Inside the Quest to Confirm A Strange 60-Year-Old Theory About Stonehenge

Archaeological evidence suggests Stonehenge also aligns with moonrise and moonset.

BY THE CONVERSATION, ERICA ELLINGSON, AMANDA CHADBURNANDFABIO SILVA

 

Chris Clor/Tetra images/Getty Images

When it comes to its connection to the sky, Stonehenge is best known for its solar alignments. Every midsummer night, tens of thousands of people gather at Stonehenge to celebrate and witness the rising sun in alignment with the Heel stone standing outside of the circle. Six months later, a smaller crowd congregates around the Heel stone to witness the midwinter Sun setting within the stone circle.

However, a hypothesis has been around for 60 years that part of Stonehenge also aligns with moonrise and moonset at what is called a major lunar standstill. Although a correlation between the layout of certain stones and the major lunar standstill has been known about for several decades, no one has systematically observed and recorded the phenomenon at Stonehenge.

This is what we are aiming to do in a project bringing together archaeologists, astronomers, and photographers from English Heritage, Oxford, Leicester, and Bournemouth universities, as well as the Royal Astronomical Society.

There is now an abundance of archaeological evidence that indicates the solar alignment was part of the architectural design of Stonehenge. Around 2500 BC, the people who put up large stones and dug an avenue into the chalk seemed to want to cement the solstice axis into the architecture of Stonehenge.

Archaeological evidence from nearby Durrington Walls, the place where scientists believe the ancient people who visited Stonehenge stayed, indicates that of the two solstices, it was the midwinter one that drew the largest crowd.

But Stonehenge includes other elements, such as 56 pits arranged in a circle, an earthwork bank and ditch, and other smaller features, such as the four station stones. These are four sarsen stones, a form of silicified sandstone common in Wiltshire, that were carefully placed to form an almost exact rectangle encompassing the stone circle.

Only two of these stones are still there, and they pale in comparison to their larger counterparts, as they are only a few feet high. So, what could their purpose be?

LUNAR STANDSTILL

The rectangle that they form is not just any rectangle. The shorter sides are parallel to the main axis of the stone circle, and this may be a clue as to their purpose. The longer sides of the rectangle skirt the outside of the stone circle.

It is these longer sides that are thought to align with the major lunar standstill. If you marked the position of moonrise (or set) over the course of a month, you would see that it moves between two points on the horizon. These southern and northern limits of moonrise (or set) change on a cycle of 18.6 years between a minimum and a maximum range – the so-called minor and major lunar standstills, respectively.

The major lunar standstill is a period of about one and a half to two years when the northernmost and southernmost moonrises (or sets) are furthest apart. When this happens, the Moon rises (and sets) outside the range of sunrises and sets, which may have imbued this celestial phenomenon with meaning and significance.

The strongest evidence we have for people marking the major lunar standstill comes from the US southwest. The Great House of Chimney Rock is a multi-level complex built by the ancestral Pueblo people in the San Juan National Forest, Colorado, more than 1,000 years ago.

It lies on a ridge that ends at a natural formation of twin rock pillars – an area that has cultural significance to more than 26 native American tribal nations. From the vantage point of the Great House, the Sun will never rise in the gap between the pillars.

However, during a major standstill the Moon does rise between them in awe-inspiring fashion. Excavations unearthed preserved wood that meant researchers could date to the year episodes of construction of the Great House.

Of six cutting dates, four correspond to major lunar standstill years between the years AD1018 and AD1093, indicating that the site was renewed, maintained, or expanded on consecutive major standstills.

Returning to southern England, archaeologists think there is a connection between the major lunar standstill and the earliest construction phase of Stonehenge (3000-2500 BC), before the sarsen stones were brought in.

Several sets of cremated human remains from this phase of construction were found in the southeastern part of the monument in the general direction of the southernmost major standstill moonrise, where three timber posts were also set into the bank. It is possible that there was an early connection between the site of Stonehenge and the Moon, which was later emphasized when the station stone rectangle was built.

The major lunar standstill hypothesis, however, raises more questions than it answers. We don’t know if the lunar alignments of the station stones were symbolic or whether people were meant to observe the Moon through them. Neither do we know which phases of the Moon would be more dramatic to witness.

A SEARCH FOR ANSWERS

In our upcoming work, we will be trying to answer the questions the major lunar standstill hypothesis raises. It’s unclear whether the Moon would have been strong enough to cast shadows and how they would have interacted with the other stones. We will also need to check whether the alignments can still be seen today or if they are blocked by woods, traffic, and other features.

The Moon will align with the station stone rectangle twice a month from about February 2024 to November 2025, giving us plenty of opportunities to observe this phenomenon in different seasons and phases of the Moon.

To bring our research to life, English Heritage will livestream the southernmost Moonrise in June 2024 and host a series of events throughout the year, including talks, a pop-up planetarium, stargazing, and storytelling sessions.

Across the Atlantic, our partners at the US Forest Service are developing educational materials about the major lunar standstill at Chimney Rock National Monument. This collaboration will result in events showcasing and debating the lunar alignments at both Stonehenge and Chimney Rock.

• This article was originally published on The Conversation by Fabio Silva and Amanda Chadburn at Bournemouth University and Erica Ellingson at the University of Colorado Boulder. Read the original article here.

{ https://www.inverse.com/ }

29-04-2024 om 22:12 geschreven door peter  

SCIENTISTS DISCOVER A 10,000-YEAR-OLD MAN-MADE MEGASTRUCTURE UNDER THE BALTIC SEA

This might be Europe’s oldest human-made megastructure.

BY STEPHANIE PIPER AND THE CONVERSATION

 

United Archives/Universal Images Group/Getty Images

Archaeologists have identified what may be Europe’s oldest human-made megastructure, submerged 21 meters below the Baltic Sea in the Bay of Mecklenburg, Germany. This structure – which has been named the Blinkerwall – is a continuous low wall made from over 1,500 granite stones that run for almost a kilometer. The evidence suggests it was constructed by Palaeolithic people between 11,700 and 9,900 years ago, probably as an aid for hunting reindeer.

The archaeologists investigating the Bay of Mecklenburg used a range of submarine equipment, sampling methods, and modeling techniques to reconstruct the ancient lake bed and its surrounding landscape. This revealed that the Blinkerwall stands on a ridge running east to west, with a 5km-wide lake basin a few meters below the ridge to the south.

The human, rather than natural, origin for the Blinkerwall was confirmed by an archaeological diving team who photographed sections of the wall. These show that it is made up of 288 very large boulders, which were probably dropped in that location by the retreating glacier, connected by 1,673 smaller stones.

These smaller stones appear to have been collected from the immediate vicinity, as the area just to the north of the wall has many fewer stones than the areas even further north. The resulting structure stands a little under a meter in height and up to two meters wide, with remarkable regularity over its 971-meter length.

A DIFFERENT LANDSCAPE

At the time of its construction, the landscapes and seascapes of northwest Europe were very different from today. The climate was beginning to warm as the colder Pleistocene era ended and the warmer Holocene era began. Sea levels were much lower, and large glaciers sat over much of Fennoscandia.

The land around the Baltic Sea basin rose rapidly, released from the weight of the retreating glaciers, and transformed into a brackish body of water known as the Yoldia Sea into freshwater Ancylus Lake. Great Britain was a peninsula of the European continental landmass, with a vast lowland plain known as Doggerland stretching from Norfolk to the Netherlands. Herds of reindeer, European bison, and wild horses migrated across its sparsely forested landscape.

In cultural terms, this period, known as the Late Upper Palaeolithic, is marked by significant hallmarks in technological innovation by the people who lived at this time. Dogs have recently been domesticated; there are regionally distinct forms of stone projectile points, and there is frequent use of decorated bone and antler harpoons, as well as specialist hunting strategies employed to target migrating prey.

The identification of the Blinkerwall now demonstrates that Palaeolithic hunters were managing their landscape to aid their hunting activities more deliberately than was previously thought.

The construction of walls and other features in the landscape is familiar to us, particularly in the context of land enclosure for farming. Both contemporary and ancient societies that have traditionally subsisted by hunting and gathering wild resources are also known to alter their environments by constructing features such as stone walls. These are used for a variety of purposes, including fishing, shellfishing, and hunting.

