{ https://scientias.nl/ }

07-10-2023 om 01:01 geschreven door peter  

{ https://scientias.nl/ }

07-10-2023 om 00:41 geschreven door peter  

Mysterious light appears in the images pulled from the depths of the universe using the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST). And now, it finally has an explanation.

JWST, the next-generation observatory from NASA, the European Space Agency, and the Canadian Space Agency, is able to view infrared light like never before. Infrared reveals visible light that has been stretched by the universe as it expands and which has poured out from the farthest reaches of space across billions of light-years. Once this light reaches Earth, astronomers can see the cosmos as it once was.

They haven't seen anything like JWST’s images before, which first went public in July 2022. But, they had good guesses about what they’d find.

However, one particular characteristic of the ancient galaxies appearing before them left many stumped. Although astronomers know very little about Cosmic Dawn, the 100 million years to 1 billion years after the Big Bang, when the universe sprouted its first stars and galaxies, they did not expect to see galaxies shining as bright as they see in the telescopic images. Rohan Naidu, a NASA Hubble Fellow at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, even told Quanta Magazine that the galaxies were “stupidly bright.”

Their luminosities were so shocking that some physicists questioned the standard model of cosmology, which describes how the universe has evolved since the Big Bang.

The issue is that, usually, bright galaxies mean big galaxies. “But because these galaxies formed at cosmic dawn, not enough time has passed since the Big Bang,” Claude-André Faucher-Giguère, associate professor of physics and astronomy at Northwestern University in Illinois and an author of a new paper, says in a statement describing the study. “How could these massive galaxies assemble so quickly?”

A research team led by Guochao Sun, a postdoctoral fellow at Northwestern, found an explanation: bursts of formation. They published their findings on Tuesday in the journal Astrophysical Journal Letters.

“If star formation happens in bursts, it will emit flashes of light. That is why we see several very bright galaxies,” Sun said in a Northwestern University statement describing the study.

The young galaxies, which the statement called “too bright, too massive, and too mature to have formed so soon after the Big Bang,” may just plain and simply be bursting with new stars.

Unlike modern galaxies, which form stars at a steady rate, the early galaxies seed a process known as bursty star formation. “So-called bursty star formation occurs when stars form in an alternating pattern — many stars at once, followed by millions of years of very few new stars and then many stars again,” according to the statement.

Now that the JWST imagery begins to make more sense, astronomers can use its sensitive instruments to investigate other cosmic mysteries.

{ https://www.inverse.com/ }

07-10-2023 om 00:15 geschreven door peter  

Geoscientists Discover Massive Undersea Water Reservoir Off New Zealand’s Coast

Revealed by 3D seismic imaging, the newly-discovered water reservoir lies 3.2 km (2 miles) under the ocean floor off the coast of New Zealand, where it may be dampening a major earthquake fault that faces the country’s North Island. The fault is known for producing slow-motion earthquakes, called slow slip events. These can release pent-up tectonic pressure harmlessly over days and weeks.

3D seismic imaging and ocean drilling at the Hikurangi margin reveal a widespread and previously unknown fluid reservoir within the extensively hydrated (up to 47 vol % water) volcanic upper crust of the subducting Hikurangi Plateau large igneous province.

Image credit: Gase et al., doi: 10.1126/sciadv.adh0150.

“Many slow slip earthquakes are thought to be linked to buried water,” said Dr. Andrew Gase, a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Texas.

“However, until now there was no direct geologic evidence to suggest such a large water reservoir existed at this particular New Zealand fault.”

“We can’t yet see deep enough to know exactly the effect on the fault, but we can see that the amount of water that’s going down here is actually much higher than normal.”

The site where Dr. Gase and colleagues found the water is part of a vast volcanic province that formed when a plume of lava the size of the United States breached the Earth’s surface in the Pacific Ocean 125 million years ago.

The event was one of the Earth’s largest known volcanic eruptions and rumbled on for several million years.

The study authors used seismic scans to build a 3D picture of the ancient volcanic plateau in which they saw thick, layered sediments surrounding buried volcanoes.

They ran lab experiments on drill core samples of the volcanic rock and found that water made up nearly half of its volume.

The seismic image of the Hikurangi Plateau reveals details about the Earth’s interior and what it’s made of. The blue-green layer under the yellow line shows water buried within rocks

Image credit: Gase et al., doi: 10.1126/sciadv.adh0150.

“Normal ocean crust, once it gets to be about 7 or 10 million years old should contain much less water,” Dr. Gase said.

“The ocean crust in the seismic scans was ten times as old, but it had remained much wetter.”

“The shallow seas where the eruptions took place eroded some of the volcanoes into a porous, broken-up rock that stored water like an aquifer as it was buried. Over time, the rock and rock fragments transformed into clay, locking in even more water.”

The finding is important because scientists think that underground water pressure may be a key ingredient in creating conditions that release tectonic stress via slow slip earthquakes.

This usually happens when water-rich sediments are buried with the fault, trapping the water underground. However, the New Zealand fault contains little of this typical ocean sediment.

Instead, the researchers think the ancient volcanoes and the transformed rocks — now clays — are carrying large volumes of water down as they’re swallowed by the fault.

“The findings suggest that other earthquake faults around the globe could be in similar situations,” said Professor Demian Saffer, a researcher at the University of Texas.

“It’s a really clear illustration of the correlation between fluids and the style of tectonic fault movement — including earthquake behavior.”

“This is something that we’ve hypothesized from lab experiments, and is predicted by some computer simulations, but there are very few clear field experiments to test this at the scale of a tectonic plate.”

The study appears in the journal Science Advances.

• Andrew C. Gase et al. 2023. Subducting volcaniclastic-rich upper crust supplies fluids for shallow megathrust and slow slip. Science Advances 9 (33); doi: 10.1126/sciadv.adh0150

{ https://www.sci.news/ }

06-10-2023 om 21:48 geschreven door peter  

Researchers Find Two Extraterrestrial Minerals in El Ali Meteorite

The El Ali meteorite, a 15.2-ton iron meteorite found in 2020 near the tiny town of El Ali in Somalia, contains at least two new minerals: elaliite and elkinstantonite.

This sample of the El Ali meteorite contains two new minerals: elaliite and elkinstantonite.

Image credit: Nick Gessler / Duke University.

“Whenever you find a new mineral, it means that the actual geological conditions, the chemistry of the rock, was different than what’s been found before,” said University of Alberta’s Professor Chris Herd.

“That’s what makes this exciting: in this particular meteorite you have two officially described minerals that are new to science.”

The two minerals, elaliite and elkinstantonite, came from a 70-g slice that was sent to the University of Alberta for classification, and there already appears to be a potential third mineral under consideration.

“If researchers were to obtain more samples from the massive meteorite, there’s a chance that even more might be found,” Professor Herd said.

Professor Herd and his colleagues from the University of Alberta, the University of California, Los Angeles and Caltech classified the El Ali as an ‘Iron, IAB complex’ meteorite, one of over 350 in that particular category.

“The very first day University of Alberta’s Dr. Andrew Locock did some analyses, he said, ‘You’ve got at least two new minerals in there.’ That was phenomenal. Most of the time it takes a lot more work than that to say there’s a new mineral,” Professor Herd said.

“The rapid identification was possible because the two minerals had been synthetically created before, so he was able to match the composition of the newly discovered natural minerals with their human-made counterparts.”

The scientists are continuing to examine the new minerals to determine what they can tell us about the conditions in the meteorite when it formed.

“That’s my expertise — how you tease out the geologic processes and the geologic history of the asteroid this rock was once part of,” Professor Herd said.

“I never thought I’d be involved in describing brand new minerals just by virtue of working on a meteorite.”

“Any new mineral discoveries could possibly yield exciting new uses down the line,” he said.

“Whenever there’s a new material that’s known, material scientists are interested too because of the potential uses in a wide range of things in society.”

“While the future of the El Ali meteorite remains uncertain, we’ve received news that it appears to have been moved to China in search of a potential buyer.”

“It remains to be seen whether additional samples will be available for scientific purposes.”

He described the findings on November 21 at the Space Exploration Symposium 2022 (SES 2022).

