NASA Just Discovered the Oldest Martian Rock With a Texture Unlike Anything Ever Seen

Adding to the excitement, Perseverance also detected serpentine minerals—a group of greenish rocks that likely formed when molten magma encountered water.

by Ivan Petricevic

 

A Critical Find on a Limited Path

What makes this discovery even more significant is that Blue Hill is the only known outcrop of its kind along Perseverance’s current route. This means the opportunity to study its composition is limited. Recognizing its scientific value, mission controllers directed the rover to extract a 2.9-centimeter (1.1-inch) core sample, ensuring that a piece of this ancient Martian history would be preserved for further study.

“My 26th sample, known as ‘Silver Mountain,’ has textures unlike anything we’ve seen before,” the official Perseverance account shared in a post on X.

The Mars Sample Return (MSR) mission aims to bring Perseverance’s collected samples back to Earth for detailed laboratory analysis. However, the mission has faced significant delays due to funding challenges and shifting priorities at NASA. With a new presidential administration on the horizon, the future of MSR is uncertain, raising concerns among planetary scientists eager to examine these invaluable specimens.

Despite these setbacks, Perseverance’s ongoing discoveries continue to deepen our understanding of Mars’ complex history.

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{ https://curiosmos.com/ }

08-02-2025 om 18:41 geschreven door peter  

This British Scientist Proposes Controversial Theory: We May Be Living 52 Million Lives in a Simulation

Dr. Melvin Vopson suggests a controversial theory that we may be living 52 million lives in a simulation, as one real-world lifetime could feel like 4.2 billion years in simulated time.

Dr. Vopson, an associate professor in physics at the University of Portsmouth, suggests that we might be living in a computer simulation, much like in The Matrix. He believes that certain signs in our daily lives hint that reality might not be what it seems. He explores the question: if we are in a simulated world, what is its purpose?

Dr Vopson makes scientific observations and measurements to support his theory. His theory is considered controversial which suggests that time can slow down in a simulation. Just like dreams feel long but last only a short time in real life, a whole lifetime in a simulated world could happen in just one real-world minute. This means a person could live many lifetimes by repeating these short simulations, potentially experiencing 52 million lifetimes in one human lifespan.

Dr. Melvin Vopson has previously published research suggesting that information has mass and that all elementary particles – the smallest known building blocks of the universe – store information about themselves, similar to the way humans have DNA.

In 2022, he discovered a new law of physics that could predict genetic mutations in organisms, including viruses, and help judge their potential consequences. It is based on the second law of thermodynamics, which establishes that entropy – a measure of disorder in an isolated system – can only increase or stay the same.

Dr. Vopson had expected that the entropy in information systems would also increase over time, but on examining the evolution of these systems he realized it remains constant or decreases. That’s when he established the second law of information dynamics, or infodynamics, which could significantly impact genetics research and evolution theory.

Dr. Vopson presents three possible explanations. One idea is that we willingly entered this simulation before birth, choosing to live in an exciting, artificial world rather than a dull real one. In this view, life is like a highly advanced virtual reality game meant for entertainment.

Another possibility is that we are part of an experiment designed to solve real-world problems. This theory suggests that humans in the future create simulations like ours to test solutions for global crises such as climate change or war. If one of these simulations finds a solution, it could be applied in the real world.

The third idea is that time in the simulation moves much slower than in reality. A few minutes in the real world could last for centuries here, allowing us to live multiple lifetimes. Thus, by choosing to exist in the simulation, we might experience a form of immortality.

According to this idea, in the same way, that our dreams can feel days long but last only minutes in real life, an entire lifetime in a simulated universe could take just one minute in the real world. That means a person could become virtually immortal by stacking up these one-minute simulated lives across their entire human lifetime, leaving 52 million chained lifetimes behind. (Source)

Although Dr. Vopson admits these are just theories and not proven by science, some of his research suggests that the universe could be a giant computer. He is not alone in this belief—figures like Elon Musk have also speculated that reality might be a simulation.

In 2022, Dr. Vopson discovered a new law of physics that could predict genetic mutations in organisms, including viruses, and help judge their potential consequences.

It is based on the second law of thermodynamics, which establishes that entropy – a measure of disorder in an isolated system – can only increase or stay the same.

Dr. Vopson had expected that the entropy in information systems would also increase over time, but on examining the evolution of these systems he realized it remains constant or decreases. That’s when he established the second law of information dynamics, or infodynamics, which could significantly impact genetics research and evolution theory.

Dr Vopson said: “I knew then that this revelation had far-reaching implications across various scientific disciplines.

“What I wanted to do next is put the law to the test and see if it could further support the simulation hypothesis by moving it on from the philosophical realm to mainstream science.”

Information theory is the study of how information is measured, stored, and shared. It was first developed by a mathematician named Claude Shannon and is now used in many areas of science, including physics.

In 2022, Dr. Vopson and another physicist, Serban Lepadatu, introduced a new idea called the “second law of infodynamics.”

This idea is similar to a well-known rule in physics called the “second law of thermodynamics,” which says that disorder (called entropy) in the universe always increases or stays the same over time. In simple terms, things naturally become more chaotic.

However, Dr. Vopson found that in information systems—such as digital data or genetic code—the opposite happens. Instead of becoming more disordered, these systems become more organized over time.

He tested this idea on different systems and found that it supports the theory that our universe might be a simulation. This is because, unlike in nature where things become more chaotic, information systems tend to become more efficient and structured. The patterns we see in nature might be a way of organizing information, which fits with the idea of a simulated world.

Key findings include:

• Biological Systems: The second law of infodynamics challenges the conventional understanding of genetic mutations, suggesting that they follow a pattern governed by information entropy. This discovery has profound implications for fields such as genetic research, evolutionary biology, genetic therapies, pharmacology, virology, and pandemic monitoring.
• Atomic Physics: The paper explains the behavior of electrons in multi-electron atoms, providing insights into phenomena like Hund’s rule; which states that the term with maximum multiplicity lies lowest in energy. Electrons arrange themselves in a way that minimizes their information entropy, shedding light on atomic physics and the stability of chemicals.
• Cosmology: The second law of infodynamics is shown to be a cosmological necessity, with thermodynamic considerations applied to an adiabatically expanding universe supporting its validity.

“The paper also provides an explanation for the prevalence of symmetry in the universe”, explained Dr. Vopson.

Dr. Vopson argues that this law plays a role in atomic physics (electron arrangement), cosmology, and biological systems. This last one is where Dr. Vopson makes a big claim: contrary to Charles Darwin’s idea that mutations occur randomly, mutations actually occur so that information entropy is minimized.

He analyzed the constantly mutating SARS-CoV-2 (a.k.a. COVID-19) virus, and his paper on that investigation—shows a “unique correlation between the information and the dynamics of the genetic mutations.”

“A super complex universe like ours, if it were a simulation, would require a built-in data optimization and compression in order to reduce the computational power and the data storage requirements to run the simulation,” Dr. Vopson wrote. (Source)

Dr. Vopson tested his new idea, called the “second law of infodynamics,” by studying digital information.

He wrote the word “INFORMATION” in binary (a computer code using 1s and 0s) onto a tiny magnetic surface. Over time, as the system went through many cycles at room temperature, the information started to fade. After 1,990 cycles, it disappeared completely. This matched his theory, which says that information naturally gets lost over time, becoming simpler.

Read also:

• This Man Claimed the Brain Creates Consciousness, but His Quantum Consciousness Theory Faces Three Decades of Criticism—New Evidence Now Supports His Claim
• This Man Claims He Has Found Ways to Escape the Simulation, But the Consequences Are Unknown
• Scientist found People Born Blind Are Mysteriously Protected From Schizophrenia
• This Man finds that Altered States of Consciousness Can Distort Time, And Nobody Knows Why

Dr. Vopson was surprised and excited that his idea applied to many different systems. He believes the law could be universal. However, he made it clear that, while his study supports the idea that the universe might be a simulation, it doesn’t prove it for sure. He hopes his work will encourage more research and that other scientists will find new ways to test this idea.

He also suggested another experiment to check his theory. If scientists smash matter and antimatter (opposites of each other) together, they might see low-energy light particles appear. This would show that information is being erased, proving his law of infodynamics in action.

Information physics suggests that everything we see as physical might actually be made of bits of information.

This means our universe could be a simulation. The idea isn’t new—John Archibald Wheeler suggested in 1989 that the universe might emerge from information.

In 2003, philosopher Nick Bostrom argued that it’s likely we are living in such a simulation, as advanced civilizations might create simulations that are impossible to tell apart from reality.

Physicist Seth Lloyd from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in the US took the simulation hypothesis to the next level by suggesting that the entire universe could be a giant quantum computer. (Source)

Dr. Vopson noted that the simulation hypothesis has attracted the interest of many public figures, such as Elon Musk and Neil deGrasse Tyson, along with other people from all walks of life, showing that it has a broad appeal.

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{ https://howandwhys.com/ } 

08-02-2025 om 18:25 geschreven door peter  

Ex-Defence Minister: E.T.s From Andromeda & Saturn’s Moon Visiting Earth For Thousands Of Years

There are already dozens of claims in favor of extraterrestrial visitation. Today, numerous astronauts and government officials support the UAP phenomena, and some are highly positive that they could have an alien origin. The Honorable Paul Hellyer (1923-2021), former Canadian Minister of Defense said extraterrestrials have been visiting our planet for thousands of years and it is likely that at least two of them are working with the U.S. government and sharing their highly-advanced technologies with humans.

In the 1960s, Paul Hellyer, a high-ranking official during the Cold War, asserted that he had discovered with certainty about the existence of aliens while serving in the military. He said that people from other worlds had been coming to Earth for a very long time. He insisted that a lot of the stuff that makes up our high-tech gadgetry had been gifted to us by overly-advanced ETs.

Hellyer had long expressed his views on extraterrestrials in public. He testified at the Citizen Hearing on Disclosure in May 2013 in Washington, DC. Five former members of U.S. Congress and one former U.S. senator listened to more than thirty hours of testimony from government officials, military personnel, researchers, and witnesses.

Huffington Post Canada described that, as part of his testimony, Hellyer stated that “aliens are living among us and that it is likely at least two of them are working with the U.S. government.” More specifically, Hellyer announced that at least four species of extraterrestrials had been visiting Earth for thousands of years. According to Huffington Post Canada, he also stated that some extraterrestrials originate from the “Zeta Reticuli, the Pleiades, Orion, Andromeda, and Altair star systems” and “may have different agendas.”

He first spoke openly about his belief governments are covering up an alien presence back in 2005, saying UFOs are as plentiful in our sky as airplanes. “Much of the media won’t touch it, so you just have to keep working away at it and we will get a critical mass and one day they will say Mr. President or Mr. Prime Minister, we want the truth and we want it now because it affects our lives.”

In 2013, Hellyer appeared on the RT interview show SophieCo with Sophie Shevardnadze to discuss extraterrestrials and UFOs. Shevardnadze asked Hellyer, “Why do you say that UFOs are as real as airplanes flying over our heads?” Hellyer replied, “Because I know that they are. As a matter of fact, they’ve been visiting our planet for thousands of years.” He further stated military action had brought down UFOs, and humans had adapted alien technology for use on Earth. (Source)

Read also:

• Head of Canada UFO Program: Ancient Races From Elsewhere Colonized Earth Many Times
• Ex-US Air Force Lt. Col. Testified He Saw Two UFOs With Grey Beings Underwater
• Ex-Pentagon Agent Claims UFOs Changed Witnesses’ Brain, Unlocked Sixth Sense
• Ex-Apollo Astronaut Claimed Humans Are Ancient Aliens, Visited Earth From Space

He said: “As far as technology is concerned, they are light years ahead of us, and we have learned a lot of things from them. A lot of the things we use today we got from them, you know – led lights and microchips and Kevlar vests and all sorts things that we got from their technology and we could get a lot more too, especially in the fields of medicine and agriculture if we would go about it peacefully. But, I think, maybe some of our people are more interested in getting the military technology, and I think that’s wrong-headed, and that’s one of the things that we are going to have to change, because we’re going to have to work together, all of us, everywhere on the planet.”

