It’s that time again. NIAC (NASA Innovative Advanced Concepts) has announced six concepts that will receive funding and proceed to the second phase of development. This is always an interesting look at the technologies and missions that could come to fruition in the future.

The six chosen ones will each receive $600,000 in funding to pursue the ideas for the next two years. NASA expects each team to use the two years to address both technical and budgetary hurdles for their concepts. When this second phase comes to an end, some of the concepts could advance to the third stage.

“These diverse, science fiction-like concepts represent a fantastic class of Phase II studies,” said John Nelson, NIAC program executive at NASA Headquarters in Washington. “Our NIAC fellows never cease to amaze and inspire, and this class definitely gives NASA a lot to think about in terms of what’s possible in the future.”

Here they are.

1. Fluidic Telescope (FLUTE): Enabling the Next Generation of Large Space Observatories

Telescopes are built around mirrors and lenses, whether they’re ground-based or space-based. The JWST’s large mirror is 6.5 meters in diameter but had to be folded up to fit inside the rocket that launched it and then unfolded in space. That’s a tricky engineering feat. Engineers are building larger and larger ground-based telescopes, too, and they’re equally tricky to design and build. Could FLUTE change this?

FLUTE envisions lenses made of fluid, and the FLUTE team’s concept describes a space telescope with a primary mirror 50 meters (164 ft.) in diameter. Creating glass lenses for a telescope this large isn’t realistic. “Using current technologies, scaling up space telescopes to apertures larger than approximately 33 feet (10 meters) in diameter does not appear economically viable,” the FLUTE website states.

But in the microgravity of space, fluids behave in an intriguing way. Surface tension holds liquids together at their surfaces. We can see this on Earth, where some insects use surface tension to glide along the surfaces of ponds and other bodies of water. Also, on Earth, surface tension holds small drops of water together. But in space, away from Earth’s dominating gravity, surface tension is much more effective. There, water maintains the most energy efficient shape there is: a sphere.

Another force governs water: adhesion. Adhesion causes liquids to cling to surfaces. In the microgravity of space, adhesion can bind liquid to a circular, ring-like frame. Then, due to surface tension, the liquid will naturally adopt a spherical shape. If the liquid can be made to bulge inward rather than outward, and if the liquid is reflective enough, it creates a telescope mirror.

The FLUTE team would like to make optical components in space. The liquid would stay in the liquid state and form an extremely smooth light-collecting surface. As a bonus, FLUTE would also self-repair after any micrometeorite strike.

The FLUTE study is led by Edward Balaban from NASA’s Ames Research Center in California’s Silicon Valley. The FLUTE team has already done some tests on the ISS and on zero-g flights.

2. Pulsed Plasma Rocket (PPR): Shielded, Fast Transits for Humans to Mars

It takes too long to get to Mars. It’s a six-month journey each way, plus time spent on the surface. All that time in microgravity, exposure to radiation, and other challenges make the trip very difficult for astronauts. PPR aims to fix that.

PPR isn’t a launch vehicle for escaping Earth’s gravity well. It would be launched on a heavy lift vehicle like SLS and then sent on its way.

PPR was originally derived from the Pulsed Fission Fusion concept. But it’s more affordable, and also smaller and simpler. PPR might generate 100,000 N of thrust with a specific impulse (Isp) of 5,000 seconds. Those are good numbers. PPR could reduce the travel time to Mars to two months.

It has other benefits as well. It could propel larger spacecraft to Mars on trips longer than two months, carrying more cargo and also provide heavier shielding against cosmic rays. “The PPR enables a whole new era in space exploration,” the team writes.

PPR is basically a fusion system ignited by fission. It’s similar to a thermonuclear weapon. But rather than a run-away explosion, the combined energy is directed through a magnetic nozzle to produce thrust.

In phase two, the PPR team intends to optimize the engine design to produce more specific impulse, perform proof-of-concept experiments for major components, and design a shielded ship for human missions to Mars.

This study is led by Brianna Clements with Howe Industries in Scottsdale, Arizona.

3. The Great Observatory for Long Wavelengths (GO-LoW)

One of modern astronomy’s last frontiers is the low-frequency radio sky. Earth’s ionosphere blocks our ground-based telescopes from seeing it. And space-based telescopes can’t see it either. It’s because the wavelengths are so long, in the meter to the kilometre scale. Only extremely massive telescopes could see these waves clearly.

GO-LoW is a potential solution. It’s a space-based array of thousands of identical Small-Sats arranged as an interferometer. It would sit at an Earth-Sun Lagrange point and observe exoplanet and stellar magnetic fields. Exoplanet magnetic fields emit radio waves between 100 kHz and 15 MHz. The GO-LoW team says their interferometer could perform the first survey of exoplanetary magnetic fields within 5 parsecs (16 light years.) Magnetic fields tell scientists a lot about an exoplanet, its evolution, and its processes.

While there’s no doubt that large telescopes like the JWST are powerful and effective, they’re extremely complex and expensive. And if something goes wrong with a critical component, the mission could end.

GO-LoW takes a different approach. By using thousands of individual satellites, the system is more resilient. GO-LoW would have a hybrid constellation. Some of the satellites would be smaller and simpler satellites called “listener nodes” (LN,) while a smaller number of them would be “communication and computation” nodes (CCNs). They would collect data from the LNs, process it, and beam it back to Earth.

The GO-LoW says it would only take a few heavy launches to place an entire 100,000 satellite constellation in space.

The technology for the SmallSats already exists. The challenge the GO-LoW team will address with their phase two funding is developing a system that will harness everything together effectively. “The coordination of all these physical elements, data products, and communications systems is novel and challenging, especially at scale,” they write.

GO-LoW is led by Mary Knapp with MIT in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

4. Radioisotope Thermoradiative Cell Power Generator

It’s sort of like solar power in reverse.

The RTCPG is a power source for spacecraft visiting the outer planets. They promise smaller, more efficient power generation for smaller science and exploration missions that can’t carry a solar power system or nuclear power system. Both those systems are bulky, and solar power is limited the further away from the sun a spacecraft goes.

The thermoradiative cell (TRC) uses radioisotopes to create heat as an MMRTG does. But the TRC uses the heat to generate infrared light which generates electricity. In initial testing, the system generated 4.5 times more power from the same amount of PU-238.

Much of phase two’s work will involve materials. “Metal-semiconductor contacts capable of surviving the required elevated temperatures will be investigated,” the team explains. The team developed a special cryostat testing apparatus in phase one.

“Building on our results from Phase I, we believe there is much more potential to unlock here,” the team writes.

This power generation concept study is from Stephen Polly at the Rochester Institute of Technology in New York.

5. FLOAT: Flexible Levitation on a Track

What if Artemis is enormously successful? How will astronauts move their equipment around the lunar surface efficiently?

FLOAT would provide autonomous transportation for payloads on the Moon. “A durable, long-life robotic transport system will be critical to the daily operations of a sustainable lunar base in the 2030’s,” the FLOAT team writes.

