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
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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!!!
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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...
12-07-2024
A Way to Solve the UFO Mystery
A Way to Solve the UFO Mystery
Here's how to identify Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena (previously UFOs).
Unidentified Flying Objects (UFOs) now called Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena (UAPs) are still a mystery.
Many people have learned helplessness, thinking they can't make a difference in solving that mystery.
In reality, everyone has the potential to help by filming what puzzles humanity in the sky.
Can any of us make a difference in finding an explanation for UFOs (Unidentified Flying Objects), which are now called Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena (UAP), or have we learned helplessness?
It seems that many people think in their heart of hearts that they cannot make a difference in helping identify UFOs or UAPs. Many even giggle when thinking about UFOs.
But what if we could help figure out what the mysterious UFOs are? For that, let’s examine what we know about UFOs:
UFOs or UAPs have been described as objects like orbs, spheres, ovals, tic-tac-shaped items, triangles, or simply lights that can go faster than the speed of sound without any sonic boom.
They can have sudden accelerations and decelerations with thousands of times the force of gravity, whereas the most agile jet fighters today can accelerate only at nine times the force of gravity.
They can go from one medium to another—underwater to midair to space and vice versa.
No detectable source of propulsion (no flaps, no rudder) has been detected to explain their movements.
They have mostly been observed at altitudes between 5,000 and 35,000 feet.
They have been reported around military bases and nuclear facilities. The Pentagon has had UFO or UAP reports from several states of the United States and also from the Middle East and Asia. Other reports have originated from England, Italy, Argentina, Peru, Uruguay, and many other countries
What can be some possible explanations for UFOs?
In our recently released book, The New Science of UFOs, Dr. Eric Haseltine and I examine most of the possible explanations for UFOs, including optical illusions, natural phenomena, advanced human technology either from the U.S. or from a foreign country, deliberate fakes, and extraterrestrials. We also note that probably not all UAPs have the same explanation.
NASA and other parts of our government say they need more data to reach conclusions.
Could each of us help?
We definitely can help if we get over our learned helplessness and stigma about UFOs.
All over the world, billions of cell phone users can take photographs and videos of what they see. By paying attention to what we see in the sky, each of us can help solve the UFO mystery.
Because as Yogi Berra said, “You can observe a lot by just watching.”
So, let’s be open to learning more about our universe, and let’s get over our learned helplessness. Let’s not make fun of people who say they have seen UFOs or UAPs. Instead, let’s be open to all possibilities. Let’s observe the sky, document what we see, and report our videos of UFOs to the National UFO Reporting Center, making sure that all the imagery has a date, time, and place stamped so that reporting can be cross-correlated with other reportings.
Awareness of ourselves, of others, of our surroundings, of what we see on Earth and in the sky during day and night is important for solving mysteries, whether those mysteries are about our body, about our Earth, or about the universe.
There's some interesting paintings inside the Vatican ... and it's worth taking a closer look at what's being depicted in the sky.
TMZ Studios has a new series, "Strange & Suspicious," now airing on a dozen FOX stations, where we explore unexplained and downright weird stories, and now we're combing over the artwork inside the headquarters of the Roman Catholic Church.
In several paintings that are centuries old, there are some mysterious shapes in the heavens above ... sparking comparisons to flying saucers.
The potential references to extraterrestrial craft are hidden in plain sight ... some are subtle, and some are seemingly obvious ... like the objects appearing to shoot beams down from the sky.
Of course, there were no flying objects of any kind way back when painters were creating these works ... making this phenomenon even more interesting.
Some inside the Vatican are open to the possibility of alien life ... making these mysterious paintings worth another look.
We try to answer all these UFO questions and more on "Strange & Suspicious" ... plus bizarre phenomena and true crime.
Tachyons are not just the stuff of science fiction.
Tachyons are hypothetical particles that move faster than the speed of light and travel backwards through time.
(Image credit: Yuichiro Chino via Getty Images)
Traveling faster than light and time-travel could be real for tachyons. If one thing science fiction excels at, it's allowing us to marvel at the breaking of the physical laws of the universe. We watch and read in wonder as the warp engines of the starship Enterprise push it to beyond the speed of light, or as Barry or Wally — whoever is carrying the name of the Flash at the time — does the same in no more than a pair of yellow boots.
Likewise, we enjoy tales of adventurers like the Doctor, or Doc Brown, using weird seemingly antiquated machinery to violate the laws of causality. What if there was a fundamental particle that could do all these things? Moving faster than light like the Flash, and traveling back through time without the need for a TARDIS or a Delorian or yellow boots.
That’s a tachyon. But make no mistake, these particles aren’t just the idling's of science fiction writers. Tachyons are the stuff of "hard" science.
Tachyons are one of the most interesting elements arising from Einstein’s theory of special relativity. The 1905 theory is based on two postulates, nothing with mass moves faster than the speed of light (c), and physical laws remain the same in all non-inertial reference frames. A significant consequence of special relativity is the fact that space and time are united into a single entity; spacetime. That mean’s a particle’s journey through speed is linked to its journey through time.
The term "tachyon" first entered scientific literature in 1967, in a paper entitled "Possibility of faster-than-light particles" by Columbia University physicist Gerald Feinberg. Feinberg posited that tachyonic particles would arise from a quantum field with “imaginary mass” explaining why the first populate of special relativity doesn’t restrain their velocity.
This would lead to two types of particles existing in the universe; bradyons that travel slower than light and compose all the matter we see around us, and tachyons traveling faster than light, according to the University of Pittsburgh. One of the key differences between these particle types is as energy is added to bradyons, they speed up. But, with tachyons, as energy is taken away, their speed increases.
Xuanyu Han//Getty Images
TACHYONS AND TIME TRAVEL
One of the most important and meaningful results from Einstein’s theory of special relativity is the establishing universal speed limit of c; the speed of light in a vacuum.
Einstein suggested that as an object approaches c its mass becomes near-infinite, as does the energy required to accelerate it. This should mean that nothing can travel faster than light. But, imagine an anti-mass particle like a tachyon, its lowest energy state would see it speeding at c. But, why would this lead to backward time travel?
That all hinges on the concept that puts the "relative" into "special relativity."
A common tool used to explain special relativity is the spacetime diagram.
Spacetime is filled with events ranging from the cosmically powerful and violent, like the supernova explosion of a distant star, or the mundane, such as the cracking of an egg on your kitchen floor. And these are mapped onto the spacetime diagram. This diagram shows as a particle whizzes through spacetime, it traces out a worldline that maps its progress.
Also filling spacetime are observers, each of whom has their own reference frame. These observers may see the events that fill spacetime occurring in different orders. Observer 1 may see event A, the supernova, occur before event B the egg crack. Observer 2 however may see event B happening before event A.
Events within an observer's light cone can be linked by a signal slower than light. (Image credit: By SVG version: K. Aainsqatsi at en.wikipediaOriginal PNG version: Stib at en.wikipedia - Transferred from en.wikipedia to Commons.(Original text: self-made), CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=2210907)
Each event has a light cone associated with it. If event B falls within the lightcone of event A then the two could be causally linked. The supernova could have knocked the egg off the kitchen counter — or maybe the falling breakfast item caused the complete gravitational collapse of a dying star, somehow. That’s because in the light cone a signal traveling slower than light can link the events. The edges of the light cone represent the speed of light. Linking an event outside the light cone with one inside it requires a signal that travels faster than light.
