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...
16-11-2023
The Lunar Swirl Mystery Deepens
This is an image of the Reiner Gamma lunar swirl from NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter. Credits: NASA LRO WAC science team
For years, people noticed strange features on the Moon dubbed “Lunar Swirls.” They’re bright regions that appear to be concentrations of lighter-colored material on the surface. It turns out that interactions between the solar wind and magnetic regions on the Moon may play a role at two sites.
Scientists long thought that these swirls weren’t related to the surrounding topography, but it turns out there’s some kind of interaction going on between the swirl deposition and the surface. Planetary Science Institute senior scientist John Weirich led a team to study topographic data for lunar swirls at high resolution. They found a correlation between the swirl areas and lower topography in a region called the Reiner Gamma swirl.
About Swirl Regions
The Moon has a number of similar regions with high-contrast bright markings that appear to loop across the surface. Generally, they look like wide bright swirls separated by darker off-swirl lanes. The fact that they exist spurs questions about how they form and there isn’t a clear answer, yet. Once that mystery is solved, scientists will have a better understanding of how the lunar surface is affected by the solar wind, bombardment by micrometeorites, how the lunar soil “migrates”, and what other effects the local environment has on the surface.
Lunar swirls are found in several regions on the Moon. Courtesy NASA.
“Lunar swirls have piqued scientists’ interest since they were discovered, partly because the scientific community doesn’t completely understand how they formed. There are many hypotheses about their formation process. Each hypothesis has observations that support it, but there are also other observations that contradict them,” Weirich said. “Since we don’t have a full understanding of how these swirls formed, we don’t completely understand the story they can tell us about the Moon. Forming them could involve a combination of well-understood processes interacting together or a currently unknown process. Unusual objects or phenomena are sometimes the key to obtaining deeper knowledge, and for this reason, lunar swirls are very intriguing. And the fact that they look really cool.”
Studying Swirls in Higher Detail
To do their work, Weirich’s team looked at earlier research showing that bright areas are 2-3 meters lower than dark areas, particularly in the Mare Ingenii lunar swirl. “However, it is not as simple as the bright areas are uniformly lower than the dark areas. If that was the case this relationship between topography and swirl would be easy to demonstrate by comparing an elevation map to a picture of the swirl. Instead, this relationship is only seen when we compare the average height of the bright areas and the average height of the dark areas.”
Weirich studied Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter mission images and applied a special software suite to determine the surface topography. The team also used machine-learning tools on specific images. It classified the swirls into various units: bright areas (on-swirl)and dark areas (or “off-swirl”). The studies allowed them to identify transition regions between the two units, and they labeled those “diffuse-swirl”.
The correlation between topography and swirl formation still doesn’t explain exactly why they form. But, it does give planetary scientists some new clues as they study other swirl features on the Moon. At present, there are several theories about formation, but none of them explain all of the details. One idea is that they formed as a result of cometary impacts. That explains the brightness of these features. Another theory is that the swirls form when weak magnetic fields protect lighter-colored lunar surface soil (regolith) from the solar wind. Finally, weak electric fields created by brief interactions between the magnetic anomalies and solar wind plasma could play a role. Those fields could affect electrically charged fine dust on the surface. How topography plays into any of these theories is still an unknown.
How They Did It
The specialized software the team used does stereophotoclinometry to analyze the topography of a surface. It combines stereo imaging and photoclinometry to get the surface height of a region. The swirl units of interest were defined by machine learning procedures. The team then compared that information to the SPC-derived topography. That allowed them to statistically determine if height correlations existed and what differences they showed.
The SPC methodology has been used on various surfaces, including using data from the OSIRIS-REx mission, among other missions. Planetary scientists use SPC methodologies to describe the shapes of planets, asteroids, comets, and other small bodies. Still, there’s not yet a definite explanation for these swirls. However, the combo of high-resolution imaging, machine learning, and advanced software techniques gives planetary scientists more insight into their still-mysterious origins.
Details about the seventh mission of the U.S. military’s mysterious X-37B Orbital Test Vehicle have been revealed, along with surprising news about the secretive spaceplane’s upcoming launch.
For the first time, X-37B Mission 7 (OTV-7) will see the robotic spaceplane launched on a SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket, according to an announcement from The Department of the Air Force Rapid Capabilities Office and its partners at the U.S. Space Force.
The launch will occur on December 7, 2023, lifting off from Florida’s Kennedy Space Center.
While much is known about the X-37B and its past missions, several of the reusable robotic spaceplane’s operations remain mysterious. Carried into space aboard a rocket during its missions, the X-37B carries out orbital operations overseen by the Space Force, demonstrating reusable spaceflight technologies while facilitating a range of experiments and other operations for various agencies.
The spaceplane’s December launch, dubbed USSF-52, will include various experimental capabilities with several objectives.
The X-37B is seen after its sixth mission, OTV-6
(Credit: Staff Sgt. Adam Shanks),
X-37B Program Director Lt. Col. Joseph Fritschen said the tests will help to broaden the current capabilities of the reusable spaceplane and, with the help of SpaceX’s Falcon Heavy rocket, will be able to carry out “multiple cutting-edge experiments for the Department of the Air Force and its partners.”
“These tests include operating the reusable spaceplane in new orbital regimes, experimenting with future space domain awareness technologies, and investigating the radiation effects on materials provided by NASA,” the U.S. Space Force said in a statement on November 8.
