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 13 YEARS AND 2 MONTH.
ON 06/08/2024 MORE THAN 2.161.100
VISITORS FROM 135 DIFFERENT NATIONS ALREADY FOUND THEIR WAY TO MY BLOG.
THAT IS AN AVERAGE OF 400GUESTS PER DAY.
THANK YOU FOR VISITING MY BLOG AND HOPE YOU ENJOY EACH TIME.
The purpose of this blog is the creation of an open, international, independent and free forum, where every UFO-researcher can publish the results of his/her research. The languagues, used for this blog, are Dutch, English and French.You can find the articles of a collegue by selecting his category. Each author stays resposable for the continue of his articles. As blogmaster I have the right to refuse an addition or an article, when it attacks other collegues or UFO-groupes.
Druk op onderstaande knop om te reageren in mijn forum
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...
14-11-2023
Glimpse the Smoky Tendrils of the Crab Nebula's Pulsing Zombie Heart
Glimpse the Smoky Tendrils of the Crab Nebula's Pulsing Zombie Heart
On Monday, NASA published a stunning image of the Crab Nebula and the cosmic aftermath of a 1,000-year-old supernova.
NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI, T. Temim (Princeton University)
When Chinese astronomers first glimpsed the Crab Nebula in 1054 CE — they didn’t see anything like this. A new photo courtesy of the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) captures milky strands of material, known as synchrotron radiation, as it courses throughout the body of SN 1054 — a hat tip to the supernova remnant’s original discovery.
The $10 billion telescope, filled with an array of infrared instruments, began snapping photos of the universe in unprecedented detail in the summer of last year. In that short amount of time, JWST has already delivered groundbreaking revelations about our universe, and the Crab Nebula is its latest subject in a new image published on Monday by NASA.
The Crab Nebula is located in the constellation Taurus, and in 1054 CE, its star went supernova. Amazingly, the resulting explosion caught the attention of Chinese astronomers during the Song Dynasty, some 6,500 light years away. Fast forward 1,000 years later, and the nebula is an ever-expanding remnant of that medieval explosion, but interest in the nebula has only grown as we’ve improved ways to glimpse the cataclysmic aftermath.
But unlike previous images of this iconic cosmic object, the JWST reveals the smoke-like feature flushed throughout the nebula in greater detail. These ethereal wisps come from the pulse of the Crab Nebula’s zombie heart. When certain massive stars die, they go supernova by ejecting their outermost layer, leaving behind an ultra-dense object called a neutron star.
When some neutron stars rapidly rotate, they emit what NASA describes as a “milky smoke-like material,” known as synchrotron radiation. These wind-charged particles move around magnetic field lines, and as they blow through the supernova remnant, they push the Crab Nebula’s shell of gas and dust outward.
A STELLAR DEATH
The Princeton University research team behind the latest investigation relied on JWST’s Near-Infrared Camera (NIRCam) and Mid-Infrared Instrument (MIRI) to better understand the nebula’s origins and to explore how stars die. Stars are complicated objects, and what happens when one dies can be incredibly varied. That’s why detailed imagery like this one is necessary for scientists to unpack the complicated machinations of a star’s violent ending.
A neutron star, like the one in the center of the Crab Nebula, forms when a star roughly eight to 20 times the mass of the Sun runs out of hydrogen in its core. This triggers the beginning of the end. As NASA explains, a star will then begin to fuse helium into carbon, carbon into neon, neon into oxygen, oxygen into silicon, and silicon into iron.
“By the time silicon fuses into iron, the star runs out of fuel in a matter of days. The next step would be fusing iron into some heavier element, but doing so requires energy instead of releasing it,” NASA says.
The star’s core then collapses, and when it does, there emerges a cataclysmic shock wave that ripples through the star’s outer layers as the core rebounds to its original size, which creates a supernova.
“Webb’s sensitivity and spatial resolution allow us to accurately determine the composition of the ejected material, particularly the content of iron and nickel, which may reveal what type of explosion produced the Crab Nebula,” Princeton University’s Tea Temim shared in NASA’s announcement.
According to NASA, scientists will rely on new data from another major observatory, the Hubble Space Telescope, over the next year or so. By drawing comparisons, astronomers hope to get one step closer to providing brand-new insight into this 1,000-year-old cosmic explosion.
Picture this: you are an astronomer working the night shift at the observatory, where scientists scour the heavens for celestial wonders and potential signs of intelligent life from afar. Tonight, however, rather than peering through telescopes, you have prepared for a long evening spent pouring over data sets from various projects happening around the facility.
You step over to visit the observatory’s director, your friend John Kraus, in the office beside you to see how his night is going. John is reading a new paper about telescope design, and beside him is a pile of books scattered across the floor covering radio astronomy and antenna theory.
You glance at your wristwatch, and it’s getting close to midnight.
You walk down the dark hallway to make yourself a strong cup of coffee because you know you’ll be here for the long haul. Somebody has to get through all this data; it won’t sort itself.
As you start to pour your coffee, a tiny beeping indicator echoes in the distance. You think nothing of it at first, but suddenly, it is followed by a sound that catches your attention: one indicating a radio transmission 30 times louder than ambient sound. Your cup of coffee is left steaming on the counter as you bolt back down the hall to your desk.
You can’t believe what you’re hearing and seeing. The transmission lasts for over 72 seconds. Looking over at your data chart, you then wipe your eyes to make sure what you’re seeing is right.
Could this really be what it looks like?
You double-check all the information on the printout in front of you and confirm the narrowband radio transmission you’re hearing is being broadcast at 1,420 megahertz. Excitedly, you circle a portion of the code, a vertical orientation of letters and numbers that reads “6EQUJ5”, and write “WOW!” in the margin: it is the precise spot where your fellow scientists have predicted that a message from an alien civilization, if one were to exist, would likely be found.
The famous “Wow! Signal” (Credit: Big Ear Radio Observatory and North American AstroPhysical Observatory).
This, or something close to it, is how the events might have unfolded for you on the night of August 15, 1977, at 11:16 p.m., if you had been working the Big Ear radio telescope at Ohio State University Radio Observatory. For it was under circumstances like these that astronomer Jerry R. Ehman discovered what has since been remembered, appropriately enough, as the WOW! Signal.
Originating from the direction of Sagittarius, the famous signal seemed to possess the characteristics scientists would expect from a genuine signal from an intelligent alien civilization. However, the actual source of the signal remains undetermined, and scientists remain divided on whether it had been something mundane or if it might have actually been an alien message.
Regardless of its source, the Wow! Signal became highly influential in terms of galvanizing the search for extraterrestrial intelligence (SETI). It inspired many to wonder what would happen if humans ever did receive a clear, unambiguous message from an extraterrestrial civilization.
Now, the idea of how and when we may receive alien messages from the stars has also served as part of the inspiration behind an innovative new SETI-themed artistic effort geared toward educating the public about some of the opportunities and challenges communication with extraterrestrials might present.
A SIGN IN SPACE
Daniela de Paulis, an interdisciplinary artist and licensed radio operator presently holding the title of Artist in Residence at both the SETI Institute and the Green Bank Observatory, has assembled a diverse team of experts from around the world that includes SETI researchers, space scientists, and artists, all collaborating on her most recent artistic venture, A Sign in Space.
Daniela de Paulis.
An innovative global theatre presentation, Paulis’s project aims to showcase how receiving, decoding, and interpreting an extraterrestrial message would work through the involvement of the worldwide SETI community. Drawing on professionals from various fields, as well as the general public, the project requires international collaboration to foster communication, including SETI space research, societies, and cultures from multiple disciplines.
“I presented this proposal to some scientists I’ve met through the SETI committee, and they reacted very positively. From a small core group of people, including myself and these scientists, we had the opportunity to talk with the European Space Agency.”
“The European Space Agency loved the proposal so much that they suggested using one of their spacecraft for this project,” adds de Paulis. The result was that on May 24, 2023, at 19:00 UTC / 12:00 pm PDT, the European Space Agency’s ExoMars Trace Gas Orbiter sent an encoded message to Earth from its position in orbit around Mars, simulating a signal from a form of extraterrestrial intelligence.
DECODING A COSMIC CRYPTOGRAM
Three prominent radio astronomy observatories situated worldwide detected this encoded message, including the SETI Institute’s Allen Telescope Array, the Robert C. Byrd Green Bank Telescope at the Green Bank Observatory, and the Medicina Radio Astronomical Station observatory managed by the Italian National Institute for Astrophysics.
The precise content of the encoded message, developed by de Paulis and her team, remained a secret until the release date, allowing the public to contribute to its decoding and interpretation in a live Discord channel open to the public 24-7.
To encourage public involvement, a live social media event was organized by the SETI Institute, featuring interviews with crucial team members that included scientists, engineers, and artists, all of whom participated from different parts of the world.
After the signal was transmitted to Earth, it was made available to the public for decoding. Meanwhile, the A Sign in Space team followed up by hosting a series of Zoom panel discussions made available to the public, which focused on topics that explore the societal implications of detecting a signal from an extraterrestrial civilization.
