{ https://mysteriousuniverse.org/ }

08-12-2022 om 01:47 geschreven door peter  

{ https://mysteriousuniverse.org/ }

08-12-2022 om 01:27 geschreven door peter  

Popular toy of prehistoric children revealed by new research

The common species called little owl (Athene noctua) may have inspired some engraved slate plaques. Two fledglings are shown. 

Credit: Juan J. Negro/Scientific Reports

Drawings of owls by present-day children were similar to the owls on the plaques, researchers said. 

Credit: Juan J. Negro/Scientific Reports

This slate plaque with an engraving of an owl was part of the study. 

Credit: Juan J. Negro/Scientific Reports

• The journal Scientific Reports published the research Thursday.

{ https://edition.cnn.com/ }

08-12-2022 om 00:55 geschreven door peter  

{ https://www.hln.be/ }

08-12-2022 om 00:27 geschreven door peter  

Uranus and Neptune are begging to be visited, but expensive missions to visit them may never be approved.

Image Credits: (L) By NASA – http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA18182, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=121128532. (R)

By Justin Cowart – https://www.flickr.com/photos/132160802@N06/29347980845/, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=82476611

BY EVAN GOUGH

The demands of deeper, scientifically fulfilling missions to Mars and the Moon are squeezing the budgets of NASA, the ESA, and other agencies. But there are fascinating worlds further out in the Solar System that are begging to be explored. Especially the ice giants Uranus and Neptune.

NASA has a strong focus on Mars and the Moon right now. The eventual Mars Sample Return mission will be resource intensive, as will the Artemis program. But the ice giants demand attention, too, even though we can never land there or gather samples from them. They played a role in the evolution of the Solar System, they’re similar to many exoplanets we find in distant solar systems, and our brief encounters with them gave us only tantalizing glimpses.

The last spacecraft to fly past Uranus was Voyager 2 in 1986, and it was the only one. It got to within 81,500 kilometres (50,600 miles) of the planet’s cloud tops. Voyager 2 was also the last and only spacecraft to fly past Neptune, coming to within 4,800 kilometres (2,983 miles) above the planet’s north pole in 1989. Imagine what dedicated orbiters could discover with modern technology.

The Hubble space telescope has tried to fill in the gaps in our understanding of the Solar System’s pair of ice giants. But it struggles to reveal details from a distance. The James Webb Space Telescope has shown its ability to study our Solar System’s planets with its fascinating images of Jupiter, but it has other jobs to do. Observations from a distance will always have their limitations and can never replace purpose-built missions.

Philip Horzempa, from LeMoyne College at Syracuse University, says that we can explore both Uranus and Neptune if we’re guided by two simple words: simple and affordable. In a white paper submitted to the National Academies of Sciences, Horzempa outlines the case for building a pair of orbiters to visit Uranus and Neptune. He explains how they needn’t be ground-breaking designs, and they needn’t be flagship missions.

Instead, NASA could rapidly develop missions to both ice giants that could gather important scientific data without breaking their budget. Launch windows are approaching for missions to both planets, and rather than propose elaborate missions that may never get approved, NASA should develop reasonable missions that can advance our understanding of both worlds.

Horzempa points out that there’s a historical precedent for this. Some of NASA’s best missions were only launched as more streamlined, cheaper versions of their original proposals. The Viking Mars landers were eventually launched as more streamlined versions of an initial mission proposal. NASA’s Grand Tour program in the 1970s called for four probes: two would’ve visited Jupiter, Saturn, and Pluto. Two more would’ve visited Jupiter, Uranus, and Neptune. But the program was enormously expensive and was cancelled. Instead, NASA launched Voyager 1 and 2. The New Horizons mission and the Parker Solar Probe have similar backstories.

Timing is critical. Later this decade, there are two launch windows that can take advantage of Jupiter gravity-assist maneuvers. “In order to take advantage of the first Jupiter assist, it is imperative that Phase A should begin for a Neptune Orbiter in 2022,” Horzempa writes, so time is running out. “This abbreviated timeline dictates the use of a simple craft with no atmosphere Probe.”

Ideal missions to both planets would include orbiters and atmospheric probes. Both planets likely have solid cores, but the rest of their compositions are very strange and might include regions where methane decomposes into diamond crystals that rain downward like hailstones into oceans of liquid carbon. We’ve got a lot to learn about Uranus and Neptune and their atmospheres, but more detailed studies with probes will have to wait.

Sacrificing an atmosphere probe is a trade-off worth making if it means that a mission can be launched to take advantage of gravity-assist maneuvers, according to Horzempa. “Key to affordability is the separation of the Probe missions from the Orbiters,” he writes. This makes the orbiters more simple and cheap, which increases the likelihood that they will be approved.

Probes could still come later, Horzempa says, which can be an advantage for future atmospheric probe missions to both ice giants. “The Orbiters be given 1st priority in the launch queue. Since the Probe program will be untethered from the Orbiter effort, its mission cadence will be determined by factors unique to the study of giant planet atmospheres.”

All spacecraft are high-tech endeavours, but orbiters themselves are the most well-understood design. Rovers are enormously complex, and sample-return missions ratchet the complexity up even further, though neither of those is explicitly relevant to the ice giants. Restricting ice giant missions to orbiters only makes the missions feasible. “The Ice Giant Orbiters will build on the experience of previous such missions. By now, industry has ‘figured out’ how to construct such craft,” writes Horzempa.

For NASA, the 2020s is a decade of stiff competition for resources. Their budget will be stretched thin by Artemis, Mars Sample Return, and other programs like the Lunar Discovery program. But since missions to the ice giants can take so long, we run the risk of getting no new data from either planet for up to 40 years unless NASA acts now. “A radically new approach is called for if we are to obtain any new data in the coming 20-40 years,” Horzempa says.

One of the critical pieces for simple and affordable missions concerns the power source. Solar power is in short supply in the ice giants’ neighbourhood. Spacecraft travelling that far are designed around radioisotope thermoelectric generators. They contain radioactive isotopes that decay and release heat, which is then converted into electricity. This is the type of system that the New Horizons mission to Pluto uses.

Unfortunately, the development of the next generation of RTGs was cancelled. It was called the enhanced-MMRTG and would’ve delivered more power than previous RTGs. NASA has plans for a Next Generation RTG, but there are no firm dates attached to it and no guarantees it will be built.

This means that the standard MMRTG (Multi-Mission Radioisotope Thermal Generator) and solar power are the only available options. The orbiter missions are still doable, according to Horzempa. “This limitation means that the Ice Giant craft will need to be very frugal with their power demands.” It also means that the Uranus orbiter could be forced to get by on solar power because RTGs take time to build and may be needed for other applications. (MSL Curiosity and the Perseverance rover both use MMRTGs.) For distant Neptune, an RTG is the only option.

“Two fast, simple, affordable (FSA) orbiters can be launched if one of those crafts is solar-powered,” Horzempa explains. “Physics dictates that the single MMRTG be used for the Neptune Orbiter.”

Thanks to continued technological progress, solar power is now a feasible power source for a Uranus orbiter, as long as power consumption is managed rigorously. New designs are 20% lighter and one-quarter the volume of previous panels while delivering the same power output. “The ROSA (Roll-Out Solar Array) and Mega-ROSA panels can provide 200-400 W at 20 A.U.,” writes Horzempa. “The first ROSA array was launched to the ISS in 2017 and demonstrated its capability.”

