Saturn's Moon Mimas May Be Way More Inhabitable Than We First Thought

The existence of another watery world in the outer solar system may offer clues to how such seas form.

by Shannon Hall and Knowable Magazine

 

NASA/JPL

Now, another moon appears to be secretly flooded. Saturn’s moon Mimas, known for its uncanny resemblance to the Star Wars Death Star, might harbor liquid water beneath its icy shell. If true, similar seas could be hiding in plain sight, and the outer solar system may be far more habitable than previously thought.

In 2014, scientists first published evidence that Mimas might be a watery world — submerging the community in a decade-long debate. Many, including Alyssa Rhoden, a planetary scientist now at the Southwest Research Institute in Boulder, Colorado, were highly skeptical of the possibility. Their reasoning was simple: Mimas’ heavily cratered surface showed no signs of an internal ocean. As with Enceladus, Saturn’s gravity should churn the ocean waters within Mimas, causing large cracks to appear in the surface ice. No such fractures have been seen.

The tides might now have turned. Two studies, one by Rhoden and colleagues and another by Valéry Lainey of the Paris Observatory and colleagues make a stronger case for an ocean and even explain the conundrum at the surface. Together, the research suggests that Mimas may have a young and changing ocean. If so, it raises the prospect of an outer solar system rife with activity. That possibility is what most excites Rhoden, who spoke with Knowable Magazine about the potential ocean and why it could be such a boon for scientists.

This conversation has been edited for length and clarity.

What do we know about these hidden oceans?

In many ways, they look like our own — at least in that they’re likely made up of saltwater.

We know that these ocean worlds have icy surfaces from their overall bright appearance, as confirmed by telescopic and spacecraft measurements that detect signatures of water ice. Some ocean moons even have low enough densities that they probably have water ice mixed into the rock in their interiors. With heat, that water ice melts into liquid water, which will erode rock to create saltwater. On Enceladus, saltwater is conveniently spewing out into space.

Given how cold it is in the outer solar system, what generates the heat?

Distant oceans might at first seem out of the question. Heat to melt ice is hard to come by, so far from the Sun. But thanks to a gravitational quirk, the outer solar system can be quite balmy.

Consider Jupiter and its Moon Europa. Jupiter exerts a strong gravitational force on Europa, elongating Europa in the direction of Jupiter. Because Europa’s orbit is eccentric — it swings close to Jupiter before swinging farther away — Europa gets stretched and released over time. This creates friction in the interior that provides the heat necessary to sustain a liquid ocean.

We first saw hints that Europa might host a subsurface ocean when the Voyager mission swung past Jupiter in 1979. Europa doesn’t look like our Moon or even most bodies in the inner solar system. Its icy surface doesn’t have a lot of craters but is instead covered with crisscrossing lines and broken pieces that have shifted around. You don’t have to look at it very hard to imagine that something different is going on there.

You mention surface features. What other evidence do we rely on to detect a hidden ocean?

One way is to look at magnetic fields. Because saltwater is electrically conductive, it can create a magnetic field around the Moon that disrupts the planet’s magnetic field. That is a leading piece of evidence for Europa’s subsurface ocean.

But that alone is not enough. It’s the combination of evidence that leads us to conclude there’s an ocean. We might also consider, for example, measurements of salt on the surface and how the Moon’s gravity tugs on a spacecraft. Since the densities of rock or liquid metal differ from the density of liquid water, the size of those tugs offers clues to the material, as well as where within the Moon it is concentrated.

Or we might simply imagine how the Moon’s face changes direction throughout its orbit. Generally, these small moons always show the same face as their parent planet, much like our Moon. But as a moon moves through its orbit, the direction it points can shift a bit back and forth — creating a shimmy in the visible portion. The extent of that shimmy depends on the interior. An ice shell over an ocean can move more freely than an ice shell on top of rock, so the changes tend to be larger. That’s how the ocean was detected at Enceladus. And it’s one of the best lines of evidence for an ocean at Mimas.

Let’s talk about Mimas. How did you end up studying the Moon?

I had spent a decade or so working on Europa and other icy moons when the 2014 Mimas paper came out. That paper measured that shimmy, or libration, as the visible portion of the moon shifts, suggesting Mimas either hosted a subsurface ocean or an oddly shaped core.

But an ocean seemed impossible. Mimas look much like our Moon, with a heavily cratered surface. It didn’t host any crisscrossing lines or broken pieces like Europa. And it certainly wasn’t spewing geysers like Enceladus. So I took one look at Mimas, and I said, “There’s no way that is an ocean moon.” Yet I realized I couldn’t refute the idea.

I kept Mimas in my mind over the years, eventually putting together a paper for the Annual Review of Earth and Planetary Sciences in 2023. That paper ruled out several ocean scenarios and left only one option, an ocean that formed recently, well after Mimas itself. A young ocean could be stealthy. But it was still just a hypothesis.

How has the most recent work changed the picture?

Early in 2024, Valéry Lainey and his group reported new observational evidence in favor of an ocean on Mimas. They looked not at the libration but at changes in Mimas’ orbit through time — changes that depend on the interior structure. They found that those changes could not be explained by an oddly shaped core, leaving an ocean as the most viable option.

My team’s research, published in June, has gone on to explain the lack of visible surface fractures. We argue that the ocean is so young — merely 10 million years old — that it has only recently stopped growing. We think that the tidal stresses of a young churning ocean may not be enough to crack the ice above. Instead, what’s needed is the stress that comes when the ocean eventually refreezes. Because Mimas is losing heat as its orbit becomes less eccentric over time, refreezing — which is only just beginning on Mimas — will cause the overlying ice to crack.

The research suggests that eventually, Mimas is probably going to lose its ocean, which is a little sad since it is just being recognized. But on the flip side, Mimas may become the new Enceladus — the new coolest moon of Saturn — with deep cracks and maybe even jets of water.

What are the big-picture implications of this research?

I’m interested in this from a geophysical standpoint. We think of the earliest epochs in our solar system as the hot times when all the activity happens; then, everything evolves toward a quieter state. Pluto’s moon, Charon, might have lost an ocean. And Europa’s and Ganymede’s oceans are pretty old. That a moon could form a new ocean well into its history and that we could watch? That’s exciting! It opens up the possibility that any world, including one with an old, cratered surface, may be going through a similar transition.

There’s also interest in habitability — whether these oceans are suitable for supporting life. We don’t currently know whether any of the solar system’s oceans, other than our own, are habitable, have been inhabited or are currently inhabited. But if Mimas truly has an ocean, we could have a window into how these worlds develop and even how habitats are created and lost. It is exciting to be able to see these processes as they occur — instead of always viewing the end states of things that happened long ago.

What upcoming missions could tell us more?

The European Space Agency has already launched the Jupiter Icy Moons Explorer, or Juice, which will make detailed observations of Europa, and the moons Ganymede and Callisto, which show hints of oceans. And in the fall of 2024, NASA will send the Europa Clipper into orbit around Jupiter to determine if Europa has conditions suitable for life.

The Uranus system, which is high on NASA’s agenda for a future mission, is where I see the most implications for this recent work. It’s surprisingly similar to the Saturn system, including hosting ice-rich, mid-sized moons similar to Mimas and Enceladus. If there’s a young ocean on Mimas, it is not a huge leap to consider that water worlds might exist among the Uranian moons, too.

• This article originally appeared in Knowable Magazine, an independent journalistic endeavor from Annual Reviews. Sign up for the newsletter.

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19-08-2024 om 18:03 geschreven door peter  

Asteroids safely fly by Earth all the time. Here’s why scientists are watching Apophis.

Story Summary

• Apophis is projected to pass within 20,000 miles of our planet’s surface on April 13 2029. The menacing asteroid will harmlessly pass by, astronomers say.
• Apophis measures nearly a quarter of a mile long – about the size of a cruise ship – making it large enough to be visible to the naked eye when it shoots past Earth.
• Space agencies and scientific institutes around the world are planning to use the rare flyby to explore Apophis from the ground with telescopes and even spacecraft.

Among astronomers both professional and amateur, perhaps no asteroid is more notorious than Apophis.

If you've heard of Apophis, then you're likely aware of the reputation it gained upon its discovery two decades ago as a potentially very dangerous space rock hurtling too close for comfort toward Earth. It was initially believed that the asteroid could one day pose a serious threat to our planet.

And one day, it just might.

But that day won't come for at least 100 years, astronomers say. No, not even in 2029, when Apophis makes the closest approach to Earth that any asteroid of its size ever has – at least, one that scientists have known about in advance.

Additional observations of Apophis have allowed astronomers to long rule out the risk of an impact in 2029 when Apophis is predicted to come within a distance of Earth 10 times closer than the moon, according to NASA. The asteroid also won't hit our planet when it makes another close approach in 2036.

While we and our children are safe from Apophis' wrath, scientists still see a valuable opportunity to study the asteroid as it whizzes by Earth to learn what they can of other space rocks that actually could hit our planet.

Here's what to know about Apophis and how space agencies hope to protect Earth from other asteroids like it.

Apophis to make 2029 flyby to Earth

Apophis is projected to pass within 20,000 miles of our planet’s surface on April 13, 2029.

For the superstitious lot, yes, that's a Friday, no less.

On that day, Apophis will come closer than telecommunications satellites in geostationary orbit, the ESA says.

The close encounter with Earth will make the asteroid visible in the Eastern hemisphere, including in Europe, Africa, and western Asia. It should look somewhat like a bright star streaking across the sky.

Earth's gravity will significantly influence Apophis – squeezing and distorting the asteroid as one side is pulled toward our planet more than the other. While no affects will be felt on Earth, Apophis may experience some quakes and even landslides, the ESA said.

Will Apophis hit earth?

In short, no. Not during our lifetimes, anyway.

While Apophis is classified as a near-Earth asteroid because its orbit bring it within 30 million miles of Earth, you have nothing to fear from it.

Apophis was initially identified as one of the most hazardous asteroids that could impact Earth after its 2004 discovery, but that assessment has since changed as astronomers tracked it and learned more about its orbit.

While the risk of it impacting Earth during its 2029 flyby rose as high as 2.7%, Apophis has since been removed from NASA’s Sentry Impact Risk Table. That's thanks to a radar observation campaign in March 2021 during a distant flyby that – combined with precise orbit analysis – allowed astronomers to determine that the asteroid poses no risk of crashing into Earth for at least a century.

How big is the Apophis asteroid?

