Dit is ons nieuw hondje Kira, een kruising van een waterhond en een Podenko. Ze is sinds 7 februari 2024 bij ons en druk bezig ons hart te veroveren. Het is een lief, aanhankelijk hondje, dat zich op een week snel aan ons heeft aangepast. Ze is heel vinnig en nieuwsgierig, een heel ander hondje dan Noleke.
This is our new dog Kira, a cross between a water dog and a Podenko. She has been with us since February 7, 2024 and is busy winning our hearts. She is a sweet, affectionate dog who quickly adapted to us within a week. She is very quick and curious, a very different dog than Noleke.
DEAR VISITOR,
MY BLOG EXISTS ALREADY 12 YEARS AND 11 MONTHS.
ON 06/05/2024 MORE THAN 1.972.210
VISITORS FROM 134 DIFFERENT NATIONS ALREADY FOUND THEIR WAY TO MY BLOG.
THAT IS AN AVERAGE OF 400GUESTS PER DAY.
THANK YOU FOR VISITING MY BLOG AND HOPE YOU ENJOY EACH TIME.
The purpose of this blog is the creation of an open, international, independent and free forum, where every UFO-researcher can publish the results of his/her research. The languagues, used for this blog, are Dutch, English and French.You can find the articles of a collegue by selecting his category. Each author stays resposable for the continue of his articles. As blogmaster I have the right to refuse an addition or an article, when it attacks other collegues or UFO-groupes.
Druk op onderstaande knop om te reageren in mijn forum
Zoeken in blog
Deze blog is opgedragen aan mijn overleden echtgenote Lucienne.
In 2012 verloor ze haar moedige strijd tegen kanker!
In 2011 startte ik deze blog, omdat ik niet mocht stoppen met mijn UFO-onderzoek.
BEDANKT!!!
Een interessant adres?
UFO'S of UAP'S, ASTRONOMIE, RUIMTEVAART, ARCHEOLOGIE, OUDHEIDKUNDE, SF-SNUFJES EN ANDERE ESOTERISCHE WETENSCHAPPEN - DE ALLERLAATSTE NIEUWTJES
UFO's of UAP'S in België en de rest van de wereld In België had je vooral BUFON of het Belgisch UFO-Netwerk, dat zich met UFO's bezighoudt. BEZOEK DUS ZEKER VOOR ALLE OBJECTIEVE INFORMATIE , enkel nog beschikbaar via Facebook en deze blog.
Verder heb je ook het Belgisch-Ufo-meldpunt en Caelestia, die prachtig, doch ZEER kritisch werk leveren, ja soms zelfs héél sceptisch...
Voor Nederland kan je de mooie site www.ufowijzer.nl bezoeken van Paul Harmans. Een mooie site met veel informatie en artikels.
MUFON of het Mutual UFO Network Inc is een Amerikaanse UFO-vereniging met afdelingen in alle USA-staten en diverse landen.
MUFON's mission is the analytical and scientific investigation of the UFO- Phenomenon for the benefit of humanity...
Je kan ook hun site bekijken onder www.mufon.com.
Ze geven een maandelijks tijdschrift uit, namelijk The MUFON UFO-Journal.
Since 02/01/2020 is Pieter ex-president (=voorzitter) of BUFON, but also ex-National Director MUFON / Flanders and the Netherlands. We work together with the French MUFON Reseau MUFON/EUROP.
ER IS EEN NIEUWE GROEPERING DIE ZICH BUFON NOEMT, MAAR DIE HEBBEN NIETS MET ONZE GROEP TE MAKEN. DEZE COLLEGA'S GEBRUIKEN DE NAAM BUFON VOOR HUN SITE... Ik wens hen veel succes met de verdere uitbouw van hun groep. Zij kunnen de naam BUFON wel geregistreerd hebben, maar het rijke verleden van BUFON kunnen ze niet wegnemen...
01-04-2023
3D-printable glass is made from proteins and biodegrades
3D-printable glass is made from proteins and biodegrades
Chemically modifying the ends of the molecules opens the door to glass that could decompose with organic waste.
Researchers have modified amino acids and peptides and then coaxed it into a transparent glass. Here they demonstrate moulding it into sea-shell shapes.
Credit: R.Xing et al./Science Advances (CC BY 4.0)
Researchers have transformed amino acids and peptides — the building blocks of proteins — into glass, according to a study published in Science Advances1. Not only is the biomolecular glass transparent, but it can be 3D printed and cast in moulds. The paper suggests that the glass biodegrades pretty quickly, but wouldn’t be suitable for applications such as drinks bottles because the liquid would cause it to decompose.
“Nobody ever tried this with biomaterials in the past,” says Jun Liu, a materials scientist at the University of Washington in Seattle. “It’s a good discovery.”
Standard glass is made using inorganic molecules, mainly silicon dioxide. The ingredients are melted down at high temperatures and then rapidly cooled. Glass can be recycled easily, but despite this, a substantial amount ends up in landfill, where it can take thousands of years to break down.
But amino acids are readily broken down by microorganisms, meaning that instead of sitting for years in a dump, the nutrients in biomolecular glass could, in principle, rejoin the ecosystem.
“The development of renewable, benign and degradable materials is highly appealing for a sustainable future,” says Xuehai Yan, a co-author of the study and a chemist at the Chinese Academy of Sciences in Beijing.
Typically, when amino-acid chains, known as peptides, are heated, the molecules start to split up before they melt. Yan and his colleagues modified the ends of the amino acids to change how they assemble and stop them from breaking up. After melting these modified amino acids, the researchers rapidly supercooled them — a process that takes molecules to below their freezing point while allowing them to retain its liquid arrangement. The researchers then further cooled the substance to solidify it into glass. It stayed solid when it returned to room temperature.
This method prevents the amino acids and peptides from forming a crystalline structure when they solidify, which would make the glass cloudy, although the authors note that in some cases the glass was not completely colourless.
When the researchers exposed the biomolecular glass to digestive fluids and compost, it took between a few weeks and several months to break down, depending on the chemical modification and amino acid or peptide used.
The glass is just a lab curiosity at this stage: “This is a very fundamental study,” says Ting Xu, a materials scientist at the University of California, Berkeley. However, she says it opens a new path for materials researchers to explore.
Because it can biodegrade, the glass would not be appropriate for use in environments that are very humid or wet, Xu says. Organic chemical bonds tend to be weaker than inorganic bonds, so she speculates that the peptide glass would be less rigid than standard glass. But she says that this property could be beneficial in flexible, miniature devices, such as the lenses of a microscope.
doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-023-00826-3
References
Xing, R., Yuan, C., Fan, W., Ren, X. & Yan, X. Sci. Adv.9, eadd8105(2023).
The idea of a plant making noises when in distress all sounds very Harry Potter.
But a study now suggests that the plant kingdom is not as silent as we once believed as some really do produce noises when they're underwatered.
They also appear to make distress signals after being cut, with these sounds found to come from tomato and tobacco plants, as well as corn and the grapevines used to make cabernet sauvignon.
Ultrasonic vibrations have been recorded from species previously, using sensors directly touching them.
But this new study provides the first evidence that plants emit airborne sounds, which researchers estimate could be heard by animals with sharp hearing, such as mice and moths, from up to 16 feet (5 metres) away.
A study has found that plants really do emit sounds when they're stressed - but it's more of a pop than a scream
The idea of a plant making noises may evoke a vision of the mandrakes from Harry Potter
Flowers and trees warn neighbours when they're under attack by releasing chemicals into the wind
However, we can't naturally listen to the noises as humans cannot hear in the high-frequency 'ultrasonic' range. So researchers have lowered the frequency of the plant noises so we can listen.
Plants typically produce a noise similar to popcorn popping - thought to be caused by air bubbles bursting in their stem - less than once an hour.
But tomato plants which had not been watered for up to five days produced this popping sound much more frantically - more than once every two minutes on average.
And when they were cut, the tomato plants made an alarm sound around every two and a half minutes.
In the Harry Potter universe, mandrakes make a screaming noise when they are taken out of the soil - and a fully grown plant's squeal could be lethal.
Professor Lilach Hadany, an evolutionary biologist at Tel Aviv University and senior author of the study which looked at hundreds of plants, said: 'Our findings suggest that the world around us is full of plant sounds, and that these sounds contain information – for example about water scarcity or injury.
'We assume that in nature the sounds emitted by plants are detected by creatures nearby, such as bats, rodents, various insects, and possibly also other plants - that can hear the high frequencies and derive relevant information.
'We believe that humans can also utilise this information, given the right tools, such as sensors that tell growers when plants need watering.
Normally plants produce a noise rather like popcorn popping - thought to be caused by air bubbles bursting in their stem - less than once an hour
Do plants feel 'pain'?
When a bug bites down on a plant leaf, the wound triggers the release of calcium, researchers at the University of Wisconsin said last year.
This sets off a chain reaction in the cells along the plant leaves and stem.
It takes about one to two minutes for the response to reach every part of the plant.
The calcium generates a hormonal response from the plant to protect its leaves.
Some plants release noxious chemicals that makes it taste bad to other invading bugs.
Others, such as grass, give off hormones that attract nearby parasitic wasps, which eat the attacking insects.
'Apparently, an idyllic field of flowers can be a rather noisy place. It's just that we can't hear the sounds!'
The ultrasonic recordings captured by two microphones positioned next to each plant in the study support the theory that they could use sound to warn each other of danger from drought or hungry animals.
If plants knew water is scarce ahead of time, they could close pores in their leaves to conserve water.
And if it heard a noise from another plant whose stem had been severed by an animal eating it, that plant could then emit volatile compounds to deter the hungry animal.
The researchers used artificial intelligence algorithms to compare the noises from healthy tomato and tobacco plants to those which had been cut or deprived of water for up to two weeks in a soundproofed acoustic chamber.
The team found plants which had not been watered began making distress calls before they were visibly dehydrated, with the noises peaking after five days without water, before decreasing before the plants dried up completely.
The noise could help growers use a sensor to tell when their house plants are unhappy and need water, or help farmers save water by irrigating crops only when they are becoming dehydrated.
The researchers also found plants including grapevines, wheat, corn and cacti made noises when they were cut or dehydrated.
The sounds lasted for longer when a plant was dehydrated compared to when it was cut, and different plants appeared to make different noises based on factors like noise frequency.
Experts suspect these noises may be helpful for creatures such as moths, which lay larvae on plants, so will find dehydrated ones unsuitable.
The noise could help people use a sensor to tell when their house plants are unhappy and need water, or help farmers save water by irrigating crops only when they are becoming dehydrated
These plant sounds have been processed to make them audible to the human ear.
Research showing water-stressed or injured plants emitting high-pitched sounds could have implications for horticultural monitoring.
credit: Lilach Hadany
Plants do not suffer in silence. Instead, when thirsty or stressed, plants make “airborne sounds,” according to a study published today in Cell1.
Plants that need water or have recently had their stems cut produce up to roughly 35 sounds per hour, the authors found. But well-hydrated and uncut plants are much quieter, making only about one sound per hour.
The reason you have probably never heard a thirsty plant make noise is that the sounds are ultrasonic — about 20–100 kilohertz. That means they are so high-pitched that very few humans could hear them. Some animals, however, probably can. Bats, mice and moths could potentially live in a world filled with the sounds of plants, and previous work by the same team has found that plants respond to sounds made by animals, too.
Crying crops
To eavesdrop on plants, Lilach Hadany at Tel-Aviv University in Israel and her colleagues placed tobacco (Nicotiana tabacum) and tomato (Solanum lycopersicum) plants in small boxes kitted out with microphones. The microphones picked up any noises made by the plants, even if the researchers couldn't hear them. The noises were particularly obvious for plants that were stressed by a lack of water or recent cutting. If the sounds are pitched down and sped up, “it is a bit like popcorn — very short clicks”, Hadany says. “It is not singing.”
These plant sounds have been processed to make them audible to the human ear.
Plants do not have vocal cords or lungs. Hadany says the current theory for how plants make noises centers on their xylem, the tubes that transport water and nutrients from their roots to their stems and leaves. Water in the the xylem is held together by surface tension, just like water sucked through a drinking straw. When an air bubble forms or breaks in the xylem, it might make a little popping noise; bubble formation is more likely during drought stress. But the exact mechanism requires further study, Hadany says.
The team produced a machine-learning model to deduce whether a plant had been cut or was water stressed from the sounds it made, with about 70% accuracy. This result suggests a possible role for the audio monitoring of plants in farming and horticulture.
To test the practicality of this approach, the team tried recording plants in a greenhouse. With the aid of a computer program trained to filter out background noise from wind and air-conditioning units, the plants could still be heard. Pilot studies by the authors suggest that tomato and tobacco plants are not outliers. Wheat (Triticum aestivum), corn (Zea mays) and wine grapes (Vitis vinifera) also make noises when they are thirsty.
Chattering grasses?
Previously, Hadany’s team has also studied whether plants can ‘hear’ sounds, and found that beach evening-primoses (Oenothera drummondii) release sweeter nectar when exposed to the sound of a flying bee2.
So are plant noises an important feature of ecosystems, influencing the behaviour of plants and animals alike? The evidence isn’t yet clear, according to Graham Pyke, a retired biologist at Macquarie University in Sydney, Australia, who specializes in environmental science.