With less power available, decisions will need to be made about science payloads. The words simple and affordable are still the guiding ideas, and Horzempa outlines how science payloads can adapt. The obvious first step is to limit the number of science devices.

As a flagship mission, the Juno mission to Jupiter holds nine scientific instruments. One of them, the JunoCam, was included solely to provide optical light images for the rest of us to enjoy and isn’t truly a science instrument. Simple and affordable orbiters to the ice giants won’t have the same payload capabilities as Juno.

But, perhaps ironically, a high-resolution camera is probably the primary instrument for missions to Uranus and Neptune.

“With a limited payload, first priority goes to imaging,” Horzempa writes. “The satellites of Uranus and Neptune are in dire need of complete, detailed photographic coverage.” Horzempa points out that creating charts is the first step in exploration, “… a tradition that is thousands of years old,” he explains.

“High-resolution and context cameras will produce those base maps,” he says, and by adding near-IR imagers, the orbiters can probe the atmospheres and the ring systems.

Decoupling probe missions from orbiter missions is one way to develop missions that are fast and affordable. But probe missions are too important to ignore completely.

Horzempa explains that while orbiter technology is well-established and can be employed more readily, probe technology has fallen behind. Proposals for a Saturn probe have been rejected, leaving that technology to languish. Before we can ever send atmospheric probes to the ice giants, we should send one to Saturn.

“The initial mission would be a Saturn Probe. That would satisfy a long-standing objective and develop the technology required for almost-identical Probes for Uranus and Neptune,” he writes. He also says that the Decadal Survey should “…advocate for combined KBO-Ice Giant Probe missions.”

In his white paper, Horzempa keeps coming back to the idea that flagship missions that try to accomplish too much at once are likely to be rejected. While flagship missions including probes are not the priority in ice giant missions, neither should probes be forgotten. The idea for orbiter-only missions to Uranus and Neptune makes more sense if there are also plans for future atmospheric probes.

“Flagship missions are wonderful, but they are useless if they are so complex that they never
get funded and never fly,” he writes. He refers to this as the ‘complexity trap.’ “Less ambitious missions will deliver less science, but they have a better chance of achieving a coveted New Start.”

NASA is considering a concept for a mission to Uranus and its moons. It’s called the Uranus Orbiter and Probe, and it’s a flagship mission that could be launched in 2031. It was being considered alongside a similar mission to Neptune called Neptune Odyssey. A flagship mission to Uranus makes logical sense because it follows similar missions to Jupiter and Saturn (Juno and Cassini.) But its potential expense means it may not be approved or developed in time. Horzempa’s argument is that we can visit both ice giants cheaply and rapidly if we trim down the missions.

Ultimately, it’s up to the Decadal Survey team to find the right mix. “This paper does not put forward a specific design but, rather, asks the Decadal team to endorse a competitive approach to the exploration of the Ice Giant systems,” Horzempa states in his conclusion. He says that NASA should set the cost, outline the objectives, and let the commercial sector tackle it. That will engender healthy competition.

There is never a shortage of worthwhile missions. Successful missions to destinations throughout the Solar System have only made us hungry for more. It’s been over 35 years since Voyager 2 performed its brief flybys of the ice giants. That spacecraft’s cameras were essentially TV cameras from the 1970s. Think of how much technology has advanced since then and how much we can learn from modern orbiters.

Horzempa makes a strong case for fast, simple, affordable missions that can take advantage of rapidly-approaching launch windows. Should NASA seize the opportunity?

More:

• White Paper: Ice Giant Exploration Philosophy: Simple, Affordable
• NASA/JPL: Images Voyager Took of Neptune
• White Paper: Gas Giant and Ice Giant Atmospheres: Focused Questions for 2023-2032

{ https://www.universetoday.com/ }

07-12-2022 om 23:47 geschreven door peter  

The latest composite image of supernova remnant DEM L 190, released in November 2022.

Credit: ESA/Hubble & NASA, S. Kulkarni, Y. Chu

A new Hubble Image Reveals a Shredded Star in a Nearby Galaxy

The Hubble Space Telescope, to which we owe our current estimates for the age of the universe and the first detection of organic matter on an exoplanet, is very much doing science and still alive. It’s latest masterpiece remixes an old hit – apparently a growing trend in space science as well as space music.

Big Bada Boom

The story of this image begins roughly 165,000 years ago, when an unnamed O-type star in the Large Magellanic Cloud died in a type II supernova. Light from the explosion shot out in all directions, and about 160,000 years later a tiny cross section of that expanding sphere of light reached Earth. If humanity had modern telescopes around 3,000 BC, automated systems might have logged a blip in the southern constellation Dorado, well under the limits of human perception from such a great distance.

The supernova remnant took on a familiar form: a beautiful glowing cloud of expanding gas surrounding a pulsar – a super-dense and rapidly spinning neutron star with a powerful magnetic field. Shockwaves from the collapsing stellar core interacted with the nebula, coalescing the diffuse gas into filaments. Two especially hot and dense regions of gas shot away from the central pulsar in opposite directions, “bullets” likely fired off by the core’s powerful magnetic field. Within 5,000 years the nebula would be 75 light-years across, its heart still glowing at a million degrees.

People Are Noticing

The remnant was catalogued by Karl Henize in 1956 as part of a survey of emission nebulae in the Magellanic Clouds. Dubbed N49 (sometimes LMC N49) it was immediately recognized as a powerful radio emitter, and to this day it is the brightest supernova remnant in the Large Magellanic Cloud. On March 5, 1979 a historically powerful gamma ray burst was detected by all nine spacecraft of the interplanetary gamma-ray burst network. The source was quickly pinpointed as N49, which at this point was a usual suspect for this sort of mischief.

But The March 5 transient was so insanely powerful that a second otherwise-invisible neutron star in that region was hypothesized. The term “pulsar” wasn’t going to cut it for N49. This and other similar events spurred on the study of “soft gamma ray repeaters,” and eventually the creation of the “magnetar” classification in 1992.

The Hubble Space Telescoped first imaged N49 over 3 hours between November of 1998 and July of 2000. Three false-color images in the classic “Hubble Palette” – red for sulfur, blue for oxygen, and green for hydrogen – were captured using its Wide Field Planetary Camera 2 (WFPC2) and superimposed on a black-and-white base image, also captured by Hubble. The composited image was used in studies mainly focused on better understanding the nebula’s structure and environment.

N49 has at least 26 other identifiers across different catalogues. The most common byname in the press is DEM L 190. The remnant has been imaged by notables like ROSAT, Chandra, and Spitzer, and was even mentioned in Chapter 9 of the companion book to Carl Sagan’s Cosmos.

The remnant’s intrigue comes not just from its brightness and powerful EM bursts, but also its asymmetry. Think of the stunning Ring Nebula, the Cat’s Eye, or the Lion Nebula. Each of these monuments to the awesome beauty of the cosmos was created by the same basic process as N49. An observer of most planetary nebulae could be forgiven for entertaining the thought of a cosmic watchmaker.

By comparison N49 looks like that watchmaker tried to flip an omelet and really messed up. Pinning down why and how the occasional stellar remnant gets so messy will help us understand stellar life cycles more completely.

Composite image of DEM L 190, released in November of 2006. Optical data from Hubble was overlaid with X-ray data from the Chandra Observatory in blue and infrared data from the Spitzer Space Telescope in red. The result suggests a dense region in the Interstellar Medium around N49 may have contributed to the uneven expansion of the planetary nebula.

