We spent 45 days in a simulated Mars habitat built by NASA - this is the brutal reality of life on Red Planet

• READ MORE: New map of Mars reveals hidden 'structures' below the surface

By Ellyn Lapointe For Dailymail.Com

Four volunteer scientists have just emerged from a 45-day stay inside NASA's most realistic Mars simulation yet.

The crew remained completely isolated inside the Human Exploration Research Analog (HERA) - a 650-square-foot habitat at NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas - until Monday, when the hatch opened and they finally 'returned to Earth.'

While inside, they completed 18 different studies that will help NASA and other space agencies learn how humans respond to the confinement, demanding work-life conditions and remote environments of deep-space missions, according to NASA

NASA has set a goal to get humans to Mars by the 2030s. With that deadline fast approaching, simulated missions like HERA provide key insights into how astronauts might survive the farthest crewed space mission ever attempted. 

The four person crew - comprised of Sergii Iakymov, Sarah Elizabeth McCandless, Erin Anderson, and Brandon Kent (L to R) - was the third to enter the HERA habitat

Above, a 3D-rendered image of the red planet Mars - as virtual as the team's HERA experience

The four person crew - comprised of Erin Anderson, Sergii Iakymov, Sarah Elizabeth McCandless and Brandon Kent - was the third to enter the HERA habitat.

Their mission was unique in that it included the more detailed assignments designed to closely replicate the living and working experience on Mars.

During the month-and-a-half-long simulation, the crew performed a wide range of tasks.

Their assignments included harvesting plants from a hydroponic garden, growing shrimp, deploying a small satellite, conducting a virtual 'walk' across the surface of Mars and flying simulated drones over Martian terrain. 

'These activities are designed to immerse the crew in the task-focused mindset of astronauts,' NASA wrote in a statement.

NASA even simulated the communication delays that real astronauts could one day face on Mars. During a real Mars mission, communications from Earth could take up to 20 minutes to reach astronauts on the red planet, and vice versa. 

All the while, the crew was being monitored by NASA scientists to assess how their day-to-day tasks, routine, and the isolation and confinement of their habitat affected their behavior and performance. 

When they weren't hard at work, the crew read books, played cards, built Legos and listened to music. 

The HERA mission three crew entered the habitat on August 9

Their mission was unique in that it included the more detailed assignments designed to closely replicate the living and working experience on Mars, including growing hydroponic plants

The volunteers also grew shrimp, deployed a small satellite, conducted a virtual 'walk' across the surface of Mars and flew simulated drones over Martian terrain

On Monday afternoon, the crew finally emerged from their tiny habitat, marking the end of their mission. 

'Following our safe passage to Mars, and our safe return to Earth, as the crew of Campaign 7, Mission 3, we hereby officially transfer this exploration vessel to the flight analogs operations team,' said Kent upon exiting HERA.

'We hope this vessel continues to serve as a safe home for future HERA crews,' he added. 

NASA also runs another, bigger simulated Mars habitat called the Crew Health and Performance Exploration Analog, or CHAPEA. This 1,700-square-foot is large enough to sustain volunteers for up to a year. 

The first CHAPEA volunteer crew emerged from their habitat in July. 

If you think you have what it takes to spend weeks inside cramped Mars simulation, NASA is actively seeking non-smoking volunteers between the ages of 30 and 55 for the next HERA mission. 

{ https://www.dailymail.co.uk/ }

28-09-2024 om 21:31 geschreven door peter  

The legendary SR-71 Blackbird, as soon as it has its successor, may certainly redefine the way aerial reconnaissance and strike capabilities are to be perceived because it is given its unparalleled speed and altitude. Lockheed Martin's Skunk Works team is working on the SR-72 "Darkstar," a hypersonic aircraft that aims to reach Mach 6.0. This would be twice the capability of the predecessor./

The SR-71 was unveiled to the world over half a century ago and could reach an altitude of 85,000 feet and Mach 3.2.

The SR-71 was unveiled to the world over half a century ago and could reach an altitude of 85,000 feet and Mach 3.2.

Its retirement in the late 1990s meant it would never be challenged for this record, but the supposed SR-72 has promised much more.

Popularized by its appearance in the latest Top Gun movie, it promises to transcend feats that would never have been seen or imagined in this aircraft's lifetime.

Firm Lockheed Martin partnered with Aerojet Rocketdyne for the new engine for the SR-72; it would take advantage of technology from the now-canceled HTV-3X.

The turbine-based combined cycle (TBCC) engine that the SR-72 will be using is a dual-mode ramjet engine, which will enable take-off at conventional jet speeds and then zoom up to hypersonic speeds of potentially over Mach 6.0.

It has not been an easy ride to develop the SR-72. The latest reports show that in Q2 2024, the program overspent by an additional $45 million, leaving it with a comprehensive loss since 2022 to $335 million.

Still, hope for the SR-72 remains alive. Lockheed Martin will continue to be extended with the program as shrouded in secrecy, marching toward operational status, perhaps to meet future U.S. Air Force needs.

Hence, the SR-72 would be an ISR asset with strike capability; whereas the SR-71 aircraft could only be used for reconnaissance missions, the SR-72 aircraft would engage the target directly.

Based on this feature added to hypersonic missiles, it would be possible for a weapon system to breach any airspace and strike any point on a continent within sixty minutes.

It would be an entirely new kind of strategic advantage, said Lockheed Martin's program manager, as such a machine "penetrates denied airspace and strikes at nearly any location across a continent in less than an hour."

It's a capability no other weapon in the U.S. Air Force's inventory can especially with rising tensions between Washington and Beijing continuing unabated.

The SR-72 has been classified, but Lockheed Martin upped its advanced development programs unit by 75 percent and hired more than 2,300 new employees since early 2018.

That kind of investment means that the production will be of a new classified aircraft for use in operational service.

The SR-72 is taking shape as an aircraft that will revolutionize the air reconnaissance and strike capabilities, permitting the United States Air Force to achieve unprecedented speed and strategic advantage.

VIDEOS

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28-09-2024 om 01:00 geschreven door peter  

Story by And¸elika

©And¸elika

NASA Released 30 Amazing High-Def Photos Of The Largest Planet In Our Solar System—Jupiter
With all of the worrying things happening here, on earth, one way to take your mind off them is to look at the beauty of the cosmos. Luckily, NASA is still out there exploring outer space and providing us with the latest wonders. Recently The National Aeronautics and Space Administration released the brand new imagery of Jupiter. The captivating display of the stormy southern hemisphere of the planet which exists 484 million miles away from us, prompted us to share a list of most fascinating photos NASA has taken of the planet.
Nasa's Juno spacecraft has been taking snaps of the planet since it's first close pass by Jupiter in 2016. Since then, Juno took stunning images of and it, helping scientists learn the important information about the gas giant.

©NASA

#1 NASA Released 30 Amazing High-Def Photos Of The Largest Planet In Our Solar System—Jupiter
NASA’s Juno spacecraft was a little more than one Earth diameter from Jupiter when it captured this mind-bending, color-enhanced view of the planet’s tumultuous atmosphere.

©NASA

#2 NASA Released 30 Amazing High-Def Photos Of The Largest Planet In Our Solar System—Jupiter
A multitude of swirling clouds in Jupiter's dynamic North North Temperate Belt is captured in this image from NASA's Juno spacecraft. Appearing in the scene are several bright-white “pop-up” clouds as well as an anticyclonic storm, known as a white oval.

©NASA

#3 NASA Released 30 Amazing High-Def Photos Of The Largest Planet In Our Solar System—Jupiter
This image captures the swirling cloud formations around the south pole of Jupiter, looking up toward the equatorial region.

©NASA

#4 NASA Released 30 Amazing High-Def Photos Of The Largest Planet In Our Solar System—Jupiter
See Jovian clouds in striking shades of blue in this new view taken by NASA’s Juno spacecraft.

©NASA

#5 NASA Released 30 Amazing High-Def Photos Of The Largest Planet In Our Solar System—Jupiter
During its 24th close flyby of Jupiter, NASA’s Juno spacecraft captured this view of a chaotic, stormy area of the planet’s northern hemisphere known as a folded filamentary region. Jupiter has no solid surface in the same way Earth does. Data collected by Juno indicate that some of the giant planet’s winds run deeper and last longer than similar atmospheric processes on Earth.

©NASA

#6 NASA Released 30 Amazing High-Def Photos Of The Largest Planet In Our Solar System—Jupiter
Jupiter’s volcanically active moon Io casts its shadow on the planet in this dramatic image from NASA’s Juno spacecraft. As with solar eclipses on the Earth, within the dark circle racing across Jupiter’s cloud tops one would witness a full solar eclipse as Io passes in front of the Sun.

©NASA

#7 NASA Released 30 Amazing High-Def Photos Of The Largest Planet In Our Solar System—Jupiter
NASA’s Juno mission captured this look at Jupiter’s tumultuous northern regions during the spacecraft’s close approach to the planet on Feb. 17, 2020.

©NASA

#8 NASA Released 30 Amazing High-Def Photos Of The Largest Planet In Our Solar System—Jupiter
This striking view of Jupiter’s Great Red Spot and turbulent southern hemisphere was captured by NASA’s Juno spacecraft as it performed a close pass of the gas giant planet.

©NASA

#9 NASA Released 30 Amazing High-Def Photos Of The Largest Planet In Our Solar System—Jupiter
This image of Jupiter’s turbulent southern hemisphere was captured by NASA’s Juno spacecraft as it performed its most recent close flyby of the gas giant planet on Dec. 21, 2018

©NASA

#10 NASA Released 30 Amazing High-Def Photos Of The Largest Planet In Our Solar System—Jupiter
Thick white clouds are present in this JunoCam image of Jupiter's equatorial zone. These clouds complicate the interpretation of infrared measurements of water. At microwave frequencies, the same clouds are transparent, allowing Juno's Microwave Radiometer to measure water deep into Jupiter's atmosphere. The image was acquired during Juno's flyby of the gas giant on Dec. 16, 2017.

©NASA

#11 NASA Released 30 Amazing High-Def Photos Of The Largest Planet In Our Solar System—Jupiter
This image captures swirling cloud belts and tumultuous vortices within Jupiter’s northern hemisphere.

