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 NEARLY 13 YEARS AND 4 MONTH.
ON /30/09/2024 MORE THAN 2.230.520
VISITORS FROM 135 DIFFERENT NATIONS ALREADY FOUND THEIR WAY TO MY BLOG.
THAT IS AN AVERAGE OF 400GUESTS PER DAY.
THANK YOU FOR VISITING MY BLOG AND HOPE YOU ENJOY EACH TIME.
The purpose of this blog is the creation of an open, international, independent and free forum, where every UFO-researcher can publish the results of his/her research. The languagues, used for this blog, are Dutch, English and French.You can find the articles of a collegue by selecting his category. Each author stays resposable for the continue of his articles. As blogmaster I have the right to refuse an addition or an article, when it attacks other collegues or UFO-groupes.
Druk op onderstaande knop om te reageren in mijn forum
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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...
30-04-2023
A New Theory Claims that the "Eye of the Sahara" is Atlantis. Is there Sufficient Evidence?
A New Theory Claims that the "Eye of the Sahara" is Atlantis. Is there Sufficient Evidence?
A new theory doing the rounds on the internet in recent times is that, the geological feature in the Sahara desert known as the “Eye of the Sahara” is the legendary kingdom of Atlantis. My initial reaction was one of skepticism, since Plato had described Atlantis as a large island, as big as Libya and Asia Minor combined, located beyond the Straits of Gibraltar. However, I decided to take a closer look at what the proponents of this idea are claiming to check if that conforms to the descriptions of Atlantis found in the Critias[1] and the Timaeus[2].
The Eye of the Sahara, also known as the “Richat Structure”, is a prominent circular feature in the Sahara desert of Mauritania. It is about 45 km in diameter and forms a conspicuous bull’s-eye in the otherwise featureless expanse of the desert. Since the feature is so large, one cannot really make out the whole structure from the ground. The overall contours were seen only after NASA started sending people to space, and was used as a landmark by shuttle crews. The Gemini-mission astronauts were the first to photograph the formation in the 1960s. Later, Landsat satellite images provided precise information about the size, height, and extent of the structure.
The Eye of the Sahara in Mauritania, Western Africa.
Source: Google Maps
Richat Structure, photographed from the International Space Station, NASA Earth Observatory, Public Domain
The Richat Structure of Mauritania.
Credit: NASA, Public Domain
When the feature was first studied in the 1930s and 40s, it was thought to have been an impact crater, and was known as the Richat Crater. However, subsequent studies revealed that the structure lacks any impact proxies, and, therefore, must have formed due to terrestrial processes. The dominant theory is that it is a highly eroded geological dome. An underlying alkaline igneous intrusion of the Cretaceous age uplifted the overlying sedimentary rocks in the form of a dome. Subsequently, the differential erosion of alternating hard and soft rock layers of this geological dome, created the circular distribution of ridges and valleys. Today, the Eye of the Sahara is somewhat sunken below the level of the surrounding landscapes.
Extensive field mapping and aeromagnetic data has revealed that the sedimentary and igneous rocks have formed two concentric ring dykes around the central dome. A recent journal paper (2021) provides precise data of their dimensions.[3] The central dome is spread over a surface area of about 4 sq.km. It forms a rough topography with vertical structures as high as 40 m. The inner ring dyke, located 3 km from the center, has an estimated thickness of about 30 m. The outer gabbroic ring dyke is located 8 km from the center of the structure with a thickness of about 70 meters.
The Eye of the Sahara, as viewed from Sentinel 2 satellite. Credit: ESA, CC BY-SA IGO 3.0 via Wikimedia Commons
The central zone of the Richat Structure displays a large unit of collapse breccia with hydrothermal internal sediments of Cretaceous age.
Credit: Michel Jebrak, CC BY-SA 4.0 via Wikimedia Commons
With that overview, let’s investigate why it has been proposed as a likely location of Atlantis. To the best of my knowledge, the hypothesis was first advanced by Martin K. Ettington in his book The Real Atlantis: In the Eye of the Sahara (2018), although I can’t be sure if someone else had made the connection earlier. A YouTube video, posted on the Bright Insight channel in 2023, provides additional arguments. Let us see if the evidence stacks up in favor of this hypothesis.
Artist's representation of Atlantis, as described by Plato. Credit: Rocio Espin Pinar
At first sight, the Richat Structure does bear an uncanny structural similarity to Atlantis since it has two concentric bands of ring dykes separated by eroded valleys. As per Plato’s description of Atlantis in the Critias, the central island of Atlantis - on which was located the hill where Poseidon and his mortal wife Cleito lived – was enclosed by two zones of land and three zones of water. The text states,
“Poseidon breaking the ground, enclosed the hill in which she (Cleito) dwelt all round, making alternate zones of sea and land, larger and smaller, encircling one another; there were two of land and three of water, which he turned as with a lathe, each having its circumference equidistant every way from the centre.”
Let us look at the dimensions of the central island and the land and sea zones of Atlantis. As per the Critias, “The (central) island in which the palace was situated had a diameter of five stadia.” The measure of a Greek stade (pluralstadia) is generally taken as 180 meters. Thus, the diameter of the central island was 900 meters. This gives an estimated area of 0.63 sq.km, which is 6-times less than the area of the central dome of the Richat structure (4 sq.km). Nevertheless, the areas are comparable in magnitude. In fact, I was pleasantly surprised that the central dome of the Richat Structure covers such a large area. You do need a lot of space for the royal palace, temples, statues of gold, fountains, groves, baths, gardens, buildings, guard houses and docks that had been built on the central island of Atlantis, where the kings and their family lived.
A comparison of Atlantis and the Richat Structure.
As per the Critias, the outermost zones of land and sea of Atlantis were three stadia (540 meters) in width, the inner zones of land and sea were two stadia (360 meters) in width, while the zone of sea which surrounded the central island was one stadium (180 meters) in width. Here is the relevant section from the text:
“Now the largest of the zones into which a passage was cut from the sea was three stadia in breadth, and the zone of land which came next of equal breadth; but the next two zones, the one of water, the other of land, were two stadia, and the one which surrounded the central island was a stadium only in width.”
The dimensions of the zones of land and sea in Atlantis do not match with that of the Richat Structure. The inner ring dyke has an estimated width of only 30 meters as opposed to 360 meters in Atlantis, while the outer dyke has a width of 70 meters as opposed to 540 meters for Atlantis. The width of the ring dykes seem too small to support a city with all its amenities. However, on careful reading of the Critias, I found that these two zones of land had gardens, places for exercise for men and horses, a race course etc. It seems to me that these two zones were used primarily by the army for protecting the central island, with the zones of water acting as “moats”. People who provided support services to the royal palace may have also lived here. It was not a place meant for common people. If that were the case, the narrow widths of the ring dykes would have sufficed.
The width of the zones of water surrounding the central island of Atlantis doesn’t correlate with the Richat Structure either. The first zone of water was said to be one stadium (180 meters) wide, whereas in the Richat structure, the inner dyke is 3 km from the center, which means the width of the eroded valley is approx. 2 km (since the radius of the central dome is approx. 1 km). The second zone of water was two stadia (360 meters) wide, while the outer dyke in the Richat structure is 8 km from the center, which means the width of the eroded valley is nearly 5 km. The third zone of water was three stadia (540 meters) wide, while the width of the third eroded valley works out to nearly 14.5 km (assuming the Richat Structure is 45 km wide).
The overall diameter of the concentric zones of Atlantis was 27 stadia i.e. 4.8 km, while the diameter of the Richat Structure is around 45 km. So, the Richat Structure is nearly 10 times larger. Even though the dimensions do not match, it is quite interesting that the width of the zones of land and water are in increasing proportion in case of Atlantis as well as the Richat Structure.
As per the Critias, the concentric bands of land and sea was in the southern part of the island, around 50 stadia i.e. 9 km from the surrounding ocean. The Atlanteans had built a canal from the sea to the outermost zone of water. This is what the text states:
“And beginning from the sea they bored a canal of three hundred feet in width and one hundred feet in depth and fifty stadia in length, which they carried through to the outermost zone, making a passage from the sea up to this, which became a harbour, and leaving an opening sufficient to enable the largest vessels to find ingress.”
However the Eye of the Sahara is located nearly 500 km from the Atlantic coast, and there is no sign of any canal linking it to the ocean. Even if we assume that the canal may have existed in the past and got covered over during the YD period or by subsequent erosional processes, it is impossible for water to have flowed from the Atlantic Ocean to the Richat Structure, which is located 400 meters above sea level! During the Ice Age, sea levels were a further 120 meters lower. How on earth would sea water flow up such a gradient?
Artist’s representation of Atlantis, depicting the canal from the sea. Credit: Rocio Espin Pinar
Plato also mentions that the Atlanteans had built bridges from the central island to the rest of the city. They also cut channels through the zones of land, so that ships could reach the central island. Every passage to the city was guarded by gates and towers, and a wall surrounded each of the city's rings. The walls were constructed of red, white and black rock, and were covered with brass, tin and orichalcum. Moreover, the entire city was encircled by an outer wall which was at a distance of 50 stadia i.e. 9 km from the outermost zone. The Critias states,
“Leaving the palace and passing out across the three harbours, you came to a wall which began at the sea and went all round: this was everywhere distant fifty stadia from the largest zone or harbour, and enclosed the whole, the ends meeting at the mouth of the channel which led to the sea. The entire area was densely crowded with habitations.”
The ordinary people lived outside the concentric zones, but within the outer wall of Atlantis. This means there was a significant urban sprawl outside the concentric zones. The overall diameter of the city of Atlantis, therefore works out to (50 + 13.5)*2 = 127 stadia or 22.86 km, which is roughly half the width of the Richat Structure (45 km).