Credit:
X-ray: NASA/CXC/Caltech/S.Kulkarni et al.
Optical: NASA/STScI/UIUC/Y.H.Chu & R.Williams et al.
IR: NASA/JPL-Caltech/R.Gehrz et al.

Composite image of DEM L 190, released in May of 2010. Optical data from Hubble was overlaid with X-ray data from the Chandra Observatory in blue. The magnetar can be seen as a blue-white light source in the upper-middle of the image. The result shows a “bullet” in the lower-right corned and a “bullet candidate” opposite, suggesting that the supernova itself may have been asymmetrical.

Credit:
X-ray: NASA/CXC/Penn State/S.Park et al.
Optical: NASA/STScI/UIUC/Y.H.Chu & R.Williams et al.

Synthesis

As imaging technology improves, from time to time the ESA/Hubble team revisits targets. For example, back in 2003 data from two UV filters centered at 300nm & 380nm were captured at the same time as the others but were not included in the original composite. For the 2022 image they were added in, and luminosity was depicted using red light instead of white, in part to give background stars a more natural-looking color.

The past nineteen years have also seen great strides in noise reduction and data stretching algorithms, which when applied to the updated image reveal an unprecedented level of detail. Fun fact, technically none of this improves the image’s resolution, which is limited by WFPC2’s performance back in the day. But that’s just a technicality – there’s no arguing the new 2022 image shows significantly more detail.

What will this new photo reveal to discerning eyes? That’s the fun part. Maybe the more detailed filaments will help astronomers better model especially violent stellar deaths. In a few years this photo may help answer questions we don’t even have yet.

For More Information:

• ESA’s page on Revisiting a celestial fireworks display
• NASA | ESA Hubble’s page on Revisiting a Celestial Fireworks Display (Colours & filters on the bottom-right of the page)
• Up your work chat game with NASA | ESA Hubble on Giphy

{ https://www.universetoday.com/ }

07-12-2022 om 23:21 geschreven door peter  

FBI Documents Admit Existence of Aliens & UFO's - The UFO-Alien Occult New Age Great Deception

The Dan Bidondi Show – Spiritual Warfare The UFO-Alien Occult New Age Great Deception
FBI Documents Admit Existence of Aliens & UFO’s

Hosts Dan Bidondi & Brian Reece bring you the latest updates on the U.S. Government’s UFO reports and how the New Age occultic agenda will be pushed to bring about the great deception the Bible prophesied about.

{ https://beforeitsnews.com/ }

07-12-2022 om 22:45 geschreven door peter  

Whether you believe in predictions or not, Baba Vanga's predictions are well known for their accuracy. About 80% of Vanga's predictions turned out to be accurate.

Vangeliya Pandeva Gushterova, (1911-1996) commonly known as Baba Vanga, was a Bulgarian mystic and herbalist. Blind since early childhood, Baba Vanga spent most of her life in the Rupite area of the Kozhuh mountains in Bulgaria. 

According to her own testimony, a turning point in her life, at the ages of 12, occurred when a 'tornado' allegedly lifted her into the air and threw her into a nearby field. She was found after a long search. Witnesses described her as very frightened, and her eyes were covered with sand and dust; she was unable to open them because of the pain. There was money only for a partial operation to heal the injuries she had sustained. This resulted in a gradual loss of sight. 

According to Baba Vanga's predictions, this is going to happen in 2023 and it doesn't look good. 

A big astronomical event will occur as Earth's orbit will change. As a result of this event, it could have catastrophic consequences on Earth. 

She also claimed that the Earth will be hit by an unprecedented solar storm on a scale the world has never before seen. 

Next; aliens are about to visit planet Earth in 2023 and if that is going to happen then we could find ourselves 'covered in darkness' and millions would die, according to Baba Vanga. 

Besides astronomical events and aliens who are going to visit us, she also claimed that in 2023 we would see a nuclear power plant explosion and a 'big country' will will carry out bioweapons research on people. The result of such research will cause the death of thousands of people, also the concept of humans (lab babies) will grow in labs could become a reality.

RELATED VIDEOS, selected and posted by peter2011

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

07-12-2022 om 22:07 geschreven door peter  

Orbs in triangle formation in the sky above Reno, Nevada 6-Dec-2022

This triangular formation was seen and recorded over Reno, a city in the northwest section of the U.S. state of Nevada, along the Nevada-California border. This happened on 6th December 2022.

Witness report: 

Last night on 12/6/22 at 8:48 PM, we were driving off of McCaran by Easy Mile gas station and witnessed 3 floating orbs that were glowing and floating in the sky. They moved in unison with one another and were floating together. After 3 minutes two of the lights disappeared in front of me and then the third one followed about 1 minutes later.

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

07-12-2022 om 20:59 geschreven door peter  

Bright UFO making fast movements over Marion, IL 1-Dec-2022

This UFO video was filmed over Marion, Illinois on December 1st this year. Witness filmed a huge and bright object making fast and impressive movements in the sky.

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

07-12-2022 om 20:53 geschreven door peter  

LATEST UFO SIGHTINGS AND VIDEOS

Voyager 1 Detects Mysterious Sound As It Approaches Alien Star

The classic 1979 sci-fi horror film 'Alien' was advertised with the memorable tagline, space no can hear you scream. But, it did not say anything about humming.

Instruments aboard NASA's Voyager 1 spacecraft, which ten years ago exited our solar system outer reaches, have detected a faint monotonous hum. What is causing this cosmic hum?

• #voyager1 #space #alien

RELATED

The Different Types Of UFO You Should Know About | Unveiled

In this video, Unveiled takes a closer look at the different types of UFO you should know about! In recent times, UFOs have been on the rise... and now even the world's governments are taking them very seriously! But not all UFO cases are the same, so here's all you need to know!

0:00 Into

0:29 Floating Orbs

2:21 Flying Pyramids

3:52 UFO Cubes

5:15 Other UFO Types

6:56 Conclusions

Gamma-ray burst from kilonova explosion detected

A long gamma-ray burst (GRB) detected using the twin Gemini Telescopes originated from a kilonova explosion triggered by a neutron star merger.

Full Story: https://www.space.com/gamma-ray-burst..

Credit: NOIRLab

China Just Shocked the Scientists of America! Nobody Would Have Expected That!

The compass, gunpowder, paper production and book printing: just a quick look at the great inventions of the ancient Chinese shows how much we still draw on the milestones of days long past. Today, however, we would like to put these remarkable achievements aside and turn our attention to the Great Wall of China - but not to the monumental protective structure you are thinking of now. Rather, we mean China's Green Wall, the project that aims to declare war on desertification! But how is it even possible to turn a bone-dry desert into a blooming oasis? What are the obstacles to be overcome and what amazing achievements have already been made? Stay tuned and see for yourself how China wants to bring the hot desert to its knees!

#TheUnknownList

Mars helicopter Ingenuity soars on its highest flight yet

The Mars helicopter Ingenuity flew to an altitude of 14 meters (~46 feet) on Dec. 3, 2022. It broke its previous record of 12 meters (~39 feet) that was originally set in July 2021 and flown again in 2 subsequent flights.