The message generated for A Sign in Space, which remains undeciphered (Credit: A Sign in Space).
A CODED MESSAGE, UNSOLVED
As of now, the message has still not been decoded, and de Paulis and her team are unsure if ever will ever be.
“Some of us thought, okay, this is going to take two weeks. Other people said, Oh, this is not going to be decoded ever. So we simply have no idea,” de Paulis told The Debrief.
“It could be months. It could be years.”
If it remains unsolved, de Paulis hasn’t decided when the message will be revealed. However, she admits that she has considered not sharing the decoded version at all, an outcome that could also exist in real-life scenarios if an ET civilization does contact us.
“For me and my team, it’s really important not to give any spoilers because we want to really give the sense that, if we ever received an extraterrestrial message, we would have no one to ask, for help,” de Paulis says.
No one to ask for help, of course, except for each other.
“People now understood that it might be better to work with each other because the skills of one person would add to the skills of another person. And in general, there is, I would say, more self-reflection,” adds de Paulis.
One major takeaway for de Paulis has been watching the limitations that humans place on themselves, particularly as she observes the community Discord chat trying to decode the message.
“Knowing, of course, the content of the message, it’s really interesting to see how biased the human mind can be,” de Paulis told The Debrief, “and how we very quickly narrow down the options to something that we deem safer.”
“This dynamic seems to be really recurrent,” de Paulis says.
Regardless of how or when it occurs, receiving a clear and obvious message from an extraterrestrial civilization would be a profoundly transformational experience for all humankind.
However, for de Paulis and her team, what A Sign in Space has helped reveal is that before we can understand and potentially communicate with other intelligent forms of life in the cosmos, humanity must first consider how we can improve the ways we communicate with each other.
“We know how great we are, but also there are so many limitations, like exactly communicating with each other,” de Paulis explains. “Even solving human problems that, from the external side, seem to be solvable.”
Chrissy Newton is a PR professional and founder of VOCAB Communications. She hosts the Rebelliously Curious podcast, which can be found on The Debrief’s YouTube Channel. Follow her on X: @ChrissyNewton Or chrissynewton.com.
Human consciousness is quickly rising during these End Times bringing with it the last grasping effort by the Cabal and their Reptilian overlords to prevent extraterrestrial disclosure and humanity’s awakening by a contrived World War III. Humanity has a critical choice to make, allow itself to be manipulated into another devastating World War that involves nuclear weapons or welcoming extraterrestrial disclosure and the release of transformative technologies that would bring.
This is the trailer to Nov 25 Webinar: “The Exopolitical State of the Planet: The Ukraine & Israel-Palestine Wars, Manufacturing WWIII, the Battle over Consciousness & Extraterrestrial Disclosure.” To learn more or register, visit: https://www.crowdcast.io/c/exostateofplanet2023
“Monsters” lurk amidst the flickering lights from galaxy cluster MACS0416.
A new image published by NASA and the European Space Agency on Thursday shows a story from a long time ago. MACS0416 is located 4.3 billion light-years away from Earth. To reach the visible-light instrumentation onboard the Hubble Space Telescope and the infrared technology on the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), its light made quite an odyssey. It began its journey at the tail-end of the formation of the Solar System.
Astronomers are learning more about this region, tucked away in the constellation Eridanus (the River), thanks to the two observatories. “The image reveals a wealth of details that are only possible to capture by combining the power of both space telescopes,” JWST officials wrote in a Thursday image description.
Galaxy cluster MACS0416 is seen in this composite image that uses Hubble and JWST data.
Astronomers took this latest view of MACS0416 to hunt for transient objects or things that change in brightness over time.
The galaxy cluster is packed with enough of these flickers to earn a special nickname.
“We’re calling MACS0416 the Christmas Tree Galaxy Cluster, both because it’s so colorful and because of these flickering lights we find within it,” Haojing Yan, associate professor at the University of Missouri and lead author of a paper accepted for publication in The Astrophysical Journal, said in NASA’s announcement.
The body of this imaginary tree is made of two colliding galaxy clusters that will eventually form one heftier object. The soft glow throughout the center of the image acts like a trunk of sorts. According to Hubble officials in 2018, this light comes from stars scattered throughout the hodgepodge cluster, pulled out of the galaxies they once called home.
Left: Hubble Space Telescope’s optical light observations of galaxy cluster MACS0416. Right: James Webb Space Telescope’s infrared observations of the same region.
The tree’s ornaments are varied and abundant. Thanks to a phenomenon called gravitational lensing, the light from distant galaxies gets magnified. Although they are located much farther away than MACS0416, the lensing makes their light appear and spruces up the holiday visuals.
THERE’S A “MONSTER”
One distant ornament stands out. Incredibly, it's not a galaxy but something even smaller: a clutch of stars. “Among the transients the team identified, one stood out in particular,” NASA officials wrote in their Thursday announcement.
The stars, magnified by a factor of at least 4,000, come from an ancient place in space where light is just now reaching the telescopes. These stars are from just 3 billion years after the Big Bang when the universe was about a quarter of its current age.
This archaic visual behemoth received quite a name. “The team nicknamed the star system ‘Mothra’ in a nod to its ‘monster nature,’ being both extremely bright and extremely magnified,” NASA officials wrote. They added that Mothra “joins another lensed star the researchers previously identified that they nicknamed ‘Godzilla’” because both are names of giant monsters in Japanese cinema.
This image of galaxy cluster MACS0416 highlights one particular gravitationally-lensed background galaxy, from when the universe was about a quarter of its current age. It contains a group of stars, highlighted here, whose brightness varies over time. It’s nicknamed “Mothra.”
Mothra is one of 14 transient objects across this field of view. Remarkably, two of these very highly magnified objects are supernovas, explosions of stars visible to astronomers from exceptionally distant places.
With blues indicating relatively nearby galaxies and reds showing dusty places or distant galaxies, this visual cornucopia provides plenty of science to celebrat
NASA’s Curiosity mission has just passed a special milestone. On Monday, NASA announced that Curiosity has now surpassed 4,000 sols, or days on Mars.
The small-SUV-sized rover reached the Red Planet on August 5, 2012, to explore Gale Crater for signs that past or present life could have existed on Mars. To find glimmers of this evidence, Curiosity has sojourned across a sediment-rich landscape on the alien planet with its six wheels over the last 11 years.
Curiosity is the oldest active Martian rover, taking over the title in 2019 when the 15-year-old Opportunity mission ended. NASA personnel think Curiosity still has quite a bit of life left.
“Despite having driven almost 20 miles (32 kilometers) through a punishingly cold environment bathed in dust and radiation since 2012, Curiosity remains strong,” according to a statement published Monday from NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in California, the hub for Curiosity and the fleet of NASA’s Mars explorers.
To commemorate Curiosity’s accomplishment, Inverse has compiled images that define Curiosity’s last decade.
BILLIONS OF YEARS OF HISTORY
Curiosity took the images that went to making this composite view of Mars on April 10 and 11, 2015.
On April 10 and 11, 2015 — Curiosity’s 952nd and 953rd sols on Mars — both of its Mastcam lenses worked together to create this expansive view of the alien landscape.
According to JPL’s image description, the sand ripples and gravel that appear in the middle and at the bottom of this image were the sort of terrain that Curiosity first traversed. The rover left behind its landing site to reach Mount Sharp, a 3-mile-high peak in the middle of Gale Crater.
"This may be one of the thickest exposed sections of layered sedimentary rocks in the solar system. The rock record preserved in those layers holds stories that are billions of years old — stories about whether, when, and for how long Mars might have been habitable,” Joy Crisp, Curiosity deputy project scientist at JPL, shared in a statement NASA published in 2011.
ALIEN SUNSET
Curiosity took the images for this sunset sequence on April 15, 2015.
To produce this view of a sunset on another planet, Curiosity’s team stitched together four images that Mastcam’s left eye captured over the span of 6 minutes, and 51 seconds. This sequence was captured on April 15, 2015, the mission's 956th sol.
This was the first time that the mission observed the Martian sunset in color. According to JPL officials, “Mastcam sees color very similarly to what human eyes see, although it is actually a little less sensitive to blue than people are.”
SAND DUNE SELFIE
Curiosity took 57 images on January 19, 2016, to produce this self-portrait (minus its robotic arm).
Curiosity is well-known for its selfies. The rover took this portrait from Namib Dune, located along the northwestern flank of Mount Sharp.
This image shows most, but not all, of Curiosity’s body. “The view does not include the rover's arm,” JPL officials wrote in an image description published on January 27, 2016. “The arm was positioned out of the shot in the images, or portions of images, that were used in this mosaic.”
The selfie is a mosaic of 57 images, taken on January 19, 2016 — Curiosity’s 1,228th sol — with a camera located at the end of the rover’s robotic arm called the Mars Hand Lens Imager (MAHLI).