©NASA

#12 NASA Released 30 Amazing High-Def Photos Of The Largest Planet In Our Solar System—Jupiter
This image shows Jupiter’s south pole, as seen by NASA’s Juno spacecraft from an altitude of 32,000 miles (52,000 kilometers). The oval features are cyclones, up to 600 miles (1,000 kilometers) in diameter. Multiple images taken with the JunoCam instrument on three separate orbits were combined to show all areas in daylight, enhanced color, and stereographic projection.

 

©NASA

#13 NASA Released 30 Amazing High-Def Photos Of The Largest Planet In Our Solar System—Jupiter
This view from NASA's Juno spacecraft captures colorful, intricate patterns in a jet stream region of Jupiter's northern hemisphere known as "Jet N3."

©NASA

#14 NASA Released 30 Amazing High-Def Photos Of The Largest Planet In Our Solar System—Jupiter
NASA’s Juno spacecraft captured this view of an area within a Jovian jet stream showing a vortex that has an intensely dark center. Nearby, other features display bright, high altitude clouds that have puffed up into the sunlight.

©NASA

#15 NASA Released 30 Amazing High-Def Photos Of The Largest Planet In Our Solar System—Jupiter
A dynamic storm at the southern edge of Jupiter’s northern polar region dominates this Jovian cloudscape, courtesy of NASA’s Juno spacecraft.

©NASA

#16 NASA Released 30 Amazing High-Def Photos Of The Largest Planet In Our Solar System—Jupiter
This image of Jupiter’s iconic Great Red Spot and surrounding turbulent zones was captured by NASA’s Juno spacecraft.

©NASA

#17 NASA Released 30 Amazing High-Def Photos Of The Largest Planet In Our Solar System—Jupiter
This image of Jupiter’s swirling south polar region was captured by NASA’s Juno spacecraft as it neared completion of its tenth close flyby of the gas giant planet.

©NASA

#18 NASA Released 30 Amazing High-Def Photos Of The Largest Planet In Our Solar System—Jupiter
See Jupiter’s southern hemisphere in beautiful detail in this new image taken by NASA’s Juno spacecraft. The color-enhanced view captures one of the white ovals in the “String of Pearls,” one of eight massive rotating storms at 40 degrees south latitude on the gas giant planet.

©NASA

#19 NASA Released 30 Amazing High-Def Photos Of The Largest Planet In Our Solar System—Jupiter
This view of Jupiter’s atmosphere from NASA’s Juno spacecraft includes something remarkable: two storms caught in the act of merging.

©NASA

#20 NASA Released 30 Amazing High-Def Photos Of The Largest Planet In Our Solar System—Jupiter
Colorful swirling cloud belts dominate Jupiter’s southern hemisphere in this image captured by NASA’s Juno spacecraft.

 

©NASA

#21 NASA Released 30 Amazing High-Def Photos Of The Largest Planet In Our Solar System—Jupiter
This color-enhanced image of a massive, raging storm in Jupiter’s northern hemisphere was captured by NASA’s Juno spacecraft during its ninth close flyby of the gas giant planet.

©NASA

#22 NASA Released 30 Amazing High-Def Photos Of The Largest Planet In Our Solar System—Jupiter
See intricate cloud patterns in the northern hemisphere of Jupiter in this new view taken by NASA’s Juno spacecraft.

©NASA

#23 NASA Released 30 Amazing High-Def Photos Of The Largest Planet In Our Solar System—Jupiter
Dramatic atmospheric features in Jupiter’s northern hemisphere are captured in this view from NASA’s Juno spacecraft. The new perspective shows swirling clouds that surround a circular feature within a jet stream region called "Jet N6."

©NASA

#24 NASA Released 30 Amazing High-Def Photos Of The Largest Planet In Our Solar System—Jupiter
This image captures the intensity of the jets and vortices in Jupiter’s North North Temperate Belt.

©NASA

#25 NASA Released 30 Amazing High-Def Photos Of The Largest Planet In Our Solar System—Jupiter
Small bright clouds dot Jupiter’s entire south tropical zone in this image acquired by JunoCam on NASA’s Juno spacecraft on May 19, 2017, at an altitude of 7,990 miles (12,858 kilometers). Although the bright clouds appear tiny in this vast Jovian cloudscape, they actually are cloud towers roughly 30 miles (50 kilometers) wide and 30 miles (50 kilometers) high that cast shadows on the clouds below. On Jupiter, clouds this high are almost certainly composed of water and/or ammonia ice, and they may be sources of lightning. This is the first time so many cloud towers have been visible, possibly because the late-afternoon lighting is particularly good at this

©NASA

#26 NASA Released 30 Amazing High-Def Photos Of The Largest Planet In Our Solar System—Jupiter
Colorful swirling clouds in Jupiter's North Equatorial Belt practically fill this image from NASA's Juno spacecraft. This is the closest image captured of the Jovian clouds during this recent flyby of the gas giant planet.

©NASA

#27 NASA Released 30 Amazing High-Def Photos Of The Largest Planet In Our Solar System—Jupiter
See swirling cloud formations in the northern area of Jupiter's north temperate belt in this new view taken by NASA’s Juno spacecraft.

©NASA

#28 NASA Released 30 Amazing High-Def Photos Of The Largest Planet In Our Solar System—Jupiter
NASA’s Juno mission captured this look at the southern hemisphere of Jupiter on Feb. 17, 2020, during the spacecraft’s most recent close approach to the giant planet.

©NASA

#29 NASA Released 30 Amazing High-Def Photos Of The Largest Planet In Our Solar System—Jupiter
This extraordinary view of Jupiter was captured by NASA’s Juno spacecraft on the outbound leg of its 12th close flyby of the gas giant planet.

©NASA

#30 NASA Released 30 Amazing High-Def Photos Of The Largest Planet In Our Solar System—Jupiter
A swirling, oval white cloud in Jupiter’s South South Temperate Belt is captured in this image from NASA's Juno spacecraft. Known as White Oval A5, the feature is an anticyclonic storm. An anticyclone is a weather phenomenon where winds around the storm flow in the direction opposite to those of the flow around a region of low pressure.

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27-09-2024 om 23:15 geschreven door peter  

Early Martian Atmosphere Could Be Locked Up in Planet’s Clay Surface

Geological observations of Mars indicate a dense early atmosphere ranging from 0.25 to 4 bar of carbon dioxide. But 3.5 billion years ago, the Martian atmosphere thinned rapidly to approximately 0.054 bar, suggesting a substantial loss of atmospheric carbon dioxide, either to space or the lithosphere. The mechanism by which Mars lost its carbon dioxide remains poorly understood. For MIT geologists Joshua Murray and Oliver Jagoutz, the answer may lie in the planet’s clay-covered crust. The researchers used their knowledge of interactions between rocks and gases on Earth and applied that to how similar processes could play out on Mars. They found that, given how much clay is estimated to cover the Martian surface, the planet’s clay could hold up to 1.7 bar of carbon dioxide, which would be equivalent to around 80% of the planet’s initial, early atmosphere. It’s possible that this sequestered Martian carbon could one day be recovered and converted into propellant to fuel future missions between Mars and Earth, the researchers propose.

This schematic illustrates the progressive alteration of iron-rich rocks on Mars as the rocks interact with water containing carbon dioxide from the atmosphere.

Image credit: Joshua Murray & Oliver Jagoutz, doi: 10.1126/sciadv.adm8443.

“Based on our findings on Earth, we show that similar processes likely operated on Mars, and that copious amounts of atmospheric carbon dioxide could have transformed to methane and been sequestered in clays,” Professor Jagoutz said.

“This methane could still be present and maybe even used as an energy source on Mars in the future.”

Professor Jagoutz and Murray seek to identify the geologic processes and interactions that drive the evolution of Earth’s lithosphere — the hard and brittle outer layer that includes the crust and upper mantle, where tectonic plates lie.

In 2023, they focused on a type of surface clay mineral called smectite, which is known to be a highly effective trap for carbon.

Within a single grain of smectite are a multitude of folds, within which carbon can sit undisturbed for billions of years.

They showed that smectite on Earth was likely a product of tectonic activity, and that, once exposed at the surface, the clay minerals acted to draw down and store enough carbon dioxide from the atmosphere to cool the planet over millions of years.

Soon after they reported their results, Professor Jagoutz happened to look at a map of the surface of Mars and realized that much of that planet’s surface was covered in the same smectite clays.

An illustration shows an misty atmosphere around the Red Planet Mars. Could this envelop of gas have "gone to ground" billions of years ago?

 (Image credit: Robert Lea (created with Canva)/NASA)

Could the clays have had a similar carbon-trapping effect on Mars, and if so, how much carbon could the clays hold?

Unlike on Earth, where smectite is a consequence of continental plates shifting and uplifting to bring rocks from the mantle to the surface, there is no such tectonic activity on Mars.

The scientists looked for ways in which the clays could have formed on Mars, based on what they know of the planet’s history and composition.

For instance, some remote measurements of Mars’ surface suggest that at least part of the planet’s crust contains ultramafic igneous rocks, similar to those that produce smectites through weathering on Earth.

Other observations reveal geologic patterns similar to terrestrial rivers and tributaries, where water could have flowed and reacted with the underlying rock.

The authors wondered whether water could have reacted with Mars’ deep ultramafic rocks in a way that would produce the clays that cover the surface today.

They developed a simple model of rock chemistry, based on what is known of how igneous rocks interact with their environment on Earth.

They applied this model to Mars, where scientists believe the crust is mostly made up of igneous rock that is rich in the mineral olivine.

The team used the model to estimate the changes that olivine-rich rock might undergo, assuming that water existed on the surface for at least a billion years, and the atmosphere was thick with carbon dioxide.

“At this time in Mars’ history, we think carbon dioxide is everywhere, in every nook and cranny, and water percolating through the rocks is full of carbon dioxide too,” Murray said.

Over about a billion years, water trickling through the crust would have slowly reacted with olivine — a mineral that is rich in a reduced form of iron.

Oxygen molecules in water would have bound to the iron, releasing hydrogen as a result and forming the red oxidized iron which gives the planet its iconic color.

