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 NEARLY 13 YEARS AND 4 MONTH.
ON /30/09/2024 MORE THAN 2.230.520
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
From UFO Disclosure to UAP Transparency: Richard Dolan Explores the Evolution
From UFO Disclosure to UAP Transparency: Richard Dolan Explores the Evolution
Richard Dolan, a prominent UFO historian, delves into the evolving terminology and its implications in his insightful analysis on “The Richard Dolan Show.” The shift from “UFO” to “UAP” and from “Disclosure” to “Transparency” is more than mere semantics; it reflects broader societal and institutional attitudes toward these phenomena and attempts at narrative control.
The Evolution of Terminology
In the early days of UFO sightings, the term “flying saucers” was commonly used. This term carried connotations of science fiction and public hysteria, which often overshadowed serious investigations. Over time, the term evolved to “unidentified flying objects” (UFOs), a phrase coined by the United States military to bring a veneer of scientific objectivity and bureaucratic stability to the study of these phenomena.
In recent years, however, there has been a notable shift toward the term “unidentified aerial phenomena” (UAP) and more recently, “unidentified anomalous phenomena.” This transition reflects an ongoing effort to rebrand and destigmatize the subject, making it more palatable for scientific study and public discussion. Dr. Richard Haynes, a NASA scientist and active UFO researcher, is credited with popularizing the term UAP in the 1990s, aiming to strip away the cultural baggage associated with UFOs and encourage serious investigation.
From Disclosure to Transparency
For decades, the UFO community has championed the concept of “disclosure,” which implies a revealing of hidden or secret information about UFOs by an established authority, often envisioned as a dramatic, definitive revelation by the President or another high-ranking official. This notion of disclosure suggests a moment of truth, where the existence and nature of UFOs would be laid bare for public scrutiny.
In contrast, the term “transparency” has recently come into vogue, particularly in political and military circles. Transparency implies an ongoing process of openness and accountability but lacks the promise of a complete or final revelation. This shift from “disclosure” to “transparency” can be seen as a form of virtue signaling, providing a semblance of accountability while still allowing those in power to control the narrative and the extent of information released.
The Role of Language in Shaping Perception
Dolan emphasizes the power of language in shaping public perception and controlling narratives. He draws parallels with George Carlin’s critique of “soft language,” which dilutes the truth and makes serious issues seem less immediate and real. Similarly, George Orwell’s exploration of political jargon and euphemisms in “Politics and the English Language” highlights how language can obscure harsh realities and manipulate public thought.
The rebranding of UFOs to UAPs and the shift from disclosure to transparency can be seen as modern examples of these linguistic strategies. By changing the terminology, authorities can influence how the public perceives and discusses these phenomena, often reducing the urgency and altering the nature of the conversation.
Implications for the Future
While the shift to UAP and the emphasis on transparency have opened the door to broader discussions and bipartisan support in Congress, they also come with potential pitfalls. The term UAP encompasses a wide range of phenomena, including any airborne objects that cannot be immediately identified. This broad definition can dilute the focus on truly unexplained phenomena and make it easier for authorities to dismiss or downplay significant sightings.
Moreover, the promise of transparency without the commitment to full disclosure may lead to continued obfuscation and control of the narrative. As Dolan notes, the institutional structures that have grown around the UFO secret over the past 80 years are deeply entrenched, involving significant financial interests and powerful players. Genuine disclosure, if it ever comes, is likely to be disruptive and challenging to the status quo.
In conclusion, Richard Dolan’s analysis on “The Richard Dolan Show” sheds light on the significant shifts in language and terminology surrounding UFOs and UAPs. Understanding these changes is crucial for anyone interested in the study of unidentified phenomena and the broader societal and institutional forces at play. The transition from UFO disclosure to UAP transparency reflects deeper efforts at narrative control and highlights the ongoing challenges in achieving true openness and understanding in this enigmatic field.
During the summer of 1952, the United States was on high alert as UFO sightings over the nation’s capitalwere making frequent headlines. Buried amid the otherworldly clamor occupying the minds of Americans around that time, an obscure report conveyed that one of the objects—a small, glowing disc—was pursued and shot at by a military aircraft, blasting off a fragment that fell into a field near Washington D.C., which a naval officer later retrieved.
More than a decade later, an official government-funded scientific inquiry into UFOs—or what the United States government now calls unidentified anomalous phenomena (UAP)—would investigate the incident, ultimately determining claims involving the 1952 UFO incident were unlikely to be true.
Without question, the notion that a fragment might have been recovered after a shoot-out with a flying saucer in the 1950s offers a textbook example of what most would call a dubious claim. Yet a deeper look into this Cold War-era rumor reveals, surprisingly, that there could potentially be more to this odd story than past assessments would seem to indicate.
However, you would never have gleaned that from reading the latest report issued by the U.S. Defense Department’s official UAP investigative office.
Last week, the All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office (AARO) released a long-awaited historical report on its findings involving the United States government’s involvement with UAP and related programs since the end of World War II.
In the report, AARO investigators maintained the U.S. federal government’s longstanding position that it has never found any convincing evidence of extraterrestrial technologies operating near Earth, nor of any secret programs involving the acquisition or reverse engineering of crashed exotic technologies that have remained hidden from Congress.
The report was met with heavy criticism following its publication, partly due to a number of errors it was revealed to contain. Despite this, there were also a few intriguing inclusions made by AARO’s investigators, based on their relevance to the question of whether UAP materials have ever crashed on Earth and been studied.
One of these appears in a section of the AARO report that discusses the University of Colorado UFO Project, more commonly called the Condon Committee, a U.S. Air Force-funded evaluation of cases that were collected under its long-running Project Blue Book investigations that studied UFOs during the 1950s and 1960s.
According to AARO’s recent report, the Colorado scientific panel, led by American physicist Edward U. Condon, “investigated a claim made by radio broadcaster Frank Edwards in a 1966 book that a piece of a UFO was recovered near Washington, D.C. in the summer of 1952 during the spike in UFO sightings over the U.S. Capitol in July and August.”