If event A is in the light cone and event B is outside it, then the supernova and egg-related tragedy can't be causally related. But, a tachyon traveling at a speed greater than the speed of light could violate causality by linking these events.
To see why this is a problem, consider it like this. Image event A is the sending of a signal, and event B is the receiving of that signal. If that signal is traveling at the speed of light, or slower all observers in different reference frames agree that A preceded B.
But, if that signal is carried by a tachyon and thus moves faster than light, there will be reference frames that say the signal was received before it was sent. Thus, to an observer in this frame, the tachyon traveled backward in time.
One of the fundamental postulates of special relativity is that the laws of physics should be the same in all non-accelerating reference frames. That means if tachyons can violate causality and move backward in time in one reference frame, it can do it in them all.
A diagram showing how events are viewed at different times in different reference frames. (Image credit: By User:Acdx - Self-made, based on Image:Relativity_of_Simultaneity.svg, source code: en:User:Acdx/Relativity_of_Simultaneity_Animation, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=5560059)
TACHYONS PARADOXES
To see how this leads to problems called paradoxes, consider two observers, Stella aboard a spacecraft orbiting Earth, and Terra based on the surface of the planet. The two are communicating by sending messages with tachyons.
This means that if Stella sends a signal to Terra which moves faster than light in Stella’s frame but backward in time in Terra’s frame. Terra then sends a reply as ordered which moves faster than light in her frame but backward in time in Stella’s frame, Stella could receive the reply before sending the original signal.
What if this response signal from Terra says "do not send any signals"? Then Stella does not send the original signal, and Terra then has nothing to respond to and never sends the tachyon signal that says "don’t send any signals."
So not only do tachyons violate causality in every frame they open the door to severe logical paradoxes.
There are suggestions as to how these paradoxes could be avoided. Of course, the most simple solution is that tachyons don’t exist.
A less draconian suggestion is that observers in different reference frames can’t tell the difference between the emission and absorption of tachyons.
That means a tachyon traveling back in time could always be interpreted as a tachyon moving forward in time because receiving a tachyon from the future always creates the same tachyon and sends it forwards in time.
Another suggestion is that tachyons aren’t like any other particle we know of, in that they don't interact and can never be detected or observed. Meaning that the tachyon communication system used by Stella and Terra in the above example can’t exist.
Along similar lines, other researchers say that tachyons can’t be controlled. The receipt and emission of tachyons just happen at random. Thus, there’s no way to send a tachyon with a causality violating message.
Aside from the fact that like other particles, they are likely incomprehensibly tiny, because tachyons always travel faster than light it isn’t possible to detect one on its approach. That’s because it’s moving faster than any associated photons.
After it passes, an observer would see the image of the tachyon split into two distinct images. These would show it simultaneously arriving in one direction and disappearing in the opposite direction.
If detecting tachyons, at least of their approach, with light is out of the picture, is there another way we could detect these faster than light particles?
Possibly. Tachyons are proposed to have an "anti-mass" but this still constitutes mass energy. That means these particles should still have some gravitational effect. It’s possible highly sensitive detectors could spot this effect.
An alternative detection method could arise from their faster-than-light nature.
While the speed of light in a vacuum c is a universal speed limit, particles have been made to travel faster than light in other mediums. When electrically charged particles are accelerated up to and beyond the speed of light in certain mediums like water, they release a form of radiation called Cherenkov radiation, according to the International Atomic Energy Agency.
That means that if tachyons are electrically charged, one way of detecting them would be measuring Cherenkov radiation in the near-vacuum of space.
THE POWER OF IMAGINATION IN SCIENCE
What tachyons really demonstrate is the importance of imagination in our ongoing quest to understand the universe. They may not exist, and if they do we may have no hope of ever measuring one.
But what our technology can’t capture, our minds can. We can consider the possibility of a particle that journeys back through time and what that says about the nature of time, and the Universe, and the events that fill them.
In an interview with George Sylvester Viereck published in "The Saturday Evening Post"in 1929, Albert Einstein is believed to have said: "Imagination is more important than knowledge. Knowledge is limited. Imagination encircles the world."
ADDITIONAL INFORMATION
Discover more about Tachyons with this informative YouTube video.
Explore the possible experimental evidence for the existence of tachyons with George Mason University.
Tachyons are hypothetical particles that always travel faster than light. Until recently, they were generally regarded as entities that did not fit into the special theory of relativity. According to a new paper in the journal Physical Review D, these faster-than-light particles are ‘not only not ruled out by the theory, but allow us to understand its causal structure better.’
An AI impression of tachyons.
“Motion at speeds beyond the speed of light is one of the most controversial issues in physics,” said Professor Andrzej Dragan from the University of Warsaw and National University of Singapore and his colleagues.
“Hypothetical particles that could move at superluminal speeds, called tachyons, are the enfant terrible of modern physics.”
“Until recently, they were widely regarded as creations that do not fit into the special theory of relativity.”
“At least three reasons for the non-existence of tachyons within quantum theory were known so far,” they added.
"The first is the ground state of the tachyon field was supposed to be unstable, which would mean that such superluminal particles would form avalanches.”
“The second is a change in the inertial observer was supposed to lead to a change in the number of particles observed in his reference system, yet the existence of, say, seven particles cannot depend on who is looking at them.”
“The third reason is the energy of the superluminal particles could take on negative values.”
“The difficulties with tachyons so far had a common cause,” the physicists said.
“It turned out that the boundary conditions that determine the course of physical processes include not only the initial state but also the final state of the system.”
“To put it simply: in order to calculate the probability of a quantum process involving tachyons, it is necessary to know not only its past initial state but also its future final state.”
“Once this fact was incorporated into the theory, all the difficulties mentioned earlier completely disappeared and tachyon theory became mathematically consistent.”
“It’s a bit like Internet advertising — one simple trick can solve your problems,” Professor Dragan said.
“The idea that the future can influence the present instead of the present determining the future is not new in physics.”
“However, until now, this type of view has at best been an unorthodox interpretation of certain quantum phenomena, and this time we were forced to this conclusion by the theory itself.”
“To make room for tachyons we had to expand the state space.”
“We also predict that the expansion of the boundary conditions has its consequences: a new kind of quantum entanglement appears in the theory, mixing past and future, which is not present in conventional particle theory.”
The team’s paper also raises the question of whether tachyons described in this way are purely a mathematical possibility or whether such particles are likely to be observed one day.
“Tachyons are not only a possibility but are, in fact, an indispensable component of the spontaneous breaking process responsible for the formation of matter,” the authors said.
“This hypothesis would mean that Higgs field excitations, before the symmetry was spontaneously broken, could travel at superluminal speeds in the vacuum.”
Jerzy Paczoset al. 2024. Covariant quantum field theory of tachyons.Phys. Rev. D110 (1): 015006; doi: 10.1103/PhysRevD.110.015006
This article is a version of a press-release provided by the University of Warsaw
Ancient Mars was Cool and Relatively Wet, New Study Suggests
Ancient Mars was Cool and Relatively Wet, New Study Suggests
In a new study, planetary scientists found strong similarities between soils found in Gale Crater on Mars and those of Canada’s Newfoundland, a cold subarctic climate.
