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...
05-08-2024
This Shapeshifting Robot Could Be the Future of Space Exploration
(Jie Yin, NC State University)
This Shapeshifting Robot Could Be the Future of Space Exploration
A team of North Carolina State University Engineers has devised a shapeshifting robot inspired by the ancient Japanese paper-folding art of Origami, capable of functions ranging from space exploration to disaster relief.
By implementing hierarchical concepts observed in nature, the team’s approach combines simple and efficient kinematics with “rich shape-morphing capability” to successfully mitigate the complexity and power use issues holding back earlier concept work from real-life implementation. The researchers believe these improvements could pave the way to a simpler, more malleable shape-shifting robot for practical use.
“The question we’re asking is how to achieve a number of versatile shapes with the fewest number of actuators powering the shapeshifting,” said Jie Yin, associate professor of mechanical and aerospace engineering, in a press release announcing their work.
“Here we use a hierarchical concept observed in nature – like layered muscle fibers – but with plastic cubes to create a transforming robot.”
A prototype of the transforming robot Shapeshifter is tested in the robotics yard at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory. Shapeshifter is made of smaller robots that can morph into rolling spheres, flying drones, swimming submersibles, and more.
An illustration of an early concept of Shapeshifter imagines the robots on Saturn's moon Titan. In the picture, the Shapeshifter breaks into smaller pieces that can investigate a methane waterfall from the sky.
An illustration of the small robots that form Shapeshifter. Dubbed "cobots," they each have a propeller for flying and can combine to form a sphere, rolling on the ground to save energy
In that same release, team leader Yin explained that they looked at the hierarchical construction of human muscle, of fiber wrapped in connective tissue, with those bundles once again joined by another layer of connective tissue. To this hierarchical concept, they added a combinatorial principle that the robot could split into sub-pieces or even into smaller autonomous units. According to the team’s new paper recently published in the journal Nature Communications, the combination of these two ideas provided the jumping-off point to rethink how a shape-shifting robot could be composed,
In that work, the team also looked at the issues plaguing previous work, including one Origami-inspired robot previously covered by The Debrief that was otherwise promising. Plus, while advances have been made in other biologically inspired robots, they have so far struggled to compare to the real thing.
For example, the variety of shapes that many robots could put themselves into was limited. Also, those with a more diverse array of potential forms quickly became a complicated mess of intricate control systems and actuators. Their transformations were difficult, lengthy, and tapped too much energy.
In an effort to overcome those limitations, the team designed a robotics framework that can bend, fold, and reshape itself into a variety of forms. In their shape-shifting robot’s final structure, four, six, or eight cubes are connected by an equal number of hinges acting as joints. These joints are also rotational, increasing the angles available to a single pivot.
Adding to the robot’s versatility, the servomotors that control them are controlled by Bluetooth and powered by rechargeable batteries.
Mori3: A polygon-based modular robot
Printing Out a Transforming Robot
To construct their test model, the team relied on 3D printing. First, they printed rigid ABS plastic panels, which were then connected into hollow cubes and joined with flexible hinges. According to the researchers, this design does not just make assembly easy; it becomes a snap to disassemble and change the hierarchy. Additionally, the model tested to have a significant amount of strength. For example, it could support two and a half times its weight even when deployed as a multistory structure. Simpler uses, such as bridges and tunnels, could bear even greater stress, over three and a half times its weight.
“We want to make a more robust structure that can bear larger loads,” said Yanbin Li, an NC State postdoctoral researcher and co-corresponding author of the paper. “If we want a car shape, for example, how do we design the first structure that can transform into a car shape? We also want to test our structures with real-world applications like space robots.”
The efficiency of this robust design relies on allowing for many possibilities while finding the simplest solution. While one robot is equipped with 22 motors controlling 36 joints, it only needs to use up to three at a time for a transformation. This includes rearranging itself from a dense cube into a fully open structure, a feat that was accomplished with only two motors actively driving 16 of its joints.
The Mori3 robot standing up.
Gif: EPFL RRL
This reduced transformation times to two minutes from the hours described in earlier work.
When highlighting the design’s efficiency, the paper’s authors noted that at its maximum expansion, the robot could occupy 200 times the initial volume of its components when packed flat. Based on its unprecedented speed of transformation and compactness for transport, the team identified the robots as perfect for use as emergency shelters or other structures needed in rapid deployment situations.
When operating on a planet’s surface, large-scale functions like transforming into a shelter or acting as a cargo robot are possible. In one proposed application, the separate pieces split into multiple robots with separate functions, an idea common in Japanese science fiction entertainment. This level of malleability also allows the shape-shifting robot to assume a more aerodynamic shape for either pointing down and landing or pointing up and taking off without turning the entire structure around. Such a robot could significantly cut down the needed equipment, while simultaneously increasing its own safety and efficiency.
MIT CSAIL
The Future of Space Exploration May Be In Transporting Less
In their paper, the researchers also illustrate an example of how such robots could be used in space exploration. This is consistent with recent work in the field that has been trying to identify ways to make devices more reclaimable and cost-effective. In a previous story, The Debrief looked at the ways engineers have been attempting to make space vehicles reusable.
One example highlighted by the NC State researchers is how it can form itself into a large, flat slab for solar panels, maximizing the surface area for energy collection. It can also reconfigure itself to create holes in its surface for objects to pass harmlessly through, avoiding collisions with small space objects. Such a feature would also allow it to generate docking ports for other spacecraft or even convert itself into a living space for future astronauts.
“We think these can be used as deployable, configurable space robots and habitats,” said Antonio Di Lallo, an NC State postdoctoral researcher and co-first author of the paper. “It’s modular, so you can send it to space flat and assemble it as a shelter or as a habitat, and then disassemble it.”
Whatever form the shape-shifting robots ultimately take, the researchers agree that ease of use will be critical to their overall value.
“For users, it needs to be easy to assemble and to control,” Yin said.
Ryan Whalen covers science and technology for The Debrief. He can be reached at ryan@thedebrief.org.
The Bureau is said to be concerned about the findings at the research centre, fearing the discovery could lead to members of the public gaining access to thousands of documents.
The FBI memo reportedly reads: “An investigator for the Air Force states that three so-called flying saucers had been recovered in New Mexico.
“They were described as being circular in shape with raised centres, approximately 50 feet in diameter.
FBI UFO Document Is The Most Popular Of All Its 'Vault' Files
“Each one was occupied by three bodies of human shape but only 3 feet tall, dressed in metallic cloth of a very fine texture.
“According to Mr (name blanked out), the saucers were found in New Mexico due to the fact that the Government has a very high-powered radar set-up in that area and it is believed the radar interferes with the controlling mechanism of the saucers.”
Whatever the details of this reportedly top secret memo, the truth is out there…
FBI's 'flying saucers' online memo intrigues public - CNN.com
The most common and yet interesting question that many people ask is: Are we alone in this universe? The answer has taken a great turn from “Maybe yes” to “Maybe no” in the past few years. There is a long list of credible personalities who never denied the presence of non-human intelligent life among us. Moreover, a few of them are certain that aliens are on Earth. American billionaire Robert Bigelow said something shocking about aliens in November 2017.
According to Robert Bigelow, famous in the aerospace industry for the manufacture of inflatable modules such as those tested out at the International Space Station, there are extraterrestrial beings living among humans. He said that he is “absolutely convinced” aliens live among humans on Earth. During the interview with CBS’ 60 Minutes, reporter Lara Logan asked Bigelow if he believes in aliens. He replied: “I’m absolutely convinced. That’s all there is to it.” He further said: “There has been and is an existing presence, an ET presence.”
He continued: “I spent millions and millions and millions – I probably spent more as an individual than anybody else in the United States has ever spent on this subject.” “You don’t have to go anywhere” to find aliens and they are here right in front of people. Bigelow had his own close encounters but declined to go into detail.
When award-winning journalist George Knapp asked his comment on this interview, he said: “There are different ways to go at this. So one is from a hardware standpoint. The other one is from the presence standpoint, ET presence. And, you know, a lot of people say, well, whether they’re, you know, that they can be among the population, whether they’re hybrids, or there’s some other kind of, really look alike, you know, kind of thing. But so, so you can look at it in different kinds of ways. And, and so, I know of a really good high quality researcher who has fantastic academic credentials and background. And he would be predisposed to the latter, saying that, yeah, it could be among us, you know, but he’s probably on the more extreme, he’s definitely on the more extreme. Others would say, well, we’re safe in saying that there’s hardware, you know, so that’s among us, and hardware kind of context.” (Source)
Skinwalker Ranch, a property located in northeastern Utah has been the subject of alleged paranormal activity, including UFO sightings and other strange occurrences. The ranch gained notoriety in the 1990s when it was purchased by Mr. Bigelow, who funded a number of studies of the phenomena reported at the ranch.
However, the specifics of what has been reported at the ranch and the credibility of those reports have been the subject of much debate and skepticism. Some people believe that the ranch is a hotspot for extraterrestrial activity, while others believe that the reports of strange occurrences at the ranch are the result of hoaxes or misidentifications of natural phenomena.
Bryant “Dragon” Arnold (Chief Security Officer on Skinwalker Ranch), Casey Smith, Erik Bard and Kaleb Bench, from left, check the radiation in a sinkhole pit on Skinwalker Ranch, in a moment from History’s series “The Secret of Skinwalker Ranch.” Image via The Salt Lake Tribune
Following his interview with Mr. Bigelow, Knapp then asked if the entities at Skinwalker Ranch would be investigated through the Bigelow Institute for Consciousness Studies (which he founded in 2020 after his wife passed away). Besides, he wondered that if they are among us, can they also be considered alien? Bigelow said: “Well, if you if you follow the literature and pay attention to a lot of other kinds of sources, they absolutely are.”
