Uranus' MOON could harbour extraterrestrials, scientists say after discovering evidence of an ocean beneath its surface

• READ MORE: Uranus is gassier than we thought, scientists say 

By Shivali Best For Mailonline 

It's one of the biggest unanswered questions in science – if there's life beyond Earth, where is it?

While you might think the answer is 'far far away', surprisingly, it could be much closer to home than we thought.

A new study suggests that extraterrestrials could be hiding just 1.7 billion miles from Earth - on Uranus' moon, Miranda. 

Researchers at the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory have discovered evidence of an ocean beneath Miranda's surface, which they say could be habitable.    

'To find evidence of an ocean inside a small object like Miranda is incredibly surprising,' said Tom Nordheim, co-author of the study.

'It helps build on the story that some of these moons at Uranus may be really interesting—that there may be several ocean worlds around one of the most distant planets in our solar system, which is both exciting and bizarre.'

Based on the findings, the researchers are calling for a new mission to Uranus. 

'We're excited by the possibilities and eager to return to study Uranus and its potential ocean moons in depth,' Mr Nordheim added. 

A new study suggests that extraterrestrials could be hiding just 1.7 billion miles from Earth - on Uranus' moon, Miranda

It's one of the biggest unanswered questions in science – if there's life beyond Earth, where is it? While you might think the answer is 'far far away', surprisingly, it could be much closer to home than we thought

Among the 288 moons orbiting the planets in our solar system, the scientists say that Miranda 'stands out'. 

Images snapped by NASA's Voyager-2 spacecraft back in 1986 showed that the moon's southern hemisphere was a 'Frankenstein-like hodgepodge' of grooved terrain. 

The researchers compared this landscape to the squares on a quilt - and suspected it may be the result of tidal forces within the moon. 

In their new study, the team reassessed these images to understand what the moon's interior could look like. 

Firstly, the team mapped the moon's surface features, including its cracks and ridges. 

Next, they developed a computer model to test several possible structures of the moon's interior. 

Their analysis revealed that the interior that produced the best match with the surface was a vast ocean under Miranda's icy surface, some 100-500 million years ago. 

This ocean was no more than 19 miles below the surface, and extended for at least 62 miles, according to the model. 

The only spacecraft to visit Uranus was NASA's Voyager 2 in 1986 - and this isn't the first time that scientists have called for a fresh mission

Given Miranda's radius is just 146 miles, this suggests the ocean would have filled almost half of the moon's body. 

Caleb Strom, who led the study, said: 'That result was a big surprise to the team.'

The researchers are unsure if the ocean is still there , and say that if it is, it's relatively thin.

'But the suggestion of an ocean inside one of the most distant moons in the solar system is remarkable,' Mr Strom added.

Based on the findings, the researchers are calling for a new mission to Uranus to photograph its moon once again. 

'We won't know for sure that it even has an ocean until we go back and collect more data,' Mr Nordheim said. 

'We're squeezing the last bit of science we can from Voyager 2's images.'

The only spacecraft to visit Uranus was NASA's Voyager 2 in 1986 - and this isn't the first time that scientists have called for a fresh mission. 

Back in 2022, a report by the National Academy of Sciences urged NASA to launch a mission to Uranus. 

The report called Uranus 'one of the most intriguing bodies in the solar system', and said studying it would improve our understanding of ice giants generally.

The group said the spacecraft should operate in the system over a number of years, orbiting the ice giant and sending a probe into its atmosphere.

{ https://www.dailymail.co.uk/ }

31-10-2024 om 22:50 geschreven door peter  

EXCLUSIVE - Pentagon chief reveals high-res photo of a UFO 'mothership': 'A huge mini city floating in the sky'

• READ MORE: UFOs may be from 'stealth civilization' on Earth, Harvard study says

By Matthew Phelan Senior Science Reporter For Dailymail.Com

'Guess what we caught in Romania in 2022? By the way, the US Embassy,' as Elizondo told attendees at the paid event, gesturing to the photo: 'That.'

He went on to describe it as a 'huge mini city floating in the sky.' 

But the UFO, which resembles a gleaming disc-shaped craft, has already drawn withering critiques from skeptics, believers and even military UFO witnesses alike, who claim to have traced the photo to, not to the US Embassy, but a Facebook page.

One suggested to DailyMail.com that Elizondo has been lax in his vetting of such images in a bid to add sensational new material to his 'paid speaking engagements.'

Ex-Pentagon official Luis Elizondo (right), who gained fame for blowing the lid off a $22-million, secretive government UFO program, has revealed an image of a UFO 'mothership'

'Guess what we caught in Romania in 2022? By the way, the US Embassy,' as Elizondo told attendees at the paid event, gesturing to the photo (above): 'That'

UFO encounter himself in the Middle East decades ago, told DailyMail.com that Elizondo's dubious 'mothership' UFO fits a pattern with the man's past claims. 

'This unfortunate situation with Lue follows my experiences with him nearly exactly,' McGowan said. 'I witnessed him exaggerate or outright fabricate information that simply wasn't true.'

Elizondo unveiled the 2022 Romanian UFO photo at an October 28, 2024 event held at The City Winery, a wine bar in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, for $50-$30 per ticket.

'There's a whole lot more here folks,' Elizondo told the audience in a leaked clip. 'I just want to give you kind of a small taste of what's going on "behind the scenes."'

'We're having pilots, military pilots and civilian pilots in Eastern Europe and in the Middle East, report what unimaginably seems impossible,' as Elizondo began to explain his 'real photo' of a UFO.

'They described it literally 'the mothership,'' Elizondo said.

But despite credible federal reports of 'mothership' UFOs over domestic US military sites — investigated by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), an FBI task force, the Air Force Office of Special Investigations (AFOSI) and 16 local sheriff's offices — internet sleuths quickly managed to poke holes in Elizondo's 2022 Romanian UFO.

John Greenewald Jr, a longtime government transparency advocate who runs The Black Vault, quickly tracked the photo back to a September 13, 2023 post in a Facebook group titled 'Mysterious Ancient Discoveries.'

John Greenewald Jr, a longtime government transparency advocate who runs The Black Vault , quickly tracked the photo back to a September 13, 2023 post in a Facebook group titled ' Mysterious Ancient Discoveries' (above)

The higher resolution image of this apparent 'mothership,' which looks at first glance to be piercing clouds with its beatific shafts of light, appears more likely to have originated as the reflection of an indoor chandelier lamp reflected in window glass

'I reverse imaged searched it,' Greenewald posted on X. 'It got more than 182,000 likes and more than 23,700 comments.'

The higher resolution image of this apparent 'mothership,' which looks at first glance to be piercing clouds with its beatific shafts of light, appears more likely to have originated as the reflection of an indoor chandelier lamp reflected in window glass. 

The placement of Romania's coal-fired Arad Power Station indicates the image was not taken from the US Embassy, but a building near the Mureș River a few miles away.

America's Embassy in Romania is roughly 400 miles to the southeast of Arad, in the capital city of Bucharest.

While dedicated UFO skeptics were eager to pounce on Elizondo's inaccurate claims, UFO enthusiasts also expressed frustration over the episode. 

'Lue is 100 percent using us as pawns to line his pockets,' one contributor to the Reddit forum r/UFOs lamented. 'His most recent book was no.1 seller in the nation.'

'It's muddying the waters and detracting from the important convo,' another opined.

By midday Wednesday, Elizondo was publicly attributing the error to 'a friend in Government' who provided him with the photo 'a couple of years ago.'

Retired USAF Staff Sergeant McGowan, however, told DailyMail.com that Elizondo's error was far from a one-off mistake. 

'I've been on the receiving end where Lue has pulled out his cell phone and shown me what he described as highly classified video,' McGowan told DailyMail.com.

The placement of Romania's coal-fired Arad Power Station (above) indicates the image was not taken from the US Embassy, but a building near the Mureș River a few miles away. America's Embassy in Romania is roughly 400 miles to the southeast of Arad, in Bucharest

'For him to think I would believe he would simply carry classified info on an unsecure civilian cell phone is just insulting,' he added. 'And it wasn't just me, multiple podcast hosts were shown video Lue attributed to things they were not.'

For the past two years, McGowan has been notably public about this instance in which Elizondo showed him what he claimed was, in McGowan's words, 'a highly secret video smuggled out of Russia' taken by a Soviet Union probe near Mars.

The video, as McGowan recollected to DailyMail.com, looked to be a decades-old public UFO video from the Soviet's Phobos 2 probe, released by retired Soviet Air Force Colonel Marina Popovich in 1991.

Elizondo had shown the video to McGowan, in hushed tones, in January 2021.  

While Popovich, who wrote a book about her own UFO encounters as a test pilot, long maintained the Phobos 2 video depicted a legitimate alien craft, the odd video had nevertheless been public for about three decades, in other words.

'There is a striking similarity between that public video and what Lue showed me on his phone,' McGowan recollected. 

'Only saw it for a few seconds,' he said, 'so the granular details didn't get absorbed.'

McGowan, whose duties in the Air Force included service in Desert Storm attached to Joint Special Operations Command (JSOC) and drug enforcement missions in Colombia, has been public for years on his own UFO encounter. 

In the mid-90s, while serving as a member of the JSOC J2 Security Team for 'Ellipse Foxtrot,' Jeremy McGowan (above) says he was a witness to unusual aerial lights appearing to survey a highly classified cargo container he had been tasked with guarding in the desert

For the past two years, McGowan has been notably public about an instance in which Elizondo showed him what he claimed was, in McGowan's words, 'a highly secret video smuggled out of Russia' taken by a Soviet probe near Mars. The video however had been public since 1991

In the mid-90s, while serving as a member of the JSOC J2 Security Team for 'Ellipse Foxtrot,' McGowan says he was a witness to unusual aerial lights appearing to survey a highly classified cargo container he had been tasked with guarding in the desert.  

He spoke to the History Channel about this UFO sighting in the Mid East for the 2020 docu-series 'Unidentified,' which had been hosted by Luis Elizondo.