Credit: Space.com | footage and graphics: NASA/JPL-Caltech | edited by [Steve Spaleta](https://twitter.com/stevespaleta)

{  https://www.youtube.com/ }

07-12-2022 om 20:47 geschreven door peter  

Humanoid Skull Like No Other

It was back in the 1930s when an American teenager discovered an abandoned mine tunnel in Mexico’s Copper Canyon region. Inside it she found a human skeleton and, clutching onto its arm, was the hand bone of another skeleton buried mostly under the earth. It was described as being small and misshapen. The teenager returned to the site the following day only to find that a flash flood had washed most of the bones away. Nevertheless, the upper section of the skull of the buried skeleton, along with a small piece of the upper jaw bone remained. The significance of the so-called Starchild Skull remained unrealized for nearly 70 years.

Initial Research into the Starchild Skull

In 1999, the highly unusual skull, which has been dated at 900 years old, was handed to author and researcher Lloyd Pye to investigate after health professionals failed to identify a condition that could explain its appearance. The skull became known as the Starchild Skull, and between 1999 and 2013 Lloyd enlisted the help of numerous experts and independent medical and scientific institutions across three countries (USA, Canada, and the United Kingdom) to conduct extensive research and testing.

One of the major contributors to the research project was Dr. Ted Robinson, who had a background in medicine and plastic surgery and specialized knowledge of cranial surgery and cranial anatomy. Robinson studied the skull for a period of two years and involved specialists in the disciplines of radiology, ophthalmic surgery, oral surgery, craniofacial surgery, neurology and pediatric neurosurgery. The report Robinson prepared was astounding.

• The 13 Alien-Like Skulls Found in Mexico

• Ancient Alien-Like Heads Discovered in Croatia

Firstly, Robinson’s expertise in cranial deformities enabled him to rule out all the human deformities he knew of that could account for the skull’s appearance. None of the other specialists were able to find any deformity, illness or cultural practice that could account for the misshapen head.

Secondly, Robinson reported that the bone of the skull is much thinner, lighter, and stronger than regular human bone. Analysis concluded that the Starchild Skull contains unusual reinforcing fibers, the brain is 30% larger than a normal human of its size, the frontal sinuses are absent, the eye sockets are shallow, and the entire skull has over 10 standard deviations from the human norm. This is a highly unusual statistic.

DNA Testing of the Starchild Skull

Robinson wrote: "One can only reasonably conclude from these statistical studies that the Starchild skull is distinctly different from human," wrote Robinson. Nevertheless, the medical reports and investigations were not enough to convince mainstream scientists that the Starchild Skull was definitely not human. Instead, they explained away the abnormalities with the claim that “nature can do anything.”

The scientists running the  Starchild Project  knew that the only definitive way of proving that the skull was not human was through DNA testing . So they waited nearly a decade while the technology for recovering and sequencing ancient DNA, such as the 900-year-old Starchild's, could be perfected.

In 2010, the Starchild Project secured access to a highly sophisticated DNA lab capable of recovering non-human DNA. Preliminary DNA testing found that a significant percentage of the DNA in the skull is not human. If verified, this finding would indicate that the skull belongs to a new species.

In 2012, a geneticist was able to secure a fragment of gene from the 5% of human nuclear DNA that code for proteins and which is a highly functional “master gene”, one of the most vitally important genes in the body of any species on Earth. It is known as the FOXP2 gene. Analysis was carried out on this gene, the full report of which can be read  here, and the results were again startling.

Understanding the FOXP2 Master Gene

The FOXP2 gene in normal humans is 2,594 base pairs long and contains no variations. In mammals and other "higher" species, any single flaw in FOXP2, any isolated mutation or variation, can cause a severe negative impact in some of the most important aspects of development and will normally lead to death.

While a tiny amount of survivable mutations are possible in FOXP2, every one that occurs presents debilitating or life-threatening consequences, so up to this point in time none have been passed on to the general population of humans. This means in the vast, vast majority of humans, the FOXP2 master gene is absolutely identical.

The fragment of gene that was recovered from the skull and analyzed is 211 base pairs long (out of 2,594 base pairs). Now comes the incredible result of the analysis. While all normal humans have the exact same base pairs, the Starchild’s gene contained a total of 56 variations within the fragment! To understand the significance, in a rhesus monkey only 2 of its 211 base pairs would contain variation from humans. If it were a mouse, it would be 20. If a dog, 27.

• Bizarre Alien-Like Skull Unearthed in Korea was Naturally Formed

• The Ancient History of UFOs and the Oppenheimer-Einstein Report

To put this in perspective, let's imagine that when alive, the Starchild was indeed some unknown humanoid. No matter how different from humans it might have been, to be in the humanoid family its FOXP2 gene would have to be in the range of 1 or 2, or at most 3, base pair variations from a normal human. To go past 5 or 10 would put it into another class of species. To have 56 is to put it in another realm, another dimension entirely. It is utterly unique.

These amazing findings are the result of only a partial analysis of the DNA from the Starchild Skull. In 2013 the Starchild Project was registered as a company in order to raise the necessary funds to undertake a complete DNA test , which will determine once and for all the true nature of this most unusual species.

Mainstream Rejection of Lloyd Pye and his Starchild Skull

According to the HuffPost, in a 2013 article about Lloyd Pye and his work related to the Starchild Skull, “it takes some cojones to take a stand on the existence of aliens.” Nevertheless, mainstream science continues to argue that the skull belongs to that of a human child with congenital hydrocephalus, fobbing off alien arguments as pseudoscience.

“Lloyd Pye spoke often of the bias and fear that is built into the culture of mainstream science and academia, and it is probably that same sentiment that prompts skeptics to jump in with a negative opinion on the Starchild Skull before they have all the facts,” explains the Starchild Project website. Dealing with these subjects automatically attracts criticism, but members of the project call for us to listen to their scientific explanations keeping an open mind.

• Top image: Starchild Skull vs average human skull.
• Source:  Fair use 

By April Holloway

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

07-12-2022 om 01:24 geschreven door peter  

Live the Legend: 8 Mythical Places That Actually Exist

{ https://www.ancient-origins.net/ }

07-12-2022 om 00:36 geschreven door peter  

Mars panorama of an plain scoured by an ancient megatsunami. The image comes from Viking 1.

Courtesy NASA.

NASA’s Viking 1 lander’s first image of its site in Chryse Planitia in 1976. New research says an ancient megatsunami swept through here. Image

Credit: NASA/JPL

Planetary Science Institute scientist Alexis Rodriguez studied the region in detail to figure out what happened to the region. It turns out that Viking’s landing spot contains deposits of material left by a pair of catastrophic floods. The second of these swept across the Martian landscape right after a three-kilometer-wide asteroid smacked into a Martian ocean. The fact that water once existed where Chryse Planitia is today isn’t a surprise. After all, that’s why Viking went there. But, figuring out how such a flood happened took a little detective work.

From orbital images available at the time, the Viking scientists selected the landing site because it looked like water once flowed there. “The lander was designed to seek evidence of extant life on the Martian surface, so to select a suitable landing site, the engineers and scientists at the time faced the arduous task of using some of the planet’s earliest acquired images, accompanied by Earth-based radar probing of the planet’s surface,” said Rodriguez, lead author of Evidence of an oceanic impact and megatsunami sedimentation in Chryse Planitia, Mars in Nature Scientific Reports. “In addition to meeting tight engineering constraints on the spacecraft’s orbital and descent paths, the landing site selection needed to fulfill a critical requirement—the presence of extensive evidence of former surface water.”

What Happened to Create a Megatsunami on Mars?