• Chris Herd. The El Ali Meteorite: Ancient History and New Minerals. SES 2022

RELATED

{ https://www.sci.news/ }

06-10-2023 om 21:35 geschreven door peter  

This day in History, Pilot encounters giant pyramid-shaped UFO over Pelotas, Brazil, Oct 5, 1996, UFO Sighting News.

Perhaps the most impressive UFO story told during the recent Brazilian World UFO Forum was that of Haraldo Westendorf, who made news headlines a year ago when he allegedly flew his private plane within a few dozen meters of an enormous unidentified flying object.

Westendorf is 40 years old, a father of three children and a successful businessman. He is also an avid private pilot rated for acrobatic flying.

The following account is based directly on his one-hour presentation at the Brazilian UFO conference, which included several detailed illustrations. Westendorf says he took off in his single-engine Piper Apache [correction: the plane was actually an Embraer EMB-712, the Brazilian version of the Piper Cherokee Archer II] from the city of Pelotas near the southernmost tip of Brazil on the morning of November 5, 1996. It was to be a routine recreational flight of the kind he takes for fun whenever time allows. On this occasion, he had been in the air only about 12 minutes and was flying at an altitude of 5,000 feet over a large lake some five miles southeast of Pelotas when he saw ahead of him an enormous aerial object. The time was about 10:30 a.m. He radioed the Pelotas tower to learn if they could see the object from the ground.

They confirmed that the object was visible to them and asked him for a close-range report. Westendorf then decided to fly as close as he could. Westendorf emphasizes that he did not believe in UFOs and says this accounts for his initial willingness to fly close to the object. He didn't know he might be in danger. When he got close to the object, he realized that in his twenty years of piloting experience he had never seen or heard of anything like it. Since he had done stunt training in the United States and had also flown in France, he had become acquainted with some very advanced and exotic aircraft.

But he knew that this was not an airplane. Westendorf showed several detailed color drawings of the object, with his own plane drawn to scale alongside it. He describes the object as a faceted cone, flat on the bottom with a rounded point on top. On each of the eight or ten sloping side panels were three large bulges, like triangle-shaped bay windows on the side of a house -- but they did not look like windows. The entire surface was brown in color. The structure was about 70 meters (225 feet) high and about 100 meters (325 feet) in diameter, big enough to fill nearly an entire soccer field if landed. His own plane, less than 6 meters wide, was tiny by comparison. Westendorf says he spent about 12 to 14 minutes in close proximity to the object, trying to see as much as he could. Although the Pelotas air tower does not have radar, he believes the airport radar at Curitiba (nearly 450 nautical miles northeast of his position) tracked the whole encounter. However, officials at Curitiba deny this (see below). The object was spinning around slowly and moving southeast toward the nearby seacoast at a speed of about 60 nautical miles per hour. Westendorf managed to fly entirely around the base of the object three times. At one point, he says, his wingtip came within about 40 meters of the object. After his third lap around the object, Westendorf noticed that the rounded top seemed to disappear, leaving what looked like an open hole at the top. Then he saw, emerging from inside the object, a classic flying saucer. It rose sideways, its long axis vertical until it cleared the top of the larger object, then tipped down to assume its normal orientation and departed at tremendous speed. Westendorf said that this saucer was about 10 meters in diameter, or nearly twice as wide as his own plane, and he thinks it flew away at more than Mach 10. The saucer showed no indication of noticing Westendorf's presence nearby. As soon as the saucer disappeared, Westendorf decided to try to fly over the top of the object. Brazilian media later reported that he wanted to fly his plane into the interior of the object, but he says he never even considered that. He only hoped for a peek through the opening. To get more altitude, he flew his plane several hundred meters away from the object, turned around and began a steep climb. He noticed that the object was now rotating much faster. Then he saw brilliant beams of red light shoot from the top of the object toward the sky. He quickly abandoned his plan to fly over the top. Then, to his amazement, the object rose straight up at tremendous speed. For the first time, Westendorf was scared, because he believed the object's rapid acceleration might produce a shock wave of turbulence that could overwhelm his own plane.

As a trained pilot, he knew that air traffic controllers recommend staying at least three minutes behind a large aircraft to avoid such turbulence. He estimated that the unidentified object probably weighed at least three times as much as a 747 jumbo jet, so its shock wave should be huge -- and he was only a few hundred meters away. He quickly began emergency procedures in case his plane went into a spin or a stall. But to his surprise, he did not encounter any turbulence.

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{ https://www.ufosightingsdaily.com }

06-10-2023 om 18:31 geschreven door peter  

Former Sheriff Recounts Cigar-Shaped UFO Encounter Near Rattlesnake Butte

In the vast world of UFO sightings, stories range from mildly interesting to downright unbelievable. The Pearson Case, as it came to be known, is a captivating tale that comes from a place of authenticity and has managed to stay largely under the radar.

Early one morning, near the mysterious backdrop of Rattlesnake Butte, a family’s regular morning routine took an unexpected turn. The mother, as was her habit, prepared coffee and stood by the kitchen window. The view she usually admired, the one of Rattlesnake Butte situated some distance away, held a different spectacle that day. Hovering close to the Butte was a colossal cigar-shaped mothership. It remained steady in a subtle depression on the landscape, and smaller saucer-like crafts flew around it, entering and exiting the mothership’s belly.

Awakened by the spectacle, the husband joined the watch. The couple observed this bewildering scene for approximately half an hour. They eventually decided to alert a retired sheriff, who, intrigued by the vague call, rushed to the scene. Although the ship had left by the time he arrived, he did get a comprehensive account from the couple. They provided explicit details and labeled it as a “cigar-shaped Mothership,” with the smaller crafts entering and exiting it.

What lends credibility to this account is the nature of the eyewitnesses. These were simple farm folk with no apparent reason to fabricate such a tale. The sheriff, who interviewed them, felt confident in their honesty, emphasizing the depth and authenticity of their account. The sighting remains a unique and unforgettable memory for those involved, echoing the sentiment, “I wish you’d come back. That’d be quite a view.”

While UFO sightings are not uncommon, cases like these – grounded in genuine human experiences and witnessed by reliable individuals – make for truly fascinating tales. With the Pearson Case, we are reminded that sometimes, the most unbelievable stories are the ones that ring true.

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

06-10-2023 om 18:14 geschreven door peter  

New AI algorithm can detect signs of life with 90% accuracy. Scientists want to send it to Mars

In the future, this AI system could be embedded in smarter sensors on robotic space explorers, including landers and rovers on the moon and Mars, as well as within spacecraft circling potentially habitable worlds like Enceladus and Europa.

"We began with the idea that the chemistry of life differs fundamentally from that of the inanimate world; that there are 'chemical rules of life' that influence the diversity and distribution of biomolecules," Robert Hazen, a scientist at the Carnegie Institution for Science in Washington D.C. and  co-author of the new study, said in a statement. "If we could deduce those rules, we can use them to guide our efforts to model life's origins or to detect subtle signs of life on other worlds."

Related: 

• NASA hopes humanoid robots can help us explore the moon and Mars

{ https://www.space.com/ }

06-10-2023 om 00:44 geschreven door peter  

2006 Chicago O’Hare UFO Sighting: 22ft Long Alien Craft Witnessed by Many

The UFO event over Chicago’s O’Hare Airport in 2006 is one of the most intriguing UFO sightings in recent history. Despite being unremarkable as far as UFO sightings go, the reaction of the airline and the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) was anything but ordinary, suggesting some type of cover-up between the implicated authorities.

On November 7, 2006, United Airlines Flight 446 was preparing to depart from O’Hare International to North Carolina when a dozen of airline employees, including mechanics and pilots, spotted a gray and metallic saucer-like object hovering above Gate C17 of the United terminal. The object remained there for several minutes before flying off into the clouds at an unnatural speed. This event was captured in official FAA audio recordings, with a United controller and a colleague discussing the sighting.

The disc was estimated to be at least 22 feet in diameter and hovered around 1,500 feet off the ground, below a heavy cloud cover at 1,900 feet. One grounded pilot announced his sightings over the radio, alerting a taxi mechanic and several other pilots to the presence of the object. At least two grounded pilots were able to lean out of their cockpit windows and see the object in great detail.

