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 13 YEARS AND 2 MONTH.
ON 06/08/2024 MORE THAN 2.161.100
VISITORS FROM 135 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...
28-10-2022
Navajo Park Ranger revealed that something big Is happening in National Parks
Navajo Park Ranger revealed that something big Is happening in National Parks
This Navajo park ranger revealed that something big is happening right now in National Parks. Today, we take a look at what this Navajo park ranger found inside this National Park.
The police do incredible work, and they are usually the first ones on the scene when something goes wrong. Every so often though they will encounter something that even they can't explain.
One of the places where officers are seeing strange things is that of the Navajo Reservation of the American southwest. This location is known for mysterious and legendary stories and the police here have encountered some strange things.
UFO with 6 lights hovering above Hallandale Beach, Florida
UFO with 6 lights hovering above Hallandale Beach, Florida
These UFO lights were seen and recorded in the night sky above Hallandale Beach, a city in southern Broward County, Florida. This event happened back on June 1st, 2021 but it was just today published online through MUFON’s website.
Witness report:
I was sitting outside with my cousin when we noticed an object with panels of lights slowly ascending in the sky. As the object got higher it dissipated and disappeared into the clouds.
Do intelligent aliens exist somewhere out there in the universe? It is a grand mystery that has captivated humans for generations, fueling ever-more sophisticated searches of the skies for signs of advanced civilizations. But while aliens have taken many forms in our imaginations—from hostile invaders to inscrutable ciphers—we have absolutely no idea what extraterrestrial life-forms might look like, how they would communicate, or even if they exist at all.
We can, however, make some assumptions about the only intelligent space-faring species that we know of—humans—and how we might react to contact with an alien civilization. Indeed, people have spent decades developing protocols that attempt to anticipate this momentous event and all of the extraordinary potential consequences it could have on our civilization. It’s an especially important question now, as the world appears more strongly divided than at any time in recent memory, with major powers taking on increasingly antagonistic stances toward each other.
In 2020, a pair of researchers dug into this question in an article in Space Policy by suggesting that humans might pose as big a risk to ourselves in the aftermath of alien contact as any extraterrestrial species. The study views the search for extraterrestrial intelligence (SETI) through the lens of “realpolitik,” a term that describes the kind of gritty power plays and practical maneuvers that nations pull to enhance their own positions.
Authors Kenneth Wisian and John Traphagan, a geophysicist and cultural anthropologist, respectively, at the University of Texas at Austin, envision nations monopolizing contact with an extraterrestrial intelligence, a move that could spark escalating conflicts, including possible attacks on astronomical facilities. For this reason, the team said scientists might need to enlist personal security to protect them and their families from state actors, or even terrorists, in the wake of a such a momentous event, among other concerns raised in the study.
“What might we do to ourselves? Let's not just think about what they might do to us, or vice versa, but what are the threads internally?”
“The SETI academic field is focused on looking out, and the main issues and concerns that have been brought up throughout the history of SETI development have been: what threats could the aliens present to us, if any?” said Wisian, who is a retired Major General in the U.S. Air Force, in a call with Motherboard. “I hadn't seen any thought about, well, what might we do to ourselves?”
“From a grounding in military and international affairs history, it seems pretty obvious to me that a lot of times people act on perceived interest and perceived threats,” he continued. “That's what germinated the idea—what might we do to ourselves? Let's not just think about what they might do to us, or vice versa, but what are the threads internally?”
When the study came out two years ago, it caught the attention of Jason Wright, an astronomer and SETI researcher at Penn State University. Wright disagreed with many of Wisian and Traphagan’s conclusions, and published a blog post at the time expressing his thoughts on what he called the “very dubious assumptions” underlying the study.
“I felt like it was misguided,” Wright said in a call with Motherboard, referring to the 2020 study. “I understood why they were writing what they wrote, but I thought it really would have benefited from a better understanding of how SETI and radio astronomy works, because it was based on a lot of misunderstandings about that.”
“Then, taking my own medicine, I said I’d love to write a rebuttal, but I'm not an expert on philosophy, ethics, geopolitics, and space law,” he added.
For this reason, Wright connected with Chelsea Haramia, a philosopher at Spring Hill College, and Gabriel Swiney, a senior policy advisor in NASA’s Office of Technology, Policy, and Strategy.
The team has now presented a comprehensive rebuttal to Wisian and Traphagan’s article, arguing that some of the study’s suggestions could backfire by sowing distrust and confusion, among many other scientific and ethical critiques presented in their new work, which was published this month in Space Policy.
The disagreements between the teams are a microcosm of the kaleidoscopic diversity of views about the possible outcomes of a successful contact event with aliens, especially what it would mean for humans here on Earth. So, what do these perspectives reveal about what might happen if humanity finally makes the ultimate discovery?
Could a nation monopolize communication with aliens?
Imagine an intelligent alien species sends a decipherable message to Earth that is received by a sophisticated astronomical observatory. In another scenario, a piece of alien technology could actually fall to Earth and be recovered by people on the ground.Though this is a far-fetched possibility, Harvard astronomer Avi Loeb believes that alien artifacts may have already reached Earth; he is currently planning an expedition to search for any surviving fragments of what was likely an interstellar meteor that hit our planet in 2014, which he thinks could be artificial in origin (Loeb’s views about alien artifacts have received substantial pushback from other scientists).
Regardless of the odds of such an event, Wisian and Traphagan argue that state officials who receive a message or artifact of this kind might conclude that they could exert a geopolitical advantage by monopolizing communication with the extraterrestrials, or by siloing information about alien technologies. To support their case, the team presents many historical examples of nations using this type of realpolitik approach.
“Pretty much by definition, if we make contact with some other intelligence, they're going to have a time advantage on us and therefore, probably, a significant technological lead,” Wisian said. “That is the driver. It's the information, and what it could provide as far as an advantage in international affairs and power and diplomacy, that would drive countries to take strong action to try to monopolize that channel.”
“I could definitely see world leaders acting on that perceived reward,” he added.
Wisian and Traphagan speculate that these perceived rewards could make radio telescopes targets for espionage or cyberattacks—or perhaps even real physical attacks with air strikes or weapons of mass destruction (WMDs). Morever, extremist groups that might be threatened by the reality of alien contact “would have the ability to launch small-scale raids (i.e., terrorist attacks) or possibly WMD attacks…aimed at destroying the critical infrastructure for [extraterrestrial intelligence] communication or the key personnel involved,” Wisian and Traphagan said in the study.
With that in mind, the researchers suggested that astronomical facilities and personnel might need to be defended by military or other security forces, citing the kind of protection often seen around nuclear power plants, biowarfare research institutions, or American abortion services providers.
Wright and his colleagues raised several objections with these arguments in their new study. On a practical technical level, the team said that it is very unlikely that any nation or group would be able to monopolize communication with an alien species. While an initial detection of an extraterrestrial message might be captured by a premiere observatory, such as China’s Five-hundred-meter Aperture Spherical radio Telescope (FAST) or the Robert C. Byrd Green Bank Telescope in West Virginia, other facilities—and potentially even amateur sky watchers—could quickly start listening in, as well.