At first glance, Chryse Planitia looks dry, dusty, and rocky. But, it has all the hallmarks of rapidly flowing water. When water rushes across a landscape, it carries along rocks, sand, silt, and whatever else gets in the way. The same thing happened on Mars. Viking actually touched down on the lower edge of a flow feature called a fluvial channel. Chryse Planitia itself is a roughly circular plain north of the Martian equator. However, once Viking got on the ground, scientists noticed how boulder-strewn the region is. They decided that the area was a thick deposit either from multiple impacts or fractured lavas. The whole thing remained a mystery until Rodriguez started looking at the images and data again. His idea invokes more than one episode of catastrophic flooding.

In an earlier paper, he suggested that 3.4 billion years ago, there were two Martian megatsunamis. They smacked into the ancient ocean, sending huge waves across the Martian landscape. Between them, the ocean receded quite a bit and the climate became much colder. Rodriguez also identified a possible marine impact crater—Pohl crater—which likely generated the second of these two megatsunamis.

“Pohl is outstanding in several respects; it is atop immense fluvial landscapes formed by ocean-generating floods, and it is partly covered by the second megatsunami. Hence, we know that it must have formed after the ocean’s generation and before its disappearance,” said Anthony Lopez, a geosciences undergraduate student at Pima Community College and an intern working with Rodriguez.

A Map View of the Mars Megatsunami

Simulating and Mapping the Catastrophe

To get a better idea of what happened, Rodriguez and his team used a variety of mosaic images from Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, Mars Odyssey, Mars Orbiter, and Mars Global Surveyor missions to produce detailed maps of the region. They mapped the distribution of water-related features within Chryse Planitia. Then, they searched for a relevant impact site—which turned out to be Pohl Crater. It wasn’t the first impact to smack into the region, but it created the fluvial plain the Viking lander studied. That second impact landed in the ocean. At that point, the ocean waters flowed catastrophically over the region. The flooding obliterated previous flow channels and created the deposits that Viking 1 landed on billions of years later.

The team also simulated the impact to understand the extent of its influence. “The simulated run-up extents of Pohl’s impact-generated megatsunami accurately reproduce the previously mapped margins of the older megatsunami, providing further robust support to the megatsunami – and hence ocean – hypothesis and this crater’s interpretation as its source,” said co-author Darrel Robertson of NASA’s Ames Research Center.

“The simulation clearly shows that the megatsunami was enormous, with an initial height of approximately 250 meters, and highly turbulent. Furthermore, our modeling also shows some radically different behavior of the megatsunami to what we are accustomed to imagining. Notably, the seismic shaking associated with the impact would have been so intense that it could have dislodged sea floor materials into the megatsunami, densifying some wave fronts into run-up debris flows.”

It appears that the megatsunami reached the Viking 1 lander site and could well have affected Pathfinder’s landing site, about 850 kilometers away. Ultimately, it may have helped create a new inland sea in the region.

Implications for Ancient Life?

While this study doesn’t prove anything about life on ancient Mars, it certainly reveals environments where it could have existed. “The ocean is thought to have been groundwater-fed from aquifers that likely formed much earlier in Martian history—over 3.7 billion years ago—when the planet was “Earth-like” with rivers, lakes, seas, and a primordial ocean,” said Rodriguez. “Consequently, the ocean’s habitability could have been inherited from that Earth-like Mars; the development of transient habitability is not sufficient; we need sustained continuity. So, the Viking 1 lander site was well suited to carry out the life detection experiment.”

With Viking and Pathfinder both in Chryse Planitia, it could well be that NASA’s probes have already sampled a couple of diverse marine environments on Mars. The next steps now are to see if Pohl could be a good landing site for further studies. Could it have been habitable? What will the geologic record tell us about the ancient ocean’s chemistry? Rodriguez says the science merits a second look, now that we know what happened there.

“Right after its formation, the crater would have generated submarine hydrothermal systems lasting tens of thousands of years, providing energy and nutrient-rich environments. As for specific targets, we find numerous possible mud volcanoes over areas of the second megatsunami covering and surrounding Pohl. Our observations suggest that these features extruded regionally megatsunami-retained seawater and marine sediments during extended geologic times. Sampling these materials would maximize the odds of directly probing the habitability of this Mars early ocean,” he said. “Our future characterizations will seek to identify a relatively small site offering access to the entire marine record. Such a terrain would merit a rover’s visit.”

For More Information

• NASA May Have Landed on a Martian Megatsunami Deposit Nearly 50 Years Ago
• Detection of Possible Mega-tsunami Deposits on Mars Revives Ancient Ocean Hypothesis

RELATED VIDEOS, selected and posted by peter2011

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06-12-2022 om 23:37 geschreven door peter  

Mars at Opposition 2022: The Full Moon Occults Mars Wednesday Night

A rare event transpires Wednesday night, as the Full Moon occults Mars near opposition.

Have you checked out Mars lately? The Red Planet currently rides high to the east at dusk, rising as the Sun sets. We call this opposition season, the biannual span when Mars passes closest to the Earth and offers observers optimal views of the planet. Mars opposition 2022 is special however, as three events converge in one night: Mars at opposition, the Moon reaches Full, and the Moon occults (passes in front of) Mars, all on the evening/morning of Wednesday/Thursday, December 7th/8th.

Celestial Dates with Destiny

You can see how the action around Mars stacks up in the first week of December:

1st- Mars passes nearest Earth (2:00 Universal Time/UT)

8th-Full Moon (4:00 UT)

8th-Mars Lunar Occultation (4:00 UT)

8th-Mars at Opposition (5:00 UT)

Note that Mars is closest to the Earth a week prior to opposition. This occurs for two reasons: while the Earth is moving towards perihelion in January (that is, we’re moving towards the Sun in December, but away from Mars), the Red Planet is doing the opposite, headed towards aphelion on May 30, 2023, just under six months after this week’s opposition. This makes up for the 900,000-odd kilometer difference as Mars is 0.55 Astronomical Units (AU, or 81.5 million kilometers) from Earth on the 1^st, but sits 82.4 million kilometers from Earth at opposition.

In fact, we’re currently trending towards a cycle of unfavorable oppositions for Mars now, which will bottom out in February 2027 when Mars only reaches an apparent diameter of 13.8” as seen from the Earth. After 2027, Mars oppositions will slowly start to become more favorable again.

No Missions to Mars

Unfortunately, this Mars launch window also marks a sad milestone: for the first time since 2009, no mission will catch the biannual pre-opposition window to head to Mars. The European Space Agency’s ExoMars Rosalind Franklin rover was set to make the trip until Russia invaded Ukraine early this year, forcing ESA to look for another launch carrier and lander. ESA still hopes to get the rover to Mars by 2030.

‘Standing in the Shadow’ as the Moon occults Mars

But it’s Wednesday night’s occultation of Mars by the Full Moon that makes the 2022 opposition special. Opposition and the occultation plus the Full Moon all occur within an hour of each other. This is pretty rare: the near-Full Moon hasn’t occulted a naked eye planet or bright star since July 2019 (Saturn) and won’t do so again until May 24, 2024 (Antares), This is also the last of two occultations of Mars by the Moon for 2022, The Moon will occult Mars five times in 2023, though none are as favorable as the December’s event. The December ‘Long Night’s Moon’ nearest to the southward equinox also rides high in the sky for northern hemisphere observers, another plus.

This is also the closest Mars opposition versus a Full Moon with a lunar occultation for the 21st century. 21^st century occultations of Mars near (less than 24 hours) from Full Moon also occur on December 24, 2007, January 14, 2025, February 5, 2042, May 28, 2048, February 27, 2059, and finally on April 27th 2078, which also features a shallow penumbral lunar eclipse.

