This Revolutionary Telescope Could Be the Ultimate Exoplanet Hunter

Unlike its predecessors, HWO is specifically designed to search for habitable worlds.

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• James Webb Space Telescope (JWST): Since its 2021 launch, JWST has provided groundbreaking insights into the earliest galaxies, the birth of stars, and the chemistry of exoplanet atmospheres.
• Euclid Space Telescope (2023): Designed to map the large-scale structure of the universe, Euclid is helping scientists understand the mysterious forces of dark matter and dark energy.
• SPHEREx & PLATO (2025–2026): SPHEREx will conduct an all-sky infrared survey of millions of galaxies, while PLATO will specialize in finding Earth-sized exoplanets orbiting distant stars.
• Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope (2027): Known as the “Mother of Hubble”, Roman will revolutionize deep-space imaging with a field of view 100 times larger than Hubble’s.

Each of these missions plays a critical role in preparing for HWO, which will take exoplanet research to a whole new level.

What Makes the Habitable Worlds Observatory Different?

Unlike its predecessors, HWO is specifically designed to search for habitable worlds. While JWST and other telescopes have analyzed exoplanet atmospheres, they were not built primarily for detecting biosignatures—chemical signs of life. HWO will change that.

Key Features of HWO:

• Large Segmented Mirror: Expected to be 6 to 8 meters in diameter, allowing for extremely detailed observations.
• Advanced Coronagraph: This technology will block out the blinding light of stars, revealing the faint glow of planets in orbit.
• Multi-Wavelength Observations: HWO will study planets in visible, ultraviolet, and infrared light, providing a complete picture of their atmospheres.
• Biosignature Detection: The telescope will search for key gases like oxygen, ozone, and methane, which could indicate biological activity.

NASA astrophysicist Dr. Aki Roberge explains, “HWO will be capable of detecting planets that are not just Earth-sized, but truly Earth-like—worlds with atmospheres and conditions that could support life.”

A Super-Hubble for the 2030s

HWO is being designed to go far beyond exoplanet studies. Scientists expect it to redefine our understanding of the universe, tackling some of the biggest mysteries in cosmology:

• Dark Matter & Dark Energy: Studying the forces that shape the universe.
• Galactic Evolution: Observing how galaxies change over billions of years.
• Stellar & Planetary Formation: Analyzing how solar systems like ours emerge and evolve.

Although HWO is still in its early development phase, a significant milestone was achieved on August 1, 2024, when NASA established the Habitable Worlds Observatory Technology Maturation Project Office (HTMPO). This office will oversee the telescope’s design, technology testing, and mission planning.

By the late 2020s, NASA hopes to finalize the Mission Concept Review (MCR), moving HWO into Phase A development. If all goes as planned, the telescope could launch in the 2030s, ushering in a new era of space exploration.

The Habitable Worlds Observatory combines elements from the earlier LUVOIR and HabEx concepts.

What If HWO Finds Life?

The implications of this mission could be game-changing. If HWO detects a biosignature in an exoplanet atmosphere, it would mark one of the most profound discoveries in human history. As NASA researchers put it, “If life exists beyond Earth, HWO will be the telescope that finds it.”

Even if no biosignatures are detected, HWO will still provide invaluable insights into planetary diversity, helping scientists understand what makes a world truly habitable.

NASA is currently seeking scientists to join the HWO Community Science and Instrument Team (CSIT), a group tasked with refining the mission’s scientific goals. This is a crucial step toward defining what instruments the telescope will carry and how it will operate.

The next decade will be a defining moment for astrobiology. With JWST, Roman, and HWO working together, we may finally uncover the truth about life in the cosmos.

{ https://curiosmos.com/ }

09-02-2025 om 22:12 geschreven door peter  

Could This Simple Chemical Test Unlock the Mystery of Life on Mars?

The search for life beyond Earth has long focused on detecting biosignatures—chemical traces of biological activity.

Strange surface features on Mars.

Malin Space Science Systems/NASA/JPL-Caltech

“Our astrobiology research group is highly interdisciplinary, comprising biologists, aerospace engineers, medical engineers, chemists, geologists, and physicists,” Riekeles explained. “We often hold collaborative discussions to bring together diverse perspectives and brainstorm innovative solutions.”

Why L-Serine Could Be Key to Detecting Martian Microbes

L-serine is not just another amino acid—it has cosmic significance. Scientists have detected it in meteorites and on the asteroid Ryugu, suggesting that it has existed since before the formation of the Solar System. Since both Earth and Mars were bombarded by carbon-rich asteroids in their early history, it’s reasonable to assume L-serine is present on Mars as well.

“If life developed on Mars with a similar biochemistry to known life on Earth, it seems plausible that L-serine could also be a potent chemoattractant for hypothetical Martian microbes,” Riekes continued. “Additionally, the environmental conditions of early Mars, which were warmer and likely supported liquid water, resemble those of early Earth, making a similar biochemistry of putative Martian microbes plausible.”

To test this hypothesis, the researchers studied extremophiles—microbes that thrive in extreme environments similar to those found on Mars. They selected three species:

• Bacillus subtilis spores, capable of surviving extreme heat up to 100°C.
• Pseudoalteromonas haloplanktis, found in Antarctica and adapted to temperatures as low as -2.5°C.
• Haloferax volcanii, an archaeon that thrives in highly saline conditions, resembling environments that could exist on Mars.

Each of these microorganisms responded to L-serine by actively moving toward it, confirming its effectiveness in stimulating microbial motion.

A Simple, Space-Ready Life Detection Device

The team designed a minimalist, easy-to-use detection system that could be adapted for planetary missions. Their device consists of two chambers—one containing a microbial sample and the other filled with L-serine—separated by a thin membrane. If microbes are present and motile, they will swim toward the amino acid, providing a clear signal of life.

However, refining this device for real-world deployment poses additional challenges. Space missions require ultra-compact, resilient, and automated equipment. The researchers are now working to make their apparatus smaller, sturdier, and capable of functioning autonomously in space.

Beyond Mars: Expanding the Search for Life

While Mars remains the primary target, this technology could be used on other celestial bodies suspected to harbor life. Europa, one of Jupiter’s moons, has a subsurface ocean beneath its icy crust, making it an ideal candidate for this type of microbial detection.

