Scientists Use NASA Spacecraft Data to Predict Alien Contact

Using advanced star-mapping data from the Gaia mission, the researchers have pinpointed potential star systems that may have intercepted Earth’s messages and calculated when a response could arrive.

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Tracing Earth’s Signals into Deep Space

In 1973, NASA sent its first interstellar radio signal via the Pioneer 10 spacecraft. Pioneer 10 traveled toward the star Aldebaran, approximately 65 light-years away, though it has yet to come close to this distant star.

Similarly, the Voyager 1 and Voyager 2 spacecraft, launched in 1977, transmitted signals as they journeyed beyond the solar system. Voyager 2 left the Sun’s heliosphere in 2018 and is now traveling through interstellar space. Along its trajectory, it passed near the direction of a brown dwarf star located about 24 light-years away.

As per The Debrief, by analyzing these trajectories and combining them with Gaia’s data, researchers have mapped where other civilizations might intercept Earth’s signals. The team predicts that if intelligent life near this brown dwarf intercepted Voyager 2’s signal, we could theoretically receive a reply by the early 2030s.

Using Gaia Data to Refine Predictions

The Gaia space observatory, renowned for producing the most accurate star maps in history, was instrumental in this research. By charting the positions and motions of stars, the researchers calculated the time required for Earth’s radio signals to reach specific systems and for a potential reply to return.

“Our estimates are based on the time it takes for light-speed signals to travel between stars,” said lead researcher Howard Isaacson, an astronomer at UC Berkeley. “If an extraterrestrial civilization intercepted our signals and chose to respond, their reply would also travel at the speed of light, taking years to reach us.”

This analysis also highlights specific systems where SETI researchers could focus their telescope time, maximizing the chances of detecting alien signals.

The Odds of Contact

While the predictions are scientifically grounded, Isaacson acknowledges the slim likelihood of receiving an alien signal. “The probability is low, but the potential impact of such a discovery is enormous,” he explained. “Even if we don’t find signals immediately, this research inspires new ideas and technologies for exploring the cosmos.”

The study has also drawn attention from UFO enthusiasts, some of whom speculate that significant extraterrestrial-related events might occur by 2027. However, Isaacson has distanced his work from such unverified claims, emphasizing that the research relies on scientific data rather than speculation.

This study represents more than just a search for alien life—it’s a testament to humanity’s curiosity and determination to explore the unknown. By leveraging cutting-edge technology and precise measurements, the research opens new doors for understanding our place in the universe.

“Whether or not we find extraterrestrial life soon, the effort to look inspires us to think bigger and imagine the possibilities,” Isaacson concluded.

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{ https://curiosmos.com/ }

01-02-2025 om 22:35 geschreven door peter  

Scientists Discover Vast Traces of Life Deep Beneath Earth’s Surface

The study shows that microbial life deep in Earth’s crust is far more diverse than previously thought, rivaling or even surpassing surface ecosystems in some cases.

An illustration of the interior of the Earth.

Credit: Shutterstock

“It’s commonly assumed that the deeper you go, the less energy is available, and the fewer cells can survive,” said Emil Ruff, a microbial ecologist at the Woods Hole Marine Biological Laboratory and lead author of the study. “But our research demonstrates that in some subsurface environments, diversity can match or exceed that of the surface.”

The researchers identified a universal ecological principle showing that subsurface microbial ecosystems are not anomalies but a significant and thriving part of Earth’s biosphere.

The Global Collaboration Behind the Discovery

This breakthrough is the result of an eight-year international effort that analyzed over 1,400 datasets from microbial ecosystems worldwide. A lack of standardization in microbial DNA data had long hindered global comparisons, but that changed with a project led by molecular biologist Mitchell Sogin of the Bay Paul Center.

Sogin and his team worked to harmonize data collection and analysis techniques, enabling researchers to compare microbial samples from diverse environments, such as caves in Utah and subsurface layers in Spain. This collaborative approach revealed striking similarities in microbial diversity across vastly different regions.

Kimberlites are complex rocks that came to the Earth's surface from great depths. The picture shows a thin section of a carbonate-?rich kimberlite.

(Photograph: David Swart / Messengers of the Mantle Exhibition)

The study not only highlights the resilience of life on Earth but also provides a template for exploring life in extreme environments elsewhere in the solar system.

The discovery of microbial ecosystems thriving under extreme conditions has profound implications beyond Earth. These microbes rely on chemical energy rather than sunlight, making them analogous to potential life forms that might exist in subsurface environments on Mars or the icy moons of Jupiter and Saturn.

This research serves as a reminder of the untapped potential within Earth’s hidden ecosystems and reinforces the importance of international collaboration in uncovering the planet’s secret

{ https://curiosmos.com/ }

01-02-2025 om 22:21 geschreven door peter  

“RESILIENCE knows what it means to be alone in the vastness of space. Looking back at Earth on Jan. 25, 2025, the lander was about 10,000km from our Blue Marble, poignantly capturing Point Nemo, the most remote place on our planet, about 2,688 kilometres from the nearest land.”

The most well-known picture of our Blue Marble came from astronauts on Apollo 17 in 1972. It appeared during a boom in environmental activism and helped people around the world understand the planet they live on and consider its future and our impact on it.

The second most well-known image of Earth is probably Carl Sagan’s Pale Blue Dot image. Voyager 1 captured that image in 1990 on its way to the outer Solar System. The spacecraft captured the image from 6 billion km away when it passed Saturn. Carl Sagan proposed the idea not for scientific reasons but to drive home the idea that humanity’s home was just a tiny dot in the dark.

It seems de rigueur now for space missions to turn around and capture an image of Earth on their way to their destinations.

OSIRIS REx did it.

So did Artemis 1’s Orion spacecraft.

So have Lucy and many others. Now, they’re as common as pictures of their homes that young people take as they leave for college.

Yet, we don’t seem to ever tire of them. For some reason.

Maybe it’s because we’re accustomed to looking at maps with borders and labels on them, emphasizing how we see our planet through a political and historical lens. In those images, the context is human.

"The RESILIENCE lander remains in excellent health as it continues to orbit Earth in its planned trajectory towards the Moon!" ispace updated about its lander's health as it shared the visual.

But images of Earth from space have none of that. They show the true context of our planet. It’s a brilliant blue sphere, rippling with life, delicate and precious. It’s at the mercy of greater events that go on elsewhere in the Solar System and beyond, events beyond our control.

The people at ispace might not have intended their image to trigger this type of thinking. But regardless, this image takes its place in a long lineage of images of Earth captured by our departing spacecraft.

Hopefully, that lineage will continue for a long time.

ALSO SEE: 

• Moon Lander Captures Eye-Watering Views Of Earth During Lunar Journey; Watch

 { https://www.universetoday.com/ }

01-02-2025 om 18:24 geschreven door peter  

The research was conducted by Cole Nypaver and Thomas R. Watters, a postdoctoral student and Senior Geologist with the NASM’s Center for Earth and Planetary Studies at the Smithsonian Institute. They were joined by Jackie Clark, an Assistant Research Scientist with UMD’s Department of Geology. The paper detailing their findings, “Recent Tectonic Deformation of the Lunar Farside Mare and South Pole–Aitken Basin,” recently appeared in the Planetary Science Journal.

Based on previous research, scientists have determined that the Moon once had a magnetic field. Like Earth’s, this field was powered by a dynamo in the Moon’s interior caused by a liquid outer core (surrounding a solid inner core) that rotated opposite to its axial rotation. However, crystallization began in the Moon’s core about 4 billion years ago, causing this dynamo to disappear between 2.5 and 1 billion years ago. This led to the disappearance of its magnetosphere and volcanic activity, ceasing about 3 billion years ago. As Clark summarized in a recent UMD press release:

“Many scientists believe that most of the Moon’s geological movements happened two and a half, maybe three billion years ago. But we’re seeing that these tectonic landforms have been recently active in the last billion years and may still be active today. These small mare ridges seem to have formed within the last 200 million years or so, which is relatively recent considering the moon’s timescale.”

Using advanced mapping and modeling, Nypang, Watters, and Clark found 266 previously unknown small ridges on the Moon’s far side. These were largely arranged in groups of 10 to 40 ridges that likely formed in narrow areas 3.2 to 3.6 billion years ago where underlying weaknesses in the lunar crust may have existed. Based on a technique known as “crater counting,” the team found that these ridges were notably younger than other features in their surroundings.

