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...
08-12-2022
SpaceX Launches ‘Starshield’. A Quiet Announcement With A Huge Potential
SpaceX Launches ‘Starshield’. A Quiet Announcement With A Huge Potential
SpaceX revealed their new service called Starshield. It is a “secured satellite network for government entities” and is aimed at “supporting national security.” The project looks similar to Starlink, but instead of providing service to end users and businesses, Starshield is aimed at government entities. Here’s what we know so far.
There was no big presentation with Elon Musk getting on stage or anything like that. SpaceX quietly released a new section on its website that adds another entry to the company’s list of services. The information we got is rather limited, but it’s still enough to see where things might be going.
What Is Starshield Exactly?
Image credit: SpaceX
SpaceX has a lot of experience developing Starlink satellites. They develop all the hardware on their own. SpaceX launches the satellites with an unprecedented cadence. They control and maintain this huge constellation, providing communication services worldwide, even to Antarctica. Now SpaceX wants to offer this expertise as a service to the US government through Starshield.
SpaceX claims that Starshield will be focused on three main areas: Earth observation, communications, and hosted payload. This means they will develop, launch, and maintain custom satellites using Starlink technology and launch capability. They are offering SCaaS — Satellite Constellations as a Service — aimed at the B2G market.
Starshield is basically SCaaS — Satellite Constellations as a Service
With Starlink, SpaceX was their own customer. They ordered a constellation capable of delivering space internet connectivity on LEO from themselves, and they delivered it. With Starshield, SpaceX is ready to take orders from others.
Taking Starlink to The Next Level
Starshield will build upon the technology already available for Starlink. Satellites will feature a modular design. This means SpaceX will be able to integrate a variety of payloads depending on the customer’s specific needs. It will also use “additional high-assurance cryptographic capability to host classified payloads” on top of the end-to-end encryption available with Starlink. Starshield satellites will also use laser communication to talk to each other. It’s probably safe to say that Starshield will also use the existing Starlink network for communication if that’s what’s needed.
Image credit: SpaceX
Working with the US government isn’t something new for SpaceX. They already do multiple launches for NASA, US Air Force, and US Space Force. With Starshield, they intend to expand this relationship. Thus getting even more government contracts. We heard multiple times from SpaceX and Elon himself that Starlink is a project intended to provide a lot of cash flow for the company. This way, they should be able to afford all their ‘Occupy Mars’ plans and other not-so-profitable ideas. Adding the government to the list of customers should surely help with that.
With Starshield in place, SpaceX will have even more vertical integration. They are the first private company that provides a full-stack approach to satellite constellations. SpaceX develops, launches, maintains, and services all its satellites. If you want to see how such an approach can benefit you, just look at Apple. It is the most valuable and, arguably, one of the most influential companies in the world. Many of their current successes came because of their very hardcore vertical integration.
NASA Has No Alternative to SpaceX At The Moment
At the moment, NASA depends on SpaceX a lot. Crew Dragon is the USA’s only spacecraft capable of delivering astronauts to the ISS, as Starliner continues to experience problems. Falcon 9 and Falcon Heavy make up more than 2/3 of the USA’s launches in 2022. Other rockets that may provide completion, like Vulcan or New Glenn, suffer multiple delays. But the situation can get even worse soon, as Starship will become operational.
When NASA awarded the HLS contract solely to SpaceX and further extended it later, they put themselves in a very dependent position. It’s obvious that the main space activity for the upcoming decade will revolve around Artemis. This is NASA’s flagship program that will generate the most hype, have the biggest contracts, etc. And it all depends on the success of SpaceX’s Starship. At least through Artemis III and Artemis IV, which are now planned for 2025 and 2027, respectively, and may be further delayed.
Artist’s rendering of SpaceX Starship human lander design. Image credit: SpaceX
The Lunar version of Starship is designed to require multiple LEO refuelings to perform a landing on the Moon. This means that the fully stacked Starship system will need to perform multiple flights quickly. The only way to do that is to master rapid reusability. And the only way to do that is to have a working heat shield that will withstand reentry and won’t need too much servicing between flights; to have a fully working SuperHeavy with all its 33 Raptor V2 engines; to have a working Mechazilla that catches both Starship and SuperHeavy multiple times; as well as all the other bits and pieces that make Starship work.
Failing any of these things is a blocker for the entire Artemis program, as it further delays human landing on the Moon. Therefore, NASA now fully depends on the entire Starship project. It has no alternatives in the near future, as it’s the only landing option for both Aremis III and Artemis IV.
Starshield Makes Dependancy on Starship Even Worse
Image credit: SpaceX
With the HLS contract, SpaceX got NASA (and thus the US government) dependent on Starship. This means they are directly interested in the success of the project. So, there’s a strong incentive for NASA and other government structures to remove all hurdles that the Starship project can potentially face.
SpaceX themselves are also dependent on Starship’s success. It’s the only way to launch Starlink V2, as they are too big and heavy to fit in Falcon rockets. SpaceX doesn’t explicitly say whether Starshield will share a platform with the first or the second generation of Starlinks; the latter might likely be the case. If so, then Starshield will tighten the knot of the US government’s dependency on Starship even harder.
He Who Fights Too Long Against Dragons Becomes A Dragon Himself
Image credit: SpaceX
SpaceX is now in a very dominant position in the space industry. Falcon rockets are responsible for over a third of all successful launches in 2022 in the world. Starlink has a huge head start over its competition, with over 3200 active satellites already in orbit. Without SpaceX, there will be no human landings on the Moon.
If Starship delivers on its promises of 100 tons to LEO with rapid reusability, it will significantly drop the launch costs for SpaceX. This will allow them to further increase their dominance in the markets they are already in and possibly get into new ones. And with the US government and NASA being so dependent on Starship because of Artemis and potentially Starshield, the regulators will have a stimulus to support SpaceX’s monopoly instead of properly regulating it and encouraging completion.
Monopolies are never good in the long term. And SpaceX is clearly on the course of becoming a very strong one. So, no matter how great SpaceX may seem, we desperately need NASA and other government structures to support the competition and encourage its success. Only this way the entire industry can benefit in long term.
Meteorites Bathed in Gamma Rays Produce More Amino Acids and Could Have Helped Life get Going on Earth
Carbonaceous chondrites like the Allende meteorite contain significant amounts of water and amino acids. Could they have delivered amino acids to early Earth and spurred on the development of life?
Meteorites Bathed in Gamma Rays Produce More Amino Acids and Could Have Helped Life get Going on Earth
Our moderntelescopes are more powerful than their predecessors, and our research is more focused than ever. We keep discovering new things about the Solar System and finding answers to long-standing questions. But one of the big questions we still don’t have an answer for is: ‘How did life on Earth begin?’