As McGowan recollected about his appearance on the show in a Medium blog post, he had agreed to this on-camera interview in the hopes of getting back in touch with other witnesses to the event, but felt 'used' by the experience.  

'I was supposed to be introduced to investigators and researchers who could help me identify the person with me on that dune and saw what I saw!' he wrote in 2022. 

'I left with no answers [...] I sent a few emails to production that were ignored, and I was never extended the courtesy promised to me.'

By midday Wednesday, Elizondo was publicly attributing the error to 'a friend in Government' who provided him with the photo 'a couple of years ago' (above)

Elizondo unveiled the 2022 Romanian UFO photo at an October 28, 2004 event held at The City Winery, a wine bar in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania , for $50-$30 per ticket

Federal government concern about 'mothership' UFOs harboring swarms of 'drones,' have spilled out into public view following the release of internal reports via the US Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) in recent years. 

Weeks of reports of mystery 'drones' swept eastern Colorado and nearby areas of Nebraska, Wyoming and Kansas over the winter holidays of 2019 into the new year.

The sightings worried citizens and local law enforcement alike, but odd craft and thier 'motherships' troubled the US military especially for their proximity to some of America's sensitive, nuclear-equipped intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs).

'They all seem clustered in an area that has quite a few Minuteman sites,' a redacted official confessed in one email released via FOIA by F.E. Warren Air Force Base.

F.E. Warren security staff spoke to local sheriff's deputies who ' reported seeing a 'mothership' six feet in diameter flanked by 10 smaller drones (some fixed wing, some not).'

'When deputies follow the drones, they clock them at speeds of 60-70 mph,' the redacted base official stated.

{ https://www.dailymail.co.uk/ }

31-10-2024 om 22:27 geschreven door peter  

Climate catastrophe plunged Scandinavia into years of darkness and killed HALF of Norway and Sweden 1,500 years ago, study finds

• READ MORE: Vikings may have practiced form of plastic surgery 1,000 years ago

By Michael Havis For Mailonline

A real-life Ragnarok plunged Scandinavia into years of darkness and killed up to half of the people in Norway and Sweden, new research reveals.

In Viking belief, Ragnarok is the end of the world, when the Norse gods die battling demons and giants in an apocalyptic final clash.

And the agony of Ragnarok begins with the Fimbulvetr – a winter lasting three years that ends almost all human life.

Now new research has shown that the Nordic world really faced such a long winter, and its impact on human life was devastating.

By analysing tree rings, scientists at the National Museum of Denmark proved a real-life climate catastrophe took place 1,500 years ago.

Morten Fischer Mortensen, a senior researcher at the museum, said it was the result of volcanic eruptions enveloping the world in a veil of ash and sulphur.

He said: 'I imagine it would have been terrifying – the volcanic eruptions happen so far away from Europe that no one would have known the cause.

'Then you realise - perhaps overnight - that the sun is hidden behind a veil, and it is not warm and yellow, but cold and bluish.

A real-life Ragnarok plunged Scandinavia into years of darkness and killed up to half of the people in Norway and Sweden, new research reveals

(artist's impression)

By analysing tree rings, scientists at the National Museum of Denmark proved a real-life climate catastrophe took place 1,500 years ago

'Even in the middle of the day, no shadows were cast and for more than a year no stars could be seen in the sky.'

To complete their research, scientists analysed 650 pieces of oak from between 300 and 800 AD.

They found growth rings became dramatically smaller starting in 536 AD, and even more so between 539 and 541 AD.

Mortensen described the impact on civilisation.

He continued: 'Based on our studies of the tree rings, we can see that for several years there were really poor growing conditions, which must also have been true for the farmers' crops.

'We are in a period where everyone lives off, and on, the land, and is 100% self-sufficient.

'So when the harvest fails for several years in a row, it's really critical.'

For many, it was unsurvivable.

Morten Fischer Mortensen, a senior researcher at the museum, said the event was the result of volcanic eruptions enveloping the world in a veil of ash and sulphur

Photo shows a depiction of the final battle of the gods during Ragnarok by Johannes Gehrts 

Mortensen said: 'Landscape reconstructions based on pollen analyses shows that some areas were abandoned and forest spread over the abandoned fields.

'Power structures shifted and, in Denmark, we have many large deposits of gold that have been interpreted as offerings to the gods to bring back the sun.

'Many settlements ceased to exist, and it is easy to imagine that hunger, famine, and disease took the lives of a large part of the population.'

He added: 'In Norway and Sweden, researchers believe that up to half the population died, and it is not inconceivable that the same happened in Denmark.

'It almost gives me chills to see these small, narrow annual rings because I know how much sorrow, death and misfortune they represent.'

Furthermore, the similarity with the Fimbulvetr of Ragnarok legend may be no coincidence.

Mortensen said: 'It is remarkable that for three summers in a row the oak trees have virtually no summer growth.

'The myth of Ragnarok starts with a three-year-long winter with no summer in between.

'Of course, we can't prove a direct link between the climate event and the myth, but there is a strong correlation.

'It is therefore conceivable that elements of what people have experienced have found their way into the myths and are thus an echo of previous experiences.'

Which volcanoes caused the long winter has not been determined.

But candidates have been proposed in Papua New Guinea, El Salvador, Indonesia, Iceland, and North America.

In any case, the disaster was not limited to the Nordic world – climate modelling shows a global temperature drop of several degrees.

Written sources from as far apart as the Roman empire and China attest to the change in climate.

It's even been suggested that the drop in temperature boosted crop fertility in the Arabian Peninsula, boosting the food supply and contributing to the Islamic conquests.

For the Danes, however, the winter left another – less dramatic – legacy.

Mortensen explained: 'Danes have a great love for rye bread.

'Rye is a cereal that arrives very late to the country and only becomes common in the centuries after the climate crisis.

'At the same time, rye can survive with the fewest hours of sunshine and can grow on relatively poor soil.

'Therefore, it's likely that rye is a crop we adopt as a hedge against bad times – a crop that has the best chance of yielding a return in the bad years.'

Mortensen and his colleagues published their study in the Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports.

DID THE VIKINGS DISCOVER NORTH AMERICA?

Some experts believe the Vikings may have discovered North America nearly 500 years before Christopher Columbus made his famous journey to the New World. 

L'Anse aux Meadows was the first Viking settlement believed to have been found in North America in the 1960s.

In 2016, scientists claimed to have uncovered another Viking settlement in Newfoundland that was built between 800 AD and 1300 AD.

Some experts believe the Vikings may have discovered North America nearly 500 years before Christopher Columbus made his famous journey to the New World

The site, discovered in an area called Point Rosee in southern Newfoundland, is 400 miles (643km) south west of a Viking settlement found in L'Anse aux Meadows during the 1960s.

Now, one expert claims to have found a mysterious location known as 'Hop'.

Based on Viking descriptions, three key things identify this mystical settlement - an abundance of grapes, salmon and canoes made from animal hide. 

An archaeologist claims the only place that matches this description is the Miramichi-Chaleur bay area in northeastern New Brunswick in Canada.

This would be the third Viking settlement claimed to have been found in North America, although it could be hard to ever prove it for once and for all.

It is thought the Vikings first discovered America by accident in the autumn of 986 AD, according to one historical source, the Saga of the Greenlanders.

It tells how Bjarni Herjolfsson stumbled across North America after being blown off course as he attempted to sail from Norway to Greenland, but he did not go ashore.

Inspired by his tales, however, another Viking Leif Ericsson then mounted his own expedition and found North America in 1002.

Finding it a fertile land, rich in grapes and berries, he named it Vinland.

Eriksson also named two further 'lands' on the North American coast - one with flat stones, which he called Helluland, and one that was flat and wooded, named Markland.

{ https://www.dailymail.co.uk/ }

31-10-2024 om 21:57 geschreven door peter  

Alien life could be lurking on Mars, NASA says

• READ MORE: NASA finds gas traces in Martian crater - that could be signs of life

By Matthew Phelan Senior Science Reporter For Dailymail.Com

A NASA-led study has revealed that alien life could be hiding beneath the icy layers of Mars.

Scientists suggested that the Red Planet's ancient ice packs may have long acted as a shield for microbial life, blocking out deadly cosmic radiation.

But the key to their survival would be ice that likely formed from dusty snowfall, where sunlight absorbed by that darker dust would allow pockets of melt water to develop safely under its icy surface, lead author Dr Aditya Khuller told DailyMail.com.

Computer modeling showed that the amount of light piecing the water ice could trigger photosynthesis in these shallow pools of meltwater — similar to pools on Earth that are teeming with life.  

'These are called "cryoconite holes" and form when dust and sediment on top of the ice melt into the ice because it is darker than the ice,' said Dr Khuller, who worked as a planetary scientist at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory.

A host of tiny, plant-like creatures have been documented in cryoconite holes on Earth — including algae, fungi, and cyanobacteria, all of which pull in energy from the sun via photosynthesis to live. 

'If we're trying to find life anywhere in the universe today, Martian ice exposures are probably one of the most accessible places we should be looking,' Dr Khuller said.

A 2016 image from NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter documenting what scientists believe is dusty ice lining the edges of a set of Martian gullies. Planetary scientist Dr Aditya Khuller and his co-authors believe this ice (pictured) should be a prime candidate in the search for alien life

These cryoconite colonies have been uncovered and studied everywhere from Antarctica, to Greenland, to Norway's Svalbard archipelago: an island chain midway between the Scandinavian country's northern coast and the North Pole.

'The microorganisms typically go dormant in the winter,' Dr Khuller told Space.com, 'when there is not enough sunlight to form liquid water within the dusty ice.'

'So, the two key ingredients for photosynthesis can be present within dusty Martian ice in the mid-latitudes,' he added. 'Photosynthesis requires adequate amounts of sunlight and also liquid water to occur.'

The new study builds off of Dr Khuller's work as a PhD student, when he worked on a project to predict the dust content of ice deposits on Mars — based off of data collected by NASA's Phoenix Mars Lander and its Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter.

The team poured this data into computer simulations that were originally built to predict the brightness of terrestrial snow and glacier ice on Earth.

