Jupiter is a stunning planet to observe. Whether it be visible light or any other wavelength. In a stunning new image released by the University of California -Berkley, Jupiter is seen in ultraviolet light. The familiar Great Red Spot appears as a blue oval as do many of the familiar belt features. Around the polar regions are revealed a brown haze which is thought to be caused by a high altitude vortex mixing up the atmosphere. The jury is still out on the mechanism behind this though but it may be an interaction between Jupiter’s strong magnetic field which pierces the atmosphere near the poles. 

Jupiter is the largest planet in the Solar System, a gas giant with powerful storms. With a diameter of 143,000 km, Jupiter is 11 times wider than Earth and capable of swallowing all of the other planets in the Solar System and still have room to spare. It is composed or hydrogen and helium and lacks a solid surface. It’s atmosphere has bands of alternating colour with strong winds, hurricanes and lightning storms. The Great Red Spot is one of its most well known features, a hurricane system three times the size of Earth. It’s also home to a family of satellites including the four well known Galilean moons Io, Europa, Ganymede and Callisto. 

The atmosphere of Jupiter is a complex system of thick clouds, storms and high winds. The hydrogen makes up about 90% of the atmosphere with helium the bulk of the remainder plus trace amounts of methane, water vapour and other compounds. The belts in the atmosphere appear to alternate between lighter and darker colours driven by different temperatures, chemical compositions and wind speeds that reach up to 640 km/hr. Lower down, beneath the visible layer, the atmosphere becomes denser, hotter and eventually becomes fluid. Other phenomenon have been observed from lightning storms, aurora and ice crystal clouds. 

The newly released ultraviolet image reveals strange features around the polar regions. The oval shaped features are Earth-sized and only visible in the ultraviolet wavelengths. The ovals seems to consistently appear at a slightly lower latitude than the auroral zones around the poles. In the image, the ovals seem dark in colour due to absorption of ultraviolet radiation, more so than the brighter surrounding regions. 

The Hubble Space Telescope orbits Earth at an altitude of 540 km and takes yearly images of Jupiter and the other planets. Hubble was the first telescope to capture the so called UV ovals and they have since been detected by the Cassini spacecraft. The team at UC Berkeley discovered that the ovals were more common around the south pole (appearing in 75% of images around south pole and only 12% around north pole.) 

The team spoke with planetary atmospherics experts Tom Stallard (Northumbria University in UK) and Xi Zhang (from UC Santa Cruz) to try and understand the mechanism. They theorise that Jupiter’s strong magnetic field lines experience friction in the ionosphere leading to the establishment of a vortex (a rotating, spinning flow of fluid or air.) It is the vortex that drives the dark ovals. 

Source : 

• Magnetic tornado is stirring up the haze at Jupiter’s poles

{ https://www.universetoday.com/ }

29-11-2024 om 21:18 geschreven door peter  

The process is challenging, expensive, and takes a long time. But as Zubair said in a recent interview with ScienceAlert!, the process could be simplified by growing them in space-based labs:

“Studying stem cells in space has uncovered cell mechanisms that would otherwise be undetected or unknown within the presence of normal gravity. That discovery indicates a broader scientific value to this research, including potential clinical applications. The space environment offers an advantage to the growth of stem cells by providing a more natural three-dimensional state for their expansion, which closely resembles growth of cells in the human body.

Ghani and Zubair experimented with many types of adult stem cells and obtained positive results for them all. This included general improvements in cell expansion and stability of replication, which continued after the cell cultures were returned to Earth. In particular, they noted improvements with mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs), a class of multipotent stromal cells that can differentiate into bone, cartilage, muscle, and fat cells – which gives rise to marrow adipose tissue, thus increasing bone density.

When grown in microgravity, these cells were shown to be better at managing immune system responses and reducing inflammation. “That’s in comparison to the two-dimensional culture environment available on Earth that is less likely to imitate human tissue,” said Zubair. “The space research conducted so far is just a starting point. A broader perspective about stem cell applications is possible as research continues to explore the use of space to advance regenerative medicine.”

While there is still a significant amount of research and testing to be done, these results are very promising and indicate that stem cells can be grown faster and in greater numbers in microgravity. Ghani and Zubair are confident that space-grown stem cells will help treat the most common causes of mortality here on Earth, including heart disease, stroke, cancer, and neurodegenerative diseases like dementia, Parkinson’s disease, Multiple Sclerosis (MS), and Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS).

Further Reading: 

• ScienceAlert!, 
• NPJ Microgravity

{ https://www.universetoday.com/ }

29-11-2024 om 20:59 geschreven door peter  

Frontier is a significant leap in astrophysical simulations. It covers a volume of the Universe that’s 10 billion light years across. It incorporates detailed physics models for dark matter, dark energy, gas dynamics, star formation, and black hole growth. It should provide new insights into some of the fundamental processes in the Universe, such as how galaxies form and how the large-scale structure of the Universe evolves.

“There are two components in the universe: dark matter—which as far as we know, only interacts gravitationally—and conventional matter, or atomic matter.” said project lead Salman Habib, division director for Computational Sciences at Argonne.

“So, if we want to know what the universe is up to, we need to simulate both of these things: gravity as well as all the other physics including hot gas, and the formation of stars, black holes and galaxies,” he said. “The astrophysical ‘kitchen sink’ so to speak. These simulations are what we call cosmological hydrodynamics simulations.”

Cosmological hydrodynamics simulations combine cosmology with hydrodynamics and allow astronomers to examine the complex interrelationships between gravity and things like gas dynamics and stellar processes that have shaped and continue to shape our Universe. They can only be conducted with supercomputers because of the level of complexity and the vast number of numerical equations and calculations involved.

The sheer amount of energy needed for Frontier to perform these simulations is staggering. It consumes about 21 MW of electricity, enough to power about 15,000 single-family homes in the US. But the payoff is equally as impressive.

“For example, if we were to simulate a large chunk of the universe surveyed by one of the big telescopes such as the Rubin Observatory in Chile, you’re talking about looking at huge chunks of time — billions of years of expansion,” Habib said. “Until recently, we couldn’t even imagine doing such a large simulation like that except in the gravity-only approximation.”

“It’s not only the sheer size of the physical domain, which is necessary to make direct comparison to modern survey observations enabled by exascale computing,” said Bronson Messer, Oak Ridge Leadership Computing Facility director of science. “It’s also the added physical realism of including the baryons and all the other dynamic physics that makes this simulation a true tour de force for Frontier.”

Frontier simulates more than just the Universe. In June, researchers working with it achieved another milestone. They simulated a system of 466 billion atoms in a simulation of water. That was the largest system ever modeled and more than 400 times larger than its closest competition. Since water is a primary component of cells, Frontier is paving the way for an eventual simulation of a living cell.

Frontier promises to make advancements in multiple other areas as well, including nuclear fission and fusion and large-scale energy transmission systems. It’s also been used to generate a quantum molecular dynamics simulation that’s 1,000 times greater in size and speed than any of its predecessors. It also has applications in modelling diseases, developing new drugs, better batteries, better materials including concrete, and predicting and mitigating climate change.

Astrophysical/cosmological simulations like Frontier’s are powerful when they’re combined with observations. Scientists can use simulations to test theoretical models compared to observational data. Changing initial conditions and parameters in the simulations lets researchers see how different factors shape outcomes. It’s an iterative process that allows scientists to update their models by identifying discrepancies between observations and simulations.

Frontier’s huge simulation is just one example of how supercomputers and AI are taking on a larger role in astronomy and astrophysics. Modern astronomy generates massive amounts of data, and requires powerful tools to manage. Our theories of cosmology are based on larger and larger datasets that require massive computing power to simulate.

