It was 1903 that the Wright brothers made the first successful self-propelled flight. Launching themselves to history, they set the foundations for transatlantic flights, supersonic flight and perhaps even the exploration of the Solar System. Now we are on the precipice of travel among the stars but among the many ideas and theories, what is the ultimate and most effective way to explore our nearest stellar neighbours? After all, there are 10,000 stars within a region of 110 light years from Earth so there are plenty to choose from. 

It’s not just the stars that entice us to explore beyond our Solar System. Ever since the first exoplanet discovery in 1992 we have been discovering more and more alien worlds around distant stars. The tally has now reached over 5,500 confirmed exoplanets and they too demand our attention as we reach out among the stars. There have been many ideas and technologies proposed over the past few years but to date, even Proxima Centauri (the nearest star system to our own) remains out of reach. 

In his thesis recently published, lead author Johannes Lebert from the Technische Universität München (TUM) attempts to develop a strategy, based on existing interstellar probe concepts and knowledge of nearby star systems. Lebert was driven by the exoplanet discoveries that continue at pace and the development and interest, both commercially and technically in interstellar probes. Not only does he explore the technologies but he also looks at the returns too. 

In the strategy developed in the thesis he looks at the two main objectives which are duration of the mission and the returns. By returns he refers to the sum of all rewards provided by the stars explored during the mission and of course be largely scientific.  He considers a multi vehicle approach using several probes which do not return to Earth and are capable of exploring different stars thereby maximising the mission returns. Finally he explores the routing of such a mission to ensure maximum mission returns. Succinctly he calls this his ‘Bi-objective multi- vehicle open routing problem with profits.’

The thesis concludes with several recommendation. First that the use of efficient routing around the stars, a more limited number of probes can be used, limiting reducing fuel costs. This should be balanced by the mission returns which increase faster should more probes be used to explore the same number of stars simultaneously. This does however increase mission costs due to increase fuel costs. Whichever strategy is used, small-scale remotely operated or autonomous craft are far more suited to the need. 

Lebert goes on to explain that higher probe numbers also brings the benefit that probes can be tailored to suit the star systems they are destined to explore. Unlike a smaller number of probes that will have to cater for a greater range of systems.  There is a concept known as the ‘derived scaling law’ which articulates that higher probe numbers do inherit a risk of less efficient deployment.

It’s an interesting read that reminds us that, whilst we are developing the probes, and there are quite a number on the drawing board; Breakthrough Starshot, Interstellar Express, Interstellar Probe, Innovative Interstellar Explorer, Tau Mission to name a few, we do need to consider just how we plan, manage and deploy to maximise the scientific gain. 

Source : 

• Optimal Strategies for the Exploration of Near-by Star

{ https://www.universetoday.com/ }

21-04-2024 om 01:16 geschreven door peter  

Juno made the two close flybys of Io in December 2023 and February 2024. Images from Juno’s JunoCam included the first close-up images of the moon’s northern latitudes. Undoubtedly, Io looks like a pizza – which has been the conclusion since our first views of this moon, when Voyager 1 flew through the Jupiter system in March 1979. The mottled and colorful surface comes from the volcanic activity, with hundreds of vents and calderas on the surface that create a variety of features. Volcanic plumes and lava flows across the surface show up in all sorts of colors, from red and yellow to orange and black. Some of the lava “rivers” stretch for hundreds of kilometers.

Juno scientists were also able to re-create a spectacular feature on Io, a spired mountain that has been nicknamed “The Steeple.” This feature is between 5 and 7 kilometers (3-4.3 miles) in height. It’s hard to comprehend the type of volcanic activity that could have created such a stunning landform.

Speaking of volcanic activity, two recent papers have come to a jaw-dropping conclusion about Io: this moon has been erupting since the dawn of the Solar System.

All the volcanic on Io is activity is driven by tidal heating. Io is in an orbital resonance with two other large moons of Jupiter, Europa and Ganymede.

“Every time Ganymede orbits Jupiter once, Europa orbits twice, and Io orbits four times,” explained the authors of a paper published in the Journal of Geophysical Research: Planets, led by Ery Hughes of GNS Science in New Zealand. “This situation causes tidal heating in Io (like how the Moon causes ocean tides on Earth), which causes the volcanism.”

However, scientists haven’t known how long this resonance has been occurring and whether what we observe today is what has always been happening in the Jupiter system. This is because volcanism renews Io’s surface almost constantly, leaving little trace of the past.

The team of scientists, led by Katherine de Kleer at Caltech and Hughes at GNS Science used the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) in Chile observe the sulphur gases in Io’s atmosphere. The isotopes of sulfur were used as a tracer of tidal heating on Io because sulfur is released through volcanism, processed in the atmosphere, and recycled into the mantle. Additionally, some of the sulfur is lost to space, and because of Jupiter’s magnetosphere, a bunch of charged particles whirling around Jupiter that hit Io’s atmosphere continuously.

It turns out that the sulfur that is lost to space on Io is a little bit isotopically lighter than the sulfur that is recycled back into Io’s interior. Because of this, over time, the sulfur remaining on Io gets isotopically heavier and heavier. How much heavier depends on how long volcanism has been taking place.

What the teams found is that tidal heating on Io has been occurring for billions of years.

“The isotopic composition of Io’s inventory of volatile chemical elements, including sulfur and chlorine, reflects its outgassing and mass loss history, and thus records information about its evolution,” the team wrote in the paper published in Science. “These results indicate that Io has been volcanically active for most (or all) of its history, with potentially higher outgassing and mass-loss rates at earlier times.”

Juno continues to makes its way through the Jupiter system. And during Juno’s most recent flyby of Io, on April 9, the spacecraft came within about 16,500 kilometers (10,250 miles) of the moon’s surface. It will perform its 61st flyby of Jupiter on May 12.

JunoCam is a public camera, where members of the public can choose targets for imaging, as well as process all the data.  JunoCam’s raw images are available here for the public to peruse and process into image products. Here you can see the most recent images that have been processed.

Papers: 

1. Isotopic Evidence of Long-Lived Volcanism on Io
2. Using Io’s Sulfur Isotope Cycle to Understand the History of Tidal Heating
   

Further Reading: 

• NASA, 
• GNS Science

{ https://www.universetoday.com/ }

21-04-2024 om 01:07 geschreven door peter  

A mysterious object found on the floor of the Baltic Sea has baffled explorers for years (

The Baltic Sea Anomaly was discovered over a decade ago by divers looking for treasure, but it remained a mystery for years as to why and how it got to the bottom of the ocean

The truth about a strange, unexplained object lying on the floor of the Baltic Sea that prompted UFO claims may have finally been revealed.

The Baltic Sea Anomaly is said to be over 140,000 years old and is thought by some to be formed out of straight and angular pieces of metal. Discovered by divers who were originally searching for a shipwreck, the object has puzzled viewers for years as no one knows for sure what it is or how it got there.

Swedish explorers Peter Lindberg and Denis Asberg were in the northern Baltic Sea as part of the Ocean X team in June 2011, looking for treasure, when their sonar radars detected the 70ft long Millennium Falcon-looking piece in the canyon of an underwater mountain in the Gulf of Bothnia.

Asberg told TV4 in Sweden at the time: “We were really surprised and puzzled. We were thinking what is that we have found here. This is not a wreck. At that time we thought for sure there was a natural explanation.

"We wanted to look into it some more and decided to keep this totally quiet. We contacted geologists, marine biologists and when they said they had never seen anything like this, of course more thoughts were triggered. It could be something really awesome that we’ve found."

Adding to the mystery of the structure, the explorers explained that there appears to be a long "stair-like formations" leading to a dark hole and another unknown object around 200m away.

The enigmatic nature of the discovery prompted wide speculation with some guessing it could be the remains of the lost underwater city of Atlanta, a rouge member of an alien UFO fleet that crashed on the sea bed or some kind of anti-submarine device left over from the Second World War.

Despite its resemblance to a large rock, some scientists have said that it's not made of natural materials and is in fact constructed of metal. Even more mysteriously, electrical and satellite equipment reportedly cuts out when in close proximity to the object, according to Ocean X diver Stefan Hogerborn.

He said: "Anything electric out there, and the satellite phone as well, stopped working when we were above the object, then when we got away about 200 metres, it turned on again.

