Dit is ons nieuw hondje Kira, een kruising van een waterhond en een Podenko. Ze is sinds 7 februari 2024 bij ons en druk bezig ons hart te veroveren. Het is een lief, aanhankelijk hondje, dat zich op een week snel aan ons heeft aangepast. Ze is heel vinnig en nieuwsgierig, een heel ander hondje dan Noleke.
This is our new dog Kira, a cross between a water dog and a Podenko. She has been with us since February 7, 2024 and is busy winning our hearts. She is a sweet, affectionate dog who quickly adapted to us within a week. She is very quick and curious, a very different dog than Noleke.
DEAR VISITOR,
MY BLOG EXISTS ALREADY 12 YEARS AND 11 MONTHS.
ON 06/05/2024 MORE THAN 1.972.210
VISITORS FROM 134 DIFFERENT NATIONS ALREADY FOUND THEIR WAY TO MY BLOG.
THAT IS AN AVERAGE OF 400GUESTS PER DAY.
THANK YOU FOR VISITING MY BLOG AND HOPE YOU ENJOY EACH TIME.
The purpose of this blog is the creation of an open, international, independent and free forum, where every UFO-researcher can publish the results of his/her research. The languagues, used for this blog, are Dutch, English and French.You can find the articles of a collegue by selecting his category. Each author stays resposable for the continue of his articles. As blogmaster I have the right to refuse an addition or an article, when it attacks other collegues or UFO-groupes.
Druk op onderstaande knop om te reageren in mijn forum
Zoeken in blog
Deze blog is opgedragen aan mijn overleden echtgenote Lucienne.
In 2012 verloor ze haar moedige strijd tegen kanker!
In 2011 startte ik deze blog, omdat ik niet mocht stoppen met mijn UFO-onderzoek.
BEDANKT!!!
Een interessant adres?
UFO'S of UAP'S, ASTRONOMIE, RUIMTEVAART, ARCHEOLOGIE, OUDHEIDKUNDE, SF-SNUFJES EN ANDERE ESOTERISCHE WETENSCHAPPEN - DE ALLERLAATSTE NIEUWTJES
UFO's of UAP'S in België en de rest van de wereld In België had je vooral BUFON of het Belgisch UFO-Netwerk, dat zich met UFO's bezighoudt. BEZOEK DUS ZEKER VOOR ALLE OBJECTIEVE INFORMATIE , enkel nog beschikbaar via Facebook en deze blog.
Verder heb je ook het Belgisch-Ufo-meldpunt en Caelestia, die prachtig, doch ZEER kritisch werk leveren, ja soms zelfs héél sceptisch...
Voor Nederland kan je de mooie site www.ufowijzer.nl bezoeken van Paul Harmans. Een mooie site met veel informatie en artikels.
MUFON of het Mutual UFO Network Inc is een Amerikaanse UFO-vereniging met afdelingen in alle USA-staten en diverse landen.
MUFON's mission is the analytical and scientific investigation of the UFO- Phenomenon for the benefit of humanity...
Je kan ook hun site bekijken onder www.mufon.com.
Ze geven een maandelijks tijdschrift uit, namelijk The MUFON UFO-Journal.
Since 02/01/2020 is Pieter ex-president (=voorzitter) of BUFON, but also ex-National Director MUFON / Flanders and the Netherlands. We work together with the French MUFON Reseau MUFON/EUROP.
ER IS EEN NIEUWE GROEPERING DIE ZICH BUFON NOEMT, MAAR DIE HEBBEN NIETS MET ONZE GROEP TE MAKEN. DEZE COLLEGA'S GEBRUIKEN DE NAAM BUFON VOOR HUN SITE... Ik wens hen veel succes met de verdere uitbouw van hun groep. Zij kunnen de naam BUFON wel geregistreerd hebben, maar het rijke verleden van BUFON kunnen ze niet wegnemen...
09-11-2023
JWST Detects Carbon Dioxide in a Centaur for the First Time
Centaurs are small planetary bodies that orbit between Jupiter and Neptune and have baffled astronomers for sharing characteristics with both asteroids and comets. Centaurs got their name after the mythical half-horse, half-human creatures called centaurs due to their dual characteristics. Above is an artist's illustration displaying a centaur creature among asteroids (left) and comets (right). (Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech)
JWST Detects Carbon Dioxide in a Centaur for the First Time
A study published today in The Planetary Science Journal examines how NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) has conducted a first-time detection of carbon dioxide in a Centaur, this one designated 39P/Oterma. A Centaur is a small planetary body that orbits between Jupiter and Neptune and frequently crosses the orbits of one or more of the gas giant planets within our solar system. While no Centaur has been imaged up-close, they typically exhibit a combination of attributes between comets and asteroids. While carbon monoxide has been detected in two known centaurs, this recent discovery could mark a turning point in how scientists understand the formation, evolution, and composition of not only Centaurs, but of the early solar system, as well.
“Centaurs are important to study since they are fairly well-preserved objects in space that can provide insight on the chemical composition and physical processes of the early solar system,” Study lead author, Dr. Olga Harrington Pinto, who is a postdoctoral researcher at Auburn University but conducted the research while a PhD student at the University of Central Florida, tells Universe Today.
Centaur 39P/Oterma was discovered on April 8, 1943, by Finnish astronomer, Dr. Liisi Oterma, who was the first woman to earn PhD in astronomy in Finland, along with being the first woman PhD of the faculty of sciences at Turku University. While 39P/Oterma has long been classified as an inactive comet, it currently exhibits a Centaur-like orbit between Jupiter and Saturn, meaning it doesn’t approach the Sun, and has a radius of approximately 2.21 to 2.49 km (1.37 to 1.55 mi), according to this study. So, why was 39P/Oterma chosen for this specific study?
“39P/Oterma is what we call an active centaur, a centaur that develops a coma and a tail like a normal comet,” Dr. Adam McKay, who is an assistant professor in the Department of Physics and Astronomy at Appalachian State University and a co-author on the study, tells Universe Today. “Since they are active, we can use spectroscopy to observe molecules in their coma to gain insights into their composition. 39P was chosen as one of our targets because it would be active during the time of the proposed observations.”
For the study, the researchers used JWST’s Near-Infrared Spectrograph (NIRSpec) instrument and was supported by ground-based observations from the Gemini North Observatory and Lowell Discovery Telescope to investigate the characteristics of 39P/Oterma while it was orbiting close to its perihelion (closest distance to the Sun) at 5.82 astronomical units (AU) from the Sun in July 2022. For context, the perihelion of 39P/Oterma has gradually increased since its discovery: 3.39 AU (1958), 5.47 AU (1983), and 5.71 AU (2023), and is projected to reach 5.91 AU and 6.15 AU in 2042 and 2246, respectively.
After analyzing the JWST NIRSpec data, the researchers confirmed the first detection of carbon dioxide in any Centaur, and the lowest amount of carbon dioxide ever detected in any Centaur or comet. They also did not detect traces of water or carbon monoxide, which are traditionally detected in Centaurs, specifically 29P/Schwassmann-Wachmann 1 (29P/SW1), another Centaur that shares approximately the same AU distance as 39P/Oterma.
“These results are important because they show that thanks to the impressive capabilities of JWST, we are able to see low production rates of a relatively small object that is very far away,” Dr. Pinto tells Universe Today. “And, though the production rates are low, it shows a different chemical behavior from another Centaur, 29P/SW1, seen at a similar distance (~6 AU). This difference in chemical behavior could be from the very different sizes of Centaurs 29P and 39P, or from having different orbital histories, or starting out with different compositions, or possibly a combination of all of these.”
The finding of carbon dioxide in a Centaur could be a gamechanger in terms of understanding the compositions and characteristics of Centaurs, asteroids, and comets throughout the solar system, along with potentially gaining better insight into the formation and evolution of the solar system, overall.
What new discoveries about Centaurs will researchers make in the coming years and decades and how many more Centaurs could possess carbon dioxide throughout the solar system? Only time will tell, and this is why we science!
The Indian space program has been on a bit of a tear lately. Chadrayaan-3 was just the latest successful for the ISRO, India’s space agency, when it launched in July – especially juxtaposed with Luna-25, a Russian moon lander mission that launched around the same time and failed spectacularly by crashing into the Moon. Maybe in part due to the ISRO’s success, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi appears to have taken an increased interest in the program and recently chaired a meeting to review the Gaganyaan Mission, India’s first foray into crewed space flight. But while in the meeting, he suggested the country’s exploration goals should go further – much further.
Let’s start with the Gaganyaan mission itself. It’s hit a series of setbacks after initially being planned for launch in December 2020. Admittedly, some of those setbacks were caused by the pandemic, which hit India particularly hard. However, the program appears to be back on track, and the mission planners confirmed a launch in 2025, though this is slightly later than even the Wikipedia page for the missions says at the time of writing, and it was updated only in September.
Press releases from the PM’s office most likely overrules any Wikipedia site, so while the mission may be delayed until 2025, the testing leading up to it is still ongoing. A test of the Crew Escape System Test Vehicle, a critical component in modern-day human spaceflight systems, occurred successfully recently. Around 20 additional tests are planned over the next two years to ensure the mission’s success.
Fraser discusses India’s moon mission.