These brightness models built off of Earth's well-studied and better understood ice, they theorized, would help estimate the dust content mixed into distant Martian ice.

'This small amount of dust has a very important effect,' Dr Khuller told DailyMail.com.

'The depth to which enough sunlight can reach for photosynthesis to occur within the ice changes depending on how dusty the ice is,' he noted. 'Similarly, the amount of dust within the ice also changes the depth [down] to which harmful ultraviolet radiation can penetrate.'

The Martian life that may one day be found in the Red Planet's dusty ice might resemble life in ' 'cryoconite holes' here on Earth. Above, researchers sample a cryoconite hole on the Longyearbreen glacier, somewhere along Norway's Svalbard archipelago in 2017

'The microorganisms typically go dormant in the winter when there is not enough sunlight to form liquid water within the dusty ice,' researchers said. Above, More cryoconite sampling performed during that same field work for a 2017 Arctic microbiology course on Svalbard

The team's computer modelling efforts predicted that ice containing higher amounts of dust, 0.01 to 0.1 percent, will only be able to support life at a depth around five to 38 centimeter below the surface.

But, Dr Khuller noted: 'There are zones where photosynthesis could occur at [...] meter-depths for cleaner ice.'

The cleaner ice was found to be especially fertile territory for deeper pockets of microbial life along Mars' mid-latitude ranges, in both its northern and southern hemispheres. 

At 40° latitude in both hemispheres, these colonies of tiny alien life could exist as far down as 2.15 to 3.10 meters deep, based on Dr Khuller and his team's estimates,  published Thursday in the journal Nature Communications Earth & Environment. 

'We are not stating we have found life on Mars,' Dr Khuller emphasized to reporters, 'but instead we believe that dusty Martian ice exposures in the mid-latitudes represent the most easily accessible places to search for Martian life today.' 

But, complicating matters, Mars, unlike Earth, has two different kinds of naturally occurring ice: frozen water and frozen carbon dioxide, a la man-made 'dry ice.' 

Thanks to the thin and dry atmosphere on Mars, planetary and atmospheric scientists are still debating whether or not melting 'water ice' even becomes liquid water there at all — with many arguing it 'sublimates' immediately into water vapor.

The ice sheets that might hold life on Mars were formed by dusty snow storms over the course of dozens of ice ages that hit the Red Planet across the past 5 million years. Above: a May 12, 2016 NASA image taken with the Hubble Space Telescope showing Mars' visible cloud cover

Above a NASA-funded artist's concept of what Mars might have once looked like with liquid water (blue regions). Data collected by NASA's Curiosity rover has suggested that Mars was once a water world fit for life - whose surface later became inhospitable to human or other life

Melting water ice shielded under layers of ice and snow might fare better, but there is still a lot of guess work in this process, Dr. Khuller noted.

'As far as I know, it is currently believed that Martian dust across the planet has the same composition,' he continued. 

Read More

• Life on Mars? Scientists discover 'oceans' of water 12 miles beneath the surface of the Red Planet 

'However, we currently do not have any samples of Martian material returned to Earth for detailed analyses,' he added, 'so it is difficult to be sure.'  

'We'd love to access samples from within that ice at some point, but that's for a future mission to consider.' told DailyMail.com

Big questions remain as to whether or not photosynthetic life exists on Mars now or even if it once did during its earlier epochs, when it had more liquid water and a stronger magnetosphere to protect it from the sun's cosmic rays.

But, at least, for now, Dr Khuller and his colleagues have helped narrow down where alien life is most likely to be on the vast 55.74 million square-miles of Martian surface.

'I am working with a team of scientists to develop improved simulations of if, where, and when dusty ice could be melting on Mars today,' Dr Khuller told DailyMail.com. 

'Additionally, we are recreating some of these dusty ice scenarios in a lab setting to examine them in more detail,' said the researcher, who will be joining the University of Washington's Applied Physics Laboratory in Seattle this coming November.

Is There Life on Mars? We Asked a NASA Scientist

Encounters with UFOs; Search for ancient life on Mars; James Webb Space Telescope | Full Episodes

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31-10-2024 om 21:36 geschreven door peter  

Story by Hiyah Zaidi

 

(Picture: Getty)

Scientists discover a ‘third state’ between life and death
Not alive, not dead, but a third state. Sounds spooky, but it’s the future of medicine. More specifically, this ‘third state’ is when the cells of an organism adopt new functions even after ‘death’. Or in other words, the cells are functioning, but the being is dead. And this spooky phenomenon is revolutionising synthetic biology as, usually, death is considered to be irreversible. But with this new discovery of a ‘third state,’ different cells from a range of organisms can be repurposed into biological ‘robots’. But what can they do? 

(Picture: Getty)

Scientists discover a ‘third state’ between life and death

In a review published in the journal Physiology, researchers are contemplating the implications of taking cells from organisms (dead or alive) and turning them into biological robots that have new functions. For example, researchers have managed to successfully create tiny 'robots' from human cells which could be used to heal wounds, regenerate tissue and treat diseases, known as anthrobots. In another instance, researchers from Tufts University in Massachusetts have also created xenobots from the cells of already dead frogs. The cells, despite coming from a dead organism, can self replicate and perform simple tasks 

(Picture: Getty)

Scientists discover a ‘third state’ between life and death
The creation of these biobots essentially points to the ‘third state’. In The Conversation, biologists Dr Peter Noble and Dr Alex Pozhitkov, co-authors of the review, wrote: ‘The third state challenges how scientists typically understand cell behaviour. While caterpillars metamorphosing into butterflies, or tadpoles evolving into frogs, may be familiar developmental transformations, there are few instances where organisms change in ways that are not predetermined. Tumours, organoids and cell lines that can indefinitely divide in a petri dish, like HeLa cells, are not considered part of the third state because they do not develop new function’ 

(Picture: Getty)

Scientists discover a ‘third state’ between life and death
So, to break it down even further, third state ‘beings’ are those that can undertake new functions after death. This means cancer cells are also excluded, since they don’t exhibit new functions either. Going back to the anthrobots, they were taken from human lung cells. But somehow they managed to repair damaged neuron cells placed in a nearby petri dish. They managed to move by using their own hair like projections, also known as cilia (Picture: Getty)

(Picture: Getty)

Scientists discover a ‘third state’ between life and death
Dr Noble and Dr Pozhitkov wrote: ‘Taken together, these findings demonstrate the inherent plasticity of cellular systems and challenge the idea that cells and organisms can evolve only in predetermined ways. Taken together, these findings demonstrate the inherent plasticity of cellular systems and challenge the idea that cells and organisms can evolve only in predetermined ways’ 

(Picture: Getty)

Scientists discover a ‘third state’ between life and death
Although the third state beings have semi-cheated death, they only last for no more than 60 days, and biograde when they’re dead – they are natural organisms, after all. Even so, 60 days is still a wonder since it's unclear how these repurposed cells are able to live so long after an organism dies, and we still don’t know the extent of their new functions 

(Picture: Getty)

Scientists discover a ‘third state’ between life and death
The authors give one hypothesis, however: ‘One hypothesis is that specialised channels and pumps embedded in the outer membranes of cells serve as intricate electrical circuits. These channels and pumps generate electrical signals that allow cells to communicate with each other and execute specific functions such as growth and movement, shaping the structure of the organism they form’ 

Xenobots can move, heal and interact with their environment on their own.

Diagram A shows an anthrobot building a bridge across a scratched neuron over the course of three days. Diagram B highlights the ‘stitch’ in green at the end of Day 3.

Gumuskaya et al. 2023/Advanced Science, CC BY-SA

Different cell types have different capacities for survival, including white blood cells.

Ed Reschke/Stone via Getty Images

{ https://www.msn.com/en-us/ }

31-10-2024 om 21:15 geschreven door peter  

Story by Conor Feehly

 

Mysterious green spots hidden in Martian rock indicate past interaction with liquid water.

NASA's Mars Perseverance rover acquired this image, a nighttime mosaic of the Malgosa Crest abrasion patch at “Serpentine Rapids,” using its SHERLOC WATSON camera, located on the turret at the end of the rover's robotic arm. The diameter of the abrasion patch is 5 centimeters (about 2 inches) and the large green spot in the upper center left of the image is approximately 2 millimeters (about 0.08 inch) in diameter. Mosaic source images have been debayered, flat-fielded, and linearly color stretched. This image was acquired on Aug. 19, 2024 (sol 1243, or Martian day 1,243 of the Mars 2020 mission) at the local mean solar time of 19:45:30.

NASA/JPL-Caltech

NASA's Perseverance rover is approaching four years of activity on the Martian surface — and all this time, the rover has been exploring ancient environments, collecting samples, and investigating whether our reddish neighbor may have once supported microbial life

In its latest findings, Perseverance took a nighttime mosaic image of the Malgosa Crest abrasion patch, at a location called the "Serpentine Rapids," using its SHERLOC WATSON camera. The image revealed white, black and, surprisingly, green-ish spots within the rock. While these rocks' composition remains a mystery, the unexpected find has scientists excited about what other hidden gems Perseverance might stumble across going forward.

To acquire images from within the rock, Perseverance made an abrasion patch in a rock outcrop named "Wallace Butte." The abrasion patch measured five centimeters (roughly two inches) in diameter, and the large green spot that can be seen in the upper left of the image is approximately two millimeters (about 0.08 inches) in diameter. The image was acquired on Aug. 19, on Martian day 1,243 of the Mars 2020 mission.

Rocks on Earth that resemble the studied red Martian rocks typically get their color from oxidized iron, the same type of iron that makes our blood red and similar to the oxidized red rust you might find on your car. The green spots that can be seen in Perseverance's new image are also common in red rocks on Earth, and are formed when liquid water seeps through sediment before hardening into rock. This process supports a chemical reaction that transforms oxidized iron to its reduced form, creating a green hue in the rock.

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Sometimes, microbes play a role in this process on Earth, but decaying organic matter can also create the right conditions for the reduction reaction. Chemical interaction between sulfur and iron can also facilitate iron-reduction reactions without the help of microorganisms.