X-ray amorphous material comprises 15-73 wt.% of sedimentary rocks and eolian sediments in Gale Crater. This material is variably siliceous and iron rich but aluminum poor. The presence of volatiles is consistent with the existence of incipient weathering products. To better understand the implications of this material for past aqueous conditions on Mars, Feldman et al. investigated X-ray amorphous material formation and longevity within terrestrial iron rich soils with varying ages and environmental conditions using bulk and selective dissolution methods, X-ray diffraction, and transmission electron microscopy.
Image credit: M. Kornmesser / ESO.
Scientists often use soil to depict environmental history, as the minerals present can tell the story of landscape evolution through time.
Understanding more about how these materials formed could help answer long-standing questions about historical conditions on the red planet.
The soils and rocks of Gale Crater provide a record of Mars’ climate between 3 and 4 billion years ago, during a time of relatively abundant water on the planet — and the same time period that saw life first appear on Earth.
“Gale Crater is a paleo lakebed — there was obviously water present. But what were the environmental conditions when the water was there?” said Dr. Anthony Feldman, a soil scientist and geomorphologist at Desert Research Institute.
“We’re never going to find a direct analog to the Martian surface, because conditions are so different between Mars and Earth. But we can look at trends under terrestrial conditions and use those to try to extrapolate to Martian questions.”
NASA’s Curiosity Rover has been investigating Gale Crater since 2011, and has found a plethora of soil materials known as X-ray amorphous materials.
These components of the soil lack the typical repeating atomic structure that defines minerals, and therefore can’t be easily characterized using traditional techniques like X-ray diffraction.
When X-rays are shot at crystalline materials like a diamond, for example, the X-rays scatter at characteristic angles based on the mineral’s internal structure.
However, X-ray amorphous material does not produce these characteristic fingerprints.
This X-ray diffraction method was used by the Curiosity Rover to demonstrate that X-ray amorphous material comprised between 15 and 73% of the soil and rock samples tested in Gale Crater.
“You can think of X-Ray amorphous materials like Jello. It’s this soup of different elements and chemicals that just slide past each other,” Dr. Feldman said.
Curiosity also conducted chemical analyses on the soil and rock samples, finding that the amorphous material was rich in iron and silica but deficient in aluminum.
Beyond the limited chemical information, scientists don’t yet understand what the amorphous material is, or what its presence implies about Mars’ historical environment.
Uncovering more information about how these enigmatic materials form and persist on Earth could help answer persistent questions about the red planet.
Dr. Feldman and his colleagues visited three locations in search of similar X-ray amorphous material: the Tablelands of Gros Morne National Park in Newfoundland, Northern California’s Klamath Mountains, and western Nevada.
These three sites had serpentine soils that the researchers expected to be chemically similar to the X-ray amorphous material at Gale Crater: rich in iron and silicon but lacking in aluminum.
The three locations also provided a range of rainfall, snowfall, and temperature that could help provide insight into the type of environmental conditions that produce amorphous material and encourage its preservation.
At each site, the research team examined the soils using X-ray diffraction analysis and transmission electron microscopy, which allowed them to see the soil materials at a more detailed level.
The subarctic conditions of Newfoundland produced materials chemically similar to those found in Gale Crater that also lacked in crystalline structure. The soils produced in warmer climates like California and Nevada did not.
“This shows that you need the water there in order to form these materials,” Dr. Feldman said.
“But it needs to be cold, near-freezing mean annual temperature conditions in order to preserve the amorphous material in the soils.”
Amorphous material is often considered to be relatively unstable, meaning that at an atomic level, the atoms haven’t yet organized into their final, more crystalline forms.
“There’s something going on in the kinetics — or the rate of reaction — that is slowing it down so that these materials can be preserved over geologic time scales,” Dr. Feldman said.
“What we’re suggesting is that very cold, close to freezing conditions, is one particular kinetic limiting factor that allows for these materials to form and be preserved.”
“This study improves our understanding of the climate of Mars.”
“The results suggest that the abundance of this material in Gale Crater is consistent with subarctic conditions, similar to what we would see in, for instance, Iceland.”
The team’s work appears in the journal Communications Earth and Environment.
A.D. Feldman et al. 2024, Fe-rich X-ray amorphous material records past climate and persistence of water on Mars. Commun Earth Environ 5, 364; doi: 10.1038/s43247-024-01495-4
This article is based on a press-release from Desert Research Institute.
Ariane 6 Rocket’s Debut Puts Europe Back in the Launch Game
Europe’s next-generation Ariane 6 rocket rose today for the first time from its South American spaceport, ending a yearlong launch gap caused by the Ariane 5’s retirement.
The heavy-lift launch vehicle’s demonstration flight began with liftoff at 4 p.m. local time (19:00 GMT) from the Kourou spaceport in French Guiana, and continued with satellite deployments in orbit.
“A completely new rocket is not launched often, and success is far from guaranteed,” Josef Aschbacher, the European Space Agency’s director general, said in a statement. “I am privileged to have witnessed this historic moment when Europe’s new generation of the Ariane family lifted off – successfully – effectively reinstating European access to space.”
ESA and its partners have been working on the two-stage Ariane 6 since the early 2010s as an upgrade to the Ariane 5 series, which lofted more than 100 spacecraft (including NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope) into orbit beginning in 1998. Ariane 6 development cost is estimated at nearly $4 billion.
The first Ariane 6 was originally planned for 2020, but technical issues and the COVID-19 pandemic forced delays. After last year’s final Ariane 5 mission, Europe’s launch industry could offer only the Vega small-lift launch vehicle, leaving a gap in the medium- to heavy-lift market.
The market for the Ariane 6 is dramatically different from what it was when the Ariane 5 entered service more than a quarter-century ago. Thanks to SpaceX and other commercial ventures, rocket reusability is becoming the standard in the industry — raising questions about how competitive non-reusable rockets like the Ariane 6 can be.
ArianeGroup, a joint venture between Airbus and Safran, is counting on Ariane 6’s success. But in January, The Financial Times quoted Aschbacher as saying “there is no guarantee” that ArianeGroup would continue to be Europe’s launch company of choice.
The Ariane 6 line features a modular design that can be adapted for missions to low Earth orbit or to deep space. For today’s mission, known as VA262, the rocket’s core stage was augmented by two side-mounted solid rocket boosters. Another configuration calls for four strap-on boosters for heavy-lift missions. The four-booster configuration can deliver up to 21.6 metric tons to low Earth orbit.
An overview of Europe’s new rocket Ariane 6. Credit: ESA
Today’s launch sent the Ariane 6’s upper stage to an altitude of about 600 kilometers (373 miles). Nine satellites were deployed, and five onboard experiments were activated.
Another objective involved demonstrating the upper stage’s ability to relight its Vinci engine for orbital adjustments and deorbiting. Two experimental re-entry capsules were supposed to be released as the mission wound down. But in an update posted to the X social-media platform, ESA said the technology demonstration phase showed “an unexpected result which will only affect the end of the mission.”
During a follow-up briefing, mission managers said the upper stage’s auxiliary power unit suffered an anomaly that caused a premature engine shutdown. As a result, the re-entry capsules were not released, and the upper stage remained in orbit.