He’s sceptical that animals listen to the moans of stressed plants. “It is unlikely that these animals are really able to hear the sound at such distances,” he says. He thinks the sounds would be too faint. Further research should shed more light on the matter. But Pyke says he’s perfectly willing to accept that plants ‘squeal’ when stressed.
doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-023-00890-9
References
Khait, I. et al.Cell https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cell.2023.03.009 (2023).
A Sound Scientific Explanation For The Biblical Floods: The Burckle Crater Comet Impact
5000 years ago, a comet broke apart into three pieces upon entry into Earth. The largest piece, smashed into the indian ocean, with the other two smaller pieces landing in different areas of the Pacific Ocean. The Indian Ocean impact, was incredibly disastrous. It landed in a very deep part of the ocean, and, as a result, it released a truly monstrous mega tsunami during impact. This tsunami was so disastrous, that 600 foot high mountains were built in Madagascar in the blink of an eye, when massive amount of churned up sediment that was carried by it, got deposited in truly vast quantities here, and everywhere else that this tsunami stuck, too, including very, very far places, such as Tasmania.
When this Mega tsunami struck, it did so with such force, that it severely eroded entire cliff faces, and left deep gashing scars in the land, which document the direction the flow. Along with this, it also deposited something known as seismic chevrons. Which are arrow shaped hills of deposition, that were left after the wave had slammed into every coastline around the Indian ocean. When it began to recede, all the material it carried was just dropped where it landed, and the water move out, but the sediment remained. Because of this, massive layers of sand were deposited, and even though 5000 years have passed, you can still see many places where this tsunami impacted.
In this video we are covering the global deluge that occurred after the 3 comets impacted the earth. The massive amount of vaporized sea water would eventually cool down, and fall back to ground en masse, as a seemingly never ending rainstorm began, lasting between days to several weeks.
Who knows how many ancient civilizations were lost to time as a result of this event. But one thing is clear, not a single part of the Earth was spared from the chaos wrought by these collisions.
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Fusion Reactor To Melt Through Europa's Ice [NIAC 2023]
In this interview, I'm talking with Theresa Benyo and Lawrence Forsley from NASA. They are authors of a Lattice Confinement Fusion Reactor that got a NIAC award this year. A reactor like this could help us melt through the ice on Europa and Enceladus and have other interesting applications in space missions.
Multiple US NAVY Sensors Detected Something "Impossible" | Scientifically Authenticated UFOs
JWST has taken the most DETAILED spectrum of an exoplanet EVER
JWST has taken a DIRECT spectrum of an exoplanet mass object (it could be a failed star, the jury is still out on that one) and it is the most detailed, beautiful spectrum you ever did see. It's revealed the existence of silicates (think sand) in the atmosphere and suggests it has very dusty clouds and storms. It's also orbiting around TWO stars, so there's been a lot of comparisons to Tatooine from Star Wars!
Could We Be Detecting the Effects of "Hyperdrive" Travel? | More Wow Signals
The most intriguing signals SETI ever detected - SHGb02+14a, BLC1 and fast radio bursts.
Could Chat GPT Talk to Whales?
Could Chat GPT actually be used to talk to whales and other intelligent mammals? Understanding our language origins might help explain about how language is used by our ocean friends.
The Abduction of Betty & Barney Hill – The Full Story
The Abduction of Betty & Barney Hill – The Full Story
The Betty and Barney Hill abduction case remains one of the most intriguing UFO encounters in history, captivating the public’s imagination for over six decades. The story revolves around an ordinary couple who claimed to have experienced a close encounter with extraterrestrials, with subsequent hypnotic regression revealing disturbing details about their experience. This article will delve into the fascinating account of the Hills, the arguments for and against the validity of their story, and the impact of their claims on the broader UFO phenomenon.
Betty & Barney Hill
On the night of September 19, 1961, Betty and Barney Hill were returning to their home in New Hampshire after a vacation in Canada. As they drove along a desolate road, they noticed an unusual bright light in the sky that seemed to be following them. Curious and somewhat frightened, they continued to observe the light, which eventually descended and hovered near their vehicle. The couple claimed to have seen a craft with humanoid figures inside before experiencing a sudden loss of memory. They arrived home later than expected, with no recollection of the missing time.
Hypnotic Regression and the Star Map
The Hills sought help from a psychiatrist, Dr. Benjamin Simon, who used hypnosis to uncover their buried memories. During the sessions, both Betty and Barney recounted similar experiences of being abducted by extraterrestrials, subjected to medical examinations, and shown a star map. Betty’s star map would later become the subject of much debate, with researchers both supporting and refuting its accuracy.
While the Hills’ story is fascinating, skeptics argue that there are several reasons to doubt its validity. Firstly, the couple’s memories were only retrieved under hypnosis, a technique that has been criticized for its potential to create false memories. Additionally, inconsistencies in the timeline of their journey and the influence of fatigue on their perception raise questions about the reliability of their account.
Betty’s later claims of numerous additional UFO encounters also cast doubt on her credibility as a witness. Despite these concerns, the Hills’ story has never been definitively disproven, and certain aspects, such as the unexplained biological substance found on Betty’s dress, remain mysterious.
VIDEO:
The Abduction of Betty & Barney Hill – The Full Story | Documentary
The Betty and Barney Hill abduction case continues to fascinate both believers and skeptics alike. While substantial counter-arguments exist, the story endures as a cornerstone of UFO lore, inspiring countless other accounts of extraterrestrial encounters. Whether fact or fiction, the Hills’ experience serves as a testament to the enduring allure of the unknown and the human desire to explore the mysteries of our universe.
Temperatuurmetingen van de aardachtige exoplaneet TRAPPIST-1b onthullen dat het er niet alleen snikheet is, maar dat het de planeet bovendien aan een noemenswaardige atmosfeer lijkt te ontbreken.
Tot die conclusie komen astronomen in het blad Nature. Ze baseren zich – zoals gezegd – op waarnemingen van ruimtetelescoop James Webb. Of nauwkeuriger gezegd: op metingen van Webb’s Mid-Infrared Instrument (kortweg MIRI). Met dit instrument kan James Webb de temperatuur van TRAPPIST-1b meten. En wel door de warmte-energie die TRAPPIST-1b in de vorm van infrarood licht afgeeft, te detecteren. De observaties wijzen uit dat de dagzijde van de planeet een temperatuur heeft van ongeveer 230 graden Celsius en suggereren dat de planeet het zonder een noemenswaardige atmosfeer moet stellen.
Over TRAPPIST-1b In 2017 doen astronomen een opmerkelijke ontdekking; op zo’n 40 lichtjaar afstand van de aarde ontdekken ze zeven(!) planeten rond een ultrakoele rode dwergster. De planeten – die aangeduid worden als TRAPPIST-1b tot en met -1h – zijn qua grootte en massa allemaal grofweg vergelijkbaar met de rotsachtige planeten in het binnenste deel van het zonnestelsel (waaronder de aarde). Daarnaast ontvangen ze ook ongeveer net zoveel energie van hun moederster als onze planeet van de zon ontvangt. Hoewel die overeenkomsten misschien veelbelovend lijken als het gaat om onze zoektocht naar buitenaards leven, stelden onderzoekers eerder al vast dat TRAPPIST-1b, -c en -d waarschijnlijk te heet zijn voor leven. TRAPPIST-1h was waarschijnlijk weer te koud. TRAPPIST-1e, -f en -g zouden zich wel in de leefbare zone bevinden, wat betekent dat hun temperaturen hoog genoeg zijn om te voorkomen dat eventueel vloeibaar water op het oppervlak van de planeten bevriest, maar niet zo hoog dat eventueel vloeibaar water verdampt. Op deze drie planeten zou in theorie dus vloeibaar water – een belangrijke vereiste voor de totstandkoming en instandhouding van leven zoals wij dat kennen – te vinden kunnen zijn. In de afgelopen jaren zijn er echter ook wel twijfels geuit over de leefbaarheid van deze drie planeten; zo zou de extreme activiteit van de moederster TRAPPIST-1 zomaar roet in het eten kunnen gooien.
Atmosfeer De nieuwe metingen van James Webb bevestigen wat onderzoekers eerder al vermoedden: het is warm op TRAPPIST-1b. Maar daarnaast kunnen onderzoekers dus ook uit de metingen afleiden dat de planeet geen noemenswaardige atmosfeer bezit. Dat laatste komt misschien ook niet direct als een verrassing; eerdere observaties van TRAPPIST-1b met behulp van ruimtetelescopen Hubble en Spitzer wezen al uit dat de planeet in ieder geval geen omvangrijke atmosfeer herbergde. Maar die ruimtetelescopen konden niet uitsluiten dat de planeet een dunnere, dichte atmosfeer bezat. James Webb veegt die laatste optie nu echter ook van tafel en wel op basis van de temperatuur van de planeet. “Deze planeet heeft een synchrone rotatie,” zo legt onderzoeker Pierre-Olivier Lagage uit. Dat betekent dat de ene zijde van de planeet ten alle tijde op de moederster gericht is, terwijl de andere zijde in permanente duisternis gehuld is. “Als de planeet een atmosfeer heeft waarin de hitte kan circuleren en zich kan verspreiden zou de dagzijde koeler zijn dan wanneer er geen atmosfeer is.”
Nadat de onderzoekers de temperatuur van de planeet hadden gemeten, vergeleken ze die metingen met de temperatuur die computermodellen in verschillende scenario’s (bijvoorbeeld een TRAPPIST-1b met en zonder een atmosfeer) voorspellen. En daaruit blijkt dat de temperatuur die James Webb heeft gemeten het beste past bij een warm, rotsachtig object zonder atmosfeer. Zo wijzen de modellen bijvoorbeeld uit dat een atmosfeer waarin de hitte gelijkmatig over de planeet verdeeld wordt, ertoe zou leiden dat de temperatuur aan de dagzijde zo’n 100 graden Celsius lager uitvalt dan nu het geval is.
De temperatuur van een planeet meten Om vast te stellen hoeveel infrarood licht (en dus warmte) TRAPPIST-1b afgeeft, bestudeerden onderzoekers het TRAPPIST-1-systeem op verschillende momenten. Namelijk op momenten dat ze zowel de moederster als de planeet in zicht hadden. Maar ook op het moment dat TRAPPIST-1b achter de moederster verdween – dit wordt ook wel een secundaire eclips genoemd. Op het moment dat de planeet achter de moederster schuilging, konden de onderzoekers vaststellen hoeveel infrarood licht de moederster alleen afgaf. Door die hoeveelheid infrarood licht vervolgens af te trekken van de hoeveelheid infrarood licht die gedetecteerd werd als TRAPPIST-1b wel zichtbaar was, konden ze vaststellen hoeveel infrarood licht deze planeet in zijn eentje afgaf. Dat klinkt misschien eenvoudig. Maar dat is het zeker niet. Zo is het al zeer opmerkelijk dat Webb in staat was om de afname in infrarood licht die optrad toen TRAPPIST-1b achter de moederster verdween, te detecteren. TRAPPIST-1 is namelijk meer dan 1000 keer helderder dan TRAPPIST-1b en op het moment dat TRAPPIST-1b achter de moederster dook, veranderde de helderheid van het systeem met nog geen 0,1 procent. “Daarnaast waren we ook bang dat we de eclips zouden missen,” merkt onderzoeker Taylor Bell op. “De planeten trekken allemaal aan elkaar, dus hun omloopbanen zijn niet perfect. Maar het was geweldig: de eclips vond binnen enkele minuten van het moment waarop we deze voorspeld hadden, plaats.”
Uniek De metingen zijn zeer bijzonder. Nog niet eerder zijn wetenschappers erin geslaagd om infrarood licht afgegeven door een exoplaneet zo klein en koel als de rotsachtige planeten in ons eigen zonnestelsel te detecteren. “Bij deze observaties is echt geprofiteerd van Webb’s vaardigheden in het midden-infrarood,” aldus onderzoeker Thomas Greene. “Geen enkele eerdere telescoop was gevoelig genoeg om zulk zwak mid-infraroodlicht te meten.”
Opmaat naar meer De metingen zijn tevens de opmaat naar meer. Want James Webb heeft nu aangetoond dat deze in staat is om vast te stellen of planeten rond kleine, actieve sterren – zoals TRAPPIST-1 – een leefbare atmosfeer kunnen herbergen. In het geval van TRAPPIST-1b zijn de resultaten misschien een beetje teleurstellend, maar er zijn nog veel meer koele dwergsterren in onze Melkweg te vinden, zo benadrukt Greene. “Er zijn tien keer meer van deze sterren in onze Melkweg dan er zonachtige sterren zijn en deze (koele dwergsterren, red.) hebben in vergelijking met zonachtige sterren een twee keer grotere kans om rotsachtige planeten te herbergen.” En hoewel veel van die planeten waarschijnlijk onleefbaar zijn, omdat hun moedersterren in hun jonge jaren heel actief zijn en genoeg zonnevlammen en röntgenstraling afgeven om de atmosferen van hun planeten te vernietigen, zijn dit toch de systemen waar astronomen – via James Webb – toch met bovengemiddelde interesse naar kijken. En ook de planeten rond TRAPPIST-1 mogen zich de komende tijd ongetwijfeld in nog meer aandacht verheugen. “Het is gemakkelijker om aardachtige planeten rond kleinere, koelere sterren te karakteriseren,” aldus onderzoeker Elsa Ducrot. “Als we de leefbaarheid op planeten rond M-klasse sterren willen begrijpen, is het TRAPPIST-1 systeem een geweldig laboratorium. Dit zijn de beste kandidaten als we willen kijken naar de atmosfeer van rotsachtige planeten.”
