This Declassified CIA Book Reveals That Earth Undergoes Cataclysmic Events Approximately Every 6,500 Years, Leading to the Destruction and Rebirth of Civilizations

This declassified CIA document, “The Adam & Eve Story” by Dr. Chan Thomas, reveals that Earth undergoes cataclysmic events approximately every 6,500 years, leading to the destruction and rebirth of civilizations. He suggested that these cataclysms are natural, recurring events that reshape the planet’s surface and human history.

In 1966, Dr. Chan Thomas published a book called The Adam and Eve Story, but it soon disappeared from public access after the CIA classified it. The book talks about big disasters like pole shifts, mass extinctions, and the repeated destruction of advanced civilizations. It stayed mostly hidden until some parts were released years later.

Now, only 57 pages are available, but they are heavily edited, leaving many questions about what the book really says. People are curious about why this book might be considered dangerous and why the CIA wanted to keep it secret.

Bookshelves

Dr. Chan Thomas was an American electrical engineer and psychic who authored a hypothesis of global cataclysms involving radical shifts in Earth’s electromagnetic fields that increase the viscosity of the crust, causing rapid continental drift.

This is most notably described in his book “The Adam and Eve Story.” During the 1950s, Dr. Thomas was a project engineer on Bell Aircraft’s RASCAL missile guidance system and Douglas Aircraft’s A4D Skyhawk program, and was later employed in the late 1960s by McDonnell Douglas to work with Robert Wood’s “Advanced Concepts” R&D team, which worked on UFO and other fringe science related projects.

The idea of pole shifts has interested scientists and caused discussions for many years. Charles Hapgood was one of the first to suggest this concept in the mid-1900s. He believed that the Earth’s outer layer could move over the inner layers, making the poles change position.

Hapgood’s theory of “Earth’s crustal displacement” said that these shifts could happen fairly quickly, resulting in major changes in the Earth’s geography and climate. At first, many scientists rejected Hapgood’s ideas, but he gained respect when Albert Einstein showed interest in his work. Even though Hapgood’s theory didn’t become widely accepted, it opened the door for more research on how the Earth’s magnetic poles might change.

Today, we know that the magnetic poles do indeed shift, though typically at a slow rate. However, the possibility of rapid, catastrophic shifts remains a subject of ongoing research.

Dr. Chan Thomas, in his book The Adam and Eve Story, made a scary prediction about sudden pole shifts. He believed these shifts could happen quickly, even in one day, and cause major disasters. He said that these quick changes could lead to huge earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, and tsunamis, resulting in widespread damage. While most scientists are doubtful about such rapid shifts, the idea still captures the interest of researchers and the public

Throughout Earth’s history, mass extinctions have wiped out many species, changing the course of life on our planet. Some scientists think these extinctions might be connected to pole shifts or other major geological events.

One example often mentioned is the Younger Dryas, a time of sudden cooling about 12,800 years ago. This period saw a big drop in global temperatures, which some believe was caused by a comet impact or a significant pole shift.

These disastrous events have also led to theories about ancient advanced civilizations that may have been destroyed by sudden catastrophes. Supporters of these theories argue that evidence of these lost civilizations can be found in myths and unexplained archaeological sites.

However, mainstream archaeologists are careful and stress the need for more solid evidence before changing our understanding of history.

Flood myths are stories about big floods that are found in many ancient cultures. These tales, which describe floods that destroyed entire civilizations, appear in religious texts, oral traditions, and ancient writings worldwide.

For example, Noah’s Ark in the Bible and the Epic of Gilgamesh from Mesopotamia share many similarities, even though they come from different places and times.

When we compare these myths to known geological events, like the Younger Dryas (a time about 12,800 years ago when the climate changed quickly), we see some interesting connections. The Younger Dryas involved sudden cooling and melting ice, which caused sea levels to rise significantly.

Some researchers think that these big changes in the environment might have inspired the flood stories in various cultures. They believe that ancient people, seeing the destruction from rising waters, passed down these stories to warn others about nature’s power.

Dr. Chan Thomas, in his book The Adam and Eve Story, goes further by saying these flood myths are not just exaggerated tales but are based on real disasters caused by shifts in the Earth’s poles and other catastrophic events. He argues that these myths are historical records of past disasters that nearly wiped out humanity. According to Thomas, our ancestors created these stories to remember these events and warn future generations about their r

The idea that advanced civilizations existed before written history fascinates both scholars and enthusiasts. Supporters of this theory point to archaeological evidence, like erosion patterns on the Great Sphinx of Giza and submerged cities off the coasts of Japan and India, suggesting these lost cultures were destroyed by disasters like the floods in ancient myths.

However, this idea is controversial and faces skepticism in the academic world. Many archaeologists and historians believe the evidence for these theories is either misinterpreted or not strong enough. The general view is that human civilization began about 6,000 years ago in Mesopotamia, with no credible evidence of advanced societies before then.

Read also:

• Earth to Pass Through the Same Taurid Meteor Stream in 2032 That May Have Triggered a Mass Extinction 12,800 Years Ago
• Man from Silicon Valley Confirms His Company Established the First-Ever Communication Between People in Dreams
• This Man Went To Find Giant Alien Pyramid Buried Deep in the Alaskan Wilderness & Never Seen Again

Still, the ongoing debate continues to interest people, and new discoveries sometimes spark discussions. While the concept of ancient advanced civilizations is still on the outskirts of scientific study, it encourages us to rethink what we know about the past and stay open to new evidence.

Dr. Chan Thomas’s predictions in The Adam and Eve Story show a dark future. He warns that a quick shift in the Earth’s poles could happen, causing disastrous events worldwide. He believes this shift could lead to huge earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, and tsunamis, possibly wiping out most of humanity in just a few hours. He thinks this disaster could happen soon, maybe even in our lifetime.

Scientists know that the Earth’s magnetic field is always changing, and the poles can move over time. However, most geophysicists think a sudden and disastrous shift like Dr. Thomas describes is very unlikely.

Right now, we understand that the poles may shift slowly or even reverse over thousands of years, but a quick shift causing a global disaster isn’t supported by current evidence.

If Dr. Thomas’s predictions were to come true, the effects on modern society would be terrible. Our essential systems — like power grids, communication, and transportation — would likely fail. This shift could lead to widespread destruction, chaos, and possibly a return to a dark age for survivors.

Dr. Thomas’s work makes us rethink our view of history. If he’s right about pole shifts and recurring disasters, it means that human civilization is much more fragile and has gone through cycles of rise and fall more than we think.

This view challenges the common belief that human progress is steady and uninterrupted. If disasters happen in cycles, it suggests that advanced civilizations have appeared and disappeared several times in Earth’s history, each time erased by a major event.

This idea changes how we see human history, suggesting that our current civilization is just the latest attempt at creating a lasting society.

Given Dr. Thomas’s theories, we should consider what we can learn for the future. If these disasters really do happen in cycles, it would be wise to prepare and build resilience, so that if another disaster occurs, humanity can survive and rebuild more effectively.

In 1966, the CIA classified The Adam and Eve Story soon after it was published. This decision has led to a lot of speculation about why a book about ancient disasters and pole shifts would catch the attention of a government agency.

