Dit is ons nieuw hondje Kira, een kruising van een waterhond en een Podenko. Ze is sinds 7 februari 2024 bij ons en druk bezig ons hart te veroveren. Het is een lief, aanhankelijk hondje, dat zich op een week snel aan ons heeft aangepast. Ze is heel vinnig en nieuwsgierig, een heel ander hondje dan Noleke.
This is our new dog Kira, a cross between a water dog and a Podenko. She has been with us since February 7, 2024 and is busy winning our hearts. She is a sweet, affectionate dog who quickly adapted to us within a week. She is very quick and curious, a very different dog than Noleke.
DEAR VISITOR,
MY BLOG EXISTS ALREADY 13 YEARS AND 2 MONTH.
ON 06/08/2024 MORE THAN 2.161.100
VISITORS FROM 135 DIFFERENT NATIONS ALREADY FOUND THEIR WAY TO MY BLOG.
THAT IS AN AVERAGE OF 400GUESTS PER DAY.
THANK YOU FOR VISITING MY BLOG AND HOPE YOU ENJOY EACH TIME.
The purpose of this blog is the creation of an open, international, independent and free forum, where every UFO-researcher can publish the results of his/her research. The languagues, used for this blog, are Dutch, English and French.You can find the articles of a collegue by selecting his category. Each author stays resposable for the continue of his articles. As blogmaster I have the right to refuse an addition or an article, when it attacks other collegues or UFO-groupes.
Druk op onderstaande knop om te reageren in mijn forum
Zoeken in blog
Deze blog is opgedragen aan mijn overleden echtgenote Lucienne.
In 2012 verloor ze haar moedige strijd tegen kanker!
In 2011 startte ik deze blog, omdat ik niet mocht stoppen met mijn UFO-onderzoek.
BEDANKT!!!
Een interessant adres?
UFO'S of UAP'S, ASTRONOMIE, RUIMTEVAART, ARCHEOLOGIE, OUDHEIDKUNDE, SF-SNUFJES EN ANDERE ESOTERISCHE WETENSCHAPPEN - DE ALLERLAATSTE NIEUWTJES
UFO's of UAP'S in België en de rest van de wereld In België had je vooral BUFON of het Belgisch UFO-Netwerk, dat zich met UFO's bezighoudt. BEZOEK DUS ZEKER VOOR ALLE OBJECTIEVE INFORMATIE , enkel nog beschikbaar via Facebook en deze blog.
Verder heb je ook het Belgisch-Ufo-meldpunt en Caelestia, die prachtig, doch ZEER kritisch werk leveren, ja soms zelfs héél sceptisch...
Voor Nederland kan je de mooie site www.ufowijzer.nl bezoeken van Paul Harmans. Een mooie site met veel informatie en artikels.
MUFON of het Mutual UFO Network Inc is een Amerikaanse UFO-vereniging met afdelingen in alle USA-staten en diverse landen.
MUFON's mission is the analytical and scientific investigation of the UFO- Phenomenon for the benefit of humanity...
Je kan ook hun site bekijken onder www.mufon.com.
Ze geven een maandelijks tijdschrift uit, namelijk The MUFON UFO-Journal.
Since 02/01/2020 is Pieter ex-president (=voorzitter) of BUFON, but also ex-National Director MUFON / Flanders and the Netherlands. We work together with the French MUFON Reseau MUFON/EUROP.
ER IS EEN NIEUWE GROEPERING DIE ZICH BUFON NOEMT, MAAR DIE HEBBEN NIETS MET ONZE GROEP TE MAKEN. DEZE COLLEGA'S GEBRUIKEN DE NAAM BUFON VOOR HUN SITE... Ik wens hen veel succes met de verdere uitbouw van hun groep. Zij kunnen de naam BUFON wel geregistreerd hebben, maar het rijke verleden van BUFON kunnen ze niet wegnemen...
04-09-2024
Alien Visitation Claims Are Widespread Societal Problem, Researcher Says
Alien Visitation Claims Are Widespread Societal Problem, Researcher Says
Around a fifth of U.K. citizens believe Earth has been visited by extraterrestrials, and an estimated 7% believe that they have seen a UFO. The figures are even higher in the U.S. — and rising. The number of people who believe UFO sightings offer likely proof of alien life increased from 20% in 1996 to 34% in 2022. Some 24% of Americans say they’ve seen a UFO. In his new paper in the Proceedings of the International Astronomical Union, Dr. Tony Milligan of King’s College London argues that the belief in alien visitors is no longer a quirk, but a widespread societal problem.
The idea that aliens may have visited our planet is becoming increasingly popular.
Image credit: Fernando Ribas.
The belief is now rising to the extent that politicians, at least in the U.S., feel they have to respond.
The disclosure of information about claimed UAPs (Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena) from the Pentagon has got a lot of bi-partisan attention in the country.
Much of it plays upon familiar anti-elite tropes that both parties have been ready to use, such as the idea that the military and a secretive cabal of private commercial interests are keeping the deep truth about alien visitation hidden.
That truth is believed to involve sightings, abductions and reverse-engineered alien technology.
Belief in a cover-up is even higher than belief in alien visitation. In 2019, a Gallop poll found that a staggering 68% of Americans believed that the US government knows more about UFOs than it is telling.
This political trend has been decades in the making. Jimmy Carter promised document disclosure during his presidential campaign in 1976, several years after his own reported UFO sighting. Like so many other sightings, the simplest explanation is that he saw Venus.
Hillary Clinton also suggested she wanted to ‘open Pentagon files as much as I can’ during her presidential campaign against Donald Trump.
Trump suggested he’d need to ‘think about’ whether it was possible to declassify the so-called Roswell documentation.
Former president Bill Clinton claimed to have sent his chief of staff, John Podesta, down to Area 51, a highly classified US Air Force facility, just in case any of the rumors about alien technology at the site were true. It is worth nothing that Podesta is a long-time enthusiast for all things to do with UFOs.
The most prominent current advocate of document disclosure is the Democratic Senate leader Chuck Schumer.
His stripped back 2023 UAP disclosure bill for revealing some UAP records was co-sponsored by three Republican senators.
Pentagon disclosure finally began during the early stages of Joe Biden’s term of office, but so far there has been nothing to see. Nothing looks like an encounter. Nothing looks close.
Still, the background noise does not go away.
This artist’s impression shows the first interstellar asteroid — 1I/2017 U1 (’Oumuamua).
Image credit: M. Kornmesser / ESO.
Problems for Society
All this is ultimately encouraging conspiracy theories, which could undermine trust in democratic institutions.
There have been humorous calls to storm Area 51.
And after the storming of the Capitol in 2021, this now looks like an increasingly dangerous possibility.
Too much background noise about UFOs and UAPs can also get in the way of legitimate science communication about the possibility of finding microbial extraterrestrial life.
Astrobiology, the science dealing with such matters, has a far less effective publicity machine than UFOlogy.
History, a YouTube channel part owned by Disney, regularly delivers shows about ‘ancient aliens.’ The show is now in its 20th season and the channel has 13.8 million subscribers.
The NASA astrobiology channel has a hard won 20,000 subscribers. Actual science finds itself badly outnumbered by entertainment repackaged as factual.
Alien visitation narratives have also repeatedly tried to hijack and overwrite the history and mythology of indigenous people.
The first steps in this direction go back to Alexander Kazantsev’s science fiction tale Explosion: The Story of a Hypothesis (1946). It presents the 1908 Tunguska meteorite impact event as a Nagasaki-like explosion of an alien spacecraft engine.
In Kazantsev’s tale, a single giant black female survivor has been left stranded, equipped with special healing powers. This led to her adoption as a shaman by the indigenous Evenki people.
NASA and the space science community do support efforts such as the Native Skywatchers initiative set up by the indigenous Ojibwe and Lakota communities to ensure the survival of storytelling about the stars. There is a real and extensive network of indigenous scholarship about these matters.
But UFOlogists promise a far higher profile for indigenous history in return for the mashing together of genuine indigenous stories about life arriving from the skies with fictional tales about UFOs, repackaged as suppressed history.
The modern alien visitation narrative has not, after all, emerged out of indigenous communities. Quite the opposite.
It emerged in part as a way for conspiracy-minded thinkers in a Europe torn apart by racism to ‘explain’ how complex urban civilizations in places like South America could have existed prior to European settlement.
Squeezed through a new age filter of 1960s counterculture, the narrative was flipped to value indigenous people as having once possessed advanced technology.
Once upon a time, according to this view, every indigenous civilization was Wakanda, a fictional country appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics.
If all of this stayed in its own box, as entertaining fiction, then matters would be fine. But it doesn’t, and they aren’t. Visitation narratives tend to overwrite indigenous storytelling about sky and ground.
This is a problem for everyone, not just indigenous peoples struggling to continue authentic traditions. It threatens our grasp of the past. When it comes to insight into our remote ancestors, the remnants of prehistoric storytelling are few and precious, such as within indigenous storytelling about the stars.
Take the tales of the Pleiades, which date back in standard forms to at least 50,000 years ago.
This may be why these tales in particular are heavily targeted by alien visitation enthusiasts, some of whom even claim to be Pleiadeans.
No surprises, Pleiadeans do not look like the Lakota or Ojibwe, but are strikingly blond, blue-eyed and Nordic.
It is increasingly clear that belief in alien visitation is no longer just a fun speculation, but something that has real and damaging consequences.
Tony Milligan. 2024. Equivocal encounters: alien visitation claims as a societal problem. In Proceedings of the International Astronomical Union: IAUS (387). Cambridge University Press
Author: Tony Milligan, a research fellow at King’s College London.
Gewoonlijk draaien sterren rond het centrum van een sterrenstelsel, bijvoorbeeld de Melkweg: dit is het geval voor de zon en de meer dan 200 miljard sterren in ons sterrenstelsel... op één na. Sommige wetenschappers hebben een object gezien dat zo groot en zwaar is als een ster en dat zich met meer dan 1,6 miljoen kilometer per uur voortbeweegt, een snelheid die zo hoog is dat het aan de zwaartekracht van de Melkweg ontsnapt... vroeg of laat. Laten we eens kijken hoe dit mogelijk is!
Er is een ster ontdekt die op de vlucht is uit de Melkweg
We bevinden ons in het project Backyard Worlds: Planet 9, dat tot taak heeft nieuwe planeten en bruine dwergen in de omgeving van ons zonnestelsel te ontdekken, ook met de hulp van amateurs. Door de beelden te bestuderen die zijn gemaakt door de Wide Field Infrared Explorer of WISE-missie en latere missies, hebben sommige amateurwetenschappers een nooit eerder gezien object gezien, een hemellichaam dat veel te snel door de ruimte beweegt, alsof het ontsnapt uit de Melkweg. Dit zijn de woorden van een van de ontdekkers, die samen met anderen een studie publiceerde in Astrophysical Journal Letters:
Ik kan het niveau van opwinding niet beschrijven. Toen ik voor het eerst zag hoe snel het bewoog, was ik ervan overtuigd dat het al was gemeld.