The story of the O’Hare UFO incident went almost completely unnoticed until the Chicago Tribune published an article on December 31, 2006, nearly two months after the incident. The story became the highest-hitting article in the website’s history, and other news outlets picked up the story as well.

Jon Hilkevitch, a transportation reporter with the Chicago Tribune, started interviewing the witnesses. Initially, both the FAA and United Airlines denied any knowledge of the event but were forced to admit that this was a lie when an audio tape was leaked to the press that captured a United Airlines radio conversation on the date of the event.

The FAA supervisor identified as “Sue” was asking several controllers at O’Hare if they had seen a flying disc over gate C-17. They initially laughed off the question, but she called back 15 minutes later to confirm that several pilots had seen the disc and that one had captured a photograph of it. Unfortunately, this alleged photograph has never s

The tape also recorded the control tower operators warning outgoing planes of the UFO and advising them to be cautious. Even in the wake of the tape, United Airlines and the FAA continued to brush off the incident. The airline prohibited any employees from discussing the incident with the media.

However, after the Chicago Tribune article compelled them to address the situation, a spokesperson from the FAA claimed that the alleged disc was nothing but the reflection of airport lights off the low cloud cover. However, this explanation was unconvincing, as the sighting occurred in daylight, before any of the airport’s lights were turned on.

Read also:

• Elizondo & Tom Delonge Found Photos Of Italian Helicopter Destroyed By UFO In 2004
• Famous 19-Sec UFO Footage Could Be Greatest Leak: CGI Experts Say It Is Real Deal
• Stanford Top Scientist Said Intelligence Community Thinks Greys Are Intermediaries: Bio-Robots
• Top Scientists Told US Congressman That Extraterrestrial Craft Are In Our Airspace

Despite the assertions of several credible witnesses, the airline and the FAA declined to investigate the matter further and wrote it off as a rare weather phenomenon known as a fallstreak or “hole-punch cloud.” However, Mark Rodeghier, the director for the Center for UFO Studies Scientific Director, did not accept this explanation and stated:

“It’s an unknown object over O’Hare, and it’s seen by official personnel and does United or the FAA take it seriously? Of course not, they have zero interest because UFOs can’t exist. But how can you not worry about something hovering over an airport after 9/11? It doesn’t make sense.”

This explanation did not stand up to reason too, as journalist Leslie Kean soon discovered. Hole-punched clouds form, when ice crystals from higher clouds fall down through a lower cloud shelf, punch a hole in it, and evaporate in the warm air below, only forming in below-freezing temperatures. The air at the altitude of the sighting on the day in question was 53 degrees Fahrenheit, which was above freezing.

Despite the FAA’s lack of interest in the O’Hare UFO incident, an independent investigation group called NARC conducted their own research. The team of former NASA scientists, pilots, meteorologists, and aerospace engineers, among others, prepared a 154-page report that confirmed the presence of a physical object over O’Hare. The report stated that the object’s maneuvers could not be explained by conventional means and advised the FAA to launch their own investigation. However, to this day, the FAA has not acted upon this recommendation. (Source)

“There have been documented cases where safety appears to have been implicated, and more and more we are coming to the point of view that we are dealing with an intelligent phenomenon. We must be proactive before an aircraft goes down,” said Richard Haines, a former chief of the Space Human Factors Office at NASA’s Ames Research Center.

The reaction of the airline and the FAA in the aftermath of the incident suggests some type of cover-up between the implicated authorities. The airline prohibited its employees from sharing the details of the incident, and the FAA provided unconvincing explanations for the UFO sighting, such as the reflection of airport lights off low cloud cover or a misidentified weather phenomenon. These explanations were quickly debunked by journalists and independent investigators.

Jon Hilkevitch emphasized how unusual it is for the FAA to ignore such a significant UFO sighting. The FAA has launched investigations for far less extraordinary incidents, such as spilled coffee pots and airport aisles. This lack of interest in the O’Hare UFO incident raises questions about the extent of government involvement in hiding the truth about UFOs from the public.

The taxi mechanic described Chicago’s O’Hare UFO as follows:

“The craft appeared to be hovering right below the ceiling of the cloud cover (about 700 or 800 feet). The cloud ceiling that day was 1900 feet. The top of the craft was clearly outlined as a very dark gray material, but the bottom and the edges of the craft were hazy like when you see the mirage-like surface of the road on a hot day.

The other interesting observation was that after the craft accelerated straight up (observed by other witnesses), there was a hole punched in the clouds. The hole in the clouds was about the same size as the unidentified craft. It looked like a cookie cutter hole stamped out of dough ‘very similar in size’ to the craft. The hole stayed for a little while and then dissipated into the overcast clouds. The sighting lasted about 20 minutes from the time of the first radio call to the time when the mechanic and witness parked the Boeing 777 that he was taxiing across the airport.”

Reddit user Buddy_Felcher describes what he saw during the 2006 O’Hare Airport UFO sighting:

“I was working at American Airlines as a ramp service clerk at O’Hare when that thing came. I saw it, and only one other coworker saw it as well. And nobody believed me even after other airline workers said they saw it too. Until I heard other people saw it everyone had me convinced I was crazy…

Have you ever seen the movie flight of the navigator? That’s what it sort of looked like but also kind of like it was a chrome bubble of air or like the way invisible people in movies look when it’s raining on them. I only saw the latter part of it being there, the guy I worked with said it was solid grey at first and then changed to what I saw.” (Source)

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06-10-2023 om 00:34 geschreven door peter  

A nameless mesa in a strange Martian landscape once stood at the center of a swirl of alien conspiracy theories.

In a low-resolution snapshot from NASA’s Viking 1 spacecraft, taken in 1976, the brightly lit ridges and darkly shadowed dips in the terrain atop the mesa formed a weirdly compelling optical illusion: a grim, black-eyed face staring back at us from Mars. Conspiracy theorists insisted the mesa must have been the work of alien sculptors. But it turns out that if you see the mesa in more detail and in different lighting, the stark contrasts of light and shadow that originally formed the face completely disappear.

But the “face on Mars” is a great example of the same phenomenon that may once have inspired early humans to draw some of the first art on cave walls here on Earth.

FACE? OFF.

The SETI Institute recently shared a blast from the past: an image from NASA’s Mars Global Surveyor satellite, which snapped an image of the famous “Mars face,” revealing a discouraging lack of alien megaliths or slumbering giants.

In the original image, from Viking 1, with a low resolution of about 164 feet per pixel, the mesa shows up in stark patterns of light and shadow, creating the illusion of dark eyes in a pale face – one that looks unsettlingly like a death mask.

But seen in more detail at 6.6 feet per pixel, and with the Sun shining down from a different angle in the Martian sky, the facial features came into focus as weathered ridges of rock. If you know what you’re looking for, you can still trace the outline of the illusion on the top of the mesa and think to yourself, “Okay, I see how that weird dip in the ground looks like an eye in the right lighting,” but it’s also easy to tell the face isn’t really there.

Nobody carved this two-mile-long mesa into the shape of a very spooky face. It’s just an example of a very ancient quirk of the human mind called pareidola. The phrase refers to our tendency to see faces and other familiar shapes in random patterns, like clouds, rock formations, or the stars in the night sky.

A recent study, published last week in the Cambridge Archaeological Journal, suggested that paraidolia may have provided some of the inspiration for humanity’s first artworks on cave walls. Archaeologist Izzy Wisher and her colleagues found that more than half the Paleolithic images drawn on cave walls in northern Spain — some dating back 40,000 years — included natural features of the cave wall in the shapes they depicted. A curved section of rock, viewed in a flickering firelight at just the right angle, might look like a bison’s back, and that image might have inspired an ancient person to draw the rest of the animal, for example.

“However, whilst our study showed that pareidolia did have some influence on the cave artists, this was not always the case, giving us a fascinating insight into the work of these early painters,” says Wisher in a recent statement. “It seems to us that their art may have been part of a ‘creative conversation’ with the cave walls, where they both took inspiration from what they saw in the cracks and shapes of the cave wall but also used their own creativity.”

There’s still another famous face on Mars: a smiley face traced by mountain ranges in Galle Crater (not to be confused with Gale Crater, home of NASA’s Curiosity Rover) and made famous in The Watchmen. That one is really there, but the iconic smiley face is a great example of pareidolia in its own right, since the mind is managing to make a face out of two dots and a curved line.