One theory is that if people took the book seriously, it could cause a lot of panic. The idea of a coming global disaster, along with the government’s secrecy, might lead to unrest in society.

Another possibility is that the book had information related to secret government research. The author, Dr. Chan Thomas, worked on classified projects at McDonnell Douglas, and some think he knew more than what was publicly shared. The CIA might have been worried about revealing technologies or ideas that could threaten national security.

The “sanitization” of the 57 pages that were later declassified adds to the mystery. A lot of the text is blacked out, making people wonder what was removed and why. Some believe that the missing parts could contain more details about disasters or even government secrets. The exact reason for keeping much of the book hidden is still unclear

RELATED

{ https://howandwhys.com/ }

12-10-2025 om 21:55 geschreven door peter  

These Men Explain That Your Dreams and Thoughts Are No Longer Safe: All Our ‘Dreams’ & ‘Thoughts’ Can Be Decoded

Tristan Harris and Aza Raskin claim that all our ‘Dreams’ and ‘Thoughts’ can be Decoded—imagine what authoritarian states could do with such power. AI can even read Wi-Fi radio signals bouncing around a space to create 3D image estimations.

Tristan Harris and Aza Raskin are the co-founders of the Center for Humane Technology which aims to warn people about how technology affects individuals, organizations, and society. It looks for ways to manage these effects, encourages leaders to take action, and offers resources for those interested in humane technology.

FYI: Harris was Google’s Design Ethicist, developing a framework for how technology should “ethically” steer the thoughts and actions of billions of people from screens. Raskin is a trained mathematician and dark matter physicist. He is the son of Jef Raskin, a human–computer interface expert who was the initiator of the Macintosh project at Apple.

In May 2023, Harris & Raskin attended Summit At Sea where they discussed how existing A.I. capabilities already pose catastrophic risks to a functional society, how A.I. companies are caught in a race to deploy as quickly as possible without adequate safety measures, and what it would mean to upgrade our institutions to a post-A.I. world.

This video educated me about the serious consequences we might face if greater control over advanced AI models—specifically generative models like Multimodal Large Language Models (MLLMs)—isn’t implemented.

Tristan Harris explains the complex terms behind “generative large language multimodal models” (AI models that handle language and images). To make things simpler, he suggests calling them “Golems.” This is inspired by the Golem in Jewish mythology—a creature that comes to life and gains unexpected abilities, much like these AI models. As more data is fed to them, they start displaying new skills even their creators didn’t anticipate.

Although many AI demos look different on the surface, they often function in similar ways. For example, tools like Stable Diffusion or DALL-E let users type words to generate images. If you type “Google soup,” the model turns it into a picture. However, Raskin points out that these “Golems” don’t truly “understand” what they’re doing; they process information without real comprehension of meaning.

Your Dreams And Thoughts Are No Longer Safe

Researchers Harris & Raskin discuss here how to turn brain patterns into images by studying brain scans from people looking at pictures. Raskin explains a person sits in an fMRI machine, which records brain activity while they look at an image. The computer learns to match each brain pattern with the image the person is viewing.

When the computer is shown only the brain patterns (without seeing the actual image), it tries to guess what the person saw. For example, if someone looked at a giraffe, the computer would use only the brain data to create an image it believes represents the giraffe.

The latest research uses “stable diffusion” technology, a tool used in digital art creation, to make these brain-reading images even clearer. Surprisingly, tools made for art are now helping decode human thoughts.

The research has advanced to the point where it can capture people’s inner dialogue—the words they think to themselves. In one experiment, people watched a video and thought about what they saw. The computer was able to recreate their thoughts, like “a girl gets hit and falls,” based solely on brain patterns.

This kind of brain decoding could raise concerns, especially in authoritarian States, since it could lead to tracking what people think or dream about.

WIFI Radio signals led to tracking Living Beings

This explains how AI can use Wi-Fi signals, like the ones from your home router, to locate and track people in a room. Think of it like sonar: the Wi-Fi signals bounce around, similar to how sonar works. In this experiment, they first used a camera along with Wi-Fi signals to track where people were. The camera acted like one “eye,” and the Wi-Fi signals were the “other eye.”

After the AI learned how to recognize where people were, they removed the camera, leaving only the Wi-Fi signals. Now, just by analyzing the way Wi-Fi signals bounce, the AI could figure out people’s positions in 3D and in real-time—even in the dark. Essentially, this technology could turn any Wi-Fi router into a sort of “camera” that can track movement without needing light.

Hacking Wi-Fi routers would be a complicated task. However, computer code is like a language. Raskin shares a real example where they asked an AI (like GPT) to find a security weakness in some code from a mail server and to write a script to take advantage of that weakness. In just about 10 seconds, the AI provided a code that could exploit it.

While AI can’t yet be used to hack Wi-Fi routers directly, Raskin believes that in the near future—whether in one, two, or five years—it will become much easier to use existing technology for widespread surveillance. Essentially, take it as a warning that as AI improves, it could turn all the hardware we have into powerful tools for monitoring people.

AI can copy you and generate your imagery, voice & full appearance in the most natural way possible

If we want to manage and control technology better, we need to understand its effects. For instance, new AI can copy someone’s voice using just three seconds of audio. There are examples of this, like how a computer can make a person sound a bit robotic after those initial three seconds, and then it generates the rest of the speech on its own.

One scary thought is that someone could call your child, record their voice, and then use it to trick you into thinking it’s really them calling for help. This has already happened in real life, like when a teenager’s voice was cloned for a million-dollar kidnapping scam.

People are already used to seeing changes in social media, where you can make photos look better or change voices instantly. Filters on apps like TikTok have evolved so much that they can create very realistic images of people.

For example, one influencer made a virtual version of herself to use as a kind of digital friend, allowing people to interact with her avatar. This means that in today’s world, it’s hard to trust what you see or hear, even in videos.

Read also:

• This Mexican Scientist Claimed We Live in a Holographic M atrix, Disappears Mysteriously After It
• This Man Claims We May Live At Center Of Cosmic Void 2 Billion Light-Years WideThat Shouldn’t Exist
• Man from Silicon Valley Confirms His Company Established the First-Ever Communication Between People in Dreams
• This Man from MIT Said the Brain Is Like Logic Gates, and God’s Ideas Are Mathematical Logic

Banks and other institutions still think they can confirm your identity by recognizing your voice or face on video calls, but that doesn’t work anymore because of AI technology. This year marks a big change: photographic and video evidence may no longer be reliable, and we need to catch up to this reality.

2024 will be the last human election

Democracy relies on language, and our society operates through it. Language shapes law, code, and religion. A point was made in a New York Times article by an author named Yuval Harari, who wrote Sapiens. The idea presented was that if someone can manipulate language, they can control how people think and act.

Someone asks an AI like GPT to explain biblical events in light of current events. This means taking religious ideas and using them to make sense of what’s happening in the world today. By doing this, you can reshape people’s understanding of reality and relationships. Language is what makes us human, and technology allows us to alter it.