Sat nearly 300ft below the surface, the Ocean X team continued to explore the object for years after its discovery, including returning to the scene to produce a documentary in 2016 and taking samples from the site with the intention to find out the truth behind it. However, others have attempted to end speculation, claiming it is simply a natural, geological formation.

Volker Brüchert, a Stockholm University geologist, reportedly studied some of the samples collected by the team and said: "What has been generously ignored by the Ocean-X team is that most of the samples they have brought up from the sea bottom are granites and gneisses and sandstones."

He believed there is nothing mysterious about it, saying: "I was surprised when I researched the material I found a great black stone that could be a volcanic rock. My hypothesis is that this object, this structure was formed during the Ice Age many thousands of years ago." Göran Ekberg, a marine archaeologist at Maritime Museum in Stockholm, said: "A natural, geological formation can't be ruled out. I agree the finding looks weird since it's completely circular. But nature has produced stranger things than that."

Research undertaken by the Stockholm University later established that the Baltic Sea anomaly is the remains of a process of glacial movements that took place in that area of the ocean in the Ice Age period and could account for how the object reached its location.

{ https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/ }

20-04-2024 om 22:40 geschreven door peter  

Five UFO abduction cases that could FINALLY be solved - as new study investigates 30-years' worth of evidence

• Couple 'lost' several hours on night-time drive
• Man was abducted in forest in front of six colleagues
•  READ MORE New witness of 1973 alien abduction in Mississippi

By ROB WAUGH FOR DAILYMAIL.COM

Roughly 100 alien abduction cases spanning over the past 30 years are set to be investigated by scientists with hopes of unraveling the mysterious experiences.

Researchers at Rice University in Texas plan to analyze a trove of archives consisting of thousands of documents in the form of books, journals, photographs, slides, reports, meeting notes and letters.

The cases include the famous story of Betty and Barney Hill, a New Hampshire couple who say they were abducted in 1961 while driving up a mountain.

Other cases include one that inspired a new Netflix show - the Pascagoula abduction.

Roughly 100 alien abductions spanning over the past 30 years are set to be investigated by scientists with hopes of unraveling the mysterious experiences

The 'Archive of the Impossible' at Rice University plays host to material from Jacques Vallee (whose work inspired Steven Spielberg's 'Close Encounters of the Third Kind') and author Whitley Streiber, who claimed to have been abducted by aliens in his 1987 book Communion among hundreds of other abduction stories.

1. The Pascagoula abduction

Featured in the new Netflix series 'Files of the Unexplained', the Mississippi abduction of Charles Hickson and Calvin Parker occurred happened in 1973.

The two men reported to the sheriff's department that they had been abducted by aliens while fishing - and each appeared with a puncture wound in their arm.

Charles Hickson and Calvin Parker claimed to have been abducted in 1973

Charles Hickson and Calvin Parker claimed to have been abducted in 1973

As UFO's blue lights flashed and it descended closer to the marshland below, three, five-foot grey 'wrinkled-skin creatures' with 'pincer-like' claws (illustrated above) seized the two men — subjecting to them to examination, according to Parker, 'just like any doctor would'

Both men passed polygraph tests when interviewed about their experiences - and it appeared their stories matched.

The two men reported being manipulated by aliens with pincer-like claws and experimented on.

Hickson told The Washington Post, 'I was just getting ready to get some more bait, when I heard a kind of zipping sound. I looked up and saw a blue flashing light. Calvin turned around too.

'We saw a 30-foot-long object with a little dome on top.'

Detectives secretly left a tape recorder running to catch the men out but they did not 'drop the act' once police left the room.

Another witness, Maria Blair, recently gave video testimony that was obtained by DailyMail.com, which appeared to corroborate the men's story. 

2. Whitley Strieber

Science fiction and horror writer Whitley Strieber's abduction story in his 1987 non-fiction book Communion has become one of the iconic stories of alien abduction.

The cover image of the book, showing a slender, almond-eyed alien is an iconic image of what UFO fans refer to as 'grey' aliens.

Science fiction and horror writer Whitley Strieber

Christopher Walken in the film Communion, based on Strieber's experience

The alleged abduction happened on Boxing Day in 1986, after Strieber and his wife went to bed after eating Christmas leftovers.

Strieber describes the beings he encountered as 'visitors', but makes no conclusion about their origin.

Strieber wrote, 'In 1985 I had an experience of close encounter that frightened and confused me. I was injured by it but still could not believe that it had been a physical experience. It was just too strange. 

'Still, I was very curious and began going out into the woods at night from our little upstate New York cabin to try to somehow re-engage.'

He has since written several books on the subject of alien encounters.

3. Betty and Barney Hill

Betty and Barney Hill's 1961 experience became one of the iconic alien-abduction stories - with the couple encountering a strange light on a road in New Hampshire's White Mountains.

The couple couldn't remember some of the drive, and their watches had stopped working.

Betty and Barney Hill's 1961 experience became one of the iconic alien-abduction stories

Betty and Barney Hill's 1961 experience became one of the iconic alien-abduction stories

Psychiatrist and hypnotist Benjamin Simon helped the couple to remember their experience of being walked into a flying saucer by grey-skinned aliens.

Under hypnosis, they recalled being attached to needles attached with long wires, as aliens took samples of their hair and skin.

The couple's story became a book and a film starring James Earl Jones - and both stuck by their story until their deaths.

4. Travis Walton

The abduction of Travis Walton in 1975 gathered national attention because of the presence of six witnesses - fellow forestry workers.

On November 5, 1975, the 22-year-old UFO enthusiast Walton spotted a light in a forest, and ignored warnings and ran towards it.

The abduction of Travis Walton in 1975 gathered national attention

His experiences formed the basis of a 1993 film

Struck by a blue light, Travis disappeared and the other forestry workers fled the scene.

It was the first UFO abduction to be reported while the victim was still missing.

Seven days later, Walton reappeared - and revealed that he awoke being observed by three small aliens, and then found himself walking along a highway five days later.

He detailed his experiences in a book, which became the 1993 film Fire in the Sky: in 2021, he appeared on Joe Rogan's podcast.

5. Dr Leo Sprinkle

Many UFO abduction experiences are frightening and disturbing - but some who claim to have encountered aliens have a more positive view of their abductee.

Dr Leo Sprinkle, a psychologist at the University of Wyoming, hypnotically regressed alleged abductees in the Sixties, following Betty and Barney Hill's encounter.

Dr Leo Sprinkle, a psychologist at the University of Wyoming, became involved in hypnotically regressing alien abductees

Sprinkle eventually identified as an abductee himself - believing that the aliens are helpful 'cosmic citizens' helping humans to deal with their problems.

Sprinkle went on to hold an annual Rocky Mountain UFO conference on the more positive aspects of UFO encounters before retiring from the university in 1989.

Sprinkle claims that UFO encounters are part of 'cosmic consciousness conditioning', designed to enhance human consciousness.

Nigel Watson, author of Captured by Aliens? A History and Analysis of American Abduction Claims, told DailyMail.com, 'I think it is great that they are conducting an intense analysis of the data in these files, and it will be fascinating to see what they do with this material.

'The major problem with alien abductions is that we have to consider how they come about. Such psychological concepts as sleep paralysis, fantasy proneness and false memory syndrome have all been used to 'explain' alien abduction experiences.

'Even the methods by which we use psychology to examine these processes in pursuit of alien abduction investigation can be conditioned by our culture. 

'In the USA there has been far more recourse to using polygraph tests and hypnotic regression compared to other countries.'

'Besides looking at those areas of 'normal' psychology and sociology, perhaps this new study project might discover rarer factors involved with the abduction experience. 

'Will it even support the popular idea that real extraterrestrial aliens have come here to take and examine humans against their will?'

{ https://www.dailymail.co.uk/ }

20-04-2024 om 22:10 geschreven door peter  

NASA’s Juno Mission Provides Close-Ups of Intriguing Features on Io

In December 2023 and February 2024, NASA’s Juno spacecraft made extremely close flybys of Jupiter’s volcanic moon Io, getting within about 1,500 km (930 miles) of the surface and obtaining the first close-up images of the moon’s northern latitudes. Planetary scientists have now transformed the images collected during the flybys into animations that highlight two of Io’s most dramatic features: a mountain and an almost glass-smooth lake of cooling lava called Loki Patera.