Apophis measures nearly a quarter of a mile long – about the size of a cruise ship – making it large enough to be visible to the naked eye when it shoots past Earth.

The Planetary Society compares its size to the equivalent of about five football fields and taller than the Empire State Building in New York City.

It's hard to know just exactly what Apophis looks like, as scientists do not yet have images of it. But radar observations have suggested that Apophis is shaped roughly like a peanut – a relatively common shape among near-Earth asteroids larger than 660 feet in diameter, according to NASA.

Apophis is believed to be stony, made up of silicate (or rocky) materials and a mixture of metallic nickel and iron.

What would happen if Apophis hit Earth?

Though not as big or catastrophic as the asteroid theorized to have wiped out the dinosaurs 66 million years ago, Apophis would cause widespread destruction up to several hundred kilometers from its impact site.

The energy released would be equal more than 1,000 megatons of TNT, or tens to hundreds of nuclear weapons, according to the Planetary Society, a nonprofit organization promoting space exploration.

View |49 Photos

Space photos: Stunning images you have to see

Space photos: Stunning images you have to see

What does 'Apophis' mean?

Apophis is no different from other asteroids in that it is a remnant from the early formation of our solar system about 4.6 billion years ago. It originated in the main asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter and spent millions of years being altered by the gravitational influence of large planets such as Jupiter, NASA said.

Now, Apophis's orbit around the sun brings it startlingly close to Earth.

It's partly due to its proximity, as well as the sheer devastation its impact with Earth would bring, that astronomers named the asteroid after an ancient Egyptian god of disorder.

Specifically, Apophis is named for the demon serpent who personified evil and chaos.

ESA, NASA hope to study Apophis

The NASA spacecraft OSIRIS-APEX hovers over the surface of the near-Earth asteroid Apophis, using its thrusters to disturb the asteroid's surface to reveal what lies beneath, as shown in an undated NASA artist's video rendering, in this screengrab obtained from a handout video.  

NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center/Handout via Reuters

Space agencies and scientific institutes around the world are planning to use the rare flyby to explore Apophis from the ground with telescopes and even spacecraft.

NASA's OSIRIS-REx, which gathered and returned a sample of asteroid Bennu in September, has been renamed OSIRIS-APophis EXplorer (OSIRIS-APEX) and sent on a trajectory that would allow it to cross paths with the asteroid in 2029. When it has its rendezvous with Apophis in June that year, OSIRIS-APEX will spend 18 months mapping the asteroid’s surface and analyzing its chemical makeup, according to NASA.

Earth-based telescopes will observe Apophis as well, but they won't be able to detect as much as the spacecraft will when the asteroid gets near the sun, NASA said. But unlike with the Bennu mission, OSIRIS-APEX will not collect a sample from Apophis.

The European Space Agency, NASA's counterpart across the pond, plans to launch a spacecraft of its own called Ramses.

An art visualization shows how the European Space Agency's "Ramses" mission will approach the massive asteroid Apophis.  

ESA-Science Office

The Ramses spacecraft, which must be ready to launch a year ahead of time, will meet Apophis before it passes by Earth and accompany it on its way out of our orbit. During that time, the mission will observe how the surface of the asteroid changes from being in such close proximity to Earth, the European Space Agency said in July.

NASA takes on dangerous asteroids

The expedition is all part of the steps NASA and other space agencies have taken in recent years to protect humanity from threats posed by asteroids and other inbound space rocks, such as comets.

NASA's Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART) spacecraft prior to impact at the Didymos binary asteroid system shown in this undated illustration handout.  

NASA/Johns Hopkins/Handout via Reuters

In September 2022, NASA intentionally slammed a spacecraft into the small asteroid Dimorphos at roughly 14,000 mph.

Though Dimorphos posed no threat to Earth, the mission served as the first demonstration of NASA's Double Asteroid Redirection Test, or DART. If an incoming asteroid is ever on a collision course with our planet, the space agency has said that the DART method could prove crucial for deflecting and changing the object's orbital path.

A placard hangs on the wall during the Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART) Technology Media Workshop Telecon Briefing and tour at the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory in Laurel, Maryland, on September 12, 2022, ahead of the September 26 project test mission. The DART mission shifted an asteroid's orbit through kinetic impact specifically, by smashing a spacecraft into the smaller member of the binary asteroid system Didymos.   

Jim Watson/AFP via Getty Images

And to gauge whether authorities are prepared to defend Earth from space objects, NASA has hosted a series of exercises, the fifth and most recent of which occurred in April, with findings announced in June. It was the first such exercise to include about 100 international government representatives who gathered to work through a hypothetical scenario about an inbound asteroid.

The exercise was organized by the U.S. space agency's Planetary Defense Coordination Office, which was established in 2016 to catalog near-Earth objects that could crash into the planet.

NASA is also working on an asteroid-hunting telescope known as the NEO Surveyor to find near-Earth objects capable of causing significant damage. Set to launch no earlier than June 2028, the telescope is designed to discover 90% of asteroids and comets that are 460 feet in size or larger and come within 30 million miles of Earth’s orbit. 

• Contributing: Claire Thornton, USA TODAY
• Eric Lagatta covers breaking and trending news for USA TODAY. Reach him at elagatta@gannett.com

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18-08-2024 om 22:13 geschreven door peter  

Apophis, ‘God of Destruction’ is set to skim Earth's orbit; Why scientists are watching closely

What is Apophis?

Apophis is a remnant from the early solar system, formed around 4.6 billion years ago in the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter. It has been significantly influenced by the gravitational forces of large planets like Jupiter. Its name derives from the ancient Egyptian god of disorder and chaos, reflecting the potential havoc such an asteroid could wreak. Apophis is named after the demon serpent who personified evil and chaos, symbolizing the potential danger posed by its impact.

Apophis' Safety Assessment

Despite its close proximity, Apophis poses no threat to Earth. Initially identified as a hazardous asteroid after its discovery in 2004, recent observations have ruled out any risk of impact in 2029. "While the risk of it impacting Earth during its 2029 flyby rose as high as 2.7%, Apophis has since been removed from NASA’s Sentry Impact Risk Table," thanks to precise orbit analysis and radar observations in March 2021, NASA confirmed.

What would happen if Apophis hits Earth?

If the asteroid Apophis were to strike Earth, the impact would result in severe destruction, although not as catastrophic as the asteroid believed to have wiped out the dinosaurs 66 million years ago. The devastation from Apophis would extend up to several hundred kilometers from the impact site. The energy released would exceed 1,000 megatons of TNT, a magnitude comparable to tens to hundreds of nuclear weapons, as noted by the Planetary Society, a nonprofit organization dedicated to space exploration.

Physical Characteristics of Apophis

Apophis measures nearly a quarter of a mile long, roughly equivalent to five football fields or taller than the Empire State Building. Radar data suggests that the asteroid is shaped somewhat like a peanut. It is primarily composed of stony silicate materials and a mixture of metallic nickel and iron. Although scientists do not have direct images of Apophis, its shape and size have been inferred from observations.

Potential Impact Consequences

If Apophis were to collide with Earth, the impact would cause significant damage, with effects extending several hundred kilometers from the impact site. The energy released would be equivalent to more than 1,000 megatons of TNT. While not as catastrophic as the asteroid that led to the extinction of the dinosaurs, it would still result in widespread destruction.

Scientific Missions and Observations

The upcoming flyby offers a valuable opportunity for scientific study. NASA's OSIRIS-APEX mission, a renamed version of the OSIRIS-REx spacecraft, is set to rendezvous with Apophis in June 2029. The spacecraft will map the asteroid’s surface and analyze its chemical composition over an 18-month period. The European Space Agency is also preparing a mission called Ramses, which will observe how Earth's gravity affects Apophis during its close approach.

Asteroid Defense and Future Missions

NASA and other space agencies are actively working to enhance planetary defense capabilities. The Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART) mission, which successfully altered the orbit of the asteroid Dimorphos in 2022, demonstrates potential methods for deflecting hazardous asteroids. "NASA’s mission to Apophis is a chance to practice how to characterize and potentially defend against future threats," said Terik Daly, a planetary scientist involved with both the DART and OSIRIS-APEX missions.

Challenges and Future Plans

As the 2029 flyby approaches, scientists face the challenge of developing and funding additional missions to study Apophis before and during its closest approach. "We’re running out of time," said Jason Kalirai from the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory. The need for funding and mission planning is critical, with several proposed missions awaiting approval and support.

Planetary Defense and Future Preparations

The impending close flyby of Apophis in 2029 presents a rare opportunity for detailed scientific study. NASA's OSIRIS-REx spacecraft, which previously returned samples from asteroid Bennu, has been repurposed as OSIRIS-APEX for this mission. Scheduled to rendezvous with Apophis in June 2029, OSIRIS-APEX will spend 18 months mapping the asteroid and analyzing its chemical composition. "The mission will provide critical data on Apophis's surface and structure," said Daniella DellaGiustina, lead scientist on OSIRIS-APEX.

In addition, the European Space Agency (ESA) is preparing the Ramses spacecraft, which will observe Apophis before and after its close encounter with Earth. Ramses aims to study how Earth's gravity affects the asteroid's surface and rotation. "Ramses will help us understand the changes Apophis undergoes due to its proximity to Earth," explained ESA representatives.

NASA has been actively working on planetary defense strategies. In September 2022, NASA's Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART) demonstrated a method for altering an asteroid's trajectory. This mission successfully redirected the small asteroid Dimorphos by crashing a spacecraft into it. "The DART mission showed that we can deflect an asteroid's orbit, which is crucial for future planetary defense," noted Terik Daly, a planetary scientist involved in DART.

NASA is also developing the NEO Surveyor telescope, set to launch in June 2028. This telescope will search for near-Earth objects larger than 460 feet, aiming to discover 90% of such objects within 30 million miles of Earth's orbit.

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18-08-2024 om 21:56 geschreven door peter  

Asteroid Apophis will visit Earth in 2029, and this European satellite will be along for the ride

This is a big deal because large asteroids don't come this close to Earth very often. It is thus scientifically precious that, on April 13, 2029, Apophis will pass within 19,794 miles (31,860 kilometers) of Earth. For comparison, geosynchronous orbit is 22,236 miles (35,786 km) above Earth's surface. Such close fly-bys by asteroids hundreds of meters across (Apophis is about 1,230 feet, or 375 meters, across) only occur on average once every 5,000 to 10,000 years. Miss this one, and we've got a long time to wait for the next.

