China Just Launched its Chang'e-6 Mission To Grab Samples From the Elusive Far Side of the Moon

Liftoff for the Moon’s newest robotic visitor.

BY DORIS ELÍN URRUTIA

 

Hector Retamal / AFP / Getty Images

China has launched the Chang’e-6 rover to the Moon.

Chang’e-6 is the latest of the Chang’e fleet, named after the Chinese goddess of the Moon. On Friday, the rover launched atop a Chinese Long March-5 rocket from Wenchang Space Launch Site in south China's Hainan Province. Chang’e-6 has successfully deployed into space, and it’s now heading for the enigmatic far side of the Moon.

Its predecessor, Chang’e-5, collected about 2 kilograms of lunar material from the near side of the Moon in late 2020. This was the first time since the 1970s that humanity had brought samples from the Moon to Earth. In early 2019, Chang’e-4 was the first mission ever to land on the far side of the Moon. Chang’e-6 builds upon all that work.

WHY GO TO THE FAR SIDE OF THE MOON?

Chang’e-6 will be a blend of both those earlier missions: It will retrieve samples from the far side of the Moon. Chang’e-6 will land in the largest and oldest known impact basin on the Moon. Known as the South Pole-Aitken (SPA) basin, it “stretches across nearly a quarter of the Moon,” according to the team that operates NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter.

It’s a fascinating place. The terrain is quite dramatic. The craters are also thought to have formed 3.9 billion years ago when life was just beginning to form on Earth. If the craters owe their existence to a chaotic episode of rocky bombardment, that same rocky rainfall likely struck Earth and the other terrestrial planets.

According to Chinese state media Xinhua, Chang’e-6 will deploy its robotic arm about 48 hours after landing. It will scoop up rocks and lunar dirt, called regolith. It will also excavate samples with a drill. The 53-day mission will culminate in samples, sealed away and ferried into an orbiter, flying to Earth. They’re expected to land in Inner Mongolia at the end of June.

Chang’e-6 is also carrying scientific instruments from other countries. “The Chang'e-6 mission is carrying four payloads developed through international cooperation. Scientific instruments from France, Italy, and the European Space Agency/Sweden are aboard the Chang'e-6 lander, and a small satellite from Pakistan is aboard the orbiter,” according to Xinhua.

In a year packed with lunar visits from other robots, like Odysseus of Houston-based Intuitive Machines, and Japan’s SLIM lander, Chang’e-6 is set to keep the momentum of 2024 Moon exploration building.

{ https://www.inverse.com/ }

06-05-2024 om 00:37 geschreven door peter  

Details are only now emerging of a major incident centred on Langley Air Force Base, where assets from NASA were called in to help identify a 'swarm' of unidentified flying objects

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Chris pointed out that the object’s apparent target – Langley Air Force Base – regularly uses an area of sea off the coast of Virgina where former Navy fighter pilot Ryan Graves claimed to have detected multiple "unknown objects" in US airspace.

He added: “Graves said one of the objects was visually reported as ‘a cube within a transparent sphere.’ I'm a retired F-16 pilot I flew for 18 years and I've never heard of anything of that description – particularly if it's flying in high winds.”

Chris said the area around Langley Air Force Base, including the US Navy shipyards at Norfolk, are home to some of America’s most advanced warships.

He explains: “The incidents got so bad that additional assets were called in including the Whiskey Bravo 57F high-flying research plane that NASA owns.

"According to The War Zone this spate of bizarre drone incursions deeply underscores the still growing threats that uncrewed aerial systems [UAS] present on and off traditional battlefields.”

Plane spotters tracked two combat air patrols over the area in mid-December, as well as the advanced NASA plane displaying its ability to fly in absolutely perfect circles around Langley even in the face of high winds.

It’s only now that the purpose of these air patrols has emerged. A USAF spokesperson said: "To protect operational security, we do not discuss impacts to operations.

"We don’t discuss our specific force protection measures but retain the right to protect the installation. Langley continues to monitor our air space and work with local law enforcement and other federal agencies to ensure the safety of base personnel, facilities, and assets."

Chris noted that the exact reason for all this activity, in what is a militarily sensitive location, has not been revealed. He continued: “There's tons of important assets here; nuclear assets as well just an amazing amount of military hardware is it actually China on the east coast of the United States? because that would be quite interesting. Or is it people operating drones just in the general area? Is that what sparked all this activity?

“Or, is it UAPs? Could it actually be UAP incursions are picking up or now they're actually taking them seriously?”

Either way, Chris claimed this is an embarrassing incident for the USAF. “Its airspace getting penetrated for weeks on end is clearly not the best look – especially after major lapses in domain awareness and air defence capabilities were recently spotlighted by the Chinese ‘spy balloon’ saga,” he continued.

Langley is home to some of the USAF’s super-advanced F-22 fighters and one of their particular responsibilities is guarding the airspace around Washington DC.

Chris pointed out that there is a wealth of high-value military hardware located in the area. He explained: "Naval Station Norfolk the largest naval base on the east coast.

"It's home to roughly half of America's carrier Fleet and it's located just to the southeast a host of other military installations are also dotted throughout the broader area including Naval Air Station Oceana – that's where Ryan Graves operated out of and that's the Navy's Master tactical jet base on the East Coast also has Navy special warfare's East Coast headquarters."

The War Zone noted that unexplained drone incursions have been logged at military bases across the US. They wrote: “Military aircraft are also routinely encountering drones in various test and training ranges and other restricted military operating areas. America's nuclear power plants have had very troubling encounters with drone swarms.

{ https://www.dailystar.co.uk/ }

05-05-2024 om 23:50 geschreven door peter  

We could be in contact with aliens within the next few years as our technology continues to improve – and they could be looking for us in the same ways we look for them

By Adam Aiken

The Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence (SETI) project has been looking for aliens since the 1980s, and one of the top geeks working there is as confident as he’s ever been that they’ll soon strike gold.

Seth Shostak, who has been the senior astronomer at SETI for nearly a quarter of a century, seems to be pretty confident that we’ll come across intelligent aliens by 2036.

READ MORE: 

• Aliens 'signed treaty with government' as 'we've each got something the other wants'
  

He apparently bases this prediction on our rapidly improving technology, with massive strides being taken in terms of our telescopes and computers, reports Mail Online.

On Reddit recently, Seth said: “The trend of improving hardware - mostly computers -- has proceeded unabated. I'm still betting on a signal by 2036.”

And he reckons that once we’ve broken the seal, we could be blown away by how many other places could sustain life as we know it. In fact, he reckons there could be billions of Earth-like worlds out there.

“That may be the strongest argument for life in space,” he said. “If there isn't any, there's something really exceptional about what's happened here on Earth.

“While that's not ruled out by the data, it does seem a little self-centred.

Seth has also revealed the team at SETI have a firm protocol to follow if (or when) they finally confirm the existence of alien life – and it’s all remarkably matter-of-fact.

“There is a document,” said Seth. “Briefly, it says, check the signal to make sure it is truly extraterrestrial. Then announce it to the world, and consult internationally before transmitting a reply.”

We won’t know until it happens what contact from aliens looks like, but some geeks think they’ll be looking for us in the same ways we look for them. For instance, they could spot Earth’s shadow as we pass between them and the Sun.

There are 1,715 star systems which could have spotted Earth within the past 5,000 years, and more than 300 others that will be able to spot us in that way during the next 5,000 years.

Jackie Faherty, an Astrophysicist based at the American Museum of Natural History in New York City, said any aliens living on those worlds would have a “front-row seat to finding Earth”.

{ https://www.dailystar.co.uk/ }

05-05-2024 om 23:28 geschreven door peter  

We could be in contact with aliens within the next few years as our technology continues to improve – and they could be looking for us in the same ways we look for them

By Adam Aiken

The Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence (SETI) project has been looking for aliens since the 1980s, and one of the top geeks working there is as confident as he’s ever been that they’ll soon strike gold.