Frontier has already been superseded by El Capitan, another exascale supercomputer at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL). However, El Capitan is focused on managing the nation’s nuclear stockpile according to the LLNL.

Simulating The Universe with Supercomputers

29-11-2024 om 20:37 geschreven door peter  

Harvard professor claims that UFOs could have travelled to Earth via 'extra dimensions' that CERN scientists are trying to unlock

• CERN scientists are seeking evidence of six extra dimensions
• Professor Avi Loeb believes aliens might travel through such dimensions
• READ MORE  CERN scientists test most powerful particle accelerator

By ROB WAUGH FOR DAILYMAIL.COM

The US government has yet to unravel the mysterious sightings of UFOs soaring through our skies, but a Harvard professor believes the answer may sit 300 feet below the surface.

Avi Loeb, known for his efforts to prove we are not alone, has claimed that extraterrestrial visitors are travelling through hidden dimensions created by researchers at the CERN particle accelerator are seeking.

The accelerator, the Large Hadron Collider (LHC), blasts particles are nearly the speed of light to recreate conditions of the Big Bang, with hopes of uncovering  hidden dimensions that will reveal how our universe formed.

Speaking in a new documentary, Loeb said that alien civilizations may have been developing dimension-hopping technology for billions of years.

The physicist also noted that extraterrestrials are using theoretical quantum gravity engineering to travel through 'curled' dimensions that humans can only detect in particle accelerators such as CERN.

A Harvard scientists has claimed that extraterrestrial visitors are travelling through hidden dimensions created by researchers at the CERN particle accelerator (pictured) are seeking

Avi Loeb made the claims in a new documentary, saying that extraterrestrials are using theoretical quantum gravity engineering to travel through 'curled' dimensions that humans can only detect in particle accelerators such as CERN

The Harvard scientist said in the documentary 'The Paranormal UFO Connection' that if alien technology is able to reach our doorstep, we would be awe-struck because it would represent something we don't possess.

'Just like a cave dweller coming to a city like London or Europe, and seeing all the technological gadgets there,' said Loeb.

'There will be a sense of religious awe, and we wouldn't understand it, especially if we are dealing with the effects of quantum gravity that we have any clue about.'

Loeb said that travelling through extra-spatial dimensions would mean the chance of collisions would be 'much smaller.'

READ MORE: 

• Scientists soon discover a parallel universe

It has found the 'God particle', but the Large Hadron Collider could soon detect a 'parallel universe'. 

Scientists at CERN have attempted to detect six 'extra spatial' dimensions, and look for particular particles as evidence that such dimensions exist.

The underground LHC is located at the border of France and Switzerland and first went live on September 10, 2008.

In 2012, scientists used it to discover the Higgs boson or God particle, which was a missing piece in the jigsaw for physicists in trying to understand how the universe works.

'Quantum mechanics was discovered exactly a century ago. And all the most sophisticated technologies we currently employ, such as the Internet, artificial intelligence, and so forth, rely on our understanding of quantum mechanics,' Loeb explained.

'But the process of learning is incomplete - there are several major puzzles in modern physics.'

'Within the mainstream of theoretical physics for the past decades, the prevailing paradigm is that it is possible to unify quantum mechanics and gravity unless you work with extra-spatial dimensions.

'We see only three of them in our daily life. But the idea is that the others are curled. And we can't really detect them unless we shoot particles that have exceptionally high energies that will probe these tiny scales.

'Of course, if there are extra dimensions, then the reality that we are familiar with extends into them. And then one can imagine life in more than three spatial dimensions. It will be far more diverse and interesting.'

Last year Loeb set off for Papua New Guinea on a $1.5m ocean expedition to find what he believes might be a piece of alien technology, which crashed into the sea in 2014.

Film-maker and musician Mark Christopher Lee, 'The Paranormal UFO Connection' explores different ways that UFOs and other unexplained phenomena might arrive at our planet 

The accelerator, the Large Hadron Collider (LHC), blasts particles are nearly the speed of light to recreate conditions of the Big Bang, with hopes of uncovering hidden dimensions that will reveal how our universe formed

His expedition found metal 'spherules' on the sea bed, which Loeb claims might be 'techno signatures' of an alien civilization.

The Israeli astronomer and his research partner Amir Siraj concluded in 2019 that an object from outside our solar system had hit Earth in 2014.

The Papua New Guinea object travelled towards Earth at more than 30 miles per second, a speed so high it suggests it originated outside our solar system.

Loeb also argues in the film that world governments should divert the $2 trillion a year he claims is spent on military budgets to the search for alien life.

Film-maker and musician Mark Christopher Lee, 'The Paranormal UFO Connection' explores different ways that UFOs and other unexplained phenomena might arrive at our planet.

Speaking to DailyMail.com, Lee said: ' I have a science degree so I'm pretty rational. I was really keen to see what Avi's take on this would be. He's one of the few serious scientists in the world taking an interest in this subject.

'Our chat was very enlightening: he does think that advanced civilizations elsewhere in the universe may be able to use other spatial dimensions in order to travel easily through the universe. 

'Particularly with the advances happening at CERN in regards to proving the existence of other dimensions then it makes logical sense for a far more sophisticated civilization to have developed the technology to utilise these.'

'The Paranormal UFO Connection' is on Tubi TV in the U.S. and available via YouTube worldwide.

{ https://www.dailymail.co.uk/ }

29-11-2024 om 00:00 geschreven door peter  

Those prices aren’t anywhere near the $500,000 / kg that a PGM such as Rhodium has ever back on Earth, but it could still make mining asteroids for iron economically viable if the material is used in space. So what do all those calculations mean for the actual value of the asteroids that we might mine?

First and most importantly, recent research suggests that asteroids made out of “pure metal,” such as Psyche is assumed to be, are likely pure fiction. While that might not be great news for any single benign asteroid worth a lot, the other part of that research is that even asteroids that were originally thought to be relatively low in metal content actually have reasonable quantities that could be economically extracted.

To prove the point, the paper looked in detail at a series of meteorite studies, which are the equivalent of left-over asteroids, and compared the “grades” of 83 different elements with ores found on or near the Earth’s surface. Since remote sensing has difficulty distinguishing between some of those elements, meteorite samples that can be subjected to advanced analysis techniques are our best bet at accurately calculating the chemical composition of asteroids, other than the few samples of in-tact asteroids that have been returned so far.

That data showed that PGMs, while lower in concentration than considered initially (because of an assumption in a foundational paper on the composition of asteroids), are still in much higher concentrations than the equivalent terrestrial ores. In particular, a material known as a refractory metal nugget (RMN) could have concentrations of PGMs orders of magnitude higher than anything found on Earth or other types of asteroidal material.

RMNs are primarily found in a calcium aluminum inclusion (CAI) structure, mainly on L-type asteroids. L-types are relatively uncommon asteroids with a reddish tint, but we haven’t yet visited them. They might be made up of more than 30% CAIs, though, in which case, they could contain a significant amount of extractable PGMs without additional processing.

However, RMNs themselves are very small, at the micron to sub-micron range, making them extremely hard to process in the first place. So, bulk extraction from asteroidal regolith could range up to hundreds of ppm, which is already a few orders of magnitude greater than their concentration in Earth’s regolith.

When looking at the metals for use in space, they are about as abundant as initially predicted, but they face challenges in processing them out of their oxidized states. Typically, this requires some high-energy procedure, such as molten regolith electrolysis, to break off the elemental metal, which is needed for further processing. Again, there’s the chicken and egg problem of having a power source that is large enough to perform these processes, but building it would require the material that would require the power source.