Het hemellichaam, CWISE J124909.08+362116.0 genaamd maar kortweg CWISE J1249 genoemd, heeft zo'n lage massa dat het moeilijk te classificeren is. Volgens onderzoekers zou het desondanks een kleine ster of een bruine dwerg kunnen zijn. Maar waarom beweegt hij zo snel?
Waarom zo'n hoge snelheid?
NASA/JPL-Caltech
Alleen al binnen het project Backyard Worlds: Planet 9 zijn er al meer dan 4000 bruine dwergen geïdentificeerd, hemellichamen die het midden houden tussen een gasvormige planeet zoals Jupiter en een ster zoals de zon. Geen van hen beweegt echter met zo'n hoge snelheid dat ze zouden kunnen ontsnappen aan de zwaartekracht van de Melkweg. Bovendien heeft CWISE J1249 een andere samenstelling dan de andere bruine dwergen en sterren in ons melkwegstelsel, omdat hij minder ijzer en andere metalen bevat: hij zou deel kunnen uitmaken van de eerste generatie sterren in de Melkweg.
Over zijn snelheid hebben wetenschappers twee hypotheses bedacht. Aan de ene kant kan de bruine dwerg deel hebben uitgemaakt van een binair systeem met een witte dwerg, die op een gegeven moment explodeerde als supernova en zo de ontsnapping van CWISE J1249 in gang zette. Aan de andere kant zou de snelheid veroorzaakt kunnen zijn door een ontmoeting met een binair systeem gevormd door twee zwarte gaten, waarvan de interacties de bruine dwerg de ruimte in zouden hebben geslingerd. En uit de Melkweg.
Het belang van Backyard Worlds: Planet 9
De ontdekking van CWISE J1249 en zijn ontsnapping aan de zwaartekracht van de Melkweg is slechts het laatste succes van Backyard Worlds: Planet 9. Het project bevordert de samenwerking tussen duizenden astronomen wereldwijd en heeft het mogelijk gemaakt om enorme hoeveelheden astronomische gegevens te analyseren. Het project bevordert de samenwerking tussen duizenden liefhebbers van de astronomie over de hele wereld en heeft het mogelijk gemaakt om enorme hoeveelheden astronomische gegevens te analyseren, vergelijkbaar met het project Black Hole Finder voor het zoeken naar zwarte gaten. Terwijl Backyard Worlds: Planet 9 ook uitgaat van het idee van het bestaan van een negende planeet in het zonnestelsel voorbij Neptunus, is het een initiatief dat heeft geleid tot de ontdekking van vele bruine dwergen en andere hemellichamen in ons melkwegstelsel.
In dit opzicht is het project een perfect voorbeeld van hoe wetenschap en passie voor de astronomie tot buitengewone resultaten kunnen leiden. Waaronder de ontdekking van een ster die ontsnapt uit de Melkweg, het eerste voorbeeld van een hemellichaam met zo'n hoge snelheid dat het ontsnapt aan de galactische zwaartekracht, maar niet aan onze ogen.
De geheimen rond de Bermudadriehoek De wateren rond Bermuda, dat Brits grondgebied is, hebben van meer dan 1.000 mensen het leven geëist. Veel schepen en vliegtuigen zijn op onverklaarbare wijze verdwenen in het gebied dat ligt tussen Bermuda en Miami. Door veel piloten zijn verhalen verteld over kompassen die niet meer werkten.
Mysterieuze verdwijningen en bizarre verhalen hebben geleid tot talloze complottheorieën en er heerst een akelig gevoel omtrent de Bermudadriehoek. Bekijk deze galerij om enkele van de meest intrigerende onverklaarde mysteries rond het eiland en zijn wateren te ontdekken.
George Somers Hij vertrok vanuit Plymouth in Engeland met een vloot van zeven schepen. Zijn vlaggenschip, de Sea Venture, bracht kolonisten, voedsel en goederen met zich mee.
George Somers De vloot kwam in een zware storm terecht en de schepen werden van elkaar gescheiden. Na een aantal dagen begon de Sea Venture vol met water te lopen en in een poging van wanhoop voer de uitgeputte kapitein het schip naar de riffen van wat Bermuda bleek te zijn.
George Somers Gelukkig hebben alle 150 passagiers die aan boord waren het overleefd. Ze verbleven tien maanden op het eiland en stichtten de eerste nederzetting van Bermuda.
Bermuda Volgens het toerismebureau Bermuda Attractions liggen er meer dan 300 scheepswrakken op de zeebodem rond het eiland. Waarom er zoveel schepen zijn gezonken in de wateren rond Bermuda blijft een raadsel.
Flight 19 In een groep van vijf vliegtuigen waren er in totaal veertien man aan boord, waaronder de ervaren luitenant Charles C. Taylor. Ze verdwenen allemaal spoorloos. Naar verluidt zei een van de piloten via de radio: "beide kompassen werken niet meer en ik probeer Fort Lauderdale in Florida te vinden."
Flight 19 Een opsporingsteam doorzocht in vijf dagen ruim 300.000 vierkante kilometer grondgebied. Helaas zijn er nooit overblijfselen van Flight 19 gevonden. Een boot met een zoekteam van dertien mensen verdween ook toen het op zoek was naar de vliegtuigen.
Christoffel Columbus Naar verluidt schreef hij in een van zijn memoires dat hij een vuurvlam in de zee zag slaan en dat er een paar dagen later in de verte een vreemd licht verscheen.
Mary Celeste Volgens Bermuda Attractions werd het schip drijvend in de Atlantische Oceaan aangetroffen terwijl er niemand aan boord was. Er bestaan complottheorieën rondom het mysterie van de Mary Celeste die gaan van ontvoeringen tot buitenaardse wezens, natuurrampen en zelfs paranormale activiteiten.
USS Scorpion De USS Scorpion was een kernonderzeeër van de Amerikaanse marine. Hij vertrok op 15 februari 1968 uit Norfolk, gelegen in de Amerikaanse staat Virginia, voor een operatie van drie maanden en had een 99-koppige bemanning
USS Scorpion Volgens History Net, een Amerikaanse uitgever van tijdschriften die artikelen publiceren over onderwerpen uit de geschiedenis, werd er een zoekteam ingezet toen de onderzeeër niet terugkeerde naar zijn thuishaven. De 76,5 meter lange onderzeeër verdween spoorloos.
USS Scorpion Het wrak van de onderzeeër werd in de Atlantische Oceaan voor de kust van de Azoren gevonden, maar complotdenkers hebben het mysterie van de USS Scorpion in verband gebracht met de Bermudadriehoek.
Carroll A. Deering Volgens Bermuda Attractions was er een lichtschip in staat om via de radio met de Carroll A. Deering te communiceren. De kapitein van het lichtschip hoorde een bemanningslid zeggen dat ze hun ankers waren kwijtgeraakt en dat dit aan het hoofdkwartier doorgegeven moest worden, maar de Carroll A. Deering stopte niet en voer langs het lichtschip.
US Air Force KC-135 Stratotanker In 1963 kwamen naar verluidt twee KC-135-vliegtuigen van de Amerikaanse luchtmacht met elkaar in botsing en stortten ze neer in de Atlantische Oceaan. Ze werden echter gevonden op twee verschillende locaties die ruim 260 kilometer uit elkaar lagen.
De Ellen Austin De Ellen Austin was een schip dat regelmatig tussen Londen en New York door de Bermudadriehoek voer. Tijdens een van haar reizen in 1881 kwam de Ellen Austin een ander schip tegen waarop niemand aan boord was.
De Ellen Austin In een poging het verlaten schip te redden stuurde de kapitein van de Ellen Austin enkele van zijn bemanningsleden. Twee dagen lang zeilden de schepen zij aan zij totdat ze door een storm van elkaar werden gescheiden. Het verlaten schip en de nieuwe bemanning zijn nooit gevonden.
Niet opgelost en onverklaard Ondanks dat er ruim duizend mensen om het leven zijn gekomen, blijven de wateren rond Bermuda een van de drukst bevaren plekken ter wereld. Zou dit de illusie kunnen wekken dat er hier meer incidenten plaatsvinden of is er echt iets mysterieus aan de hand?
Saturn's majestic rings will vanish in just six months from now
Saturn's majestic rings will vanish in just six months from now
Story by Eric Ralls
Saturn's majestic rings will vanish in just six months from now
Most people consider Saturn's awe-inspiring system of rings that encircle the gas giant to be the most fascinating and iconic celestial feature in our solar system.
Back in the 17th century, Italian astronomer Galileo Galilei first spied Saturn through his ancient telescope. He compared the planet's appearance to having "ears" due to the limitations of his device.
The diligent work of scientists like Galileo Galilei has laid the foundation for our modern-day ability to explore the incredible wonders of our universe.
Over the years, advances in technology and innovative techniques have empowered astronomers, such as Dr. Lucy Jones from the esteemed Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics (CfA), to delve deeper into the enigmas surrounding celestial bodies.
Through cutting-edge research and observations, they have unraveled the intricate mysteries of Saturn's rings, revealing their composition and the dynamic processes that shape them.
Cosmic vanishing act
A fast-approaching and significant cosmic event will soon dramatically alter our view of this magnificent planet. Come March 2025, Saturn's majestic rings will become virtually invisible to earth-based observers.
This phenomenon occurs due to the unique tilt of Saturn's axis, which will position the rings edge-on to our line of sight.
Related video:
Saturn and the moon to join side by side on Aug. 20(Dailymotion)
As a result, this is a rare opportunity for citizens and astronomers alike to witness this celestial transformation, while also reminding us of the ever-changing nature of our universe.
Thankfully, this isn't a permanent change. It's a fleeting cosmic event that recurs every 29.5 years, which is how long it takes Saturn to orbit the Sun. After March 2025, Saturn's axial tilt will bring the rings back into view, then vanish again in November 2025.
So, the rings are not really disappearing but rather playing a celestial game of hide and seek. At their reappearance, we can also enjoy an accentuated view of Saturn's moons.
Saturn's ring structure
So, what are Saturn's rings really made of? Mostly, they consist of ice particles, rocky debris, and cosmic dust, creating a stunning spectacle visible from Earth with a telescope.
Picture a bustling city with buildings of all sizes. Similarly, the ring particles vary from tiny grains, about the size of sand, to huge chunks as big as houses or even school buses. This mix gives the rings their intriguing look.
Saturn's rings aren't just one solid structure. They're made up of several distinct sections, including the A, B, and C rings, along with the fainter D, E, F, and G rings that are harder to see.