Shevardnadze asked: “Have you ever had your own encounter with aliens?” Hellyer replied: “Not encounter with aliens, no. I’ve seen a UFO, about 120 miles north of Toronto, over Lake Muskoka, where I have a cottage. Two years ago, at Thanksgiving, which is October, [my wife?] said that she wanted to go out and look at the stars, so… I’m not much of a night man… but I put on my cap and went out with her and she looked into the eastern sky and said, ‘There’s a star,’ and I turned the other way and said, ‘Oh, there’s a much brighter one over here,’ and she looked there and we watched it until our necks almost broke for about 20 minutes, and it was definitely a UFO because it could change position in the sky by three or four degrees in three or four seconds.”

Shevardnadze further asked Hellyer if shooting down those UFOs was risking an interstellar war, and, if so, “should we be creating a Star Wars force to defend ourselves from possible invasion or something like that?”

Hellyer said: “I think it’s a possibility, but it’s a possibility especially if we shoot down every UFO that comes into our airspace without asking who they are and what they want. Right from the beginning, we started scrambling planes, trying to shoot them down, but their technology was superior enough that we weren’t able to get away with it, certainly not for a long while.”

He continued: “During that period of time they could have taken us over without any trouble if they wanted to, so I think, rather than developing our own Star Wars to protect ourselves against them, we should work with the benign species that are of a vast majority and work together, and rely largely on them, of course, and cooperate, so that we would be contributing something at the same time; I don’t think there’s any point in us developing a galactic force that would tempt us to ride on our own and get into mischief, which is one of the things that some of them are concerned about.”

On countering physicist Stephen Hawking’s assertion that any alien visitors to Earth would likely be malevolent, Hellyer argued that not only have aliens already visited Earth but that they have helped contribute to humanity’s technological progress. He said earthlings owe a lot to their alien friends. “Even that computer screen on your desk,” he said, “can trace its origins to spaceships. Microchips, for example, fiber-optics, they are just two of the many things that allegedly — and probably for real — came from crashed vehicles,” Hellyer added. (Source)

Hellyer was not the only one speaking of a partnership between humans and extraterrestrial intelligence. The former head of the Israeli space security program and retired general Haim Eshed also claimed that a sort of agreement had been made between aliens and the US government to keep silent on their experiments on Earth and secret bases on Mars.

Mr. Eshed said that aliens and “Galactic federation” do exist and have been working with the US and the Israel government for years, but they keep it a secret to avoid mass hysteria. According to him, President Trump was aware of it and has already been in contact with space aliens. He further said that the aliens have been waiting for humans to evolve and reach a certain stage to actually understand space and spaceships. Besides, they signed a contract with humans to do experiments on Earth and also research with them to learn the fabric of the universe.

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{ https://howandwhys.com/ }

08-02-2025 om 00:00 geschreven door peter  

Monsterlijke radiojet in het piepjonge heelal ontdekt die alle records verbreekt

Vivian Lammerse

 

Deze gigantische jet, die zich over minstens 200.000 lichtjaar uitstrekt, ontstond toen het heelal nog geen 10 procent van zijn huidige leeftijd had.

Astronomen hebben met behulp van de Gemini North-telescoop – een van de twee telescopen van het International Gemini Observatory – de grootste radiojet ooit in het vroege heelal opgespoord. Tot nu toe bleven zulke grote radiojets grotendeels onzichtbaar in het verre heelal. Dankzij deze waarnemingen krijgen astronomen waardevolle nieuwe inzichten in wanneer de eerste jets ontstonden en hoe ze de evolutie van sterrenstelsels beïnvloedden.

Radiojets
Uit decennia aan astronomische waarnemingen weten wetenschappers dat de meeste sterrenstelsels een superzwaar zwart gat in hun hart hebben. Wanneer gas en stof erin vallen, komt er door de wrijving enorm veel energie vrij, wat resulteert in heldere galactische kernen – quasars – die krachtige jets van energierijke materie de ruimte in schieten. Deze jets zijn met radiotelescopen over enorme afstanden te detecteren. In ons lokale heelal zijn zulke radiojets niet zeldzaam en worden ze in een handvol nabije sterrenstelsels gevonden. Maar in het verre, vroege heelal waren ze tot nu toe wel een zeldzaamheid.

Jacht
Onderzoekers besloten echter de uitdaging aan te gaan en de jacht te openen op vroege radiojets. “We zochten naar quasars met krachtige radiojets in het vroege heelal, omdat dit ons inzicht geeft in hoe en wanneer de eerste jets werden gevormd en op welke manier ze de evolutie van sterrenstelsels hebben beïnvloed”, verklaart Anniek Gloudemans, postdoctoraal onderzoeker bij NOIRLab en hoofdauteur van de nieuwe studie.

Grootste ooit
En nu komen ze met groot nieuws. In de nieuwe studie, gepubliceerd in The Astrophysical Journal Letters, onthullen ze namelijk de ontdekking van een verre radiojet met twee ‘lobben’, die zich uitstrekt over maar liefst 200.000 lichtjaar – twee keer zo breed als de Melkweg. Dit is de grootste radiojet die ooit zo vroeg in de geschiedenis van het heelal is gevonden.

De jet werd voor het eerst opgespoord met de internationale Low Frequency Array (LOFAR), een indrukwekkend netwerk van radiotelescopen verspreid over heel Europa. Vervolgwaarnemingen in het nabij-infrarood met de Gemini Near-Infrared Spectrograph (GNIRS) en in het optische bereik met de Hobby Eberly Telescope gaven een compleet beeld van de radiojet en de quasar die hem aandrijft. Deze ontdekkingen zijn essentieel voor een dieper begrip van het ontstaan en de processen achter de eerste grootschalige jets in ons heelal.

Om de eigenschappen van de quasar – zoals zijn massa en de snelheid waarmee hij materie opslokt – te achterhalen, onderzocht het team een specifieke lichtgolflengte die door quasars wordt uitgezonden: de MgII (magnesium) brede emissielijn. Dit signaal komt normaal gesproken in het ultraviolet voor, maar door de uitdijing van het heelal wordt het licht van de quasar ‘uitgerekt’ naar langere golflengten. Hierdoor bereikt het magnesiumsignaal de aarde in het nabij-infrarood, waar het met GNIRS kan worden gedetecteerd.

J1601+3102
De quasar, die de naam J1601+3102 heeft gekregen, ontstond toen het heelal nog geen 1,2 miljard jaar oud was – slechts 9 procent van zijn huidige leeftijd. Hoewel quasars soms massa’s hebben die miljarden keren groter zijn dan die van onze zon, is deze relatief klein en weegt hij ‘slechts’ 450 miljoen keer de massa van de zon. De dubbelzijdige jets vertonen een asymmetrie in zowel helderheid als lengte, wat suggereert dat een extreem omgevingseffect hen beïnvloedt.

Zwart gat
De resultaten verschaffen interessante nieuwe inzichten in de vorming van krachtige radiostraling in het vroege heelal. “Opmerkelijk genoeg heeft de quasar die deze gigantische radiojet aandrijft geen extreem zwaar zwart gat, in vergelijking met andere quasars”, vertelt Gloudemans. “Dit suggereert dat een superzwaar zwart gat of een uitzonderlijk hoge accretiesnelheid niet per se 

Ruis
De eerdere schaarste aan grote radiojets in het vroege heelal werd vaak verklaard door de ruis van de kosmische microgolfachtergrond – de straling die is overgebleven van de oerknal. Deze achtergrondstraling dempt doorgaans het radiolicht van zulke verre objecten. “Maar omdat dit object zo extreem is, kunnen we het vanaf de aarde waarnemen, ondanks de enorme afstand”, legt Gloudemans uit. “Dit object toont aan wat we kunnen ontdekken door de krachten van verschillende telescopen, die op uiteenlopende golflengten werken, te bundelen.”

Wetenschappers hebben nog talloze vragen over hoe radiogheldere quasars zoals J1601+3102 zich onderscheiden van andere quasars. Het is bijvoorbeeld nog onduidelijk welke omstandigheden nodig zijn om zulke krachtige radiojets te creëren en wanneer de eerste radiojets in het heelal precies zijn ontstaan. Maar dankzij de combinatie van verschillende telescopen zijn astronomen nu in elk geval wel weer een stap dichter bij het begrijpen van deze mysterieuze kosmische fenomenen.

{ https://scientias.nl/nieuws/astronomie-ruimtevaart/ }

07-02-2025 om 22:31 geschreven door peter  

It’s a new year on Mars, and while New Year’s means winter in Earth’s northern hemisphere, it’s the start of spring in the same region of the Red Planet. And that means ice is thawing, leading to all sorts of interesting things. JPL research scientist Serina Diniega explains.

Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

While New Year’s Eve is around the corner here on Earth, Mars scientists are ahead of the game: The Red Planet completed a trip around the Sun on Nov. 12, 2024, prompting a few researchers to raise a toast.

But the Martian year, which is 687 Earth days, ends in a very different way in the planet’s northern hemisphere than it does in Earth’s northern hemisphere: While winter’s kicking in here, spring is starting there. That means temperatures are rising and ice is thinning, leading to frost avalanches crashing down cliffsides, carbon dioxide gas exploding from the ground, and powerful winds helping reshape the north pole.

“Springtime on Earth has lots of trickling as water ice gradually melts. But on Mars, everything happens with a bang,” said Serina Diniega, who studies planetary surfaces at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California.

Mars’ wispy atmosphere doesn’t allow liquids to pool on the surface, like on Earth. Instead of melting, ice sublimates, turning directly into a gas. The sudden transition in spring means a lot of violent changes as both water ice and carbon dioxide ice — dry ice, which is much more plentiful on Mars than frozen water — weaken and break.

“You get lots of cracks and explosions instead of melting,” Diniega said. “I imagine it gets really noisy.”

Using the cameras and other sensors aboard NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO), which launched in 2005, scientists study all this activity to improve their understanding of the forces shaping the dynamic Martian surface. Here’s some of what they track.

Frost Avalanches

In 2015, MRO’s High-Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE) camera captured a 66-foot-wide (20-meter-wide) chunk of carbon dioxide frost in freefall. Chance observations like this are reminders of just how different Mars is from Earth, Diniega said, especially in springtime, when these surface changes are most noticeable.

“We’re lucky we’ve had a spacecraft like MRO observing Mars for as long as it has,” Diniega said. “Watching for almost 20 years has let us catch dramatic moments like these avalanches.”

Martian spring involves lots of cracking ice, which led to this 66-foot-wide (20-meter-wide) chunk of carbon dioxide frost captured in freefall by the HiRISE camera aboard NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter in 2015.

Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Univ. of Arizona

Gas Geysers

Diniega has relied on HiRISE to study another quirk of Martian springtime: gas geysers that blast out of the surface, throwing out dark fans of sand and dust. These explosive jets form due to energetic sublimation of carbon dioxide ice. As sunlight shines through the ice, its bottom layers turn to gas, building pressure until it bursts into the air, creating those dark fans of material.

But to see the best examples of the newest fans, researchers will have to wait until December 2025, when spring starts in the southern hemisphere. There, the fans are bigger and more clearly defined.

As light shines through carbon dioxide ice on Mars, it heats up its bottom layers, which, rather than melting into a liquid, turn into gas. The buildup gas eventually results in explosive geysers that toss dark fans of debris on to the surface.

Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/University of Arizona

Spiders

Another difference between ice-related action in the two hemispheres: Once all the ice around some northern geysers has sublimated in summer, what’s left behind in the dirt are scour marks that, from space, look like giant spider legs. Researchers recently re-created this process in a JPL lab.