Further, Mr. Bigelow shared his personal experiences and losses that prompted his interest in life after death, as well as UFOs. He talked about possible links between consciousness research and UFOs. He also talked about the risks of trying to establish communications with the unknown.
“That’s been mainly what I’ve been doing except for the skinwalker ranch thing for 20 years as the space world has been huge in my life to pursue the legitimate parochial kind of you know using fire engines rockets to get you there. We didn’t expect anything like this to happen and so there this is different. This is the holy grail and is different than the second holy grail. If the second one is ‘Beings’ (E.T.), then the first one: Is there any part of your consciousness that survives your bodily death? That’s a big deal. That’s a huge story. That’s gigantic.”
“Be a little careful about what you wish for. So on the face of it, communication sounds great and that by the way has been tried forever ever since the oracle of Delphi. I mean you can go back thousands of years and that’s been attempted. So It’s not now you know the last 100 years through electronics and using some kind of electrical apparatus to try to have some kind of communications. And you know communication can be at all different kinds of levels. There might be communication that just causes you an awareness.”
Then Knapp asked him what triggered his curiosity about UFOs, possibly it was after Bob Lazar’s story came out. Mr. Bigelow replied that he was already into UFO research. He was looking at UFO stories worldwide to understand what they actually were.
In 1992, he started the Bigelow Foundation with Bob Lazar, who worked on reverse-engineering recovered extraterrestrial craft at Area-51. Mr. Bigelow also backed Dr. John E. Mack, a professor of psychiatry at Harvard who wrote two popular books about his work with people who told him they had been abducted by aliens, and Budd Hopkins, an artist who became an abduction investigator and also wrote popular books.
Mr. Bigelow’s investigative team, headed by Colm Kelleher, the institute’s scientific administrator and biochemist, documented their own paranormal events, according to a 2005 book “Hunt for the Skinwalker,” by Dr. Kelleher and Mr. Knapp.
Mr. Bigelow said he saw “interdimensional” forces at play through portals at certain paranormal hot spots like Skinwalker. But he also said he had frequently visited the ranch without experiencing the kind of chilling events others reported, as if some intelligence were selecting the people to act upon. “I slept like a log every single night,” he said. And no human was physically harmed, but he said he and other visitors often carried strange things home, like a sulfurous stink in a certain part of his house. His wife felt the presence of a faceless creature pressing down on her side of bed. (Source)
Bigelow amassed his fortune through the hotel chain Budget Suites of America and used this money to fund his UFO study. In an interview with The Associated Press, he said that UFOs are “under our noses” and wondered why news organizations had not extensively covered UFO sightings.
In 2008, Mr. Bigelow secretly created BAASS (Bigelow Aerospace Advanced Space Studies) to study the UFO mystery and related phenomena. The public did not know that he had signed a contract with the Defense Intelligence Agency to do an investigation under the AAWSAP program.
His political influence has been strong when it comes to UFO study. He once convinced his friend and then-Democratic U.S. Sen. Harry Reid to allocate $22 million to the Advanced Aerospace Threat Identification Program, which investigated UFO reports from 2007 to 2012. The majority of the funds were sent to Bigelow’s company to investigate, and the allocation was not made public until a 2017 New York Times investigation. The Pentagon stated that the program was terminated in 2012, although Reid later stated that he had no remorse about the expenditure.
Later, he and his team hired dozens of investigators, scientists, and support staff to work on putting together a huge database of original investigations and UFO files from other countries. The now-famous 2004 Tic Tac encounter off the coast of Southern California was one of the cases that BAASS looked into.
Newly discovered evidence suggests that 42,000 years ago, ancient humans likely used various forms of maritime capabilities, an advanced form of technology for the period in which it was used, to traverse the world’s oceans.
In Southeast Asia, new evidencs points to the use of watercraft that allowed ancient sailors to colonize a portion of the more than 13,000 islands that make up modern day Indonesia, including the remote Tanimbar Islands.
“The question of how our early ancestors arrived there from Southeast Asia is one of the most captivating in prehistoric migration, mainly because of the vast distances covered and advanced seafaring skills that would have been required,” explained Mr. Hendri Kaharudin, a PhD candidate at the Australian National University (ANU) and the lead author of the study outlining the advanced maritime technologies employed by these early sailors that helped them reach the Tanimbar Island of Elivavan.
“This discovery marks one of the southern route’s earliest known sites, making it a crucial piece of the puzzle,” Mr. Kaharudin added.
42,000 Years Ago, the First Human Migrants Sailed to Tanimbar
While scientists have often theorized about the first arrival of human migrants in Indonesia from Southeast Asia, no concrete theory is universally accepted. According to the team’s research published in Quarternary Science Reviews, recent discoveries made on the Indonesian Tanimbar island of Elivavan revealed that people first arrived there around 42,000 years ago.
“Along with tiny fragments of pottery, we also found evidence of things like bones, shells, and sea urchins that point to the island’s role as a hub for early maritime activities,” Mr. Kaharudin said.
A) View of Elivavan rock shelter and the test pit location; B) The location of Elivavan rock shelter (yellow arrow) seen from the narrow strait between Fordata and Larat islands. Image Credit: Kaharudin, et. al.
To reach this remote location, ancient mariners would have had to traverse exceedingly long distances over treacherous seas. Mr. Kaharudin said these ancient mariners would have had to traverse bodies of water over 100 kilometers in the distance “regardless of their direction of travel.” According to the press release announcing the new findings, “the risky nature of the sea crossings suggests the colonists had developed advanced maritime technology by around 42,000 years ago.”
If the discoveries made on Elivavan ultimately confirm the first route to Indonesia taken by ancient mariners over 42,000 years ago was a southern one, it will solve a long-standing debate between scientists about which route these original colonists took to get there.
“There are two main routes that have been explored as possibilities since the mid-20th century, a northern path via islands like Sulawesi, and a southern track passing near Timor and the Tanimbar islands,” Kaharudin explained. This particular location, which lies along the southern route, is significant, the researcher notes, as “Tanimbar is located just off the ‘Sahul shelf’, which encompasses modern-day Australia, as well as New Guinea.”
Map of Wallacea, delineating Birdsell’s northern and southern migration routes. The map also highlights the oldest Pleistocene sites on each island. Along the northern route, the following sites are indicated: 1) Leang Karampuang, Leang Tedongnge, and Leang Bulu Sipong 4, 2) Goa Topogaro, 3) Leang Sarru, 4) Daeo 2, 5) Golo, and 6) Kelo 6. On the southern route, the following sites are highlighted: 7) Liang Bua, 8) Lua Meko, 9) Makpan, 10) Laili, 11) Asitau Kuru, Lene Hara, Matja Kuru 2, 12) Here Sorot Entapa, and 13) Elivavan. The last two sites represent connections to Sahul: 14) Leang Lemdubu, currently in the Aru Islands but once connected to the mainland during the Pleistocene, and 15) Madjedbebe, the oldest known site in Sahul. Image Credit: Kaharudin et. al.
To make such a dangerous crossing, the researchers believe that these ancient seafaring humans likely hopped along the coasts, moving from island to island as they slowly spread out. This strategy evolved over time, the researchers note, meaning that the colonization was not a single event but “a gradual process involving successive waves of seafaring populations.”
“Coastal communities likely navigated shorelines, exploiting marine resources and establishing resilient settlements along their journey,” Mr. Kaharudin explained. “This island-hopping strategy facilitated cultural exchange and adaptation, shaping diverse societies across the land mass.”
Studying Remote Locations Could Uncover More About Ancient Human Life
Although the discovery of human occupation on Elivavan of the Tanimbar Islands over 42,000 years ago is significant, the researchers behind the discovery note that there is still much more work to be done. This includes taking a closer look at the area where these discoveries were made to paint a more complete picture of these early seafaring humans. In fact, according to Kaharudin, it is the exploration of these remote locations that could answer the mysteries of ancient human migration.
“As more work is done in lesser-explored regions like the Tanimbar Islands, I expect we’ll uncover more about early human life and migration patterns,” he explained.
Christopher Plain is a Science Fiction and Fantasy novelist and Head Science Writer at The Debrief. Follow and connect with him onX,learn about his books atplainfiction.com, or email him directly atchristopher@thedebrief.org.
Floating LEAVES Could Characterize Venus’s Atmosphere
Venus’s atmosphere has drawn a lot of attention lately. In particular, the consistent discovery of phosphine in its clouds points to potential biological sources. That, in turn, has resulted in numerous suggested missions, including floating a balloon into the atmosphere or having a spacecraft scoop down and suck up atmospheric samples. But a team of engineers led by Jeffrey Balcerski, now an adjunct at Kent State University but then part of the Ohio Aerospace Institute, came up with a different idea years ago – use floating sensor platforms shaped like leaves to collect a wide variety of data throughout Venus’ atmosphere.
The Lofted Environmental and Atmospheric Venus Sensors (or LEAVES) project was funded by NASA’s Institute for Advanced Concepts (NIAC) program in 2018. The mission design is simple enough: design lightweight platforms with a wide surface area, attach some low-cost and weight sensors to them, release them from a mothership transiting into orbit around Venus, and let those platforms float down through the Venusian atmosphere over the course of a few hours, all the while sending back atmospheric, chemical, and temperature data to the mothership.
