which are already considered highly exotic, appear to be even weirder than we thought.
Not only do these worlds exhibit strange sci-fi characteristics -- one likely holds metal clouds from which liquid gems descend, and the other seems to rain iron rather than water -- but they also have barium in their atmospheres.
What's the big deal about barium, you ask?
Well, this may be a breakthrough finding for astronomy because, according to the team's new study, published in the journal Astronomy & Astrophysics, it marks the heaviest element ever detected in an exoplanet's atmosphere.
"This was in a way an 'accidental' discovery," Tomás Azevedo Silva, an astronomer at the University of Porto in Portugal and lead author of the study, said in a statement. "We were not expecting or looking for barium in particular and had to cross-check that this was actually coming from the planet since it had never been seen in any exoplanet before."
Even on Earth, barium atoms are known as pretty hefty. They're typically combined with other elements to make things like drilling fluids for oil wells, glassmaking tools and paint. In fact, the name "barium" is derived from the Greek word barys, which means -- you guessed it -- heavy.
So identifying such a medium in an exoplanet's atmosphere, where lighter elements like oxygen, carbon and hydrogen tend to reside, is fascinating.
Ultrapuzzling, ultrahot Jupiters
The extraordinary orbs, WASP-76b and WASP-121b, are both categorized as ultrahot Jupiters. While they're comparable in size to Jupiter, a giant about 11 times wider than Earth, they exhibit surface temperatures higher than 1,000 degrees Celsius. That's because they're really (really) close to their host stars. But this closeness is key to their quirks.
First of all, such proximity, scientists believe, is what gives these worlds their oddball characteristics, like how WASP-76 b is thought to experience showers of iron, an element we use to build heavy-duty machinery here on Earth. And second, it's what makes them a great target for atmospheric observations.
"Being gaseous and hot, their atmospheres are very extended and are thus easier to observe and study than those of smaller or cooler planets," Oliver Demangeon, study co-author and fellow astronomer from the University of Porto, said in a statement.
An artist's impression of an ultrahot Jupiter transiting its host star
M. Kornmesser/ESO
The team used an instrument on ESO's VLT named Espresso, which analyzes starlight passing through an exoplanet's atmosphere. Based on the properties of the starlight, it's possible to basically reverse-calculate what kind of atmosphere it had to pass through before reaching the analyzer, and therefore decode what elements live in that atmosphere. From Espresso's results, the researchers confirmed the existence of expected atmospheric elements such as hydrogen, magnesium, sodium and lithium.
Barium was the new addition -- and it's especially intriguing, according to the scientists, that atmospheric barium wasn't just located in these planets' shields. It was specifically seen in the upper layers of those shields. If anything, it'd be more understandable for the heavy element to exist in lower layers, potentially pulled down by its own weight. A 2019 study about WASP-121 b's initial identification by the Hubble Space Telescope, for instance, even notes how the planet houses a bunch of heavy metals in its lower atmosphere.
"The puzzling and counterintuitive part is: why is there such a heavy element in the upper layers of the atmosphere of these planets?" Azevedo Silva said.
The answer? We simply don't know yet. Or as Demangeon puts it, "at the moment, we are not sure what the mechanisms are."
We have yet another exoplanet mystery waiting to be solved. And perhaps I'm thinking wishfully, but this does sound awfully like a job for everyone's favorite new astronomy toy: NASA's James Webb Space Telescope. Only time will tell.
Spooky NASA Webb Telescope Image Captures 'Fingerprint' of Rare Star System
Spooky NASA Webb Telescope Image Captures 'Fingerprint' of Rare Star System
About 5,000 light-years from Earth, these 17 dust halos represent over a century of starry congregation.
Monisha Ravisetti
The two stars in Wolf-Rayet 140 produce shells of dust every eight years that look like rings, as seen in this image from NASA's James Webb Space Telescope.
NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI, JPL-Caltech
Since July, NASA's James Webb Space Telescope has delivered some of the most unbelievable space images we've ever laid eyes on. In just a few months, this pioneering machine has built a stunning repertoire of glowing nebular portraits, possible proof of ancient galaxies and even refreshing perspectives ofplanets in our own solar system.
But on Wednesday, the JWST shook things up a bit -- again.
As detailed by a paper published in the journal Nature Astronomy, it presented us with an image of 17 concentric dust rings -- though one thing hasn't changed. Like with the rest of the 'scope's lovely space discoveries, these haloes are just as breathtaking as they are crucial to the field of astronomy.
The agency believes these hazy rings are the result of two stars, located just over 5,000 light-years from Earth, treading close enough for their stellar winds to share a kiss now and then. In essence, every time the stars' sparkly streams of gas intertwine, they form a dusty ring. It's almost like they mark their union in spaceborne stone -- or, as NASA puts it, leave behind a "fingerprint."
What's especially fascinating about these stellar memories is they allow us to calculate the passage of time.
Basically, each of those 17 rings signifies exactly one starry rendezvous in the way each ring formed by a tree indicates a year of the plant's life. In fact, the stellar bodies' nested loops even resemble the inside of a tree trunk, bringing about a poignant reminder that everything we see -- from the mightiest stars and farthest planets to the greenest leaves and smallest bugs -- is part of the same, cohesive universe.
Rings inside a tree trunk, like these, indicate the age of the tree.
Getty Images
"We're looking at over a century of dust production from this system," Ryan Lau, an astronomer at the National Science Foundation's NOIRLab and lead author of the new study, said in a statement. "The image also illustrates just how sensitive this telescope is."
Before, with the ground-based telescopes available to us, we were able to see only two dust rings, Lao explains. "Now, we see at least 17 of them."
All in all, from what the JWST captured, scientists think the stars' special meeting occurs about once every eight years.
For the first time, @NASAWebb saw rings of stardust from a rare type of dual star system.
Every eight years, these two stars come close to each other, and the interaction forms a new cosmic ring. Ground scopes saw two; Webb revealed at least 17: https://t.co/7yuUMtPAxapic.twitter.com/OAz1GhZsWM
The find is thanks to the JWST's Mid-Infrared instrument, of MIRI. In contrast to the 'scope's Near-Infrared sensors -- pretty much the big-dog tool on this machine -- MIRI focuses on light emanating from spaceborne objects found on the mid-infrared region of the electromagnetic spectrum.
Typically, the JWST's Near-Infrared equipment is what gives us the bulk of our beautiful cosmic images, but when it comes to studying outer space dust rings, NASA brings MIRI up to bat. This part of the JWST is simply better suited to find cooler objects, the agency says, like the wispy hoops, and even succeed in revealing their composition.
Further, the study team notes, one star in this stellar system is considered a rarity.
It's called a Wolf-Rayet star. (The duo is aptly named Wolf-Rayet 140 because of this). The other star is an O-type star, a superhot object that's also relatively difficult to spot.
Wolf-Rayet stars, unlike standard stars, shed an incredible amount of mass over time, meaning they also tend to spit out heavy elements rooted deeply inside them. They also have a lot of mass to shed because they're at least 25 times more massive than our sun. And at the end of their life, they tend to turn into some of the most extreme known objects in our universe: black holes.
This graphic shows the relative size of the sun, upper left, compared with the two stars in the system known as Wolf-Rayet 140. The O-type star is roughly 30 times the mass of the sun, while its companion is about 10 times the mass of the sun.
NASA/JPL-Caltech
According to NASA, stars generally eject only the (very light) element hydrogen. But it's those heavy elements emitted by Wolf-Rayets that cool in the stellar wind, thereby compressing when they meet another star's breeze and potentially fostering the right environment for new stars to form. In fact, some scientists believe the sun rose from compressed Wolf-Rayet residue long ago.
With regard to WR-140, such compression seems to form the concentric circles we see left behind. Possibly, the agency explains, that's because of the system's elongated orbit. Only about 600 of these so-called Wolf-Rayet stars have been found in our galaxy so far, though scientists suspect there should be at least a few thousand total.
"Even though Wolf-Rayet stars are rare in our galaxy because they are short lived as far as stars go, it's possible they've been producing lots of dust throughout the history of the galaxy before they explode and/or form black holes," Patrick Morris, an astrophysicist at Caltech and co-author of the new study, said in a statement.
"I think with NASA's new space telescope we're going to learn a lot more about how these stars shape the material between stars and trigger new star formation in galaxies."
NASA's James Webb Telescope Captures Rare View of Galaxies Merging
NASA's James Webb Telescope Captures Rare View of Galaxies Merging
The next-gen instrument spots a rather extreme cosmic scene.
Monisha Ravisetti
What you're looking at is evidence of a massive galaxy merger happening 11.5 billion light-years away.
ESA/Webb, NASA & CSA, D. Wylezalek, A. Vayner & the Q3D Team, N. Zakamska
Now that we have a powerful lens pointed toward the deepest regions of the universe, our definition of "surprise" has slightly altered when it comes to astronomy pics.
Instead, whenever the telescope sends back a jaw-dropping space image, it now elicits more of a "JWST strikes again" feeling. And still, our jaws legitimately drop every single time.
This sort of dissonant version of "surprise" has happened yet again -- to a pretty extreme degree. Last week, scientists presented the JWST's brilliant view of a galaxy cluster merging around a massive black hole that houses a rare quasar -- aka an incomprehensibly bright jet of light spewing from the void's chaotic center.