The heart of FLOAT is a three-layer flexible track that’s unrolled into position without major construction. It consists of three layers: a graphite layer, a flex-circuit layer, and a solar panel layer.

The graphite layer allows robots to use diamagnetic levitation to float over the track. The flex-circuit layer supplies the thrust that moves them, and the thin-film solar panel layer generates electricity for a lunar base when it’s in sunlight.

The system can be used to move regolith around for in-situ resource utilization and to transport payloads around a lunar base, for example, from landing zones to habitats.

“Individual FLOAT robots will be able to transport payloads of varying shape/size (>30 kg/m^2) at useful speeds (>0.5m/s), and a large-scale FLOAT system will be capable of moving up to 100,000s kg of regolith/payload multiple kilometres per day,” the FLOAT team explains.

With their phase two funding, the FLOAT team intends to design, build, and test scaled-down versions of FLOAT robots and track. Then, they’ll test their system in a lunar analog testbed. They’ll also test environmental effects on the system and how they alter the system’s performance and longevity.

Ethan Schaler leads FLOAT at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California.

6. SCOPE: ScienceCraft for Outer Planet Exploration

Some of the most intriguing planets and moons in the Solar System are well beyond Jupiter. But exploring them is challenging. Extremely long travel times, restrictive mission windows, and large expenses limit our exploration. But SCOPE aims to address these limitations.

Typically, a spacecraft carries a propulsion and power system along with its instruments and communication systems. NASA’s Juno mission to Jupiter, for example, carries a chemical rocket engine for propulsion, 50 square meters of solar panels, and 10 science instruments. The solar panels alone weigh 340 kg (750 lbs.) Juno is powerful, produces a wide variety of quality science data, and is expensive.

ScienceCraft takes a different approach. It combines a single science instrument and spacecraft into one monolithic structure. It’s basically a solar sail with a built-in spectrometer. They’re aiming their design at the Neptune-Triton system.

“By printing an ultra-lightweight quantum dot-based spectrometer, developed by the PI Sultana, directly on the solar sail, we create a breakthrough spacecraft architecture allowing an unprecedented parallelism and throughput of data collection and rapid travel across the solar system,” the ScienceCraft team writes.

Instead of merely providing the propulsion, the sail doubles as the spacecraft’s science instrument. The small mass means that ScienceCraft could be carried into orbit as a secondary payload. The team says they’ll use phase two to identify and develop key technologies for the spacecraft and to further mature the mission concept. They say that because of the low cost and simplicity, they could be ready by 2045.

“By leveraging these benefits, we propose a mission concept to Triton, a unique planetary body in our solar system, within the short window that closes around 2045 to answer compelling science questions about Triton’s atmosphere, ionosphere, plumes and internal structure,” the ScienceCraft team explains.

ScienceCraft is led by NASA’s Mahmooda Sultana at the agency’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland.

{ https://www.universetoday.com/ }

07-05-2024 om 21:01 geschreven door peter  

Our Alien Overlords: How Humanity Secretly Serves the Tall Whites

In the annals of extraterrestrial lore, few accounts captivate the imagination quite like the saga of Charles Hall and the enigmatic Tall Whites. Hall’s narrative, chronicled in his series of books titled “Millennial Hospitality,” offers a tantalizing glimpse into a clandestine relationship between humans and an otherworldly species known as the Tall Whites. From covert agreements to clandestine operations, the story unveils a complex tapestry of interactions that raise profound questions about the nature of our reality and our place within the cosmos.

The Tall Whites: Alien Enigmas Among Us

According to Hall, the Tall Whites first made contact with the United States government in the early 1950s, purportedly striking a deal that allowed them to establish facilities on Earth in exchange for advanced technology. Described as tall, fair-skinned beings with elongated features, the Tall Whites possess a sophisticated understanding of science and technology far beyond our own. Their presence on Earth, shrouded in secrecy, has fueled speculation and intrigue for decades.

Covert Collaborations: The Shadowy Alliance

Central to Hall’s account is the clandestine collaboration between the United States government and the Tall Whites. Allegedly, the US government agreed to allow the Tall Whites to conduct their operations on Earth with minimal interference in exchange for access to their advanced technology. This covert alliance, hidden from public view, raises profound questions about the extent of our government’s involvement with extraterrestrial entities and the implications for humanity at large.

Unveiling Secret Facilities: Evidence Underground

One of the most compelling aspects of Hall’s narrative is his description of secret facilities where the Tall Whites conduct their operations. Through meticulous research and analysis, investigators have uncovered evidence of underground bases and covert installations that align with Hall’s accounts. Satellite imagery and historical records suggest the existence of hidden facilities linked to the Tall Whites, providing tantalizing clues about the scope of their presence on Earth.

The Human Experiment: Studying Humanity

Beyond their technological prowess, the Tall Whites are said to possess a profound interest in humanity itself. According to Hall, he became the subject of their study during his tenure at Nellis Air Force Base, where he interacted closely with members of the extraterrestrial species. Through these interactions, the Tall Whites sought to understand human behavior and psychology, offering insights into their own enigmatic culture and society.

The Veil of Secrecy: Unraveling the Truth

While Hall’s accounts offer a compelling narrative of human-alien interaction, skepticism abounds regarding the veracity of his claims. Critics point to the lack of concrete evidence to substantiate his story, raising doubts about the existence of the Tall Whites and their alleged collaboration with the US government. Despite these challenges, the enduring mystery surrounding the Tall Whites continues to captivate the imagination of UFO enthusiasts and skeptics alike.

VIDEO:

• The Why Files – Our Alien Overlords | How We Secretly Serve The Tall Whites

• https://youtu.be/EieUJvKrjo4

The saga of Charles Hall and the Tall Whites offers a fascinating glimpse into the shadowy world of extraterrestrial contact and covert collaboration. As humanity grapples with the mysteries of the cosmos, the story serves as a reminder of the profound questions that lie beyond the confines of our understanding. Whether fact or fiction, the tale of our alien overlords invites us to contemplate our place in the universe and the enigmatic beings that may share it with us.

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

07-05-2024 om 20:34 geschreven door peter  

In May 1950, two down-to-Earth Oregon farmers took a couple of photos that were out-of-this world. They have never been successfully debunked.

 Bryce Zabel

After becoming a public sensation in June 1947 with the famous Kenneth Arnold sighting, flying saucers were the talk of America. There were numerous reports being made, many witnesses, and unconfirmed photos. However, there were no clearly unstaged photos of actual craft that made the grade with their uncontested quality.

In 1950, When the Nation Wanted Proof, It Flew Over a Farm in Oregon

On May 11, 1950, Paul and Evelyn Trent saw history gliding over their farm in the form of a single 100-foot flying saucer, and snapped two famous pictures of it from different angles, thirty seconds apart. The story blew wide open a month and a half later.

