By MIRIAM KUEPPER

Conspiracy theorists have claimed that a cluster of lights spotted near a double rainbow in Spain were 'UFOs' that were sent as a 'warning' of the devastating floods that hit the country days later.

Footage shows the unidentified lights darting through the sky over a residential area in Barcelona among the rare twin rainbows.  

As the cameraman zoomed in to get a closer look at these white specs of light, the 'objects' can be seen whizzing through the clouds.

The man could be heard saying: 'What the hell are they?,' before adding that he believes the lights to be 'UFOs'.

Many locals said on social media that they believe the conspiracy theory that the lights were genuine 'UFOs' and that the sighting was an extraterrestrial 'warning' ahead of the devastating storm.

Pictured above are the twin rainbows spotted over Barcelona just days before the devastating floods hit the area more than a week ago

Footage shows the unidentified lights which local conspiracy theorists believe to be 'UFOs' darting through the sky over a residential area in Barcelona among the rare twin rainbows

As the cameraman zoomed in to get a closer look at these white specs of light, the video shows them whizzing through the clouds

The lights were clearly moving on the video, with the cameraman claiming they were 'UFOs'

Others suggested they were simply a flock of birds reflecting light, with some Spaniards speculating that it could have been drones.  

The footage was filmed in Barcelona, Spain, just days before the city was battered by the DANA storm that caused the fatal floods.

DANA, also called a cold drop, is a meteorological phenomenon in the Mediterranean region, particularly between June and October.

This phenomenon, which occurs when cold air combines with humid air in the upper atmosphere, is associated with extremely violent downpours and storms.

This year, cold drops have devastated several regions in Spain, particularly the Valencian Community.

The death toll keeps climbing nine days after the floods hit Spain, with more than 200 people confirmed to have died.  

Paiporta has been labeled by Spanish media as the ground zero of the natural disaster that has also left 89 people still missing, while officials say the real figure could be higher.

Over 60 people perished in Paiporta when a wave of water rushed down the Poyo canal that cuts through its center. 

Frustration over the survivors' sense of abandonment exploded in Paiporta on Sunday when a crowd greeted Spain's royals and officials with a barrage of mud and other objects.

Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez was rushed away and the royal couple had to eventually cancel the visit after speaking to several distraught neighbors amid a chaotic scene.

The mayor of Paiporta, a middle-class community of 30,000, on Tuesday pleaded for a 'higher authority' to step in and take control of her municipality because the floods had made it impossible to go on. 

Mayor Maribel Albalat said all the municipal buildings, from town hall to the local police, had been severely damaged and that many of the local civil servants 'are in a state of shock.'

'Paiporta is a strong village, but this overwhelms out capacities as a local administration,' she said. 

Damaged cars and debris are pictured at the side of a road, following heavy rains that caused floods, in Paiporta, near Valencia, Spain, November 6, 2024

Valencia's firefigters search for victims at a lock at L'Albufera, near Valencia, eastern Spain, on November 7, 2024

Volunteers and locals help to clean the mud off the street following heavy rains in Paiporta, near Valencia, Spain, November 5, 2024

Police department members of Bilbao City assist a woman in transporting a dog along a muddy street in the flood-hit city of Paiporta, Valencia, Spain, November 7, 2024

A man walks over debris to access a street in a mud-covered street in the flood-hit city of Paiporta, Valencia, Spain, November 7, 2024

The air-throbbing 'thup, thup, thup' of the huge, two-propeller Chinook helicopters that have flown overhead with the arrival of the army has added to the post-apocalyptic atmosphere.

The destruction, however, went far beyond Paiporta and covers a huge swath of municipalities, above all on the southern flank of Valencia city on the Mediterranean coast. Seventy-eight localities had at least one person die from the floods. 

Police have expanded their search to the nearby marshes and coastline, where the waters carried some away.

The residents, businesses and town councils of the affected localities can apply for financial help from a 10.6-billion-euro relief package from Spain's government. 

The regional Valencia government, which is being slammed for not alerting the populace of the danger in time, has asked the central government in Madrid for 31 billion euros to ensure the recovery.

Over a week later, the cleanup goes on to get rid of tons of mud and debris that clog street after street, filling thousands of ground floors, destroying living rooms and kitchens. 

Neighborhoods were left without shops and supermarkets after all their products were ruined. Many houses still don't have drinking water.

An impromptu army of volunteers were the first helpers on the ground, shoveling and sweeping away the sticky brown mire covering everything, and helping to start removing pile after pile of debris that made access to cars impossible in many areas.

Authorities eventually mobilized 15,000 soldiers and police reinforcements to help firefighters search for bodies and start extracting thousands of wrecked cars strewn over streets and sunk in canal beds.

At every corner, cars are piled on top of one another or smashed into buildings, light poles, trees and bridge overpasses.

{ https://www.dailymail.co.uk/ }

07-11-2024 om 22:48 geschreven door peter  

Fast Radio Bursts Mostly Come from Massive Star-Forming Galaxies

Fast Radio Bursts (FRBs) are millisecond-duration events detected from beyond our Milky Way Galaxy. FRB emission characteristics favor magnetars as their sources, as evidenced by FRB-like bursts from a magnetar in the Milky Way, and the star-forming nature of FRB host galaxies. However, the processes that produce FRB sources remain unknown. According to new research, FRBs are more likely to occur in massive star-forming galaxies. The study also suggests that magnetars, whose magnetic fields are 100 trillion times stronger than Earth’s, often form when two stars merge and later blow up in a supernova.

This photo montage shows the antennas of the Deep Synoptic Array-110, which are used to discover and pinpoint the locations of fast radio bursts (FRBs). Above the antennas are images of some of the FRB host galaxies as they appear on the sky. The galaxies are remarkably large, challenging models that describe FRB sources.

Image credit: Annie Mejia / Caltech.

“The immense power output of magnetars makes them some of the most fascinating and extreme objects in the Universe,” said lead author Kritti Sharma, a graduate student at Caltech.

“Very little is known about what causes the formation of magnetars upon the death of massive stars. Our work helps to answer this question.”

To search for FRBs, Sharma and colleagues used the Deep Synoptic Array-110 (DSA-110) at the Owens Valley Radio Observatory near Bishop, California.

To date, the sprawling radio array has detected and localized 70 FRBs to their specific galaxy of origin (only 23 other FRBs have been localized by other telescopes).

In the current study, the researchers analyzed 30 of these localized FRBs.

“DSA-110 has more than doubled the number of FRBs with known host galaxies. This is what we built the array to do,” said Caltech’s Dr. Vikram Ravi.

Although FRBs are known to occur in galaxies that are actively forming stars, the authors, to their surprise, found that the FRBs tend to occur more often in massive star-forming galaxies than low-mass star-forming galaxies.

This alone was interesting because the astronomers had previously thought that FRBs were going off in all types of active galaxies.

With this new information, they started to ponder what the results revealed about FRBs.

Massive galaxies tend to be metal-rich because the metals in our Universe — elements that are manufactured by stars — take time to build up over the course of cosmic history.

The fact that FRBs are more common in these metal-rich galaxies implies that the source of FRBs, magnetars, are also more common to these types of galaxies.

Stars that are rich in metals — which in astronomical terms means elements heavier than hydrogen and helium — tend to grow larger than other stars.

“Over time, as galaxies grow, successive generations of stars enrich galaxies with metals as they evolve and die,” Dr. Ravi said.

What is more, massive stars that explode in supernovae and can become magnetars are more commonly found in pairs.

In fact, 84% of massive stars are binaries. So, when one massive star in a binary is puffed up due to extra metal content, its excess material gets yanked over to its partner star, which facilitates the ultimate merger of the two stars.

These merged stars would have a greater combined magnetic field than that of a single star.

“A star with more metal content puffs up, drives mass transfer, culminating in a merger, thus forming an even more massive star with a total magnetic field greater than what the individual star would have had,” Sharma said.

In summary, since FRBs are preferentially observed in massive and metal-rich star-forming galaxies, then magnetars (which are thought to trigger FRBs) are probably also forming in metal-rich environments conducive to the merging of two stars.

The results therefore hint that magnetars across the Universe originate from the remnants of stellar mergers.

In the future, the team hopes to hunt down more FRBs and their places of origin using DSA-110, and eventually the DSA-2000, an even bigger radio array planned to be built in the Nevada desert and completed in 2028.

“This result is a milestone for the whole DSA team. A lot of the authors on this paper helped build the DSA-110,” Dr. Ravi said.

“And the fact that the DSA-110 is so good at localizing FRBs bodes well for the success of DSA-2000.”

• The findings were published today in the journal Nature.

{ https://www.sci.news/ }

07-11-2024 om 21:33 geschreven door peter  

Elon Musk gesturing on stage

© Marc Piasecki/Getty Images

Elon Musk makes headlines often with his eccentric behavior and sci-fi-esque projects under SpaceX and Tesla. Recently, a rumor was published that Elon Musk was developing a fighter jet that seemed to be right out of a science fiction story. The story about Elon Musk's "UFO fighter jet" picked up steam online, and some may be talking about it without doing their due diligence of fact-checking the story and ensuring that it's real. 

Looking at the recent press releases from SpaceX and Tesla, as well as comments from Musk himself, proves that there's no evidence that one of Elon Musk's most recent projects involved a "UFO fighter jet." Unfortunately, even if you think a revolutionary fighter jet fits Elon Musk's entrepreneurial M.O., there's no evidence of a ground-breaking test flight that caused governmental upset, as reported by a viral YouTube video. Let's take an in-depth look at the rumors about Elon Musk's "UFO fighter jet."

Read more: 

• 14 Best Fighter Planes And Jets Of All Time

Origins Of The Elon Musk UFO Fighter Jet Rumor

Fake image of SpaceX UFO jet

© Hyperspeed/YouTube

A recent video from HyperSpeed on YouTube alleged that Elon Musk had been building what it describes as a "UFO fighter jet," with specifications and weaponry right out of a science fiction novel. The video alleged that the jet had been spotted flying in several air spaces for "testing," and that it would be equipped with "microwave weapons" that could melt other aircraft in combat. 