The account in question appeared in Edwards’ book Flying Saucers: Serious Business, of which AARO’s investigators recount that Edwards “claimed that a USN jet fired on a two-foot diameter glowing disc and dislodged a one-pound fragment that was recovered by a ground team.” At the time of their study, the Condon Committee’s investigators inquired about the incident with Project Blue Book, who told the University of Colorado team that they were unaware of the purported 1952 incident.
Above: Excerpt from Frank Edwards’ 1966 book, Flying Saucers: Serious Business, where the author discussed the alleged 1952 UFO incident.
“The USAF and USN found no incident report of weapons engagement with a UFO that summer, no USN aircraft were present, and the retired officer who was the original source of the claim had retired before the summer of 1952, when the event allegedly occurred,” the AARO report’s summary reads.
The report then attributes another claim to Edwards, this time involving fragments from a UFO that were loaned by the United States to the Canadian government. “It is not clear if this claim was linked to the alleged Washington, D.C. incident,” the AARO report’s authors state, adding that “The Condon panel determined that these claims most likely were false.”
The reason any connections between the 1952 UFO incident and Frank Edwards’ claims of a flying saucer fragment being loaned to the Canadian government remained unclear to AARO’s investigators is probably very simple. In likelihood, their investigation of these claims took them no further than the Condon Committee’s report (as evidenced by the relevant source citations found at the end of AARO’s document). Indeed, the two events are connected, as a deeper examination of the literature regarding this alleged 1952 incident readily reveals.
Additionally, much like other assertions that appeared in the recent AARO report, some of the facts about this case have been misrepresented. However, this may not be entirely the fault of AARO’s team in this instance; a closer look at this case also reveals how much of the confusion arises from the Condon Committee’s original investigation, and problems involving their main source for the claims.
THE CONDON COMMITTEE’S CONFUSION
In the late 1960s, under contract No. 44620-67-C-0035 with the United States Air Force, the University of Colorado conducted an extensive analysis of UAP incidents collected by Project Blue Book, which resulted in the publication of its findings in a lengthy report titled Scientific Study of Unidentified Flying Objects.
Despite the title of the Condon Committee’s report, many viewed it as being anything but a truly scientific evaluation of existing data on aerial mysteries. As British physicist Peter Sturrock later noted in his analysis of the Condon Committee’s findings, “most case studies were conducted by junior staff, the senior staff took little part, and the director took no part, in these investigations.” Additionally, after concerns were raised by some of the Committee’s members over apparent biases and other issues they identified with its leadership, several either resigned or were dismissed, resulting in the final report being partly assembled by staff who had only joined the project as it neared completion.
Above: Original title from John G. Fuller’s article, “Flying Saucer Fiasco,” published in Look Magazine, May 14, 1968
(Credit: CIA CREST/Public Domain/Fair Use).
The saga of the 1952 UFO shoot-down over Washington was addressed in a section of the Condon Committee’s final report titled “Parts of UFOs, or UFO Equipment,” where the Colorado team’s investigators wrote that “Representatives of Air Force Project Blue Book claimed no knowledge of the disc fragment discussed by Edwards, who claimed the successful search for this fragment was confirmed by Lt. Cdr. Frank Thompson of the U.S. Navy.”
“The fragment, said to have been dislodged by gunfire from a Navy jet, reportedly fell to the ground, where it was found, still glowing, an hour later by U.S. military ground search crews,” the Committee’s report states. “Reports of UFO events over Washington, D.C., in 1952 contain no reference to such a gunfire incident,” they add, though noting that had the fragment ever really existed “and was classified ‘Secret’ as was claimed, its existence and whereabouts would not necessarily be revealed to this project.”
On the outside chance that such an incident might have occurred, the Committee’s members reached out to U.S. Air Force headquarters for clarification. A response came from J.W. Clinton “by direction of the Chief of Information, Department of the Navy,” who indicated that a search of all Navy records revealed no documentation related to the purported incident, nor could they find any records involving the retrieval of fragments at any time that were believed to have come from a UFO.
That wasn’t the only damning revelation that came from a search of the Navy’s records. “Perhaps more significant, however, were the facts that Navy records of the year 1952 carried only one Frank Thompson, an individual who had retired from active duty several years before 1952 with the rank of lieutenant, not lieutenant commander,” the Condon Committee’s report states. In addition to this, the Committee’s investigators were told that it was unlikely that U.S. Navy aircraft would have participated in any shoot downs of objects over the nation’s capital, since in doing so they “would have been usurping an Air Force function if they had been present over Washington, D. C., as interceptors.”
“The incident is not beyond the realm of possibility,” Clinton nonetheless conceded to the Colorado team, though ultimately concluding that the incident was “very highly unlikely” given the jurisdictional issues limiting any Navy aircraft’s involvement.
Although Clinton had admitted that the incident reported by Edwards might at least have been possible, the fact that there had been no evidence of a “Frank Thompson” with the rank of lieutenant commander in active service at the time seemed to pour cold water on Edwards’ claims.
However, a closer look at Edwards’ sources for this account reveals something that may help to clarify the matter, since it turns out the name of the Lieutenant Commander in question was not “Frank Thompson” at all.
In the relevant chapter of Flying Saucers: Serious Business, Edwards states that one of his sources regarding the 1952 affair had been an earlier book from 1955 by Major Donald E. Keyhoe, titled The Flying Saucer Conspiracy. In Edwards’ book, he even provides the page number (272) for Keyhoe’s account of the incident, a review of which helps to shed some light on the situation.
“I also listed a recent report given me by Lieutenant Commander Frank Thomas,” Keyhoe wrote in his brief account of the 1952 incident, immediately revealing that the “Frank Thompson” Edwards had been referencing was, in fact, instead a Lieutenant Commander Frank Thomas.