The researchers compared the Blinkerwall to other archaeologically documented structures of a similar length and construction type that have been identified in the Middle East, North America, Canada, and Greenland. These structures are interpreted as having been built for the purpose of game drive hunting. In this strategy, hunters use landscape and built features to gain an advantage over their prey by directing its movements to a location where they are more vulnerable to attack by other hunters.

The similarity of the Blinkerwall to these other structures, and its construction adjacent to a body of water, led to the suggestion that the wall had been created for the same purpose. The lake itself may also have been used in this strategy.

SUPPORTING EVIDENCE

One archaeological site from Germany that supports this interpretation is Stellmoor, located just north of Hamburg and which dates to the latest time that the Blinkerwall could have been constructed.

The site is located at the end of a narrow valley where thousands of reindeer bones – some bearing hunting impact traces, flint points, and even pinewood arrow shafts – were found preserved in the ancient lake sediments. The hunting evidence at Stellmoor shows the reindeer were shot by arrows as they were driven down the valley into the lake.

While there is no archaeological evidence at Stellmoor to suggest people had deliberately created or changed the landscape to enhance their hunting success, it shows how the topography of the landscape was used to the hunters’ advantage. The Blinkerwall construction provides evidence that Palaeolithic people took this level of planning and coordination a step further.

It shows they recognized and understood the instincts of their prey so well that they were able to predict their movements – and how they would react when faced with an artificially created obstacle like the Blinkerwall.

The discovery of this monumental piece of hunting architecture is unique in Europe. At a maximum of 11,700 years old, it is one of the oldest examples in the world, potentially predating a desert hunting “kite” at Jibal al-Gadiwiyt in Jordan by over a thousand years.

The Blinkerwall adds a new element to our understanding of the highly skilled and specialized hunting strategies engineered by people at the end of the last glacial period – strategies that have continued to be used in different landscapes for millennia. And the discoveries are unlikely to stop here.

The Bay of Mecklenburg has the potential to reveal further archaeological evidence of equal significance. The researchers do not rule out the possibility that another wall or other associated features could be found buried under later sedimentation of the ancient lake.

If weapons, tools, or animal remains were to be recovered at the site, this would reveal information about the nature and duration of their use – and far greater insights into the sophisticated subsistence strategies of the Palaeolithic hunters of the Baltic.

• This article was originally published on The Conversation by Stephanie Piper at University of York. Read the original article here.

{ https://www.inverse.com/ }

29-04-2024 om 22:02 geschreven door peter  

Asteroid Psuche was discovered in March 1852 by Italian astronomer Annibale de Gasparis. Because he discovered it, he was allowed to name it and settled on Psyche after the Greek goddess of the soul. It orbits the Sun at a distance of between 378 million to 497 million kilometres and takes about 5 Earth years to complete an orbit. Shaped like a potato, or perhaps more accurately classed as ‘irregular’ it is actually a little ellipsoid in shape measuring 280 km across wide at its widest part and 232 km across long. 

Of more interest than the objectives perhaps (although I for one am looking forward to learn more about this wonderful asteroid) was the trial communication system. The newly developed Deep Space Optical Communications technology (DSOC) is not the primary communications platform but it is there as a prototype. 

The optical system which relies upon laser technology successfully sent back engineering data at a distance of 226 million kilometres. Perhaps more impressively though, the spacecraft has shown that it can transmit at a rate of 267 Mbps (YES you read that right, just over quarter of a Gbps!) The impressive download speed was achieved on 11 December last year when a 15 second ultra high definition video was sent to Earth. Sadly though, as the spacecraft recedes, its data transmission capability will reduce. Still far better than normal radio communications though. 

Using a powerful modulated laser, the Optical Communication Telescope Laboratory in California will be able to send data at a low rate to Psyche. To receive data, a photon counting receiver has been installed at the Caltech Palomar Observatory to pickup information sent by the spacecraft. Communication has always been a great challenge in space exploration and, whilst we cannot reduce transit time for data, we can improve the amount of data sent at any one time. A great step forward in space exploration. 

Source : 

• NASA’s Optical Comms Demo Transmits Data Over 140 Million Miles

{ https://www.universetoday.com/ }

29-04-2024 om 21:47 geschreven door peter  

The Defense Department’s annual spending bill requires it to review U.F.O. sightings dating to 1945, the year some believe an object from space crashed in the New Mexico desert.

By Remy Tumin

For the casual student of U.F.O. history, the modern idea of life beyond our planet usually dates to 1947, when a top-secret U.S. military balloon crashed in the desert near Roswell, N.M. The wreckage prompted decades of conspiracy theories and gave rise to the idea that Roswell was the site of an alien crash landing.

Now, thanks to a new congressional spending bill, U.F.O. enthusiasts may look to 1945 as the beginning of that era.

An amendment tucked into this year’s $858 billion National Defense Authorization Act, which funds the Defense Department’s annual operating budget, requires the department to review historical documents related to unidentified aerial phenomena — government lingo for U.F.O.s — dating to 1945. That is the year that, according to one account, a large, avocado-shaped object struck a communication tower in a patch of New Mexico desert now known as the Trinity Site, where the world’s first atomic bomb was detonated that July.

Experts said the bill, which President Biden signed into law in December, could be a game changer for studying unidentified phenomena.

“The American public can reasonably expect to get some answers to questions that have been burning in the minds of millions of Americans for many years,” said Christopher Mellon, a former deputy assistant secretary of defense for intelligence. “If nothing else, this should either clear up something that’s been a cloud hanging over the Air Force and Department of Defense for decades or it might lead in another direction, which could be truly incredible. There’s a lot at stake.”

The amendment was introduced by Representative Mike Gallagher, a Wisconsin Republican and a member of the Armed Services Committee. Mr. Gallagher, who declined an interview request, said in a brief statement that a “comprehensive timeline” of unidentified aerial phenomena in U.S. government records was needed, and that the amendment would ensure a full review of “all U.S. government classified and unclassified information.”

“This is an important step that will give us a more comprehensive understanding of what we know — and don’t know — about incidents impacting our military,” he said.

The U.S. government has dabbled in public-facing programs that have explored the possibility of alien life. In 2021, the Pentagon announced it would form a task force to look at the issue after a congressionally mandated report found that the government had no explanation for 143 sightings of strange phenomena by military pilots and others since 2004. NASA said in June that it would finance a study to look at unexplained sightings.

In 2022, the Defense Department established the All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office, which succeeded the Airborne Object Identification and Management Synchronization Group, after facing scrutiny from the public and lawmakers. Sean M. Kirkpatrick, a former chief scientist at the Missile and Space Intelligence Center, which is part of the Defense Intelligence Agency, was named director.

The introduction of drones and other airborne clutter has led to an increase in sightings of unidentified objects in recent years. The government, which delivered its most recent update on Thursday, has found that weather balloons and surveillance operations by foreign powers accounted for most of the recent sightings of unidentified aerial phenomena, though dozens remain officially unexplained.

The defense funding bill requires the new office to work with the intelligence community to identify any nondisclosure agreements related to possible U.F.O. sightings. It also requires the office to create a process for people to share information, regardless of classification, and to share its findings with the highest levels of the Defense Department. It also mandates that the All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office be fully staffed.

“This is an office now that has a voice and resources, and it has authority,” Mr. Mellon, the former Defense Department official, said.

Susan Gough, a spokeswoman for the agency, said in an email that “the department is reviewing the enacted legislation.”

Jacques Vallée, a longtime ufologist, astronomer and computer scientist, said the amendment’s inclusion in the defense bill was “an absolute turning point.”

“This is what all scientists and my colleagues have always dreamed of,” said Dr. Vallée, who has helped study reports of U.F.O.s for the Centre National d’Études Spatiales, the French space agency. He said that the U.S. government’s agreement to dig into the past meant “the stigma has been removed.”

Dr. Vallée began studying the Trinity incident several years ago alongside a journalist, Paola Harris, and interviewed people who claimed to have witnessed the crash. Dr. Vallée and Ms. Harris chronicled their research in a book, “Trinity: The Best-Kept Secret,” including the details of the avocado-shaped object. They also spoke to witnesses who said they came across the object as children and found what they described as “little creatures.”