An image of a dust devil sweeping over Mars captured by the Opportunity Rover in March 2016 as the robot investigated smectites in Marathon Valley. 

(Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech)

This free hydrogen would then have combined with carbon dioxide in the water, to form methane.

As this reaction progressed over time, olivine would have slowly transformed into another type of iron-rich rock known as serpentine, which then continued to react with water to form smectite.

“These smectite clays have so much capacity to store carbon,” Murray said.

“So then we used existing knowledge of how these minerals are stored in clays on Earth, and extrapolate to say, if the Martian surface has this much clay in it, how much methane can you store in those clays?”

The researchers found that if Mars is covered in a layer of smectite that is 1,100 m deep, this amount of clay could store a huge amount of methane, equivalent to most of the carbon dioxide in the atmosphere that is thought to have disappeared since the planet dried up.

“We find that estimates of global clay volumes on Mars are consistent with a significant fraction of Mars’ initial carbon dioxide being sequestered as organic compounds within the clay-rich crust,” Murray said.

“In some ways, Mars’ missing atmosphere could be hiding in plain sight.”

• The results appear in the journal Science Advances.
• Joshua Murray & Oliver Jagoutz. 2024. Olivine alteration and the loss of Mars’ early atmospheric carbon. Science Advances 10 (39); doi: 10.1126/sciadv.adm8443
• This article is based on a press-release provided by MIT.

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27-09-2024 om 21:24 geschreven door peter  

New map of Mars reveals hidden 'structures' below the Martian surface

• READ MORE:  Scientists discover smiley-face on Mars that may hold signs of life

By Ellyn Lapointe For Dailymail.Com

A new map of Mars has revealed mysterious structures hiding beneath the sediment layers of a lost ocean.

The researchers detected about 20 features scattered around the planet's north polar cap that are significantly denser than their surroundings. 

The structures vary in shape and size, with one resembling the shape of a dog, leaving the team puzzled because they do not know exactly what the formations are or where they came from. But they do have some theories.

One idea is that the structures were compacted by ancient meteor strikes, or  formed by volcanic activity, but more research is needed to get to the bottom of these underground anomalies. 

A new analysis of Mars' gravitational field has revealed mysterious structures lurking beneath the planet's surface

The team of researchers from Denmark's TU Delft and Utrecht University presented their findings at the Europlanetary Science Conference in Berlin this week.

The team used tiny deviations in satellite orbits to create a picture of Mars' gravitational field, or the region of space around a planet where its gravitational force can be felt. 

They did this to look for clues about how mass is distributed throughout the planet's subsurface. 

The team then combined these observations with data on the thickness and flexibility of the Mars' crust, as well as the dynamics of the planet's mantle and deep interior. 

These observations were collected by NASA's InSIGHT lander, which completed its study of Mars' crust, mantle and core in 2022.

This allowed the researchers to create a global density map of Mars that revealed the existence of 20 previously unknown underground structures scattered around the planet's north polar cap.

The structures are about 19 to 25 pounds per cubic foot denser than their surroundings, and vary in shape and size. 

Additionally, they are covered by a thick, smooth layer of sediment that may have once been a seabed. 

The researchers used tiny deviations in satellite orbits and data from NASA's InSIGHT lander to create a global density map of Mars

Their analysis revealed 20 previously unknown underground structures scattered around the planet's north polar cap

Billions of years ago, Mars was not the desert planet we know today. It was once covered in oceans and rivers, but water dried up in an extreme climactic shift. 

Now, the only evidence of these bodies of water lies in Mars' geologic record - like this sediment layer. 

As for the structures that lie beneath, 'there seems to be no trace of them at the surface,' lead author Bart Root, an assistant professor at TU Delft, said. 

'However, through gravity data, we have a tantalizing glimpse into the older history of the northern hemisphere of Mars.' 

This isn't the first time that scientists have uncovered oddities beneath the surface of Mars. 

In December 2023, China's Zhurong found large honeycomb-shaped crevasses buried dozens of meters beneath Mars' equator that likely formed when drastic temperature dips contract and fracture the ground.

But Root and his team are having a harder time figuring out what these most recently structures are, and where they came from. Right now, they have two main theories. 

Either the structures were compacted by ancient impact events, like meteor strikes, or they were formed by some kind of volcanic activity. This latter idea challenges scientists' longstanding view of Mars as a geologically inactive planet. 

But while studies have shown that Mars does not have as much geological activity as Earth, a growing body of evidence suggests that it isn't completely 'dead.'

Root's study adds to this evidence not just by discovering structures that may be volcanically formed, but through a totally separate finding. 

In addition to finding the mysterious structures, the team's analysis revealed that Mars' mantle may still host active geological processes that could be feeding Olympus Mons, the largest known volcano in the solar system.

Olympus Mons is located in the Tharsis Montes region near Mars' equator. Scientists estimate that it hasn't erupted for 25 million years.

The subterranean geology of the Tharsis region is incredibly dense, but Root and his team detected a much lighter mass lying 700 miles beneath the surface. 

He believes this mass is an enormous plume of magma that stretches 1,000 miles across in Mars' mantle. What's more, this plume might be in the process of bubbling to the surface.

'This means we need to rethink how we understand the support for the Olympus Mons volcano and its surroundings,' Root said. 

'It shows that Mars might still have active movements happening inside it, affecting and possibly making new volcanic features on the surface.' 

{ https://www.dailymail.co.uk/ }

27-09-2024 om 20:50 geschreven door peter  

We spent 45 days in a simulated Mars habitat built by NASA - this is the brutal reality of life on Red Planet

• READ MORE: New map of Mars reveals hidden 'structures' below the surface

By Ellyn Lapointe For Dailymail.Com

Four volunteer scientists have just emerged from a 45-day stay inside NASA's most realistic Mars simulation yet.

The crew remained completely isolated inside the Human Exploration Research Analog (HERA) - a 650-square-foot habitat at NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas - until Monday, when the hatch opened and they finally 'returned to Earth.'

While inside, they completed 18 different studies that will help NASA and other space agencies learn how humans respond to the confinement, demanding work-life conditions and remote environments of deep-space missions, according to NASA.

NASA has set a goal to get humans to Mars by the 2030s. With that deadline fast approaching, simulated missions like HERA provide key insights into how astronauts might survive the farthest crewed space mission ever attempted. 

The four person crew - comprised of Sergii Iakymov, Sarah Elizabeth McCandless, Erin Anderson, and Brandon Kent (L to R) - was the third to enter the HERA habitat

The four person crew - comprised of Erin Anderson, Sergii Iakymov, Sarah Elizabeth McCandless and Brandon Kent - was the third to enter the HERA habitat.

Their mission was unique in that it included the more detailed assignments designed to closely replicate the living and working experience on Mars.

During the month-and-a-half-long simulation, the crew performed a wide range of tasks.

Their assignments included harvesting plants from a hydroponic garden, growing shrimp, deploying a small satellite, conducting a virtual 'walk' across the surface of Mars and flying simulated drones over Martian terrain. 

'These activities are designed to immerse the crew in the task-focused mindset of astronauts,' NASA wrote in a statement.

NASA even simulated the communication delays that real astronauts could one day face on Mars. During a real Mars mission, communications from Earth could take up to 20 minutes to reach astronauts on the red planet, and vice versa. 

All the while, the crew was being monitored by NASA scientists to assess how their day-to-day tasks, routine, and the isolation and confinement of their habitat affected their behavior and performance. 

When they weren't hard at work, the crew read books, played cards, built Legos and listened to music. 

The HERA mission three crew entered the habitat on August 9

Their mission was unique in that it included the more detailed assignments designed to closely replicate the living and working experience on Mars, including growing hydroponic plants

The volunteers also grew shrimp, deployed a small satellite, conducted a virtual 'walk' across the surface of Mars and flew simulated drones over Martian terrain

On Monday afternoon, the crew finally emerged from their tiny habitat, marking the end of their mission. 

'Following our safe passage to Mars, and our safe return to Earth, as the crew of Campaign 7, Mission 3, we hereby officially transfer this exploration vessel to the flight analogs operations team,' said Kent upon exiting HERA.

'We hope this vessel continues to serve as a safe home for future HERA crews,' he added. 

NASA also runs another, bigger simulated Mars habitat called the Crew Health and Performance Exploration Analog, or CHAPEA. This 1,700-square-foot is large enough to sustain volunteers for up to a year. 

The first CHAPEA volunteer crew emerged from their habitat in July. 

If you think you have what it takes to spend weeks inside cramped Mars simulation, NASA is actively seeking non-smoking volunteers between the ages of 30 and 55 for the next HERA mission. 

{ https://www.dailymail.co.uk/ }

27-09-2024 om 20:01 geschreven door peter  

Ex-CIA Officer: Truth About UFOs Is Terrifying & Interdimensional Beings Are Within Us

By Vicky Verma

The US Congress now suggests that some UFOs are non-human in origin. This is the most significant assertion made in UFOlogy to date. Several insiders have openly acknowledged the existence of UFOs over the past few decades and implied that the phenomenon is always present around us and that our limited senses prevent us from being able to see it.

A few months ago, former CIA officer Jim Semivan made a shocking statement, saying “there’s a whole other reality that surrounds us that we just simply don’t have the ability to see or interact with.” He had worked with the CIA for 25 years before joining Tom Delonge’s “To the Stars Academy” with other ex-government insiders. The “To The Stars Academy” is an organization that claims to have been responsible for the release of the now-famous Pentagon UFO videos.

He described how he joined the CIA and acquired years of specialized training in spycraft. Since the CIA operates under the “need-to-know” premise, Semivan was not specifically informed of any UFO-related study, despite the fact that CIA analyst Kit Green was well-known for exploring the paranormal.

According to him, “There is a force out there that can control our environment, that can put thoughts into our heads.” In fact, Mr. Semivan has previously stated that UFOs sighted by the Navy are from another world. He made shocking assertions regarding unidentified flying objects in an interview with James Iandoli, saying that the occurrence can be startling, especially to children.

“When we started TTSA, we had discussions about this all the time. Are we sure we want to disclose this information? I mean, you know, are we going to scare eight-year-olds?”