Sometimes, after carbon dioxide geysers have erupted from ice-covered areas on Mars, they leave scour marks on the surface. When the ice is all gone by summer, these long scour marks look like the legs of giant spiders.

Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/University of Arizona

Powerful Winds

For Isaac Smith of Toronto’s York University, one of the most fascinating subjects in springtime is the Texas-size ice cap at Mars’ north pole. Etched into the icy dome are swirling troughs, revealing traces of the red surface below. The effect is like a swirl of milk in a café latte.

“These things are enormous,” Smith said, noting that some are a long as California. “You can find similar troughs in Antarctica but nothing at this scale.”

Fast, warm wind has carved the spiral shapes over eons, and the troughs act as channels for springtime wind gusts that become more powerful as ice at the north pole starts to thaw. Just like the Santa Ana winds in Southern California or the Chinook winds in the Rocky Mountains, these gusts pick up speed and temperature as they ride down the troughs — what’s called an adiabatic process.

As temperatures rise, powerful winds kick up that carve deep troughs into the ice cap of Mars’ north pole. Some of these troughs are as long as California, and give the Martian north pole its trademark swirls. This image was captured by NASA’s now-inactive Mars Global Surveyor.

Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS

Wandering Dunes

The winds that carve the north pole’s troughs also reshape Mars’ sand dunes, causing sand to pile up on one side while removing sand from the other side. Over time, the process causes dunes to migrate, just as it does with dunes on Earth.

This past September, Smith coauthored a paper detailing how carbon dioxide frost settles on top of polar sand dunes during winter, freezing them in place. When the frost all thaws away in the spring, the dunes begin migrating again.

Each northern spring is a little different, with variations leading to ice sublimating faster or slower, controlling the pace of all these phenomena on the surface. And these strange phenomena are just part of the seasonal changes on Mars: the southern hemisphere has its own unique activity.

Surrounded by frost, these Martian dunes in Mars northern hemisphere were captured from above by NASAs Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter using its HiRISE camera on Sept. 8, 2022.

Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/University of Arizona

More About MRO

The University of Arizona, in Tucson, operates HiRISE, which was built by Ball Aerospace & Technologies Corp., in Boulder, Colorado. NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of Caltech in Pasadena, California, manages the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter Project for NASA’s Science Mission Directorate, Washington.

For more information, visit:

• https://science.nasa.gov/mission/mars-reconnaissance-orbiter

{ https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/ }

07-02-2025 om 22:12 geschreven door peter  

Mars in lentelicht: spectaculaire veranderingen op de rode planeet

Yorick La Rivière

Recente beelden tonen dramatische veranderingen op Mars tijdens de overgang naar lente, met lawines, gasgeisers en ‘Mars-spinnen’ aan het noordelijke oppervlak.

In dit artikel belichten we aan de hand van enkele recente foto’s van Mars’ oppervlak de zich nu voltrekkende overgang naar lente op Mars’ noordelijke halfrond. Dankzij de langdurige observaties van de Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) komen dramatische veranderingen in het landschap aan het licht. We bekijken verschillende fenomenen, waaronder afbrokkelende stukken droogijs, explosieve gasgeisers en de vorming van spin-achtige structuren aan het oppervlak, die samen een dynamisch beeld geven van de Marslente.

Lawines in Mars’ lente
De overgang naar lente op Mars brengt aanzienlijke structurele veranderingen met zich mee. In 2015 legde de HiRISE-camera een 20-meter groot brok droogijs in vrije val vast. Deze afbrokkelende ijsmassa’s illustreren hoe door invloed van toenemende temperaturen abrupte gevolgen zoals we die ook kennen op aarde, heftige gevolgen teweegbrengen. JPL-onderzoeker Serina Diniega merkt op: “we zijn blij dat we bijna 20 jaar lang een waarnemingsplatform als MRO hebben, waarmee we deze dramatische gebeurtenissen kunnen zien voltrekken, in plaats van alleen de gevolgen van smelt.”

Gasgeisers, explosieve uitbarstingen en ‘Mars-spinnen’
Opwarming van de grond door toedoen van de groter wordende zonnekracht op het noorden zorgt ervoor dat onder het oppervlak gelegen reservoirs van droogijs sublimeren naar gasvormig koolstofdioxide, waardoor er actief spuwende geisers ontstaan. MRO heeft dit bijzondere proces weten vast te leggen:

Afhankelijk van de kenmerken van de grond kan er veel druk opbouwen voordat de geiser losbarst en explosief wordt. Het verschijnsel van actieve geisers en explosies van onder het oppervlak komt elk Martiaans jaar weer ten einde in de zomer en laat dan donkere spin-achtige afzettingen van zand en stof, verspreid over het oppervlak, achter; ‘Mars-spinnen’:

Winderige troggen bij de noordpool
De opwarming van Mars’ noordpool leidt tot lokaal krachtige winden die diepe troggen klieft in de ijsbedekking van Mars’ noordpool. Deze troggen kunnen een lengte bereiken die vergelijkbaar is met de doorsnede van pool zelf; zo’n 1.000 km.

De beelden van Mars’ oppervlak onthullen de dynamische processen die optreden tijdens de overgang naar lente. IJslawines, explosieve gasgeisers en de ontwikkeling van Mars-spinnen tonen hoe de rode planeet onder invloed van veranderende temperaturen en sublimatie in een korte tijd drastisch verandert. Deze observaties, ondersteund door bijna 20 jaar aan hoge resolutie opnamen, bieden een unieke kans voor wetenschappers om de evoluerende krachten op Mars te bestuderen.

New Year, New Mars: Red Planet Gets Active as Spring Begins

(Mars Report)

• De afgelopen decennia zijn er prachtige foto’s gemaakt van interstellaire nevels, sterrenstelsels, planeten, andere hemellichamen en in de ruimtevaart. Ieder weekend halen we een indrukwekkende ruimtefoto uit het archief. Genieten van alle foto’s? Bekijk ze op deze pagina. Heb je zelf bijzondere (astro)foto’s die je wil delen met ons? Stuur ze in via ons mailadres o.v.v. ‘Ruimtefoto’!

{ https://scientias.nl/nieuws/astronomie-ruimtevaart/ }

07-02-2025 om 22:00 geschreven door peter  

By SHIVALI BEST FOR MAILONLINE

The idea of a robotic dog that can move on almost any terrain might sound like something from the latest episode of Black Mirror. 

But as this terrifying footage shows, it has now become a reality. 

The state-of-the-art robot dog is called Lynx, and is the brainchild of Chinese company, Deep Robotics. 

Equipped with four wheels instead of paws, the bot can walk, climb, and even backflip on everything from rocks to snow. 

Deep Robtics hopes that it could be used in search and rescue operations. 

However, some sceptics have already raised concerns about the four-legged robot. 

'I know these are gonna be hunting down every last human before long,' one user commented on the video. 

However, they reluctantly added: 'But this is also just legitimately cool as hell.'

The state-of-the-art robot dog is called Lynx, and is the brainchild of Chinese company, Deep Robotics

Equipped with four wheels instead of paws, the bot can walk, climb, and even backflip on everything from rocks to snow

Lynx stands at just under one metre tall, and weighs 30kg - around the same size as a Labrador Retriever. 

'DEEPRoboticsLynx all-terrain robot boasts a compact and agile design with exceptional adaptability to diverse terrains,' Deep Robotics explains on its website. 

'By leveraging its distinctive wheel-leg motion, DEEPRoboticsLynx strikes an optimal balance between speed and agility, carrying forward DEEP Robotics' deep expertise in embodied intelligence and industry applications.'

According to the firm, the robot is able to climb platforms up to 80cm tall and navigate continuous steps reaching up to 22cm tall. 

Meanwhile, when it's on the move, the bot can reach top speeds of five metres/second (11mph). 

It also comes with an IP54 protection rating, meaning it is suitable for use in all weather conditions. 

Equipped with a wide-angle camera, the bot could be used to access hard-to-reach areas during search and rescue missions. 

Unsurprisingly, it comes with a fairly hefty price-tag. 

According to the firm, the robot is able to climb platforms up to 80cm tall and navigate continuous steps reaching up to 22cm tall

Unsurprisingly, it comes with a fairly hefty price-tag. Lynx will set buyers back by $17,999 (£14,520.65)

Lynx will set buyers back by $17,999 (£14,520.65)!

The response to the bot has been overwhelmingly positive on social media. 

Commenting on Deep Robotics' video showcasing the robot, one user wrote: 'That's crazy. This kind of robots with such agility were still a science fiction several years ago.'

Another added: 'this is the most hardcore flex I've ever seen in the history of robotics.'

And one joked: 'the first couple of jump clips had me wondering if those were real or cgi because of how well the lynx did it!'

However, others were slightly more sceptical of the robot. 

'Cant wait for this thing to chase me down in the future,' one user wrote, while another said: 'This 100% was a black mirror episode.'

'Spot is a small four-legged robot that comfortably fits in an office or home' the firm says on its website.

It weighs 25 kg (55 lb), or 30 kg (66 lb) when you include the robotic arm.

Spot is all-electric and can go for about 90 minutes on a charge, depending on what it is doing, the firm says, boasting 'Spot is the quietest robot we have built.' 

Spot was first unveiled in 2016, and a previous version of the mini version of spot with a strange extendable neck has been shown off helping around the house. 

In the firm's previous video, the robot is shown walking out of the firm's HQ and into what appears to be a home.

There, it helps load a dishwasher and carries a can to the trash.

It also at one point encounters a dropped banana skin and falls dramatically - but uses its extendable neck to push itself back up. 

'Spot is one of the quietest robots we have ever built, the firm says, due to its electric motors.

'It has a variety of sensors, including depth cameras, a solid state gyro (IMU) and proprioception sensors in the limbs. 

'These sensors help with navigation and mobile manipulation. 

'Spot performs some tasks autonomously, but often uses a human for high-level guidance.' 

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{ https://www.dailymail.co.uk/ }

07-02-2025 om 21:31 geschreven door peter  

Scientists discover microplastics in Antarctica's most remote regions - as they warn 'nowhere on Earth is truly untouched'

• READ MORE: Scientist reveals switches to make to avoid eating microplastics

By SHIVALI BEST FOR MAILONLINE

The sheer scale of Earth's plastic problem has been laid bare in a new study. 

Researchers from the British Antarctic Survey (BAS) have discovered microplastics in the snow near some of Antarctica's deep field camps. 

This is the first time these tiny pieces of plastic - some as small as a red blood cell - have been found in such remote locations. 

An initial analysis suggests that the microplastics have come from local sources. 

'This could come from outdoor clothing, or the ropes and flags that are used to mark safe routes in and around the camp,' said Dr Clara Manno, an ocean ecologist at BAS. 

Worryingly, the implications of microplastics in this frozen wilderness remain unclear. 

'Despite stringent regulations on materials entering Antarctica, our findings reveal microplastic contamination even in remote and highly controlled areas,' said Dr Kirstie Jones-Williams, co-author of the study. 

'This underscores the pervasive nature of plastic pollution—demonstrating that nowhere on Earth is truly untouched.'

Researchers from the British Antarctic Survey (BAS) have discovered microplastics in the snow near some of Antarctica's deep field camps

This is the first time these tiny pieces of plastic - some as small as a red blood cell - have been found in such remote locations

(stock image)

For the study, the researchers analysed samples collected from three field camps at the Union Glacier and the Schanz Glacier - two remote areas at the South Pole.

Previous studies have relied on scientists hand-picking particles and fibres out of samples for analysis. 

Instead, the BAS team used a newer technique that involves melting snow through filter paper and scanning it at a higher resolution.  

Their analysis revealed microplastics at concentrations ranging from 73 to 3,099 particles per liter of snow. 