Yuval compared the power of nuclear weapons in the real world to the impact of artificial intelligence (AI) in the virtual world. He noted that the last time a non-human force created large, influential belief systems was with religion. Now, AI has the potential to form significant narratives that can deeply affect how people think.

Looking ahead, Harris & Raskin predicted that the 2024 election could be the last one mostly controlled by humans. This doesn’t mean there will be robots taking over, but it suggests that since 2008, political campaigns have already been using technology to test which messages work best with voters. By 2028, it’s expected that the effectiveness of content created by AI will greatly surpass what humans can produce, making human-generated messages less impactful in elections.

{ https://howandwhys.com/ }

12-10-2025 om 21:32 geschreven door peter  

By Luis Martinez

A never-before-seen video released Tuesday by a member of Congress appears to show a U.S. military Hellfire missile bouncing off a bright, shiny object that was being tracked off the coast of Yemen on Oct. 30, 2024.

The video was released at a House Government Oversight subcommittee hearing into Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena (UAP), which is the military's term for UFOs.

During the hearing Rep. Eric Burlison (R-Mo.) played a video that he said "I've been given" and that he claimed was taken by an MQ-9 Reaper drone.

The overhead video showed a fast-moving object moving in a straight line above the waves in the waters off the coast of Yemen and captured what Burlison said was a Hellfire missile fired by another Reaper drone that appeared to strike the object.

"I'm not going to explain it to you, you'll see exactly what it does," said Burlison as the video clip was played.

The video showed what appeared to be an impact, but the object seemed to continue on its same trajectory.

Unidentified Aerial Phenomena (UAP) witness U.S. Air Force veteran Jeffrey Nuccetelli, UAP witness U.S. Navy Senior Chief Petty Officer Alexandro Wiggins, UAP Journalist George Knapp, UAP witness U.S. Air Force veteran Dylan Borland and Senior Policy Counsel at the Project On Government Oversight Joe Spielberger testify before the House Oversight Committee's Task Force on the Declassification of Federal Secrets at the Capitol, Sept. 9, 2025.

Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images

"This is when it's zoomed out, you can still see it traveling," said Burlison who did not provide details of how he had obtained the video.

At the time that the video was purportedly taken, the waters off Yemen were an active combat zone as U.S. Navy ships and aircraft protected commercial shipping lanes from missiles and drones fired at shipping vessels by the Houthi militants in Yemen.

U.S. Navy ships were regularly shooting down Houthi missiles and drones that posed a threat to them or commercial vessels.

The video raises several questions: Did it capture a potential attack on ships? Did the object pose a threat to U.S. Naval ships operating in the combat zone?

"The public should be seeing this stuff, and why you're not allowed to, I don't know," said George Knapp, an investigative journalist, who was a witness at Tuesday's hearing alongside others identified as whistleblowers of military UFO incidents.

"That's the Hellfire missile smacking into that UFO and just (bouncing) right off," he said, commenting on the video. "And it kept going."

"It kept going," Burlison agreed, "and it looks like the debris was taken with it."

 "Yeah. What the hell is that?" Knapp added.

Burlison said he was not going to speculate on what the object was in the video, but asked "Why are we being blocked from this information consistently?"

A U.S. defense official told ABC News "we do not have anything to provide on this" when asked to authenticate the video and the time and location it was allegedly taken.

Asked to comment on the video, a DOD spokesperson said: "I have nothing for you."

The Pentagon's All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office (AARO) continues to investigate UAP reports filed by military personnel, some of them going back decades.

While it has been able to explain some high-profile reports, there are still many cases that have been unexplained and has not found that any of the incidents are of an extraterrestrial origin

The new video is similar to a 2015 video that came to be known as the "Go Fast" video that showed a fast moving object appearing to fly at a high rate of speed above the waves in the waters off of California.

AARO analysts later determined that the video had captured an optical illusion involving a weather balloon and that the high rate of speed captured by the sensors aboard a Navy F/A-18 fighter jet was due to parallax and the angle from at which the camera viewed the object.

AARO officials have said previously that some of the older incidents remain unexplained because there was not enough data gathered by high-tech military sensors at the time. Newer incidents provide more data, because of the increased sophistication of sensors, that analysts can use to review them.

At the end of the hearing, Rep. Anna Paulina Luna (R-Fla.) replayed the video and asked the panelists if they were scared by what they saw in the video. All said yes with the exception of Knapp, who replied that he was happy that the video had been released.

Related

 

{ https://abcnews.go.com/ }

12-10-2025 om 21:13 geschreven door peter  

By Kelsey Klimara, Paulina Tam, Lauren DiMundo, and Ivan Pereira

The stories of flying saucers, little green men, and contact with beings from across the cosmos have fascinated the public for centuries as people have wondered what's beyond our skies.

But over the last few decades, as science and mass media have expanded, the obsession with unidentified flying objects and possible extraterrestrial life has exploded.

From the fun, such as sightseeing tours of supposed UFO activity hotspots like Roswell, New Mexico, to the serious, with last year's tense congressional hearings on the subject, a lot of money, resources and time has been spent answering the question: "Are we alone?"

"There are people who will see things that are explainable, but they can't explain it. So to them, it's unidentified. Fine. Well, let's investigate it," famed astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson told "Impact x Nightline."

An episode of "Impact x Nightline" now streaming on Hulu takes a look at the cultural phenomenon behind UFOs and features interviews with scientists, UFO enthusiasts and people who claimed to have been abducted by aliens.

Margaret Weitekamp, the department chair of the National Air and Space Museum, told "Impact" that the phenomenon behind UFOs began in the 1940s and 1950s with the public obsession over flying saucers.

Arguably the most famous incident took place in the summer of 1947 when a rancher found wreckage, including metallic-looking scraps, on his property. This was around the same time that the U.S. Air Force began "Project Blue Book," an initiative to investigate UFO reports.

"What we know is probably that it was a weather balloon incident, but a lot of lore has risen up around that and around especially secure areas in the American West, where people then ask a lot of questions about what's really happening there," Weitekamp said.

The reports of the weather balloon did little to quell people's suspicions, experts said.

Reports of unidentified lights in the sky, aircraft and other unexplained events, particularly in the Southwest, exploded since the 1950s and turned the area into a pop culture phenomenon.

Just outside of Las Vegas lies what many UFO enthusiasts call "The Extraterrestrial Highway," which features UFO-themed attractions and stores.

But some who claimed they had gotten up close and personal with a being from outer space told "Impact" that their lives were forever changed from that fateful encounter.

Kat Patterson told "Impact" that she was abducted by aliens 24 years ago when she and her sister-in-law were driving in a rural area. Patterson said the experience, where she allegedly was put on a metal bed and was given a "pelvic exam" by a group of aliens, traumatized her.

"If you believe me, great. If you don’t, that’s fine, too. You don’t have to," she said. "I know what happened."

Avi Loeb, a theoretical physicist at Harvard University's department of astronomy, told "Impact" that aliens exist "because to think otherwise is arrogant." However, he said that there is no concrete evidence, yet, to prove extraterrestrial activity on Earth.

"Nowadays, there are 10,000 satellites, many of which are communications satellites, and a lot of people mistake them for anomalous objects and there are many drones," Loeb said.