“If there are alien signals landing on Earth that contain this kind of information, then anyone can pick it up,” Wright said. “Once you know the frequency and the location on the sky, you could use satellite dishes and no one would know you were doing it because satellite dishes are pointed at the sky for all kinds of reasons. So, sending a bunch of troops to Green Bank isn't going to accomplish anything.”
In fact, Wright and his colleagues propose that hardening security around astronomical facilities might actually backfire and exacerbate the very tensions that Wisian and Traphagan sound alarms about in their study.
“If we start locking down all the SETI facilities and getting all the SETI people personal security to protect them against state-level actors, it's going to look like something happened,” Wright said. “It's going to look like you need to do that; that it was necessary for some reason. That's what we're trying to avoid. We're trying to avoid that escalation.”
“So, we were worried that their recommendations would take something that's a remote possibility to be guarded against, and make it happen, basically, by treating it as a foregone conclusion that we just go ahead and start protecting against. Our argument is that you have to fight that misperception by explaining what's going on.”
Both teams agree that this type of contact scenario—which involves a clear intelligible message with some kind of advantageous information—is extremely unlikely. It stands to reason that our first experience with extraterrestrial life in the universe would be much murkier in content and interpretation. For instance, Wright pointed out that humans cannot even speak the languages of other intelligent animals on Earth, such as dolphins or elephants, which casts doubt on our ability to decode any message from another civilization.
Wisian and Traphagan, however, note that it is worth thinking about dangerous situations even if the odds of them materializing are astronomically low.
“I hope for the best, but as a military guy, you look at the range of possibilities and you may not focus on the worst, but you have to at least take into account those potential options,” Wisian said. “If something has severe consequences, you can't just dismiss it. Neither one of us said that this is likely—it's just that it's a possibility that needs to be considered.”
Would alien contact promote conflict or cooperation among nations?
Given that monopolizing access to aliens is unlikely, it’s worth widening the aperture to consider some of the general concerns raised by Wisian and Traphagan under their realpolitik analysis of an alien contact event.
The researchers were partly inspired to write the 2020 study because they believe the protocols surrounding first contact are “limited in scope to aspirational thinking” and are not yet equipped to address the “thorny political ramifications of a discovery,” according to the study. By weaving in historical examples of power plays that span the Peloponnesian War, the Renaissance era, and the Cold War, among others, the team argue that governments are often unconstrained by international laws and deaf to the calls of scientists to adhere to existing protocols and treaties.
“The scientists may think they are in charge, but as soon as something like this happens, the governmental bodies are going to take charge, and it will go outside of scientists’ hands,” Wisian said, though he added that “scientists have a pretty good network and an ability to subvert controls, which gives me cause for some optimism here.”
While Wright and his colleagues said that there is value in viewing SETI through a realpolitik lens, they note that this is one of many possible geopolitical perspectives that need to be considered when developing post-detection protocols. For instance, if a nation were the first to receive an alien signal, it might want to shout the news from the rooftops—as opposed to shroud the discovery in secrecy—due to the “incalculable prestige that would accrue to the state that made arguably the most significant scientific finding of the modern era,” Wright’s team said in their study.
In much the same way, Wright and his colleagues suggest that even if nations are primarily motivated by self-interest, their realpolitik posture to an alien message could very well be collaborative rather than combative.
“Most interactions between nations are not driven by the threat of force,” Wright said. “There are so many other, probably more likely, outcomes that we can see, and so many other successful ways that nations manage sensitive science and technology in a peaceful cooperative way—even among rivals—that it's clear that we have a framework other than just hardening security for managing that sort of thing.”
“We're having this discussion because we don't really have a good post-detection protocol yet”
“The example we give is fusion research,” he continued, referring to the international effort to derive power from nuclear fusion reactions. “It’s a sensitive topic that involves nuclear materials and nuclear technologies, but it's primarily driven towards trying to develop peaceful civilian uses for nuclear power generation. We have these international agreements that rivals sign onto and, basically, obey, that allows for constrained international collaboration.”
For his part, Wisian does not dispute that outcomes beyond the realpolitik mold are possible. Indeed, he hopes that any first contact scenarios inspire our better angels and promote more scientific curiosity to counter ascendant anti-science attitudes and distrust in research institutions.
Moreover, while Wisian said that many of the points raised by Wright’s team seem valid, he objected to what he saw as “straw man” arguments in their new study that misrepresented his original work with Traphagan. Wisian also acknowledged that the SETI field is not his academic specialty—he is an expert on geothermal energy—but suggested that interdisciplinary input will be essential to a robust post-detection plan.
“I've worked and served in multiple wars,” Wisian said. “I've seen how humanity actually behaves—not how it theoretically should.”
How should we prepare for first contact?
To that end, both teams also agree on another important point: As the search for life elsewhere in the universe continues to mature, people from all walks of life should be involved in the preparations for a successful detection of alien life, and what it might mean for all Earthlings.
There should be “a ‘big tent’ approach to this, not just a few disciplines and academics—and not just the academic world,” said Wisian. “There's a whole bunch of areas that are ripe for exploration here that could move from the science fiction world into the practical planning world, like SETI has moved, over the last 50 or 60 years, from science fiction to a major scientific discipline now.”
Wright also pointed to the need to enlist diverse perspectives in the conversation about alien contact, and our own human reaction to it, though he emphasized that these efforts should involve researchers who are steeped in SETI history and technologies.
To that point, the basic post-detection protocol, as it stands today, is centered on making sure a detection is accurate, disseminating the news to the public as soon as it has been unambiguously confirmed, and refraining from responding to the alien civilization—not necessarily because of any inherent danger, but because a reply would need to emerge on behalf of our entire civilization, which is no simple task.
Both teams think that there are many nuances and gaps within, and around, the existing guidelines that will need to be addressed by future discussions between people with different views and backgrounds. To that end, the United Nations, the International Academy of Astronautics, and other organizations have been working for years to harness the talents of people with a wide range of expertise—including sociologists, philosophers, policy makers, and scientists—to game out the various ways in which we might first encounter alien life.
That work will have to keep pace with the exciting pace of the search for aliens in the skies, as well as the dizzying geopolitical and cultural shifts that we are experiencing right here on Earth.
“Our paper is not supposed to close the book on this topic,” said Wright. “We're having this discussion because we don't really have a good post-detection protocol yet. We have protocols that are old and they're probably insufficient, given all of the ways that we can do SETI these days.”
“The response has to represent humanity and we don't know how to do that,” he concluded. “It should not be the purview of the people who make the discovery to be the ones to respond. That's a bigger decision that needs to be made at a larger collective level. That’s the essence of the protocol.”
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27-10-2022
Modern Humans and Neanderthals Lived Together in Europe for 2,000 Years!