Seth Shostak, who has been the senior astronomer at SETI for nearly a quarter of a century, seems to be pretty confident that we’ll come across intelligent aliens by 2036.

READ MORE: 

• Aliens 'signed treaty with government' as 'we've each got something the other wants'
  

He apparently bases this prediction on our rapidly improving technology, with massive strides being taken in terms of our telescopes and computers, reports Mail Online.

On Reddit recently, Seth said: “The trend of improving hardware - mostly computers -- has proceeded unabated. I'm still betting on a signal by 2036.”

And he reckons that once we’ve broken the seal, we could be blown away by how many other places could sustain life as we know it. In fact, he reckons there could be billions of Earth-like worlds out there.

“That may be the strongest argument for life in space,” he said. “If there isn't any, there's something really exceptional about what's happened here on Earth.

“While that's not ruled out by the data, it does seem a little self-centred.

Seth has also revealed the team at SETI have a firm protocol to follow if (or when) they finally confirm the existence of alien life – and it’s all remarkably matter-of-fact.

“There is a document,” said Seth. “Briefly, it says, check the signal to make sure it is truly extraterrestrial. Then announce it to the world, and consult internationally before transmitting a reply.”

We won’t know until it happens what contact from aliens looks like, but some geeks think they’ll be looking for us in the same ways we look for them. For instance, they could spot Earth’s shadow as we pass between them and the Sun.

There are 1,715 star systems which could have spotted Earth within the past 5,000 years, and more than 300 others that will be able to spot us in that way during the next 5,000 years.

Jackie Faherty, an Astrophysicist based at the American Museum of Natural History in New York City, said any aliens living on those worlds would have a “front-row seat to finding Earth”.

{ https://www.dailystar.co.uk/ }

05-05-2024 om 23:28 geschreven door peter  

Researcher Mark Christopher Lee claims the 'Tic Tac' UFO exposed by US whistle blowers 'hovered above a USO emerging from the ocean' 

(Image: Youtube/Nub TV)

The infamous 'Tic-Tac' UFO exposed by US whistle blowers was "hovering above an unidentified submerged object (USO) emerging from the ocean".

This is the claim by UFO researcher and filmmaker Mark Christopher Lee who said the US Military and Navy have been inundated with UFO and USO confrontations since the 1950s, with the navy dubbing USOs their "biggest threat" yet.

The infamous interaction with the Tic-Tac UFO captured by crew members from the USS Nimitz in 2004 marked a significant turning point in human history – with two former Navy pilots having come forward to share their discomforting encounters with the alien craft.

READ MORE: 

• Aliens may not have visited Earth due to one 'morbid' reason, space scientist suggests

But now expert Lee has thrown more questions into the mix as he boldly claimed the Tic-Tac UFO was seen hovering above a USO, something not previously addressed.

"USOs have been seen coming from the oceans for hundreds of years," Lee told the Daily Star. "Even Christopher Columbus saw a USO on his voyage to the new world and the US Navy has had plenty of confrontations with USOs since the 50s and have identified them as the biggest threat.

"Note that the Tic-Tac UFO reported by the recent US whistle blowers was seen hovering above a USO emerging from the ocean. [This makes me think UFOs and USOs] are linked and the tic tac and other UFOs are all able to enter the oceans at will.

"So, in my opinion, all UFOs are also USOs."

While training with a strike group off San Diego's coast back in November 2004, F/A-18 Squadron Lieutenant Alex Dietrich and ex-Navy pilot Dave Fravor spotted an unusual Tic-Tac shaped object via their infra-red cameras.

Nick Pope, a UFO expert who spent 21 years working at the Ministry of Defence and three running its UFO desk, previously told the Daily Star the pilots' claims put humankind in "disturbing territory".

He explained: "To have the Pentagon say 'these are authentic US Navy films' and they are on their own website... along with a note saying these sightings are still unexplained... takes us into new and frankly quite disturbing territory because these Top Guns don't spook easily. They are clearly encountering something outside of their knowledge base and their experience.

"Frankly there is only a couple of possibilities with this sort of thing. Either an adversary has made some sort of quantum leap breakthrough or this really could be some sort of first contact which is exactly how I imagined first contact would be, a sort of war of nerves – pushing at the boundaries, just testing, seeing how good our radar systems are.

"Are they going to pick us up, are they going to scramble jets, what are they going to do? Frankly, I'd rather this was extraterrestrial because if it is an adversary like China or Russia and they've got stuff... we're in big trouble.

"Usually with technological advances they come in steps and here it's like there are 10 steps missing. That just doesn't normally happen. It's as if you went from the Wright Brothers to a stealth fighter with nothing in between.''

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{ https://www.dailystar.co.uk/news/ }

05-05-2024 om 21:19 geschreven door peter  

Manganese-Rich Sandstones Point to Earth-Like Environment on Ancient Mars

In May 2017, NASA’s Curiosity rover observed higher than usual amounts of manganese in the lakebed rocks within Gale crater, Mars. These sedimentary rocks have larger grain sizes than what is typical for the lakebed rocks in the crater. This may indicate that the original sediments were formed in a river, delta, or near the shoreline in the ancient lake. In a new paper, Dr. Patrick Gasda from Los Alamos National Laboratory and his colleagues discuss how manganese could have been enriched in these rocks — for example, by percolation of groundwater through the original sediments or through the rock afterward — and what oxidant could be responsible for the precipitation of manganese in the rocks. On Earth, manganese becomes enriched because of oxygen in the atmosphere and this process is often sped up by the presence of microbes. Microbes on Earth can use the many oxidation states of manganese as energy for metabolism; if life was present on ancient Mars, the increased amounts of manganese in these rocks along the lake shore would be a helpful energy source for life.

Mastcam mosaic from the Sol 1686 rover location looking behind the rover (downslope) at the transition point between the Sutton Island and Blunts Point Murray members. Images from Sols 1685-1689 display sedimentary textures of dark-toned manganese-rich sandstones and nearby rocks. Dashed line boxes in the large mosaic are shown as insets along the bottom of figure. Small red outlines show the approximate locations and extent of ChemCam observations. Throughout this transition area, dark-toned sandstones (presumably manganese-rich based on ChemCam observations at three locations) overlie light-toned materials. Insets from left to right: (a) Denning Brook, a manganese-rich fine-grained dark-toned sandstone ChemCam observation; (b) and (c) two light-toned blocks with cross-stratified textures, highlighted with yellow lines, 6 m away from Denning Brook and to the upper left in the large mosaic; (d) dark-toned materials (center of mosaic); and (E1) Newport Ledge, (E2) AEGIS post 1685a, (E3) Sugarloaf Mountain, three thin planar laminated dark-toned sandstones.

Image credit: NASA / Caltech-JPL / MSSS.

“It is difficult for manganese oxide to form on the surface of Mars, so we didn’t expect to find it in such high concentrations in a shoreline deposit,” Dr. Gasda said.

“On Earth, these types of deposits happen all the time because of the high oxygen in our atmosphere produced by photosynthetic life, and from microbes that help catalyze those manganese oxidation reactions.”

“On Mars, we don’t have evidence for life, and the mechanism to produce oxygen in Mars’ ancient atmosphere is unclear, so how the manganese oxide was formed and concentrated here is really puzzling.”

“These findings point to larger processes occurring in the Martian atmosphere or surface water and shows that more work needs to be done to understand oxidation on Mars.”

To measure manganese abundances in lakebed rocks within Gale crater, Dr. Gasda and co-authors used the ChemCam instrument onboard NASA’s Curiosity rover.

“ChemCam is an atomic emission spectroscopy instrument that uses laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy (LIBS) to quantify elemental abundances present in a target,” they explained.

“The ChemCam LIBS uses a pulsed laser emitting a 1,067 nm beam that is focused onto a target up to 7 m from the rover, which produces an analytical footprint of 350-550 μm.”