Above: Excerpt from Donald Keyhoe’s 1955 book, later cited by Frank Edwards, where the actual name of Keyhoe’s source is shown as “Frank Thomas.” Edwards mistakenly wrote this individual’s name as “Frank Thompson” in his 1966 book.
“According to Thomas, a peculiar object had fallen near Washington during the mass saucer sightings in 1952,” Keyhoe writes. “Retrieved by a naval officer, it was later analyzed by the Bureau of Standards.”
Keyhoe goes on to describe the object, noting that “one side of it was flat with odd markings, as if it had been milled. During tests the unknown substance proved to be fire-resistant. But the analysis, Thomas said, had failed to determine whether it was an artificially constructed object or a fragment of some unknown type of meteorite.”
Keyhoe concluded the brief account by adding that “Afterward the object had been sent to W. B. Smith at Ottawa for further analysis by Project Magnet engineers.”
One must wonder whether the Condon Committee might have had better success locating the Lieutenant Commander in question if only they had asked the Navy to search for Frank Thomas, rather than Frank Thompson, as Edwards later mistakenly spelled the individual’s name.
However, further adding to the confusion is the fact that nowhere in the original account written by Keyhoe is it stated that the fragment was dislodged from the UAP during the purported 1952 incident by fire from an aircraft. In Keyhoe’s account, the author only conveys that “a peculiar object had fallen near Washington during the mass saucer sightings in 1952,” though adding that it was “Retrieved by a naval officer.”
Although Edwards initially only referred to a “military jet” in his retelling of the account in 1966, later in the same chapter he makes passing references to “the fragment collected by gunfire from that Navy jet.” It seems likely that Edwards had merely inferred that a Navy jet had been involved; confusion that may have stemmed from his misreading, again, of Keyhoe’s original account involving a “naval officer” who retrieved the fragment, as well as his primary source, a USN lieutenant commander.
Based on this, it would appear the insinuation that a Navy jet had been involved was another error made by Edwards, which ultimately the Condon Committee’s investigators relied on without attempting to validate the author’s sources (more on where the idea of a jet’s involvement may have come from will be addressed in the following section). Add to this the fact that they had the wrong name of the alleged lieutenant commander they were looking for, and it becomes quite clear why the Navy was unable to corroborate any of the details in Edwards’ 1966 account.
THE WILBERT SMITH INTERVIEW
Although the recent AARO historical report only provides a cursory summary of the alleged 1952 incident based primarily on the Condon Committee’s findings (which, as demonstrated above, were doomed to fail from the outset based on inaccuracies in Frank Edwards’ account), there is still more to this bizarre story of alleged UAP debris. Much of this involves the Canadian engineer and UFO researcher Wilbert Smith, who eventually received the alleged flying saucer fragment according to Keyhoe’s original 1955 narrative.
A Canadian Department of Transport engineer, Smith ran Project Magnet, a UFO investigative effort that formally ran out of the Canadian government from December 1950 until mid-1954, although Smith’s informal studies involving UFOs continued for many years after the project ended.
“Smith assessed that UFOs were of extraterrestrial origin and that they flew by magnetism,” the recent AARO historical report states in a summary of Project Magnet that appears in a section addressing Foreign and Academic Investigatory Efforts. “Smith believed he was in personal contact with extraterrestrial beings through telepathy and ‘tensor beams’,” AARO’s investigators add, noting that in a 1961 interview Smith had “claimed that in 1952, the USAF lent him a piece of a UFO to study. He also claimed it was composed of magnesium orthosilicate.”
A rather revealing transcript of this interview with Smith appeared in Edwards’ 1966 book, based on a recording supplied to the author by Ohio-based researchers C.W. Fitch and George Popovitch, who conducted the 1961 interview. At one point while speaking with Smith, Fitch asked Smith about his association with the retired U.S. Navy Admiral Herbert B. Knowles, to whom Smith had reportedly shown the fragment of the saucer that the U.S. government had loaned him:
FITCH: You’re a friend of Admiral Knowles, Mr. Smith? [Rear Admiral H. B. Knowles, U.S. Navy, Retired.]
SMITH: Oh, yes. Admiral Knowles and I have been very good friends for many years.
FITCH: I have been told by a mutual friend that in 1952 you showed Admiral Knowles a piece of a flying saucer. Is that statement correct, sir?
SMITH: Yes. It is correct. I visited with Admiral Knowles and I had with me a piece which had been shot from a small flying saucer near Washington in July of that year—1952. I showed it to the Admiral. It was a piece of metal about twice the size of your thumb which had been loaned to me for a very short time by your Air Force.
FITCH: Is this the only piece you have handled which definitely had been part of a UFO, Mr. Smith?
SMITH: No. I’ve handled several of these pieces of hardware.
FITCH: In what way, if any, do they differ from materials with which we are familiar?
SMITH: As a general thing they differ only in that they are much harder than our materials.
FITCH: What about this particular piece from that UFO near Washington . . . did it differ from conventional materials? Was there anything unusual about it, sir?
SMITH: Well, the story behind it is this: The pilot was chasing a glowing disc about two feet in diameter—
FITCH: Pardon me, sir. But did you say two feet . . . ?
SMITH: That is correct. I was informed that the disc was glowing and was about two feet in diameter. A glowing chunk flew off and the pilot saw it glowing all the way to the ground. He radioed his report and a ground party hurried to the scene. The thing was still glowing when they found it an hour later. The entire piece weighed about a pound. The segment that was loaned to me was about one third of that. It had been sawed off.
FITCH: What did the analysis show?
SMITH: There was iron rust—the thing was in reality a matrix of magnesium orthosilicate. The matrix had great numbers—thousands—of I5-micron spheres scattered through it.
Fitch then questioned Smith about the whereabouts of the sample the U.S. Air Force had loaned him, to which he responded by providing the following very intriguing remarks:
FITCH: You say that you had to return it—did you return it to the Air Force, Mr. Smith?
SMITH: Not the Air Force. Much higher than that.