Eventually, that problem will disappear if companies like AstroForge have their way. Remember that the company funded this study, and its two co-founders and Kevin Cannon, the professor at CSM, were co-authors. The company plans to launch its next mission, a rendezvous with near-Earth asteroids, to try to tell if they’re “metallic” in January. Perhaps that mission will help contribute to our growing understanding of the composition and value of the asteroids surrounding us.

Learn More:

• Cannon, Gialich, Acain – Precious and structural metals on asteroids
• UT – What Are Asteroids Made Of?
• UT – What Is The Difference Between Asteroids and Meteorites?
• UT – Asteroids: 10 Interesting Facts About These Space Rocks

Lead Image:

• Asteroid mining concept.
• NASA/Denise Watt

{ https://www.universetoday.com/ }

28-11-2024 om 23:45 geschreven door peter  

Unexplained heatwave hotspots are popping up like 'angry skin blotches' around the globe - including one over the UK, concerning map reveals

• READ MORE: The 10 deadliest extreme weather events in 20 years revealed

By JONATHAN CHADWICK FOR MAILONLINE 

Heatwaves around the world in recent years have been so intense that they cannot be explained by global warming alone, a new study claims. 

Scientists in New York say unexplained heatwave 'hotspots' are popping up on every continent except Antarctica like 'giant, angry skin blotches'. 

Marked out on a new map, these 10 distinct heatwave regions are so extreme, they fall far beyond what any model of global warming can predict or explain. 

They are located in central China, Japan and Korea, the Arabian peninsula, eastern Australia and north Africa. 

Others include Canada's Northwest Territories and its High Arctic islands, northern Greenland, the southern end of South America and scattered patches of Siberia.

There's even a heatwave 'hotspot' over the UK and northwest Europe, leading to lethal summer temperatures in 2022 and 2023. 

'These regions become temporary hothouses,' said lead study author Kai Kornhuber, a research scientist at Columbia Climate School. 

'Due to their unprecedented nature, these heat waves are usually linked to very severe health impacts, and can be disastrous for agriculture, vegetation and infrastructure. We're not built for them, and we might not be able to adapt fast enough.'

Unexplained heatwave 'hotspots' are popping up across the globe, so extreme, they cannot be explained by global warming models

The UK and northwest Europe had a heatwave hotspot in June-July 2022. Europe also suffered a heatwave the following year

These 'hotspots' see repeated heatwaves cropping up in multiple summers – so even though temperatures cool down after the summer ends, they reappear in the same region again. Pictured, raging wildfires north of Bly, Oregon on July 17, 2021

The researchers do not argue against global warming as a concept, as evidence shows that it's the cause of soaring temperatures. 

Rather, their study identifies a new phenomenon – unexplained heatwave hotspots – that global warming can't explain, meaning other factors are surely at play too. 

'This is about extreme trends that are the outcome of physical interactions we might not completely understand,' added Kornhuber. 

The study identifies areas of extreme heat over the past 65 years, where temperatures are accelerating considerably faster than anywhere else, leading to increasingly wild weather events, infrastructure damage and death. 

These hotspots see repeated heatwaves cropping up in multiple summers. 

So, even though temperatures cool down after the summer ends, they reappear in the same region again. 

One hotspot is the US Pacific Northwest and southwestern Canada, which saw a nine-day heatwave starting in June 2021. 

During this astonishing heat event, temperatures broke daily records in some locales by 54°F (30°C), while Canada's highest ever temperature (121.3°F/49.6°C) was recorded in Lytton, British Columbia. 

A nine-day heatwave hammered the US Pacific Northwest and southwestern Canada in June 2021 - described by researchers as a heat anomaly 

The extreme 2021 heatwave struck the North American Pacific Northwest. Pictured, hot conditions in Portland, Oregon, June 26, 2021

The town burned to the ground the next day in a wildfire driven in large part by the drying of vegetation in the extraordinary heat. 

Meanwhile, in Oregon and Washington state, hundreds of people died from heat stroke and other health conditions. 

Another unexplained heatwave hotspot is an area in northwestern Europe covering several countries including Germany, France, the Netherlands and the UK. 

In this hotspot, abnormally high temperatures caused 60,000 deaths in 2022 and 47,000 deaths in 2023. 

In northern Europe, few people in this region have air conditioning because it is generally not needed, and this probably upped the death toll, the team say. 

While the cause of heatwave hotspots is yet to be identified, one potential explanation involves the jet stream – the fast, narrow current of air flowing from west to east that encircles the globe. 

As the Arctic is warming on average far more quickly than most other parts of the Earth, this appears to be destabilizing the jet stream.

This is causing the jet stream to develop so-called Rossby waves, which suck hot air from the south and park it in temperate regions that normally do not see extreme heat for days or weeks at a time.

The heatwave hotspots are located in central China, Japan, Korea, the Arabian peninsula, eastern Australia and north Africa. Others include Canada's Northwest Territories and its High Arctic islands, northern Greenland, the southern end of South America and Siberia

European nations including France, Italy, Spain, Germany and the UK faced one of the most dangerous periods of heat in the summer of 2022. Pictured, Hackney, east London on July 18, 2022

Jet streams are fast flowing, narrow currents of air that carry warm and cold air across the planet, much like the currents of a river

However, this is only one hypothesis, and it does not seem to explain all the extreme heatwave events of recent years. 

The researchers conclude that extreme heat is increasing significantly and faster in magnitude than what state-of-the-art climate models have predicted.

Unprecedented climate impacts can cause huge damage infrastructure and ecosystems while threatening human life. 

According to another recent study, there were at least 2,325 heat-related deaths in the US – more than double since 1999. 

There's now calls for heatwaves to be given names in the same way as hurricanes, to heighten public awareness and motivate governments to prepare. 

'Our findings highlight the need to better understand and model extreme heat and to rapidly mitigate greenhouse gas emissions to avoid further harm,' the team say in their paper, published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. 

Researchers have already named 2023 as Earth's hottest recorded year ever, at 2.12°F (1.18°C) above the 20th-century average. 

Last year's global average temperature was 58.96°F (14.98°C), around 0.3°F (0.17°C) higher than the result in 2016, the previous hottest year. 

2023 is confirmed as the warmest calendar year in global temperature data records going back to 1850. The global average air temperature was 58.96°F (14.98°C), around 0.3°F (0.17°C) higher than the result in 2016

The 10 hottest years on record have occurred in the past 15 years, according to the EU's Copernicus Climate Change Service (C3S). 

At the top of the list is 2023, followed by 2016 and then 2020, 2019, 2017, 2022, 2021, 2018, 2015 and 2010. 

2024 has already recorded the hottest summer and hottest single day (July 21), but the records are not expected to stop there. 

Experts have warned that 2024 is almost certainly going to be Earth's warmest year on record, beating the record set by 2023. 

'After 10 months of 2024 it is now virtually certain that 2024 will be the warmest year on record and the first year of more than 1.5ºC above pre-industrial levels,' said Samantha Burgess, deputy director of C3S. 

How does climate change make weather worse? 

As scientists already know, climate change results in more intense rainfall because warmer air can hold more moisture. 

And because rainfall is increasing on average across the world, the chances of flooding are getting higher. 

Climate warming also increases evaporation on land, which can worsen drought and create conditions more prone to wildfire and a longer wildfire season. 

Earth's warmer and moister atmosphere and warmer oceans are linked with stronger and more intense hurricanes.

In addition, rising sea levels - partly caused by melting ice in the poles - increases the amount of seawater that is pushed on to shore during coastal storms, which, along with more rainfall produced by the storms, can result in more destructive storm surges and flooding. 