Related: 

• 2 asteroids just zipped by Earth, and NASA caught footage of the action

When Apophis was discovered in 2004, it was for a short time the most dangerous asteroid known, being classified as having the potential to impact with Earth possibly in 2029, 2036, or 2068. Should an asteroid of its size strike Earth, it could gouge out a crater several kilometers across and devastate a country with shock waves, flash heating and earth tremors. If it crashed down in the ocean, it could send a towering tsunami to devastate coastlines in multiple countries.

Over time, as our knowledge of Apophis' orbit became more refined, however, the risk of impact  greatly went down. Radar observations of the asteroid in March of 2021 reduced the uncertainty in Apophis' orbit from hundreds of kilometers to just a few kilometers, finally removing any lingering worries about an impact — at least for the next 100 years. (Beyond 100 years, asteroid orbits can become too unpredictable to plot with any accuracy, but there's currently no suggestion that an impact will occur after 100 years.) So, Earth is expected to be perfectly safe in 2029 when Apophis comes through. Still, scientists want to see how Apophis responds by coming so close to Earth and entering our planet's gravitational field.

"There is still so much we have yet to learn about asteroids but, until now, we have had to travel deep into the solar system to study them and perform experiments ourselves to interact with their surface," said Patrick Michel, who is the Director of Research at CNRS at Observatoire de la Côte d’Azur in Nice, France, in a statement. "Nature is bringing one to us and conducting the experiment itself. All we need to do is watch as Apophis is stretched and squeezed by strong tidal forces that may trigger landslides and other disturbances and reveal new material from beneath the surface."

By arriving at Apophis before the asteroid's close encounter with Earth, and sticking with it throughout the flyby and beyond, Ramses will be in prime position to conduct before-and-after surveys to see how Apophis reacts to Earth. By looking for disturbances Earth's gravitational tidal forces trigger on the asteroid's surface, Ramses will be able to learn about Apophis' internal structure, density, porosity and composition, all of which are characteristics that we would need to first understand before considering how best to deflect a similar asteroid were one ever found to be on a collision course with our world.

Besides assisting in protecting Earth, learning about Apophis will give scientists further insights into how similar asteroids formed in the early solar system, and, in the process, how  planets (including Earth) formed out of the same material.

One way we already know Earth will affect Apophis is by changing its orbit. Currently, Apophis is categorized as an Aten-type asteroid, which is what we call the class of near-Earth objects that have a shorter orbit around the sun than Earth does. Apophis currently gets as far as 0.92 astronomical units (137.6 million km, or 85.5 million miles) from the sun. However, our planet will give Apophis a gravitational nudge that will enlarge its orbit to 1.1 astronomical units (164.6 million km, or 102 million miles), such that its orbital period becomes longer than Earth's. 

It will then be classed as an Apollo-type asteroid. 

Ramses won't be alone in tracking Apophis. NASA has repurposed their OSIRIS-REx mission, which returned a sample from another near-Earth asteroid, 101955 Bennu, in 2023. However, the spacecraft, renamed OSIRIS-APEX (Apophis Explorer), won't arrive at the asteroid until April 23, 2029, ten days after the close encounter with Earth. OSIRIS-APEX will initially perform a flyby of Apophis at a distance of about 2,500 miles (4,000 km) from the object, then return in June that year to settle into orbit around Apophis for an 18-month mission.

Furthermore, the European Space Agency still plans on launching its Hera spacecraft in October 2024 to follow-up on the DART mission to the double asteroid Didymos and Dimorphos. DART impacted the latter in a test of kinetic impactor capabilities for potentially changing a hazardous asteroid's orbit around our planet. Hera will survey the binary asteroid system and observe the crater made by DART's sacrifice to gain a better understanding of Dimorphos' structure and composition post-impact, so that we can place the results in context.

The more near-Earth asteroids like Dimorphos and Apophis that we study, the greater that context becomes. Perhaps, one day, the understanding that we have gained from these missions will indeed save our planet.

{ https://www.space.com/ }

18-08-2024 om 21:40 geschreven door peter  

Image: Professor Dave Clarke

'Clearest UFO photo ever seen of creepy spaceship chased by fighter jet' uncovered

By Erin Rose Humphrey, Danny Gutmann  and John O'sullivan

On August 4, 1990, a pair of hikers embarked on a trek through the Scottish Highlands, unaware that they were about to snap what's been hailed as the 'clearest UFO photo ever taken'. The photograph, known as the 'Calvine photo' after the nearby hamlet where it was snapped, would go missing and become the subject of myth for thirty years.

However, after 13 years of relentless investigation by Professor David Clarke, a former journalist and now academic at Sheffield Hallam University, the elusive image was finally located. Prof Clarke discovered ex-RAF press officer Craig Lindsay, who had retained a copy of the photograph depicting the extraordinary scene the two hikers witnessed.

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In the astonishing image, a sizable saucer-shaped craft is distinctly seen, with a jet fighter seemingly in hot pursuit. The hikers originally handed over the photograph to the Daily Record newspaper in Scotland, but it eventually ended up with the British Ministry of Defence, where it remained shrouded in secrecy until 2022.

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Speaking to Newsweek, Prof Clarke recounted: "The Daily Record's picture editor at that time sent them to Craig Lindsay, who was the RAF press officer in Scotland. He passed the print to the Ministry of Defense in London, the Ministry of Defense in London then asked him to obtain the negatives. So he went back to the Daily Record, asked the Daily Record to send the negatives to London, which they duly did-quite amazingly-and that's when they disappeared."

Despite the media attention the photo received, the two hikers involved have kept mum about their experience. Lindsay, however, shared what he knew about their eerie encounter with Clarke.

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The pair, who were working as chefs at a hotel in the Scottish Highlands, took an evening stroll in Calvine in August 1990 and encountered the enigmatic object soaring overhead.

Prof Clarke told Newsweek: "They saw this thing in the sky and it scared them. They ran into some woodland to sort of keep their heads down, and they heard this jet come down the valley and then, two minutes later, it returned and started circling around the object. And that's when they took the photographs."

The incident witnessed by the men remains an unsolved enigma to this day.

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18-08-2024 om 21:24 geschreven door peter  

Now, according to the findings of an international team of researchers led by the University of Trento in Italy, the existence of a subsurface tunnel-like lava tube cave beneath the Mare Plain has been confirmed.

A new study published in the journal Nature Astronomy revealed the discovery, which relied on data obtained with NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO).

The discovery of the tunnel-like feature has been called a significant milestone toward understanding the Moon’s various geological components more fully. It also offers a potential shelter area that could be used by astronauts during future crewed missions.

Lorenzo Bruzzone, a professor at the University of Trento, said the existence of such underground features had long been suspected, although the team’s discovery is the first confirmation that they exist.

“These caves have been theorized for over 50 years,” Bruzzone said in a statement, “but it is the first time ever that we have demonstrated their existence.”

Data originally obtained in 2010 by the Miniature Radio-Frequency (Mini-RF) instrument aboard the LRO, which included radar reflections from a pit discovered in the Mare Tranquilitatis, were reexamined by the research team.

{ https://thedebrief.org/ }

18-08-2024 om 21:04 geschreven door peter  

Unsolved Mystery: Farmer Witnesses Five UFOs Creating Crop Circles

On September 30, 1974, a serene farming day in Saskatchewan turned into an extraordinary event that continues to baffle researchers and UFO enthusiasts. Edwin Fuhr, a hardworking Saskatchewan farmer, was harvesting rapeseed when he stumbled upon something that would change his life forever and contribute significantly to the enduring mystery of crop circles and UFO sightings.

The Unusual Encounter

As Fuhr was working in his field, he noticed a shiny metallic object that he initially mistook for a duck blind—a common fixture in rural areas used for hunting. Curiosity piqued, he decided to investigate further. Upon closer inspection, what he found was far beyond any ordinary object. Hovering just a foot above the ground was a bun-shaped, stainless steel object, rotating swiftly in a clockwise motion. The grass beneath it swirled in the same direction, seemingly under the influence of the hovering craft.

VIDEO:

• Crop Circles Mystery: Five UFOs Seen by Farmer | Close Encounters 113

• https://youtu.be/dXUiYBvh-aw

The sight alone was perplexing, but the mystery deepened when Fuhr returned to his tractor and saw four more identical objects hovering in the field. All five objects remained stationary for about 15 minutes before suddenly ascending into the sky and disappearing. The incident left Fuhr in shock and disbelief, as he struggled to make sense of what he had just witnessed.

Investigations and Theories

The incident caught the attention of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP), who launched an investigation into the strange occurrence. The RCMP found that the grass in the exact spots where Fuhr reported seeing the UFOs had been flattened and swirled in a circular pattern. This physical evidence corroborated Fuhr’s account, lending credibility to his story.

Two days after the initial sighting, Fuhr discovered a sixth circle in his field, and within weeks, as many as 15 similar circles were reported in seven different locations across Saskatchewan. These findings attracted further attention, and the Canadian National Research Council got involved. However, their explanation—that the circles were caused by a natural phenomenon known as fairy rings, which are circular patterns left by plant-killing fungi—failed to convince many. Critics pointed out that fairy rings do not usually exhibit the uniform size and swirling patterns observed in Fuhr’s field.

The Birth of Crop Circle Phenomenon

What makes Fuhr’s encounter particularly significant is that it may represent one of the earliest documented cases of crop circles. Unlike the typical crop circles that mysteriously appear overnight without any witnesses, Fuhr actually saw the objects that created the circular formations in his field. This unique aspect of his story challenges the common belief that all crop circles are man-made hoaxes.

While many crop circles have been debunked as pranks or artistic expressions, Fuhr’s account provides a rare instance where an eyewitness can testify to the formation of these enigmatic patterns. The presence of UFOs in the creation of crop circles, as described by Fuhr, continues to fuel debates within the UFO and paranormal communities.

Unanswered Questions

Despite numerous investigations and theories, Fuhr’s encounter remains unexplained. Skeptics argue that the objects could have been experimental military drones, though such technology was not known to exist at the time. Others suggest that it was a natural phenomenon that science has yet to understand. Yet, the simplicity and consistency of Fuhr’s testimony, along with the physical evidence found at the scene, make it difficult to dismiss his experience outright.

The case of Edwin Fuhr stands out not just for its strangeness, but for the lasting impact it has had on the study of crop circles and UFO sightings. To this day, it remains one of the most compelling and well-documented cases in the realm of unexplained phenomena.