FITCH: The Central Intelligence Agency?
SMITH: [Chuckles] I’m sorry, gentlemen, but I don’t care to go beyond that point. I can say to you that it went to the hands of a highly classified group. You will have to solve that problem—their identity—for yourselves.
Smith’s insinuations about “a highly classified group” within the United States government that the alleged UFO fragment had been returned to is certainly intriguing, although for more reasons than merely those which are immediately obvious. Another has to do with a memorandum dated November 21, 1950, addressed to the Canadian Controller of Telecommunications, in which Smith discussed inquiries he made at the Canadian Embassy in Washington shortly after acquiring a copy of author Frank Scully’s book Behind the Flying Saucers, an early book on UFOs that recounted a dubious story involving the alleged crash of a flying saucer near Aztec, New Mexico (the incident was later deemed to have been a hoax).
Smith’s 1950 memo included a series of intriguing remarks that eventually became widely discussed in UFO circles, following the rediscovery of the memorandum in the Canadian National Archives decades later. Specifically, Smith stated that:
I made discreet enquiries [sic] through the Canadian Embassy staff in Washington who were able to obtain for me the following information:
The [UFO] matter is the most highly classified subject in the United States Government, rating higher even than the H-bomb.
Flying saucers exist.
Their modus operandi is unknown but concentrated effort is being made by a small group headed by Doctor Vannevar Bush.
The entire matter is considered by the United States authorities to be of tremendous significance.
The reference to Vannevar Bush in the 1950 memorandum is noteworthy, particularly because Bush’s name would later appear in an infamous series of documents sent to filmmaker Jaime Shandera in 1984, which consisted of briefing papers describing “Operation Majestic 12,” an alleged secret U.S. investigation into UFOs and extraterrestrials that began in the aftermath of the supposed crash said to have occurred at Roswell, New Mexico, in 1947. The Majestic 12 documents, as they have since become known, also later appeared in British researcher Timothy Good’s book Above Top Secret.
Despite a few intriguing references from over the years like the one in the Smith memorandum, no evidence verifying the existence of “Operation Majestic 12” has ever surfaced. The documents were deemed to be hoaxes in a series of separate investigations, including one conducted by the Federal Bureau of Investigation, which concluded the documents were “completely bogus.”
A page from the FBI’s copies of the alleged Majestic 12 documents, which they deemed to have been faked
(Credit: FBI).
It is worth noting that in the recent AARO report’s summary of the Condon Committee’s findings regarding the alleged 1952 saucer fragment affair, the AARO authors state that Frank Edwards “claimed that Dr. Vannevar Bush, a prominent inventor, defense industry scientist, and founder of the National Science Foundation, led the effort to study the fragment.” The citation given for this in the AARO report, number 49, lists “The Condon Report” (Scientific Study of Unidentified Flying Objects) as the source for this, although a search of both the PDF linked to by the AARO report’s authors, as well as an online text version of the Condon Report, reveals no references to Vannevar Bush. This could represent another error on the part of AARO’s investigators, who may have mistakenly attributed Wilbert Smith’s alleged knowledge that a “concentrated effort is being made by a small group headed by Doctor Vannevar Bush,” as stated in the 1950 memorandum, with details in the Condon Committee’s final report.
THE LETTER FROM REAR ADMIRAL KNOWLES
There is a final addendum to the story of the 1952 Washington saucer fragment, which involves testimony from the man who was allegedly shown the sample of the object while it was in Smith’s possession. As conveyed earlier in the transcript of C.W. Fitch and George Popovitch’s interview with Wilbert Smith, the latter had confirmed his friendship with U.S. Navy Rear Admiral Herbert B. Knowles, an individual with whom Fitch also corresponded about the alleged 1952 UFO incident.
In the March 1986 edition of Just Cause, the newsletter of the FOIA activist group Citizens Against UFO Secrecy (CAUS), a letter provided to the editor, Barry Greenwood, from none other than C.W. Fitch lent additional corroboration to the story of the saucer sample Wilbert Smith claimed the U.S. Air Force had loaned him in the 1950s.
“We must thank long-time UFO investigator C. Wesley Fitch for the following information, which CAUS regards as of great historical interest to our subject,” an entry at the end of the newsletter stated. “Fitch is one of a shrinking group of researchers who knew many of the pioneers of UFOlogy. We regard ourselves as fortunate that he chose to give this impressive little tid-bit to us.”
The item in question had been a series of then-25-year-old correspondences shared with CAUS, revealing “that former Navy Rear Admiral Herbert B. Knowles was involved in the examination of fragments of a UFO shot at over Washington, D.C. in 1952.” As it turned out, in addition to recording the interview where Wilbert Smith acknowledged his friendship with Admiral Knowles, Fitch had also corresponded with Knowles about the saucer fragment Smith claimed to have shown him while on loan from the United States.
As explained in the CAUS newsletter, Fitch, a member of the National Investigations Committee on Aerial Phenomena (NICAP) had been told by one of the organization’s board members, the Reverend Albert Baller, about a visit he received from Admiral Knowles (also a board member of NICAP at the time) during which the two men discussed UFOs. Throughout their discussion at Baller’s home, Knowles recounted how he was allowed to examine the purported UFO fragment in Smith’s possession, which he said had been shot off a small glowing disk in 1952.
Fitch managed to track down Admiral Knowles, who at the time (1961) had been living in Eliot, Maine, and wrote to him asking for confirmation as to whether he had indeed examined the alleged saucer fragment. In a response dated August 27, 1961, Knowles wrote back to Fitch, divulging the following intriguing account of his recollections about the visit with Smith:
Yes, I have had a piece of a small disc in my hands. It was shown me by Mr. Wilbert Smith (address given- Ed.). At that time (1952), Mr. Smith was heading the “Flying Saucer” research of the Canadian government and working in very close cooperation with our authorities in Washington, D.C. He is still very much interested in this matter and does independent research. The Canadian Govt. has “officially” abandoned the project.