These sections are separated by gaps, like the well-known Cassini Division between the A and B rings, which is around 4,800 kilometers wide. The shapes and setups of these rings are mainly shaped by gravitational interactions with Saturn's many moons.
Some of these moons, dubbed "shepherd moons," hang out near the edges of the rings and help keep things in shape by pulling on the ring particles with their gravity.
As for how Saturn's rings came to be, that's still a hot topic among astronomers. There are plenty of theories, from being the leftovers of a destroyed moon or comet that got torn apart by Saturn's strong gravity to materials left over from when Saturn formed over 4 billion years ago.
Each theory has its own fascinating ideas, and ongoing research keeps revealing new insights about these amazing structures that orbit the planet.
This ambitious journey to uncover the cool mysteries of Saturn and its stunning rings started when the spacecraft arrived at Saturn in 2004, kicking off a thorough 13-year exploration that wrapped up in 2017.
Throughout its journey, the Cassini-Huygens mission brought us a treasure trove of information about Saturn and its complex system. One of the coolest finds was discovering gaps in the rings, especially the Cassini Division, which is the noticeable space between the A and B rings.
This division is shaped by the gravitational pull of Saturn's moons, showcasing how dynamic and ever-changing the ring system really is.
The mission also gave us deeper insights into Saturn's many moons, revealing their unique compositions and geological features. For example, Enceladus, one of Saturn's icy moons, has geysers that shoot out water vapor and organic materials, hinting at the possibility of subsurface oceans.
Thanks to the Cassini-Huygens mission, scientists gained valuable insights into the intricate dance of moons and rings around Saturn, completely transforming our understanding of the planet and its unique traits.
Saturn's moons and magnetic field
There is much more to Saturn than just those incredible rings. In fact, Saturn boasts a minimum of 145 moons, each with its own unique characteristics and mysteries.
Among these, Titan, the second-largest moon in the Solar System, truly steals the show with its thick atmosphere and intriguing surface. Interestingly, Titan has a magnetic field that, while weaker than Jupiter's, is stronger than Earth's, indicating complex interactions with Saturn's magnetic environment.
Titan radiates powerful radio waves, particularly from its spectacular auroras at the poles, which can provide valuable insights into both Titan's atmosphere and the overall dynamics of Saturn's magnetic field. The upcoming Dragonfly mission will search for life on Titan.
That said, Titan's mysteries pale in comparison to what we might find on Enceladus. Cassini discovered the presence of vital components for life on this icy Saturnian moon.
Based on this data, experts have identified crucial organic compounds and a potent energy source, hinting at the moon's potential to support life.
"Not only does Enceladus seem to meet the basic requirements for habitability, we now have an idea about how complex biomolecules could form there, and what sort of chemical pathways might be involved," explains Jonah Peter, a doctoral student at Harvard University who conducted the research while working at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory.
Stargazers, Saturn, and those magnificent rings
To sum it all up, as Saturn's rings prepare to vanish from view in March 2025, stargazers have a unique opportunity to witness this fleeting cosmic event.
The rings will align edge-on with Earth, making them virtually invisible and highlighting the dynamic nature of celestial objects.
For now, Saturn remains a captivating target for those with telescopes or high-powered binoculars. The planet's stunning rings, composed of countless ice particles and rocky debris, offer a glimpse into the complex and beautiful structure of our solar system.
ESA lanceert nieuwe satelliet die waterkwaliteit, natuurrampen en methaanuitstoot beter in kaart kan brengen
ESA lanceert nieuwe satelliet die waterkwaliteit, natuurrampen en methaanuitstoot beter in kaart kan brengen
Artikel door Michaël Torfs
De lancering maakt deel uit van ESA's Sentinel 2-programma, een project dat in samenwerking met de Europese Commissie loopt. De Sentinel-2C zal de Sentinel-2A vervangen. Die was gelanceerd in juni 2015 en intussen staan we heel wat verder, wat voor een grote verbetering zal zorgen in de aangeleverde data. Dat zegt Inge Jonckheere van de ESA in een gesprek met VRT NWS.
Jonckheere werkt als directeur van de Green Solutions Division bij ESA die satellietdata gebruikt voor alle mogelijke wetenschappelijke en maatschappelijke toepassingen, specifiek dan voor het observeren van de aarde, het milieu en het klimaat.
Over de missie
De Sentinel 2-missie telt 2 identieke satellieten, Sentinel 2A (gelanceerd in 2015) en Sentinel 2B (2017), die in dezelfde baan vliegen maar 180 graden uit elkaar om de dekking en de revisit-tijd te optimaliseren. De satellieten draaien elke 100 minuten in een baan om de aarde en bestrijken elke 5 dagen alle landoppervlakken, grote eilanden, binnenwateren en kustwateren.
Eenmaal in een baan om de aarde zal Sentinel-2C zijn voorganger Sentinel-2A vervangen, terwijl Sentinel-2D later Sentinel-2B zal vervangen om de continuïteit van gegevens na 2035 te waarborgen.
Sneller data, en een goed oog
De combinatie met de nog actieve Sentinel-2B wordt voortaan beter. Er zullen vaker data binnenlopen, wetenschappers zullen zowat om de week een update krijgen van wat er op de grond gebeurt.
"We zullen met deze satellietcombinatie elke 5 tot 10 dagen beeld hebben van een specifiek gebied, afhankelijk van de breedtegraad - tegenover ongeveer tweewekelijks met 1 satelliet - waardoor de tijdsresolutie preciezer wordt", zegt Jonckheere.
"We krijgen daardoor bijna continu een aanvoer van data. En hoe meer data je hebt, hoe beter de opvolging van natuurlijke processen en extreme events."
En er is meer. De nieuwe optische satelliet heeft ook een relatief scherp oog. "Je moet rekenen op een grondresolutie van 10 tot 30 meter, wat relatief gezien behoorlijk nauwkeurig is. Sommige satellieten die gebruikt worden voor het klimaat hebben amper een paar kilometer resolutie."
Het is wel zo dat wolken de observatie kunnen verstoren, maar net daarvoor is het zo belangrijk dat de omlooptijd door het gebruik van de 2 satellieten nu een stuk korter gaat worden.
Van methaan tot algenbloei in het water
De nieuwe satelliet heeft toepassingen voor landbouw, waterkwaliteit, natuurrampen en de uitstoot van het sterke broeikasgas methaan.
Landbouw/bosbouw:"We kunnen opvolgen hoe vochtig het is in een bepaalde regio en hoe goed de Green Index is, die ook een aanwijzing geeft over hoe gezond een stuk land is. Zo kan je bijvoorbeeld de landbouw helpen", schetst Jonckheere. Ze verwijst naar het World Cereal-project dat geleid wordt door de Vlaamse Instelling voor Wetenschappelijk Onderzoek VITO en gewassen als granen en maïs wereldwijd in kaart brengt.
Waterkwaliteit: onderzoekers kunnen zien hoeveel water (of niet) er is in een bepaald gebied en hoe dat evolueert. Het is ook interessant om waterkwaliteit in kaart te brengen, bijvoorbeeld wat betreft het bloeien van bepaalde algen. Onderzoekers kunnen een soort kwaliteitsindex van het rivierwater opmaken, of onder meer ook afval op zee in beeld brengen.
Natuurrampen: na pakweg een zware bosbrand kan de satelliet in kaart brengen of en hoe snel een gebied zich herstelt, en waar moet worden bijgestuurd. Of hoe groot de impact van overstromingen is, of hoe snel gletsjers wegsmelten.
Methaan: de methaanuitstoot is de jongste jaren naar historische hoogtes gestegen. Voor een deel is dat rechtstreeks het gevolg van bijvoorbeeld olie- of gaswinning met lekkend methaan. Dat moet nog beter in kaart worden gebracht, ook al om landen die zeggen inspanningen te doen goed te kunnen opvolgen. Dat is belangrijk voor het klimaat, want methaan zou momenteel voor ongeveer 30 procent van de klimaatopwarming verantwoordelijk zijn (na CO₂).
De ESA gaf deze illustratie vrij van de lancering van de Sentinal-2C.
Zoveel mogelijk op eigen benen staan in tijden van AI (en fake data)
De lancering is niet enkel van belang voor meer en betere data. Het gaat er ook om dat Europa zelf zoveel mogelijk op eigen benen wil staan wat betreft datagaring. Momenteel is er voor zulke aardobservatie- programma's veel samenwerking met bijvoorbeeld de Amerikaanse ruimtevaartorganisatie NASA en/of met China, en worden veel data samengelegd.
Maar wat als Trump verkozen raakt als VS-president en het programma afbouwt, of wat als China geld vraagt? "Hoe meer ownership Europa zelf heeft, hoe beter", onderstreept Jonckheere.
Bovendien kan Europa de eigen garing 100 procent betrouwen: "We zien dat er door artificiële intelligentie (AI) valse satellietdata circuleren via deep fakes. Bij eigen garing heb je de garantie dat het wel degelijk om authentieke data gaat."
De Sentinel-data zijn open en worden met iedereen gedeeld, zoals ook de NASA dat doet. Ze zullen onder meer gebruikt worden door de Europese klimaatdienst Copernicus.
'Fingers crossed' (want het ging al eens verkeerd)
Hoe veelbelovend de nieuwe satelliet ook klinkt, ze moet komende nacht eerst nog met succes naar de ruimte worden gestuurd. De ESA wacht toch met een beetje spanning de lancering in Kourou, Frans-Guyana, af.
Sentinel-2C wordt de ruimte ingestuurd door de Vega-draagraket, waarvoor het overigens de laatste vlucht wordt. De Vega-raket heeft geen vlekkeloze reputatie. Zo gingen er in december 2022 2 kostbare satellieten verloren toen een lancering mislukte.
Geld op het spel, maar vooral continuïteit
Anderzijds ging het vaak wel goed, zoals in oktober vorig jaar toen Vega enkele Belgische instrumenten meenam van de Vlaamse Instelling voor Technologisch Onderzoek (VITO). De lancering is voorzien voor 3.50 uur vannacht, maar uitstel is altijd mogelijk als het weer zou tegenzitten.
Bij ESA schuiven ze toch wat zenuwachtig heen en weer op hun stoel. Een satelliet zou tussen de 50 en 100 miljoen euro kosten, de lancering zelf 20 miljoen. Maar het zou vooral jammer zijn voor de opeenvolging van data, zegt Jonckheere. "Dan zou er geen datacontinuïteit verzekerd zijn, wat net een van de grote troeven is van het programma."
Research led by Tony Milligan, King's College London
Image credit: _freakwave_ @ pixabay.com
The idea that aliens may have visited the Earth is becoming increasingly popular. Around a fifth of UK citizens believe Earth has been visited by extraterrestrials, and an estimated 7% believe that they have seen a UFO.