The Berlin-based team is also exploring applications beyond space exploration. Similar technology could be adapted for water quality testing on Earth, offering new ways to detect microbial contamination in drinking water and environmental monitoring.

“We are continuing to develop the device to improve its Technology Readiness Level,” Riekeles said. “Our focus is on making it smaller, more robust, and fully automated to meet the requirements of space exploration. While we are driving the development process internally, we plan to collaborate with third parties, like space agencies, to ensure it becomes flight-ready.”

{ https://curiosmos.com/ }

09-02-2025 om 21:45 geschreven door peter  

NASA’s Revolutionary LISTER Mission Could Unlock the Moon’s Secrets

LISTER aims to change that. By measuring the Moon’s internal heat flow, scientists can reconstruct its thermal history—shedding light on how the celestial body evolved over billions of years.

{ https://curiosmos.com/ }

09-02-2025 om 21:27 geschreven door peter  

Anatomy of an Impact and its Aftermath

The impactor probably slammed into the surface at nearly 55,000 kilometers per hour. The crash is what produced the enormous 320-kilometer-diameter Schrödinger impact basin. In the aftermath, the rocky debris scoured the deep canyons.

Schrödinger formed in the outer margin of the South Pole-Aitken (SPA) basin. At a diameter of about 2,400 km, it’s the largest and oldest impact basin on the Moon. The basin’s rim is about 300 km from the South Pole and within 125 km of the proposed exploration site for the Artemis mission.

The Schrödinger crater has a ~150-km diameter peak ring and the whole area is surrounded by a blanket of impact ejecta that splashed out in an irregular pattern up to 500 km away. The outermost crater ring resembles a circular mountain range and rises 1 to 2.5 km above the basin floor. It was produced by the collapse of a central uplift after the impact. After the impact, basaltic lava flows flooded the area. A large pyroclastic vent erupted more material onto the basin floor. That volcanic activity ended around 3.7 billion years ago.

Impact Anomalies

A careful analysis of the impact basin the canyons, and the ejecta surrounding the site by Kring and a team of scientists at the Lunar Planetary Laboratory, gives an idea of impact details. In a paper released about the site, the scientists discuss its features, plus some unusual finds. For example, the canyon rays don’t converge at the basin’s center as you might expect from typical impacts. They seem to come together in a different spot. That implies a point explosion impact.

The location of the converging rays suggests that the incoming asteroid’s trajectory was about 33.5 west of north. The evidence also points to a distributed impact. That could mean the impactor came in at a low angle. Or, it’s also possible that secondary ejecta from the impact also came in at low angles. There are many secondary craters in the area which help explain the possibilities. Continued analysis will help explain the huge amounts of energy released in the event. Gareth Collins, one of Kring’s team members, said, “The Schrödinger crater is similar in many regards to the dino-killing Chicxulub crater on Earth. By showing how Schrödinger’s km-deep canyons formed, this work has helped to illuminate how energetic the ejecta from these impacts can be.”

Future Exploration

Of course, these rays and the impact basin will end up as great exploration points for NASA’s upcoming Artemis missions. Right now, the evidence from the ejecta blanket points to the fact that there’s an uneven distribution, particularly in the area where the first missions are planned. That will allow astronauts and robotic probes to reach underlying samples of the Moon’s primordial crust without having to dig through rocks of a younger age.

Since the basin is the second-youngest basin on the Moon, the impact melted rocks will be a great way to test the actual age of the impact. The general understanding is that some 3.8 billion years ago, the Moon (and Earth) experienced a great many of these collisions. This epoch was the Late Heavy Bombardment, thought to have lasted up to 200 million years. The continual impacts during this time scarred the surfaces of the rocky planets and the Moon, as well as asteroids. Lunar rocks created as a result of lava flows at that time will open a window into their ages and mineralogy, especially compared to other, older rock formations. They should also improve our understanding of that period of solar system history. In particular, it can help scientists characterize the impacts on Earth that affected not just the surface, but its life forms.

For More Information

• Grand Canyons on the Moon (journal article)
  
• Grand Canyons on the Moon

{ https://www.universetoday.com }

09-02-2025 om 18:34 geschreven door peter  

Traditionally, the discussion of space junk and the Kessler Syndrome has focused on how debris in orbit will pose a hazard for future satellites, payloads, and current and future space stations. In 2030, NASA and its many partnered space agencies plan to decommission the International Space Station (ISS) after thirty years of continuous service. However, this situation will also mean that more debris will be deorbiting regularly, not all of which will completely burn up in Earth’s atmosphere.

An illustration of a field of orbital debris, or space junk, circling Earth. 

NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center/JSC

While the chance of debris hitting an aircraft is very low (one in 430,000, according to their paper), the UBC team’s research highlights the potential for disruption to commercial air flights and the additional costs it will lead to. The situation of more launches and more hazards is illustrated perfectly by the “rapid unscheduled disassembly” (RUD) of the Starship on January 16th, during its seventh orbital flight test. The explosion, which happened shortly after the prototype reentered Earth’s atmosphere, caused debris to rain down on the residents of the Turks and Caicos. Said Wright in a UBC News release:

“The recent explosion of a SpaceX Starship shortly after launch demonstrated the challenges of having to suddenly close airspace. The authorities set up a ‘keep out’ zone for aircraft, many of which had to turn around or divert their flight path. And this was a situation where we had good information about where the rocket debris was likely to come down, which is not the case for uncontrolled debris re-entering the atmosphere from orbit.”

A similar situation happened in 2022 when the spent stages of a Chinese Long March 5B (CZ-5B) weighing about 20 metric tons (22 U.S. tons) prompted Spanish and French aviation authorities to close parts of their airspace. If spent stages and other payloads have a low enough orbit, they can reenter Earth’s orbit uncontrolled, and large portions may make it to the ground. In addition to the record number of launches last year, there were also 120 uncontrolled rocket debris re-entries while more than 2,300 spent rocket stages are still in orbit.

