Dit is ons nieuw hondje Kira, een kruising van een waterhond en een Podenko. Ze is sinds 7 februari 2024 bij ons en druk bezig ons hart te veroveren. Het is een lief, aanhankelijk hondje, dat zich op een week snel aan ons heeft aangepast. Ze is heel vinnig en nieuwsgierig, een heel ander hondje dan Noleke.
This is our new dog Kira, a cross between a water dog and a Podenko. She has been with us since February 7, 2024 and is busy winning our hearts. She is a sweet, affectionate dog who quickly adapted to us within a week. She is very quick and curious, a very different dog than Noleke.
DEAR VISITOR,
MY BLOG EXISTS ALREADY 13 YEARS AND 2 MONTH.
ON 06/08/2024 MORE THAN 2.161.100
VISITORS FROM 135 DIFFERENT NATIONS ALREADY FOUND THEIR WAY TO MY BLOG.
THAT IS AN AVERAGE OF 400GUESTS PER DAY.
THANK YOU FOR VISITING MY BLOG AND HOPE YOU ENJOY EACH TIME.
The purpose of this blog is the creation of an open, international, independent and free forum, where every UFO-researcher can publish the results of his/her research. The languagues, used for this blog, are Dutch, English and French.You can find the articles of a collegue by selecting his category. Each author stays resposable for the continue of his articles. As blogmaster I have the right to refuse an addition or an article, when it attacks other collegues or UFO-groupes.
Druk op onderstaande knop om te reageren in mijn forum
Zoeken in blog
Deze blog is opgedragen aan mijn overleden echtgenote Lucienne.
In 2012 verloor ze haar moedige strijd tegen kanker!
In 2011 startte ik deze blog, omdat ik niet mocht stoppen met mijn UFO-onderzoek.
BEDANKT!!!
Een interessant adres?
UFO'S of UAP'S, ASTRONOMIE, RUIMTEVAART, ARCHEOLOGIE, OUDHEIDKUNDE, SF-SNUFJES EN ANDERE ESOTERISCHE WETENSCHAPPEN - DE ALLERLAATSTE NIEUWTJES
UFO's of UAP'S in België en de rest van de wereld In België had je vooral BUFON of het Belgisch UFO-Netwerk, dat zich met UFO's bezighoudt. BEZOEK DUS ZEKER VOOR ALLE OBJECTIEVE INFORMATIE , enkel nog beschikbaar via Facebook en deze blog.
Verder heb je ook het Belgisch-Ufo-meldpunt en Caelestia, die prachtig, doch ZEER kritisch werk leveren, ja soms zelfs héél sceptisch...
Voor Nederland kan je de mooie site www.ufowijzer.nl bezoeken van Paul Harmans. Een mooie site met veel informatie en artikels.
MUFON of het Mutual UFO Network Inc is een Amerikaanse UFO-vereniging met afdelingen in alle USA-staten en diverse landen.
MUFON's mission is the analytical and scientific investigation of the UFO- Phenomenon for the benefit of humanity...
Je kan ook hun site bekijken onder www.mufon.com.
Ze geven een maandelijks tijdschrift uit, namelijk The MUFON UFO-Journal.
Since 02/01/2020 is Pieter ex-president (=voorzitter) of BUFON, but also ex-National Director MUFON / Flanders and the Netherlands. We work together with the French MUFON Reseau MUFON/EUROP.
ER IS EEN NIEUWE GROEPERING DIE ZICH BUFON NOEMT, MAAR DIE HEBBEN NIETS MET ONZE GROEP TE MAKEN. DEZE COLLEGA'S GEBRUIKEN DE NAAM BUFON VOOR HUN SITE... Ik wens hen veel succes met de verdere uitbouw van hun groep. Zij kunnen de naam BUFON wel geregistreerd hebben, maar het rijke verleden van BUFON kunnen ze niet wegnemen...
21-06-2024
Webb Spots Enigmatic Group of Aligned Protostellar Outflows in Serpens Nebula
Webb Spots Enigmatic Group of Aligned Protostellar Outflows in Serpens Nebula
These protostellar outflows are formed when jets of gas spewing from newborn stars collide with nearby gas and dust at high speeds. Typically these objects have a variety of orientations within one region. Within the Serpens Nebula, however, they are all slanted in the same direction, to the same degree, like sleet pouring down during a storm.
This Webb image shows a grouping of aligned protostellar outflows within one small region (the top left corner) of the Serpens Nebula.
Image credit: NASA / ESA / CSA / STScI / K. Pontoppidan, NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory / J. Green, Space Telescope Science Institute.
“So just how does the alignment of the stellar jets relate to the rotation of the star?” the Webb astronomers said.
“As an interstellar gas cloud collapses in on itself to form a star, it spins more rapidly.”
“The only way for the gas to continue moving inward is for some of the spin (known as angular momentum) to be removed.”
“A disk of material forms around the young star to transport material down, like a whirlpool around a drain.”
“The swirling magnetic fields in the inner disk launch some of the material into twin jets that shoot outward in opposite directions, perpendicular to the disk of material.”
“In the Webb image, these jets are identified by bright red clumpy streaks, which are shockwaves caused when the jet hits the surrounding gas and dust.”
“Here, the red color indicates the presence of molecular hydrogen and carbon monoxide.”
Credit: NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI, K. Pontoppidan (NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory), J. Green (Space Telescope Science Institute)
The object is between 1 and 2 million years old, which is very young in cosmic terms.
“The Serpens Nebula is also home to a particularly dense cluster of protostars (around 100,000 years old) at the center of this image, some of which will eventually grow to the mass of our Sun,” the astronomers said.
“It is a reflection nebula, which means it’s a cloud of gas and dust that does not create its own light but instead shines by reflecting the light from stars close to or within the nebula.”
“So, throughout the region in this image, filaments and wisps of different hues represent reflected starlight from still-forming protostars within the cloud.”
“In some areas there is dust in front of that reflection, which appears here in an orange, diffuse shade.”
Credit: NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI, K. Pontoppidan (NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory), J. Green (Space Telescope Science Institute)
“This region has been home to other coincidental discoveries, including the flapping Bat Shadow, which earned its name when 2020 data from the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope revealed it to flap, or shift. This feature is visible at the centre of the Webb image.”
The findings were published in the Astrophysical Journal.
Joel D. Green et al. 2024. Why are (almost) all the protostellar outflows aligned in Serpens Main? ApJ, in press;
Guys I found this amazing face in a Mars rover photo that just came out this week. The face looks very human, two eyes, nose, ears, chin, cheeks, lips...but as you look at the forehead, you see five cranium ridges that go very high. This alien had a very high forehead compared to us. Just wanted to share it with you. Please remember to subscribe for more, thank you.
In a riveting video interview, Phil Leech, a ufologist and state section director for MUFON in Indiana, sits down with a Department of Defense contractor who describes an extraordinary UFO encounter during a hunting trip in Canada. The witness, who wishes to remain anonymous to protect his defense department business contacts, provides a detailed account of a 170-foot-long, dog bone-shaped craft that emitted blue plasma and explains its high-frequency electromagnetic propulsion system.
The Encounter
The UFO sighting took place on August 28, 2013, in the wilderness of southwestern Ontario, Canada. The witness, an advanced technology expert and Department of Defense contractor, was on a black bear hunting trip with two other hunters. As they were driving back to civilization in a Dodge 4×4 truck, the witness noticed a bright light over his shoulder. Initially thinking it might be a helicopter, he quickly realized it was something far more unusual.
Described as a barbell-shaped craft, the UFO was observed at a low altitude, approximately 150 to 175 feet. It emitted brilliant, coherent light and was enveloped in indigo plasma. The craft was about 170 feet long, 60 feet wide, and 20 feet tall. Despite its size and brightness, the craft was completely silent.
Detailed Observations
Using a high-powered rifle scope, the witness was able to closely observe the craft. He noted that the lights emitted by the craft were like tens of thousands of small lit particles, similar to those seen in a fountain-type firework. Technically, the witness described this as coherent light, explaining it was like looking into a laser that had been passed through a diffraction grating.
The craft rotated slowly around its center, emitting an electrical spark-like shower opposite to its direction of travel. This rotation and the light pattern provided crucial insights into the craft’s propulsion system. The witness attempted to capture video footage using a Motorola cell phone and a Sony HD camera, but both devices malfunctioned, likely due to the craft’s strong electromagnetic field.