There are a few enabling technologies behind the idea. The first is a lightweight yet robust and deployable structure that could support a platform of sensors and not be destroyed by Venus’s notoriously hellish environment. Designing this structure required understanding expected flight times and geolocation requirements, as well as the requirement that the system must be trackable by orbital radar in order to communicate back to the mothership. The resulting design resembles the famous inverted pyramid at the Louvre.
Venus is one of the most interesting planets in the solar system – and has captured Fraser’s imagination.
Inside that structure, the second enabling technology sits—harsh environment sensors designed to operate in Venus’s extreme environments. Chemical, pressure, and electrical sensors have undergone extensive development work over the past few years, and some are approaching readiness for use on Venus. They are also lightweight, allowing the structure to descend slowly, which is necessary to complete its mission goals.
After receiving the NIAC Phase I grant, the team led by Dr. Balcerski got to work modeling LEAVES’ structure and mission design. They quickly realized that delivery methodology and a system’s light weight would be critical to future missions. As such, they modeled depositing a series of upwards of 100 LEAVES throughout Venus’ atmosphere, each of which would be networked back to the mothership that deposited them as part of its planned orbital maneuver. They also thought there were several planned Venus missions, such as DaVINCI, which could easily take LEAVES on as a secondary payload with no real risk to mission success or uptime, as the LEAVES would fall and be destroyed by the lower Venusian atmosphere in a matter of hours.
But those hours of data, relayed back to the mothership and then on to Earth, could provide invaluable insights into the inner workings of Venus’s atmosphere. LEAVES would be able to reach a wide altitude range—it is estimated to operate between 100 km and 30 km in altitude. It could also be spread literally all over the world, allowing for a more complete picture of the Venusian atmosphere than other mission designs, which would only capture a small vertical slice of the atmosphere.
Venus’s environmental is rough on technology, to say the least. Fraser discusses the new technologies that could one day survive on its surface.
Given the potential impact of what we might find in the Venusian atmosphere, any mission designs that allow us to capture a large amount of information about a wide swath of it would be welcome. Dr. Balcerski and his colleagues think they have advanced the LEAVES concept to a Technology Readiness Level of 3-4. However, they haven’t yet received further support for LEAVES, and development appears to be on hold. But, given the increasing interest in exploring the Venusian atmosphere, perhaps it’s time to look at this lightweight, inexpensive way of doing so again.
The International Space Station (ISS) will soonretire. As humanity’s farthest outpost approaches its sunset, researchers are raking in data on how astronautsmight survive in the next iterations of human spaceflight. Unfortunately, arecent studyreveals there’s a long way to go before we’re ready to live long stretches off planet Earth.
In short, we can’t stomach it.
Biodata from astronauts and rodents in space are revealing that being up there significantly increases a major digestive issue called gut permeability.
Thursday’s lineup at the International Space Station Research & Development Conference in Boston included a presentation from University of Florida PhD student Oluwamayowa Akinsuyi. After looking at several datasets from NASA and the Japanese Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA), Akinsuyi’s team found a “substantial reduction” in the expression of genes that maintain our intestinal barrier.
NASA astronaut Scott Kelly performing a spacewalk on November 6, 2015.
NASA/Getty Images/Getty Images
“Our findings on this project underscore the critical need to develop effective countermeasures to treat gastrointestinal (GI) health during long-duration spaceflight, “Akinsuyi said in a July 20 presentation about the same work. “And also one key thing our work pointed out is that there is clearly more work that is needed to increase awareness about the problem of leaky gut during space flight.”
It Takes Guts
The human body takes a big risk when we eat. Many times a day, it’s exposed to potentially harmful substances that hitch a ride alongside the good stuff in food and medicine. The gastrointestinal tract operates in a delicately robust fashion consisting of two layers to transport water and nutrients into the rest of the body, secrete other material out, and, all the while, keep out harmful substances like bacteria and toxins.
When the GI tract is in a good groove, that’s intestinal homeostasis. Without homeostasis, when the gut barrier is too permeable, inflammation and a host of diseases can appear. This is called leaky gut.
Akinsuyi analyzed five datasets from the NASA Genelab program. Genetic information from astronauts and rodents that were flown into space seems to suggest that spaceflight alters the gene expression that prevents leaky gut.
The astronauts and rodents experienced an imbalance in their gut microbiome, which is associated with increased intestinal pathogens and decreased beneficial microbes.
“Osteoporosis ... can be worsened by gut microbes and also a weak gut barrier.”
A lack of intestinal integrity could trigger disorders like inflammatory bowel disease, nonalcoholic fatty liver disease, cirrhosis and bone loss.
“Osteoporosis is a big problem astronauts experience during spaceflight, and this can be worsened by gut microbes and also a weak gut barrier,” according to Akinsuyi. The inflammatory response from leaky gut can “ultimately alter bone remodeling and result in bone loss,” he added.
Spaceflight is previously known to have an effect on gene expression and bone loss. If astronaut tummies are also connected to these phenomena, research into long-duration missions may have to continue in the few years that the ISS has left in orbit.
Bad tidings for crystal ball enthusiasts: the future is unknowable. Even our best, data-based attempts to predict exactly what’s to come are far from certain, as highlighted in new research. Climate models that offer timing predictions for critical tipping points are woefully imprecise, according toa study published August 2 in the journal Science Advances.
There are many certainties in climate sciences: It’s certain that climate change is occurring and that it’s having serious negative impacts on Earth’s equilibrium and ecosystems. As human-caused greenhouse gas emissions continue and global warming unfolds, it’s also well-established that we’re getting closer to crossing important thresholds, or tipping points, past which we face inevitable collapse of planetary stabilizing systems like the major forests or ice sheets. At a tipping point, a small change in one variable like atmospheric temperature or precipitation triggers a big fall-out, such as the irreversible changeover of the world’s largest tropical rainforest into dry grassland or unstoppable polar melt and sea level rise. We know that by continuing to burn fossil fuels, we’re increasing the risk that these things could happen.
But what’s far less definite is when, exactly, we’ll plummet off those precipices, according to the new analysis. A subset of recent climate science has focused on developing models to predict the timing of future major events. Yet these projections are subject to too much variance to be meaningful — in large part because of the many assumptions modelers have to make to come to any one number or range.
“The uncertainties are too large to reliably estimate tipping times.”
“Even under the assumption that a given Earth system component has an approaching tipping point, the uncertainties are too large to reliably estimate tipping times,” write the study authors.
The researchers focus in on the particular example of the gulf stream, known to scientists as the Atlantic meridional overturning circulation (AMOC). Broadly: the AMOC is a massive marine current that moves cold, deep water south and warm, surface water north on either side of the Atlantic Ocean. The thermal conveyor belt helps to equalize global temperatures, rainfall, and sea levels. Without it, Europe would be much colder, the southern hemisphere would be much warmer with longer dry seasons, and parts of the U.S. eastern seaboard would be under water.
Worrying data on sea surface temperature and ocean sediments published in 2018 indicates that AMOC has slowed to a 1,500 year low. Other research indicates AMOC is showing early warning signs of destabilization. Most alarming of all was a 2023 study published in the journal Nature Communications that predicted AMOC would collapse around the middle of this century (i.e. within decades). That paper prompted lots of media coverage and both supportive and skeptical responses from the scientific community.
The new study is, in a way, another response to the 2023 article — but also to the field of tipping point modeling broadly. The researchers identified four uncertainties inherent in current modeling processes, which they say makes homing in on accurate time estimates impossible. First, models are simplified and we don’t have a perfect understanding of all of the variables involved in these systems. Second, models often rely on assuming past warming and emissions will continue following the same pattern as the past, which isn’t reflective of reality. Third, indirect indicators like sea surface temperature might not be 1:1 assessments of the stability of complex systems like AMOC. Finally, sparse historic data or contemporary data from multiple sources often leaves scientists filling in gaps and processing data to align — inevitably introducing errors.
Will the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation collapse? Maybe — but it’s truly impossible to predict.
shunli zhao/Moment/Getty Images
They revisited the models used to come up with that mid-century AMOC collapse prediction published in 2023, and made adjustments in accordance with the above uncertainties, testing how slightly different parameters or inputs would change the outcome. The scientists found that, under certain scenarios, their altered models predict AMOC collapse by 2050. But in others, their timing predictions stretched more than 6,000 years in the future to an AMOC collapse forecast in the year 8065.
“The conclusions of this study are certainly in line with my understanding of the current state of the art,” says Gavin Schmidt, a climate scientist and professor at Columbia University and the director of NASA’s Goddard Institute for Space Studies (GISS). Schmidt was not involved in the new work, but has extensively researched climate variability and systems like AMOC. “I have not been impressed by previous or recent efforts to predict upcoming tipping points in either AMOC or ice sheets — there is more going on than just patterns in time series and we still don’t have sufficiently complex and calibrated models to have a robust idea of what will happen,” he tells Inverse.
“I have not been impressed by previous or recent efforts to predict upcoming tipping points,” says Gavin Schmidt, director of NASA’s GISS
Additional research and longer-term data collection could improve modeling moving forward, the study authors note, but there will always be some degree of uncertainty. And in the present, models that can tell us an Earth-changing tipping point will come tomorrow or in 6,000 years aren’t particularly useful.
“Our research is both a wake-up call and a cautionary tale,”said Maya Ben-Yami, lead study author and a doctoral researcher at the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research in Germany, in a press statement. “There are things we still can’t predict, and we need to invest in better data and a more in-depth understanding of the systems in question. The stakes are too high to rely on shaky predictions.”