On June 26, 1950, Life magazine printed what everyone then agreed were two of the best flying saucer photos ever taken. They were not images of blurry lights in the sky or birds or weather balloons. They were real, structural, and metallic. The only valid question was whether they were authentic mysteries or just hoaxes.

Flying Saucer Moment of Zen

Do these photos look like the side mirror to a 1947 pick-up truck suspended by a thread, or a garbage can lid tossed into the air, two theories floated by skeptics?

The best place to start in an article about photo analysis of something potentially extraordinary is to take a moment to look at the full size scan of the photos. Take a good look at them on the best screen you have. The full story’s on the other side…

Trent Farm | Sheridan, Oregon | May 11, 1950 | Public Domain

In the intervening years, these two photos the Trents exposed in half-a-minute flurry have been studied by the Air Force, the CIA’s Condon Report, and multiple researchers. They’ve appeared in articles thousands of times. The Trents, by the way, never made any money for any of those uses.

People are still split on the real-versus-hoax divide, but the edge over time goes to acceptance that they were taken unstaged.

They Weren’t Looking for a Flying Saucer

Located just off the Salmon River Highway, Paul and Evelyn Trent worked their small farm in Sheridan, Oregon in the years just after the Second World War. It was a timber and farming community just a short drive from Oregon’s fertile Willamette Valley. It was a hard life, but they were hard-working people.

Sheridan is about ten miles away from the Yamhill County seat of McMinnville that’s always listed as the location where the photographs were taken. These days, McMinnville throws an annual UFO Festival with a parade to keep that fiction alive.

To put the timeframe into perspective: WWII ends in 1945, Kenneth Arnold sees flying saucers up in Washington State in June 1947, a few weeks later there’s the Roswell, New Mexico crash, and three years later, the Trents take their pictures. Things were hopping, ufologically speaking.

{ https://medium.com/ }

07-05-2024 om 14:53 geschreven door peter  

There’s also the Swedish Negative Ions on Lunar Surface (NILS), an instrument that will detect and measure negative ions reflected by the lunar surface. Lastly, there’s the Pakistani ICUBE-Q CubeSat developed by the Institute of Space Technology (IST) and Shanghai Jiao Tong University (SJTU), which will take images of the lunar surface using two optical cameras and measure the Moon’s magnetic field. The data these instruments provide will reveal new information about the lunar environment that will inform plans for long-duration missions on the surface.

By 2026, the Chang’e-6 mission will be joined by Chang’e-7, including an orbiter, lander, rover, and a mini-hopping probe. The data provided by the program will assist China’s plans to land taikonauts around the lunar south pole by 2030, followed by the completion of the ILRS by 2035.

Further Reading: 

• CGTN

{ https://www.universetoday.com }

06-05-2024 om 22:24 geschreven door peter  

De LaGuardia-cilinder en de gelijkenis ervan met het Cecconi-incident in 1979 boven Italië

Door Bob Spearing, MUFON-directeur internationale onderzoeken

Op 25 maart 2024 verscheen er een verhaal in de New York Post over een vliegtuigpassagier genaamd Michelle Reyes die per ongeluk een zwart cilindervormig object met een mogelijke witte koepel boven New York City filmde terwijl ze haar vliegtuig in de tegenovergestelde richting passeerde. Uiteraard meldde ze het incident onmiddellijk aan de FAA. Ze was bang dat het een gevaar voor de veiligheid was. Ze ontving op dit moment geen antwoord van de FAA. Dit is niet verrassend!

Tom Wertman, directeur van de staat Ohio bij MUFON en lid van het fotoanalyseteam van het MUTUAL UFO Network, die zelden met stomheid geslagen is, kon het cilindervormige voertuig niet identificeren. Vogel is uitgesloten, wat vaak het geval is bij een snel wazige flybay op de voorgrond van een cameralens. Bovendien bevond het vliegtuig zich op een vrij grote hoogte voor vogels, waardoor de soort vogel die het zou kunnen zijn ernstig werd beperkt.

CNN en verschillende nieuwsorganisaties hadden hun vaste opmerkingen, zoals Ben Hansen, die suggereerden dat het abnormaal was. In dit geval zou MUFON het ermee eens zijn dat dit zeker geen vogel is, maar een technologisch object. Ballon is uitgesloten. De snelheid van het object kan niet worden bepaald, aangezien het vliegtuig enkele honderden kilometers per uur vloog en het object zich in slechts één of twee frames in de tegenovergestelde richting bevond.

MUFON pakte de waarneming echter anders aan. We hebben gezocht naar mogelijk correlerende gevallen en we hebben één zeer significant geval gevonden dat neigt naar een afwijkend object! Wij bij MUFON blinken uit in deze manier van correlaties met andere historische casussen.

Er is een tweede rapport van een soortgelijke zwarte cilinder met een melkwitte koepel die in 1979 in Italië plaatsvond. Het volledige rapport staat hieronder, maar ter vergelijking voor de lezer: we hebben ook een tekening uit de Cecconi-zaak uit 1979 en die is duidelijk te zien parallel met de La Guardia-foto van 25 maart 2024. Het bijgevoegde artikel hieronder toont een foto van het object uit 1979 gefotografeerd door piloot Cecconi! Ironisch genoeg zijn er door de piloot 80 foto's gemaakt, maar slechts één is openbaar. Waarom?

Als je naar de foto van Michele Reyes kijkt en deze vergelijkt met de opvatting van de kunstenaar over het Cecconi oObject uit 1979, valt niet te ontkennen dat we 45 jaar later naar hetzelfde object of een object met een vergelijkbare constructie kijken.

Van website:

• https://www.xaluannews.com/modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=3179667#google_vignette

Op 18 juni 1979 keerde de toenmalige pilootmaarschalk Giancarlo Cecconi (geboren in 1933, in Florence) terug van een fotografisch onderzoek uitgevoerd op de Ligurische Apennijnen.

The UFO with the airfield below

Toont deze foto een echte UFO

Hij vloog over het gebied tussen Rovigo en de Colli di Abano Terme, toen hij via de radio vanuit de verkeerstoren van de militaire luchthaven van S. Angelo di Treviso, waar hij gestationeerd was, de uitnodiging ontving om verbinding te maken met de vliegbasis van Istrië ( TV), waarvan de radar een ongeïdentificeerd vliegend object had gesignaleerd, ongeveer op de verticale lijn van Quinto di Treviso en dus in de directe omgeving van de bovengenoemde luchthaven.

De heer Cecconi, die behoorde tot de 14 'Group of the 2' Fighter Bomber Reconnaissance Wing van de Italiaanse luchtmacht, bevond zich aan boord van een G 91/R, uitgerust met vier VINTEN-camera's, zo geplaatst: twee aan de zijkanten van de voorkant van de cockpit, één in de voorste positie en de vierde in de buikpositie. Hiermee had hij in feite de fotografische onderzoeken uitgevoerd waarvoor hij de leiding had gehad. Vervolgens sprak hij met het personeel van het grondcontroleorgaan af om het door de radar gedetecteerde object te gaan identificeren.