One of the experiments, aptly named “Seeds-2,” will be carried out during OTV-7 as part of a NASA test that will expose seeds to the radiation conditions of long-duration spaceflight. In addition to helping scientists better understand how radiation impacts plant seeds, the experiment aims to support NASA’s objectives in the coming years to facilitate long-term crewed space missions.
The X-37B’s last mission saw the introduction of a new service module, which broadened the mysterious spaceplane’s capabilities and facilitated more experiments than its initial five missions.
(Credit: Boeing)
X-37B Mission 6 (OTV-6) was the first to undertake a research experiment undertaken by the U.S. Naval Research Laboratory, called the Photovoltaic Radio-frequency Antenna Module experiment, which successfully displayed the capability of generating radio and microwaves through the collection of solar power.
Other experiments carried out during OTV-6 included tests similar to NASA’s upcoming “Seeds-2” experiment and the deployment of a small satellite called FalconSat-8 procured by the U.S. Air Force Academy and the Air Force Research Lab.
Fundamentally, the forthcoming OTV-7 mission will aim to perform similar tests with experimental technologies to help ensure space domain awareness during future missions.
“The X37B continues to equip the United States with the knowledge to enhance current and future space operations,” said Gen. B. Chance Saltzman, Chief of Space Operations, who said X-37B’s forthcoming mission will help showcase “the USSF’s commitment to innovation and defining the art-of-the-possible in the space domain.”
Astronomers report that the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) recently detected water vapor, sand clouds, and sulfur dioxide in the atmosphere of the exoplanet WASP-107b, according to newly published findings.
Led by a team of European astronomers from Belgium’s KU Leuven University, the researchers pointed the JWST’s Mid-Infrared Instrument (MIRI) at the exoplanet, located roughly 211 light-years from Earth. Their discovery, now published in Nature, has revealed the presence of water vapor, sulfur dioxide, and silicate sand clouds while notably lacking methane, a common greenhouse gas
WASP-107b is a low-density exoplanet orbiting WASP-107. Discovered in 2017, the exoplanet immediately challenged our understanding of planetary development. The super-Neptune planet, meaning it’s larger than Neptune, has a surprisingly low density. This has implications for our understanding of gas giant formation and structure.
Moreover, it orbits very close to its star, with a year lasting only about 5.7 Earth days. Due to its proximity to its star, astronomers still need clarification on how the planet can retain an atmosphere, which generally would burn up due to its proximity to its star.
The recent discovery has only complicated astronomers’ understanding of this unique gas giant.
Due to its atmospheric conditions, Neptune is distinguished by its ‘fluffy’ nature. Astronomers were able to peer deep into its atmosphere. This fluffiness, combined with the precision of the JWST infrared system, has enabled a new understanding of the planet’s atmospheric composition.
The absence of methane in WASP-107b’s atmosphere is intriguing, hinting at a potentially warm interior and shedding light on the planet’s internal heat dynamics. Detecting sulfur dioxide, typically associated with the smell of burnt matches, was unexpected, as previous models had not predicted its presence.
According to the report, due to the “fluffy” atmosphere and the general cooler temperatures of the planet’s host star, photons from the star can penetrate deeper into the planet’s gaseous atmosphere, allowing for complex chemical reactions to occur. Moreover, the discovery of water vapor in the atmosphere was also surprising since it seems connected to giant clouds made of sand.
Elements like water and sulfur do not appear often in cloudless atmospheres, so the fact that they were detected indicates that WASP-107b has high-altitude clouds. The JWST was able to peer into these clouds and indicated that they were a silicate-type material, similar to sand on Earth. According to traditional models of exoplanet formation, sand clouds like this usually form much closer to the planet’s surface, where the temperature is much warmer. However, since WASP-107b’s atmospheric temperature sits at around 500 degrees Celsius, the clouds seemingly “fluff” up into the upper atmosphere due to its close proximity to a star.
The endurance of these high-altitude sand clouds is similar to Earth’s water cycle. Silicate vapors from evaporated sand droplets in hotter, deeper layers rise and then recondense into clouds at cooler, higher altitudes. This vaporization and condensation process keeps the sand clouds persisting high in the atmosphere.
“The fact that we see these sand clouds high up in the atmosphere must mean that the sand rain droplets evaporate in deeper, very hot layers and the resulting silicate vapour is efficiently moved back up, where they recondense to form silicate clouds once more,” explained lead author Dr. Michiel Min. “This is very similar to the water vapour and cloud cycle on our own Earth but with droplets made of sand.”
Professor Leen Decin of KU Leuven emphasized that JWST’s discovery is reshaping our comprehension of planetary formation and evolution, offering new perspectives on the Solar System itself. Moreover, the study demonstrates how JWST can characterize exoplanets without counterparts in our own Solar System.
WASP-107b, with all its fluffiness, points astronomers to a whole new host of possible planetary incarnations that have yet to be discovered. While this exoplanet is undoubtedly inhospitable to life, at least as we know it, it allows us to imagine strange new worlds that do not fit the mold of planetary evolution.
Mysterious 'explosive' sound from a 'UFO' over New England shook homes and rattled windows - and a Harvard physicist believes he has located the source
Mysterious 'explosive' sound from a 'UFO' over New England shook homes and rattled windows - and a Harvard physicist believes he has located the source
A loud boom that lasted for 12 seconds was heard and felt in New England
An observatory also pictured up the sound, leading to an investigation
New Englanders reported hearing a 'strange' sound on the evening of October 20, which shook homes and raddled windows for at least 12 seconds.