The JunoCam instrument aboard NASA’s Juno spacecraft imaged Io, the most geologically active body in our Solar System, on February 3, 2024, from a distance of about 7,904 km (4,911 miles).

Image credit: NASA / SwRI / MSSS.

“Io is simply littered with volcanoes, and we caught a few of them in action,” said Juno’s principal investigator Scott Bolton, director of the Space Science and Engineering Division at the Southwest Research Institute.

“We also got some great close-ups and other data on a 200-km- (127-mile-) long lava lake called Loki Patera.”

“There is amazing detail showing these crazy islands embedded in the middle of a potentially magma lake rimmed with hot lava.”

“The specular reflection our instruments recorded of the lake suggests parts of Io’s surface are as smooth as glass, reminiscent of volcanically created obsidian glass on Earth.”

Maps generated with data collected by Juno’s Microwave Radiometer (MWR) instrument reveal Io not only has a surface that is relatively smooth compared to Jupiter’s other Galilean moons, but also has poles that are colder than middle latitudes.

During Juno’s extended mission, the spacecraft flies closer to the north pole of Jupiter with each pass.

This changing orientation allows the MWR instrument to improve its resolution of Jupiter’s northern polar cyclones.

The data allow multiwavelength comparisons of the poles, revealing that not all polar cyclones are created equal.

“Perhaps most striking example of this disparity can be found with the central cyclone at Jupiter’s north pole,” said Juno’s project scientist Dr. Steve Levin, a researcher at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory.

“It is clearly visible in both infrared and visible light images, but its microwave signature is nowhere near as strong as other nearby storms.”

“This tells us that its subsurface structure must be very different from these other cyclones.”

“The MWR team continues to collect more and better microwave data with every orbit, so we anticipate developing a more detailed 3D map of these intriguing polar storms.”

{ https://www.sci.news/ }

20-04-2024 om 21:07 geschreven door peter  

Open Minds UAP News: John Greenewald of the Black Vault: Important Update on Alleged UFO Whistleblower

 Alejandro Rojas

 

In today’s episode: We talk to John Greenewald, founder of The Black Vault. For decades John has been using FOIA to get formerly classified documents from the government. Recently he received documents showing the correspondence between the DoD and alleged UFO whistleblower David Grusch. Grusch has claimed, including on the record during a congressional hearing, that DoD’s AARO UAP program has not reached out to him. New documents may show otherwise. We also cover the latest UFO/UAP News and look at a couple weird videos from the Enigma app.

• https://youtu.be/PTLJTrvIXOQ

{ https://openminds.tv/ }

20-04-2024 om 20:56 geschreven door peter  

The Enigma of the Roswell UFO Incident

In the annals of UFO folklore, few events have captured the imagination and stirred controversy as much as the Roswell UFO incident of 1947. This event has become a cornerstone of extraterrestrial conspiracy theories and continues to intrigue both skeptics and believers over seven decades later. The incident unfolded in the quiet desert town of Roswell, New Mexico, where a mysterious object crashed during the summer of 1947, sparking widespread speculation and government scrutiny.

The Initial Discovery

The saga began when a local rancher, Mac Brazel, discovered unfamiliar debris scattered over his property. The materials found were unusual, possessing properties that baffled those who handled them. Reports described them as lightweight yet remarkably resilient, able to return to their original shape after being crumpled. This led to immediate speculation about their otherworldly origins.

Military Involvement and the Cover-Up Allegations

The recovery of the debris by the military added layers of mystery to the incident. The Roswell Army Air Field (RAAF) issued a press release stating they had recovered a “flying disc,” a statement that was quickly retracted and replaced with a claim that the debris was merely a downed weather balloon—a mundane explanation that did little to quell public curiosity.

Over the years, the U.S. government’s narrative regarding Roswell has shifted multiple times, fueling accusations of a cover-up. Theories have suggested that the debris was part of a secretive military project like Project Mogul, which aimed to detect Soviet nuclear tests. Critics argue that the constant changes in the official explanation indicate an attempt to obscure the truth.

Eyewitness Accounts and Further Speculations

Eyewitnesses at the time, including military personnel and local civilians, provided accounts that contradicted the official explanations. Some described seeing metallic beams with hieroglyphic symbols and materials that behaved unlike anything conventional. Reports also surfaced of bodies—presumed to be extraterrestrial beings—being recovered from the crash site. These accounts contributed to the lore surrounding Roswell, suggesting a conspiracy of monumental proportions that involved recovered alien technology and creatures.

Cultural Impact and Legacy

The Roswell incident has had a profound impact on popular culture, inspiring movies, books, and television shows. It has become synonymous with government secrecy and the potential for extraterrestrial visitation, keeping the public’s interest alive. The town of Roswell itself has embraced its identity as a UFO phenomenon hotspot, hosting visitors from around the world drawn by the mystery.

VIDEO:

• The Mystery of The Infamous Roswell UFO Crash | Absolute Documentaries
• https://youtu.be/VFLqXnPFTDw

Despite numerous investigations and reports, the truth about the Roswell incident remains elusive. Whether it was a secret military project, an extraterrestrial spacecraft, or something entirely different, Roswell continues to be a focal point for those seeking to understand the possibilities of what might lie beyond our world. As new pieces of information slowly emerge, the debate over what really happened in 1947 endures, keeping the Roswell mystery as relevant today as it was over seventy years ago.

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

20-04-2024 om 20:27 geschreven door peter  

Italy UFO Crash Confirmed By Grusch & Elizondo Had Two Giant Alien Bodies

The world has been astounded by the extraordinary revelations of military whistleblower David Grusch, who has made astonishing claims about UFOs. In his compelling testimony, Grusch claims that the United States government has recovered intact and partially intact vehicles of non-human origin. Given his credibility, these assertions mark the most significant and impactful claims made in decades.

In the midst of it, according to the French paper le Parisien, Grusch states that the United States and its allies have been involved in secret programs for almost ninety years and reveals that one of the recovered craft was found in Italy in 1933. This UFO crash incident is said to have happened when Italy was under the rule of Fascist Benito Mussolini.

The claims regarding the UFO coverup originate directly from the documents released from Mussolini’s office. According to these documents, Mussolini went to great lengths to suppress witnesses and classified the unidentified craft as highly confidential. Mussolini prioritized the study of the craft, leading to the formation of a secretive organization comprised of Italy’s most skilled engineers and scientists. This organization was purportedly under the command of Guglielmo Marconi, a renowned engineer and radio inventor.

Mussolini UFO files

According to Roberto Pinotti, an Italian journalist, writer, and UFO researcher, the alleged UFO crash occurred in Magenta, Lombardy, Italy on April 11, 1933, fourteen years prior to the famous Roswell UFO incident in New Mexico. The crash involved a flying saucer-like object and triggered an investigation by a secretive wartime intelligence unit known as the “Gabinetto RS/33” (or RS/33 Cabinet), which was authorized by Italian dictator Benito Mussolini to study the phenomenon.

Pinotti revealed in his book “UFO Contacts In Italy Volume Two” that the crashed UFO was stored in the hangars of SIAI Marchetti in Vergiate. While Mussolini believed the unconventional flying vehicle to be a secret weapon of France, Britain, or Germany, Sen. Guglielmo Marconi, a head of the Italian Royal Academy of Sciences, purportedly considered it to be of extraterrestrial origin.

Pinotti writes that between 1933 and 1940, there were numerous UFO sightings in Italy. These included an incident where an Italian fighter plane intercepted a UFO between Ravenna and Rome, as well as multiple UFO sighting over Mestre and Venice in August 1936.

Mussolini’s UFO files contain telegrams and reports related to the recovery of the UFO and subsequent investigations. They suggest that a secret commission, established by Mussolini and including Fascist Ministers Italo Balbo and Galeazzo Ciano, was responsible for studying the UFO phenomena in Italy. The files indicate that the commission was headed by Guglielmo Marconi.