The viral video also alleged that the new fighter jet (pictured above, which is a doctored or photoshopped image) would be equipped with EMPs that could disrupt enemy weaponry and vehicles. HyperSpeed's video should have been a red flag for many viewers, as its language and tone were fantastical. The viral video seemed more interested in telling a story about how cool SpaceX is rather than reporting about this alleged fighter jet project. Most of the video was just recounting various accomplishments of SpaceX, Tesla, and Musk himself rather than reporting on the story in the headline, which are all major red flags for a story being fake or possibly AI generated.

Is Elon Musk Really Designing A Fighter Jet

Elon Musk posing on red carpet

© Kathy Hutchins/Shutterstock

At this time, there is no evidence, announcement, or any kind of reputable reporting that Elon Musk is designing a fighter jet. Even if he or one of his companies were, it would likely be nothing like the jet alleged in HyperSpeed's video. The "X-One" jet talked about in the video is pure science fiction by today's technological standards. The things the video alleges this new aircraft can do are pretty far beyond the realm of practical possibility: Like allegedly being capable of 4,600 mph (Mach 6) speeds with "impressive fuel efficiency," its ability to disguise itself "as a cloud," as well as using microwaves to "melt enemy aircraft." 

Even if Musk were to design this exact aircraft, there's no telling whether it would be mass-production-friendly — especially with all the sci-fi weaponry that HyperSpeed is alleging it comes with — as it would need to secure a contract with any military worldwide. It's safe to say that if Musk was working on a fighter jet project right now, it would be highly top secret, especially if it's for the U.S. military — it would be nothing like what HyperSpeed is alleging it to be.

What Elon Musk Is Actually Working On Right Now

Tesla robotaxi parked on street

© Tesla

Elon Musk's most recent project that he has talked about is his Cybercab robotaxi service. This service uses fully autonomous taxi cabs that will ferry riders from one place to another without intervention from a human driver. This service is slated to be released for public use within the next few years, according to Musk. However, as with any revolutionary service, it's best not to hedge one's bets on a service's purported release date — especially since he's already predicted the release of his robotaxis as being one year away ... five years ago.

In addition to moving towards a fully autonomous taxi service, Musk is still currently working on his Starship project, which recently reached a new, ground-breaking record when part of his newest rocket was captured upon landing during a test flight. Before the launch, the SpaceX team said they would not have been surprised if the rocket needed to land in the Gulf of Mexico, but that never came to pass as the bottom half of the rocket — the Super Heavy Booster — was able to be maneuvered into the robot arms on the launch pad.

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Read the original article on SlashGear.

No evidence

At this time, there is no evidence, announcement, or any kind of reputable reporting that Elon Musk is designing a fighter jet. Even if he or one of his companies were, it would likely be nothing like the jet alleged in HyperSpeed's video.

In an unprecedented announcement, Elon Musk has unveiled SpaceX's groundbreaking new light-speed engine, a technological marvel that challenges our understanding of physics as we know it. The world of space exploration stands on the brink of a new era, as this innovative engine promises to revolutionize how we travel through the cosmos. Today, we delve into the details of this remarkable invention and its implications for humanity's future among the stars.

VIDEOS

Elon Musk Unveils UFO Fighter Jet That Defies Physics

Elon Musk Unveils UFO Fighter Jet That Defies Physics

{ https://www.bing.com/?FORM=Z9FD1 }

07-11-2024 om 21:11 geschreven door peter  

Chinese scientists have built a 'real-life DEATH STAR': Terrifying Star Wars-inspired weapon focuses microwave beams to wipe out enemy satellites

• READ MORE: Scientists reveals how to build a REAL lightsaber 

By WILIAM HUNTER

Chinese scientists claim to have created a 'real-life Death Star' capable of devastating enemy satellites in orbit.

The science-fiction-inspired weapon combines pulses of microwave radiation into a single powerful beam - just like the planet-destroying lasers shown in Star Wars.

In order to merge, the electromagnetic pulses must hit the exact same target within 170 trillionths of a second.

That requires levels of timing more precise than the atomic clocks on advanced GPS satellites - a feat previously thought to be impossible.

However, the weapon has now completed experimental trials for potential military applications thanks to breakthroughs in 'ultra-high time precision synchronisation'.

This could be used for 'achieving multiple goals such as teaching and training, new technology verification, and military exercises,' experts say. 

While the exact details of the weapon remain highly classified, Chinese academic journals suggest that microwave weapons like this are being developed for use in space.

And while it might not have the power to blow up a planet, it could wreak havoc on enemy communications or GPS satellites.

Chinese scientists claim to have created a real-life Death Star weapon which merges pulses of microwave energy to create a beam strong enough to wipe out enemy satellites 

According to the South China Morning Post, the secretive space weapon uses an array of seven microwave-firing 'vehicles'.

These vehicles are positioned over a large area but fire together to hit their target with a single, powerful attack.

The scientists behind the device say that most microwave weapons 'have not formed effective combat capabilities' due to power limitations.

But, by merging several waves into a single pulse, the resulting power can be strong enough to overwhelm an enemy satellite.

What makes this challenging is that combining microwave pulses requires synchronising the bursts with never-before-seen levels of precision.

Even the atomic clock aboard the Chinese Tiangong space station, which only misses one second every few billion years, cannot reach the required levels of precision.

However, Chinese scientists say they have now been able to overcome these challenges by connecting each of the vehicles with fibreoptic cables.

While the exact specifications remain secret, last year Chinese scientists managed to achieve a time synchronisation accuracy of just 10 trillionths of a second over a distance of 1,100 miles (1,800km). 

Just like the Death Star in Star Wars (pictured), this weapon combines separate beams of energy into a single directed pulse 

How does the 'real-life Death Star' work?

1. Seven microwave 'vehicles' are connected by fibreoptics
2. The vehicles use lasers to measure their exact position 
3. The vehicles fire a pulse of microwave energy with extremely precise timing 
4. All seven beams hit the target at precisely the same moment 
5. Enemy satellite communications are wiped out 

To ensure the microwave pulses hit the exact same point, the weapon also uses laser positioning devices to achieve millimeter-level navigation.

By analysing timing and positional data, a mobile command centre can then issue an attack command - triggering each of the seven vehicles to fire at once.

The researchers say that the microwave beams can achieve a combining effect of '1+1>2', hinting that the combined power could be higher than the sum of its parts.

This won't be quite as strong as the devastating power of the Death Star, but the resulting energy pulse could be more than enough to knock out an enemy satellite.

Studies have found that a weapon capable of delivering just one gigawatt of power would be enough to do serious damage to satellites in near-Earth orbit.

In recent years, milliaries around the world have been racing to develop a new generation of 'direct energy weapons'.

Unlike conventional weapons which use projectiles or explosives, these use powerful blasts of electromagnetic radiation to disrupt or destroy their targets.

There have already been significant advances in direct energy weapons which use lasers to burn through the hulls of missiles and drones.

Although it won't be strong enough to blow up a planet like in Star Wars (pictured), the weapon can use its microwave beams to knock out enemy satellites to disrupt communications and navigation 

More national militaries are investigating so-called 'direct energy weapons' which use bursts of high-intensity radiation to destroy or disrupt their targets. These include the British DragonFire laser weapon (pictured)

For example, the British Dragonfire laser weapon is strong enough to shoot a drone out of the air and accurate enough to hit a £1 coin from half a mile away.

Instead of burning through their targets, microwave weapons use intense bursts of electromagnetic radiation to disrupt electrical circuits.

Trials of microwave weapons have already shown that they can be effective against small targets like drones.

The Tactical High-Power Operational Responder (THOR), developed by the U.S. Air Force Research Lab, uses wide bursts of energy to take out entire swarms of drones.

The advantage is that the weapons are cheap to operate and don't use any projectiles, reducing the risk of collateral damage.

However, microwave weapons have proven difficult to target and use at longer ranges.

By overcoming the power limitations, combined microwave energy weapons could be the key to bringing these potentially devastating weapons into the frontier of space warfare.

As militaries become more reliant on satellite observations and communications there has been a growing interest in weapons which can target satellites.

Declassified footage of secret trials (pictured) at the MOD's Hebrides Range, showed that the British laser weapon system proved so accurate it could hit a £1 coin half a mile away

As low-Earth orbit becomes more important for military use nations are developing more weapons to target satellites. This includes the Chinese 'Death Star' microwave weapon and the American 'Meadowlands' satellite jammer revealed last month (pictured)

These satellite networks provide the infrastructure which supports deadly GPS-guided missiles, drone strikes, and troop movements on the ground.

Read More

• Secretive US weapon that JAMS Russian and Chinese satellites is finally ready 

This means that knocking out enemy communication, by electronic or physical means, could provide a decisive advantage in a conflict.

Last month, the US revealed its powerful new satellite jamming weapon designed to shut down Russian or Chinese communications at the start of a conflict.

The weapon has been developed by the Xian Navigation Technology Research Institute under the China Electronics Technology Group Corporation.

This organisation has been a major provider of electronic warfare weapons for the People's Liberation Army in the past.

However, it isn't yet clear when, if at all, this weapon will be deployed.

{ https://www.dailymail.co.uk/ }

07-11-2024 om 20:19 geschreven door peter  

EXCLUSIVE - NASA gives health update on astronauts mysteriously hospitalized after space mission

• READ MORE:  Watch Space Force's top secret spaceplane fly 

By ELLYN LAPOINTE FOR DAILYMAIL.COM

NASA today insisted stranded astronaut Sunita Williams is safe and healthy amid growing public concern for her health.

But the space agency again refused to give any details about four astronauts who were mysteriously hospitalized late last month after returning from a separate space mission.

A doctor raised concerns about Williams this week after a photo showed her looking 'gaunt', suggesting she had lost a significant amount of weight after spending more than 150 days stuck on the International Space Station.

But NASA holds firm that Williams and the rest of the astronauts aboard the ISS are doing fine.

'All NASA astronauts aboard the International Space Station undergo routine medical evaluations, have dedicated flight surgeons monitoring them, and are in good health,' NASA spokesperson Jimi Russell told DailyMail.com.