“Essentially, the more craters a surface has, the older it is; the surface has more time to accumulate more craters,” said Clark. “After counting the craters around these small ridges and seeing that some of the ridges cut through existing impact craters, we believe these landforms were tectonically active in the last 160 million years.”

The team also noted that the ridges observed on the far side of the Moon were similar in structure to ones found on the near side. This suggests both were created by the same forces, possibly by shallow moonquakes first detected by the Apollo missions. Scientists have since deduced that these are caused by a combination of shifts in the Moon’s orbit and its gradual shrinking – which explains why the Moon still experiences landslides. Understanding the factors that shape the lunar surface is of immense importance to future lunar missions.

As Clark indicated, this presents opportunities for further studies of lunar evolution:

“We hope that future missions to the moon will include tools like ground penetrating radar so researchers can better understand the structures beneath the lunar surface. Knowing that the moon is still geologically dynamic has very real implications for where we’re planning to put our astronauts, equipment and infrastructure on the moon.”

Further Reading: 

• University of Maryland, 
• The Planetary Science Journal

 { https://www.universetoday.com/ }

01-02-2025 om 18:06 geschreven door peter  

Currently, 2024 YR4 has a 3 on the scale, which means it “merits attention by astronomers.” It is currently the only object with a number other than 0 on the Torino Scale, and it means a couple of things come into play. The first is that the International Asteroid Warning Network (IAWN) will work to pin down the orbit of the asteroid. Chaired by NASA, the IAWN coordinates with observatories around the world to make detailed observations of 2024 YR4. It will take time to gather enough data. But what will likely happen is that they will determine there is no risk of collision, and 2024 YR4 will be demoted to 0 on the scale.

The second thing initiated is the Space Mission Planning Advisory Group (SMPAG), chaired by the European Space Agency. They have a scheduled meeting next week when there will be some initial discussions about a possible mission to 2024 YR4 to shift its orbit. If we do find there is a real risk of impact, this group would ramp up quickly. But again, this isn’t likely.

Statistically, asteroids the size of 2024 YR4 strike Earth every couple thousand years or so. This is why astronomers track these objects and are constantly looking for more. So even though the odds of an impact are never zero, with planning and preparation we should be able to ensure that any real risk can be mitigated.

Near Earth Asteroid 2024 YR4 observed with the VLT

This is a sequence of observations of the Near Earth Asteroid 2024 YR4 carried out with ESO’s Very Large Telescope in January 2025, shortly after it was discovered in December 2024. The asteroid is the faint source moving diagonally against the background of fixed stars. Follow-up observations such as this one have found that, as of 29 January 2025, it has an almost 99% chance of safely passing Earth on 22 Dec 2032, but a possible impact cannot yet be entirely ruled out.

Credit:

{ https://www.universetoday.com/ }

01-02-2025 om 17:54 geschreven door peter  

A summer barbecue transformed into a nightmare when lightning split the sky above Somerset, England. Peter Williamson dashed across his rain-soaked lawn to rescue his terrified dog, unaware that his next step would carry him beyond the boundaries of our world. 

His family watched in horror as a blinding flash illuminated his silhouette against the stormy sky. When their vision cleared, Peter had evaporated into thin air. 

The police launched a search, but found no footprints, no scorch marks, and no explanation for how a man could disappear from a walled garden. Sixteen witnesses swore they watched him vanish in plain sight. 

Three days passed before Peter materialized in his backyard, wearing unfamiliar clothes and carrying items that defied explanation. His memories painted a picture of a hospital that both existed and didn't exist, where reality shimmered like heat waves rising from summer pavement. 

The investigation into his disappearance uncovered something extraordinary: evidence suggesting Peter had slipped through a crack between parallel universes. 

A "crack between parallel universes" is a metaphorical concept in physics, often used to describe a hypothetical point or region where two separate parallel universes could potentially interact or intersect with each other, allowing for potential travel or communication between them. 

If such a "crack" existed, it would likely demand extraordinarily extreme conditions, exactly the kind Peter Williamson encountered during his disappearance. 

His impossible story forces us to question everything we think we know about the nature of reality.

  

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

01-02-2025 om 17:30 geschreven door peter  

• READ MORE: Loch Ness Monster finally solved...thanks to Prince William

By MICHAEL HAVIS FOR MAILONLINE

A monster hunter says 'the only possibility is Nessie' after catching a double-humped creature on camera in what's been called the first sighting of the year.

Eoin O'Faodhagain was watching Loch Ness via webcam when he spotted something rising and sinking in the water, estimated to be up to 20 feet long.

He said: 'I noticed a disturbance in the middle of Loch Ness, to the right of the screen.

'I saw a shape rise up out of the water, then submerge, four times in the same spot, which I considered to be highly unusual.'

He continued: 'I thought it could be Nessie, but first wanted to look at other options.

'I've ruled out a log – I've never seen a log emerging and submerging in the same spot, ever.

'And waves move along, they do not stay in the one place.

'It's far too large for any wildfowl or seals, and I've also ruled out divers or swimmers. The only possibility is Nessie.'

A monster hunter says 'the only possibility is Nessie' after catching a double-humped creature on camera in what's been called the first sighting of the year

Eoin O'Faodhagain was watching Loch Ness via webcam when he spotted something rising and sinking in the water, estimated to be up to 20 feet long

The footage, taken on Sunday around 1pm, was captured using a webcam at the Clansman Hotel maintained by Visit Inverness Loch Ness (VILN).

It's an unusually early time of year for the mythical monster to appear.

The Official Loch Ness Monster Sightings Register recorded only a handful of entries last year – the first of them in April.

'It could be the first genuine Nessie Sighting of 2025,' said Mr O'Faodhagain, 60.

'January would not be a popular month for Nessie sightings, maybe because there are fewer pleasure craft out on the loch.'

In Eoin's footage, which lasts only a few seconds, a pair of black humps can be seen rising and sinking in the water.

The monster hunter believes this could be the head and body of the beast.

He said: 'There was one long hump and a smaller hump to the right of this, which I surmised to be the possible head of the creature.

The footage, taken on Sunday around 1pm, was captured using a webcam at the Clansman Hotel maintained by Visit Inverness Loch Ness (VILN)

The Official Loch Ness Monster Sightings Register recorded only a handful of entries last year – the first of them in April

'That would mean it's positioned to move against the current.'

He added that the mysterious creature's behaviour, emerging and submerging repeatedly, was characteristic of other Nessie encounters.

He said: 'This type of behaviour has been documented in other live sightings at Loch Ness over the years, so you could call this a classic sighting.

'There is a strong resemblance to my only registered sighting last year, also captured on the Clansman webcam in July.

'That consisted of two humps as well – one small at the front, followed by a large hump behind it.'

Mr O'Faodhagain often logs on to watch the water from his home in County Donegal, Ireland.

Over the years, he's racked up multiple entries in the Official Loch Ness Monster Sightings Register.

The VILN webcams can be watched live online at visitinvernesslochness.com

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.

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{ https://www.dailymail.co.uk/ }

31-01-2025 om 18:18 geschreven door peter  

EXCLUSIVE - Tim Peake reveals what life is REALLY like for NASA's astronauts stuck in space - and warns dirty laundry and cramped conditions are the least of their concerns

• READ MORE: Trump asks Musk to 'go get' the two stranded NASA astronauts

By WILIAM HUNTER

NASA astronauts Suni Williams and Butch Wilmore were only meant to visit space for an eight-day round trip.

That brief excursion has stretched into a stay aboard the International Space Station (ISS) that is now likely to last 10 months.

While many of us back on Earth might be sympathetic to their situation, there are very few people who really know what they are going through.

However, one person who knows exactly what Williams and Wilmore are feeling is Tim Peake, Britain's first astronaut to live on the ISS.

After arriving on the ISS in December 2015, Peake spent more than six months living in the same conditions as NASA's stranded astronauts.

According to Peake, Williams and Wilmore will be more than ready to come back to Earth, having now spent seven months aboard the station.

Speaking exclusively with MailOnline, Peake says: 'They'll be loving their time in space, but it's a long time to spend up there.

'They'll probably be looking forward to coming home.'