The vast majority (95 per cent) of the particles were smaller than 50 micrometres - the size of most human cells. 

According to the researchers, this suggests previous studies may have underestimated the true extent of microplastic pollution in Antarctica, due to the less sensitive detection methods. 

'With these developing techniques, we're now able to analyse microplastics of a much smaller size than before,' said Dr Emily Rowlands, co-author of the study. 

'In fact, we found microplastic abundance in these snow samples to be 100 times higher than in previous studies of Antarctic snow samples.'

For the study, the researchers analysed samples collected from three field camps at the Union Glacier and the Schanz Glacier - two remote areas at the South Pole

An initial analysis suggests that the microplastics have come from local sources. Pictured: An example of an Antarctic field camp

Across all three sites, the researchers identified several common plastic types, including polyamide (used in textiles), polyethylene terephythalate (found in bottles and packaging), polyethylene, and synthetic rubber.

While the researchers believe the microplastics come from local sources, they admit that further research is needed to confirm this. 

'We need to do more research to fully understand the sources of microplastic pollution in Antarctica – how much of it is local, and how much is transported over long distances so we can explore how best to reduce this plastic pollution in one of the most pristine places on Earth,' Dr Manno said. 

Concerningly, the true implications of the microplastics are not yet fully understood. 

Some previous studies have suggested that microplastics could cause snow to melt more quickly, while another revealed that the particles could be reducing the amount of carbon transported to the seafloor by krill. 

Antarctica is also home to a range of animals including penguins, seals, and fish - many of which have already been found to contain microplastics. 

The researchers hope the findings will help to shed light on the urgent need to slow the spread of plastic pollution worldwide.  

'Our research highlights the need to leverage existing Antarctic presence for sustained monitoring,' Dr Jones-Williams added. 

'As the world seeks accountability through the United Nations Environment Assembly Global Plastics Treaty, regular assessments in such pristine environments could provide critical evidence for policy and action.' 

Scientists from the University of Michigan have developed a new way to find sources of ocean microplastics and track their movements using NASA satellite data.
Credits: University of Michigan

{ https://www.dailymail.co.uk/ }

07-02-2025 om 21:00 geschreven door peter  

Stunning, rainbow-colored object spotted by James Webb telescope could be an alien solar system in the making

"These grains are only one millionth of a metre across — about the size of a single bacterium," the researchers wrote in a blog post accompanying the image. "While the large dust grains are concentrated in the densest parts of the disc, the small grains are much more widespread."

Where star systems are born

Stars take tens of millions of years to form, growing from dense, billowing clouds of turbulent dust and gas to gently glowing protostars, before materializing into gigantic orbs of fusion-powered plasma like our sun.

Related: 

• James Webb telescope spots a dozen newborn stars spewing gas in the same direction — and nobody is sure why

Scientists think that planets form around young stars when dust and gas particles collide and stick together, snowballing over millions of years until they reach their final forms.

To study HH 30's edge-on disk (meaning JWST sees only the disk’s side from its vantage point near Earth), the researchers combined infrared data captured by JWST with longer-wavelength observations made by the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) telescope and the Hubble Space Telescope. These data enabled the researchers to capture dust particles from millimeter down to micrometer scales.

The result is a breathtakingly detailed view of the dust's movement across the disk, showing it migrating within the disk and settling in a dense layer, where it is clumping to form the beginnings of planets. Nested alongside this are several layers of gas. One of these layers originates from the jet spat out by the star, while others are from a broader cone-shaped outflow enveloped by a nebula reflecting the star's light.

"Together, these data reveal HH 30 to be a dynamic place, where tiny dust grains and massive jets alike play a role in the formation of new planets," the researchers wrote.

{ https://www.livescience.com/space }

07-02-2025 om 20:42 geschreven door peter  

New research published in The Planetary Science Journal digs deeper into the issue to try and understand what processes could create Ariel’s surface features. Its title is “Ariel’s Medial Grooves: Spreading Centers on a Candidate Ocean World.” The lead author is Chloe Beddingfield from Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory (JHUAPL).

“Ariel is a candidate ocean world, and recent observations from the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) confirmed that its surface is mantled by a large amount of CO2 ice mixed with lower amounts of CO ice,” Beddingfield and her co-researchers write in their paper. These materials should be unstable on Ariel, though, and should sublimate away into space. “Consequently, the observed constituents on Ariel are likely replenished, possibly from endogenic sources,” the authors write.

The research is centred on Ariel’s chasma-medial groove systems and how they formed. These are trenches that cut straight through the moon’s huge canyons. While previous research has suggested that the trenches are tectonic fractures, this research arrives at a different hypothesis. “We present evidence that Ariel’s massive chasma-medial groove systems formed via spreading, where internally sourced material ascended and formed new crust,” the paper states.

This is similar to ocean-floor spreading on Earth, which is where new crust forms. If true, it can account for Ariel’s surface deposits of carbon dioxide ice and other carbon-bearing molecules.

“If we’re right, these medial grooves are probably the best candidates for sourcing those carbon oxide deposits and uncovering more details about the moon’s interior,” Beddingfield said in a press release. “No other surface features show evidence of facilitating the movement of materials from inside Ariel, making this finding particularly exciting.”

Ariel’s surface is dominated by three main terrain types: plains, ridged terrain, and cratered terrain. The cratered terrain is the oldest and most extensive type of terrain. The ridged terrain is the second main terrain type and is made of bands of ridges and troughs that can extend for hundreds of kilometres. The plains are the third type and are the youngest of the terrains. They’re on canyon floors and in depressions in the middle of the cratered terrain.

As far as scientists can tell, the grooves that intersect the canyons are the youngest surface features on Ariel. Previous research suggested that they result from the interplay between volcanic and tectonic processes. However, this research says otherwise: spreading could be responsible.

In the 1960s, scientists validated the idea of seafloor spreading on Earth, which led to the acceptance of plate tectonics. One of the main pieces of evidence for plate tectonics is the way the edges of continents like Africa and South America fit together if you “remove” the Atlantic Ocean and the intervening seafloor.

The same thing happened when Beddingfield and her colleagues “removed” the chasm floors on Ariel.

The researchers showed that when they removed the floors of the chasms, the margins lined up. This is strong evidence of spreading. “The margins of Brownie, Kewpie, Korrigan, Pixie, and Sylph Chasmata closely align when the Intermediate Age Smooth Materials (orange unit in Figure 1), which make up the chasma floors, are removed and the Cratered Plains (green unit in Figure 1) are reconstructed,” they write.

According to the research, spreading centers develop above convention cells underneath Ariel’s crust, and heat forces material upward to the crust. The material cools at the surface, forming new crust. The entire process is driven by tidal forces as Ariel orbits the much larger Uranus. This heats the moon’s interior, creating the convection. Some of the moon’s interior cycles between heating as the moon follows its orbit. It’s possible that internal material continuously melts and then refreezes.

“It’s a fascinating situation — how this cycle affects these moons, their evolution and their characteristics,” Beddingfield said.

Like other Solar System moons that experience tidal heating, Ariel may have an ocean under its surface. In a 2024 study, researchers proposed that another of Uranus’ moons, Miranda, could have a subsurface ocean maintained by tidal heating.

However, Beddingfield is skeptical about drawing a connection between Ariel’s grooves and a potential ocean.

“The size of Ariel’s possible ocean and its depth beneath the surface can only be estimated, but it may be too isolated to interact with spreading centers,” she said. “There’s just a lot we don’t know. And while carbon oxide ices are present on Ariel’s surface, it’s still unclear whether they’re associated with the grooves because Voyager 2 didn’t have instruments that could map the distribution of ices.”

The connection between the grooves and the materials deposited on Ariel’s surface is stronger though. “These new results suggest a possible mechanism for emplacing fresh material and short-lived compounds, including carbon monoxide and perhaps ammonia-bearing species on the surface,” said Tom Nordheim, a co-author of this research and the 2024 paper.

“Our results indicate that medial grooves in large chasmata on Ariel are spreading centers, resulting from the exposure of subsurface material, creating new crust,” the authors summarize in their conclusion. “Thus, these features are likely geologic conduits to Ariel’s interior and could be the primary source of CO2, CO, and other volatiles detected on its surface.”

Richard Cartwright from the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory led the 2024 study that used the JWST to identify CO ice and CO2 deposits on Ariel. To find more answers about this intriguing moon, Cartwright says we need a dedicated mission to Uranus and its moons. “We need an orbiter that can make close passes of Ariel, map its medial grooves in detail, and analyze their spectral signatures for components like carbon dioxide and carbon monoxide,” he said. “If carbon-bearing molecules are concentrated along these grooves, then it would strongly support the idea that they’re windows into Ariel’s interior.”

The authors agree that only a dedicated mission can provide answers. “The medial grooves are some of the youngest geologic features observed on Ariel, and close flybys of these features by a future Uranus orbiter are imperative to gain insight into recent geologic events and the geologic and geochemical properties of this candidate ocean world,” they write.

There’ve been many proposed missions to Uranus. NASA, the ESA, JAXA, and the CNSA (China National Space Administration) have all had proposals. NASA’s Uranus Orbiter and Probe mission would study Uranus and its moons from orbit by conducting multiple flybys of each major moon. The probe would enter Uranus’ atmosphere. However, even if selected, a plutonium shortage means the mission wouldn’t launch until the mid or late 2030s.

So far, only China has firm plans to send a spacecraft to the ice giant. It will be part of their Tianwen-4 mission to Jupiter and would perform a single flyby of Uranus. The next launch windows for a mission to Uranus are between 2030 and 2034, but China’s mission isn’t scheduled until 2045.

Press Release: 

• New Study Suggests Trench-Like Features on Uranus’ Moon Ariel May Be Windows to Its Interior

Research: 

• Ariel’s Medial Grooves: Spreading Centers on a Candidate Ocean World

{ https://www.universetoday.com/ }

07-02-2025 om 18:38 geschreven door peter  

New research suggests an impact recently rattled Mars deeper than thought.

Something really rang the Red Planet’s bell. Research involving two NASA missions—the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, and the late InSight lander—has shed light on meteorite impacts and the seismic signals they produce. In a crucial finding, these signals may penetrate deeper inside Mars than previously thought. This could change how we view the interior of Mars itself.

The study comes from two papers published this week in the journal of Geophysical Research Letters. The primary data comes from NASA’s InSight mission, the first dedicated geodesy mission to Mars. Insight landed in the Elysium Planitia region of Mars on November 26^th, 2018, and carried the first ever dedicated seismometer to the Red Planet. During its four years of operation, Insight detected over 1,300 ‘marsquakes,’ until the mission’s end in 2022. Most were due to geologic activity, while a few were due to distant meteorite impacts. Occasionally, InSight would even see ‘land tides’ due to the passage of the moon Phobos overhead.

A Distant Mars Impact

As on Earth, the detection of seismic waves gives us the opportunity to probe the interior of Mars, providing clues as to the density, depth and thickness of the crust, mantle and core. To be sure, impacts have been correlated to seismic waves captured by InSight in the past. A fresh crater seen by NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) in 2022 was correlated to an impact in the Amazonis Planitia region. But this was the first time an impact in the quake-prone Cerberus Fossae area was linked to InSight detections. The find is especially intriguing, as the area is quarter of a world away from the InSight landing site, at 1,640 kilometers (1,019 miles) distant.

The discovery of the 21.5-meter (71 foot) crater about the length of a semi-truck immediately presented scientists with a mystery. The smoking gun impact crater was more distant than thought. Typically, the Martian crust was thought to have a dampening effect on distant impacts. This means that the impact-generated waves took a more direct route via a ‘seismic highway,’ through the deeper mantle of the planet itself.

This discovery has key implications for what we generally think about the interior of Mars. This may also imply that our understanding and model for the planet’s interior may be due for an overhaul.