Concern over Williams came less than two weeks after the hospitalization of four NASA/SpaceX Crew-8 astronauts, who splashed down off the coast of Florida on October 25. The crew had spent 232 days aboard the ISS. 

One of them was hospitalized overnight due to a 'medical issue', while the other three were discharged that same day after undergoing medical evaluations. 

NASA refused to provide any details about why the crew was hospitalized, which astronaut had to complete an overnight stay, or whether the medical issues were related to their return to Earth.

WEARING ON HER: A doctor has raised concerns about Sunita's health, claiming this September 24 photo showed her looking 'gaunt'

The agency instead deferred DailyMail.com to a blog post from October 26.

The statement said that one of the astronauts stayed overnight at Ascension Sacred Heart Pensacola in Florida, but was 'in good health and will resume normal post-flight reconditioning with other crew members' after being discharged.

NASA's decision not to disclose who that astronaut was or reveal details about his or her condition was made 'to protect the crew member's medical privacy.'

While the agency has repeatedly expressed confidence in the wellbeing of its astronauts, studies have shown that  living in space takes a toll on human health.

This is especially true of long-term ISS missions, which typically last six months.

Space is a harsh environment that causes astronauts to lose body fat, muscle mass, bone density, and endure high doses of radiation.

This can lead to a range of health issues, including vision problems, kidney stones and even causing astronauts to become more vulnerable to infections on the ISS.

Williams and her crewmate, Barry Wilmore, have been aboard the ISS for six months as of today, and will remain there until February 2025 at the earliest.

By then, they will be able to catch a ride back to Earth on SpaceX's Crew-9 mission Dragon Capsule. 

All four of the Crew-8 astronauts were hospitalized following their return to Earth, but NASA has not released any details about the reason, or reasons, why

The photo of Williams, taken on September 24, shows her tucking into a pepperoni pizza and chips while surrounded by condiments and other treats.

'Her cheeks appear a bit sunken - and usually it happens when you've had sort of total body weight loss,' Dr Vinay Gupta, a pulmonologist in Seattle, told DailyMail.com.

'I think what I can discern by her face and her cheeks being sunken in is that [she] has probably been at a significant [calorie] deficit for a while.'

Weight loss is not uncommon among astronauts during extended ISS missions. In fact, most lose about five percent of their bodyweight during a four to six month stay aboard the orbiting laboratory, according to the Lunar and Planetary Institute. 

Dr Gupta told DailyMail.com: 'What you're seeing there in that picture is somebody that I think is experiencing the natural stresses of living at a very high altitude, even in a pressurized cabin, for extended periods.'

'Based on what I'm at least seeing in the photo, I don't think she's quite at a... place where I say her life's in danger,' he added.

'But I don't think you can look at that photo and say she has sort of healthy body weight.

As for Crew-9, which included NASA astronauts Matthew Dominick, Michael Barratt, and Jeanette Epps, as well as Roscosmos cosmonaut Alexander Grebenkin, it's possible that their health suffered during their ISS stay as well. 

The four astronauts spent 232 days - or nearly eight months - aboard the ISS. It's reasonable to believe that the stress their bodies endured during that time may have resulted in the need for medical attention upon their return to Earth. 

Alternatively, some have speculated that something went awry during the crew's descent, despite NASA's statement that the crew 'safely splashed down aboard their SpaceX Dragon spacecraft.' 

The fact that all four astronauts received some form of medical attention does suggest that the health issues were somehow related to their return flight.

{ https://www.dailymail.co.uk/ }

07-11-2024 om 19:58 geschreven door peter  

• READ MORE: Space plane will execute a 'never-before-seen-maneuver' 

By Nikki Main Science Reporter For Dailymail.Com

The Pentagon has kept a tight lid on details about the Space Force's secretive spaceplane that is perpetually flying 500 miles above Earth's surface.

But the Department of Defense (DoD) has released a rare video showing the Boeing-built X-37B spacecraft performing a 'groundbreaking' maneuver to reach a new level of orbit using a first-of-its-kind 'aerobraking' procedure.

The video shows how the $200 million craft point its flat underside forward, using friction from Earth's atmosphere to slow down, treating it like a brake, while directing the nose of the aircraft away from earth.

Boeing engineer John Ealy said: 'When we aerobrake, we utilize atmospheric drag to effectively step down our apogee one pass at a time until we get to the orbital regime that we want to be in.

'When we do this, we save enormous amounts of propellant, and that's really why aerobraking is important.'

The X-37B, roughly the size of a small bus and resembling a miniature space shuttle, launched for its seventh mission on December 29, 2023 and is currently still conducting experiments for NASA before it will return to Earth.

Space Force released a video showing the X-37B spacecraft's 'groundbreaking' maneuver

The X-37B aircraft is the first of its kind to use the Earth's atmosphere to reach a new level of orbit using an aerobraking procedure that relies on the friction to slow it down

Space Force has not released information about the spacecraft's main function but has said it will conduct experiments involving 'space domain awareness technologies.'

This could mean that the new technology will be used to keep an eye on other traffic in orbit and observe what other spacecrafts are doing.

The seventh mission marks the first time Boeing has attempted to carry out the aerobraking maneuver.

Aerobraking is a method of slowing down a spacecraft by using the atmosphere or outer gas layers of a planet.

The space plane 'dips' into the atmosphere, and as it does, the molecules of gas in the atmosphere rub against the ship.

This acts as resistance and slows the ship down.

Often a ship will use aerobraking to change an orbit or slow a ship enough so that gravity will pull it down to a planet.

It was designed with a dual purpose of landing like an aircraft on a runway while the service module mounted on the back carries additional payloads, although Boeing has not specified what those will be.

The spacecraft pointed its nose away from Earth as the friction heated up its underside, causing the bottom to cast an orange glow and slow down the vehicle

'Once the aerobrake maneuver is complete, the X-37B will resume its test and experimentation objectives until they are accomplished, at which time the vehicle will deorbit and execute a safe return as it has during its six previous missions,' the Space Force said. 

The seventh mission launched on top of a SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket for the first time, putting it at an undisclosed altitude.

According to the Space Force, it is gathering data for future crewed missions by exposing plant seeds to the harsh radioactive environment in space.

The un-crewed X-37B is a hybrid launch vehicle that can operate as a regular airplane or spacecraft, which was is built using a lighter structure instead of the traditional aluminum and measures 29 feet long, about one-fourth the size of a NASA space shuttle.

It has the ability to perform missions that last up to 270 days to 'support long-term space objectives,' according to Boeing.

The X-37B spacecraft launched aboard a SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket in December

Holly Murphy, program director for Boeing's Experimental Systems Group, said in the video: 'X-37B missions have continuously advanced our nation's space capabilities by testing new technologies that reduce risk and inform our future space architectures. Mission seven is no different.'

Space Force's X-37B has so far spent roughly 10 months in orbit but the agency has yet to reveal when its seventh mission will conclude.

However, the aerobraking maneuver that brings it closer to Earth could indicate that it will be returning soon.

The video's release comes as China is testing its own spaceplane, called Shenlong, which recently spent 268 day's in orbit and completed its third mission on September 6.

China is the only other country in the world to have a reusable spacecraft and has raised concerns that these planes will be used to launch microsatellites that could be used for military applications, according to the China Morning Star.

{ https://www.dailymail.co.uk/ }

07-11-2024 om 00:40 geschreven door peter  

New research examines the threats facing the habitable zone planets in our stellar neighbourhood. The study is “The 10 pc Neighborhood of Habitable Zone Exoplanetary Systems: Threat Assessment from Stellar Encounters & Supernovae,” and it has been accepted for publication in The Astronomical Journal. The lead author is Tisyagupta Pyne from the Integrated Science Education And Research Centre at Visva-Bharati University in India.

The researchers examined the 10-parsec regions around the 84 solar systems with habitable zone exoplanets. Some of these Habitable Zone Systems (HZS) face risks from stars outside of the solar systems. How do these risks affect their habitability? What does it mean for our notion of the habitable zone?

“Among the 4,500+ exoplanet-hosting stars, about 140+ are known to host planets in their habitable zones,” the authors write. “We assess the possible risks that local stellar environment of these HZS pose to their habitability.”

We have more than 150 confirmed exoplanets in habitable zones, and as exoplanet science advances, scientists are developing a more detailed understanding of what habitable zone means. Scientists increasingly use the terms conservative habitable zone and optimistic habitable zone.

The optimistic habitable zone is defined as regions that receive less radiation from their star than Venus received one billion years ago and more than Mars did 3.8 billion years ago. Scientists think that recent Venus (RV) and early Mars (EM) both likely had surface water.

The conservative habitable zone is a more stringent definition. It’s a narrower region around a star where an exoplanet could have surface water. It’s defined by an inner runaway greenhouse edge where stellar flux would vaporize surface water and an outer maximum greenhouse edge where the greenhouse effect of carbon dioxide is dominated by Rayleigh scattering.

Those are useful scientific definitions as far as they go. But what about habitable stellar environments? In recent years, scientists have learned a lot about how stars behave, the characteristics of exoplanets, and how the two are intertwined.

“The discovery of numerous extrasolar planets has revealed a diverse array of stellar and planetary characteristics, making systematic comparisons crucial for evaluating habitability and assessing the potential for life beyond our solar system,” the authors write.

To make these necessary systematic comparisons, the researchers developed two metrics: the Solar Similarity Index (SSI) and the Neighborhood Similarity Index (NSI). Since main sequence stars like our Sun are conducive to habitability, the SSI compares our Solar System’s properties with those of other HZs. The NSI compares the properties of stars in a 10-parsec region around the Sun to the same size region around other HZSs.

These indices put habitable zones in a larger context.

“While the concept of HZ is vital in the search for habitable worlds, the stellar environment of the planet also plays an important role in determining longevity and maintenance of habitability,” the authors write. “Studies have shown that a high rate of catastrophic events, such as supernovae and close stellar encounters in regions of high stellar density, is not conducive to the evolution of complex life forms and the maintenance of habitability over long periods.”