At the base of climate modeling is the idea that, if we could know for sure we’re headed towards imminent catastrophe, we might redouble our efforts to shift course. Yet we already know plenty to understand that moving away from fossil fuels is critical to avoid ever-worsening consequences.
The new study doesn’t mean that AMOC won’t collapse this century, nor that the Amazon rainforest isn’t on track to become a savannah, nor that Greenland and Antarctica aren’t headed towards runaway melting. All it means is that any of those things could happen and we aren’t able to know when.
“The large uncertainties imply that we need to be even more cautious than if we were able to precisely estimate a tipping time,” said Niklas Boers, study co-author and a professor of Earth system modeling at the Technical University of Munich, in the press release. “We still need to do everything we can to reduce our impact on the climate, first and foremost by cutting greenhouse gas emissions. Even if we can’t predict tipping times, the probability for key Earth system components to tip still increases with every tenth of a degree of warming.”
A report published Thursday claims a UFO was spotted in the skies above President Joe Biden while he flew into LAX on Air Force One on October 10.
A video sharedon social media in December apparently shows a silvery white object flying extremely close to Air Force One as Biden landed in LAX for a fundraiser back in October, according to the Daily Mail. The outlet published several still photographs of the object, which whizzes past the President
The clip was taken by airplane enthusiasts Joshua and Peter Solorzano, who filmed the orb going over at around 10:18am local time while live-streaming on their YouTube channel. The first flies over around the 1:26 mark, and then comes back two more times at 4:38 and 6:58.
Many users noted its resemblance to a UFO which flew over the Middle East in 2022. Footage of the event was released by the Pentagon’s All-Domain Anomaly Resolution office. A report noted the orb had “characteristics and behaviors consistent with other ‘metallic orb’ observations in the region,” but gave little indication to what they actually were.
Despite the Pentagon’s interest in UFOs, apparently no Men in Black showed up to hassle the Solorzano brothers for the footage.
Another witness, Chris Cullari, apparently saw the object around 12:30pm on the same day while in Culver City, according to Daily Mail. A Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) helicopter circled near the object, Cullari said, and he shared photos with the Daily Mail.
So either this thing is real … or the government wants you to think it is because of all the negative press they’ve been getting about UFO/UAP disclosure in 2023. After a year of promises to reveal the truth about what we know, our lawmakers decided that actually, we don’t get to know what UFOs really are, according to their data and research. If the people who really control our government want us to know something, we’ll know it. But otherwise, we will always be left in the dark.
Once again, the timing on this latest UFO appearance feels a little too convenient. But that’s just my opinion.
Two Major UFO Mysteries May Have Been ‘Solved’ After Decades BLOG
Two Major UFO Mysteries May Have Been ‘Solved’ After Decades
CREDIT: Pexels / Stijn Dijkstra
A British UFO researcher claimed Monday that he had finally “solved” two of Great Britain’s biggest mysteries.
UFO researcher Mark Christopher Lee told the Express he believes the Rendlesham UFO incident andCalvine UFO photographs may be the result of early prototype aircraft used by both British and U.S. military, despite Ufologists describing them as two shining examples of unexplained events.
“From going through all these documents there seems to have been a lot of sightings of diamond shaped crafts since the 1970’s and especially around UK military bases,” Lee told the outlet, claiming he’s gone through some other dude’s UFO files, so … yeah … reliable (not really). “There seems to be a connection — is the Calvin UFO a secret military technology either of ours or an adversary that has been kept secret? Why is this diamond shaped craft seemingly accompanied by military jets?”
The Calvine UFO incident is literally just six photographs taken by two hikers in Scotland in 1990 of a diamond-shaped craft hurtling through the skies, followed closely by two Harrier jets. The photos entered UFO lore after the hikers sent them to the Scottish Daily Record, which never published them. The photos only reach public knowledge in 1996 after former Ministry of Defense civil servant Nick Pope revealed them.
“Calvine was only about a hundred miles from the secretive RAF base at Machrihanish, on the Kintyre Peninsula, and this was where a US spy plane codenamed Aurora was rumoured to be operating,” Pope said of the photographs. “It’s noteworthy that the Calvine UFO was spotted just two days after Saddam Hussein invaded Kuwait, so that may be a big clue.”
“Here are just a few examples of this diamond-shaped craft that started appearing in the late 1970s into the 1980s and was maybe the same craft or type of craft that was photographed at Calvine in Scotland,” Lee continued. “Are we dealing with our technology that is still secret or is it extra terrestrial but the MOD and the military know about it?”
Here’s the issue, though: There are no real reports of a diamond-shaped craft during the Rendlesham UFO incident.
Rendlesham UFO Encounter
The story of Rendlesham is basically that a bunch of military personnel working at the Twin Bases in the U.K., most of whom were actually American troops, allegedly saw a UFO. In all likelihood, British soldiers who were bored over the Christmas holidays in 1980 pranked the troops.
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“He said there was a sighting prior to [Rendlesham] by two men standing on the seafront at night in Suffolk about 20 miles from RAF Coltishall when they sighted what appears to be the same diamond shaped craft fly over the coast and this too was silent. Their sighting was about 12 months after mine,” said British police officer Brett Lyne, who witnessed what he believes was a diamond UFO just before the Rendlesham incident.
In all likelihood, the diamond-shaped UFO was almost definitely just prototypical military tech. Most UFO sightings are probably linked to global militaries. And until the little green men come on down, I’ll remain a skeptic about it all.
When NASA’s DART missionintentionally slammed into Dimorphos in September 2022, the orbit of the moonlet was altered. Researchers have studied the photos and data taken by DART before its impact, learning more about the geology of the Didymos/Dimorphos system. They have now estimated the surface age of both the asteroid and its moon. The asteroid Didymos has a surface age of 12.5 million years, while the moon Dimorphos is only 300,000 years old.
Additionally, the DART researchers concluded both Didymos and Dimorphos are rubble piles, with Dimorphos likely inheriting its boulders from Didymos.
“It’s a pile of gravel and boulders (and some sand/dust) held together by its own gravity, and really not anything else,” said Andy Rivkin, DART investigation team co-lead at the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Lab (APL), on Bluesky. “There’s really no cohesion between different pieces of gravel or rocks on Dimorphos.”
Several DART researchers published five papers in Nature Communications, looking at the geology and geophysics of Didymos and Dimorphos as seen by DART.
“These findings give us new insights into the ways that asteroids can change over time,” said Thomas Statler, lead scientist for Solar System Small Bodies at NASA Headquarters in Washington, in a NASA press release. “This is important not just for understanding the near-Earth objects that are the focus of planetary defense, but also for our ability to read the history of our Solar System from these remnants of planet formation. This is just part of the wealth of new knowledge we’ve gained from DART.”
In “The geology and evolution of the Near-Earth binary asteroid system (65803) Didymos,” Olivier Barnouin, Ronald-Louis Ballouz, also of APL, and their team were able to determine the disparate ages of Didymos and Dimorphos. They also found that both objects have weak surface characteristics, which very likely contributed to DART’s significant impact on the moonlet’s orbit.
“The images and data that DART collected at the Didymos system provided a unique opportunity for a close-up geological look at a near-Earth asteroid binary system,” said Barnouin, in a press release from APL. “From these images alone, we were able to infer a great deal of information on geophysical properties of both Didymos and Dimorphos, and expand our understanding of the formation of these two asteroids. We also better understand why DART was so effective in moving Dimorphos.”
Based on the internal and surface properties described in Barnouin et al. (2024), this video demonstrates how the spin-up of asteroid Didymos could have led to the growth of its equatorial ridge and the formation of the smaller asteroid Dimorphos, seen orbiting the former near the end of the clip. Particles are colored according to their speeds, with the scale shown at the top, along with the continually changing spin period of Didymos. Credit: University of Michigan/Yun Zhang and Johns Hopkins APL/Olivier Barnouin
Images captured by DART and its cubesat companion the LICIACube – contributed by the Italian Space Agency (ASI) — showed Dimorphos’ topography covered with boulders of varying sizes, while the larger asteroid Didymos was smoother at lower elevations, though rocky at higher elevations. It also had more craters than Dimorphos. The authors inferred that Dimorphos likely spun off from Didymos in a large mass shedding event.
“The size-frequency distribution of boulders larger than 5 meters on Dimorphos and larger than 22.8 meters on Didymos confirms that both asteroids are piles of fragments produced in the catastrophic disruption of their progenitors,” the team wrote. “This finding supports the hypothesis that some asteroid binary systems form through the spin up and mass shedding of a fraction of the primary asteroid.”
In another paper, “Fast boulder fracturing by thermal fatigue detected on stony asteroids” Alice Lucchetti, also of INAF, and colleagues found that the size and distribution of boulders on Dimorphos is consistant with thermal fatigue, which is the gradual weakening and cracking of a material caused by heat. This could rapidly break up boulders on the surface of Dimorphos, generating surface lines and altering the physical characteristics of this type of asteroid more quickly than previously thought. The DART mission was likely the first observation of such a phenomenon on this type of asteroid.
Thermal fatigue could also have a bearing on what happens if this type of asteroid would need to be deflected for planetary defense.