Electromagnetic Propulsion System
The witness, drawing from his experience with high-frequency electromagnetic systems, hypothesized that the craft’s propulsion system was based on a complex spinning electromagnetic field. He suggested that the indigo plasma surrounding the craft was indicative of a high-voltage, high-frequency system. The plasma depth and the craft’s surface area led him to estimate that the propulsion system required approximately 160 megawatts of power, roughly a third of the output of a nuclear power plant.
Verification and Analysis
This remarkable case was investigated by Robert Powell, a nanotechnology expert, and Phil Leech. Powell, intrigued by the witness’s detailed account, visited the defense contractor’s engineering business to verify the authenticity of his claims. Together, they analyzed the video footage using an oscilloscope, a device that measures changes in electrical voltage and frequency. The analysis revealed a perfect pulsation function in the white noise of the video, matching the rotation of the craft’s lights.
VIDEO:
Chris Lehto – UFO Propulsion Secrets Revealed: Expert Witness Breaks Down 170′ Barbell Craft
Powell’s investigation confirmed the credibility of the witness and the unusual characteristics of the craft. The electromagnetic interference captured on video provided physical evidence supporting the witness’s description of the craft’s propulsion system.
Implications and Conclusions
The detailed account and technical analysis provided by the witness offer significant insights into advanced UFO technology. The high-frequency electromagnetic propulsion system described in this case aligns with theories about how UFOs might achieve silent, efficient movement. The witness’s calculations and observations suggest that such a system is capable of generating immense power within a relatively compact craft.
This case stands out due to the witness’s expertise and the thorough investigation conducted by Powell and Leech. The combination of firsthand observation, technical knowledge, and physical evidence makes this one of the most compelling UFO encounters documented to date. As research continues, this case may provide a foundation for understanding the advanced technologies that underpin UFO propulsion systems.
Coastlines of Titan’s Largest Lakes and Seas Were Eroded by Wave Activity: Study
Coastlines of Titan’s Largest Lakes and Seas Were Eroded by Wave Activity: Study
Titan, Saturn’s largest moon, is the only known planetary body besides Earth on which standing liquids persist. Liquid hydrocarbons, supplied by rainfall from the moon’s thick atmosphere, form rivers, lakes, and seas, most of which are found in the polar regions. In new research, a team of geologists at MIT studied Titan’s shorelines and found that the moon’s large lakes and seas have likely been shaped by waves.
An artist’s rendering of the surface of Saturn’s largest moon, Titan.
Image credit: Benjamin de Bivort, debivort.org / CC BY-SA 3.0.
The presence of waves on Titan has been a somewhat controversial topic ever since NASA’s Cassini spacecraft spotted bodies of liquid on the moon’s surface.
“Some people who tried to see evidence for waves didn’t see any, and said, ‘These seas are mirror-smooth.’ Others said they did see some roughness on the liquid surface but weren’t sure if waves caused it,” said Dr. Rose Palermo, a geologist at the U.S. Geological Survey.
“Knowing whether Titan’s seas host wave activity could give scientists information about the moon’s climate, such as the strength of the winds that could whip up such waves.”
“Wave information could also help scientists predict how the shape of Titan’s seas might evolve over time.”
“Rather than look for direct signs of wave-like features in images of Titan, we had to take a different tack, and see, just by looking at the shape of the shoreline, if we could tell what’s been eroding the coasts.”
Titan’s seas are thought to have formed as rising levels of liquid flooded a landscape crisscrossed by river valleys.
The researchers zeroed in on three scenarios for what could have happened next: no coastal erosion; erosion driven by waves; and uniform erosion, driven either by dissolution, in which liquid passively dissolves a coast’s material, or a mechanism in which the coast gradually sloughs off under its own weight.
They simulated how various shoreline shapes would evolve under each of the three scenarios.
To simulate wave-driven erosion, they took into account a variable known as fetch, which describes the physical distance from one point on a shoreline to the opposite side of a lake or sea.
“Wave erosion is driven by the height and angle of the wave,” Dr. Palermo said
“We used fetch to approximate wave height because the bigger the fetch, the longer the distance over which wind can blow and waves can grow.”
Cassini pinged the surface of Titan with microwaves, finding that some channels are deep canyons filled with liquid hydrocarbons. One such feature is Vid Flumina, the branching network of narrow lines in the upper-left quadrant of the image.
Image credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech / ASI.
To test how shoreline shapes would differ between the three scenarios, the scientists started with a simulated sea with flooded river valleys around its edges.
For wave-driven erosion, they calculated the fetch distance from every single point along the shoreline to every other point, and converted these distances to wave heights.
Then, they ran their simulation to see how waves would erode the starting shoreline over time.
They compared this to how the same shoreline would evolve under erosion driven by uniform erosion.
The authors repeated this comparative modeling for hundreds of different starting shoreline shapes.
They found that the end shapes were very different depending on the underlying mechanism.
Most notably, uniform erosion produced inflated shorelines that widened evenly all around, even in the flooded river valleys, whereas wave erosion mainly smoothed the parts of the shorelines exposed to long fetch distances, leaving the flooded valleys narrow and rough.
“We had the same starting shorelines, and we saw that you get a really different final shape under uniform erosion versus wave erosion,” Dr. Perron said.
“They all kind of look like the flying spaghetti monster because of the flooded river valleys, but the two types of erosion produce very different endpoints.”
This image is a composite of several images taken during two separate Titan flybys in 2006. The large circular feature near the center of Titan’s disk may be the remnant of a very old impact basin. The mountain ranges to the southeast of the circular feature, and the long dark, linear feature to the northwest of the old impact scar may have resulted from tectonic activity on Titan caused by the energy released when the impact occurred.
Image credit: NASA/JPL/University of Arizona.
Dr. Perron and colleagues checked their results by comparing their simulations to actual lakes on Earth.
They found the same difference in shape between Earth lakes known to have been eroded by waves and lakes affected by uniform erosion, such as dissolving limestone.
Their modeling revealed clear, characteristic shoreline shapes, depending on the mechanism by which they evolved.
They then wondered: Where would Titan’s shorelines fit, within these characteristic shapes?
In particular, they focused on four of Titan’s largest, most well-mapped seas: Kraken Mare, which is comparable in size to the Caspian Sea; Ligeia Mare, which is larger than Lake Superior; Punga Mare, which is longer than Lake Victoria; and Ontario Lacus, which is about 20% the size of its terrestrial namesake.
The researchers mapped the shorelines of each Titan sea using Cassini’s radar images, and then applied their modeling to each of the sea’s shorelines to see which erosion mechanism best explained their shape.
They found that all four seas fit solidly in the wave-driven erosion model, meaning that waves produced shorelines that most closely resembled Titan’s four seas.
“We found that if the coastlines have eroded, their shapes are more consistent with erosion by waves than by uniform erosion or no erosion at all,” Dr. Perron said.
The scientists are working to determine how strong Titan’s winds must be in order to stir up waves that could repeatedly chip away at the coasts.
They also hope to decipher, from the shape of Titan’s shorelines, from which directions the wind is predominantly blowing.
“Titan presents this case of a completely untouched system,” Dr. Palermo said
“It could help us learn more fundamental things about how coasts erode without the influence of people, and maybe that can help us better manage our coastlines on Earth in the future.”
The findings appear today in the journal Science Advances.
Rose V. Palermo et al. 2024. Signatures of wave erosion in Titan’s coasts. Science Advances 10 (25); doi: 10.1126/sciadv.adn4192
Is it a coincidence...or what that I myself am in Utah right now? But this UFO was seen a few weeks ago over a small city of Dammeron which has the population of only 814. Dammeron is located along the far southern boarder of Utah. UFOs often prefer flying over low populated areas so that their fight path wont make the US news.
Very odd that it was seen over only one city of Utah, when there were dozens of us per night recording the moon, just as I was doing last night. Thus this sighting is isolated to a small area of the sky only visible over Dammeron Valley. That mens this UFO took off or was landing in that area. Sounds like an alien base is 5 miles below Dammeron mountains.
Scott C. Waring
Eyewitness states:
Aura or haze around object. Too big to be a satellite, too big and fast to be a satellite or plane. Had a weird aura glow around it. No red lights like a plane. Not horizontal moving like a satellite. No shooting like a star. No tail like a comet. The main light was huge and bright and it had an aura around it that looked like a jelly fish.
Futuristische vliegtuigen die onze manier van reizen kunnen veranderen Stel je voor dat je in slechts vier uur van Europa naar Australië kunt reizen of in slechts 90 minuten van Frankfurt naar Dubai. Het klinkt misschien als sciencefiction, maar het bedrijf Destinus is in Europa bezig met de ontwikkeling van een hypersonisch vliegtuig dat dit binnenkort werkelijkheid zou kunnen maken.