Op het moment van de waarneming kwam het bij hem op dat het een zonne-UFO zou kunnen zijn; Toen besefte hij dat het iets anders was. Het was een prachtige dag en hij besefte al snel dat die “zwarte vlek” heel andere kenmerken had.

Het leek hem in de vorm van een matzwarte ‘brandstoftank’ en op het enigszins afgeplatte bovenste gedeelte zag hij een stroomlijnkap met twee ‘snorren’; dit lag ten grondslag aan iets helders en wits dat, naar zijn mening, een soort melkwitte “koepel” was. De kenmerken van het oppervlak lieten de breking van licht niet toe. Het object bleek een lengte te hebben van ongeveer 6-8 meter en een breedte van ongeveer 3 meter.

Ten tijde van de ontmoeting met het ongewone ‘vliegtuig’ bevond dit zich verticaal op de militaire luchthaven van Treviso op een hoogte van ongeveer 1300 meter.

Nadat hij contact had gemaakt met de UFO, maakte hij een eerste serie foto’s met de camera aan de voorkant en nadat hij in zeer korte tijd de “strop” had gemaakt (manoeuvre die bestaat uit het omkeren van de koers), merkte hij op dat het object bevond zich nog steeds in dezelfde positie, zodat hij deze keer nog een serie foto's kon maken met de camera's aan de zijkant.

Hij begreep dat het iets was met een zekere stijfheid en leidde dit af uit het feit dat, toen het vliegtuig hem naderde met een snelheid van ongeveer 300 knopen (450-500 km / u), het object “… geen last had van enige turbulentie… ”. De piloot had bij andere gelegenheden de gelegenheid gehad om UFO Solar te zien. Ze voelden echter de turbulentie veroorzaakt door de nabijgelegen passage van het vliegtuig en hun beweging kon zelfs een kwartier duren; dit object daarentegen leek statisch te blijven en trilde niet, ook al was de heer Cecconi het op een afstand van ongeveer honderd meter gepasseerd.

Tijdens de waarneming, die ongeveer vijf minuten duurde, kon de heer Cecconi meer dan tachtig foto's maken waarop het object altijd in dezelfde frontale positie, of in een lichte hoek, te zien was; in feite was dit vanaf de zijkant nooit helemaal zichtbaar, het was alsof het ‘ding’ het vliegtuig wilde ‘richten’.
Volgens de getuige leek hij zich defensief op te stellen. De zijkant werd nooit volledig belicht en het was hem nooit gelukt hem volledig vanaf de zijkant te fotograferen; hiervoor was hij onder de indruk.

Terwijl de piloot een bocht aan het voltooien was, zei het radarcentrum van Istrana tegen hem: “we zijn het kwijt! Het staat niet meer op het scherm!”. Het was plotseling verdwenen tussen de treffers op de radar door.

Ook vanuit de verkeerstoren van de luchthaven S. Angelo meldden ze dat het object binnen enkele ogenblikken op onverklaarbare wijze uit het zicht was verdwenen. Hij keek waar de UFO had moeten zijn, maar kon hem niet meer zien.

Nadat het vliegtuig was teruggekeerd naar de basis in Treviso, hebben de specialisten, zoals gebruikelijk, de filmcontainers verwijderd, in ontvangst genomen en naar het laboratorium van de afdeling Ontwikkeling en Drukken gebracht.

Zodra de foto's ontwikkeld waren, controleerde hij ze en vroeg een vriend (fotolabmedewerker) om een ​​kopie.

Jaren gingen voorbij en nadat de heer Cecconi met pensioen ging, vroegen ufologen het Ministerie van Defensie om de documentatie over deze zaak vrij te geven, en hen werd verteld dat: “het object in kwestie, onmiddellijk geïdentificeerd, met scherp werd gefotografeerd en ondubbelzinnig werd geïdentificeerd door de persoonlijke fototolk in een cilindrische ballon, gemaakt met zwarte plastic zakken.”.

Het antwoord liet de ufologen verbijsterd achter, vooral gezien de ervaring en voorbereiding van de heer Cecconi, die prat ging op een curriculum als weinig anderen en een van de bekendste en meest gewaardeerde piloten was op het gebied van ernst en competentie.

{ https://mufon.com/ }

06-05-2024 om 18:53 geschreven door peter  

Authorities Raid UFO Museum, Seize Supposed Alien Mummy’s Foot And Other Artifacts

A mysterious “mummy’s foot” supposedly belonging to an alien was recently discovered and seized by authorities during a raid on a UFO museum.

The raid of the UFO museum in Argentina coincides with journalist and UFOlogist Jaime Maussan’s ongoing claims that he discovered two three-fingered “non-human alien corpses” in the city of Cusco, Peru.

Maussan’s “1,000-year-old aliens” were allegedly found in Peruvian diatom (algae) mines and, according to Maussan, who has on multiple occasions over the past few months presented sets of “alien corpses” to Congress in Mexico and claiming that 30% of the corpses’ DNA is “not from any known species.”

Because of his presentations in Mexico, Maussan became the subject of a criminal investigation by Peruvian officials.

In a similar investigation, Interpol agents and the Department of the Protection of the Cultural Heritage of the Federal Police to raid the Museo del Ovni (“UFO Museum” in English) in the locale of Victoria in Argentina.

Around 60 exhibits were seized in the raid, including the supposed foot of an alien mummy.

According to a local radio station, “After fieldwork, the feds detected a post on a YouTube channel, which documented that there was a piece similar to the one reported in the museum in question, which would be protected by the National Law on the Protection of the Archaeological and Paleontological Heritage.”

Silvia Perez Simondini, who runs the museum, has claimed that, while the alien mummy’s foot was in fact discovered in Lima, Peru, after several failed attempts to donate the artifact to various institutions, including the embassy and museums of natural science, he decided to exhibit it in his UFO museum where it has been on display for many years.

Prior to the raid on Simondini’s UFO museum, officials from the Peruvian Ministry of Culture interrupted a press conference hosted by ufologist Jaime Maussan where the subject was a supposed three-fingered alien mummy with a “new type of DNA.” Officials in that case, however, were unable to confiscate the alien mummy as it was not brought to the event.

{ https://brobible.com/ }

06-05-2024 om 18:27 geschreven door peter  

Here are the 7 best places to search for life in the solar system

by Andy Tomaswick, Universe Today

If humanity is ever going to find life on another planet in the solar system, it's probably best to know where to look. Plenty of scientists have spent many, many hours pondering precisely that question, and plenty have come up with justifications for backing a particular place in the solar system as the most likely to hold the potential for harboring life as we know it. Thanks to a team led by Dimitra Atri of NYU Abu Dhabi, we now have a methodology by which to rank them.