Read also:

• Two US Marines Claimed Corbell’s Huge Mojave Triangle UFO Is Definitely Not Flares
• Karla Turner Claimed She Found Evidence That Aliens Are Manipulating Human Reality
• Ex-CIA Officer Encountered With Reptilian Alien; Says Reptilian Race Walking Among Us
• Whitley Strieber’s Alien Abduction & Stranger Who Told Him ‘Mankind Is Trapped’

Pinotti also mentions the existence of drawings and documents authenticated by a forensic consultant, Dr. Antonio Garavaglia. These documents were released to the Italian media, including television n

Recovered Bodies

Journalist Christopher Sharp of Liberation Times did extensive research on the Italy crash and found that alongside the crashed UFO, two human-like bodies were allegedly recovered at the site in Lombardy, Italy, in 1933. The bodies described by Mr. Sharp sparked intrigue and speculation due to their unusual characteristics and alleged extraterrestrial origin. He writes:

Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, Ohio – 1959

Two bodies allegedly lay on a table. They look like twins. They’re dead and preserved with formaldehyde. The bodies are in bad shape. They look like victims of a bad car accident – but the heads remain intact. But their features trouble a French biologist invited to study the bodies.

Two males, very tall (around 7ft), long blonde hair, very high and spacious foreheads, clear blue eyes that look somewhat Asiatic, small noses, small mouths, small chins, thin lips, very clear pale skin, but no signs of facial hair. Their hands, although slender are human-like, their toes are small and their feet flat.

The story gets weirder. Their skin appears perfectly white but shows no signs of keratin granules, which play an important role in providing natural moisturization for the skin, in addition to UV protection, and water retention.

Startlingly, the biologist discovered that their lymphatic systems were dominant and practically replaced the blood system, providing a high degree of protection from any disease. They were not human, at least as we know it. That’s at least how the story goes.

There are two accounts of these alleged recovered bodies within Wright-Patterson, which inform this story.

The first was from William Brophy, whose father claimed to have seen the bodies when serving as a Lieutenant Colonel in the United States Air Force (USAF). Brophy claimed that his father told him the story, among those of other UAP encounters whilst serving in the USAF.

The second account is from UAP researcher Leonard Stringfield, who told the story of the French biologist in his 1982 book, named ‘UFO Crash/Retrievals: Amassing the Evidence: Status Report III’.

U.S. officials allegedly confirmed to the French biologist that the bodies were not human and were of extraterrestrial origin. After much hesitancy and many years, the biologist decided to tell his story, and his account was picked up by Stringfield.

The bodies allegedly came from a UAP crash (according to Brophy’s account), which occurred long before Roswell. They were apparently recovered in 1933, in Lombardy, Italy, where a mysterious craft had crashed.

Overall, the accounts surrounding these bodies raise intriguing questions about the possibility of extraterrestrial life and its potential connection to Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, making it a subject of interest and speculation among enthusiasts of unidentified aerial phenomena.

Later, the information of the retrieved unknown craft was somehow confided with Pope Pius XII by Mussolini himself as they were in good relations. But after Mussolini became an ally with Adolf Hitler’s Third Reich, Pope became uneasy about the craft and leaked it to the US from the Vatican. After the war, the craft was allegedly brought to the USA, where it supposedly remains today.

Lue Elizondo, a former government official involved in UFO investigations, mentioned seeing documents from Mussolini’s office that were “compelling” and suggested that pieces of an Italian craft were transported to the USA after World War II. It is speculated that the craft in question was not a typical UAP with advanced technology but rather a vehicle powered by jet engines and rockets, resembling the flying wing designs of the Horten brothers. The purpose of this technology transfer to the Axis powers is unclear but likely for military advantage.

Raymond Szymanski, a retired US Air Force engineer, claimed that Wright-Patterson Air Force Base is a warehouse of extraterrestrial life and crashed flying saucers. He mentioned the presence of state-of-the-art climate-controlled facilities and underground cryogenic chambers within Hangar 18, also known as “The Blue Room,” where alien debris, technology, weapons, bodies, and captured aliens are allegedly stored. These claims are supported by testimonies from individuals like Clyde Wheeler and a lady from Cincinnati who claimed to have witnessed saucer-shaped craft and handled paperwork related to the autopsy of small alien bodies.

Wright-Patterson Air Force Base was the location for various government UFO research projects, including Project Sign, Project Grudge, and Project Blue Book. Senator Barry Goldwater once requested access to a secret UFO room at the base but was denied by General Curtis Emerson LeMay, who reacted angrily.

{https://www.howandwhys.com/ }

20-04-2024 om 00:57 geschreven door peter  

Tucker Carlson says UFOs are piloted by 'spiritual entities' with bases 'under the ocean and the ground'

• Carlson weighed in with his UFO theories on The Joe Rogan Experience podcast
• The Fox News vet stated UFOs 'don't behave according to the laws of science'
• READ MORE: Inside the 'UFO cult' led by a 'sex maniac' who tried to clone babies

By MATTHEW PHELAN SENIOR SCIENCE REPORTER FOR DAILYMAIL.COM

UFOs and their pilots might not be 'extra-terrestrials' from a distant planet at all, but 'spiritual entities' who have inhabited Earth for as long as humanity itself.

At least, that's the 'supernatural' theory Fox News vet and one-time MSNBC host Tucker Carlson put forward this week on comedian Joe Rogan's podcast

'There's a ton of evidence that they're under the ocean and under the ground,' Carlson told Rogan's listeners during the show's usual, sprawling, three-hour-long chat format, adding: 'They've been here for a long time.'

Carlson's latest comments echo an increasingly common refrain from UFO-curious lawmakers, including Missouri Congressman Eric Burlison and his fellow GOP legislator Tim Burchett, who both compared UFOs to Biblical entities in the past year.

UFOs and their pilots might not be 'extra-terrestrials' from a distant planet at all, but 'spiritual entities' who have inhabited Earth for as long as humanity itself - according to Fox News vet and one-time MSNBC host Tucker Carlson who spoke this week on The Joe Rogan Experience

Above, Rep. Tim Burchett (left) next to fellow 'UAP Caucus' member Rep. Eric Burlison during a press conference held by members of the House Oversight committee ahead of a public UFO hearing last July. Both Congressman have compared UFOs to Biblical entities in the past year

'The first chapter of Ezekiel is pretty clear of a UFO sighting,' Rep. Burchett told reporters in January of 2023, ahead of his push to bring UFO whistleblowers to testify before Congress last summer.   

'Whenever I use the term "angels,"' added Rep. Burlison, who has been privy to classified briefings on the UFO phenomena, 'to me, it's synonymous with an extradimensional being.'

Tucker Carlson appeared to earnestly cosign these notions on his April 19 podcast appearance, while pleading ignorance on many unanswered questions surrounding the issue, now more commonly called Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena or UAP.  

'They're from here and they've been here for thousands of years,' Carlson said, 'whatever they are.'

'And it's pretty clear to me that they're "spiritual entities,"' he continued, 'whatever that means.' 

The veteran broadcaster explained that by 'supernatural' he meant that the beings were 'above the observable nature' and that they 'don't behave according to the laws of science.'  

'With that fact set,' Carlson put it rhetorically, 'what do you conclude?'

Earlier in 2024, Rogan commented on Carlson's growing public interest in UFOs, wondering ahead of Carlson's appearance on his program: 'What does he know?'   

But speculation linking UFOs to religious visitations and/or theories about interdimensional beings have been a recurring feature within the discourse on the topic since the early 20th Century. 

Above the 16th century painting titled 'The Madonna with Saint Giovannino' believed to be the work of Italian Renaissance artist Domenico Ghirlandaio. Some believe the painting includes a reference to 'ancient' UFOs with a skybound object seen above the Virgin Mary's left shoulder

Above, a closer look at the mysterious glowing aerial object depicted in Ghirlandaio's painting

READ MORE: 

• Pentagon ordered to re-investigate 1945 crash of mysterious 'avocado' UFO dubbed 'Roswell before Roswell' - as expert reveals eyewitness accounts of the encounter

President Biden signed into law a December 2022 amendment to investigate a UFO case from 1945. The 1945 UFO sighting was dubbed the 'Roswell before Roswell' and involved an 'avocado-shaped' craft that crashed in New Mexico. Jaques Vallée, a former contractor for the government's UFO office, wrote a book about the case and described the August 1945 crash to DailyMail.com. Vallée and his co-author interviewed witnesses who were just young children at the time of the crash, on the edge of the atomic bomb testing site near San Antonio, New Mexico - about 100 miles from the infamous Roswell crash two years later.