Een Zwitserse start-up Het Zwitserse Destinus is een start-up die pas twee jaar geleden, in 2021, is opgericht, meldt EuroNews. In die korte tijd heeft het bedrijf echter al veel vooruitgang geboekt.
Een samenwerking tussen verschillende Europese landen Het bedrijf werkt samen met een programma van de Spaanse overheid en een team van 120 mensen verspreid over Spanje, Frankrijk en Duitsland.
Er is flink geïnvesteerd Destinus heeft € 12 miljoen aan investeringen binnengehaald door partnerschappen met technologiecentra, bedrijven en enkele Spaanse universiteiten.
Succesvolle vluchten met prototypes De eerste twee prototypes van het hypersonische vliegtuig hebben succesvolle testvluchten gemaakt en bereiden zich nu voor op proeven met waterstofmotoren.
De eerste vlucht van Destinus 3 in het najaar van 2023 Het derde prototype, bekend als Destinus 3, zal naar verwachting tegen het einde van het jaar klaar zijn voor zijn eerste vlucht.
Mach 5 Volgens een reportage van CNN zal het hypersonische vliegtuig van Destinus naar verwachting met een snelheid van Mach 5 vliegen, oftewel: vijf keer de snelheid van het geluid.
Londen-Sydney in 4 uur in plaats van 22 uur Door deze adembenemende snelheid zou het vliegtuig in slechts vier uur van Londen naar Sydney kunnen vliegen. Dit is een aanzienlijke tijdsbesparing als je het vergelijkt met de huidige reistijd van ongeveer 22 uur.
Hoe werkt een hypersonisch vliegtuig? Maar wat is het mechanisme achter de werking van een hypersonisch vliegtuig? Design Boom meldt in een rapport dat het vliegtuig, genaamd Destinus, zal functioneren op waterstof, een brandstof die zowel schoon als efficiënt is.
Opstijgen vanaf een 'Hyperport' De Zwitserse start-up vertelt dat het de bedoeling is dat het vliegtuig opstijgt vanaf wat ze een 'Hyperport' noemen, een luchthaven met infrastructuur voor de verwerking van waterstof. Eenmaal in de lucht zal het vliegtuig raketmotoren gebruiken om hypersonische snelheden te bereiken.
Een schone brandstof Waterstof is niet alleen een schone brandstof, maar het is ook overvloedig aanwezig en kan worden geproduceerd uit hernieuwbare bronnen. Hierdoor zou het vliegtuig Destinus een zeer lage impact op het milieu hebben.
Uitdagingen Maar de ontwikkeling van een hypersonisch vliegtuig verloopt niet zonder slag of stoot. Volgens Destinus is een van de grootste uitdagingen het vinden van materialen die bestand zijn tegen de extreme temperaturen die bij een dergelijke hypersonische vlucht optreden.
Geen gemakkelijke opgave De website van het bedrijf zegt hierover: "Het is geen gemakkelijke opgave om de constructie koud te houden bij zulke hoge snelheden".
Een uniek koelsysteem "Daarom zijn we bezig met de ontwikkeling van een uniek actief koelsysteem dat de thermische energie, gegenereerd door luchtwrijving, transformeert in voortstuwing. Dit zorgt ervoor dat de structuur voldoende gekoeld blijft om de externe warmtestroom te weerstaan tijdens het aandrijven van de raketmotoren."
Over een paar jaar kan reizen er heel anders uitzien Als de ontwikkeling van Destinus succesvol is, kunnen we over een paar jaar grote veranderingen in het luchtverkeer verwachten.
Al in 2030 zouden deze vliegtuigen passagiers kunnen vervoeren Martina Löfqvist, de manager bedrijfsontwikkeling van het bedrijf, deelde aan CNN mee dat het bedrijf streeft naar de lancering van een kleiner waterstofvliegtuig in 2030, dat plaats biedt aan ongeveer 25 businessclasspassagiers.
Ambitie om alle passagiers te kunnen vervoeren in enkele uren Destinus heeft de ambitie om tegen 2040 ook grotere vliegtuigen te produceren die in staat zijn om passagiers van alle klassen in slechts enkele uren de wereld rond te vliegen.
The newest phase of China’s lunar exploration project is soon coming to an end. On June 20th, the Chang’e 6 sample return mission starts its journey back to Earth from the far side of the Moon, having already collected samples and blasted itself back into lunar orbit. But since a picture is worth a thousand words, let’s look at some of the more memorable images that have come out of this mission so far.
China’s National Space Agency (CNSA) released up close and personal images of the Chang’e-6 landers/ascender system on June 14th. They were taken by a small, autonomous rover that descended from the lander, maneuvered to a suitable position, framed a photograph, and took one, all without input from its human overlords.
Weighing in at only 5 kg, the rover showed what is possible for autonomous operation with relatively light hardware. It also shows an impressive amount of autonomy for a lunar rover, especially one operational only on the “far” side of the Moon.
Shot of the Chang’e-6 lander/ascender taken by its companion autonomous rover. Credit – CNSA
It wasn’t the only observer that captured an interesting image of China’s sixth mission in a series named after Chang’e, the Chinese Moon goddess. NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter captured the orbiter from overhead space and showed a dramatic change in its surroundings.
In the image, the lander itself appears as a bright white dot. However, the surrounding area also appears significantly lighter. This had to do with the blast radius of the lander’s retrograde rockets for its soft landing. Those powerful rockets blew away the dark lunar regolith that had remained untouched for millions of years. The picture was snapped on June 7th, after the Chang’e-6 ascent vehicle had launched back off the surface and rendezvoused with the orbiter that will take the samples it collected back to Earth. In so doing, it likely blew away plenty of material with its own ascent rockets.
During its time on the Moon, Chang’e-6 collected 2 kg of samples, which it will return to a laboratory on Earth. This is the second time CNSA has planned such a mission and the first time one has taken place on the far side that humans cannot see from Earth.
Fraser discusses the Chang’e-6 mission to collect lunar samples in this news update.
The next in the sequence of Chinese moon missions is Chang’e-7, which will focus its research efforts on the lunar south pole. Scientists predict water ice might be abundant there and that it might be the potential future site of a crewed Chinese moon base. Chang’e-7 will also include a hopping rover to explore the local environs surrounding its lander, but it isn’t scheduled for launch until 2026.
Currently, the Chang’e-6 mission orbiter, which has already successfully docked with the ascent vehicle containing the collected samples, is waiting for the opportune time to return to Earth. It will also serve as the return vehicle, which is planned to land back on Earth on June 25th. If all goes according to plan, there will soon be more lunar samples for scientists to explore and another successful mission for the CSNA that will have been documented in some pretty astounding pictures.
This image from NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter shows China’s Chang’e 6 lander in the Apollo basin on the far side of the Moon on June 7, 2024. The lander is the bright dot in the center of the image. The image is about 0.4 miles wide (650 meters); lunar north is up. Credit: NASA/Goddard/Arizona State University
The Moon is a tough place to survive, and not just for humans. The wild temperature extremes between day and night make it extremely difficult to build reliable machinery that will continue to operate. But an engineering team from Nagoya University in Japan have developed an energy-efficient new way to control Loop Heat Pipes (LHP) to safely cool lunar rovers. This will extend their lifespan, keeping them running for extended lunar exploration missions.
How do you keep a rover insulated well enough to survive the frozen lunar nights, without cooking it during the day? A team of engineers led by Dr Masahito Nishikawara of Nagoya University may have found an answer. By combining a loop heat pipe (LHP) with an electrohydrodynamic pump (EHP), they have created a mechanism to cool machinery efficiently in the vacuum of space, but in a form which can also be turned off at night. Crucially, it is so efficient that it uses practically no power at all.
The Moon is an extraordinarily harsh environment for machinery. Aside from the highly abrasive regolith, which sticks to everything and is found everywhere, the Moon has no atmosphere and a very slow rotational period. This means that days and nights on the moon last 14 Earth days each, and reach extreme temperatures. With no atmosphere to insulate and transport heat around the Moon, night-time temperatures can drop all the way down to -173º Celsius, while the unfiltered heat from the Sun causes daytime temperatures to climb as high as 127º Celsius.
It is very difficult to design complex machinery to work reliably under such conditions. The long nights mean that the energy harvested from solar panels needs to be stored in very large batteries, but batteries do not cope well with low temperatures. They can be electrically warmed, but heaters need a constant flow of electricity, draining the batteries. Alternatively, a machine can be heavily insulated to keep it functional when idle, but this leads to overheating when it is active, and when the Sun rises.