The methodology, published in a recent preprint paper on arXiv, is focused on a new variable—the Microbial Habitability Index (MHI). MHI is intended to measure how habitable a specific environment is for the various types of extremophiles found in extreme places here on Earth.

As with many great engineering challenges, the authors broke down the process of developing an effective MHI into a series of steps. First, they defined a series of six environmental variables that can affect the habitability of a particular environment for life. They then defined six types of environments that are generally thought to exist on many potentially habitable worlds. They then picked seven of those habitable worlds and collected all the data they could on the environmental factors for each type of environment on each potentially habitable world.

With that data, they compared the values found in those environments to the values that extremophiles can live in. The results aren't particularly surprising to anyone interested in solar system astrobiology, but quantifiable data back them up. It seems Europa, Mars, and Enceladus are the most likely candidates to find bacterial life.

To get to this conclusion required a lot of data collection and quantification, though. First, the team had to define what environmental factors were the most important for the potential habitability of life. They settled on six: temperature, pressure, UV radiation, Ionizing radiation, pH, and salinity. Life can only survive in a narrow band of these values, and they serve as a reasonable basis for starting to think about what environmental features are necessary to support life.

Luckily, scientists have also collected data on life forms that thrive in the extremes of each of those six factors. From Serpentinomonas sp. B1 that can survive in pHs as high as 12.5 to Thermococcus piezophilus CDGS that can withstand pressures of up to 125 MPa, Earth's extremophiles give a good indication of what life might be able to contend with on other planets. Utilizing the highs and lows of the factors they selected, the scientists were able to determine the bounds an environment would have to conform to support life as we know it.

Those environments were the next things the scientists turned their attention to. They came up with a list of six potentially biologically interesting environments that were found to harbor life on Earth and then defined the ranges of the six environmental factors in each of those environments on Earth. Included in the list were: Icy Poles, Surface Continent, Subsurface Continent, Subsurface Ices, Ambient Ocean, Deep Ocean Floor, and Hydrothermal Vents. Each of those environments on Earth harbors life in some form, so the authors posit they could do so on some other world as well.

To find the most habitable places in the solar system, the researchers went down the list of worlds in the solar system. They eliminated most based on an outlier in one or more of the environmental factors they had defined as essential to biological life. At the end of their eliminations, though, they were left with seven potentially habitable worlds: Mars, Europa, Enceladus, Titan, Ganymede, Callisto, and (somewhat surprisingly) Pluto.

After getting all the selections out of the way, the authors got to the data collection phase. They collected data as much data as they could find about every time of environment that had been found on each of the worlds. Not every world is blessed with each of those environments, though. For example, Mars has no hydrothermal vents that we know of. However, that doesn't mean that other environments on the Red Planet wouldn't make a good candidate for astrobiology.

After collecting what data they could, they compared that data to the range defined by whether a microbe could withstand the ranges of environmental factors they would be subjected to at a given environment and, in so doing, came up with the MHI. The best way to summarize the outcome of their calculations is through a table showing the number of environmental factors that fall within the habitable range of extremophiles for each of the six environments selected as part of the study. The table is reproduced below.

The denominator in each of the entries signifies how many of the environmental factors the researchers could find data on. If the number is less than six, the researchers could not find data on one or more of the factors. The numerator in each fraction is the number of those environmental factors that lie within the bounds of environmental habitability for each. So, for example, the 1/4 value in the Subsurface Ice row of the Titan column means that there were data points available for four of the six environmental factors and that one of those environmental factors laid within the bounds set by the minimum and maximum of the livable conditions of extremophiles.

The chart clearly indicates that the most likely place that life could exist in the solar system is Enceladeus' hydrothermal vent system, which scores a five out of five on potential environmental factors—it is missing data on ionizing radioactivity. But the icy moon isn't alone at the top of the potentially habitable list. Mars and Europa both harbor environments that could be habitable to life, though the other candidates on the list seem less hospitable.

Ultimately there are a series of missions that will be focused on finding any microbial life that might exist at many of these locations, including Europa Clipper and the Mars Sample Return mission. This paper provides yet another reason why Enceladus should have its own mission in the works. But for now, having the framework that lets researchers and engineers focus their efforts on the most likely places to find one of the most sought-after discoveries in human history will help focus their efforts. Maybe something will come of it in the long run.

More information: 

• Dimitra Atri et al, Assessment of Microbial Habitability Across Solar System Targets. arXiv:2203.03171v2 [astro-ph.EP], doi.org/10.48550/arXiv.2203.03171

{ https://phys.org/space-news/ }

06-05-2024 om 18:12 geschreven door peter  

Why Venus May Be Our Best Bet For Finding Life In the Solar System

Venus and Earth once looked a lot alike. Could our planet’s forgotten early twin also contain life?

BY KIONA SMITH

 

One of the weirdest places in our Solar System may actually be a great place to search for alien life: the skies of Venus.

We don’t have evidence of life — or even indisputable evidence that life could survive — in any world but the one we currently live in. However, recent years have raised the tantalizing prospect that our Solar System, in which we thought we were alone, may be dotted with diverse, and deeply weird, homes for life: In dark water beneath the ice of Europa and Enceladus, in briny underground refugia on Mars, and even drifting in the acidic clouds of Venus.

“If it had liquid water in the past, and if we can really confirm that, then yes – Venus would likely be the planet I would place my bet on,” University of Wisconsin-Madison planetary scientist Sanjay Limaye tells Inverse.

Limaye and his colleagues, along with several other teams of researchers, presented their work in a recent collection of papers in the journal Astrobiology.

BETTING ON VENUS

In a series of recent papers, several teams of planetary scientists and astrobiologists argue that although the surface of Venus is undeniably an uninhabitable hellscape — you can’t do organic chemistry in a place that’s hot enough to melt lead — the sulfuric acid clouds might actually contain just enough water and other key chemicals for microbes to make a living.

What we know about Venus suggests that there’s something going on in our evil twin planet’s atmosphere that we don’t understand yet, whether it’s alien life or unusual chemical reactions that we’ve never seen anywhere else is still hotly debated.

A few years ago, a team of scientists detected a chemical called phosphine in Venus’s atmosphere. Here on Earth, the chemical reactions that create phosphine only ever happen inside living things, so some astrobiologists immediately got very excited about its presence on Venus. But in a recent paper, chemist Klaudia Mráziková of the Czech Academy of Sciences and her colleagues proposed a way that chemical reactions in the atmosphere could make phosphine without any help from life — and they’re not the first, although co-author Paul Rimmer of Cambridge University tells Inverse that he thinks their scenario is the “best hypothetical abiotic source for phosphine” so far.

Meanwhile, high in Venus’s atmosphere, something is absorbing huge amounts of ultraviolet radiation from the Sun. Over the last century, planetary scientists have suggested several chemical compounds, in different combinations, that could be absorbing the UV light, but no explanation quite fits, at least so far. And in a weirdly compelling coincidence, the shape of whatever’s absorbing the light, and the way it changes with the Venusian seasons, bears a striking resemblance to algal blooms in Earth’s oceans. Like the phosphine, it could be alien microbes busily doing photosynthesis, or it could be fascinating undiscovered chemistry.