Source: Met Office/ Royal Society  

{ https://www.dailymail.co.uk/ }

28-11-2024 om 22:25 geschreven door peter  

• READ MORE: First breathtaking images from Euclid's 'cosmic atlas' are revealed 

By WILIAM HUNTER

Scientists have used the world's fastest supercomputer to show the universe as it has never been seen before.

In this incredible video, scientists from the Department of Energy’s Argonne National Laboratory reveal the largest computer simulation of the universe ever created.

The simulated area contains a staggering 311,296 cubic megaparsecs of space. 

Through it, you can watch as vast clusters of galaxies come together over billions of years.

However, this staggeringly massive vista is just 0.001 per cent of the entire simulation.

The results of that enormous computation will enable scientists to investigate the evolution of the universe and the role played by mysterious dark matter.

Project leader Dr Salman Habib says: 'There are two components in the universe: dark matter — which as far as we know, only interacts gravitationally — and conventional matter, or atomic matter.

'So, if we want to know what the universe is up to, we need to simulate both of these things.'

Scientists have revealed the largest simulation of the universe ever created, simulating an area of 31 billion cubic megaparsecs

When astronomers look at distant galaxies through a powerful telescope like the James Webb Space Telescope they are able to look back in time to the early days of the cosmos.

However, those images only give us snapshots of how the universe once looked.

To get a true god's-eye view of creation, astronomers need to create what is called a 'hydrodynamic simulation'.

Rather than just simulating the pull of gravity between different chunks of matter, hydrodynamic simulations get as close as possible to forces which shape cosmic evolution.

Dr Habib says that this requires scientists to simulate 'gravity as well as all the other physics including hot gas, and the formation of stars, black holes and galaxies. The astrophysical "kitchen sink" so to speak.'

The problem is that these kinds of simulations need vast amounts of computational power to create.

In order to run simulations at all, astronomers have typically left out all the other forces and factors which make hydrodynamic simulations so useful. 

Dr Habib says: 'For example, if we were to simulate a large chunk of the universe surveyed by one of the big telescopes such as the Rubin Observatory in Chile, you’re talking about looking at huge chunks of time — billions of years of expansion.

In this incredible video, you can see as a vast cluster of galaxies condense in the expanding universe. This mindboggling clip (pictured) only shows 0.001 per cent of the whole simulation 

This new simulation is on a scale with the largest maps of the cosmos ever created such as the ESA's Euclid cosmic atlas (pictured)

The simulation captures the formation of galactic filaments such as the Laniakea filament (illustrated) which contains hundreds of thousands of galaxies including the Milky Way 

'Until recently, we couldn’t even imagine doing such a large simulation like that except in the gravity-only approximation.'

To overcome these problems, the researchers used the Frontier supercomputer at Oak Ridge National Laboratory.

Frontier is currently the world's most powerful supercomputer and is capable of performing more than a quintillion, or a billion-billion, calculations every second.

Even with a computer that fast, emulating the universe isn't simple and it's taken more than a decade for scientists to refine and upgrade the code in order to run a hydrodynamic simulation on this scale.

However, earlier this month, researchers were able to use 9,000 of Frontier's computing nodes to simulate a volume of the expanding universe measuring more than 31 billion cubic megaparsecs.

This is on a scale alongside the biggest astronomical maps of the universe created by the world's most powerful telescopes.

Critically, this simulation also includes the effects of the mysterious substance known as dark matter.

Dark matter is a theoretical type of particle which doesn't interact with the atoms and subatomic particles which make up the rest of the universe.

Critically, this simulation also includes the effects of dark matter. This theoretical substance could create vast, unobservable structures between galaxies which have given the universe the extra mass it needs to evolve into the form we observe today. Pictured: a NASA simulation of the formation of dark matter structures in the early universe 

The only way that dark matter supposedly affects the universe around it is by exerting a gravitational pull.

Scientists first proposed that this strange substance might exist to explain why the gravitational forces in the universe seem to be stronger than the mass of all the galaxies should produce.

However, since we cannot observe dark matter in any way simulations like this are key to understanding how it might have influenced the evolution of the cosmos.

The team are yet to release any analysis based on the simulation but we should expect some exciting revelations to come.

Dark matter: The mysterious substance that makes up 85% of the universe that scientists cannot confirm

Dark matter is a hypothetical substance said to make up roughly 85 per cent of the universe.

The enigmatic material is invisible because it does not reflect light, and has never been directly observed by scientists.

Astronomers know it to be out there because of its gravitational effects on known matter.

The European Space Agency says: 'Shine a torch in a completely dark room, and you will see only what the torch illuminates.

Dark matter is a hypothetical substance said to make up roughly 27 per cent of the universe. It is thought to be the gravitational 'glue' that holds the galaxies together (artist's impression)

'That does not mean that the room around you does not exist.

'Similarly we know dark matter exists but have never observed it directly.'

The material is thought to be the gravitational 'glue' that holds the galaxies together.

Calculations show that many galaxies would be torn apart instead of rotating if they weren't held together by a large amount of dark matter.

Just five per cent the observable universe consists of known matter such as atoms and subatomic particles.

{ https://www.dailymail.co.uk/ }

28-11-2024 om 21:22 geschreven door peter  

• READ MORE: Seasoned skipper shares images of Loch Ness monster-like shape

By MICHAEL HAVIS FOR MAILONLINE

A strange natural phenomenon could unravel the mystery of Loch Ness Monster sightings, according to an expert researcher.

Alan McKenna, founder of Loch Ness Exploration (LNE), believes elusive 'standing waves' might explain sightings of the mythical monster.

He said: 'A standing wave occurs when two boat wakes of the exact same frequency and amplitude are moving in opposite directions on the loch surface.

'When the two boat wakes finally meet and interfere with one another the results have the potential to create a standing wave.'

The peaks of these standing waves, rising above the otherwise calm waters, could be mistaken for 'humps' above the surface.

Footage captured by Mr McKenna shows the phenomenon occurring where a river meets the loch on its southern shore, at Fort Augustus.

But capturing a standing wave caused by boat wakes out on the open water is a greater challenge.

Alan said: 'The waves and the boat wake need to be identical.

A strange natural phenomenon could unravel the mystery of Loch Ness Monster sightings, according to an expert researcher

Alan McKenna, founder of Loch Ness Exploration (LNE), believes elusive 'standing waves' might explain sightings of the mythical monster

'So with all that in mind, there's now a lot more to consider here such as the boat itself, its size, the direction of travel and its current speed.

'A small boat with a smaller engine will most definitely produce a wake different from a much larger boat.

'It's a complex procedure, especially in open water, but it can happen.'

Mr McKenna now hopes to record the phenomenon happening out over the deep heart of the loch.

He said: 'Ali Matheson, skipper of Deepscan, frequently reports standing waves, but more so in the small marina within Urquhart Bay also known as Temple Pier.

'That's all fine and well, but it's more difficult to capture a standing wave in open water.

'We know that standing waves exist and they have been reported but what we don't have is the footage showing a natural standing wave in motion.'

He continued: 'Since launching LNE, it's always been my hope to capture as much natural phenomena as possible.

Peaks of standing waves, rising above the otherwise calm waters, could be mistaken for 'humps' above the surface

Mr McKenna now hopes to record the phenomenon happening out over the deep heart of the loch 

'It's a process of elimination, in my mind, as most potential 'Nessie' reports can be explained.

'Without being disrespectful, I tend to follow the reports made by the locals and the reason being is that they see Loch Ness everyday.

'I dare say that they are more knowledgeable than tourists.

'If you are unfamiliar with Loch Ness and its natural behaviour then I do believe that many people will be fooled by the water and certain illusions – it's easily done!'

When it comes to the existence of the fabled beast, however, Alan is keeping an open mind.

The 37-year-old said: 'If there are any unknown animals in Loch Ness then they certainly don't play by the rules.