“I had some friends who were like, ‘Oh, my daughter wants to know all about UFOs. Can we talk to you about that?’ And I said no. I’m not going to talk to you about that. What am I going to tell her or him, these 10-, 11-year-olds? Could such a reality kill them psychologically for the rest of their lives?”

“Yes, that there is a force out there that can control our environment and put thoughts into our heads. That they can lie to you, deceive you, and that you are not in control of your life. Tell this to a 12-year-old,” while succinct, Semivan suggests that the “rabbit hole goes much deeper” when it comes to the UFO phenomenon.

Moreover, in his recent podcast appearance on “Calling All Beings,” he fiercely said that non-human intelligence is living with humans on Earth. “There’s an entity out there! There’s some kind of non-human intelligence that’s living with us on this F**KING planet,” Semivan said.

Semivan spoke about his own experiences with alien-like beings that started happening to him and his wife in their bedroom in 1990 on Coast to Coast AM. He insisted that the event was real and that it was not a hypnagogic or dream state. The couple thereafter had intermittent poltergeist activity in their home, and more recently, he claimed to have seen a hooded figure that resembled the Death Eater from the Harry Potter series, who perhaps materialized to herald the death of a close friend.

Mr. Semivan said he agreed with the statement made by Colm Kelleher, a researcher at Skinwalker Ranch, that the UFO phenomenon is much more than just mechanical parts and devices because psychic and biological factors also contribute to the event’s extreme strangeness. He stated that To the Stars was still looking into “metamaterials” with unusual isotope ratios that may be connected to UFOs.

In the first half of the interview, Semivan said:

“I think they mention that the phenomenon is a natural part of our universe, and we’re living in it but we don’t recognize it. The same way that insects and animals don’t recognize the human universe. A cat and a dog could be running through a library, but they don’t have the faintest idea what the books are all about and what libraries are all about. We might be walking through our existence and there’s a whole other reality that surrounds us that we just simply don’t have the ability to see or interact with.”

“It seems to be peeking inside our little consensus reality. As I explained to somebody once, it comes close, it teases us, it cajoles us, it lies to us, but you can never take it home to meet the parents. It won’t allow you to do that. There’s no formal introduction. Add on top that there’s no ontology, which is just a fancy word, it basically means there’s no structure to even discuss this. We don’t have a common lexicon. Somebody said we have dots but no connections. I don’t even think we have dots.”

Read also:

• Neil Armstrong Confided Italian Journalist That UFOs Observed Them Insistently On Moon
• Harvard Scientist Explains Which UFOs Over Ukraine Could Be Extraterrestrial Spacecraft
• Ex-US Army Major Released NASA Footage Of 2000-Mile-Long UFO Near Saturn
• US Navy Chilling Underwater UFO Encounters Might Prove Aliens Hiding Under Ocean

Discussion on historical role of CIA and UFOs

George Knapp: What about now? Upper echelons of the intelligence community? Possible reactions? Jim Semivan: Speculating here. Now people in the IC are willing to take it on. We briefed senior people on the topic. They wanted it to be out in the open. It is truly a national security issue. Don’t like – the military/government doesn’t own the topic. The phenomenon shows up everywhere. I want to know what the hell it is. Let’s take it private.

GK: Big picture stuff. Anyone know the full picture? JS: Don’t think anyone knows the true picture. Col Kelleher said it’s a lot more than nuts and bolts. There is a biological side to it – high strangeness and scary. When started TTSA we discussed this. Do we really want to know?

GK: Stories from Vallee and Nolan, stories about entire craft and bodies. Real? Someone has craft and bodies? JS: Let that go. Not going there.

GK: CRADA timeline?

JS: Don’t know. Pieces of Mg-Bi – waveguide – Some say the result of some process. You don’t have to figure it all out, just get some ideas. The story of Bob Lazar. You gave me a thumbnail sketch of Lazar. I don’t have issues. I believe what he says is accurate. Edward Snowden was a smart kid. The government hired him yet he didn’t have any degrees. Shows no sign of deception in interviews. Phone question from a listener. The hitchhiker effect. Could relate it with hauntings. Could it attach itself to an entity/company/private contractor?

In an interview with Whitley Strieber, Mr. Semivan says he refers to the UFO, UAP, and Alien Phenomena as Jinn. He does not mean that in a religious way – credibility to the inter-dimensional hypothesis. (Source)

“This phenomenon does lie to you and it is very very deceitful at times. It will tell you things that sound wonderful but also make no sense and is it toying with us or is it using some kind of you know symbols that we don’t understand?

I refer to them as a ‘Jinn’ because you know in Arab culture they’re sort of like us or they’re made out of quote-unquote fire or ether or whatever. But they also have the same kind of emotions but there’s good Jinn and there’s bad Jinn.”

Inter-Dimensional BEINGS? UFO Hearing Sparks HOLOGRAPHIC THEORY Debate: Dr Avi Loeb Explains

Alien and UFO Encounters from Another Dimension

Discover what the Government doesn't want you to know! | UFO Conclusion | Aliens | Documentary

{ https://howandwhys.com/ }

27-09-2024 om 01:39 geschreven door peter  

Met behulp van de VISTA-telescoop van de Europese Zuidelijke Sterrenwacht heeft een team van astronomen meer dan 13 jaar lang de centrale delen van ons Melkwegstelsel waargenomen.

De eerste waarneming dateert al van 2010. Het hele project resulteerde in 500 terabytes aan gegevens. Daarmee is het het grootste waarnemingsproject dat ooit is uitgevoerd met een telescoop van ESO, de organisatie van 16 EU-landen die het heelal afspeurt vanuit een observatorium in Chili.

De hele kaart is zo groot dat ze niet in één beeld weergegeven kan worden. Hij omvat een resem hemellichamen, van nieuwe sterren in hun "stof-cocons" tot zogenaamde bolvormige sterrenhopen, een cluster van sterren rond een sterrenstelsel. 

Doordat het team verschillende keren dezelfde hoekjes van het heelal afspeurde, kon het niet alleen de objecten zelf in kaart brengen, maar ook hoe ze bewegen en mogelijke schommelingen in helderheid.

Verschillenden kaarten van onze Melkweg: van chemische samenstelling over interstellair stof tot de snelheid waarmee objecten bewegen

Langverwacht

"Dit is een project waar we al jaren naar uitkijken", zegt Leen Decin, hoogleraar Sterrenkunde aan de KU Leuven in De Wereld Vandaag. "De kaarten die we nu hebben binnengekregen, zijn ongelofelijk gedetailleerd, met miljoenen sterren."

"In 2012 hadden we al eens een voorlopige kaart gekregen van het Melkwegstelsel (het sterrenstelsel waar ons zonnestelsel, en dus ook de aarde, zich in bevindt, red.). Maar nu hebben ze gedurende 420 nachten waarnemingen gedaan. Al dat licht hebben ze gebundeld om één gedetailleerde kaart te maken. Dat geeft ons heel wat nieuwe informatie over ons eigen Melkwegstelsel."

Deze kaart, die door hetzelfde team is gemaakt, bevat 10 keer meer informatie dan die uit 2012.

"De Melkweg is enkele honderdduizenden lichtjaren groot. Het is gigantisch. Maar het is niet het enige. Wij wonen in één zo'n melkwegstelsel, maar er zijn nog honderdduizenden andere. Wij hebben nu ons eigen huisje wat beter in kaart gebracht, en niet door gewoon te kijken in het optische licht, dat dat we zien met onze eigen ogen. De VISTA-telescoop kijkt in infraroodlicht, zoals de infrarode stralen in een microgolfoven."

Dwars door ruimtestof heen

Zonder dat infrarood licht zou dat niet gelukt zijn. "Infrarode stralen zijn veel langer dan ons optisch licht. Het is veel gevoeliger voor koude objecten, waardoor we veel meer planeten kunnen ontdekken."

"Het kan ook gemakkelijk door stof heen kijken. Als je thuis niet poetst, krijg je stofwolkjes. Dat ligt er, maar we kunnen er niet doorheen kijken. Wel, als we met een infraroodcamera zouden kijken, dan zou het lijken alsof dat stof niet aanwezig is. Zo zitten er in het melkwegstelsel ook veel stofdeeltjes. En ook daar kijkt de VISTA-telescoop los door. Je kan dus veel dieper kijken in ons melkwegstelsel." 

Die kaart moeten we ons trouwens vooral niet voorstellen als een klassieke kaart. "Je ziet kleine en grote sterren en heel veel planeten. Maar je ziet ook bruine dwergen. Dat zijn mislukte sterren, sterren die net niet zwaar genoeg zijn geweest om binnenin hun eigen kernreactor op te starten."

"Je ziet ook sterren die heel dicht in de buurt zijn gekomen van het zwarte gat in het midden van ons eigen Melkwegstelsel. Als sterren daar heel dichtbij komen, kunnen ze worden opgeslorpt of weggeslingerd. Als ze worden weggeslingerd, hebben ze een heel grote snelheid. Die hebben we ook in groten getale ontdekt op de kaart."

Een zogenaamde bolvormige sterrenhoop, een cluster van sterren rond een sterrenstelsel, op de nieuwe kaart.

Foto: ESO

"Op die kaart gaan we nu nog jaren werken. Als je waarnemingen binnen krijgt, zijn die heel ruw. Die moeten gekalibreerd worden, de oneffenheden moeten eruit worden gehaald. Nu is alles echter mooi. Daarop zullen we nu beginnen werken. De volgende jaren zal je op tijd en stond nieuwigheden van ons horen."

Iedereen kan meehelpen

"We zullen bijvoorbeeld veel beter begrijpen wat er vlakbij het zwart gat in ons melkwegstelsel gebeurt. Daar zitten sterren tussen die pulseren: het licht wordt afwisselend helderder en minder helder. Als je weet hoe dat werkt, kan je een techniek toepassen om afstanden te meten. We zullen de afstanden in ons melkwegstelsel dus veel beter kunnen meten."

"Wat we ook willen weten, is hoeveel zware en minder zware sterren er zijn. Dat vertelt ons immers iets over de geschiedenis van ons eigen melkwegstelsel. Beetje bij beetje zullen we onze kennis kunnen verbreden of verdiepen."