There's a lot going on here, I know. But the team behind the find thinks it could escalate even further.
"We think something dramatic is about to happen in these systems," Andrey Vayner, a Johns Hopkins astronomer and co-author of a study about the scene soon to be published in the Astrophysical Journal Letters, said in a statement. For now, you can check out a detailed outline of the discovery in a paper published on arXiv.
An artist's concept of a galaxy with a brilliant quasar at its center.
NASA, ESA and J. Olmsted (STScI)
Especially fascinating about this portrait is that the quasar at hand is considered an "extremely red" quasar, which means it's super far away from us and therefore physically rooted in a primitive region of space that falls near the beginning of time.
In essence, because it takes time for light to travel through space, every stream of cosmic light that reaches our eyes and our machines is seen as it was long ago. Even moonlight takes about 1.3 seconds to reach Earth, so when we peer up at the moon, we're seeing it 1.3 seconds in the past.
More specifically with this quasar, scientists believe it took about 11.5 billion years for the object's light to reach Earth, meaning we're seeing it as it was 11.5 billion years ago. This also makes it, according to the team, one of the most powerful of its kind observed from such a gargantuan distance (11.5 billion light-years away, that is).
"The galaxy is at this perfect moment in its lifetime, about to transform and look entirely different in a few billion years," Vayner said of the realm in which the quasar is anchored.
Analyzing a galactic rarity
In the colorful image provided by Vayner and fellow researchers, we're looking at several things.
Enlarge ImageEach color in this image represents material moving at a different velocity.
ESA/Webb, NASA & CSA, D. Wylezalek, A. Vayner & the Q3D Team, N. Zakamska
On the left is a Hubble Space Telescope view of the region studied by the team, and in the middle is a blown-up version of the spot that the JWST zeroed-in on. Glance to the far right of this image, where four individually color-coded boxes are seen and you'll be analyzing different aspects of the JWST data broken down by velocity.
Red stuff is moving away from us and blue toward us, for instance.
This classification shows us how each of the galaxies involved in the spectacular merger are behaving -- including the one that holds the extreme black hole and accompanying red quasar, which is, in fact, the only one the team expected to uncover with NASA's multibillion dollar instrument.
"What you see here is only a small subset of what's in the data set," Nadia L. Zakamska, a Johns Hopkins astrophysicist and co-author of the study, said in a statement. "There's just too much going on here so we first highlighted what really is the biggest surprise. Every blob here is a baby galaxy merging into this mommy galaxy and the colors are different velocities and the whole thing is moving in an extremely complicated way."
Now, Zakamska says, the team will start to untangle the motions and enhance our view to an even greater extent. Already, though, we're looking at information far more incredible than the team expected to begin with. Hubble and the Gemini-North telescope previously showed the possibility of a transitioning galaxy but definitely didn't hint at the swarm we can see with the JWST's awesome infrared equipment.
In another spectacular image taken by Webb's Near-Infrared Camera (NIRCam), a smattering of hundreds of background galaxies, varying in size and shape, appear alongside the Neptune system.
ESA
"With previous images, we thought we saw hints that the galaxy was possibly interacting with other galaxies on the path to merger because their shapes get distorted in the process," Zakamska said. "But after we got the Webb data, I was like, 'I have no idea what we're even looking at here, what is all this stuff!' We spent several weeks just staring and staring at these images."
Soon enough, it became clear that the JWST was showing us at least three separate galaxies moving incredibly fast, the team said. They even believe this could mark one of the densest known areas of galaxy formation in the early universe.
An artistic impression of the quasar P172+18, which is associated with a black hole 300 times more massive than the sun.
ESO/M. Kornmesser
Everything about this complex image is mesmerizing. We have the black hole, that Zakamska calls a "monster," a highly rare jet of light being spit from that black hole and a gaggle of galaxies on a collision course -- all seen as they were billions of years in the past.
So, dare I say it? The JWST strikes again, offering us an exceedingly precious cosmic vignette. Cue, jaw drop.
Webb and Hubble Peer Into the Wreckage of a Galactic Collision
This image from the NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope depicts IC 1623, an entwined pair of interacting galaxies which lies around 270 million light-years from Earth in the constellation Cetus.
Credit: ESA/Webb, NASA & CSA, L. Armus & A. Evans; CC BY 4.0 Acknowledgement: R. Colombari.
Webb and Hubble Peer Into the Wreckage of a Galactic Collision
The Hubble Space Telescope and the James Webb Space Telescope have each taken a look at a pair of intertwined galaxies that are 270 million light-year away from Earth, together called IC 1623. Scientists say this galactic collision has ignited frenzied star formation called a starburst, creating new stars at a rate more than 20 times that of our Milky Way.
Astronomers have long anticipated having the two iconic telescopes work in tandem. At first glance, it might be hard to tell which telescope took which image – both are beautiful.
But JWST’s image includes the prominent diffraction spikes which we’ve come to know and expect from the new telescope. The 6-pronged, snowflake-like diffraction spikes are created by the interaction of bright starlight with the physical structure of the telescope. Here, the bright core of the galaxy merger combined with Webb’s ability to pierce through the gaseous shroud obscuring the bright starlight create the spikes, which appear right on top of the galaxy in this image.
This image from the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope depicts IC 1623, an entwined pair of interacting galaxies. Credit: NASA/ ESA, the Hubble Heritage team (STScI/AURA)-ESA/Hubble Collaboration, and A. Evans (University of Virginia, Charlottesville/NRAO/Stony Brook University).
On the other hand, Hubble’s image of this interacting galaxy system show’s HST’s familiar signature bright-pink colors that – throughout the years – we’ve come to know as active regions where stars are forming. Hubble’s Advanced Camera for Surveys (ACS) can study star formation at visual wavelengths in luminous and ultra-luminous infrared galaxies, and combining data from Hubble’s ACS and the Wide Field Camera 3 (WFC3) shows the view in visible-light, where the centers of the individual galaxies are much more obscured by dark dust. Their cores of the two galaxies are pale blue and their spiral arms are merging together.
IC 1623 is an interacting galaxy system that is very bright when observed in the infrared. This makes it a great target for proving JWST’s Webb’s ability to study luminous galaxies. The European Space Agency explained that a team of astronomers captured IC 1623 across the infrared portions of the electromagnetic spectrum using a trio of Webb’s cutting-edge scientific instruments: the mid-infrared instrument MIRI, the near-infrared spectrograph NIRSpec, and the near-infrared camera NIRCam. All the data gathered by the three instruments will allow the astronomical community to fully explore how Webb’s capabilities will help to to shed more light on the complex interactions in galactic systems.
The merger of these two galaxies has long been of interest to astronomers, as the ongoing, extreme starburst causes intense infrared emissions. Could the merging galaxies be in the process of forming a supermassive black hole?
Previous observations of IC 1623 support the idea that the galaxy pair is approaching the final stage of its merger, when a violent central inflow of gas will trigger even more intense starburst activity that could boost the infrared luminosity above the ultra-luminous threshold. Astronomers say the system will likely evolve into a compact starburst system, similar to a more famous merger, Arp 220.
Hubble image of massive star clusters in the galaxy Arp 220. Image credit: NASA/ESA
In 1972, a group of Japanese kids had run-ins with a UFO, which they managed to capture for a brief time. This incident could have been one of the inspirations for J.J. Abrams’ “Super 8.”
In the western world, there is not a lot of information about the strange incidents that happened on August 25, 1972, in Kchi City, which is located in Japan’s Shikoku Island. One of the individuals who caught the attention of the media was 13-year-old Michio Seo. He was on his way home from school when he saw the strange object hovering over a rice field.
As he watched the object move above the rice field, he was stunned by its appearance. The object looked like a silver hat with a narrow lip and a flat bottom. It had a curved dome at the top. According to him, the movement of the object resembled that of a bat that was making a series of hairpin turns in pursuit of its prey.
Upon seeing the object, his curiosity took over and he started to approach it. However, before he could get close enough, the saucer allegedly shot a blinding beam at him. He then left the area to avoid further confrontation with the UFO.
After returning home, he immediately contacted his friends to inform them about his strange encounter. Among his friends were Yasuo Fujimoto, Hiroshi Mori, and Katsuoka Kojima. Although they were skeptical, they started a search party for the saucer.
At around 7:00 pm, the group of boys went to the rice field. They had been keeping a close eye on the saucer as it hovered over the field for around an hour. Suddenly, the object returned and started to emit a multicolored light. The teenagers looked at the saucer with stunned looks. As the sun started to set, the device started to emit a dazzling light.
As the teenagers watched the UFO, one of them started to stalk it. He soon realized that it was moving erratically and started to emit a loud pop. The object then started to glow with a bluish-green color. This frightened the other teenagers and sent them running back to their homes.
After almost a week following their encounter, the boys went back to the area on September 4. They encountered the same UFO again at around 9:30 pm. The object, which was flying at an altitude of almost three feet above the ground, started to glow and moved toward them. The boys immediately ran away from the area.
The boys then decided to purchase a camera in an attempt to capture the saucer on film. They started their surveillance operation the following night. Although the saucer did not return, the following night would be different.