'It's the perfect habitat for a shy animal with 23 miles of cold dark water and around 750ft deep.

'You could be swimming next to a 200ft submarine below the surface and not even notice it right in front of you, it's that dark!'

He continued: 'When I was a youngster and throughout my childhood, I fully believed the Plesiosaur theory.

'But the more you explore the story of Loch Ness the more unlikely that theory becomes – sorry folks.

'We've had many potential candidates over the years for 'Nessie' such as giant eels, long-necked seals, Greenland shark, large sturgeon, catfish and many others.

'But truth be told, none of us have the correct answer and that's what keeps this mystery going.'

LNE is an independent voluntary research group focused on Loch Ness, its natural environment, and its ecology, as well as the mythical monster.

Mr McKenna said: 'We invite everyone to join this group who has a genuine interest in the loch. It's not just about 'Nessie' as Loch Ness is far more than that.

'We have a great mixture of individuals in the LNE group and I believe it to be diverse.'

What IS the Loch Ness Monster?

Rumours of a strange creature living in the waters of Loch Ness have abounded over the decades, yet scant evidence has been found to back up these claims.

One of the first sightings, believed to have fuelled modern Nessie fever, came in May 2, 1933.  

On this date the Inverness Courier carried a story about a local couple who claim to have seen 'an enormous animal rolling and plunging on the surface'.

Another famous claimed sighting is a photograph taken in 1934 by Colonel Robert Kenneth Wilson.

It was later exposed as a hoax by one of the participants, Chris Spurling, who, on his deathbed, revealed that the pictures were staged.

Other sightings James Gray's picture from 2001 when he and friend Peter Levings were out fishing on the Loch, while namesake Hugh Gray's blurred photo of what appears to be a large sea creature was published in the Daily Express in 1933.

Robert Kenneth Wilson, a London physician, captured arguably the most famous image of the Loch Ness Monster. The surgeon’s photograph was published in the Daily Mail on April 21, 1934 - however it was later proven to be a fake 

The first reported sighting of the monster is said to have been made in AD565 by the Irish missionary St Columba when he came across a giant beast in the River Ness.

But no one has ever come up with a satisfactory explanation for the sightings - although in 2019, 'Nessie expert' Steve Feltham, who has spent 24 years watching the Loch, said he thought it was actually a giant Wels Catfish, native to waters near the Baltic and Caspian seas in Europe.

An online register lists more than 1,000 total Nessie sightings, created by Mr Campbell, the man behind the Official Loch Ness Monster Fan Club and is available at www.lochnesssightings.com. 

So what could explain these mysterious sightings? 

Many Nessie witnesses have mentioned large, crocodile-like scutes sitting atop the spine of the creature, leading some to believe an escaped amphibian may be to blame.

Native fish sturgeons can also weigh several hundred pounds and have ridged backs, which make them look almost reptilian.

Some believe Nessie is a long-necked plesiosaur - like an elasmosaur - that survived somehow when all the other dinosaurs were wiped out.

Others say the sightings are down to Scottish pines dying and flopping into the loch, before quickly becoming water-logged and sinking.

While submerged, botanical chemicals start trapping tiny bubbles of air.

Eventually, enough of these are gathered to propel the log upward as deep pressures begin altering its shape, giving the appearance of an animal coming up for air.

{ https://www.dailymail.co.uk/ }

28-11-2024 om 20:43 geschreven door peter  

Story by Tom Hale

 

While scanning the frozen surface of northwestern Greenland this year, NASA scientists stumbled across a "city under the ice" from the paranoid years of the Cold War.

The structure was Camp Century, an abandoned Arctic military research base run by the US between 1959 and 1967 during the Cold War. It was the hub of Project Iceworm, a plan to install a network of nuclear missile launch sites hidden amid the Arctic Ice Sheet that could survive a first strike from the Soviet Union.

The site was abandoned in 1967 and left to be covered by Greenland’s perpetual snowfall. This year, however, faint echoes of the buried camp emerged when researchers flew over the Greenland Ice Sheet with a plane that had radar equipment attached to its belly.

“We were looking for the bed of the ice and out pops Camp Century,” Alex Gardner, project leader and cryospheric scientist at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), said in a statement.

“We didn’t know what it was at first,” Gardner added.

It’s estimated that the structures of the military facility are currently at least 30 meters (100 feet) below the snow-covered surface, shallow enough to be picked up by radar-beaming equipment.

• Related video: Secret Cold War missile base unearthed in Greenland by NASA radar (Straight Arrow News)

A radar detected Camp Century under the ice. 

Picture: Nasa

Previous airborne surveys of Greenland have detected signals of Camp Century as they passed over the site. However, the latest imagery from April 2024 provides the best view yet.

“In the new data, individual structures in the secret city are visible in a way that they’ve never been seen before,” explained Chad Greene, another cryospheric scientist at JPL.

With warming temperatures melting the planet’s ice sheets, there’s no guarantee the camp’s ruins will remain buried for long. A 2016 study indicated that the ice sheet on top of Camp Century could rapidly deteriorate within 75 years under a "business-as-usual scenario" of fossil fuel abuse.

If that happens, the report said, it would “guarantee the eventual remobilization of physical, chemical, biological, and radiological wastes abandoned at the site.” The researchers went on to suggest that the problem had the potential to spark fiddly political disputes between the Danish government and the US.

It’s uncertain if or when disaster might strike at Camp Century, but research initiatives like the recent project by NASA JPL could help keep tabs on the situation.

“Without detailed knowledge of ice thickness, it is impossible to know how the ice sheets will respond to rapidly warming oceans and atmosphere, greatly limiting our ability to project rates of sea level rise,” noted Gardner.

The Camp Century military base in Greenland.

(photo credit: Wikimedia Commons)

{ https://www.msn.com/en-us/weather? }

28-11-2024 om 18:04 geschreven door peter  

A rare and intriguing phenomenon has been observed in China. On the night of October 27th, Chinese astrophotographer Shengyu Li set up his camera to capture star trails over Mount Xiannairi in Sichuan Province. To his surprise, he recorded mysterious blue flashes accompanying an avalanche. 

The exact cause of these "blue lights" remains unclear, sparking various theories. Some speculate they could stem from geomagnetic activity, interactions of cosmic rays in the upper atmosphere, or rare atmospheric phenomena like blue jets or elves. However, Li offers another explanation: the flashes might result from triboluminescence—light produced by friction during ice fragmentation. 

Triboluminescence occurs when certain materials emit light as they are fractured, scratched, or rubbed. This phenomenon happens due to the breaking of chemical bonds or the sudden separation of surfaces, which generates electrical charges. These charges can ionize the surrounding air or excite the material itself, creating visible light. 

The hypothesis suggests that this event could be an example of triboluminescence. However, it also raises the intriguing possibility of a connection to UFO phenomena, such as orbs or other unexplained lights that have been observed around the world over the years. 

Hypothesis: The sighting depicts what appears to be a blue light descending onto a snowbank, following the avalanche as it moves downward, and then vanishing before seemingly ascending again.

 Did the avalanche trigger the blue light, or did the blue light crash into the snow, causing the avalanche? 

Whether this phenomenon is a rare case of triboluminescence, potentially the first instance of it being captured on camera or something linked to unexplained UFO activity, the recording of this light remains a unique and fascinating occurrence.

Li Shengyu's avalanche footage of Mount Xian Nairi/Chenrezig, taken October 27.

Photo: Li Shengyu

An alternate view of Xian Nairi.