In the United States, Dr. Vallée said, “there has always been, on the part of the government, especially the Pentagon,” a sense that civilian sightings are unreliable. “The reason,” he said, “is that civilians don’t have the technology to really document what happens, and of course the Pentagon does.”

But, Dr. Vallée said, there’s no reason that “a farmer in his field” isn’t qualified to give a quality observation of a possible U.F.O. “The civilian observations tend to be longer, they tend to be more detailed, they tend to leave a trace that we can analyze,” he said.

He said he was working with a team at Stanford University to analyze samples of minerals and debris that were left after U.F.O. crashes or landings.

“I would hope that the new project would continue to do that because I think we’ve shown the way to do that scientifically,” Dr. Vallée said. He added, “We don’t have proof that a biologist can look at, but we have considerable statistical and now observational evidence that there must be life out there, that the Earth is not unique.”

At 83, Dr. Vallée still holds out hope for tangible evidence in his lifetime.

“Science is a moving frontier,” he said. “I want to have the right answers, even if they are small answers, rather than more speculation.”

Understanding U.F.O.s

At House Hearing, Videos of Unexplained Aerial Sightings and a Push for Answers

May 17, 2022

The Truth Has Not Always Been Out There

June 24, 2021

The Pentagon Released U.F.O. Videos. Don’t Hold Your Breath for a Breakthrough.

April 28, 2020

{ https://www.nytimes.com/ }

29-04-2024 om 18:53 geschreven door peter  

Unveiling the Shadows: The 1945 Avocado-Shaped UFO Crash – A Prelude to Roswell

In the vast expanse of the New Mexico desert, a mystery older than the famed Roswell incident has beckoned the curious and the skeptical alike. In 1945, years before Roswell became synonymous with UFOs, an event unfolded near San Antonio, New Mexico, that would later be dubbed as the “Roswell before Roswell.” This event involved the crash of a mysterious “avocado-shaped” UFO—an incident that has intrigued UFO enthusiasts and researchers for decades.

President Biden’s recent signing of a military spending bill has thrust this enigmatic 1945 UFO crash back into the limelight, commanding the Pentagon’s All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office (AARO) to re-investigate the occurrence. This directive marks a significant moment in the annals of UFO investigations, promising to potentially unveil new insights into an event that predates the official narrative of UFO sightings in the United States.

At the heart of this resurgence in interest are the eyewitness accounts and the painstaking research of Jacques Vallée, a renowned scientist and UFO investigator, whose work inspired the character of François Truffaut in Steven Spielberg’s Close Encounters of the Third Kind. Alongside Italian UFO journalist Paola Harris, Vallée co-authored Trinity: The Best-Kept Secret, delving deep into the 1945 incident through the eyes of those who first encountered the wreckage.

The narrative of the crash is as fascinating as it is mysterious. Witnesses described an object with a dull metallic sheen, embedded in the ground, alongside accounts of strange, shadowy beings near the site. The subsequent military response, quickly securing and explaining away the incident as a downed weather balloon, did little to quell speculation, leading many to suspect a cover-up.

As the Pentagon embarks on this renewed investigation, the world watches with bated breath. The implications of uncovering new evidence or insights into the 1945 crash could be profound, challenging our understanding of human history and our place in the cosmos. The commitment to re-examine this case reflects a broader, more transparent approach to UFO sightings and encounters, signaling an era where the search for truth transcends the bounds of skepticism and secrecy.

With each passing year, the interest in UFO sightings continues to grow, fueled by a combination of technological advancements, increasing numbers of declassified documents, and a global community ever eager for answers. The re-investigation of the 1945 UFO crash not only serves as a testament to the enduring fascination with the unknown but also as a beacon, guiding us closer to the elusive truth that lies hidden among the stars.

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

29-04-2024 om 18:37 geschreven door peter  

Pentagon’s UFO Office Releases Report On Air Force Incident Over Gulf Of Mexic

The Pentagon has released a new report by the All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office (AARO) about a UFO encounter by a pilot over the Gulf of Mexico.

The UFO encounter occurred on January 26th, 2023 and was reported by a United States Air Force fighter jet pilot that was based at Eglin Air Force Base in Florida.

The incident was first made public by Congressman Matt Gaetz during a July 2023 hearing when he revealed that he had seen evidence of a UFO that he was “not able to attach to any human capability.”

In March, through a Freedom of Information Act request, documents pertaining to the UFO encounter revealed that one of the UFOs encountered by the Air Force pilot had a “orange-reddish” illuminated bottom, a “three-dimensional cone shape” top composed of “gunmetal gray segmented panels,” and was similiar in shape to an “Apollo spacecraft.”

The UFO encounter was significant enough for Congresswoman Anna Paulina Luna and Representative Tim Burchett to visit Eglin Air Force Base to conduct an investigation. Luna claimed that the Air Force and the Pentagon tried to cover up the incident and stop them from gaining clearance.

The pilot reported to the AARO “that they thought they saw a vertically oriented engine affixed to the side of the object that was nearly the height of the object.”

They also claimed that “upon closing to within 4,000 feet of the object, the radar on the aircraft malfunctioned and remained disabled for the remainder of the training exercise.”

Each and every claim made by the Air Force pilot was supposedly debunked or explained away by the AARO.

“AARO assesses the reported UAP very likely was an ordinary object and was not exhibiting anomalous or exceptional characteristics or flight behaviors,” the office concluded. “AARO has moderate confidence in this assessment due to the limited data provided.”

Based on a “thorough review of the data collected, official pilot accounts of the object’s description and behavior, laboratory testing of a commercial lighting balloon determined to have similar physical characteristics to the object described in the pilot’s report, a reconstruction of the flight geometry, and the sun angle at the time of the observation,” the AARO concluded “the object was a lighter-than-air (LTA) object, such as a large form-factor balloon; a meteorological balloon; a large Mylar balloon; or a large, commercial, outdoor, helium-filled, lighting balloon.”

AARO

It’s always just a balloon, isn’t it?

{ https://brobible.com/ }

29-04-2024 om 18:24 geschreven door peter  

Bestaan er levensvormen op de maan van Jupiter? Een nieuw instrument zal ons dat eindelijk kunnen vertellen

Door Janine

Zijn er levensvormen op Europa, een van de manen van Jupiter? Volgens wetenschappers is er een manier om daar achter te komen dankzij een nieuwe techniek: laten we eens kijken waar het uit bestaat.

Een sonde vliegt over Europa en pikt ijskorrels op

unknown author of the NASA - NASA/JPL/Space Science Institute/Wikimedia commons - Public domain

Het zou voldoende zijn om één enkele ijskoude korrel die Europa bedekt te analyseren om te ontdekken of de satelliet cellulair leven herbergt. Makkelijker gezegd dan gedaan, maar wetenschappers hebben een manier gevonden die in de nabije toekomst getest kan worden, wanneer Europa Clipper, de sonde van NASA, over Europa vliegt.

In de praktijk zetten wetenschappers alles in op een van de instrumenten van de sonde, genaamd SUDA, Surface Dust Analyser, die ijskorrels moet oppikken als hij door de bevroren waterpluimen op het oppervlak van de satelliet vliegt en deze vervolgens moet analyseren. Fabian Klenner, planeetwetenschapper aan de Universiteit van Washington en hoofdauteur van het onderzoek naar deze methode, zei: "Het is verbazingwekkend hoe de analyse van deze kleine ijskorrels ons kan vertellen of er leven is op een ijskoude maan. We weten nu in ieder geval dat SUDA over deze mogelijkheden beschikt."

SUDA en de analyse van een enkele ijskorrel van Europa

NASA-JPL/Wikimedia commons - Public domain

SUDA zal in staat zijn om de chemische elementen in het verzamelde materiaal direct te onderzoeken, dankzij een proces dat bekend staat als “impact ionisatie massaspectrometrie”. Het unieke aan deze techniek is dat het instrument een enkele ijskorrel kan analyseren in plaats van een grote massa ijsdeeltjes. Hierdoor kunnen onderzoekers ontdekken of een enkele korrel hoge percentages ingrediënten van een enkele cel bevat.