Overheating can damage batteries, but it’s equally bad for electronic components. Active cooling systems are the traditional answer. They work similarly to the radiator in a car by pumping coolant through a large radiator, but these require power to run. This is a problem when you need your batteries to last 14 days before the next recharge. Passive systems, such as LHPs, are effective and don’t require power, but they run continuously, even when you would prefer heating.
“Heat-switch technology that can switch between daytime heat dissipation and nighttime insulation is essential for long-term lunar exploration,” said lead researcher Masahito Nishikawara. “During the day, the lunar rover is active, and the electronic equipment generates heat. Since there is no air in space, the heat generated by the electronics must be actively cooled and dissipated. On the other hand, during extremely cold nights, electronics must be insulated from the outside environment so that they don’t get too cold.”
LHPs can be thought of as a cross between the machinery of a refrigerator or air conditioner, and the heat pipes in modern laptop computers. Like a refrigerator, a liquid refrigerant is allowed to absorb heat which causes it to vaporise. The vapour then passes through a radiator, which cools it back to ambient temperatures. This turns it back into a liquid, and the cycle repeats. The phase changes, from liquid to gas and back, allow the refrigerant to transfer heat very efficiently. Heat pipes, by contrast, use capillary action to move a liquid between a heat source (such as your computer’s CPU or graphics accelerator) and a radiator. LHPs combine the capillary transport action of a heat pipe with the phase changes of a refrigeration unit.
LHPs have been used in space before, where they have been equipped with valves to block the flow of refrigerant when cooling is not needed. However, these valves significantly reduce the system’s cooling efficiency. Nishikawara’s innovation is to replace the valves with an Electrohydrodynamic pump. EHPs are low-powered pumps which work by inducing electric currents in a fluid, and then using the resulting magnetic field to apply force to the fluid. This has the advantage of not intruding into the plumbing of the system, which means there is no interference with flow when it isn’t active.
Nishikawara’s team have added low-powered EHPs to an LHP to act as a very efficient valve: When they need to turn cooling off, the EHP is activated to create a small opposing force that stops the flow of refrigerant, while sipping only a tiny amount of power.
“This groundbreaking approach not only ensures the rover’s survival in extreme temperatures but also minimizes energy expenditure, a critical consideration in the resource-constrained lunar environment,” Nishikawara said. “It lays the foundation for potential integration into future lunar missions, contributing to the realization of sustained lunar exploration efforts.”
Earth’s Atmosphere is Our Best Defence Against Nearby Supernovae
Artist's impression of a Type II supernova explosion. These supernova produce gamma rays and powerful ionizing radiation that's hazardous to life. Credit: ESO
Earth’s Atmosphere is Our Best Defence Against Nearby Supernovae
Earth’s protective atmosphere has sheltered life for billions of years, creating a haven where evolution produced complex lifeforms like us. The ozone layer plays a critical role in shielding the biosphere from deadly UV radiation. It blocks 99% of the Sun’s powerful UV output. Earth’s magnetosphere also shelters us.
But the Sun is relatively tame. How effective are the ozone and the magnetosphere at protecting us from powerful supernova explosions?
Every million years—a small fraction of Earth’s 4.5 billion-year lifetime—a massive star explodes within 100 parsecs (326 light-years) of Earth. We know this because our Solar System sits inside a massive bubble in space called the Local Bubble. It’s a cavernous region of space where hydrogen density is much lower than outside the bubble. A series of supernovae explosions in the previous 10 to 20 million years carved out the bubble.
Supernovae are dangerous, and the closer a planet is to one, the more deadly its effects. Scientists have speculated on the effects that supernova explosions have had on Earth, wondering if it triggered mass extinctions or at least partial extinctions. A supernova’s gamma-ray burst and cosmic rays can deplete Earth’s ozone and allow ionizing UV radiation to reach the planet’s surface. The effects can also create more aerosol particles in the atmosphere, increasing cloud coverage and causing global cooling.
A new research article in Nature Communications Earth and Environment examines supernova explosions and their effect on Earth. It is titled “Earth’s Atmosphere Protects the Biosphere from Nearby Supernovae.” The lead author is Theodoros Christoudias from the Climate and Atmosphere Research Center, Cyprus Institute, Nicosia, Cyprus.
The Local Bubble isn’t the only evidence of nearby core-collapse supernovae (SNe) in the last few million years. Ocean sediments also contain 60Fe, a radioactive isotope of iron with a half-life of 2.6 million years. SNe expel 60Fe into space when they explode, indicating that a nearby supernova exploded about 2 million years ago. There’s also 60Fe in sediments that indicate another SN explosion about 8 million years ago.
This graphic from the research article shows the potential atmospheric and climate impacts of a nearby supernova. Gamma rays can deplete the ozone, allowing more UV radiation to reach Earth’s surface. Some UV radiation is ionizing, meaning it can damage DNA. Cosmic rays can also create more condensation nuclei, meaning more clouds and potential global cooling, Image Credit: Christoudias et al. 2024
Researchers have correlated an SN explosion with the Late Devonian extinction about 370 million years ago. In one paper, researchers found plant spores burned by UV light, an indication that something powerful depleted Earth’s ozone layer. In fact, Earth’s biodiversity declined for about 300,000 years prior to the Late Devonian extinction, suggesting that multiple SNe could’ve played a role.
Earth’s ozone layer is in constant flux. As UV energy reaches it, it breaks ozone molecules (O3) apart. That dissipates the UV energy, and the oxygen atoms combine into O3 again. The cycle repeats. That’s a simplified version of the atmospheric chemistry involved, but it serves to illustrate the cycle. A nearby supernova could overwhelm the cycle, depleting the ozone column density and allowing more deadly UV to reach Earth’s surface.
But in the new paper, Christoudias and his fellow authors suggest that Earth’s ozone layer is much more resilient than thought and provides ample protection against SNe within 100 parsecs. While previous researchers have modelled Earth’s atmosphere and its response to a nearby SN, the authors say that they’ve improved on that work.
They modelled Earth’s atmosphere with an Earth Systems Model with Atmospheric Chemistry (EMAC) model to study the impact of nearby SNe explosions on Earth’s atmosphere. Using EMAC, the authors say they’ve modelled “the complex atmospheric circulation dynamics, chemistry, and process feedbacks” of Earth’s atmosphere. These are needed to “simulate stratospheric ozone loss in response to elevated ionization, leading to ion-induced nucleation and particle growth to CCN” (cloud condensation nuclei.)
“We assume a representative nearby SN with GCR (galactic cosmic ray) ionization rates in the atmosphere that are 100 times present levels,” they write. That correlates with a supernova explosion about 100 parsecs or 326 light-years away.
These panels from the research letter show the ozone column percentage decrease from a 100-fold increase in GCR intensity over nominal. The left vertical axis represents Earth’s latitude, and the x-axis shows the time of year. Ozone loss is more pronounced over the poles due to the effect of Earth’s magnetosphere, where it’s weaker. a is present-day Earth, while b represents an ancient Earth with only 2% oxygen during the pre-Cambrian. Image Credit: Christoudias et al. 2024
“The maximum ozone depletion over the poles is less than the present-day anthropogenic ozone hole over Antarctica, which amounts to an ozone column loss of 60–70%,” the authors explain. “On the other hand, there is an increase of ozone in the troposphere, but it is well within the levels resulting from recent anthropogenic pollution.”
But let’s cut to the chase. We want to know if Earth’s biosphere is safe or not.
The maximum mean stratospheric ozone depletion from 100 times more ionizing radiation than normal, representative of a nearby SN, is about 10% globally. That’s about the same decrease as our anthropogenic pollution causes. It wouldn’t affect the biosphere very much.
“Although significant, it is unlikely that such ozone changes would have a major impact on the biosphere, especially because most of the ozone loss is found to occur at high latitudes,” the authors explain.
But that’s for modern Earth. During the pre-Cambrian, before life exploded in a multiplication of forms, the atmosphere had only about 2% oxygen. How would an SN affect that? “We simulated a 2% oxygen atmosphere since this would likely represent conditions where the emerging biosphere on land would still be particularly sensitive to ozone depletion,” the authors write.
“Ozone loss is about 10–25% at mid-latitudes and an order of magnitude lower in the tropics,” the authors write. At minimum ozone levels at the poles, ionizing radiation from an SN could actually end up increasing the ozone column. “We conclude that these changes of atmospheric ozone are unlikely to have had a major impact on the emerging biosphere on land during the Cambrian,” they conclude.