The next Ariane 6 mission is scheduled to put France’s CSO-3 spy satellite into orbit later this year. About 30 Ariane 6 launches are said to be booked already, including 18 launches for Amazon’s Project Kuiper satellites. Arianespace CEO Stéphane Israël said today’s end-of-mission anomaly would have “no consequence on the next launches.”
“We are perfectly on track now to make a second launch this year,” Israël said.
A Hopping Robot Could Explore Europa Using Locally Harvested Water
Various forms of hopping robots have crept into development for us[e in different space exploration missions. We’ve reported on their use on asteroids and even our own Moon. But a study funded by NASA’s Institute for Advanced Concepts (NIAC) in 2018 planned a mission to a type of world where hopping may not be as noticeable an advantage—Europa.
The mission, developed by engineers at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Purdue University, and Honeybee Robotics, is known as the Steam Propelled Autonomous Retrieval Robot for Ocean Worlds, or SPARROW. It’s about the size and shape of a soccer ball, with the logic, power, and control systems inside a spherical outer hollow shell.
SPARROW wouldn’t be able to operate on its own, however. It would require a lander to deposit it onto the surface and serve as a refueling and sample collection storage base. Europa Clipper, the only currently planned NASA mission to the icy moon, would have been good for hitching a ride, but its lack of a lander made it unsuitable for SPARROW.
Budget constraints are always a problem for innovative missions – as Fraser explains with Dr. Manasvi Lingam.
However, the hopping robot itself is well suited for the environment in Europa. Its designers intended to make it “terrain agnostic,” meaning it could traverse even the harshest terrain the icy moon could throw at it. These would include penitentes, shards of ice that could be meters tall, and difficult for ground-based robots to traverse.
SPARROW could fly over them, collect interesting samples, and return to the lander to refuel and deposit them. Then, it could go out again in a different direction. To model this system architecture, the JPL team spent Phase I trying to determine the best propulsion system for the robot and modeling control algorithms for the flights.
First, let’s tackle the propulsion system. The lander accompanying SPARROW would have to mine ice off the moon’s surface, then heat it and store it as water. When SPARROW returned from a hop, it would use the water to refuel. Five different propulsion methods were considered as part of the study. Still, the best turned out to be a “hot water thruster,” where SPARROW would internally heat the water supplied by the lander, then eject that out in a burst of propulsive force to launch the robot off the surface.
Exploring the surface of Europa is only one part of its mystery – as Fraser explains.
The second major part of the paper was controlling that propulsion. Trajectory correction is critical to mission success, but in this case, the designers believe that no matter where the robot ends up, it will be able to collect a sample and return to the lander. This is due to its gimballed design, which allows the robot to consistently orient correctly, even after bouncing along a frozen surface for a while.
There is still much work to do before the mission is ready to go, though. Some of the most pressing questions are how to stop ice from forming in the robot’s propulsion nozzle and throughout its structural cage. Such blockages could easily throw off any existing trajectory calculations and theoretically immobilize the hopper entirely if they were severe enough.
However, no work is planned to solve those problems for now as the project has yet to receive Phase II funding from NIAC, and work on it appears to have stalled. Dr. Gareth Meirion-Griffith, the primary investigator on the project, has moved on from JPL to take a job at Collins Aerospace. Even so, someday, the author’s ideas might be integrated into a Europa lander mission—we’ll have to wait and see.
Ok, this is from 2021 in Las Vegas. I took a few screenshots of this strange dark UFO moving across the sky that Franc Pierre recorded and wow, it sent chills down my spine. This was not what I thought I would find. It's a rare jellyfish UFO and it looks bio-mechanical in form. Meaning it's part biological and part machine. It even changes shape as it moves...and at one point it looked like a dragon with its head looking outward...in the last screenshot in my video. Scary looking stuff, but 100% real. As I said, AI doesn't prove a UFO is real or not, it only cleans up the photos, so we as researchers can analyze them. But thats why I'm here...to tell you if this is or isn't a real jellyfish UFO from my decades of experience. Yes...it is real.
AI Focused Photo of Tom Delonge Of Blink UAP Photo, UFO Sighting News. Video.
AI Focused Photo of Tom Delonge Of Blink UAP Photo, UFO Sighting News. Video.
Please hit subscribe friends. I wanted to look at the Tom Delonge photo due to him saying that he has inside information, video and photos of actual alien craft so much so that he wants to make a movie about it. I admit this photo looks legit to me, but ai doesn't tell us if it's real or not, it only focuses and sharpens the image. It's up to us to decide for ourselves if it's real or not.
Are UFOs Killing Cows? Unraveling the Cattle Mutilation Mystery
Are UFOs Killing Cows? Unraveling the Cattle Mutilation Mystery
Aliens traveling across the universe to perform fatal experiments on American cows might sound like the plot of a science fiction movie, but for many, it is a disturbing reality. For the past five decades, new stories about so-called cattle mutilations have emerged annually, each echoing a familiar narrative: cows found dead with precise surgical cuts, missing body parts, and sometimes, no blood left in their bodies.
The Unsettling Phenomenon
The phenomenon of cattle mutilations, often abbreviated to “mutes,” involves more than just cattle. Various animals have been found violently killed, exhibiting strange and precise cuts as if made by a laser or surgical instrument. Typically, there are no tracks around the carcasses, and the bodies are often exsanguinated, with certain parts, such as eyes, sexual organs, and the anus, defleshed or removed. This eerie scenario is frequently accompanied by reports of UFO sightings, contributing to the prevailing theory that extraterrestrial beings are responsible.
Historical Cases
The American fascination with cattle mutilations began in earnest in 1967 in Alamosa, Colorado. A rancher found his missing horse, Lady (incorrectly reported by the media as “Snippy”), dead with parts of its body stripped of flesh. The rancher’s mother claimed to have seen a UFO on the day the horse went missing, sparking wild rumors that quickly spread through the national media. Despite a scientific examination by the Condon Committee, which concluded that Lady likely died from a severe infection and scavenger activity, the sensational story of alien involvement persisted.
Media and Public Hysteria
The 1970s saw a wave of cattle mutilation reports across the United States, particularly in Colorado. Local journalists, such as Dorothy Aldridge, fueled public hysteria with headlines suggesting satanic cults were responsible for the gruesome deaths. This narrative quickly spread, inciting fear and panic among local communities. Law enforcement, local governments, and even the governor got involved, offering rewards and promising thorough investigations, which only served to validate the public’s fears.
Enter the UFO Theorists
Amidst the growing hysteria, UFO enthusiasts began to adopt cattle mutilations as potential evidence of extraterrestrial activity. Figures like Tom Adams, who meticulously collected and shared information on mutilation cases, played a crucial role in linking the phenomenon to UFOs. His newsletters and packages sent to law enforcement helped establish a perceived national pattern of alien involvement.
Cementing the Alien Theory
The theory gained significant traction with the release of Linda Moulton Howe’s TV documentary, “A Strange Harvest,” and her follow-up book, “Alien Harvest.” Howe’s work posited that aliens were harvesting genetic material from these animals, a narrative that resonated deeply within the UFO community. Her investigations and assertions that a government-extraterrestrial treaty might allow for such activities added a layer of conspiracy, further entrenching the alien theory in popular culture.
