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...
10-08-2024
The Alien Orb Summoner: Chris Bledsoe’s Miraculous Encounter and Healing Powers
The Alien Orb Summoner: Chris Bledsoe’s Miraculous Encounter and Healing Powers
Chris Bledsoe’s experiences with unidentified aerial phenomena (UAPs) have transformed his life and captured the attention of both believers and skeptics worldwide. In a story that blends the extraordinary with the spiritual, Bledsoe recounts a series of encounters that not only changed his perception of reality but also seemingly cured him of a debilitating disease. Dubbed “The Alien Orb Summoner,” Bledsoe’s tale raises intriguing questions about the nature of these phenomena and their potential impact on human health.
The Initial Encounter: A Night to Remember
On January 8, 2007, Chris Bledsoe was facing a personal and financial crisis. At 46, he had gone from living a comfortable life to struggling to provide for his family. Desperate for a reprieve, he took his son, Chris Jr., and some friends on a fishing trip to the Cape Fear River in North Carolina.
While his companions fished, Bledsoe wandered away, seeking solitude. As he climbed a nearby hill, he witnessed a sight that defied explanation: what appeared to be two suns in the sky, soon joined by a third. These glowing orbs, approximately 40 to 50 feet in diameter, radiated a fiery red and orange light.
Terrified, Bledsoe hid in the grass, watching the orbs hover silently. When he eventually returned to his group, he was shocked to discover that several hours had passed, though he believed he had only been gone for about 20 minutes. This mysterious loss of time was only the beginning of a night filled with extraordinary events.
The Frightening Ordeal of Chris Jr.
While Bledsoe grappled with his inexplicable experience, his son, Chris Jr., embarked on his own terrifying encounter. Concerned about his father’s prolonged absence, Chris Jr. set off to search for him. Along the way, he spotted two red orbs, which eventually approached him, transforming into two small beings approximately three feet tall with glowing red eyes.
Paralyzed by fear, Chris Jr. was unable to move or cry out for help. The beings seemed to observe him before disappearing into the night, leaving him deeply shaken. When father and son reunited, they recounted their experiences, both grappling with the bizarre and frightening events of the evening.
A Night of UAP Sightings
The group’s ordeal continued as they witnessed additional UAP activity. Multiple orbs appeared in the sky, performing erratic maneuvers and eventually landing nearby. Overcome with fear, Bledsoe, his son, and their friends fled the area in their truck, pursued by one of the orbs.
The orb hovered above their vehicle before shooting off into the night sky, leaving the group in a state of shock and confusion. As they returned home, the reality of what they had witnessed began to set in, raising more questions than answers.
The Mysterious Healing of Crohn’s Disease
In the days following the encounter, Bledsoe experienced a remarkable transformation. For years, he had suffered from severe Crohn’s disease, a debilitating intestinal condition that caused frequent and painful symptoms. Yet, after the night of the UAP encounter, Bledsoe found himself symptom-free and no longer reliant on medication.
This unexpected healing sparked speculation about a possible connection between the UAP encounters and his improved health. The profound change in his condition seemed to defy medical explanation, leading Bledsoe to believe that the beings he encountered may have played a role in his recovery.
A Spiritual Awakening
Bledsoe’s encounters have also had a significant spiritual dimension. He describes receiving messages from a mysterious female entity who granted him insight and understanding about the phenomena. These experiences have drawn parallels to the work of Edgar Cayce, a renowned spiritualist known for his healing abilities and psychic insights.
Bledsoe believes that his encounters are not merely extraterrestrial but are deeply spiritual, offering a glimpse into a greater cosmic order. This perspective has led him to view the phenomena as interconnected with human consciousness and spirituality, rather than simply as alien encounters.
The Healing of Others
Bledsoe’s alleged healing powers extend beyond his own experience. Word spread about his ability to heal, and others began seeking his help. One notable case involved a woman named Sharon, who was suffering from stage IV lung cancer. After visiting Bledsoe and witnessing an orb during a prayer session, Sharon’s cancer reportedly went into remission, leaving only a tiny speck behind.
This apparent miracle, along with other similar accounts, has fueled interest in Bledsoe’s story and the potential connection between UAPs and healing. While these claims remain controversial and unverified by mainstream science, they continue to inspire curiosity and debate.
The Struggle for Acceptance
Despite the extraordinary nature of his experiences, Bledsoe has faced significant skepticism and ridicule. His initial attempts to share his story were met with disbelief, and media portrayals often cast him as delusional. The negative attention affected his family, with his children facing mockery at school.
However, over time, Bledsoe’s story has gained credibility through witness testimonies and investigations by organizations like the Mutual UFO Network (MUFON). As more people come forward with their own experiences and evidence, his account has become a touchstone for discussions about UAPs and their implications.
VIDEO:
The Alien Orb Summoner: How a Close Encounter Granted Divine Healing Powers | Chris Bledsoe
Chris Bledsoe’s journey from despair to hope, from illness to healing, and from skepticism to belief, is a testament to the complexity of human encounters with the unknown. His story challenges our understanding of reality, blurring the lines between science, spirituality, and the unexplained.
As interest in UAPs continues to grow, Bledsoe remains a compelling figure at the intersection of these domains, offering a unique perspective on the potential for UAPs to impact our lives in profound ways. Whether viewed as a modern-day prophet or a subject of scientific curiosity, Chris Bledsoe’s tale is a fascinating exploration of the intersection between the earthly and the divine.
As interest in UAPs continues to grow, Bledsoe remains a compelling figure at the intersection of these domains, offering a unique perspective on the potential for UAPs to impact our lives in profound ways. Whether viewed as a modern-day prophet or a subject of scientific curiosity, Chris Bledsoe’s tale is a fascinating exploration of the intersection between the earthly and the divine.
Scientists Discover New Geological Link Between Earth and Venus
Ishtar Terra is a complex geological region on Venus. New research shows it may have formed through processes similar to Earth's. Image Credit: NASA/JPL/USGS – http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA00007, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=18235544
Scientists Discover New Geological Link Between Earth and Venus
Venus is sometimes called Earth’s sister planet because of their shared physical, geological, and atmospheric features. Scientists have discovered something new about Venus’ geology that’s reminding us of the similarities between the two planets. We have to look deep inside both planets to see what the researchers found.
There are a few reasons why the pair of planets are sometimes called twins. They have several characteristics in common:
They’re inner Solar System neighbours.
They’re both rocky.
They’re roughly the same size and mass.
They both have few craters, implying young surfaces.
They both have atmospheres and dense clouds.
They both have geological similarities and surface features like volcanoes, mountains, plateaus, and plains.
New research published in Nature Geoscience focuses on the last item in that list. Its title is “Ishtar Terra highlands on Venus raised by craton-like formation mechanisms.” The lead author is Fabio Capitanio, an Associate Professor from the Monash University School of Earth, Atmosphere and Environment.
Ishtar Terra is one of three large highland regions on Venus. Its topography includes mountains, plains, and plateaus. The Maxwell Montes mountain chain is in Ishtar Terra, and it’s about 11 km (6.8 mi) high, compared to Mt. Everest, which is 8.8 kilometres (5.5 mi).
Ishtar Terra has highly complex terrain and appears to be heavily deformed. These are indications that Venus underwent powerful geological activity in its past.
This view of Venus is centred on its north pole. Ishtar Terra is the red region just below the image’s centre. The white region is Maxwell Montes, and the left-most red lobe is Lakshmi Planum. Image Credit: NASA/JPL/USGS – http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA00007,Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=18235544
Ishtar Terra also contains Lakshmi Planum, a two million square kilometre plateau about four km high and surrounded by extremely deformed terrain. It’s made of smooth lava flows and features two large shield volcanoes. Colette Patera is about 130 km in diameter, and Sacajawea Patera is about 200 km across and 1-2 km deep. Though Venus is tectonically inactive now, scientists think that ancient tectonic activity is responsible for the region’s wild topography.
Click on the image to explore an interactive 3D map of Ishtar Terra at Sketchfab by user v7x. Image Credit: Sketchfab/v7x
The new research in Nature Geoscience zeroes in on a specific part of geology called cratons. Cratons are the ancient geological cores of Earth’s continents. They’re stable parts of Earth’s lithosphere that are usually found in the center of the planet’s continental plates. Cratons have survived Earth’s extensive history of continental rifting and merging. They’re typically composed of extremely durable basement rock and have deep roots that can extend several hundred kilometres into the planet’s mantle.
Some cratons date from the Precambrian era, more than 2.5 billion years ago. Others may be even older and could date back to the Earth’s early days during the Hadean and Archaean Eons.
In this new work, Capitanio and his co-researchers used data from NASA’s Magellan spacecraft and high-performance computer simulations to investigate the formation of Ishtar Terra more deeply. They found that Ishtar Terra may have formed the same way that Earth’s cratons may have formed.
“The structures emerging in this model provide topography, gravity and crustal thicknesses remarkably comparable to the plateaus of Venus.”
From “Ishtar Terra highlands on Venus raised by craton-like formation mechanisms.”
On Earth, plateaus and belts of mountains like Ishtar Terra would clearly result from colliding continental plates. Ishtar Terra is similar to the Tibetan Plateau, and continental collision is the primary driver behind its formation. Something else must be behind Ishtar Terra and Venus’s other terrae because the planet lacks plate tectonics. But Ishtar Terra shares something particular with Earth. It has a thick crustal floor similar to Earth’s cratons.
This suggests that the planets have or had processes in common. Ishtar Terra and Venus’ other terrae may have risen from the planet’s hot interior. While there are several competing explanations for the formation of Earth’s cratons, one is the molten plume model. It states that rising plumes of molten rock came from deep within Earth’s mantle and built up thick layers with the cratons on top.
“The study challenges our understanding of how planets evolve,” lead author Capitanio said. “We did not expect Venus, with its scorching 460°C surface temperature and lack of plate tectonics, to possess such complex geological features.”
While Venus doesn’t have plate tectonics, it does have a hot lithosphere. The planet’s surface temperature is about 460°C (860°F). The heat extends into the lithosphere, which is hotter than Earth’s due to Venus’s runaway greenhouse effect. The surface simply can’t shed heat the way Earth does. The high heat means that Venus’s lithosphere is probably thinner than Earth’s. While Earth’s lithosphere can be as thick as 200 km, maybe even thicker, Venus’s is only about 50-100 km thick. Since it’s so much thinner, it’s also weaker.
“Venus’s hot lithosphere might make it a good analogue of early Earth and might enable the same types of continent-forming processes that occurred on Earth,” the researchers write in a briefing from Nature. “Our focus was on Ishtar Terra, the broadest of the plateaus, for which we found that the topography, crustal thicknesses and gravity signals are consistent with our simulations when the modelled lithosphere is about 10–50 times weaker than Earth’s.”