The boys’ persistence paid off on September 6 when they spotted the saucer in the middle of the field while they were on their way to the rice paddy. With their new camera, the teenagers took a photo of the UFO before they approached it.
After the flashbulb on the saucer broke, the object started to spin and rose into the air. A cameraman then captured another image of the saucer as it rose into the sky.
It’s unclear what exactly happened next. However, it’s widely believed that the saucer produced a bright light before crashing to the ground.
As the UFO continued to spin, it almost appeared to be burrowing into the ground. Fourteen-year-old Hiroshi Mori, who was the first to spot the UFO, decided to approach it. With his bare hands, he bent over and lifted the saucer. He claimed that he felt something inside.
The boys were stunned by the object, which they then wrapped in a plastic bag and placed inside their backpack. After examining it, the boys declared that it was almost 8 inches wide and almost 4 inches tall. According to them, the saucer weighed around three pounds.
The boys then noticed that the saucer had three different designs on its base. They believed that the designs represented various objects, such as clouds or waves. However, the saucer did not have a propulsion system.
After inspecting the saucer, the boys packed it inside a plastic bag and sent it to the home of their scientist friend, Yasuo Fujimoto. His father, Mutsuo, was the head of a science education center in Kchi.
Although he was not aware of the significance of the object, the elder Fujimoto decided to give it a superficial examination. He did this without taking the necessary time to thoroughly examine it.
The boys’ frequent trips out eventually caught the attention of their parents. As a result, Mutsuo told his son about the object. Although he did not give much importance to the object, he eventually decided to examine it. The saucer had a top down that was hard to open, and it had pieces that resembled radio components.
After Mr. Fujimoto’s brief encounter with the saucer, it was returned to the backpack of the scientist friend, Hiroshi Mori. Unfortunately, the saucer mysteriously vanished a day later.
Over the next couple of weeks, various individuals claimed to have spotted the same object in flight. These include Mori, Fujimoto, Yuji, and Seo. Although the group was able to catch the object on its second try, it mysteriously disappeared once more.
Trying to predict when the UFO would return, the boys decided to study the various factors that contributed to their numerous sightings. One of these is the fact that the object never seemed to move during rainy days. The boys then formulated a plan to capture the saucer.
The group went back to the rice paddy on September 19 to try and catch the UFO. This time, they brought along a bucket of water and some tattered rags. Unfortunately, they were not able to catch the object.
They then covered the saucer with the rags and poured the liquid over it. They then filled the holes at its base using the remaining greenish water. As the liquid entered the device, it produced a loud noise that they compared to a buzzing sound. The saucer’s interior also started to glow.
Suddenly, the boys were faced with the idea that the UFO might try and retaliate after they supposedly attacked it. The group then started to throw stones at the flying object. It remained stationary.
After returning home, the boys looked through the holes in the saucer and noticed various strange features. Some of these included drawings and Levers.
The boys then took more pictures of the object and tried to open it using a wire.
The boys were eventually able to hang the saucer upside down using the wire. As they tried to open it, the gravity pulled at the top of the dome, causing a slight separation between its bottom and top sections. They also noticed that there was a viscous material inside the device. The boys believed that the object’s strange electronic components might have been the remains of the pilot, who melted on contact with the water.
Using a hammer, the boys tried to measure the strength of the saucer’s exterior shell. After hitting it several times with the hammer, they discovered that the light metal parts of the saucer remained unblemished even after being hit hard. This is a common occurrence in the materials found at alleged crash sites.
The boys then tried to test the object’s strength by placing it inside an oven. However, Aiko Katsuoka, the mother of the UFO’s pilot, prevented them from doing this. She also told them that they could not store the saucer in her refrigerator. They believed that this might prevent the UFO from returning.
After coming to the conclusion that the object was most likely a remote-controlled surveillance device, the group decided that it was time to tell their friends about the mysterious mechanism behind the UFO. However, before revealing the object to their friends, the boys wrapped it in additional cloth to make it look like it could prevent it from leaking radioactive material.
The saucer was then given to Mori and Seo for safekeeping. The other boys went back to their usual chores and dinner. The young watchmen, who thought that the object was secure in their room, enjoyed a night of comic book consumption. They were anxious to see how the public would react when the saucer was revealed to them at school the following week.
The other boys went back to check on the saucer later that evening. They were disappointed to see that there was nothing to be found under the pile of rags. After conducting a fruitless search, the group concluded that the saucer had flown back to the coop once more.
After playing a game of ball with Mori that evening, Kojima suddenly lunged over the fence and found the UFO. He was surprised and delighted by his discovery. Mori and Kojima then went back inside the house and retrieved the saucer.
The group decided that they should paint the silver dome to prevent the saucer from disappearing. Doing so would help confirm that they have been encountering the same object over and over again. They assumed that if the saucer disappeared, it would eventually turn up somewhere in their backyards or rice fields.
On September 22, the group went to Kchi City on a bike ride. They then decided that they would all carry the saucer with them.
Mori then decided that the saucer would be stored inside a bag filled with water to prevent it from escaping. He also tied a piece of string to the wrist of whoever was going to carry it to make sure that no harm would occur to the object.
The saucer was placed inside a duffle bag, and it was inserted into the basket of the first carrier’s bicycle. The group proceeded to ride through the city, and the bag changed riders as they went through the streets. It eventually ended up in the basket of the last caretaker.
The group continued to travel until they came across a bicycle repair shop. During this time, the last rider suddenly felt his wrist, which was attached to the bag by a string, twist and pull with such force that he immediately ran to his friends.
The boys immediately untied the bag’s knots and opened it. However, when they looked inside, they saw that the saucer was nowhere to be found. They were disappointed to see that the object was nowhere to be found.
The Kera UFO Encounter Case Reopens
Although the incident was relatively unknown to the general public at that time, it was later covered in an illustrated retelling by UFO Comics in 2004. This led to an increase in UFO enthusiasts in Japan.
In 2007, the director of the JSPS, Shinichiro Namiki, decided to reopen the investigation. He asked the organization’s head, Kazo Hayashi, to speak with the other witnesses to see if they could still provide the same account.
During his investigation, Hayashi came across another strange UFO. It happened on the evening of June 6, 1976, in the same prefecture where the Kera incident occurred. At around 6:30 pm, a 9-year old girl named Sachiko Oyama was outside with her cat when she saw a bright yellow object in the sky.
Oyama decided to walk into the middle of the street to get a better view of the object. As she looked around, she saw that the saucer had descended into a nearby wooded area. She then followed it to the edge of the tree line. After it hit a tree, the saucer silently landed on the pavement, and it produced a “hissing” sound as it did so.
According to Oyama, the object looked like a silver hat with a diameter of around seven inches. She then bent over and touched it. She claims that the saucer was covered in a thick and slim substance that stuck to her finger.
Like the boys in Kera, Oyama felt scared as she saw the object. She immediately ran to her home to avoid getting hurt. However, when she looked over her shoulder, she saw that the saucer had started to glow again. She watched in disbelief as the object rose, rotated around, and then shot out of view.
Hayashi was able to confirm that Oyama still believed in her story in 2007. He then explained that the flying objects were actually interdimensional vehicles that got separated from their original planet after entering our solar system.
Hayashi’s theory seemed to satisfy him, but what should we make of the objects that mysteriously appeared in the sky over Japan in 1972 and 1976? It’s not clear if these were actually alien spacecraft or if they were just toys that the kids saw. As technology then was in its early 1970s, it would have been impossible for the saucer to have been capable of performing such intricate maneuvers.
Unlike the case of Malaysia’s micro-terrestrial invasion in the 1970s, the objects that appeared in the sky over Japan during the same period did not seem to have alien or human influences. They were only able to function properly due to their design.
The boys must have thought that the object was a remote controlled device that could be used to extract alien materials. As it turns out, this theory is more plausible than the notion that it was an alien spacecraft.
When I first heard about the incident, I initially thought that it was a prank carried out by some young prankster. However, after looking at the photos of the saucer, it’s clear that it was not designed to function properly. An aeronautical engineer would have a hard time believing that the device could have flown without a rotor or other driving force.
It has also been suggested that the saucer might have been a conscious being that was designed to perform similar functions as the aliens in Steven Spielberg’s 1987 film “*Batteries Not Included.” While I am not convinced by this theory, let’s take a closer look at the evidence that supports it.
If the reports are true, the object flew properly even though it didn’t have a propulsion system. Also, it exhibited a desire to defend itself by using loud noises and brilliant lights.
Like other living creatures, the saucer was also able to resist repeated attempts by the teenagers to incarcerate it. None of these actions are enough to prove that the object was an example of intelligent life.
It’s also possible that the object was a surveillance device that was designed to monitor the activities of humans. The strange markings on the surface of the saucer could have been produced by an unknown technology that was sent from another dimension or another world.
One obvious explanation is that the incident was a hoax. Some believe that the object was actually a training pot that was made to look like a toilet. However, if this is the case, it would be very disappointing for Mutsuo Fujimoto, the Kchi Center’s science education director. For over four decades, the teenagers who carried out the hoax have maintained that the UFO was a hoax.
A 2007 investigation by the Japan Society for Public Safety revealed that the incident was not a hoax. If the incident was truly a hoax, the teenagers would have probably grown tired of it as they got older.
The incident truly is one of the most interesting in the history of UFOlogy.