NASA’s Curiosity rover continues to search for signs that Mars’ Gale Crater conditions could support microbial life. 

Photo credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS.

“Each laser pulse ablates and ionizes a small (nanograms to micrograms) amount of material.”

“Light emitted from the plasma formed by each laser pulse is collected by the ChemCam telescope, and spectra are recorded by the ultraviolet, violet, and visible to near infrared spectrometers.”

The sedimentary rocks explored by the Curiosity rover are a mix of sands, silts, and muds.

The sandy rocks are more porous, and groundwater can more easily pass through sands compared to the muds that make up most of the lakebed rocks in Gale crater.

{ https://www.sci.news/ }

05-05-2024 om 20:54 geschreven door peter  

Webb Probably Didn’t Detect Biosignature Gas on K2-18b

This illustration depicts NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope – the largest, most powerful, and most complex space science telescope ever built – fully unfolded in space.

(Credits: NASA/Adriana Manrique Gutierrez)

In 2023, astronomers reported a tentative detection of dimethyl sulfide — which is predominately produced by marine microbes on Earth and regarded as a biosignature gas — in the atmosphere of the super-Earth exoplanet K2-18b. In a paper published in the Astrophysical Journal Letters, University of California, Riverside astronomer Shang-Min Tsai and colleagues challenge this finding, but also outline how the NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope might verify the presence of dimethyl sulfide.

Rendering of the likely view on a Hycean world.

Image credit: Shang-Min Tsai / UCR.

K2-18 is a red dwarf located approximately 111 light-years away in the constellation of Leo.

Also known as EPIC 201912552, the star hosts two massive exoplanets: K2-18b and K2-18c.

First discovered in 2015, K2-18b has a radius of 2.2 times that of Earth and is about 8 times as massive.

The planet orbits its star every 33 days at a distance of approximately 0.15 AU and has an Earth Similarity Index of 0.73.

It receives 1.28 times the light intensity of Earth, and its equilibrium temperature is 28 degrees Fahrenheit (minus 2 degrees Celsius).

K2-18c, discovered in 2017, has a mass about 7.5 times that of Earth, orbits the host star one every 9 days, and is probably too hot to be in the habitable zone.

In 2023, astronomers reported a tentative detection of dimethyl sulfide (DMS) in the atmosphere of K2-18b.

“K2-18b gets almost the same amount of solar radiation as Earth,” Dr. Tsai said.

“And if atmosphere is removed as a factor, K2-18b has a temperature close to Earth’s, which is also an ideal situation in which to find life.”

“K2-18b’s atmosphere is mainly hydrogen, unlike our nitrogen-based atmosphere.”

“But there was speculation that K2-18b has water oceans, like Earth. That makes K2-18b a potentially Hycean world, which means a combination of a hydrogen atmosphere and water oceans.”

“What was icing on the cake, in terms of the search for life, is that last year researchers reported a tentative detection of DMS in the atmosphere of that planet, which is produced by ocean phytoplankton on Earth.”

“DMS is the main source of airborne sulfur on our planet and may play a role in cloud formation.”

Because the telescope data were inconclusive, Dr. Tsai and co-authors wanted to understand whether enough DMS could accumulate to detectable levels on K2-18b.

“The DMS signal from Webb was not very strong and only showed up in certain ways when analyzing the data,” Dr. Tsai said.

“We wanted to know if we could be sure of what seemed like a hint about DMS.”

This art’s tisimpression shows planets K2-18b and c and their host star.

Image credit: NASA / ESA / Hubble / M. Kornmesser.

Based on computer models that account for the physics and chemistry of DMS, as well as the hydrogen-based atmosphere, the researchers found that it is unlikely the data show the presence of DMS.

“The signal strongly overlaps with methane, and we think that picking out DMS from methane is beyond this instrument’s capability,” Dr. Tsai said.

However, the scientists believe it is possible for DMS to accumulate to detectable levels.

For that to happen, plankton or some other life form would have to produce 20 times more DMS than is present on Earth.

Detecting life on exoplanets is a daunting task, given their distance from Earth.

To find DMS, Webb would need to use an instrument better able to detect infrared wavelengths in the atmosphere than the one used last year.

Fortunately, the telescope will use such an instrument later this year, revealing definitively whether DMS exists on K2-18b.

“The best biosignatures on an exoplanet may differ significantly from those we find most abundant on Earth today,” said Dr. Eddie Schwieterman, an astrobiologist at the University of California, Riverside.

“On a planet with a hydrogen-rich atmosphere, we may be more likely to find DMS made by life instead of oxygen made by plants and bacteria as on Earth.”

• Shang-Min Tsai et al. 2024. Biogenic Sulfur Gases as Biosignatures on Temperate Sub-Neptune Waterworlds. ApJL 966, L24; doi: 10.3847/2041-8213/ad3801

LINKS VIDEOS

• https://youtu.be/2WCzlACGULs

• https://youtu.be/e_uwbGVX1Lg

{ https://www.sci.news/ }

05-05-2024 om 20:38 geschreven door peter  

The mirror is called a primary/tertiary mirror because it comprises two optical surfaces with different curvatures. The primary mirror is 8.4 meters, while the tertiary mirror is 5 meters in diameter. The pair of surfaces are combined into one large structure. The unique design reduces the telescope’s engineering complexity without reducing its impressive light-gathering capability. It can be rotated quickly and also settles quickly.

The outer surface forms the primary mirror. It captures light from space first, then that light reflects upwards to the 3.4-meter secondary mirror. After that, it’s reflected back down to the inner 5.0-meter surface that forms the tertiary mirror. Then, the light is sent to the camera.

The primary mirror’s size is critical because it determines how much light the telescope can collect. More light means astronomers can study very faint or distant objects. The VRO’s design allows the camera to capture a large area of sky the size of 7 full moons across in a single image.

via GIPHY

Only meticulous engineering and construction can build a telescope like this. One of the stages is putting the reflective and protective coatings on the mirrors. The VRO announced that the primary/tertiary mirror has its first coating.

The VRO has a special onsite coating chamber built just for this purpose. It’s a 128-ton chamber on the observatory’s maintenance floor. It uses a process called magnetron sputtering to apply coatings. The chamber will be reused during the telescope’s lifetime whenever the mirror needs re-coating.

The chamber can apply coatings of different reflective materials alone or in combinations. It took a lot of work to determine the perfect coating for reflectivity and durability. Researchers tested different coatings on a steel stand-in mirror.

The first layer was an adhesive layer of nickel-chromium. Next came an incredibly thin layer of silver weighing only 64 grams spread over the 8.4-meter mirror. On top of that, another nickel-chromium adhesive layer, then a protective layer of silicon nitride to shield the reflective layer.

The person in charge of these precision coatings is Tomislav Vucina, the Senior Coating Engineer. Vucina describes the coatings as a balancing act. “This outer layer needs to be thick enough that it’s not worn off by cleaning,” said Vucina, “but not so thick that it absorbs too many photons and prevents the mirror from meeting Rubin’s scientific requirements.”

Until these coatings were applied, the glass was just glass. Highly specialized glass, but glass nonetheless. Now that the glass has received its reflective silver coating, it’s truly a mirror.

The application process took only 4.5 hours, nothing compared to the 7 years required to build the primary/tertiary mirror. Vucina and his team subjected the mirror to a battery of tests: reflectivity, adhesion, pinhole, and cosmetic. According to Vucina, the application process was successful.

“This was a very well-conducted project from every angle,” said Vucina, “thanks to a combination of careful planning and the technical skills of our excellent team.”

It’s been a long road to completion for the VRO. But after a long wait, first light is rapidly approaching. Excitement and anticipation for the observatory’s unique and powerful scientific contribution is growing. Its main output is the decade-long Legacy Survey of Space and Time.