According to the International Air Transport Association, passenger numbers are expected to increase by almost 7% this year. With rocket launches and commercial flights increasing at their current rate, Wright and his colleagues say that action must be taken to mitigate the potential risks. As part of their study, the team selected the busiest day and location for air traffic in 2023, which was in the skies above Denver, Colorado – with one aircraft for every 18 square km (~7 mi²). They then paired this to the probability of spent rock stages reentering Earth’s atmosphere (based on a decade of data) above the flights.

With this as their peak, they calculated the probability of rocket debris reentering the atmosphere over different air traffic density thresholds. Their results showed that for regions experiencing 10% peak air traffic density or higher, there was a 26% chance of deorbited rocket debris entering that airspace. “Notably, the airspace over southern Europe that was closed in 2022 is only five percent of the peak,” said Wright. “Around the world, there is a 75-per-cent chance of a re-entry in such regions each year.”

At present, whenever orbital debris reenters the atmosphere around busy airspace, aviation authorities will respond by diverting flight paths, closing airspace, or taking the risk of allowing flights to continue. “But why should authorities have to make these decisions in the first place? Uncontrolled rocket body re-entries are a design choice, not a necessity,” said Dr. Boley. “The space industry is effectively exporting its risk to airlines and passengers.”

One possibility is to design rocket stages to reenter the atmosphere in a controlled way so they can crash into the ocean far away from busy air traffic lanes. However, this solution requires collective international action. “Countries and companies that launch satellites won’t spend the money to improve their rocket designs unless all of them are required to do so,” said Dr. Byers. “So, we need governments to come together and adopt some new standards here.”

Further Reading: 

• UBC, 
• Scientific Reports

{ https://www.universetoday.com }

09-02-2025 om 18:21 geschreven door peter  

A series of articles based on evidence of Reincarnation and Life after Death

1. The Afterlife Investigations
2. Is there Life before Life?
3. Reincarnation: The Boy Who Lived Before..
4. The Afterlife: 'Quantum theory of soul's existence'
5. Proof of Heaven
6. UFO expert describes Grey ETs and how the soul enters the body

1. The Afterlife Investigation

Breakthrough scientific evidence for the afterlife. The Scole Experiments. For five years a group of mediums and scientists witnessed more phenomena than in any other experiment in the history of the paranormal, including recorded conversations with the dead, written messages on sealed film, video of spirit faces and even spirit forms materializing.

These experiments may finally convince you there is life after death. The scientific team in change of overseeing these experiments include world renowned Cambridge Scientist - Dr. Rupert Sheldrake, Dr. David Fontana and Researcher Montague Keen who died during the filming of the documentary

2. Is there Life before Life?

Evidence that we have lived before

1. People who claim to have lived prior lives have always seemed fake to me. Too often they claim to have been someone famous, like an Egyptian Pharaoh, Napoleon or Joan of Ark. Certainly, if reincarnation is real, it is not limited to the rich and famous...Article: Scientific Proof of Reincarnation

2. James Leininger was not yet 2 years old when he began to have terrible nightmares. His parents knew he would outgrow them, but his screams frightened them. When they would come to his bedside, they often found him on his back, kicking his legs in the air and thrashing his arms -- as if he were trying to escape from an imaginary box. He would also yell some garbled words that his parents could not understand...Article: Convincing Cases of Past Lives

3. Rabbi Yonassan Gershom is a Hasidic Jew and author of Beyond the Ashes -- Cases of Reincarnation from the Holocaust. Hasitism is a branch of Orthodox Judaism that promotes spirituality and joy through Jewish mysticism. This very ancient mystic tradition is based on the Talmud and the teachings of the more recent Kabbala...Article: What Did Jesus Say?

4. While most people think of reincarnation as a dogma of religion or an interesting philosophy, the Buddhist monks in Tibet have developed it into a science.

This ancient and isolated Himalayan community has a tradition of contemplating and recording the aspects of human consciousness. Buddha, himself, began these thought experiments as a means of understanding human suffering. He discovered that our misery comes from our reluctance to accept change and our emotional attachment to both situations and material objects. Buddha understood that change is an inevitable process with time and he devised a method for detaching oneself, mentally and emotionally, from transient phenomenon...Article: Tibetan Buddhism: Rebirth v Reincarnation

5. Hinduism is the oldest and most intellectual religion in human history. Great minds contemplated ideas about God, the soul and human existence long before there was a written language to record such things. As such, the religion was mainly an oral tradition. There is no known founder. Yet the ideas about reincarnation, the laws of karma and the abstract nature of the Creator remain the ultimate revelation and source of almost all other faiths. We explore Hinduism, the Bhagavad-gita and Krishna Consciousness in this summary...Article: Hinduism: The Source of Knowledge

6. "Seeing the light" refers to the personal experience that is reported when one remembers their true identity as something "other than this body." There are many methods that have been used to achieve this goal. Meditation and good living are important but some ancient cults also used a technique that involved fire or reflected light. The method, called "phosphenes" is explored and a possible explanation of how it works is given for consideration. We start this journey in Greece, about 3600 years ago, during the Bronze Age. Our focus is part of a secret cult called the Eleusinian Mysteries...Article: Seeing the Light

7. This is a "true" story of a hypnosis session where an obese patient was receiving therapy for overeating. The hypnotist attempted to suggest that the patient remember how it felt to be thin and began a typical regression procedure. Not being careful on the selection of words, the therapist regressed the patient back to a time "when you were light". This reference to light apparently brought the patient back to a time between incarnations -- only the subsequent life that was recalled was not in the past... This amazing transcript is reproduced, word for word, and describes a life in the future. What do humans look like? How do we live? What mysteries have we solved? Although we cannot vouch for its authenticity, it is certainly a thought provoking and interesting read...Article: Can We Recall FUTURE Lives?

3. Refreshing take on Reincarnation: The Boy Who Lived Before..

Documentaries all too often come with attitude. Last week, when Dominion Post film critic Graeme Tuckett said that one of the strengths of the film festival's My Kid Could Paint That was that it made you have to make up your own mind, I agreed with him.

It was refreshing to see a documentary actually doing what documentaries by definition are supposed to do.

The Boy Who Lived Before starred Cameron, who was only two when he started talking in detail about another place and another family that he had previously belonged to.