Modern Humans and Neanderthals Lived Together in Europe for 2,000 Years!
When Homo sapiens first arrived on the European continent about 42,500 years ago, the Neanderthals were still living there, and would remain there for another 1,400 to 2,900 years before finally disappearing from the face of the Earth. When the anatomically modern humans moved in, the Neanderthals did not move out, but stayed where they were and apparently lived peacefully alongside their Homo sapiens cousins for approximately 2,000 years, give or take a few centuries.
This is the conclusion of a trio of scientists from Leiden University in the Netherlands and Cambridge University in the United Kingdom, who used a unique and sophisticated modeling method known as optimal linear estimation to pin down more exactly when the Neanderthals actually lived in western Europe. The evidence the archaeologists examined was collected from multiple excavation sites in France and northern Spain, where modern human and Neanderthal artifacts have proven relatively easy to find.
Speleofacts ring structure built by Neanderthal people in Bruniquel cave, France.
The results of this study, which have just been published in the journal Scientific Reports , offer no evidence to demonstrate that Homo sapiens and Neanderthals merged their genetic materials with each other 42,500 ago. But past research has proven that the modern human genome contains portions of Neanderthal DNA , which could have only gotten there if the two species of hominin had interbred at some point. People of European descent are among those who carry Neanderthal genetic material, so at least some of that interbreeding must have occurred on European soil.
The Stunning Convergence of Modern Humans and Neanderthals
Igor Djakovic, an archaeological PhD candidate at Leiden University and lead author of the Scientific Reports paper, acknowledges in an interview with the French press agency AFP that humans and Neanderthals “met and integrated in Europe,” at some point in the distant past, before adding that “we have no idea in which specific regions this actually happened.”
Scientists have also struggled to identify the precise years when modern humans and Neanderthals would have lived in Europe simultaneously, and this was what the scientists in the Leiden University-led study were trying to discover.
To apply their sophisticated modeling techniques to the question, the scientists gathered radiocarbon dating results connected to 56 artifacts taken from 17 archaeological sites across France and northern Spain. Half of these artifacts had been linked to Neanderthals, while the other half had been left by humans. The artifacts in question included skeletal remains of both species, plus different types of tools including distinctive stone knives believe to have been made by Neanderthals.
Distinctive stone knives thought to have been produced by the last Neanderthals in France and northern Spain. This specific and standardized technology is unknown in the preceding Neanderthal record, and may indicate a diffusion of technological behaviors between Homo sapiens and Neanderthals immediately prior to their disappearance from the region.
The idea was to cross-reference all of these dated materials, first through Bayesian statistical modeling and then through optimal linear estimation modeling, to search for signs of overlapping activity. Optimal linear estimation modeling is a technique originally developed for use in biology that has now been repurposed for examining and dating human remains and artifacts (and in this case, Neanderthal remains and artifacts as well) to relatively narrow periods of time.
In this study Baynesian modeling could only narrow the potential date ranges down so far, but optimal linear estimation allowed the scientists to achieve much further refinement.
When the final numbers were crunched, the data showed that Neanderthals went extinct in the region of France and northern Spain between 40,870 and 40,547 years ago, a range covering just over three hundred years of time. Meanwhile, it was confirmed that modern humans first migrated into this part of Europe approximately 42,500 years ago. With some variations in the approximate time frame for when the modern humans arrived, the researchers concluded that modern humans and Neanderthals would have occupied the same geographical region for between 1,400 and 2,900 years, after which Neanderthals disappeared forever.
Geographic appearance of dated occurrences for the Châtelperronian (grey circles – Neanderthal stone tools), Protoaurignacian (white squares – Homo sapiens stone tools), and directly-dated Neandertals (black skulls) in the study region between 43,400 (a) and 39,400 (f) years cal BP.
(Djakovic, I., Key, A. & M. Soressi / Nature 2022 )
Sharing Knowledge
While there is no proof, it is reasonable to conclude that interbreeding between the two genetically compatible species would have occurred at this time and at this place. Perhaps just as significantly, there are signs that an extensive “diffusion of ideas” occurred, according to Djakovic, meaning there was a meeting of the cultures and a meeting of the minds that accompanied the physical encounters.
This period of time is "associated with substantial transformations in the way that people are producing material culture," including the way they made tools and ornaments, Djakovic explained. He and his colleagues also noted a dramatic change in the types of physical artifacts being produced by Neanderthals, which started to closely resemble tools and utensils made by the modern humans.
The Death of the Neanderthals Has Been Greatly Exaggerated
The latest research reveals that the DNA of humans of European and Asian descent is between one and two percent Neanderthal. In Africans Neanderthal DNA is not found except in trace amounts , since Africans and Neanderthals did not come into contact before the latter went extinct.
With respect to the extinction of the Neanderthals, Igor Djakovic argues that the concept should be reconsidered
"When you combine that with what we know now—that most people living on Earth have Neanderthal DNA—you could make the argument that they never really went extinct, in a certain sense," Djakovic said. Instead, he hypothesized, they were “effectively swallowed into our gene pool,” where they continue to exert a small but real influence over human genetic development to this very day.
It remains a mystery why Neanderthals weren’t able to breed and produce enough offspring among themselves to preserve their viability as a distinct species after modern human contact . Many different theories have been offered, but none are universally accepted.
Nevertheless, through genetic exchanges with anatomically modern humans they were able to guarantee their survival in a different form. They are like a shadow inside us, still preserved and never to be completely forgotten.
Top image: A new study shows that modern humans and Neanderthals lived together in Europe for 2000 years.
This episode of UFO Hard Evidence looks at some of the most mind-blowing sightings and disturbing encounters on record, as well as interviews with various people from UFO circles.
To begin with, the Alien and UFO Exhibition in Blackpool is examined, including what is available to see and what is discussed. The notion of secret underground facilities in the United Kingdom used to study or even store UFOs is looked at next, including looking at some of the locations themselves.
UFO Hard Evidence then speaks with UFO researcher, Clifford Stone, and his claims of his involvement with recovered UFOs, including what projects these secret recoveries take place under, and what the future plans might be of these discreet departments.
Russell Callaghan examines some of the latest UFO videos and pictures, demonstrated techniques that are used, and how to tell how credible a piece of footage might be, before then looking at some of the better pieces of UFO footage sent to UFO Magazine over the last few years.
UFO Hard Evidence then takes to the streets of Leeds to see what general members of the public think about the idea of UFOs, including how they think the media portrays this notion.
A series of episodes from the UFOs: Hard Evidence series by Graham W Birdsall of the now defunct UK publication, UFO Magazine originally produced for Quest Publications and edited by Russel Callaghan. Originally released in 1998.
Cryptozoology is the search for and study of animals that mainstream science considers to be mythical or non-existent. Animals studied by cryptozoologists are called cryptids. Famous examples include creatures like Bigfoot, the Loch Ness Monster, and the Yeti. Unsurprisingly then, there is quite a lot of derision aimed at cryptids in scientific circles. Cryptids are the stuff of low-level tabloid magazines and conspiracy theorists, right? Wrong! Many animals that experts once believed to be cryptids are actually flesh and blood living things.