Investigations and Skepticism
Despite the widespread belief in extraterrestrial involvement, thorough investigations have repeatedly debunked these claims. Journalist Dan Kagan and science fiction writer Ian Summers spent two years investigating cattle mutilations for their book “Mute Evidence.” They found that many sensational stories were either exaggerations or outright fabrications. In many cases, local experts, often unqualified to perform postmortem analyses, made unfounded conclusions about the causes of death.
VIDEO:
New York Post – Are UFOs killing cows? We investigate the “cattle mutilation” phenomenon | The Basement Office
The Colorado Bureau of Investigation (CBI) and an independent investigation led by retired FBI agent Kenneth Rommel in New Mexico both found no evidence supporting paranormal or extraterrestrial causes. Instead, they attributed the mutilations to natural predation, scavenger activity, and decomposition. In some instances, human perpetrators inspired by media coverage were identified.
Ongoing Myth and Media Sensation
Despite the lack of scientific evidence, the cattle mutilation myth persists, largely due to media portrayal. Articles often focus on sensational aspects, such as UFOs and satanic cults, while neglecting to mention the absence of proper forensic analysis. This ongoing cycle of media-driven hysteria ensures that the image of a flying saucer abducting a cow remains a potent and enduring part of American folklore.
In conclusion, while the idea of UFOs killing cows makes for compelling stories, thorough investigations have consistently debunked these claims. The cattle mutilation phenomenon serves as a fascinating case study of how media sensationalism, public hysteria, and the desire to believe in the extraordinary can create and sustain myths, even in the face of contradicting scientific evidence.
Mutilations differ from typical livestock deaths because the carcasses are found with body parts removed in an unusual fashion.
Getty Images/iStockphoto
Cattle mutilations have been going on for decades.
The National UFO Reporting Center (NUFORC) received the report of the alleged abduction on 28 May this year. They shared details of the supposed eyewitness account, stating: "Two "women" were walking in front of 9 Stone Schoolhouse Rd. Two white cubes appeared and took one person up and the other up. They both floated up into the sky and disappeared. This was sighted from approximately 50 yards by a 10.5-year-old girl while walking her dog."
The girl also insisted there was another witness at the scene who saw the incident unfold.
The report continued: "This was sighted from approximately 50 yards by a 10.5-year-old girl while walking her dog. The dog was also looking at the event when it happened. The girl noticed the dog watching, and she looked over."
NUFORC was established in 1974 by UFO investigator Robert J. Gribble and has investigated over 170,000 reports over the past 50 years with its process of receiving, recording and most importantly trying to validate the reports it's given.
The National UFO Reporting Center is under the leadership of Peter Davenport, who, as stated on their website, "has been director of the National UFO Reporting Center since 1994. He has also served as the director of investigations for the Washington Chapter of the Mutual UFO Network. He often presents lectures on specific UFO cases, most notably the Phoenix Lights sighting."
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11-07-2024
'UFO' filmed flying over Mexican city that residents claim is 'protected by aliens'
'UFO' filmed flying over Mexican city that residents claim is 'protected by aliens'
Residents of Tampico, Mexico, reckon the city is protected from hurricanes by an underwater alien base, and a new video from the area now appears to show a UFO flying above
By Ethan Blackshaw / Social News Content Editor -Maria Ortega
The city is a hotbed of UFO activity...
(stock) (Image: Getty Images/iStockphoto)
A video has been shared on TikTokthat supposedly shows a UFO flying in the sky above a city in Mexico.
Residents of Tampico, in the Mexican state of Tamaulipas, have long claimed the city is a hotspot for extra-terrestrial activity.
This latest incident was captured by a young man in broad daylight. The 22-second clip shows a grey object slowly moving between clouds, and it has been viewed more than 10,000 times on the video-sharing app.
Reacting in the comments section, one TikTok user said: "You can see them very often. I’m surprised that people still believe we are the only ones in an infinite universe." Another wrote: "We are not alone." However not everyone was convinced by the clip, with another comment reading: "I don't see anything."
The video adds fuel to a bizarre theory perpetuated by Tampico residents - that the city is protected by aliens.
Locals reckon there is an underwater alien base some 13km from Miramar Beach. They claim this is why the city hasn't been hit by a tropical storm or hurricane since 1966.
Tampico, Tamaulipas (file)(Image: Getty Images)
Following Storm Inez that year, people started to spot "light discs" that vanished into the sea off Miramar Beach. And since then there have been no hurricanes. The theory has gained so much traction that alien festivals are now held in the area.
However, there is a boring scientific explanation as to why Tampico seems to be protected from hurricanes. The water near the coast of southern Tamaulipas is slightly cooler than it is further south or further north. Scientists say cooler waters can "pull" air masses in, diverting hurricanes north to the US or to southern Mexico.
There are also several other cities along the same coast that have not been hit directly by hurricanes in a long time.
'UFO' filmed flying over Mexican city that residents claim is 'protected by aliens'
'UFO' filmed flying over Mexican city that residents claim is 'protected by aliens'
Residents of Tampico, Mexico, reckon the city is protected from hurricanes by an underwater alien base, and a new video from the area now appears to show a UFO flying above
By Ethan Blackshaw / Social News Content Editor -Maria Ortega
The city is a hotbed of UFO activity...
(stock) (Image: Getty Images/iStockphoto)
A video has been shared on TikTokthat supposedly shows a UFO flying in the sky above a city in Mexico.
Residents of Tampico, in the Mexican state of Tamaulipas, have long claimed the city is a hotspot for extra-terrestrial activity.
This latest incident was captured by a young man in broad daylight. The 22-second clip shows a grey object slowly moving between clouds, and it has been viewed more than 10,000 times on the video-sharing app.
Reacting in the comments section, one TikTok user said: "You can see them very often. I’m surprised that people still believe we are the only ones in an infinite universe." Another wrote: "We are not alone." However not everyone was convinced by the clip, with another comment reading: "I don't see anything."
The video adds fuel to a bizarre theory perpetuated by Tampico residents - that the city is protected by aliens.
Locals reckon there is an underwater alien base some 13km from Miramar Beach. They claim this is why the city hasn't been hit by a tropical storm or hurricane since 1966.
Tampico, Tamaulipas (file)(Image: Getty Images)
Following Storm Inez that year, people started to spot "light discs" that vanished into the sea off Miramar Beach. And since then there have been no hurricanes. The theory has gained so much traction that alien festivals are now held in the area.
However, there is a boring scientific explanation as to why Tampico seems to be protected from hurricanes. The water near the coast of southern Tamaulipas is slightly cooler than it is further south or further north. Scientists say cooler waters can "pull" air masses in, diverting hurricanes north to the US or to southern Mexico.
There are also several other cities along the same coast that have not been hit directly by hurricanes in a long time.
A new witness who claims to have seen United States military images of alien bodies at the alleged Roswell UFO crash site in New Mexico says he is willing to take a lie detector test to prove he is telling the truth.
For those unfamiliar, in June of 1947 the United States Army announced that it had recovered a flying disc near Alamogordo Army Air Field. One day later, the Army retracted its claim and stated that it was nothing more than a conventional weather balloon.