When radiation and high-energy particles from a distant source reach a planet in a habitable zone, they can cause severe damage to Earth-like planets. Supernovae are a dangerous source of radiation and particles, and if one were to explode close enough to Earth, that would be the end of life. Scientists know that ancient supernovae have left their mark on Earth, but none of them were close enough to destroy the atmosphere.

“Our primary focus is to investigate the effects of SNe on the atmospheres of exoplanets or exomoons assuming their atmospheres to be Earth-like,” the authors write.

The first factor is stellar density. The more stars in a neighbourhood, the greater the likelihood of supernova explosions and stellar flybys.

“The astrophysical impacts of the stellar environment is a “low-probability, high-consequence” scenario
for the continuation of habitability of exoplanets,” the authors write. Though disruptive events like supernova explosions or close stellar flybys are unlikely, the consequences can be so severe that habitability is completely eliminated.

When it came to the supernova threat, the researchers looked at high-mass stars in stellar neighbourhoods since only massive stars explode. Pyne and her colleagues found high-mass stars with more than eight solar masses in the 10-parsec neighbourhoods of two HZS: TOI-1227 and HD 48265. “These high-mass stars are potential progenitors for supernova explosions,” the authors explain.

Only one of the HZS is at risk of a stellar flyby. HD 165155 has an encounter rate of ?1 in 5 Gyr period. That means it’s at greater risk of an encounter with another star that could eject planets from its habitable zone.

The team’s pair of indices, the SSI and the NSI, produced divergent results. “… we find that the stellar environments of the majority of HZS exhibit a high degree of similarity (NSI> 0.75) to the solar neighbourhood,” they explain. However, because of the wide variety of stars in HZS, comparing them to the Sun results in a wide range of SSI values.

We know the danger supernova explosions pose to habitability. The initial burst of radiation could kill anything on the surface of a planet too close. The ongoing radiation could strip away the atmospheres of some planets further away and could also cause DNA damage in any lifeforms exposed to it. For planets that are further away from the blast, the supernova could alter their climate and trigger extinctions. There’s no absolutely certain understanding of how far away a planet needs to avoid devastation, but many scientists say that within 50 light-years, a planet is probably toast.

We can see the results of some of the stellar flybys the authors are considering. Rogue planets, or free-floating planets (FPPs), are likely in their hapless situations precisely because a stellar interloper got too close to their HZS and disrupted the gravitational relationships between the planets and their stars. We don’t know how many of these FPPs are in the Milky Way, but there could be many billions of them. Future telescopes like the Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope will help us understand how many there truly are.

Habitability may be fleeting, and our planet may be the exception. It’s possible that life appears on many planets in habitable zones but can’t last long due to various factors. From a great distance away, we can’t detect all the variables that go into exoplanet habitability.

However, we can gain an understanding of the stellar environments in which potentially habitable exoplanets exist, and this research shows us how.

{ https://www.universetoday.com/ }

06-11-2024 om 23:21 geschreven door peter  

“Our transporter comprises two trailers connected by cradles and a strongback assembly designed in-house,” said Limp on X. “There are 22 axles and 176 tires on this transport vehicle…The distance between GERT’s front bumper and the trailer’s rear is 310’, about the length of a football field.”

Limp said the next step is to put the first and second stages together on the launch pad for the fully integrated hot fire dress rehearsal. The second stage recently completed its own hot fire at the launch site.

Hopefully the test will lead to Blue Origin’s first ever launch to orbit. While the New Glenn rocket has had its share of delays, it seems Blue Origin has also taken a slow, measured approach to prepare for its first launch. In February of this year, a boilerplate of the rocket was finally rolled onto the launch pad at Cape Canaveral for testing.  Then in May 2024, New Glenn was rolled out again for additional testing. Now, the fully integrated test in the next few weeks will perhaps lead to a launch by the end of the year.

New Glenn’s seven engines will give it more than 3.8 million pounds of thrust on liftoff. The goal is for New Glenn to reuse its first-stage booster and the seven engines powering it, with recovery on a barge located downrange off the coast of Florida in the Atlantic Ocean.

New Glenn boosters are designed for 25 flights.

Blue Origin says New Glenn will launch payloads into high-energy orbits. It can carry more than 13 metric tons to geostationary transfer orbit (GTO) and 45 metric tons to low Earth orbit (LEO).

For the first flight, Blue Origin will be flying its own hardware as a payload, a satellite deployment technology called Blue Ring. Even though it doesn’t have a paying customer for the upcoming launch, it would be — if successful — the first of two required certification flights needed by the rocket by the U.S. Space Force so it could potentially be awarded future national security missions along with side SpaceX and United Launch Alliance (ULA.)

Additional details can be found at PhysOrg and NASASpaceflight.com.

{ https://www.universetoday.com/ }

06-11-2024 om 22:43 geschreven door peter  

INVESTIGATORS think they may have discovered two separate alien abductions which happened on the same night and place for the first time in UFO history, The U.S. Sun can reveal.

Witness Maria Blair initially believed she saw a UFO land on the banks of the Pascagoula River, Mississippi, before three creatures kidnapped two fishermen in one of the most infamous cases in the US.

Maria Blair believes she was abducted by the same aliens who took two fishermen in the infamous Pascagoula case

Credit: Philip Mantle/ Flying Disc Press

The aliens were described as having lobster like claws and carrot noses (stock image)

Credit: Philip Mantle/ Flying Disc Press

She also remembered seeing a strange gray man emerge from the water as they stood watching the UFO on the pier on the opposite side of the river.

That is all she could remember for 45 years before her husband Jerry made a death-bed confession that they too had been abducted that night.

Now US-based Dr. Irena Scott, PhD and British UFO investigator Philip Mantle believe the case could the first double abduction in UFO history.

Scott, who has worked for the Defence Intelligence Agency, said: "This event was the UFO abduction account of Charles Hickson and Calvin Parker by the Pascagoula River.

"It had great impact and drew international headlines because, unlike most such accounts, they were conscious and reported it immediately.

"Thus, it began as an extremely credible report, but unlike most others, a number of additional independent reports of UFO sightings were made in the area at around the same time.

"Because of the men’s honesty and additional factors, this has become one of the best known of all abductions and it has been termed the best-documented such account on record."

Calvin and his pal Charlie Hickson were fishing on the banks of the Pascagoula River, Mississippi, on October 11, 1973, when a strange oval shaped craft landed in front of them.

The men said creatures with lobster-like claws at the ends of their arms and carrot-like growths for their nose and ears emerged from the craft and grabbed them.

'NO EYES AND SLITS FOR MOUTHS'

The creatures' skin was described as pale in color, wrinkled, with no eyes and slits for mouths.

On the ship, Hickson claimed that he was examined by what looked like a large football-shaped mechanical eye, about 6 to 8 inches in diameter, that seemed to scan his body.

Parker, age 19 at the time, claimed that he could not recall what had happened to him inside the craft, although later, during hypnotic regression he offered some hazy details.

The men were released after about 15-20 minutes and the creatures levitated them, with Hickson's feet dragging along the ground, back to their original positions on the river bank.

STRANGE BLUE LIGHTS

Unbeknown to them, Maria and Jerry Blair were sitting in their car looking out across the river when they saw strange blue lights in the sky.

They watched the strange lights for around 40 minutes before getting out of their car and walking down the pier toward a boat.

As she was walking along the pier, Maria saw something came out of the water on her side of the pier describing it as a gray man.

Jerry dismissed it and they carried on walking.

Maria didn’t think much of it until the next day when the abduction of Calvin Parker and Charles Hickson was reported in the news.

She discovered that their encounter had taken place at the same time the Blairs had been there, but on the other side of the river.

But Maria never talked about it to anyone except her family and Jerry wanted her to keep it quiet because people would think she was crazy.

DECADES-LONG SECRET

She didn’t talk about it for about 45 years, until they discovered that Calvin Parker had finally begun talking about it himself.

Mantle and Dr Scott managed to trace Maria after her daughter Tracee left a message on a YouTube interview with Calvin in 2019.

Scott interviewed Maria and Jerry, who told much the same story, except that Jerry was quite skeptical about UFOs.

Scott was intrigued because Maria seemed very emotional about a thing that came out of the water and looked like a man.

Later Jerry became very ill and died in 2019.

However just before he went on a ventilator, he told Maria that they had been abducted.

He had not talked about this before because of potential harassment.

DEATH-BED CONFESSION

Marie immediately called the investigators from the hospital and said there was something Jerry wanted to tell them.

He said he had seen the same happenings as his wife and remembered more.

Jerry had seen the gray-humanoid creature moving away to the other side of the river.

He also had seen the blue lights on the UFO and saw it shooting off into the sky.

He stated that he had kept quiet for all these years for fear of people laughing at him.

Jerry remembered more than Maria did at that point on the pier. He said some of the beings were 6 feet tall and gray in color.

Two of them grabbed him and got control of him.

ALIEN EXAM

One of the beings stood in front of the others and Jerry thought this one was the leader.

The beings floated them into the object.

He said that they performed an exam on him that he didn't want and was refusing to let happen.

He told that that one of them should have been a doctor and said he kept his eye on that one.

Maria said that Jerry recalled watching them float back across the Pascagoula River until he no longer had them in his sight.

Then he watched the craft shoot straight up and out of sight.

Maria had not remembered the abduction but Mantle was sure that something had happened to them so arranged for her to undergo hypnotic regression last year to jog her memory.

HYPNOTIC REVELATIONS

She was confused and very scared during the session. She didn’t know where Jerry was and wanted to find him.

She thought she was floating in the air. Then she said something was in control of her.

She said that she saw a door opened and a being was taking her to the door, then she was inside.

Maria said she thought she had been given some form of sedative but did not feel any needle.

She didn’t see the beings walk; she said they floated and that they had taken complete control of her mind.

She claimed they laid her on a table and hovered a metal device over her private parts and she thought they were interested in her eggs.

The hypnotist then asked her what the beings wanted to know and she answered that they didn’t want her to know, but she thought their goal was to make children that look like people, so they can live among us.

She said: "[The aliens] need a disguise. They need their children to look like humans. So they can roam the earth and look like us.” 