And then there are the Mode 3 particles. These weirdly shaped particles in the lower cloud layers of Venus are less than a ten-thousandth of an inch wide, but that’s surprisingly large for particles floating in clouds. The Pioneer Venus mission discovered them in early 1971, when one of its instruments measured the tiny shadows of particles passing by. They’re not tiny spheres, but amorphous blobs, and some scientists wonder whether they might be cells living in the droplets of liquid that make up the clouds.

As incredible a discovery as that would be, the Mode 3 particles could also be an optical illusion; the result of overlapping shadows of round droplets, or a problem with the Pioneer Venus instrument’s calibration. They could also be grains of dust blown aloft from the dead surface of Venus, or something else entirely.

All of these mysteries could be clues pointing to alien life in the Venusian clouds – or they could be a stack of coincidences, which future astrobiologists will one day use as a cautionary tale. We just don’t know yet.

“There are far more unanswered questions about Venus than any other planet,” says Limaye.

A TALE OF TWO PLANETS

Venus is both the most and the least Earth-like planet we know of. It’s about the same size as our home world, and it’s also a rocky world, shrouded by an atmosphere, in the habitable zone of our Sun. But Venus is also a hellworld that rotates backwards, where temperatures on the ground could melt lead and the clouds rain sulfuric acid. But some scientists argue high above the deadly heat and crushing pressure of the surface, the acidic clouds actually aren’t so bad, that is if you’re a microbe evolved to like that sort of thing.

“Venus is often overlooked as a target for astrobiology,” Massachusetts Institute of Technology astrobiologist Janusz Petkowski tells Inverse. “This is an unfair assessment.” Petkowski and his colleagues recently published a paper in the journal Astrobiology presenting a case for a habitable niche in Venus’s clouds.

Once upon a time (almost 4 billion years ago, that is), the young planets Venus and Earth probably looked a lot alike. The fledgling Venus may even have had seas of liquid water, much like the environments where life probably emerged from chemistry on Earth. Researchers like Petkowski and Limaye argue that if Venus and Earth were similar during their youth, there’s no reason life couldn’t have emerged on Venus just like it did on Earth (it’s also plausible that the same thing was happening on Mars at around the same time).

But, as siblings sometimes do, the two planets took very different paths in their adolescent years. For various reasons, Venus’s atmosphere acted like a greenhouse, holding in heat until the seas boiled away and the clouds turned noxious and acidic. But that process took at least a hundred million years, and Petkowski, Limaye, and others are betting that some Venusian life may have evolved quickly enough to survive as the seas evaporated and the clouds got more and more acidic. If they’re right, then colonies of microbes could still be drifting in the upper layers of Venus’s atmosphere, where temperatures are more hospitable, clinging to droplets of fluid or tiny grains of dust that make up the clouds.

LIFE, UH, FINDS A WAY

“No life on Earth could actually survive in Venus’s clouds,” says Petkowski.” “But if we define habitability as an environment that allows any kind of organic chemistry to survive – maybe even life with different chemical composition and different biochemical solutions – then Venus’s clouds could be potentially habitable.”

The cloud layers of Venus’s upper atmosphere stay between freezing and boiling — exactly the right temperature range for life — but they’re made mostly of droplets of sulfuric acid, mingled with a few microscopically tiny droplets of water. No environment on Earth is remotely similar. But seeing how the scrappiest, stubbornest Earth life has adapted to milder versions of these challenges, astrobiologists can learn how life might adapt to the harsh conditions of Venus.

Here on Earth, for example, some microbes that live in acidic hot springs have found ways to neutralize the acid around them. Venus’s clouds are much more acidic than even the most caustic hot springs here on Earth, but given millions of years to adapt, it’s possible that microbes could keep pace with their changing environment. Petkowski and his colleagues suggest that multi-layered cell walls or acid-resistant membranes could also help microbes keep the acid out and the water in.

For now, that’s all speculation, but in recent lab experiments, Worcester Polytechnic Institute chemist Maxwell Seager and his colleagues found that some amino acids (chemical compounds that form the building blocks for proteins) are completely fine hanging out in a mixture of 98 percent sulfuric acid and 2 percent water. In previous experiments, the same team learned that nucleic acids (the molecules that store the genetic code) are also undaunted by super-acidic conditions.

That could be good news for life, but surviving the acid clouds is just one part of the challenge. Life — at least life as we know it — needs water to survive, and if there’s water in Venus’s clouds, it exists in the form of microscopic droplets, and even those are probably few and far between. In the driest places on Earth — carefully climate-controlled libraries — some resourceful microbes use nearby salt to pull just a few molecules of water out of the air. It’s not hard to imagine microbes on Venus doing something similar while clinging to a droplet of liquid in a cloud.

But could microbes spend their whole lives in the air? Some microbes here on Earth spend part of their life cycle in the clouds, but on Venus, sinking too deep into the haze below means a boiling death. Petkowski and colleagues say that resourceful microbes could lock themselves into armored balls called spores when their environments get too hot; inside the spore, a dormant microbe could wait until wind currents lift them back up to where things are cooler.

In other words, life finds a way. Or at least, it theoretically could. We need a lot more information to know for sure, or even to say how likely this scenario could be.

WILL WE EVER FIND A SMOKING GUN?

Upcoming missions to Venus may help answer some questions about what’s really going on in the sulfuric acid clouds: How much water is there? Are there organic molecules? Did Venus ever have liquid water on its surface? All of these are pieces of a much larger question: Could the clouds of Venus be habitable, even for a kind of life that we’ve never seen on Earth?

A commercial spaceflight company called Rocket Lab plans to launch its Venus Life Finder mission in December 2024. Venus Life Finder will look for organic molecules in the upper cloud layers. Finding these molecules won’t prove there’s life on Venus (despite the mission’s ambitious name), but it would show that the acidic clouds are home to the kind of chemistry that makes life work. This would be an encouraging sign.

NASA’s DAVINCI mission, which is planned for a 2029 launch, will study Venus’s atmosphere from orbit — and drop a probe into it. A couple of years later, in 2031, NASA’s VERITAS mission will study the planet’s surface and it’s interior. At around the same time, the European Space Agency’s EnVision mission will also use radar to study the interior of Venus from space.

All of these missions could help scientists understand whether Venus ever had liquid water on its surface, and how the planet’s atmosphere evolved over time (ratios of different chemical isotopes in a planet’s atmosphere can contain clues about its history). They may also help find explanations for the phosphine and even the mysterious UV absorber.

However, all of these missions are still years away even if everything goes according to plan. As JWST and Artemis have both shown us, it seldom does; they call it rocket science for a reason. And none of them will be capable of actually detecting life among the clouds of Venus , only clues about whether it could survive there. The only way to find real proof of life on Venus, according to researchers like Petkowski and Limaye, will be to scoop up a sample of the Venusian clouds and bring it home.