This belief is slightly paradoxical as we have zero evidence that aliens even exist. What’s more, given the vast distances between star systems, it seems odd we’d only learn about them from a visit. Evidence for aliens is more likely to come from signals from faraway planets.
The belief is now rising to the extent that politicians, at least in the US, feel they have to respond. The disclosure of information about claimed Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena (UAPs rather than UFOs) from the Pentagon has got a lot of bi-partisan attention in the country.
Much of it plays upon familiar anti-elite tropes that both parties have been ready to use, such as the idea that the military and a secretive cabal of private commercial interests are keeping the deep truth about alien visitation hidden. That truth is believed to involve sightings, abductions, and reverse-engineered alien technology.
Belief in a cover-up is even higher than belief in alien visitation. In 2019, a Gallop poll found that a staggering 68% of Americans believed that “the US government knows more about UFOs than it is telling”.
This political trend has been decades in the making. Jimmy Carter promised document disclosure during his presidential campaign in 1976, several years after his own reported UFO sighting. Like so many other sightings, the simplest explanation is that he saw Venus. (That happens a lot.)
Hillary Clinton also suggested she wanted to “open [Pentagon] files as much as I can” during her presidential campaign against Donald Trump. As seen in the video below, Trump suggested he’d need to “think about” whether it was possible to declassify the so-called Roswell documentation (relating to the notorious claimed crash of a UFO and the recovery of alien bodies).
Former president Bill Clinton claimed to have sent his chief of staff, John Podesta, down to Area 51, a highly classified US Air Force facility, just in case any of the rumors about alien technology at the site were true. It is worth noting that Podesta is a long-time enthusiast for all things to do with UFOs.
The most prominent current advocate of document disclosure is the Democratic Senate leader Chuck Schumer. His stripped back 2023 UAP disclosure bill for revealing some UAP records was co-sponsored by three Republican senators.
Pentagon disclosure finally began during the early stages of Joe Biden’s term of office, but so far there has been nothing to see. Nothing looks like an encounter. Nothing looks close.
Still, the background noise does not go away.
Problems for society
All this is ultimately encouraging conspiracy theories, which could undermine trust in democratic institutions. There have been humorous calls to storm Area 51. And after the storming of the Capitol in 2021, this now looks like an increasingly dangerous possibility.
Too much background noise about UFOs and UAPs can also get in the way of legitimate science communication about the possibility of finding microbial extraterrestrial life. Astrobiology, the science dealing with such matters, has a far less effective publicity machine than UFOlogy.
History, a YouTube channel part owned by Disney, regularly delivers shows about “ancient aliens”. The show is now in its 20th season and the channel has 13.8 million subscribers. The NASA astrobiology channel has a hard won 20,000 subscribers. Actual science finds itself badly outnumbered by entertainment repackaged as factual.
Alien visitation narratives have also repeatedly tried to hijack and overwrite the history and mythology of indigenous people.
The first steps in this direction go back to Alexander Kazantsev’s science fiction tale Explosion: The Story of a Hypothesis (1946). It presents the 1908 Tunguska meteorite impact event as a Nagasaki-like explosion of an alien spacecraft engine. In Kazantsev’s tale, a single giant black female survivor has been left stranded, equipped with special healing powers. This lead to her adoption as a shaman by the indigenous Evenki people.
NASA and the space science community do support efforts such as the Native Skywatchers initiative set up by the indigenous Ojibwe and Lakota communities to ensure the survival of storytelling about the stars. There is a real and extensive network of indigenous scholarship about these matters.
But UFOlogists promise a far higher profile for indigenous history in return for the mashing together of genuine indigenous stories about life arriving from the skies with fictional tales about UFOs, repackaged as suppressed history.
The modern alien visitation narrative has not, after all, emerged out of indigenous communities. Quite the opposite. It emerged in part as a way for conspiracy-minded thinkers in a Europe torn apart by racism to “explain” how complex urban civilizations in places like South America could have existed prior to European settlement.
Squeezed through a new age filter of 1960s counterculture, the narrative was flipped to value indigenous people as having once possessed advanced technology. Once upon a time, according to this view, every indigenous civilization was Wakanda, a fictional country appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics.
If all of this stayed in its own box, as entertaining fiction, then matters would be fine. But it doesn’t, and they aren’t. Visitation narratives tend to overwrite indigenous storytelling about sky and ground.
This is a problem for everyone, not just indigenous peoples struggling to continue authentic traditions. It threatens our grasp of the past. When it comes to insight into our remote ancestors, the remnants of prehistoric storytelling are few and precious, such as within indigenous storytelling about the stars.
This may be why these tales in particular are heavily targeted by alien visitation enthusiasts, some of whom even claim to be “Pleiadeans”. No surprises, Pleiadeans do not look like the Lakota or Ojibwe, but are strikingly blond, blue-eyed, and Nordic.
It is increasingly clear that belief in alien visitation is no longer just a fun speculation, but something that has real and damaging consequences.
Ganymede Was Struck by Giant Asteroid 4 Billion Years Ago, New Research Suggests
Ganymede Was Struck by Giant Asteroid 4 Billion Years Ago, New Research Suggests
Jupiter’s moon Ganymede has an ancient impact structure called a furrow system. This system is the largest impact structure in the outer Solar System, and the impact should have significantly affected Ganymede’s early history.
Distribution of furrows and location of the center of the furrow system shown in the hemisphere that always faces away from Jupiter (top) and the cylindrical projection map of Ganymede (bottom). The gray regions represent geologically young terrain without furrows. Furrows (green lines) exist only on geologically old terrains (black regions).
Ganymede is the largest satellite in the Solar System and has many unique features, including tectonic troughs known as furrows.
Furrows are the oldest surface features recognized on Ganymede because they are crosscut by any impact craters with diameters exceeding 10 km. They can provide a window into the early history of this moon.
Furrows have been proposed to be fragments of multiring impact basin structures, similar to those of the Valhalla or Asgard basins on Callisto.
The largest furrow system is present across Galileo and Marius Regios — the so-called Galileo-Marius furrow system — and it is the remnant of an ancient giant impact, which extends concentrically from a single point of Ganymede.
“The Jupiter moons Io, Europa, Ganymede and Callisto all have interesting individual characteristics, but the one that caught my attention was these furrows on Ganymede,” said Kobe University planetologist Naoyuki Hirata, author of a paper published in the journal Scientific Reports.
Kobe University HIRATA Naoyuki was the first to realize that the location of an asteroid impact on Jupiter's moon Ganymede is almost precisely on the meridian farthest away from Jupiter. This implied that Ganymede had undergone a reorientation of its rotational axis and allowed Hirata to calculate what kind of impact could have caused this to happen.
Credit: HIRATA Naoyuki
“We know that this feature was created by an asteroid impact about 4 billion years ago, but we were unsure how big this impact was and what effect it had on the moon.”
First, Dr. Hirata realized that the purported location of the impact is almost precisely on the meridian farthest away from Jupiter.
“Drawing from similarities with an impact event on Pluto that caused the dwarf planet’s rotational axis to shift and that we learned about through NASA’s New Horizons spacecraft, this implied that Ganymede, too, had undergone such a reorientation,” he said.
According to the study, an asteroid that hit Ganymede probably had a diameter of around 300 km — about 20 times as large as the Chicxulub asteroid that hit Earth 65 million years ago and ended the age of the dinosaurs — and created a transient crater between 1,400 and 1,600 km in diameter.
Only an impact of this size would make it likely that the change in the distribution of mass could cause the moon’s rotational axis to shift into its current position. This result holds true irrespective of where on the surface the impact occurred.
“I want to understand the origin and evolution of Ganymede and other Jupiter moons,” Dr. Hirata said.
On large parts of its surface, the Jupiter moon Ganymede is covered by furrows (right) that form concentric circles around one specific spot (left, red cross), which led researchers in the 1980s to conclude that they are the results of a major impact event.
Credit: HIRATA Naoyuki
Distribution of furrows and the location of the center of the furrow system shown in the hemisphere that always faces away from Jupiter (top) and the cylindrical projection map of Ganymede (bottom). The gray regions represent geologically young terrain without furrows. Furrows (green lines) exist only on geologically old terrains (black regions).
Credit: HIRATA Naoyuki
“The giant impact must have had a significant impact on the early evolution of Ganymede, but the thermal and structural effects of the impact on the interior of Ganymede have not yet been investigated at all.”
“I believe that further research applying the internal evolution of ice moons could be carried out next.”
N. Hirata. 2024. Giant impact on early Ganymede and its subsequent reorientation. Sci Rep 14, 19982; doi: 10.1038/s41598-024-69914-2
Kurt Russell’s Shocking UFO Encounter: Reporting Six UFOs Over Phoenix, Arizona
Kurt Russell’s Shocking UFO Encounter: Reporting Six UFOs Over Phoenix, Arizona
In the realm of UFO sightings, one of the most intriguing and well-documented incidents is the “Phoenix Lights” event, which occurred on March 13, 1997. Among the many witnesses to this mysterious phenomenon was Hollywood actor Kurt Russell, who later revealed that he was the pilot who first reported the unusual lights in the Arizona skies. Russell’s account adds a unique and personal perspective to the ongoing fascination with UFOs and extraterrestrial life.
The Phoenix Lights Incident
The Phoenix Lights incident is one of the most significant UFO sightings in the United States. On that night in 1997, thousands of people across Arizona reported seeing a massive, V-shaped formation of lights silently moving across the sky. The phenomenon was visible for hours and was witnessed by people in various locations, including Phoenix, Tucson, and the Sonoran Desert. Despite numerous eyewitness accounts, the lights’ origin remains a mystery, leading to widespread speculation and debate.
Kurt Russell’s Encounter
Kurt Russell’s involvement in the Phoenix Lights incident was not widely known until he discussed it years later during an interview. At the time of the sighting, Russell was flying a private plane into Phoenix’s Sky Harbor Airport with his son. As they approached the airport, they noticed six bright lights in a row, hovering in the sky in a formation that defied conventional explanation.
Concerned about the unusual sight, Russell contacted air traffic control to report what he was seeing. Interestingly, air traffic control informed him that no other planes were in the vicinity, and there were no military exercises or activities scheduled that could account for the lights. Russell’s report to the authorities is now recognized as one of the first official accounts of the Phoenix Lights.
The Aftermath and Speculation
Following the sighting, the Phoenix Lights incident gained national attention, with media coverage and investigations by both civilian and military organizations. While some officials claimed the lights were simply flares dropped by military aircraft during training exercises, many witnesses, including Kurt Russell, remain unconvinced by this explanation. The lack of definitive answers has only fueled speculation about the true nature of the lights.