To the best of my recollection the object was shot down by a plane and seen to fall in the yard of a farmer across the river in Virginia. Upon searching the area several pieces were found, one of which was turned over to Mr . Smith for independent research. In one of his trips down to see me he brought the piece along for my inspection.
It was a chunk of amorphous metal-like structure, brownish in color where broken, with a curved edge indicating the whole thing to have been not over 2′ in diam. The edge was rounded in cross section, perhaps a quarter inch thick and obviously swelled to a considerably greater thickness at the center. The outer surface was smooth but not polished, and at the broken sections there were obviously iron particles and even evidence of iron rust. I would say that the weight was somewhat lighter than if of solid iron, but it was not extremely light.
Mr. Smith told me that a chemical test had been made of the piece at hand, that iron had been found in it but little if anything else could be identified.
Concluding his account, the retired Admiral then asserted his belief that the fragment he examined had belonged to a “remotely-controlled observation disc,” the likes of which have been “seen many times, most often in the vicinity of defense installations.”
A follow-up letter from Knowles, dated October 11, 1961, included a sketch of the alleged UFO fragment, a version of which was redrawn and included in the CAUS newsletter based on faded originals provided to Fitch (see below).
Above: Reconstructed drawing which appeared in the March 1986 CAUS newsletter
(Credit: Barry Greenwood/Fair Use).
Update:Another interesting piece of this puzzle was brought to our attention by historical researcher Jeff Knox, involving samples purportedly collected in Virginia by Commander Alvin E. Moore in 1952. Like the original account by Donald Keyhoe from 1955, Moore also claimed his sample was analyzed by the Bureau of Standards, referring to it and others in his possession as “stones,” along with associated “materials” that he believed to have been related to UFOs.
In a letter to Condon Committee project coordinator Robert Low dated January 5, 1968, Moore offered to produce a report based on his investigations into UFOs and the materials in his possession. Following a brief response sent to Moore, Low subsequently wrote to Dr. J. Thomas Ratchford at AFOSR Headquarters, expressing doubts about the relevance of Moore’s samples, although noting that there was “a good deal that is strange about Moore’s experience.” Specifically, a UFO report Moore said he sent to Wright-Patterson AFB could not be located by Project Blue Book staff, according to Low, who added that an analysis of the “artifact” Moore found in 1952, “which he says was done by the National Bureau of Standards, was never written down.” Intriguingly, Low then speculated to Ratchford about the possibility that Captain Edward J. Ruppelt, the first director of Project Blue Book, could have “made off with some of the files of sightings,” though conceding that Moore’s sighting report might simply have been lost, or may never have been sent to Blue Book. For further details on this, copies of the exchanges between Moore and Low, as well as Low’s letter to Ratchford, can be read here.
CONCLUSIONS
As a deeper analysis into this alleged 1952 incident has revealed, the DoD’s recent investigations into the matter amounted to little more than a rehashing of the flawed conclusions of the Condon Committee from decades ago, whose investigators, as we have now seen, relied on incorrect data provided in a popular book on UFOs from the 1960s as the basis for their investigations.
Thus, to briefly summarize:
1. AARO’s recent historical report features a short entry on the University of Colorado UFO Project (i.e., the Condon Committee) and its findings, including its investigation into claims made in a 1966 book by Frank Edwards involving a fragment allegedly shot off a UFO by a U.S. Navy aircraft near Washington, D.C., in 1952.
2. While the Condon Committee determined the incident had likely never occurred, the information used as the basis for its investigations had been incorrect details from Edwards’ book, resulting from his probable misreading of information in an earlier 1955 book by author Donald Keyhoe. The Condon Committee’s investigators seemingly did not scrutinize this information before providing it to the U.S. Navy, which, understandably, was unable to verify the erroneous claims.
3. AARO’s report attributes unverified claims involving American defense industry scientist Dr. Vannevar Bush to statements from Frank Edwards in 1966, although his book published that year makes no references to Bush, nor does the Condon Committee’s final report, which AARO cites as its source for this assertion in its recent report. It seems likely that a possible origin for the claims involving Bush may have been a 1950 memorandum attributed to Wilbert Smith, who was allegedly loaned a portion of the UFO fragment by the U.S. Air Force two years later.
4. A recording of a 1961 interview the Ohio-based researcher C.W. Fitch conducted with Smith, partially transcribed in Edwards’ 1966 book, details Smith’s recollections about the purported UFO fragment he was loaned and insinuated that it was returned to a “highly classified group” within the United States government. Additional correspondences between Fitch and Rear Admiral Herbert B. Knowles from 1961, and later supplied to the activist organization CAUS, confirmed that Knowles had been shown the object during a meeting with Smith in 1952, corroborating Smith’s claims of having once had the fragment in his possession. A possible origin for the sample Smith reportedly borrowed and studied had been Commander Alvin Moore, who later approached the Condon Committee about potentially collaborating with the project.
If the AARO report had indeed conducted an “exhaustive analysis” of U.S. government records associated with UAP, one would expect they would have also easily spotted errors in the publicly accessible resources like the Condon Committee report, as well as Frank Edwards’ 1966 account involving the alleged UFO fragment from 1952.
Instead, as indicated by AARO’s contention that “it is not clear” whether the alleged 1952 incident had been associated with claims that the Canadian government was loaned a sample from a UFO, it is hard to see past the fact that the AARO’s investigators performed little more than a cursory examination of the 1952 UFO case… just like the Condon Committee had done decades ago. Thus, one wonders: what else might they have overlooked?
This all may seem inconsequential to some, especially since the present analysis alone cannot “prove” that a fragment was indeed blasted off a small, drone-like UFO near Washington in 1952. However, what this analysis does help to illustrate, taken alongside the numerous other factual errors within AARO’s recent report, is that questions regarding the merit of AARO’s broader historical investigations are indeed warranted. It is also not impossible that, if such problems as those addressed here were taken into further consideration by AARO in advance of the publication of Volume II of its historical report, perhaps they may be better equipped to satisfactorily resolve some of these lingering questions.