Conclusion

The mystery of the crop circles and the five UFOs witnessed by Saskatchewan farmer Edwin Fuhr continues to intrigue researchers and the general public alike. Whether viewed as a groundbreaking UFO encounter or an unsolved natural mystery, the incident challenges our understanding of the world and reminds us that some questions may never be fully answered. As investigations into UFOs and crop circles persist, Fuhr’s story stands as a testament to the enduring fascination with the unknown.

LINKS VIDEOS

• https://youtu.be/QYsi9KBzI0I

• https://youtu.be/ap_gvUiJKGs

• https://youtu.be/3pDmrWwPhpg

• https://youtu.be/iJ9IwdGObaU

{ https://www.latest-ufo-sightings.net/ }

18-08-2024 om 20:46 geschreven door peter  

Story by Doyle Rice, USA TODAY

A full moon shines in the night sky in Surprise, Ariz., on Aug. 1, 2023.

© Diannie Chavez, The Arizona Republic via USA TODAY NETWORK

A rare sky spectacle will occur Monday night that (probably) won't happen again for years: A full moon that can be called both a supermoon and blue moon will grace the night skies over the U.S.

Dubbed a "super blue moon," the rare combination occurs when the different cycles of blue and supermoons happen to align on the calendar, said NASA's Noah Petro, Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter project scientist.

If that's not confusing enough, astronomers also have varying definitions for what counts as a supermoon and what counts as a blue moon. (Just last year a full moon met the criteria for both, by some definitions.)

Here's why Monday's full moon is so special:

What is a supermoon?

When the moon’s orbit brings it closer to Earth than usual, this cosmic combo is called a supermoon. A supermoon occurs when the moon’s orbit is closest to Earth at the same time the moon is full. The term was coined by astrologer Richard Nolle in 1979.

"Different publications use slightly different thresholds for deciding when a full moon is close enough to the Earth to qualify as a supermoon," NASA said. "Because the orbit of the moon is not a perfect circle, the moon is sometimes closer to the Earth than at other times during its orbit."

Related video: 

• Tarantula warning for Texas, rare super blue moon (FOX 26 Houston)

When the moon reaches its closest point to Earth, about 226,000 miles away, full moons appears larger and brighter than at other times. A supermoon will appear 30% brighter and 14% larger than a typical full moon.

What is a blue moon?

There are two types of blue moons: seasonal and monthly. The one Monday will be of the seasonal variety.

A seasonal blue moon occurs when there are four full moons in a single season (on this occasion, summer). When this happens, the third of the four is considered a blue moon.

The second definition – which arose from a misunderstanding of the original – is the monthly blue moon, referring to the second full moon in a single calendar month.

In either case, blue moons earn their reputation for being rare because of a quirk in the typical rhythm of one full moon per month.

The moon's cycle takes 29.5 days. But, as Missouri State University professor of astrophysics Mike Reed notes, months can have 28, 29, 30 or 31 days.

The two cycles create odd mismatches resulting in one more moon in a season or month than is typical – that's a blue moon.

Months usually have one full moon – unless there's a (monthly) blue moon. And seasons typically have three full moons – unless there's a (seasonal) blue moon.

In addition, Monday's full moon is unlikely to appear blue, however: Blue-colored moons in photos are usually made using special blue camera filters or photo editing apps.

How rare is a super blue moon? When will the next one occur?

"It's tricky to answer, because it depends on your definition of a supermoon and a blue moon," Edward Bloomer, senior astronomy manager at the U.K.'s Royal Observatory Greenwich told USA TODAY via e-mail.

The answer is different depending on whether you're talking about a seasonal blue moon or a monthly blue moon. If you tweak what counts as a supermoon, the answer also changes.

In general, a blue moon happens once every two or three years on average, according to NASA. The time between super blue moons can be as much as 20 years – but in general, 10 years is the average.

So when will the next super blue moon actually occur?

A safe bet is January 2037, according to NASA.

However, depending on what you count as a super blue moon, you may hear of another one rising before then.

• This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Monday's rare super blue moon is a confounding statistical marvel

{https://www.msn.com/en-us/ }

18-08-2024 om 20:34 geschreven door peter  

"Momenteel kennen we enkel ons eigen leven. We zijn druk aan het zoeken, samen met veel sterrenkundigen, maar tot nu toe is er geen enkele bevestiging van leven elders", zegt Decin in #weetikveel op Radio 1.

"We slagen er al niet in om met de mensheid op 1 aardkluit samen te leven, laat staan als er nog iets anders bestaat waarmee we niet kunnen communiceren", zegt ze. "De ene zouden blij reageren, maar anderen zouden misschien naar wapens grijpen om zich te verdedigen tegen het onbekende."

Zo ver zijn we echter nog niet. "Of we met meerderen zijn, hangt af van hoe je het leven definieert. Daar zit het struikelpunt: wat zien wij als leven?"

‘Leven’ definiëren

Er bestaat geen wetenschappelijke consensus over wat ‘leven’ precies inhoudt. Sterker nog, er zijn volgens Decin 300 tot 400 wetenschappelijke definities.

"Veel mensen denken dat leven gebaseerd is op de Darwiniaanse revolutie: jezelf kunnen reproduceren, natuurlijke selectie… maar dat is maar 1 manier van leven definiëren." Andere stromingen baseren zich niet op de processen zoals Darwin, maar zien leven als een "biochemische soep van kleine elementen". "Die kunnen interageren en hebben een laag energieniveau."

"Er zijn veel definities, maar een van de zaken die je vaak naar voren ziet komen, is interactie met de omgeving." Waar alle definities toch op blijven botsen, zijn de grensgevallen. Is een amoebe (een eencellig organisme, red.) ‘leven’? En wat met een mechanisch hondje, dat in principe ook met de mens kan interageren?

"De overgang van niet-leven naar leven, kennen we niet", zegt Decin. "Zet een hoop moleculen samen, en die zullen interageren met elkaar. Sommige interacties gaan snel, anderen gaan traag. Maar het is niet omdat ze dan beginnen te groeien en grotere deeltjes vormen, dat dat leven moet zijn."

"Misschien moeten we het anders zien. Moeten we een verschil maken tussen leven en niet-leven? Misschien is het gewoon een heel stomme vraag." De vraag die we dan wel moeten stellen? Of er buitenaards leven bestaat waarmee we kunnen communiceren.

De hordes van het menselijke leven

"Onze aarde is ongeveer 4,5 miljard jaar geleden gevormd. Na een paar 100 miljoenen jaren zou er al leven geweest zijn." Dat lijkt misschien een gigantisch getal, in sterrenkundige termen is dat snel.

"Er zijn bepaalde omstandigheden die bevorderen dat er levensvormen interageren." Warmte en stabiliteit: dat zijn alvast 2 noodzakelijke basisingrediënten. "Om menselijk leven te creëren, heb je nog veel meer nodig. Het is bijvoorbeeld van belang dat we op een aardkluit leven, een vaste ondergrond. Ook het feit dat we vulkanisme hebben, was van belang."

"Er zijn veel hordes om te nemen om ons leven te krijgen. Stel dat elk van die hordes maar 1 kans op de 1.000 heeft om te slagen, dan heb je na enkele hordes nog maar een minuscule kans om leven te krijgen."

"Maar er is een tegenvoorbeeld: jij en ik. Dat maakt het bijzonder, het feit dat je niet 0 maar minstens 1 hebt, vertelt ons iets. Die hordes mogen er zijn, maar misschien moet je niet over die hordes, maar kan je errond. Je moet misschien niet de snelste manier hebben, maar een tragere manier die je ook over de finish brengt", besluit Decin. En daarin zou wel eens een kans kunnen schuilen.

En daarbuiten?

"We hebben bijzonder veel sterren. Rond elk van die sterren, of een grote fractie ervan, draaien 1 tot meerdere planeten. Ergens is er misschien wel een kans, die niet optimaal maar wel goed genoeg is, om toch een alternatieve vorm van leven te krijgen."

"We hebben al duizenden planeten ontdekt, maar slechts enkele zijn de tweelingzus van onze eigen aarde", zegt Decin. "Er zijn veel planeten die we kunnen uitsluiten waar zich geen leven op kan vormen." Groot genoeg, warm of koud, en nog een hele hoop andere parameters, zijn van belang in dat verhaal.

Een grote sprong in kennis op dat vlak, kwam er dankzij de James Webb-ruimtetelescoop. "De telescoop is een kanteling van ons veld. Het is een goudmijn als het gaat over het ontdekken van nieuwe planeten, maar ook over nieuwe kennis die we krijgen over planeten die we al kenden. Hoe ziet de atmosfeer eruit, is die aardachtig of niet?"

Dat kan nu bijvoorbeeld achterhaald worden over de TRAPPIST-planeten. "Dat zijn 7 aardachtige planeten rondom een bepaalde ster. 2 of 3 ervan bevinden zich in wat we de 'bewoonbare zone' noemen. Daar krijgen we nu waarnemingen van binnen. We beginnen stap per stap genoeg signalen te krijgen, mondjesmaat."

Dat alles klinkt optimistisch. Maar er is nog een groot verschil tussen een bewoonbare of een effectief bewoonde planeet. Hoe groot de kans op een bewoonde planeet is, weten we (nog) niet. "Daarvoor kennen we de chemie te slecht", zegt Decin. Chemische reacties op aarde zijn immers verschillend van die in de ruimte.

Maar of we dan ook moederziel alleen zijn in dit gigantische universum? Decin sluit ander leven alvast niet uit.

{ https://www.msn.com/nl-be/ }

18-08-2024 om 20:18 geschreven door peter  

Written by Christopher Sharp 

Two influential U.S. Senators, Mike Rounds and Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, have revived their Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena (UAP) Act, which would directly involve the next President in a process that could reveal Earth is being engaged by advanced non-human intelligence.

This process could reveal that the U.S. Government and defense contractors possess these entities' craft, which are, according to the Act, capable of trans-medium travel, instantaneous acceleration, hypersonic speeds, and positive lift.

Both senators, Schumer from the Democratic party and Rounds from the Republican party, resurrected the bipartisan Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena Disclosure Act (UAPDA) following its gutting from last year’s National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) conference process. 

If the Act is passed, the President would appoint nine impartial citizens, with Senate consent, to a newly established UAP Records Review Board.