The concept gained its highest and arguably most reputable profile with the publication of the book 'Passport to Magonia: from Folklore to Flying Saucers' by the astronomer and Internet pioneer Jacques Vallée in 1969.

Vallée, who later served as the inspiration for François Truffaut's character in Steven Spielberg's UFO blockbuster 'Close Encounters of the Third Kind,' had spent years pouring over volumes of ancient texts for the groundbreaking tome. 

He paired 1180 encounters with 'luminous' flying 'earthenware vessels' reported over Japan, Roman accounts of hovering 'shields' and Native American stories of 'baskets from heaven' to argue a continuity with modern 'flying saucer' cases. 

In more recent years, Vallée, now a Silicon Valley venture capitalist and computer scientist, published a study of physical evidence from a UFO crash in a peer-reviewed science journal, Progress in Aerospace Sciences. 

As he told Wired, Vallée hopes that research will become 'a template [...] for what serious UFO research could be in the future, if one plays by the rules.'

But similar arguments, linking UFOs to demonic entities or angelic miracles, have also been made in less scholarly form on cable TV shows like 'Ancient Aliens,' and online by conspiracy theorists and evangelical Christians, among others. 

The editor for Phenomena Magazine, Brian Allan, to cite one account, spoke to Anglican Pastor Ray Boeche who claims that a faction within the Pentagon deeply believes that UFOs are the product of demonic forces.

'The Defense Intelligence Agency were looking at this demonic element, and they labelled these sorts of aliens as 'non human entities,' Allan said. 

'They believed that there was a demonic component to the UFO phenomenon: they are not invading us, it's Biblical.'

{ https://www.dailymail.co.uk/ }

20-04-2024 om 00:30 geschreven door peter  

Astronomers Discover 454 New Asteroids in Main Belt

A set of 632 main-belt asteroids (178 previously known and 454 unknown objects) has been identified in the archival images from the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope. Citizen scientists from around the world contributed to the identification of this asteroid bounty. Professional astronomers combined the volunteers’ efforts with machine learning algorithm to identify the asteroids.

This Hubble image of the barred spiral galaxy UGC 12158 looks like someone took a white marking pen to it. In reality it is a combination of time exposures of a foreground asteroid moving through Hubble’s field-of-view, photobombing the observation of the galaxy. Several exposures of the galaxy were taken, what is evidence in the dashed pattern. The asteroid appears as a curved trail due to parallax: because Hubble is not stationary, but orbiting Earth, and this gives the illusion that the faint asteroid is swimming along a curved trajectory. The uncharted asteroid is in inside the asteroid belt in our Solar System, and hence is 10 trillion times closer to Hubble than the background galaxy.

Image credit: NASA / ESA / Hubble / Pablo García Martín, UAM / Joseph DePasquale, STScI / Alex Filippenko, UC Berkeley.

Over 4 billion years ago, the eight major planets around our Sun formed by sweeping up debris from a vast disk of dust and gas surrounding the Sun.

This is common to the planet birthing process, and the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope was the first to optically see similar disks surrounding newborn stars, providing a peek into the Solar System’s formative years.

Now, 4 billon years later, the planet construction yard is still cluttered with leftover debris.

Most of this ancient space rubble — asteroids — can be found between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter within the main asteroid belt.

“We are getting deeper into seeing the smaller population of main belt asteroids,” said Dr. Pablo García Martín, an astronomer at the Autonomous University of Madrid.

“We were surprised with seeing such a large number of candidate objects.”

“There was some hint of this population existing, but now we are confirming it with a random asteroid population sample obtained using the whole Hubble archive.”

“This is important for providing insights into the evolutionary models of our Solar System.”

Because of Hubble’s fast orbit around the Earth, it can capture wandering asteroids through their telltale trails in the Hubble exposures.

As viewed from an Earth-based telescope, an asteroid leaves a streak across the picture.

Asteroids ‘photobomb’ Hubble exposures by appearing as unmistakable, curved trails in the photographs.

As Hubble moves around the Earth, it changes its point of view while observing an asteroid, which also moves along its own orbit.

By knowing the position of Hubble during the observation and measuring the curvature of the streaks, scientists can determine the distances to the asteroids and estimate the shapes of their orbits.

The asteroids snagged mostly dwell in the main belt, which lies between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter.

Their brightness is measured by Hubble’s sensitive cameras. And comparing their brightness to their distance allows for a size estimate.

The faintest asteroids in the survey are roughly one forty-millionth the brightness of the faintest star that can be seen by the human eye.

“Asteroid positions change with time, and therefore you cannot find them just by entering coordinates, because at different times, they might not be there,” Dr. Merín said.

“As astronomers we don’t have time to go looking through all the asteroid images.”

“So we got the idea to collaborate with over 10,000 citizen-science volunteers to peruse the huge Hubble archives.”

• The results appear in the journal Astronomy & Astrophysics.
• Pablo García-Martín et al. 2024. Hubble Asteroid Hunter III. Physical properties of newly found asteroids. A&A 683, A122; doi: 10.1051/0004-6361/202346771

{ https://www.sci.news/ }

20-04-2024 om 00:13 geschreven door peter  

Microsoft’s New AI Makes Convincing Deepfakes Worryingly Easy

The potential for misuse feels dangerous with VASA-1.

BY JACKSON CHEN

 

Microsoft

There are innocuous examples with VASA-1, like infusing Mona Lisa with Anne Hathaway’s rap skills but we’re more concerned about the likelihood that this will be used to create deepfakes with a more nefarious purpose — think spreading misinformation or carrying out identity theft.

A SIMPLE RECIPE

Microsoft explains that you simply upload an image and an audio recording and VASA-1 spits back out a 512 x 512 resolution video with up to 40 fps and barely any latency. Looking at the demos, VASA-1 does a convincing job syncing the audio to the lip movements and can even deliver emotions and expressions through subtle facial movements with eyebrows and head nods.

To finetune the result, VASA-1 lets you control where the generated avatar is looking, how close the model is, and the emotion you want to convey. You can go with a standard neutral expression or inject some happiness, anger, or surprise into your AI-generated video.

On a more unrealistic note, VASA-1 can also handle source material like paintings or singing audio. As convincing as all of these models are, we can still see slight irregularities like some rippling around the ears or an unnatural warping effect with big head movements.

JUST A TASTE OF VERSION 1

As the name hints, VASA-1 is only the first model for Microsoft’s overall VASA framework, meaning this could (or likely will) be improved upon. These initial example videos generated from VASA-1 are only demonstrations of the research project’s capabilities thus far, so again, there aren’t any plans to push this into the public’s hands yet.

“We have no plans to release an online demo, API, product, additional implementation details, or any related offerings until we are certain that the technology will be used responsibly and in accordance with proper regulations,” Microsoft noted on its website.

As concerning as this tech is and Microsoft does acknowledge its potential for misuse, the research team argues that there are a lot of upsides here. For example, VASA-1 could be used to ensure everyone gets an equal opportunity at education, assist those with communication issues, or even just offer a friendly face to those who need it. Still, if we were placing bets, I’d lean towards tech of this caliber being used for the wrong purposes.

{ https://www.inverse.com }

19-04-2024 om 23:32 geschreven door peter  

New research in the journal Science establishes dates for giant planet migration in our Solar System. Its title is “Dating the Solar System’s giant planet orbital instability using enstatite meteorites.” The lead author is Dr. Chrysa Avdellidou from the University of Leicester’s School of Physics and Astronomy.

“The question is, when did it happen?” Dr. Avdellidou asked. “The orbits of these planets destabilised due to some dynamical processes and then took their final positions that we see today. Each timing has a different implication, and it has been a great matter of debate in the community.”

“What we have tried to do with this work is to not only do a pure dynamical study, but combine different types of studies, linking observations, dynamical simulations, and studies of meteorites.”

The meteorites in this study are enstatites or E-type asteroids. E-type asteroids have enstatite (MgSiO3) achondrite surfaces. Achondrite means they lack chondrules, grains of rock that were once molten before being accreted to their parent body. Specifically, this group of meteorites are the low-iron chondrites called ELs.