One key component of the new mission is the development of a Human Rated Launch Vehicle called HLVM3 by the ISRO. This is a modified version of the Launch Vehicle Mark 3, which has been the workhorse of ISRO’s satellite launching efforts since its first orbital flight back in 2017. However, launching humans is not the same as launching satellites, and much work needs to be done to ensure the safety of any future astronauts that might take a ride on this rocket.
That might seem like enough to keep the mission planners and engineers at ISRO busy for the foreseeable future. But PM Modi wants to aim higher – literally to the Moon in this case. He suggested sending an Indian astronaut to the Moon by 2040. Doing so in 17 years is feasible, especially considering the US did so in 9 with 1960s technology.
But the Moon won’t be the only stop for the ISRO. PM Modi also announced a plan to build a Bharatiya Antariksha Station – translated as “Indian Space Station” in the press release, by 2035. What exactly this station will entail and how it will fit with the wider plans for the Moon were not detailed in the press release. Still, assumedly, an orbital station will plan a key staging role for astronauts traveling to our nearest cosmic neighbor.
And about the success of that mission.
Human spaceflight isn’t the only kind, though, and ISRO will be busy in the robotic arena as well. Interplanetary missions were also mentioned by the PM, who took special note of a Venus Orbiter and Mars landers in his discussions during the meeting. Neither of those projects has yet garnered a name, so it’s unclear how much support they’ll have going forward. But if recent history is any indication, India will be adding plenty of new accomplishments to its portfolio of successful space missions in the near future.
Now here are some unusual screenshots from a Chandrayaan mission. The crater is made of many over lapping tunnels, something I did not expect, but this seems like an intelligently made structure on Earths moon built across the crater in order to appear like a crater shadow. I also found some tunnels to the right of the crater, but I did have to add shadows in order to see them. You will also see structures around it here and there. The moon is certainly inhabited by an intelligent species, but would they welcome a visit from humans?
Here is an interesting capture by YouTuber Shellys UFOs. The UFO is triangle in shape with a smaller triangle hump on its upper center. Very unique and its movement is unpredictable. The blue glowing craft appears to want to be seen.
2.7 mile UFO found landed in Mars Crater, Seen On Google Mars Map! UFO Sighting News.
2.7 mile UFO found landed in Mars Crater, Seen On Google Mars Map! UFO Sighting News.
Date of discovery: Nov 7, 2023
Location of discovery: Mars
Google Coordinates: 69°26'0.85"N 86° 1'9.48"W
I found a disk structure with another smaller circle on its top center. The structure was found using Google Mars map. According to google ruler, the disk is 2.7 miles across and 1.8 miles high. Why is it not noticeable to astronomers? Well first off its hidden in a crater which itself is at least 3 to 4 miles deep and its located on Mars, which can only be seen close up by orbiting satellites. Hiding in a crater is perfect for them because it shields the alien ship from micro meteorites which could damage the hull of the ship.
0
1
2
3
4
5
- Gemiddelde waardering: 0/5 - (0 Stemmen) Categorie:Ruins, strange artifacts on other planets, moons, ed ( Fr, EN, NL )
GIGANTIC SPACESHIP Towers Over 747 Plane
GIGANTIC SPACESHIP Towers Over 747 Plane
On a brisk November evening in 1986, the skies above Alaska became the stage for one of the most intriguing and well-documented UFO sightings in aviation history. This incident, involving Japan Airlines Flight 1628, captivates UFO enthusiasts and skeptics alike, offering a rare blend of eyewitness credibility, radar confirmation, and government inquiry that continues to provoke discussion and speculation decades later.
The Puzzling Pursuit in the Alaskan Sky
The crew of JAL Flight 1628 couldn’t have anticipated that their routine cargo trip from Paris to Tokyo would catapult them into the annals of UFO legend. Captain Kenju Terauchi, an ex-fighter pilot with a wealth of experience, found his 747 being shadowed by lights that defied conventional explanation. These were no ordinary lights: they maneuvered with an unsettling precision, pacing the airplane as it cruised at 500 miles per hour.
VIDEO:
Ancient Aliens: GIGANTIC SPACESHIP Towers Over 747 Plane (Special)
The presence of these mysterious lights was just the prelude to a more extraordinary revelation. As the flight continued, an enormous object appeared — one that Captain Terauchi described as a “gigantic spaceship,” large enough to dwarf their 747. This object, seemingly ripped from the pages of science fiction, held the attention of the seasoned pilot and his crew, compelling a series of evasive maneuvers to avoid a collision.
A Cascade of Corroboration
In the realm of UFO sightings, corroborating evidence is as rare as it is vital. This incident sets itself apart with multiple layers of verification. Ground control radar systems mirrored the reports from the flight crew, painting a picture of an inexplicable object in close proximity to the commercial jet. In a further attempt to understand the situation, another commercial flight was diverted to observe the phenomenon. Yet, by the time they arrived, the unidentified object had vanished, leaving more questions than answers.
The Aftermath and Official Scrutiny
Following the encounter, the official response was swift. Captain Terauchi’s report prompted immediate interest from the FAA and an assortment of federal agencies, including NORAD. The detailed investigation included a comprehensive review of audio recordings, highlighting the urgent dialogues between the pilot and air traffic control. However, the incident took an unexpected turn when Captain Terauchi decided to go public with his belief in the extraterrestrial origin of the craft, a move that resulted in his reassignment within Japan Airlines.
Conspiracy or Cover-Up?
Adding to the enigma, John Callahan, the FAA’s Division Chief of Accidents and Investigations at the time, pushed for a deeper investigation. His involvement led to a high-level meeting in Washington, D.C., attended by representatives from the CIA, the FBI, and the Reagan administration. The narrative that emerged from this meeting — particularly the claim of a CIA agent dismissing the incident and confiscating evidence — fueled ongoing speculation about government transparency and the existence of UFOs.
The Enduring Legacy of Flight 1628
Decades have passed, but the UFO sighting by JAL Flight 1628 continues to resonate. Its impact is felt not only in the community of UFO researchers but also in the broader conversation about aerial phenomena and their implications for national security and understanding of the world. As governments worldwide become more open about their investigations into UAPs, the Alaska incident remains a touchstone, a case study in the complex interplay between witness testimony, technological evidence, and the endless quest for answers that lie beyond our understanding.
In the digital age, the story of Flight 1628 finds new life, as curious minds search for “UFO sightings” and stumble upon the extraordinary tale of that fateful night over Alaska. Whether you’re a steadfast believer or a staunch skeptic, the story of JAL Flight 1628 offers an undeniable intrigue that continues to challenge our perception of the skies above.
Het verhaal van de ontvoering door aliens van Betty en Barney Hill
Het verhaal van de ontvoering door aliens van Betty en Barney Hill
Artikel van Zeleb.es
De zaak van de ontvoering van Betty en Barney
De vermeende ontvoering van Betty en Barney Hill door een groep aliens omstreeks 1961 is een iconisch verhaal in ufologische kringen.
Emblematische zaak voor ufologen
Misschien is dit verhaal voor de meeste mensen onbekend, maar het heeft gedurende tientallen jaren grote belangstelling gewekt bij ufo-experts en -toeschouwers.
Een verblindend licht
Het echtpaar beweert dat ze in de nacht van 19 september 1961 een verblindend licht zagen terwijl ze over Route 3 naar huis reden. Ze dachten aanvankelijk dat het een vallende ster was.
Het echtpaar reed in Lincoln, New Hampshire. Nadat ze de auto hadden stilgezet en een verrekijker hadden gepakt om het vreemde object (dat geen vallende ster was) nader te bekijken, besloten Betty en Barney Hill weer op de weg te gaan. Het ruimteschip raasde achter hen aan en kwam steeds dichterbij.
De ontmoeting met aliens
Het echtpaar herinnerde zich dat ze door de ramen ongeveer tien mensachtige figuren zagen. Barney Hill beweert dat deze wezens door middel van telepathie met hen communiceerden.
Een grote schrik
De gebeurtenis vond plaats toen het vermeende ruimteschip in de buurt van de auto neerkwam. Bij het zien van de wezens herinnert Barney Hill zich dat hij in angst terug naar het voertuig rende en schreeuwde dat ze hen wilden vangen.
Vreemde geluiden
Terug in de auto startte Barney de motor weer en probeerde weg te rijden. Het echtpaar vertelt dat ze op dat moment een vreemde reeks ritmische piepgeluiden hoorde.
Details klopten niet
Eenmaal thuis bekroop hen echter een vreemd gevoel en merkten ze ongewone dingen op: kleine scheurtjes in Betty's jurk, een scheur in de riem van Barney's verrekijker en gaten in zijn schoen.
Geheugenverlies
Het raarste wat ze merkten was dat ze een hiaat hadden in de rit naar huis. Ze herinnerden zich niets meer van een stuk van ongeveer 56 km van de reis direct na de ontmoeting. De herinnering aan wat ze gezien hadden was zo gefragmenteerd dat ze niet konden samenvoegen wat er gebeurd was.
Regressieve hypnose
Twee jaar na deze gebeurtenis ging het echtpaar naar een therapeut die regressieve hypnotherapie uitvoerde om hen te helpen zich de gebeurtenissen van die nacht te herinneren. Inmiddels hadden ze ingezien dat ongeveer twee uur uit hun geheugen was verdwenen.