Bahariya Oasis: The Fabulous Valley of the Golden Mummies
Bahariya Oasis: The Fabulous Valley of the Golden Mummies
In 1996, Egyptologist Zahi Hawass noticed impressive flashes from the bottom of a hole in an oasis in Egypt’s desert. This led to the discovery of several tombs containing mummies from the Greco-Roman period; they all had incredible golden decorations.
Greco-Roman mummies
The Valley of the Golden Mummies is located 15 minutes from El Bawiti, in the Bahariya Oasis, about 400 kilometers from Cairo.
Although there are traces of a Palaeolithic population in the area, it was during the Middle Kingdom that this green dot in the middle of the desert attracted the attention of the ancient Egyptian rulers. Trade routes and nomads converged there, becoming a defensive enclave of the western borders.
Bahariya flourished most especially from the 26th dynasty and after the arrival of Alexander the Great and the Ptolemies.
Most of the mummies discovered relate to the Greco-Roman period (between the 4th century BC and the 4th century AD) when the oasis served as a center for exporting wine to the rest of the Nile Valley.
The excavation led by Hawass discovered that the oasis’s population, mostly made up of artisans and merchants, had been buried in family pantheons that had accumulated mummies of men, women, and children of various ages over time. These are the Golden Mummies and are dressed splendidly in beautiful cartonnage and masks covered with fine layers of gold on stucco.
Egyptian and Greek elements
Mummification in the Greco-Roman era emphasized the mummy’s external appearance. The corpse, once emptied, was reinforced with sticks or reeds and covered with large amounts of resin.
“You could still smell the resin used,” Hawass notes, recalling the moment he entered the tombs. Later, they would wrap the mummy in a linen bandage formed of intricate geometric patterns that gave it a sense of depth.
Sometimes, the funerary mask was modeled with papyrus cardboard plastered and painted on the torso and face of the deceased. In the case of wealthy families, this was covered with fine layers of gold.
The decoration of the bandages and masks of the Bahariya mummies shows a striking combination of Egyptian and Greek elements.
Greco-Roman hairstyles were represented alongside images of ancient Egyptian gods, such as Isis, Anubis, and Horus. A female mummy found in a wooden sarcophagus had a stele at her feet that showed the deceased dressed in a Roman style and heading for the threshold of a door that would lead her to resurrection.
Some obsidian, marble, or glass plates were placed on the face of some mummies. These symbolized the eyes and eyelids and gave life to the gaze of the deceased.
Mummies belonging to the less favored classes of the oasis have been found in very poor states of preservation—they were wrapped carelessly during mummification and were not deposited inside any sarcophagus in the tombs.
Anthropomorphic sarcophagi made of terracotta have also been found, and sometimes poignant elements appear. For example, a female mummy whose face had been cast to the side so she could contemplate the mummy of her husband, lying next to her, who had died earlier.
Tombs and grave goods
Most of the tombs discovered have a similar structure. There are access steps leading to a small room where the body of the deceased was received.
Then, a small corridor leads to the lateral niches where the corpses were deposited. Here, there are tombs resembling a kind of catacomb where the mummies were simply piled up.
Some tombs show the god Anubis weighing the heart of the deceased alongside the feather of Maat before Osiris as decoration.
Statues of mourners and of the god Bes, protector of the home, have been found in grave goods such as offering vessels with remains of wine, food, and bronze, silver, copper, faience, and ivory jewelry.
Coins from the Greco-Roman period have also been found, one of them from the reign of the famous Cleopatra VII.
Among the most notable finds is the limestone sarcophagus that hid the mummy of Bahariya’s 26th dynasty governor, Djed-Khonsu-euf-Ankh, and the mummies of his wife Nesa II, his brother, and his father.
The tombs of Ta-Nefret-Bastet, Ped-Ashtar, and Thaty are from the same period and were looted during Roman times and were later reused.
The Valley of the Golden Mummies is one of the most important discoverable sites of Egypt’s Greco-Roman period, and its study is still far from over. In the words of Hawass, the excavation in the Bahariya area could last decades and is expected to discover more than 10,000 mummies during its course.
Source: Barbara Ramirez, National Geographic
Archaeologist Mohammed Ayadi cleans some of the golden mummies found at Bahariya Oasis.
Photo: AP
View of the oasis of Bahariya, in Egypt, in the vicinity of which the Valley of the Golden Mummies was discovered.
Photo: iStock
Sarcophagus belonging to the brother of the governor of Bahariya during the 26th dynasty, discovered in 2004.
According to documents released by the Pentagon, time travel and anti-gravity technologies may be available to humans and could help us visit other worlds.
The recent declassification of 1,500 files sheds light on the Advanced Aviation Threat Identification Program (AATIP), which was a secret Pentagon UFO program.
Its publication was made possible after a four-year legal battle following a freedom of information request from The Sun.
One of the papers discusses how anti-gravity technology can be used to create airships and spacecraft, stating that “the effects can be achieved by manipulating space-time.”
How to “manipulate gravity” is also discussed and the report says: “It may be possible to create exotic phenomena such as faster-than-light travel… and time machines.”
It is also added that “wormholes” in space-time can be used for interstellar travel.
The documents, which The Sun called “the bombshell,” were released by the US Department of Defense Intelligence Agency.
These include plans to send multiple single-pilot spacecraft to “colonize” deep space, as well as research into how humans can control robots with their minds.
It has been found that a person cannot fly more than four spacecraft, but in the papers, scientists wonder if our brains can be developed to enhance this ability.
The AATIP has been in operation since 2007 and is headed by Luis Elizondo, who believes that the existence of UFOs has “been proven beyond reasonable doubt.”
Elsewhere in the report, the report explores how nuclear-powered rockets and spacecraft will allow us to “build bridges” over the layers of icy objects surrounding the Sun to find other Earth-like planets.
Also in the documents is information on how we can communicate with aliens, as well as a study on the health impact of people who have encountered aliens or seen UFOs .
Although the project has since been scrapped, Pentagon officials admitted last year that there have been around 150 UFO reports from military pilots since 2004. It further includes “abductions” and “unwanted pregnancies” of civilians.
Engineer Analyzes Unusual Magnetism at Brazilian Crop Circle Site
Engineer Analyzes Unusual Magnetism at Brazilian Crop Circle Site
Paul Seaburn
Crop circles are a controversial subject – farmers hate them, drone camera operators love them, believers think they’re made by extraterrestrials as messages, skeptics swear they’re made by artistic humans with boards, ropes and vivid imaginations. What crop circles need is someone to conduct a scientific analysis on them to determine what they are and who made them. On October 4, 2022, a crop circle appeared in Ipuaçu, a city in the state of Santa Catarina in the South region of Brazil – a town with so many crop circles, it is considered by some to be the Wiltshire of Brazil or the “City of ETs.” Word traveled quickly and it was visited and scientifically studied by a government and military specialist in electronics and a paranormal and UFO investigator. What did he find? Will it change everything? Anything?
It pays to look both ways when examining a crop circle
"I woke up and it was already there. When I came out, I could see from above."
Farmer Sérgio Girotto told the GZH General media organization of his experience on the morning of October 4 in Ipuaçu. Looking out the balcony of his house at a wheat field, where he also plants beans corn and oats, he saw parts of his crop pressed down into the crop. Brazilians refer to crop as agroglyphs and Girotto says he is far from the first farmer in the area to see one – they date back to at least 2008 in Ipuaçu. Other farmers saw the agroglyph and texted photos to Girotto, along with posting them on WhatsApp and other social media platforms. Girotto noted that he’s had agroglyphs on his property before in 2013, but this one – with its geometric combination of a pentagon, circles and a triangle -- was one of the most intricate and precise he has seen and the first to be so close to an urban area. (Photos of the crop circle can be viewed here.)
"I don't believe it or disbelieve it. But that's very strange, yes. People from Curitiba, São Paulo and even the Amazon. There was a French couple too. They said they live in Foz do Iguaçu."
As with the crop circles in England, the photos of this one went viral and the farm and Ipuaçu were soon swamped with visitors. By October 16, tramplings, decay and heavy rains had washed out the agroglyph … but not before it was visited by a team of investigators led by Alcides Cores. According to his biography at UFO Magazine (Revista UFO), Cores is a professional in electronic systems maintenance for the Brazilian Airport Infrastructure Company (Infraero) qualified in radio aid to air navigation, and is a technician specialized by the Air Force Command in high-precision flight telemetry equipment. On the paranormal side, Cores has been a researcher of paranormal phenomena and a ufologist for over 40 years, and is the author of “Dimensional Portals (Portais Dimensionais,) described by A Gazeta de Vale do Argentina as a best seller and “a fundamental work for any ufologist or interested in the subject, and it needs to be part of your library.”
“Several measurements were made inside and outside the figure to have a comparison parameter, using two different electromagnetic field meters: one with three axes, which makes scanning easier and more accurate and operates in the range between 50 MHz and 3.5 GHz, and a single-axis meter, but sensitive to a wider and higher band of frequencies, ranging from 700 MHz to 6 GHz.”