ROSWELL DAILY RECORD - PUBLIC DOMAIN
Since then, numerous people have come forward with eyewitness and second-hand reports that the weather balloon story was a cover-up for what the government really found in Roswell on that day: aliens.
It was in 1986 that this individual claims to have seen official government photos of a UFO and an alien body from the Roswell New Mexico crash site.
“I was randomly shown two photos unexpectedly one day of the actual Roswell crash site,” the witness states. “The photo was face down with a hand cut strip of paper cut out with scissors and a piece of brownish aged scotch tape on the ends of the strip, the strip had typed on it 1947, Roswell New Mexico – Two Air force officers inspecting alien body in front of wreckage (as best as I remember).
“The other photo had no strip of paper on the back. I have been afraid to share this because of the sensitive nature and fear of reprisal from the government, but I am 70 now and I do not feel right just going to my grave whenever that might be with it. The guy wanted to share them but again, fear of reprisal.
“So, I have deep experience in photography and in certifying documents, zero doubt these were real. Basically it looked like a Graflex 4×5 inch negative camera with a flash photo taken at night. The photographer was standing and the photo was angled down to where the alien body was on the ground, mostly laying on it’s front with the head turned slightly, about three to four feet from the camera, then the body, then the two officers squatting/kneeling beside it.
“One was holding something that kind of looked like an ink pen and had held it against the arm or back of the suit on the alien and was lifting it. It looked like melted striations running down from the pen or whatever was he was holding.
“There was some space between the two officers and a little space on each side of them and you could clearly see the crashed UFO and the skin of the ship ripped and smashed open, not scattered pieces but like a wrecked car that was still together. I could see what some of the construction looked like, some bent metal tubes mostly and small like straight pieces bent up from the crash. The ship was actually smashed up against a rock and you could clearly see that.”
The witness added that he is willing to take a lie detector test or undergo hypnosis to prove that what he reported seeing in the images from Roswell is true.
“The official position I looked the other day is still is the radar balloons for detecting soviet nuclear tests and there was no UFO or alien bodies there,” he continued.
“The complete opposite is true. There is no way, shape or form that there was not an alien body and a crashed disc saucer smashed there out at the site.”
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Archaeologists Discover 4,000-Year-Old Temple and Theater in Peru
Archaeologists Discover 4,000-Year-Old Temple and Theater in Peru
Field Museum scientist Luis Muro Ynoñán with the carving of a mythological bird creature in La Otra Banda, Cerro Las Animas.
Ucupe Cultural Landscape Archaeological Project
The newly-discovered structures predate the famous Inca citadel of Machu Picchu by roughly 3,500 years, and were made long before the Inca and their predecessors, according to a team of archaeologists with the Ucupe Cultural Landscape Archaeological Project.
The newly-discovered archaeological site, including carving of a mythological bird creature, at La Otra Banda, Cerro Las Animas, Peru.
Image credit: Ucupe Cultural Landscape Archaeological Project.
“It was amazing. This discovery tells us about the early origins of religion in Peru,” said Dr. Muro Ynoñán, an archaeologist at the Field Museum.
“We still know very little about how and under which circumstances complex belief systems emerged in the Andes, and now we have evidence about some of the earliest religious spaces that people were creating in this part of the world.”
“We don’t know what these people called themselves, or how other people referred to them.”
Dr. Ynoñán and his team discovered the new archaeological site at La Otra Banda in Peru in 2023.
They selected a plot roughly 10 by 10 m (33 by 33 feet) and began slowly removing the sediment that had piled up over the millenia.
Just 1.8 m (6 feet) deep, they found signs of ancient walls made of mud and clay.
“It was so surprising that these very ancient structures were so close to the modern surface,” Dr. Ynoñan said.
As they dug deeper, the archaeologists found evidence that the site once housed a temple.
“We think that a large temple was built into the side of the mountain, and we’ve found one section of it,” Dr. Ynoñan said.
“One of the most exciting things we found was a small theater, with a backstage area and a staircase that led to a stage-like platform.”
“This could have been used for ritual performances in front of a selected audience.”
A team of archaeologists work on what appear to be parts of a 4,000-year-old ceremonial temple buried in a sand dune of northern Peru, in Lambayeque, Peru, Jun 27, 2024.
(Photo: Pontifical Catholic University via Reuters)
Flanking one of the theater’s staircases, the archaeologists found mud panels decorated with elaborate carved designs showing a bird-like creature.
“It’s a very beautiful and, at the same time, intriguing design, of a mythological creature — it’s like an anthropomorphic bird, but with some reptilian features,” Dr. Ynoñán said.
“This figure stood out to us because it gives important clues as to when the temple was built and how this construction relates to other ancient temples built by early groups from the Andes.”
“Other images of mythological creatures similar to the one found by our team have been found in Peru, dating to what archaeologists call the Initial Period, roughly 4,000 years ago.”
“Despite the name, the people of the Initial Period were not the first to live in the region: people have inhabited Peru for 15,000 years.”
Close-up of the carving of a mythological bird creature in La Otra Banda, Cerro
“Around 5000-3000 BCE, called the Preceramic Period, people in coastal Peru began creating societies and complex political systems.”
“The Initial Period came next, starting around 2,000 BCE and lasting until 900 BCE.”
“The Initial Period is important because it’s when we first start to see evidence of an institutionalized religion in Peru.”
“The bird creature at this temple resembles a figure known from the Chavín region, nearly 500 years later. This new site could help reveal the origins of this religion
Ok so I used a photo from 2016 and it came out 100% focused and it's true...it's a real UFO. The disk is thicker in the center area where there are two windows visible. Also the craft has some unusual blue tenticles on the upper left. Very odd looking UFO but still a classic design. This is 100% proof that aliens do have a base below Colima Volcano which is active and too dangerous for humans to climb.
Scott C. Waring
Inexplicata states:
Mexico:A "Flying Saucer" over Colima's Volcán de Fuego Mexico's Criterio Hidalgo (from Pachuca, state of Hidalgo)has reprinted a photograph of an alleged UFO captured by Webcams de Mexico (which has acquired a worldwide reputation for its captures of unusual phenomena over the Popocatepetl Volcano). The text reads as follows: "A new UFO photo has gone viral on social media, shown near the Volcan de Fuego in the state of Colima. Through its Facebook account, Webcams de Mexico displayed the photograph last Friday, showing an object crossing the sky near the fiery colossus. The photo asks the question "what could it be?" in order that users may leave their comments about what appears to be a flying saucers."
AI Focused Photo! Alien Structure On Asteroid 2011 MD, UFO Sighting News. The UAP Is Scanning Us!
AI Focused Photo! Alien Structure On Asteroid 2011 MD, UFO Sighting News. The UAP Is Scanning Us!
I ran these photos of asteroid 2011 MD through and it revealed a cube monolith on it. The object is glowing, so obviously it's some kind of energy powered device that directs the asteroid into the correct direction and also scans planets with intelligent life. We are not suppose to know aliens do this, but now...we have 100% proof that they do. Aliens exist, they are watching us, they are recording us like we are some science experiment. It's time the public knew the truth. Scott C. Waring
Please hit subscribe. My 2011 post about this asteroid at
De ontdekking van Mars gaat door, ook vanaf de aarde: na een jaar heeft de eerste bemanning die betrokken was bij een simulatie op de rode planeet zijn ongelooflijke ervaring beëindigd.