We won’t answer the question of life’s origins in one dramatic act. Instead, we’re chipping away at it, slowly piecing together an answer over generations. We know life has building blocks, molecules critical to life gaining a foothold here on Earth and, hopefully, elsewhere. Amino acids are some of those building blocks.
Amino acids play a critical role in life on Earth, though we don’t know exactly how they fit into a timeline of life’s origins. We’ve found them in space, which has led to speculation that they originated there and then found their way to Earth as biological building blocks.
A new study fills in part of the picture by showing that meteorites bathed in gamma rays produce more amino acids.
There are hundreds of amino acids, but only 22 appear in the genetic code. Glycine is one of the simplest amino acids in the genetic code, and scientists have found glycine in objects in space. They’ve seen it in comets, interstellar dust clouds, and meteorites that fell to Earth, which led to the idea that meteorites contributed to the appearance of life on Earth.
A new study shows that when meteorites are bathed in gamma rays, they produce more amino acids. The study is “Gamma-Ray-Induced Amino Acid Formation in Aqueous Small Bodies in the Early Solar System,” and it was published in ACS Central Science, the journal of the American Chemical Society. The lead author is Yoko Kebukawa, an associate professor in the Department of Chemistry at Yokohama National University.
When Earth formed, the Solar System was a much more chaotic place. Meteorites flew through space, slamming into things like particles in an accelerator. Many of them struck Earth. There are fewer of them now, though they still fall to Earth. When they do, people find some of them, and many have found their way to scientists’ labs. Over time, scientists have classified meteorites into different families.
There are three top-level categories of meteorites: stony meteorites, iron meteorites, and stony-iron meteorites which are a combination of both types. There are further classifications based on chemical compositions, isotopes, and mineralogy.
Carbonaceous chondrites (CCs) are a type of stony meteorite and are some of the most primitive. The name is a bit confusing. Scientists thought they contained carbon because of their dark and grey appearance, but they actually contain less carbon than other meteorites. However, CCs contain something more important than carbon: they’re known for containing water and other molecules, including amino acids.
That, along with their ancient age, makes them important because they hold clues to the early Solar System, back when Earth was settling down, and life was getting started.
There seems little doubt that carbonaceous chondrites contained amino acids back then and that they would’ve delivered them to the young Earth. But how did the amino acids form?
That’s the question behind the new study.
Artist’s concept of a meteorite entering Earth’s atmosphere. There were more meteorites striking Earth billions of years ago. Could they have delivered building blocks like amino acids to Earth, spurring on the appearance of life?Image Credit: University of Oxford
Lead author Kebukawa showed in previous research that reactions between simple molecules such as ammonia and formaldehyde could create macromolecules, including amino acids. But only in the presence of liquid water and only when there’s heat to drive reactions. We know carbonaceous chondrites contain water, but where did the heat come from?
It could’ve come from one of the two naturally-occurring isotopes of aluminum: 26Al.
26Al is cosmogenic, meaning it was created when cosmic rays bombarded meteor fragments. It was relatively abundant back when the Solar System was forming but has now decayed.
26Al is unstable and releases gamma rays as it decays. Scientists think the heat from that decay is responsible for the melting and differentiation of some asteroids after they formed in the early Solar System. But the heat could’ve also driven the production of amino acids in meteors.
Kebukawa and her colleagues tested this idea in their laboratory. They combined compounds like formaldehyde and ammonia, both common chemicals in space, and exposed them to gamma rays. Not gamma rays from 26Al but from more readily available 60Co (cobalt-60). 60Co is a synthetic radioisotope produced in nuclear reactors. It’s used in radiation therapy, sterilizing medical instruments, and other things.
Since it produces gamma rays as it decays, the researchers used60Co as a proxy for primordial26Al.
The experiment showed that the rays melted ice in carbonaceous chondrites when 26Al decayed and released gamma rays. In the presence of liquid water and the energy from the 26Al, simple chemicals like ammonia (NH3) and methanol (CH3OH) formed amino acids. Image Credit: Kebukawa et al. 2022.
The researchers found that the gamma rays increased the production of some amino acids as the gamma-ray exposure increased.
This figure from the study shows how gamma rays produced different amino acids. Gamma rays are measured in kGy, kilo-Grays (1 kGy. = 1,000 J/kg). The zero kGy rows on the bottom are the control group. The colour-coded legend explains how much of each amino acid was produced. Glycine, the simplest and most common amino acid, is shown in blue at the bottom of the legend. Image Credit: Kebukawa et al. 2022.
Amino acids are divided into four categories: alpha, beta, gamma, and delta. Alpha amino acids are the most essential amino acids because they’re used to synthesize proteins. Glycine (Gly), Alanine (Ala), Leucine (Leu), Serine (Ser), Asparagine (Asp), Isoleucine (Ile), and Glutamine (Glu) are all alpha amino acids produced in the experiment. The quantities of these essential amino acids rose in the irradiation solutions as the total gamma-ray dose increased.
What do these laboratory results mean in the real world?
The researchers took their results and calculated a plausible level of amino acid production in meteorites. They focused on a specific family of meteorites called CM chondrites, the most commonly recovered carbonaceous chondrite type. The M stands for the Mighei meteorite, and their calculations are for the parent body of all CM chondrites. Their analyses also take into account the decay of amino acids over time.
The team calculated the production of alpha-alanine and beta-alanine, a component of things like vitamin B5. They calculated the yields of amino acids in the liquid phase and the whole rock. Their work shows that it would’ve taken between 1,000 and 100,000 years to produce the amount of alanine and ?-alanine found in the Murchison meteorite, the most well-studied Mighei meteorite.
This figure from the study shows the calculated yields of alpha-alanine (green) and beta-alanine (pink) in the CM parent body. The top row shows (a) the Gamma-ray dose rate expected in the parent bodies of CM chondrites and calculated yields of alanine and beta-alanine per year (b) in the liquid phase, and (c) in the whole rock. The bottom row shows (d) the Total gamma-ray dose expected in the parent bodies of CM chondrites and calculated total yields of alanine and beta-alanine (e) in the liquid phase and (f) in the whole rock. Image Credit: Kebukawa et al. 2022.
In the paper’s conclusion, the researchers explain their results. “Our findings point to the possibility of gamma-ray-induced amino acid formation from ubiquitous, simple molecules such as formaldehyde and ammonia in the presence of water inside small bodies during the early stages of the formation of the Solar System.” Note the prudent use of the word “possibility.”
“The gamma-ray-induced production of amino acids could be a novel prebiotic amino acid formation pathway that could have contributed to the origins of life on early Earth, as building blocks of life were delivered through the fall of meteorites.”