Kurt Russell’s account adds a significant layer to the story because of his credibility as a public figure and his background as a licensed pilot. His detailed description of the six UFOs and his proactive approach in reporting the sighting make his story one of the most compelling aspects of the Phoenix Lights phenomenon.
Legacy of the Phoenix Lights
Over two decades later, the Phoenix Lights incident remains one of the most discussed and analyzed UFO sightings in history. It has inspired documentaries, books, and countless theories about extraterrestrial life and government cover-ups. Kurt Russell’s revelation that he was the pilot who reported the sighting has only added to the intrigue, cementing his place in UFO lore.
Russell himself has expressed a mix of curiosity and bewilderment about the incident. In interviews, he has admitted that the experience was strange and unexplainable, leaving him with more questions than answers. For many, his testimony is a reminder that even the most grounded and skeptical individuals can encounter phenomena that challenge their understanding of the world.
VIDEO:
Kurt Russell Reports SIX UFOs Flying Above Pheonix In Arizona | UFO Witness
Kurt Russell Shares UFO "Phoenix Lights" Experience | UFO Witness
Kurt Russell’s report of six UFOs over Phoenix, Arizona, is a fascinating chapter in the larger story of the Phoenix Lights incident. His experience as a pilot and a public figure adds credibility and intrigue to an event that continues to captivate those interested in UFOs and unexplained aerial phenomena. Whether or not the Phoenix Lights were of extraterrestrial origin, the mystery remains unsolved, leaving room for ongoing speculation and wonder.
Black Hole in a Planet's Orbit Could Indicate an Advanced Civilization An English mathematical physicist and Nobel-prize winner named Roger Penrose hypothesized how energy could be extracted from a rotating black hole in 1971. He proposed constructing a harness around the black hole's accretion disk—where infalling matter reaches near-light speeds—which would trigger an enormous release of energy across multiple wavelengths.
Since then, several scientists have proposed that advanced civilizations might use this idea—dubbed the Penrose Process—to power their technology. This technological possibility suggests just one interesting technosignature that scientists looking for life beyond Earth could search for in outer space.
Following Hypotheses Building upon this idea, scientist John M. Smart has proposed the Transcension Hypothesis. In this hypothesis, he suggested that advanced intelligence may migrate to regions surrounding black holes. There, they could take advantage of the energy available.
The latest idea based on the Penrose Process comes from Harvard Professor Avi Loeb. His paper where he poses his latest findings and ideas, "Illumination of a Planet by a Black Hole Moon as a Technological Signature," was recently published in the scientific journal Research Notes of the AAS.
Avi Loeb’s Paper Professor Avi Loeb is an extremely accomplished scientist. He is the Frank B. Baird Jr. Professor of Science at Harvard University, the Director of the Director of the Institute for Theory and Computation at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center of Astrophysics (CfA), the founding Director of the Black Hole Initiative (BHI), and the head of the Galileo Project.
In his latest paper, he proposed that advanced civilizations could rely on a "Black Hole Moon" to provide their home planet with power indefinitely. He argues that the way a black hole would light up the planet it orbits could serve as a potential technosignature for future SETI surveys. (SETI stands for Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence.)
Stephen Hawking’s Theory In 1975, Stephen Hawking theorized that black holes emit photons, neutrinos, and some larger particles. These theoretical larger particles have been called "Hawking Radiation." Since then, proposals for harnessing black holes as an energy source typically fall into one of two categories.
Some scientists believe in the possibility of the Penrose Process, which involves capturing the energy from angular momentum of black hole accretion disks. Similarly, some believe that capturing the heat and energy generated by black hole hypervelocity jets would be possible, perhaps in the form of a Dyson Sphere. On the other hand, some believe that these black-hole-civilizations would have to feed matter into the black hole they rely on and harness the resulting Hawking Radiation in order to create power.
An Orbiting Black Hole Engine In his recent paper, Loeb proposed that an advanced alien civilization could rely on the latter process by engineering a black hole to orbit their home planet. This black hole would be relatively very small, weighing just one hundred thousand tons (10-11 g). (Yes, this sounds like a lot, but it is not in terms of black holes.)
However, without any sort of maintenance, this black hole would evaporate in just a year and a half through the emission of Hawking Radiation. Loeb explained that, luckily for any potential civilization, a black hole could be sustained by giving it small amounts of matter—about 4.85 lbs (2.2 kg) per second. In return, the black hole would offer a continuous supply of power.
Powerful and Efficient “This black hole system is the most efficient engine that I ever thought about,” Loeb explained. “The fuel is converted to energy with the perfect efficiency of 100%, because the mass falling into the black hole is ultimately coming out as Hawking Radiation. I have not seen this idea discussed before and had a ‘Eureka moment’ when I realized it a few weeks ago.”
According to Loeb, the amount of antimatter needed is currently beyond humanity’s capabilities—a civilization more advanced than our own would have to figure that out. However, Loeb's proposed 10-11 g black hole could continuously supply 40 quadrillion Watts of power, which is certainly enough to power a planet.
Using Waste for Energy "The global energy use is a few terra-Watts, ten thousand times less than the power supply of this black hole," Loeb explained. Another benefit is that a black hole can use any type of matter as fuel, including the waste generated by a civilization. In this way, a black hole engine could address an advanced civilization's waste disposal issues while simultaneously offering a limitless source of energy.
"The other advantage of this black hole engine is that it can use any form of matter as fuel,” Loeb said. “It could be trash. There is no better way to recycle trash than convert it into clean energy with 100% efficiency."
Possible for Advanced Civilizations Humans produce roughly 1.92 billion metric tons of waste annually. This is having a severe impact on our planet Earth. However, this would be enough to feed a black hole of Loeb’s proposed size for more than 437 million years.
According to Loeb, a black hole engine that uses waste as its energy source would be much simpler than other proposed alien energy sources. Theoretically, it would be technology that a Type II civilization could engineer (for reference, Earth is only _almost_ a Type I civilization).
A Technosignature on Earth “This is the big challenge,” Loeb said. “Any production line of a 10-11 g black hole requires compressing matter or radiation to a mass density that is 60 orders of magnitude above the density of solid iron. The density of atomic nuclei or neutron stars is only 15 orders of magnitude above solid density. This was possible to achieve in the cosmic radiation density less than a femtosecond after the Big Bang."
In another recently written paper by Loeb, he argued that, based on the theory of General Relativity, black holes could be made out of light. According to his theories, this proposed black hole engine would be detectable light-years away, which might be most interesting about his hypothesis. This would make black hole engines viable technosignatures that would indicate the existence of a far-away advanced civilization to scientists.
Potential Extraterrestrial Power As with many proposed technosignatures—such as science-fiction-like Dyson Spheres and other megastructures—the idea of a black hole engine remains speculative and theoretical. However, as Freeman Dyson noted, if something is within the realm of our imagination and the underlying physics are valid, a sufficiently advanced civilization might already be employing it.
Loeb speculated, “The black hole engine could be discovered as a rogue rocky planet that is illuminated by a gamma-ray moon with no stellar-mass companion. If we ever find evidence for such an engine, we would need to consider the possibility that the source was created or trapped as a primordial black hole by a highly advanced technological civilization. There is no better marker of technological innovation than creating a furnace out of spacetime curvature in the form of a mini black hole.” Loeb’s hypothesis is another interesting theory posed by scientists that could help to confirm life beyond our Earth.
Video by The Atlantic. Source: Sobli / RDB / ullstein bild / Getty.
At a meeting in NASA headquarters yesterday, the public had some blunt questions about UFOs, or, as the government now calls them, “unexplained anomalous phenomena.” A NASA spokesperson summarized them aloud: “What is NASA hiding, and where are you hiding it? How much has been shared publicly? Has NASA ever cut the live NASA TV feed away from something? Has NASA released all UAP evidence it has ever received? What about NASA astronauts—do they have an NDA or clearance that does not allow them to speak about UAP sightings? What are the science overlords hiding?” In short: Are you guys lying to everyone?
There was some gentle laughter among the panelists, whom NASA had convened on the subject. No, NASA “has never intentionally cut a live feed to hide anything,” a senior agency official said. A retired astronaut who worked at NASA for 20 years chimed in: “There was never any formal or informal discussions at all about UAPs or UFOs or anyone reporting anything that would suggest something from beyond our planet.” An astrobiologist—the kind of scientist whose job revolves around finding extraterrestrial life—said that scientists are a “rebellious” type, and if someone told him to keep a secret as big as this, he’d want to spill.
The group had spent the past several months examining reports of strange sightings in the sky, and yesterday’s hours-long event was its first (and only) public meeting. The NASA-organized committee, a mix of scientists and industry experts, did not make any dramatic pronouncements. The main takeaway was what we’ve heard all along. “Many events have conventional explanations,” David Spergel, an astrophysicist who chairs the committee, told reporters. (See: balloons.) “There remain events that we do not understand,” he said, “but these events tend to be characterized by poor-quality, limited data.” Ultimately, the group found UAP data “insufficient to provide conclusive evidence about the nature and origin of every UAP event,” Spergel said.
But in doing this work, NASA has discovered a different truth: Talking about UFOs can be a nasty business. If you publicly investigate, contemplate, or even breathe about UFOs, you will probably be harassed on the internet. Several of the panelists “have been subjected to online abuse due to their decision to participate on this panel,” Dan Evans, the NASA official assigned to the committee, said at the outset of the meeting. “A NASA security team is actively addressing this issue.’ (Evans later told me that there were “specific attacks on the character of individuals.”) And then there are the accusatory questions and distrust from the public. The agency has finally opened the doors to serious discussions about UFOs, and what it’s gotten instead is seriously toxic.
NASA has historically steered clear of anything involving UFOs, leaving the matter up to other federal agencies, which operated clandestine UFO programs for military and national-security purposes. The world’s top space agency was more concerned with searching for alien life far beyond Earth’s atmosphere—around planets orbiting other stars, for example—than weird things in our own sky. But UFOs have been popping up in the news quite a bit in recent years, thanks to newspaper reports on those secret government programs and the resulting congressional hearings. But last year, NASA’s administrator, Bill Nelson, seemed to succumb to the pull of UFOs and directed the agency to form a panel of experts.
Spergel and the other members of the committee stressed that their goal was not to conduct an exhaustive investigation of every frame of grainy footage but to provide a “roadmap” for NASA that details how the agency could contribute to the future study and analysis of UFOs. The panel did not have access to any classified data either. That approach was bound to provoke those who believe that some reported UFOs have extraterrestrial origins, and that the government—and perhaps now NASA too—is hiding that fact.