Altogether, maybe these decades-old claims about a fragment shot off of a flying saucer, which past studies (and more recent ones) have claimed “were most likely false,” should warrant further attention after all.
And if nothing else, perhaps, given such considerations, we can better understand why many Americans remain skeptical about their government’s latest proclamations regarding the long-reviled subject of UFOs.
In the turmoil of world news this week, it isn’t hard to find occasions to worry. Yet, two novel subjects have also become prominent, each raising alarm from the high-tech laboratories of Silicon Valley to the halls of Congress. They relate to the potential of AI to make humans obsolete, and to the global threat implied by the mystery of UFOs, even when reframed as the less-intimidating “UAP,” as Pentagon purists prefer.
The real problem is that the two issues are more closely related than anyone had foreseen, and their combined power to disrupt social, business, and perhaps even spiritual realities threatens to become uncontrollable, even if the two constituencies have little in common.
The AI conundrum is surprisingly simple to describe. Under cover of anonymity, late last year, senior staffers of OpenAI, a California non-profit startup (with a for-profit sub) warned that their company’s approach to “artificial general intelligence” (AGI) was about to unleash “systems surpassing humans in most economically valuable tasks.” There was a mysterious project called Q*. Still, the whistleblowers did not reveal themselves, and no details were given ahead of CEO Sam Altman’s return last month.
While these developments were stirring things up for the AI company, its Microsoft investors, and its competitors, a similar drama was taking place in Washington, DC: A proposed amendment to the massive Defense Appropriations bill, eagerly awaited by the public and a vocal portion of the scientific world, was being shot down, or at least deeply wounded, as the Senate buried the concept of UFO disclosure for a few more years. Powerful forces in the Republican party had intervened late in the game to amend, minimize, or eliminate the language introduced by Senator Schumer.
Among other controversial provisions, it would have demanded the confiscation of alleged alien materials or craft, of which almost a dozen had reportedly been captured by special units of the Pentagon. In recent years, such craft had played hide-and-seek with our best fighter aircraft from the Pacific fleet. However, there was a much longer history—largely classified—of scientific work to elucidate their origin and nature. Here, too, most of the whistleblowers remained safely hidden.
As with Q*, full acknowledgment of the reality and potential of exotic technology is thought to threaten humanity. This suggests the need for a historic transition to prepare ourselves to co-exist in a complex future where we humans might become redundant and unable to manage the planet or even our own survival. Like artificial intelligence, the UAP issue has emerged into our world without any easily comparable historical precedent.
The two issues of concern—the imminence of AI and the evidence for UAP—interest me separately and together. I earned one of the very early doctorates in AI at Northwestern in 1967 for a program that took English questions about a large astronomical catalog. It produced calculation results in minutes, eliminating the drudgery of coding and saving an overnight computer run. Second-generation programs were developed by industry in the ensuing years, bringing sophisticated controls to places that included our cars, and boosting productivity from railroad yards to aviation. That phase was invisible, however. Hardly aware of the ongoing revolution, most of us enjoyed these developments as expected rewards of productivity.
In 1985, I published demonstrations of an AI assistant that guided a human analyst through dozens of hypotheses when faced with a report of a complex UFO event, facilitating its explanation, or documenting its selection for in-person follow-up (see Vallée, J.F.: “Towards the use of artificial intelligence techniques in the screening of reports of Anomalous Phenomena.” American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA). Los Angeles, 19 April 1986).
What we see today is a huge further step, a natural extension of AI science that is eloquent, visible, intrusive, encompassing, and wide; occasionally crazy or funny too, but always revelatory. Most relevant, the new form is no longer just a servant; it is an intimidating companion with the ability to digest Saint Augustine or Kierkegaard in the same heuristic. It discourages most users from challenging its verdicts. Herein lies the danger, of course: absurdity welcomes routine as reasoning becomes layered, its logic anchored in the apparent chaining of impeccable predicates. It only yields to critical analysis when one returns to the source of its data, piercing the veil of deductive fabric… but who has time for that?
Implications for research and industry are profound. They plug directly into the analysis of problems too complex for limited human projects. The wisdom of the software isn’t bound to a deductive downflow anymore. One could take a massive warehouse of UFO data, such as the one (which remains classified) that I designed for the Advanced Aerospace Weapons Systems Application Program (AAWSAP), and subject its 260,000-odd unexplained incidents to a barrage of tests, probing not only for internal consistency in search of some elusive alien logic, but also for its predictive attributes. And if you can do that, you can ask the AI to challenge it, investigate its structure, or force it to reveal itself. Is that why Congress has not lifted the classification of the UAP warehouse Americans have paid for?
Two exquisitely challenging domains of scientific intelligence: the unlimited potential of programs like Q*, and the intimidating depth of the repositories of unexplained contact. Viewed separately, both imply potential breakthroughs and unknown dangers. Viewed together, they paint a vast design of the future where science can open new forms of exploration: more anchored in the reality of data, and more rewarding in the richness of discovery. Both deal with non-human intelligence, augmenting our own yet challenging it at the same time.
The similarities that emerge are significant: in both cases, those who sound the alarm are so intimidated they feel it necessary to remain anonymous. In both cases, survival is potentially at risk, and there’s a cross-factor in both developments: each implies the other in practical, logical, and sociologically important ways, which brings us back to disclosure.
Three opportunities for progress have been missed:
If the truth about the unexplained UFO data had been told by US authorities as early as the mid-fifties—as it could have been—the problem would have fallen to the world’s best scientists, well-equipped to verify the data and deal with it. That wasn’t done.
If the truth (newly buffered up by thousands of well-understood encounters) had been told in the late sixties or seventies, there would have been a political upset, bypassing the scientists left to fend for themselves. The issue would have transcended common affairs, with an impact felt around the world, but it was still manageable. Yet nothing was done: forceful presentations before the UN Political Committee in 1978 were negated by UK and US opposition.