Suni Williams (left) and Butch Wilmore (right) have now been stranded on the International Space Station for seven months, after planning to stay for just eight days 

Tim Peake, Britain's first astronaut to live on the ISS, says that Williams and Wilmore will now be 'looking forward to coming home'

Wilmore and Williams first landed at the ISS on June 5 last year aboard the Boeing Starliner spacecraft.

The plan was to launch the experimental capsule into space, perform some routine tests, and briefly dock with the station before returning to Earth.

However, issues almost immediately arose after Starliner experienced a series of helium leaks and engine failures.

By the time the capsule arrived at the station, it had sprung more helium leaks and five of its 28 thrusters had failed.

After weeks of tests, NASA ultimately decided that Starliner wasn't safe enough to carry humans back to Earth.

In September, the doomed spacecraft was sent back empty leaving Williams and Wilmore stranded aboard the ISS until a replacement crew could be sent to relieve them.

NASA was so confident that the pair would be home in a week that they were not even packed a spare change of clothes.

Although the ISS has an area of 520 metres squared (5,600 square feet) the seven astronauts share their space with laboratories, gyms, docking and cargo bays, and toilets.

After arriving on the Boeing Starliner capsule in June last year, a series of technical issues meant that the NASA astronauts were unable to return home on the same spacecraft

With only four phone booth-sized 'sleep stations' in the Harmony Module, the remaining astronauts have to sleep tethered to the walls wherever they can find space.

And with mandatory exercise, no showers, and fewer changes of clothes, life aboard the station can often be hot, smelly, and uncomfortable. 

However, Peake says that the dirty laundry and cramped conditions will not be the worst thing about life aboard the station.

Peake says: 'The things I missed most while I was in space were fresh air and nature.

'I love the outdoors and getting out into nature. I love going hiking and climbing; so that was very hard.'

With the ISS whizzing around the planet 16 times a day, astronauts are treated to a near-constant reminder of what they are missing out on.

'On the ISS I would look down and see this beautiful blue planet beneath me,' says Tim.

'I'm sure they'll be looking forward to coming back to Earth.'

Tim 

Peake (pictured during a spacewalk) told MailOnline that the things he missed most on the ISS were 'fresh air and nature' 

The only time Suni Williams (pictured) has stepped outside the station since her arrival was for a six-hour spacewalk earlier this month 

Despite all the difficulties of being in space, Peake maintains that Williams and Wilmore won't be feeling hard done by.

He says: 'I don't think they'll be regretting a single moment that they've had in space.'

Peake adds that the pair will be keeping busy 'mucking in' as part of the regular ISS crew, taking part in scientific work, maintenance, and even spacewalks.

After their arrival, Williams and Wilmore were rolled into the ISS Expedition 72 crew with Williams taking the role of commander and Wilmore stepping in as flight engineer.

That means the stranded pair's time in space will be far from a relaxing holiday.

ISS expedition members are expected to work 16-hour days starting at 6:00 am GMT which include two hours of mandatory exercise.

The gruelling realities of working out in space are something Peake is intimately familiar with, having run the London Marathon remotely from the ISS's treadmill.

Just as Peake did during his stay on the ISS, Williams and Wilmore will also be undertaking daring spacewalks to work on the outside of the station.

Tim Peake says that Williams (left) and Wilmore (right) will be 'mucking in' as part of the regular ISS crew. That means conducting scientific work, making repairs to the station, and carrying out mandatory exercise

While Tim Peake says that the pair of stranded astronauts will not regret having gone to space, he adds that seven months is a long time to spend away from friends and family 

Earlier this month, Williams was joined by NASA astronaut Nick Hague on a six-hour spacewalk to conduct repair work on the outside of the station.

Today, Williams and Wilmore will step outside of the space station together for the first time since their arrival.

The duo will spend about six and a half hours in the vacuum of space making repairs and collecting samples to see if bacteria are growing on the exterior of the ISS.

During his own expedition in 2016, Peake became the first British spacewalker when he made a four-hour and 43-minute spacewalk to make critical repairs to a failed power regulator.

Contrary to some claims, Williams and Wilmore are not strictly trapped aboard the ISS.

The SpaceX Dragon capsule scheduled to take them home has been docked with the ISS since September and could leave at any moment should an emergency arise.

However, before the pair leave, a relief crew needs to arrive on the ISS to take over the day-to-day operation of the station.

Under the original plans, that crew was supposed to arrive in February, but that mission has now been pushed back.

Williams and Wilmore are scheduled to return to Earth on a SpaceX Crew Dragon capsule (pictured) in March or April. Their return has been delayed while SpaceX prepares its next spacecraft

Musk vowed in a post to retrieve Butch Wilmore, 62, and Sunita Williams, 59, 'as soon as possible'. However, it is not clear how it would be possible to conduct the rescue mission any earlier than planned

NASA has revealed that the new SpaceX capsule isn't going to be ready in time to hit that deadline.

The capsule isn't expected to arrive at the SpaceX facility in Florida until early January and will still need more than a month of testing before it is ready.

NASA is now targeting no earlier than late March 2025 to launch the rescue crew, meaning Williams and Wilmore might not get back to Earth until April.

This week Donald Trump claimed he had asked Elon Musk to 'go get' the pair of astronauts.

In a post on Truth Social, Trump wrote: 'I have just asked Elon Musk and SpaceX to "go get" the two brave astronauts who have been virtually abandoned by the Biden administration.

'Elon will soon be on his way. Hopefully, all will be safe,' the president said.

In a post on X, Musk wrote: 'Terrible that the Biden administration left them there so long.'

However, given that the SpaceX craft is not ready for flight it isn't clear how Musk plans to bring Williams and Wilmore home any sooner than planned.

{ https://www.dailymail.co.uk/ }

31-01-2025 om 17:49 geschreven door peter  

Strange Signal Coming From Dead Galaxy, Scientists Say

This makes no sense.

Getty / Futurism

{ https://futurism.com/the-byte }

31-01-2025 om 16:13 geschreven door peter  

UFO Whistleblower Claims Trump Is Being Lied To About Those Drones in New Jersey

"Someone is not presenting the whole story to our new president."

Just a week in, he seemingly kept good on that promise by having his inept press secretary, Karoline Leavitt, tell the public that there was nothing to see in the skies.

"After research and study, the drones that were flying over New Jersey in large numbers were authorized to be flown by the [Federal Aviation Administration]," Leavitt said during a briefing earlier in the week. "This information comes directly from the President of the United States."

Beyond its dismal sentence structure, the statement left much to be desired, including who did the "research and study" and whether that included similar drones seen flying in New York and elsewhere.

Dissatisfied with the White House's non-explanation, a user on X reached out to an Air Force veteran-turned-UFO-whistleblower named Jake Barber to ask for his thoughts.

"The activity there was not FAA approved. I know firsthand," Barber wrote. "I was assigned there specifically to look at the debacle from a FAA violation standpoint in order to give a basis to the FBI."

"Someone is not presenting the whole story to our new president," the whistleblower continued.

Considering that Trump is essentially trying to gut the entire government, it's certainly plausible that the FAA isn't telling him the whole truth.

But Barber's comments, especially about having worked on the Jersey drone investigation, should nevertheless be taken with a grain of salt.

Earlier in January, Barber took to the right-leaning NewsNation with an incredible story: that during his time in Air Force special ops, he encountered bizarre debris from UFOs, or "unidentified aerial phenomena" per Pentagon parlance.

"Just visually looking at the object on the ground, you could tell that it was extraordinary and anomalous," the former military official told the news station of the egg-shaped, SUV-sized objects he claims to have seen. "It was not human."

Like other ex-Pentagon-ers before him, Barber maintains that he worked for a secretive UFO retrieval office within the military. He said that after witnessing the massive and bizarre debris, it was confirmed to him that its origin was from "nonhuman intelligence."

As with everything, there should be no mutual exclusivity between the fishiness of the White House's drone "explanation" and the weirdness of Barber's UFO claims.

So who's telling the truth? Because this isn't "The X-Files," we probably won't ever know.

More on Trump contradictions: 

• Trump Said We Should Kill Drug Dealers. Then He Appointed One as Health Secretary

{ https://futurism.com/ }

31-01-2025 om 15:56 geschreven door peter  

How Many Dimensions Does Our Universe Really Have?

Does our Universe have extra dimensions, and how do they influence our reality?