She told the hypnotist she believed her husband had seen the creatures before and he was protecting her from them.

Under hypnosis, Maria, of Theodore, Alabama, said: “He knew they were going to attack me. He knew that they were going to come get me (crying). I don’t know what he had with them, but he knew.”

'THEY ARE AMONG US NOW'

The hypnotist asked why she was chosen and she said because she was a woman and that the visitors are performing a human/alien breeding program.

She said: “They are among us now.” 

Scott said: "Right from the beginning Maria Blair had the impression that something else had happened to them that night and her husband Jerry finally told her that they too had undergone an abduction encounter.

"Even tough Jerry was very ill at the time Maria was quite angry with him for having kept this a secret for decades. You could say that Jerry was making a kind of ‘death bed confession’ and finally told his wife what had happened. It was obvious that he wanted to get this account out in the open before he passed.

"We must also clarify that Maria and Jerry did not step forward to tell their story. Were it not for their daughters comment on YouTube then we would never have heard anything about it.

"When it comes to the hypnotherapist, a lady by the name of Crystal Slaughter, she was not told anything about the UFO events.

"She was simply asked to take Maria back in time to that night on the Pascagoula River. Once Maria started telling her story under hypnosis Ms Slaughter was very surprised."

Calvin Parker died in August this year after a battle against kidney cancer just before the 50th anniversary of the classic case.

Scott and Philip Mantle's new book BEYOND REASONABLE DOUBT – The Pascagoula Alien Abduction - is now out on Amazon.

Charles Hickson and Calvin Parker claim they were abducted while fishing in 1973

Credit: Philip Mantle/ Flying Disc Press

{ https://www.thesun.co.uk/ }

06-11-2024 om 01:12 geschreven door peter  

(M. Aiestaran, J. Velaza, et al/Antiquity/Cambridge University)

Archaeologists Unearth 2,000-Year-Old Relic Covered in Mysterious Symbols from Lost Ancient Language

Archeologists in Northern Spain report the discovery of a 2,000-year-old relic in the shape of a hand that is covered in mysterious symbols from an ancient “lost” language.

Previous research into the area’s Iron Age inhabitants seemed to indicate they were pre-literate people without any form of written communication. However, this latest discovery, which they are calling the Hand of Irulegi after the site where it was found, not only refutes that assumption but may offer clues to the origin of the region’s mysterious Basque language, which has no known linguistic relatives.

Mysterious Symbols Cover Bronze Hand

According to a summary of the archaeology team’s research published in the Cambridge University Press Core journal, the relic, which is made of bronze and in the shape of a hand, was discovered at the entrance of an ancient domestic building in present-day Navarre within the northern part of Spain. The researchers note that this particular region of the Pyrenean foothills has received “little attention” from archaeologists, meaning the Late Iron Age societies of this area “remain poorly known.”

In fact, they note that other than a few meager insights from the Roman-period literature, “very little is understood about the language, writing, identity, and beliefs of these pre-Roman Vasconic communities.”

“Relatively few examples of Palaeohispanic writing have been recovered from the Vasconic territories of present-day Navarre,” the researchers explain, “leading to the assumption that the Vascones were a pre-literate society.”

Given these circumstances, the team was somewhat surprised to find a relic covered with a wide array of mysterious symbols of an unknown origin. A close-up analysis of the bronze hand revealed a small hole and four lines of mysterious symbols they interpreted as text.

Interestingly, one of the words written on the hand that could be identified was interpreted to say “sorioneku.” In the Basque language, which still exists in this particular region, the word “zorioneko” means “good fortune.” Given the hand’s location near the entrance of a domestic building and the orientation of the mysterious symbols, the researchers suggest it may have been hung above the doorway to bring good luck.

“The text inscribed on this artifact, which was found at the entrance of a domestic building, is interpreted as apotropaic, a token entreating good fortune,” write the researchers.

“Evidence for widespread burning across the site, combined with the many weapons recovered from the interior of the habitational structures and the quantity and variety of other finds found in primary contexts, strongly suggest that the site was intentionally destroyed by fire,” they explain.

An analysis of the techniques used to create the hand didn’t reveal which tool was used to make the mysterious symbols, but the researchers suppose they could have been made by an iron tool like a Burin.

Another intriguing discovery shows that the inscription methods used to create the symbols seemed to come from two completely different epigraphic cultures. One method, the “punched” method, is consistent with the Celtiberian epigraphic culture, whereas the sgraffito technique is consistent with the Iberian epigraphic culture. The researchers say that no artifacts combining the two methods have previously been found in this region.

“The two-step method, with the use of both sgraffito and punched techniques in the same inscription, has not previously been documented in Palaeohispanic inscriptions.”

Details of the Irulegi hand: a) identical oxidation patina on both the plate and the point; b) punched lettering on incised line; c) ornamental reduction on the perimeter; d) perforation of the lower palm viewed from the front and e) from the back; f–g) details of the fingers and nails; h) punched lettering on the sgraffito and scored guideline (above); i) the same letter with inverted color

(Credit: M. Aiestaran, J. Velaza, et al/Antiquity/Cambridge University).

More Inscriptions Translated Mystery May Never be Solved

In their detailed study, the researchers outline several other inscriptions they may have been able to interpret, including one that may be the name of a place (oTiŕtan) and one that may be a verb (eŕaukon). However, they write, “The rest of the inscription on the Irulegi hand remains obscure.”

Moving forward, the researchers concede that they may never be able to decipher the mysterious symbols on the Hand of Irulegi completely, and its entire purpose and meaning may never be fully understood. However, they do note that the hand is still a significant find since it shows that the people of this area were literate after all.

“The new inscription presented here provides support for a growing awareness that the ancient Vascones knew and made use of writing, at least to a degree,” they explain.

The researchers also point out that most of the other pre-Roman languages from the area “became extinct under the pressure of Latin.” So discovering definitive examples of a pre-Roman, Vasconian language is also incredibly valuable.

“In this context, the recent discovery at the Late Iron Age site of Irulegi of a Vasconic text inscribed on a bronze hand is an important find,” they conclude.

• Christopher Plain is a Science Fiction and Fantasy novelist and Head Science Writer at The Debrief. Follow and connect with him on X, learn about his books at plainfiction.com, or email him directly at christopher@thedebrief.org.

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

06-11-2024 om 00:48 geschreven door peter  

MUFON OCTOBER 2024  UFO Sightings Report

COUNTRIES OF THE WORLD UNITED STATES 391 CANADA 27 UNITED KINGDOM 23 AUSTRALIA 8 FRANCE 7 SPAIN 5 GERMANY 3 SWEDEN 2 IRELAND 2 MEXICO 2 ISRAEL 2 AUSTRIA 2 COSTA RICA 1 TURKEY 1 GREECE 1 THAILAND 1 SINGAPORE 1 PHILIPPINES 1 NORWAY 1 POLAND 1 ANGUILLA 1 ARGENTINA 1 NETHERLANDS 1 CROATIA 1 PUERTO RICO 1 PANAMA 1 HUNGARY 1   TOTAL: 489 SHAPE Circle 77 Sphere 66 Other 48 Unknown 36 Triangle 34 Disc 31 Square/Rectangular 26 Star-like 24 Oval 23 N/A 14 Cylinder 14 Tic Tac 14 Cigar 11 Fireball 9 Diamond 8 Boomerang 5 Egg 4 Flash 4 Saturn-like 3 Chevron 3 Cone 2 Teardrop 2 Bullet/Missile 1 Blimp 1 Cross 1 STATES OF THE USA California 35 New York 34 Pennsylvania 23 Florida 20 Texas 18 Washington 17 Michigan 16 Arizona 14 Minnesota 14 Indiana 13 Ohio 12 Illinois 11 Colorado 11 Kentucky 10 Missouri 10 North Carolina 8 Tennessee 8 Nevada 8 Georgia 7 Maryland 7 Oregon 7 New Jersey 7 South Carolina 7 Oklahoma 6 Massachusetts 6 Connecticut6 Montana 5 Alabama 4 Maine 4 Arkansas 4 New Hampshire 4 Virginia 4 Wisconsin 4 New Mexico 3 Kansas 3 Wyoming 2 Louisiana 2 North Dakota 2 Hawaii 2 Idaho 2 Vermont 2 Alaska 1 Nebraska 1 Utah 1 Iowa 1 West Virginia 1 Delaware 1 Mississippi 1 South Dakota 1 DISTANCE < 100 ft 55 101-500 ft 46 501 ft - 1 Mile 81 Over 1 Mile 109 Unknown102 NO VALUE 29 ERT Most impressively there were 4 Landings, Hovering, or Takeoffs reported, and 4 Entities observed.

{ https://mufon.com/ }

05-11-2024 om 23:39 geschreven door peter  

Mystery as four NASA astronauts are rushed to hospital without explanation after returning from space

• READ MORE:  Elon Musk reveals why he REALLY wants Trump to win 

By Ellyn Lapointe For Dailymail.Com

A crew of four NASA astronauts was recently hospitalized without explanation after returning to Earth on SpaceX's Dragon capsule. 

After spending more than 200 days on the International Space Station (ISS), the Crew-8 astronauts splashed down off the coast of Florida in the early morning hours of October 25.

NASA revealed that one astronaut received medical care following the return, but on Monday it was found that all members had been taken to the hospital.

One crewmember was kept overnight, but was said to be 'in stable condition under observation as a precautionary measure.'

NASA has not released any details about why the crew was hospitalized, which astronaut had to complete an overnight stay, or whether the medical issues were related to their return to Earth. 

Following the mysterious incident, a NASA safety panel told SpaceX to focus on crew safety as they prepare for future crewed missions to the ISS.

During a meeting of the Aerospace Safety Advisory Panel on October 31, former astronaut and committee member Kent Rominger listed a series of 'recent issues' with SpaceX's Falcon 9 rocket and Dragon spacecraft. 

He said the mishaps serve as a reminder to remain vigilant as the company increases the pace of its missions. 

'Both NASA and SpaceX need to maintain focus on safe Crew Dragon operations and not take any 'normal' operations for granted,' he said.