Atlantis probably had a significant urban sprawl outside the concentric zones. Credit: Rocio Espin Pinar
Clearly, the dimensions of the Richat Structure and Atlantis don’t match up. But what about the archaeological remains of Atlantis? If a large civilization like Atlantis had flourished in the Eye of the Sahara, and then got destroyed by a global catastrophe sometime during the Younger Dryas period, then it would have left some material traces – pottery fragments, carved stone blocks, tools and utensils made of gold, silver, brass, tin, orichalcum, wood, ivory etc. which the Atlanteans were said to have used in profusion. But archaeologists have found nothing of that sort. Instead, what they found was an exceptional accumulation of Acheulean artifacts.[4] Acheulean is an archaeological industry of stone tool manufacture characterized by oval and pear-shaped hand axes associated with Homo erectus. They were produced during the Lower Palaeolithic era across Africa and much of West Asia, South Asia, East Asia and Europe. It is thought that Acheulean technologies first developed about 1.76 million years ago, and lasted until as late as 130,000 years ago.[5] In addition to Acheulean artifacts,
“Sparse and widely scattered Neolithic spear points and other artifacts have also been found. However, since these sites were first discovered by Theodore Monod in 1974, mapping of artifacts within the area of the Richat Structure have found them to be generally absent in its innermost depressions. So far, neither recognizable midden deposits (i.e. old dump for domestic waste) nor manmade structures have been recognized and reported from the Richat Structure. This is interpreted as indicating that the area of the Richat Structure was used for only short-term hunting and stone tool manufacturing.”[6]
Thus, the archaeological evidence for an Atlantis-like civilization is completely absent in the Richat Structure, and the area seems to have been inhabited by Homo erectus in a very remote past and later by Neolithic hunter-gatherers.
Stones and salt flats inside the Richat Structure. Credit: LBM1948, CC BY-SA 4.0 via Wikimedia Commons
The island of Atlantis was much larger than the city, which, as we have discussed was around 127 stadia in diameter and surrounded by an outer wall. Beyond the city wall, Atlantis had large fertile plains that extended for hundreds of kilometers. As per the Critias,
“The whole country was said by him to be very lofty and precipitous on the side of the sea, but the country immediately about and surrounding the city was a level plain, itself surrounded by mountains which descended towards the sea; it was smooth and even, and of an oblong shape, extending in one direction three thousand stadia (540 km), but across the centre inland it was two thousand stadia (360 km).”
So, we are basically talking of an enormous, oblong-shaped island, surrounded by high mountains, which measured 540 km by 360 km. The city of Atlantis, with its concentric zones of land and water in the center, was located at the southern end of the island, 9 km from the sea.
The Richat Structure, however, is not an island, but is located inland, nearly 500 km from the Atlantic coast. An interesting correlation here is that, one of the diameters of Atlantis was around 540 km, which is quite close to the distance between the Richat Structure and the Atlantic coast i.e. 500 km. The region beyond the Richat Structure would have been green and fertile during the African Humid phase (9500 BCE – 3500 BCE), supporting farmlands, forests, rivers, lakes and abundant wildlife of every kind. In that respect it conforms to the fertile outer plains of Atlantis. Plato states that a large circular ditch encircled the plain around the city. No sign of such a circular ditch exists around the Richat Structure in the present day.
“It (the circular ditch) was excavated to the depth of a hundred, feet, and its breadth was a stadium (180 m) everywhere; it was carried round the whole of the plain, and was ten thousand stadia in length (1800 km). It received the streams which came down from the mountains, and winding round the plain and meeting at the city, was there let off into the sea. Further inland, likewise, straight canals of a hundred feet in width were cut from it through the plain, and again let off into the ditch leading to the sea.”
Finally, let us talk about the location of Atlantis specified by Plato. Plato was very clear that Atlantis was located beyond the Pillars of Hercules, which is now known as the Straits of Gibraltar. In fact, the extremity of the island was close to the Strait, for Plato wrote that, the twin brother of Atlas ruled over “the extremity of the island towards the Pillars of Heracles, facing the country which is now called the region of Gades.” To reach the Richat Structure, on the other hand, one need not cross the Strait of Gibraltar by boat, but travel overland though Africa.
One of the interesting points that Martin Ettington had raised in support of his argument is that, ancient Greek maps, based on “The Histories” (c.450 BCE), written by Herodotus, shows a place called Atlantes in north-west Africa, near Mount Atlas. He claims that this is an indication that the Greeks knew that Atlantis was in Africa and was not an island in the Atlantic Ocean.
A world map based on “The Histories” of Herodotus. Atlantes is a group of people living near Mount Atlas.
This is a highly presumptive deduction, for according to Herodotus, “Atlantes” is not a place, but a group of people who live near Mount Atlas and derive their name from this mountain. This is what he wrote:
“Another ten days' journey from the Garamantes there is again a salt hill and water, where men live called Atarantes. These are the only men whom we know who have no names; for the whole people are called Atarantes, but no man has a name of his own. When the sun is high, they curse and very foully revile him, because his burning heat afflicts their people and their land. After another ten days' journey there is again a hill of salt, and water, and men living there. Near to this salt is a mountain called Atlas, whose shape is slender and conical; and it is said to be so high that its heights cannot be seen, for clouds are always on them winter and summer. The people of the country call it the “pillar of heaven”. These men get their name, which is Atlantes, from this mountain. It is said that they eat no living creature, and see no dreams in their sleep…I know and can tell the names of all the peoples that live on the ridge as far as the Atlantes, but no farther than that. But I know this, that the ridge reaches as far as the Pillars of Heracles and beyond them.”[7]
It is obvious that the “Atlantes” people are not related to the island-kingdom of Atlantis described by Plato, but derive their name from Mount Atlas, which borders the Mediterranean Sea and the Atlantic Ocean. Incidentally, Mount Atlas, which is regarded by the natives as the “pillar of heaven” derives its name from Atlas, the Titan of Greek mythology, who was condemned to hold up the heavens for eternity after the Titanomachy. Atlas also became the first king of the ancient region of Mauretania (modern-day Morocco and west Algeria, not to be confused with the modern-day country of Mauritania which is to the south and where the Richat Structure is located). Plato had mentioned that the first king of Atlantis was Atlas, but this Atlas was a different person, being the son of Poseidon the god of the sea and Cleito, a mortal woman.
On the whole, there are some interesting correlations between the Richat Structure and Atlantis, as well as many disparities. Let me sum up the correlations first. The central dome of the Richat Structure occupies a large area of 4 sq.km, which is 6-times larger than central island of Atlantis, but still within the range of comparison. The Richat Structure has two concentric ring dykes, and three eroded valleys, corresponding to the two zones of land and three zones of sea in Atlantis. The width of the zones of land and sea in Atlantis are in increasing proportion as are the widths of the ring dykes and eroded valleys in the Richat Structure. During the Ice Age, the Richat Structure would have been surrounded by the fertile, green plains of the Sahara with abundant natural resources, just as Atlantis was said to be enclosed by fertile plains.
However, there are many points which do not match up. The diameter of the concentric zones of Atlantis was 4.8 km, which is 10-times less than the diameter of the Richat Structure i.e. 45 km. The width of the zones of land in Atlantis are much larger than the width of the ring dykes in the Richat Structure (30m and 70m wide). There is no way that the eroded valleys between the dykes could have been filled with sea water during the Ice Age, since it is 400 m above current sea level, and would have been nearly 520 m above sea level during the Ice Age. There is no sign of a channel linking the Richat Structure with the Atlantic coast, which is nearly 500 km away. There are no archaeological remains of a high civilization or a permanent habitation at the site, other than tools associated with Homo erectus and Neolithic hunter-gatherers. No evidence has been found of a circular ditch in the outer plains. Finally, Plato had described Atlantis as a massive island located beyond the Straits of Gibraltar, measuring 540 km by 360 km, and surrounded by steep mountains that descend to the sea. The Richat Structure, on the other hand, is an inland geological feature, roughly 45 km in diameter, which can be reached from within the Straits by traveling overland.
Richat Structure. Credit: USGS/EROS/NASA/Landsat, Public Domain
So, what do we conclude from this? I think, going by the large number of disparities, it would be quite a stretch to claim that the Eye of the Sahara is the Atlantis described by Plato. On the other hand, we know that legends undergo a lot of modifications and exaggerations over time. The story of Atlantis had been transmitted by means of oral tradition for more than 9000 years after Atlantis was destroyed, before it was written down by Plato. We can’t assume, therefore, that everything Plato wrote about Atlantis was correct. The original Atlantis may not have looked exactly the same as Plato described it. We also know that the people of the ancient times were not big on geography. The ancient Greek maps of the world were quite childish when compared to modern globes. Hence, the descriptions of the geography of Atlantis by Plato may not have been spot on. So, we need to loosen up a bit, and start asking some questions.
What if the original Atlantis was not really an island, but an inland geological feature like the Richat Structure, which gave the impression of being an island because it was surrounded by multiple zones of water? Over time, this could have led to the idea that the entire kingdom of Atlantis, 540 km by 360 km in dimension, was an island.
Could it not be that there were rivers and waterways which connected the Richat Structure with the Atlantic coast during the Ice Age, and the kings and merchants of Atlantis used to sail up the Atlantic coast and enter the Mediterranean Sea through the Straits of Gibraltar, which gave rise to the notion of a large island-kingdom located beyond the Straits of Gibraltar?
What if the eroded valleys between the ring dykes were not filled with sea water but with freshwater that was brought in through canals from the many rivers and streams that crisscrossed the Sahara during the Ice Age? Plato mentions that the Atlanteans built many canals which connected their rivers with these zones of water. After the African Humid phase ended, these rivers and canals may have dried up and disappeared. The remnants of one possible canal can be seen towards the southern end of the Richat Structure. Tenochtitlan, the capital of the Aztec Empire, was built on an island in the middle of a freshwater lake called Lake Texcoco. So, why not Atlantis? In fact, it would make a lot more sense for a city to be built in the middle of a freshwater lake, for that would give you easy access to water for drinking and other household purposes.
Richat Structure, Mauritania. Water could have flowed into the structure through the opening on the left. Credit: NASA/JPL/NIMA, Public Domain
We can see from the images that the ring dykes in the Richat Structure are not continuous but have breaks in some places. Perhaps, this is how the water from the outer zones flowed into the inner zones, and not through a single channel as Plato had described? It would make sense to have multiple points of entry and exit into such a large island-city, in order to reduce travel time, effort and traffic logjams in the water zones.