DRILLING INTO BEDROCK
Curiosity captured the before and after of obtaining the Aberlady sample from Martian bedrock on April 6, 2019.
This Mastcam sequence shows the first time Curiosity drilled into the bedrock of a clay-bearing unit, a maneuver that the mission team had highly anticipated.
Curiosity is equipped with four spectrometers that can measure the chemical composition within rock samples. The one collected here on April 6, 2019 — the mission’s 2,370th sol — was called Aberlady.
CLOUDS OVER MOUNT SHARP
Curiosity captured images of clouds rolling over Mount Sharp on March 19, 2021.
To gather scientific data, sometimes Curiosity has to look up.
Each frame in this scene is a mosaic of six individual images. They show clouds drifting over Mount Sharp on March 19, 2021, the 3,063rd sol of the mission.
Curiosity Navigation Cameras Spot Twilight Clouds on Sol 3075: Using the navigation cameras on its mast, NASA’s Curiosity Mars rover took these images of clouds just after sunset on March 31, 2021, the 3,075th sol, or Martian day, of the mission.
Curiosity Navigation Cameras Spot Twilight Clouds on Sol 3072: Using the navigation cameras on its mast, NASA’s Curiosity Mars rover took these images of clouds just after sunset on March 28, 2021, the 3,072nd sol, or Martian day, of the mission.
Cloudy days are rare on Mars because of the planet’s thin atmosphere, but they can appear seasonally when Mars is farthest away from the Sun in its orbit, according to NASA. Curiosity’s images of the clouds helped scientists realize that clouds were much higher than most clouds which hover around 27 miles above the surface. Their larger altitude indicates they are made of dry ice (or frozen carbon dioxide) rather than water ice.
ROLLING ALONG
This eight-frame movie comes from the Curiosity rover, captured on December 12, 2021.
These clouds rolling along the Martian sky appeared to Curiosity’s navigation camera on December 12, 2021, the 3,325th sol of the mission.
This wasn’t easy, according to NASA. “Martian clouds are very faint in the atmosphere, so special imaging techniques are needed to see them,” according to an image description from JPL.
To get a clear, static background, Curiosity had to snap multiple images. “That allows anything else moving within the image (like clouds or shadows) to become visible after subtracting this static background from each individual image,” JPL officials added.
AN EARTHLY PERSPECTIVE
Curiosity took this view of the Martian landscape on August 23, 2022. Its color has been adjusted to depict what the human eye would perceive on Earth.
Mission team members adjusted the color in this image “to match the lighting conditions as the human eye would perceive them on Earth,” according to an image description published in 2022.
This scene is a mosaic of 23 Mastcam images captured near a hill called Bolivar on August 23, 2022, the 3,572nd sol of the mission.
Soon after reaching its 4,000th sol milestone, Curiosity went offline. From November 6 to 28, the mission team will await the end of solar conjunction. This is when Mars passes behind the Sun. During this time, Curiosity cannot communicate with Earth because the star’s plasma could interfere with sending commands.
But in a few weeks, Curiosity will continue its explorations.
For nearly 18 months, he’s been the first head of the Pentagon’s fledgling office tasked with investigating what the government calls “unidentified anomalous phenomena,” which military pilots have increasingly reported seeing in the skies.
Kirkpatrick set up an entire system for collecting data, waded through hundreds of reported UFO sightings and batted down whistleblower claims that the government covered up a program to reverse-engineer alien craft. And don’t forget the Chinese spy balloon episode.
In an interview with POLITICO Magazine, he talked about why he’s stepping down in December and how he sought to “institutionalize the solution for getting at the heart of these anomalies.” The Pentagon has a real interest in deciphering the sharp rise in unidentified crafts spotted by military pilots; if these aren’t aliens, they could be foreign adversaries posing incredibly new threats.
Kirkpatrick, 55, was perhaps the perfect person to lead what’s formally known as the Defense Department’s All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office, which was established in July 2022. A physicist who spent decades working in the defense-intelligence arena, he’s open to the possibility that we’re not alone in the universe, having co-authored a hotly-debated paper about alien motherships. But his bottom line is to focus on the science.
“If you are talking with NASA or the European Space Agency, and you’re talking about looking for life out in the universe, it is a very objective, very scientifically sound discussion and discourse,” he said, describing the public discourse. “As that discussion gets closer to the solar system, somewhere around Mars, it turns into science fiction. And then as you get even closer to Earth, and you cross into Earth’s atmosphere, it becomes conspiracy theory.”
Part of Kirkpatrick’s work going forward, he added, will be to “raise the level of the conversation” about these unidentified objects.
And yes, we did ask him if aliens are real.
This conversation has been edited for length and clarity.
Lara Seligman: You’ve only been in the job less than 18 months. Why are you leaving now?
Sean Kirkpatrick: When I took the job, I promised going in that I would do a year, and we would reevaluate. I have decided to stay on until towards the end of this year because there’s a couple more things I need to finish.
One of those is finishing Volume One of the historical review [required by the law], which really encompasses all of the interviewees that have come in to talk to us. And then laying that out as “Here’s what we’ve been able to prove is true, here’s what we’ve been able to prove is not true,” as a very thorough and objective research product. The legislative requirement for the historical report is not due until June of next year. I decided, because of the desire for more transparency faster, we are doing a Volume One, and then Volume Two will be delivered next year. Volume One covers everything up to about a month ago. Volume Two is going to cover anything new that comes up since we’ve turned on the reporting button on our website.
I deferred my retirement because I was asked to come do this. I set out those goals. It’s been about 18 months. I’m ready to move on. I have accomplished everything I said I was going to do.
Seligman: What changes to the office can we expect once you are gone?
Kirkpatrick: It won’t get a new name. They are not going to get a major makeover. The team has done a really exceptional job of setting the foundational stone for the vision I laid out and how we’re going to execute on this. Whoever comes in next, that will be really to execute the rest of those foundational stones and ensure that is projected into the future.
Kirkpatrick: No, these are all expected challenges. The balloon, that’s a very interesting case of the interagency in the U.S. government trying to understand the differences between a known anomalous thing, if you will, and an unknown anomalous thing. Our job is harder than “Hey, there’s a Chinese spy balloon, you know what it is? What is it doing?” That’s not our job. Our job is to understand the unknowns and what could be there. What are the possibilities that threaten us? And how do we get at it? How do I apply technical rigor to go after that “hunt” mission, if you will?
The whistleblowers are an interesting bit. We’ve had greater than 30 people now come in to talk to us. We have investigated every single one of them, every single story, every lead that provided any substantive evidence for us to go after.
David Grusch is a unique instance in that he has refused to come and share any of that information. We still can’t get him to come in. I’ve got five different people who have gone to talk to him to get him to come in. And the answers have always been everything from “We’re not cleared” to “It would jeopardize his whistleblower protections” to “Why can’t we just go get the information that he shared from the IG?” It’s every excuse that I have heard, why not to come in. And that’s been a challenge because now here we are, we’re about to put out Volume One of the historical review, which I believe captures most all of the people that he’s spoken with, but I can’t say that 100 percent because I can’t hear what he thinks he has. If he has evidence, I need to know what that is.
Seligman: What are the biggest accomplishments of your year and a half as the head of AARO?
Kirkpatrick: I laid out a plan about 18 months ago on what we needed to accomplish in order to make this mission area successful and to institutionalize the solution for getting at the heart of these anomalies. That included really several main areas. There was there was an analytic area, there was an operational area. There was a science and technology area. And then there was a strategic messaging or communications information sharing area.
In all of those, I mapped everything that the congressional language asked us to do for the last couple of years and kept a scorecard: These are all the things I needed to accomplish coming into this job.
We have standardized the analytic framework for how we deal with these observations in a very rigorous fashion. We have run that framework successfully now, and are ramping up the number of cases that are being resolved.
Operationally, we have institutionalized how to respond to and mitigate these incidents. We have worked with the Joint Staff and the commands and the combat support agencies and the intelligence community on questions like: When one of these things is observed, how do we get more data? How do we save that data that’s been collected? That was historically a very big problem: That data was not retained. Now data is required to be retained so that we can have something to analyze.
In the science and technology area, how do you look at all of these sensors and ensure that we understand, when an F-35 or an F-22 or ground radar sees an anomalous object, how do we know that’s not a normal object that you just haven’t calibrated against? We’ve run a campaign against those sensors, making sure that we measure each and every one of the unknown objects against them. And we turn those into additional modeling, simulation and training back to the operators so that we can reduce false alarms. The other thing that we’re doing there is a campaign of pattern of life: understanding what is normal, so that you can understand when an anomalous or an abnormal peak and activity occurs.
In the information sharing area: It’s been a long time coming, but we have gotten to the point now where we have a dedicated website. We are pushing material out, it is a living website, there will be updates on a periodic basis.
If I go back to the fundamental definition of a UAP [unidentified anomalous phenomena] that we had written into law, it is an unknown object that is not initially understood by the sensor or the people observing it. That doesn’t mean that it’s not understandable. It just means that initially when you look at it, you may not understand what that is.