Harvard University's astronomical instruments recorded the noise, finding it did not resemble anything from birds, aircraft or wind.
Alien-hunting physicist and Harvard's former head of astronomy Avi Loeb to investigate the source of the 'unidentified flying object.'
Loeb determined the UFO released explosive energy equivalent to 2,400 pounds of TNT detected from over a 10-mile radius.
The sound was moving 1,115 feet per second when an observatory in Cambridge, Massachusetts detected it.
Loeb determined that the energy source likely came from an exploding mile-wide meteor during the Orionid shower that peaked in the area on October 21.
Avi Loeb determined the UFO released explosive energy equivalent to 2,400 pounds of TNT detected from over a 10-mile radius. The sound was moving 1,115 feet per second when an observatory in Cambridge, Massachusetts detected it
Loeb's Galileo Project observatory recorded the boom using a giant, ultra-sensitive microphone (pictured) he installed on the roof of a building on Harvard's campus
Loeb's Galileo Project observatory recorded the boom using a giant, ultra-sensitive microphone he installed on the roof of a building on Harvard's campus.
Andy Mead, who designed and constructed the system, contacted Loeb on October 21 after noticing something strange picked up by the sensors.
'I started getting messages this morning about a 'viral' sound that was heard throughout New England,' Mead shared in the note.
'Notably, the Mount Washington Observatory made a post about it as they had so many inquiries.
'That post now has over 4,000 reactions, 1,000 comments, and 751 shares, many of whom heard the sound and are following the story.'
Reports stemmed from both states, traveling through Mount Washington, Boothbay Harbor, Maine and Sturbridge, where people heard an explosion over their homes around 7:43pm ET on October 20.
Andy Mead, who designed and constructed the AMOS system, contacted Loeb on October 21 after noticing a social media post about something strange in New Hampshire
(pictured)
Mead told Loeb he checked AMOS, finding 'a very interesting sound' that lasted for 12 seconds.
Loeb then created a website to crowdsource reports from other locations that could constrain the distance of the mystery source.
Harvard University's observatory recorded the noise, leading alien-hunting physicist Avi Loeb to investigate the source of the 'unidentified flying object'
'Given the mission of the Galileo Project, one question came to mind: 'Is this an Unidentified Anomalous Phenomenon (UAP)? Are aliens using advanced technologies near Earth,' the physicists shared in a Medium post.
The signal was short but produced a sudden release of energy that sent a wave through Earth's atmosphere.
Loeb found that the pressure wave had weakened by the time AMOS detected the sound, as it was moving 1,115 feet per second.
'Multiplying this speed by the duration of the pulse, 12 seconds, implies a shell width of 4 kilometers [2.4 miles] for the blast wave, implying a distance of about 40 kilometers [24.8 miles] from the explosion,' he shared.
'At that distance, the measured pressure disturbance suggested an explosive energy release of 2.4 kilotons of TNT. The inferred energy and distance are reminiscent of meteors, which are known to make their own music at high altitudes.'
The Orionid Meteor Shower, which takes place every autumn when Earth passes through a stream of debris from Halley's Comet, peaked on October 21 with up to 25 shooting stars every hour
The Orionid Meteor Shower, which takes place every autumn when Earth passes through a stream of debris from Halley's Comet, peaked on October 21 with up to 25 shooting stars every hour.
Meteors, also known as shooting stars, come from leftover comet particles and bits from broken asteroids.
When comets come around the sun, the dust they emit gradually spreads into a dusty trail around their orbits.
Every year, Earth passes through these debris trails, which collide with our atmosphere and disintegrate to create fiery and colorful streaks in the sky.
Because this is an annual event, residents of New England reported hearing the same 'boom' in 2021, also on October 20.
ESA’s Trace Gas Orbiter Observes Green Atmospheric Nightglow on Mars
ESA’s Trace Gas Orbiter Observes Green Atmospheric Nightglow on Mars
The atmospheric nightglow is observed on Earth. On Mars, it was something expected, yet never observed in visible light until now.
This image shows an artist’s impression of what nightglow might look like to an astronaut in the polar winter regions of Mars at night.
Image credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech /Cornell University / Arizona State University / E.W. Knutsen.
Airglow occurs when two oxygen atoms combine to form an oxygen molecule, about 50 km above the planetary surface.
The oxygen atoms form on Mars’s dayside when sunlight gives energy to carbon dioxide molecules, making them split apart.
When the oxygen atoms migrate to the night side and stop being excited by the Sun, they regroup and emit light at lower altitudes.
“This emission is due to the recombination of oxygen atoms created in the summer atmosphere and transported by winds to high winter latitudes, at altitudes of 40 to 60 km in the Martian atmosphere,” said Dr. Lauriane Soret, a planetary scientist at the University of Liège.
The illumination from the nightglow could be bright enough to light the way of future see the glow as bright as moonlit clouds on Earth.
“These observations are unexpected and interesting for future trips to the Red Planet,” said Dr. Jean-Claude Gérard, a planetary scientist at the University of Liège.
ESA’s Mars Express spacecraft observed the Martian nightglow in infrared wavelengths a decade ago.