“The presence of boulder fields affected by thermal fracturing on near-Earth asteroid surfaces may contribute to an enhancement in the ejected mass and momentum from kinetic impactors when deflecting asteroids,” the authors wrote.
a. The approximate equator (dashed magenta line), example boulder tracks (magenta arrows) and likely boulders (white arrows) on the surface of Didymos. b. The 15 boulder tracks identified on the surface of Didymos are indicated by the magenta lines. Credit: Bigot, Lombardo et al.
Another paper, “The bearing capacity of asteroid (65803) Didymos estimated from boulder tracks” led by students Jeanne Bigot and Pauline Lombardo of ISAE-SUPAERO in Toulouse, France show that the bearing capacity — the surface’s ability to support applied loads of asteroid Didymos’ surface is only 0.1% that of dry sand on Earth. NASA said that this is considered an important parameter for understanding and predicting the response of a surface, including for the purposes of displacing an asteroid.
Finally, “Mechanical properties of rubble pile asteroids through surface boulder morphological analysis” by Colas Robin, also of ISAE-SUPAERO, and co-authors analyzed the surface boulders on Dimorphos, comparing them with those on other rubble pile asteroids, including Itokawa, Ryugu and Bennu. The researchers found “stiking similarities” the boulders on all four asteroids, suggesting they all formed and evolved in a similar fashion, and were also changed by impacts. This data, too, informs future planetary defense missions or attempts at impactor missions.
“Planetary defense efforts rely on estimates of the mechanical properties of asteroids, which are difficult to constrain accurately from Earth,” the team wrote. “The mechanical properties of asteroid material are also important in the interpretation of the DART impact.”
All the DART researchers team will continue to observe and study DART’s impact. Additionally, another spacecraft will launch in 2024 to study Dimorphos even closer. ESA’s Hera mission should arrive at Didymos and Dimorphos in December 2026. Hera will undertake a detailed study of Dimorphos to understand more deeply how the impact affected it.
Bell-Shaped UFO Spotted Over Götzis, Austria 1-Aug-2024
Bell-Shaped UFO Spotted Over Götzis, Austria 1-Aug-2024
In an intriguing development for UFO enthusiasts, a bell-shaped UFO was reportedly sighted over Götzis in Vorarlberg, Austria, on August 1, 2024. The sighting has sparked curiosity and discussion, adding another entry to the growing list of UFO sightings worldwide.
Witness Account of the UFO Sighting
The witness, a local resident, initially thought the object might be a hot air balloon, which is not uncommon in the area. However, upon closer inspection, they noticed distinct differences. “It didn’t look like a hot air balloon because it was too straight on the sides and not really round,” the witness explained. “I’m no expert, but I just thought it was interesting.”
Despite being unable to capture footage due to a prior engagement, the witness described the object as bell-shaped, a form not typically associated with traditional aircraft or known aerial phenomena. This unique shape adds to the mystery, prompting questions about the object’s origins and purpose.
A Closer Look at the Sighting
UFO sightings in Austria, particularly in Vorarlberg, are relatively rare, making this event noteworthy. The area is known for its scenic landscapes and tranquil environment, not for unexplained aerial phenomena. This latest sighting over Götzis contributes to the ongoing global conversation about the existence of extraterrestrial life and unidentified flying objects.
Public Reaction and Speculation
The sighting has led to widespread speculation among UFO enthusiasts and skeptics alike. While some suggest it could be a misidentified aircraft or drone, others believe it might be evidence of extraterrestrial activity. The bell-shaped design is reminiscent of past UFO sightings, further fueling debates and theories.
Local residents have expressed mixed reactions. Some are intrigued and hopeful for more information, while others remain skeptical, attributing the sighting to a more conventional explanation. The lack of additional reports or video evidence adds to the enigma, leaving room for various interpretations.
As this story continues to unfold, the UFO sighting over Götzis, Austria, remains an exciting topic for UFO enthusiasts and researchers. Whether it’s a case of misidentification or a genuine extraterrestrial encounter, the sighting adds to the ever-growing list of UFO sightings worldwide. As we await further details and potential corroboration, this incident serves as a reminder of the vastness and mystery of our skies.
Be sure to watch the accompanying video to witness the account firsthand and join the conversation about this fascinating sighting. Keep your eyes on the skies, as the truth might just be out there.
Artist’s impression of the graphenes (C24) and fullerenes found in a Planetary Nebula. The detection of graphenes and fullerenes around old stars as common as our Sun suggests that these molecules and other allotropic forms of carbon may be widespread in space. Credits: IAC; original image of the Helix Nebula (NASA, NOAO, ESA, the Hubble Helix Nebula Team, M. Meixner, STScI, & T.A. Rector, NRAO.)
In 2004, scientists at the University of Manchester first isolated and investigated graphene, the supermaterial composed of single-layer carbon atoms arranged in a hexagonal honeycomb lattice. Since then, it has become a wonder, with properties that make it extremely useful in numerous applications. Among scientists, it is generally believed that about 1.9% of carbon in the interstellar medium (ISM) exists in the form of graphene, with its shape and structure determined by the process of its formation.
As it happens, there could be lots of this supermaterial on the surface of the Moon. In a recent study, researchers from the Chinese Academy of Science (CAS) revealed naturally formed graphene arranged in a special thin-layered structure on the Moon. These findings could have drastic implications for our understanding of how the Moon formed and lead to new methods for the manufacture of graphene, with applications ranging from electronics, power storage, construction, and supermaterials. They could also prove useful for future missions that will create permanent infrastructure on the lunar surface.
For decades, scientists have speculated that the Earth-Moon system was formed from a massive collision – the Giant Impact Hypothesis – between a Mars-sized body (Theia) and Earth roughly 4.4 billion years ago. This theory is supported by analyses of the moon rocks returned by the Apollo astronauts, which led to the notion of a carbon-depleted. However, recent findings have come to challenge this consensus based on the observation of global carbon ion fluxes on the Moon, which suggest the presence of indigenous carbon.
These observations are consistent with the analysis of one of the Apollo 17 samples that showed the presence of graphite. For their study, the team conducted a spectroscopic analysis of an olive-shaped sample of lunar soil (measuring about 2.9 mm by 1.6 mm) retrieved by the Chang’e 5 mission in 2020. This was China’s third robotic mission to reach the lunar surface and its first sample return from the Moon. From the spectra they obtained, they found an iron compound in a carbon-rich section of the sample that is closely related to the formation of graphene.
Upon further analysis using advanced microscopic and mapping technologies, they confirmed that the carbon in the sample was graphene flakes two to seven layers thick. In terms of how it got there, the team proposed that the graphene may have formed during a period of volcanic activity early in the Moon’s history when it was still geologically active. They further hypothesize that the graphene was catalyzed by solar winds that kicked up the lunar regolith and its iron-containing minerals, which could have helped transform the carbon’s atomic structure.
They also allow for the possibility of meteorite impacts, which are also known to create high-temperature and high-pressure environments similar to volcanic activity. As they state in their paper:
“Graphene is embedded as individual flakes or formed as part of a carbon shell enclosing the mineral particles. Our result reveals one typical structure of indigenous carbon in the Moon and its formation mechanism has been proposed. This finding may reinvent the understanding of chemical components, geography episodes and the history of the Moon.”
Artist’s impression of the interior of the Moon. Credit: Hernán Cañellas/Benjamin Weiss
These findings could also have a tremendous impact on research here on Earth, where graphene is being investigated for applications ranging from electronics and mechanics to materials science. As they indicate in their study, this study could lead to new methods for inexpensively producing the material and offer additional opportunities for lunar exploration:
“The identification of graphene in the core–shell structure suggests a bottom-up synthesis process rather than exfoliation, which generally involves a high-temperature catalytic reaction. Therefore, a formation mechanism of few-layer graphene and graphitic carbon is proposed here…
“In turn, the mineral-catalysed formation of natural graphene sheds light on the development of low-cost scalable synthesis techniques for high-quality graphene. Therefore, a new lunar exploration program may be promoted and some forthcoming breakthroughs can be expected.”
These findings could also prove useful for future missions that will lead to the development of permanent infrastructure on the lunar surface. This includes NASA’s Artemis Program, which aims to create a “sustained program of lunar exploration and development.” There’s also the ESA’s Moon Village initiative and China and Russia’s plan for an International Lunar Research Station (ILRS). In addition to exploration and scientific research, these programs could conduct experiments on the properties and uses of graphene, which could include the manufacture of lunar habitats!
The Milky Way is just a speck in a universe filled with an untold number of galaxies. But if we had to take an educated guess, how many galaxies are in the universe?
That sounds like a simple question, but it's anything but. The first problem is that even with our most powerful telescopes, we can see only a tiny fraction of the universe.
"The observable universe is only that part of the universe from which the light has had time to reach us," astrophysicist Kai Noeske, now outreach officer at the European Space Agency, told Live Science.
Arp 273 is a pair of spiral galaxies, which may have collided in the past. Their gravitational interaction pulled the galaxies into the sweeping shapes we see; it also produced a burst of star formation, which is visible as blue splotches in the spiral arms of both galaxies.
Credit: NASA
The universe is 13.8 billion years old, but the observable universe stretches more than 13.8 light-years in every direction. That's because the universe is expanding and light got a head start early on, when the universe was smaller
"Now, the total size in each direction is about 46 billionlight-years," Noeske said.
That's much smaller than even our smallest estimates of the entire universe. "We see at most 3% of the universe," Pamela Gay, a senior scientist at the Planetary Science Institute, told Live Science.
The second problem is that there are so many galaxies that we can only make estimates of the total number based on what we can observe in small regions of the universe.