People are subject to optical illusions, sensors are subject to being fooled or spoofed or even just having errors. Understanding what all of that is out in the real world is a very challenging mission space. It is hard to apply science and technology to the real world. It’s easy to do in a lab.
So putting all that together and putting it into an institutionalized space and getting it formalized and getting it into policy and getting it into orders: Those have all been major accomplishments that we set out to do, that I set out to do. And that has been achieved today.
Seligman: Are aliens real?
Kirkpatrick: That is a great question. I love that question. Number one, the best thing that could come out of this job is to prove that there are aliens, right? Because if we don’t prove there are aliens, then what we’re finding is evidence of other people doing stuff in our backyard. And that’s not good.
Two, from a scientific perspective: The scientific community will agree that it is statistically invalid to believe that there is not life out in the universe, as vast as the universe is and the number of galaxies and solar systems and planets. That is what part of NASA’s mission is to look for that life. The probability, however, that that life is intelligent and that it has found Earth and that it has come to Earth and that it has repeatedly crashed in the United States is not very probable.
So part of what we’ve been trying to do, and part of what I will continue to do until I’m done, is raise the level of the conversation. Let me explain. If you are talking with NASA or the European Space Agency, and you’re talking about looking for life out in the universe, it is a very objective, very scientifically sound discussion and discourse. As that discussion gets closer to the solar system, somewhere around Mars, it turns into science fiction. And then as you get even closer to Earth, and you cross into Earth’s atmosphere, it becomes conspiracy theory.
We need to change the level of the [public] conversation. It’s one of the reasons why we’ve engaged academia to work on a number of scientific papers that look at the probabilities of these things, and what are the signatures associated with that? So that we can benchmark what we’re doing in scientific proofs and in scientific fact and not hearsay and pointing fingers and government cover ups and conspiracies with no evidence of any of them.
Seligman: Is that why you wrote that paper with Harvard professor Avi Loeb about the theory that UAPs are probes from an alien mothership?
Kirkpatrick: That was the start of that work where we were looking at, if you want to believe these hypotheses, what are the signatures that you would expect to see from that? Because if I don’t see any of those signatures, with any of the data that we see, then that’s not a valid hypothesis. That’s how science works. Right? You have to have a hypothesis. You have to have measurables with that hypothesis, and then your data has to meet it. And you have to lay that out in a peer-reviewed journal so that you have something to pin it against.
Seligman: That paper though with your name attached made it look like you were backing the theory. Is this something that you regret?
Kirkpatrick: That paper was in draft when it was leaked. We hadn’t actually finished that paper and it needed a lot of editing before it went out.
Seligman: It wasn’t leaked. Avi Loeb posted it online.
Kirkpatrick: Well, yeah, he posted it without permission.
Seligman: Do you regret your involvement in that?
Kirkpatrick: No, because it’s the same principle. We are standing up for the facts. We are standing up for the scientific method. And this is how you go about doing it. You either do it or you don’t.
Seligman: What’s next for you?
Kirkpatrick: I have a number of things that I’m exploring right now. One of them for certain is going to be consulting, doing some board work, working with a number of folks across the interagency, the space community, the science and technology and intelligence community as we go forward. I think we’ll hear more in the coming month.
Space exploration should never be run of the mill nor something that finds itself on the back pages of the newspaper. Captain James T. Kirk was right that space really is the final frontier and making it more accessible is one of the driving forces behind SpaceX. Their mission to seek out new life and new civilisations, wait that’s wrong – that’s Starfleet. The SpaceX mission ‘to revolutionise space technology, with the ultimate goal of enabling people to live on other planets is at the forefront of the development of the enormous Starship which may make another launch attempt as soon as this Friday 17th November.
SpaceX is a company that shot to fame since it was founded (I really wanted to type ‘launched’ but resisted) back in 2002 by Elon Musk. Musk had a vision to revolutionise space exploration by reducing costs and more excitingly he wanted to colonise Mars. SpaceX operate the Falcon rockets, the Dragon capsule that is often transporting supplies to and from the International Space Station and skywatchers around the globe are familiar with the infamous Starlink project that has launched more than 5,000 small satellites into orbit providing global internet coverage. There is no doubt the SpaceX brand is a well known one.
SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket carrying the company’s Crew Dragon spacecraft is launched from Launch Complex 39A (Credit : NASA/Joel Kowsky)
One of the more recent additions to the SpaceX fleet is the super heavy lift launch vehicle known rather imaginatively as Super Heavy and, when coupled with Starship in its final configuration has the capability of lifting at least 150 tonnes into low earth orbit. It is the tallest and most powerful rocket ever to have flown at an immense 120m tall but the real headline statement for Starship is that it is designed to be fully re-usable with both stages being recovered after launch and used again. If you haven’t yet watched the Starship stages landing then you really should hunt them down, I never tire of watching it.
The plans for Super Heavy and Starship are not just to get objects into low earth orbit though, there are plans to use them to refuel other Starships in orbit, to be a part of the NASA Artemis program to get humans back to the Moon and ultimately the colonisation of Mars. The power behind Super Heavy are the powerful Raptor rocket engines that burn liquid methane and oxygen to get off the launchpad but fire again to slow down the booster during descent to a graceful landing, ready to be used again.
SpaceX sea-level Raptor at the company headquarters at Hawthorne, California (Credit : Brandon De Young)
This all sounds pretty amazing but as we saw on 20 April this year, space flight is anything but routine. Four minutes after launch, at an altitude of 39km above the Gulf of Mexico, Musk’s beloved Starship failed to separate from the booster leading to the whole system exploding in a fireball on its maiden voyage. The FAA grounded the entire fleet but, it looks like we may be set for a fresh attempt this Friday 17th November subject to final approval from the FAA. If or when the launch finally goes ahead, it will be from a new reinforced launch site and will use a new separation technique known as Hot Staging where the second stage engines will fire to put the booster away! Good luck SpaceX.
Old footage shows unknown ancient devices found during Nazi expeditions in Antarctica and Egypt
Old footage shows unknown ancient devices found during Nazi expeditions in Antarctica and Egypt
This is said to be a rare footage from an unknown private film collection archive, that supposedly shows objects and ancient devices that were discovered and then taken away during the Nazi expeditions in Egypt and Antarctica, which are still secret!
I do know for a fact that many artifacts have been looted in previous wars but I have never seen anything like this before.
It would be great if it could be proven that the ancient artifacts shown in the short film were made by ancient civilizations with advanced technology, extraterrestrial intervention, or other supernatural explanations, but... as long as they keep it a secret and withhold the truth about our history, the origin of these objects will remain a mystery.
It will be interesting to learn how they will explain the discovery of these objects.
UFO the size of a football field hovered over Vandenberg Air Force Base
UFO the size of a football field hovered over Vandenberg Air Force Base
In 2003, an unidentified flying object, comparable in size to a football field, reportedly hovered over Vandenberg Air Force Base, as disclosed during a House Oversight Committee's national security subcommittee hearing on UFOs. The hearing, held on Wednesday, delved into UFOs, now termed "unidentified anomalous phenomena" by the U.S. government.
The proceedings included whistleblower accounts that shed light on purported government UFO programs spanning multiple decades, according to retired major David Grusch. Former Navy fighter jet pilot Ryan Graves, founder of the non-profit Americans for Safe Aerospace, presented testimony regarding the alleged UFO sighting at Vandenberg.
During questioning by Representative Anna Paulina Luna, Graves recounted the 2003 incident: "In the 2003 timeframe, a sizable group of Boeing contractors near a launch facility at Vandenberg observed a large, 100-yard-sided red square approaching from the ocean. It hovered at low altitude over the launch facility for about 45 seconds before rapidly darting off over the mountains around 8:45 a.m."
Graves further described a subsequent event 24 hours later, involving additional sightings on the base, with some objects displaying aggressive behavior toward security guards. The information, according to Graves, came from a witness who approached him at Americans for Safe Aerospace, and this witness possessed documented police blotter and records from the 2003 incidents.
Testimonies from former Major Grusch and ex-U.S. intelligence officer David Fravor were also part of the hearing, although they refrained from answering certain questions. Representative Tim Burchett emphasized the importance of government transparency in addressing the issue, clarifying that the aim was to uncover facts without sensationalizing the subject.
Shocking Encounter: 6 British Soldiers Face Triangular UFO & Missing Time Near Salisbury Plain!
Shocking Encounter: 6 British Soldiers Face Triangular UFO & Missing Time Near Salisbury Plain!
Unveiling the Mystery: The Enigmatic UFO Sightings Over Salisbury Plain
In the realms of the unexplained and the unknown, few phenomena capture the imagination quite like UFO sightings. The late 1980s and early 1990s were a particularly fertile period for such sightings, with numerous reports of mysterious crafts filling the skies worldwide. Among these, the Salisbury Plain incident in the UK stands out for its complexity and intrigue.