This board would oversee the collection, review, and public disclosure of UAP records and has the authority to examine materials, solicit testimonies, and gather additional witnesses and whistleblowers.

The establishment of the Review Board would prevent government agencies and individuals accused of involvement with illegal UAP programs from investigating and exonerating themselves. This board would eliminate their direct influence over the government's current UAP office, the All-Domain Anomaly Resolution Office (AARO), a practice multiple sources have reported to Liberation Times.

The President would also make final decisions regarding the disclosure or postponement of records related to UAP, provide written justifications for any postponements, and ensure the periodic review and declassification of postponed records.

The reintroduction of the Act, intended to be included within the NDAA for fiscal year 2025, could be considered a major rebuke to the AARO, which concluded in February this year that it had ‘found no empirical evidence for claims that the USG and private companies have been reverse-engineering extraterrestrial technology.’

Liberation Times understands that whistleblowers with first-hand knowledge of concealed retrieval and reverse-engineering programs involving advanced non-human intelligence have chosen to engage with Senators Rounds and Schumer, as well as President Biden’s National Security Advisor, Jake Sullivan, rather than approach the AARO.

It is further understood that Sullivan was consulted for both last year’s and this year’s versions of the UAPDA. Although ultimately last year, Liberation Times sources say that Sullivan failed to provide White House backing when the UAPDA faced opposition from the House of Representatives.

Speaking to Liberation Times, Yuan Fung, Executive Director of the UAP Disclosure Fund, which recently launched a petition calling on Senators Rounds and Schumer to continue working on UAP legislation, stated:

“We are extremely pleased that Senators Schumer and Rounds have kept their pledge to continue working towards greater UAP transparency and disclosure. We are also very thankful to the over 10,000 people who signed our petition supporting the inclusion of UAP legislation in the 2025 National Defense Authorization Act. 

“Senator Schumer’s office informed us that he has reviewed the petition and is very appreciative of the support. However, this is just the first of several steps required to successfully pass the UAP Disclosure Act into law. In the coming months, it will be crucial to build even more support from the public and within Congress. We look forward to continuing our efforts on both fronts.”

The new UAPDA must first be voted into the Senate’s version of the NDAA for fiscal year 2025.

Following this, it will undergo the conference process, where the Senate and House versions of the NDAA are negotiated and reconciled to form a single, unified bill.

The language seems to be largely replicated from last year’s proposed Act, but the UAP Disclosure Foundation has been omitted as one of the bodies providing recommendations for members of the UAP Records Review Board; although reference to established nonprofit UAP research organisations is included for this role.

This is noteworthy when considering the emergence of such organisations within the previous two years.

The definition of ‘non-human intelligence’ in the Act is defined as ‘any sentient intelligent non-human lifeform regardless of nature or ultimate origin that may be presumed responsible for unidentified anomalous phenomena or of which the Federal Government has become aware.’

Another noteworthy term is ‘technologies of unknown origin’, defined as ‘materials or meta-materials, ejecta, crash debris, mechanisms, machinery, equipment, assemblies or sub-assemblies, engineering models or processes, damaged or intact aerospace vehicles, and damaged or intact ocean-surface and undersea craft associated with unidentified anomalous phenomena or incorporating science and technology that lacks prosaic attribution or known means of human manufacture.’

Liberation Times understands that there are multiple UAP retrieval operations associated with various circumstances and locations, including at sea and in contested territories.

According to sources, these operations heavily involve the CIA’s Directorate of Operations and Directorate of Science and Technology.

In addition to reinstating the Review Board from last year’s UAPDA, the contentious eminent domain clause has also been reinstated.

Multiple sources have told Liberation Times that this clause has caused significant controversy among defense contractors, which are believed to possess technologies of unknown or non-human origin; it is believed that the clause was a large factor leading to the UAPDA’s gutting last year.

Under the plan, any materials or biological evidence of unknown or non-human origin would be subject to the power of eminent domain exercised by the U.S. Federal Government.

This means that companies like Lockheed Martin or any other defense contractor potentially in possession of such materials would be required to surrender them to the Government. 

Although there is already a precedent for eminent domain in U.S. law, Senators Rounds and Schumer may need to compromise on this clause if the UAPDA is to be included in the final Senate version, which will go to conference.

Liberation Times understands from multiple sources, including those within Congress, that last year the UAPDA was significantly gutted from the NDAA following fierce resistance from Representative Mike Turner, Chair of the House Intelligence Committee, who sources allege was lobbied heavily by defense contractors.

Following the gutting of last year’s UAPDA Senators Schumer and Rounds dramatically engaged in a colloquy to voice their dissatisfaction, with Schumer stating:

“It's beyond disappointing that the House has refused to work with us on all the important elements of the UAP Disclosure Act during the NDAA conference.”

He later added:

"We've also been notified by multiple credible sources that information on UAPs has also been withheld from Congress, which if true is a violation of laws requiring full notification to the legislative branch, especially as it relates to the four congressional leaders, the defense committees, and the intelligence committees."

The final NDAA for fiscal year 2025 is expected to be signed by President Biden. 

Regardless of who wins an increasingly dramatic election contest, if the UAPDA is included in full within the final NDAA, it will be the responsibility of the next President to implement its actions.

It is understood by Liberation Times that figures close to President Biden and his Republican opponent, former President Trump, were involved with the drafting and resurrection of the latest UAPDA.

The new UAPDA was introduced just days after Senator Richard Blumenthal unveiled the Congressional Whistleblower Protection Act, which aims to protect individuals who report information to Congress from retaliation.

This is crucial because, in the face of increasing hostility, Liberation Times understands that whistleblowers have felt increasingly vulnerable.

Senator Blumenthal’s Act includes several key provisions:

• Protection for Covered Individuals: Extending protections to employees, former employees, and applicants for employment with federal agencies, contractors, subcontractors, grantees, subgrantees, or personal services contractors. 

• Administrative Remedies: Allowing aggrieved individuals to seek corrective actions through established administrative channels similar to those for other prohibited personnel practices. This includes employees of the FBI, intelligence community, and contractors.

• Private Right of Action: If a final decision on a whistleblower's complaint is not issued within 180 days, the individual can take their case to a federal district court for de novo review. This provision includes various forms of relief such as reinstatement, compensation for lost wages and benefits, and attorney fees.

• Burden of Proof: Applying the same burdens of proof used in cases of prohibited personnel practices, ensuring that whistleblowers are fairly treated and that their allegations are seriously considered.

• Broad Definition of Federal Agency: Ensuring comprehensive protection for whistleblowers across different areas of Government work by defining a federal agency to include all branches of the Federal Government.

Speaking to Liberation Times, ex-Watergate and Pentagon Papers lawyer Daniel Sheehan, Chief Counsel of the New Paradigm Institute, stated that the new proposed protections can support UAP whistleblowers but said the provisions could go further:

"The New Paradigm Institute congratulates Senator Blumenthal of Connecticut for his July 11th introduction into the United States Senate of his long-awaited General 'Enhanced' Federal Whistleblower Protection Act. 

“Senator Blumenthal’s new bill provides new coverage for federal whistleblowers who were previously explicitly excluded from 'Whistleblower Protection' if they held a 'National Security Clearance'. This new provision of federal whistleblower protection to employees of National Intelligence and Defense Department personnel is long overdue.

"However, The New Paradigm Institute has introduced to Congress, on June 30th, a much stronger 'UAP (UFO) Whistleblower-Specific Enhanced Protection Act' exclusively designed to provide additional protections to 'UFO' (or 'UAP')-related federal whistleblowers who attempt to provide UFO or extraterrestrial information to Congress.

"For example, while Senator Blumenthal’s bill does extend very important access to a 'private civil cause of action in Federal Court' on behalf of all federal whistleblowers against any federal employee or official who threatens to 'retaliate' against any federal whistleblower – and does extend this new protection even to federal whistleblowers within the intelligence community and within U.S. defense agencies who have been granted a 'National Security Clearance.'

“The New Paradigm Institute-proposed bill does not require a UFO-related federal whistleblower, even with a national security clearance, to first seek administrative relief before filing such a federal civil lawsuit against any federal employee or official who 'retaliates against' any such UFO-related federal whistleblower who attempts to provide UFO or extraterrestrial information to Congress.

"And the New Paradigm Institute-proposed bill does not require such a UFO-related federal whistleblower to wait 180 days to file such a federal civil lawsuit seeking a federal court injunction against any government employee or official who is planning to – or who has attempted to – 'retaliate' against any UFO-related federal whistleblower who has attempted to inform Congress about any UFO-related secret program, or any secret Defense Department or intelligence agency program that has been concealed from Congress."

Liberation Times understands that the current whistleblower process is fundamentally flawed, with the implementation of existing protections heavily dependent on the competence and willingness of not only the Intelligence Community’s Inspector General but also the Inspectors General of agencies such as the CIA and the National Reconnaissance Office. 

These shortcomings highlight the critical need for robust oversight and consistent enforcement across all relevant bodies to ensure that whistleblowers are adequately protected.

{ https://www.liberationtimes.com/ }

18-08-2024 om 01:46 geschreven door peter  

“Our system generates remarkable luminosity by utilizing multiple layers of cutting-edge materials and specialized spheres,” Shereen Chen, co-founder and executive director of Wavja USA, claims in the recently posted video. “This luminosity is then seamlessly converted to electricity using our proprietary technology.”

“It revolutionizes how we harvest sunlight,” Chen adds.

Proprietary Technology Powers Photon Energy System

In the newly released video, Chen explains that the spheres work by capturing the incoming photons from various light sources and converting them into “remarkable luminosity.” This luminosity, a.k.a. light, is then converted to usable electricity using a “proprietary technology. On the company’s website, this element of the technology is referred to as a “silicon conductor module.” However, no other details about the system’s proprietary process are revealed.

After setting aside how the technology itself works, the company also makes some bold claims about the Photon Energy System’s ability to generate significantly more power than traditional solar panels. For example, Chen notes that their first generation of PES spheres, which have operated as the company’s “proof of concept,” generate 7.5 times more energy than similarly sized solar panels.

That number, Chen explains, grew to 20 times in their third generation. According to the company’s website, yet another generation of the PES “is being tested and developed to reach up to 100 times (solar panel power output).”

As for performance, the company says the photonic energy-collecting spheres are not only more powerful than solar panels, but they take up much less space and generate energy much more efficiently than their bulky competitors.