When giant planets move, everything else responds. Tiny asteroids are insignificant compared to Jupiter’s mass. Scientists think E-type asteroids were dispersed during the gas giants’ outward migration. They may even have been the impactors in the hypothetical Late Heavy Bombardment.

Enstatite achondrites that have struck Earth have similar compositions and isotope ratios as Earth. This signals that they formed in the same part of the protoplanetary disk around the young Sun. Previous research by Dr. Avdellidou and others has linked the meteorites to a population of fragments in the asteroid belt named Athor.

This work hinges on linking meteorites to parent asteroids and measuring the isotopic ratios.

“If a meteorite type can be linked to a specific parent asteroid, it provides insight into the asteroid’s composition, time of formation, temperature evolution, and original size,” the authors explain. When it comes to composition, isotopic abundances are particularly important. Different isotopes decay at different rates, so analyzing their ratio tells researchers when each meteorite closed, meaning when it became cool enough that there was no more significant diffusion of isotopes. “Therefore, thermochronometers in meteorites can constrain the epoch at which major collisional events disturbed the cooling curves of the parent asteroid,” the authors explain.

The team’s research shows that Athor is a part of a once much larger parent body that formed closer to the Sun. It also suffered from a collision that reduced its size out of the asteroid belt.

Athor found its way back when the giant planets migrated. Athor was at the mercy of all that shifting mass and underwent its own migration back into the asteroid belt. Analysis of the meteorites showed that this couldn’t have happened earlier than 60 million years ago. Other research into asteroids in Jupiter’s orbit showed it couldn’t have happened later than 100 million years ago. Since the Solar System formed about 4.56 billion years ago, the giant planet migration happened between 4.5 and 4.46 billion years ago.

Another important event happened right around the same time. About 4.5 billion years ago, a protoplanet named Theia smashed into Earth, creating the Moon. Could it all be related?

“The formation of the Moon also occurred within the range that we determined for the giant planet instability,” the authors write in their research. “This might be a coincidence, or there might be a causal relationship between the two events.”

“It’s like you have a puzzle, you understand that something should have happened, and you try to put events in the correct order to make the picture that you see today,” Dr. Avdellidou said. “The novelty with the study is that we are not only doing pure dynamical simulations, or only experiments, or only telescopic observations.”

“There were once five inner planets in our Solar System and not four, so that could have implications for other things, like how we form habitable planets. Questions like, when exactly objects came delivering volatile and organics to our planet to Earth and Mars?”

The Solar System’s history is a convoluted, beautiful puzzle that somehow led to us. Everything had to work out for life to arise on Earth, sustain itself, and evolve for so long. The epic migration of the gas giants must have played a role, and this research brings its role into focus.

Never mind habitability, complex life, and civilization, the migration may have allowed Earth to form in the first place.

“The timing is very important because our Solar System at the beginning was populated by a lot of planetesimals,” said study co-author Marco Delbo, Director of Research at France’s Nice Observatory. “And the instability clears them, so if that happens 10 million years after the beginning of the Solar System, you clear the planetesimals immediately, whereas if you do it after 60 million years you have more time to bring materials to Earth and Mars.

{ https://www.universetoday.com/ }

19-04-2024 om 22:18 geschreven door peter  

But there are ways to indirectly track down their origin. One of the more promising methods is by observing gamma rays (which do travel in straight lines, thankfully).

When cosmic rays bump into other bits of matter, they produce gamma rays. So when a supernova goes off and sends cosmic rays out into the Universe, it should also send a gamma-ray signal letting us know it’s happening.

That’s the theory, anyway.

But the evidence hasn’t matched expectations. Studies of old, distant supernovas show some gamma ray production occurring, but not as much as predicted. Astronomers explained away the missing radiation as a result of the supernovas’ age and distance. But in 2023, the Fermi telescope captured a bright new supernova occurring nearby. Named SN 2023ixf, the supernova went off just 22 million light-years away in a galaxy called Messier 101 (better known as the ‘Pinwheel Galaxy’). And yet again, gamma rays were conspicuously absent.

“Astrophysicists previously estimated that supernovae convert about 10% of their total energy into cosmic ray acceleration,” said Guillem Martí-Devesa, University of Trieste. “But we have never observed this process directly. With the new observations of SN 2023ixf, our calculations result in an energy conversion as low as 1% within a few days after the explosion. This doesn’t rule out supernovae as cosmic ray factories, but it does mean we have more to learn about their production.”

So where is all the missing gamma radiation?

It’s possible that interstellar material around the exploding star could have blocked gamma rays from reaching the Fermi telescope. But it might also mean that astronomers need to look for alternative explanations for the production of cosmic rays.

Nobody likes a good mystery better than astronomers, and digging into the missing gamma radiation could eventually tell us a whole lot more about cosmic rays and where they come from.

Astronomers plan to study SN 2023ixf in other wavelengths to improve their models of the event, and will of course keep an eye out for the next big supernova, in an effort to understand what is going on.

• The most recent gamma-ray data from SN 2023ixf will be published in Astronomy and Astrophysics in a paper led by Martí-Devesa.

 { https://www.universetoday.com/ }

19-04-2024 om 22:05 geschreven door peter  

You had to be in the right part of North America to get a great view of the recent solar eclipse. But a particular telescope may have had the most unique view of all. Even though that telescope is in Hawaii and only experienced a partial eclipse, its images are interesting.

The Daniel K. Inouye Solar Telescope (DKIST) is at the Haleakala Observatory in Hawaii. With its four-meter mirror, it’s the largest solar telescope in the world. It observes in visible to near-infrared light, and its sole target is the Sun. It can see features on the Sun’s surface as small as 20 km (12 miles.) It began science operations in February 2022, and its primary objective is to study the Sun’s magnetic fields.

Though seeing conditions weren’t perfect during the eclipse and the eclipse was only partial when viewed from Hawaii, the telescope still gathered enough data to create a movie of the Moon passing in front of the Sun. The bumps on the Moon’s dark edge are lunar mountains.

via GIPHY

“The team’s primary mission during Maui’s partial eclipse was to acquire data that allows the characterization of the Inouye’s optical system and instrumentation,” shares National Solar Observatory scientist Dr. Friedrich Woeger.

The Moon plays a critical role in measuring the telescope’s performance. Its edge is well-known and as a dark object in front of the Sun, it acts as a unique tool to measure the Inouye telescope’s performance and to understand the data it collects. Since the telescope has to correct for Earth’s turbulent atmosphere with adaptive optics, the Moon’s known qualities help researchers work with the telescope’s optical elements.

“With the Inouye’s high order adaptive optics system operating, the blurring due to the Earth’s atmosphere was greatly reduced, allowing for extremely high spatial resolution images of the moving lunar edge,” said Woeger. “The appearance of the edge is not straight but serrated because of mountain ranges on the Moon!” This serrated dark edge covers the granular convection pattern that governs the “surface of the Sun.”

The Inouye Solar Telescope studies the Sun’s magnetic fields, which drive space weather. What we see in the video is visually interesting, but there’s a lot of data behind it.

It’ll take several months to analyze all of the data it gathered during the eclipse.

{ https://www.universetoday.com/ )

19-04-2024 om 21:54 geschreven door peter  

Tales of a Total Solar Eclipse

We were also treated to some amazing images of the eclipse from Earth and space. NASA also had several efforts underway to chase the eclipse. Even now, we’re still processing the experience. It takes time (and patience!) for astro-photos to make their way through the workflow. Here are some of the best images we’ve seen from the path of totality:

Tony Dunn had an amazing experience, watching the eclipse from Mazatlan, Mexico. “When totality hit, it didn’t look real,” Dunn told Universe Today. “It looked staged, like a movie studio. the lighting is something that can’t be experienced outside a total solar eclipse.”

Dunn also caught an amazing sight, as the shadow of the Moon moved across the low cloud cover:

Black Hole Sun

Peter Forister caught the eclipse from central Indiana. “It was my second totality (after 2017 in South Carolina), so I knew what was coming,” Forister told Universe Today. “But it was still as incredible and beautiful as anything I’ve ever seen in nature. The Sun and Moon seemed huge in my view—a massive black hole (like someone took a hole punch to the sky) surrounded by white and blue flames streaking out. Plus, there was great visibility of the planets and a few stars. The memory has been playing over and over in my head since it happened—and it’s combined with feelings of awe and wonder at how beautiful our Universe and planet really are. The best kind of memory!”