The idea that meteorites could’ve brought amino acids to the Earth and helped spur on life is not new. But this study strengthens that idea and is another piece of the intricate puzzle that is life on Earth.
Three Mile UFO Over Hanoi, Vietnam On Nov 30, 2022, Photos, UFO Sighting News.
Three Mile UFO Over Hanoi, Vietnam On Nov 30, 2022, Photos, UFO Sighting News.
Date of sighting: Nov 30, 2022
Location of sighting: Hanoi, Vietnam
Often misidentified as a Linear cloud, this UFO is cloaked within a cloud, but the setting sun light hits its shields which contain the cloud within create an iridescent rainbow of colors. This ship is huge, about 3 miles across and could easily hold tens of thousands of alien occupants. I know what you are thinking, I was taught to believe its scientifically explainable, that its just a cloud. Don't be sheep. Even aliens are relying on you being predictable, its the unpredictable people who change this world.
Is An Alien Contact About To Happen In Porto Alegre, Brazil, Video, UFO Sighting News.
Is An Alien Contact About To Happen In Porto Alegre, Brazil, Video, UFO Sighting News.
Date of sighting: Nov 9, 2022
Location of sighting: Porto Alegre, Brazil
Watch this great catch of a flashing UFO over Brazil last week. The eyewitness posted the video to Twitter. The UFO was seen five days in a row, always the same location. Absolute awesome and very beautiful to look at. It seems that there is going to be a direct contact coming very soon to Porto Alegre, sure hope they are ready for it.
Scott C. Waring - Taiwan
Eyewitness states:
For the 5th night in a row, there are multiple reports of strange lights in the sky over Porto Alegre, Brazil. More aircraft pilots reported the appearance of these UFOs.
Here's something you don't see everyday. A huge rock gets lodged inside the wheel well of the Mars rover this week. With the metal wheels being hollow, its likely this rock has been there for weeks and will likely continue rolling inside the wheel for weeks to come. I'm not sure who designed the wheels but NASA really should have taken these kinds of things into account when designing them. Already I see the two scratch marks going down from where the rock slide down the wheel. Such things can seriously damage the wheel and in turn, damage the rover. If the rover can't move its wheels, the mission is basically over. I just wanted to show you something NASA doesn't want you to see, and something you wont see in the news.
The story of Bob Lazar. This was recently posted on YouTube to watch for free.
Bob Lazar, a former government physicist, revealed in 1989 that the US military had been secretly working on extraterrestrial spacecraft. He blew the whistle and shocked the world, but he had remained silent until now. His account was dramatized by Academy Award nominee Mickey Rourke.
Due to Lazar’s revelation, the public became aware of Area 51, which was a former secret military base. He was burdened with a revolutionary secret that required him to choose between his country’s interests and his conscience. His wife, his mother, and his close friends believed him, which is why his testimony has been regarded as one of the most controversial UFO stories of all time.
The film by Jeremy Corbell, which is about Lazar’s saga, offers a glimpse into the triumphs and struggles of a cosmic whistleblower. It follows Lazar’s claims about the government’s secret program to develop a powerful technology using recovered alien vehicles. His actions have affected his life significantly for the last three decades.
Due to his actions, his life has turned upside-down. He has tried to avoid the spotlight by maintaining a low-profile. This is why he has never allowed journalists or filmmakers into his private life.
The film by Corbell, which is about Lazar’s saga, offers a glimpse into the triumphs and struggles of a cosmic whistleblower. It will also change the way the public thinks about UFOs.
NASA Artemis 1 mission update - Moon flyby and splashdown preview
NASA's Artemis 1 Orion spacecraft performed an engine burn when it was just 79 miles (128 kilometers) above the lunar surface on Dec. 5, 2022. The burn set it on a trajectory to splashdown on Earth on Dec. 11.
Credit:NASA
See Mars get eclipsed by moon in rare occultation - time-lapse
The Griffith Observatory in California had a great view of the Mars-Moon occultation on Dec. 7, 2022. See the Red Planet slip behind the moon and re-emerge in this time-lapse.
Credit:Griffith Observatory | edited by Space.com's edited by [Steve Spaleta]
Wow! See Artemis 1 spacecraft's Earth-moon transit view in amazing time-lapse
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]
Why Does The Trident Missile Have A Spike On Its Nose?
The Lesser known aerospike, the aerodynamic device found on the noses of missiles which have to have blunt noses to make them short enough to fit inside submarines. At supersonic speeds these reduce the drag by 50% and added 550km to the range of a Trident missile while still letting them fit in the same missile tubes designed for the original Polaris.
How NASA Will 3D Print Houses On The Moon!
How NASA Will 3D Print Houses On The Moon! Thanks, Pinecone, for sponsoring this video! Click my exclusive link https://www.influencerlink.org/SHEQZ to start earning cash on Pinecone!
Last Video: How We Will Build An Underground Civilization On Mars!
SpaceX upgrade everything for the massive engine testing and orbital flight incoming
SpaceX upgrade everything for the massive engine testing and orbital flight incoming
Work on Ship 24 Continues as Scaffolding is Removed | SpaceX Boca Chica
Crews worked on Ship 24 as the scaffolding around it was removed, work on the Orbital Launch Mount continued, and Ship 28, 29, and 30's nosecones were spotted in various stages of production.
Video and Pictures from Nic (@NicAnsuini), Nomadd (@Nomadd13), and Starbase Live. Edited by Jack (@theJackBeyer).
Scientists Have Just Landed A Probe On An Asteroid & It Sent Back Some Unreal Photographs
Humans have advanced to the stage where we can land spacecraft on the moon and other planets. However, scientists have managed a by far trickier landing; landing a probe on an asteroid!
This is a massive feat, but even more unreal are the photographs of the asteroid that the probe sent back! Which asteroid did scientists land a probe on, and what has the probe discovered on the asteroid? Stay tuned as we bring you how scientists managed to land a probe on an asteroid and the unreal photographs it sent back!