"You look at a small patch of the sky, and you count everything in that small patch and then multiply over the size of the sky," Gay said.
But even that requires a cutoff. "What do we define [as] a galaxy?" Noeske said. "We have really giant galaxies that have to have a factor of 10 more" the mass of our galaxy, "and we have a lot of small galaxies, from lower-mass galaxies that have about 10 times less mass … down all the way to dwarf galaxies."
At some point, scientists need to define a minimum mass for a galaxy to make estimates possible.
The Antennae Galaxies have been colliding and merging into a single galaxy for roughly 100 million years. This image combines X-ray, infrared, and visible light to show how the collision is making new stars and churning the gas in the galaxies into marvelous shapes.
"If we set a mass cutoff and try to make this conservative, like a million solar masses, we end up with an average number of galaxies in the universe from the beginning to today of about 1 to 2 trillion," Noeske said. Scientists think there were more galaxies earlier in the universe's history than there are today, which is why galaxy estimates are an average over time.
"But those results come from the Hubble [telescope] — the James Webb Space Telescope is starting to speak to these results — which are near Earth, inside of our solar system, and are limited on what they can see by all the stuff in our solar system that adds light to the sky," Gay said. "We do have one spacecraft with a camera that has gotten beyond all the garbage within our solar system, and that's the New Horizons spacecraft."
A 2021 study used the camera aboard New Horizons to measure the total amount of light in various patches of sky and estimated how many galaxies would be needed to create that much light.
"And suddenly, as they're outside of all the light sources in our solar system, they realize we don't need as many galaxies as we thought," Gay said. "And so their estimates put us at, like, 200 billion, maybe even 100 billion galaxies in the visible universe.
"So somewhere between 2 trillion galaxies at the top edge and 100 billion at the lower edge is the number of galaxies in our observable universe," she said.
If you assume that's 3% — at most — of our universe, you can multiply that range of galaxies to get the total number of galaxies in the universe. If we're seeing less of the universe than we think, there will be a smaller total number of galaxies.
But considering we don't actually know the size of the universe, those estimates are murky. "If it's an infinite universe, you're going to have infinite galaxies," Gay said.
Evidence of Ancient Life on Mars Confirmed by NASA Rover A discovery made by NASA’s Perseverance rover may have just confirmed ancient life on Mars.
Because of the rover’s Mars exploration, scientists have discovered an extremely exciting rock. This rock has evidence suggesting the presence of ancient tiny martians!
A Necessary Clarification The NASA scientists working on the Perseverance rover mission wish to clarify that they are not claiming to have definitely found life on Mars. However, the rover has just found a rock that is very likely to have fossilized remains of microbial martians within it.
Kathryn Stack Morgan, the mission’s deputy project scientist, explains, “What we are saying is that we have a potential biosignature on Mars.”
What is a Biosignature? According to Morgan, a biosignature is a structure, composition, or texture in a rock that has the potential of being of biological origin.
The rock that Perseverance has just discovered is being dubbed Cheyava Falls by scientists. Cheyava Falls was likely part of an ancient martian river delta. It has features left behind from microbes—from when the area was wet and warm several billion years ago.
The Possibility of Finding Life on Mars Martian rocks could hold important clues about ancient life on Mars. Scientists have long-wondered if there was life on the planet when it had flowing water and a dense atmosphere.
Kenneth Farley, the mission’s project scientist and a professor of geochemistry at the California Institute of Technology, said that the Cheyava Falls discovery “is, for me at least, the most compelling rock that we have collected so far.” The scientists hope to bring the rock to Earth for study. According to Dr. Farley, if a sample is successfully brought back home, “it has the potential to really get at the question.”
Finding Organic Compounds Organic compounds provide the building blocks for life. Perseverance’s instruments detected organic compounds within Cheyava Falls.
Mineral deposits of calcium sulfate in the rock appear to have been deposited by flowing water. Liquid water is another necessary component for life as we know it.
Leopard Spotted Rocks Another interesting find on the rock are small leopard-spot-like shapes. These rock spots are small whitish splotches—about a millimeter in size—that have black rings around them.
The spots’ black rings contain iron phosphate. Additionally, the ancient chemical reactions that created the leopard spots could also have provided energy for microbes.
The Importance of Organic Compounds Molecules that contain carbon and hydrogen are called organic compounds. The detection of organic compounds means that the presence of life is likely.
However, the presence of organic compounds in the Cheyava Falls rock could have many possible explanations. For example, organic compounds can also be created by geological processes like hydrothermal events, which are not connected to the presence of life.
An important part of Perseverance’s mission is to drill samples of a variety of interesting Mars rocks. Then, a future mission is planned to bring samples back to Earth for scientists to study.
The variety of rocks that have been collected by Perseverance have the potential to answer a wide variety of questions about the Red Planet. Dr. Farley made sure to note that just because they hadn’t found biosignatures until now, it doesn’t mean that the mission had been a disappointment.
A Long and Costly Trip Home Unfortunately, getting the samples back to Earth is turning out to be a herculean task. The Mars sample return mission has hit major developmental and cost difficulties. It is years behind schedule and billions of dollars over budget.
Bill Nelson, the NASA administrator, explained, “The bottom line is that $11 billion is too expensive… and not returning samples until 2040 is unacceptably too long.” What NASA chooses to do about the sample return mission will affect the future of Mars exploration. “We’re all in the same holding pattern waiting to see what might transpire,” Dr. Farley said.
Eventual Further Research The Perseverance rover’s movements are limited, so scientists cannot give a more definite answer about the presence of life on Mars… until they are able to get the samples back to Earth. However, Perseverance is continuing to traverse Mars.
This discovery of a potential biosignature is very exciting, and the Perseverance rover’s findings may have just changed what we know about Mars. Alas, until the NASA scientists come up with a plan to get the samples back to Earth, we’ll just have to wait for upcoming updates.
Academic involvement in the study of unidentified anomalous phenomena(UAP) is helping to progress the once-taboo subject beyond the realm of speculation, according to a group of humanities scholars who are now pushing for deeper involvement from professionals across a diverse range of disciplines.
The study of UAP, once largely avoided by the academic community, has recently seen the entry of a growing number of scholars from the humanities, social sciences, and natural sciences. Further bolstered by the United States Department of Defense’s renewed engagement in UAP investigations, studies of aerial mysteries have recently seen a pronounced increase in serious academic inquiry, driven by the desire to understand the implications of reported incidents and their impact across various disciplines.
Now, the Society for UAP Studies, a nonprofit 501 (c)(3) organization that aims to unite academics and professionals who, according to its website, “are committed to advancing the study of the UAP through rigorous scholarly engagement,” will be hosting an online summer symposium that will address how professionals can help advance our understanding of these perplexing phenomena.
“The purpose of this is to organize a broad array of academic fields, perspectives, and discourses that are in various ways concerned with understanding—more deeply and more rigorously—the subject of UAP,” said Dr. Michael Cifone, a professor of philosophy and founder of the Society for UAP Studies, who also serves as its CEO and editor of its official publication, Limina -The Journal of UAP Studies.
According to Cifone, one of the society’s goals is to encourage interdisciplinary dialog between humanists and scientists who approach the UAP phenomenon in different ways and unite researchers on what he calls “the more metatheoretical questions of how to study the phenomenon.”
Despite the recent focus on scientific and military engagement with UAP, Cifone told The Debrief that the phenomenon presents challenges that also impact the humanities and political science, as well as the inquiries of historians, anthropologists, and professionals in a variety of other disciplines.
“With an event like this, we have an opportunity for more involvement from the humanities,” Cifone said, which he believes will provide an opportunity to learn ways those who work in this academic area can contribute to our growing knowledge of the topic.
Dr. Christian Peters, Managing Director at Bremen International Graduate School of Social Sciences (BIGSSS) and a member of the Society’s board of advisors, says another of the challenges of bringing the humanities more deeply into investigations of UAP involves not only identifying and characterizing UAP, but also to a degree the discipline’s own past challenges with self-identification.
“The thing with us in the social sciences is we haven’t really decided whether we belong to the humanities or to the sciences,” Peters said. “We’re kind of a mixed breed.”
Peters told The Debrief that many of the current processes and approaches being applied in the study of UAP are shaped by the contexts of military and scientific institutions, which are driven by various ambitions and interests that, according to Peters, highlight the influence of social sciences in understanding what is considered truth and reality.
“We do have something in the social sciences, which is called social constructivism that relates to the fact that basically everything that is dealing with realities and truths and ambitions is socially constructed,” Peters said. “There are a lot of arguments going on looking at the current processes about concepts like disclosure, which has become some sort of a ‘signal word’ for the discussion that takes place at the moment.”
“But you can look at disclosure from a more distant political theory perspective,” Peters told The Debrief, “and looking at that as being the play between the unveiling and the hiding in modern and in ancient statehood.”
“There’s a lot that needs to be said about these processes,” he added. In line with these perspectives, Peters will coordinate a workshop for the Society’s summer event with historian Greg Eghigian, which examines the UAP issue from the perspectives of history, political science, and political theory.
“There is a big movement going on with serious people working in different fields,” Peters told The Debrief. “I don’t think we’re going to find an interdisciplinary approach, but we will start to facilitate the discussion that needs to take place.”
Along with interdisciplinary dialogue, Eghigian told The Debrief that another aim of the Society’s event involves another of the subject’s most enduring problems.
“Speculation about UAP is often unmoored from any empirically sound and self-critical research,” Eghigian said. “The conference seeks to address this shortcoming by placing multidisciplinary scholarship about the subject center stage.”