Like many observers, Eliot Herman battled to see the eclipse through clouds. “As you know, we had really frustrating clouds,” Herman told Universe Today. “I shot a few photos (in) which you can see the eclipse embedded in the clouds and then uncovered to show the best part. For me it almost seemed like a cosmic mocking, showing me what a great eclipse it was, and lifting the veil only at the end of the eclipse to show me what I missed…”

Totality Crosses Into Canada

Astrophotographer Andrew Symes also had a memorable view from Cornwall, Ontario. “While I’ve seen many beautiful photos and videos from many sources, they don’t match what those us there in person saw with our eyes,” Symes told Universe Today. “The sky around the Sun was not black but a deep, steely blue. The horizon was lighter–similar to what you’d see during a sunset or sunrise–but still very alien.”

“The eclipsed Sun looked, to me, like an incredibly advanced computer animation from the future! The Sun and corona were very crisp, and the Sun looked much larger in the sky than I’d expected. The eclipsed Sun had almost a three-dimensional quality… almost as if it were a dark, round button-like disk surrounded by a bright halo affixed to a deep blue/grey background. It was as if a ‘worm hole’ or black hole had somehow appeared in front of us. I’m sure my jaw dropped as it was truly a moment of utter amazement. I’m smiling as I type it now… and still awestruck as I recall it in my mind!”

Success for the Total Solar Eclipse in Aroostook County Maine

We were met with success (and clear skies) watching the total solar eclipse with family from our hometown of Mapleton, Maine. We were mostly just visually watching this one, though we did manage to nab a brief video of the experience.

What I was unprepared for was the switch from partial phases to totality. It was abrupt as expected, but there almost seemed to be brief but perceptible pause from day to twilight, as the corona seemed to ‘switch on.’ We all agreed later on that the steely blue sky was not quite night… but not quite twilight, either.

When’s the next one? I often wonder how many watchers during a given eclipse were ‘bitten by the bug,’ and looking to chase the next one. Spain is set to see an eclipse a year for the next three years, starting in 2026:

Spain in August… be sure to stay cool and bring sunblock. Don’t miss the next total solar eclipse, and be thankful for our privileged vantage point in time and space.

{ https://www.universetoday.com/ )

19-04-2024 om 21:40 geschreven door peter  

10 Notable UFO Landing Cases from the Late 20th Century

The late 20th century witnessed a surge in UFO sightings that captivated the public and researchers alike. With reports spanning across the globe, these encounters not only sparked curiosity but also left physical evidence and credible testimonies. This article delves into ten of the most compelling UFO landing cases from this era, exploring the unique circumstances and lasting implications of each.

1. New Mexico, 1976

In the quiet expanses of New Mexico, an unsettling series of animal mutilations coincided with reports of UFO landings. Law enforcement and locals found themselves puzzled by the precise surgical removals on cattle, connected with strange craft observed in the night skies, leaving behind physical traces and a community on edge.

2. China, 1977

Amidst political turbulence post-Mao, a silent luminous object was witnessed landing on a hilltop in Fujian Province. The incident, involving over 150 soldiers, ended with a high-stakes standoff, the craft emitting disorienting effects on the troops before it ascended swiftly into the night sky.

3. Argentina, 1979

In the remote town of Viseras, oil field workers encountered a UFO at dawn. The object responded to the workers’ signals using its lights, leaving behind a petrified sand circle and distressed local wildlife, suggesting a possible interest in the area’s natural resources.

4. United Kingdom, 1980

The Rendlesham Forest incident, often dubbed “Britain’s Roswell,” involved multiple military personnel from the nearby RAF Bentwaters. Witnesses reported close encounters with a structured craft capable of telepathic communication, leaving lasting health effects on those involved.

5. USSR, 1985

In a secretive episode from the Soviet era, a military installation tracked a high-altitude object before witnessing it dispatch a smaller craft that landed. The rapid mobilization of military units and subsequent cover-up attempts highlighted the tense relationship between UFO phenomena and Cold War sensibilities.

6. USSR, 1990

Another significant Soviet case involved a radar interference by an unidentified triangular craft that briefly landed, affecting electronic equipment and personnel. The incident left behind no physical evidence but contributed to a pattern of sightings that challenged official dismissals of UFO reports.

7. Peru, 1996

High in the Andes, shepherds reported seeing multiple objects, including a larger mother ship, from which beings emerged to collect environmental samples. This case echoed older accounts from the 1950s and suggested a scientific curiosity about Earth’s biosphere.

8. Brazil, 1997

In the rural outskirts of Santo Angelo, witnesses described encounters on consecutive nights involving different unidentified objects. Each incident resulted in physical traces such as crop circles, with local UFO groups scrambling to document the events.

9. South Africa, 1998

A farmer in Bloemfontein experienced vehicle failure and temporary paralysis close to a landed UFO, an encounter that paralleled other cases worldwide where proximity to UFOs appeared to influence human physiology and mechanical functionality.

10. Malaysia, 2000

As the millennium closed, villagers in Kampong witnessed an intensely bright light associated with a UFO landing. The next morning, a Y-shaped indentation marked the landing site, adding to the global archive of physical evidence supporting the reality of UFO visitations.

VIDEO:

• 10 UFO LANDING CASES OF THE LATE 20TH CENTURY | Richard Dolan Show
• https://youtu.be/6NjL3T3fMvQ

These cases, diverse in geography and details, share common threads of unexplained phenomena and enduring intrigue. They reflect a global pattern of encounters that continue to challenge conventional understandings of reality and prompt questions about what lies beyond the known frontiers of science and technology. As we look back on these incidents, they encourage a reevaluation of our place in the cosmos and underscore the importance of an open, informed approach to the unknown.

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

19-04-2024 om 20:09 geschreven door peter  

‘Yeah, I Think There’s A Cover Up’: Rep. Tim Burchett Has Hilarious Reaction To Classified UFO Briefing

19-04-2024 om 00:49 geschreven door peter  

Steven Spielberg set to direct new UFO movie with Jurassic Park writer... 50 YEARS after iconic Close Encounters of the Third Kind

By TERRY ZELLER FOR DAILYMAIL.COM

Steven Spielberg is poised to revisit science fiction, following his success in directing classic films such as Close Encounters, E.T. and War of the Worlds.

The SOscar-winning director is making a 'UFO film based on his own idea,' according to a report from Variety on Wednesday.

He is reportedly teaming up again with screenwriter David Koepp, known for their collaboration on the 1993's Jurassic Park.

Although no title has been confirmed for the upcoming film and details remain limited, the reunion between the writer and director responsible for one of cinema's greatest blockbusters is undoubtedly an exciting prospect.

Notably, Koepp is penning the upcoming installment in the Jurassic World franchise, slated for release next year. 

Steven Spielberg is poised to revisit science fiction, following his success in directing classic films such as Close Encounters, E.T. and War of the Worlds; seen in February

The Oscar-winning director is making a ' UFO film based on his own idea,' according to a report from Variety on Wednesday

Recently, Spielberg has shifted his focus away from the dinosaur saga, allowing other directors to helm the latest Jurassic World trilogy. 

Instead, the veteran filmmaker delved into The Fabelmans, a personal project drawing from his own youth. 

This acclaimed film, centered on a young man's dream of filmmaking, received praise and earned nominations during last year's awards season. 

Additionally, Spielberg directed a remake of West Side Story, starring Rachel Zegler and Ansel Elgort. 

The director hasn't tackled a full-fledged UFO film since 1977's Close Encounters of the Third Kind, which cemented its status in pop culture as one of the most influential alien stories. 

Richard Dreyfuss portrayed Roy Neary, an average blue-collar worker from Indiana whose life takes a dramatic turn after encountering a UFO. 

It became a monumental success, both at the box office and among critics.

The film earned nine Academy Award nominations, clinching the Oscar for Best Cinematography and receiving a Special Achievement Academy Award for Sound Effects Editing.

Spielberg followed up with ET, the heartwarming story of a young boy named Elliot who befriends an alien stranded on Earth. 