Still, that hasn't stopped scientists and the government from pouring billions of dollars over the years into probing the skies.

Two years ago, the Department of Defense created the All-Domain Anomaly Resolution Office, or AARO, to investigate unidentified aerial phenomena.

The agency's former director, Sean Kirkpatrick, told ABC News that there is no evidence of reports of an intact spacecraft kept by the U.S. government.

However, last July, David Grusch, a member of a previous Pentagon office tasked with investigating unidentified aerial phenomena, or UAPs, gave bombshell testimony to a congressional hearing.

Grusch spoke of the unconfirmed existence of a secret UFO recovery program sanctioned by the government and claimed that the UAPs were may be capable of probing our activities.

Kirkpatrick dismissed Grusch's testimony in a statement published on his personal LinkedIn page released shortly after the hearing.

The Pentagon last year also said it had investigated over 650 UAP incidents and found there was no evidence that any of them were of extraterrestrial origin.

Weitekamp noted that Grusch's testimony had very little new scientific information.

"So when Congress is holding hearings investigating the questions of unidentified aerial phenomenon, those are really questions about national security, questions about overflight, not so much about something overflying in space," she said.

Outside of the government, civilians have banded to try and answer the questions about the unknown themselves.

When "Project Blue Book," terminated in 1969, the Mutual UFO Network, or MUFON, formed to independently continue the government's work. The nonprofit has members across the globe from all walks of life, and conducts research, lobbies the government, and investigates sightings.

Once a year MUFON puts on a three-day field investigator boot camp preparing newcomers to join their ranks in proving or disproving mysterious phenomena.

"So when Congress is holding hearings investigating the questions of unidentified aerial phenomenon, those are really questions about national security, questions about overflight, not so much about something overflying in space," she said.

Outside of the government, civilians have banded to try and answer the questions about the unknown themselves.

When "Project Blue Book," terminated in 1969, the Mutual UFO Network, or MUFON, formed to independently continue the government's work. The nonprofit has members across the globe from all walks of life, and conducts research, lobbies the government, and investigates sightings.

Once a year MUFON puts on a three-day field investigator boot camp preparing newcomers to join their ranks in proving or disproving mysterious phenomena.

"They're learning advanced interviewing techniques. They're learning astronomy, among other subjects that are just going to help them in their work," Stacey Wright, the head of the Arizona MUFON chapter, told "Impact."

Wright said MUFON can positively classify about 95% of the reports they investigate, "whether it's a naturally occurring thing in the environment, whether it's a conventional aircraft that people are seeing, [or] something floating in the sky as simple as mylar balloons."

And while some of those inquiries about UFOs may not lead to major scientific revelations of extraterrestrial life, scientists said it is important to continue the research and follow the facts.

"If the day arises where they capture one of these things and they find there are aliens in it, that's cool. I'll rejoice. Finally, we found some aliens. But until that day happens, all we can do is collect data," Neil deGrasse Tyson said.

RELATED

{ https://abcnews.go.com/ }

12-10-2025 om 21:12 geschreven door peter  

Pope Leo's bombshell alien claims as he makes 'life on other planets' statement

The Vatican has, since the dawn of Vatican time, stayed away from ever officially commenting on aliens and what officials known about them . . . until now, it seems

BY Adam Cailler, Senior reporter and MSN lead

The Pope has broken his silence on aliens – something UFO lovers will be up in arms over. The Vatican and extra terrestrials have had a strained relationship for decades, with the previous incumbent, Pope Francis and his officials holding a press conference last year to talk about “supernatural phenomena”.

But nothing came of it, and rumours still persists that there are secret alien files in the Vatican's much-mysterious vault.

David Grusch, a US Air Force veteran has often made claims about the US Government's involvement in covering up the truth about aliens and UFOs and last year he brought the Vatican into the fold by claiming that it knows about aliens and was involved in a cover-up as far back as 1933.

However, nobody has ever really commented in any official capacity – until now.

Pope Leo XIV, who has only been in his role for a few months, has bucked the trend of silence and gone on record to claim that it's possible life does exists in other parts of the universe.

Speaking during a reception held for participants of a summer course at the Vatican Observatory in June – but only just surfacing now – he said: “Thanks to this remarkable instrument, we are able for the first time to peer deep into the atmosphere of planets in other solar systems, where life could develop.

“The new technology also makes it possible to trace the ancient light of distant galaxies, which tells us about the origins of our universe".

He then called on the participants of the course to use new telescopes and technology at the observatory to "deepen our knowledge of the cosmos, of which we are only a small but significant part”.

Despite this, it has often been claimed that if the Vatican were to open its vault doors and be honest about what it knows, it could do irreparable damage to itself.

But for now, the truth remains out there . . . somewhere.

{ https://www.dailystar.co.uk/ }

12-10-2025 om 20:26 geschreven door peter  

Physicists capture rare illusion of an object moving at 99.9% the speed of light

Although previous models have worked with this illusion, now called the Terrell-Penrose effect, this is the first time it has been done in a lab setting. The team described their results in the journal Communications Physics.

"What I like most is the simplicity," Dominik Hornof, a quantum physicist at the Vienna University of Technology and first author of the study, told Live Science. "With the right idea, you can recreate relativistic effects in a small lab. It shows that even century-old predictions can be brought to life in a really intuitive way."

Re-creating the illusion

In the new study, physicists used ultra-fast laser pulses and gated cameras to produce snapshots of a cube and a sphere "moving" at nearly the speed of light. The results showed snapshots of rotated objects. This proved the Terrell-Penrose effect to be true.

But like every study, this one also had its difficulties. Moving any object at or near the speed of light is currently impossible. "In Einstein's theory, the faster something moves, the more its effective mass increases. As you get closer to the speed of light, the energy you need grows by a lot," Hornof said. We cannot generate enough energy to accelerate something like a cube, and "that's why we need huge particle accelerators, even just to move electrons close to that speed. It would take a huge amount of energy."

So the team used a clever substitute. "What we can do is mimic the visual effect," Hornof said. They started with a cube of about 3 feet (1 meter) on each side. Then, they fired ultra-short laser pulses — each just 300 picoseconds long, or about a tenth of a billionth of a second — at the object. They captured the reflected light with a gated camera that opened only for that instant and produced a thin "slice" each time.

After each slice, they moved the cube forward about 1.9 inches (4.8 cm). That is the distance it would have traveled if it were moving at 80% the speed of light during the delay between pulses. Then, the scientists put all of these slices together into a snapshot of the cube in motion.

"When you combine all the slices, the object looks like it's racing incredibly fast, even though it never moved at all," Hornof said. "At the end of the day, it's just geometry."

They repeated the process with a sphere, shifting it by 2.4 inches (6 cm) per step to mimic 99.9% light speed. When the slices were combined, the cube appeared rotated and the sphere looked as if you could peek around its sides.

"The rotation is not physical," Hornof said. "It's an optical illusion. The geometry of how light arrives at the same time tricks our eyes."

That is why the Terrell-Penrose effect does not contradict Einstein's special relativity. A fast-moving object is physically shortened along its direction of travel, but a camera doesn't capture that directly. Because light from the back takes longer to arrive than light from the front, the snapshot shifts in a way that makes the object appear rotated.