Ook over TRAPPIST-1b is het laatste woord nog niet gezegd. Zo wordt er momenteel nog steeds met behulp van James Webb naar deze planeet gekeken. Uiteindelijk hopen de onderzoekers vast te kunnen stellen hoe de helderheid van deze planeet in infrarood licht gedurende één volledige omloop rond de moederster verandert. Dat zal ze vervolgens ook in staat stellen om de temperatuurverschillen tussen de dag- en nachtzijde te onthullen. Op basis daarvan kan dan weer geconcludeerd worden of de planeet echt geen atmosfeer bezit of misschien toch een (heel dunne) atmosfeer herbergt.
Op de scheidslijn tussen de permanente dag- en nachtzijde van een planeet heersen mogelijk de juiste omstandigheden waar weleens leven zou kunnen gedijen.
Op dit moment is onze ijverige zoektocht naar buitenaards leven nog vruchteloos gebleken. Maar misschien zoeken we helemaal op de verkeerde plekken. Wanneer astronomen naar aliens speuren, worden planeten met een permanente dag- en nachtzijde vaak als onleefbaar bestempeld. Onderzoekers in een nieuwe studiebetwijfelen echter of dat wel de juiste denkwijze is. Want mogelijk zijn de omstandigheden in bepaalde gebieden op dergelijke extreme exoplaneten wel uitermate geschikt voor leven.
Permanente dag- en nachtzijde Rode dwergsterren zijn de de meest voorkomende en langstlevende sterren in het heelal. Ze zijn een stukje kleiner en koeler dan onze eigen zon. Bekend is dat deze zogenoemde M-sterren regelmatig planeten herbergen. “Deze planeten hebben vaak een permanente dag- en een permanente nachtzijde,” vertelt onderzoeker Ana Lobo. Dit heeft ermee te maken dat de tijd die de planeet nodig heeft om een rondje rond zijn as te voltooien, gelijk is aan de tijd die deze nodig heeft om een rondje rond zijn moederster te cirkelen. Het gevolg is dat altijd dezelfde zijde van de planeet op de moederster gericht is. Deze zijde wordt de dagzijde genoemd. De zijde die altijd van de moederster afgewend is, noemt men de nachtzijde.
Barre omstandigheden Zoals je je kunt voorstellen zijn de omstandigheden die op dergelijke planeten heersen niet bepaald mals. De temperaturen kunnen op de kant die altijd naar de ster gericht is hoog oplopen, terwijl aan de donkere kant van de planeet de eeuwige nacht ertoe leidt dat al het mogelijk aanwezige water bevriest. “Dit betekent dat het op de dagzijde altijd bloedheet is en daarom verre van bewoonbaar is,” legt Lobo uit. “Tegelijkertijd is het aan de nachtzijde ijskoud. Deze regio kan zelfs bedekt zijn met ijs en grote gletsjers.”
Water In de zoektocht naar buitenaards leven zoeken astronomen dus naar planeten met geschiktere klimaten, waar water in vloeibare vorm voorkomt. Dat komt omdat vloeibaar water – voor zover we weten – een essentieel ingrediënt is voor leven. “Je wilt dus een planeet die precies de juiste temperatuur heeft om vloeibaar water te herbergen,” concludeert Lobo.
Terminator-zones In die zin zou je dus de planeten met permanente dag- en nachtzijdes van het lijstje kunnen strepen. Toch denkt Lobo dat dat waarschijnlijk iets te voorbarig is. Op dergelijke planeten bestaan namelijk bepaalde tussengebieden; regio’s die precies op de scheidslijn tussen de dag- en nachtzijde liggen. En in deze zogenoemde ‘terminator-zones’ zouden zich volgens Lobo best weleens aliens verborgen kunnen houden.
Studie Om tot die conclusie te komen, modelleerde Lobo samen met haar collega’s het klimaat van planeten die terminator-zones hebben. Dit deden ze met behulp van software die doorgaans gebruikt wordt om het klimaat van onze eigen planeet te modelleren, maar dan met een paar aanpassingen. Uit de modellen blijkt dat de temperatuur in terminator-zones weleens precies goed zou kunnen zijn voor de aanwezigheid van vloeibaar water. En in dat water zou vervolgens best leven kunnen gedijen.
Zoektocht naar leven Volgens de onderzoekers is dit de eerste keer dat er aangetoond wordt dat planeten met permanente dag- en nachtzijdes mogelijk toch bewoonbaar zijn. En dat breidt het aantal werelden waar we naar buitenaards leven kunnen zoeken enorm uit. Tot nu toe hebben astronomen zich met name op met oceaan bedekte exoplaneten gericht. Maar nu laten Lobo en haar team zien dat ook planeten die op het eerste gezicht misschien onleefbaar ogen, mogelijk toch geschikter zijn voor leven dan gedacht. “We proberen de aandacht te vestigen op meer ‘waterbeperkte’ planeten, die ondanks het feit dat ze niet over uitgestrekte oceanen beschikken, mogelijk toch meren of andere kleine hoeveelheid water herbergen,” zegt Lobo. “De hier heersende klimaten zijn mogelijk zelfs veelbelovend voor het voorkomen van leven.”
Land Bovendien is het juist belangrijk dat een planeet met terminator-zones niet over teveel water beschikt. Wanneer het namelijk om een waterrijke wereld gaat, zal het water dat altijd naar de ster gericht is verdampen, waardoor de hele planeet omhuld wordt door een gordijn van damp. Als er in plaats daarvan veel land is, zal dit effect niet moeten optreden. In dit geval is het veel waarschijnlijker dat er in de terminator-zones aliens te vinden zijn.
De bevindingen hebben verstrekkende implicaties. Zo stellen de onderzoekers dat de huidige manier waarop astronomen op exoplaneten naar tekenen van leven speuren, enigszins aangepast zal moeten worden. Dat heeft ermee te maken dat van leven afkomstige biosignaturen mogelijk alleen aanwezig zijn in specifieke delen van de atmosfeer. Wanneer astronomen dus in het vervolg met onder andere ruimtetelescoop James Webb planeten karakteriseren die mogelijk buitenaards leven herbergen, weten ze beter waar ze exact moeten zoeken. En misschien zal dat al vrij vlot succes opleveren. “Door rekening te houden met verschillende klimaten op één en dezelfde planeet, vergroten we de kans dat we al in de nabije toekomst op een bewoonde planeet stuiten,” besluit Lobo.
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- Gemiddelde waardering: 0/5 - (0 Stemmen) Categorie:ALIEN LIFE, UFO- CRASHES, ABDUCTIONS, MEN IN BLACK, ed ( FR. , NL; E )
The Chilling Messages Encoded in Egyptian Tombs (Video)
The Chilling Messages Encoded in Egyptian Tombs (Video)
It’s common knowledge that man didn’t learn to fly until the 20 th century. However shocking discoveries in both South America and Egypt are beginning to bring this long-stated fact into question. Ancient golden figurines and carvings found in South Americantombs are eerily similar in shape and dimension to modern aircraft. Stranger still, ancient carvings, paintings and hieroglyphs found in the Egyptian pyramids seem to depict everything from airplanes and helicopters to submarines and spaceships. What’s the truth? Were our ancient ancestors hiding advanced technology from us all along? Were they visited by advanced extra-terrestrials? Or are these strange carvings and markings just a coincidence? Perhaps the truth really is out there.
Computers are not mechanical brains, and our brains are not biological computers. They differ in function, organization, and composition. Both have circuits, sure, but computer chips are ultimately bits of silicon alloys pressed into highly designed, extremely convenient sizes and shapes, while our brains are carbon-based masses whose structure is still largely a mystery to neuroscientists.
Since the mid-20th century, people have touted the similarities — and considered the possibility of combining — brains and computers. Sci-fi author Isaac Asimov helped to devise the idea of a “positronic brain” that could bestow robots with the intelligence and self-awareness of a human in 1950.
Computer scientists still dwell on the shared features between minds and machines. Artificial neural networks, which power many of today’s AI, mimic the organization of neurons in the human brain. Other researchers are trying to make computer hardware more brain-like, for instance, by replicating the electrical activity of a neuron on a chip.
Researchers designed artificial “neurons” for a futuristic computer chip.
UNIVERSITY OF BATH
There are also researchers like Thomas Hartung, a biochemist and physician at Johns Hopkins University. Hartung and his colleagues are growing “brain organoids,” collections of human skin cells coaxed into resembling brain cells, in the lab. They want to connect the organoids to sensors and other devices and train them to process and store information with the help of machine learning.
Hartung has lofty goals for these organoids. They could help neuroscientists study how brain cells work together. They could also aid pharmacologists who study brain chemistry — for example, people developing treatments for Alzheimer’s disease. Hartung believes brain organoids can eventually replace the animal subjects typically used in these experiments.
But ultimately, Hartung wants to turn the creations into “biological hardware” for computers. In theory, organoids could perform certain tasks using less energy and hold far more memory than current silicon machines.
Hartung and his colleague Lena Smirnova with an image of a brain organoid.
COURTESY OF THOMAS HARTUNG
This dream is already taking shape. A team of researchers in Australia recently taught a collection of brain cells to play the video game Pong using a method somewhat similar to training a dog.
The team hooked their organoid up to electrodes and fed it details on the ball’s position; the organoid sent electrical signals back to control the paddle. If the organoid successfully hit the ball, the researchers “rewarded” it with an electrical stimulus, somewhat like a treat for a pup that sits on command. The organoid didn’t master Pong, but it managed to perform better with training than it would by random chance.
We spoke to Hartung about what a brain organoid might do next — and when to expect organ-powered computers.
This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity.
If brain cells can play Pong, can they defeat humans?
They only were able to show acute, or short-term, memory. The organoid culture became better and better in each training session, but the next day, everything was forgotten. The expectation is that, now, with the potential to establish long-term memory, we can actually move into memory and learning in the sense people would understand it.
And you cannot easily build production of such complex cell cultures. It takes at least a year. We train many people, but it takes them a year, on average, to get them done.
What’s next for organoid research?
We’re planning to use brain-machine interfaces to control robots. That’s on the plan for about a year’s time from now. So, we want to demonstrate the capability of long-term learning and, ideally, learning a sequence of tasks in a brain organoid.
One of the big changes at the moment is to scale first. We are limited with the brain organoids to about half a millimeter in size … otherwise, we don’t get enough oxygen and nutrients into the center of this cell ball. But that’s just the number of neurons of a fly, so it’s not really worth training. You might lose your organoid and can’t find it anymore!
Our work at the moment aims at producing an organoid which is about 1 centimeter large — which is then, already, twice the size of a mouse brain. That’s substantial, but it requires perfusion, where we create an equivalent to blood vessels to get nutrients into the brain. That’s not rocket science; this has been done for other organs already, but nobody had seen a need so far to produce larger brains.
Tiny organoids in a petri dish at Hartung’s Center for Alternatives to Animal Testing.
CAROLINA ROMERO, CENTER FOR ALTERNATIVE TO ANIMAL TESTING, BLOOMBERG SCHOOL OF PUBLIC HEALTH
How is this method different from using a mouse brain?
At the moment, when you bring a mouse or mouse brain into an experiment, it has a history: There is complex behavior, there is already an architecture in response to the mouse’s life experiences.
With our organoids, we really start from zero. We can influence and control every moment, and by what you feed into it, you can also determine what you study.
Many people are concerned about whether the organoids could suffer, for example. If I don’t give them pain receptors, there cannot be pain reception.
What about a computer that runs on a human brain?
With organoids, we can really control the input. With a human, you cannot really control what this human is experiencing. Even if you put them into a certain controlled environment, you’re limited. You’re also very much limited because — we have a skull. You cannot really poke many electrodes into the human brain easily and then control the experimental situations.
That’s exactly what we can do with organoids.
Hartung creates organoids from human skin cells in his lab.
THOMAS HARTUNG
What advantages might brain organoids have over computers?
There’s a couple of aspects which make the brain still superior to computers. For example, our capability of concluding on the basis of incomplete information, or what we would call intuitive thinking. We can be very fast and take shortcuts. We are often right — not always, but it is much easier to live with a decision that is based on incomplete data.
For example, a child can distinguish cats and dogs after 10 pictures with a pretty good error rate. A computer needs hundreds of pictures.
We can also add information much easier. You learn 10 words in Italian and you add it to your current “model.” Most computers have to just rerun their entire model to integrate this information.
But we should not compete with silicon computers where they are good. My handheld calculator is better than me at doing calculations. Why should I use a brain organoid to make it a calculator? It will likely be limited to what my brain is capable of doing — if it ever achieves something like this.
Organoids could work even quicker than today’s supercomputers, like Japan's record-breaking Fugaku.
STR/AFP/GETTY IMAGES
How far are we from brain-powered computers?
For the last 60 to 70 years, the more we have understood the brain, we have tried to make computers more brain-like, because there are still some advantages.
You can either envisage that you use it as a model to change our computer architecture, or you could at some point even have a biological component to your computational system.