“Compared to traditional solar panels of today, PES is nearly 30 times smaller,” Chen explains, “and it is over 200 times more efficient.”

Based on the limited information provided by Wavja, it appears that much of this increased efficiency is gained by the system’s ability to work for longer hours and in much more varied lighting conditions than solar panels. For example, the company says that traditional solar panels often only have a working time of about two hours due to lighting and other weather conditions. Conversely, they say that “regardless of weather,” their PES “can operate for 8 hours.”

“Its most significant attribute is its capability to utilize artificial light, including LED flashlights,” the company also adds, something they say increases the system’s overall efficiency and potential applications.

The PES system can generate electricity from indoor lighting or natural sunlight.

Image Credit: Wavja.

Company Claims PES Could Power Vehicles of the Future without the Need for Batteries

Perhaps Wavja’s boldest claims concern its system’s purported ability to power futuristic vehicles like air taxis, boats, cars, and even long-haul electric trucks. While solar panels can accomplish most of the same feats, they must capture and store electricity over a long period of time to generate enough power to fly a drone or power a land vehicle.

In the case of PES, the company says it doesn’t need a battery to power even large vehicles. Instead, it says its system can deliver enough constant energy to power these types of power-hungry applications and operate independently of a battery.

“PES is not connected to a battery,” Chen explains, “PES is actually a separate battery system.”

In the video, Chen shows one such current effort by Wavja to use their system to power a fully electric vehicle. “You are actually looking at real-time, current proof of concept that we are working on,” Chen says.

However, no further details on this effort are provided either, adding to the frustrating number of claims offered by the company that do not seem to be supported with additional data.

The company says it will offer three separate classes of sphere arrays to provide such significant amounts of power. The first, composed of 3cm diameter spheres, is “primarily responsible for mobile equipment.” According to the website, this includes electric locomotives, electric vehicles, flying cars, drones, unmanned taxis, tourist RVs, transportation vehicles, and others. Notably, the company says nine PES systems are needed “to form an array combination for electric vehicles.”

The second class of PES is comprised of 6cm spheres. According to Wavja, this class is mostly planned for larger-scale uses like residential homes, intelligent buildings, public transportation, “water villas,” resorts, heavy trucks, airplanes, seaplanes, electric flying buses, yachts, and “surface scuba diving.” According to Chen, one dream use of the PES is powering automated air cargo drones.

{ https://thedebrief.org/category/tech/ }

18-08-2024 om 01:35 geschreven door peter  

 

By Emma Soteriou

The mystery over Stonehenge's origins has deepened after a "jaw-dropping" discovery.

Most of the monument's bluestones were sourced from the Preseli Hills in Wales - around 150 miles from the site.

But fresh research suggests the largest Altar Stone at the heart of Stonehenge is actually Scottish.

The "remarkable" discovery has left experts "stunned" and busts a century-long held belief about the origins of the bluestone.

It is unclear when the stone arrived at the site on Salisbury Plain in Wiltshire, but the scientists say it may have been placed within the central horseshoe of stones during the second construction phase at about 2620-2480 BC.

The new discovery implies that one of the most famous stones in the world was moved much further than had been believed - at least 435 miles.

For the last century, the six-tonne sandstone was believed to have come from Wales, with the rest of the bluestones.

After work to examine the stone's chemical composition and mineral grains, scientists can say with 95% confidence that the sandstone is very likely to instead have come from north-east Scotland.

The study involved scientists at Aberystwyth University, University College London and, in Australia, Curtin University and the University of Adelaide.

The findings indicate a striking similarity between the Old Red Sandstone of the Orcadian Basin in north-east Scotland and the Stonehenge Altar Stone.

Co-author Professor Richard Bevins, from Aberystwyth University, said: "These findings are truly remarkable - they overturn what had been thought for the past century.

"We have succeeded in working out, if you like, the age and chemical fingerprints of, perhaps, one of the most famous of stones in the world-renowned ancient monument.

"It's thrilling to know that our chemical analysis and dating work has finally unlocked this great mystery.

"We can now say that this iconic rock is Scottish and not Welsh.

"Although we can say that much, and confidently - the hunt will still very much be on to pin down where exactly in the north-east of Scotland the Altar Stone came from."

The scientists used their analysis of the ages of the mineral grains in the stone to create a fingerprint of the source of those grains.

They matched ages found in rocks of the Orcadian Basin found in the north-east of Scotland, and are completely different from Welsh-sourced stones.

Anthony Clarke, from the Timescales of Mineral Systems Group at Curtin University, in Perth, Western Australia, said: "Considering the technological constraints of the Neolithic, our findings raise fascinating questions about how such a massive stone was able to be transported over the vast distance implied.

"Given major overland barriers en route from north-east Scotland to Salisbury Plain, marine transport is one feasible option."

Commenting on the findings, he added: "All four of us were stunned. We couldn't believe it."

Co-author Dr Robert Ixer, of the UCL Institute of Archaeology, said: "This is a genuinely shocking result, but if plate tectonics and atomic physics are correct, then the Altar Stone is Scottish.

"The work prompts two important questions: why and exactly how was the Altar Stone transported from the very north of Scotland, a distance of more than 700 kilometres, to Stonehenge?"

{https://www.lbc.co.uk/ }

18-08-2024 om 01:10 geschreven door peter  

Pentagon Alien Hunter: Why I Know We are Not Alone or Safe

A senior intelligence officer who had run the Pentagon’s Unexplained Aerial Phenomena program discloses his own alien experiences in a new memoir.

Hugh Dougherty - Executive Editor

Max Moszkowicz

Wikimedia Creative Commons

Mysterious glowing green orbs the size of basketballs invaded the home of a senior defense official tasked with finding the truth about UFOs, he has claimed in a new memoir.

Luis Elizondo has written about his time at the head of a top-secret program to work out what the Pentagon calls Unexplained Aerial Phenomena (U.A.P.s) in an autobiography which took a whole year to pass Department of Defense censors.

The book, Imminent: Inside the Pentagon’s Hunt for UFOs, was obtained by The New York Times and details some of Elizondo’s experiences as an intelligence officer at the secretive Advanced Aerospace Weapons System Applications Program, run by the Defense Intelligence Agency.

Much of his time there remains classified but the book describes how his work came home with him—for seven years. He claims that his D.C.-area home was “invaded,” The Times reported, by green, glowing, basketball-sized orbs. They could pass through walls and appeared to be “under intelligent control,” according to The Times.

Elizondo writes in the book that his wife, their two daughters and their neighbors witnessed the green orbs, which they called “our friends from out of town.”

Elizondo, who is now retired from the DIA and has testified to Congress about the Pentagon’s knowledge of UFOs, says that knowledge of their existences goes back to the 1940s.

Getty Images

“We can no longer stick our heads in the sand. We know we are not alone,” he says in the book.

Elizondo writes in the book that he served in the Army in Afghanistan, was involved in counterterrorism operations and worked at Guantanamo Bay. But when he was tasked to join the UFO program, he was taken aback by the scale of Pentagon knowledge and the secrecy surrounding it.

Since the 1950s, he says, the Pentagon had gained a body of knowledge kept in conditions of the most guarded secrecy, at first to stop the Communist Soviets learning it. “Whoever controlled such technology could control the world,” he wrote.

His program investigated encounters reported by Navy pilots with unexplained phenomena in the sky and collected recordings of apparently impossible maneuvers by strange craft. Three of the videos they collected have been seen after they were cleared by the Pentagon in 2020, three years after they were first revealed by The Times. The move confirmed their authenticity as coming from Navy pilots, although not whether alien intelligence was involved.

Department of Defense

Elizondo writes that his job made him convinced of the existence—and superiority—of extraterrestrial intelligence. Of the apparent spacecraft, he wrote, “the nonhuman intelligence controlling them present, at best, a very serious national security issue, and at worst, the possibility of an existential threat to humanity.”

The limits on what Elizondo could write add their own layer of intrigue to the memoir: the ex-intelligence officer said he cannot discuss other secret alien-hunting programs, suggesting strongly that they exist and have never been fully disclosed.

His program only came to public knowledge because of the way it was set up, by then Senate Majority leader Harry Reid (D-NV) in 2007, with $22 million slipped into other spending. More money followed but the unit was shut down in 2012. Elizondo continued his work with the Navy but resigned five years later in a letter to then Defense Secretary, retired Marine General James Mattis, which said, “There remains a vital need to ascertain capability and intent of these phenomena for the benefit of the armed forces and the nation.”

Elizondo became the most vocal former Pentagon UFO official on the subject of UFOs when he left, casting a public spotlight on this shadowy area of federal government activity. Just after retiring, he told the Daily Beast that the Pentagon’s UFO inquiries continued under new leadership. “I know that our U.S. military takes very seriously their job of defending our nation and I believe they will take the actions necessary to ensure our defense against all threats.”

Carlos Barria/Reuters

In his memoir he reveals he has briefed his successors on the Pentagon’s crash retrieval program, and names Harold E. Puthoff as having worked for 50 years as the government’s chief scientist on aliens. Puthoff is a controversial figure. He has a Stanford PhD but has faced accusations of pseudoscience. Until the memoir, Puthoff, now 88, had not been reported to have worked for the government.

Puthoff told The Times that Elizondo “has briefed us on information that he obtained that appears to be firsthand data and I have no reason to discount that. He certainly had clearances to get primary information.”

What Elizondo claims about government knowledge going back to the 1940s goes further than official agencies have admitted to. The CIA has declassified hundreds of documents which detail its UFO investigations since then, but all have findings which are, at most, inconclusive.

The Air Force ran a Project Blue Book looking into 12,618 apparent UFO sightings between 1947 and 1969. But, it said, “There has been no evidence indicating that sightings categorized as ‘unidentified’ are extraterrestrial vehicles.”

{ https://www.thedailybeast.com/ }

17-08-2024 om 22:16 geschreven door peter  

Multiple UFO Sightings Reported In Palmdale And Lancaster, California: Residents Share Eerie Encounters

Residents of Palmdale and Lancaster, California, are abuzz with reports of six UFO sightings, as multiple locals share eerie encounters of unexplained aerial phenomena. The mysterious sightings have sparked curiosity and concern, prompting an ongoing investigation by local authorities.

Locals Witness Unusual Aerial Sightings; Reports Of UFO Spread Across Social Media Photo: X

UFO sightings have been reported in California, particularly in the Palmdale and Lancaster areas, with residents detailing their experiences on the Ring Neighbors app. The reports of multiple UFO sightings on the app, stirring both curiosity and concern within the community, describe unusual aerial activity.