And if you’re still wondering how we connected The Watchmen, ancient cave art, and an optical illusion on Mars, the word you may be looking for is apophenia.

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{ https://www.inverse.com/ }

05-10-2023 om 23:56 geschreven door peter  

Watch Chinese astronauts light a match on Tiangong space station (video)

China's Shenzhou 16 astronauts conducted an eye-raising experiment in space involving open flames aboard the Tiangong space station.

Astronauts Gui Haichao and Zhu Yangzhu lit a candle during a live lecture broadcast from China's Tiangong space station on Sept. 21 to demonstrate how flames burn in microgravity. Strikingly, the flames appear nearly spherical, rather than the teardrop-shaped flames we're familiar with back on Earth.

Lit candles on Earth produce flames shaped through buoyancy-driven convection, with hot air rising and cold air descending. That combustion convection current is weak in the microgravity environment of low Earth orbit, however. This means flames diffuse in all directions, resulting in spherical fireballs. 

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{ https://www.space.com/ }

05-10-2023 om 21:58 geschreven door peter  

This is especially true for missions to Mars and other locations beyond the Earth-Moon system, which pose serious risks to astronaut health, safety, and well-being. Even when Earth and Mars are at their closest every 26 months (a Mars Opposition), it can take up to 9 months to make a one-way transit to the planet. Combined with surface operations that could last up to a year and the nine-month return trip, missions to Mars could last up to 900 days! During this time, astronauts will be exposed to elevated levels of cosmic and solar radiation, not to mention the toll of long periods spent in microgravity will have on their bodies.

Hence, NASA and other space agencies are actively investigating alternate means of propulsion. As noted in a previous article, “How Long Would It Take To Travel To The Nearest Star?“, these concepts are also considered potential means for achieving interstellar travel for decades. They include fuel-efficient concepts like electric or ion propulsion, which utilize electromagnetic fields to ionize inert propellant (like xenon gas) and accelerate it through nozzles to generate thrust. However, these concepts generally produce low thrust and must rely on heavy power sources (solar arrays or nuclear reactors) to generate more.

Solar Sails are another option, which can generate continuous acceleration while requiring no propellant (thereby saving on mass). However, missions equipped with this technology are limited in terms of thrust and must operate closer to the Sun. A twist on the idea is to employ Gigawatt-energy (GWe) laser arrays to accelerate spacecraft equipped with sails to relativistic speeds (a fraction of the speed of light). However, this concept requires expensive infrastructure and tremendous amounts of power in order to be feasible.

Another popular concept is nuclear thermal propulsion (NTP), which NASA and DARPA are currently developing in the form of the Demonstration Rocket for Agile Cislunar Operations (DRACO). This method relies on a nuclear reactor to heat propellant (like liquid hydrogen), causing it to expand through nozzles to generate thrust. The benefits of NTP include very high energy density and significant acceleration, but it also comes with numerous technical and safety challenges involving the handling and launching of nuclear materials.

There are also propulsion concepts that harness fusion reactions, like Deuterium-Tritium (D-T) and Deuterium-Hydrogen three (D-He3) reactions, something that theoretical scientists have been working with for decades. These methods offer the potential for high thrust and extremely high specific impulse but also present technical challenges, not the least of which are related to handling the necessary fuel and achieving sustained and controlled fusion reactions. There are also more exotic concepts, like antimatter propulsion and the Alcubierre Warp Drive, but none of these will be available in the foreseeable future.

And there’s Neukart’s proposal, which combines elements of fusion propulsion, ionic propulsion, and other concepts. As he explained to Universe Today via email:

“The MFPD is a propulsion system for space exploration, utilizing controlled nuclear fusion reactions as a primary energy source for both thrust and potential electric power generation. The system is predicated on harnessing the immense energy output from fusion reactions, typically involving isotopes of hydrogen or helium, to produce a high-velocity exhaust of particles, thereby generating thrust according to Newton’s third law.

“The plasma from the fusion reactions is confined and manipulated using magnetic fields, ensuring controlled energy release and directionality. Simultaneously, the MFPD concept envisages the possibility of converting part of the fusion energy into electrical power to sustain onboard systems and possibly the reaction control system of the spacecraft.”

To develop this concept, Nuekart began with deuterium-tritium (D-T) fusion reactions since it is one of the most researched and understood reactions and offers a clear and familiar basis for elaborating the core principles and mechanics of MFPD. Furthermore, Neukart added, D-T reactions have relatively low ignition temperatures and a higher cross-section than other concepts, making it a good “starting point.” Therefore, they provide a useful benchmark for measuring and comparing the performance of this theoretical propulsion system.

However, the ultimate goal of MFPD is to harness aneutronic fusion (p-B11), where very little of the energy released by the reactions is carried by neutrons. Aneutronic reactions, in contrast, release energy in the form of charged particles (typically protons or alpha particles), thereby significantly reducing the level of neutron radiation produced. The advantages of this system are immediately apparent, combining high specific impulse and immense energy density and providing both thrust and power from a single energy source. Other benefits, said Neukert, include the following:

• High Specific Impulse: The MFPD can provide a high-specific impulse, delivering substantial velocity change (delta-v) to the spacecraft, facilitating missions to distant celestial bodies.
• Energy-Dense Fuel: Fusion fuel, like isotopes of hydrogen, is incredibly energy-dense, potentially enabling extended missions without needing vast amounts of propellant.
• Lower Mass Fractions: The spacecraft might be designed with lower mass fractions dedicated to fuel storage, affording more mass allocation for scientific instruments or additional technologies.
• Dual Utility: The MFPD is not just a propulsion system; it is also envisioned to provide electrical power for the spacecraft’s systems and instruments, which is crucial for long-duration missions.
• Adaptability: The potential to adjust the thrust and specific impulse, offering versatility for different mission phases, such as acceleration, cruising, and deceleration.
• Reduced Travel Time: The potential for higher continuous thrust may significantly reduce transit times to distant destinations, mitigating risks related to cosmic radiation exposure and onboard resource management.
• Radiation Shielding: Although challenging, the inherent magnetic and physical structures might be engineered to provide some level of radiation shielding for the spacecraft and crew, utilizing the plasma and magnetic fields.
• Independence from Solar Proximity: Unlike solar sails or solar electric propulsion, the MFPD does not depend on proximity to the Sun; thus, it is viable for missions into the outer solar system and beyond.
• Minimized Risk of Nuclear Contamination: Compared to nuclear-thermal or fission-electric concepts, the MFPD could be designed to minimize the risk of radioactive contamination, given that fusion, in general, requires less radioactive material and potentially allows for safer reactor shutdown.

Artist’s concept of a Bimodal Nuclear Thermal Rocket in Low Earth Orbit.

Credit: NASA

As to the implications this system could have for space exploration, Nuekart emphasized the ability to traverse vast cosmic distances in reduced timeframes, expanding mission profiles (fast transits to other planets in the Solar System and interstellar missions), mitigating the risks of long-duration space missions (exposure to radiation and microgravity), revolutionizing spacecraft design by providing propulsion and electrical power simultaneously, and enhancing human exploration capabilities.

Beyond that, he also foresees the potential for technological spin-offs in materials science, plasma physics, and energy production that could have applications here on Earth. The development of this system could also foster international collaborations, bringing experts and resources from multiple fields together to realize common exploratory objectives.

Of course, no next-generation technology proposal would be complete without some caveats and addendums. For instance, said Nuekart, the main challenge for MFPD propulsion lies in achieving and maintaining stable fusion relations in space. On Earth, researchers have made considerable progress with magnetic confinement (MCF) and inertial confinement fusion (ICF). The former involves Tokamok reactors using magnetic fields to confine fusion in the form of plasma, while the latter relies on lasers to compress and heat tablets of D-T fuel.