Er is immers nog heel veel dat we nog niet weten over onze eigen melkweg. "Het is ook maar één bouwsteen van het universum. We hebben honderden miljarden andere melkwegstelsels. Wanneer we het onze beter begrijpen, zullen we ook beter begrijpen wat er bij de buren gebeurt. Eerst moet je je eigen huis kennen. Daarom is het zo cruciaal dat we nu een ongelofelijk accuraat beeld krijgen van ons eigen melkwegstelsel."

Iedereen kan daar trouwens aan meewerken in zogenaamde burgerprojecten. "Iedereen die interesse heeft in sterrenkunde kan aan de slag met onze waarnemingen. Die worden binnen de 6 maanden tot een jaar publiek gemaakt. Je kan meehelpen om die data te analyseren en nieuwe ontdekkingen te doen."

{ https://www.vrt.be/vrtnws/nl/ }

27-09-2024 om 00:42 geschreven door peter  

Two images of the Moon from the Moon Mineralogy Mapper. The top is a black and white view of the north polar region while the bottom is a spectral map of water and hydroxyls seen in the south polar region.

Credit: NASA/ISRO/M3 Team/PSI/R. Clark

When you look at the Moon, you don’t see any water on its surface. That doesn’t mean there isn’t any. In fact, there’s a lot of “wetness” on the Moon, but it’s in places and forms we can’t see. Understanding where all those resources are is the subject of a study based on NASA’s Moon Mineralogy Mapper (M3) data taken from aboard the Chandrayaan-1 spacecraft.

The analysis performed by a team led by Planetary Science Institute senior scientist Roger Clark shows that there are many sources of water and a group of chemicals called “hydroxyls” (OH). Water lies hidden in ice deposits in shaded areas, and inside enriched rocks.

Hydroxyls are interesting. They form as solar protons interact with electrons on the Moon’s surface. That creates hydrogen atoms which hook up with oxygen atoms found in silicates and other oxygen-bearing molecules in the lunar regolith. Together, the hydrogen and oxygen make hydroxyl molecules, which are a component of water. While it would take some work, mining those “raw materials” for water on the Moon could be a huge boost for future crewed missions, according to Clark.

“Future astronauts may be able to find water even near the equator by exploiting these water-rich areas. Previously, it was thought that only the polar region, and in particular, the deeply shadowed craters at the poles were where water could be found in abundance,” said Clark. “Knowing where water is located not only helps to understand lunar geologic history but also where astronauts may find water in the future.”

How They Identified Lunar Water Sources

Searching out sources of lunar water requires special instruments. This is where the Chandrayaan mission and NASA’s mineralogy mapper data came in handy. Clark and his team zeroed in on a set of data taken by the lander’s imaging spectrometer from 2008-2009. This infrared spectroscopy data contains the spectral fingerprints of both water and hydroxyl in sunlight reflected from the Moon’s surface. The M3 instrument dissected the light into 85 different visible and infrared “colors”. That’s how they were able to spot the distinctive hints of water and hydroxyls across much of the Moon.

The team also looked at the location and geologic contexts of water and hydroxyl distribution. They also had to take into account the “lifetime” of these resources on the Moon. Interestingly, water gets slowly destroyed over time. Hydroxyl, however, lasts much longer. So, for example, if a crater smacks into the lunar surface, the “wet” rocks it “digs up” will lose that content over time through the action of the solar wind. The result is a diffuse layer or “aura” of hydroxyls that remain behind. In other places, solar wind protons that collide with the surface contribute to a thin layer or “patina” of hydroxyls on the surface. The hydroxyls last much longer and exist on the Moon up to millions of years.

“Putting all the evidence together, we see a lunar surface with complex geology with significant water in the sub-surface and a surface layer of hydroxyl. Both cratering and volcanic activity bring water-rich materials to the surface, and both are observed in the lunar data,” Clark said.

Using Precious Lunar Resources

Lunar rocks may well help supply water to future visitors to the Moon. There are two kinds of rocks there. The dark mare rocks are mainly basaltic (like Hawaiian lava). The other type is the anorthosite rock. It exists in various places, including the lunar highlands. The anorthosites are relatively “wet” while the basalts remain very dry. The two rock types also contain hydroxyls bonded to different minerals.

The water-rich anorthosites should be a target for harvesting by lunar astronauts. To get a good supply, you have to heat the rocks and soils. The result of that process could be a long-lasting water supply. You could also get it by using methods to create chemical reactions that liberate hydroxyl and combine four hydroxyls to create oxygen and water.

Of course, a more immediate source lies at the poles. That’s where ice lies hidden inside shaded crater walls or under the surface, preserved for millions of years. That source is likely more easily harvested, but you still have to transport the water to other lunar regions. The downsides of getting water from rocks are the expense and the energy required to heat them for extraction. NASA and other agencies (such as the Chinese space agency) are looking at all the methods of producing supplies for upcoming missions. Studying the locations of ice deposits and hydroxyls is just one part of a larger “search for water” that will benefit future lunar bases.

For More Information

• Sources of Water and Hydroxyl are Widespread on the Moon
• The Global Distribution of Water and Hydroxyl on the Moon as Seen by the Moon Mineralogy Mapper (M3)

{ https://www.universetoday.com/ }

26-09-2024 om 23:39 geschreven door peter  

The new historical temperature comes from an effort named PhanDA, which stands for Phanerozoic Data Assimilation. PhanDA combined data from climate models with data from geology to determine how the climate has changed over the last nearly 500 million years. The Phanerozoic is Earth’s current geological eon, and it started 538.8 million years ago. It’s known for the proliferation of life, and its beginning is marked by the appearance of the hard shells of animals in the fossil record.

PhanDA is a mix of data and prior simulations by the scientific community. “This approach leverages the strengths of both proxies and models as sources of information, providing an innovative way to explore the temporal and spatial patterns in Earth’s climate across the Phanerozoic,” the researchers write in their paper. It allowed the researchers to reconstruct the climate more thoroughly.

“This method was originally developed for weather forecasting,” said Judd. “Instead of using it to forecast future weather, here we’re using it to hindcast ancient climates.”

We’re blowing by atmospheric carbon benchmarks, and the Earth is warming. We’re now at over 420 ppm of CO₂. The best way to understand what’s coming our way is by looking at the past.

“If you’re studying the past couple of million years, you won’t find anything that looks like what we expect in 2100 or 2500,” said co-author Scott Wing, the curator of paleobotany at the National Museum of Natural History. Wing’s research focuses on the Paleocene–Eocene Thermal Maximum, a period of dramatic global warming 55 million years ago. “You need to go back even further to periods when the Earth was really warm, because that’s the only way we’re going to get a better understanding of how the climate might change in the future.”

During the Paleocene-Eocene Thermal Maximum (PETM), a massive amount of carbon was emitted into the atmosphere and the oceans. The Earth’s temperature reacted swiftly, warming by between five and eight degrees Celsius in only a few thousand years. While a few thousand years might seem long compared to a human lifetime, it’s nearly instantaneous for the climate of an entire planet. It likely triggered the massive extinction of between 35% to 50% of benthic life. Fossils show that during this time, sub-tropical planets grew in the polar regions.

Many scientists think the PETM is the best analogue for what we’re facing today. No matter what we do with our emissions in the next several decades, much of the carbon humanity has released into the atmosphere since the Industrial Revolution will persist in the atmosphere for thousands of years.

PhanDA illustrates the unbreakable link between carbon and global warming. According to co-author Jessica Tierney, a paleoclimatologist at the University of Arizona, the link between the climate and carbon is undeniable. “This research illustrates clearly that carbon dioxide is the dominant control on global temperatures across geological time,” said Tierney. “When CO₂ is low, the temperature is cold; when CO₂ is high, the temperature is warm.”

While proof of the link between climate and carbon isn’t new, this long timeframe drives it home. “The consistency of this relationship is surprising because, on this timescale, we expect solar luminosity to influence climate,” the authors write. “We hypothesize that changes in planetary albedo and other greenhouse gases (e.g., methane) helped compensate for the increasing solar luminosity through time.”

Overall, Earth’s global mean surface temperature (GMST) ranged from 11° to 36°C during the Phanerozoic, a larger range than previously thought. It also shows that greenhouse climates were hotter than thought. The largest temperature swings were in the high latitudes, but tropical temperatures ranged from 22 C to 42 C. This goes against the idea that the tropics have a fixed upper limit and shows that life must have evolved to survive in those higher temperatures.

The research also shows that our current climate is actually cooler than the climate through most of the Phanerozoic. Technically, Earth is in an ice age right now, though the ice is receding and has been for thousands of years. Earth’s current GMST is 15 Celsius, lower than during most of the Phanerozoic.

But while that may sound comforting, it’s not. It’s the rate of change in the GMST that’s dangerous. Our GHG emissions are warming the planet faster than at any time during the Phanerozoic.

“Humans, and the species we share the planet with, are adapted to a cold climate,” Tierney said. “Rapidly putting us all into a warmer climate is a dangerous thing to do.”

While PhanDA is generally in agreement with previous climate reconstructions, it deviates in some ways. For example, cold climate periods don’t always coincide with glaciation and ice ages. Earth’s surface is ever-changing, and that can make some conclusions difficult to reach. “Many of the traditional glacial indicators can have nonglacial origins, complicating the interpretation of the rock record, and limited outcrop of older rocks and poor age control can make it difficult to discern between isolated alpine glaciers and widespread ice sheets,” the authors explain.

But that doesn’t take much away from PhanDA. It strengthens our understanding of climate and carbon.

Shockingly, the work suggests that Earth’s climate is even more sensitive to CO₂ than some current models show.

“PhanDA GMST exhibits a strong relationship with atmospheric CO2 concentrations, demonstrating that CO₂ has been the dominant force controlling global climate variations across the Phanerozoic,” the authors write in their conclusion.

{ https://www.universetoday.com/ }

26-09-2024 om 22:58 geschreven door peter  

Researchers have developed a set of hexagon-shaped robotic components that can be snapped together into larger and larger structures. Each one of the component hexagons is made of rigid plates that serve as its exoskeleton. Driven by electricity, the plates can change their shape, shifting from long and narrow to wide and flat at high speed. The combined structures are capable of jumping four times their own body height, then can shape-shift to roll extremely fast, or use multimodal actuation to crawl through confined spaces.