This figure from the research compares observations (a, c, e) with modelled results (b, d, f). The columns are topography, crust thickness, and gravity anomaly at 194 million years. “The structures emerging in this model provide topography, gravity and crustal thicknesses remarkably comparable to the plateaus ofVenus,” the researchers explain. Image Credit: Capitiano et al. 2024.
The thin lithosphere favours “the emplacement of a thick magmatic crust on top of a deep residual depleted mantle,” the authors write in their research.
“This finding provides a fascinating new perspective on Venus and its potential links to early Earth,” Capitanio said. “The features we found on Venus are strikingly similar to Earth’s early continents, suggesting that the dynamics of Venus’ past may have been more similar to Earth’s than previously thought.”
The research shows that despite their differences, divergent rocky planets can share underlying mechanisms. Spotting these cratons or craton-associated mechanisms on another planet can help scientists understand Earth. “By studying similar features on Venus, we hope to unlock the secrets of Earth’s early history,” Associate Professor Capitanio said.
Venus is like the Solar System’s plan B. If life couldn’t make it work on Earth, maybe it could’ve worked on Venus. There’s evidence that Venus may have once had liquid water and used to be in the habitable zone, though that’s not certain. In any case, while Earth is resplendent with life, Venus is far too hot.
Earth’s ancient cratons are a part of Earth’s story. On our planet, geology, life, and the planet’s atmosphere are all intricately connected. By recognizing what Earth and Venus have in common and how they are also so different, researchers can learn more about Earth’s trajectory toward a living planet.
Future missions to Venus are in the works, and they should provide even more explanations for the sister planets’ divergent outcomes.
“Our research has paved the way for future missions to Venus, such as DAVINCI, VERITAS, and EnVision,” Capitanio said. “These missions will provide further insights into Venus’ geological history and its connection to Earth.”
The Moon’s Atmosphere Comes from Space Weathering How do you get an atmosphere at a world that doesn’t have one and can’t keep one? If it’s the Moon, you simply bombard it for millions of years with tiny meteorites. Also, let it si
A future astronaut studies the lunar surface to understand space weathering of the Moon. Courtesy NASA.
How do you get an atmosphere at a world that doesn’t have one and can’t keep one? If it’s the Moon, you simply bombard it for millions of years with tiny meteorites. Also, let it sit in the solar wind and see what happens. Both space-weathering processes create a thin “exosphere” just above the lunar surface.
Scientists call the first process “impact vaporization” and now suspect that it’s a major reason the lunar atmosphere exists. It also helps explain how atmospheric atoms escape from the Moon to space.
A team of scientists at MIT and the University of Chicago recently published a paper describing their research into the space weathering causes of the lunar exosphere. It pinpoints the process of impact vaporization as a major player. “We give a definitive answer that meteorite impact vaporization is the dominant process that creates the lunar atmosphere,” says the study’s lead author, Nicole Nie, an assistant professor in MIT’s Department of Earth, Atmospheric and Planetary Sciences. “The Moon is close to 4.5 billion years old, and through that time the surface has been continuously bombarded by meteorites. We show that eventually, a thin atmosphere reaches a steady state because it’s being continuously replenished by small impacts all over the Moon.”
Tracking the Space Weathering Influence on the Moon’s Atmosphere
Researchers have known about the lunar atmosphere for decades. It was first observed in the 1980s as a layer of atoms hugging close to the surface. The LADEE mission specifically studied that exosphere. The atoms don’t just lie there, however. They bounce around, largely stirred up by constant impacts of tiny objects called micrometeoroids. Those dust-sized particles—along with larger objects smacking into the surface—kick up the lunar soil. That vaporizes some of the atoms of material—including potassium and rubidium. Those atoms are suspended in the thin exosphere. Or, if they get enough velocity in the weak lunar gravity, they escape to space.
The different ways that space weathering can affect the lunar surface. Cartoon by IntrplnetSarah, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0
The MIT/Chicago team members wanted to prove the exosphere is produced by this impact vaporization component of space weathering. So, they analyzed samples of lunar soil collected during the Apollo missions. They zeroed in on the potassium and rubidium content. That’s because those elements vaporize easily. If the Moon’s atmosphere is atoms suspended above the surface, lighter isotopes of those atoms should be more easily lofted. The heavier isotopes are more likely to settle back in the soil. Furthermore, scientists predict that impact vaporization, and ion sputtering, should result in very different isotopic proportions in the soil. The specific ratio of light to heavy isotopes that remain in the soil, for both elements they tested, eventually proved that impact-related vaporization is an important part of exosphere creation.
The Solar Wind’s Effect on the Moon
The solar wind also plays a role in creating the Moon’s exosphere. That occurs as the ionized particles in the solar wind ions interact with the surface and “sputter off” neutral atoms. Not only does this process contribute to the creation of an exosphere, but it also affects the erosion of materials on the Moon. The current MIT/Chicago study, however, pinpoints the constant rain of impacts as a significant contributor and the two processes work together to create the lunar exosphere
“With impact vaporization, most of the atoms would stay in the lunar atmosphere, whereas with ion sputtering, a lot of atoms would be ejected into space,” Nie said. “From our study, we now can quantify the role of both processes, to say that the relative contribution of impact vaporization versus ion sputtering is about 70:30 or larger.”
Space Weathering and Future Missions
So, about 70 percent or more of the lunar exosphere is a product of meteorite impacts. The rest occurs thanks to the incessant influence of the solar wind. While this space weathering activity doesn’t produce anything like a breathable atmosphere that future lunar explorers could breathe, it does give insight into the processes that affect the Moon.
Both meteoritic bombardments and solar wind activity pose continuing risks to lunar visitors and their infrastructure. In addition to simply understanding the evolution of the lunar surface and atmosphere, such studies will be useful to anyone who seeks to build—and live—on the Moon in the future.
New Study Suggests that Our Galaxy is Crowded or Empty. Both are Equally Terrifying!
Gaia's all-sky view of our Milky Way Galaxy and neighbouring galaxies, based on measurements of nearly 1.7 billion stars. The map shows the total brightness and colour of stars observed by the ESA satellite in each portion of the sky between July 2014 and May 2016. Brighter regions indicate denser concentrations of especially bright stars, while darker regions correspond to patches of the sky where fewer bright stars are observed. The colour representation is obtained by combining the total amount of light with the amount of blue and red light recorded by Gaia in each patch of the sky. The bright horizontal structure that dominates the image is the Galactic plane, the flattened disc that hosts most of the stars in our home Galaxy. In the middle of the image, the Galactic centre appears vivid and teeming with stars. More information on: http://sci.esa.int/gaia/60169-gaia-s-sky-in-colour/
New Study Suggests that Our Galaxy is Crowded or Empty. Both are Equally Terrifying!
Is there intelligent life in the Universe? And if so, just how common is it? Or perhaps the question should be, what are the odds that those engaged in the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence (SETI) will encounter it someday? For decades, scientists have hotly debated this topic, and no shortage of ink has been spilled on the subject. From the many papers and studies that have been written on the subject, two main camps have emerged: those who believe life is common in our galaxy (aka. SETI Optimists) and those who maintain that extraterrestrial intelligence is either rare or non-existent (SETI Pessimists).
In a recent paper, David Kipping (Prof. “Cool Worlds” himself) and Geraint Lewis examined this debate more closely and offered a fresh take based on a form of probability analysis known as Jayne’s Experiment. By applying this method to astrobiology and the Drake Equation, they concluded that the existence of intelligent life in our galaxy may be an “all or nothing” proposition. To quote the late and great scientist and science fiction author Arthur C. Clarke: “Two possibilities exist: either we are alone in the Universe, or we are not. Both are equally terrifying.”
In 1961, famed astronomer Frank Drake hosted the first SETI meeting ever at the Greenbank Observatory in West Virginia. In preparation for the event, he created an equation summarizing the challenges SETI researchers faced. This came to be known as the Drake Equation and is expressed mathematically as:
N = R* × fp × ne × fl × fi × fc × L
Where:
N is the number of currently active, communicative civilizations in our galaxy.
R* is the rate at which stars form in our galaxy.
fp is the fraction of stars with planets.
ne is the number of planets that can potentially host life, per star that has planets.
fl is the fraction of the above that actually do develop life of any kind.
fi is the fraction of the above that develop intelligent life.
fc is the fraction of the above that develop the capacity for interstellar communication.
L is the length of time that such communicative civilizations are active.
The Drake Equation was not intended to estimate the number of extraterrestrial civilizations (ETCs) in our galaxy but to stimulate dialogue about SETI. Since Drake first formulated it, the equation has been subject to criticism, additions, and revisions and has often been misrepresented in the process. As Prof. Kipping explained to Universe Today via email, part of the problem is how values are often arbitrarily applied to the parameters:
“Since we don’t know most of the parameters, this is just pure speculation, and it should be labeled as such. Another point often missed is that it represents the mean number of civilizations and, thus, an expectation value of some underlying distribution. These days, it’s become a bit of a sport to critique the Drake equation. Certainly, anyone using it as a calculator should be fairly criticized, but the basic idea is not wrong. There must be some number of civilizations out there, and we could, in principle, collect relevant parameters to calculate it. The issues arise in the exact formulation, which parameters to include, what they really mean, and how to deal with nuances like time variability.”
Jaynes’ Experiment
Edwin Jaynes (1922-1998) was the Wayman Crow Distinguished Professor of Physics at Washington University in St. Louis. In 1968, he imagined an experiment where a person in a lab is presented with a jar containing an unknown and unlabelled compound (chemical X). Along a laboratory bench, there are a large number of beakers filled with water, and the experiment is to test how often chemical X will dissolve within them. Jaynes argued that one should expect the compound to either dissolve in nearly every instance or almost never.
The function of the Haldane prior (F –1(1 – F ) –1) that captures this behavior. Credit: D. Kipping & G. Lewis (2024).
When plotted on a graph, the probability distribution would be bowl-shaped, with values peeking at 0 and 1. As Kipping explained in more detail:
“Jaynes imagined a series of what we call Bernoulli experiments – that is, experiments that return yes/no answers. These could be anything really, but as an example, he imagined dissolving an unknown chemical into a series of beakers containing water and then asking – what fraction of them will dissolve? Another scientist, the legendary John Haldane, had already suggested that an answer of ~50% was unlikely a-priori. One should expect that either nearly all of them will dissolve or hardly any.