However, similar experiments have not been conducted in space, leading to questions about how the system will handle heat caused by reactions, the resulting radiation, and the structural implications for spacecraft. Nevertheless, the ball is already rolling on nuclear tests in space (the aforementioned DRACO demonstrator). Given the benefits of fusion propulsion, it’s not likely to remain on the drawing board for long. Ultimately, says Nuekart, the research into MFPD aims to establish a pathway that will lead to interplanetary and (someday) Interstellar exploration:

“While the journey to realize the MFPD concept will undeniably be layered with challenges and scientific hurdles, the potential payoff is monumental. Achieving reliable, effective, and efficient fusion propulsion could redefine the boundaries of achievable goals, propelling humanity into a new era of exploration, discovery, and understanding of the cosmos. The hope is that the research seeds curiosity, innovation, and determination among scientists, engineers, and explorers across the globe, charting the course toward our future among the stars.”

Further Reading: 

• arXiv

RELATED

{ https://www.universetoday.com/ }

05-10-2023 om 20:51 geschreven door peter  

New Horizons flew by Arrokoth on Jan. 1, 2019, snapping pictures showing the strangely shaped object. It wasn’t until well after the flyby that scientists realized the two lobes on Arrokoth were not round, but flattened like a pancake.

“It’s amazing to see this object so well preserved that its shape directly reveals these details of its assembly from a set of building blocks all very similar to one another,” said Lowell Observatory’s Dr. Will Grundy, co-investigator of the New Horizons mission, in a Southwest Research Institute press release. “Arrokoth almost looks like a raspberry, made of little sub-units.”

Arrokoth measures about 22 miles (35 kilometers) long. It is about 12 miles (20 kilometers) wide, by 6 miles (10 kilometers) thick. Most of the mounds were identified on Arrokoth’s larger lobe, Wenu, but three more mounds were tentatively identified on the object’s smaller lobe, Weeyo.

A three-dimensional model created from images taken by the New Horizons spacecraft shows that the larger lobe is flatter and has dimensions of approximately 14 × 12 × 4 miles (22 × 20 × 7 kilometers). The smaller lobe is more rounded and is approximately 9 × 9 × 6 miles (14 × 14 × 10 kilometers) in its dimensions.

You can see an interactive 3D version of Arrokoth here.

Scientists say the shape of Arrokoth indicates that its two lobes most likely formed separately and gently merged within a cloud of particles early in the history of our solar system. It is thought that Arrokoth is primordial — existing since the beginning of the solar system. The two lobes are similar in color, adding evidence to this interpretation.

Arrokoth means means ““sky” in the Powhatan/Algonquian language.

Scientists think there is a good chance that some of the flyby targets for NASA’s Lucy mission to Jupiter’s Trojan asteroids and ESA’s comet interceptor will be other pristine planetesimals, which could contribute to the understanding of accretion of planetesimals elsewhere in the ancient solar system, and whether they differ from processes New Horizons found in the Kuiper Belt.

“It will be important to search for mound-like structures on the planetesimals these missions observe to see how common this phenomenon is, as a further guide to planetesimal formation theories,” Stern said.

Lucy launched on Oct 16, 2021 and will make its first encounter with the trojan asteroid (152830) Dinkinesh on November 1, 2023.

{ https://www.universetoday.com/ }

05-10-2023 om 20:26 geschreven door peter  

Structures Under Moons Surface, Lunar Orbiter 3 photo, UFO Sighting News.

Date of discovery: Oct 4, 2023
Location of discover: Earths moon
NASA link: 

• https://www.lpi.usra.edu/resources/lunarorbiter/ 

 

Found this in a Lunar orbiter 3 mission photo, had to share it. It looks like a subteraining advanced alien culture does exist on Earths moon. In this photo there is some huge structures within the depths to he craters. It's no wonder why NASA can't go back to the moon, the aliens wont let them! Scott C. Waring 

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

05-10-2023 om 18:20 geschreven door peter  

Is Maryland a UFO hotspot? Locals have reported nearly 2,000 bizarre sightings in the sky since 1995

• Maryland has reported 1,923 UFOs cases to the National UFO Reporting Center
• Locals have seen a 'flat bottom black triangle,' a 'classic flying saucer' and more
• READ MORE: Here's the US Senate's proposed UFO 'controlled disclosure plan' 

By MATTHEW PHELAN FOR DAILYMAIL.COM

Maryland could be a UFO hotspot, as nearly 2,000 sightings of bizarre objects in the sky have been reported since the mid-1990s.

Residents of the eighth-smallest state have reported a 'flat bottom black triangle' with green lights, 'a classic flying saucer,' and an oval-shaped craft that 'stayed stationary for about a minute and a half.'

Reports of the phenomenon have been collected in a database that shows that the first recorded sighting in Maryland dates back to May 15, 1946 — but wasn't reported until June 2017.

More modern sightings, like the glowing 'orbs' witnessed above Ocean City this past April, now get reported to the database within a matter of days.

'My daughter and I looked up and saw 'four orbs' moving in a circular motion, then come back to the middle, then spread back out,' the witness from Ocean City, who works in the defense sector, wrote to the UFO database. 

This map, compiled in February 2023, reveals the number of UFO sightings in each US state

For decades, the official policy of the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has been that commercial pilots and other civilians should not bother reporting unexplained aerial phenomena (UAP) or craft (UFOs) to the federal agency.

Per the FAA's 'Aeronautical Information Manual,' anyone who sees something strange in the sky should report their sightings to the volunteers at the National UFO Reporting Center (NUFORC) instead.

'If concern is expressed that life or property might be endangered,' the FAA manual's guidance on UFO sightings continues, 'report the activity to the local law enforcement department.'

One White House official, former Clinton chief of staff and current Biden 'clean energy' czar John Podesta, likened the FAA's official stance to 'illogical directives' and 'discrimination.' 

And, as of this summer, NASA's UAP advisory panel now recommends that the civilian air agency should admit the public's UFO and UAP sightings into its own Aviation Safety Reporting System.

But in the meantime, NUFORC's director Peter Davenport said his group is getting inundated with fresh reports as scrutiny of the UFO issue reaches a fever pitch in the halls of Congress, inside the Pentagon and across the news media. 

'It's heartening to me that so many people are coming forward now,' Davenport told CBS News. 

'We're getting significantly more reports than just six months or a year ago,' he said. 'There are UFO reports coming from probably most cities in the country.'

California is reported to have the most UFO sightings out of any state in the US, with more than 15,000 claims.

And the state has seen more than 200 objects this year alone.  

Maryland has witnessed 1,923 UFO incidents, as logged by 1,818 reports maintained by this civilian UFO database. 

Below are some of Maryland's most compelling cases from the past year.

Multiple electric blue lights, several in a tight triangular formation, hovered over a backyard in Baltimore on August 5, 2023, according to one crisply recorded UFO report to NUFORC

August 5, 2023 - Baltimore, Maryland 

Multiple electric blue lights, several in a tight triangular formation, hovered over a backyard in Baltimore, according to one crisply recorded UFO report to NUFORC. 

'We were outback celebrating and I notice some bright lights in the sky,' the witness wrote along with their submission of the video. 

'I started recording because I didn't think they were stars like most people thought,' the witness said. 'I usually look at the sky at night and never saw those before, plus they were moving slowly across the sky.'

While the witness described seeing 'at least 10 lights' during the sighting, at most eight or nine are seen during the 30-second video.  

Although the lights do twinkle in the distance like stars, no other stars are visible in the night sky — and, by the video's end, the lights can be seen moving slowly in unison 'across the sky' just as the witness describes.

July 4, 2023 - Brunswick, Maryland

During a clear night of Independence Day fireworks, multiple witnesses at an apartment complex in Brunswick noticed a pair of blinking lights that appeared connected to one another, hovering around their local fireworks show.

'What is that? Oh, my gosh! What is that?' one confused witness video-recording the event can be heard asking as the reportedly 'quick moving lights in synchronization' glides across the sky, leaving 'no sound or trails.' 

'Happened during fireworks but very easy to tell it's not fireworks, nor a plane or helicopters in formation,' said the witness who submitted his report and cell phone video to NUFORC.  

'The objects also seemed fairly close, as in not extremely high,' the witness added, 'but the objects still seemed smaller than crafts known of.' 

'The flight pattern was so consistent between the two lights that I truly don't believe it's drones being flown as the line between the two was absolutely perfect and did not change at all during flight.'

A child witness, who can be heard in the video, guesses that the mystery lights might be 'a firework,' but the adults remain unsure.