If last night's documentary on Prime, The Boy Who Lived Before, had an attitude, it was one of respect. Its subject matter – reincarnation, in this case a small child who had memories of a previous life and of a place which he had never visited – was one guaranteed to get a cynic sneering. But all this documentary set out to do was to allow the audience to observe Cameron's story being checked out. It made for riveting – and touching – viewing.

Cameron was only two when he started talking in detail about another place and another family that he had previously belonged to. That other place was the island of Barra, off the west coast of Scotland, a place neither he nor his family had ever visited. He also spoke of a white house on the sand, watching planes land on the beach, a black and white dog, siblings, a mother who'd had her long hair cut short, and a father who had died because he didn't look both ways. Most two-year-olds don't suffer from nostalgia, but Cameron missed his "other mother" so much that sometimes he cried when his real mother picked him up from kindergarten. His memories, which he continued to have till he was five, when we met him, were completely consistent. He even knew his "other" father's name – Shane Robertson. He was a happy and loving little boy, but he yearned for his other life.

Cameron was fortunate to have a marvellously understanding and compassionate mother. She did that very difficult thing – she kept an open mind. She also managed another even more difficult thing – she at least appeared unthreatened by his longing for his other family. She took a risk when she allowed a camera crew to accompany her on the search for Cameron's other family, but it was one that paid off.

Even the people Cameron's mother approached in her attempt to make sense out of the rationally impossible allowed her her dignity.

The first person she spoke to (on camera, anyway) was potentially the hardest – psychologist Chris French, also the editor of The Skeptic Magazine. Though he was careful not to mock, in lots of ways he stated the bleeding obvious: somehow – through TV perhaps? or a family friend? – Cameron had learnt about Barra and invented a world that he had inhabited.

At this point in our house we became a little restless and uneasy, recalling how our daughter, when aged two, had had the habit of waking three or so hours after having been put to bed. At playcentre one day this guileless toddler had displayed such a parentally-humiliating knowledge of the Ewing family and Southfork that I kick myself now for not having known about children who'd lived another life – I could have just explained away her knowledge by telling everyone that Sue- Ellen was her other mother.

Norma, however, could not think of an opportunity Cameron might have had to pick up such detailed information. Also it would have been easy enough to check whether any TV drama or documentary had been made which contained the details which were so entrenched in this small child's imagination.X So she took Cameron to see a child psychologist who confirmed that, like many children, Cameron had an imaginary world. There were significant differences though – most children who create a friend or a world know that it's their own creation. Cameron insisted his existed.

The third expert that Norma consulted was Dr Jim Tucker, an academic from the University of Virginia who – in a this could only happen in America sort of way – headed a department dedicated to scientifically investigating paranormal phenomena such as near-death experiences, ghosts and reincarnation. Tucker accompanied Norma and her two little boys to Barra.

If this had been fiction (a very similar idea was dealt with a couple of years back in Sea of Souls) it would have had to have had a resolution, and this documentary offered no amazing ending. What it did show – in an impressively unspooky sort of way – was that much of what Cameron remembered did exist. After a false start – there were very few people called Robertson on Barra – we were taken with Cameron to see the house he remembered, where several decades ago a family called Robertson had spent a couple of summers. Then we were taken to meet a woman who was a member of the family. She looked kindly, yet nervously, at Cameron. There'd been no Shane Robertson. There had, though, been several Jameses. There'd been a black and white dog. There'd been a big black car.

And there they left us. Like all other children who have had this experience – and there are thousands documented – as Cameron grew older the memories faded. Having seen the house that he had so vividly described, he became a happier, more settled child. It was terrifically interesting, and I anticipate many happy hours a-Googling. It was evidence of what a really good documentary should do – not tell you how to think, but encourage you to get your own brain ticking over.

Even though it goes against all my naturally pragmatic instincts, on the issue of reincarnation this documentary leaves my mind refreshingly open.

4. The Afterlife: 'Quantum theory of soul's existence'

A pair of world-renowned quantum scientists say they can prove the existence of the soul.

A near-death experience happens when quantum substances which form the soul leave the nervous system and enter the universe at large, according to a remarkable theory proposed by two eminent scientists.

Their idea stems from the notion of the brain as a biological computer, "with 100 billion neurons and their axonal firings and synaptic connections acting as information networks" which can persist in the universe even after death, explaining the perceptions of those who have near-death experiences.

American Dr Stuart Hameroff and British physicist Sir Roger Penrose developed a quantum theory of consciousness asserting that our souls are contained inside structures called microtubules which live within our brain cells.

In a near-death experience the microtubules lose their quantum state, but the information within them is not destroyed. Or in layman's terms, the soul does not die but returns to the universe. Thus it is held that our souls are more than the interaction of neurons in the brain. They are in fact constructed from the very fabric of the universe - and may have existed since the beginning of time.

Let's say the heart stops beating, the blood stops flowing, the microtubules lose their quantum state.

"The quantum information within the microtubules is not destroyed, it can't be destroyed, it just distributes and dissipates to the universe at large.

'If the patient is resuscitated, revived, this quantum information can go back into the microtubules and the patient says "I had a near death experience".'

In the event of the patient's death, it was "possible that this quantum information can exist outside the body indefinitely - as a soul. Read more here and here

5. Proof of Heaven

Top neurosurgeon 'spent six days in heaven' during a coma.

A top neurosurgeon claims to have ‘Proof of heaven’ after making a full recovery from a seven day coma that saw his neocortex inactivated.

Dr Eben Alexander, who teaches neuroscience at Harvard University among others, fell seriously ill after contracting a rare form of bacterial meningitis in 2008.

Within hours of developing a severe headache, Dr Alexander’s entire cortex—the section of the brain that controls thought and emotion —had shut down.

Though his chances of survival were low, he awoke from the coma seven days later and began describing an ‘other worldly experience’. Read full article here

Dr. Evan Alexander tells us about his experience in the afterlife and concludes that consciousness survives physical death.