That’s certainly the furthest away. It is science fiction, but I would say: 20 years ago, the iPhone was science fiction.
Are you considering the obvious question: What if these organoids become self-aware?
We are far from anything which is really producing concerns. There is no suffering, there is no self-awareness or consciousness that you can expect from these organoids, for the foreseeable future. But we have to discuss it, because people are feeling uneasy.
So, one of the things our ethicists at Johns Hopkins are doing at the moment is surveying the general population. They are asking, “what do you think about this?” At some point, people say, “Uh, perhaps we should think about this better?”
Then you give them information like, “there’s an informed consent by the donors of these cells,” or “this is done to find drugs for Alzheimer’s.” You test out what people feel about it, and this helps with the communication of this research.
We don’t want this to suddenly backfire. We want to work for the greater good.
Those who have followed the UFO phenomenon for sometime are well aware how these strange aerial machines befuddle us with their seemingly weird and unpredictable movements, which are completely unlike those of standard commercial airliners or military aircrafts. The fact that eye-witness reports from all over the world mention a similar set of bizarre behavior associated with UFOs, tells us that something inexplicable has been going on in our skies for a long time. A long, long time, indeed, if we turn over the pages of the ancient records of humanity. For UFOs are not a new phenomenon at all, and have been observed, recorded and passed down through the oral traditions of many cultures. One of the UFO hotspots of the ancient world was India, where aerial vehicles called “vimanas” have been mentioned in the legends time and again.
But, before we go there, let me quickly jot down some of the key features of UFOs from the full gamut of recorded sightings over the past few decades. I shall refer back to this list later, when I start discussing the UFO war described in the ancient Indian text.
UFOs appear to have a metallic body, with light reflecting ability. They come in different shapes viz. disc-shaped, spherical, cylinder, triangle etc. Certain reports indicate that UFOs can also change their shape.
UFOs can move away and disappear at extremely high speeds, far exceeding the speed of sound. Yet, they do so noiselessly, without producing the expected “sonic boom”. How they defy the known laws of physics is anybody’s guess.
They can accelerate / decelerate or ascend / descend vertically extremely quickly. The UFO occupants, obviously, don’t seem to mind very high G forces.
They are highly maneuverable. They can change directions drastically in an instant, and sometimes move in a zigzag motion.
UFOs have been seen standing still in mid air and hovering over a specific place.
A UFO spotted at night generally has a bright array of flashing lights of different colors.
Sometimes a single UFO may split up into multiple UFOs, which whiz off in different directions. Conversely, a number of UFOs with flashing lights could come together and give the appearance of a single object. Sometimes a bunch of UFOs can move in a V-shaped formation.
A UFO can turn off its lights and become invisible. This typically happens when fighter planes get too close to it to investigate. In such cases, the lights are turned on again once the fighter planes move away.
Sometimes a UFO sends down brilliant beams of light to the ground or into water bodies. They have the ability to lift up heavy objects by means of the light beam, including cars, humans and animals. They have been seen descending into water bodies like lakes and oceans.
Many people have seen small balls of light coming out of a UFO in mid-air and dart around, as if they are intelligent, conscious entities.
UFOs cause electronic interference with car radios, engines, and aircraft communication systems. There are reports by airline pilots that their weapons systems were temporarily disabled, only to come back online after the UFO was gone.
These are some of the UFO characteristics that recur in various eye-witness reports. It is possible to add to this list, of course, since UFOs keep surprising us with their behavior from time to time, but this will do nicely for now. Quite amazingly, some of the features listed here were observed and recorded thousands of years ago in an incredible story of a UFO battle from ancient India.
The story that I am going to relate has been documented in an ancient text called Srimad Bhagavatam [1], the composition of which is attributed to the sage Vyasa – the same person who composed the Indian epic, the Mahabharata. It tells of a king named Salva, who had propitiated Lord Shiva through his penances and acquired a vimana i.e. an aerial vehicle. In Hinduism, Shiva is the patron god of yoga and meditation, who takes on the fierce form of a “destroyer” at the end of a Yuga. The vimana that Salva obtained was called Saubha, and it was built by an “asura” called Maya or Mayasura. This is what the text tells us:
The great Lord Umapati [Shiva] is known as “he who is quickly pleased,” yet only at the end of a year did he gratify Salva, who had approached him for shelter, by offering him a choice of benedictions. Salva chose a vehicle that could be destroyed by neither demigods, demons, humans, Gandharvas, Uragas nor Raksasas, that could travel anywhere he wished to go, and that would terrify the Vrsnis. Lord Siva said, “So be it.” On his order, Maya Danava, who conquers his enemies’ cities, constructed a flying iron city named Saubha and presented it to Salva.
Maya - who built this flying city of iron - was not an ordinary human being. He was a “danava” i.e one of the sons of the primeval goddess of the waters, Danu. The danavas, along with the daityas (i.e. the children of the goddess Diti) were classed as “asuras” or “titans” in Hindu mythology. The term “asura” means “powerful” or “mighty”, and may be linked to the “aesir” of Norse legends, where it means “lord” or “god”. The asuras are powerful beings with magical powers, and although they are generous and pious by nature, they are also prone to being beset by pride, anger, jealousy, lust, greed and other egoic tendencies, which brings them into frequent confrontation with the gods (devas).
Maya was one of the leader of the asuras, and was famed for his architectural and astronomical skills. Whether he had any linkage to the Maya civilization of Mesoamerica is conjectural, for nothing specific is mentioned in the Indian texts along these lines. However, considering that the Mayans were also expert builders and astronomers, it would not be far-fetched to think that the asura Maya had a role to play in the evolution of their civilization.
Coming back to the story, on acquiring the Saubha vimana, Salva immediately attacked Dvaraka, the golden, fortified city built by Lord Krishna on the western coast of India. As per Hindu beliefs, Lord Krishna was an incarnation of the Supreme Being who had taken birth towards the end of the Dwapara Yuga (Silver Age), in order to cleanse the planet of the many bloodthirsty, powerful warriors and tyrants, and to re-promulgate the sacred wisdom to serve as a beacon of light for humanity during the dark age of Kali (Iron Age) that was soon to follow. Salva regarded Krishna as his enemy, since Krishna had killed many of his powerful allies. The text tells us:
This unassailable vehicle was filled with darkness and could go anywhere. Upon obtaining it, Salva went to Dvaraka, remembering the Vrsnis’ enmity toward him. Salva besieged the city with a large army, O best of the Bharatas, decimating the outlying parks and gardens, the mansions along with their observatories, towering gateways and surrounding walls, and also the public recreational areas. From his excellent airship he threw down a torrent of weapons, including stones, tree trunks, thunderbolts, snakes and hailstones. A fierce whirlwind arose and blanketed all directions with dust. Thus, terribly tormented by the airship Saubha, Lord Krsna’s city had no peace, O King, just like the earth when it was attacked by the three aerial cities of the demons….
At one moment the magic airship built by Maya Danava appeared in many identical forms, and the next moment it was again only one. Sometimes it was visible, and sometimes not. Thus Salva’s opponents could never be sure where it was. From one moment to the next the Saubha airship appeared on the earth, in the sky, on a mountain peak or in the water. Like a whirling, flaming baton, it never remained in any one place. Wherever Salva would appear with his Saubha ship and his army, there the Yadu commanders would shoot their arrows…As the Yadus and Salva’s followers thus went on attacking one another, the tumultuous, fearsome battle continued for twenty-seven days and nights.
In this passage we find a number of striking correlations between the descriptions of Salva’s vimana, and the characteristics of UFOs which I had listed out earlier. Let me go through them one by one. Firstly, the vimana acquired by Salva has been described as a “flying city of iron”, which is capable of going anywhere. UFOs, on the other hand, have mostly been described as metallic objects with a shiny surface. So, apparently, these aerial vehicles are made of some kind of metal, possibly with a high iron content.
Salva’s vimana sometimes appeared as a single object, and sometimes in many identical forms. This happens frequently in case of UFO sightings. A number of bright UFOs may bunch together and give the appearance of a single object, and then, suddenly, split up into multiple bright objects that fly off in different directions.
Salva’s vimana was sometimes visible, and sometimes not. UFO witnesses have said that these objects can suddenly turn off their lights and become invisible. UFOs can also accelerate away at tremendously high speeds and disappear almost instantly.
Finally, Salva’s vimana was said to constantly dart from one place to another, never remaining still in any one place. This agrees with the extreme maneuverability of UFOs. Many sightings mention that UFOs can change their direction drastically and rapidly, which, in turn, makes it very difficult for fighter planes to trail them.
The 16th century Dwarkadhish Temple at Dwarka, dedicated to Lord Krishna. It was built over an earlier shrine dating to 200 BCE. It is believed that the ancient city of Dvaraka was located in this region. Credit: Vinayaraj CC BY-SA 4.0
A vimana depicted on the walls of the Ta Prohm Temple, Cambodia. Public Domain
These correlations make it quite obvious that the vimana described in the Srimad Bhagavatam is what we today know as a UFO. Of course, to the ancients, it was not an “Unidentified” Flying Object. They knew very well who built it, and how king Salva got his hands on it. However, they wouldn’t have had any idea as to how these machines were built, for, as the text tells us, it was built by Maya, the leader of the asuras. Humans had no part in their construction. Let us now return back to the story, to see how this aerial assault on Dvaraka finally ended.
The reason why Salva’s attack on Dvaraka had lasted twenty seven days is because, Krishna, who was the foremost warrior of the Yadus, had gone to Indraprastha (near modern-day Delhi) to attend a royal sacrifice. After he returned, the battle ended quite swiftly.
Invited by Yudhisthira, the son of Dharma, Lord Krsna had gone to Indraprastha. Now that the Rajasuya sacrifice had been completed and Sisupala killed, the Lord began to see inauspicious omens. So He took leave of the Kuru elders and the great sages, and also of Prtha and her sons, and returned to Dvaraka…After He arrived at Dvaraka and saw how His people were threatened with destruction, and also saw Salva and his Saubha airship, Lord Kesava [Krishna] arranged for the city’s defense and then addressed Daruka [Krishna’s charioteer] as follows: “O driver, quickly take My chariot near Salva. This lord of Saubha is a powerful magician; don’t let him bewilder you.”
Thus ordered, Daruka took command of the Lord’s chariot and drove forth…Lord Krsna then pierced Salva with sixteen arrows and struck the Saubha airship with a deluge of arrows as it darted about the sky…While Salva continued to hurl torrents of weapons at Him with great force, Lord Krsna, whose prowess never fails, shot His arrows at Salva, wounding him and shattering his armor, bow and crest jewel. Then with His club the Lord smashed His enemy’s Saubha airship. Shattered into thousands of pieces by Lord Krsna’s club, the Saubha airship plummeted into the water. Salva abandoned it, stationed himself on the ground, took up his club and rushed toward Lord Acyuta [Krishna]…Employing His disc weapon, Lord Hari [Krishna] removed that great magician’s head with its earrings and crown, just as Purandara [Indra] had used his thunderbolt to cut off Vrtra’s head.
Thus, the magical Saubha vimana, fashioned by Maya asura and given as a boon to Salva by Lord Shiva, was eventually destroyed by Lord Krishna using his club. This suggests that, even modern-day UFOs are liable to crash or may be brought down by suitable weapons. There have been a few stories of UFO crashes, the most famous being the Roswell incident of 1947, although it is difficult to be certain of the facts of that case and of others of a similar nature.
Another important insight that can be gleaned from this story is that the ancient UFOs were not built by some prehistoric Boeing company, but by the “asuras” or “titans” - a race of powerful, semi-divine beings with magical abilities. If you are wondering where the asuras live, you need not venture very far; for they don’t live on another planet, but right below our feet in an underground realm called Patala, a Sanskrit term which means, “that which is below the feet”.
As per the ancient Indian texts, Patala has seven realms, which are occupied by the asuras, along with other supernatural entities such as the nagas (human-serpent hybrids), rakshasas (giants), yakshas (dwarfs) etc. In the Bhagavata Purana, these seven realms are described as the seven subterranean paradises (bila-svargas), which are filled with beautiful houses, groves, lakes, lovely maidens, splendid jewels and unlimited opulence. Mayasura has constructed many brilliantly decorated cities in Patala. Life here is one of perpetual pleasure and sensory enjoyments. There is no old age, no decay, and no disease in Patala. Even though there is no sunshine in these regions, the effulgence of the brilliant jewels with which the residents of Patala decorate themselves, light up the entire region. It is due to the absence of sunlight, that the concept of time does not exist in Patala, whose inhabitants enjoy enormously long lives, free of anxiety or fear.[2]
Patala sounds like the perfect destination for the next vacation! Except that, it is not easy to get there. The entrances to this underworld paradise are camouflaged and heavily guarded. In Tibetan Buddhism, Patala (meaning, “the Underground”) can be entered through specific Asura caves in the sacral landscape, which are closely guarded by dakinis (“sky goers”) - the Buddhist counterparts of the British faeries. Robert Mayer of the Oxford University writes, “Once in Patala, the yogin could gain such boons as longevity, magical knowledge, fabulous material treasures, and, not least, extraordinary pleasures, especially erotic ones.”[3] This almost sounds like one of those exotic travel brochures that you read on a long, boring flight.