Cores and his team issued the results of their investigation last week in Revista UFO. They were most interested in magnetic anomalies in and around Sérgio Girotto ‘s crop circle. While the readings revealed a relatively weak electromagnetic field, they noticed several sudden magnetic pulse of more than 60,000 nT (an nT is one nanotesla or 10 to the -9 tesla) which “curiously happened outside the crop circle.” While they recorded fluctuations on their instruments, no anomalies were seen on personal electronics like cell phones and compasses.
Cores notes that the weak magnetic field could be due to the crop circle’s close proximity to the city of Ipuaçu. It could also be picking up electromagnetic emissions from a nearby (700 meters or 2300 feet) cell phone tower. Cores also points out that his team arrived the day after the agroglyph appeared and reading could have been different on that day. Moreover, he admits that “we are unaware of the technology that produces this phenomenon, but there is certainly the involvement of an energy that we can assume is of an electromagnetic nature and of high frequency, perhaps in the microwave range.” This is far from the first crop circle he has investigated, and Cores says he’s seen high magnetic readings in the wheat stalks of various crop circles. Unfortunately, electromagnetic radiation dissipates quickly and leaves no traces.
Those sudden magnetic pulse of more than 60,000 nT continued to bother the investigation team. Cores offered one possible explanation for them:
“According to the magnetic map that uses data from the World Magnetic Model (WMM2020), the magnetic field of Ipuaçu should have a value of 22,365.7 nT. Furthermore, it is known that the southern region is under the great magnetic anomaly of the South Atlantic, an immense area that is characterized by a great weakening of the global magnetic field, and Ipuaçu is located relatively close to its epicenter, which is currently over the Paraguay.”
Cores is referring to the South Atlantic Anomaly (SAA) – the area where Earth's inner Van Allen radiation belt comes closest to Earth's surface, causing an increased flux of energetic particles in this region and exposes orbiting satellites to higher-than-usual levels of ionizing radiation, which is why NASA tries to avoid sending satellites or space flights over it. If the Southern Atlantic Anomaly caused the spikes in electromagnetisim, could those spikes be attracting non-human entities there to create the crop circles?
Is the electromagnetism in the reading human-made or something else?
Alcides Cores has been investigating the paranormal with a scientific eye long enough to know better than to jump to any conclusions.
“The phenomenon of crop circles is perhaps more complex than we imagine. What is physically presented to the eye is the kneading of the wheat and the geometric figure formed by it, which undoubtedly can contain messages not yet deciphered. But perhaps, in addition to the geometric shape and the effects in wheat, there is something deeper in it that vibrates in the spectrum of energies of the universe that human perception does not reach.”
In other words, the local magnetic field may be dictating the shape of this and other agroglyphs in Ipuaçu and possibly in other areas. Since no one admits to seeing this crop circle being made, there is no evidence to conclude it was made by humans … but there is also none to drive the conclusion to extraterrestrials either. At this point, Cores reminds us why there are so many conflicts between science and the paranormal.
“However, it is worth remembering that science is not a matter of belief or disbelief. Science is verification, impartial investigation within a methodology established by it to avoid mistakes and reach results as close to reality as possible. In this process, data collection is essential.”
As we have noted, Alcides Cores and his team collected the data at the site of the recent crop circle in Ipuaçu, analyzed it a drew their conclusions as best as they could. To the frustration of believers, the conclusion was not extraterrestrials. However, this was only one of many agroglyphs in Ipuaçu and the surrounding area. Cores and other investigation teams will be back. And one day they may find the conclusive data on crop circles everyone is waiting for.
NASA Gets Serious About UFOs - Unveils Unidentified Aerial Phenomena Study Team Members
NASA Gets Serious About UFOs - Unveils Unidentified Aerial Phenomena Study Team Members
Paul Seaburn
For the organization which has spent more time in outer space that any other, NASA has been slow to embrace the idea of unidentified flying objects. Even when its own astronauts swear they have seen UAPs, the space agency has stepped back from acknowledging them, let alone investigating them. As the Department of Defense finally admitted that videos of UAPs taken by military pilots and naval ship personnel are real and the U.S. Congress demanded and received briefings and hearings, NASA this summer decided to jump on the UAP bandwagon and announced it would form a panel to investigate them. After months of searching, that panel has finally been announced. Let’s take a look at who is on it and why, and then compare it to some rival organizations.
“Exploring the unknown in space and the atmosphere is at the heart of who we are at NASA. Understanding the data we have surrounding unidentified aerial phenomena is critical to helping us draw scientific conclusions about what is happening in our skies. Data is the language of scientists and makes the unexplainable, explainable.”
In the NASA press release, Thomas Zurbuchen, associate administrator of the Science Mission Directorate at NASA Headquarters in Washington, makes some bold statements about a 16-person commission with a budget under $100,000 and only nine months to complete the project. But we’ll have to take when we can get from the organization that usually gives nothing on the subject. At the head of the table is David Spergel, the chair of the study. Spergel is the president of the Simons Foundation where he was the founding director of its Flatiron Institute for Computational Astrophysics and helped establish the standard model of cosmology.
Two names on the panel that should be familiar to the general public are Scott Kelly and Frederico Bianco. Kelly is a veteran NASA astronaut – having served on four space missions, including a one -year stint on the International Space Station – and is have of the human space travel guinea pigs team with his identical twin brother and fellow astronaut Mark Kelly, now a U.S. senator. Scott Kelly was asked by CNN in 2021 if he believes in UFOs or extraterrestrials and he said, “No. I think the distances are too great. The physics are... The nearest Earth-like planet, if we went as fast as we could, would take 80,000 years to get there." If UFO believers were hoping for a fighter on the team, Scott Kelly isn’t it … but Federica Bianco is. The Italian-born astrophysicist took up boxing for fitness and while living in New York and found she was good enough to turn pro – competing in competitions like Beautiful Brawlers and the National Women’s Golden Gloves. Bianco calls herself “The Mad Scientist” and has real science credentials – she is a joint professor at the University of Delaware, is the principal investigator of Federica Astrostatistics Lab (FASTLab), and coordinates more than 1,500 scientists for the 2023 Large Synoptic Survey Telescope Science Collaboration to discover new galaxies and stars in the southern sky.
Former astronaut Scott Kelly
With some UAPs also showing underwater capabilities, the team decided to include biological oceanographer Paula Bontempi, a professor of oceanography University of Rhode Island and a NASA veteran who was the acting deputy director of NASA’s Earth Science Division for the Science Mission Directorate and worked on many NASA Earth observing satellite missions. To help include non-military UFOs in the evaluation is Karlin Toner, the acting executive director of the FAA’s Office of Aviation Policy and Plans, who previously was the director of the Airspace Systems Program at NASA Headquarters. Also representing the FAA is Warren Randolph, the deputy executive director of the Federal Aviation Administration’s Accident Investigation and Prevention for Aviation Safety department. This is a good sign that the many UFOs seen by commercial pilots will be included in the NASA research. To make sure the photos are clear and the facts checked thoroughly is science journalist Nadia Drake, a contributing writer at National Geographic and Scientific American covering astronomy, astrophysics, planetary sciences, and jungles and the holder of a doctorate in genetics.
The search of extraterrestrial intelligence will be represented on the panel by Anamaria Berea, an associate professor of Computational and Data Science at George Mason University and a research affiliate with the SETI Institute in Mountain View, California, focusing on the science of both biosignatures and technosignatures as signs of intelligent life. Representing the issues of the Department of Defense is Reggie Brothers, the former undersecretary for Science and Technology at the U.S. Department of Homeland Security and Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Research at the Department of Defense. On the medical side – if they happen to uncover some living ETs – is Jen Buss who worked with NASA on strategic planning processes for astronaut medical care. When it comes to negotiating with those living extraterrestrials, the panel has Mike Gold, a former NASA associate administrator for Space Policy and Partnerships, acting associate administrator for the Office of International and Interagency Relations and senior advisor to the Administrator for International and Legal Affairs. Gold also worked with the State Department on the creation and execution of the Artemis Accords, which established the norms of behavior in space. To help figure where the UFOs and aliens are coming from is David Grinspoon, a senior scientist at the Planetary Science Institute in Tucson, Arizona, and a researcher on comparative planetology, climate evolution and the implications of habitability on earth-like planets.
Proving that the James Webb Space Telescope has taken over SETI, the panel includes Matt Mountain, who oversees a consortium of national and international universities who help NASA and the National Science Foundation build and operate observatories including NASA’s Hubble Telescope and James Webb Space Telescope. Representing earthlings is Walter Scott, the executive vice president and chief technology officer of Maxar in Colorado which specializes in earth intelligence and space infrastructure. Also looking at the Earth side is Joshua Semeter, a professor of electrical and computer engineering at Boston University where he also researches interactions between Earth’s ionosphere and the space environment. For those who support the theory that extraterrestrials beat the speed of light limitation by traveling through wormholes and black holes is Shelley Wright, an associate professor of physics at the University of California, San Diego’s Center for Astrophysics and Space Studies specializing in supermassive black holes and the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence (SETI).
Who will prove their existence first?