"When we did the calculations, we were surprised how beautifully the geometry worked out," Hornof said. "Seeing it appear in the images was really exciting."

{ https://www.livescience.com/physics-mathematics }

12-10-2025 om 18:41 geschreven door peter  

New Revelations at Biblical City Sites Bolster Biblical Accounts

 Gary Manners

Recent archaeological discoveries at two pivotal biblical sites are transforming our understanding of early Christianity's expansion across the ancient Mediterranean world. In Turkey's ancient Lystra, excavators have uncovered a magnificent 100-foot basilica adorned with gold-gilded mosaics, while Israel's el-Araj site yields new evidence supporting its identification as biblical Bethsaida. These findings illuminate the sophisticated urban networks that supported the first Christian communities and help validate biblical accounts with tangible archaeological evidence.

The Lystra basilica, discovered near modern Hatunsaray in central Anatolia, provides concrete proof that the city mentioned eight times in the New Testament was indeed a thriving Christian center capable of supporting grand religious architecture. According to Assoc. Prof. İlker Mete Mimiroğlu of Necmettin Erbakan University, this discovery confirms biblical narratives describing Paul's miraculous healing of a lame man and the subsequent establishment of organized Christian communities in first-century Anatolia claims the Daily Mail report.

• Supposed Home of Jesus and the Apostles 
• The Mystery of St. Paul's Lost Bible: Is Someone Hiding

Lystra: From Miraculous Healing to Christian Center

Lystra achieved biblical fame during Paul and Barnabas's first missionary journey when Paul healed a man "lame from birth" who had "never walked." This miracle, recorded in Acts 14:8-10, caused local residents to mistake the apostles for gods Hermes and Zeus, leading to dramatic religious confrontations that became foundational to early Christian history.

The newly discovered basilica spans 100 feet (30 meters) and features sophisticated late antique craftsmanship with gold-gilded ceiling mosaics and richly ornamented walls.

Archaeological evidence suggests the basilica served dual functions as both worship center and administrative hub, reflecting the organizational structure of early Christian communities in Anatolia. The site also connected to Timothy, Paul's spiritual successor, who was appointed as one of the region's first bishops. Excavations reveal continuous use from late antiquity through the early medieval period, demonstrating Christianity's lasting impact in this strategic Lycaonian city explains Arkeonews.

• Church Built by Roman Emperor Justinian I Excavated
• Byzantine Church Discovered in Israel Reveals Surprising

The Sacrifice at Lystra by Raphael, 1515, shows the moment when the people of Lystra mistake St. Paul and Barnabas for the gods Hermes and Zeus.

(Public Domain)

Cultural Synthesis in Seljuk Era

Beyond its Christian significance, Lystra excavations reveal remarkable cultural continuity through the Seljuk period (12th-13th centuries). Archaeologists discovered turquoise-colored beads in children's graves alongside Seljuk coins, representing early forms of the nazar boncuğu (evil-eye bead) that remains central to Turkish culture today. These artifacts demonstrate peaceful coexistence between Christian populations and incoming Turkish rulers rather than complete cultural displacement.

"It shows that when the Seljuks came, the local Christian population did not disappear," explains Mimiroğlu. "They continued their lives under Seljuk rule, within an atmosphere of tolerance."

Parts of the Byzantine basilica were repurposed into smaller chapels, with one altar incorporating a Roman funerary stele, illustrating how successive civilizations adapted sacred spaces for new religious purposes while maintaining spiritual continuity.

Turquoise-colored beads in children's graves alongside Seljuk coins discovered at the basilica. 

(DHA via Arkeonews)

Bethsaida Evidence Strengthens

Parallel discoveries at Israel's el-Araj site continue building the case for its identification as biblical Bethsaida, hometown of apostles Peter, Andrew, and Philip. Recent excavations uncovered a Byzantine church containing a mosaic inscription referencing "the chief of the apostles" - widely interpreted as Peter. This finding, combined with geographic and stratigraphic evidence, provides the strongest archaeological support yet for locating New Testament Bethsaida at this Sea of Galilee site.

The el-Araj church inscription includes a donor named Constantine petitioning for St. Peter's intercession, demonstrating organized Christian veneration at this location by the 5th-6th centuries AD. Wildfire damage in 2025 unexpectedly revealed hundreds of small mounds across the site, potentially representing individual house foundations from the ancient fishing village where Jesus performed multiple miracles and called his first disciples.

Ruins revealed by wildfire boost Sea of Galilee site's claim as being the New Testament's Bethsaida. 

(El Araj Excavation Project via Times of Israel)

These synchronized discoveries at Lystra and Bethsaida demonstrate how archaeological evidence can help bolster biblical historical accounts while revealing the sophisticated urban networks that enabled Christianity's rapid expansion across the first-century Mediterranean world. From Paul's miraculous healings to the establishment of lasting religious institutions, these ancient cities continue yielding tangible proof of Christianity's foundational period.

• Top image: The archaeological excavations at the Roman Lystra site in Turkey. 

Source: İHA via Arkeonews

By Gary Manners

References

{ https://www.ancient-origins.net/artifacts-0 }

12-10-2025 om 18:29 geschreven door peter  

10 Dark Matter Facts That Will Surprise You

The following 10 facts are a summary of what scientists have learned about this invisible stuff.

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

12-10-2025 om 17:59 geschreven door peter  

To Find God, Some People Are Turning to AI

Artificial intelligence is starting to appear in unexpected places, including houses of worship and spiritual communities. Around the world, religious groups, artists, and technologists are experimenting with ways AI might help people reflect on faith, ethics, and belief.

by Ivan Petricevic

 

In 2024, the small chapel at the Protestant church in Lucerne, Switzerland, housed the Deus in Machina installation, where visitors could sit across from an animated “AI Jesus” and pose their questions, and the machine had texts from the Bible and writings from Christian theologians at its disposal to answer their questions. Almost 900 people tried it out over the course of two months, and some found it fascinating, while others were outraged, because, according to the organizers of the project, they did not want to encourage worship, but rather curiosity, and they were exploring what happens when ancient questions of meaning meet a machine. The parish of Poznań in Poland even went a step further and installed an AI guide for questions on Catholicism, which quotes from the Bible and official Church documents, and the priest behind the project said the machine allows people to ask things that they would not dare ask a human priest.

These are small experiments, but they show how AI is already changing how people talk about theology and belief, and a new role for algorithms is emerging, because Artificial intelligence is being used in a few corners of religious life, such as a reader of scripture, where large language models can read religious texts at a scale no human can, comparing translations and tracking patterns across centuries of commentary. Researchers are also testing how well these systems can answer questions about doctrine and ethics, but the results are mixed, because they can synthesize information quickly, but they tend to lose nuance or introduce bias, and some critics say they confuse guidance and automation. AI is also being used as a listener, as some communities are testing AI chat companions for daily reflections, prayers, or emotional support, which offer privacy and 24/7 availability that people can’t always provide, however, some critics argue that they lack the human touch.