“Jaynes rigorously proved that and pioneered many of the tools of objective Bayesian inference. We can equally replace the Bernoulli experiment under consideration to other questions, like what fraction of stars will become a black hole? Before obtaining any observations, an answer of ~50% would be surprising, implying that the distribution of stellar masses is finely balanced such that half are above the critical mass threshold and half below. In reality the answer is one-in-a-thousand, which falls in line with Jayne’s position.”
Because of his immense contributions to the field of statistics, Jaynes is credited with being one of the founders of “Objective Bayesianism.” While his experiment was not intended as such, Kipping and Lewis saw its potential application in astrobiology.
All or Nothing?
In his seminal 1983 paper, “The Great Silence – the Controversy Concerning Extraterrestrial Intelligent Life,” David Brin addressed the ongoing debate regarding the existence of extraterrestrial life. From this, he discerned the presence of two camps when it came to the debate: “Contact Optimists” and “Contact Pessimists” – or as Kipping and Lewis refer to them in their paper, “SETI Optimists” and “SETI Pessimists” – those who believe that there are civilizations in our galaxy humanity can make contact with and those who believe it is fruitless since humanity is alone in the Universe.
When Jaynes’ Experiment is applied to the question of intelligent life in our galaxy, we should expect that it would either be very common or very rare. In the middle, where the probability distribution is weakest (i.e., extraterrestrial life is semi-common), is where the “fine-tuning problem” emerges. In the context of cosmology and astrobiology, fine-tuning refers to the proposition that the conditions for life can occur only when certain universal constants lie within a very narrow range of values.
If any of these fundamental constants were slightly different, the Universe would not be conducive to the development of matter, large-scale structures, or life as we know it. As Kipping explained, this presents a problem for SETI Optimists:
“Unlike the black hole example I gave you earlier, there’s no lower bounds on this problem. With black holes, we know the smallest and biggest allowed star mass from astrophysics and it’s only a few orders of magnitude. The black hole threshold must be in that fairly narrow range somewhere. When it comes to aliens, the probability of intelligence could be 1% or 0.000….00001% (add as many zero’s as you like).
“With a such a vast range of possibilities, SETI optimists have to believe the rather contrived view that the % value is not so high that we wouldn’t see anyone yet, but certainly far higher than the deep abyss of low probabilities that are plausible. Thus they have a fine-tuning problem essentially, needing the percentage to live in a fairly narrow corridor.”
If our galaxy were filled with extraterrestrial civilizations, surely there would be undeniable signs that we would have noticed—i.e., radio signals, megastructures, Clarke Bands, and other “technosignatures.” If this is starting to sound familiar, it’s because this argument is the very core of the Fermi Paradox (which we have written an entire series about!) As such, one could construe Kipping and Lewis’ argument as an example of SETI Pessimism. Luckily, the story does not end there.
Kipping and Lewis’s revised formalism for the Drake Equation, based on the theoretical birth and death rates of civilizations. Credit: Kipping, D. & Lewis, G. (2024)
A New Formalism
Faced with this result, Kipping and Lewis attempted to devise a new formalism for the Drake Equation that considers just two processes: the birth rate and the death rate of civilizations. When this is done, all of the parameters in the equation (except for L, the lifespan of civilizations) collapse into a single parameter: the birth and death rate of civilizations (rc). Or as it would appear mathematically: NC = rc x LC. Said Kipping:
“In the standard Drake equation, we often get caught up arguing about which parameters to include (should there be a fraction for the probability of life developing into multicellular life, for example). But it’s completely undeniable that every civilisations must have a beginning and an end, in fact we can even set the death rate to zero which corresponds to infinite lifetimes if we so desire in this framework. In an ecological system, like a petri dish, for example, there is a well-defined maximum possible population that we call the carrying capacity. So, we updated the birth-death version of the Drake equation to account for this nuance.”
In this case, the distribution of probabilities became S-shaped (see image above), but the end result was still the same: either the galaxy is crowded or empty. One way around this is the idea that humanity could be alive during a period in which ETCs have emerged and are beginning to expand throughout the galaxy and thus have not been noticed by our instruments yet. However, as Kipping and Lewis showed, this also suffers from the fine-tuning problem, as biology indicates that population growth is an accelerating phenomenon.
“You see, galactic expansion phases should be relatively quick on a cosmic timescale; in fact, really like the blink of an eye,” said Kipping. “So it’s unlikely you’d live during such a phase; you’re more likely to live when the galaxy is essentially empty before this happens or after it’s happened (which, in fact, is arguably impossible since your planet is colonized). Once again, Fermi’s Paradox rears its head, where the strongest likelihood is that humanity is either alone, early to the party, or one of a few civilizations currently existing in the Milky Way.
Hope for SETI?
But before you go thinking it’s all bad news, Kipping and Lewis emphasize that SETI is an important and vital experiment that deserves dedicated resources. “While the odds of success appear small, such a success would arguably represent the most impactful scientific discovery in human history,” they conclude. They also suggest several reasons to remain hopeful, which include Hanson’s “Grabby Aliens” hypothesis, which states that humanity is at the midpoint in the S-shaped curve and that we will encounter an ETI in a few hundred million years.
In the meantime, Kipping also suggests that SETI could benefit from casting a wider net. If, as their study suggests, advanced civilizations are very rare (or non-existent) in our galaxy, then we should look to extra-galactic sources. “I think my favorite way out is that our galaxy is just unusually quiet, most are busy and filled, but we are the first in the Milky Way,” he added. “This seems improbable, but perhaps being born in a busy galaxy is impossible since the habitable real estate has already been gobbled up. This suggests we should put more emphasis on extra-galactic SETI as our best shot.”
If Advanced Civilizations Using Quantum Communications, Is That Why We’ve Never Seen Them?
Establishing communication with an alien intelligence is one of the news items I, and I’m sure many others, long to see. Since we have started the search for advanced civilisations we have tried numerous ways to detect their transmissions but to date, unsuccessfully. A new paper suggests quantum communication may be the ideal method for interstellar communication. It has many benefits but the challenge is that it would require a receiver over 100km across to pick up a signal. Alas they know we don’t have that tech yet!
The search for alien signals has been undertaken under the banner of the search for extraterrestrial intelligence or SETI for short. It began in 1960 when Frank Drake commenced the first search. It was of course not fruitful but since then, large radio telescopes have been used to undertake searches. There have been many projects but of particular interest has been Project Breakthrough. It has used advanced technology and international collaborations but still there has been no success.
Frank Drake writing his famous equation on a white board. Credit: SETI.org
To be able to effectively search for alien signals its imperative to fully understand the nature of communication. A quest that started back in 1948 with the development of the modern theory of classical communication. In 1959 it was proposed that human technology was available to send or receive interstellar classical communication which simply requires a message, someone to send it and someone to receive it.
Over the years that followed communication theories developed and quantum information theory emerged. It explores how quantum mechanics has an affect on the storage of and transmission of information. At the centre of the theory is the quantum bit or qubit which can exist in a number of states all at once due to the phenomenon of superposition. In classical information theory, bits of information are either 0 or 1 but in quantum theory they can be any infinite number of combinations with certain probabilities until measured. At that point, the wave function collapses to one of the definite states.
Another key element of quantum theory is entanglement where two or more particles are interconnected so that the state of one is related to the state of the other no matter how far apart they are. With qubits linked in this way data processing can be far faster than in classical model and more secure too. The paper authored by Latham Boyle from the University of Edinburgh suggests that it may be possible to send or receive information between the stars using quantum communications. A previous study by Arjun Berera proposed photon qubits could be used to transmit information over interstellar and even possibly intergalactic distances without loss of coherence.
The concept of quantum coherence describes the ability to maintain the specific quantum state but this alone is not enough for communication. The communication channel must also have sufficient capacity. In addition, specific wavelengths must be used (or avoided for example wavelengths less than 26.5 cm to avoid issues with the cosmic microwave background.) To facilitate this, radio telescopes with a diameter of 100 km must be used. Currently we don’t have the capability to build such instruments and this may explain why, in such a large and old universe, we still haven’t detected any aliens yet! We may simply have to wait until we can build such instruments before aliens can communicate with us.
Twee Amerikaanse astronauten die begin juni naar het internationale ruimtestation ISS gingen voor een missie van zo'n 8 dagen, moeten mogelijk tot februari 2025 in de ruimte blijven.
De twee Amerikaanse astronauten, Sunita Williams en Barry Wilmore, gingen begin juni met Starliner, de nieuwe ruimtecapsule van Boeing, naar het ISS. Zij zien hun verblijf verlengd door technische problemen met de Starliner.
Tijdens de koppeling op 6 juni werkten enkele stuurraketten niet en lekte helium, waardoor NASA nu overweegt hen met een ander schip terug te brengen.
De Crew Dragon van SpaceX is een mogelijk alternatief. Als deze optie wordt gekozen, zouden de astronauten wel pas in februari 2025 met twee collega's kunnen terugkeren. Een beslissing hierover wordt binnenkort verwacht.
(Fausto by Tagtik/Source: NOS, VRT/Illustration picture: Unsplash)
This weekend is the perfect time to catch the year’s most spectacular — and easiest to watch — meteor shower, the Perseids.
The annual Perseid meteor shower will peak late on Sunday night and into the early predawn hours of Monday morning, but the Perseids should put on a spectacular late-night show from now through the middle of next week. Here’s everything you need to know, from how to watch the Perseids to the science behind the light show.
The Perseids are known for long, bright streaks of light.
VCG/Visual China Group/Getty Images
When Is the Perseid Meteor Shower?
Short answer: Right now! The Perseid meteor shower happens around this time every year, from mid-July to early September, with a dramatic peak around August 12.
Meteor showers like the Perseids are a vivid reminder that we’re passengers on a ball of rock moving through space at more than 67,000 miles per hour — and right now, we’re flying through a stream of dusty debris left in the wake of a comet. Comet 109P/Swift-Tuttle makes a long loop around the Sun every 133 years, and it leaves a trail of dust, ice, and pebbles in its wake. Every year, at about the same point in Earth’s 365-day lap around the Sun, our planet crosses Swift-Tuttle’s debris trail. As that debris patters against Earth’s upper atmosphere, like bugs hitting the windshield of a passing car, it creates bright streaks of light in the sky.
What to Expect from the Perseid Meteors
At the peak of the Perseid meteor shower, between 50 and 100 meteors an hour will streak across the night sky. That’s a meteor or more every minute, so your chances of seeing several meteors are very good.