What about the third failure to tell the truth, given the lack of decisive action in Washington last month?
At this late date, any attempt at disclosure can upset religious sensitivities, with a greater risk to social stability than the scientific or political dangers of earlier decades, given the conflicts that divide the world. The young generation of AI scientists eager to release new forms of intelligence, and the survivors of the Pentagon arguments around the UAP “data warehouse” may be wise to remain anonymous: beyond the threshold, any wisdom we may seek from our primitive algorithms is very brittle indeed.
Whatever decision is made, the implications are powerful, and they touch sensitive areas, from science policy (how much research should remain classified?) to threat assessment in defense and to international relations with concerned nations that are not friendly but may have essential data.
The danger then may reside in the consequences of initial decisions that preclude or overwhelm our ability to control the complexity of future actions. And this is not a task any current AI is ready to tackle.
Jacques Vallée is a principal at Documatica Financial and a diversified investor with technology startups in space development and information management. He is the author of several textbooks on computer networking and has maintained a decades-long interest in the scientific study of unidentified aerial phenomena. He divides his time between San Francisco and Paris, and can be found onlineat his website.
America's most famous UFO case is still producing more evidence as scientists and civilians are on a mission to prove that the Roswell crash was not of this world.
The 1947 incident made headlines when the US Army Air Force issued a press release stating that it had recovered debris from a 'flying disc' — only later to reverse course, claiming that the material had really just belonged to a downed weather balloon.
Geologist Frank Kimbler is among the many experts who have challenged the military's official version of what crashed on the outskirts of this New Mexico town, where he has scoured the alleged UFO's crash site with a metal detector since 2010.
Kimbler has since uncovered over 20 unusual scraps of metal material, most no bigger than a fingernail, and has now submitted one uniquely odd metal for testing to the Discovery Channel's new series 'Alien Encounters: Fact or Fiction.'
Testing revealed that the metal was '100-percent pure aluminum,' which experts said was 'compelling evidence' that could prove aliens crashed in the area decades ago.
Geologist Frank Kimbler uncovered over 20 unusual scraps of metal material, most no bigger than a fingernail, and has now submitted one uniquely odd metal for testing to the Discovery Channel's new series ' Alien Encounters: Fact or Fiction
Kimbler (above with his possible UFO crash sample) had pulled this roughly quarter-inch metal fragment from an ant hill where the bugs had stored it. He submitted the aluminum sample for testing by the new Discovery Channel series
'I was really trying to champion truth throughout,' the new series' cohost, Chrissy Newton, told DailyMail.com, adding that she was not afraid to debunk a few celebrated UFO cases, if that's where the facts led.
'I want to prove that it's identifiable,' Newton said, 'not everyone's gonna like that.'
Nevertheless, Newton found the tests on the pure aluminum mystery metal to be compelling, she said, in part because a former Pentagon UFO investigator has told her that 'pure aluminum has been connected to multiple other UFO crash sites.'
While Newton did not name her Pentagon source, she described them as 'a source formerly from AATIP,' the US military's Advanced Aerospace Threat Identification Program, which from 2007 to 2012 had been tasked (in part) with studying UFOs.
'Most Al [aluminum] in use are anodized Al,' Dr Hossain noted, a process that creates a thin layer of aluminum, reacted with oxygen, to seal off the interior aluminum from rust-like degradation caused by reactions with the air. This sample, he said, had 'not been anodized'
Kimbler, who teaches earth sciences and geology at the New Mexico Military Institute, told Newton and her cohost that he had pulled this particular metal fragment, roughly a quarter-inch long, from an ant hill within the Roswell debris field.
Testing ant hills for ant-harvested metals, the geologist noted, has been a common tactic for gold prospectors, mining geologists, and metal detector hobbyists alike.
The insect colonies are known for collecting sturdy and sometimes buried materials for to build their tunnel systems, according to Jim Davis of Utah's geology survey.
'Thanks to the ant's undertakings, prospectors have discovered rich lodes of gold, copper, nickel, turquoise, diamonds, and many other minerals,' Davis said.
Over the years, Kimbler has been open that many of the metal fragments he's recovered from the infamous crash site might have a more earthbound explanation.
'Some of it could be trash, camper trash,' he told KRQE in 2018 after the Bureau of Land Management caught wind of his hobby, 'but some of it could be interesting.'
To confirm what Kimbler actually found, the new Discovery Channel series sent the metal sample for chemical testing via mass spectrometry to independent experts at the Texas-based firm Cerium Labs, which specializes is aluminum metallurgy.
Dr Tom Hossain, chief scientist at Cerium Labs, reported that the aluminum metal fragment was not only unusual for its purity, but it also differed from the typical industrial-grade aluminum used in manufacturing.
'Most Al [aluminum] in use are anodized Al,' Dr Hossain said.
Anodizing is an electrochemical process that converts the metal surface into a decorative, durable and corrosion-resistant finish known as an anodic oxide.
It protects the metal underneath that finish from corroding in reactions with the oxygen molecules present in both air and water.
The lead author of the Air Force's 1994 Roswell report, Col. Richard Weaver, came forward in 2020 to discuss 'a lot of manipulation going on behind the scenes' of his official inquiry. Above, an image for a 90s television program about one of the many books about the crash, 'The Day after Roswell'
Kimbler, who teaches earth sciences and geology at the New Mexico Military Institute, said he had pulled this particular metal fragment from an ant hill within the Roswell debris field. Above, a sign directing Roswell visitors to the start of a '1947 UFO Crash Site Tour' circa 1997
'This is not an alloy,' Dr Hossain wrote. 'This is pure aluminum.'
Kimbler's find joins a growing body of eyewitness testimony, and even declassified government records, that appear to indicate that the Roswell crash included some form of exotic metal materials.