“Composition of the crust and how seismic waves from impacts travel through them is one factor,” Andrew Good (NASA-JPL) told Universe Today. “No current plans for follow-on seismometers on Mars, but there is a seismometer planned for the Moon in the near future,” says Good, in reference to the Farside Seismic Suite planned for 2026.

A New View of the Interior of Mars?

InSight team member Costantinos Charalambous of Imperial College London explains the finding in more detail, in an email to Universe Today:

The detection of this impact changes our understanding of Mars’ interior, particularly its crust and upper mantle, both immediately and in the longer term. However, in the latter case, it will take further work to know quite how!

The immediate shift in our understanding is that many more of the seismic events we detected at InSight have penetrated much deeper into the planet than we thought. Previously, we had thought that the crust would trap most of the high-frequency seismic energy, guiding it around the planet from the point of impact to InSight’s seismometer. We thought any high-frequency energy that penetrated more deeply into the mantle was quickly lost. But it now appears the Martian mantle is much better at propagating this seismic energy than we thought, allowing it to travel more quickly and farther. This tells us that the mantle has a different elemental composition that previously assumed, likely with a lower iron oxide content than earlier models predicted.

Additionally, because this impact was detected in Cerberus Fossae – a region where many recorded marsquakes likely originate – it provides a unique opportunity to distinguish seismic signatures generated by seismic activity driven by deeper, internal (tectonic) forces versus shallower, external (impact) sources.

Therefore, in the longer term, we will be re-examining the data from seismic events that we had previously assumed didn’t penetrate deeper into Mars. This work is ongoing, but these findings suggest new features of Mars’ upper mantle that we are seeking to confirm. Watch this space!

MRO’s Hunt For Impacts

Just how researchers imaged the tiny crater is the amazing second part of the story. NASA’s venerable MRO generates tens of thousands of images of the surface of Mars. These come mainly via the spacecraft’s onboard Context Camera. For years, researchers have used a machine learning algorithm to sift through the images. This looks for fresh impact sites that do not appear in previous frames. These areas are in turn flagged for closer scrutiny with the mission’s 0.5-meter High-Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE) camera. The AI program was developed by NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory.

To date, the team has found 123 new craters within 3,000 kilometers (1,864 miles) of the InSight landing site. 49 of these (including the Cerberus Fossae impact) are potential matches with InSight seismology data.

“Done manually, this would be years of work,” says InSight team member Valentin Bickel (University of Bern, Switzerland) in a recent press release. “Using this tool, we went from tens of thousands of images to just a handful in a matter of days.”

InSight’s Legacy

InSight provided a wealth of seismology and geological information about Mars. The Seismic Experiment for Interior Structure (SEIS) instrument worked as planned. The Heat Flow and Physical Properties Package (HP^3) failed, however, to reach its target depth for returning useful science about the planet’s interior. Unfortunately, no dedicated follow on geology mission is set to head to Mars. This sort of exciting science will probably have to wait until the hoped for crewed missions of the 2030s.

InSight was a collaborative effort between NASA, the German Space Agency (DLR) and the French Space Agency (CNES). Other international partners also participated in the ground-breaking mission.

Still, it’s great to see missions like InSight still generating scientific results, long after they’ve fallen silent.

{ https://www.universetoday.com/ }

07-02-2025 om 18:07 geschreven door peter  

De explosie op 16 januari vulde de lucht met brokstukken en het spektakel leek regelrecht uit een Hollywoodfilm te komen. Maar de nasleep is voor de archipel, ten zuidoosten van de Bahama’s, minder glamoureus. Overal vinden bewoners brokstukken van het ruimtetuig terug.

{ https://www.hln.be/ }

07-02-2025 om 17:16 geschreven door peter  

USAF Pilot Ordered To Destroy Aircraft Carrier-Sized UFO, Claiming It Was Alien Spaceship

In 2008, the UK Ministry of Defence (MoD) began disclosing the secret files concerning UFO/UAP phenomena that had been hidden for 50 years. The ministry’s recent release was in 2013. One astonishing incident, which was revealed in the MoD files, happened in 1957 over East Anglia, England. It involves the two U.S. fighter planes that were ordered to shoot down an aircraft carrier-sized UFO. (Archive Source)

The accounts of the incident were made public concerning the recollections of two retired pilots from the USAF 406th Fighter Interceptor Wing, which came to light when they met at a reunion at RAF Manston in 1988. One pilot said he was seconds away from firing 24 rockets at the object, which moved erratically and gave a radar reading like “a flying aircraft carrier.”

On May 20, 1957, 25-year-old USAF lieutenant Milton Torres was with the 514th Fighter Interceptor Squadron in the 406th Air Expeditionary Wing based at RAF Manston in Kent. Lt. Torres was the pilot of one of two F-86D jets at RAF Manston airfield when the incident occurred in the late evening on May 20.

Lt. Torres and the other pilot Dave Roberson were in the “alert shack” at RAF Manston when they received instructions to take to the air. The two pilots raced to their respective F-86Ds and took off well within the allotted five minutes.

Torres testified:

“I can remember the call to scramble quite clearly, however, I cannot remember specifics such as the actual vector to turn after take off. We were airborne well within the 5 minutes allotted to us, and basically scrambled to about Flight Level 310. Our vector took us out over the North Sea just east of East Anglia. Normally, Dave Roberson, the other member of the set of two fighters would be the lead ship. I can only suggest that I was leading due to an in-place turn of some sort.

I remember in quite specific terms talking as lead to the GCI3 site (whose call sign I cannot recall). I was advised of the situation quite clearly. The initial briefing indicated that the ground was observing for a considerable time a blip that was orbiting the East Anglia area.

There was very little movement and from my conversation with the GCI, all the normal procedures of checking with all the controlling agencies revealed that this was an unidentified flying object with very unusual flight patterns. In the initial briefing, it was suggested that the bogey was motionless for long intervals.

The instructions came to go ‘gate’ to expedite the intercept. Gate was the term used to use maximum power (in the case of the F86-D that meant full afterburner) and to proceed to an Initial Point at about 32,000 feet. By this time, my radar was on, and I was looking prematurely for the bogey.

The instructions came to report any visual observations, to which I replied ‘I’m in the soup and it’s impossible to see anything!’ The weather was probably high alto stratus, but between being over the North Sea and in the weather, no frame of reference was available, i.e. no stars, no lights, no silhouettes – in short nothing. GCI continued the vectoring and the dialogue describing the strange antics of the UFO.”

Aware that he was reaching the upper limit of his jet’s capabilities, Torres requested to come out of the afterburner, but ground control denied his request. At that time, he prepared to execute the order to “fire a full salvo of rockets at the UFO.” The F-86D carried 24 rockets that contained the power of a 75mm artillery shell.

As Torres prepared all 24 of his rockets for firing, he could hear the other F-86D pilot also responding to orders from ground control. “I wasn’t paying too much attention… but I clearly remember him giving a ‘Roger’ to all the transmissions. I can only suppose he was as busy as I was.”

Read also:

• Texas Police Officer Saw Four Dead Roswell Alien Bodies Lifted With Crane & 100-Foot UFO

• Ret. US Army Major Showed Deleted UFO Photos Captured By Apollo Astronauts On Moon
• NASA Found Mystery Caves On Moon For Shelter But They Could Be Alien Bases, UFOlogists Suggest
• Grey Aliens Took Man From Puerto Rico To Their Underground Base In 1988 And Told Him They Want Peace

Torres was given a final turning maneuver to execute and was told to look 30 degrees to port. His radar screen displayed the UFO at 30 degrees and about 15 miles distant. He said: “The blip was burning a hole in the radar with its incredible intensity. It was similar to a blip I had received from B-52s and seemed to be a magnet of light.”

According to Torres, the radar return “had the proportions of a flying aircraft carrier.” He added: “By that I mean the return on the radar was so strong that it could not be overlooked by the fire control system on the F-86D… The larger the airplane the easier the lock on. This blip almost locked itself… it was the best target I could ever remember locking on to. I had locked on in just a few seconds, and I locked on exactly 15 miles, which was the maximum range for lock on.”

Suddenly, Torres noticed that the object on the radar screen was moving. He was left with the impression that the UFO was moving at no less than Mach 10 (over 7,000 miles per hour) when it disappeared.

According to Torres, the UFO “didn’t follow classic Newtonian mechanics. It made a right turn almost on a dime. The (Royal Air Force radar) scope had a range of 250 miles. And after two sweeps, which took two seconds, it was gone. And I was flying almost at Mach 1.”

He returned to the base and was debriefed the next day by an unnamed man who “looked like a well-dressed IBM salesman.”

“He threatened me with a national security breach if I breathed a word about it to anyone,” Torres said.

The documents contain no official explanation for the incident, which came at a time of heightened tension between the West and the Soviet Union. Planes were on constant stand-by at British bases for a possible Soviet attack.

The files blame other UFO sightings on weather balloons, clouds or normal aircraft. Torres said he had been waiting for 50 years for an explanation. “I shall never forget it. On that night I was ordered to open fire even before I had taken off. That had never happened before.”

Speaking to Miles O’Brien of Cable News Network (CNN), Torres said he is convinced the UFO he had encountered was designed by an “alien” intelligence and was not manufactured on Earth. He also noted: “It was some kind of space alien craft. It was so fast, it was so incredible… it was absolutely death-defying.” (Source)

UFO expert David Clarke said the sighting may have been part of a secret U.S. project to create phantom aircraft on radar screens to test Soviet air defenses. “Perhaps what this pilot had seen was some kind of experiment in electronic warfare or maybe it was a UFO,” he said. “Something very unusual happened.”

References:

RELATED VIDEOS

{ https://howandwhys.com/ }

06-02-2025 om 22:02 geschreven door peter  

Ex-US Navy Officer Saw ‘Non-human Entities’ In His Bedroom After ‘Gimbal UFO’ Encounter

By Vicky Verma

The Gimbal UFO event stands as a significant pillar in the UAP (Unidentified Aerial Phenomena) disclosure, introducing US military whistleblowers who claim to have witnessed the phenomena they describe as “non-human.” In 2020, the U.S. Department of Defense released three pivotal UAP videos that triggered widespread discussions within the UFO community, prompting inquiries into the information held by the US government regarding these phenomena.

These videos capture UFO encounters from November 2004 and two separate incidents from January 2015, each identified by distinctive nicknames: Flir (2004), Go Fast (2015), and Gimbal (2015). They depict pilots tracking unidentified objects in the sky. Among these, the renowned 2015 UFO “Gimbal” footage was recorded by US fighter pilots near the nuclear aircraft carrier USS Theodore Roosevelt, as an unidentified object appeared on their radar. Despite the pilots mentioning, “There’s a whole fleet of them, look on the SA,” the footage only displays a single mysterious object at the center of the frame.

Apart from Ryan Graves, a former Lt. U.S. Navy and F/A-18F pilot, there is another least discussed whistleblower who experienced the famous Gimbal UFO event. Matthew Roberts, a former cryptologist in the US Navy with 16 years of service, shared his experience and encounters with non-human entity during a Netflix series “Encounters.” He was present on the USS Theodore Roosevelt in 2015 during an event involving the now-famous “Gimbal footage.”

After going on several military missions and teaching other code experts while working on land, Matthew Roberts moved to the Office of Naval Intelligence (ONI) for three years. His time at ONI ended in March 2020, and that is when he chose to quit the military, even though he was close to retiring in four years. The reason for leaving was the intense and personal experiences he had with unidentified aerial phenomena (UAP) while at ONI, which he writes about in his book named “Initiated.”

Roberts described his initial reaction to the gimbal footage: “I was watching this footage, and I could see no kind of aviation surfaces that you would expect to see — wings, tail, rudders. There’s none of that.” He struggled to comprehend the unconventional movement of the object, stating, “I couldn’t really make sense of why this thing was kind of up in the air like it was.”