The robotic components were developed at the Max-Planck-Institute for Intelligent Systems (MPI-IS). The modules are made of six lightweight rigid plates made from glass fiber that form a hexagon. Magnets embedded into the plates allows for quick connection to other components as well as providing a shared electrical ground between the modules.

The design team integrated artificial “muscles” into the inner joints of the hexagons, called hydraulically amplified self-healing electrostatic (HASEL) muscles. Applying a high voltage to the module causes the muscle to activate, rotating the joints of the hexagon and changing its shape from long and narrow to wide and flat.

“Combining soft and rigid components in this way enables high strokes and high speeds. By connecting several modules, we can create new robot geometries and repurpose them for changing needs,” said  Ellen Rumley, a visiting researcher from the University of Colorado Boulder, in a press release from MPI-IS. Rumley and Zachary Yoder, who are both Ph.D. students working in the Robotic Materials Department, are co-first authors of a new paper, “Hexagonal electrohydraulic modules for rapidly reconfigurable high-speed robots,” published in Science Robotics.

The modules are reconfigurable, with an easy process of attaching or detaching the modules. Chains of modules can be rapidly connected and can operate from one voltage source. The modules can each have their own behaviors, which allows for various operations.

The team created a video to show the various configurations and behaviors that can be created with HEXEL modules. The modules can be seen rolling, dancing, jumping, crawling, and many other motions.  

“In general, it makes a lot of sense to develop robots with reconfigurable capabilities,” said Yoder. “It’s a sustainable design option – instead of buying five different robots for five different purposes, we can build many different robots by using the same components. Robots made from reconfigurable modules could be rearranged on demand to provide more versatility than specialized systems, which could be beneficial in resource-limited environments.”

{ https://www.universetoday.com/ }

26-09-2024 om 22:27 geschreven door peter  

We have known that water ice exists on the Moon since 1998. These large deposits are found in the permanently shadowed craters around the polar region. The challenge is how to get it since shadowed craters are not the best place for solar powered vehicles to operate. A team of engineers have identified a design for an ice-mining vehicle powered by americium-241. With a half-life of 432 years, this element is an ideal power source for a vehicle to operate in the dark for several decades. 

Ice in the polar regions of the Moon is of vital importance for our future space explorations, not just lunar visits but as we stretch our legs in the Solar System. Its thought to be ancient material deposited by comets or formed by interactions with solar wind. It is expensive to take materials to the Moon so harvesting on site is far more efficient. Ice on the Moon can provide drinking water, oxygen for breaking and even hydrogen for rocket fuel. Surveys suggest something in the region of 600 billion kilograms of ice deposited at the lunar poles. 

The challenge facing future lunar harvesting missions is that operations in the permanently  shadowed regions (or PSRs as they have been called) cannot be powered by solar panels as is often the case. The environment is cold too, in the region of 40K, that’s -233?C and at those temperatures special power considerations are required. 

A team of researchers have been exploring the use of Radioisotope Power Systems (RPS) to provide thermal and electrical power systems. These power systems have been used before during deep space missions for example Voyager and New Horizons. They work by generating electricity using the heat that is released from the natural decay of a radioactive isotope usually plutonium-238.

The team led by Marzio Mazzotti from the University of Leicester have explored an ice-mining rover using power generated by the radio activate decay fo Americium-241. It has a half-life of 432 years which means it takes 432 years for half of a sample of Americium to decay. During this time, half of the atoms in the substance will transform into a different element. Using this power source will provide a stable power supply for an ice-mining rover in the darkness of the lunar polar craters for decades.

Using a radioisotope power system is not new however the team came upon the idea that the excess heat that is not used can be used to thermally mine ice from samples of lunar material. The rover would be fitted with a sublimation plate that would turn any ice deposits into a gas which would be collected in a cold trap.

The team developed a model of its Thermal Management System and tested it for icy regolith (the fine dusty lunar surface) material with a water ice content of 0-10 vol %. Their simulations showed that it is possible to mine ice using thermal techniques in the PSR of the Moon using an RPS (I had to really concentrate writing that sentence!) powered lunar rover. 

Source : 

• Ice-Mining Lunar Rover using Americium-241 Radioisotope Power Systems

{ https://www.universetoday.com/ }

26-09-2024 om 22:12 geschreven door peter  

Image shows UFO downed by US fighter jet in Canadian airspace days after Chinese spy craft incident

Object shot down over Yukon Territory believed to be 'small metallic balloon with a tethered payload'

 By Louis Casiano Fox News

26-09-2024 om 21:42 geschreven door peter  

• This new map of the Milky Way contains 10 times more objects than ever before 
• It reveals details of our galaxy's core which had been previously hidden 

By Wiliam Hunter

From the violent births of newborn stars to the hidden mysteries of the galactic core, these new images show the Milky Way as you've never seen it before.

After 13 years of observations, scientists have now revealed the most detailed map of our galaxy ever made.

Using infrared light, astronomers from the European Southern Observatory (ESO) peered through the dust and gas which normally hides the centre of the galaxy.

Their vast survey shows 1.5 billion moons, stars, and planets and covers an area of sky equivalent to 8,600 full moons.

Lead researcher Dante Minniti, of the Universidad Andrés Bello in Chile, says: 'We made so many discoveries, we have changed the view of our Galaxy forever.'

Researchers have created the most detailed map of the Milky Way ever created, capturing stunning images of the 1.5 billion stars, planets, and moons captured by the survey

This latest map covers an area equivalent to 8,600 full moons. This diagram shows the area covered by the latest survey covered by the map. The red regions show areas covered by the previous largest observation project 

Over 420 nights of observation, the ESO's VISTA telescope scanned the same regions of the sky to build up an enormously detailed map of the faintest objects.

The researchers' efforts have resulted in the largest map of our galaxy ever made.

This new map, known as the VISTA Variables in the Vía Láctea extended (VVVX), is composed of over 200,000 individual images taken between 2010 and 2023.

With 1.5 billion objects recorded, the VVVX contains about 10 times more objects than the previous biggest map released in 2012.

The resulting dataset is so vast that it contains 500 terabytes of data - roughly equivalent to 124,000 high-definition movies.

Images released by the researchers reveal bright glowing nebulas and vast clusters of stars.

Using an infrared telescope, the researchers were able to observe features such formation of new stars. This image shows a stellar nursery called NGC 6357 where hot young stars are formed out of gas 

Since infrared light passes through gas and dust these images reveal more details of galactic processes. This image shows a pair of newly forming stars 22,000 and 9,000 lightyears away from us

In one image, the VVVX captures a pair of stunning nebulas, called NGC 3603 and NGC 3576, which are 22,000 and 9,000 lightyears from Earth respectively.

Inside these distant clouds of gas, researchers can see the intense forces which give birth to new stars.

At the other end of the cosmic spectrum, another image shows Messier 22, a cluster of extremely old stars located 10,000 lightyears from Earth.

These distant groups of stars are among some of the oldest objects in the galaxy.

Dr Minniti told MailOnline that the survey also revealed a number of unknown objects known by the researchers as WIT - standing for 'What is this?'

While these images are beautiful, the depth and detail of this new map also give researchers a window into the inner workings of the Milky Way.

The map also reveals some of the oldest objects in the Galaxy such as the globular cluster Messier 22 (pictured) which is 10,000 lightyears from Earth 

These images are not just pretty but also provide astronomers with the basis for future research into the most difficult-to-observe regions of the Milky Way. Pictured: The NGC 6188 Firebird Nebula 

Dr Minniti says: 'We have a much clearer picture of the inner and far regions of the Milky Way disk now, that help us to understand how our Galaxy was assembled and how it evolved with time.'

The dataset is so large that the researchers have not yet finished inspecting all of the new discoveries.

However, the team hope that their observations will lay the basis for the work of future astronomers.

Co-lead author Dr Philip Lucas, an astronomer at the University of Hertfordshire, told MailOnline: 'The map will become the international standard for studying the southern Milky Way in decades to come.'

The new map's biggest advantage is that it allows astronomers to look into regions of the galaxy normally hidden by most telescopes.

Infrared light lets the researchers look into the core of the galaxy which is normally obscured by gas and dust. Pictured: The Omega Nebula, 5,5000 lightyears from Earth 

This photo compares an image of the Carina Nebula from the new map (top) with an image taken by the James Webb Space Telescope 

Light in the visible spectrum is blocked by the clouds of gas and dust which populate the Milky Way but infrared light passes through these obstructions.

By tracking these objects in the core over such a long time, the researchers were able to chart how they moved and build up a 3D map of the galaxy's innermost regions.

Dr Lucas says that this allows researchers to observe objects such as a new type of elderly giant star nicknamed an 'old smoker' in ways that have not been possible before.

These ancient stars can sit quietly for decades before unexpectedly producing clouds of smoke.

Dr Lucas says: 'Their strange behaviour is a good old fashioned astrophysical mystery.'

However, the infrared imaging from VVVX map can provide new data about these elusive objects.

Infrared imaging also allowed the researchers to spot extremely cold objects like free-floating planets which don't orbit any star or burned-out stars called brown dwarfs.

The researchers are now preparing to upgrade the VISTA telescope with new instruments so they can gather more spectral data about the 1.5 billion objects surveyed.

{ https://www.dailymail.co.uk/ }

26-09-2024 om 21:06 geschreven door peter  

Key takeaways

Wetenschappers hebben onlangs een laboratoriumexperiment uitgevoerd waarbij het gebruik van kernwapens om een asteroïde af te buigen werd gesimuleerd. Ze bombardeerden een kleine “schijnasteroïde” ter grootte van een knikker met röntgenstralen die werden gegenereerd door ’s werelds krachtigste röntgenapparaat in Sandia National Laboratories.

De röntgenstralen verdampten het oppervlak van de nagebouwde asteroïde en stuwden hem de andere kant op, waardoor hij in feite een raketmotor werd. De namaakasteroïde bereikte snelheden van 250 kilometer per uur, vergelijkbaar met een hogesnelheidstrein. Dit experiment was het eerste dat voorspellingen bevestigde over hoe röntgenstraling een asteroïde zou beïnvloeden.