Famous Cryptids that Aren’t Actually Cryptids Anymore
1. The Platypus
The platypus is a weird animal that seems to break a lot of rules. At the time of its first discovery by Europeans, it seemed to contradict everything they thought they knew about mammals.
The platypus is a furry, Australian mammal that lives in rivers. It has the feet of an otter and the tail of a beaver. So far, not that strange. Then one looks at the head, and it appears to have a bill of a duck, unlike any other mammal.
Even stranger still is the fact that it lays eggs. Only five living mammal species do so, the platypus and four kinds of echidna (spiny anteaters). Up until the discovery of the platypus, it was common knowledge that one of the things which defined a mammal was giving birth to live offspring.
On top of this, the platypus is venomous! Venomous mammals were basically unheard of. The male platypus produces venom from glands attached to its ankle spurs. It is believed these are used defensively against other males, especially during mating season.
It’s unsurprising then that European naturalists from the 18th and 19th centuries believed the platypus to be a hoax. When the first platypus corpses arrived in Europe from Australia, the experts weren’t sure what to make of them.
Many thought it to be the work of Chinese sailors, who had previously tricked them with the corpse of a supposed mermaid. It was believed the platypus corpses were just well-put-together amalgamations of other animals! It took nearly a century for zoologists to admit they were wrong and definitively confirm the existence of the platypus.
Another poster child for famous cryptids that turned out to be real is the terrifying giant squid. Reports of the giant squid go back 2,000 years to the time of Aristotle. Pliny the Elder, a Roman naturalist, did a pretty good job describing the giant squid in his Natural History .
He got pretty much everything right, except the size. Showing that the giant squid was too massive even for the superstitious ancient writers to get right, Pliny only estimated the squid at 30 feet (9 meters) long, when in reality it's over 40 feet (12 meters) long! Early run-ins with giant squid were likely the inspiration for several mythological sea monsters , like Norse mythology’s Kraken and the Scylla of Greek mythology.
A life size model of the world record-holding giant squid discovered near Glover's Harbor, Newfoundland (ProductOfNewfoundland / CC BY NC ND 2.0 )
The giant squid remained a cryptid for so long because its existence was seemingly fantastical, and hard to verify. The sea is almost unfathomable in its size and depth. Looking for anything in the ocean, even something as huge as a giant squid, is like looking for a needle in a haystack. This is exacerbated by the fact that the giant squid is a deep sea creature, and humans haven’t spent much time down there.
The only chance early zoologists had to study and verify the giant squid was through carcasses that would very occasionally wash ashore. The problem with this was that hungry sea creatures had often begun eating the corpses before they washed ashore, meaning complete samples were rare. Added to this was the fact that the carcasses tended to rot extremely quickly, leaving little to work with.
The first recorded discovery of a mostly intact giant squid carcass was in the 1870s. However, it wasn’t until the last decade or so that we managed to take photos of a live specimen, cementing the giant squid's status as a former cryptid.
Giant squid occasionally washed ashore, but were rarely intact, and quickly decomposed. Giant squid at The Rooms in St. John's; a regular sized squid is placed in the top left corner to compare.
Stories of dreadful sea serpents that dwell in the ocean date back thousands of years. Even the Bible makes references to a gigantic beast called Leviathan that roams the briny depths looking for prey. Much like in the case of the giant squid, for a long time, scientists thought these sea monsters were too huge to be real.
Cryptozoologists, however, believe that many sightings of these historic sea monsters are cases of real animals being misidentified, and then being given a fantastical, superstitious twist. One incredibly rare species is perhaps the likely culprit.
The oarfish is a long, bony fish with an elongated body that has been found to grow to at least 56 feet (17 meters) long. They are found in oceans all over the world, but usually live in the deep ocean. They have sometimes washed ashore during storms and occasionally come to the surface when near death.
A giant oarfish (Regalecus glesne) found in Los Cabos, Mexico
It seems likely that these giant fish are responsible for at least some of these early depictions of sea serpents. The first live oarfish wasn’t filmed until 2001, showing just how rare and hard to verify these fish were.
After hearing about giant sea snakes, imaginations went wild. Sea serpents can no longer be considered cryptids, however, after documented creatures 56 feet (17 meters) long
Now obviously, unicorns as traditionally portrayed don’t exist. The unicorn is still very much a cryptid. Except it isn’t. Although no one has discovered a horned horse yet, we can go back 2,000 years and find the animals that likely inspired talk of unicorns.
Pliny the Elder described the unicorn two thousand years ago. He described it as having “the feet of the elephant, and the tail of the boar, while the rest of the body is like that of the horse; it makes a deep lowing noise, and has a single black horn, which projects from the middle of its forehead, two cubits in length. This animal, it is said, cannot be taken alive.” That sounds suspiciously like an Indian rhinoceros.
Reading Pliny the Elder’s description of a unicorn sounds a lot like the Indian rhino
There is another contender for real-life unicorn inspiration. The second is a little stranger, however, seeing as it lives in the sea. The narwhal is a type of toothed whale that lives in the freezing waters around Greenland, Canada, and Russia. Its defining feature is a large protruding canine tooth, known as its tusk. This tusk is startlingly similar to the imagined unicorn horn.
Unicorn horns were an incredibly popular curio through the Middle Ages into the Renaissance period. These unicorn horns came from narwhals that the Vikings had hunted, selling their tusks for crazy prices as unicorn horns. When the English explorer Martin Frobisher led a Canadian expedition in 1577, he came across a dead narwhal. The name he gave it? The sea unicorn.
Unicorns are still cryptids, but the ocean dwelling narwhal may have inspired unicorn legends. Its hard, pointed tusk is quite distinctive.
Before 1910, any scientist claiming to believe in a giant lizard that looked like a dragon would have been laughed out of the room. At the time, it was widely believed that giant lizards were a thing of the past, and nothing on the scale of a Komodo dragon could exist.
When pearl fishermen returned from the Lesser Sunda Islands in Indonesia telling tall tales of giant ‘land crocodiles’, no one took them seriously. After all, fishermen are famous for exaggeration. Then, in 1910, an expedition from Buitenzorg Zoological Museum visited Komodo Island and produced the first scientific report on the creatures. Lieutenant Jacques Karel Henri visited the island and took home both a Komodo dragon skin and a photograph.
The Komodo dragon remained mostly a mystery until 1926, when a second expedition went in search of the dragon. Its leader, W. Douglas Burden, came back with twelve preserved Komodo dragon bodies, as well as two live animals. It was only then the Komodo dragon truly left the realm of the cryptids and entered the world of established science.
The 1926 expedition and discovery of an animal considered by many to be prehistoric went on to inspire the 1933 film King Kong .