Exactly what type of reaction was responsible for the green spots found in Perseverance's image will remain a puzzle, however, as there was not enough room for the rover to safely place its arms holding the SHERLOC and PIXL instruments directly on top of the green spot. Thus, the robotic explorer was denied a closer look. The team hopes Perseverance unearths something similar in the future to get a better understanding of what type of chemical reactions are generating these features in the rock.

Next on the agenda for Perseverance is to ascend to the Jezero Crater rim, during which time it will have to cover steep terrain. Then it will finally leave the crater it has called home for the last two years.

{ https://www.space.com/ }

31-10-2024 om 19:11 geschreven door peter  

Lasers reveal 3,000-year-old secret Mayan city with more than 6,500 structures

• READ MORE:  Ancient Mayan city containing 50-foot pyramids discovered

By Nikki Main Science Reporter For Dailymail.Com

Scientists have uncovered a secret Mayan city hiding in Mexico, which once featured an urban landscape of more than 6,500 structures.

The team used lidar technology to create three-dimensional models across 50 miles of land in Campeche, allowing them to map areas not visible to the naked eye.

The method revealed a 21-square-mile metropolis with iconic stone pyramids, houses and other infrastructure that have been concealed for more than 3,000 years.

There are hundreds of documented Mayan sites, but the newest find revealed that researchers aren't close to finding all the major Maya cities.

'Our analysis not only revealed a picture of a region that was dense with settlements, but it also revealed a lot of variability,' said the study's co-author, Luke Auld-Thomas, a doctoral student at Tulane University.

'We didn't just find rural areas and smaller settlements. We also found a large city with pyramids right next to the area's only highway, near a town where people have been actively farming among the ruins for years,' Auld-Thomas said. 

The city, called Valeriana, included a dam, ballcourt, houses and terraces as well as a curved amphitheater and temple pyramids

There are hundreds of documented Mayan sites , but the newest find revealed that researchers aren't close to finding all the major Maya cities

The team conducted an aerial lidar survey, which uses laser pulses to measure distances and create three-dimensional models of specific areas. 

It has allowed scientists to scan large swaths of land from the comfort of a computer lab, uncovering anomalies in the landscape that often prove to be pyramids, family houses and other examples Maya infrastructure. 

'Because lidar allows us to map large areas very quickly, and at really high precision and levels of detail, that made us react, 'Oh wow, there are so many buildings out there we didn't know about, the population must have been huge,' Auld-Thomas said. 

'The counterargument was that lidar surveys were still too tethered to known, large sites, such as Tikal, and therefore had developed a distorted image of the Maya lowlands. 

'What if the rest of the Maya area was far more rural and what we had mapped so far was the exception instead of the rule?' 

The team uncovered two blocks of the Mayan city, one of which included a distinct pseudo-pyramid that was identical to one found at Rio Bec - a pre-Columbian Mayan archaeological site located near the Guatemala border in the Yucatan Peninsula.

The city, called Valeriana, was adjacent to a freshwater lagoon and encompassed two major areas of architecture that includes a dam, ballcourt, houses and terraces.

Valeriana also contained a curved amphitheater, temple pyramids and a reservoir that 'has all the hallmarks of a classic Maya political capital,' the study said.

The survey was conducted near a highway, revealing the hidden city with over 6,5000 structures

The Mayan city was discovered near Campeche in Mexico and covers about 21 square miles

'The discovery of Valeriana highlights the fact that there are still major gaps in our knowledge of the existence or absence of large sites within as-yet unmapped areas of the Maya Lowlands,' researchers shared.

A third region of the city was identified as a 'sparse and modest settlement, consisting of scattered or loosely clustered residences with no monumental architecture and limited investment in water storage.

Read More

• Lasers reveal 650-square-mile ancient Mayan city hidden beneath Guatemala rainforest 

Tulane professor and co-author Marcello Canuto said: 'Lidar is teaching us that, like many other ancient civilizations, the lowland Maya built a diverse tapestry of towns and communities over their tropical landscape.' 

He continued: 'While some areas are replete with vast agricultural patches and dense populations, others have only small communities. 

'Nonetheless, we can now see how much the ancient Maya changed their environment to support a long-lived complex society.'

Although hundreds of sites have been found, it's impossible to determine exactly how many Mayan cities still have to be studied.

However, lidar technology is helping researchers unearth them much more quickly, particularly in regions of southern Mexico and Guatemala.

'The government never knew about it; the scientific community never knew about it. That really puts an exclamation point behind the statement that, no, we have not found everything, and yes, there's a lot more to be discovered,' Auld-Thomas said. 

{ https://www.dailymail.co.uk/ }

31-10-2024 om 00:00 geschreven door peter  

'They are on the brink of instigating a potential intervention on the part of an extraterrestrial civilisation in order to preserve the life generating capacity of our planet'

He has now returned with another one – when speaking to the Julian Dorey podcast about what aliens might want on Earth.

He said: “They (the aliens) are on the brink of instigating a potential intervention on the part of an extraterrestrial civilisation in order to preserve the life generating capacity of our planet.”

Claiming that world leaders are driving the planet to nuclear war and environmental collapse, he went on: “That's what's panicking them (the aliens). If they intervene in an aggressive enough way to shut off our nuclear weapons capacities in both the East and West then that's going to reveal their presence – we aren't ready for that yet.

“We haven't taken the steps to prepare ourselves for an intervention of an extraterrestrial civilisation like this.”

He also claimed that the aliens don't want to change those in power and the power dynamics of the planet as it could potentially harm them, as they want to “sustain what they have here”. The claims follow an earlier one about two locations where the aliens are living on Earth.

Having previously stated that one bases was under the sea bed off the island of Isla Guadalupe, Danny has stated another base is in a very different “secret” location.

He said, going into great detail about this “secret” location: “There's another base outside of Sedona, Arizona, over by a place called 'secret mount' wilderness – a totally desolate area.

“There's a base there where the craft are, there's a number of them high in the mountains in remote areas of the planet and they're here now and they're extraordinarily distressed about the state of affairs (of humanity).”

He had previously claimed that the aliens were “mantis people”, and when asked if they were aliens who had very advanced weaponry he claimed that it was “conceivable”.

{ https://www.dailystar.co.uk/ }

30-10-2024 om 23:54 geschreven door peter  

'There's a base there where the craft are, there's a number of them high in the mountains in remote areas of the planet and they're here now and they're extraordinarily distressed'

The aliens are in the 'secret' mountains in Arizona 

(Image: Getty Images)

The location of another alien base on Earth has been revealed. Alien-loving lawyer Danny Sheehan has been involved in bringing UFO whistleblowers to the United States Congress in recent years.

He has been helping to provide explosive evidence of alleged government cover-ups regarding real encounters with extraterrestrial beings. Danny's made a series of bombshell claims regarding the potential locations of two bases with hundreds of UFOs seen going “in and out of it”, and that aliens are stealing human eggs and sperm.

He has now returned with another one – when speaking to the Julian Dorey podcast about the location of one of those bases.

Danny Sheehan has made a series of bold alien claims 

(Image: Twitter/X//julianddorey)

Having previously stated that one bases was under the sea bed off the island of Isla Guadalupe, Danny has stated another base is in a very different “secret” location.

He said, going into great detail about this “secret” location: “There's another base outside of Sedona, Arizona, over by a place called 'secret mount' wilderness – a totally desolate area.

“There's a base there where the craft are, there's a number of them high in the mountains in remote areas of the planet and they're here now and they're extraordinarily distressed about the state of affairs (of humanity).”

He had previously claimed that the aliens were “mantis people”, and when asked if they were aliens who had very advanced weaponry he claimed that it was “conceivable”.

Sheehan also claimed that there was “US military” all around the mountain base who “company the comings and goings of these big triangles going in and out of there,” as well as witnesses who stated that they had seen “tall whites or tall greys there, along with the mantis people”.

When asked what the “mantis people” are, he said: “They are huge, seven feet tall, extraordinary skinny, thin, kind of bowed over and remind people of a praying mantis... they are also called 'insectoids'. Whenever they're seen with tall greys, they seem to be in charge... giving telepathic commands.”

He went on to claim that sightings were reported in 2018 by people who were abducted by the aliens.

{ https://www.dailystar.co.uk/ }

30-10-2024 om 23:42 geschreven door peter  

New Research Casts More Light on Mechanisms of End-Triassic Mass Extinction

The end-Triassic extinction along with the end-Permian and end-Cretaceous events are the most severe mass extinctions in the past 270 million years. The exact mechanisms of the end-Triassic extinction have long been debated, but most prominent: carbon dioxide surfaced by volcanic eruptions built up over many millennia, raising temperatures to unsustainable levels for many creatures, and acidifying ocean waters. But a new paper in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences says the opposite: cold, not warmth was the main culprit.

Outcrop area of CAMP rocks in Pangea showing paleolatitudes at CAMP time (201 million years ago) of key localities with the terrestrial end-Triassic extinction including the Newark Basin (NB) in northeastern North America, the Fundy Basin (FB) of Atlantic Canada, and the Central High Atlas (CHA) Basin of Morocco.

Image credit: Kent et al., doi: 10.1073/pnas.2415486121.

The end-Triassic mass extinction occurred 201.564 million years ago and resulted in the demise of some 76% of all marine and land species.

This mass extinction coincided with massive volcanic eruptions that split apart the supercontinent Pangea.

Millions of km³ of lava erupted over some 600,000 years, separating what are now the Americas, Europe and North Africa.

The event marked the end of the Triassic period and the beginning of the Jurassic, the period when dinosaurs arose to take the place of Triassic creatures and dominate the planet.

The new study presents evidence that instead of stretching over hundreds of thousands of years, the first pulses of lava that ended the Triassic were stupendous events lasting less than a century each.

In this condensed time frame, sunlight-reflecting sulfate particles were spewed into the atmosphere, cooling the planet and freezing many of its inhabitants.