So, we are basically talking about of a hidden, underground dimension of great opulence and pleasures whose entrances are guarded by invisible faeries. No wonder this stuff passed into the realm of fantasies and legends over time. At some point, I guess, you simply couldn’t talk about it with a straight face. And yet, now we have this global UFO phenomenon, and the ancient texts tell us that UFOs are built by the supernatural beings of Patala. And to add to that, UFOs have been seen entering into water bodies, and many eye-witnesses have reported dwarf alien beings, the dwarfs being one of the members of the faerie folk.
It’s definitely time to bring the topic of Patala out of the cupboard, dust it off and take a fresh look at similar beliefs from around the world. For, it is quite possible that some of the UFO and alien sightings could be of subterranean origin. As to what their plans are for humanity, why they feel the urge to abduct humans and poke them with needles, or what they gain by mutilating animals – these are questions that will continue to baffle us for the time being.
ALL RELATED VIDEOS, selected and posted by peter2011
Robert Mayer, "The Importance of the Underworlds: Asuras' Caves in Buddhism, and Some Other Themes in Early Buddhist Tantras Reminiscent of the Later Padmasambhava Legends", Journal of the International Association of Tibetan Studies, 2007.
Is your dresser covered with dust? How about your coffee table? Your car? Before you grab a rag or a hose, you may want to pause and take a closer look at those particles. An astronomer in Japan believes dust on Earth may be filled with space dust ejected from meteorite and planetary collisions in our Solar System and beyond, and that dust could contain evidence of extraterrestrial life. Is this the perfect excuse for not dusting?
Is this the future of SETI?
“The search for life outside our solar system typically means a search for signs of communication, which would indicate intelligent life but precludes any pre-technological life. Or the search is for atmospheric signatures that might hint at life, but without direct confirmation there could always be an explanation that does not require life.”
Professor Tomonori Totani from the University of Tokyo’s Department of Astronomy states the obvious in a university press release announcing the release of his new study, "Solid grains ejected from terrestrial exoplanets as a probe of the abundance of life in the Milky Way," published in the International Journal of Astrobiology. Professor Totani thinks all of those other astronomers analyzing data from the habitable “Goldilocks” zones around other stars in our galaxy in the race to find technical or biological signatures are looking in the wrong direction, and even if they find something that looks like a life sign, there are always chemical alternatives that could explain them. He plans to win the race to find extraterrestrial life by looking down instead of up – at the dust beneath our feet covering planet Earth.
“I propose we study well-preserved grains ejected from other worlds for potential signs of life.”
In a sense, Professor Totani is saying the evidence of extraterrestrial life is already terrestrial – but unlike others searching for it, he doesn’t believe it came in a spaceship shaped like a long cigar or a breath lozenge or a saucer. He believes the evidence traveled to Earth on its own in the form of space dust ejected from its home planet or space rock by a catastrophic event. Totani points out that geologists have found meteorite fragments on Earth which originated on Mars. It takes no stretch of the imagination to look at the Chixculub asteroid collision 65 million years ago and see some of the millions of tons of debris ejected into the air continuing on into space and traveling to Mars and beyond to other solar systems. Intelligent life forms on exoplanets could find our dust and see evidence of the life that once existed on the solid ground that dust came from. Why can’t we do the same thing with the space dust that falls on Earth? After all, there is plenty of it. A 2021 study published in the journal Earth and Planetary Science Letters estimated that around 5,200 metric tons of micrometeorites fall to Earth every year. Micrometeorites are particles less than a millimeter in diameter – approaching the size of the space dust or ejecta Totani is looking for.
“There is a chance that recently deceased or even fossilized microorganisms could be contained in some rocky material in this ejecta.”
Grains in the region of 1 micrometer (one-thousandth of a millimeter) could not only host a specimen of a single-celled organism, but they could also potentially escape their host solar system altogether, and under the right circumstances, maybe even venture to ours.”
Professor Totani admits that the chances of life forms staying alive on a dust particle traveling from another star system are smaller than the dust particle itself. Even if it was like a tardigrade and could survive the cataclysmic event that ejected it on its trip and could live long enough to reach Earth, the extreme heat, cold and space radiation would probably end its life somewhere during the voyage. However, signs of life might still be seen in the particles. And with about 5,200 metric tons of micrometeorites hitting Earth annually, they shouldn’t be hard to find. Right, Professor Totani?
“Despite that, I calculate around 100,000 such grains could be landing on Earth every year.”
Forget the needle … this is like looking for a dust particle in a haystack. Nonetheless, astronomers are an optimistic group of scientists. Harvard astronomer Avi Loeb thinks he can find debris from an interstellar space object on the floor of the Pacific Ocean even though it crashed in 2014. Professor Totani is cut from the same cloth – he believes that while his estimate may be too high, it could also be too low, and in either case “the means to explore it already exist so it seems like a worthwhile pursuit.”
“These grains from terrestrial exoplanets can be collected by detectors placed in space, utilizing a low-density capture media like silica aerogel that enables capture of hypervelocity particles with mild deceleration and hence minimal damage to biosignatures.”
One method Totani proposes is a kind of space gel pack with a stick surface which would catch space dust but have enough cushion that the dust remains intact and undamaged. The gel packs could then be retrieved for study.
“Another collecting method may be to search on Earth for these exoplanet grains. Cosmic dust particles smaller than 10–100 µm survive atmospheric entry without severe heating, and hence biosignatures are not seriously damaged by the entry process.”
That dust on your hand could have once been dust on an ET's hand.
Totani also thinks that, like micrometeorites and asteroid debris, space dust particles could be on Earth – frozen in Antarctic ice or resting on the floor of the oceans. While it has been relatively easy to find micrometeorites in Antarctica, and Avi Loeb believes he can find them in the Pacific, sifting through the scoops of dirt to find the extraterrestrial dust, and then sorting that out to separate the stuff from our solar system and the stuff from other star systems seems to be a daunting task. But not impossible, and it can happen today, not far into the future like a mission to another planet or moon. Professor Totani believes it is worth the effort.
“Extraordinary biosignatures that are quite different from known Earth life, as well as anomalous isotope ratios and/or mineralogical compositions, are expected to be helpful in identifying biosignatures of extrasolar particles. Finding even just one such particle would have an immense impact on the origin of life studies.”
One speck of space dust from another solar system with a biosignature proving life existed on the planet it came from would truly be a “this changes everything” moment. Think about that as you look at what your rag picked up from the top of your coffee table.
In the interview, Bryan Callen and Leslie Kean discuss various aspects of UFOs, government knowledge, and related phenomena. They cover topics such as:
Leslie Kean’s background as a journalist investigating UFOs and her book, “UFOs: Generals, Pilots, and Government Officials Go on the Record.”
Mass sightings, including the Phoenix Lights event in 1997 and other sightings in Hudson Valley and Belgium in the 1980s and 1990s.
The speed at which some UFOs have been reported to travel, such as 13,000 MPH, and the implications of such capabilities.
Area 51 and speculation about what might be inside the secretive facility.
The U.S. government’s response to UFO sightings, including the Pentagon’s recent acknowledgment of the existence of UFOs and the creation of a task force to study them.
The difference in how UFO sightings are handled by governments in other countries, with some being more open about the topic than the United States.
The possibility that the U.S. government might be using UFOs as a means to spook adversaries with advanced technology.
Leslie Kean’s involvement in the documentary series “UFOs: Investigating the Unknown,” which originally aired on CNN and is now available on Hulu.
Throughout the conversation, they also discuss the fascination people have with UFOs and the mystery surrounding their existence, as well as the importance of approaching the subject with an open mind and a healthy dose of skepticism.
NASA has spent many years seeking the truth regarding extraterrestrial life. Furthermore, the space agency has never denied the existence of non-human life beyond Earth in any form. This is sufficient to discuss the idea of non-human life existing beyond Earth in any form, from the microscopic to the macroscopic. Avi Loeb, a professor at Harvard, has supported the idea that there may have been earlier civilizations on both Earth and Mars, and that these civilizations may have been the origin of UAPs.
The head of the Galileo Project Avi Loeb speculated that Mars, which is the main spot for NASA to find the clue to alien life, was once the home to a long-vanished civilization that may have thrived like Earthly civilization. According to the most recent study of data from NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO), Mars was rippling with rivers and ponds over the first half of its history. Based on the analogy with Earth, it is conventionally expected that Mars developed microbial life when it lost its atmosphere. In that case, the water on its surface evaporated and left a frozen desert.
This study gives thought to Mr. Loeb into believing the possibility that it intelligent life on Mars developed just twice as fast as it did on Earth, there could have been a technologically advanced civilization there a few billion years before humans showed up on Earth.
A strange keyhole-shaped formation protruding from the surface of Mars was first noticed by George Hass
He writes: “Planets like Mars or Earth could have given multiple births to technological civilizations that were a billion years apart and hence were not aware of each other. Like stable parents, the planets recovered from the environmental impact of these civilizations over time. We may have been separated in time from siblings that we never had the opportunity to meet and so we are unaware of their existence.”
Mr. Loeb believes it is possible that some of the technological advancement devices made by early inhabitants of Mars and Earth are still operational elsewhere in the Solar System. He suggests that “in that case, old flying gadgets could be a source of some of the Unidentified Aerial Phenomena in reports from the Director of National Intelligence to the US Congress.” (Source)
Professor Loeb is not alone in thinking of the advanced civilization that once inhabited Mars. Physicist John E. Brandenburg explained in this 2015 study what could have happened on Mars. The planet that once had an Earthlike atmosphere faced a massive thermonuclear explosion that destroyed its atmosphere. The study considered the Cydonian Hypothesis and Fermi’s Paradox. (Source)
Brandenburg considered the Cydonian Hypothesis in light of imaging and geochemical data. He adopted a model of Earthlike eroded archeology for comparison with Mars artifacts using the pyramids at Giza and the Sphinx and Olmec heads as analogs under the Principle of Mediocrity with attention to detail.
John E. Brandenburg.
Image credit: COAST TO CAST AM
Enrico Fermi analyzed the problem of the universe where intelligent life was both possible and noisy. He also knew the Universe was very old compared to humanity. There was plenty of time for other species to develop and make radio and TV broadcasts and spread throughout the universe to all habitable planets.
NASA, from its inception, expected that artifacts of past intelligent activity might be found in the Solar System: “Though intelligent or semi-intelligent life conceivably exists elsewhere in our solar system, if intelligent extraterrestrial life is discovered in the next twenty years, it will very probably be by radio telescope from other solar systems. Evidence of its existence might also be found in artifacts left on the moon or other planets.”
In his work, physicist Brandenburg showed that data from two Martian sites, Cydonia Mensa and Galaxias Chaos, were studied. This led to the Cydonian Hypothesis, which says that there was an ancient, native civilization on Mars around the time of the Bronze Age. Isotopic and gamma-ray data from Mars show that a huge explosion with both fusion and fission took place near Cydonia Mensa.
The existence of a dead humanoid civilization on Mars is completely consistent with its apparent long-lived Earthlike past climate and the Principle of Mediocrity, the idea that humanoid intelligence is not exotic or miraculous, but is a natural consequence of any long-lived Earthlike biosphere. This Martian civilization apparently perished due to a planet-wide catastrophe of unknown origin, that changed Mars’ climate from being Earthlike to its present state in a brief period compared to geologic time. However, what ended this civilization, was it a massive nuclear attack?
Taken together, the evidence suggests that Mars was the locale of a planetary nuclear massacre. The answer to Fermi’s Paradox may thus lie on Mars. Brandenburg recommended that a mission for human occupation of Mars should be immediately initiated to maximize knowledge of what transpired there.
Taking into Mr. Loeb and Brandenburg’s views on the existence of alleged Martian civilization in the past, in 2019, Retired NASA scientific director Dr. Jim Green gave some statements that caused a lot of controversies. The expert believed that it is most likely that the European Space Agency had already discovered evidence of extraterrestrial life on Mars. Dr. Green is convinced that humanity, as we know it today, is not ready for such information.
In the summer of 2020, two rovers from Nasa and the European Space Agency (ESA) traveled to Mars to drill horizontally into rocks and deep into the surface, in the hope of finding evidence of living organisms. He assured that the evidence of extraterrestrial existence on Mars was obtained, at the latest, in the middle of 2021. However, it will take much longer for humanity to come to terms with the fact that life does exist outside of Earth after all. (Source)
Note: NASA’s rover Mars 2020 successfully landed on February 18, 2021, however, ExoMars rover a.k.a. Rosalind Franklin launch was postponed by 2028 due to conflicts in Ukraine.
Before the launch, Dr. Green said: “The missions are the best chance humanity has ever had of answering the question: ‘Are we alone in the universe?’” He added that “there is a real possibility that one or both will be successful.” Yet it would have far-reaching implications, and he believes Earth is not ready.
“It will be revolutionary. It’s like when Copernicus stated ‘no we go around the Sun’. Completely revolutionary. It will start a whole new line of thinking. I don’t think we’re prepared for the results. We’re not.”
“I’ve been worried about that because I think we’re close to finding it, and making some announcements. What happens next is a whole new set of scientific questions. Is that life like us? How are we related? Can life can move from planet to planet or do we have a spark and just the right environment and that spark generates life – like us or not like us – based on the chemical environment that it is in?”
The research published in 2020 shows that planets that were previously thought to be uninhabitable may have once had suitable conditions for life. The researchers detected a chemical — phosphine — in the thick Venus atmosphere. After much analysis, the scientists assert that something now alive is the only explanation for the chemical’s source.