The Perseids are known for leaving bright, colorful streaks of light that can linger in the sky for several seconds; the longest, brightest streaks come from meteors that just skim the top of our atmosphere, instead of plunging straight in. Most of the streaks of light you’ll see during the Perseids are objects about the size of sand grains, disintegrating 50 miles above you at temperatures hotter than 3,000 degrees Fahrenheit. Larger grains, usually about an inch across, can burst apart in bright fireballs; if you’re lucky, you may spot a few of those an hour.
How to See the Perseid Meteors
The Perseids are one of the easiest meteor showers to watch, mostly because it offers so many meteors streaking across the sky, but also because Swift-Tuttle’s debris trail is so wide that we get several days of good viewing, unlike other meteor showers that may offer only a few hours of real meteor-watching. If the weather or your personal schedule don’t cooperate on the night of August 11, you can still see a fantastic show a few days before or after the shower’s peak.
As with any stargazing, darkness is key. You’ll want to get as far away from city lights as possible. The ideal meteor-watching spot is dark, with a wide-open view of as much of the sky as possible, but especially the north. Bring a lawn chair or blanket, and settle in. Turn off your headlights, flashlights, and cell phone, and give your eyes about 30 minutes to adjust to the darkness.
For casual viewers, meteors should be visible anytime after around 10pm local time, but the best views will be after midnight, when the bright half-Moon sets and leaves a dark sky for meteors to shine against. And the dark pre-dawn hours of Monday morning will offer the most and brightest meteors.
If going outside isn’t your thing, you can catch the Virtual Telescope Project’s livestream, starting at 9pm Eastern Time on August 11 and August 12.
This time-lapse photo shows the Perseids seeming to radiate from a point in the northern sky.
CFOTO/Future Publishing/Getty Images
Do the Perseid Meteors Come from Perseus?
Short answer: no.
If you stare up at the night sky for long enough, you may notice that the Perseid meteors seem to radiate from a point somewhere in the constellation Perseus. It may look a little like the classic Windows 95 Starfield screensaver (for the history buffs out there who remember screensavers). That’s an optical illusion; as Earth flies through the cloud of dust and debris, the direction in which we’re moving will look like the center, from which all the meteors seem to radiate out and past us. In the case of the Perseids, that point is somewhere in the constellation Perseus, in the northern sky.
But the Perseid meteors are actually just bits of dust and tiny pebbles that, at this moment, are in a cloud all around us.
Is Comet Swift-Tuttle Going to Crash Into Earth Someday?
Short answer: maybe, but not anytime soon.
Comet 109P/Swift-Tuttle is the largest object that regularly crosses Earth’s orbit and passes close to our planet, so astronomers have kept a close eye on it. They’ve calculated its orbit, and ours, for about the next 2,000 years, and Swift-Tuttle is in no danger of hitting Earth until sometime after the year 4400 (and even then, the chances aren’t huge). So you can relax and enjoy the show.
If Swift-Tuttle eventually does hit Earth, it’s going to wreck everything. The nucleus — the actual ball of ice and dust that forms the main body of a comet — of Swift-Tuttle is about 16 miles wide, which makes it twice the size of the object that smashed into the Yucatan Peninsula 65 million years ago and ended the dinosaurs’ world. Because of how much faster Swift-Tuttle moves in relation to Earth, though, it would hit with about 27 times as much force as the Chicxulub object.
The two Boeing Starliner astronauts may remain onboard humanity’s farthest outpost for half a year more. Not everyone at NASA thinks the spacecraft has been proven safe enough to bring them back from Earth orbit.
When NASA’s associate administrator of space operations Ken Bowersox addressed reporters on Wednesday, internal debates within the space agency surfaced. The concerns were regarding the safety of Starliner’s two astronauts, Suni Williams and Butch Wilmore, who’ve already been living in space two months longer than planned.
They flew into space on June 5 for what was, at the time, set as an eight-day mission. The mission was called Crew Flight Test and was meant to be a certification of Starliner’s abilities to become a commercial crew program spacecraft — second to the now tried-and-tested SpaceX Crew Dragon — that could bring spacefarers to the International Space Station (ISS) and back safely at a low cost to NASA.
With Starliner, NASA seeks comfort. If something goes wrong in space or with SpaceX’s launchers, astronauts can rely on Starliner to make it to space without interruption in the timelines.
Things went awry soon into the mission. Thruster and helium leak anomalies didn’t stop Starliner and its crew from successfully docking to the ISS, but raised serious concerns about how they would return home.
Problems arise on test flights, and that’s what the evaluative nature of these flights are for: to catch blindspots and remedy. But days, weeks and, now, months have passed.
To figure a way forward, NASA and Boeing have run hot fire tests of Starliner in space. And on Earth, engineers have put spare thrusters through the gamut at NASA’s White Sands Testing Facility in New Mexico to replicate the conditions that the hardware in space has gone through. They believe the thruster issue is due to overheating, plus swelling of a teflon seal that blocks the flow of fuel into the thruster’s combustion chamber. “What we're trying to do now is sort of understand what all that data means to us from the White Sands testing, and then what it means to the thrusters on orbit,” NASA Commercial Crew Program manager Steve Stich said Wednesday.
As teams figure out the ramifications of the worst case scenario for thruster overheating, as well as of the helium leaks experienced during Starliner’s journey to the ISS,the test crew remains in space. Their return date continued to be pushed into the future. Their arrival home could now be as late as next year.
Don’t overstay your time in space
Tensions clashed last month, when Boeing Commercial Crew Program manager Mark Nappi scolded reporters during a press briefing for using language that called the astronauts “stranded” or “stuck” in space. Reporters pushed back asking for clearer responses from NASA and Boeing leadership as to when they’d come home, and more frequent updates on the Starliner troubleshooting. Then during a follow-up media conference, Nappi and Stich expressed regret that they had outlined the mission as an eight-day event, to avoid scrutiny.
Test flight or not, missions must adhere to schedule windows. The ISS is an aging spacecraft. To maintain its functions, astronauts are swapped in and out on assignments. Having two extra astronauts aboard the station strains the resources, occupancy, and schedules of the other space crews. That’s not even taking into account the private, personal tolls that the extended missions may have on the crew. Or, the physical changes they’ll experience as a result of longer periods in microgravity.
As a consequence of the idle Starliner, the SpaceX Dragon Crew-9 mission will no longer launch in mid-August with its crew of four. Its launch date has been pushed to September 24. Its crew may also be halved to open up two free seats for Wilmore and Williams to return home as a backup plan. But Crew-9 wraps up its six-month mission in February 2025, meaning the Starliner crew would come home eight months past schedule.
Not everyone at NASA agrees on Starliner’s safety
The same day that Bowersox and his colleagues announced the new Crew-9 launch date, he opened up about the internal discussions that have kept the Starliner crew from returning home.
“It's been really great to watch our team working, our Boeing team, our NASA team, the way people are speaking up. The way we're hearing different voices, different thoughts on how critical different factors are in the decision,” Bowersox said Wednesday.
“I think it's been very healthy. I have to admit that sometimes when we get disagreement, it's not fun. It can be painful having those discussions. But it's what makes us a good organization. And it's what will get us to a good decision as we approach that point here in the future. And I don't think we're too far away from making that call,” he added.
Starliner may still yet return with its crew. Data from recent tests and new evaluations might finally bring the team to a consensus for how — and when — to finally bring Williams and Wilmore home.
AI Focused! UFO At SpaceX launch, Friends of Elon Musk? March 9, 2022, UAP Sighting News. Video.
AI Focused! UFO At SpaceX launch, Friends of Elon Musk? March 9, 2022, UAP Sighting News. Video.
Date of sighting: March 9, 2022 Location of sighting: SpaceX launch, Playalinda Beach, Florida, USA
Now check this out, long ago I reported a UFO shooting past a SpaceX rocket launch and now I wanted to run some screenshots though ai to focus them and focus it did. It really blew my mind how detailed the UFO was and how there are no wings, no windows, no jet engines or strings...it's just a magnificent example of alien technology at its best.
Why Experts Believe the Pentagon Covers Up UAP Reports
Why Experts Believe the Pentagon Covers Up UAP Reports
In a recent episode of Reality Check, journalist Ross Coulthart delves into the Pentagon’s handling of Unidentified Aerial Phenomena (UAP) reports. Joined by NewsNation correspondent Xavier Walton, the discussion uncovers a deep-seated skepticism among experts regarding the transparency and authenticity of these investigations. This article explores why experts believe the Pentagon might be covering up information about UAPs.
Historical Context and the DNI Report
The turning point in the UAP discourse came in June 2021 when the Director of National Intelligence (DNI) released a groundbreaking report. This document, titled “Preliminary Assessment: Unidentified Aerial Phenomena,” acknowledged the reality of UAPs and their potential threat to national security and flight safety. This admission was significant as it marked a departure from decades of stigma and denial surrounding UAPs within the U.S. government.
The AARO Report Controversy
Fast forward to 2024, and the Pentagon’s All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office (AARO) released its much-anticipated historical review of UAPs. However, this report was met with criticism from experts who felt it lacked objectivity and thorough investigation. The AARO report was seen by many as an attempt to discredit longstanding allegations of a secret U.S. program aimed at retrieving and reverse-engineering alien technology.
Experts like ufologist Don Schmidt and military veteran Kevin Randall, both prominent figures in UAP research, expressed disappointment in the AARO report. They argued that it failed to provide new information and did not engage in rigorous investigation, merely reiterating what was already known without substantiating any claims.
Expert Opinions and Skepticism
Don Schmidt, the lead investigator for the UFO Museum in Roswell, and Kevin Randall, an author of over three dozen books on UFOs, have long been vocal critics of the government’s handling of UAP reports. Schmidt’s stance is that asking the very entities responsible for the cover-up to come clean is futile. He believes that AARO will continue to dismiss the subject, maintaining that there is no extraordinary evidence of alien technology in the government’s possession.
Randall echoes these sentiments, highlighting the lack of verifiable information in the AARO report. He criticizes the report for its inability to provide checkable data, leaving researchers with nothing to substantiate the government’s claims.
Public Perception in Roswell
The sentiment of disappointment and skepticism is not limited to experts. During the Roswell UFO Festival, NewsNation’s Xavier Walton engaged with locals and attendees who expressed similar frustrations. Many locals in Roswell, a town synonymous with the famous 1947 UFO incident, remain convinced that the government is not disclosing the full truth about UAPs. This skepticism is rooted in decades of independent research and witness testimonies that contradict official explanations.
Historical Investigations by Independent Researchers
Schmidt and Randall have dedicated years to investigating the Roswell incident, conducting detailed interviews with first-person witnesses and gathering substantial evidence. Their meticulous approach starkly contrasts with what they perceive as the Pentagon’s superficial efforts. For instance, interviews with individuals like Walter Haut, who issued the original 1947 press release claiming the recovery of a flying disc, and Major Jesse Marcel, the intelligence officer who inspected the crash site, reveal a different narrative than the one presented by the government.