Along with Peters and Eghigian’s workshop, several others that address various approaches toward studying UAP will be featured, including a session that focuses on the application of citizen science.
“The UAP Citizen Science Workshop is bringing together scientists from the UAP field and surveying the available resources and best practices for citizen science in general,” said Dan Williams, who coordinates the Society’s official Citizen Science Working Group.
Williams, who will lead the workshop, says such resources include SciStarter, Zooniverse, the NASA Citizen Science Seed Funding Program, commercial satellite Earth Observation imagery and analytics, ground-based instrumentation, smartphone apps, and self-supervised machine learning, or what he calls “needle-in-a-haystack” technologies.
“We hope the workshop participants can then author a paper on best practices and identify several citizen science projects of general interest. We have several members from the recent National Science Foundation’s ASTRO-ACCEL-sponsored UAP workshop participating, and we hope our workshop also advances their goal of forming a UAP citizen science working group,” Williams told The Debrief.
“The study of UAP deals with incomplete, inaccurate, and even at times deceptive information,” said Joshua Pierson, D.S.S., a career investigator who is also an advisor to the Society for UAP Studies. “The beauty of having a conference and an organization that focuses on bringing the social sciences and the humanities to bear is really where we start being able to assess what is inaccurate and incomplete,” Pierson said.
“Except now, instead of taking a practitioner’s approach, we have people who can think deeply on the subject to help inform some of the best models and methods to approach the information that we get on UAP,” Pierson told The Debrief.
Pierson says that in addition to applying the best models and research methods, a collective aim of academic groups like the Society for UAP Studies is also to define the phenomena more accurately. However, along with framing the phenomenon in academic terms, part of the aim of studying UAP from a humanities perspective also involves recognizing how people relate to UAP experiences and what overall impact the subject has on individuals, as well as at the societal level.
“UAP have profound effects on the lives of those who witness them, and they also stimulate important questions about the nature of knowledge itself and the limitations of ourselves as knowers,” said Dr. Kim Engels, an Associate Professor of Philosophy at Molloy University who is also on the Society’s Advisory Board. “Our conference is offering a space for philosophers and theologians to weigh in on these important dimensions of the UAP conversation.”
“One of the most important things I think the humanities supplies—at least the philosophy of science, my own tradition—is a sort of critical perspective on the ways in which people have come to interpret and study UAP,” Professor Cifone told The Debrief.
“I think we’re at an interesting moment here in terms of the science of UAP. There’s a kind of a turning point right here that I think we’re witnessing, and a science is forming out of a history of kind of abortive and failed attempts to bring to bear some kind of systematic scientific engagement with the question,” Cifone said.
If Cifone is correct, and the efforts by organizations like his, as well as those currently being undertaken by other academic groups and government agencies, are pointing to the emergence of a new area of study in the sciences, then groups like the Society may be some of the best-equipped to help guide the process.
“You know, there’s this in-between space that I think the humanities is really good at negotiating,” Cifone told The Debrief, adding that academics like those who will participate in the Society’s forthcoming conference could be particularly well suited to help the scientific community navigate the various challenges presented by such a complex field of study.
“This is, I think, where humanists can bring the scientists together,” Cifone said, “to discuss that kind of a difficult aspect to the phenomenon.”
The Society for UAP Studies will hold its online Summer Conference 2024, titled “Varieties and Trajectories of Contemporary UAP Studies,” from August 16 to August 18, 2024. Registration details and other information about the event can be found on the Society’s website.
Physicist Michio Kaku proposesthe existence of other dimensions, also known as parallel universes, coexisting alongside our own reality. Within these dimensions, it is plausible that there are beings or entities living alongside us, despite our inability to perceive them. While the concept of alternate dimensions or universes may seem far-fetched to some, it is intricately connected to the subject of Unidentified Aerial Phenomena (UAPs), commonly referred to as UFO phenomena.
We live in a four-dimensional world (if time is included), but scientists propose there are more dimensions. However, they do not believe there can exist more than 11 dimensions because conditions become unstable and particles naturally collapse back down into 10 or 11 dimensions. The 12th dimension, for example, introduces a second time.
“Our understanding of reality is not complete, by far,” says Stanford University physicist Andrei Linde. “Reality exists independently of us.” If they exist, those universes are separated from ours, unreachable and undetectable by any direct measurement (at least so far). And that makes some experts question whether the search for a multiverse can ever be truly scientific.
In the realm of science, our quest for understanding alternate or higher dimensions remains ongoing. However, within the field of UFOlogy, intriguing cases have emerged suggesting the existence of not just other dimensions, but also the presence of entities residing within them. These beings seem to possess the ability to manipulate a bridge connecting their realm to ours, enabling them to embark on regular visits to our world.
Crashed UFO that ‘distorted space and time’
A very strange UFO case has been shared by American attorney Daniel Sheehan with Daily Mail. Sheehan involved in bringing UFO whistleblowers to Congress, claimed that a whistleblower told him a mind-boggling tale about a recovered crashed UFO. He revealed that a crashed UFO recovered by the US military had distorted space-time and was “bigger on the inside.” The whistleblower has reportedly briefed Senate Intelligence Committee staff on the matter.
Daniel P. Sheehan. Image credit: danielpsheehan.com
According to Sheehan, one of the alleged recoveries described by the insider involved a 30-foot saucer partially embedded in the earth. When attempts were made to remove it using a bulldozer, the craft exhibited unusual behavior. As it was being pulled out, it seemingly detached in a pie slice-shaped section, suggesting that it was constructed in a unique way.
The anonymous whistleblower then entered the craft and was astonished to find that the interior was as large as a football stadium, while the exterior was only about 30 feet in diameter. The experience inside caused disorientation and nausea due to the vast size discrepancy. Furthermore, upon exiting the craft in a few minutes, the whistleblower found that four hours had passed outside, indicating time distortion as well.
Sheehan mentions that the craft’s distortion of space and time is consistent with the theories proposed by physicists regarding advanced propulsion systems. These theories suggest that warping space-time could be used to counteract the effects of gravity and achieve advanced forms of propulsion. However, Sheehan does not provide further specific details, such as the location or date of the incident, and admits to being unable to provide concrete evidence to support these claims.
Moreover, on Jesse Michels’ show, astronomer and UFO researcher Jacques Vallee discussed another UFO case that includes experiencing another dimension by the witness. Valle said: “There was one case in San Jose. A woman had seen something over her house. It was a big disc, and I say, ‘How big was it?’ And she says, ‘Well, it was about the same size as her house. It was, you know, just like that.’ Then I say, ‘Well, when you went inside, you said, uh, you know, there was this being, and the being took you on a staircase.’ I say, ‘Where did the staircase go?’ Well, the staircase went up the side of this big round room. I say, ‘How would you compare it?’ Well, like a movie house, you know, like an M5 theater. I said, ‘That’s bigger than your house.’”
Luis Elizondo, the man who managed the UFO program inside the Pentagon, explains how space-time distortion works and hints that we can manipulate this physics for technological advancement. In an interview with George Knapp in 2018, Elizondo explains:
“Space-time is something we observe in the natural world all the time, especially in relation to gravity and GPS satellites. The clocks on these satellites need constant calibration. Even though the clocks on the satellites are identical to the ones on the ground station, they still require regular calibration. The reason for this is the effect of Earth’s gravity on space-time. The clocks on Earth run slightly slower compared to the clocks on the platforms above Earth.
How is this possible if the clocks are the same? Well, it’s because the closer you are to a massive object, like Earth, the more space-time warps. This phenomenon is explained by the theory of general relativity, which boils down to using the equation E=mc². Essentially, it means that a significant amount of mass or energy warps space-time. When you approach a supermassive object like the sun, the distortion becomes even greater. In fact, near a black hole, time becomes so distorted that it virtually stops.
We have observed this phenomenon through gravitational lensing when studying distant galaxies. We can actually see the effects of gravity on space-time with our own eyes, so it’s a scientific fact, not fiction. The question now is how we can manipulate this physics for technological advancement. Potentially, we could warp space-time in a way that allows us to travel from point A to point B more quickly.”
Is it possible that an advanced extraterrestrial civilization has already accomplished this kind of technology and has been using it to visit our world? Or perhaps we already have such technology?
In 2021, leaked documents revealed that the US Navy had conducted experiments on various far-fetched technologies, including a “space modification weapon.” These documents, disclosed by The War Zone, detailed the research carried out by the Naval Air Warfare Center Aircraft Division (NAWCAD) between 2017 and 2019. The most interesting thing is that the technology written in those documents discusses propulsion system that defies gravity, or to devastating weapons that bends the laws of physics and craft that alters the fabric of time and space.
The man behind all the patents is Dr. Salvatore Cezar Pais, who is an aerospace engineer at the Naval Air Warfare Center Aircraft Division (NAWCAD). He has four patents registered in his name that contain the source of technology that would change the world. In these patents, a “Spacetime Modification Weapon” (SMW, a weapon that can make the Hydrogen bomb seem more like a firecracker, in comparison) is mentioned.
Dr. Salvatore Pais is a physicist and aerospace engineer with the US Navy. In 2019 his inventions of 3 highly advanced forms of technology were granted patents.
Are these patents a cover for the reverse-engineered extraterrestrial technology? The Navy’s objective in testing this conceptual system was to keep pace with similar programs being developed in China. The researchers believed that the space modification weapon could revolutionize power and propulsion systems. The technology was based on the “Pais effect” aimed to push the boundaries of science.