“We’re extremely excited that both mirrors are now coated and will be installed on the telescope very soon,” said Sandrine Thomas, Deputy Director for Rubin Construction. “The combined reflectivity of these mirrors will enable Rubin to detect very faint and far-away objects, leading to great science!”

{ https://www.universetoday.com/ }

05-05-2024 om 18:29 geschreven door peter  

The JWST is astronomers’ best tool for probing exoplanet atmospheres. Its capable instruments can dissect the light passing through a distant world’s atmosphere and determine its chemical components. Scientists are interested in everything the JWST finds, but when it finds something indicating the possibility of life it seizes everyone’s attention.

That’s what happened in September 2023, when the JWST found dimethyl sulphide (DMS) in the atmosphere of the exoplanet K2-18b.

K2-18b orbits a red dwarf star about 124 light-years away. It’s a sub-Neptune with about 2.5 times Earth’s radius and 8.6 Earth masses. The exoplanet may be a Hycean world, a temperate ocean-covered world with a large hydrogen atmosphere.

In October 2023, researchers announced the tentative detection of dimethyl sulphide in K2-18b’s atmosphere. They found it in JWST observations of the planet’s atmospheric spectrum. “The spectrum also suggests potential signs of dimethyl sulphide (DMS), which has been predicted to be an observable biomarker in Hycean worlds, motivating considerations of possible biological activity on the planet,” the researchers wrote.

The DMS caught people’s attention because it’s produced by living organisms here on Earth, mostly by marine microbes. So, finding it on an ocean world is cause for a deeper look. A team of researchers from the USA, Germany, and the UK examined the detection to see how it fits with atmospheric models.

“The best biosignatures on an exoplanet may differ significantly from those we find most abundant on Earth today.”

Eddie Schwieterman, astrobiologist, University of California, Riverside

They published their results in a paper in the Astrophysical Journal Letters. It’s titled “Biogenic Sulfur Gases as Biosignatures on Temperate Sub-Neptune Waterworlds.” The lead author is Shang-Min Tsai, a University of California Riverside project scientist.

Most of the thousands of exoplanets we’ve discovered are nothing like Earth. Habitability is impossible according to every known metric. But some are more intriguing. Some, like K2-18b, are more difficult to understand regarding habitability.

There’s some disagreement over what type of planet K2-18b is. It was the first exoplanet scientists ever detected water vapour on. It may be the first example of a Hycean world if they exist.

There are some clear differences between K2-18b and Earth. Our atmosphere is dominated by nitrogen, which makes up about 78%. K2-18b’s atmosphere is dominated by hydrogen. But it’s enough like Earth in some ways that scientists are keen to understand it better.

“This planet gets almost the same amount of solar radiation as Earth. And if atmosphere is removed as a factor, K2-18b has a temperature close to Earth’s, which is also an ideal situation in which to find life,” said lead author Shang-Min Tsai.

The researchers who found DMS in K2-18b’s atmosphere also found carbon dioxide and methane. Finding CO₂ and CH₄ is noteworthy, but finding DMS with them is even more intriguing.

“What was icing on the cake, in terms of the search for life, is that last year these researchers reported a tentative detection of dimethyl sulfide, or DMS, in the atmosphere of that planet, which is produced by ocean phytoplankton on Earth,” Tsai said. DMS is oxidized in Earth’s oceans and is the planet’s main source of atmospheric sulphur.

However, the 2023 findings were not conclusive. There were hints of DMS but nothing strong enough to convince scientists and overcome their professional skepticism. “The potential inference of DMS is of high importance, as it is known to be a robust biomarker on Earth and has been extensively advocated to be a promising biomarker for exoplanets,” the authors of the 2023 paper explained.

“The DMS signal from the Webb telescope was not very strong and only showed up in certain ways when analyzing the data,” Tsai said. “We wanted to know if we could be sure of what seemed like a hint about DMS.”

The JWST has no alarm bell and flashing indicator that lights up and says, ‘Biomarker Detected!’ It produces data that must be processed to tease out its secrets. Scientists also rely on battle-tested climate and atmospheric chemistry models to understand what the JWST sees.

“In this study, we explore biogenic sulphur across a wide range of biological fluxes and stellar UV environments,” the researchers write. They performed experiments with a 2D photochemical model and a 3D general circulation model (GCM.) According to Tsai and his co-researchers, the data is unlikely to show the presence of DMS in K2-18b’s atmosphere.

“The signal strongly overlaps with methane, and we think that picking out DMS from methane is beyond this instrument’s capability,” Tsai said.

That doesn’t mean that DMS is ruled out. It’s possible that the chemical could build up to detectable levels if plankton or some other life form were producing it. But, they’d have to produce about 20 times more DMS than there is on Earth.

Professor Madhusudhan from Cambridge University is the lead author of the 2023 paper on K2-18b’s atmosphere. He’s being touted in the media as the man who discovered alien life on another planet. He’s clearly uncomfortable with some of the hyperbole, but the message is becoming bigger than the messenger.

This study will probably put a damper on the media’s enthusiasm. But for people who follow science, this is just another instance of science correcting itself.

The fact is, we’re only groping our way toward understanding exoplanet atmospheres. Scientists have a powerful tool in the JWST, but it has limitations. It measures light in extreme detail and leaves the rest up to us. “We find that it is challenging to identify DMS at 3.4 ?m where it strongly overlaps with CH₄,” the authors explain. But, they continue, “it is more plausible to detect DMS … in the mid-infrared between 9 and 13 ?m,” the authors explain.

That means there’s hope for K2-18b. These observations were taken with the JWST’s near-infrared instruments, the NIRISS and the NIRSpec. Sometime next year, the JWST will examine the exoplanet’s atmosphere again, this time with its mid-infrared instrument MIRI. This instrument should tell us definitively whether DMS is present.

Scientists’ understanding of biosignatures has grown more detailed. Instead of searching for biosignatures like the ones on Earth, scientists are taking a larger, more holistic view of biosignatures and the nature of the atmospheres they might be present in.

“The best biosignatures on an exoplanet may differ significantly from those we find most abundant on Earth today. On a planet with a hydrogen-rich atmosphere, we may be more likely to find DMS made by life instead of oxygen made by plants and bacteria as on Earth,” said UCR astrobiologist Eddie Schwieterman, a senior author of the study.

The team’s work does show that sulphur could be a detectable biomarker for Hycean worlds. “The moderate threshold for biological production suggests that the search for biogenic sulphur gases as one class of potential biosignature is plausible for Hycean worlds,” they conclude.

{ https://www.universetoday.com/ }

05-05-2024 om 18:16 geschreven door peter  

As mentioned, astronomers rely extensively on machine learning algorithms to sort through the volumes of data obtained by modern telescopes and instruments. This practice began about a decade ago and has since grown by leaps and bounds to the point where AI has been integrated into the entire research process. As ICRA President and the study’s lead author Yu Wang told Universe Today via email:

“Astronomy has always been driven by data and astronomers are some of the first scientists to adopt and employ machine learning. Now, machine learning has been integrated into the entire astronomical research process, from the manufacturing and control of ground-based and space-based telescopes (e.g., optimizing the performance of adaptive optics systems, improving the initiation of specific actions (triggers) of satellites under certain conditions, etc.), to data analysis (e.g., noise reduction, data imputation, classification, simulation, etc.), and the establishment and validation of theoretical models (e.g., testing modified gravity, constraining the equation of state of neutron stars, etc.).”

Data analysis remains the most common among these applications since it is the easiest area where machine learning can be integrated. Traditionally, dozens of researchers and hundreds of citizen scientists would analyze the volumes of data produced by an observation campaign. However, this is not practical in an age where modern telescopes are collecting terabytes of data daily. This includes all-sky surveys like the Very Large Array Sky Survey (VLASS) and the many phases conducted by the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS).