Lou Alzando’s Revelations
Adding to the controversy, a leaked book by Lou Alzando, a former Pentagon UAP investigator, claims that the Roswell crash was indeed of extraterrestrial origin. This revelation, if verified, would provide semi-official confirmation from someone within the Pentagon, further fueling beliefs of a cover-up.
VIDEO:
Why experts think the Pentagon covers up UAP reports | Reality Check with Ross Coulthart
The skepticism towards the Pentagon’s UAP investigations reflects a broader mistrust in governmental transparency. Despite official denials, many experts and the public remain convinced of a cover-up, supported by decades of independent research and compelling witness testimonies. As researchers like Don Schmidt and Kevin Randall continue to seek genuine disclosure, the call for accountability and transparency in UAP investigations grows louder.
In conclusion, the persistent belief in a Pentagon cover-up of UAP information is bolstered by historical context, expert analysis, and public sentiment. The debate continues as the quest for the truth about UAPs remains a contentious and unresolved issue.
NASA Discovers Galaxies Older Than the Universe Astronomers were left stunned after NASA’s powerful James Webb Telescope captured several galaxies deep in the cosmos that appear to be older than the universe itself.
This sparked significant and engaging debate among astronomers about how such a thing is possible. Here's what the experts have to say about the strange phenomena.
The Beginning of the Universe Astrophysicists believe the universe was formed at least 13.8 billion years ago following a significant event commonly referred to as the Big Bang.
Prior to this, the entirety of the universe’s energy is theorized to have been concentrated in a singularity, defined as a point of infinite temperature and density. As this singularity began to expand, it resulted in an explosion dubbed the Big Bang.
The Fundamental Forces of Nature Appear After the violent explosion that gave birth to the universe as we know it occurred, the fundamental forces of nature, including electromagnetism and gravity, alongside the strong and weak forces, evolved in stages.
These led to the eventual formation of galaxies. However, observations carried out using the state-of-the-art James Webb Telescope have noticed that certain earlier galaxies appear to have skipped the gradual process of evolution, giving the impression that they are older than the universe itself.
The Webb Telescope Observes Early Galaxies The powerful Webb telescope can essentially peer back in time and observe galaxies when the universe was a mere 500 million years old, or 3% of its current age.
As the cosmos was still considered in its infancy at this period, researchers predicted small galaxies scattered throughout the universe. However, the JWST has observed galaxies that were far larger than previously anticipated.
Webb Telescope Makes Fascinating Discovery The galaxies spotted by the JWST contain a mass of stars that could be as much as 100 billion times the mass of the Sun.
To better understand this enormous cluster of stars in the early galaxies, we can compare it to our own galaxy, the Milky Way, which only contains a mass of stars equal to approximately 60 billion suns.
How is This Possible? The question that continues to perplex astronomers is how such an extensive number of celestial bodies and extensive galaxies existed at such an early period of the universe.
To better understand this, we must explore "redshifting." According to the European Space Agency (ESA), “Redshift is a key concept for astronomers. The term can be understood literally—the wavelength of the light is stretched, so the light is seen as 'shifted' towards the red part of the spectrum.”
The Visible Light Spectrum In simple terms, redshift refers to a particular section of the visible light spectrum.
The shortest wavelength of light is violet, at around 380 nanometers. The longest is red, at around 700 nanometers. Astronomers use the latter to gather valuable data on the age of galaxies.
ESA Defines Redshift According to the ESA, redshift is used to measure how far a celestial object like a galaxy has moved away from us.
“When an object (e.g. a galaxy) moves away from us, it is 'red-shifted' as the wavelength of light is 'stretched' so the light is seen as 'shifted' towards to red end of the spectrum,” according to the ESA.
Redshift and Dating Galaxies Astronomers can use this redshift to predict the age of galaxies found throughout the universe, as all celestial bodies and objects emit a frequency or hue of color that telescopes can pick up. This red color will differ depending on how young or old the galaxy is, allowing researchers to effectively discern how old galaxies are in the depths of the cosmos.
Redshifting can also be used to instruct researchers on the extreme age of galaxies in the cosmos, as well as to analyze several other factors, including their size. Astronomers can also use redshift to scour the galaxy for massive stars and to give researchers an indication of how far a celestial body is from our own planet.
Galaxies During the Infancy of the Universe Continues to Perplex Astronomers As galaxies in the cosmos age, they produce more suns, which is generally expected. However, the galaxy spotted by the JWST during the universe's infancy has a mass significantly larger than that of the present-day Milky Way.
Despite their attempts to explain this unusual phenomenon, astronomers and researchers have come up empty-handed, and there is no accepted explanation just yet.
The Universe is 26.7 Billion Years Old, Says Researcher Physicist Rajendra Gupta from the University of Ottawa in Canada is one researcher who believes he has an answer to the question, suggesting “redshift could be a hybrid phenomenon, rather than purely due to the universe’s expansion.”
He added, “Our newly-devised model stretches the galaxy formation time by several billion years, making the universe 26.7 billion years old, and not 13.7 as previously estimated,” Dr Gupta said.
Why Early Galaxies Appear to Have Larger Masses The suggestion that the universe is twice as old as originally thought has stirred up considerable controversy in the scientific community.
Such a revelation could undoubtedly explain why early galaxies, which emerged 500 million years after the beginning of the universe, appear with a mass generally associated with billions of years of evolution.
AI Focused, UFO Powers Up, Shoots Off! Taipei, Taiwan Aug 2006, UAP Sighting News.
AI Focused, UFO Powers Up, Shoots Off! Taipei, Taiwan Aug 2006, UAP Sighting News.
Date of sighting: Aug 2006
Location of sighting: Taipei, Taiwan
Now I was sent this by a friend of the eyewitness back in 2006 so I know the date, time and location is 100% correct. Also this was a decade before all the fakes started rolling out of the USA, so the chances of this being fake is very small. This is raw footage and you can hear the panic in the Taiwanese girls voice as she yells to her husband in the living room..."Fa dee a, can dow!" Meaning UFO, come see! Yes, I lived in Taiwan for 25 years and I recognize the languages and their accent. Raw video guys, what are we looking at here? Because it looks like it's the best UFO video ever recorded due to 1st it holding still so close to the top of the building. 2nd the eyewitness is very close, living in the penthouse (top floor) apartment. 3rd the UFO is seen powering up. 4th the UFO shoots away showing its incredible speed and power.
Het centrum van de Groenlandse ijskap is in een niet al te ver verleden gesmolten, zo blijkt uit een onderzoek: het onomstotelijke bewijs zijn fossielen die zijn gevonden in wat ooit een groene toendra was.
Ook het centrum van Groenland is in het verleden gesmolten
Tegenwoordig zien we Groenland als een witte ijsvlakte, maar ooit was dat helemaal niet zo. Voortdurende ontdekkingen over het verleden van dit ijzige gebied op aarde onthullen steeds meer ongelooflijke achtergronden, zoals het feit dat het er uitgesproken “groen” uitzag. Nieuw onderzoek heeft bewijs gevonden dat niet alleen de randen, maar ook het midden van de Groenlandse ijskap in een nog niet zo ver geologisch verleden is gesmolten en dat het “oude” landschap eruitzag als een toendra.
In 1993 werd een ijskern van meer dan 3 kilometer lang uit het centrale deel van het grondgebied gewonnen en vervolgens tot op de dag van vandaag bewaard in een afzetting in Colorado, VS. Nu heeft een groep wetenschappers opnieuw de sedimenten op de bodem van dit halfronde stuk ijs onderzocht en iets spannends ontdekt.
Fossielen in het midden van de ijskap
Halley Mastro/University of Vermont
Het team ontdekte dat de sedimenten schimmels, insectenresten, wilgenhout en een maanzaad bevatten, allemaal ongerept. Paul Bierman van de Universiteit van Vermont, co-auteur van het onderzoek samen met Halley Mastro, stelt: "Deze fossielen zijn prachtig."
Onderzoek heeft het feit bevestigd dat de enorme ijskap van Groenland in het verleden is gesmolten als gevolg van een bijzonder warme periode, waardoor een groen eiland is ontstaan. Aangenomen wordt dat dit in de afgelopen miljoen jaar heeft plaatsgevonden, wat betekent dat de ijskap veel kwetsbaarder is dan wetenschappers hadden gedacht. Sinds het ijs in het midden van Groenland smolt, spreekt het voor zich dat de rest van het eiland hetzelfde lot onderging en, volgens Bierman, duizenden jaren lang, genoeg om een terrein te creëren dat klaar was om een ecosysteem te huisvesten.
Richard Alley, klimatoloog aan de Pennsylvania State University, verklaarde na bestudering van de resultaten van het onderzoek: “Het bevestigt en breidt het feit uit dat een groot deel van de zeespiegelstijging plaatsvond in een periode waarin de oorzaken van de opwarming niet bijzonder extreem waren”, en ziet het als een waarschuwing voor wat er zou kunnen gebeuren als het klimaat verder opwarmt door toedoen van de mens.
GISP2 till and macrofossils found in it: (A) Photo of the angular-clast-rich till section of the GISP2 subglacial core, taken 1994, up core to left (Credit: T. Gow, supplied by D. Meese). (B) Overview of sediment, mostly quartz and fossils. (C) Wood fragment. (D) Vertical orientation typical of GISP2 wood. (E) Wood at higher magnification showing simple pits in lateral vessel wall (1) and distinct simple perforation plate (2), along with the helical thickening typical of GISP2 wood. (F) Bud scale of Salix (willow). (G) Sclerotium of the soil fungus C. geophilum* (H) Insect eye, possibly from a fly*. (I) S. rupestris megaspore. (J) Seed of Papaver sect. Scapiflora. The asterisk shows macrofossil types also found in Camp Century sediment by ref. 5. Wood fragment images are same specimen.
De “kwetsbaarheid” van Groenland bevestigd
In feite stijgt de zeespiegel met 2,5 cm per jaar en in een versnellend tempo. Tegen het einde van deze eeuw zullen de oceanen naar verwachting ongeveer zes meter hoger stijgen dan nu.