And that possibility is still decades away.

“It will take at least a couple of decades or longer, given the rate at which the previously selected missions are taking to actually be implemented,” says Limaye. “It will be a long time before we actually detect life elsewhere. It's not going to be a single experiment. It's going to take a lot of effort and different experiments and investigations and missions to determine.”

In the meantime, we can speculate, and scientists can find new ways to analyze the data they have. And we can all enjoy the possibility that our Solar System may be a lot wilder and a lot livelier than we thought.

{ https://www.inverse.com/ }

06-05-2024 om 17:36 geschreven door peter  

Multiple space agencies are looking to send crewed missions to the Moon’s southern polar region in this decade and the next. Moreover, they intend to create the infrastructure that will allow for a sustained human presence, exploration, and economic development. This requires that the local geography, resources, and potential hazards be scouted in advance and navigation strategies that do not rely on a Global Positioning System (GPS) developed. On Sunday, April 21st, the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) released the first complete high-definition geologic atlas of the Moon.

This 1:2.5 million scale geological set of maps provides basic geographical data for future lunar research and exploration. According to the Institute of Geochemistry of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), the volume includes data on 12,341 craters, 81 impact basins, 17 types of lithologies, 14 types of structures, and other geological information about the lunar surface. This data will be foundational to China’s efforts in selecting a site for their International Lunar Research Station (ILRS) and could also prove useful for NASA planners as they select a location for the Artemis Base Camp.

Ouyang Ziyuan and Liu Jianzhong, a research professor and senior researcher from the Institute of Geochemistry of the CAS (respectively), oversaw these efforts. Since 2012, they have led a team of over 100 scientists and cartographers from relevant research institutions. The team spent more than a decade compiling scientific exploration data obtained by the many orbiters, landers, and rovers that are part of the Chinese Lunar Exploration Program (Chang’e), and other research about the origin and evolution of the Moon.

ccording to the CAS, the atlas includes an “upgraded lunar geological time scale” for “objectively” depicting the geological evolution of the Moon, including the lunar tectonics and volcanic activity that once took place. As a result, the volume could not only be significant in terms of lunar exploration and site selection. Still, it could also improve our understanding of the formation and evolution of Earth and the other terrestrial planets of the Solar System – Mercury, Venus, and Mars. As Jianzhong indicated in a CAS press release,

“The world has witnessed significant progress in the field of lunar exploration and scientific research over the past decades, which have greatly improved our understanding of the moon. However, the lunar geologic maps published during the Apollo era have not been changed for about half a century and are still being used for lunar geological research. With the improvements of lunar geologic studies, those old maps can no longer meet the needs of future scientific research and lunar exploration.”

Jianzhong also claims that the atlas could help inform future sample collection on the Moon. This includes the Chang’e-6 mission (consisting of an orbiter and lander), which launched this past Friday (May 3rd). The orbiter element will reach the Moon in a few days, and the lander element is expected to touch down the far side of the Moon by early June. By 2026, it will be joined by the Chang’e-7 mission, consisting of an orbiter, lander, rover, and a mini-hopping probe. While Chang’e-6 will obtain lunar soil and rock samples, Chang’e-7 will investigate resources and obtain samples of water ice and volatiles.

According to Gregory Michael, a senior scientist from the Free University of Berlin, the release of this atlas represents the culmination of decades of work, and not just by Chinese scientists:

“This map, in particular, is the first on a global scale to utilize all of the post-Apollo era data. It builds on the achievements of the international community over the last decades, as well as on China’s own highly successful Chang’e program. It will be a starting point for every new question of lunar geology and become a primary resource for researchers studying lunar processes of all kinds.”

Aside from updating data on lunar features and geology, the new maps reportedly double the resolution of the Apollo-era maps. These maps were compiled by the US Geological Survey in the 1960s and 70s using data from the Apollo missions. Among them was a global map at the scale of 1:5,000,000, though other regional maps and those that showed the terrain near the Apollo landing sites were of higher resolution. Geological and geographical information on the Moon has advanced considerably since then, requiring updated maps that reflect the objective of returning to the Moon with the intent to stay.

In addition to the Geologic Atlas of the Lunar Globe, the CAS also released a book called Map Quadrangles of the Geologic Atlas of the Moon. This document includes 30 sector diagrams that collectively form a visualization of the entire lunar surface. Both are available in Chinese and English, have been integrated into a digital platform called Digital Moon, and will eventually become available to the international research community.

Further Reading: 

• CAS

{ https://www.universetoday.com/ }

06-05-2024 om 17:22 geschreven door peter  

Mysterious Object Spotted Over LaGuardia Airport Raises Eyebrows: Possible UFO Sighting

In a bizarre turn of events, a mysterious cylindrical object was reportedly sighted hovering near New York’s LaGuardia Airport, prompting speculation and intrigue among witnesses and experts alike. The incident, captured on camera by Michelle Reyes from her airplane window, has sparked discussions about the possibility of extraterrestrial activity in our skies.

Michelle Reyes, accompanied by her daughter, was aboard a flight over New York City when she inadvertently stumbled upon the enigmatic sight. Initially intending to capture the scenic view of the city skyline, Reyes was taken aback when she noticed an unusual object darting across her line of sight. Describing it as a “flying cylinder,” Reyes was quick to rule out conventional explanations, as the object appeared to be moving autonomously at a remarkable speed.

Following the sighting, Reyes took proactive measures by reaching out to relevant authorities, including the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), to report the potential safety hazard. Despite her efforts, she received limited acknowledgment, highlighting the challenges faced by individuals attempting to report such incidents.

The perplexing nature of the sighting garnered attention from UFO investigator Ben Hansen, known for his work on Discovery’s “UEFA Witness.” After an extensive analysis of the footage, Hansen expressed his belief in the authenticity of the video, debunking claims of fabrication or hoax. His assessment adds weight to the possibility that the object spotted near LaGuardia Airport may indeed be of extraterrestrial origin.

One intriguing aspect of the sighting is the corroborating testimony from another passenger on the same flight, confirming the presence of a similar object. This additional witness account strengthens the credibility of Reyes’ report, indicating that multiple individuals observed the anomaly, further validating its significance.

• https://youtu.be/8wVw5ByNb9c

Despite efforts to rationalize the sighting, experts have struggled to provide a definitive explanation. While some speculate that the object could be a drone, its exceptional speed and unconventional behavior cast doubt on such assertions. Moreover, the absence of a coherent response from aviation authorities only serves to deepen the mystery surrounding the incident.

In light of this compelling evidence, it is imperative that such sightings be taken seriously and thoroughly investigated. The potential implications of encountering unidentified aerial phenomena cannot be understated, warranting a concerted effort to discern the truth behind these enigmatic encounters.