To date, LLMs have only been applied sporadically to astronomical research, given that they are a relatively recent creation. But according to proponents like Wang, it has had a tremendous societal impact and has a lower-limit potential equivalent to an “Industrial Revolution.” As for the upper limit, Wang predicts that that could range considerably and could perhaps result in humanity’s “enlightenment or destruction.” However, unlike the Industrial Revolution, the pace of change and integration is far more rapid for AI, raising questions about how far its adoption will go.

To determine its potential for the field of astronomy, said Wang, he and his colleagues adopted a pre-trained GPT model and fine-tuned it to identify astronomical phenomena:

“OpenAI provides pre-trained models, and what we did is fine-tuning, which involves altering some parameters based on the original model, allowing it to recognize astronomical data and calculate results from this data. This is somewhat like OpenAI providing us with an undergraduate student, whom we then trained to become a graduate student in astronomy. 

“We provided limited data with modest resolution and trained the GPT fewer times compared to normal models. Nevertheless, the outcomes are impressive, achieving an accuracy of about 90%. This high level of accuracy is attributable to the robust foundation of the GPT, which already understands data processing and possesses logical inference capabilities, as well as communication skills.”

To fine-tune their model, the team introduced observations of various astronomical phenomena derived from various catalogs. This included 2000 samples of quasars, galaxies, stars, and broad absorption line (BAL) quasars from the SDSS (500 each). They also integrated observations of short and long gamma-ray bursts (GRBs), galaxies, stars, and black hole simulations. When tested, their model successfully classified different phenomena, distinguished between types of quasars, inferred their distance based on redshift, and measured the spin and inclination of black holes.

“This work at least demonstrates that LLMs are capable of processing astronomical data,” said Wang. “Moreover, the ability of a model to handle various types of astronomical data is a capability not possessed by other specialized models. We hope that LLMs can integrate various kinds of data and then identify common underlying principles to help us understand the world. Of course, this is a challenging task and not one that astronomers can accomplish alone.”

Of course, the team acknowledges that the dataset they experimented with was very small compared to the data output of modern observatories. This is particularly true of next-generation facilities like the Vera C. Rubin Observatory, which recently received its LSST camera, the largest digital camera in the world! Once Rubin is operational, it will conduct the ten-year Legacy Survey of Space and Time (LSST), which is expected to yield 15 terabytes of data per night! Satisfying the demands of future campaigns, says Wang, will require improvements and collaboration between observatories and professional AI companies.

Nevertheless, it’s a foregone conclusion that there will be more LLM applications for astronomy in the near future. Not only is this a likely development, but a necessary one considering the sheer volumes of data astronomical studies are generating today. And since this is likely to increase exponentially in the near future, AI will likely become indispensable to the field of study.

Further Reading: 

• arXiv

{ https://www.universetoday.com/ }

05-05-2024 om 17:59 geschreven door peter  

You’ve seen the Sun, but you’ve never seen the Sun like this. This single frame from a video captured by ESA’s Solar Orbiter mission shows the Sun looking very …. fluffy!  You can see feathery, hair-like structures made of plasma following magnetic field lines in the Sun’s lower atmosphere as it transitions into the much hotter outer corona. The video was taken from about a third of the distance between the Earth and the Sun.

See the full video below, which shows unusual features on the Sun, including coronal moss, spicules, and coronal rain.  

Solar Orbiter recorded this video on September 27, 2023 using its Extreme Ultraviolet Imager (EUI) instrument.

ESA said the brightest regions are around one million degrees Celsius, while cooler material looks darker, as it absorbs radiation.

So, just what is coronal moss? It’s what gives the Sun its fluffy appearance here. These peculiar structures on the Sun resemble the moss we find on Earth, in that it appears like fine, lacy features. But on the Sun, they usually can be found around the center of sunspot groups, where magnetic conditions are strong and large coronal loops are forming. The moss is so hot, most instruments can’t detect them. The moss spans two atmospheric layers, the chromosphere and corona.

Features on the Sun’s surface, as seen by Solar Orbiter.

Credit: ESA & NASA/Solar Orbiter/EUI Team

Spicules, as their name implies, are tall spires of gas seen on the solar horizon that reach up from the Sun’s chromosphere. These can reach up to a height of 10,000 km (6,000 miles).

At about 0:30 in the video, you’ll see coronal rain. This material is cooler than the rest of the solar surface (probably less than 10,000 °C) versus the one million degrees C of the coronal loops. The rain is made of higher-density clumps of plasma that fall back towards the Sun under the influence of gravity.

Did you see the small eruption in the center of the field of view at about 0:20 seconds in the video? , with cooler material being lifted upwards before mostly falling back down. It’s not small at all — this eruption is bigger than Earth!

Missions like Solar Orbiter, the Parker Solar Probe and the Solar Dynamics Observatory are giving us unprecedented views of the Sun, helping astronomers to learn more about the dynamic ball of gas that powers our entire Solar System.

Further reading: 

• ESA

{ https://www.universetoday.com/ }

05-05-2024 om 17:45 geschreven door peter  

{ https://scientias.nl/ }

05-05-2024 om 00:21 geschreven door peter  

{ https://scientias.nl/ }

05-05-2024 om 00:21 geschreven door peter  

Wanneer vindt de volgende massa-extinctie plaats? De wetenschap weet het

Slechts een klein deel van de aarde zal bewoonbaar blijven tijdens wat volgens wetenschappers de grootste massa-extinctie sinds de ondergang van de dinosauriërs kan worden.

DOOR NANNA VIUM

Extreme temperaturen, intense straling en een totale instorting van de voedselvoorziening.

Dat klinkt niet bijster aantrekkelijk, maar het kan de harde werkelijkheid worden wanneer in de verre toekomst de landmassa’s van de aarde fuseren om het volgende supercontinent te vormen.

Dit is een deel van de conclusie van een onderzoek van de Universiteit van Bristol, waarin wetenschappers computersimulaties maakten van de invloed van het samenkomen van de landmassa’s op landzoogdieren.

En volgens hun resultaten ziet het er op zijn zachtst gezegd niet best uit.

Het toekomstige supercontinent zal naar verwachting over 250 miljoen jaar rond de evenaar ontstaan en wordt Pangea Ultima genoemd: een verwijzing naar het supercontinent Pangea, dat bestond in het tijdperk van de dinosauriërs.

De afgelopen 2 miljard jaar zijn de continenten verschillende keren verenigd, met zo’n 600 miljoen jaar ertussen. Geologen spreken van de supercontinentcyclus.

Supercomputer voorspelt de toekomst

De oorzaak van de herschikking van het landoppervlak is te vinden in het middelste deel van de aardmantel, waar een hete oceaan van magma de buitenste, vaste platen tegen elkaar duwt.

Enorme botsing creëerde Pangea

Door botsingen tussen de continentale platen waarop de landmassa’s van de aarde rusten, ontstond zo’n 325 miljoen jaar geleden het supercontinent Pangea.

© Claus Lunau

325 miljoen jaar geleden: Continenten botsen

Bijna al het land op aarde is gegroepeerd in twee continenten, Euramerika en Gondwana. De continentale platen waarop de twee landmassa’s rusten, botsen op elkaar, waardoor de Paleo-Tethysoceaan zich sluit.

© Claus Lunau

235 miljoen jaar geleden: Al het land komt samen in Pangea

Alle landmassa’s zijn nu verzameld in Pangea – naar de twee Griekse woorden voor alles (pan) en land/aarde (gaia), terwijl de rest van de aarde wordt bedekt door de oceaan Panthalassa. Thalassa betekent zee.

© Claus Lunau

140 miljoen jaar geleden: Werelddelen ontstaan

De continentale platen bewegen uit elkaar, en Pangea verbrokkelt. De Noord-Atlantische Oceaan is een smalle zeestraat, terwijl Afrika en Zuid-Amerika zich nog aan elkaar vastklampen.