 Matthew S. Williams

While this kind of talk may sound like something farfetched or purely speculative, it is actually a vital part of our understanding of how our Universe works. If and when we determine how many dimensions our Universe has (and what each of them does), we will finally have a Theory of Everything (ToE) and know how it all fits together.

Dimensions 101

To break it down, the term “dimension” refers to any mathematical measurement. This can generally refer to a physical measurement (an object or space) or a temporal measurement (time). There are three dimensions that we experience daily, which define the length, width, and depth of all objects in our Universe (the x, y, and z-axis, respectively).

However, scientists maintain that to understand the laws of nature, one must include a “fourth dimension,” which is time. Without this coordinate, the position, velocity, and acceleration of objects in our Universe cannot be properly measured. It’s not enough to know where an object is in terms of three spatial coordinates. You also need to know when the object was where.

Beyond these four dimensions, theoretical physicists have ventured that there may be more at play. The number of dimensions varies, but the purpose behind extra dimensions is to find ways of unifying the known laws of the Universe, which theoretical physicists have been trying to do for about a century.

• Electromagnetism
• Weak Nuclear Force
• Strong Nuclear Force
• Gravitation

The first three forces are all described by the field of Quantum Mechanics and are associated with specific subatomic particles. Electromagnetism is associated with electrons (a lepton), which are responsible for electricity, magnetism, and all forms of electromagnetic radiation. That includes visible light (color), heat, microwaves, radio waves, ultraviolet radiation, and gamma rays.

The weak nuclear force deals with interactions between subatomic particles responsible for the radioactive decay of atoms and is associated with particles smaller than a proton (bosons). At higher energies, this force merges with electromagnetism, which has given rise to the unified term “electroweak force.”

The strong nuclear force governs particles that are the size of protons and neutrons (hadrons) and is so-named because it is approximately 137 times as strong as electromagnetism, millions of times stronger than the weak nuclear force, and 10³⁸ times as strong as gravitation. It causes quarks to come together to form larger protons and neutrons and binds them to create atomic nuclei.

Superstring theory, a variation on ST, requires the existence of 10 spacetime dimensions. These include the four dimensions immediately apparent to us (length, width, depth, time) and six more that are not. 

These extra six dimensions are curled up into a compact space. On order the string scale (10^-33 cm) we wouldn’t be able to detect the presence of these extra dimensions directly because they’re just too small. 

According to the theory, the fifth and sixth dimensions deal with possible worlds that began with the same initial conditions. 

The fifth dimension encompasses worlds with slightly different outcomes than ours, while the sixth is where a plane of possible worlds would be visible. The seventh dimension is where one could see possible worlds that started with different initial conditions and then branched out infinitely — hence why the term “infinity” is used to describe them.

On its face, the first possibility seems highly unlikely. After all, ongoing particle experiments — like those conducted with the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) — have confirmed that the Standard Model of particle physics is correct. Similarly, General Relativity has been confirmed many times over since Einstein formally proposed it in 1915.

That leaves us with the second possibility: that extra dimensions cannot be measured or characterized using current methods and experiments. A well-studied possibility is that dimensions are “curled up” at tiny scales, which means their properties and influence on spacetime could only be measured at subatomic levels.

Another possibility is “compactification,” where certain dimensions are finite or temporal in nature. In short, this theory posits that curled-up dimensions become very small or close in on themselves to form circles. If this is true, then the six extra dimensions would likely take the form of a Calabi–Yau manifold (these are shapes that satisfy the requirement needed for the six “unseen” spatial dimensions of string theory).

For astrophysicists and theoretical physicists, compactification and the idea that extra dimensions are tiny explains why the Universe still exists billions of years after its emergence. If these dimensions were larger, they would accommodate enough matter to trigger gravitational collapses and the formation of black holes (which would consume the rest of the Universe).

The fact that the cosmos still exists after 13.8 billion years, and shows no sign of being torn apart, would suggest that this theory is sound. Alternatively, the laws of physics may operate differently in these extra dimensions. Either way, there’s still the unanswered question of how we might observe and study them.

How do we find them?

So if the Universe really does have extra dimensions that are imperceptible to us, how are we going to find evidence of their existence and determine their properties? One possibility is to look for them through particle physics experiments, like those conducted by the European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN) — the operators of the LHC — and other particle accelerator labs.

At CERN, scientists boost particles to high energies before smashing them together and measuring the resulting cascade of subatomic particles. Detectors gather clues about the particles, such as their speed, mass, and charge, which can be used to work out their identity.

Theories involving extra dimensions predict that there must be heavier versions of standard particles recurring at higher and higher energies as they navigate smaller dimensions. These would have exactly the same properties as standard particles (and so be visible to detectors like those at CERN) but at a greater mass. If evidence of these were to be found, this might suggest the presence of extra dimensions. 

To date, astronomers have been unable to see this far back in time since no telescopes have been sensitive enough. This will change in the near future, thanks to next-generation instruments like the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), the Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope (RST), the Extremely Large Telescope (ELT), and the Giant Magellan Telescope (GMT).

This coincides nicely with existing Dark Matter and Dark Energy surveys that are observing early comic history in the hopes of measuring their influence on cosmic evolution. Since some theorists venture that the existence of extra dimensions could help explain the “Dark Universe,” these observations could address several mysteries at once.

This dual approach is not unlike our current understanding of the Universe, which scientists can only understand in one of two ways — the largest (GR) and tiniest of scales (QM). By observing the Universe with a very wide and very tight-angle lense, we may be able to account for all the forces governing it.

Much like other ToE candidates, the belief that the universe is made up of ten dimensions or more is an attempt to take all the physical laws we understand and find out how they fit together. In that respect, it’s like assembling a puzzle, where each piece makes sense to us, but we are unaware of what the bigger picture looks like.

It’s not enough to put pieces together wherever they appear to match. We also need to have an overall idea of what the framework is, a mental picture of what it will look like when it is finished. This helps to guide our efforts so we can anticipate how it will all come together.

{ https://interestingengineering.com/ }

31-01-2025 om 15:40 geschreven door peter  

Could we travel to parallel universes?

But how would we get to one of those parallel universes?

The trick is to build a time machine. It doesn't matter how you do it; you just need to go back in time. Normally, going back in time introduces all sorts of nasty paradoxes, like the infamous grandfather paradox, or, less violently, inconsistent histories. Try going back in time and destroying your time machine. Now it doesn't exist, which means you can't go back in time to destroy it, which means it should exist.

Related: 

• How long does it take to travel to the moon?

Perhaps time travel into the past is forbidden for exactly these reasons, according to Stephen Hawking's chronology protection conjecture. Or perhaps time travel into the past is allowed, but with one strict rule: You can't change the past. This is known as Igor Novikov's self-consistency conjecture. But how could you go into the past without changing it?

One possible answer is that when you travel into the past, you don't go into your own past. Instead, you slip into another history. If you go back in time and kill Hitler, you're not killing the Hitler of your past; you're killing somebody else's. And in that alternate universe, Hitler was always killed by a time-traveling assassin from another universe. When you return to the future, you come back home, with an unchanged past.

The many-worlds interpretation offers a natural platform for creating these alternate histories. If the universe is constantly splitting and branching anyway, then time travel simply moves you from one of those branches to another. Or, in another possibility, when you go back in time, you create a new branch that didn't exist before.

While this all sounds neat and tidy, it runs into the slight complication that nobody has ever gotten it to work. We don't know how this process actually unfolds or through what mechanism the alternate history emerges.

Attempts to navigate the issue by studying quantum mechanics have had mixed results. Left to their own devices, quantum fields tend to go haywire when time machines are involved. You can stabilize them — if you give up some of the core tenets of the theory, like the correspondence principle or unitarity, which say that quantum processes eventually lead to macroscopic behavior and that fundamental reactions are reversible. Nobody is really willing to give those up, since they seem central to the theory — so we're stuck on that front.

Besides, even classical, non-quantum systems run into issues. Let's say you have a switch that can turn your time machine on and off — say, by opening or closing a wormhole. We don't know how the alternate histories can accommodate changes in their space-time structures like that, regardless of whatever quantum processes are happening on a subatomic level.

However, if we could build a time machine, we could easily test whether alternate histories are created. All we'd have to do is change something in the past that you remember. If you're not allowed to do it (say, no matter how hard you try, you just can't kill Hitler), then you know there's only one timeline with a past that is locked in stone. But if you accomplish the mission, then you know that alternate histories are real and that the many-worlds interpretation of quantum mechanics might be valid.