For about a minute near Jackson Station Road on March 19, 2023, one driver reported seeing a 'flat-bottom black triangle shape flying low to the ground with a low wooshing sound'

March 19, 2023 - Perryville, MD

For about a minute near Jackson Station Road, one driver reported seeing a 'flat-bottom black triangle shape flying low to the ground with a low wooshing sound.'

'I stopped my car and rolled down the window and heard a low wooshing sound coming from it,' the witness told NUFORC in their written report.

The UFO, which they referred to as 'the shape,' was then reportedly 'flying low to the ground and moving really slow.'

The witness further described the UFO as appearing 'black in color' with a green light on 'each point' of its triangular shape. 

'I got one blurry picture,' the witness reported, 'when a car pulled up behind me and I had to keep driving.'

On November 7, 2022, one Maryland witness saw what they described as 'a classic flying saucer, with a black marking in the 'front'' moving very slowly above their parents' house in Rockville, north of Washington DC. The witness said it was slow 'compared to [...] an aircraft'

November 7, 2022 - Rockville, MD, USA

One Maryland witness saw what they described as 'a classic flying saucer, with a black marking in the 'front'' moving very slowly above their parents' house in Rockville just north of Washington DC.

'Saw this weird flying saucer-looking thing, took some photos,' the witness wrote into NUFORC. 

'I was looking at the evening sky and saw a strange looking object with no trail,' their account continues, noting that the UFO 'seemed to be relatively low' in the sky and was moving 'very slowly (compared to, for example, an aircraft).'

In the throwback to the mid-20th Century's UFO sightings, the object, they report, 'looks like a classic flying saucer, with a black marking in the 'front' (what was visible).' 

Then, just like a classic UFO, it apparently zipped off: 'It seemed to disappear after I filmed and photographed it for 30 seconds,' the witness wrote.

Although Davenport has been working for NUFORC since 1994, the group's director has few predictions for what the recent resurgence in interest might lead to.

'I don't know what the future has in store for us,' Davenport said. 

'But I am encouraged that more people are coming forward and the government recognizes the UFO phenomenon [as] something worthy of their attention.'

{https://www.dailymail.co.uk/ }

05-10-2023 om 18:11 geschreven door peter  

UFO Technology Found on Earth

In the unending expanse of the cosmos, Earth holds secrets that have perplexed and fascinated humans for centuries. As we race towards the future, pushing the boundaries of what is scientifically possible, we find intriguing clues from our ancient past suggesting that we may not be alone in the universe.

One of the most riveting stories from history dates back to 1946, with the expedition called Operation High Jump led by the renowned Admiral Richard Byrd. This mission, considered the largest Antarctic expedition at that time, has been mired in mystery. Whispers of an aerial battle involving advanced flying craft and encounters with extraterrestrial beings suggest an incredible and almost unbelievable narrative. Adding more intrigue to the tale, a 2018 satellite image captured what appeared to be a contrail stretching from the North to the South Pole. The sheer speed necessary to leave such a trail hints at technology far beyond our current capabilities.

This is not the only tale that nudges us to reconsider our understanding of human history. The Antikythera mechanism, an ancient mechanical computer found in the Aegean Sea, dates back to 200 BC. This device, which was used to predict astronomical events, stands as a testament to the advanced technological capabilities of ancient civilizations. It was so advanced that it’s likened to finding a jet plane in King Tut’s tomb! Such anomalies make one wonder: was the knowledge of our ancestors influenced or even given by extraterrestrial beings?

Jumping from the ancient to the ultra-modern, science is on the brink of creating wonders with nanotechnology. Imagine microscopic robots, a mere 244 atoms across, swimming through our bloodstream, repairing damaged tissues, healing wounds at unprecedented speeds, and perhaps even reversing the aging process. Such advancements are not confined to the realms of science fiction anymore. The field is advancing so rapidly that it promises not just longer life but perhaps a reversal of the aging process in the foreseeable future.

Could it be that these modern scientific marvels echo knowledge passed down from celestial visitors? The merging of our ancient past and a promising future raises exciting questions. Are we, as a species, evolving to resemble our potential extraterrestrial ancestors? The universe holds its secrets close, but with each discovery, we inch closer to understanding our place in this vast cosmos.

RELATED

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

05-10-2023 om 17:35 geschreven door peter  

NASA probeert te voorkomen dat asteroïde de aarde vernielt in 2182

© Pixabay

Wetenschappers van de National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) hebben onlangs bekendgemaakt dat ze het einde naderen van hun zoektocht naar het proberen voorkomen dat een asteroïde over 159 jaar op de aarde botst. 

Volgens deskundigen zou de asteroïde 'Bennu' op 24 september 2182 de aarde kunnen treffen. Deze cataclysmische gebeurtenis heeft een kans van 1 op 2.700 om de aarde te raken, maar specialisten nemen geen enkel risico en maken zich dan ook zorgen over deze kleine kans. Zozeer zelfs dat NASA zeven jaar geleden een ruimtevaartuig naar Bennu lanceerde om gegevens te verzamelen die zouden kunnen helpen bij het afwenden van de ramp, als en wanneer deze zich voordoet.

Ruimterots komt elke 6 jaar in buurt van onze planeet

Volgens NASA werd de asteroïde in 1999 geïdentificeerd en reist hij ongeveer elke zes jaar in de buurt van de aarde. De ruimterots is naar schatting even groot als het Empire State Building en heeft de kracht van 22 atoombommen. Tijdens de Touch-and-Go (TAG)-monsterverzamelingsoperatie daalde NASA's 'OSIRIS-Rex-ruimtevaartuig' in 2020 af op het oppervlak van asteroïde Bennu en haalde rotsachtig materiaal op van een monsterlocatie genaamd 'Nightingale'.

Bennu, een oeroud overblijfsel van ons zonnestelsel, bestaat volgens wetenschappers al ruim 4,5 miljard jaar. Het raakte voor het eerst bekend als '1999 RQ36'. Nadat een kind uit de derde klas, Michael Puzio, een wedstrijd had gewonnen om de asteroïde een naam te geven, werd deze in 2013 omgedoopt tot Bennu.

Hoe wil NASA ​​botsing tussen aarde en asteroïde voorkomen?

“We bevinden ons nu in de laatste etappe van deze zeven jaar durende reis, en het voelt heel erg als de laatste paar kilometer van een marathon, met een samenloop van emoties zoals trots en vreugde die naast elkaar bestaan ​​met een vastberaden focus om de race goed te voltooien,” citeerde Telegraph Rich Burns, projectmanager voor OSIRIS-REx bij NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland. De asteroïdemonsters van de OSIRIS-REx-missie arriveerden eind september op aarde en worden nu intensief geanalyseerd.

De bevindingen van de missie kunnen niet alleen de wereld redden van een catastrofale botsing, maar kunnen ook informatie onthullen over de oorsprong van het leven op aarde. De missie doet denken aan de film Armageddon uit 1998 van Bruce Willis. In de film voorkomt Willis dat een asteroïde ter grootte van Texas in botsing komt met de aarde door erop te landen en deze met een atoombom in tweeën te breken. Maar ook 'Don't look up' uit 2021 lijkt heel erg op deze gebeurtenis.

(Skwadra by Tagtik/Source: News18 - Telegraph/Illustration picture: Pixabay)

{ https://www.msn.com/nl-be/ }

05-10-2023 om 17:20 geschreven door peter  

Massive Martian 'dust devil' filmed by NASA's Perseverance rover is 5 times taller than the Empire State Building

The Perseverance rover has captured footage of an unusually large twister, or "dust devil," moving across the Martian landscape. Based on images of the swirling storm, researchers estimate that it could be more than a mile tall.

NASA's Perseverance rover has captured rare footage of a towering twister, or "dust devil," dancing across the surface of Mars. The dusty vortex is taller than the average-size U.S. tornado and five times taller than the Empire State Building, according to NASA.

The rover spotted the swirling storm on Aug. 30 on the 899th Sol, or Martian day, of its mission on the Red Planet. The wandering robot filmed the dust devil for around 84 seconds as it raged on top of a nearby ridge around 2.5 miles (4 kilometers) away. A time-lapse of the dust devil, showcasing the action at 20 times speed, was shared online by NASA's Jet Propulsion Lab (JPL) on Sept. 29. 