It is now scientifically established that fragments of a large comet struck the Earth at the Younger Dryas boundary and set off a global chain of cataclysms – wildfires, tsunamis, earthquakes, acid rain etc. - that destroyed the civilizations of that period. What if the cataclysms of the Younger Dryas struck the Richat Structure with such ferocity that it was virtually scrubbed clean of all the artifacts produced by the Atlanteans? Perhaps, that is why archaeologists have found Acheulean artifacts associated with Homo erectus (c.1.7 Mya – 130 K BP), followed by Neolithic stone tools (from c. 8000 BCE), and nothing for the period in-between, which is the time when Atlantis is said to have flourished? Maybe, all the evidence of an Atlantean civilization have been washed away to sea?
So, where do we stand? If we are looking for a precise match between the Atlantis described by Plato and the Eye of the Sahara, then we are not going to find it, for there are plenty of dissimilarities. However, if we go by the spirit of the story of Atlantis, and not get bogged down by too many details, knowing fully well that the legend must have undergone distortions and embellishments in course of oral transmissions over nearly 9000 years, then there is a glimmer of hope that the Eye of the Sahara could, indeed, be the location of Atlantis. It may well have been the “real” Atlantis, which served as an inspiration for the legend. The latitude of the Richat Structure (21.7° N) is very close to the Tropic of Cancer, which means it would have enjoyed moderate climate even during the peak of the Ice Age. That, combined with a green, fertile Sahara, would have provided all the natural resources needed for a large civilization to thrive. Perhaps, future discoveries will shed more light on whether this line of thinking has any merit or not.
References
[1] Plato, Critias (360 BCE), tr. by Benjamin Jowett, https://www.sacred-texts.com/cla/plato/critias.htm$
[2] Plato, Timaeus (360 BCE), tr. by Benjamin Jowett, https://www.sacred-texts.com/cla/plato/timaeus.htm
[3] El Houssein Abdeina, Sara Bazin, Gilles Chazot, Hervé Bertrand, Bernard Le Gall, Nasrrddine Youbi, Mohamed Salem Sabar, Mohamed Khalil Bensalah, Moulay Ahmed Boumehdi, "Geophysical modelling of the deep structure of the Richat magmatic intrusion (northern Mauritania): insights into its kinematics of emplacement", Arabian Journal of Geosciences (2021) 14:2315, https://doi.org/10.1007/s12517-021-08734-4
SpaceX Starship Effectively Grounded by FAA After in-Flight Explosion
It was an exciting time when, two weeks ago, SpaceX got the clearance it needed to conduct its first orbital flight test with the Starshipand Super Heavy launch system. After years of waiting, SN flight tests, static fire tests, and stacking and unstacking, the long-awaited test of the SN24 Starship and BN7 Booster prototype was on! For this flight, SpaceX hoped to achieve an altitude of at least 150 km (90 mi) above sea level, crossing the 100 km (62 mi) threshold that officially marks the boundary of “space” (aka. the Karman Line) and making a partial transit around the world before splashing down off the coast of Hawaii.
Unfortunately, things began to go awry a few minutes into the flight as the Starship prototype failed to separate from the booster, sending the rocket into a spin that ended in an explosion. While Musk and SpaceX issued statements that the test was largely successful and lots of valuable data was obtained, residents and environmental researchers claim the explosion caused damage to houses in the area and the local environment. In response, the FAA has launched a “mishap investigation,” temporarily grounding the Starship until the explosion’s impact can be assessed.
The timing of the flight test was certainly fortuitous, falling on April 20th (4/20) exactly as Musk had previously predicted. Everything appeared to be in the green as all 33 engines of the BN7 booster fired, and the fully-stacked and fueled prototype lifted off without incident. About three and a half minutes into the flight, when stage separation was supposed to occur, the Starship began an uncontrolled tumble and was destroyed by onboard charges. The SN24 and BN7 managed to reach an altitude of 40 km (25 miles) before the anomaly occurred.
Musk commended the ground teams, tweeting, “Congrats @SpaceX team on an exciting test launch of Starship! Learned a lot for next test launch in a few months.” At the same time, it was clear that some sizeable changes needed to be made. In addition to the mid-air explosion, the launch also destroyed the launchpad, which sent debris flying in all directions. This raised the issue of a deluge system that the Boca Chica launch site does not have (unlike other launch facilities). These systems rely on a “flame trench” to channel rocket exhaust and water or foam to suppress shockwaves and flames.
Musk was sure to temper expectations before the flight, saying in a Twitter discussion on April 16th that when you have a spacecraft that’s got “33 engines on the booster, got six engines on the upper stage of the ship. It’s a lot of engines! It’s like having a box of grenades, really big grenades.” He was also sure to cite SpaceX’s track record with rapid prototyping, which has always involved “testing to failure” and a lot of trial and error:
“This is really kind of the sort of first step in a very long journey that will require many, many flights. For those that have followed the history of Falcon 9, and Falcon 1 actually, and our attempts at reusability, I think it might have been close to 20 attempts before we actually recovered a stage. And then it took many more flights before we had reusability that was meaningful, where we didn’t have to rebuild the whole rocket.”
To residents and environmentalists, the test was not an occasion for celebration. Ever since SpaceX broke ground in Boca Chica and began testing, Musk has had a strained relationship with the locals, who have frequently complained about noise and the impact these tests have on their communities and the natural environment. According to Pablo De La Rosa, a reporter with Texas Public Radio (TPR) and NPR, there were multiple reports of “particulates” raining down on South Padre Island up the coast and on the nearby town of Port Isabel.
The IOP/SS system deploys almost a half-million gallons of water in one minute to protect the SLS during launch. Credit: NASA
Residents in the town also reported broken windows “and ash-like particles covering their homes and schools.” The Sierra Club cited similar reports, with Dan Cortez (Lone Star chapter director) stating in an interview with CNBC that the destruction of the launchpad caused collateral damage that could have been much worse. “Concrete shot out into the ocean, and risked hitting the fuel storage tanks which are these silos adjacent to the launch pad,” he said. With mid-air explosions, there are also concerns that residual propellant (which are often toxic) could rain down on the surface, causing environmental damage.
A post-launch assessment by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) is standard practice in cases like this. As the Administration explained in a statement regarding Recent Aviation Accidents and Incidents (issued on April 20th):
“The FAA will oversee the mishap investigation of the Starship / Super Heavy test mission. A return to flight of the Starship / Super Heavy vehicle is based on the FAA determining that any system, process, or procedure related to the mishap does not affect public safety. This is standard practice for all mishap investigations. The FAA is responsible for protecting the public during commercial space transportation launch and reentry operations.”
In other words, the FAA has effectively grounded SpaceX’s testing efforts at Boca Chica until they can determine if future flight tests will threaten public health, safety, and the local environment. This will likely result in a list of mandatory actions that SpaceX must complete to keep its license and resume testing. At this juncture, Musk is already prepared to address the issue of a deluge system, which he has admitted his crews looked at in the past but decided was unnecessary. Nevertheless, he also hinted before the launch that “melting the launch pad” was a real possibility.
In any case, Musk appeared to be admitting on April 21st that the decision to proceed without first installing a cooling system beneath the launchpad was a mistake, tweeting: “3 months ago, we started building a massive water-cooled, steel plate to go under the launch mount. Wasn’t ready in time & we wrongly thought, based on static fire data, that Fondag would make it through 1 launch. Looks like we can be ready to launch again in 1 to 2 months.”
At this juncture, a month or two seems optimistic, considering that the full impact could take weeks and corrective actions could take much longer to implement. It could turn out that the FAA will demand that a full deluge system is necessary, that additional protections are needed to prevent debris from striking fuel tanks, and that SpaceX install a launch abort system that will force the Starship and Super Heavy to separate in the event of an anomaly. This last item would ensure that at least the booster (the most explosive element) can remove itself and return safely to a landing site.
It’s even also remotely possible the FAA will revoke SpaceX’s license, and Musk will decide to relocate all testing to Cape Canaveral, where SpaceX is still working on a second launch facility. Then again, this may all be resolved shortly, and SpaceX could be testing prototypes again by mid-summer. As the company’s adage famously goes, “Launch. Recover. Repeat.” In this case, “recover” may mean repairing the damage caused by a test gone wrong and ensuring it never happens again. But the next step remains the same – Repeat!
Or, to paraphrase another famous adage, “Explosion will continue until launches improve!”
Dark Couple – Most Massive Touching Stars Ever Found Will Eventually Collide As Black Holes
Dark Couple – Most Massive Touching Stars Ever Found Will Eventually Collide As Black Holes
The smaller, brighter, hotter star (left), which is 32 times the mass of our Sun, is currently losing mass to its bigger companion (right), which has 55 times the mass of our Sun. The stars are white and blue as they are so hot: 43,000 and 38,000 degrees Kelvin respectively.
Credit: UCL / J. daSilva
Binary star on course for black hole merger. The smaller, brighter, hotter star (left), which is 32 times the mass of our Sun, is currently losing mass to its bigger companion (right), which has 55 times the mass of our Sun.
Two massive touching stars in a neighbouring galaxy are on course to become black holes that will eventually crash together, generating waves in the fabric of space-time, according to a new study by researchers at University College London and the University of Potsdam.
Comparing the results of their observations with theoretical models of binary stars’ evolution, they found that, in the best-fit model, the star that is currently being fed on will become a black hole and will feed on its companion star. The surviving star will become a black hole shortly after.
These black holes will form in only a couple of million years, but will then orbit each other for billions of years before colliding with such force that they will generate gravitational waves – ripples in the fabric of space-time.
PhD student Matthew Rickard (UCL Physics & Astronomy), lead author of the study, said: “Thanks to gravitational wave detectors Virgo and LIGO, dozens of black hole mergers have been detected in the last few years. But so far we have yet to observe, stars that are predicted to collapse into black holes of this size and merge in a time scale shorter than or even broadly comparable to the age of the universe. Our best-fit model suggests these stars will merge as black holes in 18 billion years. Finding stars on this evolutionary pathway so close to our Milky Way galaxy presents us with an excellent opportunity to learn even more about how these black hole binaries form.”