As the source of belief itself, a handful of people have argued that AI could be worshipped as a god, because, in 2017, engineer Anthony Levandowski started a short-lived organization called Way of the Future, with the aim of preparing for a world where superintelligent machines have surpassed human intelligence, although the group never attracted more than a handful of followers, but the idea remains in the corners of the net, that intelligence, even artificial, could one day be revered as a divine force.

Moral philosophy and theology

Moreover, religious ethicists are taking up positions in AI labs, arguing that centuries of moral philosophy and theology can inform how we design intelligent systems, and at Oxford, the Collaboration on Theology and Artificial Intelligence is exploring how faith traditions understand concepts of autonomy, responsibility, and conscience, which dovetail with debates over machine decision-making.

When faith meets data, some of these problems will not be solved by better code, because bias is one of the issues, as these models learn from human language, which means they pick up our prejudices and blind spots, and a system trained to talk about religion will repeat not just the sacred texts, but the cultural biases woven through them. Agency is another problem, because a machine can recite scripture, but it cannot pray, doubt, or feel remorse, and it lacks what many people of faith would call the heart of moral experience, as some theologians have put it, AI may talk about God, but it can’t talk to God. Furthermore, there’s the danger of reduction, because boiling faith down to data points and algorithms strips the communal and emotional richness that is essential to most religious traditions, such as rituals, silence, and shared space, which are all fundamental aspects of most religions, and no chatbot can replace them.

The psychological effects are complex, too, because a study published by the University of Chicago’s Booth School of Business found that reading about the capabilities of AI slightly decreased people’s reported belief in God, while another study, published by Duke University, found that thinking about God made people more likely to trust recommendations from AI, and the relationship between divine and machine authority appears to be a two-way street. Consequently, AI isn’t going to replace religion, but it’s going to change how we practice it, and it’s going to change how we interpret it, because, for some, AI is a new kind of mirror, reflecting our hopes, fears, and contradictions in sharp relief, while for others, it’s a threat to the authenticity of our belief. Therefore, the real test is how our communities choose to use it, as a tool for inquiry, or as a stand-in for faith, because the machines can help us organize our texts, translate our scripture, spark us to reflection, but the heart of religion, the experience of wonder, doubt, and relationship, is something only humans can offer, and as the machines grow more capable, those lines are going to matter even more. Ultimately, the future of faith may not depend on whether the machines can find God, but it depends on whether the humans remember why they started searching.

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

12-10-2025 om 17:43 geschreven door peter  

The cosmos is changing before our eyes — and astronomers can barely keep up. A never-before-seen supernova is rewriting ...

{https://www.youtube.com/ }

12-10-2025 om 17:25 geschreven door peter  

A strange tilt in the outer reaches of the Kuiper Belt has scientists wondering if the solar system is hiding another planet—a potential “Planet Y” that could soon join the family of known worlds.

The Kuiper Belt is an enormous ring of icy bodies that extends from the orbit of Neptune to a distance of close to 30 astronomical units (AU), or approximately 30 times the distance from Earth to the Sun. During recent investigations of this mysterious outer solar system region, a team of Princeton researchers uncovered a strange warp in its plane, which could mean that something is pulling on some of the icy objects beyond Neptune—possibly even an undiscovered planet.

Eying the Kuiper Belt

The Princeton team’s work began with a simple question: “Is the Kuiper Belt flat?” Despite some slight deviations, the planets in our solar system all lie on roughly the same plane, which should be reflected in the belt. However, the Kuiper Belt unexpectedly changes this orientation with a tilt of about 15 degrees. Despite the team’s best efforts, most potential explanations failed to account for the unusual warpage, save for one: the potential existence of an unknown body the researchers dub “Planet Y.”

While there has been no direct observation of this currently theoretical planet, the team believes that current data suggests the planet would be between the sizes of Earth and Mercury, positioned deep in the outer reaches of our solar system. 

“This paper is not a discovery of a planet, but it’s certainly the discovery of a puzzle for which a planet is a likely solution,”  the authors said when presenting their work in the Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society: Letters.

A New Addition to the Solar System?

This isn’t the first time a theoretical planet has been suspected to lurk in the Kuiper Belt, which once held a recognized planet until one of its largest residents, Pluto, was reclassified as a dwarf planet in 2006. The region remains mysterious due to difficulties in observing it at such great distances.

Earlier work sought what astronomer Percival Lowell dubbed “Planet X,” an attempt to explain away other anomalies by proposing a mysterious hidden planet. Those anomalies were in the orbits of the planets Neptune and Uranus, and even the 1930 discovery of Pluto didn’t prove to be enough to account for them. 

However, the mystery resolved itself in a less dramatic way than expected when Voyager 2 probe data revealed Neptune’s mass to be less than speculated in the 1990s. The recognition of a less massive Neptune seemingly resolved the question of the irregularities without requiring the pull of an unknown body.

Planet Y and the Search for Planet Nine

However, the search for a mysterious planet reignited with a 2016 paper speculating on what was now being called “Planet Nine” instead of “Planet X.” However, this long-suspected outer-solar system planetary body differs considerably from what the recent Princeton University research proposes, as this planet would be much larger and farther out beyond Pluto.

There is a great deal of debate over what an undiscovered planet in our solar system might look like, but the Princeton team says that they are not mutually exclusive. In theory, a pair of undiscovered planets could coexist beyond the range of our present observations.

Pentetrating the mysteries of the Kuiper Belt may soon be on the horizon, though, as the Vera C. Rubin Observatory in Chile is about to launch its decade-long survey, which the researchers believe will likely detect any such planet in the Kuiper Belt within two to three years.

Hence, the Vera C. Rubin Observatory may soon be able to finally resolve the question of whether other worlds might exist in our planetary neighborhood, as well as which planetary category the Princeton team’s suspected “Planet Y” belongs to.

The paper, “Measuring the Mean Plane of the Distant Kuiper Belt,” appeared in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society: Letters on August 21, 2025.

• Ryan Whalen covers science and technology for The Debrief. He holds an MA in History and a Master of Library and Information Science with a certificate in Data Science. He can be contacted at ryan@thedebrief.org, and follow him on Twitter @mdntwvlf.

RELATED VIDEOS

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

12-10-2025 om 17:12 geschreven door peter  

 Andrei Stir u --Redacteur

{ https://scientias.nl/nieuws/green-tech/ }

12-10-2025 om 16:47 geschreven door peter  

 The Origins of Human Beings According to Ancient Sumerian Texts

johnblack

Sumer, or the ‘land of civilized kings’, flourished in Mesopotamia, now modern-day Iraq, around 4500 BC. Sumerians created an advanced civilization with its own system of elaborate language and writing, architecture and arts, astronomy and mathematics. Their religious system was a complex one comprised of hundreds of gods. According to the ancient texts, each Sumerian city was guarded by its own god; and while humans and gods used to live together, the humans were servants to the gods.

The figures can be identified as gods by their pointed hats with multiple horns. The figure with streams of water and fish flowing from his shoulders is Ea (Sumerian Enki), god of subterranean waters and of wisdom. Behind him stands Usimu, his two-faced vizier (chief minister). At the centre of the scene is the sun-god, Shamash (Sumerian Utu), with rays rising from his shoulders. He is cutting his way through the mountains in order to rise at dawn. To his left is a winged goddess, Ishtar (Sumerian Inanna). The weapons rising from her shoulders symbolise her warlike characteristics.