From cryptid to captured: A Komodo dragon at the Louisville Zoo, Kentucky, United States
Sometimes an animal becomes so commonly known that it’s surprising it was ever considered a cryptid at all. For example, the humble gorilla was considered a cryptid until 1847.
The term gorilla comes from a Carthaginian explorer called Hanno the Navigator, who was exploring the African coast in 500 BC. He described coming across a tribe of “gorillae”, monstrous and violent humans. Although it is likely he actually encountered chimps or baboons, the name has stuck.
Reports of monstrous, hairy humans who would attack and overpower villages continue throughout the centuries but were never taken seriously by scientists. In the 16th century, an English explorer described ape-like humans visiting his campfire at night.
Gorillas in general remained cryptids until 1847, when Thomas Savage found gorilla bones in Liberia. With the help of a Harvard anatomist named Jeffries Wyman, he then released a formal description of the species dubbing it, Gorilla gorilla. Sadly, from this point onwards, other anthropologists began hunting gorillas in earnest, seeking to learn as much about the discovery as possible.
The mountain gorilla stayed a cryptid for a while longer. It wasn’t formally recognized as a species until 1902, when a German officer, Captain Robert von Beringe, shot one in the Virunga region of Rwanda and took it home to Europe.
Surprisingly, gorillas were considered cryptids until the mid- to late-1800s.
The okapi is an African mammal that resembles a cross between a zebra and a donkey. Their only bizarre feature is the two hair-covered, horn-like structures called ossicones that they have just above their eyes. These may sound bizarre, but actually, the okapi is from the giraffe family, and the ossicones are pretty much the same as a giraffe's horns.
The okapi stayed in cryptid status for a long time, as they are quiet animals that live in dense forests. However, the okapi may have been depicted as early as the 5th century BC. Its unique ossicones led to its nickname as an African unicorn.
The okapi isn’t especially peculiar, certainly not compared to the giant squid or platypus. Yet it was considered a myth until 1901. The problem was its central African habitat was already well-known to European explorers, and since they had never seen one, they did not believe the tales the locals told of the okapi.
Okapi inhabit incredibly dense forests and live quiet, solitary lives. Even the locals who told stories of them were unsure. Their knowledge of the okapi predominantly came from evidence the animals left behind, like tracks, rather than actual sightings.
In 1890, Sir Henry Stanley was the first European to describe the mammal after traveling in the region. However, he had no solid proof, and so the okapi remained a cryptid. It was not until 1901 that zoologist and imperial officer Sir Harry Johnston obtained a skull and some skins with the help of locals. With this physical evidence, the okapi's existence could finally be confirmed.
The okapi wasn’t caught on film in the wild until 2008, which should give an idea of just how hard this beautiful animal is to track down.
The okapi was thought to be a cryptid until 1901. Its habitat and appearance hindered its documentation. It wasn’t caught on film until 2008!
So, if these cryptids turned out to be real, what about Nessy or Bigfoot? Why are people who believe in them still mocked and derided in the scientific community? The animals above, and in fact, all former cryptids share at least one thing in common.
They come from remote, hard-to-explore regions of the planet. These animals stayed cryptids for so long because European scientists hadn’t had a chance to fully explore their habitats yet. Once they had, these animals stop being cryptids. The problem is, besides the oceans, most of the earth's land mass has been pretty well studied by now. The likelihood of creatures as large as the okapi walking around undiscovered up to now is slim to none.
Another thing most cryptids have in common is that they were actually discovered ages ago. The okapi and mountain gorilla had been talked about by African tribes for centuries. Likewise, the indigenous peoples of Australia were likely familiar with the platypus.
The awkward truth is that the only reason these animals were never taken seriously is old-fashioned racism. For the most part, something remained cryptid until European scientists said otherwise, seeing it with their own eyes. Centuries of eyewitness accounts made by the locals didn’t count, because colonial-era European scientists lacked respect for the indigenous people of the places they were colonizing.
Although it is unlikely any more large cryptids will be discovered, there is always some hope. There are still far-flung corners of the world and the fathomless depths of the oceans we haven’t scoured yet. If we are now willing to listen to the people from these areas, who knows what we might discover?
Top Image: The Altamaha-ha legend has its roots in Muscogee traditions. This cryptid river monster with an alligator shaped head and long neck, is said to inhabit the Altamaha river and nearby marshes in southern Georgia. Will it be the next cryptid proven real?
Earth's methane 'super-emitters' REVEALED: NASA identifies more than 50 regions in Central Asia, the Middle East and US pumping out unprecedented levels of the greenhouse gas
Earth's methane 'super-emitters' REVEALED: NASA identifies more than 50 regions in Central Asia, the Middle East and US pumping out unprecedented levels of the greenhouse gas
NASA's 'EMIT' spectrometer is intended to measure solar energy reflected by airborne dust particles on Earth
However, scientists have discovered it is also capable of detecting large plumes of methane gas
So far it has picked up over 50 'super-emitter' regions, including oil and gas infrastructure in Turkmenistan
Other culprits are a waste-processing complex south of Tehran in Iran, and an oilfield in New Mexico, USA
It is hoped the knowledge will be able to inform operators of these facilities to act to reduce their emissions
An orbital NASA instrument has identified more than 50 'super-emitter' regions worldwide that are pumping out unprecedented levels of methane.
The top culprits include Turkmenistan, which produces plumes that stretch more than 20 miles (32 km) wide, Iran and New Mexico, USA.
Earth Surface Mineral Dust Investigation, or 'EMIT', is a spaceborne spectrometer that measures solar energy reflected from Earth in hundreds of wavelengths of light from the visible to the infrared range.
Its purpose is mainly to advance studies of airborne dust and its effects on climate change, but NASA scientists have discovered it can also detect areas where significant amounts of methane are being produced.
The newly measured methane hotspots - some previously known and others just discovered - include sprawling oil and gas facilities and large landfills.
'Some of the (methane) plumes EMIT detected are among the largest ever seen - unlike anything that has ever been observed from space,' said Andrew Thorpe, a NASA research technologist leading the methane studies.
'What we've found in a just a short time already exceeds our expectations.'
NASA's EMIT mission detected a methane plume 2 miles (3 km) long southeast of Carlsbad, New Mexico. Methane is a potent greenhouse gas that is much more effective at trapping heat in the atmosphere than carbon dioxide
A methane plume at least 3 miles (4.8 km) long billows into the atmosphere south of Tehran, Iran. The plume, detected by NASA's EMIT mission, comes from a major landfill, where methane is a byproduct of decomposition
East of Hazar, Turkmenistan - a port city on the Caspian Sea - 12 plumes of methane stream westward. The plumes were detected by NASA's EMIT mission and some of them stretch for more than 20 miles (32 km)
THE EMIT MISSION
Earth Surface Mineral Dust Investigation, or 'EMIT', is a spectrometer onboard the International Space Station that measures solar energy reflected from Earth in hundreds of wavelengths of light.