Gradually rising temperatures in an environment that was hot to begin with — atmospheric carbon dioxide in the Late Triassic was already three times today’s level — may have finished the job later on, but it was volcanic winters that did the most damage.

“Carbon dioxide and sulfates act not just in opposite ways, but opposite time frames,” said Dr. Dennis Kent, a researcher at Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory.

“It takes a long time for carbon dioxide to build up and heat things, but the effect of sulfates is pretty much instant. It brings us into the realm of what humans can grasp. These events happened in the span of a lifetime.”

The Triassic-Jurassic extinction has long been thought tied to the eruption of the so-called Central Atlantic Magmatic Province (CAMP).

In their study, Dr. Kent and colleagues correlated data from CAMP deposits in the mountains of Morocco, along Nova Scotia’s Bay of Fundy, and New Jersey’s Newark Basin.

Their key evidence: the alignments of magnetic particles in the rocks that recorded the past drifting of Earth’s magnetic pole at the time of the eruptions.

Due to a complex set of processes, this pole is offset from the planet’s unchanging axis of rotation — true north — and to boot, changes position by a few tenths of a degree each year.

Because of this phenomenon, magnetic particles in lavas that were emplaced within a few decades of each other will all point in the same direction, while ones emplaced, say, thousands of years later will point 20 or 30 degrees in a different direction.

What the researchers found was five successive initial CAMP lava pulses spread over about 40,000 years — each with the magnetic particles aligned in a single direction, indicating the lava pulse had emerged in less than 100 years, before drift of the magnetic pole could manifest itself.

These huge eruptions released so many sulfates so quickly that the sun was largely blocked out, causing temperatures to plunge.

Unlike carbon dioxide, which hangs around for centuries, volcanic sulfate aerosols tend to rain out of the atmosphere within years, so resulting cold spells don’t last very long.

But due to the rapidity and size of the eruptions, these volcanic winters were devastating.

The scientists compared the CAMP series to sulfates from the 1783 eruption of Iceland’s Laki volcano, which caused widespread crop failures; just the initial CAMP pulses were hundreds of times greater.

In sediments just below the CAMP layers lie Triassic fossils: large terrestrial and semiaquatic relatives of crocodiles, strange tree lizards, giant, flat-headed amphibians, and many tropical plants. Then they disappear with the CAMP eruptions.

Small feathered dinosaurs had been around for tens of millions of years before this, and survived, eventually to thrive and get much larger, along with turtles, true lizards, and mammals, possibly because they were small and could survive in burrows.

“The magnitude of the environmental effects are related to how concentrated the events are,” said Dr. Paul Olsen, also from Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory.

“Small events spread out over tens of thousands of years produce much less of an effect than the same total volume of volcanism concentrated in less than a century.”

“The overarching implication being that the CAMP lavas represent extraordinarily concentrated events.”

• Dennis V. Kent et al. 2024. Correlation of sub-centennial-scale pulses of initial Central Atlantic Magmatic Province lavas and the end-Triassic extinctions. PNAS 121 (46): e2415486121; doi: 10.1073/pnas.2415486121

{ https://www.sci.news/ }

30-10-2024 om 23:25 geschreven door peter  

De blobvis is de lelijkste vis ter wereld, maar zijn echte aspect in het water is iets anders

door Janine

The Ugly Animal Preservation Society/Facebook

Er bestaat geen twijfel over wat de lelijkste vis ter wereld is: het is de blobvis die al jaren dit vreemde record heeft.

Als we aan “lelijke” dieren denken, denken we meteen aan de blobvis: hoe zouden we anders een zacht uitziende vis met een bijzonder trieste uitdrukking noemen?

De werkelijkheid is echter anders: de blobvis is niet alleen niet de lelijkste vis ter wereld, maar wat we gewend zijn te zien is niet eens zijn echte verschijning in het water.

Hoe is dit mogelijk? Laten we daar samen achter komen!

Is de blobvis echt de lelijkste vis ter wereld?

rfedortsov/X

Als je kijkt naar foto's van de blobvis die we tot onze beschikking hebben, lijkt er geen twijfel mogelijk: het is echt de lelijkste vis ter wereld.

Hij is ongeveer 30 centimeter lang, heeft een trieste uitdrukking, een gelatineachtig uiterlijk en een grote “neus” die zijn gelaatstrekken heel menselijk maken, misschien wel te menselijk.

We moeten namelijk niet vergeten dat wij mensen heel goed zijn in het herkennen van vormen die ons bekend voorkomen, zelfs als ze er niet zijn. En de blobvis, met zijn trieste gezicht, is daar het perfecte voorbeeld van.

Tegelijkertijd zijn de beelden die van de blobvis "de lelijkste vis ter wereld" hebben gemaakt niet echt correct, omdat ze zijn ware verschijning in het water niet weergeven.

De gelatineachtige textuur en droevige uitdrukking die we op de foto's zien, zijn slechts het resultaat van de plotselinge decompressie die de blobvis ondergaat wanneer hij uit de diepten van de oceaan wordt gevist.

Zoals National Geographic aangeeft, leeft de Psychrolutes marcidus op dieptes tussen 600 en 1200 meter tussen Nieuw-Zeeland en Australië en om de enorme druk te weerstaan, heeft hij een lichaam ontwikkeld dat bijna geen spieren heeft.

Dit betekent dat het idee dat we hebben van de Psychrolutes marcidus, blobvis zoals wij hem noemen, niet helemaal juist is.

Hoe ziet de blobvis er onder water uit?

NOAA/MBARI - Public Domain

De blobvis in het water is heel anders dan wij ons voorstellen: hij leeft vredig in de diepten van de oceaan, waar hij moeiteloos drijft.

Op een diepte van 1200 meter heeft deze soort een succesvolle aanpassing gevonden door zijn spieren op te geven en zich mee te laten voeren door de stromingen. Het enige wat hier telt is het weerstaan van de grote druk en alle schaal- en weekdieren eten die voorbij komen.

Bovendien heeft deze soort geen zwemblaas, dus hij kan niet naar ondieper water. Maar dit is geen probleem.

Integendeel, in de diepten van de oceaan brengt de blobvis zijn hele leven door in verschillende stadia. Vrouwtjes kunnen tot tienduizenden eitjes per keer leggen, die vervolgens op de zeebodem worden afgezet.

Eenmaal uitgekomen komen er kleine blobvissen tevoorschijn die qua uiterlijk op volwassen exemplaren lijken: ze hebben een gelatineachtige structuur, weinig spieren en geen zwemblaas.

Onder water zijn deze verschillen echter niet merkbaar, in tegenstelling tot de oppervlakte.

Het behoud van de lelijkste vis ter wereld

clubguffy/Instagram

Hoewel de blobvis een perfect voorbeeld is van aanpassing aan een zeer specifieke ecologische niche, komen de problemen niet van de oceaan. Integendeel, ze komen van de mens.

Trawlvisserij in de diepten tussen Nieuw-Zeeland en Australië dreigt de populatie van deze soort, waarover we nog te weinig weten, te reduceren.

Daarom werd de blobvis in 2013 uitgeroepen tot het lelijkste dier ter wereld, maar het is een record met nobele bedoelingen.

Het was namelijk de Ugly Animal Preservation Society, een organisatie die mensen bewust wil maken van het belang van het beschermen van diersoorten die misschien minder aantrekkelijk zijn, maar net zo belangrijk voor het ecosysteem, waaronder de blobvis, die deze definitie gaf.

Onze lieve blob mag dan wel de lelijkste vis ter wereld zijn, maar wel voor een goed doel

{ https://www.curioctopus.nl/ }

30-10-2024 om 23:02 geschreven door peter  

Over the years, numerous mysterious events have been witnessed in the sky, defying explanation. Recently, yet another unusual sky phenomenon was observed over Southern Australia capturing attention and sparking curiosity. 

Video footage reveals what appears to be a dome-shaped structure, with an even stranger detail: lightning seems to bounce off or perhaps even originate from within the dome. 

The mysterious formation has led to numerous theories. Some viewers suggest it could be a unique (red) rainbow or a rare weather event like a haboob (sandstorm). Others speculate it might be the result of weather manipulation or even an energy field projected over the region. 

Opinions also vary on the lightning, some say it’s bouncing off the dome, while others believe it could be emanating from within. Although it may just be an unusual natural phenomenon, the seemly strange interaction with the lightning remains unexplained.

  

{ https://ufosightingshotspot.blogspot.com/ }

30-10-2024 om 22:44 geschreven door peter  

By Adry Torres For Dailymail.com

Viewers were left guessing after an apparent UFO was spotted floating over Cuernavaca, a city in the south central Mexican state of Morelos.

In viral video, a flying saucer-style is seen in a fixed position in the sky as bystanders at a gas station trained their cellphone cameras on it.

'This is here on Teopanzolco Avenue, on the corner of Plan of Ayala,' one of the stunned witnesses can be heard saying in the clip 'It's not just me, there are several people who are seeing it. In other words, this is how the object is suspended there.'

Residents in the south central Mexican town of Cuernavaca claimed to have recorded the moment a UFO appeared hovering near a gas station in broad daylight

A resident in Mexico was among many who paused at a gas station to record the alleged sighting of a UFO 

Some social media users questioned the veracity of the siting.

'It's false because it sways as if the wind were moving it,' another social media user commented. 'How long did it last and from there? Where did it go?'

'They saw how unsafe the city was and they decided to go somewhere else,' another joked. 'Aliens, Morelos is not safe!!'

While one person claimed it may have been a drone, another recalled seeing the same footage six years ago while adding that the object's appearance was not never verified.

Social media users appeared to be divided as to whether it was a UFO

The sighting comes just a month after the viral video filmed by Eduardo Chavez showed what appeared to be UFOs hovering near his tire repair business in the western municipality of Guadalajara.

'When I saw it I was impressed but as the minutes went by, I saw it as normal and that's when I made the video,' Chavez told DailyMail.com at the time.

But some TikTokers thought the video was a clever way to promote his small business.

'The people studying Marketing for years and this guy blew them away,' one person quipped.