(Public Domain)

The Unity of God and Man: How the First Human Came into Existence

Anu, the god of gods, agreed that their labour was too great. His son Enki, or Ea, proposed to create man to bear the labour, and so, with the help of his half-sister Ninki, he did. A god was put to death, and his body and blood was mixed with clay. From that material the first human being was created, in likeness to the gods.

You have slaughtered a god together
With his personality
I have removed your heavy work
I have imposed your toil on man.
…
In the clay, god and man
Shall be bound,
To a unity brought together;
So that to the end of days
The Flesh and the Soul
Which in a god have ripened –
That soul in a blood-kinship be bound.

This first man was created in Eden, a Sumerian word which means ‘flat terrain’. In the Epic of Gilgamesh, Eden is mentioned as the garden of the gods and is located somewhere in Mesopotamia between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers.

Adapa, the first human being in ancient Sumerian Texts failed to answer the question of “the bread and water of life” Anu.

(AAref/Adobe Stock)

Initially human beings were unable to reproduce on their own, but were later modified with the help of Enki and Ninki. Thus, Adapa was created as a fully functional and independent human being. This ‘modification’ was done without the approval of Enki’s brother, Enlil, and a conflict between the gods began. Enlil became the adversary of man, and the Sumerian tablet mentions that men served gods and went through much hardship and suffering.

• Garden of Eden Depicted in Ancient Greek Religious Art
• Divine, Forbidden and Dangerous? Magic Apples in Ancient Mythology

Adapa, with the help of Enki, ascended to Anu where he failed to answer a question about ‘the bread and water of life’.

Opinions vary on the similarities between this creation story and the biblical story of Adam and Eve in Eden.  While Adapa was granted great wisdom and knowledge by Enki, he unknowingly rejected the gift of immortality when offered the "bread and water of life. Adam and Eve were placed in the Garden of Eden and instructed not to eat from the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. However, they were tempted by the serpent and ate the forbidden fruit, leading to their expulsion from paradise.

Overall, the Sumerian creation myth holds significant importance as one of the earliest known written creation stories, offering valuable insights into the religious, political, and cultural aspects of ancient Mesopotamia.

• Top image: Sumerian chaos monster and sun god.
• Source: Public Domain
• Note: Ancient Sumerian translations were taken from William Bramley’s book, The Gods of Eden.

By John Black

References

RELATED  VIDEOS

{ https://www.ancient-origins.net/ }

11-10-2025 om 23:03 geschreven door peter  

Researcher Says Aliens May Be Using Star Systems as Spaceships

Nathan Falde

Astronomers have observed stars that are accelerating through space at a shockingly rapid pace. Normally this is assumed to relate to gravitational forces in some way, or to the natural emissions of the stars that might be causing them to move at unusually fast rates.

But one researcher has a different idea about why some stars or star systems seem to be moving more rapidly than normally, presumably dragging their planets along with them as they go. According to Clement Vidal, a philosopher from Vrije University Brussels in Belgium who has an interest in astronomy, these traveling solar systems may have been converted into fast-moving “spaceships” by advanced alien civilizations looking to explore other areas of the Milky Way galaxy.

The Solar System as UFO

Assuming for a moment they developed the technology to actually accomplish such a thing, an alien civilization might have various motivations for propelling their entire solar system through space.

“Two universal evolutionary motivations will make interstellar travel a necessity to any long-lived civilization: survival and reproduction,” Vidal wrote in a non-peer-reviewed paper about his concept published through Cornell University.

Such a civilization might want to escape the vicinity of a nearby supernova that threatens their star system’s existence. Or they might be running out of resources on their home planet, and decide to move to another part of their galaxy where resources might be plentiful. Or they could simply be explorers driven by curiosity or a sense of adventure. They might even be forced to take such action as a response to attacks from other alien civilizations.

Rather than constructing ships that would carry just a few of them through space as astronauts, these aliens could take everyone along for the ride, with their solar system traveling through space on the ultimate voyage of discovery. While the journey to another solar system in a different part of the galaxy would be a long one, since the entire civilization was taking the trip together the passing of the time wouldn’t really be noticed.

Binary star system R Aquarii, located 700 light-years from Earth.

(European Southern Observatory/CC BY 2.0).

This is an astonishing proposal, but it is based on an idea that has been around for a long time. The idea of creating a “stellar engine” (a star that could be used to power space travel) was first conceived of by science fiction writer Olaf Stapledon in 1937, and the concept has always been considered sound—impractical perhaps, but not totally out of the realm of possibility.

• Human Genes May Have the Answer As To Whether Aliens Exist
• Ancient Egyptian North Star Eclipsed By Astronomical Discovery

In his theoretical study, Vidal proposes that binary star systems would make the best candidates to be converted into spaceships. The particular types of binary systems he identifies are known as spidar pulsars and redback pulsars, and each consists of a star that is smaller than our sun revolving around a dense neutron star with a powerful gravitational field.

In such systems the neutron stars create an enormous amount of energy. They do this through the combination of their rapid rotation (rapidly spinning stars are known as pulsars) and the gravitational forces they generate, the latter of which causes high-powered ejections of materials from their partner stars.

It is these forces, Vidal says, that could be controlled or redirected by an advanced alien civilization to actually propel an entire star system through space at a high rate of speed. The idea would be to take control of the pattern of ejections by the neutron’s companion star, and to point them in a specific direction. This would essentially turn that star into a massive rocket, propelling the solar system and all of its inhabitants toward the region of space they would like to explore. Making changes of direction in the material ejection patterns would allow the alien engineers to steer their moving solar systems, giving them total control over their final destination.

• The Dogon’s Extraordinary Knowledge of the Cosmos and the Cult of Nommo
• Elon Musk's “Ancient Aliens” Twittersphere Controversy Continues

An alien civilization would have to be enormously advanced to have developed the technology necessary to manipulate stellar forces. But if they were, converting their entire solar system into a spaceship could be feasible and logical, Vidal argues, and in such a circumstance there would be no shortage of reasons why such a civilization might want to put this idea into practice.

Let the Investigation Begin!

It would be easy to dismiss an idea like this as 100-percent speculation, rooted in science fiction more than science reality. But it is an idea that can be investigated, which is really all that Clement Vidal is recommending that astronomers do.

In fact scientists have already looked closely at the anomalous movements of hypervelocity stars, strange objects that were apparently ejected from the center of the Milky Way after passing too close to a black hole. Astronomers have identified and analyzed 16 hypervelocity stars so far, but as Vidal readily admits none of them show movement patterns that would suggest they are under intelligent control.

Vidal is convinced, however, that binary star systems with the neutron star-small companion star arrangement would make the best stellar engines, because of their unique gravitational dynamics. In fact, he has already identified two candidates that match the characteristics of the solar systems he wants investigated. These are a “black widow” pulsar designated PSR J0610-2100, and a "redback" pulsar known as PSR J2043+1711. Both of these binary star systems are accelerating, and as of now there is no good explanation for that.