The Encounter: A Triangular Enigma
It was a cold winter night in 1989-1990 when a group of six British soldiers, engaged in night maneuvers near Salisbury Plain, witnessed something extraordinary. Their encounter with a colossal, black, triangular craft, reportedly the size of a football pitch, marked a chilling chapter in UFO sightings history.
Renowned UFO researchers Jon King and Timothy Good have scrutinized this incident, adding credibility to the soldiers’ accounts. King, the editor of “UFO Reality,” and Good, a respected figure in the field, bring a critical eye to these unexplained events, which often go dismissed as mere fantasy or misidentified military exercises.
Advanced Technology: Beyond Human Capabilities
What sets the Salisbury Plain sighting apart is not just the size of the craft but its purported advanced technology. Comparable sightings in Belgium, where UFOs executed maneuvers impossible by today’s aviation standards, echo this narrative of technological marvels. These crafts’ abilities to move thousands of meters in a blink have fueled theories ranging from extraterrestrial visitations to top-secret military projects.
The Human Experience: A Soldier’s Tale
Central to the Salisbury Plain story is Mark, a former British soldier whose identity remains concealed for fear of repercussions. His experience, and that of his fellow soldiers, encapsulates the human element in UFO encounters. The group’s collective memory lapse, the strange sensations of being controlled, and the appearance of a mysterious figure dressed in black, wielding a rod-like object, all contribute to a deeply unsettling experience.
The Aftermath: Questions and Theories
The soldiers found themselves disoriented and off-course, grappling with missing time and lingering emotional distress. Such experiences raise profound questions about the nature of these sightings. Are they evidence of extraterrestrial intelligence, or do they hint at something else entirely?
VIDEO:
The Salisbury Plain UFO encounter remains an enigmatic piece in the vast puzzle of UFO sightings. It challenges our understanding of technology, physics, and perhaps the very notion of life beyond our planet. As we continue to seek answers, stories like these keep the flame of curiosity alive, urging us to look skyward and question what lies beyond.
Mysterious Night Skies: Dual UFOs Captured Over Alicante, Spain
Mysterious Night Skies: Dual UFOs Captured Over Alicante, Spain
In the serene night skies of the Province of Alicante, Spain, a remarkable event unfolded on the 12th of November, 2023, reigniting the ever-fascinating discussion of UFO sightings. This time, the awe-inspiring moment was captured through a night vision camera, NVG10, presenting a crystal-clear and intriguing view of what appears to be two interconnected UFOs.
The footage, filmed with the cutting-edge NVG10 night vision camera (Amazon link), known for its high-resolution imaging and advanced low-light capabilities, showcases a pair of luminous, unidentified flying objects. These UFOs, linked together by an unexplained force, glide seamlessly across the nocturnal backdrop, leaving viewers mesmerized and curious about their origin.
This sighting in Alicante, a region known for its picturesque landscapes and tranquil nights, adds a new chapter to the ever-growing anthology of UFO encounters. The two linked objects, with their synchronized movement and radiant appearance, challenge our understanding of the skies above and beckon us to question what lies beyond our terrestrial realm.
What makes this footage particularly compelling is the clarity provided by the NVG10 camera. Its ability to capture detailed images in low-light conditions has not only provided UFO enthusiasts with captivating visual evidence but also has sparked interest among skeptics and scientists alike.
As the debate around the existence of extraterrestrial life continues, this latest sighting in Alicante offers a fresh perspective and a tantalizing glimpse into the unknown. Whether these UFOs are a testament to otherworldly visitors, a natural phenomenon, or something else entirely, remains a topic of intrigue and wonder.
For those keen on exploring the mysteries of the night sky, the NVG10 night vision camera emerges as a tool of choice, bridging the gap between the seen and the unseen, and potentially unlocking new secrets of our universe.
As we delve into this extraordinary encounter, we invite you to watch the video and join the conversation. What are these mysterious objects? Are we alone in this vast cosmos, or is this sighting in Alicante a beacon of otherworldly presence? The skies above continue to hold their secrets, but with each new sighting, we inch closer to unraveling the mysteries of the universe.
NASA has temporarily lost the ability to communicate with its Mars fleet, according to a statement issued by the space agency citing a phenomenon that occurs every two years that blocks commands from being sent to its robotic explorers.
The phenomenon, known as Mars solar conjunction, occurs when the Sun moves between Earth and Mars every other year.
“Like dancers on either side of a huge bonfire, the two planets are temporarily invisible to each other,” reads a NASA FAQ page describing the biennial celestial event.
The Sun photographed by Perseverance on Nov. 7, 2023 (Sol 965), just prior to the onset of the 2023 Mars solar conjunction
(NASA/Caltech).
NASA says its rovers and orbital craft currently engaged in science missions on Mars will not discontinue operations, although data collection will remain limited for two weeks while Earth and Mars remain on either side of the Sun.
This year’s solar moratorium officially began on November 11 and will last until the 25th.
During the period of interrupted communication, some of the instruments are temporarily taken offline by engineers at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, and no new instructions are dispatched to the robotic scientists on the Red Planet due to the likelihood that they will be lost once they encounter the interference caused by the Sun and the highly charged particles it emits.
However, in preparation for the communication breakdown, NASA sends two weeks’ worth of commands to its Mars fleet so that limited operations can continue.
Perseverance captured a selfie from the location where it will remain parked during the 2023 Mars solar conjunction
(NASA/Caltech).
Currently, NASA says its Perseverance and Curiosity rovers are being tasked with ongoing monitoring of surface conditions on Mars, as well as observations of weather conditions, radiation levels, and other information their onboard sensors can continue to monitor.
The Ingenuity Mars Helicopter has also been tasked with observing the motion of sand on the Red Planet throughout the course of the solar conjunction, while the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter and the Odyssey orbiter will keep their camera eyes trained on the Martian surface from their positions in orbit, along with the MAVEN spacecraft’s collection of data about the Martian atmosphere.
Limited information about the status of the Mars fleet will continue to be dispatched back to NASA, all except for a period of two days at the height of the conjunction where Mars and Earth are on the exact opposite ends of the Sun from each other.
“We’ll still be able to hear from them and check their states of health over the next few weeks,” said Roy Gladden, manager of the Mars Relay Network at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), in a NASA statement.
After November 25, full communication is expected to be restored, and science data that has remained in limbo for the previous two weeks will be sent back to Earth, while new instructions will also be sent to the Mars fleet.
NASA Wants to Learn to Live Off the Land on the Moon
Artist rendition of an In-situ Resource Utilization (ISRU) technology demonstration on the lunar surface. NASA is working with industry and academia to develop technologies for future production of fuel, water, or oxygen from local resources, thus advancing space exploration capabilities. (Credit: NASA)
NASA Wants to Learn to Live Off the Land on the Moon
In preparation for the upcoming Artemis missions to the lunar south pole, NASA recently solicited a Request for Information (RFI) from the lunar community to map out its future Lunar Infrastructure Foundational Technologies (LIFT-1) demonstration for developing In-situ Resource Utilization (ISRU) technologies as part of the agency’s ambitious Lunar Surface Innovation Initiative (LSII). The primary goal of LIFT-1, which is being driven by NASA’s Space Technology Mission Directorate (STMD), is to advance ISRU technologies for extracting oxygen from the lunar regolith, including manufacturing, harnessing, and storing the extracted oxygen for use by future astronauts on the lunar surface. Proposals for LIFT-1 became available to be submitted via NSPIRES on November 6, 2023, with a deadline of December 18, 2023.
Artist rendition of future Artemis astronauts on the lunar surface using available resources for production of fuel, water, and oxygen. (Credit: NASA)
“The LIFT-1 demonstration creates a viable path to launch, land, and conduct operations on the lunar surface. This is the infusion path we need for ongoing industry and NASA center-led technology development activities,” said Dr. Prasun Desai, who is the acting associate administrator of STMD at NASA Headquarters in Washington DC. “Using in-situ resources is essential to making a sustained presence farther from Earth possible. Just as we need consumables and infrastructure to live and work on our home planet, we’ll need similar support systems on the Moon for crew and robots to operate safely and productively.”
NASA is heavily invested in developing ISRU technologies and is in collaboration with industry and academia in a wide range of studies involving lunar regolith, including construction, oxygen extraction, and growing plants. In addition to using lunar regolith to extract oxygen, efforts are being made to extract oxygen from lunar water ice, which is the primary reason Artemis is targeting the lunar south pole due to its proximity to the permanently shadowed regions (PSRs) of the Moon.
Lunar regolith being used to grow plants at the University of Florida, which is an example of NASA collaborating with academia in developing ISRU technologies for future human missions to the Moon. (Credit: UF/IFAS photo by Tyler Jones)
The purpose of ISRU is to “live off the land” through the resources that are available on-hand without the need for constant resupply from Earth. Future astronauts on both the Moon and Mars will need both food and water to survive for long-term missions, and supply missions from Earth can be both costly and risky, especially as humans venture farther out into the cosmos. Therefore, steps are being taken to learn how future astronauts can use available resources to their benefit, specifically for food, water, and oxygen.