That is NASA’s UFO investigation panel. It seems to have every aspect of unidentified aerial phenomena and the search for extraterrestrial intelligence covered except for one – no one on the panel has had an encounter with a UFO or ET. For that, we turn to a rival organization – the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA). The world’s largest technical society dedicated to the global aerospace profession, the AAIA announced the formation of the Unidentified Aerospace Phenomena Community of Interest with two co-chairpersons -- Ravi Kopparapu, a planetary scientist at NASA who is studying the potential habitability of Earth-like planets, and Ryan Graves, the former Navy fighter pilot and defense contractor who revealed his UFO encounters while piloting his F/A-18 Hornet fighter jet in 2014 and 2015. These two organizations are just starting out, while the Pentagon’s All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office formed in July “to detect, identify and attribute objects of interest in, on or near military installations, operating areas, training areas, special use airspace and other areas of interest, and, as necessary, to mitigate any associated threats to safety of operations and national security. This includes anomalous, unidentified space, airborne, submerged and transmedium objects.”
NASA’s unidentified aerial phenomena panel has the broadest background and a boxer, but the smallest budget. On the private sector side, the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics has a pilot with real UFO experience. The Pentagon’s All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office has the backing of the federal government and the biggest budget. Which one will win the race to reveal the first extraterrestrials and their space ships?
Silver Disk Over Buddha Statue In Sokcho-si City, South Korea Oct 10, 2022, Photos, UFO Sighting News.
Silver Disk Over Buddha Statue In Sokcho-si City, South Korea Oct 10, 2022, Photos, UFO Sighting News.
Date of sighting: Oct 10, 2022
Location of sighting: Sokcho-si, South Korea
Source: MUFON
Hey check this out. A person was praying at a temple on a hilltop in South Korea last week when they accidentally photographed an alien craft in one photo. The object is obviously a disk, tilted in flight, just like Bob Lazar said the look (tilted when moving). Bob Lazar is a employee in area S4 with Area 51, who worked on an actual alien disk for months to learn how it worked and could be duplicated for the USAF to make. This disk, is 98% similar to the disk he worked on. So yes, this is 100% real.
Scott C. Waring - Taiwan
Eyewitness states:
Observer had taken three shots (facing Northwest) of the Buddha statue at 09:45:31, 09:45:32 and 09:45:51. Silver metallic disk type UFO is observed in the second shot taken at 09:45:32.
Terrified Kids Watch Lights, Cottageville, South Carolina Oct 13, 2022, Video, UFO Sighting News
Terrified Kids Watch Lights, Cottageville, South Carolina Oct 13, 2022, Video, UFO Sighting News
Yes its short, but they were scared. 🤔🤔🤔Eyewitness states: I went outside the call the cat in, and saw a light between the trees-(object was past the trees)- I moved my head several times because it was just sitting there. I ran inside to get my husband and ran back out and it started ascending up (slowly like a rising elevator) husband took the shortest video because he said it was a plane-it absolutely was not. It was low and hovered before ascending! Then flew over our heads over our house. Was it a drone? I have no idea. It seemed bigger than that. It did make noise as it flew over but not as loud as a low “plane” would have been. I do not believe it to be a helicopter either. It did have a flashing red light underneath which made me think it wasn’t a UFO-but I couldn’t see the standard red, white, and blue lights of a plane. I am positive it was triangular in shape as it flew over the house-and then that was that. I asked the community on FB if anyone had seen it-got nothing in return
Scott C. Waring - Taiwan
Eyewitness states:
I went outside the call the cat in, and saw a light between the trees-(object was past the trees)- I moved my head several times because it was just sitting there. I ran inside to get my husband and ran back out and it started ascending up (slowly like a rising elevator) husband took the shortest video because he said it was a plane-it absolutely was not. It was low and hovered before ascending! Then flew over our heads over our house. Was it a drone? I have no idea. It seemed bigger than that. It did make noise as it flew over but not as loud as a low “plane” would have been. I do not believe it to be a helicopter either. It did have a flashing red light underneath which made me think it wasn’t a UFO-but I couldn’t see the standard red, white, and blue lights of a plane. I am positive it was triangular in shape as it flew over the house-and then that was that. I asked the community on FB if anyone had seen it-got nothing in return.
Harvard professor on UFO sighting study: “I am significantly intrigued”
Harvard professor on UFO sighting study: “I am significantly intrigued”
NASA has enlisted the help of 16 experts to look into UFO sightings. Some of them include journalists, computer science experts, and astronomy experts. Also, Scott Kelly, an astronaut who holds the record for most days in space, is part of the group.
Avi Loeb, a science professor at Harvard, said that despite the stigma attached to UFOs, it’s time for scientists to start looking into these mysterious objects.
Last year, he established the Galileo Project, which aims to collect data related to the hundreds of alleged sightings of extraterrestrial objects. The team will start analyzing the data on Monday.
According to him, it’s the government’s duty to ask scientists to help investigate these alleged sightings. If they find that the objects are natural or human-made, then they will stop looking for them. However, if they find that the objects are alien, then it will be very exciting.
Science is based on evidence, and it’s important that the scientists get the necessary data to confirm if the objects are alien or natural.
When asked if he believes there’s life out there, he said that he’s interested in learning more about the possibility of intelligent life.
Marsrobot Perseverance haalt zuurstof uit de atmosfeer
Marsrobot Perseverance haalt zuurstof uit de atmosfeer
NASA/JPL-CALTECH
Image caption,
The Moxie unit is about the size of a toaster
In de toekomst is zuurstof nodig om ter plaatse brandstof voor raketten te produceren, zodat ruimtetuigen vlot heen en weer kunnen pendelen tussen de aarde en Mars.
Beeld: MOXIE is zo groot als een broodrooster. Credit: NASA
De Amerikaanse ruimtevaartorganisatie NASA heeft alweer een mijlpaal bereikt in de verkenning van de planeet Mars. Het instrument MOXIE (Mars Oxygen In-Situ Resource Utilization Experiment) aan boord van het robotje Perseverance is erin geslaagd om CO2 uit de atmosfeer van Mars om te zetten in zuurstof. Op termijn moet dit toelaten om ter plaatse brandstof voor raketten te produceren, zodat ruimtetuigen vlot heen en weer kunnen pendelen tussen de aarde en Mars. Daarmee komt de ultieme droom een stapje dichterbij: bemande ruimtemissies naar Mars.
Het MARS Exploration Program (MEP) van de NASA wil zo veel mogelijk te weten komen over onze buurplaneet. Wetenschappers zoeken een antwoord op allerlei vragen. Hoe is Mars ontstaan? Welke evolutie heeft de planeet doorgemaakt? Is er ooit leven geweest? Kan de geschiedenis van Mars ons iets leren over de evolutie van onze eigen planeet?
Sinds 18 februari 2021 dokkert het zeswielig ruimtewagentje Perseverance over het ruwe Marsoppervlak. Hij gaat op zoek naar bodemstalen die over een aantal jaar in onze aardse labs moeten terechtkomen en ons inzicht in het ontstaan en de evolutie van de rode planeet moeten aanscherpen.
Pendeldienst
Maar om een ruimtetuig vanop Mars naar de aarde te laten terugkeren, heb je uiteraard brandstof nodig. De voor de hand liggende oplossing bestaat erin om de stuwstof (brandstof + zuurstof) voor de terugreis mee te sturen bij de lancering vanop aarde. Maar daarvoor heb je al gauw 500 ton nodig, een flinke belasting voor een raket.
Daarom zoeken ruimtevaartingenieurs en wetenschappers naar alternatieven. Aangezien zuurstof het leeuwenaandeel van het gewicht inneemt, loont het de moeite om te onderzoeken of we op zuurstof kunnen bezuinigen. En dat moet in principe kunnen, want er zit zuurstof in de atmosfeer van Mars. Zij het opgesloten in koolstofdioxide (CO2), dat 96% van de atmosfeer vult.
Zuurstof voor astronauten
Het komt er dus op aan om zuurstof uit de dampkring van Mars te halen. En dat is precies wat MOXIE doet. Dit instrument met de grootte van een broodrooster bevindt zich aan boord van de Perseverance. Het bevat een filter die schadelijke stofdeeltjes uit de inkomende atmosfeer haalt. Een pomp drukt het overblijvend atmosfeergas (hoofdzakelijk CO2) samen.
Wanneer het gas opgewarmd is tot 800°C wordt het door een volgende component van MOXIE gejaagd, SOXE (Solid Oxide Electrolysis). Door een proces van electrolyse scheidt SOXE de CO2-moleculen in zuurstof en koolstofmonoxide. Tot slot bevat MOXIE nog een onderdeel dat de productiesnelheid en zuiverheid van de verkregen zuurstof meet.
In de loop van zeven productieruns leverde MOXIE 50 gram zuurstof op, waarmee het instrument aan de verwachtingen voldoet. Ook de zuiverheid van de verkregen zuurstof stemt tot tevredenheid. Tot slot bleek deze methode van zuurstofextractie zowel overdag als ‘s nachts en onafhankelijk van de Martiaanse seizoenen te werken.
In een volgende fase moet MOXIE opgeschaald worden, zodat het op termijn de vereiste hoeveelheid zuurstof kan opleveren voor een raketlancering vanop Mars.
En terwijl de focus nu volop ligt op het transport tussen aarde en Mars, opent deze techniek in een verdere fase ook perspectieven op de productie van zuurstof voor astronauten op Mars.