More than 40 witnesses to the Roswell crash mentioned that a metal-like material from the site could 'remember itself' when folded or physically altered, according to UFO researcher Anthony Bragalia.
The records included pages that repeatedly mention 'advanced technology reports' surrounding Nitinol, described as a shape recovery alloy.
Nitinol had similar properties to the 'memory metal' found near the Roswell crash site, according to Bragalia.
Pages from the FOIA reply indicate that the Pentagon was exploring whether Nitinol could be integrated into the human body for the improvement of health, the researcher wrote at his blog, UFO Explorations.
Today, even the lead author of the Air Force's official and final Roswell report in 1994, Colonel Weaver, has come forward to caution that the current official explanation is inconclusive: 'Did we say it was 100-percent? No way. We didn't say that' (above, the military's first explanation)
'Although much of the reports' details are redacted, what can be gleaned is that these technologies represent a literal quantum leap beyond the properties of all existing material known to man,' Bragalia said.
'Based on the documentation received,' he added, 'it appears that the retrieved debris exhibits other extraordinary capabilities.'
'In addition to 'remembering' their original form when bent or crushed, some of these futuristic materials have the potential to make things invisible, 'compress' electromagnetic energy, and even slow down the speed of light,' Bragalia said.
UFO researcher Tony Bragalia has argued that debris from the Roswell crash was flown to Wright Field in Greene County, Ohio, with Battelle Memorial Institute soon securing a contract to start remaking the UFO's 'memory metal' Nitinol, using Nickel and ultra-high purity Titanium
Today, even the lead author of the Air Force's official 1994 report, Colonel Richard Weaver, that revisited the Roswell case has come forward to caution that the military's current official explanation is by no means conclusive.
'Did we say it was 100-percent? Col. Weaver said on a 2020 podcast. 'No way. We didn't say that.'
Col Weaver also alluded ominously to 'politics and a lot of manipulation going on behind the scenes' of his 1994 inquiry, but added he is still confident in his report's explanation - that a secret military spy balloon was what crashed at Roswell.
Not every case to come to the hosts of Discovery's new 'Alien Encounters' reaches this level of fascinating physical evidence and documentation, however, as the show examines each submitted 'alien encounter' to the same high investigative standards.
Roswell base intel officer Major Jesse Marcel (left) has claimed he was forced to pose before reporters with weather-balloon debris he did not witness at the Roswell UFO crash site. Major Marcel was portrayed by actor Kyle MacLachlan in a 1994 Showtime original TV movie, Roswell
Above, Major Marcel posing with that more prosaic crashed weather balloon debris (above)
The show's premiere included two other cases: one proved to be explainable and the other appeared to remain a genuine mystery.
Posting up at The Variety, a long-standing local watering hole in Roswell, New Mexico, Newton interviewed multiple self-described UFO and alien 'experiencers' on camera to more thoroughly vet their stories.
Her cohost in this process, occult scholar and author Mitch Horowitz, called Kimbler an 'inspiration' for the local geologist's willingness to ask 'pure questions' and for taking a proactive approach to investigating these unexplained events.
'Along with Mitch, we both state our opinion, if we think it is a UFO or not,' Newton told DailyMail.com. 'But looking at the facts, [sometimes] there's not strong enough data to even make a conclusion.'
Watch trailer for Discovery's 'ALIEN ENCOUNTERS: FACT OR FICTION'
Newton said Horowitz's grounding in more social and cultural aspects of these phenomena complimented her own more scientific approach to their cases.
'And also a female perspective, which I think is nice too,' she said, 'when talking to different experiencers.'
Newton is a partner in the tech news start-up The Debrief and a member of a civilian research group devoted to investigating UFOs, now more accurately known as 'unidentified aerial phenomena' (UAP), the Scientific Coalition of UAP Studies (SCU).
In recent years, the SCU has published a series of data-driven studies linking many military and police-reported UFO accounts to sensitive US nuclear weapons sites.
'I'm always gonna follow the data, you know,' Newton said, 'being a member of the Scientific Coalition of UAP Studies.'
'It's really important for me to understand the data,' she said, 'like anybody else that really loves the science behind it.'
The new series' cohost Chrissy Newton (right) is a partner in tech news start-up The Debrief and a member of a civilian group devoted to investigating UFOs, now more accurately known as 'unidentified aerial phenomena' (UAP), called the Scientific Coalition of UAP Studies
'Alien Encounters: Fact or Fiction' premieres tonight, Wednesday, June 19, at 10PM Eastern and Pacific on the Discovery Channel. Shortly after, the series will be available to stream on Max
Newton said she joined up with the new docuseries' producers in an effort to help bring her years of experience interviewing scientists and academics on her podcast for The Debrief, Rebelliously Curious, to good use investigating more UFO cases.
'I think they came to me because I have interviewed people from all different degrees, obviously academics and scientists with my podcast, and I've been around so many different UAP experiencers' Newton told DailyMail.com.
In episodes to come, 'Alien Encounters' teases that the show will dig into a potential alien abduction experienced be two friends driving in California, an incredible UFO documented by a woman hiking Machu Picchu in Peru, and still more baffling cases.
But Newton emphasized that even those cases she and her colleagues prove to be ordinary are just as important as the cases that could be extraordinary.
'We want to identify UFOs,' Newton said. 'It makes it easier then for us to weed through the other data from UFOs that we can't explain.'
'To identify something and say, 'this is the ISS' [the International Space Station] or 'this is a Starlink satellite,'' she noted, 'that gives us better analytics and tools, better science and technology that other experts can look at.'
'Alien Encounters: Fact or Fiction' premieres tonight Wednesday, June 19 at 10PM ET/PT on the Discovery Channel. Soon after, the series will be streaming on Max.
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- Gemiddelde waardering: 0/5 - (0 Stemmen) Categorie:ALIEN LIFE, UFO- CRASHES, ABDUCTIONS, MEN IN BLACK, ed ( FR. , NL; E )
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.
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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 74 jaar jong.
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