De eerste simulatie op Mars vanaf de aarde is voltooid
Een van NASA's meest ambitieuze en toekomstige doelen is om Mars te bereiken met de eerste menselijke bemanning. Om zich voor te bereiden op deze langverwachte missie, nam een team vrijwilligers deel aan een 378 dagen durende simulatie die zich afspeelde op de rode planeet, terwijl ze de hele tijd op aarde bleven.
Ruim twaalf maanden van volledige isolatie, die eindigde op zaterdag 6 juli 2024, toen de vier vrijwilligers Kelly Haston, Anca Selariu, Ross Brockwell en Nathan Jones de 3D-geprinte habitat verlieten die ze op 25 juni 2023 waren binnengegaan. Dit is de eerste kunstmatige simulatie van NASA die de omgeving van Mars nabootst, gebouwd in het Johnson Space Center in Houston. De eerste bemanning van het project Crew Health and Performance Exploration Analog keerde vervolgens terug naar huis, na meer dan een jaar weg te zijn geweest van hun families.
HAPEA 1-missie afgerond: "Mars is ons doel"
NASA/X
De leiding van de missie als commandant was Haston die, toen ze met haar bemanning de simulatie verliet, begon: "Hallo. Het is echt geweldig om jullie allemaal gedag te kunnen zeggen." De emotie van de vier NASA-vrijwilligers was duidelijk, evenals het kunnen terugkeren naar huis. Jones, de arts die de missie volgde, voegde eraan toe dat de 378 dagen snel voorbijgingen, in tegenstelling tot wat je zou denken.
De groep deelde een ruimte van slechts 157 vierkante meter om uit te vinden hoe mensen op onze rode buurman zouden leven en om mogelijke strategieën te evalueren om oplossingen te ontwikkelen om ons te huisvesten. Dit omvatte onder andere wandelingen op Mars, Marswalks genaamd, het kweken van groenten, de uitdaging van beperkte beschikbare middelen en communicatievertragingen met de aarde, die de grens van 22 minuten bereikten. NASA plant nog twee CHAPEA-missies in 2025 en 2027 om andere aspecten van de toekomstige menselijke duurzaamheid op Mars te onderzoeken, afgezien van voedselvoorziening en de fysieke en mentale impact op de bemanning.
De groep deelde een ruimte van slechts 157 vierkante meter om uit te vinden hoe mensen op onze rode buurman zouden leven en om mogelijke strategieën te evalueren om oplossingen te ontwikkelen om ons te huisvesten. Dit omvatte onder andere wandelingen op Mars, Marswalks genaamd, het kweken van groenten, de uitdaging van beperkte beschikbare middelen en communicatievertragingen met de aarde, die de grens van 22 minuten bereikten. NASA plant nog twee CHAPEA-missies in 2025 en 2027 om andere aspecten van de toekomstige menselijke duurzaamheid op Mars te onderzoeken, afgezien van voedselvoorziening en de fysieke en mentale impact op de bemanning.
Steve Koerner, adjunct-directeur van het Johnson Space Center, verklaarde: "De vrijwilligers werden gescheiden van hun families, kregen een zorgvuldig voorgeschreven dieet en werden onderworpen aan veel observatie. Mars is ons doel." De belangrijkste les die men van deze ervaring heeft geleerd, meldt boordwerktuigkundige Brockwell, is het belang van een duurzaam leven op aarde voor het welzijn van de planeet en al haar bewoners.
Op Mars is een scheur groter dan de Grand Canyon
ESA/DLR/FU Berlin
Ondertussen is er op Mars een scheur ter grootte van de Grand Canyon waargenomen dankzij satellietfoto's gemaakt door de Mars Express orbiter van de ESA, de Europese ruimtevaartorganisatie. Het is een immense afgrond, dat volgens wetenschappers is gevormd door een enorme hoeveelheid magma onder de miljoenen jaren oude vulkaan Arsia Mons op het Tharsis Plateau.
De gigantische kloof, met een donker aspect met merkwaardige zebrastrepen, heet Aganippe Fossa en meet ongeveer 600 km. Het meest interessante kenmerk, dat voor het eerst werd ontdekt in 1930, is de graben, "een gleuf-achtige greppel, met steile wanden aan beide zijden", aldus de ESA. Het overtreft de afmetingen van de Grand Canyon, 446 km lang, maar is kleiner dan de Valles Marineris van de evenaar van Mars, die 4000 km reikt, waardoor het wordt geclassificeerd als de langste kloof van het zonnestelsel.
How Did Our Fascination With Alien Abductions and Flying Saucers Transpire?
How Did Our Fascination With Alien Abductions and Flying Saucers Transpire?
About 75 percent of Americans believe in extraterrestrials. Find out why flying saucers and alien abduction stories are scattered throughout history, and where they came from.
In September 1961, Barney and Betty Hill were driving late at night in the mountains of New Hampshire when they saw a flying object whizzing in the sky. Barney thought it was a plane until he saw it swiftly switch directions.
According to The Interrupted Journey, the couple nervously continued driving until a spacecraft confronted them. They remembered seeing “humanoid-like” creatures and hearing pinging sounds reverberate off their car trunk. And then, they found themselves 35 miles further along on the highway with almost no memory of what had just transpired. They believed they had been abducted.
The Hills reported their experience to the nearby Air Force base and it later became the subject of a book and then a movie. Their experience was widely considered the start of a collective fascination with extraterrestrials.
It’s a captivation that persists, and 75 percent of Americans believe there are intelligent lifeforms elsewhere in the universe. But attitudes have changed, and most Americans no longer think aliens are hostile or a national security threat. Social scientists say our attitudes towards Unidentified Flying Objects (UFO) have evolved with our acceptance of technology.
Flying Saucers Fixation
(Credit: ktsdesign/Shutterstock)
Scholars mark 1947 as the start of the UFO fascination. A pilot flying in the Cascade Mountains in Washington state reported seeing disc-shaped objects. In the next decade, aliens were primarily seen as benevolent, intelligent beings who came to Earth to offer advice or warnings.
In 1961, the Hills reported their abduction and stories about aliens became more sinister. Social scientists, like famed psychologist Carl Jung, analyzed the UFO obsession and found it fit neatly with humans’ long fascination with heavenly ascents. Whereas past societies looked for angels, saints or Gods to descend from the heavens, modern Americans were looking for “technological angels.”
Starting in the 1960s, aliens were both benign angels and menacing demons, which prompted some religious scholars to see UFO fixation as a modern religious movement.
Other scholars saw the popular fascination as a response to society dealing with rapidly changing technology. At the start of the 1950s, for example, most households didn’t have a television. That changed within the decade, and Americans were also aware that technological advancements would soon bring computers into our workplaces, households and even our bodies through devices like cardiac pacemakers.
Most Americans now rely on technology for work and entertainment. People who call out to Alexa to add an item to the grocery list aren’t as technologically anxious as people were in the past. And for decades, that anxiety fueled books, TV and film about extraterrestrials.
The 1982 film, E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial dominated box office sales and was one of the few storylines to depict a kind alien. Most popular narratives featured frightening aliens. The long-running TV series X Files, involved a government coverup about alien life forms. Similarly, the 1997 film Men in Black, based on the comic book series, involved government agents protecting both alien allies and Earthlings from a variety of cosmic criminals.