As we continue to grapple with the unexplained, incidents like the one witnessed over LaGuardia Airport serve as a reminder of the vastness of the unknown and the limitless possibilities that lie beyond our comprehension. Whether it be a fleeting glimpse of extraterrestrial visitors or a trick of the light, the quest for answers persists, fueling our curiosity and expanding our understanding of the universe.

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

06-05-2024 om 17:07 geschreven door peter  

UFO With Entities Did Land In Rendlesham Forest & Filmed On Cine Camera, Revealed In New USAF Airman Testimony

The Rendlesham Forest UAP incident is one of the legendary UFO encounter cases in the history of UFOlogy. In 1980, Lt. Col. Charles Halt, a deputy commander of the US Air Force Base, received the news of strange sightings near twin NATO airbases of RAF Woodbridge and RAF Bentwaters in Suffolk, England. In the early morning of December 26, Airman First Class John Burroughs reported the sighting that included vague descriptions, ranging from unusual supernatural light, glittering triangular spaceships, and scorched footprints on the ground.

It is always argued whether the Suffolk UFO landing actually happened or it was just a hoax. On the official note, there is no physical evidence to prove this claim, only testimonies provided by credible witnesses. As the years passed, a piece of new information indulged which opened many untold stories of this case.

Gary Heseltine, a former police detective and UFO investigator recounts the complex story of the Rendlesham Forest UFO incidents, which is considered the second most famous UFO case after Roswell in 1947. Heseltine researched the case for over five years, analyzing various published materials and uncovering lesser-known information.

In his book, “NON-HUMAN: The Rendlesham Forest UFO Incidents: 42 Years of Denial“, he presented amazing new military testimony from a previously unknown witness. The book discusses the political aspects of the incident, suggesting that the narrative may have been controlled by a few individuals for years. Heseltine argues that the UK and US governments have downplayed the true significance of the case.

This series of events occurred between December 26 and December 28, 1980. A mysterious flying object flew at such an incredible speed that violated the laws of physics. Moreover, despite the very high speed, the alien spacecraft did not make any noise.

The incident involves a young airman’s claim of witnessing a translucent UFO about 30 ft in diameter landing in a farmer’s field. This claim has been debated for many years. Later, round-shaped prints were found on the ground clearly from a heavy object, which were at a distance of about 3 meters from each other. Burns were also seen near these grooves on the ground.

On December 28, when soldiers were sent for a more thorough study of the area, they noted the excess of radiation. And at this time, a UFO reappeared, it flew by with incredible speed, illuminating everything around with bright red lights. The light emanating from the ship was so strong that the sensors of the night sights burned out, and the lights continued to hover and shine over the forest and field for some time.

Heseltine discovered a new witness account that sheds new light on the landing of a triangular-shaped UFO in the forest, an event previously recounted publicly only by Staff Sgt Jim Penniston and Airman John Burroughs. Heseltine reveals that after extensive research, he has obtained corroboration from a military witness, Sergeant Adrian Bustinza, confirming the occurrence of a UFO landing.

In a four and half hour transatlantic telephone interview (which was audio recorded) he admitted that he had been involved in a second UFO related event, a landing of a translucent craft approximately 30 feet in diameter which was surrounded by a ring of US Air Force Security police officers, writes Heseltine. (Source)

The landing was filmed on video and cine cameras, marking it as the second UFO landing event. Heseltine emphasizes that Bustinza’s involvement was significant because he was part of the security perimeter around the craft, as was Larry Warren, an honorably discharged military eyewitness, and was the first to go public about the Bentwaters UFO cover-up.

Sergeant Bustinza’s account corroborates Warren’s version of events, confirming that the entire incident was being filmed. Additionally, Bustinza states that Colonel Gordon Williams, the Base Commander of the twin US bases of RAF Bentwaters and RAF Woodbridge, was present at the second landing. Despite Colonel Williams’ denial of involvement, both Bustinza and Warren assert that he was present during the event.

“When I arrived [at the scene], it was going in and out through the trees and at one stage it was hovering,” Sgt. Adrian Bustinza said. (Source)

Interestingly, Heseltine mentioned that both Bustinza and Warren state that entities or lifeforms were seen near the craft, engaging in what seemed like a silent confrontation with Colonel Williams. This detail adds a mysterious and intriguing element to the story.

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

Heseltine highlights the significance of Sergeant Adrian Bustinza’s corroboration, as it confirms the existence of the second UFO landing. He asserts that the US Air Force has attempted to cover up this event, but now, with the corroboration from a first-person witness, the truth is emerging.

Moreover, while examining old documentation of the case, Heseltine found a direct admission made by Lt. Col. Charles Halt, the deputy base commander at the time, to an American researcher named Ray Boeche in April 1985. Halt admitted that the second UFO landing did occur, and the craft was surrounded by USAF Security police officers, with Col. Williams present. This admission from Lt. Col. Halt adds further weight to the claims made by Bustinza and Warren.

Alien Abduction

Interestingly, video footage was published in 2018 by the British tabloid newspaper, The Sun, where Retired Lt. Colonel Charles Halt can be heard saying that John Burroughs “may have been abducted” and that the men were “unaccounted” for hours. The video was reportedly captured in 2010 when Halt and retired British police detective Gary Heseltine revisited Rendlesham Forest for a documentary that was never made. The footage was recorded by Heseltine’s wife when the two were talking about the UFO incident during a break.

Halt said: “He [Burroughs] may have been abducted, who knows… You know, there is LOST TIME, we know that? They were not on the radio… You’ve got men out in the forest that you can’t… unaccounted for hours.”

Even though the USAF had always denied any UFO landing in the Rendelsem forest, Burroughs shared the shocking news about his health. He said that he had been subjected to a high amount of radiation during the investigations of the mysterious craft on three consecutive nights in December 1980.

The US military classified Burrough’s medical records, so neither he nor his lawyer were able to get it. Even the USAF denied that he had been working with them during the time of the incident as claimed by Burrough. Somehow, they got a document from the British Ministry of Defence in which it was written that the site had a high level of radiation during the UFO incident.

Finally, after decades, the US Veterans Association and the Department of Defence agreed to pay for his treatment. Besides, in the radiation document, the US military acknowledged the unexplained aerial phenomenon that occurred at the site and caused a physical injury to Burrough.

{ https://www.howandwhys.com/ }

06-05-2024 om 00:59 geschreven door peter  

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

READ MORE: 

• Whistleblower tells Congress he knows 'exact' locations Government is housing UFOs

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.''

READ NEXT:

• Mystery UFO-like trio of objects spotted in sky are 'not human-made or mechanical'
• 'I reached out to aliens telepathically – they arrived in UFO and made chilling move'
• Amanda Holden, 53, goes braless as she displays ageless figure in thigh-split dress
• Simple masturbation trick gives amazing orgasms – but only 3% of people do it
• Aliens 'signed treaty with government' as 'we've each got something the other wants'

{ 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