: “This binary star is the most massive contact binary observed so far. The smaller, brighter, hotter star, 32 times the mass of the Sun, is currently losing mass to its bigger companion, which has 55 times our Sun’s mass” co-author Daniel Pauli, a PhD student at the University of Potsdam, said in a press release.
In their study, the researchers measured different bands of light coming from the binary star (spectroscopic analysis), using data obtained over multiple periods of time by instruments on NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope (HST) and the Multi Unit Spectroscopic Explorer (MUSE) on ESO’s Very Large Telescope in Chile, among other telescopes, in wavelengths ranging from ultraviolet to optical to near infrared. With this data, the team were able to calculate the radial velocity of the stars – that is, the movement they made towards or away from us – as well as their masses, brightness, temperature and orbits. They then matched these parameters with the best-fit evolutionary model.
Their spectroscopic analysis indicated that much of the outer envelope of the smaller star had been stripped away by its larger companion. They also observed the radius of both stars exceeded their Roche lobe – that is, the region around a star where material is gravitationally bound to that star – confirming that some of the smaller star’s material is overflowing and transferring to the companion star.
Talking through the future evolution of the stars, Rickard explained: “The smaller star will become a black hole first, in as little as 700,000 years, either through a spectacular explosion called a supernova or it may be so massive as to collapse into a black hole with no outward explosion.
“They will be uneasy neighbours for around three million years before the first black hole starts accreting mass from its companion, taking ‘revenge’ on its companion.”
Pauli, who conducted the modelling work, added: “After only 200,000 years, an instant in astronomical terms, the companion star will collapse into a black hole as well. These two massive stars will continue to orbit each other, going round and round every few days for billions of years. Slowly they will lose this orbital energy through the emission of gravitational waves until they orbit each other every few seconds, finally merging together in 18 billion years with a huge release of energy through gravitational waves.”
UFO over Arizona, Colorado, New Mexico and Texas on Thursday, Video, UFO Sighting News.
UFO over Arizona, Colorado, New Mexico and Texas on Thursday, Video, UFO Sighting News.
Date of sighting: April 27, 2023
Location of sighting: Albuquerque, New Mexico, USA
This object was flying much to slow to be a meteor. It's actually about 10X slower, so yeah, much. The object was recorded passing over Arizona, Colorado, New Mexico and Texas on Thursday and was actually recorded from 37 different eyewitnesses across the US on Thursday. This was a UfO. UFOs that are large will have to find a way to disguise themselves so everyone on the ground who sees them will shrug away thoughts of it being nothing important. So the UFO will create a long tail, no fire, just a gaseous tail and powerful white glow, but it moves as slow as a passenger jet. So yeah, didn't fool me at all there. Watch the video below and judge for yourself. Aliens are intelligent and pride themselves on being smarter than humans. Nah...not today aliens. Not smarter today.
Numerous accounts, in-depth investigations, and genuine testimonies from those who have encountered UFOs come together to explore the enigmatic realm of ufology. Delve into a world shrouded in mystery as a team of dedicated researchers share their experiences and expertise, guiding us through the methods of investigation, the rich history of ufology, and the complex psychological reactions of the human mind during close encounters. Experience this fascinating journey as we uncover hidden truths and venture into the unknown, seeking answers to the questions that have captivated humanity for decades.
'Scary Barbie' is an incredibly bright cosmic object that has been burning for two years, and it has yet to sputter out.
An artist's illustration of a black hole swallowing a star, the event that gave rise to Scary Barbie.
(Image credit: Mark Garlick/Science Photo Library via Getty Images)
Astronomers have detected one of the longest, brightest and most energetic cosmic objects ever observed — and they've named it "Scary Barbie," in part due to its terrifying power.
The remote object, an astonishingly bright flash of light that has lasted for more than two years, was discovered lurking inside an enormous data set gathered by computer-guided telescopes.
After finding the brightly burning patch of sky in the data and cross-referencing it with observations made by other telescopes, the astronomers realized they had stumbled across one of the most powerful cosmic explosions ever witnessed. They reported their findings April 17 on the preprint server arXiv(opens in new tab), and their paper has been accepted for publication in The Astrophysical Journal Letters.
"It's absurd. If you take a typical supernova and multiply it a thousand times, we're still not at how bright this is — and supernovas are among the most luminous objects in the sky," co-author Danny Milisavljevic(opens in new tab), an assistant professor of physics and astronomy at Purdue University, said in a statement(opens in new tab). "This is the most energetic phenomenon I have ever encountered."
Scary Barbie was born from the final death throes of a star being torn to shreds by a supermassive black hole.
Black holes feed upon unfortunate stars that cross their paths, using tidal forces exerted by their immense gravitational pulls. As the star is reeled ever closer to the black hole's maw, the gravity affecting the regions of the star closer to the black hole is far stronger than that acting on the star's farside. This disparity "spaghettifies" the star into a long, noodle-like string that gets tightly wound around the black hole layer by layer — like spaghetti around a fork.
This noodle of hot plasma then quickly accelerates around the black hole and spins out into an enormous jet of energy and matter, which produces a distinctive bright beam of light — known as a transient event — that optical, X-ray and radio-wave telescopes can detect.
Because Scary Barbie's light came from a remote region of the sky — traveling around 7.7 billion years across the expanding fabric of space-time — astronomers didn't spot the event directly. Instead, by developing a machine-learning system called Recommender Engine For Intelligent Transient Tracking, the researchers combed through data from many observations before finding the extremely bright light source. By using the Lick Observatory in California and the Keck Observatory in Hawaii, the researchers were better able to characterize the light as coming from a transient event.
But Scary Barbie — a nickname made by appending its randomly assigned alphanumeric name, ZTF20abrbeie, with a reference to its frightening power — is weird even among other rare and extreme astronomical events. It is much brighter than any other transient event the astronomers could compare it to, and, while transient events usually last only weeks or months, Scary Barbie has already burned incandescently for more than two years, with no indication it will sputter out.
The astronomers said further observations of Scary Barbie, possibly using the Hubble Space Telescope and the James Webb Space Telescope, could enable them to snap some high-resolution images of the incredibly rare cosmic outburst.
"There are few things in the universe that can be so powerful, reactions that can be this long-lived," Milisavljevic said. "Discoveries like this really open our eyes to the fact that we are still uncovering mysteries and exploring wonders in the universe — things no one has ever seen before."
Qicheng Zang, a California Institute of Technology PhD student who is the lead author of the study, used the Solar and Heliospheric Observatory spacecraft to examine Phaethon and its tail. Most asteroids, made of rock, do not usually form tails as they approach the sun, according to NASA. Comets, which are made of rock and ice, usually form tails.
Based on the study of Phaethon, Zhang and other scientists wonder whether some comets may not actually be comets.
"A lot of those other sunskirting 'comets' may also not be 'comets' in the usual, icy body sense, but may instead be rocky asteroids like Phaethon heated up by the sun," Zhang said in a NASA post.
Phaethon is also the source of the annual Geminid meteor shower, even though comets cause most meteor showers. When astronomers thought Phaethon's tail was made of dust, this made sense because burning bits of the debris trail produce meteor showers. Now experts are left looking to answer how Phaethon, with its sodium gas tail, provides material for the Geminid meteor shower each December.
There may have been a disruptive event a few thousand years ago that caused Phaethon to eject the material making up the Geminid debris stream, Zhang's team said.
Researchers may get more answers later this decade. An upcoming Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency mission called DESTINY+ is expected to fly past Phaethon, imaging its rocky surface and studying any dust that might exist around the asteroid.
Phaethon also caught NASA's attention in 2017 when it came close enough to Earth that it was classified as "potentially hazardous" by the International Astronomical Union's Minor Planet Center.
In 1859, while exploring the remote island of Bacan in the North Moluccas, Indonesia, the renowned naturalist Alfred Russel Wallace made an astounding discovery: the Megachile pluto — the world’s largest bee. Wallace described the bee, which is about four times the size of a honeybee, as a “large black wasp-like insect, with immense jaws like a stag-beetle.” But for more than a century, that was the only known sighting of the Megachile pluto, and some feared that deforestation had rendered the giant insect extinct.
In 1981, biologist Adam Messer discovered several Megachile nests on Bacan and neighboring islands — a sight so rare that locals said they’d never before seen the nests. Again, it would be the only known sighting for decades.
Then, several years ago, Eli Wyman, an entomologist at the American Museum of Natural History, and nature photographer Clay Bolt teamed up to go rediscover Wallace’ giant bee. In early 2018, the pair saw that a Megachile specimen had sold for $9,000 on eBay, creating a new sense of urgency to travel to Indonesia to find the bee.
“We decided that we had to go there,” Bolt told Earther. “Number one, to see it in the wild, to document it, but also to make local contacts in Indonesia that could begin to work with us as partners to try and figure out how to protect the bee.”
In January, Clay, Wyman and other researchers finally rediscovered Wallace’s giant bee, this time in a termites’ nest in a tree.
“It was absolutely breathtaking to see this ‘flying bulldog’ of an insect that we weren’t sure existed any more,” Clay Bolt, the photographer who captured the first images of the species alive, told the BBC. “To actually see how beautiful and big the species is in life, to hear the sound of its giant wings thrumming as it flew past my head, was just incredible.”
FEARS OF SPARKING A COLLECTORS’ FRENZY
The hope, among scientist and conservationists, is that the existence of a sole female in the wild means the region’s forests still harbor a sustainable population of the giant bees. One concern, however, is that the news will spark frenzy among collectors willing to pay big money for rare specimens.