  
6. UFO expert describes Grey ETs and how the soul enters the body

In an exclusive Suzanne Hansen, Founding Director of UFOCUS NZ Research Network (New Zealand) publicly reveals the unique and compelling history of how she first met the soul of her son aboard a Grey ET spacecraft when she was only 8 years old and her son appeared as a “Ball of Light.”

Ms. Hansen reveals that later in her life, after she was married and pregnant with her son, she was taken aboard a Grey ET spacecraft, where she met her son’s soul once more as “a Ball of Light.” On this occasion, her son’s Soul was inserted into her womb and her son’s body in a procedure by the Grey ETs, who also gave her deep information about the future positive social role her son would play on Earth. Throughout her life, Ms. Hansen states, her experiences with the Grey ETs were “transformational, purposeful, and positive.”

Excerpt from Suzanne Hansen's interview:

Suzanne Hansen’s account is corroborated by Mary Rodwell, RN, who led Ms. Hansen through hypnotic regression sessions designed to help her recover her memories of her life-long experiences around her son’s Soul aboard Grey ET spacecraft.X Ms. Rodwell is “a world leader in alien abduction counseling. Mary Rodwell was featured in an SBS documentary alongside her son – a self-confessed UFO skeptic. Mary, a former nurse and midwife and clinical hypnotherapist founded ACERN in 1997 and has since investigated over 1600 cases of ET encounters worldwide

Suzanne Hansen’s statement:

1. During this experience at age eight, I was initially taken to a large room in which I 'played' with children of mixed species, using mind games to facilitate telepathic communications between us. The interesting thing is that I could 'see' the objects being produced by our minds, with both my mind (thoughts) and my eyes. You will notice a strange small bed in this drawing with a baby on it and a Grey beside it. In another regression session, Mary Rodwell regressed me to when I was 6 months old, where I could see myself lying on this small bed. I have nick-named it the 'lullaby bed' and a description of how and why this bed is used with human babies, and the technology involved, features in another chapter of my book.

2. I was invited to accompany a Grey to a room where I was to meet another 'child'. Here I am as an eight-year-old girl, during my first 'official' meeting with the ball of blue light, learning to relate to the soul of my future son through play. The Greys 'observed' from another area of the craft to see if we would be suited.                                            

3. At age 28, I was taken onboard craft for a 'merging' procedure, where the soul of my future son would enter my body, and that of my unborn child, for the first time. Two Grey-mixed-species entities comforted me, while a Grey began a procedure to lower my metabolism prior to the soul entering my body.

Her experiences with the specific species of Grey ETs she encountered are purposeful and transformational, although she has had to work through a period of personal fear about the experiences.X Ms. Hansen says that her understanding is that souls are universal, and can chose to incarnate into a variety of species on different planets.

She says that a soul is a spiritual entity, and all of its incarnations appear designed to learn moral or evolutionary lessons.

The Grey ETs’ job

Ms. Rodwell concludes by saying that her abduction research has led her to conclude that a specific species of Grey ETs job includes:

1. Gathering genetic information and materials on humans
2. Healing procedures on humans;
3. Cooperation between interdimensional intelligences, as evidenced by the cooperation between human souls and Grey ETs;
4. Deepening of compassion and love, healing ability, and telepathic transfer of information by humans.

The medical and health inspections of humans by the Grey ETs appear to be for levels of pollution, toxins, and other harmful materials that relates to the planet’s problems.

The typology of intelligent civilizations

The dimensional ecology hypothesis of the multi-verse includes a new typology of extraterrestrial civilizations, based on empirical evidence confirming the existence of the following typologies of extraterrestrial civilizations and extraterrestrial governance bodies:

A. Solar system civilizations: Planetary civilizations in our own solar system, such as the intelligent human civilization living under the surface of Mars that reportedly enjoys a strategic relationship with the United States government.

B. Deep space civilizations: Intelligent extraterrestrial civilizations that are based on a planet, solar system, or space station in our galaxy or in some other location in this known physical universe. An example includes the 10 – 100 intelligent extraterrestrial civilizations that, according to a NATO report, have been visiting Earth for many centuries.

C. Hyper-dimensional civilizations: Intelligent civilizations that are based in dimensions or universes parallel to our own and that may use technologically advanced physical form and/or transport when entering our known universe.

D. Extraterrestrial governance authorities: Legally constituted extraterrestrial governance authorities with jurisdiction over a defined territory, such as the Milky Way Galactic Federation, which has been empirically located in replicable research. Read full article

Our review of the impact of the dimensional hypothesis shows that humanity is being misinformed about the reality of its soul, of life after death, and the mechanisms of reincarnation.

Video: Interview with Ms. Hansen:

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

09-02-2025 om 17:05 geschreven door peter  

1. ZEROIDS

Living beings which inhabit the cosmic void.

Bioforms which may populate the recesses of free space.

This domain is characterized by virtually zero temperature and zero atmospheric pressure.

Russian astrophysicist Dr. V.l. Goldanskii argued that appreciable quantities of prebiotic material should be able to accumulate in the regions surrounding nebulae, or titanic gas clouds.

2. ARCHONS 

‘Interdimensional entities’ the negative controllers of humankind

Archons are "are hidden negative controllers of humankind, inorganic interdimensional entities that must now be exposed and exorcised from the individual human mind, from our human species, and from the planet as a whole as part of our collective evolution to a new state of consciousness and being."

Article: Archons interdimensional entities

3. EBANI 

Biological entity

Allegedly, EBANI's are organic beings because they are moving in an intelligent way.

4. Flying and Underwater Humanoids

One of the most curious types of sightings - and quite rare - are those of human-like beings that fly. "Human-like" because in most respects they look like us, except that they have wings. In most cases, these odd creatures are not assumed to be either angels or devils (as traditional depictions have them as human-like beings with wings), but as something else. Something quite unusual.

Article: Flying and Underwater Humanoids Part 1 & Part 2

5. Mysterious Flying Orbs and Spheres

Since World War 2, strange Flying Spheres have been reported and filmed making impossible maneuvers compared to terrestrial aircraft.

They can avoid radar and even disable tracking and flight instrumentation. They have been seen by military pilots, airline pilots, NASA space shuttle pilots, and even International Space Station personnel. Is their origin extraterrestrial?


Despite all efforts, Flying Spheres still remain a mystery to UFO researchers.