Wetenschappers geloven dat verschillende manen van zowel Jupiter als Saturnus, waaronder Europa, Enceladus, Ganymedes en Callisto, reservoirs van vloeibaar water bedekt met ijs bevatten. NASA's missie Cassini naar Saturnus heeft ontdekt dat pluimen ijskorrels die via het ijsoppervlak uit de verborgen zeeën van Enceladus spuwen verschillende organische verbindingen bevatten (en een hoge aanwezigheid van fosfor). Dit leidde tot de hypothese dat hetzelfde zou kunnen gebeuren op Europa.

Volgens Klenner zou de grote hoeveelheid ijskorrels rond de satelliet Jupiter het gevolg zijn van interplanetaire meteoroïden die het oppervlak raken, "waardoor er een vage wolk van ijskorrels rond de maan ontstaat - een paradijs voor een instrument als SUDA".

Is er cellulair leven in het ijs van Europa?

NASA/JPL/Space Science Institute/Wikimedia commons - Public domain

Het idee dat Europa levensvormen zou kunnen herbergen, is niet nieuw: in de jaren negentig opperde de natuurkundige Freeman Dyson de aanwezigheid van “gevriesdroogde vis” in de ring van ruimtepuin rond Jupiter: hoewel dit een ver verwijderde hypothese is, zou er cellulair leven, zelfs in gefragmenteerde vorm, kunnen worden gevonden in de ijskorrels van de maan. Voordat ze SUDA op hun missie stuurden, testten Klenner en zijn team de capaciteiten door middel van laboratoriumsimulaties met experimentele apparatuur, die in staat bleek om bacteriën in afzonderlijke waterdruppels te onderscheiden. De sonde Europa Clipper wordt volgens de planning in oktober gelanceerd en komt in 2030 in een baan om Jupiter, waar hij ongeveer vier jaar zal blijven.

Een ander recent onderzoek suggereerde dat de ijzige schil van Europa meer dan 20 km dik zou kunnen zijn, wat een voortdurend omvallen van de ijslagen zou kunnen veroorzaken en dus een uitwisseling van het oppervlak met de oceaan. Sascha Kempf, de hoofdonderzoeker van SUDA, legde uit: “Als Europa Clipper de uitwisselingsprocessen tussen ijs en oceaan zou bevestigen, dan heeft deze maan een mechanisme om materiaal van de oceaan naar het oppervlak te transporteren, en zouden instrumenten aan boord van de sonde materiaal kunnen analyseren dat ooit uit de oceaan kwam – misschien zelfs celmateriaal, indien aanwezig."

Bestaat er echt leven in het water van deze maan van Jupiter? Er rest ons niets anders dan afwachten.

Source:

{ https://www.curioctopus.nl/ }

29-04-2024 om 18:09 geschreven door peter  

NASA reist naar een asteroïde van onschatbare waarde: hij is rijk aan kostbare metalen en dat niet alleen

 Door Janine

In de familie van asteroïden die de kosmos bevolken, heeft er één in het bijzonder de aandacht getrokken van wetenschappers vanwege zijn mogelijk onschatbare waarde. Hier lees je waarom en waar hij te vinden is.

De belangrijke asteroïde Psyche

NASA

Psyche zou niet alleen een gigantische, maar ook een “zeer rijke” asteroïde kunnen zijn, die indrukwekkende hoeveelheden edelmetalen zou kunnen bevatten. Het bevindt zich ongeveer drie keer verder van de zon dan onze planeet en heeft een onregelmatige vorm, die doet denken aan een aardappel. Het breedste punt meet 280 km, terwijl het hoogste punt 232 km lang is, met een totaal van 165.800 vierkante kilometer.

De samenstelling ervan wordt geschat op een mix van 30% rotsen en 60% metal. Het 3D-model van de asteroïde suggereert de aanwezigheid van twee kraters, wat zou kunnen wijzen op een grote verandering in het metaalgehalte en de uiterlijke kleur van Psyche. Dit kan echter pas worden bevestigd als NASA's missie Pysche het voor het eerst van dichtbij kan zien. Wetenschappers geloven dat zijn oorsprong voortkomt uit een reeks talrijke en gewelddadige botsingen, die hij heeft overleefd sinds de vorming van het zonnestelsel. Om deze reden zou het kunnen onthullen hoe de kern van de aarde en die van andere planeten is gevormd.

Hoe lang zal NASA's missie Psyche duren?

Raysastrophotograhy/Wikimedia commons - CC BY-SA 4.0 DEED

Psyche is een ontdekking van de Italiaanse astronoom Annibale de Gasparis, die de asteroïde op 17 maart 1852 voor het eerst zag en hem de naam gaf van de Griekse godin van de ziel die trouwde met Eros, de god van de liefde. Omdat het de zestiende ontdekte asteroïde is, is de volledige naam 16 Psyche en vertegenwoordigt het een belangrijk doelwit voor NASA: het gelijknamige ruimtevaartuig werd op 13 oktober 2023 gelanceerd vanaf NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Florida, en zal over Mars vliegen om in augustus 2029 zijn bestemming te bereiken. In totaal zes jaar en 3,6 miljard kilometer.

De missie is van plan het oppervlak en de eigenschappen van het hemellichaam in kaart te brengen, dat een blootliggende kern van een planeet lijkt te zijn. Maar dit is niet de enige reden van belangstelling die Psyche omhult: er wordt geschat dat de kostbare metalen die het bevat, waaronder ijzer, nikkel en goud, ongeveer 10.000 biljoen dollar waard zijn.

Wat zal er gebeuren na de lange reis naar Psyche?

NASA /JPL-Caltech/ASU/Peter Rubin/Wikimedia commons - Public domain

Deskundigen werkten dag en nacht om het ruimtevaartuig te lanceren en het een baanbrekende reis naar de asteroïde te laten maken, die niet alleen de geheimen van de oorsprong van de aarde kon bevatten, maar ook een onschatbare economische waarde zou kunnen hebben. Er zal echter nog een lange weg te gaan zijn voordat deze voorspellingen worden bevestigd.

Constante monitoring van de orbiter zorgt ervoor dat deze zijn reis naar de diepe ruimte kan voortzetten, met mogelijke koersaanpassingen. Tegen de tijd dat het ruimtevaartuig Psyche bereikt in de belangrijkste asteroïdengordel tussen Jupiter en Mars, zal het ongeveer twee jaar rond de asteroïde draaien en verschillende aspecten onderzoeken, zoals de magnetische eigenschappen, de zwaartekracht en de samenstelling. In 2026 zal het ruimtevaartuig Mars naderen om een ​​zwaartekrachtboost te krijgen, waardoor het zijn reis kan voortzetten. De missie zou in 2031 moeten eindigen.

{ https://www.curioctopus.nl/ }

29-04-2024 om 17:50 geschreven door peter  

Comprehensive 3D map of the universe fills 11-billion-year gap

The new SDSS map of the universe is the result of over 20 years of data, and reveals new details about the cosmos

A 20-year study of the night sky has allowed astronomers to produce a comprehensive 3D map of the universe, covering 11 billion years of expansion. A new analysis of this map has highlighted a mismatch in the Hubble Constant, and revealed when the expansion of the universe began to accelerate.

The Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) has been collecting data for over 20 years now, with each data release resulting in more and more detailed maps of the cosmos. Now, scientists have combined it all into one huge three-dimensional map that covers almost the entire history of the universe. Importantly, the team says that the new study fills in a massive gap in the middle that has long bothered astronomers.

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“We know both the ancient history of the universe and its recent expansion history fairly well, but there’s a troublesome gap in the middle 11 billion years,” says Kyle Dawson, a lead researcher on the project. “For five years, we have worked to fill in that gap, and we are using that information to provide some of the most substantial advances in cosmology in the last decade."

The new map uses data from different phases of the Sloan survey to chart objects at different distances from Earth – therefore representing different time periods in the universe’s history. In this map, Earth is the dot at the very center, and the differently colored rings represent different data sets, circulating outwards in ever greater distances in space and time.