When you look up at the sky on a clear night and see many stars, you may get the impression that space is a crowded place. However, that is far from the case, as space is mostly an empty place. But it contains objects that are of interest to us! Some, like even the closest stars, are so far away that we may never be able to send a probe there, not to talk of human-crewed missions. However, some are relatively near, like asteroids, and scientists want to study them! We have studied asteroids for long with powerful telescopes. But how about sending a probe to investigate an asteroid? This was the thinking of NASA when it sent a probe to asteroid Bennu to get samples! But landing a probe on an asteroid is no joke! The mission is known as Origins-Spectral Interpretation-Resource Identification-Security-Regolith Explorer! Thankfully, there is an acronym that, while not so short, is more manageable; OSIRIS-REx! OSIRIS-REx is quite expensive, with a budget of 800 million dollars. The mission won funding while pitched against other missions to study Venus and the moon. The mission took off in September 2016 and took more than two years to finally land on Bennu, where it took detailed measurements of the asteroid's shape and mass before returning to orbit
We may be a long way from putting humans on Mars, but that hasn’t stopped scientists from placing sophisticated equipment on the Martian surface to find evidence of life now or once on the Red Planet … and one of those machines just detected a rumble that might mean there is something hot and molten below the surface of what has long been thought to be a cold, hard orb. On Earth, ‘hot and molten’ usually means lava when it is shooting out of a volcano like the Mauna Loa which is currently erupting, or magma when it is still trapped underneath the surface. Believe it or not, it may now mean the same thing on Mars – data from NASA’s InSight rover’s “mole” is showing an active mantle plume, which on Earth means a giant column of hot molten rock which drives volcanic activity and earthquakes by pushing hot magma up from the mantle to the planetary crust. This means Mars may have active volcanic activity – the kind that melts ice into water and sparks chemicals into life forms. Will a mechanical probe find life on Mars before humans arrive?
The Martian surface doesn't look too life-supporting.
“Although the majority of volcanic and tectonic activity on Mars occurred during the first 1.5 billion years of its geologic history, recent volcanism, tectonism and active seismicity in Elysium Planitia reveal ongoing activity.”
As a new study published this week in Nature Astronomy reminds us, there was once volcanic activity on Mars, but it was 4 billion years ago. That has been confirmed by various satellites, rovers and landers which found tracks of ancient lava flows on the planet’s surface. C-authors Adrien Broquet, a postdoctoral research associate in the University of Arizona Lunar and Planetary Laboratory (LPL), and Jeff Andrews-Hanna, an associate professor of planetary science at the LPL, were intrigued by new data from NASA’s InSIght (Interior Exploration using Seismic Investigations, Geodesy and Heat Transport) lander. Since it touched down in 2018, InSight has been measuring marsquakes with its Seismic Experiment for Interior Structure (SEIS) instrument and recording underground heat with its Heat Flow and Physical Properties Package (HP3), which includes a probe nicknamed "the mole", which was designed to burrow 16 feet below the surface but only got to about 1.1 feet. Nonetheless, the equipment picked up a surprising amount of marsquakes and heat and virtually all of it was emanating from a region called Elysium Planitia, a plain close to the equator. According to the press release:
"Previous work by our group found evidence in Elysium Planitia for the youngest volcanic eruption known on Mars. It created a small explosion of volcanic ash around 53,000 years ago, which in geologic time is essentially yesterday."
While the rest of the planet hasn’t had any shaking going on in billions of years, Elysium Planitia has had large eruptions over the past 200 million years that continue to today -- as of May 2022, Insight had recorded 1,313 marsquakes but scientists were unable to determine what was causing them. Broquet and his team knew Mars does not have plate tectonics like Earth, so the only other cause of the marquakes would be a mantle plume. Think of them as blobs of molten magma bubbling to the surface where they either nestle under the crust, warming the area above them, or burst through fissures to cause quakes, volcanoes and lava flows. The data showed that Elysium Planitia had been lifted up a mile high by something under the Martian surface. When the data was fed into a tectonic model, it showed the presence of a plume … and it was a monster.
"This mantle plume has affected an area of Mars roughly equivalent to that of the continental United States. Future studies will have to find a way to account for a very large mantle plume that wasn't expected to be there.”
What was thought to be a dead spot when it was chosen as the landing spot for InSight turned out to be a 2,500 miles wide cap on a massive magma plume. As the study exclaims, this is a big deal.
“Our results demonstrate that the interior of Mars is geodynamically active today, and imply that volcanism has been driven by mantle plumes from the formation of the Hesperian volcanic provinces and Tharsis in the past to Elysium Planitia today.”
There is volcanic activity on Mars today. Broquet calls this “a paradigm shift for our understanding of the planet’s geologic evolution." It means Mars is not a cold, dead orb but a warm, active one … at least under the surface. That, as we now know, is where Marian ice is hiding. The heart of the magma means that ice could be water. And that means this could be a paradigm shift in the search for life on Mars as well.
"Microbes on Earth flourish in environments like this, and that could be true on Mars, as well. Knowing that there is an active giant mantle plume underneath the Martian surface raises important questions regarding how the planet has evolved over time. We're convinced that the future has more surprises in store."
Did the surface of Mars once look like Hawaii?
More surprise like … microbes living deep beneath the Martian surface? How about just 30 feet below it? Dr. Amy J. Williams, an assistant professor of geology at the University of Florida and not part of the study, thinks they could have been there in the not too distant past and perhaps are still there in a dormant state. She tells National Geographic:
“I wouldn’t put it past the Martian microbe to beat the odds and survive for an extended period. Whether it’s still there today, I can’t hazard a guess. But as an astrobiologist, my hope is that it is, and that maybe that knowledge can help us have a deeper appreciation for our place in the universe.”
Until now, Earth and Venus were the only planets in the Solar System known to have active mantle plumes … coincidentally, these were also the only planets to either have life or have strong signs of the possibility of life. We now have a third.
The end of the year 2022 is fast approaching, which means it is time for the 2023 predictions of those famous dueling dead psychics – Baba Vanga and Nostradamus. And even though there are still a few weeks left to change the course of history, this is also a good time to see how the two of the most famous seers of all time did in their prognostications for 2022. Let’s start with the recap first … that will give you time to sit down, take a deep breath and brace yourself for what Baba Vanga and Nostradamus are warning is ahead for us in the new year.
“A team of researchers will discover a lethal virus in Siberia that was, up until now, frozen. Due to the catastrophic effects of global warming, said virus will be released and could quickly spin out of control…”
Baba Vanga Caption
Vangeliya Pandeva Gushterova, better known as Baba Vanga lived in Bulgaria from 1911 to 1996, and lives on to the present day in her predictions on major world events. Not one to dabble in World Cup winners, Baa occasionally forecast royal events as she amassed a sizeable collection of somewhat vague and often cryptic prognostications that nonetheless were deemed to be right or close to correct by those who follow and interpret them. While that hasn’t yet been the case for her 2022 prediction about a lethal virus from Siberia, she was said to be correct about “Intense bouts of floods (in Bangladesh, India, Thailand and Australia)” and “water shortages in several countries and major cities.” While events like those generally happen frequently and in those specific countries, ‘close’ counts in horseshoes, hand grenades and psychic predictions, so Baba Vanga is being credited for two right out of six for 2022, with three weeks left to still be right on this one: “Alien ships will attack Earth and they will bomb cities and take people captive.”
What does Baba Vanga see for humanity in 2023? Here are five predictions, courtesy of MSN.com
A solar storm will strike Earth in 2023 on a scale the world has never before seen. This prediction is certainly possible, and even a minor one could still knock out electrical and power grids that would bring communications and commerce to a standstill.