Article: The UFO Enigma of Flying Orbs and Spheres

6. Flying Rods

See evidence of a newly discovered and previously unknown life form that currently exists on this planet. In this program is stunning high quality video of "Rods" in flight taken by a production company working for the Discovery Channel while taping cliff jumpers in South America. New methods are presented using the sun which illuminates the phenomenon, providing incredible detail for analyzing the anatomy of this life form. Included in this program are comments by renowned scientists as part of the process of authentication. Discover new sky fishing methods for capturing this entity on film that you can use with your own camera.

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

09-02-2025 om 16:39 geschreven door peter  

NASA UFOs.

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

09-02-2025 om 16:26 geschreven door peter  

🔍 FBI’s Secret UAP Task Force: Investigating UFOs Since 2020!

A Secret FBI Task Force Investigating UAPs

Recent revelations have brought to light a secret FBI working group dedicated to investigating Unidentified Aerial Phenomena (UAPs), commonly referred to as UFOs. According to Politico, this is the first time that the existence of such a unit has been publicly disclosed. Ryan Graves, a former U.S. Navy pilot and a well-known whistleblower in the UAP community, has shed new details on the group’s operations.

Graves, who previously testified before Congress about repeated encounters with unexplained aerial objects, claims that the FBI unit consists of over a dozen staff members who spend significant time tracking down and analyzing UAP reports. This working group, which began its operations around 2020, aims to address potential security concerns linked to unidentified objects operating within U.S. airspace.

The Role of the FBI in UAP Investigations

The FBI, primarily known for law enforcement and counterintelligence, has been tasked with examining these mysterious aerial phenomena due to their potential national security implications. The group’s primary focus is to investigate whether UAPs present a threat, violate U.S. airspace regulations, or involve any foreign or unauthorized technology.

Graves, who is also the co-founder of Americans for Safe Aerospace, an organization advocating for increased UAP awareness, stated that the FBI team is working closely with pilots and witnesses to gather credible reports. He emphasized that his organization has helped facilitate interviews between witnesses and the FBI agents, ensuring that crucial information reaches the right authorities for further investigation.

Findings and National Security Concerns

Although Graves did not disclose specific details about the group’s findings, he mentioned that their investigations have been “fruitful” and have significantly advanced UAP research both in classified and unclassified settings. This aligns with the broader effort by U.S. intelligence agencies and Congress to understand and address UAP sightings, especially after multiple reports from military personnel describing unknown aerial objects that demonstrate advanced capabilities beyond current technology.

However, Graves also highlighted concerns regarding the future of this FBI group. According to him, some agents involved in the UAP investigations fear losing their jobs due to possible administrative changes, particularly if a political shake-up leads to mass removals within the FBI. He warned that a potential purge of agents could disrupt the ongoing efforts to analyze and mitigate risks associated with unidentified aerial objects.

Whistleblower Protection and the Future of UAP Investigations

Graves has consistently advocated for stronger protections for whistleblowers and witnesses coming forward with UAP-related information. Many individuals hesitate to report sightings due to concerns about professional repercussions or government secrecy. By working with federal agencies like the FBI, Graves and other advocates hope to create a more open and systematic approach to handling UAP cases.

The former Navy pilot urged the government to acknowledge the vital work being done by the FBI’s UAP investigative team and provide them with the necessary resources to continue their efforts. He also called for increased transparency, encouraging the White House and FBI leadership to formalize the group’s status and expand its mission.

VIDEO:

The existence of an FBI group dedicated to investigating UAPs adds another layer to the ongoing debate surrounding UFOs and national security. With increasing attention from Congress, military personnel, and intelligence agencies, the push for greater understanding and transparency continues to gain momentum. Whether this FBI task force will be able to continue its work without political interference remains to be seen, but its role in gathering and analyzing UAP reports is undeniably critical.

As more details emerge, the public will be watching closely to see whether these investigations lead to significant breakthroughs or remain shrouded in secrecy.

RELATED VIDEOS

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

09-02-2025 om 16:06 geschreven door peter  

Scientists reveal what would happen if an astronaut ejaculated in space - and it suggests the '220-mile-high club' could be off the cards

• READ MORE: Sex in space 'dolphin-style' is the new frontier 

By SHIVALI BEST FOR MAILONLINE 

During their stints on the International Space Station (ISS) - lasting for months at a time - astronauts spend their spare time doing many of the same things people do on Earth.

This raises the question: do astronauts masturbate or have sex in zero-gravity?

NASA has not issued any strict guidelines around 'alone time', although commanders have stated that they do not allow sexual intercourse on the ISS. 

Now, two scientists have revealed what would happen if an astronaut ejaculated in space. 

Sex historian, Dr Esme Louise James, and AI expert, Dr Matt Agnew, turned to the concept of conservation of momentum to understand what would happen if a 'man's rocket blasted off in space'. 

According to the pair's calculations, ejaculation would propel the astronaut backwards at a speed of around two metres/hour. 

This could throw a spanner in the works for astronauts hoping to get frisky on future missions to Mars. 

Dr Adam Watkins, Associate Professor in reproductive and developmental physiology, at the University of Nottingham previously told MailOnline: 'Sex in space is physically possible, but would not be as easy as it is here on Earth.' 

Sex historian, Dr Esme Louise James, and AI expert, Dr Matt Agnew , turned to the concept of conservation of momentum to understand what would happen if a 'man's rocket blasted off in space'

Dr James and Dr Agnew posted a video on TikTok, exploring what would happen if a male astronaut ejaculated in space.

'I'm here with Matt Agnew to finally answer the question we're sure has also plagued your mind for many years,' Dr James wrote in the video's caption. 

To work it out, the pair used a fundamental concept of physics known as the 'conservation of momentum'.

Dr Agnew explained: 'The conservation of momentum says that the total momentum of two or more bodies in a system will remain the same. 

'This means that the mass multiplied by the velocity of the ejaculate will equal the mass multiplied by the velocity of the man.'

The pair estimate that the average volume of ejaculate would be around one teaspoon, while its density would be around one gram per millilitre. 