ESA’s Trace Gas Orbiter followed up by detecting glowing green oxygen atoms high above the dayside of Mars in 2020 — the first time that this dayglow emission was seen around a planet other than Earth.
These atoms also travel to the nightside and then recombine at lower altitude, resulting in the visible nightglow detected by the orbiter.
Orbiting Mars at an altitude of 400 km, Trace Gas Orbiter was able to monitor the night side of Mars with the ultraviolet-visible channel of its NOMAD instrument.
The instrument covers a spectral range from near ultraviolet to red light and was oriented towards the edge of the planet to better observe the upper atmosphere.
“The nightglow serves as a tracer of atmospheric processes,” the researchers said.
“It can provide a wealth of information about the composition and dynamics of a region of the atmosphere difficult to measure, as well as the oxygen density.”
“It can also reveal how energy is deposited by both the Sun’s light and the solar wind.”
“Understanding the properties of the Martian atmosphere is not only scientifically interesting but it is also key for missions to the planet’s surface.”
“Atmospheric density, for example, directly affects the drag experienced by orbiting satellites and by the parachutes used to deliver probes to the Martian surface.”
The team’s paper was published in the journal Nature Astronomy.
JC. Gérard et al. Observation of the Mars O2 visible nightglow by the NOMAD spectrometer onboard the Trace Gas Orbiter. Nat Astron, published online November 9, 2023; doi: 10.1038/s41550-023-02104-8
Visible Spectrum Unveils New Clues: Is This the Same Mysterious Gimbal UFO?
Visible Spectrum Unveils New Clues: Is This the Same Mysterious Gimbal UFO?
In the realm of the unexplained and the extraordinary, UFO sightings occupy a unique and captivating space. The recent surge in reports of unidentified flying objects has reignited public and scientific interest alike. As we delve into the latest UFO sightings, we unravel a tapestry of mystery, skepticism, and boundless curiosity.
Video:
The initially released Gimbal, showcased in the infrared spectrum.
The Resurgence of UFO Interest
The phenomenon of UFO sightings is not new, but recent advancements in technology and a shift in governmental transparency have brought it back into the spotlight. High-quality video recordings and enhanced imaging techniques have allowed for more detailed observations than ever before. In 2022, the United States government’s establishment of the Anomaly Resolution Office (AARO) marked a significant step in recognizing and investigating these enigmatic occurrences.
The Gimbal Sighting: A Case Study
Among the numerous reports, the “Gimbal UFO” sighting stands out. Originally captured by a U.S. Navy jet’s infrared camera, this sighting showcases a flying object with extraordinary aerodynamic capabilities. Unlike conventional aircraft, the Gimbal UFO demonstrates an ability to hover, rotate, and change directions at seemingly impossible speeds. The release of this footage by the AARO has sparked a wave of speculation and analysis among both enthusiasts and skeptics.
Analyzing the Evidence
What makes the Gimbal sighting particularly intriguing is the clarity and quality of the footage. Experts and amateurs alike have pored over this video, debating the physics of the UFO’s movements and the potential technologies behind it. Some suggest experimental military aircraft or drones, while others lean towards extraterrestrial origins. The lack of definitive answers only adds to the allure of the phenomenon.
New video in the visible light spectrum. Could it be the same object?
The Impact of Technology on UFO Reporting
The proliferation of smartphones and social media has played a crucial role in the increase of UFO sightings. People around the globe can now capture and share their experiences in real-time, creating a vast network of eyewitness accounts. This democratization of reporting has led to a significant uptick in UFO sighting reports, providing researchers with a wealth of data to analyze.
The Role of Government and Scientific Inquiry
The establishment of organizations like the AARO represents a paradigm shift in how governments approach UFO sightings. No longer dismissed outright, these phenomena are being studied with a scientific lens. This change is encouraging more witnesses to come forward, shedding light on incidents that might have otherwise gone unreported.
The Future of UFO Sightings
As we continue to explore the skies and beyond, the mystery of UFO sightings remains an enticing puzzle. With each new report, we edge closer to understanding whether these sightings are earthly in origin or point to something beyond our current comprehension. The quest for answers continues, fueled by human curiosity and the relentless pursuit of the truth.
The world of UFO sightings is as mystifying as it is fascinating. With advancements in technology and a shift in attitude towards these phenomena, we are entering a new era of discovery. Whether the truth behind these sightings is terrestrial or not, the journey of exploration and understanding is in itself a remarkable adventure.
Wetenschappers van KU Leuven ontdekken zandwolken op exoplaneet WASP-107b: "Wetenschappelijke mijlpaal"
Wetenschappers van KU Leuven ontdekken zandwolken op exoplaneet WASP-107b: "Wetenschappelijke mijlpaal"
Artikel van Vincent Merckx
Stel het je eens voor: in de plaats van de regenbuien die we momenteel over onze hoofden uit gegoten krijgen, valt zand uit de lucht. Dat zand wordt door luchtstromen de atmosfeer in gestuwd, bevriest daar en "regent" vervolgens weer uit. Dat hele proces herhaalt zich opnieuw en opnieuw en opnieuw.
Klinkt een beetje apocalyptisch, niet? Toch doet precies dát zich voor 200 lichtjaar hiervandaan, op de exoplaneet WASP-107b. Dat ontdekte een team van Europese astronomen, geleid door onderzoekers van het Instituut voor Sterrenkunde aan de KU Leuven. Ze publiceren hun bevindingen vandaag in het wetenschappelijke tijdschrift Nature.