In 2016 werd dezelfde ijskern, GISP2 genaamd, onderzocht door wetenschappers van Columbia University: de resultaten suggereerden dat de huidige ijskap niet ouder kon zijn dan 1,1 miljoen jaar en dat Groenland tijdens het Pleistoceen lange tijd zonder ijs heeft gezeten, minstens 90% van zijn grondgebied. In 2019 werden in een andere ijskern, die in de jaren ’60 werd gedolven, kleine takken en gefossiliseerde insecten gevonden die 416.000 jaar oud waren. Het huidige onderzoek bevestigde dat dit bevroren eiland niet zo sterk en veerkrachtig is als eerder werd gedacht: meer dan 3 meter ijs smolt gemakkelijk, waardoor er tijd en ruimte overbleef voor de ontwikkeling van een toendra.
Starliner-astronauten keren mogelijk pas in 2025 terug naar aarde
Starliner-astronauten keren mogelijk pas in 2025 terug naar aarde
Starliner-astronauten keren mogelijk pas in 2025 terug naar aarde
De twee astronauten die begin juni met de Boeing-ruimtecapsule Starliner zijn aangekomen in het internationale ruimtestation ISS, moeten daar mogelijk nog tot 2025 blijven. Dat heeft het Amerikaanse ruimtevaartagentschap NASA gemeld.
Sunita Williams en Butch Wilmore zijn sinds 6 juni aan boord van het internationale ruimtestation (ISS). Hun testmissie zou ongeveer een week duren, maar door problemen met de Starliner kunnen ze voorlopig niet terugkeren.
NASA bestudeert nu twee mogelijkheden om hen terug naar de aarde te brengen. Een eerste optie is om hen toch met de Starliner te laten terugkeren, maar daarvoor moeten er wel nog werken aan dat ruimtetoestel worden uitgevoerd.
De tweede optie is om de Crew 9-missie van SpaceX in september met slechts twee van de vier voorziene astronauten te laten vertrekken. Wilmore en Williams zouden dan met hen kunnen terugkeren. Dat betekent dan wel dat ze tot februari volgend jaar vastzitten in het ISS.
Zealandia: het achtste continent dat onder de oceaan verborgen is
Zealandia: het achtste continent dat onder de oceaan verborgen is
Artikel door thedailydigest.com
Een achtste continent onder water
Wetenschappers uit Australië en Nieuw-Zeeland hebben onlangs een nieuw onderwatercontinent herontdekt, namelijk Zealandia.
Afbeelding: NEOM/Unsplash
Een groep eilanden
Het is in feite een groep eilanden die vergelijkbaar is met de eilanden waaruit Nieuw-Zeeland bestaat, met een oppervlak dat iets minder groot is dan de helft van Brazilië.
Afbeelding: Marjan Blan/Unsplash
Een oud supercontinent Er wordt aangenomen dat Zealandia deel uitmaakte van het oude supercontinent Gondwana, dat enkele honderden miljoenen jaren geleden een groot deel van het zuidelijk halfrond van onze planeet bedekte.
Afbeelding: Benjamin L. Jones/Unsplash
Indrukwekkende afmetingen Volgens een artikel van de BBC zijn de afmetingen van dit ondergedompelde continent indrukwekkend: 4,9 miljoen vierkante kilometer.
Afbeelding: Jean Beller/Unsplash
De grootte van India Volgens een ander team onderzoekers, dat in 2017 het continent Zealandia voor het eerst claimde te hebben ontdekt, heeft het ongeveer dezelfde grootte als India, zo bericht Ouest France.
Afbeelding: Greg Rosenke/Unsplash
Bijna het gehele oppervlak bevindt zich onder water Het land van Zealandia maakte waarschijnlijk deel uit van een uitgestrekt gebied boven zeeniveau. Tegenwoordig bevindt 94% van het oppervlak zich echter onder water.
Afbeelding: Yannis Papanastasopoulos / Unsplash
Wat is het precies? Gaat het om een groot eiland of een continent? Zoals de Times of India opmerkt, is er geen geologische parameter die een precieze grens tussen de ene of de andere term vastlegt, en maakt het daardoor onderwerp voor discussie.
Afbeelding: Jay Wennington / Unsplash
Afgezonderd van het Australische continent Ondanks de nabijheid van Australië geloven wetenschappers dat de twee groepen afzonderlijk van elkaar bestaan. Al wordt de term 'Australazië' soms gebruikt om het volledige landgebied van het zuidwesten van de Grote Oceaan aan te duiden.
Afbeelding: Alex Rose / Unsplash
Gedetailleerde kartering Geowetenschappers hebben Zeelandia gedetailleerd in kaart gebracht, waarmee ook de locatie van vulkanische activiteit werd onthuld en belangrijke informatie over de opbouw van het continent werd verkregen.
Afbeelding: NOAA / Unsplash
Monsters genomen van de bodem in de oceaan Om deze kartering uit te voeren, verzamelden de onderzoekers geologische monsters van de landmassa die zich onder water in de oceaan bevindt.
Afbeelding: Tyler Lastovich / Unsplash
Een schat aan mineralen Het tijdschrift Slate berichtte dat er een echte schat is aangetroffen: "Een mengsel van verschillende soorten zandsteen, basalt en kalksteen".
Afbeelding: Christian Wiediger / Unsplash
Magnetische afwijkingen De datering van deze monsters en het onderzoek van hun magnetische afwijkingen stelden wetenschappers in staat om de Zealandia op een waardevolle manier in kaart te brengen.
Afbeelding: Matt Hardy / Unsplash
Waarom ligt Zeelandia onder water? De meest voor de hand liggende verklaring hiervoor is dat de tektonische platen door het uitrekken van Gondwana braken, waardoor het oceaanwater vrij spel kreeg.
Afbeelding: Dan Stark / Unsplash
Een dunne, ondergedompelde aardkorst Het loskomen van Antarctica zou de aardkorst van Zeelandia geleidelijk hebben verdund tot het land volledig was ondergedompeld.
Afbeelding: Dan Gold / Unsplash
Meer kennis over de eigenschappen van de aardkorst De ontdekkingen in Zealandia zouden wetenschappers meer kennis kunnen geven in waarom de aardkorst zo dun werd en zo sterk uitrekte.
Afbeelding: Matteo Paganelli / Unsplash
Zijn er nog andere verborgen continenten? We weten niet of er meer onderzeese continenten zijn, omdat we eigenlijk maar weinig weten over de diepten van de oceanen. De ruige omgeving bemoeilijkt dit soort plekken. Daarom is deze recente ontdekking zo waardevol!
About 80 percent of Greenland is armored in a continuous sheet of ice, three times the area of Texas. But it hasn’t always been that way. At various points in Earth’s past, much of the island was, in fact, actually green — covered in soil and vegetation. The last period of thaw may have been more recent than previously thought, according to new research. The new data comes with worrying implications for present-day climate change and sea level rise.
Tiny organic fossils found deep under the ice in central Greenland show that the middle of the landmass was ice free, serving as habitat for growing plants and insects within the last 1 to 2 million years, per a study published August 5 in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. The exact age of Greenland’s ice sheet remains unresolved, but the ballpark suggested by the new findings bolster the formerly controversial “fragile Greenland” hypothesis, which suggested that the island’s ice sheet has melted at least once since it first formed. And if it thawed entirely before, then it could easily do so again under human-caused global warming, spurring even more dramatic sea level rise than current climate models indicate.
The Pleistocene era lasted from about 2.6 million years ago to the start of the Holocene, 11,700 years ago. During this period, our planet went through several freeze and thaw cycles where glaciers expanded during ice ages and contracted during interglacials. Previously, glaciologists and the research record have disagreed about what was happening on Greenland, during this epoch. For example, one 2016 study of mineral deposits in ocean sediments indicated that the ice sheet has persisted for 7.5 million years. In contrast, another study published that same year assessing isotopes in ice cores suggested that the ice sheet is just 1.1 million years old, with more than 280,000 years of ice-free conditions leading up to its last freeze.
The new research supports that latter finding. The study scientists re-evaluated sediments collected in a two-mile-deep ice core more than 30 years ago from Summit Camp, Greenland, a research station positioned near the very center of the ice sheet. Isotope analysis of quartz extracted from the sand at the bottom of the core suggests that it was buried under ice no more than 2 million years ago.
Isotope analysis of quartz extracted from the sand at the bottom of the core suggests that it was buried under ice no more than 2 million years ago.
Inside the previously frozen sediment, the researchers also identified miniature fossils of a bygone ecological age. Among other bits of remarkably well-preserved biological matter, the scientists found a poppy seed, moss remnants, insect parts, willow wood, and fungi — hallmarks of a tundra landscape. These fossil finds suggest that not only was the center of Greenland ice-free within the past 2 million years, but that it was also unfrozen long enough for soil and a complex ecosystem to form — likely for thousands and thousands of years. “Poppies don’t grow on top of miles of ice,” said Hailey Mastro, co-lead study author and a master’s student researching paleoclimatology at the University of Vermont, in the news statement.
The assemblage of organisms suggests Greenland’s climate was not much warmer than today’s at the time of this last melt, with summer temperatures between 1 and 10 degrees Celsius. Though an ice-free Greenland might be good news for cold-adapted flowers, it’s not good news for us. “This new study confirms and extends that a lot of sea-level rise occurred at a time when causes of warming were not especially extreme,” said Richard Alley, a geoscientist at Penn State who reviewed the research, in a press release. It’s “a warning of what damages we might cause if we continue to warm the climate,” he added. Past assessment of the same 1993 ice core determined that, if the center of Greenland was melted, then 90 percent of the island would also be ice-free.
Already, the Greenland ice sheet is the largest single contributor to ongoing sea level rise, and that melt is accelerating. If the landmass were to lose all of its ice, it would raise global sea level by an alarming 24 feet. Even with current warming, that’s not set to happen right away. Likely it would take hundreds to thousands of years for the island to lose all of its ice mass. But still, less ice on Greenland means much, much less land above water elsewhere.
For millennia, humans have seen inexplicable things in the sky. Some have been beautiful, some have been terrifying, and some — like auroras and solar eclipses before they were understood scientifically — have been both. Today’s aircraft, balloons, drones, satellites and more only increase the chances of spotting something confounding overhead.
In the United States, unidentified flying objects, or UFOs, came into the national spotlight in the late 1940s and early ’50s. A series of incidents, including a supposedly crashed alien spaceship near Roswell, N.M., generated something of an American obsession. The Roswell UFO turned out to be part of a classified program, the remnants of a balloon monitoring the atmosphere for signs of clandestine Russian nuclear tests. But it and other reported sightings prompted the U.S. government to launch various projects and panels to investigate such claims, as Science News reported in 1966 (SN: 10/22/66), as well as kicking off hobby groups and conspiracy theories.
In the decades since, UFOs have often come to be dismissed by scientists as the province of wackos and thus unworthy of study. The term UFO has a smirk factor to it, says Iain Boyd, an aerospace engineer at the University of Colorado Boulder and director of the school’s Center for National Security Initiatives.