What about global cooling?
Global cooling would increase, but not to a dangerous extent. Over the Pacific and Southern oceans, CCN could increase by up to 100%, which sounds like a lot. “These changes, while climatically relevant, are comparable to the contrast between the pristine pre-industrial atmosphere and the polluted present-day atmosphere.” They’re saying that it would cool the atmosphere by about the same amount as we’re heating it now.
These two panels from the research help illustrate the global cooling effect from a nearby SN exposing Earth to 100 times more ionizing radiation. b shows the fractional change in CCN relative to the present day. d shows the fractional change in outgoing solar radiation relative to the present day due to increased cloud albedo. Image Credit: Christoudias et al. 2024
The researchers point out that their study concerns the entire biosphere, not individuals. “Our study does not consider the direct health risks to humans and animals resulting from exposure to elevated ionizing radiation,” they write. Depending on individual circumstances, individuals could be exposed to dangerous levels of radiation over time. But overall, the biosphere would hum along despite a 100-fold increase in UV radiation. Our atmosphere and magnetosphere can handle it.
“Overall, we find that nearby SNe are unlikely to have caused mass extinctions on Earth,” the authors write. “We conclude that our planet’s atmosphere and geomagnetic field effectively shield the biosphere from the effects of nearby SNe, which has allowed life to evolve on land over the last hundreds of million years.”
This study shows that Earth’s biosphere will not suffer greatly as long as supernova explosions keep their distance.
Guys I saw a Tweed on X from NASA with a photo celebrating the father of astronomy...Galileo and in the photo there is a mega structure in the moons northern pole region. It's a dark black structure with walls several miles tall and an about 100 miles across. This is why NASA always over exposes photos with light, flooding light so we cannot see the detail of the moons and planets.
Hey this is just fantastic. A UFO was photographed just a few miles from me. I hike on the trails behind this museum. I have often felt there was something there and this week it showed up. A wing shaped UFO with a disk at its center. I have seen a report of a similar craft back in Mt Saint Hellens volcano, Washington in Feb 25, 1999, when when a team of forestry service workers witnessed a similar craft abduct an Elk right in from of them. This UFO in Utah...its 100% real.
Scott C. Waring - Utah
Eyewitness states:
Walking up to the building in the pictures. Took one picture from a little further back, then walked up a few more steps to get a closer picture of the building. Took two more pictures within seconds of each other, and in the third photo the object appeared. Made no sound, and truly did not even notice it in the sky until I looked at the picture. My friend who was with me, was just as shocked, as she also said she heard and saw nothing in the sky. Our focus was straight ahead at the building so we really feel we should have seen or heard something. Whatever this was moved in and out of the area very quickly.
Over the years, much has been published about the strange things that happen on the dark side of the moon.
The far side of the moon has been a mystery since the dawn of the space age. But is it just a barren, crater-filled wasteland?
Shocking claims from astronauts, whistleblowers, and classified documents suggest there's more to the story. Eerie sounds, inexplicable sightings, and covert missions point to something astounding hidden from public view.
Before delving into the evidence, which ranges from Apollo-era transcripts to insights from modern military insiders, it's worth noting an intriguing paper recently released by Harvard. Titled "The Cryptoterrestrial Hypothesis. This paper proposes among other themes that UAPs (Unidentified Aerial Phenomena) might be the result of activities by intelligent beings hidden here on Earth eventually underground or in nearby areas such as the moon. (Notion: The dark of the side of the moon could be an excellent place to hide.)
But the Harvard paper has suddenly disappeared... though we saved you a copy: https://bit.ly/4b1xk11
The implications are staggering, hinting at a secret history beyond our world.
NASA rover discovers boulder "never observed before" on Mars
Story by Emily Mae Czachor
While exploring a crater on Mars that may give scientists insights into life that potentially once existed there, NASA said its Perseverance rover made an unprecedented discovery. The rover, which landed on the Red Planet in 2021 specifically to probe the ancient Jezero crater, found a mysterious light-toned boulder earlier this month that was the first of its kind seen on Martian land.
Perseverance encountered the boulder while traversing the Neretva Vallis, a dried river delta that flowed into the crater billions of years ago, on its way to an area inside the rim where rocky outcrops are being examined for sediment that could shed light on Mars' history, said NASA. The rover had changed course along its route to avoid rough terrain when, traveling a short cut through a dune field, it reached a hill that scientists have dubbed Mount Washburn.
The hill was covered with boulders, some of which NASA described as belonging to "a type never observed before on Mars."
One small boulder particularly intrigued the scientists working with Perseverance from Earth. Measuring roughly 18 inches across and 14 inches tall, the speckled and conspicuously light-toned rock was spotted among a field of darker boulders on the hill.
Stitched together from 18 images taken by NASA’s Perseverance rover, this mosaic shows a boulder field on “Mount Washburn” on May 27. Intrigued by the diversity of textures and chemical composition in the light-toned boulder at center, the rover’s science team nicknamed the rock “Atoko Point.”
"The diversity of textures and compositions at Mount Washburn was an exciting discovery for the team, as these rocks represent a grab bag of geologic gifts brought down from the crater rim and potentially beyond," said Brad Garczynski of Western Washington University, who co-leads the current Perseverance mission, in a statement. "But among all these different rocks, there was one that really caught our attention."
Garczynski and his team nicknamed the mysterious boulder Atoko Point, and a deeper examination of the rock using the rover's instruments suggested that it was composed of the minerals pyroxene and feldspar. NASA said the size, shape and overall arrangement of minerals in Atoko Point, as well as the potential composition of the boulder on a chemical level, put the rock "in a league of its own" in terms of Martian sediment, at least among those already known to scientists.
Pyroxene and feldspar are minerals also found in the Earth's crust and on the moon, according to the U.S. Geological Survey and NASA. The space agency said that some scientists on the Perseverance team speculated that the minerals detected on Atoko Point may have come from magma that originated below the surface of Mars and became exposed on the rim of the Jezero crater over time because of erosion.
Other members of the team suggested that the boulder may have appeared out of place on Washburn Hill if it was really produced on a different part of the planet and moved with the ancient river channel to its present location on the rim. But NASA said all of the Perseverance scientists believe that more rocks with a similar composition must exist elsewhere on Mars.
NASA's Perseverance rover was traveling in the channel of an ancient river, Neretva Vallis, when it captured this view of an area of scientific interest nicknamed
The rover discovered Atoko Point in the midst of its fourth "campaign" on Mars, which focuses on finding evidence of carbonate and olivine deposits in the interior of the Jezero crater. Both groups of minerals exist on Earth, with carbonate typically found in deposits near the shores of lakes and olivine typically associated with volcanic activity.
They are of interest to scientists studying Mars —and they've both been observed already by Perseverance— because of their abilities to encapsulate remnants of the past for long periods of time. Identifying carbonate in the Martian crater could theoretically give scientists access to traces of ancient life on the planet preserved within the mineral itself, and olivine helps them understand when in history the Martian climate may have been conducive to organic compounds, like flowing water, and, potentially, life.
Scientists say that learning about the makeup of Mars, and what it may have been like long ago, could help them figure out whether the planet's current landscape could ever be habitable for humans. It could also offer important clues about the origins and evolution of life on Earth.
Credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech / ASU / MSSS
The Perseverance rover found an exceptional boulder on Mars, thought to be an anorthosite.
Credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech / ASU
The NASA team hopes to discover many more rocks like Atoco Point in a couple of months when Perseverance reaches the crater rim.
Credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech / University of Arizona
NASA's Perseverance rover was traveling in the channel of an ancient river, Neretva Vallis, when it captured this view of an area of scientific interest nicknamed "Bright Angel" – the light-toned area in the distance at right.
Scientists have discovered a mysterious object at the center of our Milky Way that does not fit the criteria of anything else in the galaxy.
The team found the object emits microwaves, which suggests it contains dust and fast-moving gas that is traveling nearly 112,000 miles per hour from a very small area in the heart of our galaxy.
Astronomers have considered a range of options for what the object could be, from a black hole to a collapsing cloud and evolved star, but found 'its features do not match well with those of any known type of astronomical body.'
‘The center of our Galaxy contains billions of stars, tens of millions of solar masses of gas, a supermassive black hole, a tenth of our Galaxy's ongoing star formation, and an extensive graveyard of stellar remnants,’ researchers shared in the study published in the Astrophysical Journal Letters.
‘It is therefore the likeliest place to find new classes of objects. We present one such object in this work.