Kringloop van zand
Eerst iets meer over die exoplaneet - een planeet buiten ons eigen zonnestelsel, dus. WASP-107b draait rond een ster die iets koeler is dan "onze" zon. Het is ook een erg ijle exoplaneet, een zogenoemde gasreus. WASP-107b heeft ongeveer de massa van Neptunus, maar is meer dan twintig keer groter. Doordat de atmosfeer er zo ijl is, kan je er ook makkelijk doorheen kijken.
Dat biedt een mooie kans voor onderzoekers die de verschillende lagen van die atmosfeer willen onderzoeken. Het team van astronomen, onder wie professor Leen Decin van de KU Leuven, analyseerde de atmosfeer door de golflengtes op te meten van het licht dat erdoorheen viel. De verschillende golflengtes van dat licht leerden hen op hun beurt iets over de chemische samenstelling van de atmosfeer van WASP-107b.
Zo ziet het lichtspectrum van de atmosfeer van WASP-107b eruit.
Daarbij deden ze twee opvallende ontdekkingen: zwaveldioxide (SO₂) en siliciumwolken. Die zwaveldioxide was een grote verrassing. Volgens wetenschappelijke modellen kon er immers geen zwaveldioxide aanwezig zijn.
Dat er wolken waren, was op zich niet zo nieuw. Die zijn al vaker aangetroffen op exoplaneten. Wel slaagde het team er als eerste in om de chemische samenstelling van de wolken uit te lezen. Ze bleken te bestaan uit kleine deeltjes silicium (het belangrijkste bestanddeel van zand op onze Aarde).
Dat silicium vormt op WASP-107b een kringloop zoals die van water en wolken op onze planeet, legt Michiel Min uit. Hij is astronoom aan het SRON Netherlands Institute for Space Research en werkte mee aan het onderzoek. "Het feit dat we deze zandwolken hoog in de atmosfeer zien, moet betekenen dat de zandregendruppels verdampen in diepere, zeer hete lagen van de atmosfeer en dat de resulterende siliciumdamp omhoog wordt getransporteerd, waar ze opnieuw condenseren om opnieuw siliciumwolken te vormen."
Immense spiegel
We hebben de ontdekkingen te danken aan de James Webb-ruimtetelescoop, zegt Decin van het Instituut voor Sterrenkunde, en dan in het bijzonder het instrument MIRI. Daar is twintig jaar lang aan gewerkt door een team van Europese en Amerikaanse wetenschappers. De KU Leuven leverde daar een belangrijke bijdrage aan.
De gigantische spiegel van de James Webb-telescoop kan veel zwakkere lichtsignalen opvangen.
Maar ook de immense spiegel van de James Webb-ruimtetelescoop was onmisbaar. Die heeft een diameter van zes meter. "Die spiegel zorgt dat je dingen kan waarnemen die vroeger veel te zwak waren om te zien", legt Decin uit. "Planeten zenden geen eigen licht uit, die reflecteren licht van hun moederster. Dat vraagt om krachtige instrumenten om dat zwakke signaal te kunnen waarnemen."
Gigantisch veel andere zonnestelsels
Maar waarom is die ontdekking van siliciumwolken en zwaveldioxide nu belangrijk?
Decin noemt het "een wetenschappelijke mijlpaal". "Het verandert ons begrip van de vorming en evolutie van planeten en werpt een nieuw licht op ons eigen zonnestelsel."
"Zwaveldioxide, dat kennen we op aarde bijvoorbeeld van de geur van verbrande lucifers. We begrepen niet hoe dat op een exoplaneet gevormd zou kunnen worden. Als we onze kennis enkel baseren op wat hier op aarde te zien is, dan is dat onvoldoende om te begrijpen wat er gebeurt op exoplaneten."
Dit dwingt ons om onze horizonten te verbreden, vindt Decin. "Ons zonnestelsel is maar één planetenstelsel. Daarbuiten bestaan gigantisch veel andere architecturen met compleet andere chemische samenstellingen dan wat we kennen van hier op Aarde of hier in ons eigen zonnestelsel."
There is a series of shooting down unidentified objects around the world that involves the United States. The military 2023 February UAP events are among the recent cases. Filmmaker Jeremy Corbell, along with investigative journalist George Knapp, has revealed a photograph of an object initially labeled as a “hostile drone” by the media. However, official statements from the United States, the UK, and allied intelligence agencies now confirm their inability to ascertain its origin, designating it as “unidentified.”
In episode 41 of Weaponized, Corbell and Knapp discuss UFO shootdowns covering both current events and historical perspectives. Corbell discusses events in 2019, specifically mentioning attempts to bring down over 100 UAPs on Navy warships using electromagnetic systems like the DRAKE (Drone Restricted Access Using Known Electromagnetic Warfare) Anti-Drone System.
In the episode, Jeremy Corbell provides details about a UAP event that took place in late summer 2021 off the coast of Japan involving the USS Milius. The USS Milius experienced a series of encounters with UAPs that exhibited similar behavior to the previously mentioned incidents near Navy warships. However, in this case, the UAPs were observed in a vast 300-mile radius of sea, with no other ships around.