Anand Raichoor (EPFL), Ashley Ross (Ohio State University) and the SDSS Collaboration

The green section highlights galaxies closest to Earth, from data gathered during the first two SDSS runs. The pink and red circles cover the region up to about six billion light-years away, from observations of large, old, red galaxies. A little beyond that, the data comes from younger blue galaxies. To map even further out, to about 11 billion years ago, data was collected from quasars, which are bright galaxies with very active supermassive black holes at their centers.

The resulting map revealed a few new tidbits of information for astronomers. The researchers were able to use the map to measure the rate that the universe is expanding – a value known as the Hubble Constant. Strangely enough, they found the current value to be about 10 percent lower than when it’s calculated by measuring distances to nearby galaxies.

The team says that the data from the map is very precise, and made up of different data sets that all have the same conclusion. Exactly why there’s a mismatch for the Hubble Constant is a mystery that will require further study, the researchers say.

The study also showed that the expansion of the universe seemed to speed up about six billion years ago. It’s well known that the rate of expansion is accelerating, but nailing down when this began has been tricky in the past. Previous studies have suggested it started some four billion years ago, but the new data indicates it was earlier. A force dubbed "dark energy" is our current best guess for what is causing this acceleration.

And finally, since the study covers such a large section of space and time, it’s able to give one of the clearest pictures of what “shape” the universe is. Whether it’s flat or curved is the subject of ongoing argument for astrophysicists, but the new SDSS map adds evidence to it being flat.

The SDSS will continue to study the cosmos in ever more detail, with a new phase of operations due to begin later this year.

The research was published in a series of studies, as Sloan’s 16th data release. The team discusses the work in the video below.

Source: 

• SDSS

{https://newatlas.com/ }

29-04-2024 om 01:13 geschreven door peter  

Why is it so hard to send humans back to the moon?

Related: 

• Astronauts won't walk on the moon until 2026 after NASA delays next 2 Artemis missions
• https://youtu.be/WLC8vlH7vgw

In comparison, today NASA commands less than half a percent of the total federal budget, with a much broader range of priorities and directives. Over the past decade, NASA has spent roughly $90 billion on the Artemis program. Naturally, with less money going to a new moon landing, we're likely to make slower progress, even with advancements in technology.

Closely tied to the financial realities are the political realities. In the 1960s, America was in the midst of the space race, a competition with the Soviet Union to achieve as many firsts in space, especially landing humans on the moon. The public was on board and energized by this idea, as were lawmakers who directed NASA's expansive budget. 

That kind of spending, however, was deeply unsustainable. As soon as America "won," the public quickly lost interest and NASA funding tumbled. There simply isn't the political or public will to spend that amount of money for a second shot at the moon.

{ https://www.space.com/ }

29-04-2024 om 00:48 geschreven door peter  

(NASA, ESA, CSA, and L. Hustak (STScI))

ASTRONOMERS REVEAL AN ‘ACTIVE MOON’ MAY BE HIDING IN ORBIT NEAR THIS RECENT JAMES WEBB SPACE TELESCOPE DISCOVERY

MICAH HANKS 

Located approximately 47 light years from Earth, one of these brown dwarfs, CWISEP J193518.59–154620.3 (also known simply as W1935), possesses a surface temperature of about 400° Fahrenheit and a likely mass of somewhere between six and 35 times that of Jupiter.

During their studies, Faherty and her team found that W1935 was unlike other brown dwarfs they had observed; specifically, it appeared to be emitting methane. This is unusual since methane is most often associated with larger planets like gas giants.

“We were confused about what we were seeing at first but ultimately that transformed into pure excitement at the discovery,” Faherty said.

The initial detection of methane emanating from W1935 was reported in January, baffling astronomers at the time since the object is relatively cold and lacks any host star to provide its upper atmosphere with the energy that usually drives such methane emissions.

Faherty and her team relied on computer modeling in their observations of W1935, which revealed that it also appears to possess a temperature inversion, which is fairly common for planets orbiting stars. However, without any external heat source, it seemed odd that W1935 would possess this characteristic due to its isolation.

Ben Burningham, a researcher from the University of Hertfordshire and co-author of a new paper describing the team’s findings, says the team was “pleasantly shocked” by this discovery and went to work on trying to locate the source of the extra heat in W1935’s upper atmosphere.

• Micah Hanks is the Editor-in-Chief and Co-Founder of The Debrief. He can be reached by email at micah@thedebrief.org. Follow his work at micahhanks.com and on X: @MicahHanks.

{ https://thedebrief.org/category/space/ }

29-04-2024 om 00:27 geschreven door peter  

Kingman UFO Crash: Man Worked At Area 51 Said Alien Survivor Helped Re-Engineering UFO

In 1953, the Atomic Energy Commission conducted a series of powerful explosions at the Nevada Test Site, known as “Upshot Knothole.” During the same period, witnesses reported seeing eight unidentified flying objects engaged in a dogfight near Arizona. Historian and former museum curator Harry Drew spent ten years investigating the incident and discovered that three of the craft had crashed on the outskirts of Kingman, Arizona in May 1953.

Drew did not expect to find evidence of the Kingman UFO and was surprised to learn about the third crashed craft. Mystery Wire reports he researched old records and interviewed original witnesses to uncover a complicated story that was more intricate than the Roswell UFO crash story.

In 1973, a retired Nevada Test Site technician named Arthur Stansel revealed that he and his team were taken to a remote desert location in Arizona to recover a secret experimental craft that had crashed. The team found a perfectly intact 40-foot diameter disc-shaped craft with four alien beings associated with it, and it was shipped to Groom Lake, Nevada, where Area 51 was later built around it.

In his book, “7 Days in May: The Kingman UFO Story,” Drew describes what happened to the three crashed crafts. One was destroyed when it crashed into a mountain near Kingman, another was found intact miles away from the crash site, and the third one crashed next to a small reservoir after clipping a rocky butte. The military took the last unknown craft back to a Nevada base. He found military-issued food containers dating back to 1953 around the exact crash site, proving that military teams camped there.

UFO enthusiasts have speculated that the Kingman UFO incident might be linked to the nuclear tests conducted in Nevada. However, Drew’s research suggests that the cause was a trio of powerful experimental radar sites set up around Kingman.

Drew claimed that he was able to document the crashes and the secret transport of the crafts to Nevada. He also asserted that one of the crafts was entirely intact when discovered. Despite the hotly contested nature of the story, Drew has evidence to support his findings.

According to MUFON researcher Richard Hall, in April 1964, the first report of a crash near Kingman was relayed to him by a future Vietnam commander. However, it was not until June 1973 that the case of the Kingman UFO retrieval was brought to the public’s attention by renowned UFO researcher Raymond Fowler.

The incident involved an engineer, Arthur G. Stancil (also known as “Fritz Werner”), who took preliminary measurements to assess the momentum of the crashed craft, which could prove useful in any reverse engineering attempts. Stancil, an Ohio University mechanical engineering graduate, who worked at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base in Dayton, Ohio, first made the story public.

Dr. Eric Wang, who was suspected of leading a reverse engineering team on alien craft, headed the Installations Division within the Office of Special Studies where Stancil worked. Stancil provided an affidavit in April 1976 vouching for the honesty of his testimony, which was released by Ray Fowler in the UFO Magazine. In his statement, Stancil revealed that he was loaned out to the Atomic Energy Commission and designated as a project engineer on some atomic bomb tests referred to as “Operation Upshot Knothole.”

The craft was reported to have a brushed aluminum exterior finish, measuring approximately 30 feet in diameter, and contained two swivel seats, instruments, and display panels. The hatch was five feet high and three feet wide. Additional reports from the book “Majic Eyes Only,” written by Ryan S. Wood, indicate that the craft was embedded 20” into the desert sand on impact.

Re-Engineered UFO And Four Aliens

There are varying reports about the number of extraterrestrial biological entities (EBEs) recovered at the crash site. Some sources claim that four small EBEs were recovered, while others state that only one was found. Despite these discrepancies, there is evidence to suggest that a military blockade was set up along Highway 40, possibly in 1953, to secure the area leading to and from the potential crash site.

It is unclear whether the military recovered objects of extraterrestrial origin and transported them to a clandestine hangar, but there are reports of crashed discs being housed at a top-secret facility known as Area S-4, located 12 miles south of Area 51.