{ https://wibnet.nl/heelal }

04-05-2024 om 23:57 geschreven door peter  

No lettering or numbers appear on any of the Roman dodecahedrons that have currently been discovered, although similar objects that include 20-sided icosahedrons of comparable design have also been found. Like many curiosities of the ancient past, their distinctive appearance is strongly suggestive that they were created as devices designed with a specific purpose. Why else would one go to all the trouble of crafting them otherwise?

Although there is still no explanation that researchers agree on in terms of what the objects may have been intended for, several theories have propelled the debate now for decades, and archaeologists may be closing in on discoveries that could provide much-needed context for answering the remaining questions about these ancient Gallo-Roman curiosities.

HISTORY

The earliest known discovery of a Roman dodecahedron is believed to have occurred in 1739 near Aston, Hertfordshire, England. According to an 1849 catalog entry in the miscellaneous collections of the Society of Antiquaries of London, a bronze Roman dodecahedron “found with copper coins at Aston, in Hertfordshire, in a field called Hagdale, was exhibited to the Society by Mr. North [on] June 28, 1739.”

The 1849 entry also discusses the discovery of a similar dodecahedral object nearly three decades later, unearthed from a depth of close to 8 feet on the grounds of St. Peter’s Church at Carmarthen that occurred in May 1768. Described as a “singular object of bronze, in form of a hollow dodecahedron,” the artifact featured “a ball attached to each angle” and a circular opening on “each of its pentagonal sides … the diameters of these perforations increasing gradually from six-tenths to about 1 ½ inch. Each side measures, in diameter, 2 1/5 inches.”

“Several pieces of copper, curiously laid in flag-bricks, were found at the same time, but they crumbled to dust,” the entry states, although it is unclear whether these bricks had any specific relationship to the dodecahedron. Finally, the 1849 catalog entry mentions the discovery of a third dodecahedron “but of smaller size and without balls at the angles, found near Fishguard,” which was delivered to the Society of Antiquaries by the Rev. Edward Harries of Llandysilio, Pembrokeshire, on March 12, 1846.

Over the ensuing centuries, dozens more of the objects have been found in England, France, Germany, Belgium, Austria, the Netherlands, and surrounding countries. Curiously, the objects have remained absent amidst archaeological discoveries made in Italy, where one might otherwise presume a concentration of objects of Roman provenance would be located, further adding to the mystery of their purpose.

THEORIES

Given that there is virtually nothing to provide historical context for what these objects may have been designed and used for, a range of theories have emerged over the years that could offer potential solutions to the mystery of the dodecahedrons.

One of the earliest proposed theories among scholars in the 19th century had been that the objects may have been implements of warfare, perhaps serving as a mace head, a component of a net or bolas-type throwing weapon, or even a projectile. However, the hollow design of the dodecahedrons would seem to impose obvious limitations on their effectiveness if used for such purposes.

More recent theories about the Roman dodecahedra involve their possible use as measurement gauges or as a surveying instrument, while other theories hold that they may have had an artistic or decorative purpose. Other theories put forward over the decades have argued that the dodecahedrons may have served as everything from candlestick holders to gaming implements, devices used for determining sowing dates, calibration tools for water pipes, or possibly army standard bases used by Roman soldiers.

According to Amelia Carolina Sparavigna, a researcher with the Department of Applied Science and Technology at the Polytechnic University of Turin, Italy, one novel possibility is that the Roman dodecahedrons served as dioptrons (i.e., rangefinders). ​Drawing from sources based entirely online, Sparavigna concluded in a 2o12 paper that features common among all the known Roman dodecahedrons point to their use as optical instruments for the measurement of angles and estimating distances.

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

04-05-2024 om 22:34 geschreven door peter  

Peering down into these giant holes in the Earth, one is greeted not with a desolate rocky cave, but a hidden lush green forest.

“The scene down there was stunning: an underground pristine forest with no trace of human activities, with 40 meter-high ancient trees and a group of endangered wild plants from the times of dinosaurs,” explained Tang Jianmin, an associate Researcher at Guangxi Institute of Botany, in an article.

The process begins when water acidified by carbon dioxide seeps into the soil, slowly dissolving the underlying limestone. Over time, this leads to the creation of underground voids that eventually collapse, forming tiankengs, which is Mandarin for “heavenly pits.”

With 300 known tiankengs in the world, 200 of which are in China, scientists have been studying the various plants and animals that reside there. 

This most recent study conducted by a team of researchers, including Tang Jianmin, from the Guangxi Institute of Botany, utilized advanced Hyper-seq gene sequencing technology to analyze the genetic diversity of Manglietia aromatica, a rare tree species. Sheltered for milenia, this tree thrives in these deep sinkholes, and has avoided the near extinct fate of its surface living brethren. 

According to the study, the genetic diversity within the tiankeng populations of Manglietia aromatica is significantly higher than those found outside these sinkholes. Specifically, the genetic diversity index (π) was 0.2044 for populations within the tiankengs, compared to 0.1671 for those outside. The Chinese scientists suggest that tiankengs may act as natural conservatories, preserving a rich genetic pool that enhances species resilience and adaptability.

Moreover, the study revealed moderate genetic differentiation between populations inside and outside the tiankengs. This moderate differentiation underscores the partial genetic isolation provided by tiankengs, which likely contributes to the unique genetic traits observed within these populations. In really simple terms, life inside these underground forests evolved differently, and if this is the case for Maglietia aromatica, what does this say for all the other species of plants and animals that live there?

Cave explorers came across the sinkhole in Leye County. It is 306 metres in length, 150 metres wide and 192 metres deep. 

Photograph: Courtesy of Guangxi speleology research team 702

The unique microclimates and isolated environments within tiankengs foster the development of diverse ecosystems relatively untouched by human activity. The forests within tiankengs are more than just collections of trees; they are dynamic environments that support complex food webs and ecological interactions. The genetic diversity found in these forests contributes to the overall health and stability of the ecosystem, enabling plants and animals to adapt to changes and resist diseases. Furthermore, these forests play a crucial role in carbon sequestration, helping to mitigate climate change by absorbing carbon dioxide from the atmosphere.

The discovery and subsequent studies of China’s karst tiankengs have opened a new chapter in our understanding of conservation biology and the importance of natural refuges in preserving genetic diversity. This most recent study proves that these giant underground forests not only house some of the last remaining members of certain plant and animal species but also genetic variations that have ceased to exist on the surface. 

“You don’t know what you’re going to find in each corner, and sometimes we are surprised and occasionally something breaks through our own expectations,” Veni stated back in 2022. “It’s interesting that we’ve gone from living in caves to now studying and exploring them.”

• MJ Banias covers space, security, and technology with The Debrief. You can email him at mj@thedebrief.org or follow him on Twitter @mjbanias.

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

04-05-2024 om 21:25 geschreven door peter  

Ex-CIA Pilot Said US Buried Huge UFO That Was Too Big To Move, Corroborating Coulthart Claim

On July 8, 2023, one of the greatest UFO stories was told by Ross Coulthart to Project Unity host Jay Anderson. The investigative journalist claimed that there is a huge UFO in the possession of the United States that could not be moved, and he knows the location of the craft. Coulthart clarified that the immovable craft is not in the US.

In the interview, Coulthart discussed the potential implications of the new US Senate intelligence bill. He referenced Douglas Dean Johnson’s writings about the bill, which purportedly mandate holders of non-earth origin or exotic UAP (Unidentified Aerial Phenomena) material to make it accessible to the All Domain Anomaly Resolution Office (AARO) within six months.

Anderson raised concerns that this six-month window might offer enough time for those holding such materials to hide or conceal them. Coulthart acknowledged the possibility but suggested that certain UAP materials could be so large that relocating them is not feasible. He mentioned the existence of a building constructed over such a massive object in a foreign country, which might sound implausible to some.

This revelation left the UFO community curious about the place where the craft might be situated. Interestingly, the late former CIA pilot John Lear previously mentioned the existence of buried crafts too massive to move. In 2018, Lear posted on Facebook, recounting the enigmatic tale of a massive buried UFO near Garrison, Utah. This peculiar incident became a topic of discussion at a UFO conference in Las Vegas, piquing Lear’s curiosity.