A "big country" will carry out bioweapons research on people, resulting in the death of thousands of them. This sounds pretty scary and completely plausible with the war in Ukraine, the volatile political climates in Iran and other countries, and the protests raging in China over mass COVID shutdowns – any of these could be linked to bioweapons research and the accidental or intentional mass deaths of thousands.
Baba Vanga predicts a nuclear power plant explosion in 2023. Again, that could easily happen in Ukraine – we came very close in 2022 with Russia attacking and seizing the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant.
Humans will grow babies to full term in laboratories in order to allow parents to choose skin color and other characteristics of their offspring. Chinese scientists have already edited the genomes of human embryos and created the first human genetically edited babies, so this is well on its way to happening in that country.
Aliens will visit Earth, the world could find itself "covered in darkness" and millions will die as a result.There is that “mass death” prediction again for 2023 – Baba Vanga doesn’t have much good to say about our upcoming year. If it is any consolation, she also predicted an alien arrival in 2022 and that hasn’t happened yet, but her forecast for 2022 did not predict that “millions will die.”
Will we survive to look back on 2023 and list the predictions of Baba Vanga that didn’t happen or were not as severe as she forecast? Let’s hope so. In the meantime, here’s a look at what Nostradamus saw happening in 2022.
“Twice put down, the East will also weaken the West.
It’s adversary after several battles chased by sea will fail at time of need.”
“The sudden death of the first personage / Will have changed and put another in the reign.”
That first prediction of a world war fought at sea hasn’t happened yet, and the “sudden death” in the second was not Queen Elizabeth II but thought to be North Korea’s Kim-Jong Un, although Russia’s Vladimir Putin is said by some to be dying of cancer … there are still three weeks to go for him to go. The quatrains of Michel de Nostradame’s prophecies were published in 1555 and must be interpreted, but many interpreters believe he correctly predicted the Great Fire of London, the French Revolution, the rise of Adolf Hitler, the assassination of JFK, the moon landing and 9/11. Looking past his misses in 2022, the Santa Barbara News-Press unveiled his predictions for 2023.
The antichrist very soon annihilates the three,
Twenty-seven years the war will last.
The unbelievers are dead, captive, exiled.
With blood, human bodies, water and red hail covering the earth.
If you thought Baba Vanga’s prophecies were depressing, Nostradamus’ are downright apocalyptic. This quatrain is interpreted to predict a 27-year world war between Russia and the U.S. and its allies as a result of the conflict in Ukraine. That war may quickly bring about Nostradamus’ second prediction for 2023 – Britain’s entry into the war.
“Within the isles is a very horrible uproar. One will hear only a party of war.”
Nostradamus is warning about a 9.8 quake in the Pacific Ocean which will release giant spiders and locusts – those are probably symbolic of something worse. He also predicts a meteorite the size of a whale will bring an alien species to Earth – perhaps this is Baba Vanga’s mass deaths as the result of aliens. He also projects that U.S. President Joe Biden will suffer from a mystery disease – that would not be a surprise based on his age. On the climate change front, he sees costs of scarce foods so high that “the bushel of wheat rise that man will be eating his fellow man.” However, the scariest (and possibly strangest) prediction goes back to Putin, Russia and the problem the country has in recruiting new soldiers to fight the war.
A monkey of fortune with twisted tongue
will come to the sanctuary of the gods.
He will open the door to heretics
And raise up the Church militant.
This is interpreted to mean that a long-running rumor that Russia is working on human-monkey hybrids will come true in 2023 – a military chimera that will feed on anything, fight like animals and not result in the same sorrow and guilt back home when they die.
There you go – the predictions of Baba Vanga and Nostradamus for 2023. Don’t you wish they’d stick to World Cup winners?
Over the past century, thousands of pieces of slate engraved with images of owls have been unearthed from tombs and pits across the Iberian Peninsula, in what's now Portugal and Spain. The artifacts date from around 5,000 years ago, and for more than a century their function has flummoxed archaeologists. Many thought they represented goddesses and primarily served a ritual purpose. Findings fromnew research published Thursday, however, suggest a more prosaic function: They were toys made and used by children.
Víctor Díaz Núñez de Arenas, the study coauthor and researcher at the Complutense University of Madrid's department of art history, said the engravings' informal appearance made the team doubt they were exclusively ritual objects. Plus, many of them were found in homes and other archaeological sites that did not have a clearly ritual context.
To test the idea that they were instead toys, the research team examined 100 of the slate plaques, documenting which particular owl traits were featured in the engraving — feathery tufts, patterned feathers, a flat facial disk, a beak and wings. The researchers then compared them with 100 images of owls drawn earlier this year by children ages 4 to 13 at an elementary school in southwestern Spain. The students were asked by their teacher to sketch an owl in less than 20 minutes, with no further instructions.
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
"The similarity of these plaques with the drawings made by children of our days is very remarkable," Díaz Núñez de Arenas said via email. "One of the things that they reveal to us about the children of that time is that their vision of what an owl is (is)very similar, if not identical, to what children of today have."
It's impossible to know exactly how prehistoric children would have played with the owls, he said, but many of the slates have perforations that could have allowed kids to insert real feathers at the top, Díaz Núñez de Arenas said.
Drawings of owls by present-day children were similar to the owls on the plaques, researchers said.
Credit: Juan J. Negro/Scientific Reports
In addition to play, engraving the owls could have helped children learn a valuable prehistoric skill.
"The engraving of these plaques provided the youngest with an activity with which to learn the handling of the different techniques of carving and engraving of the stone, essential for the realization of other objects, such as knives or points of arrow used for functional tasks of daily life. It could even be a way to detect and select the most skilled members of the community for stone carving," he said.
Díaz Núñez de Arenas said the slate owls could have also played a ritual role, perhaps allowing children to participate in community ceremonies such as burials, offering their toys or dolls as a tribute to deceased loved ones.
This slate plaque with an engraving of an owl was part of the study.
Credit: Juan J. Negro/Scientific Reports
Archaeologist Dr. Brenna Hassett, a research associate at University College London who was not involved in the study, agreed that many ancient objects described as ritual might have multiple purposes and uses. She said that not enough was known about how children played in prehistory, and that it remains a relatively understudied field.
"We have to remember that many things would have been made of perishable materials — such as string and fur and wood — so that is one of the reasons it is so rare to find something that is unmistakably a 'toy,'" said Hassett, author of the 2022 book "Growing Up Human: The Evolution of Childhood."
Top photo (from left): An original slate plaque modeled after an owl in Spain's Museo de Huelva is shown with a replica of a slate plaque from Valencina de la Concepción that's adorned with owl feathers inserted in drilled holes.