Meanwhile, the average speed of ejaculation is an impressive 45km/hr (27mph), according to the scientists.  

'We multiply the mass by velocity, and that gives us the momentum of the ejaculate,' Dr Agnew said. 

No human has ever officially had sex in space (that they've admitted to...), and the lack of gravity could make it difficult

{ https://www.dailymail.co.uk/ }

08-02-2025 om 21:45 geschreven door peter  

Last month was the hottest January on RECORD - with global average temperatures hitting 13.23°C

• READ MORE: Earth is 'off-track' to limit global warming to 1.5°C 

By JONATHAN CHADWICK FOR MAILONLINE 

While January is typically considered the coldest month by Brits, globally last month was a scorcher. 

Scientists at the the EU's Copernicus Climate Change Service (C3S) have revealed that January 2025 was the hottest January on record. 

The global average air temperature was 55.81°F (13.23°C), which is 1.42°F (0.79°C) above the 1991-2020 average for January.  

It's also just above the previous January record-holder, January 2024, which had a global average air temp of 55.65°F (13.14°C). 

Experts blame climate change for the unusually-hot start to 2025 globally, despite an emerging La Niña weather phenomenon.

La Niña – the large-scale cooling of the ocean surface temperatures in the central and eastern equatorial Pacific Ocean – leads to variations in global weather. 

'January 2025 is another surprising month, continuing the record temperatures observed throughout the last two years,' said Samantha Burgess, deputy director of C3S. 

'Copernicus will continue to closely monitor ocean temperatures and their influence on our evolving climate throughout 2025.' 

January 2025 was the warmest January on record globally, with an average surface air temperature of 55.81°F (13.23°C). This map shows where Earth suffered extremes in terms of heat last month, compared to the 1991-2020 reference period

Looking forward, 2025 could set a record for the hottest months the world has ever seen, similar to the run of records set in 2024. 

Last December, November, October and September were all the second-hottest for that respective month, according to CS3, while August 2024 was the joint-warmest August globally, tied with August 2023.

Summer 2024 (June to August) was the hottest summer on record, while last year was the hottest year on record. 

C3S looks at temperature readings from a variety of instruments, such as weather stations, balloons and satellites.

The department's readings refer to the average air temperature for the whole planet over the whole month – so lower than a single typically 'hot' temperature reading.

According to CS3, which is based in Bonn in Germany, last month was 3.15°F (1.75°C) above the January average for 1850-1900.

This is the designated 'pre-industrial' reference period to which modern temperatures are compared, prior to widespread industrialization when humans started significantly impacting the atmosphere by burning fossil fuels.

It was also the 18th month in the last nineteen months for which the global-average surface air temperature was more than 2.7°F (1.5°C) above the pre-industrial level.

January 2025 beats both the previous two Januarys in terms of global average air temperature - not to mention all Januarys on record 

Looking forward, 2025 could set a record for the hottest months the world has ever seen. Pictured, Sao Paulo, Brazil, January 26, 2025

Experts blame climate change for an unusually-hot start to the year, despite an emerging La Niña weather pattern. Pictured, La Jolla Shores beach, San Diego, California, January 10, 2025

The hottest Januarys on record 

January 2025 - 55.81°F (13.23°C)

January 2024 - 55.65°F (13.14°C)

January 2020 - 55.43°F (13.02°C)

January 2016 - 55.38°F (12.99°C)

January 2017 - 55.13°F (12.85°C) 

Note: Figures listed are global average air temperature for the month  

Looking at Europe specifically, the average temperature over European land for January 2025 was 35.24°F (1.8°C), according to CS3. 

This makes last month the second warmest January in Europe only after January 2020, which was 4.75°F (2.64°C) above average.

Europe last month was also 4.51°F (2.51°C) above the 1991-2020 average for January. 

European temperatures were notably above average over southern and eastern Europe, including western Russia, but were below average over Iceland, the UK and Ireland, northern France, and northern Scandinavia. 

The Met Office has already said that the UK’s January average mean temperature was 3°C, which is 0.9°C lower than the current long-term average. 

Meanwhile, conditions were wetter than average across regions of western Europe, as well as parts of Italy, Scandinavia and the Baltic countries, leading to flooding in some regions, reveals CS3. 

Conversely, drier than average conditions were recorded in northern UK and Ireland, eastern Spain, and north of the Black Sea. 

Outside Europe, temperatures were notably above average over northeast and northwest Canada, Alaska, Siberia southern South America, Africa and much of Australia and Antarctica.

In January 2025, it was wetter than average in Pictured, Guaratiba beach amid a heat wave in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, on January 19, 2025

Read More

• 2024 was officially the hottest year on RECORD - and the first year to exceed 1.5°C of warming 

Meanwhile, temperatures were below average in the US, the easternmost regions of Russia, the Arabian Peninsula and mainland Southeast Asia. 

It was wetter than average in Alaska, Canada, central and eastern Russia, eastern Australia, south-eastern Africa, southern Brazil, with regions experiencing floods and associated damage. 

Drier than average conditions established in southwestern US and northern Mexico, northern Africa, the Middle East, across Central Asia and in eastern China as well as in much of southern Africa, southern South America and Australia. 

C3S also revealed that the the global average sea surface temperature (SST) was 69.4°F (20.78°C) last month.

This marks the second-highest SST value on record for January, 0.34°F (0.19°C) below the January 2024 record. 

CS3 also warns that January 2025 saw Arctic sea ice reaching its lowest monthly extent for January – at six per cent below average – due to warmer temperatures.

Carbon emissions and the greenhouse effect: A primer 

The greenhouse effect is the reason our planet is getting too hot to live on. 

CO2 released by human activity is accumulating as an 'insulating blanket' around the Earth, trapping more of the sun's heat in our atmosphere.  

Without the natural greenhouse effect, heat would pass outwards from the Earth¿s surface into space - making it too cold to live. But emissions of gases such as CO2 and methane push the greenhouse effect too far - acting as a blanket that traps heat

CO2 - and other greenhouse gases - are emitted by actions such as burning fossil fuels like coal for energy, burning forests to make way for livestock and 

Fertilisers containing nitrogen produce nitrous oxide emissions - another greenhouse gas.