The lunar occultation ‘footprint’ for Wednesday night’s occultation spans most of North America and Europe, with only the southeast U.S. missing out. Mars is 17” across during the event, shining at magnitude -1.9. The Moon will take just over a minute to cover Mars during the occultation.

When to Watch

Here’s a table for select North American and European cities in the path of the occultation, with ingress/egress times. You can see an extensive list of sites and times here.

Mars will be bright enough to follow riiiiiight up to the limb of the Full Moon during the event. The occultation occurs in the early morning hours for Europe on Thursday December 8th, and late in the evening of December 7^th for North America. The disappearance of Mars behind the Moon will be visible even to the unaided eye, though binoculars or a small telescope will definitely help you enjoy the view.

Looking back from Mars, you’d be treated to an even stranger view, as the Moon transits the slim crescent Earth, just scant degrees from the Sun.

The Moon occults Mars: Weather Prospects, Watching Live

As of writing this, weather prospects for the contiguous United States (CONUS) look to favor the central northern states and the U.S. southwest.

Clouded out or simply live outside of the occultation footprint? Astronomer Gianluca Masi has you covered, with a live webcast as the Moon occults Mars, starting at 4:00 UT/11:00 PM EST Wednesday night.

The Moon Occults Mars: Spotting a ‘Daytime’ Red Planet

Finally… ever seen Mars in the daytime? It’s certainly possible near opposition… and the nearby Full Moon offers an excellent guide to complete this unusual feat of visual athletics. In North America, I’d start looking for Mars near the Moon just before local sunset, while in Europe, your best bet is to follow Mars near the Moon low to the West, after local sunrise.

Good luck, clear skies, and don’t miss this week’s unique, triple play dance of the Moon and Mars.

The post Mars at Opposition 2022: The Full Moon Occults Mars Wednesday Night appeared first on Universe Today.

Source: 

• https://www.universetoday.com/158344/mars-at-opposition-2022-the-full-moon-occults-mars-wednesday-night/

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06-12-2022 om 23:15 geschreven door peter  

UFO Fleet Over Orlando, Florida Nov 20, 2022, Video, UFO Sighting News.

Date of sighting: Nov 20, 2022

Location of sighting: Orlando, Florida, USA

 

This is just mind-boggling how this huge ship in the sky behind her a few minutes laters breaks into dozens of huge glowing balls moving in different directions.

 

An eyewitness described a loud boom noise that was heard across Orlando the day before, saying people said it was some kind of spaceship that had landed secretly after 900 days in space. I believe she is talking about the NASA X-37B mini shuttle craft landing. She describes the environment and notices how everyone ignores the lights in the sky as she records a huge circular UFO in the sky behind here...lights flashing around its edges. I really love how hard she tries to capture the craft or crafts, pulling along side a busy road to record an eyewitness account. I am so appreciative of this. Usually people only film from the cars, but this eyewitness did the correct thing and pull over to get a more steady video.     

 

This giant UFO has similarities to top secret US project Blue Beam, where the US gov would create fake glowing UFOs in the sky over major cities worldwide at the same time in order to unite the world governments and create one government for them all. 

 

This is a great documented sighting that lasted over 19 minutes and is 100% proof that UFOs exist. 

Scott C. Waring - Taiwan 

• Plz visit "chivonne saywhat" at https://www.youtube.com/@ChivonneSayWhat

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

06-12-2022 om 22:01 geschreven door peter  

Underwater object traveling faster than speed of sound almost hit US nuclear submarine!

The disturbing encounter, which reportedly happened in the 1990s, was revealed after a scientist recorded a YouTube video talking about his experience.

According to Bob McGwier, a scientist aboard the USS Hampton, a nuclear submarine was almost hit by an unidentified object as it flew under water at speeds faster than the speed of sound. He said that during the 1990s, the object was sailing at an incredible speed as it passed the submarine.

According to McGwier, he was on the submarine when he heard the strange noises. He said that he couldn’t believe what was happening as the object flew by the submarine at an incredible speed. He described the object as moving so fast that it blew by the submarine.

He noted that a scientist who had knowledge of onboard systems claimed that the object was traveling at a speed faster than the speed of sound. The crew members did not want to report the incident, and they did not want to cause any problems.

RELATED VIDEOS

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06-12-2022 om 21:36 geschreven door peter  

LATEST UFO SIGHTINGS AND VIDEOS

Artemis 1 spacecraft captures amazing view of moon's craters during flyby

Shortly before NASA's Artemis 1 Orion spacecraft performed its longest engine burn of the mission on Dec. 5, 2022, it captured this amazing view of the moon. [NASA's Artemis 1 Orion spacecraft completes crucial moon flyby maneuver for trip home]

• (https://www.space.com/artemis-1-orion...)

Credit: NASA

Orion spacecraft’s return powered flyby of the Moon

For NASA’s Artemis I mission, the uncrewed Orion spacecraft performed its return powered flyby of the Moon, on 5 December 2022, heading back to Earth.

Credit: NASA

Mars perseverance rover recently released new 4k video of mars surface! Mars latest images 4k!

On Dec. 7, 1972, NASA embarked on it final Apollo mission to the moon. See highlights and hear from the mission's lunar module pilot, retired NASA astronaut Harrison Schmitt.

Learn about Apollo 17:

• https://www.space.com/17287-apollo-17...

Credit: NASA Goddard Space Flight Center

Apollo 17 at 50 - Revisit the last time humans were on the Moon

On Dec. 7, 1972, NASA embarked on it final Apollo mission to the moon. See highlights and hear from the mission's lunar module pilot, retired NASA astronaut Harrison Schmitt.

Learn about Apollo 17:

• https://www.space.com/17287-apollo-17...

Credit: NASA Goddard Space Flight Center

6 Minutes Ago: Elon Musk Sent Out A Terrifying Message

Elon Musk is the unchallenged champion of space technology and since his Twitter acquisition, even the people who did not know him previously, can not help being amazed by him. Musk's erratic tweets and very public feuds with other billionaires and tech giants might be keeping him in the news nowadays but for the scientific community, his company SpaceX is the main attraction.

In fact, the recent revelations by the company all set to explore the farthest parts of the universe have caused quite a bit of a stir. We have sent spacecrafts and rovers to other planets but so far humans haven't gone beyond the moon or past the low orbit of earth which is at an altitude of less than one thousand kilometers above Earth. But now Elon has hinted that SpaceX might be ready to send the very first humans to Mars and even beyond.

SpaceX or Space Exploration Technologies Corp. is a spacecraft manufacturer, launcher and satellites communications corporation founded by Elon Musk back in 2002. The company's headquarters are located in Hawthorne, California. According to Elon his aim was to reduce the space transportation costs to enable the colonization of Mars. The company mainly manufactures the Falcon 9, Falcon Heavy and Starship launch vehicles. It also produces numerous rocket engines, Cargo Dragon and Crew Dragon spacecraft and the popular starlink communications satellites. It's no secret that Elon was very excited by the Mars exploration missions and wants to put humans on the red planet as soon as possible.

In 2001 he joined the Mars society board of directors by donating a hundred thousand dollars. During the plenary talk at their convention he announced the Mars Oasis. It was a project that was going to land a miniature experimental greenhouse and grow plants on Mars.

After a visit to Moscow, Russia with Micheal Griffin, Musk announced that he was going to start a company to build affordable rockets by applying vertical integration, using cheap commercial off-the-shelf components where he could and by adopting the modular approach of modern software engineering.