Corbell further describes the frustrating attempts to take down the UAPs using electromagnetic techniques, noting that these efforts were once again ineffective. The UAPs displayed extreme maneuverability over four or five consecutive nights, with multiple objects present during a 5-hour window from 1:00 a.m. to 5:00 a.m. or midnight to 4:00 a.m. The ship’s captain, out of frustration, reportedly instructed the crew to stop reacting to the UAPs and creating reports since there seemed to be no viable solution.
It’s a UFO, not a Hostile Drone!
Corbell and Knapp discussed an incident that happened in the Middle East, specifically in Syria on December 14, 2021. Corbell describes how the Royal Air Force, using a Typhoon fighter plane, reported shooting down a hostile drone, marking the first air-to-air firing by the Royal Air Force in 40 years. The media initially reported it as a terrorist drone, but there was a subsequent shift to calling it a “Mystery drone” as no terrorist group or nation claimed responsibility.
Corbell notes a significant discrepancy between public reporting and intelligence community products. He introduces an image, referred to as the “Syria Dome UAP,” associated with the event, and mentions that internally, the intelligence community labeled it as an UAP. Corbell emphasizes the importance of transparency and accurate reporting, pointing out that what is publicly disclosed differs from the information shared among allied nations within the intelligence community.
Corbell posts on X (formerly Twitter), “In a joint operation, a Royal Air Force Typhoon fighter jet engaged an unidentified aerial vehicle using an Advanced Short Range Air to Air Missile (ASRAAM). Initial media reports labeled the unidentified as a ‘hostile drone’ – however – internal intelligence products officially classify the aerial vehicle of unknown origin as a UAP – and maintain this designation. The UAP was not recovered.”
Liberation Times writes, “According to Corbell, the Five Eyes report was published months after the incident occurred and indicates that on 14 December 2021, an RAF Typhoon jet shot at one UAP using an ASRAAM missile. At the time, the incident was reported as the first enemy aircraft shot down by the RAF since the Falklands War in Argentina more than 40 years ago.”
Corbell continues, stating that Centcom (United States Central Command) has been tracking UAP for over 15 years, and the frustration lies in the lack of proper reporting and handling of these incidents within the chain of command. He notes that in conflict zones, there is a tendency to shoot at anything within a certain proximity to ground troops or bases, especially if it appears to have a payload. However, the issue arises in the lack of recovery or proper handling after such engagements.
Further, in the episode, Corbell reveals the image of an object that he called the “Syria Dome UAP.” He says, “This image… is the one that was historically fired upon. It is referred to as a ‘terrorist drone,’ exhibiting a peculiar appearance. Whatever it may be, it is classified as a UAP within the intelligence community. This is not something that has been identified.”
Corbell notes that there were two of these unidentified devices, and when the Royal Air Force engaged with them, firing an Advanced Short Range Air-to-Air Missile (ASRAAM), one of the objects managed to evade and escape the scene. Corbell emphasizes the intelligence control exhibited by these objects, suggesting that they were not under random or autonomous flight.
Corbell admits uncertainty about whether the fired missile hit the object or if it made contact with the ground. He underscores the discrepancy between the public narrative, which presented the incident as involving a terrorist drone, and the internal classification within the intelligence community, where it is recognized as a UAP. The point is reiterated that the public is not receiving the full and accurate information about these encounters.
George Knapp shares his perspective on the image, stating that, in his extensive experience, he has seen various images of drones, both military and private, but finds the appearance of this particular object unique. He likens it to resembling a mushroom cloud, highlighting its distinctive and unconventional design.
Corbell said that the Five Eyes report indicates that the USAF militarily engages such craft if they are within a radius of ground troops and appear to carry a payload.
He told Liberation Times: “Unless observed with a possible payload, UAPs largely go ignored, as they are not part of the mission – this means that we lose the opportunity to study the phenomena and answer key questions, including 1) Who are the operators 2) Where do they originate from 3) How do they work? And 4) What is their intent?”
“I can confirm that there is frustration within the ranks of the U.S. military that UAPs with unique flight characteristics are being ignored. Worryingly, this critical information is not being reported up the chain of command properly – causing vulnerability to our troops and those of other nations.”
Previously on the Joe Rogan show, Corbell claimed that based on information from documents, the military fires upon UAPs within a certain proximity to ground troops, typically within 27 to 30 miles. The decision to engage is reportedly based on the perceived threat, with the military firing upon objects that appear to have a payload. The text also mentions that UAPs resembling cubes surrounded by spheres are not targeted, as they do not appear to have a payload.
Corbell suggests that the military has been firing Hellfire missiles at these UAPs, and there are reports of similar actions by countries like Russia and Syria. The text raises questions about the origin of these UAPs, as they are not believed to be assets of the countries engaging with them. Some UAPs are described, such as one resembling a jellyfish about the size of a coffee table.
“One of the UAPs that was fired upon looked like a jellyfish, about the size of a big coffee table, and domed. There is no known retrieval program in these war zones, and even if they did hit something, it’s unknown if they would be able to take it down. It’s possible that these UAPs could be balloons used by drug smugglers, but they have controlled flight, which is not a new phenomenon. There have been similar sightings of metallic spheres outpacing planes during World War II, with both sides thinking it was the other side’s technology.”