Eindelijk was alles duidelijk
Na veel regressieve hypnosesessies konden Betty en Barney Hill reconstrueren wat er gebeurd was. Ondanks dat ze tijdens de sessies gescheiden waren, kwamen hun versies van de gebeurtenissen aardig overeen.
The Ufo Incident
Een tv-film uit 1975 genaamd 'The Ufo Incident' verzamelde de geluidsbanden van die sessies. Regisseur Richard A. Colla had de regie.
Een film gebaseerd op archiefstukken
In de aftiteling van de films beweert de regisseur dat het verhaal gebaseerd is op een reeks archiefstukken van de Amerikaanse luchtmacht. De Hills hadden zich onmiddellijk na het incident tot de autoriteiten gewend.
Proeven en experimenten
Onder hypnose vertelden Betty en Barney Hill hun therapeut dat de aliens hen hadden ontvoerd. Ze werden meegenomen naar hun ruimteschip en onderworpen aan proeven en experimenten.
Foto: Wikipedia
Huid- en haarmonsters
Volgens de Hills namen de tweevoetige aliens met grijze huid en uitpuilende ogen haar- en weefselmonsters van verschillende lichaamsdelen met gereedschap dat leek op spuiten.
Geheugen uitgewist
Betty en Barney Hill herinnerden zich dat de aliens hen, nadat ze verschillende monsters hadden verzameld, vrijlieten, waarna hun bewuste geheugen werd uitgewist.
Zeta Reticuli
Betty Hill slaagde er ook in een sterrenkaart te reconstrueren die de herkomst van de aliens aangaf. Uit deze reconstructie concludeerden deskundigen dat het ging om sterrensysteem Zeta Reticuli in het zuidelijke sterrenbeeld Raster, 39,2 lichtjaar van de aarde.
De eerste gedocumenteerde ufo-waarneming
De zaak Hill was een van de eerste gevallen van gedocumenteerde ufo-waarnemingen. De archieven van de New Hampshire University bewaren nog steeds alle documenten en geluidsopnamen die tijdens de hypnosesessies en interviews zijn gemaakt.
De conclusies van de therapeut
In de laatste aflevering van een docuserie over de gebeurtenissen onthulde de therapeut die het stel behandelde zijn visie. Hij concludeerde dat hun vermeende ontmoeting met aliens te maken had met de vermeende sociale druk die ze ervaarden als interraciaal koppel, iets wat in een tijd slecht werd gedragen. De show, genaamd 'Ufo', werd in 2021 uitgezonden door streamingdienst 'Showtime,' zoals gemeld door sify.com.
Een wisselend standpunt
Dezelfde therapeut beweert dat hij zes maanden later van gedachten veranderde en concludeerde dat het echtpaar de waarheid sprak, zoals uit een fragment van de docuserie blijkt.
'Captured! The Betty and Barney Hill UFO Experience'
Barney Hill overleed in 1969, slechts acht jaar na het incident, maar zijn vrouw Betty overleed pas in 2004. Haar leven lang heeft ze uitgebreid gevochten om hun verhaal en het bestaan van aliens te bewijzen. Haar nicht, Kathleen Marden, schreef in 2007 een boek over haar tante: 'Captured! The Betty and Barney Hill UFO Experience'.
Een fascinerend verhaal over ufo's
Of het waar is of niet, één ding is zeker: het verhaal van Barnie en Betty Hill blijft een mijlpaal voor de ufologische gemeenschap en een van de fascinerendste verhalen over waarnemingen van aliens.
0
1
2
3
4
5
- Gemiddelde waardering: 0/5 - (0 Stemmen) Categorie:ALIEN LIFE, UFO- CRASHES, ABDUCTIONS, MEN IN BLACK, ed ( FR. , NL; E )
Enceladus has All the Raw Materials for Life
Saturn's moon Enceladus isn't just bright and beautiful. It has an ocean under all that ice that has chemicals necessary for life. Image Credit: NASA, ESA, JPL, SSI, Cassini Imaging Team
Saturn’s ocean moon, Enceladus, is attracting increasing attention in the search for life in our Solar System. Most of what we know about Enceladus and its ice-covered ocean comes from the Cassini mission. Cassini ended its exploration of the Saturn system in 2017, but scientists are still working through its data.
New research based on Cassini data strengthens the idea that Enceladus has the chemicals necessary for life.
During its mission, Cassini discovered geyser-like plumes of water erupting through Enceladus’ icy shell. In 2008, Cassini performed a close-proximity flyby and analyzed the plumes with its Cosmic Dust Analyzer (CDA). The CDA showed that the water in the plumes contained a surprising mix of volatiles, including carbon dioxide, water vapour, and carbon monoxide. It also found trace amounts of molecular nitrogen, simple hydrocarbons, and complex organic chemicals.
The plumes of Enceladus have phosphate-rich ice grains entrained.Credit: NASA
The work centers on the discovery of ammonia and inorganic phosphorous in Enceladus’ ocean. The researchers used ecological and metabolic theory and modelling to understand how these chemicals could make Enceladus amenable to life. “Apart from speculating about threshold concentrations of bioactive compounds to support ecosystems, metabolic and ecological theory can provide a powerful interpretative lens to assess whether extraterrestrial environments are compatible with living ecosystems,” the authors explain.
A critical component of ecological theory is the Redfield ratio. It’s named after the American oceanographer Alfred Redfield. In 1934, Redfield published results showing that the ratio of carbon to nitrogen to phosphorous (C:N:P) was remarkably consistent across ocean biomass at 106:16:1. Other researchers found that the ratio shifted slightly depending on the area and the phytoplankton species present. More recent work refined the ratio to 166:22:1.
The exact numbers aren’t necessarily the critical point. Redfield’s conclusion is the vital part. The Redfield ratio shows a remarkable unity between the chemistry of living things in the deep ocean and the ocean itself. He proposed that there’s an equilibrium between ocean water and plankton nutrients that’s based on biotic feedback. He described a chemical framework for nutrients and simple life.
“Whatever its explanation, the correspondence between the quantities of biologically available nitrogen and phosphorus in the sea and the proportions in which they are utilized by the plankton is a phenomenon of the greatest interest,” Redfield said in the conclusion of his paper.
So, how does the discovery of ammonia and phosphorous in Enceladus’ ocean relate to the Redfield ratio and Enceladus’ biological potential?
This figure illustrates a cross-section of Enceladus, summarizing the processes SwRI scientists modelled in the moon in a 2020 study. Oxidants produced in the surface ice when water molecules are broken apart by radiation can combine with reductants produced by hydrothermal activity and other water-rock reactions, creating an energy source for potential life in the ocean. Image Credit: SwRI
The Redfield ratio is widespread all across the Tree of Life on Earth. “Because of this seeming ubiquity, the Redfield ratio has been considered a target signature for astrobiological life detection, especially on ocean worlds such as Europa and Enceladus,” the authors of the new paper write. When it comes to life, all we have to go on is Earth. So it’s sensible to use foundational aspects of life’s chemistry here on Earth as a lens through which to examine other potential life-supporting worlds.
Analysis of Cassini’s data from Enceladus’ plumes shows a high level of inorganic phosphate in the ocean. Other geochemical simulations based on Cassini’s findings indicate the same. “These reports of phosphorus follow on the tails of previous work identifying numerous elemental constituents of terrestrial life (C, N, H, O) from the Enceladus plume,” the authors explain. Even more analysis suggests that the ocean contains many of the chemicals common in living organisms, like amino acid precursors, ammonium, and hydrocarbons.
So Enceladus’ ocean has a rich chemistry, and many chemicals reflect life’s chemical makeup. In particular, there’s an emerging hypothesis that Enceladus could support methanogenesis. Earth’s Archaea perform methanogenesis across a wide swath of different environmental conditions on Earth and have done so for over three billion years, proving their survivability. Biochemical modelling suggests that Earth’s methanogens are compatible with Enceladus’ ocean.
The researchers developed a new, more detailed model for methanogens on Enceladus to see if they could survive and thrive there. Their model leaned heavily on the Redfield ratio. They found that though phosphorous is present in high levels in the moon’s ocean, the overall ratio “may be limiting to Earth-like cells.”
“High standing stocks of these nutrients could be consistent with incomplete drawdown due to a small or metabolically slow biosphere, a biosphere with a recent origin of life,” or other reasons that could cause an imbalance.
So where does that leave the prospects for life on Enceladus?
We’re improving at identifying individual chemicals on other worlds, and the JWST is leading the way. But we need a better understanding of overall chemical environments to advance the search for life. A transmission spectrum of the hot gas giant exoplanet WASP-39 b, captured by Webb’s Near-Infrared Spectrograph (NIRSpec) on July 10, 2022, reveals the first definitive evidence for carbon dioxide in the atmosphere of a planet outside the Solar System. Credit: NASA, ESA, CSA, and L. Hustak (STScI). Science: The JWST Transiting Exoplanet Community Early Release Science Team
We’re only at the beginning of biosignature science. We can identify individual chemicals, but from this great distance away, we can’t accurately measure Enceladus’ overall chemistry. Newer biosignature research, including this paper, aims to identify how biological processes reorganize chemical elements in telltale ways. By looking at entire ecosystems, as Redfield did, scientists may discover new biosignatures that are less ambiguous.