Its primary duty is to collect information about the mineral composition of dust blown into the atmosphere from Earth's deserts and other arid regions in Africa, Asia, North and South America and Australia.
It does this by measuring the wavelengths of light reflected from the surface soil, as darker-colour dust tends to absorb more of the sun's rays, while lighter-colour dust reflects more of them, thus cooling the area around it.
This investigation will help scientists determine whether airborne dust in different parts of the world is likely to contribute to climate change.
Methane is is a potent greenhouse gas that can trap heat in the Earth's atmosphere.
During the day, the sun shines through the atmosphere and warms the planet's surface, while at night, it cools down again, releasing heat back into the air.
However, greenhouse gases can trap some of this hot air, which results in the warming of the planet.
Methane has more than 80 times the heat-trapping potency of carbon dioxide over the first 20 years after it reaches the atmosphere.
While this does decrease over time as it breaks down, it means emissions have a more immediate impact on planetary warming.
The EMIT imaging spectrometer was launched and docked onto the International Space Station in July this year, and now circles the Earth once every 90 minutes some 250 miles (420 km) above us.
Managed by NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), it is able to scan vast tracts of the planet dozens of miles across while also focusing in on areas as small as a football pitch.
Its primary duty is to collect information about the mineral composition of dust blown into the atmosphere from Earth's deserts and other arid regions in Africa, Asia, North and South America and Australia.
It does this by measuring the wavelengths of light reflected from the surface soil. Darker dust tends to absorb more of the sun's rays, while lighter dust reflects more of them, thus cooling the area around it.
This investigation will help scientists determine whether airborne dust in different parts of the world is likely to contribute to climate change.
However, while verifying the accuracy of the imaging spectrometer's mineral data, scientists found that it could also pinpoint emissions of methane.
This will provide them with the locations of facilities, equipment, and infrastructure that produce the gas at high rates - known as 'super-emitters' - so authorities can quickly act to limit emissions.
'We have been eager to see how EMIT's mineral data will improve climate modelling,' said Kate Calvin, NASA's chief scientist and senior climate adviser.
'This additional methane-detecting capability offers a remarkable opportunity to measure and monitor greenhouse gases that contribute to climate change.'
The cube (left) shows methane plumes (purple, orange, yellow) over Turkmenistan. The rainbow colours are the spectral fingerprints from corresponding spots in the front image. The blue line in the graph (right) shows the methane fingerprint EMIT detected; the red line is the expected fingerprint based on an atmospheric simulation
Earth Surface Mineral Dust Investigation, or 'EMIT' (pictured), is a spaceborne spectrometer that measures solar energy reflected from Earth in hundreds of wavelengths of light from the visible to the infrared range
The EMIT imaging spectrometer was launched and docked onto the International Space Station (pictured) in July this year, and now circles the Earth once every 90 minutes some 250 miles (420 km) above us. Managed by NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) near Los Angeles, USA, it is able to scan vast tracts of the planet dozens of miles across while also focusing in on areas as small as a football pitch
Levels of methane in the atmosphere are growing 'dangerously fast', scientists warn
Levels of methane found in the atmosphere are 'growing dangerously fast', scientists have warned, and it could be global warming causing the rapid increase.
A report, published in Nature, was compiled by an international team that examines data gathered by the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration throughout 2021.
Researchers found that methane in the atmosphere had raced past 1,900 parts per billion, which is triple levels found before the industrial revolution.
This 'grim new milestone' could be linked to global warming causing a rise in wetland areas, which then produce higher levels of methane, the team said.
So far, EMIT has identified more than 50 super-emitters in Central Asia, the Middle East and the Southwestern United States.
Examples of newly imaged methane super-emitters showcased by JPL include a cluster of 12 plumes from oil and gas infrastructure east of the Caspian Sea port city of Hazar in Turkmenistan.
Scientists estimate these plumes collectively spew methane at a rate of 111,000 pounds (50,400 kilograms) per hour, rivalling the peak flow of 110,000 pounds (50,000 kilograms) per hour of the 2015 Aliso Canyon gas field blowout.
Another other large emitter is the Permian Basin oilfield in New Mexico - one of the largest oilfields in the world - which generated a plume about two miles (3.3 km) long.
The third culprit revealed by NASA is a waste-processing complex south of Tehran, Iran, which emits a plume at least three miles (4.8 km) long. Methane is a byproduct of decomposition, and landfills can be a major source.
Scientists estimate flow rates of about 40,300 pounds (18,300 kilograms) per hour at the Permian site and 18,700 pounds (8,500 kilograms) per hour at the Iran site.
JPL officials said neither were previously known to scientists.
'These results are exceptional, and they demonstrate the value of pairing global-scale perspective with the resolution required to identify methane point sources, down to the facility scale,' said David Thompson, EMIT's instrument scientist and a senior research scientist at JPL.
'It's a unique capability that will raise the bar on efforts to attribute methane sources and mitigate emissions from human activities.'
Robert Green, EMIT's principal investigator at JPL, said: 'As it continues to survey the planet, EMIT will observe places in which no one thought to look for greenhouse-gas emitters before, and it will find plumes that no one expects.'
NASA says that EMITcould potentially find hundreds of previously unknown methane super-emitters before its year-long mission ends.
'Reining in methane emissions is key to limiting global warming,' said NASA Administrator Bill Nelson.
'This exciting new development will not only help researchers better pinpoint where methane leaks are coming from, but also provide insight on how they can be addressed – quickly.
'The International Space Station and NASA's more than two dozen satellites and instruments in space have long been invaluable in determining changes to the Earth's climate.
'EMIT is proving to be a critical tool in our toolbox to measure this potent greenhouse gas – and stop it at the source.'
Vitorio Pacaccini talks about Varginha Aliens photos and videos
Vitorio Pacaccini talks about Varginha Aliens photos and videos
By the time of the event in 1996, UFOlogist and expert on the subject of the Varginha ET, Vitorio Pacaccini, was a prominent figure in the community. However, he had been missing from the discussion until recently. According to him, he was able to watch a video proof of the UFO’s existence in 2012.
The Smallest, Lightest Neutron Star Ever Seen Could be a “Strange Star”
The Smallest, Lightest Neutron Star Ever Seen Could be a “Strange Star”
The life of every star is a fight against gravity. Stars are so massive they risk collapsing under their own weight, but this is balanced by the heat and pressure a star generates through nuclear fusion. Eventually, that comes to an end. The outer layers of a star will be cast off, and the remaining core will become a stellar remnant. Which kind of remnant depends on the mass of the core.
If the core is less than 1.4 solar masses, then it will collapse until the pressure of electrons balances its weight, thus becoming a white dwarf. If the core is more massive than that, up to perhaps 3 solar masses, it collapses until neutron pressure resists, creating a neutron star. Beyond that, the core will collapse into a stellar-mass black hole.