As he looked more closely at the video, Roberts realized something important: “I knew it didn’t belong to us or anyone else. So, the only other possibility, I think, is that it’s technology from non-human intelligence.”

Given his classified role and access to sensitive information, Roberts was aware that such encounters were not isolated incidents for the Navy: “I was kind of aware this was not a one-off event for the Navy. These things happen frequently, all the time, going against the wind.” Roberts confessed to being captivated by the footage, watching it obsessively. Despite his access to classified information, he had no awareness of the actions taken by the upper chain of command concerning these encounters.

In 2017, after transferring to the Office of Naval Intelligence, Roberts claimed to have had follow-on experiences with what he described as nonhuman entities. He recounted unsettling encounters where he would wake up feeling his body being moved across the bed and experiencing a hand grabbing his arm. Roberts believed these encounters were evidence of non-human intelligence.

“In 2017, I moved to the Office of Naval Intelligence, where I was going to work as an analyst. Shortly after I got there, I began having experiences related to the phenomenon. It was like the start of seeing nonhuman entities in my room at night. I would wake up several times a week, feeling my body sliding across the bed, and I knew they were taking me. One time, I woke up because I felt a hand grab my arm. I tried to raise my hands to my face, but I couldn’t move. I could see the outline of a shadowy figure with a torso, two arms, and a head standing over me.

Back when I was in the Navy and saw the footage, I already knew there was something nonhuman out there. So, when these entities started appearing in my room, I knew all of this was real. I had the comfort of knowing I wasn’t going crazy; I understood what it was. There’s a lot of sensor and radar evidence. I believe that if they just release all the footage and say, “Hey, this is what we have, we don’t even have to explain it, we don’t know,” there would be no doubt about whether the phenomenon is real. Everyone would know it.”

Read also:

• Journalist Reveals Bob Lazar’s Astonishing Claim: Extraterrestrials See Humans as ‘Containers of Souls’
• Journalist Reveals First-Ever Photograph of UFO Shot Down in Syria in 2021

Thinking about all the sensor and radar evidence, Roberts said that if they share all the available videos, people would not doubt if the UFO phenomenon is real. He said, “Everyone would know it.” Roberts’ account provides a unique perspective on the UFO phenomenon, combining his military background, access to classified information, and personal experiences with what he believes to be non-human entities.

Mick West, known for debunking UAPs, provided his explanation for the objects: arguing that mundane things – tech glitches, camera glare, balloons, and birds – are more likely than aliens. However, Journalist Daniel Lavelle asked Matthew Roberts about West’s theory to which Roberts politely replied “All aircraft – nationally, internationally – have to broadcast who they are. If they’re not broadcasting that, that’s very unusual. Mick West, bless his soul, he has never been in the military.”

In his book “Initiated: UAP, Dreams, Depression, Delusions, Shadow People, Psychosis, Sleep Paralysis, and Pandemics,” Roberts wrote about his personal interactions with UFOs, aliens (whom he now calls “The Progenitors”), and his intense psychological battle to cope with extraordinary paranormal experiences.

The book describes how Roberts went through strange experiences: encountering UFO aliens, other bizarre entities along with a series of other happenings forced him to question his sanity. “Initiated” tells the story of how Roberts went through tough times but came out on the other side as a changed person. He can now say he is truly “initiated.”

During his AMA on Reddit, Roberts described the non-human entities: “I saw ones that had blue skin and were tall. I saw very tall white ones that resembled Jack Skellington. I saw one that looked like a yard gnome. I saw some that appeared to radiate white light. I don’t know where they were from they never revealed that.”

Matthew Roberts explains that he never tried to film any of the encounters with non-human entities in his bedroom. When asked if he considered setting up a recording device, he mentions that these encounters often happen when individuals are in an altered state or when the entities appear in the sky with a craft, conveniently when the person does not have his cell phone.

He considered recording the experiences but decided against it. He reasons that it would not convince everyone, as some might think he faked it. Roberts believes the argument over the authenticity of any images would overshadow the main point, which is encouraging people to seek and have their own experiences with consciousness. He emphasizes that he does not need people to believe him; instead, he wants others to explore consciousness firsthand.

Roberts asserts that the truth of these experiences has been documented for thousands of years by various individuals, citing such authors as William Walker Atkinson, Mabel Collins, Joseph Campbell, Dr. John Mack, and Dr. Robert Moore. He challenges the notion that he could have orchestrated the biggest hoax in human history, suggesting that there may be something genuinely significant in these experiences.

He points to the wealth of evidence available for those willing to examine it, citing a podcast by Mark Gober called “Where is My Mind,” where accomplished scientists discuss their work on consciousness. Roberts believes that understanding consciousness surviving death is a crucial aspect of our existence, mentioning the Bigelow Institute for Consciousness Studies (BICS) and the substantial prizes offered for evidence of consciousness after death.

He suggested that these entities seem to have a significant level of control over the experiences people have, which contributes to why some individuals perceive these encounters as malevolent or evil. He acknowledged that many people who invest time and money into gathering evidence of these phenomena often end up without conclusive results.

In highlighting the rarity of tangible evidence, Roberts mentioned a particular case involving Peter Khoury, where there was reportedly some DNA evidence. However, he does not go into detail about the specifics of that case.

Roberts shared that his conscious experiences with these entities began in late 2017 and continued until the spring of 2018. During this period, he claimed to have been taken several times a week. He recounts instances of sleep paralysis as a child, where he felt a heavy presence and heard whispers. He mentioned a specific incident when he was a small boy, wrapping himself up tightly in a blanket to prevent the entities from whispering in his ear, a practice he later remembered and replicated as an adult.

In his book, Roberts takes a “mythopoetic approach to alien intrusion,” drawing parallels between his experiences and myths, religious texts, and the Hero’s Journey described by Joseph Campbell. He believes that within these encounters, individuals undergo a transformative process, akin to the cycle of death and resurrection, ultimately leading to a change in oneself.

Because of the intense experiences he had, Matthew Roberts decided to quit his military job. He then went to study psychology to learn more about the mind and emotions related to UFO phenomena. He is also working on another book that explains how his way of thinking influenced the unusual experiences he went through.

{ https://howandwhys.com/ }

06-02-2025 om 21:37 geschreven door peter  

[Video] Ex-US Army Officer Revealed That He Saw A Child-Size Alien After Roswell Crash

By Vicky Verma

The Roswell incident is one of the most popular unsolved mysteries in the world. Dozens of US military officers claimed that the crash involved the extraterrestrial craft with aliens, while skeptics tried hard to deny it. Besides, the US government covered the whole incident calling it a military program (Project Mogul).

Moreover, there are abundant theories that justify the extraterrestrial’s link to the crash that happened in New Mexico in July 1947.

A day after the legendary crash at a ranch near Roswell, the 509th Bomb Group issued a press release and revealed the news of the crashed UFO to the world. 1st Lt. Walter Haut, the public information officer at the 509th Bomb Group based in Roswell, was the first person who disclosed the incredible information to the press.

Unfortunately, a new press release was issued later, that certainly was to change the facts of the first one, and now the crashed UFO turned into crashed weather balloon. It made Haut a figure of public ridicule.

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Lt. Walter Haut was the close friend of Colonel William Blanchard who is regarded as the key player behind the scenes in the recovery of the Roswell disk. Haut swore to Col. Blanchard that he would keep the Roswell secrecy until his last breath. But in 2002, he came up with an idea to slightly reveal what he knew about the Roswell incident without breaking his words.

A video of Lt. Haut has recently been released. It was recorded in 2000, and in the video, he claimed to have seen a body of a “beat-up alien” the “size of a 10-year-old child” after the Roswell UFO crash. The video was first published by UFO researcher Anthony Bragalia, and it was recorded by Haut’s friends Dennis Bathaser and Wendy Connors.

Julie Shuster, Haut’s daughter was worried that the secrets of Roswell would be left behind as the world started losing the first-hand witnesses of the case such as Major Jesse Marcel, the first person who arrived at the crash site. Marcel might have left a cryptic journal behind on the Roswell subject, but Haut was adamant to leave the clear information behind.

Shuster, along with UFO researcher Don Schmitt persuaded her father to have a written document on his exclusive information on Roswell and save it for the future. Haut agreed and signed an affidavit, stating that he had seen a craft from outer space.

“It was not from this Earth, it was something manufactured off this Earth,” he said.

After his death in 2005, the affidavit was first published in a book entitled “Witness to Roswell: Unmasking the Government’s Biggest Cover-Up” (2007), authored by Thomas Carey and Schmitt.

In the affidavit, Haut revealed that there were two crash sites at Roswell, and he witnessed the first object that crashed in 1947. Shuster said that her father did see the bodies, and the craft was about 25 feet in diameter.

Carey and Schmitt became Haut’s friends, who later revealed to them the biggest secret. Carey described that the ship was of the size of a Volkswagen Beetle and was of an egg’s shape. To verify former army press officer claims, Carey and Schmitt found other witnesses with similar information.

Back to Haut’s confessional video, Bragalia said that a Digital Voice Stress Analysis (DVSA) expert looked at Haut’s testimony and concluded that he was telling the truth. Additionally, he said that the government could have been holding the aliens’ bodies in a secured locations “with access only by those with a need to know.”

References:

• https://www.ufoexplorations.com/roswell-officer-speaks-from-the-grave-video-released
• https://www.sbs.com.au/guide/article/2021/07/22/my-father-saw-bodies-chasing-truth-about-roswell

{ https://howandwhys.com/ }

06-02-2025 om 21:12 geschreven door peter  

Terrifying simulation reveals exactly what will happen if asteroid Bennu crashes into Earth in 2182

• READ MORE: NASA video captures first look at 'city-destroying' asteroid 

By WILIAM HUNTER

Of the thousands of space rocks whizzing through the solar system, there is one that has astronomers more worried than any other.

Astronomers predict that the 500-metre-wide asteroid Bennu has a one in 2,700 chance of hitting the planet in 2182 - similar odds to flipping a coin 11 times and getting the same outcome each time.

While the chances of an impact are slim, a terrifying new simulation has revealed exactly what would happen if this deadly asteroid crashed into Earth.

Researchers found that, in addition to a huge blast triggering earthquakes and tsunamis, Bennu's impact would kick up enough dust to trigger a two-year-long 'impact winter'.

Using a supercomputer and cutting-edge climate simulations, researchers from Pusan National University in South Korea predicted what would happen as Bennu injected millions of tonnes of dust into the atmosphere.

As dust blocks out light from the sun, the world would become cold and dry with temperatures falling 4˚C (7.2˚F) and global rainfall reducing by 15 per cent.

In some areas, including North America, precipitation would plummet between 30 and 60 per cent, making it nearly impossible to grow crops.

Lead author Dr Lan Dai, says: 'This would likely cause massive disruptions in global food security.'

Scientists have calculated what would happen if the asteroid Bennu hit the Earth. Their simulations show that the world would become colder, darker, and drier in a years-long 'impact winter' (stock image) 

The 500-metre wide asteroid Bennu (pictured) has a one in 2,700 chance of hitting the planet in 2182 - similar odds to flipping a coin 11 times and getting the same outcome each time.

Unlike the Chicxulub asteroid that wiped out the dinosaurs, a collision with Bennu wouldn't necessarily trigger a mass extinction event.

Asteroids the size of Bennu are believed to hit Earth every 100,000-200,000 years, so it is likely that our early ancestors have already survived one of these impacts.

But what both Chicxulub and Bennu's impact would have in common is the massive disruption of global climate patterns.

Just like the theorised 'nuclear winter' that would follow a thermonuclear war, the explosion of an asteroid impact would eject a vast column of dust into the atmosphere.

If Bennu hit Earth, Dr Dai and his co-authors estimate that 100 to 400 million tonnes of dust would linger above Earth for around two years.

Those dust particles would act like a vast planet-wide umbrella, shading Earth from the sun's radiation and reflecting heat energy back out into space.