'Is he aware that if the UFO is real it made a very possibly unbeatable commercial?' another commented.

{ https://www.dailymail.co.uk/ }

30-10-2024 om 00:43 geschreven door peter  

By Francine Wolfisz

Donald Trump has come tantalisingly close to revealing what he was told about UFOs while President, as he divulged fighter jet pilots told him 'they saw things that were very strange'.

Trump, who served as the 45th President of the United States between 2017 to 2021 and is seeking re-election, also refused to rule out there could be life on Mars or other planets 'that we don't know'.

The 78-year-old politician shared his thoughts on extra-terrestrials with podcaster Joe Rogan, in an engaging interview that also covered the unopened JFK and Martin Luther King assassination files, as well as his own recent brush with a would-be killer. 

Speaking about 'the people coming from space', while looking upwards and pointing, Trump said it had not been something of specific interest to him, but he was left intrigued after speaking to pilots claiming to have witnessed UFOs over America.

He said during Friday night's podcast: 'I interviewed a few people, it's never been my thing, I have to be honest. I have never been a believer. 

Donald Trump has come tantalisingly close to revealing what he was told about UFOs while President, as he divulged fighter jet pilots told him 'they saw things that were very strange'

The 78-year-old politician shared his thoughts on extra-terrestrials with podcaster Joe Rogan, in an engaging interview broadcast on Friday night

When Rogan told Trump scientists had as yet not found any evidence of life on Mars or any other planet in the solar system, Trump said he believes there still could be. 'Well maybe its life that we don't know,' he replied

'So I interviewed jet pilots that say they saw something. If you saw them you'd love to have them [on your show]...that were solid people, perfect, great pilots, everything. 

'And they said, 'we saw things sir that were very strange, like a round ball that wasn't a comet or meteor, it was something and it was going four times faster than an F22, which is a very fast plane. 

Read More

• Trump reveals to Joe Rogan the 'one big mistake' he made in his presidency as he opens up about UFOs, murder plots and the state of the 2024 election in wild three-hour podcast 

'And it was round, which in theory is a great shape [for flying].'

Rogan, 57, then asked Trump if he spoke to the pilots because he felt 'compelled' to do so because of a 'personal interest' in the issue.

Trump admitted: 'A little bit, its not a great interest for me, but its still an interest.'

He then added that the question he is asked 'as much as almost any question' is whether there are aliens visiting the earth. 

'What do you think?' pressed Rogan.

'There's reason not to think Mars and all these planets [don't] have life,' he replied.

When Rogan said scientists had as yet not found any evidence of life on Mars or any other planet in the solar system, Trump revealed that he believes there still could be.  

'Well maybe its life that we don't know,' he replied.

Trump added that while the sighted UFOs 'could be' drones or Chinese spy balloons, he remained swayed by the eyewitness accounts of the fighter pilots he spoke to. 

He added: [They are] solid, beautiful people. [They said] this is something sir, this is something. They're not conspiracy guys.'

A screenshot from the video of a Navy pilot tracking the space craft over the Pacific. US military personnel in California believe they saw UFOs off the coast on November 14, 2004

The pair went on to discuss an infamous 2004 UFO incident in which top Navy pilots spotted 'Tic-Tacs' flying at incredible speed off the California coast, which were also picked up on sonar moving swiftly underwater.

On November 14 2004, Top Gun fighter pilot David Fravor was flying a training exercise close to San Diego when he was re-routed to investigate a strange object spotted on radar by warships protecting his aircraft carrier the USS Nimitz.

What he found was a roughly 40ft white object with no windows or wings, shaped like a Tic-Tac, flitting about above the sea that was roiling below it, disturbed by something large submerged beneath the surface.

Commander Fravor told Congress in 2023 that as he circled the object, it turned to mirror his movements, then shot off past him at thousands of miles per hour, somehow stopping a second later at a secret pre-designated rendezvous point 60 miles away that only he and a handful of Navy staff on his ship were given ahead of their training exercise.

Fellow F-18 pilot Lieutenant Chad Underwood then flew out and caught the object on video – footage that was published by the New York Times in 2017, igniting a firestorm of intrigue about the government's knowledge of UFOs.

Kevin Day, who was Senior Chief Operations Specialist aboard the USS Princeton at the time in charge of monitoring the skies with radar to protect the Nimitz, said that in the 10 days prior to the incident he saw similar objects on his radar behaving inexplicably.

Day said groups of about 10 objects were repeatedly detected 80,000ft above them, where the Earth's atmosphere becomes space, dropping down to 20,000ft in less than a second, then following the ships by flying through the air at a relatively leisurely 115mph, before zooming off towards Guadalupe Island off the coast of Mexico where they seemed to disappear under the sea.

Kevin Day, who was Senior Chief Operations Specialist aboard the USS Princeton at the time, says his witnessed the 2004 Tic-Tac UFO incident 

Warships guarding the aircraft carrier USS Nimitz as well as a submarine in the area spotted a strange object on radar in the Pacific in November 2004

Sean Cahill was a Chief Master-At-Arms on the Princeton and from its deck he says he saw lights in the sky matching the movements of the objects Day saw on his radar

'They originated from sub-earth orbit. They came in groups of five to 10 at a time. If you added up all the groups, it was about 100 contacts,' Day said.

'The very first group had 10 objects. They sat right around 80,000ft or so, off the east coast of Catalina Island. They just sat there for a time. 

'Then they would drop down as a group, instantly, down to between 20,000 and 28,000ft off the coast of Catalina Island, about 10 miles east of it.

'The really weird thing was, a single object would leave that group and travel very slowly right over the top of us, at between 20-28,000ft at about 100 knots, which was really slow.

'It would just track above us, and then the next one would depart, and the next one,' he added. 'All the groups did that.

'All 100 of them, to the best of my knowledge, disappeared in the same spot in the sky. And that spot was about 60 miles north of an island off the coast of Mexico called Guadalupe Island.

Retired Navy Commander David Fravor testifies before a House Oversight and Accountability Committee hearing about UFOs in the Rayburn House Office Building in Washington, DC in 2023

'Everyone was looking at me like, what is this? And I didn't have good answers.'

Sean Cahill, who was a Chief Master-At-Arms on the Princeton, said he saw lights in the sky matching the movements of the objects Day saw on his radar.

Rogan said that he invited Fravor onto his show to speak about his experience, mentioning that he had described seeing 'this thing go from below sea level to 50,000ft in a second'.

'That's stuff to beat,' smiled Trump.

Rogan continued: 'They don't know what it is, they saw something making a disturbance in the water, they got video evidence of this thing, two different fighter jets with pilots saw it, there's visual evidence, photographic evidence, video, radar. 

'Whatever the hell it is would turn a human being into jello if you were inside of it.'

Trump nodded as Rogan spoke, but did not elaborate further on the episode.

Speaking about US fighter jet capabilities he said: 'When you fly in these jets, the pilots have to be in great shape.

'When you fly in some of these things its amazing, you've got to be special [to be a pilot].'

{ https://www.dailymail.co.uk/ }

30-10-2024 om 00:34 geschreven door peter  

Alien-loving lawyer Danny Sheehan has made a claim on the Julian Dorey podcast about how many different species of aliens are in our galaxy . . . that we know of

And now he has made another claim about how many different species of aliens are in our galaxy...that we know of.

Speaking to the Julian Dorey podcast, he said: “The kind of evidence and information we had indicated that there was, in fact, two to six other highly intelligent, highly technologically developed but non-human species in our galaxy – an extraordinarily conservative reading, I might add.

“But very amazing because it was the Congressional report that concluded that this was the likelihood . . . but they were really unable to determine whether any of those civilisations had developed the kind of technology that would have been able to go faster than the speed of light.”

He didn't go into further details about what those other species could be, despite claiming on the same podcast that “mantis people” were on Earth and were leading “the greys” – another form of alien.

Claiming that world leaders are driving the planet to nuclear war and environmental collapse, he went on: “That's what's panicking them (the aliens). If they intervene in an aggressive enough way to shut off our nuclear weapons capacities in both the East and West then that's going to reveal their presence – we aren't ready for that yet.

“We haven't taken the steps to prepare ourselves for an intervention of an extraterrestrial civilisation like this.”

{ https://www.dailystar.co.uk/ }

30-10-2024 om 00:00 geschreven door peter  

Lasers reveal 3,000-year-old secret Mayan city with more than 6,500 structures

• READ MORE:  Ancient Mayan city containing 50-foot pyramids discovered

By Nikki Main Science Reporter For Dailymail.Com

Scientists have uncovered a secret Mayan city hiding in Mexico, which once featured an urban landscape of more than 6,500 structures.

The team used lidar technology to create three-dimensional models across 50 miles of land in Campeche, allowing them to map areas not visible to the naked eye.

The method revealed a 21-square-mile metropolis with iconic stone pyramids, houses and other infrastructure that have been concealed for more than 3,000 years.

There are hundreds of documented Mayan sites, but the newest find revealed that researchers aren't close to finding all the major Maya cities.

'Our analysis not only revealed a picture of a region that was dense with settlements, but it also revealed a lot of variability,' said the study's co-author, Luke Auld-Thomas, a doctoral student at Tulane University.

'We didn't just find rural areas and smaller settlements. We also found a large city with pyramids right next to the area's only highway, near a town where people have been actively farming among the ruins for years,' Auld-Thomas said. 

The city, called Valeriana, included a dam, ballcourt, houses and terraces as well as a curved amphitheater and temple pyramids

There are hundreds of documented Mayan sites , but the newest find revealed that researchers aren't close to finding all the major Maya cities

The team conducted an aerial lidar survey, which uses laser pulses to measure distances and create three-dimensional models of specific areas. 

It has allowed scientists to scan large swaths of land from the comfort of a computer lab, uncovering anomalies in the landscape that often prove to be pyramids, family houses and other examples Maya infrastructure. 

'Because lidar allows us to map large areas very quickly, and at really high precision and levels of detail, that made us react, 'Oh wow, there are so many buildings out there we didn't know about, the population must have been huge,' Auld-Thomas said. 