At least that seems to be the case. The most massive white dwarf we’ve found is about 1.35 solar masses, and the smallest black hole we’ve observed is about 2.6 solar masses. The most massive confirmed neutron star is about 2.14 solar masses. Of course, the cut-off ranges aren’t absolute. A stellar core might be a bit under 1.4 solar masses but experiences an explosive collapse that pushes it to become a neutron star. Neutron stars of 1.2 or 1.3 solar masses would be unusual, but not impossible. But recent observations of the neutron star HESS J1731-347 seem to give it a mass of 0.77 solar masses, which shouldn’t be possible.
Neutron stars are the densest celestial bodies in the entire universe except black holes, and the lower limit of mass is 1.1 times that of the sun. But recently, astronomers discovered that a neutron star named HESS J1731-347 has a smaller mass than the sun. It is likely not a neutron star at all, but a more special and never-before-seen “strange star” composed of quark particles and unknown exotic matter.
Neutron stars are notoriously difficult to mass. They are only about 20 kilometers in diameter and can be seen by the x-rays they give off. To calculate the mass you generally either need the neutron star to be a companion of a star, so that you can determine mass by orbital dynamics, or it needs to be a pulsar so that you can use radio observations to get a mass estimate. HESS J1731-347 is neither of these, but it does have a remnant nebula surrounding it. That remnant is illuminated by a nearby regular star, which we do know the distance of. The regular star was mapped by the Gaia spacecraft, so we know its distance really well. From that data, the team looked at the reflected light of the nebula to determine the distance of HESS J1731-347. It’s about 8,000 light-years away, which is closer than we thought.
Knowing the distance, the team then looked at x-ray observations of the neutron star. Given their luminosity, the calculated mass comes out to be 0.6 – 0.9 solar masses, which is far below the white dwarf mass limit. If this mass is accurate, our understanding of neutron stars is off. One possibility is that we don’t understand how neutron stars form. The authors propose another possibility, which is that it could be a type of quark star known as a strange star.
The difference between a neutron star and a quark star. Credit: CXC/M. Weiss
The standard view of neutron stars is that they are mostly neutrons. Some theorists argue that within the core the boundary of neutrons might break down, creating a soup of up and down quarks, thus a quark star. A strange star would be one where colliding quarks in the core create strange quarks, so that the neutron star has a core of up, down, and strange quarks. All of this is hypothetical, but since strange quarks are twenty times more massive than up and down quarks, a strange star would have a much greater density than a normal neutron star. Thus, it could hold itself together even with a mass much smaller than the Sun.
The third option is, of course, that the mass result is wrong. This is only one result, and several factors could make the neutron star appear dimmer than it actually is, thus skewing the mass result. It’s an interesting result, but not conclusive. Even the authors acknowledge that more observations are needed to confirm the result. It is indeed a strange sight, but it might not be a strange star.
Clearing the Air on a Trip to Mars: the NASA Particle Partition Challenge!
Clearing the Air on a Trip to Mars: the NASA Particle Partition Challenge!
In the coming decade, NASA and the China National Space Agency (CNSA) will send the first astronaut crews to Mars. Unlike missions to the International Space Station (ISS) or the Moon, crewed missions to Mars present several unique challenges because of the distance and transit times involved. For instance, it is only practical to send missions to Mars when our two planets are closest to each other in their orbits (known as “Opposition“), which occurs every 26 months. Even then, it can take up to nine months for spacecraft to reach Mars, creating all kinds of logistics headaches.
On top of that, there’s the need for life support systems that will maintain a breathable atmosphere inside the spacecraft. Like the system that allows astronauts to live aboard the ISS for extended periods, methods are needed to scrub waste carbon from the air and safely sequester it. HeroX, the world’s leading platform for crowdsourced solutions, has launched the NASA Particle Partition Challenge. With a total prize purse of f $45,000, this competition is looking for innovative ideas on how to ensure that astronauts can breathe comfortably on the way to Mars!
NASA is looking for a next-generation life support system to keep crews healthy on their mission to Mars. Credit: NASA
Astronauts living aboard the ISS rely on a complex life support system that routinely scrubs the air for carbon dioxide waste produced by exhalation. From 2011 to 2017, this system included a Sabatier reactor that uses heat and hydrogen gas to convert carbon dioxide into methane (CH4) and water. The methane can be used for more chemical reactions or as a fuel source. The water, another crucial resource for space exploration, can be used on its own or electrolyzed to create oxygen gas and hydrogen (which can be processed with carbon to create more methane).
For years, NASA has been working on the next-generation life support system to support crewed missions to Mars and other locations beyond the Earth-Moon system. This system will rely on a Bosch reactor, which relies on electrolysis and hydrogen gas to convert carbon dioxide into oxygen gas, with solid carbon (graphite) and water created as byproducts. Once again, the resulting water is extremely valuable as a resource, but the graphite particulates create a problem. These must be removed regularly for the reactor to keep operating and are hazardous if not removed correctly.
This represents a major challenge since Bosch reactors produce large amounts of graphite on a daily basis. According to NASA’s estimates, a crew of four astronauts will produce roughly 1 kg (2.2 lbs) of carbon particulates a day. In addition, the particulates are very fine, rating in size from 1 to 500 microns (averaging 8.36 microns). Therefore, the removal methods must be very efficient and precise so that carbon particulates don’t escape back into the spacecraft’s internal atmosphere and slowly pollute the air supply.
To this end, the Challenge is looking for innovative ways to safely and efficiently remove fine particulate carbon from a continuously-running Bosch reactor without impacting its performance. The winning designs will have the chance to become part of the life support systems used by astronauts as they make the long journey to Mars. It will also aid in the development of future extraterrestrial habitats that will enable long-duration missions on the surface of the Moon and Mars. In short, the technology this Challenge inspires will become essential to future missions to deep space, where opportunities for resupply are few and far between, and sustainability and self-sufficiency are vital.
Artist’s concept of a bimodal nuclear rocket making the journey to the Moon, Mars, and other destinations in the Solar System. Credit: NASA
“This problem has been brought to the right people,” said HeroX CEO Kal K. Sahota. “The HeroX community is ready to help again, this time breathing life into the length of planetary missions.”
To encourage the next generation of innovators and potential astronauts, there will also be a Junior challenge running concurrently for competitors under 18 years of age. This Challenge will ask competitors to develop ideas for how habitats far from Earth can maintain a breathable atmosphere for their inhabitants. The Challenge kicked off at 09:00 AM EDT (06:00 AM PDT) today (Wednesday, October 26th) and will remain open to submissions until January 12th, 2023.
The judging panel will finish evaluating submissions in early March, followed by the announcement of the three winning entries on March 16th. The competition is open to anyone 18 years of age or older, participating as an individual or a team from anywhere in the world, as long as U.S. federal sanctions do not prohibit participation (some restrictions apply).
Winners of this single-phase competition will share a total prize purse of $45,000, while the top three participants in the Junior category will each receive public recognition and NASA swag. For more information on the Challenge and eligibility, head over to the HeroX competition page.