We don't know if any of this is possible. On the other hand, we can't exactly rule it out. Time travel into the past seems forbidden but for reasons we can't readily discern. Our past seems to be gone forever — but it's also possible that it's just one branch of many and that visiting alternate universes is as easy as … Well, it's not easy at all.

• Originally posted on Space.com.

{ https://www.livescience.com/space }

31-01-2025 om 14:35 geschreven door peter  

What Ancient UFO Sightings Reveal About Humanity’s Obsession With the Unknown

The earliest recorded observations of strange phenomena in the sky come from ancient civilizations. Sumerian and Babylonian cuneiform tablets, such as those in the Šumma ālu series from the second millennium B.C., describe shifting shapes and black meteors appearing in the heavens.

by Ivan Petricevic

 

Ancient Sky Events: Signs, Omens, or Something Else?

The earliest recorded observations of strange phenomena in the sky come from ancient civilizations. Sumerian and Babylonian cuneiform tablets, such as those in the Šumma ālu series from the second millennium B.C., describe shifting shapes and black meteors appearing in the heavens. These texts often interpreted such occurrences as divine omens rather than mysterious visitors from another world.

Chris Aubeck, director of the Magonia Exchange—an archival project dedicated to UFO history—emphasizes the challenges of defining ancient accounts as UFO sightings. “There is no consensus on what constitutes the first recorded UFO sighting in history,” Aubeck explained. He points out that while ancient records document strange celestial events, their meanings were often tied to spiritual beliefs.

Greg Eghigian, a historian and professor at Penn State, agrees, according to Live Science. He notes that ancient accounts must be viewed within their cultural context. “These stories are disconnected from the societies in which they were created,” he said. What appears puzzling or extraterrestrial today was often a symbol of divine intervention, religious significance, or natural phenomena like comets or meteors.

The Nuremberg “Sky Battle” of 1561

One of the most vivid historical accounts of an aerial phenomenon occurred on April 14, 1561, in Nuremberg, Germany. Witnesses described orbs, crosses, and other shapes battling in the sky, accompanied by a mysterious black arrow-like object. Hans Glaser, a local artist, even created a woodcut illustrating the event, depicting the objects as they “fell from the sky, burning as they hit the ground.”

Although dramatic, this event was interpreted at the time as a divine sign or apocalyptic warning. Modern researchers note that the imagery and interpretation reflect the religious worldview of the era rather than evidence of extraterrestrial visitors.

UFOs Enter the Modern Era

The narrative around UFOs shifted dramatically in 1947 when amateur pilot Kenneth Arnold reported seeing nine fast-moving objects near Mount Rainier, Washington. He described their movement as resembling a saucer skipping across water, leading to the now-iconic term “flying saucer.”

Arnold’s account captured public imagination, sparking a surge in reported sightings and the birth of modern UFO culture. At the time, many people believed these objects were advanced military aircraft rather than extraterrestrial visitors, reflecting Cold War-era anxieties.

“This sighting is widely regarded as the event that kick-started modern UFO culture,” Aubeck stated.

While UFO sightings continue to fascinate, they often reveal more about human culture than the mysteries of the cosmos. “Studying UFO sightings is valuable because they represent the urban legends of our time,” Aubeck explained. These stories demonstrate how cultural narratives and imagination shape the way we interpret the unknown.

Throughout history, people have gazed upward and wondered about the mysterious lights, shapes, and movements that defied explanation, weaving them into the fabric of their culture and beliefs. For ancient civilizations, these celestial events were often interpreted as messages from gods, warnings of impending events, or signs of divine favor. In more recent times, they’ve evolved into symbols of scientific intrigue, Cold War paranoia, and even hopes for extraterrestrial contact.

I believe that UFOs, in this sense, are far more than just strange objects in the sky. They represent the stories we tell ourselves about our place in the universe. Are we alone? Are there forces beyond our comprehension shaping our destiny? Every sighting, whether dismissed as a natural phenomenon or celebrated as a groundbreaking discovery, invites us to confront these timeless questions.

This enduring curiosity and creativity reveal something deeply human: our ability to turn the unknown into stories, myths, and hypotheses.

{ https://curiosmos.com/category/mysteries/ }

31-01-2025 om 13:11 geschreven door peter  

Astronomen zijn continu het heelal af aan het speuren op zoek naar verre werelden en andere interessante ruimte-objecten, maar het is zoeken naar een speld in een hooiberg. Australische wetenschappers hebben nu een nieuwe technologie ontwikkeld die mysterieuze hemellichamen opspoort door inkomende radiosignalen op bijzondere wijze te filteren. Deze innovatieve aanpak heeft in korte tijd al een aantal verrassende resultaten opgeleverd.

Astronomen en ingenieurs van CSIRO, het nationale wetenschappelijke agentschap van Australië, hebben hun krachten gebundeld en CRACO (CRAFT COherent detector) ontwikkeld. CRACO bestaat uit een cluster van computers en processoren die verbonden zijn met de ASKAP-telescoop, gelegen in het gebied van de Wajarri Yamaji-gemeenschap in West-Australië. Dit geavanceerde systeem is ontworpen om vliegensvlug raadselachtige verschijnselen, zoals fast radio bursts (FRB’s), op te sporen.

FRB’s en neutronensterren

De technologie is nu voor het eerst getest en een nieuwe studie laat zien dat CRACO al een aantal bijzondere ontdekkingen heeft gedaan: er zijn twee FRB’s geïdentificeerd, maar ook twee neutronensterren die met tussenpozen actief zijn, en het is gelukt om de locatiegegevens van vier pulsars sterk te verbeteren. Sindsdien zijn met het systeem nog eens meer dan twintig FRB’s opgespoord.

Hoofdonderzoeker Andy Wang van ICRAR maakt duidelijk dat de resultaten veel spectaculairder zijn dan het team ooit had kunnen denken. “Ons doel was om fast radio bursts te vinden, een mysterieus fenomeen, waaromheen een geheel nieuw onderzoeksgebied binnen de astronomie is ontstaan”, legt een enthousiaste Dr. Wang uit. “Met CRACO kunnen we deze flitsen beter detecteren dan ooit tevoren. Momenteel zoeken we naar signalen met een snelheid van 100 flitsen per seconde, en in de toekomst verwachten we dit te verhogen naar 1000 flitsen per seconde.”

Een kosmische zandzeef

CSIRO-astronoom Dr. Keith Bannister vergelijkt de schaal waarop CRACO waarnemingen doet met het zoeken naar een speld in een hooiberg. “CRACO benut ASKAP’s liveweergave van het heelal om FRB’s op te sporen. Het systeem verwerkt hierbij gigantische hoeveelheden data – zo’n 100 miljard pixels per seconde – om bursts te detecteren en hun locatie te bepalen”, legt Bannister uit. “Het is alsof je een heel strand afzoekt naar een muntje van vijf cent, en dat elke minuut opnieuw.”

Volgens Dr. Wang belooft CRACO een revolutie teweeg te brengen in de internationale astronomie, zodra het systeem op volle capaciteit werkt. De technologie is ontworpen om de triljoenen pixels die de telescoop ontvangt, te analyseren op zoek naar afwijkingen. Zodra iets ongewoons wordt gespot, geeft CRACO de wetenschappers direct een seintje, zodat zij snel extra gegevens kunnen verzamelen en de vondst verder kunnen analyseren.

Indrukwekkende technologie

Het onderzoeksteam zit niet stil: CRACO’s mogelijkheden worden continu uitgebreid om nog exotischere verschijnselen te detecteren. “Naast fast radio bursts van buiten ons sterrenstelsel detecteren we nu ook zogenaamde ‘langzame transiënten’. Dit zijn kortdurende hemelverschijnselen die door mysterieuze objecten binnen onze Melkweg worden veroorzaakt. Beide fenomenen zijn in Australië ontdekt, en het is geweldig dat we met deze indrukwekkende technologie verder kunnen gaan. Er liggen ongetwijfeld nog een aantal fantastische ontdekkingen in het verschiet”, zegt Wang.