Begrijpen van de afbuiging van een asteroïde

Dit concept bouwt voort op het succes van NASA’s DART-missie in 2022, waarbij een ruimtevaartuig met succes een grote asteroïde uit koers bracht. Voor grotere asteroïden, zoals asteroïden die massale uitsterving kunnen veroorzaken, is het misschien niet voldoende om er gewoon een ruimtevaartuig tegenaan te laten knallen.

De theorie suggereert dat een kernexplosie het oppervlak van een asteroïde zou kunnen verdampen, waardoor het van de baan van de aarde wordt geduwd. Deze methode is gebaseerd op het feit dat een groot deel van de energie van een kernexplosie vrijkomt in de vorm van röntgenstraling, die zeer effectief is in het verdampen van materie in de ruimte.

Uitdagingen en implicaties

Hoewel dit concept veelbelovend is, zijn er nog steeds belangrijke uitdagingen te overwinnen. Wetenschappers moeten de verschillende samenstellingen van asteroïden begrijpen en strategieën ontwikkelen om een kernwapen effectief in te zetten zonder de aarde in gevaar te brengen. Het succes van zo’n missie is afhankelijk van het ruim van tevoren detecteren van potentiële bedreigingen, zodat er voldoende tijd is voor planning en uitvoering.

De onderzoekers schatten dat röntgenstraling van een kernwapen van één megaton een asteroïde tot vier kilometer breed zou kunnen afbuigen, ervan uitgaande dat er voldoende voorbereidingstijd is. Hoewel de schaal van een echte missie met een nucleair apparaat ontmoedigend is, biedt dit onderzoek waardevolle inzichten in de potentiële effectiviteit van het gebruik van kernenergie om de aarde te beschermen tegen verwoestende inslagen van asteroïden.

{ https://www.msn.com/nl-be/ }

26-09-2024 om 17:31 geschreven door peter  

26-09-2024 om 01:45 geschreven door peter  

EXCLUSIVE / Ex-military official reveals what the US Air Force REALLY shot down during UFO encounter over Alaska

• READ MORE: US Senate Armed Services Committee will hold new UFO hearings

By Matthew Phelan Senior Science Reporter For Dailymail.Com

A tantalizing image of a UFO shot down by the US Air Force last year has left public speculation rife over what the horseshoe-shaped white visage actually depicts.

Some have compared it to the silvery, chevron-shaped crafts first reported by pilot Kenneth Arnold in 1947 — the historic sighting that launched the modern era of 'flying saucer' cases.

Others have compared it ominously to the alien 'engineer' spacecraft in the Ridley Scott's 2012 sci-fi horror film 'Prometheus.'

But DailyMail.com has spoken to a former officer with the Royal Canadian Air Force (RCAF), who has discussed the case with three active-duty members of the operational staff directly involved in this February 11, 2023 UFO shootdown.

Canada has released the first-ever image of the UFO shot down during a chase above Alaska and the Yukon initiated during the Chinese spy balloon drama of February 2023 (above)

Some have compared the UFO ominously to the alien 'engineer' spacecraft in the Ridley Scott's 2012 sci-fi horror film 'Prometheus'

According to this source, retired RCAF warrant officer Rocky Swanson, the military officers involved said the object was difficult to track.

But once they got close, they could 'very clearly' see it was a balloon, similar to the Chinese spy craft shot down days before this encounter. 

'I've spoken to three different folks that were involved in that particular event,' Swanson told DailyMail.com, 'and their stories are all the same.'

'For the most part, you're staring at a white object in a white sky, right? And so they are looking for this thing — and it's small — and they're having a hard time tracking it, because there's not a lot to track.'

'They're flying in an extraordinarily remote area,' he continued, 'trying to look for basically a needle in a stack of needles, you know?'

From his conversations with military personnel involved in the case, he believes that the image depicts the underside of a aerial platform not dissimilar from the larger Chinese spy balloon with its intelligence-collecting package hanging beneath it.  

'The round shape that you're seeing, you know, if it was three dimensional, you would see that it's a balloon,' he said. 

The apparent dark regions that give the UFO its 'Pac-Man'-like shape, he said, were caused by this package and its 'shadow.' 

'There's nobody that got excited about that event within the military,' Swanson said. 'It's not thought of as a big deal [...] It's legitimately a balloon.'

Two F-22 Raptor stealth fighter jets from US Air Force Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson in Alaska had been dispatched to intercept the UFO last February.

Pentagon press secretary Brigadier General Pat Ryder said at the time: 'As the object crossed into Canadian airspace, Canadian CF-18 and CP-140 aircraft [joined] the formation to further assess the object.'

The odd pic shows a seemingly circular white object that had been shot down by a US Air Force F-22 Raptor stealth fighter in a joint mission with the Canadian Armed Forces. Above, another USAF F-22 Raptor during an air show over Toronto, Canada on August 31, 2024

At approximately 3:41 pm Eastern time, in the bitterly cold subarctic climate over Mayo, Yukon, one of these F-22 Raptors successfully blasted the UFO out of the sky with an an AIM 9X 'sidewinder' missile.

Curiously, redacted documents released by the Canadian government along with the new UFO image show that it was designated as 'unclassified' within just days of this now 19-month-old UFO incident. 

And yet, Canada's Department of National Defence (DND) did not release it until now.

Swanson believes that Canadian DND officials withheld the grainy images because the UFO it depicted looks more otherworldly than the object really was. 

'I can understand why they wouldn't want to put that out, because I would be like, "Oh, God. What are we going to do with that?"' he said in a telephone interview.

Military aircraft fly towards UFO wreckage that was believed to have landed in remote Alaska in an incident just days before the February 11, 2023 UFO shoot-down over the nearby Yukon territory. All told, four objects were downed during that month's Chinese spy balloon drama

Above, a timeline of the UFO shoot-downs which took place over eight days of February 2023. One unusual feature of the newly released UFO photo, per military records, is that it had already been designated 'unclassified' within just days of these 19-month-old incidents

The episode was one of four UFO shootdowns that occurred in rapid succession that month, beginning with the confirmed downing of an authentic Chinese-government spy balloon off the coast of South Carolina's Myrtle Beach on Feb. 4.

The new image depicts one of the three objects that met the same fate between Feb. 10 and 12 of that year over Alaska, Lake Huron on the border of Michigan, and Canada's Yukon territory.

All three of these objects were reportedly much smaller than the Chinese spy balloon that splashed down near Myrtle Beach days earlier. 

That object, the only confirmed Chinese spy balloon of the four shot down, per Pentagon reports, carried a payload of spy sensors approximately the size of a bus via a balloon that was bigger than Disney's famous geodesic sphere at Epcot Center.

Swanson told DailyMail.com that his three military sources would not come forward publicly: 'These are currently serving members of the military. So, they're not going to be willing to come out. They can't.'

'What I'm willing to say is they're operational staff,' he added. 'They are flight crew is what I'll say.'

A possible reason, as one public affairs official with Canada's Department of National Defence (DND) warned colleagues, was the Canadian military's own internal fears that releasing this UFO image 'may create more questions/confusion'

Above, a US Air Force pilot looks down at the first, alleged Chinese spy balloon as it glided over Montana on February 3, 2023. Unlike the smaller UFOs shot down later that month, this device was massive - its balloon was reportedly bigger than Disney's geodesic sphere at Epcot Center

Some on social media (above) have compared this new 'Pac-Man' UFO photo to the silvery, chevron-shaped crafts first reported by pilot Kenneth Arnold in 1947 - the historic sighting that launched the modern era of 'flying saucers'

But their anonymity will likely do little to dampen the speculation and mistrust of both the Canadian and US government's official account of these UFO intercepts, which continues to pervade the general public. 

The new UFO photo, obtained by CTVNews.ca reporter Daniel Otis via an open records law request, also included efforts by members of Canada's own armed forces to better understand the craft that had been shot down.

Some of the Canadian military's written descriptions of the UFO appear to be at odds with statements suggesting that it was a simple balloon. 

One email from Canadian Brigadier-General Eric Laforest described the UFO as a 'cylindrical object.'

'Top quarter is metallic, remainder white. 20-foot wire hanging below with a package of some sort suspended,' Brig. Gen. Laforest wrote. 'Best description that we have.'

{ https://www.dailymail.co.uk/ }

26-09-2024 om 00:35 geschreven door peter  

The first ever photo of the 'cylindrical UFO' has been released by Canada 19 months after a US Air Force F-22 stealth fighter shot it down, while conspiracy theories blaze

The object was described as 'cylindrical' by military figures 

(Image: Department of National Defence Canada)

Canadian officials have released the first pictures of the “cylindrical” UFO shot down over Alaska in February 2023.

The grainy photo shows what appears to be a circular white object, which was shot down by a US Air Force F-22 stealth fighter while working with the Canadian military last year.

Canada’s Department of National Defence (DND) claimed the reason for the lengthy 19-month delay between footage and incident was that releasing the image “may create more questions/confusion”.

READ MORE: 

• 'Spectacular' UFO footage captured in Mexico is 'proof that alien races exist'

There's lots of quality news coming out of the US.

Taylor Paxton, director of e-communications for Canadian DND, said in an email the confusion would be inevitable “given the current public environment and statements related to the object being benign”.

Last year US military shot down the UFO 

(Image: Anadolu via Getty Images)

Obtained by CTVNews.ca, the emails mention descriptions of the UFO from Canada’s armed forces.

“Top quarter is metallic, the remainder white. 20-foot wire hanging below with a package of some sort suspended,” Canadian Brigadier-General Eric Laforest wrote. “Best description that we have.”

Laforest went on to dub the object “cylindrical”.

The original sighting of the UFO came hot off the heels after the US military confirmed the shooting down of a “Chinese spy-balloon” reportedly as big as three buses over the same stretch of land.

US officials said at the time the balloon had almost certainly been flying over sensitive sites to collect information about them.

Iain Boyd, professor of aerospace engineering at the University of Colorado, spoke to CTVNews.ca about the Canadian government’s reluctance to release the image as an issue of national security.

“It comes down to these episodes illustrating a potential vulnerability in the US/Canada defensive system,” Boyd said.

“Certainly the failure to provide more information has fed conspiracy theories but the military will likely accept that outcome over disclosing information that may help an adversary identify defensive weaknesses.”