The towering twister was moving at around 12 mph (19 km/h) and was roughly 200 feet (61 meters) wide. It reached a max height of 387 feet (118 m) in the video, but the top part of the storm has been cut off, meaning its true height is unknown. However, the researchers estimate that it was exceedingly tall.

"We don’t see the top of the dust devil, but the shadow it throws gives us a good indication of its height," Mark Lemmon, a planetary scientist at the Space Science Institute in Boulder, Colorado, and a member of the Perseverance science team, said in a statement. "Most are vertical columns. If this dust devil were configured that way, its shadow would indicate it is about 1.2 miles [2 km] in height."

Related: 

• Mars rover is spying on the sun's far side to hunt for hidden, dangerous sunspots 

Dust devils form when rising cells of warm air mix with descending columns of cooler air. They also form on Earth, particularly in dry and dusty places like Arizona, and typically range from between 10 and 300 feet (3 and 91 m) wide and 500 to 1,000 feet (152 and 305 m) tall, according to the National Weather Service. 

In general, Martian dust devils are weaker and shorter than the dusty vortexes found on Earth, according to the statement. But clearly, the recently filmed whirlwind was much taller. Based on the researchers' estimate, the vortex was taller than average fully-fledged U.S. tornados, which grow to between 1,640 to 4,920 feet (500 and 1,500 m), according to FOX Weather.

It is unclear why this particular dust devil was so tall. But unlike an Earth tornado, which can only grow as tall as the clouds above it, there is nothing impeding the height of a Martian dust devil.

Related: 

• NASA's Perseverance rover loses its hitchhiking 'pet rock' after more than a year together on Mars
  

In a 2018 study published in the journal Icarus, researchers estimated that on any given day there could be at least one dust devil per square kilometer on Mars, which equates to around 145 million a day. As a result, dust devils are likely the main transporter of dust across Mars.  

Because of how dust devils reshape the Martian environment, both the Perseverance and Curiosity rovers are constantly on the lookout for nearby twisters. So far, Perseverance has witnessed dozens of dust devils, according to Live Science's sister site Space.com. 

In 2021, for the first time ever, researchers recorded the sound of a dust devil that passed directly over Perseverance. This enabled the rover to track how particles move within the vortex and provided clues as to how they form and grow.

The dust devil is not the only unusual extraterrestrial twister that was caught on camera this year. In March, an enormous "solar tornado," that stood taller than 14 Earths, raged on the sun's surface for more than three days after a plume of plasma got caught in a rapidly rotating magnetic field. 

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{ https://www.livescience.com/ }

05-10-2023 om 01:38 geschreven door peter  

Betty Andreasson’s Multiple UFO Experiences, Underwater Base & Humans In Glass Container

The abduction of Betty Andreasson Luca is considered to be one of the most documented cases in the history of Ufology. The woman from Massachusetts experienced multiple abductions, and her case is widely studied by UFO researchers. It became popular after the publication of the best-selling novel “The Andreasson Affair,” which came out in the late 1970s. She attended many radio shows and TV interviews where she discussed her encounter with grey aliens and even drew sketches of the incident.

Betty Andreasson was born on January 7, 1937, to Waino and Eva Aho. She went to school in Westminster and Gardner MA and had a great interest in art since childhood, which later became her passion. Betty married twice and with her first husband, she gave birth to seven children. She met her second husband Bob Luca in 1977.

According to the official reports, on the evening of January 25, 1967, Betty was at home with her seven children and parents. At around 6:30 p.m., she was busy in the kitchen when the lights in the house started blinking strangely. Soon after it, the kitchen’s window was hit by a reddish light beam, and the whole house went out of electricity. The children got terrified with the scene and Betty tried to calm them down. Her father looked out to find the source of the light and saw five strange-looking humanoid creatures walking right towards the house. Before he could understand the situation, the beings walked inside the house through the door which put the whole family in a state of shock.

Read also:

• Aliens From Andromeda Told US Army Personnel That Humans Are Composite Of 22 Different E.T. Races
• British RAF Officer Met Human-Looking Alien Named Mr. Janus In London In 1950s
• USAF Flight Nurse Interviewed Alien Named Airl, Said Earth Was Alien Prison Before 30,000 BCE
• Filiberto Cardenas UFO Encounter: Secret Underwater Hangar, Alien Entities & Future Predictions

One creature went to Betty’s father while the other four came to her, and one of them started talking with her telepathically. The one who was made telepathic contact with Betty was about 5 feet tall, while others were shorter than him. The description by the witnesses was similar to the modern illustration of grey aliens. They had only slits on their mouth, three fingers in one hand, and wore a blue-colored one-piece suit.

Betty was frightened but at the same time, she felt calm by the friendly nature of the beings. They did not harm any member of the family and even released her daughter from a state of unawareness. Then she was taken outside and boarded on their saucer-shaped craft with a small dome that was standing in the backyard. After that, the ship went up in the air and merged with the mothership where Betty went through medical tests and was under the effects of strange equipment. Later, she was taken to some strange place where she felt much pain which, according to her, was a “spiritual experience.”

Later that night, Betty returned home at 10:40 p.m. and found her family still in a frozen state, where one of the aliens was watching them in her absence. Then the family was put to bed by the beings and the aliens left. What’s more, she forgot about her abduction until undergoing hypnotherapy in later years.

Betty said in some of her interviews that the creatures were angelic in nature but not biblical. She is a religious person, had only some school education and did not understand much about UFOs. Only after this bizarre experience, she understood that whatever she had experienced that night was much like a UFO abduction

In 1975, Dr. Allen J Hynek posted an ad in the newspaper to learn more about the abduction experiences and asked help from common people. Betty answered his ad by sending a letter, but it was rejected due to its unusual details. It was only in 1977 when her case was deeply investigated by the experts including a solar physicist, an electronics engineer, an aerospace engineer, a telecommunications specialist, and a UFO investigator.

Her case was first investigated by Jules Vaillancourt, a Mutual UFO Network investigator in 1977. He said: “What I found most amazing about Betty was her ability to draw. The detail of the (space) craft and the beings she drew under hypnosis were such that it really made me believe there was something to this.”

He also added that the detective who had given a psychological stress evaluation to Betty and her daughter believed in her story. She even spoke the language of aliens under hypnosis. Her case investigation continued for 12 months where she and her daughter had gone through hypnosis sessions, lie detector tests, and a psychiatric interview. Both mother and daughter passed them with a genuine reaction. Author and UFO researcher Raymond E. Fowler wrote five books on her UFO experiences that include the famous “The Andreasson Affair” series.

During one of her hypnotic regression sessions, she remembered one of the early abductions that occurred to her in childhood. It took place in 1950 when she was taken from her home into a spacecraft as usual. But this time, the craft was flying toward an ocean or sea. She was terrified that the craft would crash into the water. But the ship submerged into the water and entered into a kind of tunnel. Betty could see everything underwater, as the place was filled with light. What she said next under hypnosis is so bizarre that even gave a chill to Fowler.

She saw people from all eras, different races, encased in the glass container. Fowler called it “The Museum of Time.” Betty said that people in the container were in old-fashioned clothes, and there were uncountable cubicles with humans inside at that underwater base.

Fowler wrote that when he listened to her one of the regression session recordings, his mind blew up as he found it difficult to believe. “A cold chill coursed through my body when Betty was describing people and animals enclosed in glassy cubicles in an icy cavern.”

Betty traveled a lot across the country, attending numerous TV interviews and radio shows and lecturing about her UFO experiences. She and her husband Bob Luca had been unsettled for many years until 1995 when they moved to Virginia. They lived in VA for 5 years and then moved to Florida. Shed died on March 18, 2022.

{ https://www.howandwhys.com/ }

05-10-2023 om 01:16 geschreven door peter  

EXPLORING THE CLAIMS THAT AMERICA’S TR-3A UFO FOUGHT IN DESERT STORM

BY ALEX HOLLINGS

For decades, rumors have swirled about the United States secretly operating highly classified black, triangular craft known as the TR-3A and TR-3B, with some going as far as to claim that these platforms were designed using reverse-engineered alien technology. In fact, in the early ’90s, it was even reported that these covert craft flew alongside the F-117 during combat operations over Iraq in Desert Storm.