No wonder the whole world will unite if tomorrow Earth is invaded by aliens. It may sound like science fiction but the probability of it cannot be denied. There are many accounts of encountering non-human beings but such stories are often neglected due to a lack of strong evidence. However, things become different when a government itself supports such claims. Some of them were Gen. Douglas McArthur, Gen. George Marshall, Werner Von Braun, President Ronald Reagan, Gen. Nathan Twining, Gen. Walter Bedell Smith, Dr. Carl Gustav Jung, and many others.
Former US President Ronald Reagan expressed his concern about an alien invasion in his speeches from 1985 to 1988. In one of his speeches to the UN, he said: “What if all of us in the world were threatened by an outer power, from outer space, from another planet? We would all of a sudden find out that we didn’t have any differences at all.” None of the presidential aides, speechwriters, and handlers liked what he said. Besides, it never appeared on original drafts. Despite it, Reagan continued adding it subtly.
In 1982, there was a special screening of the movie “ET: The Extra-Terrestrial” at the White House. During the screening, President Reagan whispered to Steven Spielberg that everything depicted in the film was real. Spielberg confirmed this during an interview with Quint (also known as Eric Vespe).
John Herrington, Former US Navy AS R&MA and served as the United States Secretary of Energy under Ronald Reagan during his second term.
Spielberg said: “No, he wasn’t ushered out of the room. He was the President of the United States! Nobody could usher Ronald Reagan out of the room! It was in the White House screening room and Reagan got up to thank me for bringing the film to show the President, the First Lady, and all of their guests, which included Sandra Day O’Connor in her first week as a Justice of the Supreme Court, and it included some astronauts… I think Neil Armstrong was there, I’m not 100% certain, but it was an amazing, amazing evening.”
Reagan was criticized for his bizarre comments on aliens, he was called an actor reading a script but the truth is that they were his own words. In the following years, many officials in the White House hinted at the presence of outer world life.
One such interesting case is brought to light by the writer, producer, co-host of the podcast Need To Know, and former CNN correspondent Bryce Zabel. Mr. Bryce discovered the story of a Reagan administration cabinet member crying himself to sleep after being briefed on the truth about UFOs.
President Reagan and James Baker interviewing John Herrington for the cabinet position of Secretary of Energy in Oval Office Photo courtesy of U.S. National Archives and Records Administration: Ronald Reagan Presidential Library & Museum.
Mr. Bryce was telling a story originally told by his friend Brent Friedman. According to him, Brent was a family friend of John S. Herrington, who served as Assistant Secretary of the Navy and Secretary of Energy in the Reagan Administration. Herrington “had Brent drive his car across the country in 1981 because he had just taken a position in the Reagan administration.” This is where Herrington allegedly told this story to Friedman. (Source)
Friedman said: “A good family friend of ours, when I was just getting out of high school, was working at a very high level in the Reagan administration. One night, he took me aside and was telling me some of the things he was doing in the government. He was going to get us a White House tour and everything and ended up telling me some pretty shattering stories.
And in particular, he knew that I had always been into science fiction and fantasy and comic books and very casually just threw out there that aliens were real. They’re here, and I’ve seen them. The story goes on to much greater detail because at the time, I was just absolutely shocked. And this is a person I grew up with and I completely trusted, and he just rocked my world.”
“In addition to Sauder’s well-documented research, there are other tantalizing links to the underground world. One, for example, concerns an assistant secretary to a branch of the armed forces in a new Republican administration. This person told a family friend that he had been ‘briefed’ for some eight weeks at an underground facility outside of Washington.”
When asked the purpose of the briefing, this highly-positioned man, who went on to become a cabinet secretary, said: “There is intelligent life in the universe. It’s here. And I’ve seen it.” The man said that the information he had been given caused him to cry himself to sleep for a number of nights. The reason, he told his shocked listener, was that he had children. “This is not the kind of world I thought they’d grow up in.
What kinds of things are going on that require months-long briefings in underground facilities and cause grown men to cry? The cabinet secretary told the family friend that aliens were just the ‘tip of the iceberg’ in terms of mind-blowing revelations. It is clear, then, that large underground facilities not only are real, but are connected in some way with the reality of ETs or ‘Others’ here on Earth."
The claims of non-human intelligence living with us are not new and have been told by more than a dozen of government officials.
The Honorable Paul Hellyer (1923-2021), former Canadian Minister of Defense said extraterrestrials have been visiting our planet for thousands of years and it is likely that at least two of them are working with the U.S. government and sharing their highly-advanced technologies with humans.
Hellyer stated that “aliens are living among us and that it is likely at least two of them are working with the U.S. government.” More specifically, Hellyer announced that at least four species of extraterrestrials had been visiting Earth for thousands of years. According to Huffington Post Canada, he also stated that some extraterrestrials originate from the “Zeta Reticuli, the Pleiades, Orion, Andromeda, and Altair star systems” and “may have different agendas.”
In December 2020, Haim Eshed, a retired Israeli general and former head of the Israeli Defense Ministry’s space directorate gained attention for making controversial claims about extraterrestrial life and alleged secret collaborations between humans and aliens. He stated that aliens and the U.S. government had reached some type of deal to stay quiet about their experiments on Earth and secret facilities on Mars.
In his claims, Mr. Eshed said ETs exist and monitor our nuclear capabilities. There is a “Galactic Federation,” and the alien species with whom humanity will contact is “Grey.” According to him, Earth is their Petri dish, and they are also trying to understand the whole fabric of the universe. He further stated that some of the smaller UFOs are robots/AI, consciousness is present after death, and humans have anti-gravity technology but it is still classified.
Jim Semivan, a former CIA officer has recently made a shocking statement, saying “there’s a whole other reality that surrounds us that we just simply don’t have the ability to see or interact with. There’s an entity out there! There’s some kind of non-human intelligence that’s living with us on this planet!”
“I think they mention that the phenomenon is a natural part of our universe, and we’re living in it but we don’t recognize it. The same way that insects and animals don’t recognize the human universe. A cat and a dog could be running through a library, but they don’t have the faintest idea what the books are all about and what libraries are all about. We might be walking through our existence and there’s a whole other reality that surrounds us that we just simply don’t have the ability to see or interact with.”
“It seems to be peeking inside our little consensus reality. As I explained to somebody once, it comes close, it teases us, it cajoles us, it lies to us, but you can never take it home to meet the parents. It won’t allow you to do that. There’s no formal introduction. Add on top that there’s no ontology, which is just a fancy word, it basically means there’s no structure to even discuss this. We don’t have a common lexicon. Somebody said we have dots but no connections. I don’t even think we have dots.”
The next major step in astronomy, the Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope will see the big picture in terms of space.
The Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope is the next major step in astronomy.
(Image credit: GSFC/SVS)
The Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope is NASA's future infrared space observatory that will attempt to tackle some of the most pressing questions in cosmology by addressing the mysteries of dark energy.
The telescope also known as "Roman" or the "Roman Space Telescope" will also search for planets outside the solar system — exoplanets, and will investigate the physics of distant stars.
Set to launch around 2026 or 2027, NASA says(opens in new tab) that the space telescope possesses a wide field of view that will allow it to generate never-before-seen big pictures of the universe essential for tackling some of the most pressing cosmic mysteries. The mission is projected to last for five years.
The Roman space telescope will be situated at Lagrange point 2, a stable gravitational point between Earth and the sun located around 1 million miles (1.5 million kilometers) from our planet.
WHO IS TELESCOPE NAMED AFTER?
The Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope began life as the Wide Field Infrared Survey Telescope (WFIRST) in 2010, only gaining its current name a decade later when in May 2020 it was renamed in honor of Nancy Grace Roman, a pioneering scientist who served as NASA's first chief astronomer from 1961 to 1963. Roman passed away on December 26, 2018, at the age of 93.
During her life, Roman was affectionately known as "the mother of Hubble" the nickname emerged due to the fact that Roman tirelessly advocated for new tools that would allow scientists to study the broader universe which led to the launch of the Hubble Space Telescope in 1990.
Nancy Grace Roman is best remembered for being the first chief of astronomy in the Office of Space Science at NASA Headquarters, and the first woman to hold an executive position at the space agency. (Image credit: NASA)
Announcing the new moniker for WFIRST in 2020 then NASA administrator, Jim Bridenstine said:(opens in new tab) "It is because of Nancy Grace Roman's leadership and vision that NASA became a pioneer in astrophysics and launched Hubble, the world's most powerful and productive space telescope."
"I can think of no better name for WFIRST, which will be the successor to NASA's Hubble and Webb Telescopes." Bridenstine continued.
"Roman is planned to teach us a great deal about exoplanets and cosmology, but will have the capability to do so much more," Postdoctoral Fellow at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Samson A. Johnson told Space.com. "Right now, and all the way up to and after its launch, there will be a lot of opportunities for astronomers to propose their own ideas for Roman, and there are many interesting prospects such as studying stellar mass black holes, exoplanet transit surveys, asteroseismology surveys, and much, much more." Johnson continued.
NANCY GRACE ROMAN SPACE TELESCOPE DEVELOPMENT AND COST
The Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope has been a long time in the making. (Image credit: Daisy Dobrijevic furnished with text supplied by Robert Lea. )
The development of the Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope has been handled primarily by NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center, with participation by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) and the Infrared Processing and Analysis Center, in Pasadena, California, the Space Telescope Science Institute in Baltimore, and a science team comprised researchers from institutions across the U.S.
The development of the Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope has been handled primarily by NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center, with participation by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) and the Infrared Processing and Analysis Center, in Pasadena, California, the Space Telescope Science Institute in Baltimore, and a science team comprised researchers from institutions across the U.S.
Initial designs for the Roman Space Telescope from 2011 suggested it would be equipped with a smaller 4.3 ft (1.3 m) diameter mirror and a single instrument. The current and final design of the telescope was introduced in 2015 in the WFIRST-AFTA 2015 Report by the Science Definition Team (SDT) and WFIRST Study Office.
In 2022, NASA estimated the total launch cost of the Roman telescope as $255 million, which includes the launch service and other mission-related costs.
WHAT WILL THE NANCY GRACE ROMAN SPACE TELESCOPE DO?
According to the WFIRST-AFTA Science Definition Team Final Report(opens in new tab) the Roman Space Telescope will weigh 4,166 kilograms (9,184 pounds) at launch and is set to carry a payload of 2,191 kg (4,830 lb).
The primary mirror of the Roman Space Telescope has a diameter of 7.9 ft (2.4 meters), the same size as the mirror of Hubble but under a quarter of the weight at 410 pounds (186 kilograms).
The primary mirror of The Roman Space Telescope is 7.9 ft (2.4 meters) across. (Image credit: L3Harris Technologies)
The mirror grants the telescope a 0.281-degree square field of view and sends light to the two main instruments carried by the Roman Space Telescope, the Wide Field Instrument, and the telescope's Coronagraph Instrument. The barrel-like shape of the spacecraft itself blocks out unwanted light from the sun.
This will allow the Wide Field Instrument to measure the light from a billion galaxies over its 5 5-year-long operation time, thus facilitating the primary mission of the Roman Space Telescope — to investigate dark energy.
As NASA points out,(opens in new tab) physicists estimate that dark energy accounts for around 68% of the universe's total energy/matter content, yet have little idea what it actually is. One way of addressing this problem could be to observe how the influence of dark energy has changed over time.
The Wide Field Instrument on the Roman Space Telescope will help investigate this by mapping the distribution of matter across the universe and measuring how the universe has expanded since it was around 500 million years old, about 4% of its current age. Examining the brightness and distances of supernovas, the explosions that occur at the end of stars' lives, the Roman Space Telescope may detect the first traces of dark energy thus giving scientists an idea of how the influence of this mysterious force has grown over time.
Among the other objectives of Roman, such as the study of distant supernovas and the examination of objects on the outskirts of the solar system, will be the hunt for planets around other stars.
NANCY GRACE ROMAN TELESCOPE AND DARK ENERGY FAQS ANSWERED BY AN EXPERT
Luz Ángela García is a cosmology postdoctoral researcher at Universidad ECCI in Bogotá, Colombia.
We asked Luz Ángela García, a cosmology postdoc in Bogotá, Colombia, a few questions about the Nancy Grace Roman Telescope and dark energy.
How does the Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope compare to the James Webb Space Telescope?
Both telescopes are optimized to work on the wavelength range of the infrared. However, the JWST has a very narrow and detailed field of view. Instead, the Nancy Grace Roman will cover a very broad patch of the sky. One way to understand this is that the science goals of both telescopes are different, and thus, their coverage has to adapt to these observational needs.
The JWST aims to recover deep lines of view of the sky. On the other hand, the Roman will provide us with the "Big Picture". It will complement other wide galaxy surveys run from the ground, such as DESI or the upcoming Vera Rubin Observatory.
How will the Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope study dark energy?
Most capabilities of the Nancy Grace Roman will make it a suitable instrument to study the nature of dark energy. Because of its broad coverage of the sky, the telescope will capture an unprecedented number of galaxies in its field of view and the distribution of those galaxies in our universe, which will allow us to understand the effect of dark energy on large cosmological scales and the clustering and evolution of galaxies. With such an extensive map of the galaxies, we can recover a robust prediction of the acoustic peak.