Populair speelgoed van prehistorische kinderen onthuld door nieuw onderzoek
Een prehistorisch voorwerp van 5.000 jaar oud dat regelmatig wordt gevonden in Spanje en Portugal blijkt speelgoed te zijn. Als je dacht dat een houten tol oud is, dan ga je versteld staan van dit stukje geschiedenis. In verschillende graftombes werden beschilderde stenen gevonden, een eeuw lang werd gedacht dat het ging om een religieus ereteken, maar het blijkt een uil in steen te zijn voor kinderen.
Víctor Díaz Núñez de Arenas, auteur van de studie en onderzoeker aan de universiteit van Madrid, vertelt aan CNN dat de guitige opschriften hen deed twijfelen of het een religieus voorwerp was. Veel van deze voorwerpen werden ook gevonden in huizen en andere sites die niets met religie te maken hadden.
De onderzoekers vergeleken honderd van deze voorwerpen met tekeningen van uilen die door kinderen tussen 4 en 13 jaar oud werden getekend op een lagere school in Spanje. De kinderen kregen als opdracht van hun leerkracht om een uil te tekenen in minder dan 20 minuten. “De gelijkenissen tussen deze tekeningen en de platen waren zeer opvallend”, zegt Díaz Núñez de Arenas. “Hoe kinderen toen een uil zagen, is bijna identiek aan hoe kinderen nu een uil voor ogen zien.”
Versieringen
“Het is onmogelijk om te weten te komen hoe kinderen 5.000 jaar geleden exact met dit speelgoed speelden, maar het werd wel duidelijk dat kinderen de uil konden versieren met veren bovenaan het plakkaat”, zegt Díaz Núñez de Arenas aan CNN. Het graveren van de uil was ook leerrijk, want zo leerden ze verschillende technieken aan voor het bewerken van stenen. Dit zou later van pas komen om messen, pijlpunten en andere objecten uit steen te maken.
Archeologe Brenna Hassett, onderzoeker aan het University College in London, die niet deelnam aan de studie, was het ermee eens dat veel voorwerpen uit de oudheid meerdere doelen en toepassingen kunnen hebben. Zij zegt dat er niet genoeg bekend is over hoe kinderen in de prehistorie speelden, en dat het een relatief onderbestudeerd gebied blijft. “We moeten niet vergeten dat veel dingen gemaakt zijn van vergankelijke materialen - zoals touw, bont en hout - dus dat is een van de redenen waarom het zo zeldzaam is om iets te vinden dat onmiskenbaar ‘speelgoed’ is”, zegt Hassett in een interview met CNN.
Nog ouder speelgoed
De platen zijn echter niet het oudste bekende speelgoed in het archeologische archief. Díaz Núñez de Arenas zegt dat er dierfiguren zijn gevonden in kindergraven in Siberië, van ongeveer 20.000 jaar oud, die mogelijk als speelgoed werden gebruikt. Daarnaast zegt Hassett dat er draaiplaatjes werden gevonden in Franse grotten van ongeveer 36.000 jaar geleden. Ook die kunnen volgens haar als speelgoed worden beschouwd.
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07-12-2022
Will We Ever Go Back to Explore the Ice Giants? Yes, If We Keep the Missions Simple and Affordable
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
Will We Ever Go Back to Explore the Ice Giants? Yes, If We Keep the Missions Simple and Affordable
It’s been over 35 years since a spacecraft visited Uranus and Neptune. That was Voyager 2, and it only did flybys. Will we ever go back? There are discoveries waiting to be made on these fascinating ice giants and their moons.
But complex missions to Mars and the Moon are eating up budgets and shoving other endeavours aside.
A new paper shows how we can send spacecraft to Uranus and Neptune cheaply and quickly without cutting into Martian and Lunar missions.
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.
Voyager 2 caught this view of Neptune’s south pole as it left the planet behind. Image Credit: NASA/JPL
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.
The Hubble Space Telescope captured these images of Uranus and Neptune. Uranus’ rings are visible, as are Neptune’s moons Proteus (top), Larissa (lower right), and Despina (left). Image Credits: ESA/NASA/Hubble
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.
“Flagship missions are wonderful, but they are useless if they are so complex that they never get funded and never fly.”
Philip Horzempa, Syracuse University
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.
This diagram shows our current understanding of Neptune’s composition. Image Credit: By Lajoswinkler – Own work, CC0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=121263027
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.
Orbiter technology is reliable and ready to be employed at the ice giants. The Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter has been working above Mars since 2006 and is still going strong. In this artist’s illustration, it’s using its Shallow subsurface radar (SHARAD) instrument to look under Mars’ surface. Image Credit: By NASA/JPL/Corby Waste – http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA07244 (image link), Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=339732
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.
The cancellation of the e-MMRTG is an obstacle for missions to the ice giants but not a deal-breaker. Image Credit: NASA
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.”
Left: ROSA panels being maneuvered into position with the Canadarm 2 robotic arm. Right: ROSA panels installed on the ISS. Image Credits: (L) https://www.flickr.com/photos/nasa2explore/51615594915/, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=111483041. (R) By NASA/Crew-2 – https://www.flickr.com/photos/nasa2explore/51711652461/; see also https://images.nasa.gov/details-iss066e080651 (image link), Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=112937438
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.
We’ve grown accustomed to stunning JunoCam images of Jupiter. Could a similar instrument on ice giant orbiters provide the same level of visual detail while still being scientifically necessary? Image Credit: NASA/JPL
“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?
A new Hubble Image Reveals a Shredded Star in a Nearby Galaxy
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.
Hubble image of supernova remnant DEM L 190, released in July of 2003.
Credit: NASA/ESA and The Hubble Heritage Team (STScI/AURA) Acknowledgment: Y.-H. Chu (UIUC), S. Kulkarni (Caltech), and R. Rothschild (UCSD)
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.
FBI Documents Admit Existence of Aliens & UFO's - The UFO-Alien Occult New Age Great Deception
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.
Unprecedented astronomical events and aliens visit Earth in 2023
Unprecedented astronomical events and aliens visit Earth in 2023
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.
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.
Orbs in triangle formation in the sky above Reno, Nevada 6-Dec-2022
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.
Bright UFO making fast movements over Marion, IL 1-Dec-2022
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.
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?
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!
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!
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.
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.
The Starchild Skull was first discovered in Mexico. ( Fair use )
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.
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.
Artists depiction of how the child would have looked, after analysis 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.
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.
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.
Illustration of an alien extraterrestrial. ( Sasa Kadrijevic / Adobe Stock)
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.