According to Wendelle Stevens, a retired US Air Force pilot-turned-UFO researcher, the disc that crashed near Kingman was transported to Area 51 via a U.S. Army tank transporter. The recovery crew attempted to tilt the craft on end to facilitate transportation across the country but abandoned this procedure when it became clear that it was impossible. Telephone poles had to be removed when the main road intersected with unimproved surfaces or dirt roads due to the oversized load of the disc on the trailer.

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Bill Uhouse, a retired mechanical engineer, claimed to have been part of a top-secret program to design and build flight simulators used to teach American test pilots how to control flying saucers. He stated that the origin of the program came from the UFO crash at Kingman.

Mr. Uhouse claimed to have served in the Marine Corps and Air Force for a total of 14 years as a fighter pilot and flight tester of experimental aircraft. Later in his career, he worked as an engineer for defense contractors, focusing on antigravity propulsion systems and flight simulators for exotic aircraft, as well as actual flying discs.

According to his testimony, the first disc they tested was a re-engineered ET craft. Mr. Uhouse was invited to work on a flying disc simulator by an unknown man. He was reassigned to link aviation and worked on building the F-102 simulator and B-47 simulator. He claimed that extraterrestrials presented a craft to the US government which was taken to Area 51, and the four ETs were taken to Los Alamos. His specialty was the flight deck and instruments, and he met with an ET called J-rod who helped engineers with the craft’s engineering.

“There was only one of them (alien) that would talk to scientists in the lab with them and the rest wouldn’t talk to anybody or even have a conversation with them. First, they thought it was mental telepathy but it is kind of a joke to me because they actually speak maybe not like we do but uh they actually speak,” Mr. Uhouse said on Sirius Disclosure.

In his 2013 interview, Mr. Uhouse discussed his work on a craft that was different from Bob Lazar’s alleged reactor. He explained that the simulator he worked on had six capacitors charged with a million volts each, which created a gravitational field that allowed the craft to lift off and turn left to right.

The craft had no windows, and visibility was through cameras, and there were no seat belts as the craft had its own gravitational field. Uhouse mentioned that it took a significant amount of training to operate the craft, and its design did not allow for the installation of external weapons like traditional aircraft. He also claimed that Area-51’s secrecy was due to a peace pact signed between the US and the United Nations during the time of President Eisenhower.

In 1977, UFO researcher Len Stringfield shared another account supporting the Kingman UFO crash. According to this new story, a man who served in the National Guard at Wright Patterson claimed to have witnessed the delivery of three bodies packed in dry ice, measuring four feet tall with large heads and brownish skin. The bodies were reportedly recovered from a crash site in Arizona in 1953. Since then, several other witnesses have come forward, but further details are currently unavailable. (Source)

Interestingly, UFO expert Charles Wilhelm heard a strikingly similar story in 1966 from a man who claimed that his father had shared the account on his deathbed. In 1995, an individual who went by the name of Jarod-2 contacted The Groom Lake Desert Rat, an Internet publication, and revealed that he had worked on a secret project for the USAF. The project aimed to construct a flying saucer simulator and had gathered materials from the Roswell and Kingman crash sites.

{ https://www.howandwhys.com/ }

28-04-2024 om 23:15 geschreven door peter  

(Image Source: Adobe Stock)

CHINA CLAIMS NEW BREAKTHROUGH IN LASER PROPULSION COULD LEAD TO ULTRAFAST, STEALTH SUBMARINES

TIM MCMILLAN

Researchers first introduced the new laser propulsion system at the “Applied Optics and Photonics” conference in Beijing in late 2023. During the proceedings, scientists explained that the system utilizes high-energy lasers to direct the force from cavitation implosions to propel a submarine. 

In a paper recently published in the Chinese academic journal Acta Optica Sinica, scientists elaborated that the system, named “underwater fiber laser-induced plasma detonation wave propulsion,” works by directing laser energy through optical fibers. These fibers, as thin as human hairs, would coat the submarine’s exterior, allowing directed high-power laser beams to propel the vessel through the water. 

The setup purportedly generates up to 70,000 newtons of thrust with just 2 megawatts of laser power, roughly equivalent to the force of a commercial jet engine. 

The use of laser propulsion systems represents a significant departure from traditional propellants. Instead of relying on mechanical engines, this innovative method uses lasers to generate plasma in water, creating a wave that propels the vessel forward.

The concept of laser propulsion is associated with the phenomenon of supercavitation or the formation of bubbles around a submarine’s surface. This creates an air pocket that drastically reduces water resistance, allowing the submarine to achieve extraordinary speeds. 

Theoretically, a submarine exploiting supercavitation could travel faster than the speed of sound, or nearly 667 knots-per-hour (767 mph). The Soviet twin-propeller K-222 submarine holds the fastest claimed underwater speed, reportedly clocking in at 44.7 knots during sea trials in 1969. 

Laser propulsion operates similarly to a magnetohydrodynamic drive (MHD), a concept for marine propulsion that has been explored since the late 1960s. 

While a magnetohydrodynamic drive propels a submarine by using electric and magnetic fields to accelerate a liquid or gas, a laser propulsion system propels the vessel using focused laser beams to create plasma.

Also similar to a magnetohydrodynamic drive (MHD), a laser propulsion system would have no moving parts, reducing a submarine’s autistic signature as it passes through the water. 

The idea of using laser propulsion for submarines has been explored for decades. Yet, despite these efforts, previous attempts to develop the technology have failed to produce a system with enough power or thrust to be practical.

However, Chinese scientists, led by Dr. Ge Yang, an associate professor at Harbin Engineering University, have reportedly overcome previous hurdles in laser propulsion technology by innovating the structure used to harness and direct energy. 

Researchers said insights from the Chinese aerospace defense sector, particularly in advanced plasma electric propulsion used in hypersonic weapons, were instrumental in refining the technology. 

Despite this development’s potential, researchers have not yet addressed several critical challenges. These include confronting the problem of heat dissipation in the optical fibers, their durability in harsh underwater environments, and the integration of the system with existing submarine designs, particularly the surfacing and steering mechanisms. 

These issues must be resolved before this novel laser propulsion system is considered viable. However, if realized, the military implications of such technology are significant. 

Submarines are vital to national security because of their stealth capabilities and firepower. Successfully developing an operational laser propulsion system would significantly improve the stealth and speed of China’s naval forces, potentially altering the strategic dynamics in the ongoing technological rivalry between Beijing and the United States.

{ https://thedebrief.org/category/science/ }

28-04-2024 om 22:40 geschreven door peter  

NASA’s Juno Spacecraft Stumbled On A Glistening Lava Lake On Jupiter’s Moon Io

Loki Patera is like no place on Earth.

BY KIONA SMITH

 

NASA

Loki Patera isn’t the first lava lake scientists have spotted on Io; previous spacecraft, including Galileo (RIP) have also sent home images of similar features, but Juno’s pics are the clearest and most detailed. Based on Juno’s data, NASA created this animation of what a flight over Loki Patera might look like.

On Io, lava lakes like Loki Patera probably form when the ground over a magma reservoir sinks or collapses. Earth has similar features called calderas, which form when a volcano erupts and its top collapses inward because there’s less magma underneath to support it. Io’s paterae (the plural of patera) are similar to calderas on Earth and Mars, but they’re also different in ways that suggest they may form a little differently. A 2001 study, which used data from Galileo, suggested that tectonic movements may pull pieces of Io’s crust apart, leaving gaps that collapse and form paterae.

Once a patera like Loki forms, lava usually floods its floor – and often spreads well beyond the edges of the patera. The lava pours in from underground magma chambers like the one planetary scientists say probably lies beneath Loki Patera. Galileo captured an image of a patera on Io, with magma gushing in from fissures at the base of its rocky walls, back in 2000.

The surface of Loki Patera is exposed to the poisonous atmosphere of Io, so it slowly cools into a hard, thin crust of volcanic glass, which reflects sunlight so brightly in Juno’s images. Islands of rock — rock with a higher melting point than the magma beneath the patera — dot the middle of the lava lake. Glowing hot magma lines their shores and the lake's edges, peeking through cracks that form at the edges of the glassy crust.