If we can do that, we may discover that non-Earthly lifeforms reorganize chemicals in entirely different ways.
This research is part of a new effort to detect more than individual chemical biosignatures, some of which can be false positives. Methane, for example, can be a biosignature but can also be produced abiotically. There are others, like the recently discovered phosphine on Venus
The problem with individual biosignatures like methane is that they can have both biological and abiotic sources. This image illustrates possible ways methane might get into Mars’ atmosphere and be removed: microbes (left) under the surface that release the gas into the atmosphere, weathering of rock (right), and stored methane ice called a clathrate. Ultraviolet light can work on surface materials to produce methane as well as break it apart into other molecules (formaldehyde and methanol) to produce carbon dioxide. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/SAM-GSFC/Univ. of Michigan
Understanding ecosystems as a whole is the next step. There’s a bewildering number of factors to consider. Cell size, nutrient availability, radiation, salinity, temperature. On and on. But to understand the overall chemical environment at Enceladus, Europa, or anywhere else, we need more detailed data.
Luckily, instrument science keeps improving, and upcoming missions to Europa will start to paint a fuller picture. According to the authors, the next step requires more fulsome data and a more generalized approach.
“We suggest two priorities for further astrobiological research to better understand the implications of these conclusions,” they write. “First, we echo previous calls in the astrobiology literature to explore more generalized notions of metabolism and physiology.” They also suggest that looking for direct parallels to terrestrial life in the form of biochemistry may not be the best strategy for looking for life on Enceladus.
“Second, we recommend broadening the scope of Earth analogue environments to include those with extreme resource supply ratios mirroring that suggested for Enceladus,” they explain.
Our understanding of habitability grows incrementally, as this study clearly shows. There’ll likely be no revelatory moments where we suddenly understand it.
Nature has created a vast variety of worlds, each with its own chemistry. While using tools like the Redfield ratio as a lens is one way of looking at these worlds in all their unique glory, we can’t get tunnel vision.
While most of what our imaginations dream up about life on other worlds is fanciful and unlikely, life could’ve found another way on Enceladus. There could be different ways that life exists in and reorganizes chemical environments
Archaeologists in Belgium have demonstrated that spearthrowers were used for launching projectiles armed with tanged flint points at the Early Upper Paleolithic site of Maisières-Canal around 31,000 years ago.
Coppe et al. identified the use of spearthrower around 31,000 years ago at the Early Upper Paleolithic site of Maisières-Canal, Belgium.
Image credit: Neanderthal Museum.
Humans have been hunter-gatherers for most of our past, but scientists still lack knowledge about what our prehistoric ancestors gathered and how they hunted because of the near lack of organic preservation at Paleolithic sites.
Of these two modes of subsistence, hunting tends to be better visible archaeologically because it can leave behind durable stone and bone implements that once served as weapon components.
Four weapon systems — thrusted spears, thrown spears, the spearthrower, and the bow — are assumed to have existed in the Stone Age, but the timing of their invention and their possible co-existence remain debated.
“Until now, the early weapons have been infamously hard to detect at archaeological sites because they were made of organic components that preserve rarely,” said lead author Dr. Justin Coppe, a researcher in TraceoLab at the University of Liège.
“Stone points that armed ancient projectiles and that are much more frequently encountered at archaeological excavations have been difficult to connect to particular weapons reliably.”
“Most recently published claims for early use of spearthrowers and bows in Europe and Africa have relied exclusively on projectile point size to link them to these weapon systems.”
“However, ethnographic reviews and experimental testing have cast serious doubt on this line of reasoning by showing that arrow, dart, and spear tips can be highly variable in size, with overlapping ranges.”
A tanged point from the site of Maisières-Canal, Belgium.
Image credit: Coppe et al., doi: 10.1038/s41598-023-45554-w.
In the research, Dr. Coppe and colleagues examined a sample of 329 flint artifacts from the site of Maisières-Canal, which is located in Belgium near the town of Mons, on the northern edge of the alluvial plain of the Haine.
“Maisières-Canal is a reference site for the Early Upper Paleolithic of north-west Europe and one of the few Early Upper Paleolithic open-air sites known from the region,” the researchers said.
“The site has been interpreted as having a single main Early Upper Paleolithic occupation layer that shows limited vertical displacement of finds.”
“Thirteen radiocarbon dates consistently place the occupation to around 28,000-31,000 years ago.”
The excellent preservation of the stone points, their large number, their distinct morphologies, and recent technological analyses that allowed their careful experimental replication presented a unique opportunity to reconstruct the delivery systems with which the projectiles were shot.
“We carried out a large-scale experiment in which we fired replicas of Paleolithic projectiles using different weapons such as spears, bows and spearthrowers,” said Dr. Noora Taipale, also from TraceoLab at the University of Liège.
“By carefully examining the fractures on these stone points, we were able to understand how each weapon affected the fracturing of the points when they impacted the target.”
Examples of experimental thrusting spears and javelins armed with replicas of the archaeological flint points.
Credit: TraceoLab/ULiège
“Each weapon left distinct marks on the stone points, enabling us to match these marks to archaeological finds.”
“In a way, it’s like identifying a gun from the marks the barrel leaves on a bullet, a practice known from forensic science.”
“The excellent match between the experimental spearthrower sample and the Maisières-Canal projectiles confirmed that the hunters occupying the site used these weapons.”
The findings push back the dates for spearthrower use in Europe by over 10,000 years.
“Representing the first attempt to carefully consider the idiosyncrasies of different prehistoric weapons in all their complexity, our results provide the thus far oldest reliable evidence for the use of long-range weaponry in prehistoric hunting,” the scientists said.
The study was published in the journal Scientific Reports.
J. Coppe et al. 2023. Terminal ballistic analysis of impact fractures reveals the use of spearthrower 31 ky ago at Maisières-Canal, Belgium. Sci Rep 13, 18305; doi: 10.1038/s41598-023-45554-w
NASA heeft een verbluffende nieuwe afbeelding van Jupiter vrijgegeven, vastgelegd door de Hubble Space Telescope! Op de afbeelding verschijnt de grootste planeet in ons zonnestelsel in een compositie van ultraviolet licht.
De Hubble heeft de planeet ook in zichtbaar licht getoond, waar een grote rode vlek te zien is, die in ultraviolette golflengten blauw lijkt en een storm vertegenwoordigt.Deze gegevens maken deel uit van een onderzoek naar diepe waterwolken in de atmosfeer vanJupiter.
DeHubbleheeft een geschiedenis van het bestuderen van externe planeten en, met zijn ultraviolette mogelijkheden, maakt het de analyse van kosmische fenomenen en de evolutie van sterrenstelsels mogelijk.
Daytime Tic Tac UFO sighting filmed in Clovis, California
Daytime Tic Tac UFO sighting filmed in Clovis, California
The quiet skies of Clovis, California, became the canvas for an extraordinary celestial enigma as local resident Jason Beard’s casual glance upwards turned into a brush with the unknown. The skies, often a gateway to the stars, seemingly tore open the fabric of reality to present a sight that would stir the town with whispers of extraterrestrial visitors. Beard’s account and subsequent video footage have thrust the small Californian town into the limelight, adding a riveting chapter to the annals of UFO sightings.
The UFO in question, a Tic Tac-shaped anomaly, streaked across the midday sky, exhibiting behavior and characteristics that defied conventional understanding. This object did not just pass unnoticed; it left an indelible mark on the community, sparking debate, analysis, and the undivided attention of UFO enthusiasts worldwide.
With a fervor characteristic of the most ardent truth-seekers, Beard’s video was scrutinized by a so-called UFO expert. Through specialized software, a startling revelation was made: a “big ball of energy” appeared to envelop the craft, setting the social media sphere ablaze with speculation. Was this an advanced propulsion mechanism or something even more profound?
In the digital era, where drones and satellites are common, it’s not every day that a sighting manages to pierce through the veil of skepticism and ignite the collective imagination. The Clovis sighting has done just that, with its blend of mystery and visual evidence creating the perfect storm of intrigue.
Let’s delve into what makes this sighting a headliner in the world of UFO sightings:
The Shape and Speed:The iconic Tic Tac shape, also echoed in military sightings, presents an aerodynamic conundrum. Its seamless velocity points to technology that is not yet available to the public.
The Daylight Factor: Most UFO sightings occur at night, making it easier to dismiss them as misidentified planes or atmospheric phenomena. A clear-day sighting provides higher clarity, leaving fewer places for doubt to hide.
The Witness’s Conviction: Beard, having observed the skies for years, asserted the novelty of this encounter with the confidence of someone who has seen it all—yet nothing like this.
So, what could it be? A secret military experiment? A drone of unknown origin? Or perhaps a visit from an otherworldly civilization? The debate continues, fueled by the enigmatic nature of the sighting and the human yearning for answers.
As the Clovis incident takes its place among the most talked-about UFO sightings, one thing is clear: the sky is not just a space over our heads; it’s a domain of endless possibilities and, sometimes, mysterious visitors.