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- Gemiddelde waardering: 0/5 - (0 Stemmen) Categorie:ALIEN LIFE, UFO- CRASHES, ABDUCTIONS, MEN IN BLACK, ed ( FR. , NL; E )
Live the Legend: 8 Mythical Places That Actually Exist
Live the Legend: 8 Mythical Places That Actually Exist
When it comes to ancient mythology it can sometimes be difficult to separate fact from fiction. While most myths are obviously fictional, they often contain at least a grain of truth. The ancients had to get their inspiration from somewhere. For example, the locations of some of the most popular myths are based on or set in real places. Here we have a list of mythical places that actually exist.
1. Mount Olympus: Home of the Greek Pantheon
Anyone with even a passing knowledge of Greek mythology will be familiar with Mount Olympus. In ancient Greek religion, it served as the home of the twelve Olympians, the religion’s major deities.
Olympus was described in Homer’s Iliad as essentially being an ancient acropolis, a fortified hilltop palace complex. The palace consisted of golden gates guarded by the three Horai (goddesses of the seasons) and palaces for each of the Olympians (Zeus’s being the grandest, of course).
In the real world, Olympus is the highest mountain in Greece. The mountain has 52 peaks and deep gorges with Mytikas peak supposedly acting as the home of the gods. The area surrounding the mountain has been declared an archaeological and historical site for the preservation of its monumental and historical character, found in numerous excavation sites.
The Greeks had a tendency to point at tall mountains and call them Olympus. While Mount Olympus in Greece is usually the one most associated with the ancient gods, other peaks named Olympus can be found all over the continent. Greece alone has four peaks called Olympus; Turkey has three, and Cyprus has one.
So really, Mount Olympus could count as all eight entries on this list (and that’s not even counting the 9 Mount Olympus peaks in North America or the one on Mars)!
With its majestic appearance reaching into the clouds, it’s no wonder ancient Greeks placed their deities on Mount Olympus
2. Sherwood Forest: Home of Robin Hood and His Merry Men
Thanks to various Hollywood adaptations, people from all over the world today are familiar with the legend of Robin Hood. Robin Hood is a heroic outlaw in English folklore. He was a skilled archer and swordsman, and most tales surrounding him feature him stealing from the rich to give to the poor. In most modern retellings, he is depicted as being of noble birth and having fought in the Crusades.
There is still a debate over whether Robin existed, and what the origins of his legends were. The myths make constant references to real historical figures dating back to the 13th Century AD. There are legal records dating back to 1226 that mention a man named Robert Hod who had his possessions confiscated and became an outlaw. It has also been suggested that the name Robin Hood was a moniker adopted by a group of bandits.
The myths of Robin Hood usually name his base of operations as Sherwood Forest in Nottingham, England. This is most definitely a real place. It is a National Nature Reserve covering 926 acres (375 hectares) but once covered an area of over 100,000 acres (40,000 hectares). The local municipality has done an excellent job over the years of fostering the forest's connection to the popular man of legend. As such, today the area is full of Robin Hood-themed tourist attractions.
The fall of Troy is one of the cornerstones of Greek mythology. In Greek literature, Troy was one of the most powerful kingdoms during the Greek Heroic Age, a period when gods and monsters roamed the earth.
In mythology, the Trojan War began when the city’s prince, Paris, abducted and/or eloped with Helen. Helen was said to be ancient Greece’s greatest beauty, who was married to King Menelaus of Sparta. Menelaus convinced all the great Greek leaders, who were bound by a special oath, to attack the city of Troy .
What followed was the greatest battle of Greek mythology. The Trojan War ended when the Greeks tricked their way into the mighty city by hiding in a great wooden horse they had given to the Trojans as a supposed peace offering.
The Trojan War has been depicted in numerous works of literature and art. View of Burning Troy, 18th century painting by Johann Georg Trautmann
In actual history, Troy was a real city in the region of Asia Minor which is modern-day Turkey. Until the late 19th century, Troy and the Trojan War were considered a legend. However, excavations in 1871 found ruins that closely matched depictions of the ancient city in myths.
The archaeological site at Troy consists of 9 layers dating back to the Early Bronze Age (3000-2500 BC) up to the Byzantine era (around 300 AD). It is believed the city of legend relates to one of the late Bronze Age levels.
Today, the site is easy to visit and is a popular tourist attraction as well as a UNESCO World Heritage Site . While we know for sure that Troy existed, the delineations between legend and fact are still being looked into.
For centuries, the city of Troy was believed to be a myth. However, excavations in the Canakkale province of Turkey have unearthed a multi-layered city matching Homer’s descriptions dating back to 3500 BC.
Camelot is another English legend that has seen modern popularity thanks to a glut of Hollywood adaptations. The legend of King Arthur centers on King Arthur and his Knights of the Round Table .
King Arthur was said to have been early England's greatest king, and his capital city was Camelot. He and his knights were the epitome of chivalric duty. The most popular tales feature Arthur’s betrayal at the hands of his favorite knight, Sir Lancelot, and his Queen, Guinevere.
Over the centuries, historians have attempted to find out if there is any veracity to the Arthurian legends. Was Arthur based on a real king? Was Camelot real? There have been mixed results.
In 1542, the poet John Leland stated that the residents around Cadbury Castle, a Bronze and Iron Age hillfort in Somerset, believed it to be the original Camelot. This theory was bolstered by the fact the castle is close to the River Cam and the villages of Queen Cam and West Camel. Clearly, the thinking was that these place names had to be related to Camelot.
To dig down to the truth, there were large-scale archaeological excavations during the 20th century. These showed that the area had been a settlement since the 4th millennium BC. They also showed that around 470 AD a major Brittonic ruler and his war band had moved into the area and heavily fortified it. This was the largest known fortification of its time.
After these discoveries, Cadbury Castle was widely referred to as ‘the real Camelot’. Many historians disagree, however; these spoilsports point out that the site was built too late to be the Camelot of Arthurian legend.
All hope is not lost, however. Other sites in Cornwall and Shropshire, as well as Huddersfield, have also made claims that they are the original Camelot. It seems that as long as no definitive answer is found, there are lots of options left for people hoping to visit the ‘real’ Camelot.
Cadbury Castle in Somerset has been suggested as a location for the mythical Camelot since the 1700s. This 1723 hand-colored engraving is titled "Prospect of Camalet Castle. 15 Aug 1723."
5. Cyclopean Isles: Home to the Cyclops of Greek Mythology
One of the Greek leaders who played a key role in the fall of Troy was Odysseus. He was the hero who came up with the idea of using a hollow wooden horse to sneak the Greek troops into the city.