Mysterieuze signalen uit het universum: fast radio bursts

Fast radio bursts (FRB’s) zijn korte, intense uitbarstingen van radiostraling die afkomstig zijn van onbekende bronnen in het universum. Ze duren slechts enkele milliseconden, maar in die korte tijd kunnen ze evenveel energie uitstralen als de zon in een heel jaar. Sinds hun ontdekking in 2007 blijven FRB’s astronomen fascineren. Veel FRB’s lijken eenmalig te zijn, maar sommige vertonen een repeterend patroon. Het is onduidelijk waar FRB’s vandaan komen. Mogelijke verklaringen zijn magnetars (extreem krachtige neutronensterren), gammaflitsen en botsingen tussen massieve objecten, zoals zwarte gaten of neutronensterren. Ook exotischere theorieën, zoals signalen van buitenaardse technologie, worden geopperd.

{ https://scientias.nl/ }

31-01-2025 om 12:43 geschreven door peter  

{ https://www.hln.be/weer-en-wetenschap/ }

31-01-2025 om 12:29 geschreven door peter  

Some of the Most Outlandish Alien Encounters Ever

Brent Swancer

The world of alien encounters can get pretty weird. It is something beyond the scope of our understanding and often floats off into the fringes of the bizarre. However, some cases are stranger than most, and here we will look at some of the more bonkers cases of alien encounters that really pushed the envelope of the odd. 

A curious early case takes us back to 1929 when a girl and her brother were playing in the garden at their home in Hertford, England, which brushed up against an orchard. As they played, they suddenly heard a curious sound like an engine coming from the orchard beyond their garden, and when they looked they could see a tiny biplane with a wingspan of just 12 inches come into view. The strange little plane landed, almost knocking down a dustbin in the process, and the two siblings could see a minuscule little man in the cockpit of the plane. This odd little gnome-like creature then waved at them before taking off into the air again and flying off out of sight.   

In later years there is a strange report from the year 1947, in Arrolaguetre, Rubiaco, Spain. On this day, four men, Marcelo Martin Sanchez, Fausto Dominguez Martin and Julian Sendin Martin were returning to their rural village when they stopped to take a breather in a nearby field. As they rested, their thoughts were interrupted by the sound of what seemed to be an intense clapping, which then mingled with a cacophony of what appeared to be the sounds of hundreds of faded voices chanting or murmuring together at the same time. Looking around in alarm, the men then saw something very bizarre indeed. An excerpt of the report cited on the site Extremadura Misteriosa says of it:   

“The men looked around and spotted a tremendously tall figure approaching their location on a nearby field. The bizarre figure seemed to swing its arms like a soldier. Even stranger, the bizarre figure was wearing a white shirt with a black stripe around the neck area and it appeared to be headless! The three stunned men watched as the headless giant walked by only about 5 meters from them, totally ignoring them. It disappeared quickly into the distance taking great strides as it did. Strangely the loud cacophony of sound seemed to originate from it.”   

What was this thing and what were those freaky noises all about? Who knows? The following year, in 1948, a resident of the Polish village of Wrzeszczyn by the name of Henryk Matczak was out in the woods collecting mushrooms when he saw quite a surreal sight. He would say of it:   

“I saw at a distance of maybe 30 meters a group of children dressed in green, maybe there were ten of them. At first I thought they were scouts, because they were dressed in green. Although this outfit, upon closer inspection, was not a scout uniform, as it was quite tight and more like some kind of sports swimmer's clothing. The outfit clung quite tightly to their bodies, and on their heads the “scouts” had hoods, slightly protruding over their heads. The outlines of the faces I could not see. Each looked the same and was about 1 m tall, the stature of a boy of eight years.   

I thought they were scouts, because not far away in those post-German warehouses the first scout conventions of the Polish Scouting Association had already been organized in the woods. But there was something wrong. These individuals were moving fast, bending down once, getting up, handing something to each other. I was stunned to see that they began to climb a large beech tree standing nearby, which had large branches spreading wide on the sides. “Scouts” began to climb the tree as if they had glue on their shoes and gravity did not apply to them at all.   

One climbed all the way up to the branch and disappeared into the leaves immediately followed by another. I recall that some of them waded all the way in and immediately retreated, going head down. This happened before I decided to get closer to simply talk to them and ask what they were doing here in the forest. Then these - let's say - five, who were standing on the ground, looked at me and began to watch me closely. I immediately turned around and started running away, because I no longer knew what I was dealing with.”   

Just what are we dealing with here? Aliens, interdimensional interlopers, or something else? An utterly perplexing case from the files of paranormal researcher Albert S. Rosales occurred in 1953, in the Ano Ilioupolis neighborhood, East Athens, Greece. The witness, a Vassaliki F, saw a strange woman in the streets of Ilioupolis while out taking a stroll, and it would only snowball into the bizarre from there. The odd report reads:   

“The witness –a woman with many paranormal experiences- saw a strange woman in the streets of Ilioupolis. She had large, protruding eyes, high forehead, incredibly thin waist and was wearing very old-fashioned gray clothes –a skirt and a jacket. Inside of this she was wearing tight transparent trousers. She was followed by a very small “dog”, actually a piece of shadow that was hovering very near the ground. She was holding the “dog” with a transparent thick cord. When the witness tried to ask her who she was and from when did she come, the strange woman glared at her and went away, vanishing in the Saint George site of antiquities. The next day, news was spread that in the nearby fields of Sain Nicholas, an “aluminium hut” came down from the sky and landed. It had “windows” through which a shepherd saw incredibly ugly dwarfs inside. Among them there was a dwarf with the head of an animal. In a few minutes, a door opened on the “hut” and a dwarf came out, holding something like a golden plate in his hands. Then, the strange woman Mrs. F. had seen the previous day made her appearance. The dwarf bowed to her, and she filled the “plate” with dirt. They both went into the “hut” and the latter took off and vanished in the sky with a loud bang.”   

What in the world was going on here? On the morning of July 13, 1959, a resident of Blenheim, New Zealand, went out onto her property to milk her dairy cows at around 5:30 am. Halfway across the paddock she saw a strange green glow through the low clouds, and then a green light broke through and split into two lights “like eyes or big lamps.” As this was happening, the whole area was bathed in an oddly colored light of “a horrid sort of colour,” as a circular craft about nine meters wide and with a curved glass cockpit silently descended towards her, with two shafts of green light beaming down from its underside and two rows of small, orange jets that shot outwards like spokes from the rim of the disc. Despite the witness’s fear, she thought it was all quite beautiful. A report on the incident from the APRO Bulletin and NOUFORS would say what happened next:   

“The air on this cold July morning became warm and she noticed a low hum. She was “scared stiff”, but curious and enchanted by the lights. It was an image she could still recall in detail decades later. “It was just imprinted indelibly on my mind. I just took it in. I saw everything in those few minutes.’’ Inside the curved glass cockpit, she could see two figures wearing shiny silver suits and helmets. The suits were tight like a wet suit and looked like they were made of aluminium foil. The men were seated one in front of the other. Both had their backs to her. A flickering light shone up from below them, reflecting off their suits. Then one of the silver suited men emerged from the craft and walked towards her. She could see his face through a small visor in the helmet. He was wearing a wide belt with a black disc at the centre. He had a harness on his chest that held a small dial and a series of tubes coming out of the helmet. His left hand was missing and was encased in a dark sheath. Then he shouted at her in a foreign language she did not recognise. He retreated back to the craft and got back on board.   

After a few moments, the jets starting shooting out from the craft again. It tilted at an angle and then shot up into the sky at great speed. As it retreated behind the clouds it made a soft, high-pitched whine. Then she was alone. Standing in a waft of hot peppery air. She was relieved that the attracting power of the green lights had gone, but didn’t know what to do next. Eventually, she finished milking the cows. “While I was milking I kept wondering and felt a bit shaken and puzzled, and did not quite know what to do about it.’’ She returned to the house and woke her husband Frederick to tell him what she had seen. She feared he would laugh at her, but he took her seriously and asked if she had called the police. She rang the police at 7am. Woodbourne commanding officer Arthur Gainsford visited the farm and interviewed Moreland later that day. Her husband Frederick had told Gainsford about his wife’s claims that morning. Gainsford found Moreland calm and rational. Local police told him she was ‘’a rational and stable person from their personal knowledge of her when she was of assistance to them on another matter.’’   