Released in 1982, the film became a cultural phenomenon, grossing over $800 million worldwide and holding the title of the highest-grossing film of all time until 1993. 

He is reportedly teaming up again with screenwriter David Koepp, known for their collaboration on the 1993's Jurassic Park 

Although no title has been confirmed for the upcoming film and details remain limited, the reunion between the writer and director responsible for one of cinema's greatest blockbusters is undoubtedly an exciting prospect

The director hasn't tackled a full-fledged UFO film since 1977's Close Encounters of the Third Kind, which cemented its status in pop culture as one of the most influential alien stories

Spielberg followed up with 1982's ET, the heartwarming story of a young boy named Elliot who befriends an alien stranded on Earth

Then came 2005's War of the World, which followed the harrowing journey of a father, played by Tom Cruise, and his children as they struggle to survive an alien invasion

Its impact extended to the awards circuit, earning nine Academy Award nominations, including Best Picture, and winning four Oscars, including Best Original Score and Best Visual Effects. 

Then came 2005's War of the World, which followed the harrowing journey of a father, played by Tom Cruise, and his children as they struggle to survive an alien invasion. 

The film garnered commercial success, grossing over $600 million worldwide and becoming one of the top-grossing films of the year. 

It also earned three Academy Award nominations for Best Sound Editing, Best Sound Mixing, and Best Visual Effects. 

{ https://www.dailymail.co.uk/ }

19-04-2024 om 00:29 geschreven door peter  

Dit is de meest 'buitenaardse' bestemming op aarde

©Shutterstock

Dit is de meest 'buitenaardse' bestemming op aarde
Ergens in de Indische Oceaan vind je de meest buitenaardse plek op aarde: Socotra. Een eiland dat toebehoort aan Jemen en een ecologisch heiligdom herbergt. De plek is moeilijk te bereiken en er geldt dan ook een negatief reisadvies voor het eiland, gezien de ideologische en religieuze conflicten. Desalniettemin kun je de omgeving vanuit je stoel veilig ontdekken. Klik verder en ga mee op een buitenaardse reis op aarde!

©Shutterstock

Paradijs op aarde
Vier eilanden vormen de Socotra-archipel in de Indische Oceaan.

©Shutterstock

Socotra-archipel
Het ligt ongeveer 380 km uit de kust van Jemen.

©Shutterstock

Ontstaan
Experts schatten dat het eiland 35 miljoen jaar geleden van het continent is gescheiden.

©Shutterstock

Omvang
Het eiland Socotra is 132 km lang en 50 km breed.

©Reuters

Taal
De lokale taal is Socotri, maar het is mogelijk om in het Arabisch te communiceren met een deel van de lokale bevolking.

©Reuters

Betekenis
In het Sanskriet betekent Socotra 'Eiland van Geluk'.

©Shutterstock

Klimaat
Omdat de taal zeer specifiek is, is er geen vertaling voor sommige dier- en plantensoorten.

©Reuters

Mythologie
In de oude Griekse mythologie was de troon van Uranus verborgen in de bergen van Socotra.

©Shutterstock

Mythologie
De Grieken dachten dat het het huis was van heksen en tovenaars.

©Shutterstock

Magische plek
Het is moeilijk om niet onder de indruk te zijn van zoveel natuurlijke schoonheid.

©Reuters

Fauna
Socotra is ook de thuisbasis van vele vogelsoorten die alleen op het eiland te vinden zijn.

©Reuters

Landschap
Veel grotten en bergen vormen de topografie van het eiland.

©Shutterstock

Landschap
Evenals prachtige witte zandstranden.

©Shutterstock

Landschap
Je vindt hagelwitte zandduinen aan de paradijselijke kustlijn

©Shutterstock

Typische boom
De Drakenbloedboom is een exotische boom afkomstig uit de regio.

©Reuters

Typische boom
Het is genoemd naar zijn rode boomsap.

©Shutterstock

Typische boom
De takken zien eruit als paddenstoelen en sommigen zeggen dat ze zelfs lijken op zwevende UFO's.

©Shutterstock

Typische boom
Een andere inheemse boom is de Woestijnroos

©Reuters

Typische boom
De ongebruikelijke vorm lijkt op een olifantenpoot.

©Shutterstock

Ongewone plek
Socotra Island is uniek en bevat veel kenmerken die alleen daar te vinden zijn.

©Shutterstock

Ongewone plek
Het wordt beschouwd als een buitenaards eiland omdat het de thuisbasis is van een breed scala aan fauna en flora.

©Reuters

Ecologisch heiligdom
Ongeveer 75% van het eiland bestaat uit beschermde gebieden.

©Shutterstock

Erfgoed
Socotra werd uitgeroepen tot UNESCO-werelderfgoed.

Zie ook:

• n dit gekke stadje huist een onverklaarbaar fenomeen

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18-04-2024 om 21:54 geschreven door peter  

Are We Living in an Alien-Controlled Simulation?

Where the lines between science fiction and scientific possibility blur, a fascinating theory has emerged at the crossroads of ufology and existential philosophy. It suggests that our reality, with its vast diversity of world religions and beliefs, might be nothing more than a sophisticated simulation controlled by extraterrestrial beings. This notion, endorsed by leading UFO expert Nick Pope, introduces a captivating explanation for the complex tapestry of human spirituality and the enduring mystery of UFO sightings.

Nick Pope, a former head of the British Government’s UFO project, articulates a compelling narrative that our perceived universe could be a construct—a cosmic game designed by alien intelligences. This simulation theory, as it’s known, posits that the myriad of religious beliefs on Earth might be the result of different programmers (or “designers”) contributing to the simulation’s code. Each designer, with their unique ideologies and potential flaws, crafts a distinct aspect of our world, leading to the rich variety of religious experiences and doctrines witnessed throughout human history.

The implications of this theory are profound, offering a radical perspective on the nature of existence and the origins of religious diversity. It suggests that what we consider as divine intervention or spiritual revelation could be interpreted as glitches or intentional features embedded by our extraterrestrial programmers. This viewpoint not only challenges conventional religious narratives but also invites us to reconsider the authenticity of our experiences and beliefs.

• https://youtu.be/4jNJNxEoWow

“God Versus Aliens,” a documentary featuring Pope and other UFO experts, delves deeper into this hypothesis. It explores the potential for life as we know it to be a simulation, controlled and observed by beings far more advanced than ourselves. The film provocatively suggests that the concept of a higher power, central to many religions, might actually refer to an alien race with the technology to fabricate universes.

Are UFOs demonic beings or angels?

Such a revelation, if ever confirmed, would undoubtedly send shockwaves through the fabric of society, especially the religious domain. Pope speculates on the varied reactions humanity might face, from the denial of religious leaders to the existential crisis among the faithful. He raises intriguing questions: Was religion a deliberate insertion into the simulation, or did it emerge as a spontaneous byproduct? And how would the discovery of our simulated existence reconcile with the deeply ingrained beliefs held by billions?

The documentary also touches on historical UFO sightings and encounters, framing them as possible interactions with the architects of our simulation. These events, often dismissed or shrouded in secrecy, could be evidence of our creators’ influence or experiments within the simulation.

The theory ventures into speculative territory when considering the role of anomalies within religious texts. Pope humorously notes instances in holy scriptures that seem absurd or out of place, suggesting they could be “Easter eggs” left by the programmers—a concept familiar to anyone who’s played a video game.

While the simulation theory remains a subject of debate and skepticism, it undeniably opens up a Pandora’s box of philosophical and theological inquiries. It forces us to ponder the very foundation of our beliefs, the nature of our universe, and our place within it—whether as autonomous beings or mere characters in an elaborate extraterrestrial orchestration.

As we continue to witness unprecedented UFO sightings and encounters, the quest for understanding our existence and the potential influence of non-human intelligences becomes more pressing. The simulation theory, with its bold assertions and imaginative insights, offers a unique lens through which we might explore these enduring mysteries.

Whether we are living in an alien-controlled simulation or not, the conversation around this theory enriches our pursuit of knowledge, challenging us to question the known and venture into the unknown. It beckons us to look up at the stars, not just in wonder, but in search of answers to the ultimate question: What is reality?

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

18-04-2024 om 20:28 geschreven door peter