On the other hand, the Nancy Grace Roman will focus on detecting signals in the infrared; thus, it will 'see' galaxies that the current ground-based telescopes could be missing. In addition, the telescope will observe a large number of supernova Ia (the same type of objects that led to the concept of dark energy and the accelerated expansion of the universe in the first place). Most importantly, its findings concerning dark energy and the Universe's large-scale structure will complement those made by other observatories.
What impact will the Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope have on astronomy?
Every new telescope provides a new piece of information about dark energy, the structure of matter, and the universe itself. This telescope will allow us to get a very broad map of the galaxies in infrared, therefore, they will not be only nearby galaxies, but mostly early galaxies whose light has traveled for a long time before reaching the mirrors of the Roman, thus their light will exhibit large redshifts.
But the Nancy Grace Roman will also address other interesting topics in the discipline, such as exoplanets delivering the largest census of planetary systems in our galaxy and other astronomical challenges in the infrared that neither the HST nor the JWST can tackle because of their narrow view.
HUNTING FOR EXOPLANETS
"Roman is going to teach us about exoplanets in two ways. First, one of its Core Community Surveys is designed to detect microlensing events. These events are the extremely rare, near-perfect alignment of a foreground object and a background star, which is why we need Roman's large field-of-view to monitor for these rare events," Johnson explains. "The mass of the foreground object bends space in such a way that it magnifies the light coming from the background star, temporarily increasing its brightness. If there are any planets orbiting the lensing star, they will cause deviations in the magnification which will indicate their presence."
By using the tiny bending of light caused by the presence of mass the Wide Field Instrument will conduct a survey of theMilky Wayand hunt for around 2,600 new exoplanets, according toNASA JPL(opens in new tab).
As this instrument searches for new exoplanets, the Roman Coronagraph will investigate dozens of already discovered exoplanets, by imaging them and carrying out spectroscopic — absorption and emissions of light and other radiation — observations.
Examining light as it passes through the atmospheres of exoplanets can reveal the elements that make up said atmospheres and can help scientists detect the presence of molecules such as water and complex organic molecules that could be the by-products of life.
Technology currently allows astronomers to detect bright young exoplanets that are around a million times dimmer than their host stars, but many exoplanets are fainter by their stars by factors of 100 million or more. This is especially true for "mature" gas giants like the solar system's own Jupiter and Saturn or rocky terrestrial worlds like Earth.
"The second way that Roman will study planets is by using its Coronographic Instrument, which is a technological demonstration of the first space-based adaptive optics," Johnson adds. "This will be critical for the future of directly imaging planets from space, and pave the way for the next generation of space telescopes searching for biosignatures in the 2040s."
The Roman Space Telescope Coronagraph Instrument will be the first high-performance coronagraph system sent into space with current lab tests indicating the instrument should be able to detect exoplanets a billion times fainter than their host star.
That makes Roman an important stepping stone for future missions that aim to image and characterize terrestrial planets 10 billion times fainter than their host star.
SPACE TELESCOPE SHOWDOWN: NANCY GRACE ROMAN VS THE JAMES WEBB VS HUBBLE
Though it's natural to compare the abilities of, the Hubble space telescope, theJames Webb Space Telescope, and the forthcoming Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope, none of these instruments is strictly a replacement for its predecessor, instead, each telescope is intended to complement the other. Though all three instruments view the universe in infrared, they offer different cosmic perspectives.
Header Cell - Column
Roman
Hubble
JWST
Wavelength coverage
0.5 to 2.3 microns (visible and infrared)
0.2 to 1.7 microns (ultraviolet light to near-infrared)
0.6 to 28 microns (near infrared, mid-infrared and small amount of visible light).
Primary mirror diameter
7.9 feet (2.4 meters)
7.9 feet (2.4 meters)
21 foot-diameter (6.5-meter)
Roman's wavelength coverage of visible and infrared light will span 0.5 to 2.3 microns, which is a 20% increase over the mission's original design. NASA says(opens in new tab) this range will enable the telescope to better collaborate with the Hubble Space Telescope, which views the universe in ultraviolet light to near-infrared light, 0.2 to 1.7 microns, and the JWST which observes the cosmos in near-infrared, mid-infrared and a small amount of visible light, from 0.6 to 28 microns.
The silver-coated mirror of Roman is the same size as Hubble's primary mirror, but it is dwarfed by the gold-coated mirror 21 foot-diameter (6.5-meter) mirror of the JWST. This huge mirror made of 18 hexagonal segments makes the JWST 100 times more powerful than Hubble and can see objects 100 times fainter than Hubble allowing it to see deeper into the universe. Because light has a finite traveling speed this means the JWST can see further back in time than Hubble, too.
Each telescope is intended to complement the other. (Image credit: NASA)
"The best way to compare Roman and Webb is actually to compare them to Hubble. Webb's big advantage over Hubble is that it is much more sensitive and can detect sources of light 100 times fainter than Hubble," Johnson said. "This makes Webb an excellent 'Swiss army knife' type observatory, very flexible and can observe a wide range of objects from the first galaxies to directly imaging exoplanets.
"Roman has a similar sensitivity to Hubble, but it has a much wider field of view. In one pointing, Roman can observe a patch of sky 100 times larger than Hubble can in a single pointing. This makes Roman great at observing thousands of galaxies at a time or tens of millions of stars in one image."
Roman's Wide Field Instrument's field of view is 100 times greater than Hubble's widest exposure. (Image credit: NASA Goddard Media Studios)
NASA estimates that Roman's infrared vision should also allow the telescope to see back into the universe to when it was little more than 300 million years old. Though Roman's main strength, according to NASA(opens in new tab), is the size of its field of view.
Roman's Wide Field Instrument's field of view is 100 times greater than Hubble's widest exposure. Roman will therefore generate much larger views of the cosmos while matching Hubble's crisp infrared resolution. In its first five years of operation, Roman will image over 50 times as much of the night sky as Hubble has done since 1990. Though Hubble can still capture something Roman can't provide, high-resolution ultraviolet observations, thus demonstrating that even the oldest of these three 'mega-telescopes' is in no way made obsolete by its predecessors.
This will allow Roman to spot targets in its wide-field view for Hubble to follow up in infrared, and for the JWST to get a clearer and deeper view of.
"Combining the Roman Space Telescope's findings with Hubble's and Webb's could revolutionize our understanding in a multitude of cosmic pursuits," NASA says.(opens in new tab)
ADDITIONAL RESOURCES
The inspiration behind the Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope and so many of NASA's pioneering missions is its first chief astronomer, Nancy Grace Roman. You can read about her life in her own words in an interview conducted before her death in 2018, during a series of interviews she gave with NASA(opens in new tab).
The primary mission of the Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope will be the investigation of dark energy. You can get the lowdown on this mysterious force driving the expansion of the universe, with these resources from NASA(opens in new tab). Put your observation skills to the test with NASA's Roman Space Observer game.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
The Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope, NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, [Accessed 01/26/23], [https://roman.gsfc.nasa.gov/(opens in new tab)]
AI-blog | AI-experts en Elon Musk roepen op om onderzoek stil te leggen
AI-blog | AI-experts en Elon Musk roepen op om onderzoek stil te leggen
Foto: BELGA
Hoe wij omgaan met informatie op het internet is helemaal aan het veranderen. En onze job ziet er straks ook heel anders uit. In deze blog volgen we de pijlsnelle opmars van ChatGPT en generatieve AI.
Gastheer van deze blog: Dominique Deckmyn
Het onderzoek in de meest geavanceerde AI-systemen moet voor zes maanden worden stilgelegd, om overleg mogelijk te maken over noodzakelijke veiligheidsmaatregelen. Die oproep is de jongste uren ondertekend door onder meer Elon Musk, Apple-oprichter Steve Wozniak en historicus Yuval Noah Harari.
De open brief staat op de website van het Future of Life institute. Het groeiende lijstje ondertekenaars omvat al heel wat vooraanstaande tech-ondernemers en denkers. Daar zitten medewerkers bij van verschillende grote spelers in de AI, zoals Deepmind (een zusterbedrijf van Google) en Stability AI (ontwikkelaar van de beeldgenerator Stable Diffusion). Voorlopig is nog niemand gesignaleerd van OpenAI, het bedrijf dat enkele weken geleden zijn meest geavanceerde AI-model, GPT-4 lanceerde.
Opvallend is dat de brief heel nadrukkelijk oproept om alleen de ontwikkeling stil te leggen van systemen ‘krachtiger dan GPT-4’. Koploper OpenAI zou dus de ontwikkeling van een hypothetisch GPT-5 voor zes maanden moeten stilleggen, maar concurrenten zouden ongestoord verder kunnen werken om hun achterstand op OpenAI in te halen. Dat kan de reden zijn dat de topmensen van OpenAI niet, maar die van de concurrenten wél bij de ondertekenaars zijn. Ook het ontwikkelen van AI-toepassingen gebaseerd op bestaande AI-modellen zou niet worden gehinderd.
De brief opent met een waarschuwing voor ‘human-competitive intelligence’ en de maatschappelijke risico’s die samenhangen met het gebruik van AI die de mens naar de kroon steekt. Zo’n ingrijpende verandering in de geschiedenis van het leven op aarde, zegt de brief, moet met grote zorg gepland worden. Maar in plaats daarvan is een ‘ongecontroleerde race’ aan de gang ‘die niemand, zelfs niet de makers, kan begrijpen, voorspellen of controleren’.
De oproep om de ontwikkeling van systemen die GPT-4 overtreffen, voor zes maanden stil te leggen, is geadresseerd aan alle AI-labs. Als daar geen akkoord over wordt bereikt, moeten overheden een moratorium opleggen.
De adempauze van zes maanden moet worden gebruikt om regelgeving en regelgevende autoriteiten op punt te stellen. Een andere geëiste maatregel is een systeem van ingebouwde watermerken, zodat teksten geproduceerd door zo’n AI-systeem als zodanig kunnen worden herkend.
We call on all AI labs to immediately pause for at least 6 months the training of AI systems more powerful than GPT-4.
AI systems with human-competitive intelligence can pose profound risks to society and humanity, as shown by extensive research[1] and acknowledged by top AI labs.[2] As stated in the widely-endorsed Asilomar AI Principles, Advanced AI could represent a profound change in the history of life on Earth, and should be planned for and managed with commensurate care and resources. Unfortunately, this level of planning and management is not happening, even though recent months have seen AI labs locked in an out-of-control race to develop and deploy ever more powerful digital minds that no one – not even their creators – can understand, predict, or reliably control.
Contemporary AI systems are now becoming human-competitive at general tasks,[3] and we must ask ourselves: Should we let machines flood our information channels with propaganda and untruth? Should we automate away all the jobs, including the fulfilling ones? Should we develop nonhuman minds that might eventually outnumber, outsmart, obsolete and replace us? Should we risk loss of control of our civilization? Such decisions must not be delegated to unelected tech leaders. Powerful AI systems should be developed only once we are confident that their effects will be positive and their risks will be manageable. This confidence must be well justified and increase with the magnitude of a system's potential effects. OpenAI's recent statement regarding artificial general intelligence, states that "At some point, it may be important to get independent review before starting to train future systems, and for the most advanced efforts to agree to limit the rate of growth of compute used for creating new models." We agree. That point is now.
Therefore, we call on all AI labs to immediately pause for at least 6 months the training of AI systems more powerful than GPT-4. This pause should be public and verifiable, and include all key actors. If such a pause cannot be enacted quickly, governments should step in and institute a moratorium.
AI labs and independent experts should use this pause to jointly develop and implement a set of shared safety protocols for advanced AI design and development that are rigorously audited and overseen by independent outside experts. These protocols should ensure that systems adhering to them are safe beyond a reasonable doubt.[4] This does not mean a pause on AI development in general, merely a stepping back from the dangerous race to ever-larger unpredictable black-box models with emergent capabilities.
AI research and development should be refocused on making today's powerful, state-of-the-art systems more accurate, safe, interpretable, transparent, robust, aligned, trustworthy, and loyal.
In parallel, AI developers must work with policymakers to dramatically accelerate development of robust AI governance systems. These should at a minimum include: new and capable regulatory authorities dedicated to AI; oversight and tracking of highly capable AI systems and large pools of computational capability; provenance and watermarking systems to help distinguish real from synthetic and to track model leaks; a robust auditing and certification ecosystem; liability for AI-caused harm; robust public funding for technical AI safety research; and well-resourced institutions for coping with the dramatic economic and political disruptions (especially to democracy) that AI will cause.
Humanity can enjoy a flourishing future with AI. Having succeeded in creating powerful AI systems, we can now enjoy an "AI summer" in which we reap the rewards, engineer these systems for the clear benefit of all, and give society a chance to adapt. Society has hit pause on other technologies with potentially catastrophic effects on society.[5] We can do so here. Let's enjoy a long AI summer, not rush unprepared into a fall.
For thousands of years, phallic objects have been used symbolically as a means to boost fertility and ward off evil spirits - but their use as sexual aids has a long history, too.
A 28,000-year-old phallus found in Germany recently, for example, is quoted as being the oldest known 'sex toy' ever found.
While phalluses made from stone, wood, leather and even camel dung have all be found during excavations, or referenced throughout historical text and images.