Photo: Trip Advisor user M27***10

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

28-11-2024 om 17:24 geschreven door peter  

Before we get to that, though, let’s start with the “initial conditions.” The team developed an “all-in-one” robotic AI chemist capable of performing all these tasks. It was initially based on work done by more limited AI chemists who could read synthetic chemistry literature and estimate the efficacy of different chemical compounds for different tasks. After they built the model, they needed to feed it with some data.

For that data, they selected five different common rocks from the surface of Mars. They estimated that there would be 3,764,376 possible combinations to come out of the elements present in those rocks, depending on how the combinations were manufactured. So, the first task of the AI Chemist was to select one that could act as a catalyst for splitting off oxygen. Part of that dataset was built with 30,000 other theoretical datasets and the results of 243 experiments. The result is a “polymetallic” material composed of manganese, iron, nickel, magnesium, aluminum, and calcium. 

Next, a sample of the catalyst would be manufactured for testing. The AI is equipped with a robot arm that took physical samples of meteorites that had been dissolved in hydrochloric acid and attempted to synthesize the suggested catalyst out of those materials. This process involved pretty extreme processes like centrifuging the samples at 7,500g for 5 minutes to separate out the necessary materials and drying out the resultant material. Impressively, all of this was seemingly done without human intervention.

After some of the material had been synthesized, the research team tested it by actually performing the reduction process it was designed to do. More importantly, they did so under Martian ambient conditions. The material performed admirably, similar to existing catalysts already used.

So, effectively, an AI just developed and tested a catalyst for use on Mars using local materials. And potentially saved over 2,000 years of intensive human labor in doing so. That is a testament to how effective AI is at finding patterns in existing data and extrapolating them using new data. It remains to be seen, though, if this catalyst will ever see the light of day on Mars, as the catalyst itself must be integrated with the rest of the system to perform the reduction reaction to split oxygen from water effectively. Given the complexity of the process used to create that catalyst, it might be easier for us to ship one directly from Earth, even if it doesn’t use Martian materials.

Learn More:

• Zhu et al. – Automated synthesis of oxygen-producing catalysts from Martian meteorites by a robotic AI chemist
• UT – A Single Robot Could Provide a Mission To Mars With Enough Water and Oxygen
  
• UT – What is ISRU, and How Will it Help Human Space Exploration?
  
• UT – A new way to Make Oxygen on Mars: Using Plasma

Lead Image:

• Series of images of the robotic arm used in the experiments running the catalyst synthesis process.
• Credit – Zhu et al.

{ https://www.universetoday.com/ }

28-11-2024 om 00:00 geschreven door peter  

The Sixth Kind! – Deadly Encounters with UFOs and Extraterrestrials!

{ https://mysteriousuniverse.org/ }

27-11-2024 om 23:54 geschreven door peter  

Intuitive Machines moon lander sends home a haunting crater picture ahead of touch down today

Update for 7 pm ET: Touchdown! Intuitive Machines reports that its IM-1 lander Odysseus has landed on the moon and is transmitting a faint, but definite, signal. "Houston, Odysseus has found his new home," mission director Tim Crain said.
See our full landing story, video and photos.

Hours ahead of its moon landing, Odysseus snapped a picture of a lunar crater.

The Intuitive Machines lander beamed home an image of the Bel’kovich K crater, a roughly 31-mile (50-kilometer) divot in the moon's northern equatorial highlands. Mountains in the center were "made when the crater was formed," officials wrote Wednesday (Feb. 21) on X, formerly Twitter.

Odysseus successfully entered lunar orbit on Wednesday following a crucial engine burn, and is slated to touch down near the moon's south pole on Thursday afternoon (Feb. 22) no earlier than 6:24 p.m. EST (2324 GMT). You can tune in to the landing live here at Space.com, courtesy of NASA, or directly via the space agency. Coverage will begin at 5:00 p.m. EST (2300 GMT).

Related: 

• Missions to the moon: Past, present and future

If Odysseus makes it, the lander will be the first private machine to successfully soft land on the moon and the first American vehicle overall to do so since the crewed Apollo 17 mission achieved the feat in 1972. You can watch the attempt here at Space.com.

The mission launched on Feb. 15 on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket, bringing along 12 payloads for lunar investigations. Six of those experiments are from NASA and associated with the agency's Commercial Lunar Payload Services program, or CLPS.

NASA aims to use CLPS missions for science investigations ahead of the agency's Artemis program, which itself plans to put astronauts back on the moon in the 2020s and eventually establish a permanent base at the lunar south pole. The region is rich in water ice, which is useful for fueling and machinery.

One CLPS mission has already tried to reach the moon, but it didn't make it. Astrobotic's Peregrine lunar lander launched in January atop the first United Launch Alliance's Vulcan Centaur rocket. Peregrine, however, developed a fuel leak and instead was steered into Earth's atmosphere on Jan. 18.

Other private missions before Odysseus' IM-1 endeavor did indeed achieve lunar orbit before. Examples include Israel's Beresheet and Tokyo's Hakuto-R landers. Both missions, however, saw their spacecraft crash: Beresheet in April 2019 and Hakuto-R in April 2023.

• This story was updated at 2:34 p.m. Feb. 22 with the updated landing time.

{ https://www.space.com/ }

27-11-2024 om 23:07 geschreven door peter  

Freek Vonk ontdekt nieuw soort reuzenslang in de Amazone: verschillen zijn genetisch gezien enorm

Jeannette Kras

{ https://scientias.nl/ }

27-11-2024 om 22:39 geschreven door peter  

{ https://scientias.nl/ }

27-11-2024 om 22:09 geschreven door peter  

Recently-Discovered Active Asteroid is in Fact Main-Belt Comet, Astronomers Say

456P/PANSTARRS, an active, main-belt asteroid first spotted in 2021, is recurrently active, and activity is likely driven by the sublimation of volatile ice, according to new observations from the Magellan-Baade telescope and the Lowell Discovery Telescope.

Images of 456P/PANSTARRS taken with the Magellan-Baade telescope in Chile on October 3, 2024, and the Lowell Discovery Telescope in Arizona on October 26, 2024, where the head, or nucleus, of the comet is at the center of each image, and the tail extends to the right.

Image credit: Scott S. Sheppard / Carnegie Institution for Science / Audrey Thirouin, Lowell Observatory / Henry H. Hsieh, Planetary Science Institute.

“Main-belt comets are icy objects found in the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter — rather than the cold outer Solar System where icy bodies are typically expected,” said Planetary Science Institute senior scientist Henry Hsieh and colleagues.

“They sport comet-like features, like tails extending away from the Sun or fuzzy clouds as the Sun’s heat vaporizes their ice.”

These objects were first discovered in 2006 at the University of Hawaii by Dr. Hsieh and his then-doctoral advisor, Professor David Jewitt.

“Main-belt comets belong to a larger group of solar system objects known as active asteroids, which look like comets, but have asteroid-like orbits in the warm inner Solar System,” the astronomers said.

“This larger group includes objects whose clouds and tails are made of ejected dust produced after an impact or as they quickly rotate, rather than just those that eject dust due to vaporized ice.”

“Both main-belt comets and active asteroids in general are still relatively rare, but scientists are discovering them at a growing clip.”

456P/PANSTARRS was discovered as P/2021 L4 (PANSTARRS) from observations on June 9 and 14, 2021, by Pan-STARRS1, and Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope observations on June 14, 2021.

Dr. Hsieh and co-authors observed the object twice using the Magellan Baade Telescope and Lowell Discovery Telescope in October 2024 to establish its status as a main-belt comet.

“This object is not just an asteroid that experienced a one-off event that caused it to show activity one time, but is an inherently active, icy body similar to other comets from the outer Solar System,” Dr. Hsieh said.

If 456P/PANSTARRS’s activity were due to something other than ice vaporization, then its tail would be expected to appear only once randomly, and not repeatedly appear when it was close to the Sun.