Moving on into the 60s we come to an outlandish case involving what can only be described as “space penguins.” On the morning of February 14th, 1967, farmer Claude Edwards was surprised to notice that all of his cattle were eerily staring off in the same direction. When he looked to see what was holding their attention, he saw a “large green-gray mushroom-shaped craft” about 70 feet away from him, which he described as smooth, metallic, covered in "shiny silk" and dotted with port holes through which a dazzling array of colors shone.  

This light show was mesmerizing, and Edwards found himself approaching the craft, where he noticed a group of very odd entities beneath it. He would say that they looked like penguins, and were 3 feet tall and green with no hands, neck, or visible form of locomotion, and beak-like protrusions instead of mouths. Edwards tried to get closer, but when he did he was stopped by some sort of invisible force field, which also happened to deflect some rocks he threw towards the ship. The space penguins then filed into the craft and shot away at high speeds. Edwards was so reluctant to talk about his bizarre experience that he told his story only on the promise that it would not be published until after his death.   

From the pages of Albert S. Rosales’ book “Humanoid Encounters 1970-1974: The Others amongst Us,” there is a weird encounter reported by a student at the University of Georgia by the name of Mars Walker. He claims that one evening he was reading in his modest apartment near the campus when he was startled by a “high-pitched, siren-like sound.” When he went to his window to find out the source of the eerie sound, he saw a glow emanating from outside, so he opened the door to check it out and was met with the sight of a round, smooth craft that slowly descended from the sky about fifty yards away. That’s when things would get really weird. The report continues:   

“After five minutes the pitch of the sound became sharper “and a thing took shape within the doughnut shape of the middle.” It required another minute before the form became clearly visible. According to Walker, “It was a human-like being standing erect,” and colored like “a sea green opaque, like a hologram.” The most prominent aspect of the creature was its “medusa-head,” composed of objects resembling tentacles that surrounded the head. Each hand had three or four fingers, but otherwise seemed human. “The odd thing to me” Walker continued, “is how little attention it paid me. No interest in communicating with me or threatening me or any other activity, besides observing.” The scene was surreal; the creature bathed in the pale-green light like “an electrical field,” the student thought. Perhaps it was a hologram. Apparently finished with its duties, the entity went back inside the craft. After a half hour the UFO departed.”   

From 1977 there ia a weird encounter in a place called Harrah. which is a tiny rural town in Yakima County, in the center of Washington State, in the United States, with a current population of less than 600 citizens. One frigid winter morning in January of 1977, a 9-year-old José Cantu woke up and went to the kitchen to make something for breakfast. As he did, his concentration was broken by glancing at what he at first thought to be a tiny little man walking past the window. He went to investigate and would soon see that not only was this not a little man, but that it was something far odder than anything he could have imagined.   

When Cantu went out into the yards, he was greeted by the sight of a quartet of otherworldly entities that defied classification. Each of the beings was rotund, greenish in color, standing three feet high, with no legs but rather merely wire and tube adorned wide based hovering rotating pedestals where legs would normally be. Perhaps even stranger still, each of the creatures had a pair of mushroom-capped antennas, coarse hair, pig-like noses and a single eye that peered out of round faces. The arms of the beings were described as floppy, tiny little protuberances that looked like they would be worthless for any sort of practical use.   

Cantu was so shocked by all of this that he hid himself, and that was when he noticed several metallic crafts, each with another little, green, pig-nosed, cyclops sitting within it. These crafts opened to reveal ramps that descended to the ground, after which the entities ascended into the crafts and they took ff with a puff of smoke. Shortly after this, the boy ran to tell his mother what had happened, but she didn’t believe him. He would also tell his teacher and classmates at school, and considering that he was considered to be an honest boy not prone to tall tales, his teacher and a teacher’s aide went with him to investigate the site where he claimed he had seen the bizarre creatures. There they found circular indentations in the ground and a spherical dent in the ground where one of the crafts had apparently sat. They also discovered that the uncut grass in the center of the circular patterns was swirled upward for reasons unknown. In the end, everyone present was convinced that the boy was telling the truth.   

The following year there was a report from Francavilla, Abruzzo, Italy in 1978. On this evening, Mr. Alfredo D'Aviero was returning home on his motorcycle, and since the road was in such poor condition and so riddled with potholes, he looked down to watch where he was going and avoid an accident. A report from Albert S. Rosales on the strange incident continues:   

“When he looked up again he found himself facing two unusual characters: they were two strange "little boys", with small, round eyes, arms behind their back and they seemed to laugh, and one of them seemed to have a slightly crooked jaw. They wore a silvery-white outfit tinged with green, zouaves and cuff. At the head,they wore tight hats that also tightened the chin covering the ears, on the left side of their heads,they wore a small "feather". Their legs didn't have any knees and were as stiff as two sticks. The beings also wore some kind of stilts so you can see the bone-free ankles. D'Aviero tried to offer the two cigarettes and persimmons, but they refused any offer, at which D'Aviero decided to "take them" to Francavilla as proof of his experience. He got closer, he got hit by a blinding flash of light, when he opened his eyes again, the two beings were gone.”   

What in the world? Just as eerie is a report from 1983, in Val Trebbia, Emilia Romagna, Italy. On a beautiful afternoon the witness, only known as Mr. A. was riding his ‘Aprilia’ trail motorbike on the dry bed of the Treibbia River when he suddenly noticed a “being of very unusual features.” A report on the matter from the files of Albert Rosales reads:   

“The witness described the figure as a sort of “flying nun” dressed in a long and dark-colored diving suit, apparently rigid and without folds. The figure also wore a sort of headdress or helmet that closely resembled the one worn by the nuns. The being flew faster than A’s motorbike and at a height of about twenty/thirty centimeters from the ground with its torso slightly bent forward. The bizarre flying figure covered a distance of one hundred and fifty/two hundred meters in about three or four seconds always remaining level to the ground, then it suddenly shot off into the nearby bush and disappeared from sight. It did not make any noise it did not disturb the waters of the river or dust from the ground. The whole encounter lasted about ten interminable seconds. Frightened, the witness immediately reversed and drove towards his house where he told his family what he had seen.”

These are all incredibly strange cases that really skirt the periphery of the bizarre. It is hard to know what we are dealing with in such unconventional accounts. Are these really aliens or do such encounters represent something else entirely? For now, the answers remain elusive, but the reports keep coming in. 

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{ https://mysteriousuniverse.org/ }

30-01-2025 om 22:03 geschreven door peter  

'City-killer' asteroid has a 1-in-83 chance of smashing into Earth in 2032, NASA says

Although the asteroid is currently moving away from us, Earth will have several close shaves with the space rock in the next half century. Its next sideswipe will occur in late 2028, followed by six more close approaches between 2032 and 2074. Of these, the one with the highest chance of impact will be on Dec. 22, 2032, according to NASA.

All of these factors place 2024 YR4 at Level 3 on the Torino Impact Hazard Scale, the system scientists use to determine an asteroid's threat level. For objects at this level, "attention by public and by public officials is merited if the encounter is less than a decade away." However, most asteroids in this category are eventually downgraded to Level 0, which means "the likelihood of a collision is zero, or is so low as to be effectively zero."

Threats like this are the reason NASA and other space agencies are interested in developing techniques to redirect asteroids, as demonstrated by the Double Asteroid Redirection Test mission. The chances of a catastrophic asteroid impact are usually very low, so it is crucial to continue monitoring objects of interest, astronomers say. Even though 2024 YR4 probably won't trigger a mass extinction like the dino-killing space rock that slammed into what is now Mexico 66 million years ago, astronomers will keep a close eye on the asteroid as it circles back toward our planet.

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{ https://www.livescience.com/ }

30-01-2025 om 21:42 geschreven door peter  

Their results represent the first in-depth analyses of the minerals and molecules in the Bennu samples. Among the most compelling detections (reported in the Nature Astronomy paper) were 14 of the 20 amino acids life on Earth uses to make up protein cells. They also detected five nucleobases vital to DNA and RNA, which most complex lifeforms on Earth use to store and transmit genetic instructions, including how to arrange amino acids into proteins. As Associate Administrator Nicky Fox of the Science Mission Directorate at NASA Headquarters explained in a NASA press release:

“NASA’s OSIRIS-REx mission already is rewriting the textbook on what we understand about the beginnings of our solar system. Asteroids provide a time capsule into our home planet’s history, and Bennu’s samples are pivotal in our understanding of what ingredients in our solar system existed before life started on Earth.”