To celebrate this expansive history of sexual experience, the Wellcome Collection currently has a number of ceremonial sculptures shaped - among other sexual artefacts - as part of its Institute of Sexology exhibition.
A 7.8-inch (20cm) long, 1.1-inch (3cm) wide stone object (pictured) was found in the Hohle Fels Cave near Ulm in the Swabian Jura. The prehistoric ‘tool’ is made from 14 fragments of siltstone and dates back 28,000 years. Due to its size, experts believe it may be the earliest example of a sex aid ever found
The term dildo was first coined in around 1400 AD and originated from the Latin for ‘dilatare’, which means ‘open wide’, and the Italian for delight, which translates as ‘diletto.’
In the Middle East, historical reports reference Egyptians and the Greek using unripe bananas, or camel dung coated in resin as sexual aids.
But the aids were used much earlier, as far back as 500BC, when phalluses were carved out of stone, leather or wood. Some were even made from tar.
PHALLIC SYMBOLS WARD OFF EVIL
Phallic sculptures weren’t just used for sexual pleasure.
In some pagan cultures, a female orgasm was seen as an offering to the gods of fertility, while the phallic symbol was popular during ancient Roman times.
In particular, statues of fertility god Priapus with a large phallus would be used to protect gardens and help crops grow.
In Greek mythology, Priapus was depicted with oversized, permanent erection, which is where the name for the medical term priapism originated.
Priapism is a persistent and often painful erection that lasts for several hours - in rare case, for weeks.
A solid bronze amulet, in the form of Priapus, is among the artefacts displayed at the Wellcome Collection.
Phallic charms of the time were known as fascinum, and were even found in the ruins of Pompeii, and it was believed that the symbols could ward off evil spirits.
Meanwhile, the phallic deity Mutunus Tutunus was a symbol of marital sex.
In Turkey, during the 6th century BC, ancient Anatolians used sculptures of sex organs to ward off evil and ill luck as they believed they contained special powers.
In ancient Greece, in particular, reports claim traders in the city of Miletus made and sold objects called ‘olisbos’, intended to help wives achieve sexual penetration while their husbands were away.
The aids were also used in Renaissance Italy, and were typically made of leather and used with olive oil for lubrication.
High class members of society would even display their sex toys, often made from silver, gold and ivory.
However, they were said to be painful to use and their popularity waned. The first dildos didn’t arrive in the UK until the 1500s.
Honor Beddard, co-curator at the Wellcome Collection said: ‘The Institute of Sexology presents the study of sex in all its complexity and contradiction.
‘It brings together the diverse collections of data, art, testimony and objects of those who challenged preconceived ideas about sex and tells the human stories behind the charting of sexual experience.
‘Highlighting the profound effect that gathering and analysing information can have in changing attitudes about the human condition, the exhibition reveals our understanding of sexual identity as an ever-evolving story.’
The exhibition features rare archival material, erotica, film, photography, medical artefacts and ethnography, all related to sex.
In 2005, a 7.8-inch (20cm) long, 1.1-inch (3cm) wide stone object was found in the Hohle Fels Cave near Ulm in the Swabian Jura.
The prehistoric ‘tool’ is made from 14 fragments of siltstone and dates back 28,000 years.
Due to its size, experts believe it may be the earliest example of a sex aid ever found, but could have also been used for knapping flints to help light fires, said Professor Nicholas Conard, from the department of Early Prehistory and Quaternary Ecology, at Tübingen University.
During excavations at Neolithic site Membury Rings in Dorset in the early 20th century, archaeologists found various deposits of artefacts and other material, including antler, animal and human bone, flints and carved chalk.
Symbol: In Turkey, during the 6th century BC, ancient Anatolians used sculptures of sex organs (pictured) to ward off evil and ill luck as they believed they contained special powers
During excavations at Neolithic site Membury Rings in Dorset, archaeologists found various deposits of artefacts and other material, including antler, animal and human bone, and flints. Among these artefacts was a phallic-shaped object made of chalk (pictured) that measures 4-inches long. However, its use is unknown
Among these artefacts was a phallic-shaped object made from chalk and measures approximately 4-inches long. However, its use is unknown.
But the sculptures weren’t just used for sexual pleasure.
In some pagan cultures, a female orgasm was seen as an offering to the gods of fertility, while the phallic symbol was popular during ancient Roman times.
In particular, statues of fertility god Priapus with a large phallus would be used to protect gardens and help crops grow.
In Greek mythology, Priapus was depicted with oversized, permanent erection, which is where the name for the medical term priapism originated.
Priapism is a persistent and often painful erection that lasts for several hours - in rare case, for weeks.
Statues of fertility god Priapus with a large phallus would be used to protect gardens and help crops grow. Priapus was often depicted with oversized, permanent erection, which is where the name for the medical term priapism originated. Priapism is a persistent and often painful erection that lasts for hours
Phallic charms of the time were known as fascinum (examples pictured), and were even found in the ruins of Pompeii, and it was believed that the symbols could ward off evil spirits. Used in ancient Roman religion and magic, the fascinum referred to the god Fascinus. The phallus was used to summon divine protection
A solid bronze amulet, in the form of Priapus, is among the artefacts displayed at the Wellcome Collection.
Phallic charms of the time were known as fascinum, and were even found in the ruins of Pompeii, and it was believed that the symbols could ward off evil spirits.
Used in ancient Roman religion and magic, the fascinum referred to the god Fascinus. The phallus was used to summon divine protection.
Meanwhile, the phallic deity Mutunus Tutunus was a symbol of marital sex.
The 'Veedee' massager (pictured) is said to have been used by doctors to cure Victorian women of hysteria. But this has been disputed as myth
In Turkey, during the 6th century BC, ancient Anatolians used sculptures of sex organs to ward off evil and ill luck as they believed they contained special powers.
Much later, in 18th century France, the first vibrator called Tremoussoir was built. It was a handheld, wind-up contraption designed by physicians.
In 1869, an American physician George Taylor is credited as creating a steam-powered version called the Manipulator, before an electromechanical vibrator was developed in 1880 by Dr Joseph Granville.
Far from being sexual aids, these devices were said to have been used to treat female hysteria.
Reports claim that doctors as far back as the 13th century doubted that women had libidos and advised using sex toys to alleviate sexual frustration.
Physicians during the 20th century would then use vibrators for clitoral stimulation to treat this so-called hysteria, which comes from the Greek word for uterus.
Symptoms for hysteria included anxiety, sleeplessness, irritability and erotic fantasies.
One such vibrator, called Veedee, is on display at the Wellcome Collection, but a spokesman told MailOnline that its use as a Victorian tool by doctors to induce orgasms has been disputed as myth.
The first rubber dildos have been traced back to around 1850 and they started appearing in movies during the 1930s and 1940s.
At this point, many were called marital aids, rather than sexual aids.
‘At the turn of the century, the vibrator kind of split into two product lines,’ explained technology historian Rachel Maines.
‘One was for doctors and one was for consumers and doctors really hated the idea that there were consumer vibrators out there.
‘There were these relatively inexpensive, some that looked like an egg beater for people who didn't have electricity. And there were battery powered ones.
‘There were even water-powered ones that you could attach to your sink!’
A solid bronze amulet, in the form of Priapus, is among the artefacts displayed at the Wellcome Collection
The Institute of Sexology exhibition features rare archival material, erotica, film, photography, medical artefacts and ethnography, all related to sex. A collection of sexual aids on display is pictured. The exhibition runs at the London-based museum until 20 September 2015
Humans Have Been Keeping Dildos Handy for at Least 28,000 Years
Humans Have Been Keeping Dildos Handy for at Least 28,000 Years
When archaeologists assembled the pieces of an ancient stone artifact discovered in a cave in Germany, it was pretty clear what they’d found. Known as the Hohle Fels phallus, this prehistoric tool dates back 28,000 years and has come to be known popularly as the world’s oldest dildo.
The reconstruction of the so-called dildo by archaeologists from the University of Tübingen was finally announced at a press conference in 2005 after 14 stone fragments were excavated at the Hohle Fels cave in southern Germany. The resulting artifact measured an adequate 20 centimeters (8 in) long and 3 cm (1.2 in) wide.
Described as being smooth and “hard as, well, a rock” in the Huffington Post , this life-sized representation of a phallus was probably used as a sex toy during the Ice Age . “It's highly polished; it's clearly recognizable," said Professor Conard to the BBC. The archaeologists also found evidence that it was used during Paleolithic times to sharpen flints, thanks to marks found on its surface.
Whatever it was, Nicholas Conard from the Tübingen team described it as “very rare.” An article in ACB News explained that this was due to the fact that while artistic representations of female genitalia are “common” during this era, the discovery of representations of male genitalia in the prehistoric record are sparse.
One issue with stone is its resistance to dating. Nevertheless, by looking at other remains discovered in the same ash layer the archaeologists involved in the find claimed that it was created by prehistoric modern humans, i.e. Homo sapiens , as far back as 28,000 years ago.
Although avowals that these objects are dildos abound, the World Journal of Research and Review explained that “these interpretations say a lot more about the mind of the proposers (their own Rorschach-like test) than about reality.” When it comes to the supposed dildo from Hohle Fels, it may well have been a multi-purpose tool, used for anything from “knapping flints” to personal pleasure.
While the thought is rather satisfying, Snopes concluded that “the interpretation of the use of this object is speculative.” Meanwhile, the resulting paper published in Archäologisches Korrespondenzblatt merely stated: “Whether the stone artifact had functions related to its masculine symbolism is difficult to answer.”
Writing about the history of the dildo in All That’s Interesting , John Kuroski speculated that the plethora of ambiguously named “ Ice Age batons ” within excavation inventories could actually be referring to a universe of female pleasure dating back – literally – to the Ice Age. Shaped to serve their purpose, and made out of anything from antler bone to bread sticks, the rediscovery of these bedroom buddies could rewrite the history of female sexuality. A gratifying thought indeed.
Top image: The 28,000-year-old Hohler Fels phallus is thought to be the oldest dildo in the world.
Mystery of Flight N3808H: 'Pilot mentioned a UFO before went missing'
Mystery of Flight N3808H: 'Pilot mentioned a UFO before went missing'
Authentic Mayday radio transmission by Jose Santos Pagan on June 28, 1980. In the second part of the video (03:35-08:31) Puerto Rican UFO researcher Jorge Martin talks about the disappearance of flight N3808H. At the end of his speech he suggests what may have happened to the crew.
At 6:10 P.M. on June 28, 1980, Jose Maldonado Torres and his friend, Jose Pagan Santos, took off from Los Americas International Airport in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic in an Ercoupe aircraft marked N3808H.
The Ercoupe was owned by Santos' father Jose Pagan Jimenez, an Aero Police Officer for Puerto Rico. They were bound for home in Puerto Rico.
At 8:03 P.M. the Las Mesas site and several aircraft picked up radio transmissions from N3808H:
"Mayday, Mayday! Ercoup ocho cero, eight, zero, zero, Hotel. We can see a strange object in our course, we are lost, Mayday, Mayday!"
An Iberia Airlines Flight IB-976 en route from Santo Domingo to Spain responded to the Mayday and received a reply:
"Ah we are going from Santo Domingo ah San Juan International, but we found ah, a weird object in our course that made us change course about three different times, we got it right in front of us now at one o'clock, our heading is zero seven zero degrees… our altitude one thousand six hundred a zero seven zero degrees… our VORs got lost off frequency…"
Iberia Flight IB-976 then relayed a message asking from San Juan Center asking N3808H to turn on their transponder.
N3808H replied that the Ercoup was not equipped with a transponder. At 8:06 Iberia IB-976 asked for their call sign and estimated position and received this reply:
"Right now we are supposed to be at about thirty-five miles from the coast of Puerto Rico but we have something weird in front of us that make us lose course all the time I changed our course a second (unintelligible) our present heading right now is three hundred we are right again in the same stuff, sir."
They were not heard from again. At 8:12, the Atlantic Fleet Weapons Range verified the last radar position of N3808H as thirty-five miles West of Puerto Rico.
A search that included Santos' father was then mounted which centered on this last radar position.
It was discontinued after two days when no trace had been found.
Beste bezoeker, Heb je zelf al ooit een vreemde waarneming gedaan, laat dit dan even weten via email aan Frederick Delaere opwww.ufomeldpunt.be. Deze onderzoekers behandelen jouw melding in volledige anonimiteit en met alle respect voor jouw privacy. Ze zijn kritisch, objectief maar open minded aangelegd en zullen jou steeds een verklaring geven voor jouw waarneming! DUS AARZEL NIET, ALS JE EEN ANTWOORD OP JOUW VRAGEN WENST, CONTACTEER FREDERICK. BIJ VOORBAAT DANK...
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Over mijzelf
Ik ben Pieter, en gebruik soms ook wel de schuilnaam Peter2011.
Ik ben een man en woon in Linter (België) en mijn beroep is Ik ben op rust..
Ik ben geboren op 18/10/1950 en ben nu dus 73 jaar jong.
Mijn hobby's zijn: Ufologie en andere esoterische onderwerpen.
Op deze blog vind je onder artikels, werk van mezelf. Mijn dank gaat ook naar André, Ingrid, Oliver, Paul, Vincent, Georges Filer en MUFON voor de bijdragen voor de verschillende categorieën...
Veel leesplezier en geef je mening over deze blog.