All four of the Crew-8 astronauts were hospitalized following their return to Earth, but NASA has not released any details about the reason, or reasons, why

The Crew-8 mission launched toward the ISS on March 3, and the crew was initially expected to return to Earth in August. 

But a series of delays pushed the return flight to early October, extending what was supposed to be a 180-day stay on the ISS into a 235-day stay. 

A typical long-term stay on the ISS lasts six months, or roughly 182 days.  

Living on the ISS does take a toll on astronauts' health, and the longer they stay, the more servere these health issues can become. 

Following long-term space missions, astronauts are known to suffer from bone and muscle loss, vision problems, kidney stones, cardiovascular issues and other health conditions. 

NASA has not released any information about why the Crew-8 astronauts were hospitalized, so it is not clear whether their extended stay on the ISS was the cause. 

It's also possible (but not confirmed) that something went awry during Crew Dragon's return to Earth. 

The incidents that Rominger referenced include observations of the Crew Dragon parachutes during the Crew-8 splashdown, such as 'lagging' behavior that caused one of the four main chutes to open slower than the others, SpaceNews reported.   

He also cited several issues with SpaceX's Falcon 9, such as the July launch failure that grounded the rocket for about two weeks. 

In August, Falcon 9 launches were briefly halted after one of the rocket's boosters was lost during a drone ship landing. 

The Crew-8 astronauts splashed down on the SpaceX Dragon Endeavor on October 25, following a 235-day mission 

And in September, another mishap with the Falcon 9's upper-stage engine occurred during a deorbit burn following the launch of the Crew-9 mission.

As a result, the second stage landed outside the target zone, and the rocket was grounded for another two weeks, except for one mission.

Even as recently as Sunday, SpaceX scrubbed a Starlink satellite launch scheduled for this weekend due to a helium leak.

'When you look at these recent incidents over the last handful of weeks, it does lead one say that it's apparent that operating safely requires significant attention to detail as hardware ages and the pace of operations increases,' Rominger said.

He added that both NASA and SpaceX will have to 'guard against letting the high pace of operations from clouding their judgement' to ensure that missions are conducted with the appropriate level of attention, time and resources. 

Elon Musk's SpaceX has been a trusted NASA partner for years, and the company has been particularly busy this year. 

The commercial spaceflight leader has already launched over 100 rockets in 2024, including several crewed missions. Musk has set an ambitious goal to achieve a total of 148 before the year is over.

This would beat the 98 launches SpaceX achieved in 2023. 

But the company's focus on maintaining a fast-paced mission schedule, and thus its leading position in the commercial space industry, could come at the cost of astronaut health and safety. 

VIDEOS

{ https://www.dailymail.co.uk/ }

05-11-2024 om 23:30 geschreven door peter  

By Jeff Wise

An image from from NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope NIRCam (Near-Infrared Camera) showing thousands of galaxies. Photo: Space Telescope Science Institute/NASA, ESA, CSA, R. Maiolino (Uni

Exciting rumors have been swirling in the halls of astrobiology. The James Webb Space Telescope, which has been scrutinizing the cosmos in unprecedented detail since its deployment in 2022, has been on a tear lately, and folks in the know say it might finally have detected life beyond Earth. That’s the buzz, anyway. Says astrophysicist Rebecca Smethurst, as reported by The Spectator, “I think we are going to get a paper that has strong evidence for a biosignature on an exoplanet very, very soon.”

In other words: Awesome! But also: Calm down. “Strong evidence for a biosignature” is a long way from proof of life on other planets. A biosignature is basically a signal that’s consistent with life but that may also be produced by something else. It’s intriguing but not incontrovertible evidence. And given the many uncertainties surrounding a discipline still in its infancy, the public should not get its hopes up. “So many people want this to be the year. There will definitely be claims,” says Sara Seager, an MIT professor of astrophysics. “There won’t be any robust findings.”

One reason it’s hard to pin down unequivocal evidence of life is that we don’t really know what life is. Here on Earth, biology involves DNA and carbohydrates and requires liquid water, but the chemistry could be different on other worlds. Maybe life could use liquid methane instead of water, or silicon instead of carbon. So, in its most fundamental formulation, what is life all about, and how do we know what to look for?

One idea is that life must always exist far from chemical equilibrium. Earth’s atmosphere, for instance, contains both oxygen and methane. Left on their own, these molecules would react to form carbon dioxide and water, and in time the oxygen and methane would vanish. “The only reason they are present and coexist is that they keep being replenished by some process,” says NASA astrobiologist Marc Neveu. “In our case, it turns out to be life.”

So if you were looking at Earth from far away, the presence of methane and oxygen together would be a clue that life is operating here. But it wouldn’t be proof because these gases can be generated by non-biological causes.

Just because you can’t prove your evidence is incontrovertible, however, doesn’t mean your conclusion is wrong. By that measure, we might already have found alien life. That is to say, multiple pieces of evidence exist that we may someday recognize as the first glimmer of fact that we are not alone.

2004: Life on Mars

In December 2004, scientists reported that a spectrometer aboard the European Space Agency’s Mars Express orbiter had measured a tiny but detectable quantity of methane gas in the Red Planet’s atmosphere. That same year, astronomers using ground-based telescopes reported that they too had found signs of methane. On Earth, the gas is produced mostly by living things (including, famously, cow farts) but can also be produced as a result of seismic activity. “It’s widely thought that there are underground streams of liquid water,” says Neveu. “It’s certainly possible that there are microbes in this environment.”

2023: Life on Europa

Jupiter and Saturn, the largest planets, are too cold and too far from the Sun to harbor life as we currently know it. But several of their icy moons are believed to harbor oceans below their frozen surface. Kept warm by tidal forces, these oceans may be able to support life. Particularly interesting is Jupiter’s moon Europa. Last year, the Webb telescope detected carbon dioxide within a geologically young area of the surface, suggesting it might have come from an ocean.

2023: Life Beyond the Solar System

Astronomers have long assumed that stars outside our solar system have planets around them, but not until 1992 were the first ones discovered orbiting neutron stars. Now we know of more than 5,000, but we’ve had no evidence of whether any harbor life. Then, last fall, a team of U.S. and U.K. astronomers released a preprint saying they had detected methane, carbon dioxide, and maybe dimethyl sulfide, or DMS, around a star called K2-18b, which lies 124 light-years away. On Earth, DMS is produced by living organisms.

It’s an extremely tenuous finding, however. Exoplanets are so far away and so dim compared with the star they orbit that even the mighty Webb can’t image them directly. Instead, it waits for the planet to pass in front of the star and then detects a change in the intensity of the light received — in this case, on the infrared part of the spectrum, just beyond the range of human perception. Seagal is skeptical, saying that what the authors took to be a sign of DMS is really just a misinterpretation of the data. “There’s no signal,” she maintains.

A view of Jupiter’s moon, Europa, assembled from images captured by the Galileo spacecraft in the late 1990s. 

Photo: NASA/JPL-Caltech/SETI Institute

Identifying biosignatures is nice, but it would be far more exciting to establish once and for all that extraterrestrial life definitely exists. One way to do that would be to detect a so-called technosignature, a gas that can be produced only artificially through the application of a sufficiently advanced technology. Nitrogen trifluoride, for instance, which is used on Earth in manufacturing, is not known to result from any known natural process. “It would be a more robust finding,” says Seager.

Failing that, the only way to prove the existence of a living thing is to go out and find it and study it up close — watch it metabolize, grow, and reproduce. That’s a tall order. Life on Venus, if it exists, is probably wafting around in the cooler reaches of the planet’s acid atmosphere, while Mars’s methane-belching microbes could be buried miles deep underground. The hardest of all to access would be any life sheltering around distant stars, the nearest of which would take at least 70,000 years to reach using current technology.

The oceans under icy moons may be easiest to get into. This October, NASA is planning to launch a probe called the Europa Clipper, which will swing through the clouds of ice grains Europa ejects through its geysers and see if it can detect the kinds of molecules we might expect if life exists in its subsurface oceans. If the signs are encouraging, they will likely light a fire to send a spacecraft to take a closer look. Last year, researchers in Germany announced they were working on a probe that could melt its way through the crust of an icy moon and explore the ocean below.

Seager is optimistic that the search for extraterrestrial life will ultimately be successful — just not perhaps with the kind of speed people would like to see. She cites the example of the discovery of exoplanets, which seemed exotic and somewhat dubious when the first hints of them were uncovered three decades ago. By analogy, the signs of alien life that first appear will start out being doubtful and rare before becoming ironclad and common.

Neveu agrees that it will take patience. “I think it’s going to be a gradual process,” he says. “Maybe it’s already started.”

{ https://nymag.com/intelligencer }

05-11-2024 om 18:09 geschreven door peter  

Space Force's mysterious X-37B begins 'aerobraking' to lower orbit. Here's how it works (video)

'The U.S. military's highly secretive X-37B space plane just got a little less mysterious.

In a rare show of openness about the space plane's operations, Boeing and the U.S. Space Force released a statement last month explaining that the X-37B would soon begin a series of "aerobraking" maneuvers to begin lowering its orbit and safely disposing of unnecessary hardware before it comes down for a landing on Earth.

This week, Boeing Space released a video detailing how the aerobraking procedure will work and why the X-37B is performing it. In the video, a Boeing representative said the maneuver will help Boeing change the X-37B's altitude and "safely dispose of the service module components in accordance with recognized standards for space debris mitigation."

Typically, when satellites change orbit, they execute one or more burns using their onboard thrusters. This requires propellant, however, meaning each satellite can only perform a limited amount of burns before needing to be refueled or brought out of orbit. Aerobraking, on the other hand, uses the friction of Earth's atmosphere to help guide a spacecraft to a new orbit.

"When we aerobrake, we utilize atmospheric drag to effectively step down our apogee one pass at a time until we get to the orbital regime that we want to be in," said John Ealy, a Boeing engineer, in the company's video explaining the X-37B's aerobraking. "When we do this, we save enormous amounts of propellant, and that's really why aerobraking is important."