Odysseus is most famous, however, for his own set of myths that appear in Homer’s Odyssey. These myths tell the amazing story of how Odysseus and his brave men sailed back to Ithaca, Odysseus’s home kingdom. Odysseus faced many trials on his way home, but one of the most dangerous was the island of the cyclops. Early on in his journey, Odysseus and twelve of his men landed on an island where everything was bigger than usual. They come across a cave that was empty except for some simple shepherd’s belongings. They decided to slaughter one of the giant lambs on the island and enjoy a hearty meal.
When the shepherd returned, it was none other than the mighty cyclops Polyphemus, who was also a son of Neptune. Polyphemus immediately gobbled up two of Odysseus’s men before placing a boulder in the cave's doorway, trapping Odysseus and his men. Odysseus and his men waited until the cyclops was asleep and then blinded him using a sharpened log.
In a rage, Polyphemus cleared the entrance to the cave, searching for Odysseus and his men. Realizing his attackers had fled to the sea, Polyphemus began flinging rocks into the ocean in a vain attempt to crush them.
These rocks can be seen to this day just off the eastern coast of Sicily at the Riviera of the Cyclops. This is a stretch of rocky islands along the coast that features incredible rocky cliff faces. These islands in ancient Greece were said to have been home to Polyphemus and his kin. These days the area is home to beautiful seaside towns, citrus orchards, and amazing views of Mount Etna. Luckily, the Cyclops population appears to have died out.
Panorama of the Cyclopean isles in Aci Trezza. With no cyclops in sight, it’s all sun and fun on the coast of Sicily.
The legend of El Dorado is a tragic tale of human greed. It is also a confusing one. El Dorado was originally used by the Spanish in the 16th Century to refer to a mythical tribal chief. It was said this chief covered himself in gold and jewels and was then submerged in Lake Guatavita.
The 16th-century Spanish began to fixate on the idea of El Dorado; they couldn’t get enough gold. Through word of mouth, the legend evolved and was exaggerated from a man covered in gold, into a city, and eventually an empire covered in gold.
The Spanish conquistadors turned Columbia, Venezuela, Guyana, and Brazil upside down looking for the golden empire they had convinced themselves existed. In doing so, they wiped out countless indigenous tribes. Unsurprisingly, they never came across the mythical city.
However, this doesn’t mean there was no truth to the original legend. Historical texts do point toward an Incan tribe who lived near Lake Guatavita in modern-day Columbia. They did in fact have a ritual during which leaders would drop jewels, gold, and treasures into the lake.
The ruler of the Musica in present-day Colombia used to cover his body in gold dust and offer treasures to the Guatavita goddess from a raft in the middle of the sacred lake. This Muisca tradition became the origin of the legend of El Dorado. Muisca raft from 1500-1200 BC in the Gold Museum, Bogotá, Colombia
While anyone looking for the mythical city of gold is out of luck, this lake can be visited today. It is a stunningly beautiful tourist location. Sadly there is no gold to be found.
Although there is no city of gold, the countryside around Laguna Guatavita in Colombia is a relaxing place to visit and explore
Today, Japan is considered to be a Buddhist country, but Japan has a wealth of traditions and mythology that pre-date Buddhist teachings. One of these is the story of Yomi No Kune, part of an early Asian creation myth.
According to this myth, there were two early gods who were responsible for all creation. They were Izanagi and his sister-wife Izanami. According to the myth, Izanami died giving birth to the element fire. Izanagi, distraught in his grief, went on a journey to the underworld to retrieve her soul.
He discovered a dark and gloomy place where souls who were trapped in their bodies reside. Izanagi found his wife, but was told that during their journey back to the surface he must not look at her. Unfortunately, just as he approached the surface, he caught a glimpse of his rotting sister-bride behind him.
Izanami was outraged and sent demons chasing after her brother, trying to trap him in the underworld. Izanagi managed to escape and seal the entrance to the underworld, called Yomi No Kune, with a giant rock.
The legend finishes with the enraged Izanami promising to drag 1,000 souls into the underworld every day. Izanagi countered by promising to create 1,005 new ones.
18th century painting of the Shinto deities Izanagi and Izanami
The rock Izanagi placed to block Yomi No Kune is said to still exist to this day. It can be found in the Matsue area of Japan. The entrance to Yomi No Kune is called Yomotsu Hirasaka, and the boulder blocking it can be found behind the Iya shrine in Matsue. No one knows for sure which boulder in the area blocks the entrance, which is probably for the best. Visitors can also visit Izanami’s grave and shrine.
Yomotsu Hirasaka is the slope that leads to Yomi, the Japanese underworld.
8. The Giant’s Causeway: Built by Anger, Destroyed by Fear
The Giant’s Causeway can be found in County Antrim in Northern Ireland. It is made up of over 40,000 interlocking basalt columns which, according to scientists, were the result of an ancient volcanic eruption. Collectively, the columns takes the appearance of steps leading from the cliff foot to under the waves.
Science is boring though. Local legends state that the basalt columns are the remnants of a causeway built by an ancient giant. The giant, Fionn mac Cumhaill, was challenged to a fight by a rival Scottish giant, Benandonner.
Eager to fight, Fionn built the causeway to cross the North Channel that separates Ireland and Scotland. Fionn then ended up hiding from Benandonner, after realizing his rival was much bigger than him. Fionn’s wife, Sadhbh, then disguised him as a baby and tucked him into a cradle.
When Benandonner saw this gigantic man-baby he panicked, thinking the child’s father must be truly gigantic. He fled across the Giant’s Causeway back to Scotland, destroying it as he went.
According to myth, the Giant’s Causeway in Northern Ireland was created by the giant Benandonner destroying his steps as he fled back to Scotland
Many places in the world have inspired myths. Visiting these places gives us a look into the lives and beliefs of those who came before us. It may be a little disappointing to find them devoid of the kinds of magical beasts and treasures our ancestors believed they housed, but these places have lost none of their magic.
Today, most of these places are UNESCO World Heritage Sites or enjoy similar levels of protection. People for generations will continue to be able to read these myths and visit these amazing places, sharing in their magic. Maybe one day our ancestors will look at the tales we tell today and search for our inspiration.
Top Image: Visiting mythical places, like the Giant’s Causeway in Northern Ireland pictured, helps us connect with our past, as well as nature.
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Over mijzelf
Ik ben Pieter, en gebruik soms ook wel de schuilnaam Peter2011.
Ik ben een man en woon in Linter (België) en mijn beroep is Ik ben op rust..
Ik ben geboren op 18/10/1950 en ben nu dus 74 jaar jong.
Mijn hobby's zijn: Ufologie en andere esoterische onderwerpen.
Op deze blog vind je onder artikels, werk van mezelf. Mijn dank gaat ook naar André, Ingrid, Oliver, Paul, Vincent, Georges Filer en MUFON voor de bijdragen voor de verschillende categorieën...
Veel leesplezier en geef je mening over deze blog.
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