In our last installment of this series, we explored a meta-investigation conducted by the National Institute of Discovery Science regarding black triangle UFOs seen over the United States. In this installment, we’ll explore the possibility that the United States could have secretly funded the development of such a platform.

Related: 

• What is the legendary black triangle UFO?

COULD THESE BLACK TRIANGLES HAVE BEEN SECRET AMERICAN AIRCRAFT?

The United States has placed a heavy emphasis on aviation technology since the very inception of manned flight, with the U.S. Army placing an order for the world’s first military aircraft from the Wright Brothers in 1908. Today, America’s warfare doctrine leans heavily on the nation’s ability to take and keep control of the airspace over any battlefield the world over. Of course, maintaining that capability in the face of increasingly capable international competitors has always required both significant investment and equally significant secrecy.

You can find a laundry list of secret aircraft programs that, once disclosed, still seemed awfully alien. Not only were highly classified stealth aircraft like the F-117 flying for years before the government acknowledged it existed, but even more exotic secret aircraft are now known to have been prowling the skies over the Southwestern United States for years.

Boeing’s YF-118 Bird of Prey, as just one example, started its design process in 1992 within the secretive confines of the U.S. military’s Groom Lake facility (known to most as Area 51) and conducted a total of 40 classified test flights over Nevada between 1996 and 1999.

The very alien-looking Bird of Prey was only disclosed to the public by Boeing in 2002 because the company financed the entire $67 million program without a penny of taxpayer funding. It’s been widely reported that other more classified government-funded technology demonstrators will never see similar disclosure, with some even reportedly being buried in the sands of Area 51 to be lost to time.

The Bird of Prey was actively flying while plane spotters and UFO junkies were collecting reports of other alleged secret aircraft like the TR-3B and the hypersonic reconnaissance platform many called Aurora. Sandboxx News has covered Aurora in depth before. While we’re all but certain that name was actually tied to the B-2 Spirit program, there is a fair amount of evidence to suggest that something similar to what people were reporting as the Aurora may have really been in testing, housed in the same secretive hangars as Boeing’s Bird of Prey and other secret platforms already lost to time.

Although defense spending did see consistent reductions following the fall of the Soviet Union, it’s worth noting that, until the late 1990s, the United States was still allocating a larger percentage of the nation’s GDP to defense than it does today. In fact, when adjusted for inflation, America’s 1992 defense budget of $325.03 billion equates to more than $718 billion today – meaning Uncle Sam certainly had the money to fund a variety of classified programs. Further, in 1991 it was reported that the U.S. Air Force had devoted more than $60.3 billion to classified research, development, and procurement over the five preceding years – that’s the equivalent of nearly $137 billion today, or enough to purchase more than 1,500 F-35As in today’s market.

Related: 

• Bird of Prey: Boeing’s lost budget-busting stealth fighter

REPORTS OF AMERICA’S TR-3A BLACK TRIANGLE SERVING IN DESERT STORM

In 1991, America’s Black Triangle was seemingly revealed to the world in a series of articles published by Aviation Week and Popular Mechanics. According to Aviation Week, the stealthy aircraft was designed by Northrop – the same firm responsible for the black, triangular B-2 Spirit – in 1976 alongside Lockheed’s Have Blue efforts that would ultimately produce the F-117. Northrop called its stealthy triangular aircraft the Tactical High Altitude Penetrator (THAP).

According to Aviation Week, the Air Force ultimately awarded Northrop a fixed-price research and development and demonstration/validation contract near the end of 1978 to build a prototype high-altitude reconnaissance aircraft based on their THAP design. That prototype, Aviation Week claimed, made its first test flight out of Area 51 in 1981, and a production contract was subsequently awarded in 1982.

In a follow-up article, Aviation Week went on to claim that Northrop’s TR-3A was about 42 feet long, 14 feet high, and had a wingspan of 60-65 feet, which describes a much smaller aircraft than popular reports made the “TR-3B” to be. Yet, this would seem to be in keeping with a sighting that is often attributed to Aurora over the North Sea in 1989, reported by a trained airfield observer named Chris Gibson.

According to Aviation Week’s unnamed sources, these aircraft “may have” been deployed to Alaska, Britain, Panama, and Okinawa, as well as flying in concert with the F-117 Nighthawk during combat operations in Iraq to provide laser-designation of targets over Baghdad.

That claim, while not officially substantiated, might explain why the documents given to Iraqi MiG pilots to identify the F-117 in the air also showed the silhouette of the B-2. Confusion over just what was being seen in the skies over Iraq may have prompted them to include the only other black triangle aircraft America was known to fly. However, the B-2 was not in service then, which would raise the question of what they actually saw. Though, admittedly, this line of reasoning may be a bit of a stretch.

Popular Mechanics discussed the Northrop TR-3A alongside other undisclosed but reportedly sighted aircraft in their coverage, including another boomerang-shaped platform said to be completely silent and boasting a massive wingspan that stretched between 600 and 800 feet – or three to four times the size of the B-52 Stratofortress.

Like Aviation Week, Popular Mechanics also reported on the TR-3A being significantly quieter than other aircraft, but not silent, as is often reported about the TR-3B.

Related: 

• Was America’s Aurora hypersonic aircraft real?

BUT EVIDENCE OF TR-3A’S EXISTENCE ISN’T QUITE AS STRONG AS IT SEEMS

Those articles in Aviation Week that so authoritatively relayed the story of the TR-3A’s development? Well, they were both written by or with the support of William Scott – a journalist who is now known for sometimes getting a little too excited about the unusual topics he covered, resulting in some serious, if likely unintentional, stretching of the truth.

In 1990, for instance, he reported that the United States had a secret hypersonic bomber that could launch nuclear weapons from vertical launch tubes. That aircraft, of course, never manifested either. The TR-3 designation, many now believe, was the result of Scott simply mishearing stories about Tier 3, which was a program that followed Tier 2 (an effort that resulted in the Global Hawk drone). Tier 3 was supposed to be an unmanned SR-71 successor that was also known as “Quartz,” but that ultimately didn’t make it beyond the design stage. Elements of the Tier 3 program, known as Tier 3 Minus, did ultimately result in Lockheed and Boeing building the Darkstar in 1996 – no, not the hypersonic one Maverick flew, but rather a much slower drone meant for ISR duties.

In fact, when you save this image of the Darkstar from Wikimedia Commons, the file name includes both Darkstar and “Tier 3.”

And when you read the Popular Mechanics coverage that was published in 1991, you’ll find that it pulls primarily from Scott’s reporting in Aviation Week.

Many, including me, were struck by the details in the Aviation Week story because it’s a well-respected outlet with a history of having insider information. But the outlet also has a well-recorded history of publishing some less-than-factual accounts of black aircraft programs over the years; stories with little in the way of disclosed sources that made lofty claims about a near-term future that never manifests.

In 2006, space historian and policy analyst Dwayne Day summed up how academics now perceive Scott’s 1990 coverage of the TR-3A:

“The Manta story demonstrates a pattern that Scott repeats in all of his black airplane stories. Usually there is a small bit of real information about a classified aircraft project. Scott then connects alleged sightings of an unusual aircraft in flight to this bit of information. Then the article is padded out with a large amount of speculation, usually involving various studies and research projects conducted by various contractors. The characteristics are always the same, however: he never quotes anybody by name who has any direct connection to the alleged program, and he never even includes anonymous quotes of anybody who supposedly knows the big picture about the alleged program.”

But this isn’t the end of the story for these unusual black triangle sightings. In our next installment in this series, we’ll explore stories about the TR-3B – a similar black triangle that’s said to be powered by reverse-engineered alien technology. We’ll also look into the real patents that may support these claims.

READ MORE FROM SANDBOXX NEWS

• America’s enemies can track stealth fighters on radar
• Russia’s stealth fleet ranks 11th in the world 
• H-20: What we know about China’s stealth bomber
• Why is it so hard to develop stealth aircraft?
• Is there a real secret aircraft behind Lockheed and Top Gun’s Darkstar?

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04-10-2023 om 23:34 geschreven door peter