Picture a frozen lake here on Earth: smooth ice on the surface and liquid water beneath. Now imagine that it’s all lava instead of water, and that’s Loki Patera.

But unlike ice, rock gets heavier, not lighter, when it cools and solidifies. Eventually, the crust will be too heavy to float on top of the liquid, molten rock beneath, and it will sink into the magma. This happens every Earth year or two, leaving the bubbling molten surface of the lava lake exposed, which spacecraft like Juno can see because the molten rock radiates about ten times more heat than the cooled, glassy crust.

{ https://www.inverse.com/ }

28-04-2024 om 21:49 geschreven door peter  

Presently, several of the Mako hypersonic missile’s capabilities remain unknown, which include specifics about the weapon’s multiple guidance systems. However, it is known that the Mako is capable of speeds reaching at least Mach 5 and that the weapon has been fit-checked both electronically and on actual fighter jets and other aircraft that include the Navy’s F/A-18E/F Super Hornet, as well as the similar two-seat EA-18G Growler. Similar fit-checks have also been conducted with the F-16, the F-15, and all three versions of the F-35 Lightning II.

Aircraft in the F-35 family, which specifically include the F-35A and F-35C, can carry the new Mako missile internally, whereas the F-35B and other aircraft would be required to carry the missile via external pylons. Combining internal and exterior loads would allow as many as six of the missiles to be carried by the F-35A.

Amid rising tensions with nations like China, the Mako’s performance and capabilities could provide a crucial advantage in the event of a conflict, given the new missile’s readiness for use against ballistic missile systems and mobile air defense capabilities that are likely to be utilized as part of anti-access/area denial strategies both China and Russia would likely employ.

Speaking recently at the Navy League’s 2024 Sea Air Space exposition, Rick Loy hinted at the possibility that the Mako could see additional use in the years ahead from surface or ground launch systems, “or even sub-surface like other weapons” that would conceivably extend Mako’s capabilities beyond just launch from aircraft.

Lockheed Martin has also implied that the weapon may be used by other countries, where the missile would offer an accessible and cost-effective solution for militaries wishing to acquire hypersonic capabilities.

Although official imagery depicting the Mako either in real-world testing or artistic representations has yet to be released by Lockheed Martin, video of the new missile as it appeared earlier this month at the Sea Air Space exposition has been made available by Naval News on its YouTube channel, which can be viewed here.

• Micah Hanks is the Editor-in-Chief and Co-Founder of The Debrief. He can be reached by email at micah@thedebrief.org. Follow his work at micahhanks.com and on X: @MicahHanks.

{ https://thedebrief.org/category/science/ }

28-04-2024 om 21:30 geschreven door peter  

A former White House insider shared a document, from around 2020, that appears to prove the US government recovered remains of a crashed UFO in the of Arizona in the 1950

A former White House insider has released a bombshell document claiming the US government has a crashed UFO.

Chris Mellon, who served in the Clinton and George W Bush administrations, published a redacted copy of discussions with a “senior US government official” who says it came down in Arizona.

The official, whose name Mellon has not released, says: “We’re dealing with the recovered UAP that landed in Kingman, AZ in the 1950s.”

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• Mysterious orange orbs that have 'been spotted across world' pictured off UK coast

In the document, from around 2020, they also warn people “would be slack-jawed if they found out what we now know”.

In the Kingman case from May 1953, witnesses reported seeing a fleet of saucer-like objects in the skies. Three were claimed to have crashed, with one appearing to be undamaged.

The US military is said to have been testing a powerful new radar system near the desert town around the time of the incident.

The case has echoes of the more famous Roswell incident from 1947 where the US military originally said they had retrieved a crashed flying saucer before making a U-turn and claiming it was actually a weather balloon.

The Kingman document was cleared for publication by the US government because it contains no classified material.

Mellon said: “My purpose in releasing this document, in the wake of the government’s blanket denials regarding the possession of off-world technology, is simply to help others understand why I and some others consider these allegations worthy of investigation.”

It comes after a veteran airline pilot shared four "unexplainable" objects that he's seen in the sky – including a "hypersonic" UFO and a craft that flew at "30,000mph".

Christiaan Van Heijst told podcaster Chris Lehto he assumed that he had stumbled upon the tests of some experimental USAF technology, but recent events have made him change his mind.

{ https://www.dailystar.co.uk/news/ }

28-04-2024 om 20:31 geschreven door peter  

UK’s Clearest UFO Photo Is Revealed, It Was Set To Be Released In 2072, 100% Authentic

By Vicky Verma

Nick Pope worked for the British Ministry of Defence (MoD) for 21 years. From 1991 to 1994, he was the head of the MoD’s UFO project. He said that during his time in the MoD, he came across several credible UFO cases. One such case involves the photograph from the Calvine Incident.

The story of how the photograph reached the MoD’s office is phenomenal. Mr. Pope said that when he began his investigation into UFOs in 1991, it led him to a poster, hanging on the wall near his desk. The poster was an enlarged-colored photograph of the UFO from the Calvine Incident.

“The X-Files first aired in the UK in 1994 and I acquired the same nickname (Spooky) as Fox Mulder, for obvious reasons,” Nick said. “Mulder famously had his ‘I want to believe’ UFO poster on his office wall and though uncaptioned, I suppose this was my equivalent.”

Most of the UFO photos are either fake, blurry, or just a small dot in the sky, but this particular photo was clear and taken in broad daylight. According to Mr. Pope, the photograph contained an 80-foot diamond-shaped craft with a military jet in the background.

Two unnamed hikers from the Perthshire region allegedly took the photo of a large UFO while walking near the village of Calvine on August 4, 1990. “The photos were then sent to the Defence Intelligence Staff (DIS) who then sent them on to imagery analysts at JARIC (Joint Air Reconnaissance Intelligence Centre). Yet at the time, the MoD hadn’t even publicly acknowledged that there was any intelligence interest in UFOs at all,” Mr. Pope explained.

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Interestingly, the photo disappeared without any trace when the UFO investigators questioned the MoD whether Americans were testing secret prototype aircraft in the area. Mr. Pope asked the US if the craft belonged to them but they refused to admit it.

According to a 30-year rule in the UK, the MoD was supposed to release the secret UFO dossier on January 1, 2021, but the UK government banned the release for another 50 years. This secret file is said to contain the infamous UFO photo from the Calvine incident. Now, it is set to be released on January 1, 2072.

Photo found after 32 years

UAP Media UK is working hard to bring a serious resource to the British media outlets on the discussion of UFOs. One of the members of this project named Vinnie Adams has been working with Dr. David Clarke and a small team of researchers on the Calvine case from 1990 in Scotland for the last 11 months. (Source)

This led him to discover an original print of the Calvine “UFO,” taken directly from the negatives that were sent by the witnesses to the Scottish Daily Record back in 1990, just after the event occurred.

He also found the original envelope which was sent from the Scottish Daily Record to Craig Lindsay who was the MOD Press Officer that dealt with the case at the time.

Mr. Adams wrote: “According to the copy of the hand-written sighting report that was released by The National Archives (TNA) in October 2008, the witnesses gave an account of their sighting plus the color photographs to what was the joint RAF/Royal Navy Headquarters at Pitreavie, near Dunfermline (which closed in 1996).”

Nick Pope mentioned the details of the Scottish sighting in his 1996 book “Open Skies, Closed Minds,” which prompted a British Parliamentary Question in July 1996 from Martin Redmond, Former Member of Parliament for Doncaster, about the incident:

“To ask the Secretary of State for Defence what assessment his Department made of the photograph of an unidentified craft at Calvine on 4 August 1990; who removed it from an office in Secretariat (Air Staff) 2a; for what reasons; and if he will make a statement.”

Nicholas Soames, Minister of State for the Armed Forces, gave a written reply to the MP’s question:

“A number of negatives associated with the sighting were examined by staff responsible for air defence matters. Since it was judged they contained nothing of defence significance the negatives were not retained and we have no record of any photographs being taken from them.” (Hansard HC Deb., 24 July 1996, vol.282, col 39248W)

Journalist Dr David Clarke, who is also a member of UAP Media UK, was put in touch with retired RAF press officer Craig Lindsay. Craig was involved in the Calvine case back in 1990 as the go-between for the Daily Record and the MOD.