An example of the most recent off-Earth ISRU technology demonstration is the toaster-sized Mars Oxygen In-Situ Resource Utilization Experiment (MOXIE) onboard NASA’s Perseverance rover with the goal of extracting oxygen from the carbon dioxide-heavy Martian atmosphere, which was accomplished in April 2021, only a few months after Perseverance landed in Jezero Crater. After just over an hour of the test, MOXIE produced 5.37 grams (0.01 pounds) of breathable oxygen, which is enough breathable oxygen for an astronaut to use for approximately 10 minutes. After this successful test, NASA now aspires to use develop similar technologies on the Moon using lunar resources, specifically lunar regolith and water ice found at the poles.
“An ISRU technology demonstration approach has been a topic of discussion within the Lunar Surface Innovation Initiative and Consortium communities for several years,” said Niki Werkheiser, who is the director of Technology Maturation in STMD at NASA. “This RFI is the next phase to make it a reality.”
As noted, LIFT-1 is part of NASA’s Lunar Surface Innovation Initiative, but developing ISRU technologies is just one of six areas the Initiative is targeting, with the other areas of interest being surface power, excavation and construction, extreme environment, dust mitigation, and extreme access. The development of these various technologies is a massive collaborative effort between various industries and academia, and will involve both human and robotic exploration efforts, as well. But development of these various technologies will not be limited to just the Moon, as NASA is hoping to use the lessons learned from Artemis to establish the necessary technologies for future human missions to Mars and beyond.
Artist illustration showing the construction of a landing pad at a future lunar base. (Credit: European Space Agency)
How will ISRU help improve the upcoming Artemis missions and what new discoveries with ISRU technologies will be made in the coming years and decades? Only time will tell, and this is why we science!
If You Account for the Laniakea Supercluster, The Hubble Tension Might Be Even Larger
One of the great unsolved mysteries of cosmology is known as the Hubble tension. It stems from our inability to pin down the precise rate of cosmic expansion. There are several ways to calculate this expansion, from observing distant supernovae to measuring the Doppler shift of maser light near supermassive black holes, and they all give slightly different results. Maybe we don’t fully understand the structure of the Universe, or maybe our view of the heavens is biased given that we are located deep within a galactic supercluster. As a new study shows, the bias problem is even worse than we thought.
If we were floating deep in space, far away from any galaxies, then our view of cosmic expansion would be free of gravitational influences and we could better see how distant galaxies move away from us. Since we are part of a local cluster of galaxies, we have a bit of bias in our data. This is why many local galaxies are blue-shifted. The Universe isn’t contracting near us, we’re just in a galactic gravitational well. We can easily account for this bias, so it isn’t a problem. However, given the Hubble tension, a team recently looked for gravitational biases beyond the local group, hoping it would solve the issue.
They looked at the largest gravitational structure we’re a part of, known as the Laniakea Supercluster. It is a massive cluster of galaxies more than 520 million light-years across, containing more than 100,000 galaxies, including the Milky Way. Our local group is being pulled toward the heart of Laniakea, and thus our motion through the Universe could skew our observations of cosmic expansion.
Observations show a statistical bias in the data. Credit: Giani, et al
When the team measured the gravitational influence of the supercluster as a whole, they found it does bias our observations by about 2% – 3%. But it’s biased in the wrong direction. In other words, by not taking the effect of Laniakea into account, the Hubble tension seemed smaller than it actually is. These new results show that the tension is 2% – 3% greater than we thought. Even some of the more recent Hubble constant measurements that seemed encouraging aren’t enough to account for the Laniakea bias.
Removing subtle biases from our cosmological data is challenging, so it is possible that further observations may swing the results back in the right direction. But we can’t rely on bias alone to solve this mystery. Clearly, something subtle and strange is going on, and the solution isn’t obvious. It will take a great deal more study to understand Hubble’s tension.
This image was taken by a small camera that was jettisoned from China's Tianwen-1 spacecraft to photograph the spacecraft in orbit above the Martian north pole. Credit: CNSA/PEC
China continues to take great strides as part of its goal to become a superpower in space and a direct competitor with NASA. In addition to its proposed expansion of the Tiangong space station and the creation of the International Lunar Research Station (ILRS), China is also planning on sending crewed missions to Mars in the coming decade. In preparation for the arrival of taikonauts on the Red Planet, China is gearing up to return samples of Martian soil and rock to Earth roughly two years ahead of the proposed NASA-ESA Mars Sample Return (MSR).
This mission will be the third in the China National Space Administration’s (CNSA) Tianwen program (Tianwen-3) and will consist of a pair of launches in 2028 that will return samples to Earth in July 2031. According to a new study recently published in the journal Chinese Science Bulletin, Chinese scientists announced that they have developed a new numerical model to simulate the atmospheric environment of Mars. Known as the Global Open Planetary atmospheric model for Mars (aka. GoPlanet-Mars, or GoMars), this model offers research support in preparation for the Tianwen-3 mission.
A wireless camera took this ‘group photo’ of China’s Tianwen-1 lander and rover on Mars’ surface. Credit: Chinese Space Agency
In the past two decades, the number of missions and space agencies engaged in the exploration of Mars has increased considerably. At present, ten robotic missions are exploring its surface and atmosphere, including seven orbiters, two rovers, and one helicopter. And with many more destined for Mars in the next decade (as well as crewed missions), the demand for Martian weather forecasts is growing. As they indicate in their paper, “The world’s aerospace powers have developed Mars atmosphere models to provide meteorological environment protection for landing exploration.”
To provide information on the meteorological conditions around the Tianwen-3 mission’s potential landing sites, the research team built a global open planetary atmospheric model for Mars. They then used this model to replicate the three critical cycles of the Martian atmosphere: dust, water, and carbon dioxide. They then tested the model using the Open access to Mars Assimilated Remote Soundings (OpenMARS) dataset, a global record of Martian weather from 1999 to 2015, as well as observations made by China’s Zhurongrover (part of China’s Tianwen-1 mission) and NASA’s Viking 1 and 2 landers.
Their results showed that the GoMars model successfully reproduced the unique characteristics of surface pressure on Mars and provided good simulation performance for the surface temperature, zonal wind, polar ice, and dust. According to Wang, the Tianwen-3 mission will expand upon Tianwen-1 by adding the additional tasks of landing, sampling, and returning, which requires detailed information about Mars’ atmospheric conditions. This is crucial given how sandstorms caused multiple missions to be lost, such as Opportunity, Insight, and Zhurong – all due to the buildup of dust on their solar panels.
In addition, the Perseverance rover suffered damage to one of its wind sensors during a sandstorm due to airborne pebbles colliding with it. Since observation data is in short supply for Mars, the model also has applications for virtual reality simulations. This is necessary when prepping missions to remote planets, which helps them design vehicles and select appropriate landing sites. In this respect, a “virtual Mars” program that incorporates GoMars and future observations could take a lot of the guesswork out of future mission planning.
Since the 1960s, when the Soviet and American space programs began sending probes to Mars, scientists have been developing Martian atmospheric models in the hopes of overcoming the “Mars Curse.” With a growing number of nations sending missions to Mars, the need for climate modeling has become all the more crucial. In the end, dust and weather can have a significant impact on the entry, descent, and landing (EDL) phase. They can also affect surface operations, particularly where solar panels, communications, and sensitive instruments are concerned.
They can also be a problem during the ascent phase, where missions attempt to reach orbit and return to Earth – for example, as part of a sample return mission. As Wang commented in an interview with the Xinhua News Agency:
“The dust cycle on Mars is as important as the water cycle on Earth. GoMars can be used to simulate the dust activity before and after the rover’s dormancy, which can provide atmospheric environment data to analyze the possible causes of the dormancy. For example, GoMars can simulate the temperatures of the landing zone, and scientists can use these data to design materials that are suitable for building Mars rovers to cope with extreme cold.”
Early in the next decade, NASA and the ESA also intend to send the Mars Sample Return (MSR) mission to retrieve samples obtained by the Perseverance rover. This will consist of a NASA Sample Retrieval Lander, two Sample Recovery Helicopters, a Mars Ascent Vehicle, and an ESA Earth Return Orbiter. NASA and the ESA currently expect this mission to launch no sooner than 2033, coinciding with NASA’s first crewed mission to Mars leaving Earth. Clearly, the new Space Race extends beyond the Moon and now includes reaching Mars!
The Oort Cloud Might be More Active Than We Thought
Every now and then a comet or asteroid comes to our solar system from interstellar space. We have observed two interstellar objects in recent years, Oumuamua in 2017, and Borisov in 2019. One would assume then that in the past at least some interstellar objects have struck Earth. But we’ve never found an interstellar meteorite. A new study argues that this is because the Oort cloud is much more active than we thought.