'The counterargument was that lidar surveys were still too tethered to known, large sites, such as Tikal, and therefore had developed a distorted image of the Maya lowlands. 

'What if the rest of the Maya area was far more rural and what we had mapped so far was the exception instead of the rule?' 

The team uncovered two blocks of the Mayan city, one of which included a distinct pseudo-pyramid that was identical to one found at Rio Bec - a pre-Columbian Mayan archaeological site located near the Guatemala border in the Yucatan Peninsula.

The city, called Valeriana, was adjacent to a freshwater lagoon and encompassed two major areas of architecture that includes a dam, ballcourt, houses and terraces.

Valeriana also contained a curved amphitheater, temple pyramids and a reservoir that 'has all the hallmarks of a classic Maya political capital,' the study said.

The survey was conducted near a highway, revealing the hidden city with over 6,5000 structures

The Mayan city was discovered near Campeche in Mexico and covers about 21 square miles

'The discovery of Valeriana highlights the fact that there are still major gaps in our knowledge of the existence or absence of large sites within as-yet unmapped areas of the Maya Lowlands,' researchers shared.

A third region of the city was identified as a 'sparse and modest settlement, consisting of scattered or loosely clustered residences with no monumental architecture and limited investment in water storage.

Tulane professor and co-author Marcello Canuto said: 'Lidar is teaching us that, like many other ancient civilizations, the lowland Maya built a diverse tapestry of towns and communities over their tropical landscape.' 

He continued: 'While some areas are replete with vast agricultural patches and dense populations, others have only small communities. 

'Nonetheless, we can now see how much the ancient Maya changed their environment to support a long-lived complex society.'

Although hundreds of sites have been found, it's impossible to determine exactly how many Mayan cities still have to be studied.

However, lidar technology is helping researchers unearth them much more quickly, particularly in regions of southern Mexico and Guatemala.

'The government never knew about it; the scientific community never knew about it. That really puts an exclamation point behind the statement that, no, we have not found everything, and yes, there's a lot more to be discovered,' Auld-Thomas said.

{ https://www.dailymail.co.uk/ }

29-10-2024 om 23:55 geschreven door peter  

By Stacy Liberatore For Dailymail.com

NASA has captured the moment the 'Great Halloween Comet' was swallowed by the sun.

The agency's probe witnessed the comet soar directly into the sun's fiery orbit and disintegrated without a trace Monday.

Astronomers discovered C/2024 S1 ATLAS in September, giving it the nickname due to it making a close approach days before Halloween.

Models predicted that the comet would glow brighter than Venus by the holiday, but on October 24, ATLAS flew past Earth and swung around the sun. 

NASA's Solar and Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO) was the last to see the comet as it soared within 750,000 miles of the sun and disappeared.

Karl Battams, lead for NASA’s Sungrazer Project, said: 'This comet was likely already a rubble pile by the time it entered SOHO’s field of view.

'Unlike comet C/2023 A3, which never passed closer than about a third of Earth’s distance to the sun, C/2024 S1 is a true sungrazer: It passed within 1one percent of Earth’s distance to the sun, and has been completely vaporized as a result.'

Both comments are known as 'sungrazers' due to traveling close to our planet's star, where they light up brightly and often break into smaller pieces.

NASA's Solar and Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO) witnessed the final moments of the 'Great Halloween Comet' as it soared closer to the sun

The Halloween Comet had shown signs of instability when telescopes in Hawaii identified it on September 27, including a sudden release of dust and cause.

While not unusual behavior for a comet, it was a sign of nucleus fragmentation that means the ball of ice is starting to break apart.

And the farther out in space an objects forms, the faster it is likely to happen. 

Astronomer Heinrich Kreutz was the first to name the comets in the late 1880s, studying as they grazed close to the sun.

And many even followed the same orbit. 

'That is, they were all fragments of a single comet which had broken up,' the European Space Agency, which partners with NASA to operate SOHO, said.

It is probable that the original comet, and its fragments, had broken up repeatedly as they orbited the Sun with a period of about 800 years. 

'In honor of his work, this group of comets was named the Kreutz sungrazers.'

Sungrazing comets have been observed possibly as far back as the year 371 BC. 

A comet seen by Aristotle and Ephorus may have been a Kreutz sungrazer. 

C/2023 A3 - also known as Tsuchinshan-Atlas - also made a close pass at Earth this month.

The comet, known as a sungrazer, took a straight path Earth's star and vaporized in the fiery orbit

Astronomers suggested the comet orbits the sun once every 80,000 years, making its current trip through our solar system the first since humans began to move out of Africa.

A3 was discovered by researchers last year and first observed at China's Purple Mountain Observatory and an Atlas (Asteroid Terrestrial-impact Last Alert System) telescope in South Africa. 

It is named after both observatories.

It is thought to have originated from the Oort cloud, a giant spherical icy shell that surrounds our solar system and dates back some 4.5 billion years and may measure as much as 25 miles across.

Dr Gregory Brown, senior public astronomy officer at the Royal Observatory Greenwich, said: 'The comet itself comes from an extremely distant part of our solar system, a place called the Oort cloud.

'It contains lots of bits left over from the formation of the solar system. Every so often, one of those bits will be nudged inwards in towards the solar system, where it could end up in a very, very long orbit.

'Those orbits can take extraordinarily long periods of time - thousands of years. The estimate on this particular comet is that if it is in a stable orbit, its last path to the inner solar system was about 80,000 years ago.'

While comets often appear as a flaming fireball in the sky, Dr Brown said they are sometimes referred to as 'dirty snowballs', as they contain a considerable amount of ice.

As they fall in towards the sun they thaw out, and the gas and dust trapped within their ice is released, forming a misty cloud around them and the illusion of a 'tail'.

{ https://www.dailymail.co.uk/ }

29-10-2024 om 23:44 geschreven door peter  

EXCLUSIVE - Exactly how NASA could evacuate ISS amid fears about leaks and cracks on the space station

• READ MORE:  ISS astronauts brace for evacuation as NASA monitors leaks 

By Ellyn Lapointe For Dailymail.Com

A growing leak on the International Space Station has sparked fears that astronauts on board may need to evacuate, including the two stranded by Boeing's Starliner. 

All seven astronauts have been forced into the US side of the orbiting laboratory due to 50 'areas of concern' and four cracks in a Russian-made module.

If the leaks become severe, the space station could rapidly lose oxygen and pressure. 

The moment Houston sounds the alarm of a threat, astronauts would have to race to shut the hatch of the leaking section and head to 'lifeboats' docked on the ship. 

A spaceflight expert told DailyMail.com that if evacuation became necessary, each crew would escape in their assigned NASA spacecraft, including the SpaceX Dragon capsule and the Russian Soyuz.

NASA's Commercial Crew Program Manager Steve Stich said that in the event of an emergency, SpaceX's Dragon could be powered up within minutes. 

The capsules have been stocked with emergency suits, allowing the crew to quickly put on the proper gear as they flee the orbiting laboratory, saving more valuable time. 

However, the US space agency has admitted that it is not prepared for capsule failures due to the lack of ready-to-launch vehicles, which could leave the crew stranded without a way home.

NASA has committed to fully use and safely operate the space station through 2030, with plans to retire the ISS sometime after.

NASA has a plan in place for an emergency evacuation of the ISS and it could be used amid cracks and leaks on the ship. All seven astronauts are staying on the US side due to a leak in the Russian module

Independent spaceflight safety expert Laura Forczyk told DailyMail.com: 'If the leaks on the ISS worsen significantly to the point where NASA and Russia conclude the situation is unsafe, it may mean decommissioning the ISS sooner than expected.'

The main leak was identified in a service module transfer tunnel in Russia's Zvezda module that provides station living quarters, life support systems, electrical power distribution and data processing, flight control and propulsion systems.

American astronauts who came to the ISS on SpaceX's capsule are prepared to escape on their spacecraft if necessary.

But the evacuation plan for Don Pettit, a NASA astronaut who flew to the ISS aboard the Roscosmos Soyuz MS-26 spacecraft with two Russian astronauts in September, is a bit more complicated.

In the event of an emergency, he would not return to Earth on Soyuz. Instead, he would have to cram inside the SpaceX capsule, which was recently equipped with an extra seat just in case Pettit needs it, NASA spokesperson Jimi Russell told DailyMail.com.

It is unclear why Pettit would not return in the Russian craft, but some have suggested the swap would be due to the growing tensions between Russia and the US. 

NASA does not currently have an official evacuation plan for American astronauts assigned to Russian spacecraft. But the agency has awarded a $266,000 contract order for SpaceX to build one out. 

In the event that the leaks, cracks and other issues render the entire ISS uninhabitable, the astronaut crews would follow protocol to shelter in their respective spacecraft.  

This is not the first time the ISS has sprung a leak. In 2018 astronauts rushed to fix a hole (pictured) which had appeared in the outer wall of the Soyuz capsule on the orbiting laboratory.

ESA astronaut Tim Peake took this photo from inside Cupola in 2016, showing a 7 mm-diameter circular chip gouged out by the impact from a tiny piece of space debris

Each crew's capsule has an assigned shelter-in-vehicle plan that will protect astronauts from threats aboard the ISS, and allow them to flee the space station if necessary, according to a September report from NASA's Office of the Inspector General (OIG). 

'It was designed with these kinds of contingencies in mind,' Stich said previously. 

They also contain astronaut suits so that crews can quickly and conveniently suit-up in an emergency situation.

It can take up to 30 minutes to get inside a spacesuit, according to NASA.

Streamlining this process as much as possible would be critical in an emergency situation. 

These vehicles would be the astronauts' only hope of escape. If something happened to them, it would be a different story.

'Due to the high costs and a limited budget, the lack of ready-to-launch vehicles prevent the Agency from having an immediate response capability if crew vehicles encounter significant damage and are no longer safe for crew evacuation,' the report states. 

Russia's Zvezda module launched in 2000 and 'served as the early cornerstone for the first human habitation of the station,' NASA has said. But like the rest of the ISS, this module is aging and requires maintenance to keep working. 