The object, labeled G0.02467–0.0727, was discovered using the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) observatory in Chile.
'We consider several explanations for the Millimeter Ultra-Broad Line Object (MUBLO), including protostellar outflow, explosive outflow, collapsing cloud, evolved star, stellar merger, high-velocity compact cloud, intermediate mass black hole, and background galaxy,' the team wrote.
'Most of these conceptual models are either inconsistent with the data or do not fully explain it.'
The object was observed while the team was ALMA to study a special area in the center of our galaxy, known as the central molecular zone (CMZ).
The CMZ, measuring about 700 light-years across, contains nearly 80 percent of all the dense gas in the galaxy and is home to giant molecular clouds and massive star forming clusters that are poorly understood.
Astronomers detected millimeter waves coming from the object, with the surrounding dust showing broad, spread-out signals.
The object also gave off continuous radiation, which appeared to come from the dust and emitted specific signals from certain molecules like carbon monosulfide and sulfur monoxide.
Carbon monosulfide has been detected in molecular clouds and sulfur monoxide has been observed around Io, one of Jupiter's moons.
Scientists have discovered a mysterious object at the center of our Milky Way that does not fit the criteria of anything else in our universe
The gas's temperature was around -436 degrees Fahrenheit, much colder than what has been typically seen in this part of the galaxy.
Researches also found that the gas molecules were not traveling in a simple ring, which suggested they could be flowing away from an exploding star, reported Nature.
Related video:
Gaia Telescope Reveals Precise Date of the Milky Way's Last Act of Galactic Cannibalism (COVER News India)
However, shock waves create specific chemicals that MUBLO lacks.
Researchers said that the most plausible explanations would be an intermediate-mass black hole or a pair of merging stars obscured by dust.
But they also noted that the object does not fit either definition.
'The MUBLO is, at present, an observationally unique object,' the team concluded in the study.
NASA is Considering Other Ways of Getting its Mars Samples Home
In 2021, NASA’s Perseverance rover landed in the Jezero Crater on Mars. For the next three years, this astrobiology mission collected soil and rock samples from the crater floor for eventual return to Earth. The analysis of these samples is expected to reveal much about Mars’ past and how it transitioned from being a warmer, wetter place to the frigid and desiccated place we know today. Unfortunately, budget cuts have placed the future of the proposed NASA-ESA Mars Sample Return (MSR) mission in doubt.
As a result, NASA recently announced that it was seeking proposals for more cost-effective and rapid methods of bringing the samples home. This will consist of three studies by NASA and the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory (JHUAPL). In addition, NASA has selected seven commercial partners for firm-fixed-price contracts for up to $1.5 million to conduct their own 90-day studies. Once complete, NASA will consider which proposals to integrate into the MSR mission architecture.
As Administrator Bill Nelson stated in a NASA press release
“Mars Sample Return will be one of the most complex missions NASA has undertaken, and it is critical that we carry it out more quickly, with less risk, and at a lower cost. I’m excited to see the vision that these companies, centers and partners present as we look for fresh, exciting, and innovative ideas to uncover great cosmic secrets from the Red Planet.”
The MSR mission represents the culmination of decades of efforts to learn more about the early history of Mars. NASA had originally hoped that the first crewed mission (planned for 2033) would retrieve the samples and transport them back to Earth. However, delays and budget concerns have led to growing concerns that a crewed mission will not reach Mars until 2040 (at the earliest). As a result, NASA and the European Space Agency adopted a joint mission architecture consisting of multiple robotic elements that would return the samples by 2031.
This included the Sample Retrieval Lander (SRL), two Sample Recovery Helicopters (SRH), the Mars Ascent Vehicle (MAV), the Earth Return Orbiter (ERO), and the Earth Entry System (EES). However, the current budget environment forced NASA to announce that the 15-year MSR mission architecture (which would cost $11 billion) was too expensive and that waiting until 2040 was impractical. As a result, NASA has adopted a revised plan that leverages current technology and will return the Mars samples by the 2030s. As NASA Administrator Bill Nelson said at the time:
“Mars Sample Return will be one of the most complex missions NASA has ever undertaken. The bottom line is, an $11 billion budget is too expensive, and a 2040 return date is too far away. Safely landing and collecting the samples, launching a rocket with the samples off another planet – which has never been done before – and safely transporting the samples more than 33 million miles back to Earth is no small task. We need to look outside the box to find a way ahead that is both affordable and returns samples in a reasonable timeframe.”
In addition to the NASA-led studies, seven aerospace companies have been selected to develop sample-return concepts. They include NASA’s regular commercial partners, such as Lockheed Martin, SpaceX, Aerojet Rocketdyne, Blue Origin, and Northrop Grumman, as well as relative newcomers Quantum Space and Whittinghill Aerospace. A total of $10 million has been awarded to these companies to develop their concepts, the full list of which can be found here.
Once again, NASA is facing a budget crunch and has reached out to its commercial partners to develop cost-effective alternatives. This is in keeping with NASA’s long history of collaborating with the commercial sector to develop key mission concepts. However, the need to outsource major elements of its Moon to Mars program highlights the agency’s ongoing budget problems. As independent experts have concluded, a budget increase is necessary if NASA is to realize its ambitious goals for the future.
Baby Stars are Swarming Around the Galactic Center
converted PNM file
POSTED BY ANDY TOMASWICK
Baby Stars are Swarming Around the Galactic Center
The vicinity of Sagittarius A* (Sgr A*), the supermassive black hole at the Milky Way’s center, is hyperactive. Stars, gas, and dust zip around the black hole’s gravitational well at thousands of kilometers per hour. Previously, astronomers thought that only mature stars had been pulled into such rapid orbits. However, a new paper from the University of Cologne and elsewhere in Europe found that some relatively young stars are making the rounds rather than older ones, which raises some questions about the models predicting how stars form in these hyperactive regions.
Astronomers have known about the highly mobile stars surrounding Sgr A* for over thirty years now. They even have their own categorization, known as S stars. However, researchers lacked the equipment to analyze the age of some of these stars, and theories pointed to older, dimmer stars being the most likely to survive near a black hole.
But then, as it does so often with science, evidence that challenged the old and dim star theory began to pile up. Twelve years ago, researchers found an object they believed was a cloud of gas that was in the process of being eaten by Sgr A*. More recently, evidence has begun to hint that that gas cloud might surround a newly born star, known as a “Young Stellar Object” (YSO) in astronomy jargon.
Video showing the motion of stars around Sgr A*, from the corresponding author of the new paper. Credit – Florian Peißker YouTube Channel
As Sgr A* started to receive more observational time with more powerful telescopes over the years, researchers were able to focus in on other interesting objects, the paper describes dozens of potential YSOs in the vicinity of the previously known S stars. Interestingly, they also seem to follow similar orbits.
Those orbits have the new YSOs zipping in front of the black hole at thousands of kilometers per hour, much faster than typical star formation theories allow. Maybe some intricacy of the black hole’s gravitational field is causing this dramatic motion, or maybe there is some other unknown aspect of stellar formation that can account for these fast-moving young stars, but for now, how they are formed remains a mystery.
However, the researchers made another interesting discovery as part of their work. They found that these YSOs, along with their S star counterparts, orbit in very well-defined formations. In a press release from the University of Cologne, they compare this to how bees from the same hive fly in formation when together. In this case, the black hole appears to be forcing them into this common formation, though other explanations could also account for it, and that analysis wasn’t part of the current research.
Fraser digs into the long term future of our supermassive black hole.
The pattern they formed was three-dimensional, so it wasn’t as simple as one stellar object following the orbital path of another around the black hole. However, the complexity still needs to be studied in detail, and theories that would account for this new information about orbital patterns are hard to come by.
As more telescope time on increasingly powerful systems is devoted to watching one of the most intriguing parts of our galaxy, there will be plenty of data for future astronomers to puzzle over. But for now, this is a step toward understanding the hyperactive world around Sgr A* and the world of stellar birth more generally and how extreme forces play a role in both.
Don't Get Your Hopes Up for Finding Liquid Water on Mars
In the coming decades, NASA and China intend to send the first crewed missions to Mars. Given the distance involved and the time it takes to make a single transit (six to nine months), opportunities for resupply missions will be few and far between. As a result, astronauts and taikonauts will be forced to rely on local resources to meet their basic needs – a process known as in-situ resource utilization (ISRU). For this reason, NASA and other space agencies have spent decades scouting for accessible sources of liquid water.