The world's largest bee -- roughly the size of a human thumb -- has been rediscovered in a remote part of Indonesia in its firstsighting in nearly 40 years, researchers said on February 21, 2019. Despite its conspicuous size, no one had observed Wallace's giant bee -- discovered in the 19th century by British naturalist Alfred Russel Wallace and nicknamed the "flying bulldog" -- in the wild since 1981, the Global Wildlife Conservation said.Show less
AFP PHOTO / GLOBAL WILDLIFE CONSERVATION / CLAY BOLT
“We know that putting the news out about this rediscovery could seem like a big risk given the demand, but the reality is that unscrupulous collectors already know that the bee is out there,” Robin Moore, a conservation biologist with Global Wildlife Conservation, told The Guardian. “By making the bee a world-famous flagship for conservation we are confident that the species has a brighter future than if we just let it quietly be collected into oblivion.”
WHY IT’S HARD TO KNOW WHEN A SPECIES IS EXTINCT
Determining when a species is extinct is difficult, in short, because the planet is huge, conservation resources are scarce, and it’s simply hard to prove a negative.
“It all boils down to the challenge of definitively proving something does not exist,” Gary Langham, chief scientist for the National Audubon Society, an environmental organization, told Audubon.org. “It’s much easier to prove something does exist.”
Size also makes a difference: It’s far easier for scientists to keep track of the populations of large animals — say, the northern white rhino, whose last male died in 2018 — than of small birds or insects. For some animals, scientists often must rely on more indirect measures to determine population size, such as by gathering data on habitat destruction, collecting reports of sightings and examining things left behind by the animals, like droppings or nests. The difficult of these kinds of surveys means that it’s usually not enough to say that a species is extinct simply because nobody’s seen it in some 50 years.
“It’s a thing that keeps getting perpetuated, that there’s a 50 year rule,” Craig Hilton-Taylor, head of the Red List unit at the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), told the BBC.
Uncovering the Martian Mysteries: What NASA doesn't want you to know!
Uncovering the Martian Mysteries: What NASA doesn't want you to know!
A NASA scientist was studying images of a region of Mars called "Cydonia" when something caught his eye. He had to take a second to process what he was seeing. He grabbed a magnifying glass. There was no doubt.
Image of a glowing orb hovering above the surface of Mars.
On the surface of Mars, 140 million miles from Earth, was a structure in the shape of a human face.
It was huge; about a mile wide; and showed two eyes, a nose, and a mouth. Around the Face were pyramids and structures that didn't look natural. They look like they were built... by someone.
The following day, NASA held a press conference. Of the thousands of photos sent back from Mars, all anyone asked about was The Face.
Who built it and why? Is it a message from an advanced civilization now long extinct? Is it a religious artifact? Is it solid like the Great Sphinx? Or could it contain chambers like the Great Pyramid?
Then NASA threw cold water on the speculation. They said there was a second photograph of the area taken shortly after. And that photo showed that the face was nothing more than an optical illusion.
Small problem. That second photo doesn't exist. So why did NASA lie?
This and much other alien artifacts are shown and analyzed in the next video.
Barney & Betty Hill: The Enigma Behind the Most Infamous Alien Abduction
Barney & Betty Hill: The Enigma Behind the Most Infamous Alien Abduction
Betty & Barney Hill
Untangling the web of extraterrestrial encounters and conspiracies surrounding the Hill’s case
In the dark, mysterious realm of the paranormal, few events have captured the world’s imagination like the alleged alien abduction of Barney and Betty Hill. This enigmatic tale, dating back to 1961, has become the cornerstone of UFO lore and a breeding ground for tantalizing conspiracy theories. With its chilling accounts of extraterrestrial encounters and unexplained phenomena, the Hill abduction story continues to baffle skeptics and thrill believers.
On a seemingly ordinary night in September 1961, the Hills were driving home through the desolate New Hampshire countryside after a vacation in Canada. Little did they know that their lives were about to change forever, as their journey would soon be interrupted by an otherworldly presence.
As they navigated the dark, winding roads, the couple spotted an unusual, bright light in the sky. Initially dismissing it as a shooting star or satellite, they quickly realized this was no ordinary celestial object. As the light drew closer, the couple grew increasingly alarmed, and their fascination turned into pure terror.
According to their account, the mysterious craft hovered directly above their vehicle, forcing Barney to stop the car in the middle of the road. To their astonishment, they claimed to have seen humanoid figures inside the craft, silently observing them. And then, in the blink of an eye, everything went black.
Upon regaining consciousness, the Hills found themselves back in their car with no recollection of what had transpired during the missing hours. Baffled and disoriented, they continued their journey home, only to discover that their lives would never be the same.
In the weeks and months that followed, the Hills underwent a series of hypnotic regression sessions to unlock the hidden memories of their encounter. The revelations were both shocking and astonishing. They described being abducted by extraterrestrials, subjected to medical examinations, and engaged in telepathic communication with their captors. These chilling accounts of alien encounters became the bedrock of UFO abduction stories for generations to come.
While skeptics have challenged the Hill’s story, pointing to the possibility of false memories or hallucinations, the case remains a tantalizing mystery. And with the recent declassification of government documents and video evidence of UFO sightings, the tale of Barney and Betty Hill has only grown more intriguing.
But what if there is more to the story than meets the eye? What if the Hill abduction was not an isolated incident but part of a larger, hidden conspiracy? Some researchers have posited that the Hills were not random victims of extraterrestrial curiosity but, in fact, key players in a secret government experiment designed to test the limits of human consciousness and perception.
Could it be that the Hills were unwitting participants in a top-secret psychological operation, their memories manipulated to create the ultimate paranormal deception? As new information and theories continue to emerge, the enigma of Barney and Betty Hill’s abduction refuses to fade into the shadows.
In conclusion, the Hill abduction case remains a cornerstone of paranormal lore, inspiring countless stories of alien encounters and conspiracies. As the world continues to grapple with the possibility of extraterrestrial life, the Hills’ story serves as a chilling reminder that sometimes, the truth is stranger than fiction.
VIDEO:
HILLS ABDUCTION: THE ZETA RETICULI INCIDENT – ORIGINAL DOCUMENTARY V MOVIES
In 2008, the UK Ministry of Defence (MoD) began disclosing the secret files concerning UFO/UAP phenomena that had been hidden for 50 years. The ministry’s recent release was in 2013. One astonishing incident, which was revealed in the MoD files, happened in 1957 over East Anglia, England. It involves the two U.S. fighter planes that were ordered to shoot down an aircraft carrier-sized UFO. (Archive Source)
The accounts of the incident were made public concerning the recollections of two retired pilots from the USAF 406th Fighter Interceptor Wing, which came to light when they met at a reunion at RAF Manston in 1988. One pilot said he was seconds away from firing 24 rockets at the object, which moved erratically and gave a radar reading like “a flying aircraft carrier.”
On May 20, 1957, 25-year-old USAF lieutenant Milton Torres was with the 514th Fighter Interceptor Squadron in the 406th Air Expeditionary Wing based at RAF Manston in Kent. Lt. Torres was the pilot of one of two F-86D jets at RAF Manston airfield when the incident occurred in the late evening on May 20.
Lt. Torres and the other pilot Dave Roberson were in the “alert shack” at RAF Manston when they received instructions to take to the air. The two pilots raced to their respective F-86Ds and took off well within the allotted five minutes.
Torres Milton. Credit: YouTube Screencap
Torres testified:
“I can remember the call to scramble quite clearly, however, I cannot remember specifics such as the actual vector to turn after take off. We were airborne well within the 5 minutes allotted to us, and basically scrambled to about Flight Level 310. Our vector took us out over the North Sea just east of East Anglia. Normally, Dave Roberson, the other member of the set of two fighters would be the lead ship. I can only suggest that I was leading due to an in-place turn of some sort.
I remember in quite specific terms talking as lead to the GCI3 site (whose call sign I cannot recall). I was advised of the situation quite clearly. The initial briefing indicated that the ground was observing for a considerable time a blip that was orbiting the East Anglia area.
There was very little movement and from my conversation with the GCI, all the normal procedures of checking with all the controlling agencies revealed that this was an unidentified flying object with very unusual flight patterns. In the initial briefing, it was suggested that the bogey was motionless for long intervals.
The instructions came to go ‘gate’ to expedite the intercept. Gate was the term used to use maximum power (in the case of the F86-D that meant full afterburner) and to proceed to an Initial Point at about 32,000 feet. By this time, my radar was on, and I was looking prematurely for the bogey.
The instructions came to report any visual observations, to which I replied ‘I’m in the soup and it’s impossible to see anything!’ The weather was probably high alto stratus, but between being over the North Sea and in the weather, no frame of reference was available, i.e. no stars, no lights, no silhouettes – in short nothing. GCI continued the vectoring and the dialogue describing the strange antics of the UFO.”
Aware that he was reaching the upper limit of his jet’s capabilities, Torres requested to come out of the afterburner, but ground control denied his request. At that time, he prepared to execute the order to “fire a full salvo of rockets at the UFO.” The F-86D carried 24 rockets that contained the power of a 75mm artillery shell.*
As Torres prepared all 24 of his rockets for firing, he could hear the other F-86D pilot also responding to orders from ground control. “I wasn’t paying too much attentionR 30; but I clearly remember him giving a ‘Roger’ to all the transmissions. I can only suppose he was as busy as I was
Torres was given a final turning maneuver to execute and was told to look 30 degrees to port. His radar screen displayed the UFO at 30 degrees and about 15 miles distant. He said: “The blip was burning a hole in the radar with its incredible intensity. It was similar to a blip I had received from B-52s and seemed to be a magnet of light.”
Pair of USAF F-86D Sabres from 514th Fighter Interceptor Wing. Photo courtesy of Duncan Curtis.
According to Torres, the radar return “had the proportions of a flying aircraft carrier.” He added: “By that I mean the return on the radar was so strong that it could not be overlooked by the fire control system on the F-86D… The larger the airplane the easier the lock on. This blip almost locked itself… it was the best target I could ever remember locking on to. I had locked on in just a few seconds, and I locked on exactly 15 miles, which was the maximum range for lock on.”
Suddenly, Torres noticed that the object on the radar screen was moving. He was left with the impression that the UFO was moving at no less than Mach 10 (over 7,000 miles per hour) when it disappeared.