The leak has been ongoing since 2019 when air began escaping from the module's transfer tunnel, a vestibule that separates the Russian docking port from the rest of the rest of the module.

There was no immediate danger, but it was eventually located and has been patched multiple times over the last five years. 

The Zvezda module is used to access a Russian cargo dock. Due to the escalating leak, the Russian space agency has agreed to keep the module sealed except when needed

A new leak was identified in 2021, also in the Russian Zvezda module, which was deemed a 'fairly serious issue.' 

If the leak grew severe, NASA and Roscosmos may be forced to permanently close the hatch to the affected tunnel.

And if the leaks worsened to a point where the habitability of the entire space station was affected, astronauts would be forced to sequester inside their spacecraft and potentially return to Earth. 

Former NASA astronaut Bill Shepherd, who served as the first commander on the ISS from October 2000 to March 2001, told a House of Representatives committee at the time that NASA and Russian engineers 'don't exactly understand why the cracks are appearing now.' 

Shepherd reiterated claims by Roscosmos, the Russian space agency, that it was 'becoming a serious issue.'

Despite the fact that NASA has patched the main leak repeatedly, the amount of air escaping the station has only increased over the last five years.

NASA is now tracking 50 'areas of concern' related to a leak in the Russian Zvezda Service Module Transfer Tunnel (labelled)  which sprung a leak in 2019

The Canadarm2 robot arm was struck by space debris in May 2021, creating a hole that fortunately didn't impact the functionality of the robotic arm

It was the focus of the September report from the OIG, which found that the leak then hit record rates in April - losing 3.7 pounds of air every day.

The OIG has escalated the threat rating to five out of five in NASA's internal risk assessments. 

But this leak is just the tip of the iceberg. NASA officials told the Washington Post they are tracking four other cracks and 50 'areas of concern' on the ISS.

Speaking to the Washington Post, NASA associate administrator Jim Free said: 'We have conveyed the seriousness of the leaks multiple times, including when I was in Russia earlier this year.'

The cracks have 'all been covered with a combination of sealant and patches,' by Roscosmos, and further repairs are ongoing. 

{ https://www.dailymail.co.uk/ }

29-10-2024 om 23:34 geschreven door peter  

The Solar Maximum is all based on the Sun’s magnetic fields. These fields are measured in Gauss units, which describe magnetic flux density. The Sun’s poles measure about 1 to 2 gauss, but sunspots are much higher at about 3,000 gauss. (Earth is only 0.25 to 0.65 gauss at its surface.) Since the magnetic field is so much stronger where sunspots appear, they inhibit convective heating from deeper inside the Sun. As a result, sunspots appear as dark patches.

Sunspots are visual indicators of the Sun’s 11-year cycle. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and an international group called the Solar Cycle Prediction Panel watch sunspots to understand where the Sun is at in its cycle.

“During solar maximum, the number of sunspots, and therefore, the amount of solar activity, increases,” said Jamie Favors, director of the Space Weather Program at NASA Headquarters in Washington. “This increase in activity provides an exciting opportunity to learn about our closest star — but also causes real effects at Earth and throughout our solar system.”

The effects came into focus for many of us recently. In May 2024, the Sun launched multiple CMEs. As the magnetic fields and charged particles reached Earth, they triggered the strongest geomagnetic storm in 200 decades. These created colourful aurorae that were visible much further from the poles than usual. NASA says that these aurorae were likely among the strongest displays in the last 500 years.

Scientists know the Sun is at its solar maximum. But it lasts for an entire year. They won’t know when its activity peaks until after they’ve watched it for months and its activity has declined.

“This announcement doesn’t mean that this is the peak of solar activity we’ll see this solar cycle,” said Elsayed Talaat, director of space weather operations at NOAA. “While the Sun has reached the solar maximum period, the month that solar activity peaks on the Sun will not be identified for months or years.”

Each cycle is different, making it difficult to label peak solar activity. Different peaks have different durations and have higher or lower peaks than others.

Understanding the Sun’s cycle is important because it creates space weather. During solar maximum, the increased sunspots and flares also mean more coronal mass ejections (CMEs.) CMEs can strike Earth, and when they do, they can trigger aurorae and cause geomagnetic storms. CMEs, which are blobs of hot plasma, can also affect satellites, communications, and even electrical grids.

NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory captured these images of solar flares below, as seen in the bright flashes in the left image (May 8, 2024 flare) and the right image (May 7, 2024 flare). The image shows 131 angstrom light, a subset of extreme ultraviolet light that highlights the extremely hot material in flares and which is colourized in orange.

via GIPHY

During the solar maximum, the Sun produces an average of three CMEs every day, while it drops to one CME every five days during the solar minimum. The CMEs’ effect on satellites causes the most concern. In 2003, satellites experienced 70 different types of failures. The failures ranged from erroneous signals in a satellite’s electronics to the destruction of electrical components. The solar storm that occurred in 2003 was deemed responsible for 46 of those 70 failures.

CMEs are also a hazard for astronauts orbiting Earth. The increased radiation poses a health risk, and during storms, astronauts seek safety in the most shielded part of the ISS, Russia’s Zvezda Service Module.

Galileo and other astronomers noticed sunspots hundreds of years ago but didn’t know exactly what they were. In a 1612 pamphlet titled “Letters on Sunspots,” Galileo wrote ‘The sun, turning on its axis, carries them around without necessarily showing us the same spots, or in the same order, or having the same shape.’ This contrasted with others’ views on the spots, some of which suggested they were natural satellites of the Sun.

We’ve known about the Sun’s magnetic fields for 200 hundred years, though at first, scientists didn’t know the magnetism was coming from the Sun. In 1724, an English geophysicist noticed that his compass was behaving strangely and was deflected from magnetic north throughout the day. In 1882, other scientists correlated these magnetic effects with increased sunspots.

In recent decades, we’ve learned much more about our stellar companion thanks to spacecraft dedicated to studying it. NASA and the ESA launched the Solar and Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO) in 1995, and NASA launched the Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO) in 2010. In 2011, we got our first 360-degree view of the Sun thanks to NASA’s two Solar TErrestrial RElations Observatory (STEREO) spacecraft. In 2019, NASA launched the Parker Solar Probe, which also happens to be humanity’s fastest spacecraft.

Our understanding of the Sun and its cycles is far more complete now. The current cycle, Cycle 25, is the 25th one since 1755.

“Solar Cycle 25 sunspot activity has slightly exceeded expectations,” said Lisa Upton, co-chair of the Solar Cycle Prediction Panel and lead scientist at Southwest Research Institute in San Antonio, Texas. “However, despite seeing a few large storms, they aren’t larger than what we might expect during the maximum phase of the cycle.”

The most powerful flare so far in Cycle 25 was on October 3rd, when the Sun emitted an X9 class flare. But scientists anticipate more flares and activity to come. There can be significantly powerful storms even in the cycle’s declining phase, though they’re not as common.

The Sun’s 11-year cycle is just one of its cycles, nested in larger cycles. The Gleissberg cycle lasts between 80 to 90 years and modulates the 11-year cycle. The de Vries cycle or Suess cycle lasts between 200 and 210 years, and the Hallstatt cycle lasts about 2,300 years. Both of these cycles contribute to long-term solar variation.

However, even with all we know about the Sun, there are big gaps in our knowledge. The Sun’s magnetic poles switch during the 11-year cycle, and scientists aren’t sure why.

There’s a lot more to learn about the Sun, but we won’t run out of time to study it any time soon. It’s in the middle of its 10-billion-year lifetime and will be a main-sequence star for another five billion years.

{ https://www.universetoday.com/ }

29-10-2024 om 22:09 geschreven door peter  

Ken Chaffin included the following message with the solution he and his daughter submitted:

“My decoded message is a simple image with 5 amino acids displayed in a universal (hopefully) organic molecular diagram notation and a few single pixel points that appear between the clusters and molecular diagrams. I used a Margolus reversible 2×2 block cellular automata (BCA) with the simplest reversible rule, which is called ‘single point (CCW) rotation,’ acting only on 2×2 cells that contain only a single point or pixel per the header instructions, conserving pixel or point count, 625 pixels in and 625 out. The starmap image appears to have the molecular forms encoded in a 3D local degree of freedom set of basis vectors (also shown in the header).

“The CA effectively transforms and projects this 3D info onto a 2D plane. I can run my Unity game engine based simulator forwards (CCW rotation) and backwards (CW rotation) in time and transform the starmap representation to the amino acid diagrams in 6625 generations and reverse the rotation process to transform the amino acid diagrams back to the starmap image in 6625 generations. I say starmap but I really read from the binary message file each run. The decoded image is only visible for 1 frame lasting about 1/10th of a second, but I can pause and manually step as well as reverse my CA engine…Here is a screen capture of my decoded image [see below].

“The ‘blocks’ have 1, 6, 7, or 8 ‘pixels’ representing the atomic number of hydrogen, carbon, nitrogen, and oxygen. Single and double bonds are designated as single and double lines. C-H bond angle is indicated with a caret ^ sign. These signs were produced by the CA. I have not edited the image in any way. It’s absolutely obvious to me what this is, as well as to my chemist friend I ran this by. It is amazing to watch all of the CA gliders or spaceships carry the binary bits of the message all over the ‘galaxy’ and then suddenly come together in coherence and meaning…”

Now that the tasks of extracting and decoding the message are complete, Daniela and her colleagues are taking a step back to observe how citizen scientists are shaping the challenge. The next step is to interpret the message and determine what it was meant to convey, a task that currently remains open. According to the project team, there are several ways for the public to engage, which include using the description and solution provided by the Chaffins to conduct independent analysis and post the results on the project’s Discord channel.

Participants must include a description of the method they used so that their approach can be replicated and verified. The possibilities are endless, ranging from an attempt at communication, cultural exchange, or a threat of invasion. Ultimately, this exercise aims to determine whether or not humanity is ready to make first contact with an alien civilization.

Further Reading: 

• ESA

{ https://www.universetoday.com/ }

29-10-2024 om 21:56 geschreven door peter