The teams also reported exceptionally high abundances of ammonia in the Bennu samples and formaldehyde. Ammonia is an important component in biology since it can react with formaldehyde to form complex molecules like amino acids. These building blocks have previously been detected in other rocky bodies, including meteorites retrieved on Earth. However, the way OSIRIS-REx found them in pristine condition on an asteroid supports the theory that objects that formed far from the Sun could have delivered the raw material for life throughout the Solar System. Said Glavin:

“The clues we’re looking for are so minuscule and so easily destroyed or altered from exposure to Earth’s environment. That’s why some of these new discoveries would not be possible without a sample-return mission, meticulous contamination-control measures, and careful curation and storage of this precious material from Bennu.”

Glavin and Dworkin’s team analyzed the Bennu samples for hints of compounds related to life on Earth. Meanwhile, Tim McCoy and Sara Russell, the curator of meteorites at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of Natural History in Washington and a cosmic mineralogist at the Natural History Museum in London (respectively), looked for evidence of where these molecules formed. As they reported in the study appearing in Nature, they discovered hints that they came from an ancient prebiotic environment.

These included traces of 11 minerals ranging from calcite to halite and sylvite, compounds that form from salts dissolved in water that become solid crystals (brines) once the water dissolves. Evidence of similar brines have been detected on Ceres, Saturn’s moon Enceladus, and other bodies in the Solar System. While scientists have also detected brines in meteorites that fell to Earth, they have never seen a complete set created by an evaporation process that could have lasted thousands of years or more. Moreover, some minerals found in Bennu have never been detected in other extraterrestrial samples.

Another analysis was carried out by members of the OSIRIS-REx sample analysis team, including researchers from the Japan Agency for Marine-Earth Science and Technology (JAMSTEC), Hokkaido University, Keio University, Kyushu University, and Tohoku University. Together, they analyzed a 17.75 mg sample using high-resolution mass spectrometry for organic molecules with a ring structure containing carbon and nitrogen (N-heterocycles). This revealed a concentration of N-heterocycles 5-10 times higher than that reported from the sample taken from Ryugu (~5 nmol/g) by the Hayabusa2 mission.

In addition to the five nitrogenous bases, their analysis showed evidence of the purines xanthine, hypoxanthine, and nicotinic acid (vitamin B₃). “In previous research, uracil and nicotinic acid were detected in the samples from asteroid Ryugu, but the other four nucleobases were absent,” said team member Dr. Toshiki Koga of JAMSTEC. “The difference in abundance and complexity of N-heterocycles between Bennu and Ryugu could reflect the differences in the environment to which these asteroids have been exposed in space.”

While these findings have provided compelling evidence of where the building blocks of life on Earth came from, several unanswered questions remain. For starters, amino acids can be created in “mirror-image” versions, similar to how complex lifeforms have a left and right side – hands, feet, brains, lungs, heat chambers, etc. While life on Earth almost exclusively exhibits the left variety, the Bennu samples contain an equal mixture of both. This could mean amino acids started in equal mixtures on Earth billions of years ago but made a left turn along the way.

This is not unlike theories regarding matter and antimatter in the early Universe and how “normal” matter came to be predominant. In any case, these findings are a key piece in the ongoing study of how and where life may have emerged in the Solar System. “OSIRIS-REx has been a highly successful mission,” said Dworkin. “Data from OSIRIS-REx adds major brushstrokes to a picture of a solar system teeming with the potential for life. Why we, so far, only see life on Earth and not elsewhere, that’s the truly tantalizing question.”

Further Reading: 

• NASA, 
• Hokkaido University, 

• Nature Astronomy

{ https://www.universetoday.com/ }

30-01-2025 om 21:26 geschreven door peter  

Trips to other worlds have been the stuff of science fiction for more than a century — going back to Jules Verne’s “From the Earth to the Moon” and continuing today with shows like “For All Mankind.” But most of those tales are told from the perspective of intrepid explorers who have to deal with life-threatening dramas.

In contrast, most of the stories in “Daydreaming in the Solar System” have to do with space travelers having fun, or handling the day-to-day challenges of living in an otherworldly locale.

“Often you’re visiting a place for the very first time, and of course it’s an amazing, awe-inspiring place, but you’re also very concerned about not dying,” Moores said. “So, we wanted to take that away — that bit of danger — so that people dive into the environment. Everywhere we went, we needed the right combination of an interesting activity, an interesting environment.”

Moores and Rogerson also use a second-person perspective. You’re the one riding a submarine through the hidden seas of Europa, an icy moon of Jupiter. You’re the one spelunking on Hyperion, a spongy Saturnian moon that appears to contain 40% empty space.

The end of each chapter takes a deeper dive into the peculiarities of each extraterrestrial environment. For example, riding a balloon around Venus makes sense because the surroundings at an altitude of 30 to 40 miles are similar to Earth’s when it comes to temperature and atmospheric pressure. In contrast, the surface of Venus is hellishly hot.

Ballooning on Venus is much more than a daydream. More than a decade ago, NASA engineers came up with a concept that called for sending habitable airships into the Venusian atmosphere. More recently, the Jet Propulsion Laboratory has been looking into a mission that would use robotic balloons to study the clouds of Venus.

Similarly, the idea of sending mini-subs through Europa’s subsurface ocean is being considered as a follow-up to NASA’s Europa Clipper mission. A robotic submarine has also been proposed for exploring Titan’s hydrocarbon seas — although NASA’s Dragonfly mission to Titan, which relies on a rotorcraft, will be taking precedence.

The authors don’t shy away from the important issues: In one chapter, they describe in depth how to brew a delicious cup of coffee on Titan — and then explain why you could conceivably put on a pair of mechanical wings and flap your way through the Saturnian moon’s dense atmosphere after your morning cup of joe.

Will humans ever be able to experience the adventures described in the book? “I hope so,” Moores says.

“One thing that our publisher pointed out when we submitted our final manuscript, which wasn’t actually intentional, was that they felt that the book was actually very optimistic and very hopeful — just the framing of it, that you could imagine the future in a way that actually allows these things to happen,” he says. “So many other works are a little bit apocalyptic right now.”

• My co-host for the Fiction Science podcast is Dominica Phetteplace, an award-winning writer who is a graduate of the Clarion West Writers Workshop and lives in San Francisco. To learn more about Phetteplace, visit her website, DominicaPhetteplace.com.

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{ https://www.universetoday.com/ }

30-01-2025 om 21:11 geschreven door peter  

The warming ground sublimates frozen CO2 into vapour that accumulates under the solid CO2. Eventually, the gas escapes through weak spots in the ice. It can erupt into geysers that spread darker material out onto the frozen surface.

The HiRISE camera on NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter captured this image of these geysers on Mars in October 2018. It has also captured other images of Martian CO2 geysers.

Some of Mars’ CO2 geysers erupt and create dark spots as large as 1 km across. They are fueled by considerable power and can erupt at speeds up to 160 km/h.

Sometimes the eruptions create dark regions under the ice which look like spiders.

Scientists are calling these features araneiform terrain or spider terrain. They are found in clusters that give the surface a wrinkled appearance. NASA scientists recreated these patterns in lab tests to understand the processes behind their formation. “The spiders are strange, beautiful geologic features in their own right,” said Lauren McKeown of NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California.

The process that explains how the CO2 cycle creates these features is called the Keiffer model. Hugh Keiffer was with the US Geological Survey when he and his colleagues published a paper explaining the model in 2006 in Nature titled “CO2 jets formed by sublimation beneath translucent slab ice in Mars’ seasonal south polar ice cap.”

“We propose that the seasonal ice cap forms an impermeable, translucent slab of CO2 ice that sublimates from the base, building up high-pressure gas beneath the slab. This gas levitates the ice, which eventually ruptures, producing high-velocity CO2 vents that erupt sand-sized grains in jets to form the spots and erode the channels,” Keiffer and his co-authors wrote in their paper.

Maybe humans are biased, but there’s nothing as beautiful and splendorous as Earth. Generations of poets have acclaimed its beauty to the point where it borders on the spiritual. However, when it comes to CO2 geysers and the natural patterns they create, Mars has something that Earth doesn’t.

“These processes are unlike any observed on Earth,” the authors of the 2006 paper stated.

Source: 

• Geyser Season on Mars

{ https://www.universetoday.com/ }

30-01-2025 om 20:56 geschreven door peter