Stories about abduction were also common, which scholars have analyzed and identified consistent patterns and rhetorical devices.
One scholar suggested that aliens were a stand-in for technological fears. Abductees described how the aliens controlled their bodies and minds. The aliens used high-tech, futuristic gadgets to conduct tests, many of which were described as stressful and painful. In the end, the person had lost time they could not account for.
Another study looked at 130 accounts of alien abductions. The author found that the standard abduction story about aliens waking you from bed, transporting you into a spaceship and then subjecting you to medical tests was a modern myth in which the storyteller placed themselves as the hero. One abductee, for example, made himself a hero saying his “superior genetics” was the reason that aliens had abducted him multiple times.
Abductee stories about humanoids communicating telepathically are outlandish, but compelling. And social scientists think they persuade people to listen.
Investigating Alien Abduction Cases
(Credit: Shutterstock/MyImages - Micha)
In 2007, a psychologist interviewed and analyzed people who felt aliens once abducted them. The psychologist concluded these people were sane but created false memories that fictional accounts partly fueled.
So why would anyone else believe their stories of aliens sucking them into a spaceship and then probing them in all the wrong places? The author found that the stories were compelling because the emotions expressed were both real and relatable. The stories followed a consistent pattern, which made them feel more valid. And, there were also many people willing to tell these tales.
The large number of people who have described UFO encounters or abductions has prompted scholars to consider the belief a type of myth-making.
And myths, one scholar notes, endure because they have both the appearance of truth and societal approval. Thus, UFO fascination flourished because the accounts seemed truthful and many people were willing to trust in a repetitive, but incomplete narrative and to believe there was much more to be learned. Just as they said in the X-Files, “the truth is out there.”
On June 25, 2021, the Office of the Director of National Intelligence released a much-anticipated report on UFOs to Congress. The military has rebranded unidentified flying objects as unidentified aerial phenomena – UAPs – in part to avoid the stigma that has been attached to claims of aliens visiting the Earth since the Roswell incident in 1947. The report presents no convincing evidence that alien spacecraft have been spotted, but some of the data defy easy interpretation.
I’m a professor of astronomy who has written extensively on the search for life in the universe. I also teach a free online class on astrobiology. I do not believe that the new government report or any other sightings of UFOs in the past are proof of aliens visiting Earth. But the report is important because it opens the door for a serious look at UFOs. Specifically, it encourages the U.S. government to collect better data on UFOs, and I think the release of the report increases the chances that scientists will try to interpret that data. Historically, UFOs have felt off limits to mainstream science, but perhaps no more.
What’s in the UFO Report?
The No. 1 thing the report focuses on is the lack of high-quality data. Here are the highlights from the slender nine-page report, covering a total of 144 UAP sightings from U.S. government sources between 2004 and 2021:
“Limited data and inconsistent reporting are key challenges to evaluating UAP.”
Some observations “could be the result of sensor errors, spoofing, or observer misperception.”
“UAP clearly pose a safety of flight issue and may pose a challenge to U.S. national security.”
Of the 144 sightings, the task force was “able to identify one reported UAP with high confidence. In that case, we identified the object as a large, deflating balloon. The others remain unexplained.”
“Some UAP many be technologies deployed by China, Russia, another nation, or non-governmental entity.”
The Office of the Director of National Intelligence prepared the report for the Congressional Intelligence and Armed Services Committees.
(Credit: Office of the Director of National Intelligence)
UFOs Are Taboo Among Scientists
UFO means unidentified flying object. Nothing more, nothing less. You’d think scientists would enjoy the challenge of solving this puzzle. Instead, UFOs have been taboo for academic scientists to investigate, and so unexplained reports have not received the scrutiny they deserve.
Another reason for the scientific hesitance is that UFOs have been co-opted by popular culture. They are part of a landscape of conspiracy theories that includes accounts of abduction by aliens and crop circles. Scientists worry about their professional reputations, and the association of UFOs with these supernatural stories causes most researchers to avoid the topic.
However, a review in 1998 by a panel led by Peter Sturrock, a professor of applied physics at Stanford University, concluded that some sightings are accompanied by physical evidence that deserves scientific study. Sturrock also surveyed professional astronomers and found that nearly half thought UFOs were worthy of scientific study, with higher interest among younger and more well-informed astronomers.
If astronomers are intrigued by UFOs – and believe some cases deserve study with academic rigor – what’s holding them back? A history of mistrust between ufologists and scientists hasn’t helped. And while UFO research has employed some of the tools of the scientific method, it has not had the core of skeptical, evidence-based reasoning that demarcates science from pseudoscience.
A search of 90,000 recent and current grants awarded by the National Science Foundation finds none addressing UFOs or related phenomena. I’ve served on review panels for 35 years, and can imagine the reaction if such a proposal came up for peer review: raised eyebrows and a quick vote not to fund.
Radio telescopes like the Allen Telescope Array seen here scan the sky looking for signs of intelligent life in the universe.
(Credit: Brewbooks/Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA)
A Decadeslong Search for Aliens
While the scientific community has almost entirely avoided engaging with UFOs, a much more mainstream search for intelligent aliens and their technology has been going on for decades.
The search is motivated by the fact that astronomers have, to date, discovered over 4,400 planets orbiting other stars. Called exoplanets, some are close to the Earth’s mass and at just the right distance from their stars to potentially have water on their surfaces – meaning they might be habitable.
This confidence has fueled an active search for extraterrestrial intelligence, known as SETI. It has been unsuccessful so far. As a result, researchers have recast the question “Are we alone?” to “Where are the aliens?” The absence of evidence for intelligent aliens is called the Fermi paradox. First articulated by the physicist Enrico Fermi, it’s a paradox because advanced civilizations should be spread throughout the galaxy, yet we see no sign of their existence.
The SETI activity has not been immune from scientists’ criticism. It was starved of federal funding for decades and recently has gotten most of its support from private sources. However, in 2020, NASA resumed funding for SETI, and the new NASA administrator wants researchers to pursue the topic of UFOs.
In this context, the intelligence report is welcome. The report draws few concrete conclusions about UFOs and avoids any reference to aliens or extraterrestrial spacecraft. However, it notes the importance of destigmatizing UFOs so that more pilots report what they see. It also sets a goal of moving from anecdotal observations to standardized and scientific data collection. Time will tell if this is enough to draw scientists into the effort, but the transparency to publish the report at all reverses a long history of secrecy surrounding U.S. government reports on UFOs.
I don’t see any convincing evidence of alien spacecraft, but as a curious scientist, I hope the subset of UFO sightings that are truly unexplained gets closer study. Scientists are unlikely to weigh in if their skepticism generates attacks from “true believers” or they get ostracized by their colleagues. Meanwhile, the truth is still out there.
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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.
Mijn hobby's zijn: Ufologie en andere esoterische onderwerpen.
Op deze blog vind je onder artikels, werk van mezelf. Mijn dank gaat ook naar André, Ingrid, Oliver, Paul, Vincent, Georges Filer en MUFON voor de bijdragen voor de verschillende categorieën...
Veel leesplezier en geef je mening over deze blog.