Boeing's video about the aerobraking maneuver shows the aircraft-like X-37B changing its attitude, or the direction in which it faces relative to its orbital direction, so that its flat "belly" points forward as it orients its nose up, facing away from Earth below it.

In the animation, the broader, flatter underside of the space plane glows orange from the heat generated as it encounters the drag (a type of friction) produced by Earth's atmosphere, which slows it down.

U.S. Space Force leadership praised the X-37B team for attempting such a novel maneuver. "This first of a kind maneuver from the X-37B is an incredibly important milestone for the United States Space Force as we seek to expand our aptitude and ability to perform in this challenging domain," U.S. Chief of Space Operations Gen. Chance Saltzman said in a statement last month. "The success is a testament to the dedication and perseverance of the team."

The X-37B's most recent mission, known as OTV-7 (for "Orbital Test Vehicle-7"), saw the space plane launch atop a SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket for the first time, which put the space plane on a highly elliptical (or oval-shaped) orbit at an unknown altitude.

Like all other X-37B flights, little is known about the OTV-7 other than that the flight is testing the effects of space radiation and "space domain awareness" technologies, presumably meaning new tech to help the U.S. Space Force keep an eye on orbital traffic and what other spacecraft are doing in Earth orbit.

"X-37B missions have continuously advanced our nation's space capabilities by testing new technologies that reduce risk and inform our future space architectures. Mission seven is no different," Holly Murphy, program director for Boeing's Experimental Systems Group, said in the video.

VIDEOS

{ https://www.space.com/ }

05-11-2024 om 17:52 geschreven door peter  

NASA's Parker Solar Probe makes 1st-of-its-kind observation within a coronal mass ejection

Related: 

• NASA's Parker Solar Probe smashes record for fastest human-made object

Solar physicists have inferred that KHI exist in CMEs, as plasma in a CME moves at odds with the background solar wind. But they have never had the proper equipment, in the proper place, to observe the phenomena.

"The turbulence that gives rise to KHI plays a fundamental role in regulating the dynamics of CMEs flowing through the ambient solar wind," said Evangelos Paouris, a solar physicist at George Mason University, in a statement. "Hence, understanding turbulence is key in achieving a deeper understanding of CME evolution and kinematics."

Parker Solar Probe’s 21st orbit included a perihelion that brought the spacecraft within 4.51 million miles of the Sun. 

Credit: NASA/Johns Hopkins APL/Steve Gribben

The Parker Solar Probe launched on Aug. 12, 2018. Since then, the probe's elliptical orbit has allowed it to enter the sun's corona closer than ever before — in essence, becoming the first human-made object to enter the sun's outer atmosphere, just 11.5 solar radii from the sun's surface.

Parker Solar Probe’s 18th orbit included a perihelion that brought the spacecraft within 4.51 million miles of the Sun.

Credit: NASA/Johns Hopkins APL/Steve Gribben

Related Stories:

• Parker Solar Probe and Solar Orbiter team up to tackle 65-year-old sun mystery
• NASA's Parker Solar Probe flies through major coronal mass ejection — and survives to tell the tale
• NASA's daring Parker Solar Probe spacecraft zips past the sun again

And, even now, Parker Solar Probe has not entered its final orbit. The probe has repeatedly flown past Venus in order to use the planet's gravity to boost its speed and tighten its orbit around the sun. In November of this year, the probe will fly past Venus a seventh time, tightening its loop about the sun yet again — allowing it to pass within just 9.5 solar radii from the sun in 2025 and beyond.

{ https://www.space.com/ }

05-11-2024 om 16:14 geschreven door peter  

While observing the Orion Nebula with his 12-inch Dobsonian telescope, a sky-watcher noticed an unusual flashing object. As stars appeared to drift due to Earth's rotation, this particular object while flashing approximately every 20 seconds clearly travels through deep space. 

The observer wonders whether it might be a rotating satellite or not. However, this isn’t the first sighting of cigar-shaped UFOs or other mysterious objects traveling through space near the Orion Nebula, so it is quite possible that it could be an interstellar craft. 

Over the years, I have shared several articles, complete with images and videos, documenting similar UFO sightings around the Orion Nebula. You can explore these under the tag: Orion Nebula. 

Interestingly, these sightings have all occurred between November and February, suggesting there may be a seasonal pattern to these observations.

  

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

05-11-2024 om 12:52 geschreven door peter  

This was likely caused by Mars’ interior cooling faster due to its lower mass and lower pressure. Scientists theorize that this caused Mars’ outer core to solidify while its inner core became liquid—though this remains an open question. By comparing the subsurface temperatures obtained by InSight to surface temperatures, the DLR team could measure the rate of heat transport in the crust (thermal diffusivity) and thermal conductivity. From this, the density of the Martian soil could be estimated for the first time.

The team determined that the density of the uppermost 30 cm (~12 inches) of soil is comparable to basaltic sand – something that was not anticipated based on orbiter data. This material is common on Earth and is created by weathering volcanic rock rich in iron and magnesium. Beneath this layer, the soil density is comparable to consolidated sand and coarser basalt fragments. Tilman Spohn, the principal investigator of the HP³ experiment at the DLR Institute of Planetary Research, explained in a DLR press release:

“To get an idea of the mechanical properties of the soil, I like to compare it to floral foam, widely used in floristry for flower arrangements. It is a lightweight, highly porous material in which holes are created when plant stems are pressed into it... Over the course of seven Martian days, we measured thermal conductivity and temperature fluctuations at short intervals.

“Additionally, we continuously measured the highest and lowest daily temperatures over the second Martian year. The average temperature over the depth of the 40-centimetre-long thermal probe was minus 56 degrees Celsius (217.5 Kelvin). These records, documenting the temperature curve over daily cycles and seasonal variations, were the first of their kind on Mars.”

Because the encrusted Martian soil (aka. “duricrust”) extends to a depth of 20 cm (~8 inches), the Mole managed to penetrate just a little more than 40 cm (~16 inches) – well short of its 5 m (~16.5 ft) objective. Nevertheless, the data obtained at this depth has provided valuable insight into heat transport on Mars. Accordingly, the team found that ground temperatures fluctuated by only 5 to 7 °C (9 to 12.5 °F) during a Martian day, a tiny fraction of the fluctuations observed on the surface—110 to 130 °C (230 to 266 °F).

Seasonally, they noted temperature fluctuation of 13 °C (~23.5 °F) while remaining below the freezing point of water on Mars in the layers near the surface. This demonstrates that the Martian soil is an excellent insulator, significantly reducing the large temperature differences at shallow depths. This influences various physical properties in Martian soil, including elasticity, thermal conductivity, heat capacity, the movement of material within, and the speed at which seismic waves can pass through them.

“Temperature also has a strong influence on chemical reactions occurring in the soil, on the exchange with gas molecules in the atmosphere, and therefore also on potential biological processes regarding possible microbial life on Mars,” said Spohn. “These insights into the properties and strength of the Martian soil are also of particular interest for future human exploration of Mars.”

What was particularly interesting, though, is how the temperature fluctuations enable the formation of salty brines for ten hours a day (when there is sufficient moisture in the atmosphere) in winter and spring. Therefore, the solidification of this brine is the most likely explanation for the duricrust layer beneath the surface. This information could prove very useful as future missions explore Mars and attempt to probe beneath the surface to learn more about the Red Planet’s history.

Further Reading: 

• DLR

{ https://www.universetoday.com/ }

05-11-2024 om 12:44 geschreven door peter  

Terrifying UFO Encounters: Lost Hours and Blinding Lights Haunt Witnesses

Each year, about a million UFO sightings are reported worldwide. While most can be explained, a small percentage remain a mystery. Such was the case for two different groups—three Brazilian men who lost hours after encountering eerie lights, and a young boy in Quebec, Canada, who was temporarily blinded by a strange object with a powerful searchlight. Here’s a closer look at these spine-chilling experiences.

The Brazilian Fishermen’s Strange Encounter with Lost Time

In a remote part of southeastern Brazil, three friends, two of whom were off-duty police officers, set out on a covert fishing trip. Trespassing on private property, they intended to retrieve fish from nets they’d placed the night before. But the calm night was soon interrupted by an inexplicable light.

At first, the men assumed the glow was from a flashlight, perhaps carried by a security guard. However, as the light drew closer, it defied their expectations. Hovering above the treetops, this intense ball of light moved in a way no human could control. They immediately felt a chilling sense of danger. Local folklore had warned them about “The Mother of Gold,” a terrifying legend of glowing orbs that drain the blood and vitality of their victims.

Their initial response was to hide, but soon, more orbs appeared. Driven by fear, they jumped into the lake, seeking refuge underwater. But the glowing lights grew bolder, moving closer to where they were submerged. The men believed these objects were not of this world and felt their lives were truly at risk.

When the lights finally disappeared, the men tried to start their boat to return to safety. However, the engine wouldn’t start, and they discovered they had no fuel left. Exhausted and terrified, they made their way to town on foot. However, when they arrived, they found themselves in disbelief: what felt like mere minutes of horror had somehow spanned four hours. The men couldn’t explain this missing time, a detail that would haunt them.

In the following days, all three men experienced unsettling physical symptoms. One of them developed severe fevers, breathing difficulties, and even began to lose hair and show discoloration on his skin. Yet, medical checks found no explanation. Theories about their experience circulated, with some locals attributing it to low-flying aircraft, though a nearby pilot confirmed seeing similar lights on numerous occasions.

Blinding Light Strikes a Young Boy in Quebec

Hundreds of miles away in a small town in Quebec, 13-year-old Ivan Gendong had a startling encounter of his own. Left in charge of his younger sisters one evening, he noticed a strange noise outside—a loud buzzing, almost like an electrical surge. As he investigated, Ivan saw an intense light shining from the bathroom window. Peering out, he discovered the light’s source: a strange object hovering about 15 feet above the ground, partially obscured by the trees.

Initially, Ivan thought he was seeing things, but then a blinding light beamed directly into his face, leaving him temporarily sightless and overwhelmed by a piercing headache. Disoriented and terrified, he regained his vision only after several minutes. The object still loomed nearby but appeared surrounded by a strange, transparent dome of light, unlike anything he’d seen before.