The Oort cloud is a halo of icy material on the outermost edge of the solar system, where the Sun’s gravity is barely strong enough to hold them in a stellar orbit. When another star passes somewhat near the Sun, members of the Oort cloud can be nudged toward the inner solar system, where they can become long-period comets. We have never observed the Oort cloud, but we know it’s there because comets can approach the Sun from every direction, not just the orbital plane of the planets.
Astronomers can distinguish between Oort cloud objects and interstellar objects by their orbits. Interstellar objects have a hyperbolic orbit, meaning that if you traced their path purely under the gravitational influence of the Sun, it would continue on to interstellar space, never to return. Oort cloud objects, on the other hand, have an orbital path that is closed. They may travel to the most distant region of space, but they are gravitationally bound to the Sun.
Of course, some interstellar objects could make a close approach to Jupiter or another planet, where the gravitational tug of that world shifts it into a bound orbit. So some interstellar objects could appear similar to Oort cloud objects. The opposite chance encounter, where an Oort cloud object is nudged into a hyperbolic orbit, was thought to be much more rare.
The path of a meteor as calculated from observations. Credit: Peña-Asensio, et al
We have observed some meteors with hyperbolic paths. By combining multiple images of a meteor path, we can calculate the path of entry into Earth’s atmosphere. In this study, the team looked at a meteor seen in Finland in 2022, which appeared to have a hyperbolic path. They found that based on the uncertainties of the observations, the meteor is statistically more likely to be a perturbed Oort cloud object rather than a true interstellar object. Applying the same statistics to six other hyperbolic meteors, they found four of them showed a similar statistical leaning toward being Oort objects. This would imply that most hyperbolic meteors are not interstellar.
Interstellar objects have still likely struck Earth, but more rarely than the initial data suggested. So our search for interstellar meteorites is going to be a challenge.
David Grusch Claims UFO Secrecy Orchestrated by Manhattan Project’s Key Figures and Corporations
David Grusch Claims UFO Secrecy Orchestrated by Manhattan Project’s Key Figures and Corporations
Unraveling the Shadows: The Link Between UFO Secrecy and the Manhattan Project
In a riveting disclosure, UFO whistleblower David Grusch has brought to light a startling connection between the Manhattan Project’s veil of secrecy and the ongoing UFO coverup. His revelations, based on intimate knowledge and extensive research, suggest a deep-rooted conspiracy involving government and corporate entities, intricately woven into the fabric of American history.
David Grusch says the UFO coverup was initiated by the same personnel and corporate elements that oversaw the Manhattan Project
The Manhattan Project, a clandestine operation that birthed the atomic bomb, was marked by an unprecedented level of secrecy. Grusch asserts that this very framework of concealment was later adapted to mask the truth about unidentified flying objects (UFOs). He points out the involvement of both federally funded research centers and private corporations, intricately linked to the US government, in this elaborate coverup.
Grusch’s insights are particularly relevant in the context of the Schumer Amendment, a legislative proposal that seeks to shed light on government secrets. This amendment, citing the Atomic Energy Act of 1954, hints at the intricate relationship between nuclear secrets and UFO information. Grusch suggests that the amendment’s reference to ‘transclassified’ nuclear information (TFNI) is no coincidence. This process, wherein a foreign nuclear secret is appropriated and reclassified as a US asset, mirrors the alleged tactics used to conceal UFO information.
Moreover, Grusch’s testimony is not solitary. He has provided detailed evidence to congressional committees and the Inspector General, including specific facilities and addresses. This information is further bolstered by accounts from individuals who have firsthand experience with these covert programs.
As we delve deeper into Grusch’s revelations, we confront a perplexing narrative that blurs the lines between national security and the public’s right to know. His narrative not only raises questions about the extent of governmental secrecy but also underscores the role of private corporations in shaping the narrative on UFOs.
Full interview:
In essence, David Grusch’s exposé opens a window into a shadowy world where the legacy of the Manhattan Project extends far beyond nuclear weapons, casting a long shadow over one of the most enigmatic and debated topics of our time – UFOs.
The Pentagon's outgoing UFO chief has said he does believe extraterrestrial life exists - but that you'd have to go to Mars or beyond to find it.
Dr. Sean Kirkpatrick, the longtime laser and materials physicist and head of the Pentagon's UFO-chasing All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office, delivered his assessment following news of his retirement from government service.
Kirkpatrick's 18-month tenure as the office's first-ever director has been laced with controversy, as expected for an area once relegated to the scientific fringe.
In the summer, there was a Congress hearing into claims the American government is covering up its knowledge of alien craft - which included the resurfacing of the 'Tic Tac' shaped UFO saga from 15 years ago.
Kirkpatrick's office was established in July 2022. He said his mission is to 'is raise the level of the conversation' around aliens and their potential existence.
Dr. Sean Kirkpatrick, the longtime laser and materials physicist and head of the Pentagon 's UFO-chasing All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office delivered his assessment following news of his retirement from government service
The description 'Tic Tac' was used for the 'perfectly white' wingless oblong that was captured from a cockpit's in-flight video (pictured)
When asked by Politico if aliens are real, he said: 'That is a great question. I love that question.
'Number one, the best thing that could come out of this job is to prove that there are aliens, right? Because if we don’t prove there are aliens, then what we’re finding is evidence of other people doing stuff in our backyard. And that’s not good.
'Two, from a scientific perspective: The scientific community will agree that it is statistically invalid to believe that there is not life out in the universe, as vast as the universe is and the number of galaxies and solar systems and planets.
'That is what part of NASA’s mission is to look for that life. The probability, however, that that life is intelligent and that it has found Earth and that it has come to Earth and that it has repeatedly crashed in the United States is not very probable.
'So part of what we’ve been trying to do, and part of what I will continue to do until I’m done, is raise the level of the conversation.
'If you are talking with NASA or the European Space Agency, and you’re talking about looking for life out in the universe, it is a very objective, very scientifically sound discussion and discourse.
Kirkpatrick's 18-month tenure as the office's first-ever director has been laced with controversy, as expected for a mandate once relegated to the scientific fringe
'As that discussion gets closer to the solar system, somewhere around Mars, it turns into science fiction. And then as you get even closer to Earth, and you cross into Earth’s atmosphere, it becomes conspiracy theory.
'We need to change the level of the [public] conversation. It’s one of the reasons why we’ve engaged academia to work on a number of scientific papers that look at the probabilities of these things, and what are the signatures associated with that?
'So that we can benchmark what we’re doing in scientific proofs and in scientific fact and not hearsay and pointing fingers and government cover ups and conspiracies with no evidence of any of them.'
Kirkpatrick also revealed he's had over 30 whistleblowers 'come in to talk,' adding: 'We have investigated every single one of them, every single story, every lead that provided any substantive evidence for us to go after.'
According to the director of the Pentagon's UFO investigation office, 'the best thing that could come out of this job is to prove that there are aliens.'
The alternative to what would be a literally Earth-changing discovery of extraterrestrial life exploring our own planet would be that a rival foreign power could be 'doing stuff in our backyard,' he said.
Kirkpatrick added: 'And that's not good.'
While some UFO whistleblowers now accuse Kirkpatrick of fostering an 'atmosphere of disinterest,' others have suggested his superiors are holding AARO's efforts back even though a few have described 'really positive' experiences with the office.
'I'm ready to move on,' Kirkpatrick told Politico, upon official confirmation of his retirement. 'I have accomplished everything I said I was going to do.'
Whistleblowers with knowledge of a classified UFO 'reverse engineering' program have opted to testify to the Senate intelligence committee, in part over their reported mistrust of Kirkpatrick and his Pentagon UFO office. Above, a page from Project 1794 declassified in 2012
Kirkpatrick added there remains lingering tasks he hopes to have finished — including the office's congressionally directed 'Historical Record Report' on UFOs, which is due to Congress in June 2024, over six months after Kirkpatrick's departure.
At a press conference this past Halloween, Kirkpatrick announced a new secure reporting mechanism designed to help the office investigate claims of alleged highly secretive and potentially illegal US government UFO programs.
'The reporting mechanism is for current or former US government employees, service members, or contractors with direct knowledge of alleged US government programs or activities related to UAP [UFOs] dating back to 1945,' he said.
Ever since UFOs exploded back into public consciousness with a series of New York Times exposes in December 2017, government officials, scientists and devotees have reframed the mysteries as unidentified aerial, or anomalous, phenomena: 'UAP.'
The new name hopes to add caution and reduce preconceived notions as to the true nature these airborne mysteries.
When asked at the Halloween press conference whether AARO has reached out to officials from adversarial foreign nations in an effort to pool UAP data, Dr. Kirkpatrick replied that the concept was a non-starter from a national security standpoint.
'We certainly have not reached out to any adversaries, for a variety of reasons, not the least of which they're adversaries,' Kirkpatrick said.
While the office's annual UAP report released this October found that 'none' of its hundreds of military UFO cases 'have been positively attributed to foreign activities,' Kirkpatrick expressed concern over telling, but less concrete, evidence.