Despite the high emotions surrounding UFOs, nearly all public meetings on the subject are quite anticlimactic, and distinctly lacking in someone unfurling a giant sign from the ceiling that declares, once and for all, WE FOUND THE ALIENS. I’ve covered the space industry for years, and to me, the most surprising result was how absorbed NASA seemed to be in the discussion. Last year, a NASA official said a dedicated UAP-research effort would pose a “reputational risk” for the agency. But yesterday, this committee was advising NASA to approach UFOs in a way that the agency has not done in its nearly 65-year existence. Instead of opting out, the panelists said that NASA should help reduce the stigma surrounding UFOs; one expert from the Federal Aviation Administration said that the agency should “leverage its brand image” to do so. Evans, the NASA official, was also on board, saying, “It’s now our collective responsibility to investigate these occurrences with the rigorous scientific scrutiny that they deserve.”
The NASA panel must now draw up a formal report to deliver to agency leaders this summer. One panelist said that NASA should set up its own UFO office, a modest but dedicated force, to collect and archive data alongside other, more serious programs in the Defense Department. But first, NASA would probably like everyone to stop getting worked up over aliens. Nicola Fox, NASA’s associate administrator for science missions, said yesterday that “harassment only leads to further stigmatization of the UAP field, significantly hindering scientific progress and discouraging others to study this important subject matter.” Indeed, the road to understanding the nature of UFOs will be paved with abuse and, as NASA now knows, an ungodly number of emails. “I think every one of the 16-strong panel, plus myself, receives emails on a daily basis of all sorts concerning this subject,” Evans told me. Some of them are terrible, and, unfortunately, there’s nothing anomalous about that.
A Leicester family has finally revealed the truth behind a UFO mystery
(Image: Leicester Mercury)
A Leicestershire family has finally revealed the truth behind a decades-old UFO mystery. An unidentified flying object spotted in 1970, which puzzled locals and even involved the RAF, has been revealed to be a homemade hot air balloon.
Former RAF engine fitter and licensed pilot, Albert Jones, has been identified as the creator of the UFO which caused a stir 54 years ago. Mr Jones crafted hot air balloons using tissue paper and firelighters as part of their annual bonfire night celebrations.
Martin Jones, 64, from Whitwick, near Coalville, shared the story to mark what would have been his father's 100th birthday. He revealed how his father swore him and his friends to secrecy at the time. He said: "He was worried about repercussions once the RAF got involved."
A 1970 edition of the Leicester Mercury referred to the handmade balloon as 'space objects'(Image: Rebecca Jones)
One of these balloons landed in a garden on Nursery Road, Leicester, sparking a UFO sighting report. A Leicester Mercury report from November 7, 1970, covered the incident with the headline "Space objects crash-land". In it, the article showed Iris Draper, of Nursery Road, Scraptoft Lane, who had discovered one of the "UFOs" in her back garden.
The object was described as a 12-foot-long white paper balloon attached to a 4-foot wooden hoop, with a wooden cross supporting a small wire basket.
The RAF and Met Office were unable to identify the objects at the time, leaving them a mystery for years. Albert's fascination with flight stemmed from his RAF days and continued with his interest in gliding and private piloting.
Mr Jones, who was 10 years old at the time of the incident, told LeicestershireLive: "My dad owned a hardware shop in Whitwick. Every bonfire night, he used to sell fireworks himself. When bonfire night was over, anything that was left, he used to have a big display himself, because he was just a big kid really."
The balloons, launched from the family's hardware shop in Whitwick, often travelled several miles.
Albert Jones, a former RAF engine fitter and licensed pilot, crafted the hot air balloons using tissue paper(Image: Martin Jones)
Describing the balloon-making process, Martin said: "He'd lay all these sheets of tissue paper down and glue them all together. It'd be probably 12 foot high and six foot diameter, or whatever he decided to do at the time."
The balloons often travelled impressive distances. Martin said: "My cousin once followed one on his motorcycle and lost sight of it going over Burton on Trent."
Mr Jones said his father likely launched smaller balloons throughout the year for personal amusement, contributing to local UFO lore. Speaking about how his father would feel about the truth finally coming out, Martin said: "He would laugh about it now."
Since the launch of geo-browser Google Earth in 2001, people have stumbled upon strange structures and bizarre formations lurking across the globe. The luxury of free access to the entire planet from the comfort of the desk has attracted over 1 billion peopleto sign up for the tool and pore through the photo artifacts available. In 2020, a YouTuber who goes by MrMBB333 (@MrMBB333)and who describes himself as “The Earth Watchman,” shared avideo in which he claimed to have found a 400-feet “ice ship” on the surface of Antarctica. The strange discovery prompted hundreds of people to cook up assorted theories about the mysterious vessel frozen in ice.
Representative Image Source: Pexels | Nathy
Google Earth is a computer program that provides detailed views of Earth including 3D representations, created mostly using satellite imagery. It covers more than 98% of the world. Sometime that year, some eagle-eyed Google Earth fans sent some coordinates to MrMBB333, which depicted some mysterious object frozen between icebergs. The YouTuber explored the location himself and shared about it in the video.
The clip shows a large chunk of ice emerging out of an icy landscape found 100 miles off the shore of Antarctica and just below New Zealand. The YouTuber said that it “looks like an old torpedo thawed out into the ice” or “maybe a small submarine” or “a large bowling pan.” He put the map into 3D view to get a better view of the unusual shape. He then said that the shape actually resembled the outline of a ship 428 feet long. "You look down on it and it looks like the outline of a ship. This measures 400ft long, whatever that looks like it looks like a ship,” he said.
Representative Image Source: Pexels | Francesco Ungaro
He noted that the ship was as big as a five-story building and it contained a hull, the main deck area, and chimneys on the top. "An ice ship if you want to call it – a 400ft yacht just sitting there off the coast of Antarctica," he concluded. Furthermore, examining the ship, he reflected that it was probably built with a purpose. "Looks like a random iceberg, but one part looks like it's built with purpose, looks like an entryway and the symmetrical features look like it has been created," he said, and added, "It doesn't look random but as if it had a purpose."
The discovery of this “ice ship” has since sparked bizarre theories of its formation, which include everything from Nazis’ secret bunkers to a government building, UFO, booster rocket, and even Noah’s Ark. “Germany did have a base there, from Hitler,” commented @kaboom6227. @juanitazook9797 added, “Probably bunkers down there for the elite.”
@josht777 said, “That ship probably ended up there from the Bermuda Triangle,” whereas, @aussietiger3036 thought “That yacht could be the infamous Noah’s Ark, and that boomerang craft could be the same one as the infamous Phoenix lights.” But some people, like @gnexus01, believed that it was just a plain old chunk of ice lying at the coordinates “66°54'16.36" S, 163°13'39.03"E” on Google Earth. Whatever its true story, the abandoned ice boat’s mystery is surely a digital adventure that curious Google Earth fans will not want to miss.
The idea that aliens may have visited the Earth is becoming increasingly popular. Around a fifth of UK citizens believe Earth has been visited by extraterrestrials, and an estimated 7% believe that they have seen a UFO.
This belief is slightly paradoxical as we have zero evidence that aliens even exist. What’s more, given the vast distances between star systems, it seems odd we’d only learn about them from a visit. Evidence for aliens is more likely to come from signals from faraway planets.
The belief is now rising to the extent that politicians, at least in the US, feel they have to respond. The disclosure of information about claimed Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena (UAPs rather than UFOs) from the Pentagon has got a lot of bi-partisan attention in the country.
Much of it plays upon familiar anti-elite tropes that both parties have been ready to use, such as the idea that the military and a secretive cabal of private commercial interests are keeping the deep truth about alien visitation hidden. That truth is believed to involve sightings, abductions and reverse-engineered alien technology.
Belief in a cover-up is even higher than belief in alien visitation. In 2019, a Gallop poll found that a staggering 68% of Americans believed that “the US government knows more about UFOs than it is telling”.
This political trend has been decades in the making. Jimmy Carter promised document disclosure during his presidential campaign in 1976, several years after his own reported UFO sighting. Like so many other sightings, the simplest explanation is that he saw Venus. (That happens a lot.)
Hillary Clinton also suggested she wanted to “open [Pentagon] files as much as I can” during her presidential campaign against Donald Trump. As seen in the video below, Trump suggested he’d need to “think about” whether it was possible to declassify the so-called Roswell documentation (relating to the notorious claimed crash of a UFO and the recovery of alien bodies).
Former president Bill Clinton claimed to have sent his chief of staff, John Podesta, down to Area 51, a highly classified US Air Force facility, just in case any of the rumours about alien technology at the site were true. It is worth nothing that Podesta is a long-time enthusiast for all things to do with UFOs.
The most prominent current advocate of document disclosure is the Democratic Senate leader Chuck Schumer. His stripped back 2023 UAP disclosure bill for revealing some UAP records was co-sponsored by three Republican senators.
Pentagon disclosure finally began during the early stages of Joe Biden’s term of office, but so far there has been nothing to see. Nothing looks like an encounter. Nothing looks close.
Still, the background noise does not go away.
Problems for society
All this is ultimately encouraging conspiracy theories, which could undermine trust in democratic institutions. There have been humorous calls to storm Area 51. And after the storming of the Capitol in 2021, this now looks like an increasingly dangerous possibility.
Too much background noise about UFOs and UAPs can also get in the way of legitimate science communication about the possibility of finding microbial extraterrestrial life. Astrobiology, the science dealing with such matters, has a far less effective publicity machine than UFOlogy.
History, a YouTube channel part owned by Disney, regularly delivers shows about “ancient aliens”. The show is now in its 20th season and the channel has 13.8 million subscribers. The Nasa astrobiology channel has a hard won 20,000 subscribers. Actual science finds itself badly outnumbered by entertainment repackaged as factual.
Alien visitation narratives have also repeatedly tried to hijack and overwrite the history and mythology of indigenous people.
The first steps in this direction go back to Alexander Kazantsev’s science fiction tale Explosion: The Story of a Hypothesis (1946). It presents the 1908 Tunguska meteorite impact event as a Nagasaki-like explosion of an alien spacecraft engine. In Kazantsev’s tale, a single giant black female survivor has been left stranded, equipped with special healing powers. This lead to her adoption as a shaman by the indigenous Evenki people.
Nasa and the space science community do support efforts such as the Native Skywatchers initiative set up by the indigenous Ojibwe and Lakota communities to ensure the survival of storytelling about the stars. There is a real and extensive network of indigenous scholarship about these matters.
But UFOlogists promise a far higher profile for indigenous history in return for the mashing together of genuine indigenous stories about life arriving from the skies with fictional tales about UFOs, repackaged as suppressed history.
The modern alien visitation narrative has not, after all, emerged out of indigenous communities. Quite the opposite. It emerged in part as a way for conspiracy-minded thinkers in a Europe torn apart by racism to “explain” how complex urban civilisations in places like South America could have existed prior to European settlement.