One person shared, "You guys.... You won't believe what I just saw. You guys I saw UFO, I was walking my dog in my backyard and saw a bright light up in the sky. At first I was like omg what a cool plane that Northrop assembled but to my dismay it was a hovercraft! Please tell me I'm not the only one who saw !!!"

 { https://www.outlookindia.com/ }

17-08-2024 om 22:04 geschreven door peter  

Dinosaur-Killing Chicxulub Asteroid Came from beyond Jupiter: Study

The so-called Chicxulub impactor was a carbonaceous-type asteroid that had formed beyond the orbit of Jupiter, according to a new paper published in the journal Science.

Ankylosaurus magniventris, a large armored dinosaur species, witnesses the impact of an asteroid, falling on the Yucatan peninsula 66 million years ago.

Image credit: Fabio Manucci.

About 66 million years ago, a 10-km-wide asteroid crashed into Earth near the site of the small town of Chicxulub in what is now Mexico.

The impact unleashed an incredible amount of climate-changing gases into the atmosphere, triggering a chain of events that led to the extinction of non-avian dinosaurs and 75% of life on the planet.

Evidence includes high levels of platinum-group elements (PGEs) like iridium, ruthenium, osmium, rhodium, platinum, and palladium in Cretaceous-Paleogene boundary layers, which are rare on Earth but common in meteorites.

• These elevated PGE levels have been found globally, suggesting the impact spread debris worldwide.

While some propose large-scale volcanic activity from the Deccan Traps igneous province in India as an alternative source of PGEs, the specific PGE ratios at the Cretaceous-Paleogene boundary align more with asteroid impacts than volcanic activity.

LINKS VIDEOS

• https://youtu.be/HZrjwIyw8iM

• https://youtu.be/blI2nB6yZ4M

• https://youtu.be/LeyJkLzyv5Q

However, much about the nature of the Chicxulub impactor — its composition and extraterrestrial origin — is poorly understood.

To address these questions, Dr. Mario Fischer-Gödde from the University of Cologne and his colleagues measured ruthenium isotopes in samples taken from three Cretaceous-Paleogene boundary sites.

For comparison, they also analyzed samples from five other impacts that occurred between 36 million to 470 million years ago; samples from ancient 3.5-billion- to 3.2-billion-year-old impact spherule layers; and samples from two carbonaceous meteorites.

They found that the ruthenium isotope signatures in samples from the Cretaceous-Paleogene boundary were uniform and closely matched those of carbonaceous chondrites, not Earth or other meteorite types, suggesting that the Chicxulub impactor likely came from a carbonaceous-type asteroid that formed in the outer Solar System.

Photograph of the 66-million-year-old Cretaceous-Paleogene (K-Pg) boundary layer at Stevns Klint in Denmark. This boundary layer contains the globally distributed fallout produced by the asteroid impact at Chicxulub.

Credit: Philippe Claeys

The five other impact structures have isotopic signatures that are more consistent with siliceous-type asteroids, which formed closer to the Sun.

The ancient spherule layer samples are consistent with impacts of carbonaceous-type asteroids during Earth’s final stages of accretion.

“The asteroid’s composition is consistent with that of carbonaceous asteroids that formed outside of Jupiter’s orbit during the formation of the Solar System,” Dr. Fischer-Gödde said.

“We found that the impact of an asteroid like the one at Chicxulub is a very rare and unique event in geological time,” said University of Cologne’s Professor Carsten Münker.

“The fate of the dinosaurs and many other species was sealed by this projectile from the outer reaches of the Solar System.”

• Mario Fischer-Gödde et al. 2024. Ruthenium isotopes show the Chicxulub impactor was a carbonaceous-type asteroid. Science 385 (6710): 752-756; doi: 10.1126/science.adk4868

{ https://www.sci.news/ }

17-08-2024 om 21:51 geschreven door peter  

This Swiss Scientist Claims There is Portal Underneath CERN from where Beings Coming In & Out

Dr. Astrid Stuckelberger is a Swiss Scientist who claims CERN is working on a secret ‘Nuclear Program’ & there is a Portal underneath CERN from where Beings coming in & out; Physicists who work there told her that there are 17 different dimensions of reality or more.

Dr. Stuckelberger is a scientist and expert in international health. She holds a PhD and teaches at the University of Geneva and Lausanne. With over 20 years of experience, she’s a leading Swiss researcher who has worked with the WHO, UN, and EU on various health programs. That’s what her LinkedIn profile says. She has done numerous interviews which add credibility to her profile.

Two years ago, Dr. Stuckelberger interviewed Maria Zeee on Zeee Media. This interview was published on Rumble where she discussed many strange things, one of which was about CERN’s terrifying experiments. (Source)

Dr. Stuckelberger claimed that CERN is dealing with “Radio Nuclear research” and there are lots of Physicists, who are doing very strange experimentation. She said Physicists from the CERN who her “There are beings from portals, coming in and out.”

She said, “Yes. And they were saying, I mean, I met them at a dinner and there were two of them. And both said that, yes. They have, you know, secondhand proof that the people who, you know, they’re dealing with the boson of Higgs and the subatomic. So they have apparently in the bottom of the CERN, this portal, this door, where they are dealing with all the subatomic dimensions.”

Dr. Stuckelberger further said,

“They [Physicists] say there are 17 different dimensions of reality. That’s what those physicists and some others say.

There are more dimensions. We know the time-space, the tri-dimensional x, y, and z in a graphic. But then you have more dimensions, and they are playing with that. They’re using that. And they were a group, and they had a being.

 They did not tell me more about who came that doesn’t resemble a human. And then they had another one. And they have proof because they left a scarf.

And now when you look at what is going on in the CERN, there is a fight from some of the military agencies, intel. They say that there is a fight on time. They’re trying to change time. I’m just saying that because as a scientist, you can not say something so important, because if you can deal with the little, the smallest energies on earth, you can imagine that you can go through other realms of dimensions.”

Dr. Stuckelberger’s claims are bizarre, and we have no proof to accept or deny them. The stories of interdimensional portals are primarily discussed in fiction, but some concepts in science touch on similar ideas.

Scientists discuss wormholes, theoretical structures in space-time that could, according to some interpretations of general relativity and string theory, potentially connect distant points in the universe or even different dimensions through a tunnel-like passage.

Perhaps there are different life forms on the other side… Who knows, but… Michio Kaku explains the concept of the Multiverse: There are invisible creatures among us (Perhaps a portal can make a way for them)

Regarding Dr. Stuckelberger’s claims, I found a strangely similar story posted on Reddit by a user claiming to be a top scientist at CERN around five years ago. I do not want you to take it seriously, but it does align with what Dr. Stuckelberger said.

This story was published in r/nosleep with 18 Million Subscribers. The synopsis of this user post says: A serious mistake may have endangered humanity. The scientist’s team worked with the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) to study particles.

On March 22, 2019, a small error in the LHC’s startup code led to an unusual yellow light filling the facility. The team noticed a dark, otherworldly orb that quickly vanished. Subsequent experiments with similar orbs led to dangerous results. A metal pen tested in one of the voids showed extremely high radiation, killing ten researchers. Drones sent into the void lost connection instantly.

In a recent test, instead of the expected light, a large black figure emerged from the void and communicated telepathically. It threatened to destroy humanity by invading their world.

This incident happened a week ago. The situation is dire, and there is concern for the safety of many.

“A black figure started to emerge from the large void. Although very humanoid this “thing” was anything but human. It was featureless, It gave off strong vibrations and was so massive it had to duck to exit the void. Many researchers broke down at the sight of this thing, and then it spoke. We all heard it clear as day in our heads, we all heard the blistering static sound as words began to play inside our minds.

“You creatures have no place peering into our world, your destruction was set in stone the moment you opened up the doorway into our dimension, we will exterminate your kind as your knowledge of our existence threatens us, this is not a warning, but a promise.”

In 2022 Vice published this article in….”CERN Causing Collective Mass Delusion by Creating Portals to Alternate Dimensions?”

The theory states that in 2012, CERN scientists were attempting to study the Higgs Boson particle when something went wrong. According to the theory, their experiments caused a rift in the space-time continuum, destroying our universe and moving us into a parallel universe. This new universe is an experimental one, belonging to some unknown entity. It is believed that this is the cause of the so-called “Mandela Effect” and other paranormal activities. The theory further states that CERN used quantum entanglement to bridge the gap between the two universes and move us into this new one.

The theory concludes that the current universe we inhabit is not our own, but rather an experimental universe belonging to some unknown entity. This entity, it is believed, is manipulating the universe to study the effects of their experiments. This is the cause of the Mandela Effect and other paranormal activities.

Clara Nellist, a particle physicist who works on CERN’s ATLAS explained this phenomenon and said she understands where people are coming from.

Read also:

• Ex-US Marine Saw Massive UFO Being Loaded With Weapons By Secret Military In Indonesia Jungle
• US Congressman Says Revealing UFO Technology Is a Threat to Energy Sector: It Can Disrupt World Economy
• Ex-Pentagon Official & Jacques Vallée Suggest Higher-Dimensional Beings Crossing Into Our World

“I completely get the curiosity and trying to understand the Mandela Effects—people have a strong memory of what they think something was, and then to see a contrast with that memory can be quite jarring … I think we should [to some extent] be honored and happy that we’re capturing the imagination of people because we’re at the forefront of science. People are interested in what we’re doing.”

“In my opinion, some of the things being misremembered make more sense as what they should have been,” she said. “I can see how more people remember the spelling of something in a certain way because it’s more intuitive.” This is a popular theory for why people remember “Berenstein Bears” vs “Berenstain Bears”—it just makes more sense as “Berenstein,” because Berenstein is a somewhat common name.

Nellist said that, while the science CERN is doing at the LHC is groundbreaking, they are simply recreating “collisions that happen in our atmosphere all the time” in a controlled environment. “For billions of years this has been happening in our universe,” she said.

The questions that theoretical physicists are trying to answer are in some ways related to the questions that conspiracy theorists and hobby researchers are trying to answer, though they are going about it in wildly different ways. Legitimate scientists, quantum physicists, and theoretical physicists have hypothesized multiple universes, wormholes, teleportation, the idea that reality is a simulation, additional dimensions, and so on. Learning more about basic physics to fill in gaps in knowledge and understand how some of these phenomena may work is part of CERN’s mission, but that doesn’t mean CERN is causing these things to happen.