JP, who currently serves with the US Army as a quartermaster and chemical repairer, was recently taken on a covert mission to an underwater city off the Florida coast in the Bermuda triangle region. JP said that he witnessed tall human looking beings that inhabited the city which was protected by a giant underwater dome. He said that there were two other domed cities adjacent to the one he visited. JP said that he was there with a small contingent of soldiers to protect a civilian negotiator who met with leaders of the underwater city to conduct negotiations.
In this Exopolitics Today interview, JP discusses his mission, the people involved, and what he witnessed at the bottom of the ocean in the Bermuda triangle region.
Met de Artemis I lanceert NASA ook een toestel dat met zonnezeilen koers zal zetten naar een asteroïde ver in ons zonnestelsel.
Na eindeloze vertragingen en tientallen miljarden dollars aan uitgaven stond NASA afgelopen maandag eindelijk op het punt om zijn Space Launch System (SLS)-megaraket te lanceren. Vanwege technische problemen werd die lancering op het laatste moment uitgesteld naar aanstaande vrijdag, met maandag 5 september als tweede optie. Dan zullen de hoofdmotoren en side-boosters een stuwkracht leveren van 39.000 kilonewton om de raket met de grootte van het Vrijheidsbeeld de lucht in te krijgen. De SLS moet een onbemande Orion-capsule en een bijbehorende dienstmodule in een baan om de maan brengen.
De missie, die Artemis I wordt genoemd, zal de grootste mijlpaal tot nu toe zijn in het gelijknamige programma van NASA – een project om voor het eerst in meer dan een halve eeuw mensen naar het maanoppervlak te sturen.
Als de missie slaagt, kan NASA ook een andere, minder bekende mijlpaal halen: de verkenning van asteroïden in de buurt van de aarde (ook wel NEA’s of near-Earth Asteroids genoemd). Terwijl Artemis I de maan nadert, zal NASA's NEA Scout, een meeliftende ruimtesonde kleiner dan een schoendoos, uitrollen vanaf een module op de adapterring die Orion verbindt met de tweede trap van de SLS-raket.
Eenmaal losgekomen zal de NEA Scout zich voorbereiden om 2020 GE, een asteroïde met de afmetingen van een schoolbus – op te zoeken en te fotograferen. 2020 GE wordt dan de kleinste asteroïde die ooit door een ruimtevaartuig van dichtbij zal zijn bestudeerd.
Maar de baanbrekende trip van de NEA Scout zal nog op een andere, meer betekenisvolle manier bijdragen aan de ruimtevaart. Om zich voort te bewegen zal de sonde namelijk gebruikmaken van zonnezeilen, één van de weinige methodes waarmee een ruimtevaartuig stuwkracht kan genereren zonder raketbrandstof.
‘De film van het zonnezeil heeft veel weg van vershoudfolie, behalve dat hij veel dunner is. Nog dunner dan een menselijk haar’
Zonnezeilen zijn al eerder met succes gelanceerd op proof-of-conceptmissies, zowel in de interplanetaire ruimte als in een lage baan om de aarde. De Japanse ruimtevaartorganisatie JAXA demonstreerde voor het eerst gecontroleerd zonnezeilen met Ikaros, dat een scheervlucht maakte langs Venus. De NanoSail-D van NASA had een zonnezeil, net de LightSail 1- en 2-ruimtevaartuigen van de Planetary Society. Die laatste cirkelt nog steeds in een baan rond de aarde.
Nadat hij is afgesplitst van Artemis I zal de 14 kilogram zware NEA Scout eerst zijn koudgas-stuwraketten – zes kleine gastanks – ontsteken. Daarmee moet hij in een stabiele baan weg van de maan en richting 2020 GE belanden. Het ruimtevaartuig zal dan een dun, met aluminium bekleed plastic zonnezeil ontvouwen. Het zeil, dat ongeveer zo groot is een squash-veld, vangt licht in plaats van wind. De opgevangen zonnestraling, die hij omzet in energie, moet hem op cruisesnelheid brengen.
‘NEA's zijn brokstukken afkomstig van botsingen in de belangrijkste asteroïdengordels’, zegt Julie Castillo-Rogez, hoofdonderzoeker van de NEA Scout aan NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Pasadena, Californië. ‘2020 GE vertegenwoordigt een klasse asteroïden waarover we heel weinig weten.’ Het wordt de eerste keer dat een asteroïde met een breedte kleiner dan 100 meter zal worden onderzocht.
Verkenner
Tijdens de flyby zal de NEA Scout zijn hogeresolutiecamera gebruiken om 2020 GE van dichtbij te bekijken. Hij zal nauwkeurig de grootte, vorm, rotatie en oppervlakte-eigenschappen van de asteroïde meten, en tegelijk het omringende stof en puin registreren. Omdat de camera van het kleine ruimteschip een resolutie van minder dan 10 centimeter per pixel heeft, zou het wetenschapsteam de samenstelling van 2020 GE moeten kunnen vaststellen. Dat wil zeggen: of de asteroïde rotsvast is of eerder een losse verzameling van kleinere steentjes en stof, zoals sommige van zijn grotere neven.
De asteroïde Bennu, die bijna dertig keer groter is dan 2020 GE, heeft een ogenschijnlijk vast, rotsachtig oppervlak, maar dat bleek alsnog poreus te zijn toen het Osiris Rex-ruimtevaartuig er onverwacht in wegzakte terwijl het monsters aan het verzamelen was.
De NEA Scout werd in 2013 oorspronkelijk opgezet als een verkenningsmissie. De sonde moest asteroïden uitzoeken waaraan astronauten later een bezoek konden brengen. Dat plan is inmiddels opgeborgen.
In zijn huidige opzet moet de missie belangrijke inzichten verschaffen in de risico's die kleine NEA's voor de aarde inhouden. ‘Grote asteroïden baren misschien de meeste zorgen vanuit het oogpunt van planetaire verdediging,’ zegt Castillo-Rogez, ‘maar objecten als 2020 GE komen wel veel vaker voor.’
Ondanks hun kleinere afmetingen kunnen ze wel degelijk een gevaar vormen voor onze planeet. De meteoriet die op 15 februari 2013 boven het Rusissche Tsjeljabinsk ontplofte was een NEA van vergelijkbare grootte als 2020 GE. Hij veroorzaakte een schokgolf die in de hele regio ramen verbrijzelde en meer dan 1.600 mensen verwondde.
Twee voetbalvelden
De andere taak van de NEA Scout – het demonstreren van zonnezeilvoortstuwing voor missies in de diepe ruimte – kwam voort uit één enkele vraag: kan een klein ruimtevaartuig diep in de ruimte zich op een goedkope manier nuttig maken voor de wetenschap? ‘Dat is een enorme uitdaging’, zegt Les Johnson, missieleider aan NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center. ‘Voor sondes als deze is er gewoon niet genoeg plaats voor grote aandrijfsystemen en veel brandstof.’
Het riskantste onderdeel van de missie van de NEA Scout zal de ontplooiing van zijn ragfijne zeil zijn. Dat moet zich foutloos kunnen ontvouwen, ver weg van de aarde. Het ruimtevaartuig zal vier samengevouwen metalen gieken uitrollen waaraan het strak opgevouwen zeil is bevestigd. De lange, afgeplatte steunen zullen rond een spoel worden gewikkeld die de gieken uitrolt als een meetlint. De gieken zullen vervolgens in een stijve, V-vormige dwarsdoorsnede openspringen.
Als het zonnezeil zich ontvouwt, zal het een totale oppervlakte van 86 m2 beslaan, aldus Johnson. Het zeil zelf is gemaakt van een rigide, flexibele, met aluminium gecoate polymeerfilm. ‘Die film heeft veel weg van vershoudfolie, behalve dat hij veel dunner is. Nog dunner dan een menselijk haar’, zegt Johnson.
Het spiegelzeil zal stuwkracht genereren door 90 procent van de inkomende fotonen van de zon te weerkaatsen. Die fotonen met een zichtbare golflengte zijn te vergelijken met projectielen uit een luchtgeweer, zegt Johson. ‘Ze raken het zeil raken en stuiteren er weer af. Daarbij brengen ze telkens een deeltje van hun momentum op het zeil over.’
Dat de zonnezeilen zo groot zijn, heeft te maken met de stralingsdruk van de zon. Die is buitengewoon zwak. Zelfs met zonnezeilen met een oppervlakte van twee voetbalvelden in de volle middagzon is de stralingsdruk niet groter dan de kracht die een muntstukje op je handpalm uitoefent’, zegt Johson.
‘De NEA Scout zal waarschijnlijk de langzaamste flyby van een asteroïde ooit maken’
Maar er is ook goed nieuws. ‘Newton's wetten werken!’, lacht Johnson. Bevrijd van het zwaartekrachtveld van de aarde en ongehinderd door de luchtweerstand – twee krachten die het zonnezeil anders tegenwerken – bouwt het momentum zich geleidelijk aan op. Uiteindelijk kunnen ruimtesondes met zonnezeilen verrassend hoge snelheden halen – en nauwelijks brandstof verbruiken.
De NEA Scout zal kleine hoeveelheden brandstof uit zijn koudgasstuwraketten gebruiken om zichzelf in de ruimte te besturen, maar het zeil zelf zal het meeste werk verrichten. Het toestel zal manoeuvreren door het zeil te kantelen, om zo de invalshoek van het inkomend zonlicht te veranderen. Het kan ook de stuwkracht en de reisrichting regelen.