At its peak, the amount of shortwave radiation reaching Earth would fall by 28 per cent in the worst-case scenario.

Likewise, global temperature averages would fall by 1.6°C (2.9°F), 2.7°C (4.9°F), 3.4°C (3.1°F), and 4.0°C (7.2˚F) for dust injections of 100, 200, 300, and 400 million tonnes of dust respectively.

If Bennu (illustrated) hit Earth it would first cause an explosion big enough to trigger earthquakes and tsunamis. However, the more lasting impact would come from the 100-400 million tonnes of dust that would be ejected into the atmosphere 

The simulations show that the dust would banket Earth, blocking out the sun and leading to massive reductions in light (purple graph), surface temperature (pink graph), and precipitation (green graph)

Eurasia and North America would experience the most severe and rapid cooling as the dust concentrates in the northern hemisphere during the winter.

The simulation shows that global cooling will persist for up to four years after the impact, with a slow recovery starting after 24 months.

In the worst-case scenario, the rapid 'impact winter' would be equivalent to the disastrous global cooling caused by the Toba eruption which occurred around 74,000 years ago.

Believed to be the worst natural disaster in the past 2.5 million years, the Toba supervolcano triggered a six-year winter which led to mass die-offs and the near extinction of the human species.

Additionally, the researchers predict that the disruption to patterns of evaporation over the oceans will lead to 'massive drying' in many parts of the world.

Six months after the impact, global mean precipitation will be 0.46mm per day less, a reduction of around 15 per cent.

However, this will be accompanied by large increases in precipitation in some areas of the subtropics and severe droughts in others.

To make matters worse, the Bennu dust cloud would also cause rapid erosion of the ozone layer as radiation and heat become trapped in the upper atmosphere.

These maps show the predicted reductions in temperature (top) and precipitation (bottom) for the first two years after an impact. These show that the temperatures would fall by 4˚C (7.2˚F) and global rainfall would reduce by 15 per cent

These conditions would trigger huge reductions in the productivity in land (top) and marine (bottom) ecosystems. That would lower crop yields and destabilise global agriculture. On these maps darker regions show areas of greater reduction. 

The researchers predict that the global ozone column could be depleted by 32 per cent.

Although it would be offset by the blanketing dust, this could lead to dangerous increases in levels of UV radiation which causes sunburns, blindness, and cancer.

In their paper, published in Science Advances, the researchers say these changes would 'severely reduce the habitat suitability for humans'.

Dr Dai says: 'The abrupt "impact winter" would provide unfavourable climate conditions for plants to grow, leading to an initial 20–30 per cent reduction of photosynthesis in terrestrial and marine ecosystems.'

During the first summer after the impact, the rate at which ecosystems grow and store biomass, known as net primary productivity, would fall by 36 per cent on land and 25 per cent in the oceans.

Meanwhile, crop yields in East Asia could fall by as much as 50 per cent, potentially triggering widespread starvation.

However, some of Earth's ecosystems could actually stand to benefit from such a disaster.

Although they initially take a hit, the simulation shows that marine ecosystems would not only survive but thrive in the years after the impact.

If Bennu contains a large amount of iron, it could actually help marine ecosystems flourish by effectively fertilising the oceans. Pictured: A sample of Bennu prepared for testing

As the iron enters the ocean it would lead to an algae bloom, like this one seen over a tropical reef, which would support support the marine ecosystem. The researchers say this could help humanity feed itself during the years of impact winter 

After just six months, plankton in the ocean would have already recovered and would continue to increase to levels not even seen under normal climate conditions.

This unexpected bloom would be caused by a high proportion of iron in the asteroid's dust.

Iron is a key nutrient for plankton's growth but many areas such as the Southern Ocean and the eastern tropical Pacific are naturally iron-poor.

As the dust from the asteroid settles it would trigger a bloom of photosynthesising diatoms which in turn would attract zooplankton, small predators which feed on the diatoms.

'The simulated excessive phytoplankton and zooplankton blooms might be a blessing for the biosphere and may help alleviate emerging food insecurity related to the longer-lasting reduction in terrestrial productivity,' says Dai.

KILLING OFF THE DINOSAURS: HOW A CITY-SIZED ASTEROID WIPED OUT 75 PER CENT OF ALL ANIMAL AND PLANT SPECIES

Around 66 million years ago non-avian dinosaurs were wiped out and more than half the world's species were obliterated.

This mass extinction paved the way for the rise of mammals and the appearance of humans.

The Chicxulub asteroid is often cited as a potential cause of the Cretaceous-Paleogene extinction event.

The asteroid slammed into a shallow sea in what is now the Gulf of Mexico.

The collision released a huge dust and soot cloud that triggered global climate change, wiping out 75 per cent of all animal and plant species.

Researchers claim that the soot necessary for such a global catastrophe could only have come from a direct impact on rocks in shallow water around Mexico, which are especially rich in hydrocarbons.

Within 10 hours of the impact, a massive tsunami waved ripped through the Gulf coast, experts believe.

Around 66 million years ago non-avian dinosaurs were wiped out and more than half the world's species were obliterated. The Chicxulub asteroid is often cited as a potential cause of the Cretaceous-Paleogene extinction event (stock image)

This caused earthquakes and landslides in areas as far as Argentina. 

While investigating the event researchers found small particles of rock and other debris that was shot into the air when the asteroid crashed.

Called spherules, these small particles covered the planet with a thick layer of soot.

Experts explain that losing the light from the sun caused a complete collapse in the aquatic system.

This is because the phytoplankton base of almost all aquatic food chains would have been eliminated.

It's believed that the more than 180 million years of evolution that brought the world to the Cretaceous point was destroyed in less than the lifetime of a Tyrannosaurus rex, which is about 20 to 30 years.

{ https://www.dailymail.co.uk/ }

06-02-2025 om 18:48 geschreven door peter  

BREAKING NEWS - NASA gives major update on stranded astronauts' rescue mission after Trump demanded they be brought home

By ELLYN LAPOINTE FOR DAILYMAIL.COM

NASA is bringing forward a new rescue mission for stranded astronauts after mounting political pressure.

Insiders say the space agency will bring Sunita Williams and Butch Wilmore home around March 19 — about two weeks earlier than the original early April return.

By that date, they will have spent 286 days in space. 

Williams and Willmore have been stuck on the International Space Station (ISS) since June 2024, bringing them close to eight months on the orbiting laboratory when they were originally scheduled for an eight-day stay.

The new plan should allow the spacecraft that will bring Williams and Wilmore home to depart from the ISS earlier than previously scheduled. 

The move comes less than one week since President Donald Trump told Elon Musk to 'go get' the pair after they were 'virtually abandoned by the Biden administration.'

Thus, Musk and Trump may see this scheduling change as a political win. 

But NASA sources told Ars Technica that this contingency plan was set into motion before Trump took office and was just recently greenlit. 

NASA is expected to announce a new return date for astronauts Sunita Williams and Butch Wilmore, who have been stuck on the ISS for more than eight months

The Space X Crew-10 mission was initially scheduled to launch in February, but a technical issue with the new Dragon capsule SpaceX intended to use prompted NASA to push the launch back to March. 

This decision also delayed Williams and Wilmore's flight back to Earth from the International Space Station (ISS), with NASA giving an estimated return date of early April. 

That's because the stranded astronauts are planning to hitch a ride home on the SpaceX Crew-9 return flight. The Crew-9 astronauts and their spacecraft have been at the ISS with Williams and Wilmore since September 29.

But they cannot depart from the space station until the Crew-10 astronauts arrive to replace them. 

That is because NASA protocol necessitates a 'handover period,' or a window of time where the previous ISS crew overlaps with the incoming crew to share information with them and ensure a smooth transition between the two teams. 

Therefore, getting the Crew-10 mission off the ground sooner would also allow Williams and Wilmore to come home earlier. 

The Dragon capsule SpaceX was originally planning to use for this mission — called C213 — is still under development, and the Crew-10 mission was supposed to be its maiden voyage.

But SpaceX and NASA are currently working to resolve a technical issue with C213 Dragon, which may be related to batteries on the spacecraft, Ars Technica reported. 

As a result, NASA decided that C213 would not be ready to launch until late April. 

At first, NASA opted to push back the Crew-9 return date in order to accommodate the Crew-10 mission delay. 

But at this point, if NASA waited for C213 to be ready to launch the Crew-10 mission, the astronauts currently on board the ISS 'would start to approach "redlines" on food, water and other supplies,' Ars Technica reported.  

So, in the interest of returning NASA's stranded astronauts to Earth 'as soon as possible' (as SpaceX CEO Elon Musk recently promised to do) NASA and SpaceX have reportedly decided to replace C213 with the C210 vehicle, which was used for the Crew-7 mission that returned to Earth in March 2024. 

Known as 'Endurance,' this spacecraft will now be used to launch the Crew-10 mission no earlier than March 12, sources told Ars Technica. 

If Crew-10 launches on time, Williams, Wilmore and the Crew-9 astronauts could return to Earth on March 19. 

By that date, Williams and Wilmore will have spent 286 days in space, which is far longer than their mission was originally intended to be. 

One June 5, these two NASA astronauts flew to the ISS for what was supposed to be an eight-day aboard the floating laboratory. 

But their spacecraft, Boeing's Starliner, was mired by technical issues before, during and after the launch, prompting NASA to delay the astronauts' return while the agency worked with Boeing to resolve the issues.

Ultimately, Starliner was deemed unfit to carry Williams and Wilmore home, and thus the spacecraft returned to Earth uncrewed in September. 

Since then, the two astronauts have been waiting to come home aboard the Crew-9 spacecraft, which arrived at the ISS later that same month. 

On January 28, Elon Musk made a post on his social media platform, X, stating: 'The [President of the United States] has asked [SpaceX] to bring home the 2 astronauts stranded on the as soon as possible. We will do so. Terrible that the Biden administration left them there so long.'

President Donald Trump confirmed the plan in a post on his own social media site, Truth Social: 'I have just asked Elon Musk and [SpaceX] to “go get” the 2 brave astronauts who have been virtually abandoned in space by the Biden Administration. 

'They have been waiting for many months on [the ISS]. Elon will soon be on his way. Hopefully, all will be safe. Good luck Elon!!!'

The statements spurred confusion as they seemed to convey that Musk himself would be flying to the ISS (which is not the case) and undermined the fact that SpaceX had already been tasked with bringing Williams and Wilmore home. 

With NASA now moving to bring the Starliner crew home two weeks earlier just days after these statements were made, it may appear as though the schedule change was politically motivated. 

But Ars Technica reported that the scheduling change was made spurred by 'pragmatism,' not politics.

Prior to the Crew-10 spacecraft swap, Endurance was not scheduled to fly again until later this spring, when it would launch the private Axiom-4 mission to the space station.

As a result, Axiom-4's will be delayed, sources said. 

{ https://www.dailymail.co.uk/ }

06-02-2025 om 18:16 geschreven door peter  

Alien life may look nothing like life on Earth — so how should we go about looking for it?

Detecting life beyond Earth

Since the first discovery of an exoplanet in 1995, over 5,000 exoplanets, or planets orbiting other stars, have been found.

Many of these exoplanets are small and rocky, like Earth, and in the habitable zones of their stars. The habitable zone is the range of distances between the surface of a planet and the star it orbits that would allow the planet to have liquid water, and thus support life as we on Earth know it.

The sample of exoplanets detected so far projects 300 million potential biological experiments in our galaxy — or 300 million places, including exoplanets and other bodies such as moons, with suitable conditions for biology to arise.

The uncertainty for researchers starts with the definition of life. It feels like defining life should be easy, since we know life when we see it, whether it's a flying bird or a microbe moving in a drop of water. But scientists don't agree on a definition, and some think a comprehensive definition might not be possible.