Squeezed through a new age filter of 1960s counterculture, the narrative was flipped to value indigenous people as having once possessed advanced technology. Once upon a time, according to this view, every indigenous civilisation was Wakanda, a fictional country appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics.
If all of this stayed in its own box, as entertaining fiction, then matters would be fine. But it doesn’t, and they aren’t. Visitation narratives tend to overwrite indigenous storytelling about sky and ground.
This is a problem for everyone, not just indigenous peoples struggling to continue authentic traditions. It threatens our grasp of the past. When it comes to insight into our remote ancestors, the remnants of prehistoric storytelling are few and precious, such as within indigenous storytelling about the stars.
This may be why these tales in particular are heavily targeted by alien visitation enthusiasts, some of whom even claim to be “Pleiadeans”. No surprises, Pleiadeans do not look like the Lakota or Ojibwe, but are strikingly blond, blue-eyed and Nordic.
It is increasingly clear that belief in alien visitation is no longer just a fun speculation, but something that has real and damaging consequences.
Tony Milligan receives funding from the European Research Council (ERC) under the European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme (Grant agreement No. 856543).
A man living just outside of Glasgow, Scotland, says he accidentally captured a photograph Friday of a UFO while trying to snap the Northern Lights.
Gearóid Cearr claims he often heads out with his camera to capture photos of the Aurora Borealis and was shooting pictures at St. Ambrose High School football park around 9:30 p.m. when the lights appeared, according to Glasgow Live. Within the 100 or so photographs Caerr took, one of them contained something … odd.
Images shared by the outlet on social media show a series of red and white dots aligning in a repeated pattern in the middle of the sky.
The image was snapped on Friday night above Coatbridge
(Image: Gearóid Cearr)
“I said to myself I don’t remember seeing that when I took the photo. I posted it on a Facebook group to see if anyone knew what it was,” Caerr told the outlet. “Some say it is starlink satellites but it can’t be as they are only white. And when I catch planes in photos they never look like this.”
Most people noted how the strange dots look exactly like every other photograph of a satellite launch, plane, or even a helicopter flying through a long-exposure. But others dispute these claims, the outlet stated.
Scotland seems to be a go-to spot for UFOs in August. One man claims he saw a UFO flying over the airport Aug. 12, snapping a photo of the strange white dot. Personally, I prefer Scotland for the hiking and comedy scene.
Dr. Charles Buhler has developed an engine that harnesses a new force outside of our current knowledge of physics to create thrust without propulsion. Dr. Buhler, a NASA engineer and the co-founder of Exodus Propulsion Technologies, has revealed that his company’s propellantless propulsion drive, which appears to defy the known laws of physics, has produced enough thrust to counteract Earth’s gravity.
Dr. Buhler, a NASA scientist, worked on safety projects for space missions like the Space Shuttle and Mars Exploration. Now, he’s developing a way to clean dust from astronauts and equipment using electricity for NASA’s Moon mission. But that’s not all – he might have discovered a way to make a machine move without fuel, which would change space travel forever.
Dr. Buhler’s idea is based on a new understanding of gravity, which is like a heavy object warping a rubber sheet. He thinks he’s found a way to move an object in a straight line on this curved sheet, essentially creating a shortcut through space. This could revolutionize space travel, making it faster and more efficient. While it sounds like science fiction, Dr. Buhler’s work could be the key to unlocking new possibilities for space exploration.
Now, to overcome is invisible force, Dr. Buhler and his team claim to have generated 1G (as in Earth’s 1G of gravity) of thrust without any propellant. If it’s true, it would be revolutionary for humanity and would unleash a new era of space exploration.
In 2001, British Electrical Engineer Roger Shawyer first introduced the “impossible drive,” known as the EmDrive. It was called “impossible” because its creator purported that the drive was reactionless, meaning no propellant required—in other words, it defied the known laws of physics (specifically, the conservation of momentum).
Scientists were curious but also skeptical. They tested the EmDrive, for 20 years and finally decided it didn’t work as promised.
Dr. Charles Buhler, who worked on a range of programs while at NASA, has since co-founded Exodus Propulsion Technologies, which in 2019 applied for a patent for a system that they claim can generate force using asymmetrical electrostatic pressure. According to the patent, the system generates a voltage difference across an electrically conductive surface.
“The applied voltage difference creates an electric field resulting in an electrostatic pressure force acting on at least one surface of an object. Asymmetries in the resulting electrostatic pressure force vectors result in a net resulting electrostatic pressure force acting on the object,” the patent reads, adding that the invention could be used as a thruster to propel spacecraft.
“The magnitude of the net resulting electrostatic pressure force is a function of the geometry of the electrically conductive surfaces, the applied voltage, and the dielectric constant of any material present in the gap between electrodes.”
According to Dr. Buhler, whose team has been looking for alternative explanations for the force generated, they were able to create a large enough force for the (very small) object to overcome Earth’s 1G of gravity (i.e. enough thrust to move the object off the ground in Earth’s gravity) using the method.
That may sound like peanuts – but in the near-vacuum of space, you do not need a lot of thrust to accelerate (depending, of course, on the mass of your payload). If you could maintain a constant 1G of acceleration, for example, not only could you enjoy a nice artificial gravity equivalent to that on Earth, but you could reach vast distances within a human lifespan (or at least, from the traveler’s perspective). But doing so would require an unimaginable amount of force beyond what we are capable of delivering with current propellants.
Dr. Buhler’s claim, were it to be proven true and not the result of another force the team has not accounted for, would be huge. During tests, the team claims to have found an even more puzzling result; the device was apparently sometimes able to maintain this thrust without a constant electrical input.
Dr. Buhler told The Debrief that they’ve created a drive powered by a “New Force” outside our current known laws of physics, giving the propellant-less drive enough boost to overcome gravity.
“The most important message to convey to the public is that a major discovery occurred,” Buhler told The Debrief. “This discovery of a New Force is fundamental in that electric fields alone can generate a sustainable force onto an object and allow center-of-mass translation of said object without expelling mass.”
He stressed that this work is unaffiliated with NASA and that he recently presented his findings at the Alternative Propulsion Energy Conference (APEC), which is a club of engineers and enthusiasts eager to find ways to overcome the limitations of gravity and physics—and not always with the most scientifically sound methods. (Source)
Dr. Buhler and his team presented their findings at a conference called the Alternative Propulsion Energy Conference (APEC). This conference is a meeting of experts and enthusiasts who explore unusual ideas for space travel, like anti-gravity
Dr. Buhler made it clear that his work is not connected to NASA or the US Government. He just wants to share his team’s discovery with others who are interested in new ideas for space travel.
Dr. Buhler presented his team’s research at a conference, focusing on their experiments from the last decade. He shared detailed math and steps they took to develop a new type of propulsion drive that doesn’t use fuel.
They made big breakthroughs, like increasing the force generated from 0.01% of gravity in 2016 to much more in later years. Their goal is to reach “unity,” where the device can lift itself against Earth’s gravity. They measure force in small units, but aim to exceed 1 gravity of thrust. The team carefully ruled out other explanations for the force they measured, leading to a patented invention in 2020.
“Our materials are composed of many types of charge carrier coatings that have to be supported on a dielectric film,” Buhler told The Debrief. “Our aim is to make it as lightweight as possible, but that is sometimes difficult since the films and their coatings have to have a high dielectric breakdown strength.”
After employing these new designs, the next series of tests produced even more encouraging results. The team once again confirmed the thrust, but the new approach resulted in an order of magnitude jump to one ten-thousandth of a gravity. This was still not enough to leave the planet, but it was enough to know they were on the right track.
As the team neared their goal, they tried new and improved designs. They kept measuring the thrust and ruled out other explanations for what they were seeing.
Then, in 2022, something amazing happened. The force generated by their device suddenly increased significantly. Looking at their data, we can see that between early 2022 and November 2023, the force jumped from tiny fractions of gravity to a full Earth gravity. This means their small device (about 30-40 grams) was producing enough force to lift itself against Earth’s gravity. This is a remarkable achievement!
After decades of research, Dr. Buhler says he and his team had shown unequivocally that a new, fundamental force was at work and that his devices were tapping into that force to produce thrust without emitting any mass or propellant.
“Essentially, what we’ve discovered is that systems that contain an asymmetry in either electrostatic pressure or some kind of electrostatic divergent field can give a system of a center of mass a non-zero force component,” Buhler explained. “So, what that basically means is that there’s some underlying physics that can essentially place force on an object should those two constraints be met.”
A slide from Dr. Buhler’s APEC presentation highlights just a few of the hundreds of tests his team ran on their propellantless propulsion drive between 2016 and 2023.
Dr. Buhler’s claims are exciting, but we’ve seen similar claims about propellant-less drives before that didn’t hold up to scrutiny.
For example, NASA’s Eagleworks team thought they had found a way to make the EmDrive work in 2016, but later studies showed it didn’t actually work. So, before we get too excited about Buhler’s claims, we need to see rigorous testing and verification from multiple sources. It’s possible that Buhler’s team discovered something new, but it’s unlikely. Let’s call it an “improbable engine” for now.
Whenever the topics of anti-gravity and thrusters come up, I always go and watch this video of Bob Lazar.
Bob Lazar is saying that the technology he worked on operates based on a completely different type of physics than what we’re familiar with. Normally, all our vehicles—whether planes, jets, or rockets—move by pushing something out the back, creating an action that pushes the vehicle forward. But the craft he worked on doesn’t work that way. Instead, it uses something called “field propulsion,” which bends space and time in front of it, causing the craft to move forward without any traditional thrust.
Do you think we already have this anti-gravity technology?
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- Gemiddelde waardering: 0/5 - (0 Stemmen) Categorie:SF-snufjes }, Robotics and A.I. Artificiel Intelligence ( E, F en NL )
Did aliens contact Boeing Starliner at NASA space-station today? UFO UAP Sighting News.
Did aliens contact Boeing Starliner at NASA space-station today? UFO UAP Sighting News.
Boeing Starliner contacted NASA Mission Control and asked them what this strange sound was coming from the Starliner speakers. He held the microphone up to the speaker and a pinging sound or sonar sound came from it. It's very possible this was a radio transmission sent from an alien ship to the spacestation to make contact. Radio waves are primitive to aliens, but when in Rome...do as the Romans do so that they understand one another better.
AI Corrects Three UFO Photos From Nov 2005! Vancouver Island, Canada! UAP Sighting News.
AI Corrects Three UFO Photos From Nov 2005! Vancouver Island, Canada! UAP Sighting News.
Here is an interesting sighting with three photos of a UFO from different angles. The UFO was over a harbor area on Vancouver Island. When ai focuses it, we see an oval disk craft with an open cockpit on top. Very odd, never seen such a thing before. You may dislike ai or love it, either way, it's here to stay, so get use to it. It's a tool, until the day comes when we humans become tools for ai.