Vergelijk het met hoe een zeilboot manoeuvreert door zijn zeilen onder een specifieke hoek te positioneren ten opzichte van de wind. Het zonnezeil zal een bepaalde oriëntatie dagenlang aanhouden, zodat het momentum van elk manoeuvre kan worden opgebouwd.
Tegen september 2023 zal de NEA Scout, deels dankzij een duwtje in de rug door de zwaartekracht van de maan, genoeg snelheid hebben verzameld om 2020 GE in te halen. Missienavigators zullen het toestel tot op een kilometer van de asteroïde leiden.
‘De NEA Scout zal waarschijnlijk de langzaamste flyby van een asteroïde ooit maken, met een relatieve snelheid van 20 meter per seconde’, zegt Castillo-Rogez. ‘Dat geeft ons ongeveer drie uur de tijd om onschatbare wetenschappelijke informatie te verzamelen.’
Daarna kan de NEA Scout aan een langere missie beginnen, denkt Castillo-Rogez. Hij zou nog een flyby kunnen doen langs 2020 GE, of misschien kan hij andere NEA’s bezoeken. Mogelijk laten de missieleiders hem zelfs naar potentiële Trojaanse asteroïden reizen op het Lagrangepunt 5, een ‘zwaartekrachtvallei’ die de baan van onze planeet volgt.
Waterijs
De NEA Scout is een voorbeeld van de groeiende kracht van CubeSats. Met hun kleine afmetingen en lage gewicht kunnen organisaties deze satellieten goedkoop als secundaire lading in een baan om de aarde brengen. Momenteel zijn meer dan 1.500 CubeSats actief.
Maar zoals de NEA Scout nu laat zien, kunnen CubeSats zich van eenvoudige satellieten ontwikkelen tot ruimtevaartuigen die in staat zijn om in de maanruimte en verder te opereren.
NASA's Lunar Flashlight, een CubeSat die bij een latere lancering naar de maan zal worden gebracht, is ontworpen om daar naar waterijsafzettingen te zoeken. Het ruimtevaartuig zal infraroodlasers gebruiken om licht te bundelen in de schaduwrijke gebieden van de zuidpool van de maan, in een poging om verborgen waterijs te onthullen. Waterijs kan onder andere worden gebruikt om raketbrandstof te produceren.
De NEA Scout zelf zal de toon zetten voor twee andere NASA-zonnezeilschepen. Die toestellen moeten mee vorm geven aan toekomstige ruimtevaartuigen die bijvoorbeeld kunnen waarschuwen voor zonnevlammen, of dienen als geostationaire communicatieverbindingen boven de polen van de aarde. Ook meer verreikende en ambitieuze interplanetaire missies zijn mogelijk.
Mettertijd zou zeilen op zonnestraling ruimtevaartuigen in staat moeten stellen om voor onbepaalde tijd in het zonnestelsel te reizen. Zo moeten ze nieuwe banen bereiken en aanhouden die anders ontoegankelijk zijn. Ruimtevaartuigen aangestuwd door raketten zouden met zonnezeilen efficiënter van baan kunnen veranderen om de polen van de zon en de planeten te bekijken en er zelfs te blijven.
Op de korte termijn wijzen CubeSat-ruimtevaartuigen van de volgende generatie, zoals de Lunar Flashlight en de NEA Scout, de weg naar meer kleine, capabele en betaalbare ‘SailCubes’. In de niet al te verre toekomst zou een vloot van autonome verkenners in een baan om de aarde kunnen worden gebracht. Vandaaruit kunnen ze wegzeilen, in de richting van asteroïden en andere wetenschappelijk of commercieel interessante bestemmingen.
A Black Hole is Hurling a jet of Material at its Neighboring Galaxy
Artist view of an active supermassive black hole.
Credit: ESO/L. Calçada
A Black Hole is Hurling a jet of Material at its Neighboring Galaxy
It’s been a banner time for black hole research! In recent months, astrophysicists have announced the discovery of the most powerful gamma-ray burst ever recorded (due to the formation of a black hole), a monster black hole in our cosmic backyard, the frame-dragging effects of a binary black hole, and the remains of the 2017 Kilonova event(spoiler alert: it was a black hole). And with the help of citizen scientists, a team of astronomers recently discovered a unique black hole in a galaxy roughly one billion light-years away that’s hurling a relativistic jet at another galaxy.
Galaxies are typically divided into three main classes based on size, shape, and composition. First, there are ellipticals, which account for about one-third of all galaxies in the Universe that range from being nearly circular to very elongated. Then there are spiral galaxies, which are noted for their distinct spiral arms and appear as flat disks with large yellowish bulges in their centers. Last, there are irregular galaxies, which are neither elliptical nor spiral and were more common in the early Universe (before evolving into the other two classes).
When it comes to elliptical galaxies, astronomers have observed that the formation of new stars is very scarce and appears to have largely ceased billions of years ago. While the reason for this remains a mystery, modern research suggests that the presence of supermassive black holes (SMBH) might be responsible. These “monster black holes” cause the centers of massive galaxies to become Active Galactic Nuclei (AGN) – aka. Quasars – where the nucleus is more energetic than all the stars in the disk combined.
In many cases, AGNs also have massive jets spewing from their poles that accelerate gas and dust to relativistic speeds (close to the speed of light). The ejection of this matter toward other galaxies is believed to deplete elliptical galaxies of the cold gas and dust that would otherwise be fuel for star formation. Another mystery facing astronomers is how these AGN-driven jets become coupled with the gas of merging galaxies, causing positive feedback. This temporarily leads to enhanced star formation, followed by negative feedback and a decline in star formation.
To address this latter mystery, Dr. Hota and his colleagues observed the SMBH at the center of RAD12, an elliptical galaxy located about 1 billion light-years from Earth. This unique nature of this galaxy first became apparent in 2013 based on optical data from the Sloan Digitised Sky Survey (SDSS) and radio data from the Very Large Array’s (VLA) Faint Images of the Radio Sky at Twenty-Centimeters (FIRST) survey. But when Dr. Hota and his team observed it again using the Giant Meterwave Radio Telescope (GMRT) in India, they noticed that RAD12 appeared to be ejecting matter from only one pole.
Image of the black hole within galaxy RAD12 spewing a large unipolar radio bubble onto its merging companion galaxy. Credit: Hota, A (et al.)/GMRT/CFHT/MeerKAT
These observations were confirmed using archival radio and optical data from the MeerKAT array in Australia and the Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope (respectively). Unlike other jets that eject matter in pairs and opposite directions, RAD12 appeared to be ejecting matter only toward its neighboring galaxy, RAD12-B. Their observations also revealed a jet of young plasma that is conical in shape at the stem and flares out to become mushroom-shaped at the end (shown above). The yellow features represent galaxies – the larger being RAD12 (left) and RAD12-B (right) – and the plasma jet is shown in red.
The whole structure extends for 440 thousand light-years and is much larger than the host galaxy itself. This is the first time a jet has been observed to collide with a large galaxy like RAD12-B. As Dr. Hota said in a recent Royal Astronomical Society (RAS) news release:
“We are excited to have spotted a rare system that helps us understand radio jet feedback of supermassive black holes on star formation of galaxies during mergers. Observations with the GMRT and data from various other telescopes such as the MeerKAT radio telescope strongly suggest that the radio jet in RAD12 is colliding with the companion galaxy. An equally important aspect of this research is the demonstration of public participation in making discoveries through the RAD@homeCitizen Science research collaboratory.”
Thanks to the observations by Dr. Hota and his team, astronomers are now one step closer to understanding the impact that such interactions have on elliptical galaxies. Their findings could lead to a new understanding of how star formation is arrested in elliptical galaxies, resolving a long-standing mystery about galactic evolution. It is also a testament to the kind of research that is possible today through collaboration between citizen scientists and astronomers.
More Crashed UFOs = Total 6 Now! In Antarctica, Google Earth Map, UFO Sighting News.
More Crashed UFOs = Total 6 Now! In Antarctica, Google Earth Map, UFO Sighting News.
2 UFOs at: -62.663753, -61.099363
4 UFOs at: 66°14'59.0"S 100°36'13.0"E (Credit Kelly Lee)
Hey check this out. A Youtube subscriber of mine notified me she found four more pink crashed UFOs in Antarctica today. I loved it so much I had to make a video of it and mine combined. I'm sure that these were revealed due to global warming causing the ice to melt. These probably date back thousands of years, to the age of the Dark Knight Satellites. My question is...will aliens activate these objects one day, and what is their purpose?
Beste bezoeker, Heb je zelf al ooit een vreemde waarneming gedaan, laat dit dan even weten via email aan Frederick Delaere opwww.ufomeldpunt.be. Deze onderzoekers behandelen jouw melding in volledige anonimiteit en met alle respect voor jouw privacy. Ze zijn kritisch, objectief maar open minded aangelegd en zullen jou steeds een verklaring geven voor jouw waarneming! DUS AARZEL NIET, ALS JE EEN ANTWOORD OP JOUW VRAGEN WENST, CONTACTEER FREDERICK. BIJ VOORBAAT DANK...
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Alvast bedankt voor al jouw bezoekjes en jouw reacties. Nog een prettige dag verder!!!
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 73 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.