In the quest for truth, the skies above Clovis have become a theatre where the curious and the skeptical alike gaze upwards, pondering the vastness of our universe and the potential for encounters that shake the core of our understanding. Whether terrestrial or not, the Clovis UFO sighting is a reminder that, sometimes, looking up can be the beginning of an extraordinary journey.
Shocking new video by James Fox: “Feels like someone is trying to extinguish my career, it’s pretty terrifying.”
Shocking new video by James Fox: “Feels like someone is trying to extinguish my career, it’s pretty terrifying.”
In the tranquil solitude of nature, filmmaker James Fox often reflects on his groundbreaking work, piecing together narratives that challenge our understanding of the unknown. Known for his compelling documentaries delving into the enigmatic realm of UFOs, Fox has dedicated his recent years to uncovering the layers of secrecy surrounding unidentified aerial phenomena. However, a recent turn of events, as revealed in a distressing video to his social media followers, suggests that Fox is now navigating through the most tumultuous chapter of his career.
Fox, who has become a significant voice in the UFO documentary scene, has spent the last few years interviewing credible witnesses and military officials, earning him a reputation for his earnest search for truth in a field often clouded by skepticism. His documentaries, such as “I Know What I Saw” and “Out of the Blue,” have been pivotal in bringing the discussion of UFOs into the mainstream, presenting meticulously researched evidence to the public.
The filmmaker’s exploration of the Varginha UFO incident, Brazil’s own Roswell, encapsulates his commitment to shedding light on such encounters. By examining this 1996 event, where residents of Varginha reported seeing creatures and a UFO, Fox has contributed to preserving the narrative while igniting fresh discussions on the topic.
Yet, in a somber and unexpected announcement from his favorite spot – a place of reflection and solace – Fox shared with his followers that he has been grappling with profound challenges aimed at his professional endeavors. With palpable concern in his voice, he alludes to an unseen battle that has been waging for six months, suggesting a targeted effort to “extinguish” his career, leaving him feeling “pretty terrifying.”
Although details were sparse due to legal constraints, Fox’s message conveyed a dire sense of urgency and vulnerability. The decision to address his audience directly, ahead of a more detailed revelation promised for later in the week, speaks to the gravity of the situation and his reliance on the community’s support.
Fox’s commitment to his work has never been in question, but this current adversity reveals the fragile intersection where pioneering research meets the machinations of power structures resistant to disclosure. His journey is a stark reminder of the complexities facing those who dare to question and uncover truths that may unsettle the status quo.
While the full extent of Fox’s current predicament remains shrouded, what is clear is his unwavering passion for his craft and the causes he champions. As the UFO community and the public await further details with bated breath, the resilience of this tenacious filmmaker is being tested.
This unfolding story serves as a poignant narrative of a man deeply entrenched in the search for truth, standing firm against forces that threaten to silence his voice. James Fox’s plight is not merely his own but resonates with anyone who has faced adversity in pursuit of their life’s work. As Fox prepares to share more with the world, his experience underscores the complexities of challenging entrenched beliefs and the courage required to confront the unknown, both in the skies above and in the trials we face on the ground.
When I was a young fast-stream civil servant at the UK Cabinet Office in the 1990s, the Government seemed to have a line-to-take on everything. There would be an official, maybe in a far-flung division of an obscure department, responsible for each policy, as hard as it might be to find that person and track them down.
I think my observation remains true today concerning the UK Government’s policy on Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena (UAPs), even if the Government tries hard to make it appear as though there is no policy and that no one is in charge.
The UK’s Ministry of Defence used to have a ‘UFO Desk,’ which is where Nick Pope is said to have worked in the 1990s. Famously, the then-Secretary of State, Bob Ainsworth, announced the closure of the desk in 2009 under the following logic:
“In more than 50 years, no UFO sighting … has indicated the existence of any military threat to the UK; there is no defence benefit in … recording, collating, analysing, or investigating UFO sightings”
and
“the level of resources devoted to this task is … diverting staff from more valuable defence-related activities”.
Yet, at a time when the United States has set up the All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office (AARO) to investigate UAP sightings, have held a hearing on UAPs in the House of Representatives, and have the Schumer amendment on UAP transparency making its way through Congress, are we really to believe that the UK Government has no resources focusing on UAPs?
Speaking to Julian Worricker on the World Tonight program on August 3rd, David Grusch, one of those UAP whistleblowers who provided testimony under oath to the U.S. Congress, said information about UAPs “does cross into other countries and other allies to include the Five Eyes alliance,” which echoes the statement from Sean Kirkpatrick, Director of AARO, on May 31st that in the previous week, he had met with the Five Eyes to discuss UAP data collection and collaboration.
The Five Eyes Alliance is an intelligence-sharing network between the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia and New Zealand. So clearly, the UK is interested and involved in some capacity.
According to files from the National Archives, Carl Mantell of the RAF’s Air Command was the civil servant who penned the advice to Sir Bob Ainsworth in 2009 on the UFO desk closure. So, presumably, he was in the UFO policy hot seat then. But who might be in charge of UAP policymaking today?
Looking across the Machinery of Government, I suspect that policy for UAPs is spread across the Cabinet Office, Ministry of Defence, Foreign and Commonwealth Office, and the Secret Intelligence Service (MI6). With operational involvement of the Royal Air Force, DE&S, and DSTL. Plus, in all likelihood, some private contractor support, both from UK Aerospace companies and UK subsidiaries of US contractors.
Somewhere within the U.K. Government, someone is responsible. The ‘UFO desk’ lives on under another name.
I suspect, too, that the civil servant in question is growing increasingly alarmed at the level of dissonance between the current line-to-take and the way in which events are unfolding. A friend of mine received a reply from “Air Command Secretariat” at the MOD that contained the following rather extraordinary paragraph:
“I must inform you that the MOD has no opinion on the existence of either extraterrestrials, Unidentified Flying Objects (UFOs) or Unidentified Aerial Phenomena (UAPs). While I recognise you have used the term Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena, the Department does not recognise this term, and I have therefore answered your question using our definition of UAP.”
The response goes on to repeat the 2009 Sir Bob Ainsworth line about there being no military threat. This feels like a tired reply that is past its sell-by date. I am sure that there are civil servants in the areas in question who are coming to this view, too.
By continuing to employ this line-to-take, the Government is delegitimizing conversations about UAPs. Taking away people’s voices on the topic leads to bad policymaking. If civil servants are inhibited from discussing the UAP topic – not only with the public but also with other branches of government – they cannot fully consider people’s needs, develop options, and offer their thinking up for constructive challenge.
Take flight safety risks. In June 2021, the US Office of the Director of National Intelligence produced a Preliminary Assessment on UAPs that stated:
“Most of the UAP reported probably do represent physical objects…”
and
“UAP clearly pose a safety of flight issue.”
One might reasonably expect the UK’s Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) to have been in touch with the US authorities about this statement and to have conducted a risk assessment on flight safety risk.
“Please provide copies of any risk assessments (quantified or unquantified) that the Civil Aviation Authority has carried out to assure itself that the existing measures in place are sufficient to protect pilots and air passengers from any risks associated with Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena (UAPs). Please, further, provide copies of correspondence in relation to the risk from UAPs to and from air safety andregulatory bodies in the United States; and any guidance given to pilots about UAP risks.”
The response that came back was as follows:
“Following a review of held information it has been determined, on the balance of probability, that the CAA holds no information within scope of the above original enquiry.”
My subsequent requests to try to get an explanation as to why they have not carried out a risk assessment or been in touch with the US authorities have not been answered. A request for a meeting was denied.
Of course. What else could the Head of Safety at the CAA do? He is not permitted to acknowledge the legitimacy of the UAP topic, so he is not able to talk to me or offer a substantive response to my question. Does anybody think this is good for pilots or air passengers? Or for confidence in air regulation and safety?
Another area in which this absence of a policy is causing real damage is the lack of physical and psychological health support for people affected by seeing anomalous objects in the sky. Sometimes called ‘experiencers’, these individuals are harmed in two ways: first from seeing something potentially frightening and then, when they ask for help, by being told directly or implicitly by doctors and other health professionals that they are mistaken or unwell. What are individual doctors to do when their professional bodies, such as the General Medical Council and the Royal Colleges, offer no guidance on the topic? Again, as with the CAA example above, it is the lack of a policy position on UAPs from the Government that is the fundamental problem.
On this front, I am part of a team that is setting up a new organization to help. We are establishing uNHIdden to promote mental health and well-being around anomalous experiences, as well as to help reduce anxiety around non-human intelligence and disclosure. It will be set up as a charity formally in the new year. uNHIdden has a medical board made up of doctors and clinical psychologists who are keen to help develop strategies that support both patients and therapists in this difficult area.
uNHIdden mirrors and works closely with UAP Med, which is based in the US and is focused on mitigating the effects of UAP/UFO exposures on witnesses, families, communities and society. Founder and Director Ted Roe explains his philosophy as follows:
“Like uNHIdden, our focus is on looking after and supporting the people affected by unexplained objects and unusual sightings. We need both strategies and front-line care to help people whose lives literally change in the instant that they see something that they cannot explain. At present, these people seem largely ignored.”
There are now indications that things may be about to change. Writing in Liberation Times on 13th October in an article, “The United Kingdom and the Looming UFO Paradigm Shift,” British journalist Christopher Sharp wrote:
“Multiple sources have informed Liberation Times that they anticipate some form of confirmation regarding programs linked to crafts of unknown or non-human origin in 2024, which lack any mundane explanation.