The incident dates back to 1953 when a large UFO, measuring between 150 to 200 feet in diameter, crashed near Garrison, Utah. Lear explained that the UFO was so large that even the United States Air Force Security Forces’ “Blue Berets” could not relocate it. Consequently, a decision was made to bury the UFO on the spot. Lear wrote that a team of hundreds of soldiers dug the ground and managed to bury the craft 50 feet below ground level. (Earthfile source)

“While all of the digging to bury the saucer was going on, they also dug a tunnel from the saucer several hundred feet to the south, where they built 2 or 3 houses. The houses were constructed to appear about 75 years old, using old, weathered wood, nails, window frames, and roofing. The only hint that these houses might not be so old were the brand-new padlocks on the doors.

I don’t recall the exact description of the interior, except for a door leading to a stairwell that connected to the tunnel leading to the craft. Everything I’m telling you is from my recollection of the report, likely written by the person who accessed the buildings. My memory isn’t perfect. One of the houses contained a logbook in which visitors from various organizations like Air Force, Navy, Army, and others would inscribe their names.”

Lear and his associates intended to visit Garrison to witness this buried craft. They planned to use a helicopter, a fuel truck, and specialized equipment to explore underground. However, the trip never materialized for reasons unknown. Lear maintained his belief that the craft remains in place. He even shared Google Earth images indicating the potential location. He marked the houses on the images, but they no longer appear on Google Earth.

Read also:

• This Footage of Airplane Teleporting With UFOs Appeared After Malaysia Airlines MH370 Disappeared
• US Congresswoman Claims She Saw Photo Evidence Of UFO Technolgy Not Made By Humans
• U.S. Congressman Says UFOs May Be Machines of a Hidden ‘Ancient Earth Civilization’
• Avi Loeb Soon to Prove Whether Aliens Exist: He & Garry Nolan Saw UFO That Poses Huge Implications for Humanity

“About 300 yards east from this claim, there was an alleged Spanish treasure location. This treasure spot had been discovered by an individual from the Phoenix area with access to Spanish treasure maps, and this location was marked on one of the maps.

In a pile of rocks, there was a precisely square cutout approximately 10 inches wide and 16 inches deep. The bottom seemed like concrete. I had the underground radar team scan the area and found only a few potential returns. The area is now in an ACEC (Area of Critical Environmental Concern). Nevertheless, we were all set to convene for the Garrison expedition in 2 weeks, but somehow it never took off.”

Lear even provided the coordinates of the location: Latitude 38 degrees 37 minutes 40 seconds North, Longitude 113 degrees 40 minutes 40 seconds West. This further deepens the mystery, leaving people intrigued about the truth surrounding the buried UFO near Garrison, Utah.

Moreover, there is alleged John Lear’s statement on the alien presence, posted to Paranet on December 29, 1987. Here are the paragraphs published by UFOmind.com discussing the buried craft: [this page was first archived on January 31, 1997]

“Moore is also in possession of more Aquarius documents a few pages of which leaked out several years ago and detailed the supersecret NSA project which had been denied by them until just recently. In a letter to Senator John Glenn NSA’s Director of Policy Julia B. Wetzel wrote, “Apparently there is or was an Air Force project by that name Aquarius) which dealt with UFO’s. Coincidentally, there is also an NSA project by that name.”

NSA’s project Aquarius deals specifically with the ‘communications with aliens’ (the EBE’s). Within the Aquarius program was project ‘Snowbird’ a project to test fly A recovered alien aircraft at Groom Lake, Nevada. This project continues today at that location. In the words of an individual who works at Groom Lake ‘our people are much better at taking things apart than they are at putting them back together’. Another saw a saucer being trucked into the Nevada Test Site in March of 1988. Still another informant witnessed a saucer being buried at that location (for God knows whatever reason) during the second week of August 1988.”

There is another version of this statement: (Source)

“Germany may have recovered a flying saucer as early as 1939. General James H. Doolittle went to Sweden in 1946 to inspect a flying saucer that had crashed there in Spitzbergen…

In July of 1952, a panicked government watched helplessly as squadron of “flying saucers” flew over Washington, D.C., and buzzed the White House, the Capitol Building, and the Pentagon. It took all the imagination and intimidation the government could muster to force that incident out of the memory of the public.

One saucer was so enormous and the logistic problems in transportation so enormous that it was buried at the crash sight and remains there today. The stories are legendary on transporting crashed saucers over long distances, moving only at night, purchasing complete farms, slashing through forests, blocking major highways, sometimes driving 2 and 3 lo-boys in tandem with an extraterrestrial load a hundred feet in diameter.”

{ https://www.howandwhys.com/ }

04-05-2024 om 20:51 geschreven door peter  

EXCLUSIVE: UFO expert Lee boldly claimed the idea of the government and extraterrestrial life working together wasn't the craziest of ideas and went further to admit he thought it was a real possibility

By Abigail Hunt - Assistant News Editor

The US Government signed a secret treaty with aliens to "mutually benefit each other", according to a UFO expert and filmmaker.

Researcher Mark Christopher Lee spoke exclusively to the Daily Star about the supposed treaty that some claim was signed by the US military under President Dwight Eisenhower and hidden within the infamous Majestic 12 UFO files.

Lee boldly claimed the idea of the government and extraterrestrial life working together wasn't the craziest of ideas and went further to admit he thought it was a real possibility – giving insight into unidentified submerged (underwater) objects as well as the better known UFO.

READ MORE: Wild Bigfoot sighting theories from 'evolved ancient ape' to 'aliens bonking humans'

"In a mutually beneficial way the aliens need something that we've got, hence abductions and also cattle mutilations, and in return the military gets to back engineer their technology," he told us.

"There are rumours and legends regarding the lost continent of Atlantis now being and underwater alien USO base which leads me onto the recent sightings of USOs off the coast of Malibu, California, and the alleged location of an underground USO base as identified by Google Earth."

A YouTube conspirator claimed in 2017 this picture showed Atlantis' sunken "perimeter wall" and that perimeter walls were a fairly common way of protecting cities in the past, including the Italian capital Rome in 275AD.

The "city" found on Google Earth is almost a mile long and half a mile wide, but expert Lee said Google has now blurred out the images. "If it is an alien base does that mean that the aliens are in cahoots with Google? Or is it more likely that it is some secret US naval base they want to keep secret?," he questioned.

Researcher Mark Christopher Lee spoke exclusively to the Daily Star about the supposed treaty 

(Image: Youtube/Nub TV)

"Maybe they have developed some USO technology. I suspect there is a base there as there have been hundreds of USO sightings further up the coast at Catalina island in California, and I also suspect the US Government and the aliens are operating this jointly."

Lee added communication between humans and aliens would most likely happen using the mind, or telepathy. "Considering that we as humans only use a small part of the brain I guess this where we will end up evolving to," he said. "Which is why some believe the grey aliens that people have reported seeing are actually us in the future."

{ https://www.dailystar.co.uk }

04-05-2024 om 20:05 geschreven door peter  

China wil de donkere kant van de maan veroveren: de missie vindt dit jaar al plaats

 Door Janine

De donkere kant van de maan fascineert de mens al heel lang: we zien immers maar één vlak van onze satelliet. De mens heeft echter al enkele jaren grote vooruitgang geboekt bij het verkennen van de verborgen kant van de maan. In het bijzonder zou de Chinese Chang'e 6-ruimtemissie eindelijk monsters naar de aarde kunnen brengen van de kant die we nooit zien. Zo zullen ze dit gaan doen.

Wat bevindt zich aan de donkere kant van de maan?