A while ago, Lue Elizondo, the former head of AATIP shared his thoughts on the UFO/UAP and how the Pentagon approaches the phenomenon from strictly national security perceptive. In an interview with Curt Jaimungal and Sean Cahil, Elizondo provides deeper insight into the Pentagon’s theories on why UFO/UAPs are routinely spotted around American, Russian, Chinese, and other nuclear-armed nations’ most secretive and sensitive nuclear assets.
Breaking News: Pentagon UFO Chief Shawn Kirkpatrick Resigns! Insider David Grusch Reveals Startling New UFO Insights!
Breaking News: Pentagon UFO Chief Shawn Kirkpatrick Resigns! Insider David Grusch Reveals Startling New UFO Insights!
In the ever-evolving quest to unravel the mysteries of the universe, the topic of Unidentified Aerial Phenomena (UAPs), more commonly known as UFOs, has transitioned from the realm of science fiction to serious scientific and governmental consideration. The recent resignation of Sean Kirkpatrick, the head of the Pentagon’s All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office (AARO), after an impactful 18-month tenure, has brought this topic into sharper focus.
Kirkpatrick’s departure was not just a routine change in personnel. It came amidst a backdrop of escalating discussions about the nature of UAPs — are they evidence of extraterrestrial visitors, or advanced technologies from earthly adversaries? Kirkpatrick himself leaned towards the former, expressing that the possibility of these sightings being aliens would be less concerning than foreign technologies operating undetected in U.S. airspace.
Adding fuel to the fire are the claims of David Grush, a whistleblower with bold assertions about the U.S. government’s possession and reverse-engineering of UAP crafts. Grush speaks of the retrieval of crafts and biological materials related to UFO incidents, a claim that, if proven true, could redefine our understanding of life and technology.
What is striking in today’s discourse is the shifting public perception. Once a topic relegated to late-night talk shows and conspiracy theorists, UFOs and UAPs are now being discussed openly in mainstream media. Notable figures in science and academia are joining the conversation, suggesting that we are on the cusp of significant revelations.
The implications of these discussions are profound. Confirmation of extraterrestrial life or advanced alien technologies would not only be a scientific breakthrough but could also have far-reaching implications for our understanding of the universe and humanity’s place in it. The thought of other intelligent life forms existing in the vast expanse of space challenges our worldview and raises philosophical questions about existence itself.
VIDEO:
MASSIVE!! Pentagon UFO Chief Shawn Kirkpatrick steps down! David Grusch shares NEW information!
The conversation about UAPs also touches on fascinating theories of time travel and parallel universes. It opens the door to speculation about the nature of time and space, and how these might interact with the phenomenon of UFOs. The idea that these crafts could be from different timelines or dimensions is a tantalizing one, adding layers of complexity to an already intricate puzzle.
As we look to the future, there’s a palpable sense that more disclosures and developments in UAP research are on the horizon. This could lead to a greater understanding of these phenomena, shedding light on what these unidentified objects truly are. Will they reveal secrets of advanced extraterrestrial civilizations, or unveil new technological capabilities of rival nations?
In conclusion, the resignation of Sean Kirkpatrick and the revelations of whistleblowers like David Grush have opened a new chapter in the story of UFOs and UAPs. As the world watches with bated breath, one thing is certain: we are on the brink of potentially groundbreaking discoveries that could forever change our perception of the universe and our place within it. The skies above hold more secrets than we ever imagined, and the truth, as they say, may indeed be out there.
Over enkele miljarden jaren zal onze Melkweg botsen en samensmelten met het Andromeda-stelsel, onze ruimtelijke buur, in een kosmische gebeurtenis die het hele zonnestelsel zou kunnen beïnvloeden.
Astronomen spreken al geruime tijd over de dreigende botsing tussen de twee stelsels, en dankzij gegevens verkregen via de Hubble-ruimtetelescoop is dit onderzoek aangevuld met een simulatie van dit belangrijke galactische evenement.
Volgens deNASAzal de botsing leiden tot een significante transformatie van beide stelsels. Wetenschappers illustreren de botsing met een analogie van honkbal, waarbij deMelkwegde slagman zou zijn en de balAndromeda, die beweegt met een snelheid van 110 kilometer per seconde.
Wanneer ze botsen, over ongeveer 4 miljard jaar, zullen de sterren binnen elk stelsel niet botsen, maar worden ze in verschillende banen rond het nieuwe galactische centrum geworpen. Zo zal bijvoorbeeld onze Zon worden weggeslingerd naar een nieuw gebied, wat invloed kan hebben op de Aarde.
De volledige samensmelting van de Melkweg met Andromeda staat gepland om twee miljard jaar na de ontmoeting van beide plaats te vinden.
Unraveling the Phaistos Disc – Historical Enigma or Ingenious Sham?
Unraveling the Phaistos Disc – Historical Enigma or Ingenious Sham?
In 1908, an Italian researcher delved into the remains of Phaistos, a bygone Minoan stronghold situated on Crete's southern shoreline. Within a subterranean temple vault, amid scorched remains, grime, and cinders, he unearthed a remarkably preserved disc with a gold tint. This find has since become one of archaeology's most talked-about enigmas: The Phaistos Disc.
This disc, often called the Phaistos or Phaestos Disc, is a broad, sienna-hued, baked clay circular plate measuring around 15 cm (5.91 inches) across and 1 cm (0.39 inches) in thickness. Each face of this disc showcases a spiral filled with odd stamped insignias that wind their way clockwise to its core. It's believed these 45 distinct insignias were formed by embedding hieroglyphic stamps into the wet, malleable clay disc.