But government agencies and officials are trying to change that attitude. Among the biggest concerns is that the stigma associated with reporting a sighting has the side effect of stifling reports from pilots or citizens who might have valuable information about potential threats in U.S. air space — such as the Chinese spy balloon that traversed North America and made headlines last year.
“If there’s something interfering with flights, people or cargo, that’s a problem,” Boyd says.
To help reduce the stigma, many serious investigators now refer to UFOs as “unidentified anomalous phenomena,” or UAPs, coined by the U.S. Department of Defense in 2022. “The term UAP brings science to the issue,” Boyd says. It also rightly broadens the view to include natural atmospheric phenomena as well as things outside the atmosphere, such as satellites and particularly bright planets such as Venus.
An independent team of experts (shown meeting in 2023) suggested NASA help fill in gaps in collecting UAP data.Joel Kowsky/NASA
Investigators of all types have a lot of questions about UAPs that they believe deserve serious scientific scrutiny: Which UAPs are something real and which are merely artifacts of the sensors that detect them? If real, which may be a threat to aviation? A threat to national security? Do they point to some unknown natural phenomena?
Answers may be forthcoming. In June 2022, NASA announced an independent study to determine how the agency could lend its scientific expertise to the study of UAPs. Meanwhile, military and commercial pilots have felt more comfortable making reports and even providing videos taken during close encounters. Some of those reports were discussed as part of congressional hearings in 2022 and 2023, which were covered widely by the media and in part focused on more government transparency (SN: 5/19/22). Those were the first open hearings since the mid-1960s.
Americans for Safe Aerospace, an advocacy organization with a focus on UAPs, supports legislation that would help provide a way for pilots to confidentially report potential sightings to the government.
And government agencies increasingly recognize publicly that strange phenomena in the skies are worthy of attention — whether the phenomena are signs of aliens or not. In 2022, the Pentagon established the All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office to serve as a clearinghouse for government reports of UAPs and for analysts determining if UAPs pose threats. The National UFO Reporting Center, a nonprofit established in 1974, and other organizations continue to collate reports from the public.
By bringing UAPs into the realm of science, the hope is to make the unexplained explainable.
Where do UAP sightings occur?
Since its founding, the National UFO Reporting Center has kept a database of UAP sightings, including past and recent incidents reported through its telephone hotline, the mail and online. The database includes almost 123,000 sightings in the United States from June 1930 through June 2022. It’s a trove of data that few if any peer-reviewed scientific studies have used, says Richard Medina, a geographer at the University of Utah in Salt Lake City.
For a study reported in 2023, Medina and colleagues scoured the database to see if they could identify which factors, if any, might affect the number of sightings in a particular area. They focused on the almost 99,000 reports, or about 80 percent of the total, that came from the continental United States from 2001 through 2020. They stuck to the continental United States because tree cover was a factor they were studying, and detailed maps of forested land aren’t available for Alaska’s interior.
First, the researchers calculated the number of UAP sightings that occurred in each county in the Lower 48 states for the 20-year period. Then, they tried to correlate the number of sightings per 10,000 people that lived in each county with environmental factors.
In their sights
An analysis of nearly 99,000 reported UAP sightings pinpointed U.S. counties with a particularly high number of reports per 10,000 people (reddish counties), a low number of reports (blues) and an average number (white). One factor that appears to boost the number of UAP sightings is proximity to an airport or military installation, a hint that aircraft may account for many UAPs.
R.M. Medina, S.C. Brewer and S.M. Kirkpatrick/Scientific Reports 2023 (CC BY 4.0)
As expected, UAP sightings weren’t as frequent in counties with a lot of tree cover and large amounts of nighttime light pollution, the researchers reported in Scientific Reports. Average cloud cover didn’t seem to affect the number of sightings one way or another — but maybe that’s because the team looked at average cloud cover over the course of the year, not the amount of cloud cover at the time of the sighting, Medina suggests.
What did boost the number of sightings substantially was proximity to airports or military installations. Although this analysis doesn’t specifically say that many UAPs in such areas can be attributed to aircraft associated with those facilities, the data are suggestive, Medina notes. At such sites, aircraft are likely to be closer to the ground and more visible than at other places, he adds.
And many of those aircraft could have been classified or experimental craft, according to a report issued earlier this year by the All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office. After undertaking an analysis of reports made to or by the government since 1945, that office found that many sightings could be attributed to never-before-seen craft such as rockets, drones or aircraft incorporating stealth technologies. The analysis found no evidence that any UAPs were signs of extraterrestrials and no evidence that the U.S. government ever had access to alien technology.
A second report, with new analyses focused on more recent sightings, will be released later this year.
What are UAPs?
The task of pinning down the sources of UAPs has become easier thanks to the ever-growing analytical prowess of computers and advanced visualization tools. “What used to take months of analysis before can now be done in just a few minutes,” says Mick West, a retired software engineer in Sacramento, Calif., who runs the website Metabunk.org, where people can post and discuss UAPs and other unusual phenomena.
Take, for instance, an enigmatic sighting of lights in the sky over the Great Plains one night early in 2023. Video of the UAP taken by a commercial pilot in flight caused a stir when it was posted online soon after the sighting, West says.
Whoever posted the video didn’t include specifics about the sighting, other than to say it was taken somewhere over the central United States on a particular date. A pattern of lights on the ground, which turned out to be warning lights atop turbines in a large wind farm, helped investigators on Metabunk locate the plane as somewhere in western Oklahoma.
Certain details about the sighting, such as flashes of lightning on the distant horizon, wouldn’t have occurred on the supposed date of the video, West notes. Using public meteorological databases about the times, dates and locations where lightning strikes occur, the Metabunk crew figured out the video actually had been taken a few days earlier than reported. The date, in turn, helped the group figure out which flight the video was taken from.
Not an alien
In 2023, a commercial airline pilot took a video of a UAP (white arrows, top left), which was posted to the website Metabunk.org. Using the pattern of lights on the ground, Metabunk sleuths determined the UAP was filmed above Oklahoma. Further investigation revealed the date of the flight and flight path (yellow line, right). Computer simulations of the sky helped pinpoint Starlink internet satellites as the source of the mystery lights (bottom left).
Mick West
Then, knowing the date, time and precise coordinates, West and collaborators used computer simulations to re-create what the sky would have looked like in the direction where the UAP was seen. The mystery lights were actually a cluster of Starlink satellites reflecting sunlight from below the horizon as they swooped across the sky. With the first batch launched in 2019, Starlink satellites now circle Earth in the thousands, providing internet service for locales worldwide (SN: 3/12/20). Their movements and patterns in the sky “are still a mystery to some pilots,” West says.
West suggests that people are often too quick to jump from “I saw some lights in the sky” to “Aliens!” With so many possibilities for what UAPs might be — optical illusions, meteorological phenomena and aviation-related sightings, plus more — the experience generally turns out to be more mundane than observers imagine, West says.
“We’re not really looking for aliens,” he explains. “We’re looking to explain what people are seeing.”
The study of UAPs needs more and better data
Good data are key to deciphering UAPs, but they’re often in short supply. Although many reports by pilots include images taken by onboard sensors or with handheld video cameras, those instruments often aren’t sophisticated enough to capture the necessary details. The same is true for sightings reported from the ground, where the specifics of a presumed object’s direction and speed as well as general environmental conditions are often lacking.
By contrast, NASA has a wealth of data from satellites that monitor Earth. Though they don’t have the resolution to spot relatively small objects the size of most UAPs, the satellites are poised to play a supporting role, says astrophysicist Thomas Zurbuchen. Now at ETH Zurich, he’s a former associate administrator of NASA’s Science Mission Directorate. NASA satellites could be key in providing details on any environmental conditions that may coincide with UAPs, according to the NASA team’s report, released in September 2023. Data collected by commercial satellites can play a similar role.
Gathering and analyzing data is a good way to address what UAPs are, Zurbuchen says. “We should be excited about things we don’t understand, whether they’re natural phenomena, balloons or other things,” he says. “We currently don’t understand what’s flying in our airspace, not to the level that’s needed.”
Boyd also emphasizes the need for better data. The sensors typically used on planes today “weren’t designed to detect UAPs, and the signals that we do pick up are sometimes hard to interpret,” he says. Yet getting the right data may prove challenging and expensive. Integrating new types of sensors into the already-complicated electronic systems of military and commercial aircraft would be something of a “needle-in-a-haystack type of endeavor,” Boyd says. “There are more than 100,000 flights per day; how many have actually seen anything?”
Explained anomalous phenomena
Although many UAPs remain puzzling, experts have identified some common sources. Saucer-shaped lenticular clouds, birds in flight, thermal fluctuations in the atmosphere and other natural phenomena explain some sightings, as do celestial objects like Venus. And while no alien technology has been linked to UAPs, human tech has, including weather balloons, satellites, drones, airborne trash and military aircraft. Last year, a particularly spooky spiral in the sky over northwestern Canada turned out to be vapor from unspent fuel released from a SpaceX rocket.
Lenticular clouds
FIONA MCALLISTER PHOTOGRAPHY / Getty Images
Birds in flight
Diana Robinson Photography/Getty Images
Venus in the sky
noriakimasumoto/Getty Images
Weather balloon
NASA
SatellitesSpacex
Vapor from unspent fuel released from a SpaceX rocket
Todd Salat
Perhaps ground-based instruments are the way to go. Several research teams are developing suites of instruments that can observe a broad range of characteristics and be deployed to sites where UAPs are frequently seen. Some of these packages could be ready to deploy late this year.
Wes Watters, a planetary scientist at Wellesley College in Massachusetts, is on one team now developing such instrument packages. The observatories are intended to “determine whether there are measurable phenomena in or near Earth’s atmosphere that can be confidently classified as scientific anomalies,” he and colleagues proposed in the March 2023 Journal of Astronomical Instrumentation. Or, in simpler terms, “to figure out what’s normal versus what’s not normal,” he explains.
Designing such observatories is complicated by the fact that not all UAPs are the same. But previous fieldwork, as well as the observations made by people during UAP sightings, is a rich source of information about what measurements could be useful, Watters says. Besides sensors for detecting and characterizing a UAP itself, instrument packages will collect weather data, which could help researchers interpret the other measurements.
Watters and colleagues are developing three styles of instrument packages as part of the Galileo Project. Led by Harvard University astronomer Avi Loeb, the project seeks to bring the search for signs of extraterrestrial technologies into mainstream scientific research.