Meanwhile, fluorinated gases are emitted from equipment and products that use these gases. 

Such emissions have a very strong warming effect, up to 23,000 times greater than CO2.

Sources: European Commission/BGS/NASA 

The January data was “surprising” even to climate change experts at Copernicus, the European climate change service, which noted that it was the 18th month in the last 19 where the global-average surface air temperature was more than 1.5°C above the pre-industrial level.

“January 2025 is another surprising month, continuing the record temperatures observed throughout the last two years, despite the development of La Niña conditions in the tropical Pacific and their temporary cooling effect on global temperatures,” said Samantha Burgess, Copernicus Strategic Lead for Climate.

For many in the northern hemisphere January 2025 will be remembered by “wetter-than-average conditions” over western Europe, as well as parts of Italy, Scandinavia and the Baltic countries, Copernicus said, highlighting “heavy precipitation” and flooding in some regions.

{ https://www.dailymail.co.uk/ }

08-02-2025 om 21:11 geschreven door peter  

Jet Propulsion Laboratory

Contents

• Floods and Avalanches
• A Hole in 41
• More About the Mission
• News Media Contacts

Among several recent findings, the rover has found rocks made of pure sulfur — a first on the Red Planet.

Scientists were stunned on May 30 when a rock that NASA’s Curiosity Mars rover drove over cracked open to reveal something never seen before on the Red Planet: yellow sulfur crystals.

Since October 2023, the rover has been exploring a region of Mars rich with sulfates, a kind of salt that contains sulfur and forms as water evaporates. But where past detections have been of sulfur-based minerals — in other words, a mix of sulfur and other materials — the rock Curiosity recently cracked open is made of elemental, or pure, sulfur. It isn’t clear what relationship, if any, the elemental sulfur has to other sulfur-based minerals in the area.

While people associate sulfur with the odor from rotten eggs (the result of hydrogen sulfide gas), elemental sulfur is odorless. It forms in only a narrow range of conditions that scientists haven’t associated with the history of this location. And Curiosity found a lot of it — an entire field of bright rocks that look similar to the one the rover crushed.

“Finding a field of stones made of pure sulfur is like finding an oasis in the desert,” said Curiosity’s project scientist, Ashwin Vasavada of NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California. “It shouldn’t be there, so now we have to explain it. Discovering strange and unexpected things is what makes planetary exploration so exciting.”

It’s one of several discoveries Curiosity has made while off-roading within Gediz Vallis channel, a groove that winds down part of the 3-mile-tall (5-kilometer-tall) Mount Sharp, the base of which the rover has been ascending since 2014. Each layer of the mountain represents a different period of Martian history. Curiosity’s mission is to study where and when the planet’s ancient terrain could have provided the nutrients needed for microbial life, if any ever formed on Mars.

NASA’s Curiosity Mars rover captured this view of Gediz Vallis channel on March 31. This area was likely formed by large floods of water and debris that piled jumbles of rocks into mounds within the channel.

NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS

Floods and Avalanches

Spotted from space years before Curiosity’s launch, Gediz Vallis channel is one of the primary reasons the science team wanted to visit this part of Mars. Scientists think that the channel was carved by flows of liquid water and debris that left a ridge of boulders and sediment extending 2 miles down the mountainside below the channel. The goal has been to develop a better understanding of how this landscape changed billions of years ago, and while recent clues have helped, there’s still much to learn from the dramatic landscape.

Since Curiosity’s arrival at the channel earlier this year, scientists have studied whether ancient floodwaters or landslides built up the large mounds of debris that rise up from the channel’s floor here. The latest clues from Curiosity suggest both played a role: some piles were likely left by violent flows of water and debris, while others appear to be the result of more local landslides.

While exploring Gediz Vallis channel in May, NASA’s Curiosity captured this image of rocks that show a pale color near their edges. These rings, also called halos, resemble markings seen on Earth when groundwater leaks into rocks along fractures, causing chemical reactions that change the color.

NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS

Those conclusions are based on rocks found in the debris mounds: Whereas stones carried by water flows become rounded like river rocks, some of the debris mounds are riddled with more angular rocks that may have been deposited by dry avalanches.

Finally, water soaked into all the material that settled here. Chemical reactions caused by the water bleached white “halo” shapes into some of the rocks. Erosion from wind and sand has revealed these halo shapes over time.

“This was not a quiet period on Mars,” said Becky Williams, a scientist with the Planetary Science Institute in Tucson, Arizona, and the deputy principal investigator of Curiosity’s Mast Camera, or Mastcam. “There was an exciting amount of activity here. We’re looking at multiple flows down the channel, including energetic floods and boulder-rich flows.”

A Hole in 41

All this evidence of water continues to tell a more complex story than the team’s early expectations, and they’ve been eager to take a rock sample from the channel in order to learn more. On June 18, they got their chance.

While the sulfur rocks were too small and brittle to be sampled with the drill, a large rock nicknamed “Mammoth Lakes” was spotted nearby. Rover engineers had to search for a part of the rock that would allow safe drilling and find a parking spot on the loose, sloping surface.

After Curiosity bored its 41st hole using the powerful drill at the end of the rover’s 7-foot (2-meter) robotic arm, the six-wheeled scientist trickled the powderized rock into instruments inside its belly for further analysis so that scientists can determine what materials the rock is made of.

Curiosity has since driven away from Mammoth Lakes and is now off to see what other surprises are waiting to be discovered within the channel.

More About the Mission

Curiosity was built by NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, which is managed by Caltech in Pasadena, California. JPL leads the mission on behalf of NASA’s Science Mission Directorate in Washington.

For more about Curiosity, visit:

science.nasa.gov/mission/msl-curiosity

News Media Contacts

Andrew Good
Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.
818-393-2433
andrew.c.good@jpl.nasa.gov

Karen Fox / Alana Johnson
NASA Headquarters, Washington
202-358-1600 / 202-358-1501
karen.c.fox@nasa.gov / alana.r.johnson@nasa.gov

{ https://www.nasa.gov/ }

08-02-2025 om 18:47 geschreven door peter  

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.

RELATED VIDEO

{ 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.

RELATED VIDEOS

{ 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

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