NASA

Ten eerste moet duidelijk worden gemaakt dat het technisch onjuist is om van een donkere kant van de Maan te spreken. Zoals bij alle hemellichamen die rond de zon draaien, zijn er niet per se donkere kanten: we zien de andere kant van onze satelliet gewoon nooit. Daarom is het beter om te spreken van de verborgen kant van de Maan of de verre kant van de Maan. Verborgen en ver van ons op Aarde, uiteraard.

Al bij de eerste waarnemingen door astronauten in een baan om de Maan was te zien dat dit verborgen gebied heel anders is dan wij kennen. Er zijn minder maanzeeën en meer kraters, wat duidt op een dikkere korst, evenals meer radioactieve elementen zoals thorium. Afgezien van wetenschappelijke analyses kunnen aardsondes de verborgen kant van de maan al tientallen jaren van veraf bekijken, maar dat betekent niet dat ze niet al hebben geprobeerd om er dichtbij te komen.

Aan de andere kant van de maan landen

China News Service/Wikimedia Commons 

CC BY 3.0 LEGAL CODE / NASA

Wat betreft het verkennen van de verborgen kant van de Maan heeft China andere ruimtevaartorganisaties ingehaald. In slechts een paar decennia is het Aziatische land een van de belangrijkste landen geworden die proberen op de maan te landen. Met name de twee missies van de Chinese ruimtevaartorganisatie Chang'e 3 en Chang'e 4 waren gericht op de verborgen kant van onze satelliet. De eerste, in 2013, maakte een eerste zachte landing niet ver van het doel. De tweede, gelanceerd in 2018, is in plaats daarvan de sonde die verantwoordelijk is voor de eerste landing op de verre kant van de maan, meer bepaald in de Von Kármán-krater in het Zuidpool-Aitken-bekken.

Chang'e 4 werd gevolgd door Chang'e 5, gelanceerd in 2020 en werd de eerste ruimtemissie die maanmonsters terug naar de aarde bracht sinds de Luna 24-missie van de Sovjet-Unie. Hoewel Chang'e 5 niet op de verborgen kant van de maan landde, is China van plan om daar terug te keren met de Chang'e 6-missie, die in mei 2024 vertrekt.

Er wordt begonnen met verkenning van de andere kant van de maan

CSNA/Siyu Zhang/Kevin M. Gill/Wikimedia Commons

CC BY 2.0 DEED

Hoewel er al een eerste landing op de verborgen kant van de maan heeft plaatsgevonden, is de Chang'e 6-missie anders. In zekere zin wil deze missie de resultaten van de twee missies die eraan voorafgingen combineren: landen aan de andere kant van onze satelliet en, na het verzamelen van monsters van de maanbodem, deze terugbrengen naar de aarde voor verder onderzoek. De missie bestaat uit een orbiter, een lander, een opstijgmodule en een terugkeermodule: de verkenning zelf zal slechts 53 dagen duren, maar zelfs een paar uur zal gegevens opleveren die nog nooit eerder zijn verzameld.

Concluderend kunnen we zeggen dat er niet langer een donkere kant van de Maan is: die was er nooit vanuit fysiek oogpunt en zal er ook niet meer zijn vanuit metaforisch oogpunt. Aan de andere kant is de Chinese missie Chang'e 6 slechts de eerste die ons de komende jaren meer over onze satelliet zal leren. Misschien met de bedoeling er ooit te leven, hetzij aan de bekende kant, hetzij aan de andere kant, de verborgen kant.

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04-05-2024 om 18:34 geschreven door peter  

Dromen controleren en communiceren met de werkelijkheid terwijl je slaapt: een slaaplaboratorium legt uit hoe het werkt

 Door Janine

Zou je graag de controle willen hebben over je dromen en ze willen sturen? In Nederland is er een slaaplaboratorium waar dit mogelijk wordt. Laten we er meer over te weten komen.

Lucide dromen zijn heel zeldzaam

Freepik

In het Sleep and Memory Lab van Martin Dresler aan het Donders Instituut in Nijmegen kun je leren hoe je kunt ervaren wat we “lucide dromen” noemen. Het betekent dat je in feite de regisseur wordt van je eigen droomervaring, je realiseert dat je droomt en de “film” regisseert zoals jij dat wilt. Of je nu wilt vliegen, een andere planeet wilt bezoeken of een persoon wilt ontmoeten, je hoeft het alleen maar te willen en voilà: de droom komt uit, althans in onze geest.

Met andere woorden, het is een kwestie van je dromen “hacken” door er controle over te nemen. Bewuste dromen zijn geen gewone ervaring: het is niet gemakkelijk om te beseffen dat je droomt en gebeurtenissen te sturen en in feite gebeurt het maar zelden. Er zijn echter bedrijven die juist in dit fenomeen geïnteresseerd zijn en hun inspanningen richten op de ontwikkeling van apparatuur en hulpmiddelen om lucide dromen te vergemakkelijken.

Lucide dromen, een anomalie van normaal dromen

Martin Dresler en zijn team richten hun onderzoek naar lucide dromen op het monitoren van hersenactiviteit terwijl ze plaatsvinden. "We vermoeden nu welke hersengebieden erbij betrokken zijn, waaronder de prefrontale cortex, maar we weten nog steeds niet precies welke structuren gestimuleerd moeten worden om lucide dromen op te wekken”, legde hij uit.

Voor zijn onderzoek induceert Dr. Dresler lucide dromen bij vrijwillige proefpersonen. Door in wakkere toestand hun zintuigen te stimuleren met behulp van lichten, geluiden en trillingen, nodigt hij hen uit om zich te concentreren op deze prikkels en hun gemoedstoestand op dat moment. Vervolgens zendt hij dezelfde signalen uit wanneer de proefpersonen zich in de REM-fase van de slaap bevinden. Op deze manier kunnen de deelnemers de stimuli herkennen terwijl ze dromen en zich realiseren dat ze zich in een droom bevinden.

Deze techniek is effectief in ongeveer 50 procent van de gevallen, hoewel het droombewustzijn vaak van korte duur is en zelden langer duurt dan 60 seconden.

Volgens Dresler lijken onze hersenen lucide dromen niet te waarderen, dat “nogal onstabiel is. Het lijkt erop dat de hersenen het niet prettig vinden om in deze staat te zijn. Het keert snel terug naar normaal dromen of wakker zijn. In zekere zin zou lucide dromen gezien kunnen worden als iets dat misgaat tijdens een normale droom."

Tijdens een lucide droom kun je communiceren

Een afwijking die dus snel hersteld wordt. Lucide dromen zijn echter een belangrijk hulpmiddel om te ontdekken wat er in onze hersenen gebeurt terwijl we slapen en hoe slaap de consolidatie van herinneringen beïnvloedt.

De vooruitgang van Dresler heeft tot nu toe aangetoond dat het mogelijk is om te communiceren tijdens het lucide dromen: hij vroeg zijn vrijwilligers om ja en nee te antwoorden op bepaalde vragen en om eenvoudige wiskundige bewerkingen op te lossen. Veertig procent van de proefpersonen die de lucide droom beleefden, gaven een correct antwoord met behulp van eerder vastgestelde oogbewegingen.

"We hebben aangetoond dat communicatie met slapende vrijwilligers mogelijk is in beide richtingen, van de onderzoeker naar de slaper en weer terug."

“Normale” dromen zijn belangrijk voor het organiseren van informatie en het verwerken van ervaringen, en laten ruimte voor het onbewuste. Deze functie kan ontbreken in lucide dromen, die echter slechts een klein percentage van de REM-fase vertegenwoordigen, mocht deze zich voordoen, en daarom niet schadelijk zijn.

Tot slot kan het volgens Dresler ook een nuttig hulpmiddel zijn bij nachtmerries: "Met lucide droomtherapie kunnen patiënten zich tijdens een nachtmerrie realiseren dat wat er gebeurt niet echt is en ze kunnen zelfs actieve controle over de droom krijgen, of besluiten om wakker te worden."

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04-05-2024 om 18:17 geschreven door peter