This would cut the launch price significantly in Musk's opinion. Micheal Griffin, who was later appointed the NASA administrator, awarded SpaceX a 396 million dollar contract in 2006, years before the company launched a single rocket

Enormous Out of Place Artifacts Left By Giants?

A journey of discovering the lost history of our plan

Has the Existence of the Giants Been Confirmed? What Times Did They Live?

What do Harry Potter, Game of Thrones and the Bible have in common? There are giants in all these works! But although the existence of these gigantic creatures is also mentioned in many other ancient sources, we always place the stories about the club-wielding cannibals in the realm of myth and legend. But are we doing the giants an injustice? Are there even archaeological finds that prove that an unusually large species once roamed our globe? The frightening answer to this question is yes! You want to know what this gripping topic is all about? Then stay tuned and dive into the mysterious world of giants with us!

• #TheUnknownList

This Discovery Will Give You Nightmares

There are some curious people out there. And their curious nature means they are always stumbling upon interesting things that had remained hidden up until then. These are the 20 strangest objects recently discovered!

{ https://www.youtube.com/ }

06-12-2022 om 21:09 geschreven door peter  

Atlantis Revealed: Plato's Cautionary Tale Was Based On A Real Setting

The time is 360 BC, the dawn of Western civilization. Athens, the cradle of democracy, is the epicenter of the ancient world. In his dialogues of Timaeus and Critias, Plato introduces a tale of an advanced prehistoric civilization, which since has captivated the imagination of every generation that followed. This was the story of Atlantis, an idyllic island paradise of skillful navigators who often crossed the Atlantic to explore. Atlantis, according to Plato, was ultimately lost to the sea. Its memory, though, was not soon forgotten.

For two millennia, people unsuccessfully kept on searching for the legendary island, making Atlantis one of the most lasting and fascinating stories of all time! What about those, however, who over time claim to have found the lost island? The truth is, no one until now was able to introduce a site that perfectly matched Plato's description. Instead, we have theories upon theories on the whereabouts of Atlantis. Why though? If everyone utilizes the same textbook, why the apparent confusion? Can this be a case of gross misinterpretation among researchers, or did early translators fail to properly capture and relay Plato's account? And, what about the chronological conflict that exists in Plato's account?

Let's take the original Santorini hypothesis, for example. Unquestionably, the island of Santorini, its volcanic eruption and the advanced Minoan civilization, was the best we had on Atlantis until recently. This was never a flawless hypothesis, though. Always a big problem with that theory was the fact that Plato's given chronology of 9600 BC had to be discarded (as Athens and most story details did not belong in that period). There is another bigger problem with that theory, though. While Santorini itself undeniably matches the site where the crown city of Atlantis once stood (talking about the concentric rings of earth and water) the problem is, Santorini alone never matched Plato's entire description. The primary island of Atlantis, one Plato said was to be 9 kilometers away, is missing from the particular setting of 1600 BC. These major flaws allowed for critics to raise doubts on that hypothesis, and to continue to question the validity of Plato's story.

Of course, serious research on Atlantis was never simple. Science fiction authors, movies and other creative works of popular culture, eventually capitalized on the story's popularity, and contrary to Plato's account, over time they turned Atlantis into an ultra-modern society with flying machines and technology far beyond our own.

Nonetheless, eventually every search comes to an end. Recently, a four year study that included a thorough analysis of Plato's work established that serious errors by early translators allowed for the mixed messages in the translated document.

The recent study not only decisively placed Atlantis in the Mediterranean Sea, but, it concluded with the discovery and identification of a submerged prehistoric island that in every way matches Plato's Atlantis. While in the past finding Atlantis was thought to be more difficult than winning the lottery, now there is a tangible site where all the physical characteristics of the given description match. The topography, the given chronology, the volcanic geology, the flora and fauna in that period, the island's destruction by a great flood, the presence of an unknown prehistoric civilization in the area, and DNA evidence all point to a genuine discovery.

More specifically, the study shows that around 9600 BC, when according to Plato Atlantis was above water, the modern Cyclades Islands were connected by the Cyclades Plateau, a flat terrain (now 400 feet below sea level,) that formed the body of a huge island. When this prehistoric island is compared to Plato's Atlantis, it immediately becomes evident that this must have been the land Plato was talking about. Its northern region was comprised of mountains that reached the shores. Below the mountainous region there was an oblong valley measuring 555 Km ². Below the oblong valley there was a smaller valley, 2/3 the size of the oblong valley that measured 370 Km ². This was the primary island. Nine kilometers away from the primary island, and precisely as Plato depicted, lies the island of Santorini, a circular island with a flooded core and a small island in its center (Santorini, an island within an island setting, a sea volcano with a collapsed center, prior to the volcanic eruption of 1600 BC had a single opening on its outer ring that allowed ships to enter its watery caldera).

Plato's Atlantis

Atlantis area map

The consequence in finding Atlantis at around 9600 BC leaves no doubt that Plato based his story on a real setting and a prehistoric civilization known to ancient Greeks, which in order to successfully communicate some of his philosophical ideas (divine vs. human, ideal societies vs. corrupt,) he filled with familiar matter from later times, including details from the Minoan era of which he was more familiar with. The existence of a matching site at around 9600 BC, in essence, proves that Plato did exactly what Homer did with Troy 400 years before him. (Homer's Iliad was an entirely fictional story that revolved around a real setting and a historical incident that took place 600 years before Homer himself.)

The super-island of the Cyclades Plateau (Plato's Atlantis) was drowned by the sea at around 8000 BC, during the rapid rise of the Mediterranean and just prior to the flooding of the Black Sea (see UNESCO study, 2009.) Incidentally, around this time, Lake Agassiz, a gigantic glacial lake in North America, also burst open and began to drain into the Atlantic. It is worth noting that Lake Agassiz covered an area larger than all the Great Lakes combined (440,000 Km ²) and at times, it contained more fresh water than all the lakes in the world today. The total fresh water outflow from this lake alone was so immense, scientists believe it raised the oceans worldwide by as much as nine feet and further produced the 8.2 kilo-year event that followed, a mini ice age that lasted 400 years! This global cataclysm at the end of the last Ice Age, which ultimately raised sea levels by 400 feet, not only erased our early history, but this could also be the event we all inadvertently refer to as the "Great Flood."

As for the island/continent across from the Pillars of Hercules, one larger than Libya and Asia combined, the latest study demonstrates how Plato's reference of the American continent got misconstrued into that of Atlantis. The mention of the continent across the Atlantic, "one that encompassed that veritable ocean," was Plato's poetic attempt to demonstrate Atlantis's incredible naval capability and its capacity to cross the ocean via island hopping (through Scotland, Orkney Islands, Faroe Islands, Iceland and Greenland.) Several clues and archeological evidence actually confirm that the ancient Greeks were aware of the American continent in order for Plato to include it in his story.

Crossing the Atlantic via island hopping

The implications of locating Atlantis in the Mediterranean go beyond the discovery itself. This find not only substantiates Plato's claim of prehistoric transatlantic crossings, but may finally help explain how the Mediterranean haplogroup X got to North America 10,000 to 12,000 years ago.