The spacecraft has resumed full science operations after a technical issue began creating complications in November 2023.
(Image credit: NASA)
All right, everyone — we can all breathe a sigh of relief. NASA's Voyager 1 spacecraft is fully operational once more, with all four science instruments returning usable data to Earth.
The problems began in November 2023, when Voyager 1 lost its ability to "speak" with us. More specifically, it started sending to Earth unintelligible data instead of its normal 0s and 1s of binary code. Of course, Voyager 1 is 46 years old — ancient for a spacecraft — so it wasn't entirely a surprise that its health might be waning. And that's not to mention that it's in entirely uncharted interstellar territory, some 15 billion miles (24 billion kilometers) from Earth.
Voyager 1's dogged team was determined to not only figure out what went wrong, but also to fix the problem. And they've succeeded! Controllers identified where the issue was located: the flight data subsystem (FDS), used to "package" data to be sent to Earth. Further sleuthing revealed the exact chip causing the problem, which allowed them to find a workaround. After the team relocated the code to a new location in the FDS, Voyager 1 finally sent back intelligible data on April 20, 2024 — but only from two of its four science instruments. Now, just two months later, Voyager 1's remaining two science instruments are back up and running, communicating effectively with mission control on Earth.
Even if Voyager 1 had gone dark for good, however, the mission would still have been a wild success. After it launched in 1977, its primary mission was to study Jupiter and Saturn — that was accomplished by 1980. (Its twin spacecraft, Voyager 2, went on to study Uranus and Neptune.) But Voyager 1 is on an unstoppable path. Continuing its journey away from Earth, the spacecraft entered interstellar space in 2012, returning crucial data about this mysterious realm.
Now that Voyager 1 is back online, the team will continue to "touch up" the spacecraft to get it back in top form, including resynchronizing its timekeeping software to execute commands at the right time, as well as performing maintenance on the digital tape recorder that measures plasma waves. And hopefully, Voyager 1 will have a long, happy life ahead.
It is Back! Voyager 1 Returns Data from All 4 Instruments – Full Update!
Voyager 1 is back online! NASA's most distant spacecraft returns data from all 4 instruments
According to findings in a recent study, UFO witnesses may not be prone to misperceptions or related cognitive factors but instead may possess specific personality traits that increase their likelihood of encountering such phenomena.
Clinical Psychologist Dr. Daniel Stubbings from Cardiff Metropolitan University and his team found there are numerous factors that contribute to an individual thinking they witnessed what the U.S. Department of Defense now calls unidentified anomalous phenomena (UAP).
Their study, published in the Journal of Scientific Exploration, examines the big five personality traits: extraversion, neuroticism, openness, agreeableness, and conscientiousness, along with schizotypy traits (behaviors that resemble schizophrenia), to help determine if UAP experiencers could be distinguished from those who had not reported seeing a UAP.
The Big Five Personality Traits: What Are They?
In the 1970s, two research teams—one led by Paul Costa and Robert R. McCrae of the National Institutes of Health and the other by Warren Norman and Lewis Goldberg of the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor and the University of Oregon—found that most human character traits can be explained by five dimensions. Surveys of thousands of individuals uncovered these mostly distinct traits:
Neuroticism:Emotional stability; individuals with high scores are characterized by anxiety, inhibition, moodiness, and lower self-assurance.
Extroversion:Encompasses cheerfulness, initiative, and communicativeness.
Openness: Fond of innovation and displays of creativity.
Agreeableness:Dictates how they interact with others. Other traits include being friendly, empathetic, and warm.
Conscientiousness:Gauges a person’s level of organization. Individuals with high scores are motivated, disciplined, and trustworthy.
The Findings
Dr. Stubbings’ experiment involved 206 participants, including 103 who said they had witnessed or self-reported seeing a UAP. The team analyzed personality traits to see how participants naturally grouped together.
The study consisted of three groups. Group one had average traits, whereas the second group, designated the Neurotic/Schizotypy group, was high on neuroticism and schizotypy traits. The last controlled group, labelled O-ACE, was found to have high openness, agreeableness, conscientiousness, and extraversion but low neuroticism and schizotypy traits.
“These were the groups that ‘emerged’ out of the data analysis,” Dr. Stubbings told The Debrief. “The latent profile analysis demonstrated these three patterns of personality profiles. Prior research looked at correlation and regression (predictive patterns) but not a latent (underlying) profile.”
“This was a new finding,” Stubbings told The Debrief.
The study concluded that the third group, O-ACE, was more likely to see UAPs. Over the years, stigma and stereotypes have helped create narratives that people who see UAPs are more than likely emotionally reactive; in other words, they may display neurotic behavior and are prone to perceptual and cognitive abnormalities.
However, the recent data does not appear to support this narrative. Instead, Dr. Stubbings and his coauthors state in their paper that the “descriptive UAP accounts by the general public were similar to the descriptions provided by military witnesses.”
Stubbings, when asked why people with high conscientiousness see UFOs, said it is difficult to answer such a question based on the current data in-hand.
“Our data indicates that there is a small statistical relationship, but further research should explore why that relationship exists,” Stubings told The Debrief. “But my guess is that people who are high in conscientiousness might be more willing to admit to themselves that they have seen something and believe it is the right thing to do to admit it.”
However, Stubbings notes that conscientiousness alone is probably not everything in this equation, but instead, combinations of other variables—specifically low scores in Neuroticism and higher scores in Openness, also contribute.
“We need further research to explore the nuances of these personality factors in the emergence of both belief and experience.”
Dr. Stubbings also noted that “only 28 percent of participants reported their sightings anywhere, and 14 percent used a UFO reporting organization, which suggests that events are vastly underreported.” His paper also suggested that stigma and a lack of proper reporting avenues were the main obstacles impacting their willingness to report their sightings.
Dr. Stubbings initiated his research by referencing an older academic paper on UAPs published in the Applied Cognitive Psychology Journal in 2011, which found that certain personality factors were predictors of an individual’s belief in UFOs.
“This is relevant to the UFO topic more broadly because what people perceive and recall tends to be in line with their beliefs,” Stubbings told The Debrief. “If beliefs can be predicted by personality factors, then it supports the notion that it is a particular kind of person who is more prone to belief in UAPs, and in turn, they end up seeing and recalling what they believe to be true.”
“In other words, people see UAP not because they are there but because of the conviction of their beliefs, which are influenced by their personality dispositions.
“So the idea was born to change the dependent variable of ‘belief’ to ‘have you had a sighting.’ Those who believe in UFOs/UAP might not have the same characteristics [as] those that report to have seen what they believe to be a UAP.”
Fundamentally, Stubbings says that in addition to understanding the kinds of personality traits and psychological drivers that may contribute to a person’s likelihood of observing and reporting UAP, scientists need to be engaging in dialogue about the assessment, diagnosis, formulation, and treatment of mental health distress in individuals who claim to have observed UAP or even had direct contact with purported NHI.
“This topic is one of the most fascinating areas,” Stubbings told The Debrief, “and I believe other scientists from around the world need to help address this mystery.”
Stubbings and his colleagues Sophie Ali and Alexander Wong’s new paper, “Who Sees UFOs? The Relationship Between Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena Sightings And Personality Factors,” appeared in the Spring 2024 issue of the Journal of Scientific Exploration.
This snapshot compares the distribution of galaxies in a simulated universe used to train SimBIG (right) to the galaxy distribution seen in the real universe (left). Bruno Régaldo-Saint Blancard/SimBIG collaboration
The Standard Model describes how the Universe has evolved at large scale. There are six numbers that define the model and a team of researchers have used them to build simulations of the Universe. The results of these simulations were then fed to a machine learning algorithm to train it before it was set the task of estimating five of the cosmological constants, a task which it completed with incredible precision.
The Standard Model incorporates a number of elements; the Big Bang, dark energy, cold dark matter, ordinary matter and the cosmic background radiation. It works well to describe the large scale structure of the Universe but there are gaps in our understanding. Quantum physics can describe the small scale of the Universe but struggles with gravity and there are questions around dark matter and dark energy too. Understanding these can help in our understanding of the evolution and structure of the Universe.
Enlarged region of the Saraswati Supercluster, the largest known structure in the Universe, showing the distribution of galaxies. Credit: IUCAA
A team of researchers from the Flatiron Institute have managed to extract some hidden information in the distribution of galaxies to estimate the values of five of the parameters. The accuracy was a great improvement on values that were attained during previous attempts. Using AI technology the team’s results had less than half the uncertainty for the element that describes the clumpiness of the Universe than in the previous attempt. Their results also revealed estimates of other parameters that closely resembled observation. The paper was published in Nature Astronomy on 21 August.
The team generated 2,000 simulated universes after carefully specifying their cosmological parameters. These included expansion rate, the distribution and clumpiness of ordinary matter, dark matter and dark energy and using these the team ran the simulations. The output was then compressed into manageable data sets and this was used to compare against over one hundred thousand real galaxies data. From this, it was possible for the researchers to estimate the parameters for the real Universe.
The parameters the team managed to fine tune are those that describe how the Universe operates at the largest scale. These are essentially, the settings for the Universe and include the amount of ordinary matter, dark matter, dark energy, the conditions following the Big Bang and just how clumpy the matter is. Previously these settings were calculated using observations from the structure of galaxy clusters. To arrive at a more accurate group of settings observations needed to go down to smaller scale but this has not been possible.
The full-sky image of the temperature fluctuations (shown as color differences) in the cosmic microwave background, made from nine years of WMAP observations. These are the seeds of galaxies, from a time when the universe was under 400,000 years old. Credit: NASA/WMAP
Instead of using observations, the team used their AI approach to extract the small scale information that was hidden in the existing observational data. At the heart of the approach was the AI system that learned how to correlate the parameters with the observed structure of the Universe – but at small scale.
In the future the team hope to be able to use their new approach to solve other problems. The uncertainty about the Hubble Constant is an example where the team hope AI can help to fine tune its value. Over the next few years though, and as observational data becomes more detailed both Hubble’s Constant and the Settings of the Universe will become far better understood along with our understanding of the Universe.
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Over mijzelf
Ik ben Pieter, en gebruik soms ook wel de schuilnaam Peter2011.
Ik ben een man en woon in Linter (België) en mijn beroep is Ik ben op rust..
Ik ben geboren op 18/10/1950 en ben nu dus 73 jaar jong.
Mijn hobby's zijn: Ufologie en andere esoterische onderwerpen.
Op deze blog vind je onder artikels, werk van mezelf. Mijn dank gaat ook naar André, Ingrid, Oliver, Paul, Vincent, Georges Filer en MUFON voor de bijdragen voor de verschillende categorieën...
Veel leesplezier en geef je mening over deze blog.