The next day, Ivan’s parents returned home to find him visibly shaken. He experienced eye pain and even ringing in his ears for several days after the incident. Investigators later discovered damage to trees near where the object had hovered, adding credence to Ivan’s story. More locals reported similar sightings over the following months, describing mysterious bright lights in the area, lending further mystery to Ivan’s already strange encounter.

Unresolved Mysteries

Both of these experiences are among the 5% of UFO sightings that remain unexplained. They share elements often seen in reports of extraterrestrial encounters: missing time, physical symptoms, and strange lights with behavior defying conventional explanations. The Brazilian fishermen and the young boy in Quebec were left with lingering questions and physical aftereffects that would take time to heal—if they ever did. Whether or not these were genuine encounters with otherworldly beings, they serve as reminders of how little we know about what might be lurking beyond our understanding.

VIDEOS

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

05-11-2024 om 12:28 geschreven door peter  

'Overlooked' clue on Tutankhamun's death mask that could re-define the boy-king's death

• READ MORE:  Treasure trove found inside King Tutankhamun's tomb

By Nikki Main Science Reporter For Dailymail.Com

King Tutankhamun's death mask is one of the most iconic Egyptian relics, but researchers claim it may not have been intended for the late pharaoh. 

A team from the University of York in the UK say the holes in the ears of the mask suggest the mask was actually intended for a high status female or child rather, possibly King Tut's stepmother whose body has never been found.

They hypothesize that Tutankhamun's sudden death at 18 may have saw the shape of his face grafted on top of the true owner of the mask.

Professor Joann Fletcher said: 'This mask was not made for an adult male pharaoh when the gold was compared, [they found] the face is made of completely different gold to the rest.' 

The researchers arrived at the new theory after re-examining the historical records of the 1922 excavation, finding mentions of body modifications that did not align with ancient Egyptian tradition. 

One document in particular, caught the attention of Professor Fletcher, which read: 'Honed in on one long-overlooked feature... the decidedly pierced ears [on the death mask.'

While pharaohs wore earrings, the modifications were not carried over to the death mask. Piercings have only been on those made for the masks of queens and children. 

Professor Fletcher made the revelations in a newly released History Hit documentary, saying she was sure the death mask was not specifically designed for King Tut.

King Tutankhamun's death mask has pierced ears and is made of a type of gold that wasn't typically used for rulers

The mask was likely made for someone else and was re-molded to more closely resemble Tut. It was found in his tomb in the Valley of Kings in 1922

The idea, however, was first proposed in 2015 by Egyptologist Nicholas Reeves who claimed the gold face covering was originally made for Queen Nefertiti - the young king's stepmother. 

Nefertiti married Akhenaten, Tutankhamun's father, but her tomb has yet to be discovered.

King Tutankhamun ascended to the Egyptian throne at just nine years of age and ruled from 1332 BC to 1323 BC.

In 1922, British archaeologist Howard Carter discovered the mask in Tut's lavish tomb in the Valley of the Kings on the west bank of the Nile River.

A death mask was made for both pharaohs and the everyday person to honor the deceased and establish a connection with the spiritual world.

However, a pharaoh's mask was made of gold or silver, while lesser people's were fashioned from wood or clay.

They were created in the likeness of the person's face to help the deceased's soul return to their body so they could be judged by the Egyptian god Anubis.

In 1922, British archaeologist Howard Carter discovered the mask in Tut's lavish tomb in the Valley of the Kings on the west bank of the Nile River

Tut's mask featured a broad collar made of semiprecious stones and colored beads were inlaid throughout, and Tut was given a false beard made of gold.

Professor Joann Fletcher combed through Carter's burial records of King Tut to see if more discoveries could be made more than a century later.

The ear piercings caught her attention immediately as she is an Egyptologist who has been studying the ancient civilization for decades.

Famed pharaohs like King Tut's great-grandfather, Amenhotep III, and Ramses II were also found buried in death masks, but neither featured ear modifications.

And none of their statues were found with the piercings.

However, placement for the jewelry has been found etched in statues of queens, such as Nefertiti, and the death mask of Sobekneferu.

Professor Fletcher suggested that the clues on the mask meant King Tut's burial was rushed.

The young pharaoh was plagued with health issues due to Akhenaten marrying his sister who gave birth to the boy king.

Black blotches were found on the walls of the tomb, indicating that the paintings were rushed because of the pharaoh's untimely death

King Tutankhamun died at just 19 years old from an infection that researchers believe stemmed from a broken leg

While not proven, King Tut was believed to have a club foot, cleft palate, bone disease and scoliosis. 

Read More

• Scientist crack Pharaoh's curse' that killed more than 20 people who opened King Tutankhamun's tomb 

Some experts have suspected he was murdered, while others believe the health issues took a toll. 

Not only are there clues in the death mask about a rushed burial, archaeologists have documented blotches of paint on the wall that suggested it hadn't dried when the tomb was quickly sealed.

The size of the lavish burial was also much smaller than what was expected for a pharaoh of Tut's stature. 

'This is the tomb that was intended for Tutankhamun, the tomb of Ay,' Prof Fletcher explained.

'To deepen the enigma, dark spots are scattered across the walls of King Tut's tomb marks that scores of experts point to as a sign the paint was still wet when the tomb was sealed, hinting at the hurried nature of its completion.'

VIDEOS

Archaeologists discover incredible 'overlooked feature' on Tutankhamun's death mask

What is the mystery of the Tutankhamun’s Death Mask?

The first ever view inside Tutankhamun's tomb in Egypt | BBC Global

{ https://www.dailymail.co.uk/ }

04-11-2024 om 23:32 geschreven door peter  

Mysterious 'donut' structure is discovered hidden inside Earth's core - and it could unlock the secrets of our planet's protective magnetic field

• Researchers discovered a donut-shaped region at the ceiling of the outer core 
• This lighter region helps stir the liquid metal which generates the magnetic field  

By Wiliam Hunter

Scientists have uncovered a vast donut-shaped structure buried thousands of miles beneath our feet.

Researchers from the Australian National University used seismic waves generated by earthquakes to peer into the Earth's mysterious molten core.

By tracing the path of these waves through the planet, the researchers found a region a few hundred kilometres thick where they travelled two per cent slower than normal

This donut-like structure runs parallel to the equator in a ring around the edge of the liquid outer core, and could be responsible for driving our planet's protective magnetic field.

Professor Hrvoje Tkalčić, lead author of the study, says: 'The magnetic field is a fundamental ingredient that we need for life to be sustained on the surface of our planet.'

Scientists have discovered a previously undetected donut-shaped region buried within the Earth which could be responsible for helping generate Earth's magnetic field (stock image)

Researchers found a region hundreds of kilometres thick and thousands of kilometres deep which wraps around the equator in a torus shape (labelled 'low velocity donut')

The Earth is made up of four major layers: the surface crust, the semi-molten mantle, a liquid metal outer core, and a solid metal inner core.

When the movement of tectonic plates in the crust creates earthquakes, these produce vibrations that spread out through all the other layers of the Earth.

Using the worldwide network of seismographic stations, researchers can see how the waves spread and make predictions about the conditions below the surface.

Scientists usually only look at the big, powerful wavefronts which travel around the world in the first hour or so after an earthquake.

However, Professor Tkalčić and his co-author Dr Xiaolong Ma were able to detect this structure by studying the faint traces left behind by waves many hours after the initial tremor.

This method revealed that seismic waves travelling near the poles were moving faster than those near the equator.

The donut was detected by using measurements of seismic waves triggered by earthquakes around the world (pictured top) by analysing this data the researchers found a speed difference between the waves travelling by the poles (bottom left) and those travelling by the equator (bottom right) 

By comparing their results to different models of the Earth's interior, Professor Tkalčić and Dr Ma found that this was best explained by the presence of a vast underground 'torus', or donut-shaped, region.

They predict that this region is only found at low latitudes and runs parallel to the equator near the ceiling of the outer core where the liquid section meets the mantle.

'We don't know the exact thickness of the doughnut, but we inferred that it reaches a few hundred kilometres beneath the core-mantle boundary,' Professor Tkalčić says.

Thanks to this region's critical role, their discovery may also have profound implications for the study of life on Earth and other planets.

Earth's outer core has a radius of around 2,160 miles (3,480km) - making it slightly larger than Mars.

The best explanation for this data was the presence of an area of low-density material (pictured in red) sitting near the surface of the Earth's liquid outer core 

The Earth's inner and outer cores are responsible for generating the planet's magnetic field, without which no life on Earth would be possible 

Mainly made of hot nickel and iron, convection currents coupled with the Earth's rotation force the liquid metal in this layer into long vertical vortices running in a north-south direction, like giant waterspouts.

It is the swirling currents of these liquid metals which act like the dynamo, powering the Earth's magnetic field.

Since this donut region has 'floated' to the top of the liquid outer core, it suggests that it could be rich in lighter elements like silicon, sulphur, oxygen, hydrogen or carbon.

Professor Tkalčić says: 'Our findings are interesting because this low velocity within the liquid core implies that we have a high concentration of light chemical elements in these regions that would cause the seismic waves to slow down.

The researchers believe that the donut -shaped region might be partially responsible for stirring the liquid metal in the outer core into the waterspout-like vortexes which generate the planet's magnetic field 

The Earth's magnetic field (pictured) deflects the charged particles carried by solar wind which can destroy the DNA of living creatures 

'These light elements, alongside temperature differences, help stir liquid in the outer core.'

Without that stirring motion to drive the planet's interior dynamo, the Earth's magnetic field might not have formed.

Without the magnetic field, the planet's surface would be exposed to a constant bombardment of charged particles from the sun which can destroy the DNA of living creatures.

This donut-shaped region, therefore, might be a critical piece of the puzzle which explains why life has developed on Earth and what we might look for in habitable planets elsewhere.

Dr Tkalčić concludes: 'Our results could promote more research about the magnetic field on both Earth and other planets.'

VIDEOS

{ https://www.dailymail.co.uk/ }

04-11-2024 om 23:14 geschreven door peter