The most elaborate instrument package will sport arrays of wide-field cameras for targeting aerial objects and triangulating their positions; narrow-field cameras for tracking objects across the sky; radio antennas and receivers; microphones that can detect sound across a wide range of wavelengths; and computers that can integrate, process and analyze data. These weather-resistant systems will function autonomously 24/7 and be deployed at sites with electrical power and internet connectivity.
These observatories will likely cost around $250,000 each and be deployed to at least three sites for up to five years.
A second, more portable option will be designed for rapid deployment for up to two weeks to sites that don’t have access to electrical power or internet. Each costing about $25,000, these simpler packages will be monitored daily, with data recorded and then processed later and elsewhere. The instruments won’t necessarily be weatherized, restricting their operation to mild-weather locales.
The third, simplest and least expensive package will host low-end, consumer-grade sensors and instruments, Watters says. They’ll be easy to maintain, monitor the sky within a radius of five kilometers and operate continuously for up to a year, relying on solar and battery power if need be. Groups of these packages can be networked together to cover a broad region. Each package will probably cost about $2,500.
With these sorts of instrument packages — and open minds, Watters suggests — researchers are bound to make new discoveries. “It’s impossible to make sense of these phenomena until we collect the right kinds of data,” he says.
In their 2023 report, Watters and colleagues noted that though several teams are developing or using instrument packages, none have yet reported detection of UAPs in peer-reviewed papers. The Galileo Project, including Watters’ team’s research, is funded by private donations, including a recently received $575,000 grant to establish and monitor a ground-based observatory somewhere in the Pittsburgh area.
The goal is not to explain away UAPs, Watters says. Instead, he notes, “we’re about identifying and characterizing what they are or might be.”
Brit saw 'caravan-sized UFO' 50 years ago – he kept quiet until now for one key reason
Brit saw 'caravan-sized UFO' 50 years ago – he kept quiet until now for one key reason
Gordon Mackerracher said when he was 17-years-old he spotted a a brown metallic conical structure that was the size of a caravan as he walked down a rural road in West Lothian, Scotland.
Gordon Mackerracher has decided to share his story of when he believes he encountered a strange flying object
(Image: Callum Moffat)
A retired primary school caretaker says he's kept his encounter with a UFO secret for five decades.
Gordon Mackerracher said he was 17-years-old in 1974 when he spotted a brown, caravan-sized metallic conical structure above a rural lane in West Lothian, Scotland.
The now 67-year-old remembers watching the aircraft as he hurriedly made his way to a phone box on Langton Road to call air traffic control at Edinburgh Airport.
He claims staff at the control tower explained no aircraft had entered or left the surrounding airspace in the past hour.
Gordon said he remained tight-lipped about his experience for so long because did not want to be branded as an “idiot” or associated as someone who saw “space people''.
The rural road where Gordon says he saw the UFO(Image: Callum Moffat)
He said: “I never told a soul. I was too scared because I did not want to be classed as an idiot, so I just kept quiet about it when I got back to my parents. Not once did I think my mind was playing tricks on me as I knew exactly what I saw. I had no interest in UFOs at the time or even thought about them or anything like that.
His experience stayed in the family with his son Ross also learning of what happened 50 years ago.
Despite his concerns around other people’s perceptions, Gordon grew in confidence after reading Arthur C Clarke’s ‘Mysterious World’ which contained a near identical drawing of a UFO craft that was spotted by a Yorkshireman around the same time.
Describing the night he say the object in 1974, Gordon said he left the cottage of a girl he was dating to travel down a road which connects the villages of Kirknewton and East Calder.
Gordon said he remained tight lipped about his experience because he did not want to be branded as an 'idiot' or associated as someone who saw 'space people'(Image: Callum Moffat)
He said: “I don’t know why but I looked to my left and in the sky above me was this brown conical craft travelling in total silence.
“I could see the moonlight shining off it. It was funny, as I don’t remember being scared when I watched it, although it is possible I was at the time.
“I headed to the phone box on Langton Road which was about a 20 minute walk and phoned the control tower at the airport. I told them I saw a conical object flying in the sky that was completely silent.
“They went away to check and when the guy came back he told me that nothing had taken off or arrived at Edinburgh in the past hour. He said their radar did not capture anything during that time either.
“At first I thought it was maybe circling round to land at Edinburgh airport but obviously not. I just told the controller that it didn’t matter and headed home.”
The first time he opened up was several years later to his wife Margaret when they were watching a show that mentioned extraterrestrial encounters.
“Not once did I think my mind was playing tricks on me as I knew exactly what I saw. I had no interest in UFOs at the time or even thought about them or anything like that.
“The first time I mentioned it was after I got married and something came on TV about UFOs. I told my wife about the encounter and she just said ok. I later told my son about it as well. Neither of them are really believers or non-believers, it never really comes up between us.''
China’s super-secret space plane spotted above Europe
China’s super-secret space plane spotted above Europe
Story by Andrew Paul
So little is known about Shenlong, China’s ultra-secret, reusable space plane that there aren’t even publicly verifiable photos of the experimental aircraft. But that doesn’t mean knowledgeable astronomy enthusiasts can’t catch glimpses of the vehicle as it orbits Earth, as was recently the case for Felix Schöfbänker in Upper Austria. Based on his July 30 images first highlighted by Space.com, Schöfbänker theorizes he possibly identified a pair of previously unknown features on Shenlong’s underside—potentially a pair of solar panels that help power the craft.
China’s Shenlong space plane captured in orbit on July 30, 2024.
Credit: Felix Schöfbänker
Space planes like Shenlong are designed for multi-year, uncrewed orbital missions after hitching a ride aboard a rocket. Upon mission completion, however, the vehicles are capable of returning to Earth and landing on runways similar to conventional aircraft. China’s mysterious robotic vehicle has completed at least two confirmed missions since 2020, the second of which lasted 276 consecutive days in orbit above Earth. During that excursion, Shenlong deployed at least one free-flying object that experts believe may have been either a small satellite or external craft designed to monitor the plane itself. Its current mission began after launching from a Chinese space agency facility in the Gobi Desert on December 14, 2023. Since then it has released at least seven confirmed objects of unknown purpose into orbit. Thanks to the new images, it seems that it might receive at least some of its power sources through solar panel arrays.
“I am not really sure if they are solar panels or some other features like an antenna or something of that nature,” he added on Monday.
Altitude, time, and angle details during Shenlong’s sighting on July 30, 2024.
Additional information inferred from the data includes apparent confirmation that the space plane recently lowered its orbit down to about 217 miles above Earth, and that it does appear to measure somewhere within its previously estimated 30-foot length. Although its wings are not visible in the grainy imagery, it is still believed that Shenlong’s wingspan is at least wide enough to necessitate small cutouts in China’s Long March 2F rocket used to deliver it into orbit.
Shenlong isn’t the only experimental space plane currently conducting secretive missions above Earth. The US Space Force’s X-37B, built by Boeing and slightly smaller China’s aircraft, has been working on its own endeavors since its latest launch aboard a SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket on December 28, 2023. Two Boeing X-37 variants are believed to exist, and have completed six previous missions so far—its last excursion lasting a total of 909 days in orbit.
Related video:
Shenzhou 15 Crew Launches To China's Tiangong Space Station (Space.com)
Mars Once Hosted Lake Larger than Any on Earth: Lake Eridania
Mars Once Hosted Lake Larger than Any on Earth: Lake Eridania
This new image from the High Resolution Stereo Camera (HRSC) onboard ESA’s Mars Express spacecraft shows Caralis Chaos, broken-down and dried-up remnants of a vast ancient Martian lake named Lake Eridania.
This image from ESA’s Mars Express shows Caralis Chaos, a Martian region where copious water is thought to have once existed in the form of an ancient lake known as Lake Eridania.
Image credit: ESA / DLR / FU Berlin.
Lake Eridania once held more water than all other Martian lakes combined and covered an area of over a million km2.
The lake was larger than any known lake on Earth, containing enough water to fill the Caspian Sea nearly three times over.
It likely existed around 3.7 billion years ago, first as one large body of water and later as a series of smaller isolated lakes as it began to dry out.
Eventually Lake Eridania disappeared completely, along with the rest of the water on the Red Planet.
“The lower-left part of the frame features the remains of an old lakebed,” the Mars Express researchers said.
This oblique perspective view was generated from the digital terrain model and the nadir and colour channels of the High Resolution Stereo Camera on ESA’s Mars Express. It shows a region of Mars known as Caralis Chaos, where copious water is thought to have once existed in the form of an ancient lake.
Credit: ESA/DLR/FU Berlin
This colour-coded topographic image shows a region of Mars known as Caralis Chaos, where copious water is thought to have once existed in the form of an ancient lake. It was created from data collected by ESA’s Mars Express on 1 January 2024 (orbit 25235) and is based on a digital terrain model of the region, from which the topography of the landscape can be derived. Lower parts of the surface are shown in blues and purples, while higher altitude regions show up in whites and reds, as indicated on the scale to the top right. North is to the right. The ground resolution is approximately 15 m/pixel and the image is centred at about 38°S/177°E.
Credit: ESA/DLR/FU Berlin
This tan-colored slice of ground is smoother to the left and becomes covered in small hills and mounds to the right. Wriggly, uneven ridges cut horizontally across the frame, while two prominent fault lines cut down vertically on the left and right. Large and small craters are peppered across the terrain. The worn-away boundaries of a once-colossal lakebed can be seen curving up and away from the bottom-center to the top right; this skirts around the largest crater seen here, which sits in the middle of the picture encircled by rough, irregular valleys and channels.
Credit: ESA/DLR/FU Berlin
“The boundaries of this bed can be seen curving up and away from the center of the frame, skirting around the large central crater.”
“The old lakebed is now filled with lots of raised mounds, thought to have formed as ancient Martian winds swept dust across the planet.”
“This dust was later covered and altered by water, before drying out again and breaking apart.”
Alongside water, there are clear signs of volcanism at play in and around this region, known as Caralis Chaos.
“Two long cracks run horizontally through this image, cross-cutting both the aforementioned lakebed and the smoother ground to the top,” the scientists said.
“These are known as the Sirenum Fossae faults, and formed as Mars’ Tharsis region — home to the largest volcanoes in the Solar System — rose up and put immense stress on the Martian crust.”
“Volcanic stress is also to blame for the many wrinkle ridges found here.”
“These appear as wriggly lines weaving across the frame vertically.”
“Wrinkle ridges are common on volcanic plains, forming as new lava sheets are compressed while still soft and elastic, causing them to buckle and deform.”
“The impact craters here, created as space rocks collided with Mars, are also fascinating.”
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Alvast bedankt voor al jouw bezoekjes en jouw reacties. Nog een prettige dag verder!!!
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.