According to Torres, the UFO “didn’t follow classic Newtonian mechanics. It made a right turn almost on a dime. The (Royal Air Force radar) scope had a range of 250 miles. And after two sweeps, which took two seconds, it was gone. And I was flying almost at Mach 1.”
He returned to the base and was debriefed the next day by an unnamed man who “looked like a well-dressed IBM salesman.”
“He threatened me with a national security breach if I breathed a word about it to anyone,” Torres said.
The documents contain no official explanation for the incident, which came at a time of heightened tension between the West and the Soviet Union. Planes were on constant stand-by at British bases for a possible Soviet attack.
Torres Milton, MAJOR, USAF Retired, PhD, passed away peacefully at home in Miami, Florida, on Sunday, October 25, 2015. Credit: Legacy.com
The files blame other UFO sightings on weather balloons, clouds or normal aircraft. Torres said he had been waiting for 50 years for an explanation. “I shall never forget it. On that night I was ordered to open fire even before I had taken off. That had never happened before.”
Speaking to Miles O’Brien of Cable News Network (CNN), Torres said he is convinced the UFO he had encountered was designed by an “alien” intelligence and was not manufactured on Earth. He also noted: “It was some kind of space alien craft. It was so fast, it was so incredible… it was absolutely death-defying.” (Source)
UFO expert David Clarke said the sighting may have been part of a secret U.S. project to create phantom aircraft on radar screens to test Soviet air defenses. “Perhaps what this pilot had seen was some kind of experiment in electronic warfare or maybe it was a UFO,” he said. “Something very unusual happened.”
The most common and yet interesting question that many people ask is: Are we alone in this universe? The answer has taken a great turn from “Maybe yes” to “Maybe no” in the past few years. There is a long list of credible personalities who never denied the presence of non-human intelligent life among us. Moreover, a few of them are certain that aliens are on Earth. American billionaire Robert Bigelow said something shocking about aliens in November 2017.
According to Robert Bigelow, famous in the aerospace industry for the manufacture of inflatable modules such as those tested out at the International Space Station, there are extraterrestrial beings living among humans. He said that he is “absolutely convinced” aliens live among humans on Earth. During the interview with CBS’ 60 Minutes, reporter Lara Logan asked Bigelow if he believes in aliens. He replied: “I’m absolutely convinced. That’s all there is to it.” He further said: “There has been and is an existing presence, an ET presence.”
He continued: “I spent millions and millions and millions – I probably spent more as an individual than anybody else in the United States has ever spent on this subject.” “You don’t have to go anywhere” to find aliens and they are here right in front of people. Bigelow had his own close encounters but declined to go into detail.
When award-winning journalist George Knapp asked his comment on this interview, he said: “There are different ways to go at this. So one is from a hardware standpoint. The other one is from the presence standpoint, ET presence. And, you know, a lot of people say, well, whether they’re, you know, that they can be among the population, whether they’re hybrids, or there’s some other kind of, really look alike, you know, kind of thing. But so, so you can look at it in different kinds of ways. And, and so, I know of a really good high quality researcher who has fantastic academic credentials and background. And he would be predisposed to the latter, saying that, yeah, it could be among us, you know, but he’s probably on the more extreme, he’s definitely on the more extreme. Others would say, well, we’re safe in saying that there’s hardware, you know, so that’s among us, and hardware kind of context.” (Source)
Skinwalker Ranch, a property located in northeastern Utah has been the subject of alleged paranormal activity, including UFO sightings and other strange occurrences. The ranch gained notoriety in the 1990s when it was purchased by Mr. Bigelow, who funded a number of studies of the phenomena reported at the ranch.
However, the specifics of what has been reported at the ranch and the credibility of those reports have been the subject of much debate and skepticism. Some people believe that the ranch is a hotspot for extraterrestrial activity, while others believe that the reports of strange occurrences at the ranch are the result of hoaxes or misidentifications of natural phenomena.
Bryant “Dragon” Arnold (Chief Security Officer on Skinwalker Ranch), Casey Smith, Erik Bard and Kaleb Bench, from left, check the radiation in a sinkhole pit on Skinwalker Ranch, in a moment from History’s series “The Secret of Skinwalker Ranch.” Image via The Salt Lake Tribune
Following his interview with Mr. Bigelow, Knapp then asked if the entities at Skinwalker Ranch would be investigated through the Bigelow Institute for Consciousness Studies (which he founded in 2020 after his wife passed away). Besides, he wondered that if they are among us, can they also be considered alien? Bigelow said: “Well, if you if you follow the literature and pay attention to a lot of other kinds of sources, they absolutely are.”
Further, Mr. Bigelow shared his personal experiences and losses that prompted his interest in life after death, as well as UFOs. He talked about possible links between consciousness research and UFOs. He also talked about the risks of trying to establish communications with the unknown.
“That’s been mainly what I’ve been doing except for the skinwalker ranch thing for 20 years as the space world has been huge in my life to pursue the legitimate parochial kind of you know using fire engines rockets to get you there. We didn’t expect anything like this to happen and so there this is different. This is the holy grail and is different than the second holy grail. If the second one is ‘Beings’ (E.T.), then the first one: Is there any part of your consciousness that survives your bodily death? That’s a big deal. That’s a huge story. That’s gigantic.”
“Be a little careful about what you wish for. So on the face of it, communication sounds great and that by the way has been tried forever ever since the oracle of Delphi. I mean you can go back thousands of years and that’s been attempted. So It’s not now you know the last 100 years through electronics and using some kind of electrical apparatus to try to have some kind of communications. And you know communication can be at all different kinds of levels. There might be communication that just causes you an awareness.”
Then Knapp asked him what triggered his curiosity about UFOs, possibly it was after Bob Lazar’s story came out. Mr. Bigelow replied that he was already into UFO research. He was looking at UFO stories worldwide to understand what they actually were.
In 1992, he started the Bigelow Foundation with Bob Lazar, who worked on reverse-engineering recovered extraterrestrial craft at Area-51. Mr. Bigelow also backed Dr. John E. Mack, a professor of psychiatry at Harvard who wrote two popular books about his work with people who told him they had been abducted by aliens, and Budd Hopkins, an artist who became an abduction investigator and also wrote popular books.
Mr. Bigelow’s investigative team, headed by Colm Kelleher, the institute’s scientific administrator and biochemist, documented their own paranormal events, according to a 2005 book “Hunt for the Skinwalker,” by Dr. Kelleher and Mr. Knapp.
Mr. Bigelow said he saw “interdimensional” forces at play through portals at certain paranormal hot spots like Skinwalker. But he also said he had frequently visited the ranch without experiencing the kind of chilling events others reported, as if some intelligence were selecting the people to act upon. “I slept like a log every single night,” he said. And no human was physically harmed, but he said he and other visitors often carried strange things home, like a sulfurous stink in a certain part of his house. His wife felt the presence of a faceless creature pressing down on her side of bed. (Source)
Bigelow amassed his fortune through the hotel chain Budget Suites of America and used this money to fund his UFO study. In an interview with The Associated Press, he said that UFOs are “under our noses” and wondered why news organizations had not extensively covered UFO sightings.
In 2008, Mr. Bigelow secretly created BAASS (Bigelow Aerospace Advanced Space Studies) to study the UFO mystery and related phenomena. The public did not know that he had signed a contract with the Defense Intelligence Agency to do an investigation under the AAWSAP program.
His political influence has been strong when it comes to UFO study. He once convinced his friend and then-Democratic U.S. Sen. Harry Reid to allocate $22 million to the Advanced Aerospace Threat Identification Program, which investigated UFO reports from 2007 to 2012. The majority of the funds were sent to Bigelow’s company to investigate, and the allocation was not made public until a 2017 New York Times investigation. The Pentagon stated that the program was terminated in 2012, although Reid later stated that he had no remorse about the expenditure.
Later, he and his team hired dozens of investigators, scientists, and support staff to work on putting together a huge database of original investigations and UFO files from other countries. The now-famous 2004 Tic Tac encounter off the coast of Southern California was one of the cases that BAASS looked into.
What a Mess. A Black Hole's Stellar Meal is Brighter and Longer Lasting Than Ever Seen Before
It’s a tale as old as time. A cataclysmic event occurs in the universe and releases a tremendous amount of energy in a short period of time. The event then fades into the darkness and the cosmos returns to normal. These short-lived cosmic events are known as transients and include things such as supernovae and gamma-ray bursts. Transients are quite common, but some of them can challenge explanations. Take for example the transient known as ZTF20abrbeie, nicknamed Scary Barbie.
Scary Barbie was first observed in 2020 and was later observed over a range of wavelengths. It’s an unusual transient for two reasons. The first is that it has lasted much longer than typical transients. A fast radio burst can last for seconds. The afterglow of a supernova can be observed for a month, but Scary Barbie has lasted for more than 800 days and continues to be visible. The second is how terrifyingly energetic it is. A supernova can outshine a galaxy, but Scary Barbie is a thousand times more energetic than the brightest supernovae. It’s hard to imagine the scale of this transient.
According to a study being published in The Astrophysical Journal Letters there’s really only one phenomenon that could explain Scary Barbie: A star being consumed by a black hole.[^1] Black holes don’t swallow stars whole. They first rip the star apart in what is known as a tidal disruption event (TDE). The superheated material of the star is captured by the black hole. Based on observations of ZTF20abrbeie, it was likely a TDE involving a 14 solar mass star and a supermassive black hole more massive than 100 million Suns.
Images of the transient ZTF20abrbeie. Credit: Subrayan, et al
One of the strange things about this transient is that it doesn’t seem to be associated with a particular galaxy. That’s unusual since supermassive black holes tend to lurk in galactic centers. But then again, this transient is so unusual it wasn’t immediately recognized. The team only discovered it through an AI software package they developed known as the Recommender Engine For Intelligent Transient Tracking (REFITT). REFITT combs through observational data looking for transients to study. It came across Scary Barbie in public data from Palomar Observatory’s Zwicky Transient Facility. Once they discovered it, the team then gathered data from other observatories.