“If events continue to develop on this trajectory in the US, it will become abundantly clear that the prospects for maintaining the status quo [on UAP policy], as pursued by some individuals within the UK Government, are rapidly diminishing.”
Chris adds that senior UK Members of Parliament are closely following the UAP topic, but fear talking publicly on the topic due to associated stigma.
This seems optimistic. I must say I have a great deal of sympathy for the civil servant who finds him- or herself in the UAP hot seat today. They did not construct the “no military threat” line 14 years ago. Nor are they responsible for 80 years of obfuscation and denial. Plus, there is no UK equivalent of AARO or the Schumer Amendment, on which to hang a new line-to-take that shows the Government in a positive, proactive light.
Here is my thinking. The Government does not need to go “full tonto” (as Ben Wallace might say) on UAP disclosure; it just needs to show that it is taking the topic seriously. If I may offer a suggested new line-to-take, it would be something like the following:
“The Government acknowledges the legitimacy of observations of anomalous objects in the sky. We are working with our international partners to investigate the causes and their implications.”
This would be transformational in that it would start to reduce the stigma associated with the UAP topic. People who have seen unusual things would be able to feel that their experiences were seen as legitimate, so they could start to seek the help they need. Many in the ‘UAP community’ may feel that this line-to-take does not go far enough. But it would be a start. A journey of a thousand miles, and all that.
We at uNHIdden want to play a constructive part in helping to shape the future support of people affected by anomalous experiences. As well as starting to help create better conversations on the UAP topic.
I hope that the U.K. Government is listening.
John Priestland is the Founder and Chairman of uNHIdden (www.unhidden.org).
UC San Diego Professor of Astronomy and Astrophysics Shelley Wright has a lifelong love of outer space. She’s made a career of building state-of-the-art telescopes that can study everything from black holes to “technosignatures” from alien civilizations. Wright, who recently served on NASA’s panel on unexplained anomalous phenomena (UAPs), takes a moment to reflect on her career, the panel and the ongoing search for extraterrestrial life.
What kind of research do you specialize in?
I'm an experimental astrophysicist. One topic I've studied throughout my career is SETI — the search for extraterrestrial intelligence — particularly in trying to build new devices that operate at unique wavelengths to search for what we call “technosignatures” — technological evidence or signals from an alien civilization that is detectable across interstellar distances.
How did you become interested in astrophysics and SETI?
I was captivated by humanity’s question of “Are we alone?” This led me to ponder our place in the universe and whether there is other intelligent life that existed and co-exists with us now. In pursuing those questions, I fell in love with the universe.
Shelley Wright is a professor of astronomy and astrophysics at UC San Diego.
I got involved with SETI early in my career. I was a junior at UC Santa Cruz and saw an advertisement for the first-ever astrobiology conference, which was an emerging field at the time. On a whim, I decided to cut school and attend. It was there I met other SETI researchers, and I've collaborated with them and the community ever since.
How did you get selected for the NASA UAP panel?
I’ve been exploring this topic for over 20 years and have established myself as a SETI researcher in the field of astrobiology. I also specialize in developing unique instrumentation, and have thought extensively about how to image and sense unusual characteristics in the night sky. I think these qualifications likely played a role in why I was selected.
For NASA to even form a UAP panel — it lent credibility to the field was a big deal for the scientific community and the public. It was apparent that the panel process was intended to make a positive impact in the field and within our scientific and national community. I was also struck by the caliber and diversity of the panel members and could see that our approach to this problem would be unique, so I agreed to participate.
What was the main objective of the panel?
I think the public and even the scientific community had different expectations about what our panel was charged to do. Some people presumed we would sit down and analyze every single UAP case out there. We did investigate several UAP cases to better understand the characteristics of observed and reported UAPs, but our primary objective wasn’t to diagnosis each case.
The panel was tasked with understanding the landscape of UAPs, what they look like and how often UAPs were reported. What kind of resources could NASA and other government agencies offer? What kind of industry partnerships could be beneficial? Our goal was to establish guidelines for processes, scientific protocols and communications across government agencies for future UAP events.
The NASA UAP panel boasted a diverse membership, including oceanographers, astrophysicists, government agencies and industry experts.
(cr: NASA)
How would someone report a sighting?
It’s a great question. The panel spent a lot of time investigating how things were reported, and the truth is, there isn’t really a functioning reporting mechanism within U.S. government agencies. One of our leading recommendations was to fix this and to have better inter-agency communication. The difficult thing with reporting is that it's often anecdotal, and there’s little-to-no data to assess.
The panel explored the use of cell phones and metadata on cell phones. If someone did record something, what metadata would be associated with it? For instance, in what direction was the phone pointing? What were the conditions? Was the data manipulated? The panel also looked at earth-observing satellites and the type of data we have today and will have in the future for scientific investigations. Proper reporting in all these cases is important since we want to access the right scientific data for follow-up investigation.
Do you think in our lifetime we will find something that looks like a sign of extraterrestrial life?
In the context of UAPs, I think it would be really surprising if we ever found a marker that alien life was here on planet Earth. Simply because of the energy resources needed to travel between stars, the time it would take — it really is unfathomably large. You get humbled by it, being an astronomer.
But I do think that in our lifetime we will find something. Maybe a biosignature in a distant planet's atmosphere. It could even be what we call an “artificial signal” in another atmosphere that showed the presence of some technology. Maybe it’s a direct signal, but that’s an even rarer possibility.
Truthfully though, we don't know the answer to this question. And what shocks me most is that we barely try to answer it. That’s why I’m interested in this field. I do SETI research because we should be looking for the answer.
(L-R): Graduate students Sanchit Sabhlok and James Wiley assembling a Panoramic SETI telescope in Shelley Wright's lab.
(cr: Regents of the University of California)
Now that the panel has concluded, what’s next on the horizon for you?
In terms of life in the universe, there are a lot of exciting projects out there. Of course, James Webb Space Telescope is capturing amazing images and is also recording spectra to try to understand the chemical compositions of exoplanet atmospheres. There are also future missions like the Roman Space Telescope, launching in 2027.
We have ground-based facilities too — extremely large telescopes coming online that will also record spectra of planetary atmosphere. There are dedicated SETI programs, like Breakthrough Listen, where we continue to look for technosignatures at radio wavelengths.
For myself and my projects here at UC San Diego, we did the first ever near-infrared SETI search to explore signals at new wavelengths. Now we have an ambitious program to build an optical, or visible light, observatory where we try to image the entire observable sky, all the time at very fast speeds. Which, coincidentally, is also interesting for Earth-bound objects that are moving quickly in our atmosphere as well. That project is called Panoramic SETI. We've spent the last several years conducting research and development, building unique detectors and telescopes. Panoramic SETI is now ready, and our goal is to build a SETI optical observatory. If we pull this off, it’ll be a first in technosignature and astrophysical research. I’m really excited about what we might discover.
Ex-Ministry of Defence alien hunter demands UK gov open public UFO investigation
Ex-Ministry of Defence alien hunter demands UK gov open public UFO investigation
EXCLUSIVE: Ex-government alien hunter Nick Pope has demanded the UK take UFO sightings more seriously and wants the Official Secrets Act overhauled to allow whistleblowers to reveal the truth
An ex-Ministry of Defence alien hunter has called on the Government to announce an official probe intoUFO sightings in Britain.
Nick Pope, who once ran the UK's UFO investigation unit, said Britain must follow America's lead in examining strange happenings to avoid a "catastrophic failure of national security".
He wants to see a Commons Select Committee tasked with probing sightings dating back to WWII - like the team currently investigating 650 cases in the US.
The Official Secrets Act should be waived so whistleblowers who worked on hush-hush Government UFO programs can speak freely.
The UK's chief alien hunter has been speaking exclusively to the Daily Star(Image: Nick Pope)
And the MoD’s UFO investigations unit - axed in 2009 - should be relaunched.
Nick, 57, revealed he has viewed Brit military "gun camera" footage from the 1950s and 60s of UFOs performing out-of-this-world manoeuvres at high speed no human-made technology could perform.
Satellite imagery showing other strange craft is said to have been captured recently.
And he said there is no explanation for "Britain’s Roswell’ - an apparent UFO landing near an airbase in Rendlesham Forest in Suffolk in 1980.
The existence of alien life could be a well kept secret, Nick believes (stock)(Image: Getty Images)
But while the US has launched an official investigation into sightings dating back seven decades and urged whistleblowers who worked on secret Government programs to tell-all Nick said the UK has done nothing.
In America UFOs have been labelled a potential threat to national security and risk to commercial flights.
But Nick said the MoD refused to tell him if it was even helping the US probe – let alone conducting one of its own.
He told the Daily Star: "It would be a catastrophic national security failure if we had a chance to do something but didn’t engage just because of prejudices about UFOs.''
While most reports do turn out to have reasonable Earth-bound explanations, not all do (stock)(Image: Getty Images/Tetra images RF)
Nick, who spent three of his 21-year MoD career leading its UFO hunt, said though "most" reports turned out to be misidentifications with mundane explanations, there remained a number of "core sightings' that "you just couldn't explain in conventional terms".