Finding this water is essential for future missions and scientific efforts to learn more about Mars’s past, when the planet was covered by oceans, rivers, and lakes that may have supported life. In 2018, using ground-penetrating radar, the ESA’s Mars Express orbiter detected bright radar reflections beneath the southern polar ice cap that were interpreted as a lake. However, a team of Cornell researchers recently conducted a series of simulations that suggest there may be another reason for these bright patches that do not include the presence of water.
When the first robotic probes began making flybys of Mars in the 1960s, the images they acquired revealed surface features common on Earth. These included flow channels, river valleys, lakebeds, and sedimentary rock, all of which form in the presence of flowing water. For decades, orbiters, landers, and rovers have explored Mars’ surface, atmosphere, and climate to learn more about how and when much of this surface water was lost. In recent years, this has led to compelling evidence that what remains could be found beneath the polar ice caps today.
The most compelling evidence was obtained by the Mars Advanced Radar for Subsurface and Ionosphere Sounding (MARSIS) instrument aboard the Mars Express orbiter. This instrument was designed by NASA and the Italian Space Agency (ASI) to search for water on the Martian surface and down to depths of about 5 km (3 mi). The radar returns indicated that the bright patches could be caused by layered deposits composed of water, dry ice, and dust. These South Polar Layered Deposits (SPLD) are thought to have formed over millions of years as Mars’ axial tilt changed.
Subsequent research by scientists at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) revealed dozens of other highly reflective sites beneath the surface. The implications of these findings were tremendous, not just for crewed missions but also for astrobiology efforts. In addition to being a potential source of water for future missions, it was also theorized that microbial life that once existed on the surface might be found there today. However, the findings were subject to debate as other viable explanations were offered.
While the same bright radar reflections have detected subglacial lakes on Earth (such as Lake Vostok under the East Antarctic Ice Sheet), Mars’s temperature and pressure conditions are very different. To remain in a liquid state, the water would need to be very briny, loaded with exotic minerals, or above an active magma chamber – none of which have been detected. As Lalich said in a recent interview with the Cornell Chronicle:
“I can’t say it’s impossible that there’s liquid water down there, but we’re showing that there are much simpler ways to get the same observation without having to stretch that far, using mechanisms and materials that we already know exist there. Just through random chance you can create the same observed signal in the radar.”
In a previous study, Lalich and his colleagues used simpler models to demonstrate that these bright radar signals could result from tiny variations in the thickness of the layers. These variations would be indiscernible to ground-penetrating radar and could lead to constructive interference between radar waves, producing reflections that vary in intensity and variability – like those observed across the SPLD. For their latest study, the team simulated 10,000 layering scenarios with 1,000 variations in the ice thickness and dust content of the layered deposits.
Their simulations also excluded any of the unusual conditions or exotic materials that would be necessary for liquid water. These simulations produced bright subsurface signals consistent with observations made by the MARSIS instrument. According to Lalich, these findings strongly suggest that he and his colleagues were correct in suspecting radar interference. In essence, radar waves bouncing off of layers too close together for the instrument to resolve may have combined, amplifying their peaks and troughs and appearing much brighter.
The team is not prepared to rule out the possibility that future missions with more sophisticated instruments could find definitive evidence of water. However, Lalich suspects that the case for liquid water (and potential life) on Mars may have ended decades ago. “This is the first time we have a hypothesis that explains the entire population of observations below the ice cap, without having to introduce anything unique or odd. This result where we get bright reflections scattered all over the place is exactly what you would expect from thin-layer interference in the radar. The idea that there would be liquid water even somewhat near the surface would have been really exciting. I just don’t think it’s there.”
If so, future missions may be forced to melt polar ice deposits and permafrost to get drinking water or possibly chemical reactions involving hydrazine (a la Mark Watney). In addition, astrobiology efforts may once again be placed on the back burner as they were when the Viking Landers failed to find conclusive evidence of biosignatures in 1976. But as we’ve learned, Mars is full of surprises. While the results of the Viking biological experiments were disappointing, these same missions provided some of the most compelling evidence that water once flowed on Mars’ surface.
Artist’s impression of water under the Martian surface. If underground aquifers exist, the implications for human exploration and eventual settlement of the Red Planet would be far-reaching. Credit: ESA
Moreover, scientists once suspected that the Red Planet was geologically dead, but data obtained by NASA’s InSight Lander showed that it is actually “slightly alive.” This included evidence that hot magma still flows deep in the planet’s interior and that a massive magma plume still exists beneath the Elysium Planitia region, which may have caused a small eruption just 53,000 years ago (the most recent in Martian history). Perhaps the same will hold true for briny patches of liquid water around the poles and the equatorial region.
With any luck, some of these patches may even house countless microorganisms that could be related to life on Earth. How cool would that be?
The Great Red Spot Probably Formed in the Early 1800s
Jupiter’s Great Red Spot (GRS) is one of the Solar System’s defining features. It’s a massive storm that astronomers have observed since the 1600s. However, its date of formation and longevity are up for debate. Have we been seeing the same phenomenon all this time?
The GRS is a gigantic anti-cyclonic (rotating counter-clockwise) storm that’s larger than Earth. Its wind speeds exceed 400 km/h (250 mp/h). It’s an icon that humans have been observing since at least the 1800s, possibly earlier. Its history, along with how it formed, is a mystery.
Its earliest observations may have been in 1632 when a German Abbott used his telescope to look at Jupiter. 32 years later, another observer reported seeing the GRS moving from east to west. Then, in 1665, Giovanni Cassini examined Jupiter with a telescope and noted the presence of a storm at the same latitude as the GRS. Cassini and other astronomers observed it continuously until 1713 and he named it the Permanent Spot.
Unfortunately, astronomers lost track of the spot. Nobody saw the GRS for 118 years until astronomer S. Schwabe observed a clear structure, roughly oval and at the same latitude as the GRS. Some think of that observation as the first observation of the current GRS and that the storm formed again at the same latitude. But the details fade the further back in time we look. There are also questions about the earlier storm and its relation to the current GRS.
New research in Geophysical Research Letters combined historical records with computer simulations of the GRS to try to understand this chimerical meteorological phenomenon. Its title is “The Origin of Jupiter’s Great Red Spot,” and the lead author is Agustín Sánchez-Lavega. Sánchez-Lavega is a Professor of Physics at the University of the Basque Country in Bilbao, Spain. He’s also head of the Planetary Sciences Group and the Department of Applied Physics at the University.
“Jupiter’s Great Red Spot (GRS) is the largest and longest-lived known vortex of all solar system planets, but its lifetime is debated, and its formation mechanism remains hidden,” the authors write in their paper.
The researchers started with historical sources dating back to the mid-1600s, just after the telescope was invented. They analyzed the size, structure, and movement of both the PS and the GRS. But that’s not a simple task. “The appearance of the GRS and its Hollow throughout the history of Jupiter observations has been highly variable due to changes in size, albedo and contrast with surrounding clouds,” they write.
This figure from the research compares the Permanent Spot (PS) and the current GRS. a, b, and c are drawings by Cassini from 1677, 1690, and 1691, respectively. d is a current 2023 image of the GRS. Image Credit: Sánchez-Lavega et al. 2024.
“From the measurements of sizes and movements we deduced that it is highly unlikely that the current GRS was the PS observed by G. D. Cassini. The PS probably disappeared sometime between the mid-18th and 19th centuries, in which case we can say that the longevity of the Red Spot now exceeds 190 years at least,” said lead author Sánchez-Lavega. The GRS was 39,000 km long in 1879 and has shrunk to 14,000 km since then. It’s also become more rounded.
Four views of Jupiter and its GRS. a is a drawing of the Permanent Spot by G. D. Cassini from 19 January 1672. b is a drawing by S. Swabe from 10 May 1851. It shows the GRS area as a clear oval with limits marked by its Hollow (drawn by a red dashed line). c is a Photograph by A. A. Common from 1879. d is a photograph from Observatory Lick with a yellow filter on 14 October 1890. Each image is an astronomical image of Jupiter with south up and east down. Image Credit: Sánchez-Lavega et al. 2024.
The historical record is valuable, but we have different tools at our disposal now. Space telescopes and spacecraft have studied the GRS in ways that would’ve been unimaginable to Cassini and others. NASA’s Voyager 1 captured our first detailed image of the GRS in 1979, when it was just over 9,000,000 km from Jupiter.