This work is a great example of how public data and AI data mining can lead to unexpected discoveries. Only by making data publically accessible and developing tools to filter through this information are these discoveries possible. Science works best when everyone can participate, as this latest study shows. Who knows what other amazing things are lurking in public data just waiting to be discovered?
The Ancient ‘Computer’ That Simply Shouldn’t Exist (Video)
The Ancient ‘Computer’ That Simply Shouldn’t Exist (Video)
When we think of ancient technology, we often imagine simple tools and primitive machinery. But what if we told you that over 2,000 years ago, the ancient Greeks had built the world’s oldest computer? That's right, we're talking about the Antikythera mechanism, a complex device discovered in a shipwreck off the coast of Greece in 1901.
This incredible machine contained a system of gears and cogs that was able to predict astronomical positions and eclipses with incredible accuracy. It's no wonder that some have called it the world's first computer, a marvel of engineering that was centuries ahead of its time. The Antikythera mechanism is a reminder that even in the ancient world, there were minds that were capable of incredible feats of technology and innovation.
Top image: Artistic rendering of the Antikythera mechanism, the oldest analogue computer.
Discover the mind-bending world of extraterrestrial contact and its multidimensional implications in the compelling documentary, “Multidimensional.” Directed by Peter Maxwell Slattery, the film offers an intimate look into Slattery’s own experiences with one of the most documented ET contact cases in history. With a wealth of photographic and video evidence, as well as hundreds of witnesses to corroborate the strange events surrounding him, Slattery’s story challenges our understanding of reality and the true nature of existence.
“Multidimensional” delves into the interconnectedness of paranormal phenomena, UFOs/UAPs, and human consciousness, revealing an alternative perspective on these mysterious events. The film features a diverse and knowledgeable cast of experts, including image analysis specialist Jason Gleaves (Ex-UK Airforce/Aerospace), counselor and hypnotherapist Mary Rodwell, remote viewer John Vivanco (a former “psychic spy” for the FBI, NASA, and other agencies), and James Gilliland of the ECETI Ranch.
Together, these experts help to shed light on the experiences of people from all walks of life who have encountered the unexplained. What do these encounters signify? What is the purpose of these otherworldly beings? And why is there a shroud of secrecy surrounding their existence?
“Multidimensional” takes viewers on an unforgettable journey through the extraordinary, asking thought-provoking questions about humanity’s place in the cosmos and challenging the conventional wisdom surrounding the paranormal. With breathtaking visuals and a captivating narrative, this documentary will leave you questioning the very fabric of reality and eager to explore the vast mysteries of the universe.
Embark on this mesmerizing adventure and experience the awe-inspiring world of “Multidimensional.” Prepare to have your perceptions transformed and your curiosity ignited as you delve into the captivating enigma of extraterrestrial contact and the multidimensional nature of existence.
Remote viewing is a controversial subject studied by scientists, but James H. Lee, a financial advisor, believes it could contribute to the toolbox of professional futurists. Remote viewing is discussed in declassified CIA files, where psychic abilities were used to spy on Soviet Russia under Project Stargate, tracking down its military activities.
In the 1970s, the first test of a highly classified project aimed at mind-reading of enemies was conducted at the US Army base of Maryland. The CIA began recruiting individuals who claimed to possess extraordinary abilities of extrasensory perception (ESP) to assist in uncovering military and domestic intelligence secrets. The CIA declassified file revealed that Uri Geller replicated things drawn by a researcher in another sealed room. The US government continued funding the project as it proved to be beneficial.
One of the remote viewers who participated in the project was Angela Dellafiora Ford. She revealed her psychic powers on the CBS News program “48 Hours.” In 1989, the army tasked her with psychically tracking down the location of a man. To everyone’s surprise, Angela located the man in Lowell, Wyoming, and he was later arrested 100 miles west of a Wyoming town called Lovell.
The project aimed to exploit the potential of extrasensory perception (ESP) to gain intelligence and stay ahead of enemies. The US government was determined to uncover and develop this capability to its fullest. The project was highly classified, and the individuals involved were expected to keep their involvement a secret. However, as the project progressed, information regarding the project began to surface.
The government continued to invest in the project as it was producing promising results. Angela Dellafiora Ford’s tracking of the man in Lowell, Wyoming, proved to be a significant breakthrough for the project. This result confirmed that remote viewing could be used for practical purposes. The project continued until the mid-1990s, and the information obtained during this period remains highly classified.
Russia Contacts Aliens
The remote viewing program was also a big thing in Soviet Russia. In Episode 13 of WEAPONIZED, investigative journalist and UFO researcher George Knapp claims that scientists in Soviet Russia used psychic abilities to make contact with higher intelligence (“cosmic intelligence” as he stated) that was not from Earth.
In the 1990s, Knapp visited Soviet Russia to uncover the truth about the Unidentified Aerial Phenomenon (UAP). At that time, the Russian military tried to downplay and dismiss any claims about the existence of flying saucers. The general public was discouraged from openly discussing such topics. Still, behind closed doors, the Russian Ministry of Defense carried out what is believed to be the large-scale study on UFOs by the government in history.
Knapp discovered scientists who had “reverse-engineered” alien technology. According to Knapp, Lieutenant General Alexei Yurievich Savin had developed a “remote viewing” technique, and showed Knapp training films where Russian sailors were able to identify other naval assets without being able to see them.
Knapp said: “They were really accurate, incredibly accurate, at least in this film.” Knapp added that Lt General Savin selected ordinary Russian housewives to trial the technique and some became so skilled at it that they developed psychic abilities.
Knapp told Corbell:
“I didn’t really want to delve into remote viewing while we were there, but Lieutenant Savin really made a point to make himself available to us. He had developed, in essence, a remote viewing program, and he had shown us some training films. In those films, they would take a Russian sailor who had been trained in remote viewing protocols, put him down on the bottom of a ship, and then ask him to identify where other naval assets were around him without being able to look out the window and see them. They were submarines, ships, and they were really accurate, incredibly accurate, at least in this film. And then he decided that he was going to show that the technology, the techniques, could be taught to anyone.
So, we walked into our second meeting with him and found a whole room full of women – pretty good-looking women. They were all housewives, regular women, not scientists, that he had hand-picked to show that this is something that could be taught to everyone. He was showing this to us in part because when remote viewers got good, they would run into what he called ‘Cosmic Intelligences.’ They would communicate with other intelligence that wasn’t from Earth
Remote viewers who were skilled enough could communicate with extraterrestrial beings and even write down their conversations or draw images. Knapp said: “They’re projecting their consciousness out into the cosmos, and then they run into somebody else who has a conversation with them, shares information with them, or shares images. Some of them would write this stuff down, almost like channeling, or draw pictures of what they were encountering. It’s really very similar to things that I’ve read about Stanford Research Institute’s program under Hal Puthoff and Remote Viewing.”
Russian UFO research was reportedly several steps ahead of the US in the 1990s, and Russia was the site of multiple high-profile alien sightings, such as the Voronezh case, where witnesses reported seeing giant robot-like aliens exit a spaceship in a park.
CIA Chilling Remote Viewing Document
In 2021, Blackvault published approximately 2,700 pages of declassified documents from the CIA regarding UAP/UFO information. One document, titled “Mars Exploration May 22, 1984,” features an interview with a subject named Joseph McMoneagle, a retired US Army veteran who claimed to have used astral projection to observe ancient alien life on Mars.
McMoneagle described seeing pyramid-like structures and tall, thin people wearing strange clothes on the planet’s surface. The document was approved for publication in 2000 but was recorded in 1984, and McMoneagle was the only remote viewer working at the time.
According to McMoneagle, the request to visit Mars was not made by the CIA but by an unknown army person. McMoneagle was confused about why he had been asked to explore Mars, as his assumption was that he was working on targets on Earth. He also recalled being asked to examine a UFO, but he had concerns about validating the information obtained from such missions.
Mars Exploration Source: CIA
In an interview with Richard Thieme, McMoneagle shared his experiences with Project Stargate, UFOs, and ETs. He recounted an incident in 1966 where he suffered a radiation burn after encountering a UFO. McMoneagle also discussed a remote viewing mission in the early 1980s, where a UFO target was mixed in with other targets, and he was not initially aware that it was a UFO target. He was involved in around 450 missions over the years, including a mission in 1980 where he correctly identified that a suspected KGB agent was using a small pocket calculator as a disguised short-wave radio.
McMoneagle retired from the Army in 1984 but continued to work as a Stargate consultant. His experiences highlight the complex and potentially unreliable nature of remote viewing and other methods of gathering information about UAPs and extraterrestrial life.
M1 was due to land in the previously unexplored Atlas Crater (right) in the Moon’s northern hemisphere.
Credit: Damian Peach/Science Photo Library
A Japanese spacecraft has probably crashed during its attempt to land on the Moon.
The HAKUTO-R Mission 1 (M1) lander — developed by Tokyo-based company ispace — was due to touch down in the Moon’s Atlas crater on 25 April at around 16:40 universal time, which would have made it the first successful lunar landing accomplished by a commercial mission.
But the ispace team lost contact with the craft when it was around 90 metres above the lunar surface, and were unable to re-establish communication after the landing as planned. “We have to assume that we could not complete the landing,” announced ispace chief executive Takeshi Hakamada.
Hours later, ispace said in a statement that there was a “high probability” M1 had made a crash-landing on the Moon. The company says its engineers are still investigating exactly what happened. The 2.3-metre-tall lander was in an upright position during its final approach but was running low on fuel. Data also show that the spacecraft picked up speed as it descended towards the lunar surface.
“It was doing what it should have done, which is descending vertically with its engines keeping it to the low velocity,” says Lionel Wilson, a geophysicist at Lancaster University, UK. But for the last few hundred metres, “it was in freefall”, he adds. “It just dropped like a stone.”
If the craft ran out of fuel before touchdown, there could have been a slight miscalculation of its fuel requirement that amounted to tens of seconds of flight, adds Wilson. Because M1 was not coming back to Earth, “you’d like to land with the very last drop of fuel being used, so you haven’t carried any wasted weight on the flight”, he says.