Triangular UFO hiding in the clouds above White Sands Missile Range?
Triangular UFO hiding in the clouds above White Sands Missile Range?
A couple from Las Cruces, NM, near White Sands Missile Range captured what looks like a large triangular UFO hiding in the clouds.
Linda Moulton Howe discusses and analyzes the strange sky phenomenon.
A first analyze:
So far I don't see anything in this image that says definitively 'real or fake'. There are some subtleties in the cloud formation in front of the triangle that suggest it's real, but that could be chalked up to skillful photoshopping. My truth-o-meter says" 65% probability of being genuine. But I still need to see the raw file.
After receiving the raw file, ok, the metadata is intact and the photo looks kosher. The original image had lower contrast, so it looks as if they spiked up a little in the version they sent you, but otherwise it appears unchanged. The sun is behind the object and there's no way to tell the object's actual shape, but its corner angle is a little more than 90 degrees, so either it's pyramidal or, if square or cubical, the top corner is leaning away from the camera.
More analyses and suggestions on this object, which may not be a natural phenomenon, starts at around the 7, 30 minutes in the video.
Three Sightings starting in Missouri and ending on a wind farm in Great Britain.
Video Source MUFON and personal recordings.
Alien Probe, Sentient Machine, Nuclear Weapon, or Junk? What is the Betz Mystery Sphere?
Alien Probe, Sentient Machine, Nuclear Weapon, or Junk? What is the Betz Mystery Sphere?
In the Spring of 1974, a large brush fire swept across the property owned by Antoine and Gerri Betz.
While assessing the damage, they noticed something very out of place.
Lying in the smoldering grass, was a highly polished, metal sphere. This became known as the Betz sphere or the Betz orb.
Terry Betz, Antoine and Jerri's 21-year-old son, went to pick up the sphere. Although it was only 8-inches in diameter, it was extremely heavy.
Then the Betz family did something with the sphere that would change their lives forever. Something that the family would come to regret.
Flying saucer filmed in Tucson, AZ, Oct 2022
Video shared on Twitter by think tank, recorded on October 21, 2022 in Tucson, Arizona, USA.
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Skinwalker Ranch - The Full Story | Documentary
A ranch in Utah has, ever since it was first reported on in 1996, been regarded as one of the most significant hotspots of paranormal activity in the entire world. Moreover, it is also one of the few to be thoroughly investigated by professional teams of researchers. What really happened here? In this video, we will find out.
This is a leaked photo of the Varginha, Brazil Alien. This could be authentic!
This is a leaked photo of the Varginha, Brazil Alien. This could be authentic!
In 1996, various people in the Varginha area of Brazil reported seeing multiple UFOs. According to media reports, the military was able to capture one or more of these extraterrestrial beings.
For over two decades, researcher and former student of the Varginha Beings, Vitorio Pacaccini, kept a low-profile. He just revealed that in 2012, a high-ranking military officer gave him permission to watch a video of the creature. At a secret location, the officer showed him a laptop that contained the footage.
The creature was described the same way as did the local girls that witnessed this alien being. It had a large head and enormous red eyes that protruded from its socket. They tried to get it to move, but it fell and staggered. It was then brought back to its feet.
They tried to give it fruits and vegetables, but it didn’t accept them. It also didn’t want water. The room they were in was reportedly the office of a military installation, which was most likely at the ESA. At various times in the video, the military talked about the creature’s bad odor and told the medics to hurry up and finish filming.
According to Pacaccini, the creature’s genetic analyses revealed that it had an ancestry of human DNA. All of the captured aliens were sent to the United States.
He claims that the videos and photos of the extraterrestrials taken by the paramedics at the Humanitas and Regional hospitals will be released soon.
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Abduction of Antônio Vilas-Boas, 1957
Abduction of Antônio Vilas-Boas, 1957
Four years before the more famous Hill Abduction, a Brazilian farmer had a hair-raising experience that is eerily reminiscent of the “alien abduction” stories brought to light in the 1980s and 90s. His case is now widely considered the first alien abduction of the post-war era, and the first to imply an agenda of alien-human hybridization.
Information about this abduction case surrounding the late Brazilian farmer Antônio Vilas-Boas (who later became a lawyer) is available in UFO historian Jerome Clark’s two-volume “The UFO Encyclopedia (2nd Edition)- The Phenomenon from the Beginning” (Volume 2: L-Z, pp.974-977).
The anti-UFO movement advises those who are kidnapped to steal a keepsake from their captors. But that would be like telling a koala bear to steal a gadget from his/her human (scientific) captors! In one of the nature documentaries I've ever seen, researchers captured a koala bear, transported it to the lab, and then returned him/her to the exact location where they first took him/her. He/she is aware that something happened and that he/she was taken, but he/she is unsure of who took him/her and why.
It's evident that humans are not at the top of the heap, cosmologically speaking.
In 1885, a group of miners has discovered what appears to be an underground city under Missouri, after excavating a buried shaft deep underground.
Dozens of amazing artifacts , ranging from stone benches to knives, including a set that flowed with pure water mixed with lime. All of this has supposedly been discovered within an underground city found in Missouri County.
mysterious underground city
Although the artifacts found are extremely enigmatic, something was discovered that surprised the experts much more; a human skeleton .
Next to the source of water and lime, parts of a human being were found. During his studies, it was discovered that it was up to 3 times larger than an ordinary human. In addition, given the robustness of the limbs, it is possible that it was much stronger muscularly and faster.
The defunct newspaper of St. Paul, Minn., the ST. Paul Daily , wrote the following:
“The bones of the leg were measured, the femur is 4 and 1/2 feet, the tibia four feet and three inches. The head bones had been separated into two pieces, and the sagittal and cornal suturis had been destroyed.
In addition to the strange artifacts, the miners also found several labyrinthine pathways leading away from the surface. These seemed to have some kind of configuration, as well as containing a number of pieces that seemed to be part of ancient machinery.
surprising discoveries
According to the promoters, all this information was perfectly documented by the miners in 1885.
The miners were the ones who explored the place for hours, until the oil from the gas lamps forced them to return to the surface, preventing visibility inside the mysterious underground tunnels .
Despite the fact that certain theorists and popularizers assure that this mysterious story is totally true, no evidence has been found to support it.
Even so, it would not be the first time that large structures have been found under the surface in the United States, such as an underground city. The presence of human remains that could have belonged to giants is not strange either .
In fact, the entire American continent is full of these stories and there is a whole debate around this theory. Is there really an underground city in Missouri? Here is an interesting video about another supposed city of giants
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.
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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.
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Over mijzelf
Ik ben Pieter, en gebruik soms ook wel de schuilnaam Peter2011.
Ik ben een man en woon in Linter (België) en mijn beroep is Ik ben op rust..
Ik ben geboren op 18/10/1950 en ben nu dus 73 jaar jong.
Mijn hobby's zijn: Ufologie en andere esoterische onderwerpen.
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Veel leesplezier en geef je mening over deze blog.