Jupiter’s Great Red Spot as imaged by Voyager 1 in 1979. The intricate wave patterns were unseen until this image. Image Credit: By NASA – http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA00014, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=86812
Since Voyager’s image, the Galileo and Juno spacecraft have both imaged the GRS. Juno, in particular, has given us more detailed images and data on Jupiter and the GRS. It captured images of the planet from only 8,000 km above the surface. Juno takes raw images of the planet with its Junocam, and NASA invites anyone to process the images, leading to artful images of the GRS like the one below.
Juno also measured the depth of the GRS, something previous efforts couldn’t achieve. Recently, “various instruments on board the Juno mission in orbit around Jupiter have shown that the GRS is shallow and thin when compared to its horizontal dimension, as vertically it is about 500 km long,” explained Sánchez-Lavega.
Jupiter’s atmosphere contains winds running in opposite directions at different latitudes. North of the GRS, winds blow in a westerly direction and reach speeds of 180 km/h. South of the GRS, the winds flow in the opposite direction at speeds of 150 km/h. These winds generate a powerful wind shear that fosters the vortex.
In their supercomputer simulations, the researchers examined different forces that could produce the GRS in these circumstances. They considered the eruption of a gigantic superstorm like the kind that happens, though rarely, on Saturn. They also examined the phenomenon of smaller vortices created by the wind shear that merged together to form the GRS. Both of those produced anti-cyclonic storms, but their shapes and other properties didn’t match the current GRS.
“From these simulations, we conclude that the super-storm and the mergers mechanisms, although they generate a single anticyclone, are unlikely to have formed the GRS,” the researchers write in their paper.
The authors also point out that if either of these had happened, we should’ve seen them. “We also think that if one of these unusual phenomena had occurred, it or its consequences in the atmosphere must have been observed and reported by the astronomers at the time,” said Sánchez-Lavega.
However, other simulations proved more accurate in reproducing the GRS. Jupiter’s winds are known to have instabilities called the South Tropical Disturbance (STrD). When the researchers performed supercomputer simulations of the STrD, they created an anti-cyclonic storm very similar to the GRS. The STrD captured the different winds in the region and trapped them in an elongated shell like the GRS. “We therefore propose that the GRS generated from a long cell resulting from the STrD, that acquired coherence and compactness as it shrank,” the authors write.
These images from the research show how the GRS formed. a is a drawing by T. E. R. Phillips in 1931–1932 of the STrD. The red arrows indicate the flow direction with the longitude scale indicated. b and c are maps drawn from images taken by the New Horizons spacecraft. The yellow arrows mark position-velocity changes in the STrD. The STrD trapped winds and created a long cell that generated the Great Red Spot. Image Credit: Sánchez-Lavega et al. 2024.
The simulations show that over time, the GRS would rotate more rapidly as it shrank and became more coherent and compact until the elongated cell more closely resembled the current GRS. Since that’s what the GRS appears like now, the researchers settled on this explanation.
That process likely began in the mid-1800s when the GRS was much larger than it is now. That leads to the conclusion that the GRS is only about 150 years old.
The tall goldenrod (Solidago altissima), a North American species of goldenrod in the family Asteraceae, can perceive other plants nearby without ever touching them, by sensing far-red light ratios reflected off leaves. When goldenrod is eaten by herbivores, it adapts its response based on whether or not another plant is nearby. Is this kind of flexible, real-time, adaptive response a sign of intelligence in plants?
Plant induced responses to environmental stressors are increasingly studied in a behavioral ecology context. This is particularly true for plant induced responses to herbivory that mediate direct and indirect defenses, and tolerance. These seemingly adaptive alterations of plant defense phenotypes in the context of other environmental conditions have led to the discussion of such responses as intelligent behavior. In their paper, Kessler & Mueller consider the concept of plant intelligence and some of its predictions for chemical information transfer in plant interaction with other organisms.
Image credit: Becky.
“There are more than 70 definitions that are published for intelligence and there is no agreement on what it is, even within a given field,” said Professor André Kessler, a chemical ecologist at Cornell University.
“Many people believe that intelligence requires a central nervous system, with electrical signals acting as the medium for processing information.”
“Some plant biologists equate plant vascular systems with central nervous systems, and propose that some kind of centralized entity in the plant allows them to process information and respond.”
But Professor Kessler and his colleague, Cornell University doctoral student Michael Mueller, disagree with that idea.
“There is no good evidence for any of the homologies with the nervous system, even though we clearly see electrical signaling in plants, but the question is how important is that signaling for a plant’s ability to process environmental cues?” Professor Kessler said.
To make their argument for plant intelligence, the authors narrowed their definition down to the most basic elements: the ability to solve problems, based on the information that you get from the environment, toward a particular goal.
As a case study, Professor Kessler points to his earlier research investigating goldenrod and its responses when eaten by pests.
When leaf beetle larvae eat goldenrod leaves, the plant emits a chemical that informs the insect that the plant is damaged and is a poor source of food.
These airborne chemicals, called volatile organic compounds (VOCs), are also picked up by neighboring goldenrod plants, prompting them to produce their own defenses against the beetle larvae.
In this way, goldenrod move herbivores on to neighbors, and distribute damage.
In 2022, Professor Kessler and co-authors ran experiments to show that Solidago altissima can also perceive higher far-red light ratios reflected off leaves of neighboring plants.
When neighbors are present and goldenrods are eaten by beetles, they invest more into tolerating the herbivore by growing faster yet also start producing defensive compounds that help the plants fight off insect pests.
When no neighbors are present, the plants don’t resort to accelerated growth when eaten and the chemical responses to herbivores are markedly different, though they still tolerate quite high amounts of herbivory.
“This would fit our definition of intelligence. Depending on the information it receives from the environment, the plant changes its standard behavior,” Professor Kessler.
“Neighboring goldenrod also exhibit intelligence when they perceive VOCs that signal the presence of a pest.”
“The volatile emission coming from a neighbor is predictive of future herbivory.”
“They can use an environmental cue to predict a future situation, and then act on that.”
“Applying the concept of intelligence to plants can inspire fresh hypotheses about the mechanisms and functions of plant chemical communication, while also shifting people’s thinking about what intelligence really means.”
“The latter idea is timely, as artificial intelligence is a current topic of interest. For example, artificial intelligence doesn’t solve problems toward a goal, at least not yet.”
“Artificial intelligence, by our definition of intelligence, is not even intelligent. It is instead based on the patterns it identifies in information it can access.”
“An idea that interests us came from mathematicians in the 1920s who proposed that perhaps plants functioned more like beehives.”
“In this case, each cell operates like an individual bee, and the entire plant is analogous to a hive.”
“What that means is, the brain in the plant is the entire plant without the need of central coordination.”
“Instead of electrical signaling, there is chemical signaling throughout the superorganism.”
“Studies by other researchers have shown that every plant cell has broad light spectrum perception and sensory molecules to detect very specific volatile compounds coming from neighboring plants.”
“They can smell out their environment very precisely; every single cell can do it, as far as we know.”
“Cells might be specialized, but they also all perceive the same things, and they communicate via chemical signaling to trigger a collective response in growth or metabolism.”
“That idea is very appealing to me.”
The team’s paper was published in the journal Plant Signaling and Behavior.
André Kessler & Michael B. Mueller. Induced resistance to herbivory and the intelligent plant. Plant Signaling and Behavior, published online April 30, 2024; doi: 10.1080/15592324.2024.2345985
Now check this out, this glowing object is moving back and forth and seems to be playing with the observing. Who's watching who here? Many UFOs in the old MJ12 file reports were glowing lights that seem to follow the observer, I believe this is one such UFO.
Scott C. Waring
Eyewitness states:
A flying object with flashes of various colors was spotted at about 10,000 feet and was descending until it disappeared behind a hill. Its trajectory was towards the north. The sighting location is 2 hours away from the Salar de Uyuni.
Original report in Spanish:
Un objeto volador con destellos de varios colores, se lo avisto a unos 10000 pies y iba en desenso hasta quedarse atrás de un cerro, su trayectoria era hacia el norte, la ubicación del avistamiento es a 2 horas del salar de uyuni
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Over mijzelf
Ik ben Pieter, en gebruik soms ook wel de schuilnaam Peter2011.
Ik ben een man en woon in Linter (België) en mijn beroep is Ik ben op rust..
Ik ben geboren op 18/10/1950 en ben nu dus 73 jaar jong.
Mijn hobby's zijn: Ufologie en andere esoterische onderwerpen.
Op deze blog vind je onder artikels, werk van mezelf. Mijn dank gaat ook naar André, Ingrid, Oliver, Paul, Vincent, Georges Filer en MUFON voor de bijdragen voor de verschillende categorieën...
Veel leesplezier en geef je mening over deze blog.