'I am worried from a national security perspective,' Kirkpatrick told CNN in advance of the report's release.
'There are some indicators that may be attributed to foreign activity, and we are investigating those very hard,' he said.
This time last year, a classified 22-page report, compiled by the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, described hundreds of unresolved cases, some involving 'orbs' caught on drone cameras that were then seen 'suddenly bolting off the screen.'
Some non-government groups, including specialists Bellingcat, have offered prosaic explanations for one of these 'orbs' — but Kirkpatrick has openly speculated in a paper with Harvard physicist Dr. Avi Loeb that these UAP could be alien probes.
Despite serious concerns from AARO's soon-to-be-departing director that the solution the UAP mystery might prove to be advanced tech flown by a foreign power, evidence exists that these 'metallic orbs' predate even the Cold War era.
One 1944 Newsweek article, titled 'The Silver Sphere Puzzle,' explored similar cases of flying orbs during WWII, as did a report from the Associated Press headlined 'Balls of Silver Seen Over Reich Intrigue Science.'
Then too, journalists and investigators suspected it was a wartime anti-radar device from one of America's then-adversarial nations, Nazi Germany.
'It could be that those floating silver balls encountered by American airmen over the Reich are another German attempt to create interference for radio communications,' the AP's wartime radio editor wrote.
'The most common misconception is that [the possible phenomena] are all the same thing and they're all extraterrestrial,' as Kirkpatrick told ABC News last July, 'and neither of those are true.'
EXCLUSIVE: Woman spots two 'UFOs' from her garden in Stockport including one resembling the white 'Tic-Tac' spotted by the US Navy in 2004 - and experts are baffled
EXCLUSIVE: Woman spots two 'UFOs' from her garden in Stockport including one resembling the white 'Tic-Tac' spotted by the US Navy in 2004 - and experts are baffled
The two objects were seen over separate nights in the first week of October
Bizarre aerial objects are usually considered an American phenomena, but new imagery shows two over the north of England.
A 'concerned citizen', who wishes not to be named, has described sightings of the unidentified flying objects (UFOs) from her back garden in Stockport.
The first, described as looking like a square or triangle, had a hazy appearance and was changing shape and 'darting around the sky'.
Meanwhile, the second object – a much brighter white in colour and 'shaped like a Tic Tac' – kept vanishing and reappearing.
One of the most famous and unusual UFOs to date, spotted by the US Navy in 2004, was the floaty white oblong similar to the breath mint.
The 'concerned citizen' shared her encounter with two unidentified flying objects (UFOs) from her back garden in Stockport
A Department of Defense document reveals characteristics of the typical UFO
'The triangular one was so strange, it looked like it was made of metal with a dark hole in the centre,' the citizen told MailOnline.
'The Tic Tac one was cool too, it kept getting brighter then disappearing and coming back.'
The two 'questionable' objects, which were sighted by the resident over separate nights in the first week of October, left her feeling 'concerned'.
Nick Pope, a UFO expert formerly with the UK's Ministry of Defence, said the images and the story behind them are 'fascinating' but couldn't identify the aerial entities.
'It's not possible to discern much about this sighting from the photos alone,' Pope told MailOnline.
'Any mention of a Tic Tac-shaped object performing unusual manoeuvres is particularly intriguing given the US Navy sightings of such objects.'
Another British UFO researcher, Philip Mantle, said they could be 'conventional' objects such as drones or something else fairly explainable.
Bizarre aerial objects are usually considered an American phenomena, but new imagery shows two over the north of England
Composite of the bizarre objects which were seen on separate nights in the first week of October
'One thing that is cropping up a lot of late are lights from the ground, usually an outdoor attraction of some kind,' he told MailOnline.
'These huge spot lights reflect off the low cloud.
'They look different when viewed from different angles and can look very spectacular.
'I've looked at lots of alleged UFO photos down the years and most turn out to be something conventional.
'I see no reason why these photos should not be something conventional but they are such poor quality.'
According to the Defence and Security Media Advisory (DSMA) Committee, the matter falls under the remit of UK Space Command, who MailOnline has contacted for comment.
UFO stands for 'unidentified flying object' and so the term doesn't necessarily describe an object with an extraterrestrial origin.
One of the most famous and unusual UFOs to date, spotted by the US Navy in 2004, was compared with the Tic Tac breath mint due to its white, oblong appearance (pictured)
A recent Pentagon document revealed the typical UFO has a round shape, usually described as spherical or an orb, with a white or silver colour, often translucent.
Based on what we know from reported sightings between 1996 and 2023, other UFO shapes include rectangle, oval, triangle, disk, cylinder, square and even polygon.
Meanwhile, 16 per cent have been described as having lights, although in many cases this may have been due to their reflective qualities.
Former intelligence official said the DoD is covering up evidence related to extraterrestrials
The US government has been forced to take the presence of unidentified flying objects more seriously in recent months.
Former intelligence official David Grusch testified under oath in July that the Pentagon had first-hand encounters or knowledge of secret government programmes involving technology that is 'non-human'.
'My testimony is based on information I've been given by individuals with a long-standing track record of legitimacy... whom have shared compelling evidence in the form of photography, official documentation and classified oral testimony to myself and many various colleagues,' Grusch said, adding that he was driven to share by a 'commitment to truth and transparency.'
Its release comes come roughly a month after David Grusch claimed the Pentagon is covering up evidence related to extraterrestrials in a bombshell testimony before Congress
'I am asking Congress to hold our government to this standard and thoroughly investigate these claims,' he told lawmakers at the time. 'But as I stand here under oath now, I am speaking to the facts as I have been told them.'
He told the committee that he and more than 30 aircrew members and veterans had experience of UAPs, unidentified anomalous phenomena, along with members of Congress who have confided in him.
He also claimed the government has 'intact and partially intact' extraterrestrial vehicles, although he provided no evidence to support that or any of his other assertions.
Suggesting the American people had been left in the dark for nearly a century, he claimed the first recovery of a UFO was in Magenta, Italy, in 1933 - 14 years before the Roswell incident (generally accepted as the first UFO sighting).
An artist's impression of the alleged 1933 UFO crash outside Magenta in northern Italy shows a craft shaped like a saucer
He said Mussolini's Italian government held it until 1944 through 1945 when Pope Pius XII tipped America off about it.
When asked if he firmly believes the government had UAPs, Grusch responded: 'Absolutely.'
He said his view was based on interviews with at least 40 witnesses.
Asked where the craft are, he said: 'I know the exact locations and those locations were provided to the inspector general ... I actually had the people with the first-hand knowledge provide a protected disclosure to the Inspector General.'
He further claimed he has faced brutal retaliation after coming forward about his firsthand accounts of UFOs.
'I do have knowledge of active planned reprisal activity against myself and other colleagues,' Grusch said.
'There were certain colleagues of mine that were brutally administratively attacked. It makes me very upset as a leader to see that happen to other co-workers and superiors of mine in the last three years.'
Guys, check this out! I found a UFO or I should say the cloaked outline of a UFO on Earths Sun. It's also in a ESA video released that has an earth size comparison below the UFO, which means the UFO is as big or bigger than our moon! Now the ESA announced that this video is the highest detail ever released on video of the sun by the solar orbiter recording the suns south pole region. The UFO is cloaked but the suns energy is reflecting off its edges revealing the location, size, and shape of the craft, not to mention its speed. The UFO is holding position, not moving and its size of the moon, its shape, like four cakes piled one on the other. I drew the shape I believe it to be and put it into the lower left corner of part of the video for you to compare. I have reported UFOs on and near the sun for over 15 years and this one is the best ever proof that UFOs do go to our sun, most likely to harvest some rare energy particles they need to power their advanced technology. This is 100% undeniable proof that UFOs exist and they are on our sun right now!
Beste bezoeker, Heb je zelf al ooit een vreemde waarneming gedaan, laat dit dan even weten via email aan Frederick Delaere opwww.ufomeldpunt.be. Deze onderzoekers behandelen jouw melding in volledige anonimiteit en met alle respect voor jouw privacy. Ze zijn kritisch, objectief maar open minded aangelegd en zullen jou steeds een verklaring geven voor jouw waarneming! DUS AARZEL NIET, ALS JE EEN ANTWOORD OP JOUW VRAGEN WENST, CONTACTEER FREDERICK. BIJ VOORBAAT DANK...
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Over mijzelf
Ik ben Pieter, en gebruik soms ook wel de schuilnaam Peter2011.
Ik ben een man en woon in Linter (België) en mijn beroep is Ik ben op rust..
Ik ben geboren op 18/10/1950 en ben nu dus 73 jaar jong.
Mijn hobby's zijn: Ufologie en andere esoterische onderwerpen.
Op deze blog vind je onder artikels, werk van mezelf. Mijn dank gaat ook naar André, Ingrid, Oliver, Paul, Vincent, Georges Filer en MUFON voor de bijdragen voor de verschillende categorieën...
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