It was the archaeologist Luigi Pernier who chanced upon this disc in a sub-level chamber of the palace during his dig. It's believed that a seismic tremor or volcanic explosion may have led to the site's downfall. Distinct relics, like the Arkalochori Axe, bearing resemblances in inscriptions, speculated to be Linear A (an undecoded script of ancient Greece), have been found elsewhere in Crete.
Interkriti writes of the ancient city:
“Phaistos was one of the most important centres of Minoan civilization, and the most wealthy and powerful city in southern Crete. It was inhabited from the Neolithic period until the foundation and development of the Minoan palaces in the 15th century B.C. […] According to mythology, Phaistos was the seat of king Radamanthis, brother of king Minos. It was also the city that gave birth to the great wise man and soothsayer Epimenidis, one of the seven wise men of the ancient world.”
The disc's purpose, the meaning behind its cryptic symbols, and even its origin at Phaistos remain subjects of ongoing debate among scholars.
Panorama of ruins of the ancient Minoan Palace of Phaistos, Crete, Greece. ( dach83 /Adobe Stock)
Cryptic Insignias on the Phaistos Disc
The disc's most intriguing feature is undoubtedly the hieroglyphic sequence spiraling on both its surfaces. These icons, or pictograms, depict varied images like a pedestrian, a tattooed face, protective headgear, a projectile, shackles, felines, raptors, and others. Both the Minoan capital Knossos' discoverer, Sir Arthur Evans, in 1900, and Luigi Pernier tried and failed to decode the disc. Since then, over 26 notable efforts have been made to break the code.
The general consensus is that the script is Linear A, unassociated with any recognized language. However, some academics propose it could relate to multiple tongues, like Hittite, Homeric Greek, Indo-European, or a Semitic dialect. An article by WMMagazin cites Petr Kovar's "convincing" translation which indicates the script might be Proto-Slavic. Yet, there's no universally accepted translation.
Linear A Script. Ink-written inscriptions round the inner surface of a cup. Third Middle Minoan (Public Domain)
Decoding Efforts Surrounding the Phaistos Disc Theories about the disc's significance range from it being an age-old chant, a gaming surface, an astral record, an Atlantis manuscript, a mythical narrative, a maze's description, female initiation ceremonies, to a celestial almanac.
There's uncertainty regarding whether to read the symbols from the disc's core spiraling out or the reverse. Further, scholars can't agree on whether the transcribed symbols should be read from right to left or the opposite. Many concur that without more context or symbol samples, successful decoding might remain elusive.
Chart detailing a rendering of some of the symbols found on the Phaistos Disc (Partial Screenshot, Public Domain)
Yet, the allure of the disc remains. For instance, in 2015, Dr. Gareth Owens proposed that one disc side might praise the Minoan maternal deity, while the other honors Astarte, the love deity. This wasn't a direct translation but rather an inferred vocalization, inspired by Michael Ventris's code-breaking of Linear B. Owens clarified:
“We are reading the Phaistos disc with the vocal values of Linear B and with the help of comparative linguistics, ie comparing with other relative languages from the Indo-European language family. Reading something, however, does not mean understanding. The Disc of Phaistos is written in the Minoan script that records the Minoan language. This is the best sample of ‘Cretan hieroglyphics’, always in quotes, because it is not the writing system of ancient Egypt. The name is wrong. The scripts of the Phaistos Disc is also Minoan Linear A.”
The two sides of the Phaistos Disc. ( dimcha /Adobe Stock )
In October 2018, Georgian Journal presented an alternate theory – that the disc's content might be in Proto-Kartvelian (Proto-Georgian) – a pictographic script predating alphabets. They noted that only the Proto-Georgian language matched when Dr. Herbert Zebisch compared various languages using his software. Consequently, Gia Kvashilava theorized that the disc's content might be dedicated to the Colchian fertility deity, Nana.
While most experts believe in the disc's authenticity, a few speculate it might be a sophisticated forgery. Although Pernier's dig records were meticulous, the disc's exact origin remains unverified through scientific age determination methods. Hence, speculated dates range from 1700 BC to 1400 BC, targeting either Middle or Late Minoan periods.
Some even ponder if Pernier might have crafted the disc himself. However, the discovery of other items bearing Linear A inscriptions suggests otherwise. Crafting such a resilient fake, deceiving experts for over a hundred years, would be a colossal and daring deception.
Ultimately, until the Phaistos Disc's code is definitively unlocked and its secrets exposed, this gilded disc will persistently captivate linguists, code-breakers, and aficionados of historical conundrums.
Top Image: The Phaistos Disc ( CC BY SA 3.0 ) in front of a mysterious background. ( kerenby /Adobe Stock )
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.
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Over mijzelf
Ik ben Pieter, en gebruik soms ook wel de schuilnaam Peter2011.
Ik ben een man en woon in Linter (België) en mijn beroep is Ik ben op rust..
Ik ben geboren op 18/10/1950 en ben nu dus 73 jaar jong.
Mijn hobby's zijn: Ufologie en andere esoterische onderwerpen.
Op deze blog vind je onder artikels, werk van mezelf. Mijn dank gaat ook naar André, Ingrid, Oliver, Paul, Vincent, Georges Filer en MUFON voor de bijdragen voor de verschillende categorieën...
Veel leesplezier en geef je mening over deze blog.