READ NEXT:

• UFO 'insider' reveals how Taliban will save us from imminent alien invasion
  

{ https://www.dailystar.co.uk/ }

25-09-2024 om 23:57 geschreven door peter  

Two Scientists Say That The Human Soul is A Type of Quantum Field

Two scientists propose that the human soul is a type of quantum field that interacts only with certain fields in the physical universe, not directly with matter, and that electromagnetic fields affect the soul and help create memories and self-awareness in a fetus or child during reincarnation.

Fields that interact with the soul field include electromagnetic waves as evidenced by near-death experiences where events that could not have been seen through the eyes of the individual are verified.

Edward W. Kamen of the Georgia Institute of Technology and Roger D. Kamen of Ferris State University propose that, since electric fields and electromagnetic fields both have quanta consisting of photons, electric fields may also interact with the so-called “soul field.”

This interaction could potentially result in the transfer of information, such as working memory content, to the soul via the electric fields generated by neural ensembles in the human brain. Furthermore, the soul field may influence neurons at the molecular level through interactions with electric fields, as well as the recently proposed mechanism of cytoelectric coupling.

The possibility of the existence of realms beyond the physical universe is now accepted by many cosmologists who subscribe to the eternal inflation theory of multiple universes.

However, the existence of the multiverse does not provide an explanation for where souls might reside. The key point is that other domains outside our universe may exist. Although the laws of physics likely vary from universe to universe in the multiverse scenario, it is conceivable that quantum fields and quanta (discrete packets of energy) underlie the existence of every universe in the multiverse, as they do in our own. [Source]

The study says if human souls exist, they come from a different realm and return there after the body dies. In this realm, the usual laws of physics might not apply, but there could be similarities to our physical universe. It introduces the concept of “quasi-fields,” which are similar to quantum fields in our universe but exist in the domain of the soul.

These quasi-fields may give rise to massless particles, similar to how quantum fields produce massless particles like photons in the physical world.

Researchers suggest that if there’s no Higgs-like field in the soul realm, then everything there would be massless. It also notes that while many discussions about the soul view it as a fothe “soul field” is expected to have specific values or strengths related to the energy and particles that make it up. However, these values might be impossible to measure directly with any devices. The soul field’s values would depend on the physical space and time because the soul exists in a body while it’s alive. Additionally, the soul field might also involve different types of space and time when it exists in a separate, non-physical realm. This implies that there is a kind of space in the soul domain, allowing for movement and the passage of time, rather than everything happening instantly of spiritual energy, this idea alone doesn’t fully explain its nature.

Ultimately, it proposes that the human soul can be understood as a type of quantum field (quasi-field) that shares some properties with the quantum fields we know in our universe. This perspective is somewhat different from previous discussions in the literature on the topic.

The “soul field” is expected to have specific values or strengths related to the energy and particles that make it up. However, these values might be impossible to measure directly with any devices.

The soul field’s values would depend on the physical space and time because the soul exists in a body while it’s alive. Additionally, the soul field might also involve different types of space and time when it exists in a separate, non-physical realm. This implies that there is a kind of space in the soul domain, allowing for movement and the passage of time, rather than everything happening instantly.

The interaction between the soul and matter, focusing on ideas from quantum field theory (QFT). It mentions a question raised by physicist Sean Carroll about how the soul interacts with matter, specifically electrons. Carroll suggests that if the soul interacts with electrons, there should be a part in the Dirac equation that describes this interaction, but no evidence supports this. [Source

The conclusion drawn is that either QFT is incorrect or the soul does not exist. To resolve this, the text proposes that the soul does not directly interact with matter like electrons or other particles with mass (like quarks). Instead, the soul interacts with specific fields in the universe, particularly electromagnetic (EM) waves.

Evidence for this interaction comes from near-death experiences (NDEs), where individuals report seeing events that they couldn’t have seen physically, but these events are confirmed by others present. The text suggests that the soul can sense and process EM waves, likely through interactions with photons (light particles) that impact the soul field. This is compared to how humans perceive light through electrons in the eye, but how the soul processes this information to achieve vision remains uncertain.

Read also:

• This Woman Nearly Died & Found Humans Are a Temporary Symbiosis Between TWO Beings: One Mortal, One Immortal. Death Does Not Exist, Only Transition
• This Professor Claimed That Out of 225 Cases Studying Reincarnation, 75 Had Birthmarks Corresponding with Past Life Memories.
• This Salt Lake City Tech CEO Found Dead After Eerie Calls: ‘It’s All a Game… We’re in the Matrix’

A verified account of a near-death experience (NDE) was reported in the case of a female physician Bettina Peyton whose heart stopped during surgery. Despite her eyes being taped shut, she described seeing a white-haired senior doctor in scrubs entering the operating room and working on her. This event was later confirmed to have actually happened. [Source]

Her description of the experience, where she seems to view the situation from outside her body, suggests that the soul might behave like a “floating cortex” after it separates from the physical body. When someone goes through a near-death experience, they report being able to hear conversations around them, which raises questions about how this is possible if their heart has stopped.

One idea is that, even though the heart isn’t beating, the cells responsible for hearing can still work for a short time. These cells can send electrical signals through the auditory nerve to the brain, which the soul can interpret as sounds.

The study describes how electric fields created by brain activity can contain information, including memories. If the soul can pick up on these electric fields, then memories might continue to exist after death, moving with the soul. This suggests that memories don’t just disappear when someone dies.[Source]

Furthermore, the connection between the soul and these electric fields might work both ways. Not only can electric fields affect the soul, but the soul might also influence brain activity. This could play a role in how memories and self-awareness are transferred to a new body during reincarnation.

Scientists know that the brain’s electric fields can affect nearby neurons, which might mean the soul field could impact how neurons work as well. [Source]

However, if the soul does interact with electric fields in the body, it’s tricky to measure this interaction. This means proving the existence of the soul through its effects on these fields might be impossible.

{ https://www.howandwhys.com/ }

25-09-2024 om 23:23 geschreven door peter  

De Aarde had ook zijn planetaire ringen, net als Saturnus: dat stelt een onderzoek

door Janine

Kevin M. Gill/Wikimedia Commons - CC BY 2.0

We kennen allemaal Saturnus, een van de meest iconische planeten in het zonnestelsel vanwege zijn spectaculaire planetaire ringen. Natuurlijk hebben Uranus en Neptunus ook iets dergelijks, en hetzelfde kan gezegd worden van Jupiter, maar deze structuren hebben niet dezelfde charme. Onlangs is er echter een onderzoek gedaan dat suggereert dat ook de aarde zo'n 460 miljoen jaar geleden haar eigen ringenstelsel kan hebben gehad. Laten we eens kijken hoe dit mogelijk is!

Had de Aarde ook planetaire ringen?

Een team onderzoekers van de Monash University in Melbourne stelt deze hypothese voor in een studie die is gepubliceerd in het tijdschrift Earth and Planetary Science Letters. De wetenschappers analyseerden inslagkraters die werden gecreëerd door asteroïden tijdens het Ordovicium, tussen 485 en 443 miljoen jaar geleden. Het probleem is dit: er werden 21 kraters geïdentificeerd die zich binnen 30 graden van de evenaar bevonden, maar de verdeling is te afwijkend om in traditionele theorieën te passen. Kortom, waarom zijn alle kraters geconcentreerd in deze gordel als meer dan tweederde van de aardkorst daarbuiten ligt?

Volgens de onderzoekers is het antwoord duidelijk: zo'n 460 miljoen jaar geleden zou een grote asteroïde de aarde hebben benaderd tot hij de limiet van Roche passeerde, waarna hij werd beïnvloed door getijdenkrachten. Als gevolg daarvan zou de asteroïde zijn gaan fragmenteren en deze fragmenten zouden hebben geholpen bij het vormen van een ring van puin rond de aarde. Net als bij Saturnus en andere gasreuzen.

Planeetringen en ijstijden

Oliver Hull/Monash University

Wat is het verband tussen de vorming van planetaire ringen en de concentratie inslagkraters die Australische onderzoekers hebben ontdekt? Simpel: na de vorming zouden de brokstukken die de ring vormden in de loop van miljoenen jaren beetje bij beetje op de aarde zijn gevallen en zo de piek in kraters hebben veroorzaakt. Maar dat is nog niet alles, want de studie probeerde ook bewijs te vinden voor de klimatologische gevolgen die een ringsysteem zeker zou hebben gehad op de aarde.

Vanuit dit perspectief zouden de planetaire ringen een deel van het zonlicht hebben kunnen tegenhouden en hebben bijgedragen aan de wereldwijde afkoeling. En in feite vindt precies aan het einde van het Ordovicium de Hirnatien-ijstijd plaats, die wordt beschouwd als een van de koudste periodes van de afgelopen 500 miljoen jaar. Bovendien is het deze ijstijd die de massa-uitsterving in het Ordovicium veroorzaakte, de eerste van de vijf grote massa-uitstervingen in de geschiedenis van de aarde. Gebeurde dit allemaal door 'onze' planeetringen?

Perspectieven van het onderzoek

De ontdekking door Australische onderzoekers kan veel bredere gevolgen hebben dan verwacht. In de praktijk gaat het niet alleen om het idee dat de Aarde ook een eigen planetair ringenstelsel kan hebben gehad, maar om overwegingen van complexere aard:

•  ten eerste, wat er in het laatste deel van het Ordovicium gebeurde, zou ook gebeurd kunnen zijn in de 4 miljard jaar van de vorige geschiedenis van de Aarde;
• ten tweede kan de vorming en het daaropvolgende verval van een planetaire ring belangrijke gevolgen hebben gehad voor het klimaat op aarde;
• ten slotte spelen astronomische gebeurtenissen, waaronder de vorming van planeetringen, een veel belangrijkere rol in de geschiedenis van een planeet dan verwacht.

Kortom, als de hypothese van het onderzoek gegrond blijkt te zijn, staan we mogelijk aan het begin van een geheel nieuw onderzoeksgebied over de interactie tussen de aarde en de kosmos. Met gevolgen voor de hele evolutionaire geschiedenis van onze planeet.

{ https://www.curioctopus.nl/ }

25-09-2024 om 22:44 geschreven door peter