The M1 lander was set to deploy two rover vehicles on the Moon.
(Reuters: Kim Kyung-Hoon)
Near miss
Simeon Barber, a lunar scientist at The Open University in Milton Keynes, UK, says that the failed attempt demonstrates how challenging it is to accomplish a lunar landing. “Everything has got to happen perfectly in order to get that signal back saying ‘we’ve landed on the Moon successfully’,” he says. “They were close.”
The lander was carrying the United Arab Emirates’ 50-centimetre-long Rashid rover, which was developed by the Mohammed bin Rashid Space Centre in Dubai. The rover’s aim was to study particles in the lunar soil and investigate the geological properties of the Moon’s surface with its cameras and probe. Also on board was a two-wheeled robot developed by the Japanese space agency, JAXA, and a multi-camera system built by Canadensys Aerospace, a space-systems company based in Toronto, Canada.
M1 launched on 11 December 2022 from Cape Canaveral, Florida, on board a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket. On 21 March, it entered lunar orbit and reached 100 kilometres above the Moon’s surface three weeks later. The mission has accomplished eight of its ten objectives, ispace said in a statement. Hakamada added that data acquired during M1’s lunar orbit and landing sequence will offer insights for ispace’s second attempt to land on the Moon, planned for 2024.
“We believe that we have fully accomplished the significance of this mission, having acquired a great deal of data and experience by being able to execute the landing phase,” said Hakamada. “What is important is to feed this knowledge and learning back to Mission 2 and beyond.”
Barber agrees. “They will have learnt a huge amount about how to get to a certain point,” he says. “It puts them in such a strong position for next time.”
Scientists found the ingredients for planet formation in a star cluster called NGC 346, which lies in the Small Magellanic Cloud.
Credit: NASA, ESA, CSA, O. Jones (UK ATC), G. De Marchi (ESTEC), and M. Meixner (USRA). Image processing: A. Pagan (STScI), N. Habel (USRA), L. Lenkic (USRA) and L. Chu (NASA/Ames)
The ingredients for planet formation have turned up in part of a nearby galaxy where it was thought planets might not emerge. The discovery, reported on 24 April in Nature Astronomy1 and made using NASA’s hugely powerful James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), suggests that planet formation may be more common throughout the Universe than previously thought.
“I’ve waited a long time to be able to do these observations,” says Olivia Jones, an astrophysicist at the UK Astronomy Technology Centre in Edinburgh and the lead author of the study. “It’s not been possible to do them before.”
Researchers looked at NGC 346, a highly active star-forming region in a galaxy near the Milky Way called the Small Magellanic Cloud (SMC). They chose this place because it has a very low concentration of metals — which astronomers define as any element heavier than hydrogen and helium.
That makes it resemble the conditions during the ‘cosmic noon’, a period approximately ten billion years ago when stars formed in a flurry in nearly all the galaxies of the Universe. Furthermore, NGC 346 is much bigger than other star-forming regions nearby, allowing astronomers to see more clearly how stars interact with each other and how they take shape.
Seeking low-mass stars
The researchers were mainly interested in studying low-mass stars because they are much more common in the Universe than high-mass stars. The Sun is a low-mass star, so understanding star formation in NGC 346 could also help explain the birth of the Solar System.
But it had been challenging to study the birth of low-mass stars because they emit a lot of dust as they form, which hides their light. The best way to see through the dust is by capturing infrared light, something JWST’s predecessor, the Hubble Space Telescope, wasn’t built to do. “With Webb, you can see these stars right at that moment of being born,” says Jones.
Dust, however, is also crucial to detecting planet formation. The dust released by a star when it’s born can collect into a disk that eventually turns into planets. It wasn’t known whether enough dust could survive for planets to form in NGC 346, because the low-metal conditions make such disks susceptible to fast evaporation by light.
Impossible planets
The researchers used filters on JWST’s camera to find combinations of infrared wavelengths that allowed them to identify stars at various stages of their lives. They found enough dust, collecting in signature ways, to indicate planet formation was possible.
Spotting the ingredients for planets in NGC 346 broadens understanding of where planets can exist, says Stefanie Milam, deputy project scientist for JWST planetary science at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland. “It’s giving us a lot more area to start searching for planet formation and star formation beyond what we had originally presumed.”
Researchers understand how, once rocky planets begin to take shape in low-metal galaxies, they can collect more dust, says Jones. But how enough dust survives to foster planet formation in the first place is still a mystery, she says.
What’s next?
It’s too soon to say whether the existence of more planets increases the probability that there is life elsewhere in the Universe, says Jones. But she wants to look at NGC 346 more closely for signs of certain substances, including water and carbon dioxide.
Jones plans to use JWST to conduct follow-up observations in around six months, targeting the potential planetary systems reported in the latest study. Further in the future, investigating whether other unexpected galaxies can nurture planet formation will help to build a better picture of how the process works, says Milam.
“I think the discovery space is just infinite,” Milam says. “Hands down, we’re ready for the next generation of astrophysics.”
doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-023-01418-x
References
Jones, O. C. et al.Nature Astron. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41550-023-01945-7 (2023).
The Continuing Enigma of the Petroglyph Beach in Wrangell, Alaska
The Continuing Enigma of the Petroglyph Beach in Wrangell, Alaska
The wild and enigmatic northern regions of North America have always been a place of great mystery. The wild beauty of Alaska, of Canada’s vast northern provinces, and their tranquil coastal areas, always captivated the attention of explorers and adventurers. History here is rich too, with many venerated native tribes leaving their important mark on the land. But one historic remnant did stir the imagination of scholars, and proved to be a bit of an enigma. The so-called Petroglyph Beach at Alaska’s city of Wrangell is an intriguing insight into the oldest traces of human habitation in the area. What is more, it has one of the highest concentrations of intricate rock carvings in North America - and in the world too. Who left these marks, and why?
Wrangell, located along the important Inside Passage coastal route, is a small and tranquil coastal fishing city in Alaska. Before the European settlers arrived, the area had been the home of the Tlingit native tribe for thousands of years and their identity is still strong in this region. This is an area of exceptional beauty, with some of the last true wilderness left in the world. With rugged mountains and lush boreal forests, rocky peaches and crowded archipelagos, this coastal area of Alaska is captivating with its primal beauty.
Wrangell, however, is a simple town of some 2,500 inhabitants, centered on its traditional fishing industry. Yet it hides something quite unique. Just a mile out of town, after a pleasant hike, one can stumble upon the enigmatic Petroglyph Beach, the coast whose jagged rocks are dotted with numerous intricate stone carvings. Easily spotted above and below the mean high tide, these carvings vary from simple and crude, to detailed and captivating. A petroglyph is a carving made in stone, and it is one of the oldest forms of expression, found all across the world.
But they are seldom found in such dense concentration at a single place, especially in North America. Petroglyph Beach at Wrangell contains between 40 and 50 carvings, most of them well preserved. And scholars propose that they are up to 8,000 years old! Did the Tlingit natives carve them? Or some inhabitants much older than them?
It is not known for certain who etched these intricate carvings. As they are estimated to be 8,000 years old, they could have been made by regional inhabitants that predated the Tlingit. The Tlingit oral stories tell of their sacred protector animal, the Raven, who saved children from a great flood. But of their exact emergence as a distinct cultural group, nothing can be said with absolute certainty. There are, however, several theories that are connected to the creation of the designs at Petroglyph Beach in Wrangell.
Bill Reid's Raven and the First Men (1980), UBC Museum of Anthropology, depicts a scene from the Haida creation myth. The Raven represents both the creator and trickster figures, common to many mythologies.
One theory proposes that they were made by the Haida people , whose ancestors dwelt on the nearby Haida Gwaii islands for as long as 13,000 years. The Haida likely developed the use of canoes around 8,000 years BP, and could have sailed the 300 miles (482 km) distance towards Wrangell, carving the images in the process.
Another theory states that it was some entirely different cultural group that carved these images, predating the emergence of both the Haida and the Tlingit. Could it have been the very first Paleoindians that entered into the area? We might never know for certain. The imagery, however, shares the elements of all the above theories: there are the styles popular with both the Tlingit and the Haida, but also the more primitive and crude designs of much older cultures.
Amongst the various petroglyphs, there are many different designs. Some are simple spirals, circles, dots, and squares - miscellaneous symbols whose significance remains a mystery. But there are those that are much more complex. Artistic carvings of killer whales, salmon, ravens, birds, fish, and many other creatures can also be seen. For the local native tribes, these animals always had a great importance, often being the difference between life and death. The designs are best observed just before sunset, when the light washes over them, and the light water spray gives them a sparkling shine.
Still, due to the age and the coastal erosion, some of the petroglyphs are now below the waterline. They can be observed in detail only at low tide. Nevertheless, all of these carvings are a wonderful glimpse into the cultural development of this wild region of coastal Alaska. But their age and enigma are still a big question mark in the scientific community that is still trying to understand their true origins.
Even modern Tlingit scholars are puzzled by the meaning of the carvings, which most certainly predate the earliest emergence of this Native tribe. But this only goes to show us that the pre-European history of Alaska, and North America as a whole, is full of mystery and unsolved riddles, with ancient peoples whose histories are lost to time.
Top image: Ancient Alaskan Petroglyphs in Stone. Some of the best surviving examples of native artistic expression are petroglyphs found in southeast Alaska.
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Over mijzelf
Ik ben Pieter, en gebruik soms ook wel de schuilnaam Peter2011.
Ik ben een man en woon in Linter (België) en mijn beroep is Ik ben op rust..
Ik ben geboren op 18/10/1950 en ben nu dus 74 jaar jong.
Mijn hobby's zijn: Ufologie en andere esoterische onderwerpen.
Op deze blog vind je onder artikels, werk van mezelf. Mijn dank gaat ook naar André, Ingrid, Oliver, Paul, Vincent, Georges Filer en MUFON voor de bijdragen voor de verschillende categorieën...
Veel leesplezier en geef je mening over deze blog.
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