An icy object, on the other hand, heats up every time it approaches the Sun, and the vaporized ice drags dust out along with it.

When the object moves farther from the Sun and cools, the activity stops.

Observations of repeated dust ejection activity during close approaches to the Sun are currently considered the best and most reliable way to identify main-belt comets.

“There are still very few confirmed main-belt comets known,” Dr. Hsieh said.

“We want to build up the population so we can get a clearer idea of what their broader properties are — such as their sizes, activity duration and distribution within the asteroid belt, for example — so that they can be better used to trace ice in the Solar System in general.”

• The findings were published in the Research Notes of the American Astronomical Society.
• Henry H. Hsieh et al. 2024. Confirmation of Recurrent Activity of Main-Belt Comet 456P/PANSTARRS (P/2021 L4). Res. Notes AAS 8, 283; doi: 10.3847/2515-5172/ad90a6
• This article is a version of a press-release provided by the Planetary Science Institute.

{ https://www.sci.news/ }

27-11-2024 om 21:50 geschreven door peter  

The Hayabusa2 mission, launched in 2014, landed on a small asteroid named Ryugu in 2018 and returned a sample of material to Earth in 2020. The sample was kept sterile the whole time, hermetically sealed for the journey back, and only opened in a pure nitrogen clean room using sterilized equipment. The sample was as clean and uncontaminated as we could get. When the team prepared a sample and looked at it under an electron microscope, they found rods and filaments of organic matter consistent with microbial life. In other words, the team found life on an asteroid.

Except they likely didn’t.

One thing to keep in mind is that microbial life is incredibly robust. It exists everywhere and spreads rapidly. You can find the stuff in the cores of nuclear power plants, in hot thermal vents, and in the cleanest clean room. And even if you sterilize something, microbial life will find a way. When the team found life on their sample, the first thing they did was to look for evidence of contamination, and there was plenty of evidence to be found. To begin with, the size distribution of the organic rods and filaments found in the sample is consistent with those commonly deposited by terrestrial life. Their data also found evidence of a growth and decline period of about five days, which is also consistent with Earth life. If the Ryugu samples had truly evolved beyond Earth, they would be genetically separated from us by millions or billions of years. Their size and growth rate wouldn’t match those of our common microbes. So the best explanation is that the sample became contaminated despite our best efforts.

While the study doesn’t support the panspermia model, it does tell us two important things. The first is that our sterilization procedures are likely inadequate. We may have already spread life to the Moon and Mars inadvertently. The second is that asteroids have organic materials that could sustain terrestrial life. That’s good news if we want to establish ourselves elsewhere in the solar system. Earth life may not have begun in space, but it could very well end up there.

Reference: 

• Genge, Matthew J., et al. “Rapid colonization of a space?returned Ryugu sample by terrestrial microorganisms.” Meteoritics & Planetary Science (2024).

{ https://www.universetoday.com/ }

27-11-2024 om 20:56 geschreven door peter  

{ https://www.universetoday.com/ }

27-11-2024 om 20:46 geschreven door peter  

Europa, one of the four Galilean satellites of Jupiter is one of the most intriguing locations in the Solar System to search for life. However, its subsurface oceans are buried beneath thick layers of ice making exploration difficult. To explore its oceans, scientists have suggested using small swimming robots capable of penetrating the icy shell. Recently, NASA engineers tested prototypes designed to operate as a swarm, enabling them to explore the mysterious sub-ice oceans on Europa and other icy worlds in the Solar System.

Along with the other three Galilean satellites orbing Jupiter, Europa was discovered just over 400 years ago by Galileo. It is the smallest of the four measuring just 3,120 km across. It orbits Jupiter at a distance of 671,000 km in an almost circular orbit. In comparison to our own Moon, Europa is a little smaller but that is where the similarities end. Europa is made of a silicate rock and has a thick water ice crust below which is thought to be a liquid water ocean and it is this which has captured the interest of scientists. 

The deep oceans of Europa may well harbour forms of aquatic life. Consider the deepest parts of the oceans of Earth where whole eco-systems thrive off thermal vents. At these depths, no light from the Sun penetrates so the organisms and creatures living at these depths take all their energy from the heat escaping from inside the planet.  It is this which tantalisingly suggests that maybe such life could have evolved in the oceans of Europa too.

The exploration of Europa is already underway with NASA’s Europa Clipper expected to arrive in 2030. It will explore Europa with a powerful set of scientific instruments over a total of 49 flybys. Each pass will see the instruments search for signs that the ocean under the thick icy crust could sustain life. This will just be a flyby mission with Europa being probed from high above its surface. NASA are already shaping up their next mission to include even more complex robots that could survey the depths of the sub-surface oceans of Europa.

This is where NASA’s new mission called SWIM ‘Sensing With Independent Micro-swimmers’ comes in. The concept at least, is simple…a swarm of self-propelled robots that can swim around in the underground oceans having been deployed by the ice piercing cryobot. Once underway, the swimming robots, which are about the size of a mobile phone, would hunt for chemical and temperature signals that might indicate life.

The swimming robots are not just on the drawing board. Engineers have already used 3D printers to create prototypes that have already been tested in a 23 metre pool. The devices which are propelled along by two propellers, with flaps for steering were able to stay on course. These prototypes however were a little larger than those destined to make it into space measuring about three times larger. 

The results of the test were very promising but much more work is needed before they are ready for launch. Meanwhile the robots are likely to be trialled here on Earth to support oceanographic research before being sent on their way to Europa. 

Source : 

• NASA Ocean World Explorers Have to Swim Before They Can Fly

{ https://www.universetoday.com/ }

27-11-2024 om 20:35 geschreven door peter  

• DailyMail.com has obtained two UFO videos recorded by an Indian police official
• The videos both depict an apparent craft near India's Kudankulam nuclear plant
• Protestors fought the Kudankulam nuclear plant for decades, citing safety issues
• READ MORE: Ukrainian drone films UFO in warzone, soldier asks 'Maybe ram it?'

By MATTHEW PHELAN SENIOR SCIENCE REPORTER FOR DAILYMAIL.COM

India's Kudankulam Nuclear Power Plant has become a UFO hotspot after a police officer reported seeing odd aerial lights above it more than 10 times last summer.

Indian Police Service investigator Syed Abdul Kader shared two videos exclusively with DailyMail.com, which track the bright lights making 'zigzags' above the facility.

Fearing the craft was not manmade, Kader turned to his nation's leading UFO expert, who in 2019 filed a petition to the Supreme Court of India with the backing of former Pentagon officials and US Air Force vets — urging the south Asian nation to take all the unexplained sightings near its nuclear facilities more seriously. 

Kader's UFO encounters add international heft to domestic national security concerns within the US, following detailed Pentagon and civilian research into an eerie correlation between UFO sightings and America's tightly held nuclear arsenal.

While the shape, size and speed of Kader's mystery objects are difficult to discern, his footage shows them making unusual movements at the altitude of an airplane.

'It's shaking when it's moving! It's going up and down,' the confused cop narrates in one video, watching the UFO's bizarre and apparently non-aerodynamic maneuvers.

'The way it's moving,' he opines in the video, 'this could never be an airplane.'

India's Kudankulam Nuclear Power Plant has become a UFO hotspot after a police officer reported seeing odd aerial lights above it more than 10 times last summer 

Roughly a dozen or so incidents last summer all involved apparent airborne craft loitering near the Kudankulam Nuclear Power Plant (pictured above) at the southern tip of the subcontinent - as well as the Madras Atomic Power Station near Kalpakkam, along the country's east coast

'It's in a southern direction,' Kader told his wife during the August 8th sighting.