During his involvement in the case, Craig acquired an original print of the elusive photograph. Along with the photo, Craig also kept the original envelope containing the photograph sent by the Daily Record to the MOD.

In May 2022, David interviewed Craig in Scotland and was shown the original print. In June, Craig agreed to donate the photograph to the Sheffield Hallam University Archives, handing it to Dr. Dravid Clarke and Vinnie Adams. The image now resides in its new home at the Sheffield Hallam University folklore archives.

Authenticity of Calvine UFO Photo

Andrew Robinson, a senior lecturer in Photography at Sheffield Hallam University claims the authenticity of the 1990 Scottish highlands UFO photo. In his detailed analysis, he found the image showing no evidence of negative or print-based manipulation, and all visible signs suggest this is a genuine photograph of the scene before the camera. (Source)

Robinson concluded in his study:

•  The photograph is a color print from XP-1 or XP-2 chromogenic Black and White C41 film printed on a standard;
•  It is not possible to identify the object in the center of the frame. However, the evidence present suggests that this object was in front of the camera in the position shown when the photograph was captured;
• Thus it follows that this is either a genuine unidentified flying object in the sky OR that any construction or manipulation used to create this effect occurred in front of the camera and not in the capturing of the scene on film nor in the subsequent processing and printing of the image;
• The results of this analysis are consistent with, and support the claimed heritage of the print.

Check the video below by Nick Pope, speaking about how insiders view the Calvine UFO incident

{ https://www.howandwhys.com/ }

28-04-2024 om 18:08 geschreven door peter  

The pilot described the apparent UFO as "twice the size of a city"

© NO ES CONTRA TI

An airline pilot claims he saw a "UFO twice the size of a city" while flying over Mexico. Arturo Saucedo recounted his experience in this video for the No Es Contra Ti podcast.

En route to California, Saucedo claims he noticed strange lights over Queretaro in central Mexico. “Suddenly, we were plunged into total darkness with only the panels lit up,” he said on the podcast.

“I then saw a beam of light that I first thought was something from Starlink as I had seen some images about Elon Musk’s company, basically a line of satellites that shine brightly in the sky.”

If you can't see the video below, click here.

Despite the fact that the strange flying item was 35,000 below him, Saucedo was alarmed by how large it was, even from a big distance away. “I should clarify that a UFO is not necessarily alien, it is an unidentified flying object,” he continued. “We are used to seeing things that are common to see, but this was not at all common.”

Along with his flight captain, Saucedo decided to report the sighting. However, he was informed that there was no satellite launches scheduled for that day. The pilot, though, is conviced that the technology is human and not otherworldly in nature.

It was “human technology, some type of American technology that they didn’t report," he said. While observing the anomalous object, Saucedo said “it started moving quickly to the right.”

So quick was the supposed UFO that it flew towards the Gulf of Mexico “in a minute, minute and a half” before disappearing from sight.

There has been no confirmation on what the pilot alleges to have witnessed was. It may, like so many other UFO sightings, remain a mystery.

{ https://www.msn.com/en-us/feed }

28-04-2024 om 17:36 geschreven door peter  

Nevertheless, small spacecraft will need to be able to perform challenging propulsive maneuvers like achieving escape velocity, orbital capture, and other maneuvers that require significant acceleration (delta-v). The thrust required to perform these maneuvers – 8 km/s (~5 mps) of delta-v – is beyond the capability of current and commercially available propulsion technology. Moreover, low-cost commercial electric propulsion systems have limited lifetimes and typically process only about 10% of a small spacecraft’s propellant mass.

Similarly, secondary spacecraft are becoming more common thanks to rockets with excess capacity (enabling rideshare programs). Still, these are generally limited to scientific targets that align with the primary mission’s trajectory. Additionally, secondary missions typically have limited time to collect data during high-speed flybys. What is needed is an electric propulsion system that requires low power (sub-kilowatt) and has high-propellant throughout – meaning it is capable of using lots of propellant over its lifetime.

To meet this demand, engineers at NASA Glenn are taking many advanced high-power solar electric propulsion (SEP) elements developed over the past decade and are miniaturizing them. These elements were developed as part of NASA’s Moon to Mars mission architecture, with applications including the Power and Propulsion Element (PPE) of the Lunar Gateway. A SEP system was also part of the design for a Deep Space Transport (DST), the vehicle that will conduct the first crewed missions to Mars by 2040. The NASA-H71M system, however, is expected to have a major impact on small spacecraft, expanding mission profiles and durations.

According to NASA, missions using the NASA-H71M system could operate for 15,000 hours and process over 30% of the small spacecraft’s initial mass in propellant. This system could increase the reach of secondary spacecraft, allowing them to deviate from the primary mission’s trajectory and explore a wider range of scientific targets. By allowing spacecraft to decelerate and make orbital insertions, this technology could increase mission durations and the amount of time they have to study objects.

It’s also beyond the needs of most commercial LEO missions, and the associated costs are generally higher than what commercial missions call for. As such, NASA continues to seek partnerships with commercial developers working on small commercial spacecraft with more ambitious mission profiles. One such partner is SpaceLogistics, a wholly owned subsidiary of Northrop Grumman that provides in-orbit satellite servicing to geosynchronous satellite operators using its proprietary Mission Extension Vehicle (MEV).

This vehicle relies on Northrop Grumman NGHT-1X Hall-effect thrusters based on the NASA-H71M design. This propulsive capability will allow the MEV to reach satellites in Geosynchronous Earth Orbit (GEO), where it will dock with customer’s satellites, extending their lives for at least six years. Through a Space Act Agreement (SAA), Northrop Grumman is conducting long-duration wear tests (LDWT) at NASA Glenn’s Vacuum Facility 11. The first three MEP spacecraft are expected to launch in 2025 and extend the lives of three GEO communication satellites.

Further Reading: 

• NASA

{ https://www.universetoday.com/ }

28-04-2024 om 17:16 geschreven door peter  

The Intriguing UFO Encounter of a Japanese Fighter Pilot

In the vast expanses of our skies, where the blue meets the infinite, lies a mystery that has puzzled humanity for decades: Unidentified Flying Objects (UFOs). Among the numerous accounts of encounters with these enigmatic phenomena, the story of Mamoru Sato, a retired Japanese fighter pilot, stands out for its compelling detail and the credibility of the witness.

Mamoru Sato, with a distinguished career spanning 34 years in the Japanese Air Defense Force, recounts a bewildering experience at Matsushima Air Base. During a routine training session, an anomaly in the clear sky caught the attention of a pilot under Sato’s command. A cigar-shaped object, defying the laws of aviation as we understand them, hovered eerily above. What makes Sato’s narrative particularly intriguing is the immediate effect the UFO had on the aircraft. The pilot struggled with the controls, a challenge unprecedented in his career, not due to a mechanical failure but seemingly caused by the proximity of the unidentified object.

The situation escalated when, upon attempting to land, the UFO reappeared, leading to a recurrence of the inexplicable loss of control, a phenomenon now witnessed by both the trainee and the instructor. This dual confirmation of the sighting under different circumstances adds a layer of depth to the encounter, suggesting a deliberate interaction, or at least an acknowledgment, from the unidentified entity.

Sato’s account contributes to a larger tapestry of UFO sightings by military personnel, a category that commands significant attention due to the expertise and reliability of the observers. These individuals, trained to identify and interact with various aircraft, lend a gravitas to their reports, pushing the boundaries of our understanding of the phenomena.

As stories like Sato’s emerge into the public domain, they fuel a growing interest in UFO sightings, transcending the confines of conspiracy theories to spark a genuine scientific curiosity. What are these objects? Where do they come from, and what is their purpose? These are the questions that haunt the minds of those who look to the skies and dare to wonder.

Mamoru Sato’s story is but a single thread in the intricate weave of UFO sightings, each account adding color and context to the ongoing investigation into the unknown. As we stand at the precipice of discovery, we are reminded that the universe is vast, and its secrets are waiting to be uncovered. The skies above are not just a frontier for our explorations but a canvas for the mysteries that dance just out of sight, inviting us to look up and wonder.

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

28-04-2024 om 16:59 geschreven door peter