Related: 

• 12 strange reasons humans haven't found alien life yet

NASA defines life as a "self-sustaining chemical reaction capable of Darwinian evolution." That means organisms with a complex chemical system that evolve by adapting to their environment. Darwinian evolution says that the survival of an organism depends on its fitness in its environment.

The evolution of life on Earth has progressed over billions of years from single-celled organisms to large animals and other species, including humans.

Spectroscopy might detect signatures of oxygen in a planet's atmosphere, which microbes called blue-green algae created by photosynthesis on Earth several billion years ago, or chlorophyll signatures, which indicate plant life.

NASA's definition of life leads to some important but unanswered questions. Is Darwinian evolution universal? What chemical reactions can lead to biology off Earth?

Evolution and complexity

All life on Earth, from a fungal spore to a blue whale, evolved from a microbial last common ancestor about 4 billion years ago.

The same chemical processes are seen in all living organisms on Earth, and those processes might be universal. They also may be radically different elsewhere.

In October 2024, a diverse group of scientists gathered to think outside the box on evolution. They wanted to step back and explore what sort of processes created order in the universe — biological or not — to figure out how to study the emergence of life totally unlike life on Earth.

Two researchers present argued that complex systems of chemicals or minerals, when in environments that allow some configurations to persist better than others, evolve to store larger amounts of information. As time goes by, the system will grow more diverse and complex, gaining the functions needed for survival, through a kind of natural selection.

They speculated that there might be a law to describe the evolution of a wide variety of physical systems. Biological evolution through natural selection would be just one example of this broader law.

In biology, information refers to the instructions stored in the sequence of nucleotides on a DNA molecule, which collectively make up an organism's genome and dictate what the organism looks like and how it functions.

If you define complexity in terms of information theory, natural selection will cause a genome to grow more complex as it stores more information about its environment.

Complexity might be useful in measuring the boundary between life and nonlife.

However, it's wrong to conclude that animals are more complex than microbes. Biological information increases with genome size, but evolutionary information density drops. Evolutionary information density is the fraction of functional genes within the genome, or the fraction of the total genetic material that expresses fitness for the environment.

Organisms that people think of as primitive, such as bacteria, have genomes with high information density and so appear better designed than the genomes of plants or animals.

A universal theory of life is still elusive. Such a theory would include the concepts of complexity and information storage, but it would not be tied to DNA or the particular kinds of cells we find in terrestrial biology.

Implications for the search for extraterrestrial life

Researchers have explored alternatives to terrestrial biochemistry. All known living organisms, from bacteria to humans, contain water, and it is a solvent that is essential for life on Earth. A solvent is a liquid medium that facilitates chemical reactions from which life could emerge. But life could potentially emerge from other solvents, too.

Astrobiologists Willam Bains and Sara Seager have explored thousands of molecules that might be associated with life. Plausible solvents include sulfuric acid, ammonia, liquid carbon dioxide and even liquid sulfur.

Alien life might not be based on carbon, which forms the backbone of all life's essential molecules — at least here on Earth. It might not even need a planet to survive.

Advanced forms of life on alien planets could be so strange that they're unrecognizable. As astrobiologists try to detect life off Earth, they'll need to be creative.

One strategy is to measure mineral signatures on the rocky surfaces of exoplanets, since mineral diversity tracks terrestrial biological evolution. As life evolved on Earth, it used and created minerals for exoskeletons and habitats. The hundred minerals present when life first formed have grown to about 5,000 today.

For example, zircons are simple silicate crystals that date back to the time before life started. A zircon found in Australia is the oldest known piece of Earth's crust. But other minerals, such as apatite, a complex calcium phosphate mineral, are created by biology. Apatite is a primary ingredient in bones, teeth and fish scales.

Another strategy to finding life unlike that on Earth is to detect evidence of a civilization, such as artificial lights, or the industrial pollutant nitrogen dioxide in the atmosphere. These are examples of tracers of intelligent life called technosignatures.

It's unclear how and when a first detection of life beyond Earth will happen. It might be within the solar system, or by sniffing exoplanet atmospheres, or by detecting artificial radio signals from a distant civilization.

The search is a twisting road, not a straightforward path. And that's for life as we know it — for life as we don't know it, all bets are off.

• This edited article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

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06-02-2025 om 17:44 geschreven door peter  

Watch humanoid robots waltzing seamlessly with humans thanks to AI motion tracking software upgrade

Humanoid robots could soon move in a far more realistic manner — and even dance just like us — thanks to a new software framework for tracking human motion.

Developed by researchers at UC San Diego, UC Berkeley, MIT, and Nvidia, "ExBody2" is a new technology that enables humanoid robots to perform realistic movements based on detailed scans and motion-tracked visualizations of humans.

The researchers hope that future humanoid robots could perform a much wider range of tasks by mimicking human movements more accurately. For example, the teaching method could help robots operate in roles requiring fine movements — such as retrieving items from shelves — or moving with care around humans or other machines.

ExBody2 works by taking simulated movements based on motion-capture scans of humans and translating them into usable motion data for the robot to replicate. The framework can replicate complex movements using the robot, which would let robots move less rigidly and adapt to different tasks without needing extensive retraining.

Related: 

• 8 of the weirdest robots in the world right now

This is all taught using reinforcement learning, a subset of machine learning in which the robot is fed large amounts of data to ensure it takes the optimal route in any given situation. Good outputs, simulated by researchers, are assigned positive or negative scores to "reward" the model for desirable outcomes, which here meant replicating motions precisely without compromising the bot's stability.

The framework can also take short motion clips, such as a few seconds of dancing, and synthesize new frames of movement for reference, to enable robots to complete longer-duration movements.

Dancing with robots

In a video posted to YouTube, a robot trained through ExBody2 dances, spars and exercises alongside a human subject. Additionally, the robot mimics a researcher's movement in real time, using additional code titled "HybrIK: Hybrid Analytical-Neural Inverse Kinematics for Body Mesh Recovery" developed by the Machine Vision and Intelligence Group at Shanghai Jiao Tong University.

At present, ExBody2's dataset is largely focused on upper-body movements. In a study, uploaded Dec. 17, 2024 to the preprint server ArXiv, the researchers behind the framework explained that this is due to concerns that introducing too much movement in the lower half of the robot will cause instability.

"Overly simplistic tasks could limit the training policy's ability to generalize to new situations, while overly complex tasks might exceed the robot's operational capabilities, leading to ineffective learning outcomes," they wrote. "Part of our dataset preparation, therefore, includes the exclusion or modification of entries that featured complex lower body movements beyond the robot's capabilities."

The researchers' dataset contains more than 2,800 movements, with 1,919 of these coming from the Archive of Motion Capture As Surface Shapes (AMASS) dataset. This is a large dataset of human motions, including more than 11,000 individual human movements and 40 hours of detailed motion data, intended for non-commercial deep learning — when a neural network is trained on vast amounts of data to identify or reproduce patterns.

Having proven ExBody2's effectiveness at replicating human-like movement in humanoid robots, the team will now turn to the problem of achieving these results without having to manually curate datasets to ensure only suitable information is available to the framework. The researchers suggest that, in the future, automated dataset collection will help smooth this process.

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{ https://www.livescience.com/ }

06-02-2025 om 17:12 geschreven door peter  

10 Stunning Ancient Megaliths That Eclipse Stonehenge

These ancient structures offer glimpses into early civilizations' ingenuity, cultural practices, and perhaps even their understanding of the cosmos.

Megalithic wonders span the globe, each cloaked in mystery and awe-inspiring history. While Stonehenge often steals the spotlight, several other megaliths rival—and sometimes surpass—it in scale, age, and intrigue. These ancient structures offer glimpses into early civilizations’ ingenuity, cultural practices, and perhaps even their understanding of the cosmos.

Let’s explore 10 awe-inspiring megalithic sites that challenge Stonehenge’s legacy and continue to baffle archaeologists.

1. The Carnac Stones: A Sea of Ancient Monoliths

In Brittany, France, the Carnac Stones stretch across the landscape in linear and circular formations. Dating back approximately 6,000 years, this site comprises around 3,000 stones, some towering over 20 feet (6.5 meters). While some stones appear to mark graves, others stand alone, hinting at ceremonial or astronomical purposes.

2. Nan Madol: A Lost City of Stone

Off the coast of Micronesia lies Nan Madol, a series of artificial islets constructed from basalt columns. This ancient city, dating back over 1,000 years, is believed to have been a ceremonial and political hub for the Saudeleur dynasty. Its unique construction and remote location make it one of the most mysterious megalithic sites in the world.

3. Göbekli Tepe: The World’s Oldest Sanctuary

Hidden in southeastern Turkey, Göbekli Tepe predates Stonehenge by over 6,000 years. This extraordinary site, believed to be more than 11,000 years old, consists of towering T-shaped pillars carved with intricate depictions of animals such as foxes, boars, and vultures. Thought to be a ceremonial gathering spot for hunter-gatherers, Göbekli Tepe challenges our understanding of prehistoric societies and their capabilities. The exact purpose of this site remains a subject of ongoing debate, adding to its allure.

4. The Spanish Stonehenge: Resurfacing Through Time

Known as the Dolmen of Guadalperal, this megalithic marvel in western Spain dates back nearly 7,000 years. Submerged beneath a reservoir for decades, the site occasionally emerges during droughts, revealing its central oval arrangement of around 150 standing stones. Some stones feature carvings of human figures and possible river symbols, sparking debates about their cultural significance.

5. Ale’s Stones: Sweden’s Mysterious Ship

Perched on a cliff near the village of Kåseberga, Ale’s Stones consists of 59 massive boulders arranged in the shape of a ship. Weighing up to 4,000 pounds (1,800 kilograms) each, the stones’ purpose remains uncertain, with theories ranging from a solar calendar to a burial site. Estimated to be between 1,000 and 2,500 years old, Ale’s Stones continues to intrigue archaeologists and visitors alike.

6. Avebury: Stonehenge’s Larger Cousin

Located in southwest England, Avebury boasts the world’s largest stone circle, with a diameter of approximately 1,378 feet (420 meters). This massive structure, dating back to around 2500 BCE, is surrounded by two smaller stone circles and features avenues leading to nearby prehistoric sites. As part of a sprawling Neolithic landscape, Avebury highlights the complexity of ancient communities and their impressive engineering skills.

7. Puma Punku: The Precision of Ancient Bolivia

High in the Andes lies Puma Punku, a megalithic site within the Tiwanaku complex in Bolivia. The site is famous for its precisely cut andesite blocks, some weighing over 100 tons. Dating back at least 1,500 years, Puma Punku’s advanced engineering continues to baffle experts, who struggle to explain how such precision was achieved without modern tools.

8. The Giants’ Tombs of Sardinia

Scattered across Sardinia, these megalithic tombs date back to the Bronze Age, roughly 3,500 years ago. Known as “Tombe dei Giganti,” the structures are characterized by large stone slabs arranged in a semi-circular fashion. These enigmatic tombs are thought to be burial sites, but their exact rituals and cultural significance remain unknown.

9. The Ring of Brodgar: Scotland’s Sacred Circle

Situated on Orkney’s largest island, the Ring of Brodgar is a majestic stone circle dating back to approximately 2500 BCE. Originally composed of 60 stones, of which 36 remain, this site measures 341 feet (104 meters) in diameter. Nearby burial mounds suggest the circle served as a ceremonial site honoring the dead, blending rituals and astronomy into its purpose.

10. Rujm el-Hiri: The Wheel of Giants

Nestled in the contested Golan Heights, Rujm el-Hiri is a striking series of concentric stone circles surrounding a central tumulus. Dubbed the “Wheel of Giants” or the “Levantine Stonehenge,” this site dates back around 6,000 years. Though its purpose remains unclear, theories suggest it may have been used for burials or astronomical observations.

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06-02-2025 om 16:45 geschreven door peter