He said the UK Government has been "spinning" the public for years that there is "nothing to see here - move on".
But to continue to ignore such cases beside the US probe could be putting Brits in danger.
Nick appears in a new National Geographic series UFOs: Investigating The Unknown, which starts on Tuesday (May 2) and explores the on-going US probe including eyewitness accounts and declassified footage of sightings.
The UK government knows more than it's letting on, Nick believes(Image: Getty Images)
He said it was "groundbreaking and "moves this subject from fringe to mainstream where it totally should be.
"This should be the series to convince people,'' he said.
"It's government, military, intelligence community, pilots, radar operator, all coming forward and saying, "look, this is real".
"We are beyond stories and rumours. It's here now.''
Nick said he thinks ETs are trying to make contact.
Asked if he believed Earth was witnessing "extraterrestrial activity" he replied: "I think so. I think curiosity and intelligence are inextricably linked. They would want to know what is out there.
"The answer to that question for them is us.''
The MoD had not responded to a request for comment as of Friday night (April 28).
To get more stories from Daily Star delivered straight to your inbox sign up to one of our free newsletters here.
A new analysis of data from NASA’s retired Kepler space telescope has revealed a system of seven giant planets around Kepler-385.
An artist’s concept of Kepler-385, the seven-planet system revealed in a new catalog of planet candidates discovered by NASA’s Kepler space telescope.
Image credit: NASA / Daniel Rutter.
Kepler-385 is an F-type star located 4,944 light-years away in the constellation of Cygnus.
Also known as KIC 11968463, KOI-2433 or TIC 27082352, the star is about 10% larger and 5% hotter than the Sun.
The star hosts seven planets smaller than Neptune: Kepler-385b, c, d, e, f, g, and h.
The two inner planets, both slightly larger than Earth, are probably rocky and may have thin atmospheres.
The other five planets are larger — each with a radius about twice the size of Earth’s — and expected to be enshrouded in thick atmospheres.
This planetary system is among the highlights of a new Kepler catalog that contains almost 4,400 planet candidates, including more than 700 multi-planet systems.
It is one of only a few planetary systems known to contain more than six verified planets or planet candidates.
“We’ve assembled the most accurate list of Kepler planet candidates and their properties to date,” said Dr. Jack Lissauer, an astronomer at NASA’s Ames Research Center.
“NASA’s Kepler mission has discovered the majority of known exoplanets, and this new catalog will enable astronomers to learn more about their characteristics.”
While the Kepler mission’s final catalogs focused on producing lists optimized to measure how common planets are around other stars, Dr. Lissauer and colleagues were able to produce a comprehensive list of accurate information about each of the systems, making discoveries like Kepler-385 possible.
The new catalog uses improved measurements of stellar properties and calculates more accurately the path of each transiting planet across its host star.
This combination illustrates that when a star hosts several transiting planets, they typically have more circular orbits than when a star hosts only one or two.
After Kepler already showed us there are more planets than stars, the new study paints a more detailed picture of what each of those planets and their home systems look like, giving us a better view of the many worlds beyond our Solar System.
“Our primary catalog lists all known Kepler planet candidates that orbit and transit only one star,” the astronomers said.
“For completeness, we also provide an abbreviated listing of the properties of the two dozen non-transiting planets that have been identified around stars that host transiting planets discovered by Kepler.”
Jack J. Lissauer et al. 2023. Updated Catalog of Kepler Planet Candidates: Focus on Accuracy and Orbital Periods. Planetary Science Journal, in press; arXiv: 2311.00238
Hey Magician David Copperfield Answered Me On Twitter Today. UFO Sighting News.
Hey Magician David Copperfield Answered Me On Twitter Today. UFO Sighting News.
Date of Tweet: Nov 5, 2023
David Copperfield is about to perform his newest magic trick, one that would out perform all other acts he has done in the past. He will make the moon disappear on Feb of 2024. He also suggested that people worldwide might see some moon or strange lights appearing and disappearing in the sky over the last few months, so I got onto twitter and asked him about a several moon shaped objects over the mountains of Las Vegas area that were seen on 9-21-2023. Those objects were the same shape, and color of the moon itself. Oh, and David Copperfield lives in Las Vegas. See the tweet below.
I have seen him perform in Taiwan about 5 years ago, Davids parents sat a few rows ahead of me and my wife. Davids acts on stage and off were just mind boggling. I can't wait to see him make the moon disappear.
I had to go on and ask him, a burning question that I have long wondered about David Copperfield, is he more than human? Is he from another world and these illusions are real? So I asked him. (tweet below).
UFOs, Reverse Engineering, and the Enigmatic Colonel Nell
UFOs, Reverse Engineering, and the Enigmatic Colonel Nell
In a world where the extraordinary becomes the mundane, stories of UFOs might seem passé. Yet, the tale of retired Army Colonel Karl Nell and David Grusch stands apart, echoing the eerie chills of a conspiracy-laden blockbuster.
Unearthing the Whistleblower’s Secrets
David Grusch is not your everyday whistleblower. An Afghanistan combat veteran and a former Air Force intelligence officer, Grusch stepped into the limelight in 2023. His claims? The U.S., under secretive operations, has been reverse-engineering UFO craft and studying non-human pilots. Such a revelation, if true, would redefine our understanding of the universe and our place within it.
Colonel Nell: The Unwitting Protagonist
Enter Colonel Karl Nell, Grusch’s senior and a heavyweight in the military aerospace and defense sectors. Nell’s resume reads like a fiction novelist’s dream: multiple advanced degrees, top-tier military positions, involvement with defense giants like Lockheed Martin, and advisory roles in cutting-edge projects like AI-powered surveillance systems.
In simple words? If someone were privy to the nation’s well-guarded secrets, it would be Nell.
The Deafening Silence
What’s even more intriguing than Grusch’s revelation is Nell’s endorsement of it. In a media landscape hungry for sensational news, Nell’s validation of Grusch’s claims in 2023 was met with baffling silence. Why would mainstream channels shy away from such groundbreaking revelations?
Perhaps it’s the weight of Nell’s character – a person with his credentials would hardly risk it all for a frivolous claim. His assertion lends an undeniable gravity to Grusch’s claims.
A Modern Day Enigma
The lack of uproar in media houses forces one to ponder: are Grusch’s claims too earth-shattering to digest, or are they strategically overlooked? The truth remains buried in layers of conjectures, with stalwarts like Nell pointing towards a reality we might not be ready for.
VIDEO:
Army Colonel Admits UFO Reverse Engineering Programs DO Exist
In a universe of unknowns, one thing is certain – the story of Grusch and Nell has added another layer to the enigmatic world of UFOs, awaiting a keen detective to unearth its truths.
During an ancient collision, the protoplanet named Theia slammed into Earth, leading to the creation of the Moon. But it left some of its remains inside Earth. Image Credit: CalTech
Earth’s early history is marked by massive collisions with other objects, including planetesimals. One of the defining events in our planet’s history, the formation of the Moon, likely resulted from one of these catastrophic collisions when a Mars-sized protoplanet crashed into Earth. That’s the Giant Impact Hypothesis, and it explains how the collision produced a torus of debris rotating around the Earth that eventually coalesced into our only natural satellite.
New research strengthens the idea that Theia left some of its remains inside Earth.
The Giant Impact that created the Moon occurred in the Hadean eon. The Hadean is the first of Earth’s four eons and spans from the Earth’s formation about 4.5 billion years ago up to about 4.03 billion years ago when it was succeeded by the Archaean eon.
Earth was a magma ocean for about the first 50 million years. It began cooling during the Hadean, but the mantle was still much more viscous than it is today. Residual heat from its formation and the higher level of radiogenic heating kept the mantle in a more fluid state. There was more water in the mantle at that time, too, adding to the mantle’s fluidity.
Artist’s impression of magma ocean planet. Scientists think all terrestrial planets go through a magma ocean phase early in their history, and Earth is no exception. Credit: Mark Garlick
That’s important because when objects slammed into Earth, they were able to sink deeper into the mantle.
Back in the 1980s, scientists made a remarkable discovery. Two gigantic, continent-sized blobs were embedded deep in the Earth. One is under Africa, and one is under the Pacific Ocean. They’re called LLSVPs, or Large Low-Shear-Velocity Provinces, and they have unusually high iron levels. The iron concentration changes the speed of seismic waves that travel through them, leading to their discovery.
Scientists discovered two large low-shear-velocity provinces deep inside Earth in the 1980s. They contain high levels of iron that generate tell-tale seismic wave patterns. Image Credit: Edward Garnero.
Both the LLSVPs extend for thousands of kilometres horizontally and extend up to 1000 km upwards from the boundary between the Earth’s core and its mantle. They contain about 8% of the Earth’s mantle volume and about 6% of the Earth’s total volume.
For decades, their origins were a mystery. Scientists wondered if they could be the remains of Theia, the protoplanet that slammed into Earth, resulting in the Moon. But convincing evidence was elusive.
Now, new research points convincingly at the Giant Impact as the LLSVP’s source. The new paper is “Moon-forming impactor as a source of Earth’s basal mantle anomalies.” It’s in the journal Nature, and the lead author is Qian Yuan, a Postdoctoral Scholar Research Associate at Caltech’s Seismological Laboratory.