{ https://www.howandwhys.com/ }

17-08-2024 om 21:27 geschreven door peter  

AI Focused 3 UFO Sightings over Italy, Turkey, Kazakhstan, UAP Sighting News.

{ https://www.ufosightingsdaily.com/ }

17-08-2024 om 21:11 geschreven door peter  

AI Focused 3 UFO Sightings From 1970 In Indonesia, Brasil, Washington, UAP Sighting News.

I wanted to go through some old sightings from the 1970s, three of them to be exact, and I ran them through ai to focus them. The ai version is mind-blowing. Each sighting was in the 1970s, and each is not just important, but 100% proof that alien spacecraft are visiting our planet.

Scott C. Waring 

{ https://www.ufosightingsdaily.com/ }

17-08-2024 om 21:07 geschreven door peter  

Een "oceaan" van vloeibaar water gevonden in de diepten van Mars: de ontdekking na de NASA-missie

door Janine

NASA/JPL-Caltech

Mars is al geruime tijd een van de doelstellingen van de ruimteverkenning, waarbij de interesse niet beperkt blijft tot de zoektocht naar buitenaards leven, maar ook de geologische en klimatologische geschiedenis ervan omvat. Tegenwoordig weten we dat Mars ooit vloeibaar water op het oppervlak had, dat tegenwoordig niet meer aanwezig is. Toch hebben onderzoekers onlangs ontdekt dat de rode planeet mogelijk nog steeds vloeibaar water onder het oppervlak heeft. Maar hoe is dit mogelijk? En wat betekent dit voor onderzoek naar andere organismen? Laten we het samen ontdekken!

Illustratie: NASA

InSight landde in 2018 op Mars en verzamelde een schat aan data.

Afbeelding NASA/JPL-Caltech

De erfenis van NASA's Mars InSight Lander-missie

De studie van Mars zou onmogelijk zijn zonder de sondes die verschillende ruimtevaartorganisaties op de rode planeet hebben gelanceerd. De bekendste zijn natuurlijk de Curiosity en Perseverance rovers, of de Ingenuity drone, maar ze zijn niet de enige. De ontdekking van een echte wateroceaan in de diepten van Mars is een gevolg van NASA's Mars InSight Lander-missie, die in 2018 landde met als taak seismische gebeurtenissen op Mars te bestuderen. En in feite heeft de sonde vier jaar lang gegevens verzameld over de geologie van de rode planeet... maar niet alleen.

Hoewel InSight Lander nu is beëindigd, zijn onderzoekers doorgegaan met het bestuderen van de verzamelde gegevens, die de aanwezigheid van vloeibaar water op diepten tussen 10 en 20 kilometer onder het aardoppervlak lijken te bevestigen. Kortom, zo beweren wetenschappers in een studie gepubliceerd in het tijdschrift PNAS, er zou nog steeds water in vloeibare vorm aanwezig zijn op Mars.

De analyse van seismische golven op Mars en de aanwezigheid van vloeibaar water

NASA

Mars InSight Lander verzamelde meer dan 1300 opnames van seismische trillingen die plaatsvonden op de rode planeet, en met deze gegevens konden onderzoekers de aard van de materialen ontdekken die door de golven werden doorkruist. Dit is een techniek die al op aarde wordt gebruikt om te zoeken naar hulpbronnen die in de diepte aanwezig zijn, zoals olie of gas, maar ook water. Dit laatste lijkt op grote diepten in de korst van Mars aanwezig te zijn, een verder bewijs dat Mars ooit rijk was aan rivieren en meren.

De afgelopen drie miljard jaar heeft de rode planeet bijna zijn hele atmosfeer en daarmee ook zijn oppervlaktewater verloren. Het lijkt er echter op dat een deel van het water van Mars binnen de planeet bleef, een beetje zoals wat er op aarde gebeurt, waar er hele oceanen in de korst en mantel zouden zitten. Waarom zou Mars anders zijn?

James Tuttle Keane en Aaron Rodriquez

Scripps Institute of Oceanography

Water en leven

De ontdekking van waterreserves in de diepten van Mars opent nieuwe onderzoeksperspectieven die in twee verschillende richtingen gaan. Aan de ene kant kunnen onderzoekers beter begrijpen hoe het systeem van rivieren en meren op de Rode Planeet werkte. Aan de andere kant is vloeibaar water gekoppeld aan de oude droom van de verkenning van Mars, de zoektocht naar buitenaardse levensvormen: waar water is, kan ook leven zijn, weten we, en niets weerhoudt hen ervan om ook in de korst van Mars te bestaan.

Helaas zijn deze reservoirs niet gemakkelijk toegankelijk vanwege hun diepte van tussen de 10 en 20 kilometer. Pas onlangs is een project gelanceerd dat tot doel heeft het aardoppervlak uit te graven en een diepte van 11 kilometer te bereiken: dit op een andere planeet doen zou een buitengewone uitdaging zijn. Zoals echter vaak gebeurt bij ruimteverkenning, zijn wat aankomstpunten lijken slechts startpunten voor nieuwe doelstellingen en nieuwe ontdekkingen. Kortom, de ontdekking van vloeibaar water op Mars, in de vorm van verzadigde sedimenten of aquifers, kan de geschiedenis van de ruimteverkenning herschrijven. En misschien zelfs zijn toekomst.

Foto: NASA

{ https://www.curioctopus.nl/ }

17-08-2024 om 20:57 geschreven door peter  

The UFO Event That Transformed Dr. Kevin Knuth into a UAP Researcher

Dr. Kevin Knuth, a former NASA research scientist and a respected physicist, was initially a curious observer rather than an active researcher in the field of Unidentified Aerial Phenomena (UAPs). His journey into serious UAP research began in 2010 after attending a press conference that fundamentally altered his views on the subject. This event, organized by Robert Hastings at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C., featured retired U.S. military officers who provided compelling testimonies about their encounters with UAPs at nuclear weapons sites. This marked a significant turning point in Dr. Knuth’s career, transforming him from a bystander to a committed investigator of these phenomena.

The Press Conference That Changed Everything

The 2010 press conference hosted by Robert Hastings was not just another event in the UFO community—it was a game-changer. Hastings, a well-known figure in UAP research, brought together seven former U.S. Air Force officers to share their experiences with UAPs. These officers provided detailed accounts of UAP incidents at various nuclear weapons facilities, including missile sites and storage areas.

One of the most striking aspects of the conference was the consistency of the testimonies. The witnesses described UAPs as disc-shaped, cylindrical, or spherical objects capable of hovering silently or moving at high velocities. What made these sightings particularly alarming was the apparent ability of these UAPs to interfere with nuclear weapons, rendering them inoperative. This connection between UAPs and nuclear facilities has been a recurring theme in UAP research, raising concerns about the potential implications for national security.

Dr. Knuth’s Initial Skepticism

Dr. Knuth’s interest in UAPs dates back to 1988 when he was a graduate student. He recalled a conversation with one of his professors, who mentioned strange incidents involving UAPs at Malmstrom Air Force Base in Montana. According to the professor, UAPs were reportedly disabling intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs) at the base. At the time, Dr. Knuth and his peers dismissed the story as implausible, finding it difficult to believe that such a significant event could occur without widespread attention.

For years, this story remained a humorous anecdote in Dr. Knuth’s mind, something he and his fellow students would joke about. However, it wasn’t until 2010 that he encountered similar accounts, which made him reconsider the validity of his professor’s story.

The Pivotal Moment

In 2010, while preparing lectures on astrobiology at the University at Albany, Dr. Knuth stumbled upon the press conference organized by Robert Hastings. During the conference, he heard testimonies from several military officers, including Robert Salas, who had witnessed UAPs at Malmstrom Air Force Base—the very location his professor had mentioned years earlier.

VIDEO:

• Chris Lehto – The UFO Event That Shocked Dr. Knuth.

• https://youtu.be/ebKamYhoCJU

One of the most impactful testimonies came from Robert Salas, a retired U.S. Air Force captain. Salas described an incident at Malmstrom Air Force Base in 1967, where a bright red UAP was seen hovering above the front gate of the facility. Shortly afterward, ten nuclear missiles went offline, becoming inoperable. This account, corroborated by other military personnel, struck a chord with Dr. Knuth, as it matched the story he had heard decades earlier.

Realizing the credibility of these witnesses and the potential implications of their testimonies, Dr. Knuth’s perspective on UAPs shifted dramatically. He began to take the issue seriously, recognizing the need for scientific investigation into these phenomena.

The Broader Implications

The 2010 press conference highlighted a pattern of UAP encounters at nuclear facilities, with multiple witnesses providing corroborating accounts. Among the speakers were military officers such as Colonel Charles Halt, who had witnessed UAPs at RAF Bentwaters in England, and Lieutenant Robert Jacobs, who described a UAP encounter during a missile test in 1964.

These testimonies suggested that UAPs have a specific interest in nuclear weapons, raising questions about their intentions and the potential risks they pose. For Dr. Knuth, the realization that credible military personnel were reporting these incidents—and that they were being largely ignored by the public and the scientific community—was alarming. He saw the lack of attention to these events as dangerous and felt compelled to take action.

Dr. Knuth’s New Mission

Motivated by the testimonies he had heard, Dr. Knuth decided to shift his focus to UAP research. As a physicist with expertise in astrophysics, machine learning, and the foundations of physics, he recognized the need for a scientific approach to studying UAPs. He became an advocate for serious research into these phenomena, calling for greater transparency and investigation.

Dr. Knuth’s journey from skepticism to advocacy underscores the importance of credible witness testimonies in shaping our understanding of UAPs. His experience highlights the need for the scientific community to engage with this issue and for the public to recognize the potential significance of UAP encounters, particularly those involving nuclear weapons.

In conclusion, the 2010 press conference that shocked Dr. Kevin Knuth serves as a powerful reminder of the potential implications of UAPs. It not only transformed his career but also contributed to a growing movement calling for greater scrutiny and research into these mysterious phenomena. As more information comes to light, Dr. Knuth’s story may inspire others in the scientific community to take UAPs seriously and to explore the mysteries that still surround them.

LINKS UFOS

• https://youtu.be/inyw4Vfu7Z0

• https://youtu.be/rrCbrsbjyhw

{ https://www.latest-ufo-sightings.net/ 

17-08-2024 om 20:37 geschreven door peter