'It's standing [or hovering] in the direction of the Koodankulam Nuclear Power Plant.'

'It is always coming in at this time, when it is not too dark, nor too bright,' Kader's wife can be heard saying. 'I've seen this many times.'

While it is difficult for an outside observer to discern if the UFO is moving, or if Kader's camera is unsteady, DailyMail.com can report that some common prosaic explanations can likely be ruled out.

Such sightings have turned out to be distant planets, like Venus that is the third brightest object in the sky, after the sun and moon.

And the bright 'dog star,' Sirius, as well as the planets Jupiter and Mercury have also been occasionally misreported as UFOs.

However, in Kader's August 8 video, filmed at dusk (7:30PM local time), the eastern direction of the UFO at sunset refutes the notion that a common bright planet or star could explain the mystery's eerie aerial glow.

While the shape, size and speed of Kader's mystery objects are difficult to discern, his footage shows them making unusual movements at the altitude of an airplane 

Syed Abdul Kader shared two of the videos exclusively with DailyMail.com, which show bright lights whizzing up and down above the facility

Police sub-inspector Syed Abdul Kader (right), assigned to the technical wing of the Tirunelveli office - one hour's drive north of the Kudankulam nuclear plant - told UFO expert Sabir Hussain (left) that he filmed two videos of these unusual aerial phenomena or UAP

A sky map for that night and time, geolocated to the Kaders' hometown of Tirunelveli via TheSkyLive.com shows that Venus was completely obscured, below the western horizon and below the sunset. 

Most other bright stars and planets were also not in the eastern sky at that moment. 

At another point in the video, Kader's wife exclaims, 'It's so close. How come no one else is seeing this?'

To which Kader replies, 'No, that's why the DGP [Director General of Police] he, himself, has seen it [the UFOs]. And that's why everybody's talking about this.'

In fact, the Kaders' sightings to the south overlapped with weeks of others in July and August up India's east coast along the Neelankarai-Mahabalipuram shoreline.

That region, near the bustling city of Chennai, is home to the Madras Atomic Power Station (MAPS) in Kalpakkam.

READ MORE: 

• Watch the incredible moment India made history, as its Chandrayaan-3 spacecraft landed on the lunar South Pole for first time [Video]

India made history by becoming the first nation to land a spacecraft on the moon's south pole August 23, 2023

Kader's mysterious UFO videos were first secured by one of India's foremost UFO investigators, Sabir Hussain, director of the Indian Society for UFO Studies (INSUFOS) based in Chennai.

It was Hussain who petitioned the Supreme Court of India in 2019 warning that casually dismissing reports of UFO activity near the nation's sensitive atomic power sites could risks an unintentional nuclear war between India and its uneasy neighbor Pakistan.

His efforts came with letters endorsing his petition, by former US counterintelligence official and Pentagon UFO investigator Lue Elizondo, US Air Force veteran Robert Salas, and other UFO experts from America and Europe. 

'Syed came to my house,' Hussain told DailyMail.com. 'I debriefed him.'

'He told me that most of the time, [the UFO] was either coming from the direction of Kudankulam Nuclear Power Plant, going towards it, or stationary in that direction.'

Officer Kader, Hussain told DailyMail.com, also stated that the UFOs were sometimes spotted hovering above the nearby Indian Space Research Organization's (ISRO) Propulsion Complex.

Nestled alongside the mountainous Mahendragiri hill in the state of Tamil Nadu, the ISRO Propulsion Complex tests cryogenically stored rocket fuel among its other space program duties.

The ISRO facility is also approximately one hour's drive south of the Kaders' home, which is in the city of Tirunelveli in Tamil Nadu.  

A vocal advocate on the UFO issue, Hussain once voiced his suspicion that alleged alien occupants of such craft cut communications between ISRO and its Chandrayaan-2's Vikram lander in 2019 — for the south Asian nation's own good. 

'The extra-terrestrials have sent a message to the Indian government to get rid of your nukes before you explore other worlds,' Hussain told the Deccan Chronicle.

'You will not be allowed to land on the moon unless "they" decide to allow you.'

The fate of ISRO's Vikram lander aside, Hussain's new UFO witnesses, sub-inspector Kader and his wife, can at least be heard in their videos discussing the mysterious aerial phenomena's consistent apparent interest in the Kudankulam nuclear plant.

Kader's video-taped sightings, as Hussain told DT Next, 'happened just 10 days after former DGP [Director General of Police] Prateep V. Philip took pictures of a UFO on [the] Muttukadu sea shore near Chennai.'

Philip's rank of DGP is the highest position attainable in the Indian Police Service.

A sky map for that night and time (above), geolocated to the Kaders' hometown of Tirunelveli via TheSkyLive.com, shows Venus was completely obscured, below the western horizon and sunset. Most other bright stars and planets were also not in the eastern sky at that moment 

The Kaders' sightings to the south overlapped with weeks of sightings in July and August up the eastern coast, along the Neelankarai-Mahabalipuram shoreline. That region, near the city of Chennai, is home to the Madras Atomic Power Station (MAPS) in Kalpakkam (above)

Hypothetical extraterrestrial interest in the Kudankulam nuclear plant, if correct, would join decades of active protests against the plant by concerned local civilians.

Thousands of local residents faced teargas shelling, imprisonment and prosecution under both terrorism and sedition charges by local police for speaking out against the nuclear energy plant. Even children with the protestors faced sedition charges.

In September of 2019 the Kudankulam nuclear plant was discovered to be infected with malware, which one cyber security analyst with CSO attributed to 'a false flag operation using stolen North Korean code to muddle attribution.' 

Hussain told DailyMail.com that the plant has faced corruption charges and safety concerns since before it first became operational a decade ago.

'Kudankulam, which is a focus of our attention,' Hussain said, 'came online only in 2013 after Fukushima disaster happened.'

'Ever since it came online, it has been shutting down once every two months,' he added. 'They are working only to 30 percent of their capacity. So you do the math.'

DailyMail.com has reached out to the Indian government's Nuclear Power Corporation of India, Ltd., which runs the plant, for comment. 

US Air Force ICBM launch officer Robert Salas (pictured left, and as a young man, right) told of his encounter with an orange flying disc that turned off 10 warheads at Malmstrom Air Force Base, Montana in 1967  

An email shows AARO staff contacted former US Air Force ICBM launch officer Robert Salas to gather information about his encounter. He tweeted his thank you email from AARO 

This time last year, two Air Force veterans revealed to DailyMail.com's Josh Boswell that they had just testified to the Pentagon's UFO-hunting All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office (AARO) about their experiences witnessing UFOs interfere with US nuclear missiles.

One email showed AARO staff contacting former US Air Force ICBM launch officer Robert Salas to gather information about his chilling encounter with an orange flying disc that inexplicably turned off 10 warheads at Malmstrom Air Force Base, Montana in 1967.

Another former officer, Dr. Robert Jacobs, also briefed AARO, testifying to a 35mm film he shot for the Air Force in 1964, which allegedly caught a flying saucer shooting a test missile out of the sky.

Although Salas described those early interactions with AARO officials as 'very magnanimous,' this month the disappointed Air Force veteran described the Pentagon office's most recent UFO report as 'a 'Steaming pile of ...' 

'I gave AARO a two hour PowerPoint presentation on the Malmstrom AFB incidents where twenty ICBMs were disabled during UFO encounters,' Salas said on the social media site X, speaking to incidents at the base beyond 1967. 

'The USGOV owes us, the informed public, much more respect on this subject,' he concluded, 'than offered by AARO's steaming pile of insults.' 

{ https://www.dailymail.co.uk/ }

26-11-2024 om 23:05 geschreven door peter