Yuan is a geophysicist, but when he attended a seminar on planet formation by Mikhail Zolotov, a professor at Arizona State University, in 2019, a light went on. Zolotov was explaining the Giant Impact Hypothesis. Two things happened simultaneously: Qian noted that the Moon is relatively iron-rich, and Zolotov explained that no trace of Theia has ever been found.
“Right after Mikhail had said that no one knows where the impactor is now, I had a ‘eureka moment’ and realized that the iron-rich impactor could have transformed into mantle blobs,” says Yuan.
This schematic from the research shows how the LLSVPs formed. Image Credit: Yuan et al. 2023.
Yuan isn’t the first scientist to consider this possibility. But, scientific methods and tools improve over time. Yuan worked with other researchers from multiple disciplines to perform multiple simulations of the Giant Impact with different chemical compositions for Theia and its impact on the Hadean Earth.
According to their work, this is what happened.
When Theia slammed into Earth, it released an enormous amount of energy. It sprayed molten material from both planets into orbit around Earth. Some escaped, much of it coalesced into the Moon, and some of it remained inside Earth’s molten form.
But much of the energy delivered by the collision remained in Earth’s upper regions, never penetrating to the core. This is where Yuan’s simulations differ from previous efforts. They’re more detailed and higher resolution. Previous efforts failed to show that the energy never penetrated the core, leading to uncertain conclusions.
But if Earth’s core was effectively blocked off from the impact energy, it remained much cooler. That also means that the Earth’s lower mantle wasn’t heated to the degree previous research showed. So, the material from Theia, called Theia Mantle Material (TMM) that remained inside the Earth didn’t dissolve completely into the mantle. Instead, it formed the two recognizable clumps that form both of Earth’s LLSVPs.
If the mantle had been warmer, meaning it had received more energy from the impact, the Earth’s mantle material and the TMM would’ve mixed together more thoroughly. But they didn’t mix, and the higher iron content in the TMM makes the LLSVPs visible in seismic probing because all that iron slows down the seismic waves.
The result is what geophysicists call thermochemical piles.
This figure from the study’s simulations shows how the Giant Impact formed LLSVP-like thermochemical piles from Theia Mantle Material. a shows how TMM is introduced to a depth of 1400 km to the core-mantle boundary (CMB.) When introduced, the material is in the form of randomly distributed spheres. b shows the temperature at 4.5 billion years. c shows the TMM accumulating into two distinct LLVPS-like thermochemical piles. d shows the perturbations measured in the seismic shear velocity. Image Credit: Yuan et al. 2023.
“Our mantle convection models show that dense TMM blobs with a size of tens of kilometres after the impact can later sink and accumulate into LLVP-like thermochemical piles atop Earth’s core and survive to the present day,” the authors write in their paper. “The LLVPs may, thus, be a natural consequence of the Moon-forming giant impact.”
This all leads to another fascinating line of inquiry. How did this material influence the rest of Earth’s history? Its plate tectonics, climate, even the course of evolution?
“A logical consequence of the idea that the LLVPs are remnants of Theia is that they are very ancient,” said study co-author Paul Asimow. “It makes sense, therefore, to investigate next what consequences they had for Earth’s earliest evolution, such as the onset of subduction before conditions were suitable for modern-style plate tectonics, the formation of the first continents, and the origin of the very oldest surviving terrestrial minerals.”
Lucy Completes its First Flyby… and Discovers a Bonus Asteroi
Moonlet rise over Dinkinesh as seen from NASA's Lucy spacecraft, taken within a minute of closest approach. Credit: NASA/Goddard/SwRI/Johns Hopkins APL/NOAO
Lucy Completes its First Flyby… and Discovers a Bonus Asteroid
NASA’s Lucy mission hits the jackpot on its very first asteroid flyby earlier this week.
Welcome to Dinkinesh. NASA’s Lucy missionflew past its first target of Wednesday, November 1st, and turned up a surprise: 152830 Dinkinesh (meaning ‘marvelous’ in the Amharic language) is not one asteroid, but two (!)
The Dinkinesh Flyby
The the 16,000 kilometers per hour (10,000 mph) flyby occurred at a range of 430 kilometers (270 miles), and served as a test for Lucy’s instruments on its way to the Trojan asteroids. Closest approach was on November 1st and occurred at 16:54 Universal Time (UT)/12:54 PM U.S. Eastern Time (EDT). The image really caught lots of us off guard, revealing a boulder-strewn surface on both small worlds. At most, we were expecting a few small pixels, so the dramatic resolution was a huge bonus.
An animation of Dinkinesh and its newly discovered moonlet as seen from Lucy’s tracking camera. NASA/SwRI
The L’LORRI Long Range Reconnaissance Imager and T2Cam tracking cameras really demonstrated their resolution and pinpoint tracking capability on this first flyby. If the names sound familiar, its because the instruments are similar to those carried aboard NASA’s New Horizons mission, with completed a flyby past Pluto and Charon in 2015.
The flyby is reminiscent of New Horizons’ dramatic 2019 rendezvous with the Kuiper Belt Object 486958 Arrokoth. That passage also surprised scientists, with the object’s strange twin-lobed structure.
A Tiny Moonlet
The Dinkinesh moonlet is an estimated 220 meters (720 feet) across, about the size of an Iowa-class battleship. Variations in brightness seen in Dinkinesh on approach hinted at the presence of the unseen moon. As of yet, no orbital period for the moon has been published.
Dinkinesh is a small main belt asteroid, discovered in 1999. Up close, 790 meter-wide Dinkinesh actually looks lots like 101955 Bennu, visited by OSIRIS-REx. The next target for Lucy is asteroid 52246 Donaldjohanson in 2025. Lucy will perform another Earth flyby for a gravitational assist later next year in December 2025. Lucy delivered a great portrait of the Earth and Moon pair during the October 2022 flyby:
The Earth and Moon (faint, to the left) as seen by Lucy during the first Earth flyby. Credit: NASA/SwRI
“Dinkinesh really did live up to its name; this is “marvelous’” says principal investigator Hal Levison (Boulder-SwRI) in a recent press release. “When Lucy was originally selected for flight, we planned to fly by seven asteroids…now with this satellite, we’ve turned it up to 11.”
What’s Next for Lucy
Lucy takes its name from the 3.2-million year old Lucy hominid fossil, which in turn was named from the Beatles song ‘Lucy in the Sky With Diamonds.’ The naming alludes to the fossils of planetary formation sought out by planetary researchers in the Jupiter Trojan asteroids. Not only does the spacecraft’s L’TES instrument carry a disc made of lab-grown diamonds, but it also has a plaque with poems, speeches and quotes from Earth.
The Lucy plaque affixed to the spacecraft. Credit: NASA
Launched in 2021 atop an Atlas V rocket from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, the main goal of Lucy is the exploration of the Trojan asteroids, located at stable L4 and L5 points ahead and behind massive Jupiter in its orbit. Plans at launch called for Lucy to visit seven Trojans from 2027 through 2033, though the number has now grown to 11. This now includes two main belt asteroids, plus two moonlets discovered since launch.
Asteroid 15094 Polymele targeted for a Lucy flyby in 2027 was found to possess a moonlet in March 2022. This moonlet is informally named ‘Shaun’ and was discovered during a stellar occultation. There’s an intriguing campaign underway worldwide to observe stellar occultations by target asteroids for the mission. This effort will help map asteroid profiles, refine orbits, and tease out undiscovered moonlets. This is a professional and amateur collaboration, with several events coming right up in 2024.
Lucy will be an amazing mission to follow in the coming decade. Now, what will we name Dinkinesh’s new companion moon?
Beste bezoeker, Heb je zelf al ooit een vreemde waarneming gedaan, laat dit dan even weten via email aan Frederick Delaere opwww.ufomeldpunt.be. Deze onderzoekers behandelen jouw melding in volledige anonimiteit en met alle respect voor jouw privacy. Ze zijn kritisch, objectief maar open minded aangelegd en zullen jou steeds een verklaring geven voor jouw waarneming! DUS AARZEL NIET, ALS JE EEN ANTWOORD OP JOUW VRAGEN WENST, CONTACTEER FREDERICK. BIJ VOORBAAT DANK...
Druk op onderstaande knop om je bestand , jouw artikel naar mij te verzenden. INDIEN HET DE MOEITE WAARD IS, PLAATS IK HET OP DE BLOG ONDER DIVERSEN MET JOUW NAAM...
Druk op onderstaande knop om een berichtje achter te laten in mijn gastenboek
Alvast bedankt voor al jouw bezoekjes en jouw reacties. Nog een prettige dag verder!!!
Over mijzelf
Ik ben Pieter, en gebruik soms ook wel de schuilnaam Peter2011.
Ik ben een man en woon in Linter (België) en mijn beroep is Ik ben op rust..
Ik ben geboren op 18/10/1950 en ben nu dus 73 jaar jong.
Mijn hobby's zijn: Ufologie en andere esoterische onderwerpen.
Op deze blog vind je onder artikels, werk van mezelf. Mijn dank gaat ook naar André, Ingrid, Oliver, Paul, Vincent, Georges Filer en MUFON voor de bijdragen voor de verschillende categorieën...
Veel leesplezier en geef je mening over deze blog.