Pais made ambitious claims about the potential of this technology, suggesting that it could lead to a propulsion system defying gravity or devastating weapons that bend the laws of physics. He even outlined plans for a “hybrid aerospace-underwater craft” capable of altering the fabric of time and space.
The Navy’s aerospace research enterprise supported Pais’s patents, stating that they filed them to keep up with similar technological advancements being pursued by the Chinese military. The “space modification weapon” described in the documents was envisioned to release extremely high energy levels, surpassing the destructive power of a Hydrogen bomb.
However, the experiments conducted between 2017 and 2019 were inconclusive. The elusive Pais effect was neither observed nor disproven during this period. The Pais effect refers to a theoretical physics concept that involves the controlled movement of highly electrically charged matter. If proven possible, it could enable the creation of powerful energy fields capable of fundamentally engineering the fabric of reality.
It is unclear whether the US Navy is continuing its experiments on the Pais effect or if the project has been discontinued entirely. None of the futuristic technologies described in the leaked UFO patents were developed, leaving the ultimate fate of the space modification weapon and related concepts uncertain.
Ondanks tientallen jaren onderzoek blijft Antarctica een van de meest mysterieuze plekken op aarde en tegelijkertijd de sleutel tot een beter begrip van bepaalde fenomenen die onze planeet beïnvloeden. Een van de meest bestudeerde kwesties betreft het smelten van de Antarctische gletsjers en de mogelijke stijging van het zeeniveau. Onlangs nog is een wetenschappelijke expeditie erin geslaagd om het onderwatergedeelte van een 350 meter dikke ijsplaat te onderzoeken en daarbij onverwachte formaties te vinden die “op kunstwerken lijken”. Laten we eens kijken wat dat betekent!
Meer dan 1000 kilometer onder een ijsplaat
Filip Stedt/University of Gothenburg
Er zijn verschillende redenen om een ijsplaat op Antarctica van dichterbij te bekijken, en dan met name de Dotson-ijsplaat. Deze enorme drijvende ijsmassa, ongeveer 350 meter dik en met een diepe holte eronder, is al bekend bij onderzoekers, vooral vanwege de invloed die het kan hebben op de zeespiegelstijging. Toch is de meest recente verkenning eerder uniek dan zeldzaam: wetenschappers gebruikten een onbemande onderzeeër en reisden meer dan 1.000 kilometer in de holte. Met verbazingwekkende resultaten.
Dankzij de verkenning van de Dotson-ijsplaat bevestigden de onderzoekers hypotheses over het smelten van ijs, dat veel sneller gaat waar er meer onderwaterstromingen zijn. Wat het team van wetenschappers echter verbaasde, was een andere ontdekking met betrekking tot de basis van de gletsjer: in plaats van er glad uit te zien, zijn er verschillende formaties te zien die lijken op reliëfs, valleien en zandduinen. Maar waar hangt dat van af?
Het bestuderen van het smelten van gletsjers op Antarctica
Anna Wåhlin/Science Advances
In afwachting van meer informatie over de formaties op de bodem van de Dotsonijsplaat, kunnen onderzoekers alleen maar speculeren. Niemand had ooit een basis verwacht die zo rijk is aan details en bijzonderheden, zoals Karen Heywood, co-auteur van de studie gepubliceerd in Science Advances, ook erkent:
Het was een spannend project om aan te werken. Toen Anna [Wåhlin] de eerste afbeeldingen van de onderkant van de Dotson-ijsplaat stuurde, waren we enthousiast: niemand had het ooit eerder gezien. Maar we waren ook verbijsterd: er zaten scheuren en draaikolken in het ijs die we niet hadden verwacht. Het leek meer op een kunstwerk!
Op dit moment wordt gedacht dat deze formaties afhankelijk kunnen zijn van de onderliggende waterstromen, die op hun beurt worden beïnvloed door de rotatie van de aarde, maar het is nog te vroeg om daar uitspraken over te doen. Tegelijkertijd hebben onderzoekers enkele antwoorden gevonden over de Antarctische ijsplaten en hoe smeltende gletsjers hun veranderingen beïnvloeden.
Toekomstperspectieven
Filip Stedt/University of Gothenburg
Dankzij de kartering uitgevoerd door de onbemande onderzeeër Ran erkenden onderzoekers de behoefte aan nieuwe hypothesen over het smelten van gletsjers. Antarctische ijsplaten spelen een overheersende rol in deze verschijnselen, maar ze doen dit op basis van nog onbekende processen. Dankzij de verkenning van de Dotson-ijsplaat zijn er al veel gegevens verzameld, maar het zal noodzakelijk zijn om te wachten met het verzamelen van nieuwe: tijdens een missie raakte Ran verdwaald op de bodem van de holte. Volgens Anna Wåhlin, hoofdauteur van het onderzoek,
we hebben niet alles gekregen waar we op hoopten. Deze wetenschappelijke vooruitgang werd mogelijk gemaakt dankzij de unieke onderzeeër Ran. Dit onderzoek is noodzakelijk om de toekomst van de Antarctische ijskap te begrijpen, en we hopen Ran te vervangen en dit belangrijke werk voort te zetten.
Tot op de dag van vandaag blijft Antarctica een van de meest mysterieuze gebieden van onze planeet en toch een fundamentele plek voor wetenschappelijk onderzoek. Resultaten zoals die door wetenschappers dankzij Ran zijn verkregen, vertegenwoordigen een ongelooflijk eindpunt, maar laten tegelijkertijd zien wat het te volgen pad is. En die moet worden afgelegd op ijsplaten... of zelfs daaronder.
NASA's MRO photographs suspected underground base at Mars crater edge
NASA's MRO photographs suspected underground base at Mars crater edge
Researcher Jean Ward, while analyzing a Mars image acquired by NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter on March 2, 2010, discovered an unusual anomaly in Noachis Terra, a region of Mars north of Asimov, also known as the "Land of Noah."
Using Topaz Labs' Gigapixel to upscale the image for better detail, Ward observed the anomaly, measuring approximately 250 to 300 meters in length, resembles what looks like an artificially created structure with multiple right angles. Ward suggests it could outline a 'tanker-shaped' anomaly.
Some suggest that the anomaly could be part of an ancient road with a wall and might be part of a longer route that has been partially covered by landslides or other natural occurrences but others say that it is only the wall that stands out supporting the theory that it could be the upper part of an underground base built at/inside the rim of a crater.
Just imagine if it is an underground Mars base, the location would be suitable for UFOs to take off or land on landing pads inside the crater, which are connected to the base. This would not be the first time UFOs have been observed descending into or taking off from craters.
Whatever its origin, this anomaly does not appear to be a natural formation.
A bizarre aerial phenomenon captured on video over Curitiba, Brazil is the latest to capture the attention of “ufologists,” people who track sightings of unidentified flying objects as evidence of alien visitors. A pair of videos uploaded to YouTube shows a triangular object hovering in the sky above the southern Brazilian city from different angles.
The first, shot by Zona Desconhecida, has garnered over 31,000 views since it was uploaded on July 21. As the camera zooms in, the object appears to sport a chassis-like landing gear that vanishes later in the clip. The videographer initially dismissed it as a drone, but the lack of visible propellers and its peculiar trajectory quickly dispelled that notion.
A second video provides an even clearer view of the enigmatic craft, revealing seemingly transparent or shiny sides and a shape that subtly morphs mid-flight. The footage has racked up over 25,000 views on YouTube and spread like wildfire across other social media platforms, with some breathlessly declaring it "the clearest UFO video in history."
Armchair analysts have pored over every frame, noting how the object appears to inflate and deflate as it moves. This observation has sparked wild speculation, with some suggesting it could be a biological ship, a multidimensional living entity, or—of course—an alien spacecraft.
But some internet sleuths claim the object is simply a massive star-shaped balloon, attributing the "landing gear" to image distortion caused by the camera angle. Skeptics also counter that the video quality—however lauded by some—is insufficient to draw definitive conclusions.
UFO FILMADO EM CURITIBA ERA APENAS UM BALÃO Um cinegrafista capturou o momento em que um UFO pode ser visto pairando no céu em um vídeo que foi postado em seu canal do YouTube na quinta-feira, 25 de julho. 👉🏻 Continue lendo:https://t.co/FBEHFUaHxp --------------------------- 👽… pic.twitter.com/9HVIyp8zeB
— DESVENDANDO MISTÉRIOS com Thiago Ticchetti (@TLTufologo) July 29, 2024
The object's shape and movement certainly bear a striking resemblance to oddly shaped balloons that have been launched in Brazil before. A video from January 11, 2013, shows Brazilians releasing similar balloon-like objects into the sky.
According to local media, the Brazilian Air Force has reportedly been unable to verify the images. The agency did not immediately respond to a request for comments from Decrypt.
This latest incident adds another chapter to Curitiba's history with unexplained aerial phenomena. The city, with a population of 1.7 million people, holds the distinction of having the most UFO sightings in Brazil, according to declassified government records. Between 1952 and 2022, at least 861 UFO sightings were logged across Brazil, with Curitiba accounting for a whopping 80 of those reports.
One of Brazil's most infamous UFO encounters occurred on May 19, 1986, when multiple sightings were reported across several locations in a single night.
The event was significant enough to prompt the Brazilian Air Force to hold a press conference, during which a Brigadier famously stated, "It's not a question of believing or not [in aliens]. We can only give technical information. There are several hypotheses. Technically, I would tell you that we have no explanation."
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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.
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