While most geneticists today maintain that haplogroup X walked to America via the Bering Strait, genetic maps show that the furthest region east of the Mediterranean with small traces of haplogroup X, is the Altai Republic in Southern Russia. No traces of haplogroup X exist between Altai Republic and the greater region of the Great Lakes. If haplogroup X infiltrated North America via the Bering Strait, why then does the greatest concentration of haplogroup X (away from the Mediterranean) exist around the Great Lakes and not in Alaska or alongside the west coast? Most importantly, how do we otherwise explain that heavy traces of haplogroup X incidentally also exist in Scotland, Orkney Islands, Faroe islands and Iceland, essentially all the island stops to North America from Europe. 

Genetic Map of Haplogroup X

Finally, a 10,000 year old Mediterranean civilization, may help explain more archaeological oddities in this region. Recent erosion and seismic tests at the Giza Plateau, indicated that the Great Sphinx may be much older structure than previously thought, and along with the site of Gobekli Tepe in Turkey, both seem to coincide with Plato's story of Atlantis. Is it possible that Gobekli Tepe and the monument of The Great Sphinx could be remnants of the same advanced civilization Plato referenced in his story, one that was aggressively advancing against its neighbors in Africa and the Middle East, or do those belong to another culture? And what about the advanced proto-Euphratean people who descended upon the Mesopotamia around 7000 BC, from a region "unknown." Could these enigmatic people be the refugees of the same culture who fled the Mediterranean basin and moved eastwards to escape the inundation? Undoubtedly, they could have brought with them the story of the great flood as well as the skills and technology to incite yet another great civilization, like that of ancient Sumer (just as the survivors around the Cyclades and neighboring islands may have ultimately contributed to the rise of the Minoans).

• Featured image: Artist’s representation of Atlantis. Source: BigStockPhoto
• All other images are the Copyrighted Material of Christos A. Djonis and have been used with permission.

By Christos A. Djonis

{ https://www.ancient-origins.net/ }

06-12-2022 om 02:06 geschreven door peter  

NASA's Hubble Space Telescope flies with Earth in the background after a 2002 servicing mission.

(NASA Photo)

 BY MATT WILLIAMS

As they indicate in their paper, the targets of their study were all nearby core-collapse supernovae (SNe) that Hubble imaged at high spatial resolutions. The images were part of the Hubble Snapshot program, created by the Space Telescope Science Institute (STScI) to provide a large sample of images for various targets. Every target is observed in a single orbit of Hubble around the Earth between other observation programs, allowing a degree of flexibility that is not possible with other observatories.

For their study, Van Dyk and his colleagues examined images of six extragalactic supernovae before and after they exploded – designated SN 2012A, SN 2013ej, SN 2016gkg, SN 2017eaw, SN 2018zd, and SN 2018aoq. With extragalactic targets, astronomers have difficulty knowing if the stars they identified were progenitors to the supernova, given the distance involved. As Van Dyk to Universe Today via email, the only way to be sure is to wait for the supernova to dim, then confirm that the progenitor star has disappeared:

“Since the supernova explosion is so luminous, we have to wait a number of years until it has faded enough that it is less luminous than was the progenitor. In a few of the cases we show in our paper, there is little question that the star that was there pre-explosion is now gone. In the other cases, we’re reasonably sure, but the supernova is still detectable and is just faint enough for us to infer that the progenitor has vanished. “

In a previous study, Van Dyk and several colleagues who were co-authors of this study investigated another supernova (iPTF13bvn) whose progenitor star disappeared. In this case, the research team relied on data obtained by Hubble of the SN site – as part of the Ultraviolet Ultra Deep Field (UVUDF) campaign – roughly 740 days after the star exploded. In 2013, Van Dyk led a study that used images from an earlier Snapshot program to confirm that the progenitor of SN 2011dh in the Whirlpool Galaxy (Messier 51) had disappeared.

These and other papers over the years have shown that progenitor candidates can be directly identified from pre-explosion images. In this most recent study, Van Dyk and his colleagues observed supernovae in the later stages of their evolution to learn what mechanisms are powering them. In many cases, the mechanism is the decay of radioactive nuclei (in particular, radioactive nickel, cobalt, and iron) that were synthesized by the enormous energy of the explosion. But as he explained, they suspected that other mechanisms might be involved:

“However, we have indications that some supernovae inevitably have additional power sources — one possibility is that the light of the supernova has been scattered by interstellar dust immediate to the explosion, in the form of a ‘light echo’; another more likely possibility is that the shockwave associated with the explosion is interacting with gas that was deposited around the progenitor star by the star itself during the course of the star’s life, in the form of wind or outburst, that is, circumstellar matter. The ejecta from the explosion moving through and interacting with this circumstellar matter can result in luminous energy that can persist for years, even for decades.”

In short, the team was trying to estimate how many of the supernovae they observed evolved through radioactive decay versus more exotic powering mechanisms. Their results showed that SN 2012A, SN 2018zd, and SN 2018aoq had faded to the point where they were no longer detectable in the Hubble Snapshot images, whereas SN 2013ej, SN 2016gkg, and SN 2017eaw had faded just enough. Therefore, they could infer in all six cases that the progenitors had disappeared. However, not all were the result of a single massive star undergoing core collapse.

In the case of SN 2016gkg, the images acquired by Hubble’s Wide Field Camera 3 (WFC3) were of much higher spatial resolution and sensitivity than the images of the host galaxy, previously taken by the now-retired WFC2. This allowed them to theorize that SN 2016gkg was not the result of a single core-collapse supernova but a progenitor star interacting with a neighboring star. Said Van Dyk:

“So, in the old image, the progenitor looked like one “star,” whereas in the new images, we could see that the progenitor had to have been spatially distinct from the neighboring star. Therefore, we were able to obtain a better estimate of the progenitor’s luminosity and color, now uncontaminated by the neighbor, and from that, we were able to make some new inferences about the overall properties of the progenitor, or, in this case, progenitor system, since we characterized the new results using existing models of binary star systems.”

Specifically, they determined that the progenitor belonged to the class of “stripped-envelope” supernovae (SESNe), in which the outer hydrogen H-rich envelope of the progenitor star has been significantly or entirely removed. They further estimated that the progenitor was the primary and its companion was likely a main sequence star. They even placed constraints on their respective masses before the explosion (4.6 and 17–20.5 solar masses, respectively).

After consulting images taken around the same time by another Snapshot program, they also noticed something interesting about SN 2017eaw. These images indicated that this supernova was especially luminous in the UV band (an “ultraviolet excess”). By combining these images with their data, Va Dyk and his team speculated that SN 2017eaw had an excess of light in the UV at the time it was observed, which was likely caused by interaction between the supernova shock and the circumstellar medium around that progenitor.

The team also noted that the dust created by a supernova explosion is a complicating factor due to how it cools as it expands outward. This dust, said Van Dyk, can obscure light from distant sources and lead to complications with the observations:

“The caveat here, then, is that the star that we saw pre-explosion might not be the progenitor at all, for instance and — again, because of the distances to the host galaxies — that star is within fractions of a pixel of the actual progenitor (physically, in the immediate neighborhood of the progenitor), such that, if the supernova has made dust, that dust is effectively blanketing both the supernova and that neighboring star. This is possible, but not inordinately likely. And it becomes a harder argument to make in those few cases where nothing is seen at the supernova position years later — as we point out in the paper, that would require enormous amounts of dust, which is likely physically not possible.”

Tracing the origins of supernovae is one of the many ways astronomers can learn more about the life cycle of stars. With improved instruments, data collection, and flexibility, they are able to reveal more about how our Universe evolved and will continue to change over time.

Further Reading: 

• arXiv

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05-12-2022 om 23:31 geschreven door peter