Illustration of star flying through space pulling planet along with it.

(Pickpik).

And just last year, Vidal notes, NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory spotted five more binary pulsar systems like these in the Omega Centauri globular cluster, a grouping of 10 million stars that are about 17,000 light-years from earth. Vidal’s idea is that the movement patterns of all of these binary star systems should be closely analyzed, to see if they show any signs of speeding up or slowing down, changing direction, moving faster than predicted, and so on.

“I see the highlighted spider stellar engine candidates and predictions as promising starting points and clues that require further attention, observation, modeling, and follow-up,” he wrote.

Should such evidence be observed, it would of course not prove these solar systems were being driven across the galaxy by aliens. But if any of them are, perhaps one day thousands of years in the future they will decide to park in orbit for awhile around our sun and stop in for a visit. Should this ever happen, the result would be the largest and most spectacular mass UFO sighting in world history, followed up by actual alien contact.

• Top image: Illustration of binary pair of giant starts, accompanied by multiple planets.
• Source: NOIRLab/NSF/AURA/J. da Silva M. ZamaniCC BY-SA 4.0.

By Nathan Falde

RELATED VIDEOS

{ https://www.ancient-origins.net/ }

11-10-2025 om 22:39 geschreven door peter  

Hidden, supercharged 'thermostat' may cause Earth to overcorrect for climate change

With both thermostats working in tandem, it's possible that the next ice age could start on time, instead of being delayed by the effects of climate change, study co-author Andy Ridgwell, a professor of geology at the University of California, Riverside, told Live Science.

The newfound thermostat does not protect humans living now from the effects of global warming, said study co-author Dominik Hülse, a mathematician and biogeochemical modeler at the University of Bremen in Germany. "It's not to say that we will be safe from global warming in the next 100 or even 1,000 years," he told Live Science.

Scientists have long suspected that Earth regulates its climate on geological timescales. Since the 1980s, researchers have theorized about a mechanism called the silicate weathering feedback, which occurs when rain captures CO₂ from the air and sprays it onto silicate rocks — rocks with minerals made of oxygen and silicon that constitute about 90% of the planet's crust. CO₂ reacts with these rocks, dissolving them and forming molecules that leach into the ground and eventually end up in the ocean. Once there, what was once CO₂ forms limestone and chalk, meaning it is locked away for millions of years.

The silicate weathering feedback is like a thermostat because the more CO₂ that is in the atmosphere, the warmer Earth gets and the more the water cycle intensifies. As precipitation increases, silicate weathering accelerates, meaning more CO₂ is transferred to the ocean and atmospheric CO₂ sinks to background levels again.

The feedback also works the other way around. "If you get too cold and CO₂ is too low, then the thermostat is consuming too little CO₂ compared with a background of constant release of CO₂ from the mantle, from volcanoes and other magma features," Ridgwell said. In this scenario, less CO₂ ends up in the ocean and atmospheric levels slowly increase back to average levels, he said.

But the silicate weathering feedback moves slowly; it can take up to 1 million years after a perturbation to rebalance CO₂ levels. As a result, there are climate events it can't explain, including Earth's glacial and interglacial cycles, which are characterized by huge fluctuations in CO₂ levels and temperature that occur roughly every 100,000 years, Ridgwell said.

Silicate weathering also can't explain snowball Earth events, which completely cover the planet in ice, Hülse said. If silicate weathering were the only thermostat regulating Earth's climate, its smooth balancing act would prevent it from tipping into such extreme conditions, Hülse explained.

A second "thermostat"

The new research was inspired by Hülse's doctoral dissertation, in which he calculated how much organic carbon was preserved in ocean sediments during past climatic events. His results showed that after periods of intense volcanic activity and warming, mountains of organic carbon were deposited onto the seafloor. This finding suggested there might be a link between atmospheric CO₂ levels and organic carbon burial in the ocean.

"There are definitely times in Earth's history when a lot of organic carbon has been deposited," Ridgwell said. "We've sort of known that there must be other things going on [besides silicate weathering], but it's much more complex to put in a model."

But Hülse and Ridgwell tackled this challenge in the new study by amalgamating their individual projects into a single global climate carbon cycle model that accounted for organic carbon burial in the seafloor. Their results revealed a second "thermostat" rooted in Earth's phosphorus cycle, which starts on land with rocks containing minerals such as apatite, the researchers said.

Weathering of these rocks due to precipitation releases phosphorus, which leaches into the ground, enters streams and rivers, and eventually ends up in the ocean. There, phosphorus is a key nutrient for tiny photosynthetic creatures known as phytoplankton, which use it to fuel cellular processes. When phytoplankton die, they sink to the ocean bottom, where they deposit organic carbon, phosphorus and other nutrients.

In a warmer world, more phosphorus is washed into the ocean and phytoplankton proliferate, meaning more organic carbon and phosphorus reach the seafloor. However, warmer oceans also hold less oxygen because oxygen becomes less soluble as temperatures increase. This deoxygenation releases deposited phosphorus back into the water column while burying organic carbon in sediments.

"Exactly how that happens is not mechanistically entirely known, but we know it happens," Ridgwell said. "Where we've had these events in the past where we see massive amounts of organic carbon being buried after a warming event, there's very, very, very little phosphorus in that material compared with normal material. If it's not being buried, it must have been returned to the ocean."

As phosphorus gets recycled, it reenters the food chain and phytoplankton continue to proliferate as they feast on phosphorus from both the land and the ocean. This leads to a phytoplankton boom, which sucks more and more CO₂ out of the atmosphere and deposits more and more organic carbon onto the seafloor, which brings down global temperatures.

So, the warmer the world gets, the more productive the oceans become and the more carbon is locked away, which cools the climate. But the difference between phosphorus and silicate weathering is that phosphorus in the ocean doesn't decline as soon as Earth cools, because it continues to be released at the seafloor.

"The organic carbon thermostat is a little bit like the silicate thermostat, except it has this supercharger," Ridgwell said. "You end up with so many nutrients in the ocean — and they're being recycled very efficiently — that it's very difficult to get rid of them again."

The phosphorus cycle eventually regains its balance, but the planet can "overcorrect" in the meantime, triggering events like snowball Earth, the researchers said. It's unclear how this second thermostat will respond to climate change now, but the ocean is so rich in oxygen compared with in the past that a snowball Earth is unlikely, they said.

Instead, it's possible that the organic carbon thermostat will make up for the delay expected for the next ice age. Climate change is disturbing Earth's natural cycles, and previous research suggests it could push back the next glacial period, which is due in about 11,000 years, by tens of thousands of years. But if the organic carbon thermostat activates, atmospheric CO₂ could return to background levels much faster, ensuring that the next ice age arrives on time.

"Whatever delay we'll end up with for the next ice age ... thinking about this mechanism might bring it back forward again," Ridgwell said. "One is going to start at some point for sure; it's all about when it starts."

{ https://www.livescience.com/planet-earth }

11-10-2025 om 22:22 geschreven door peter  

Oude UFO-foto. Beeldconcept van buitenaardse wezens.

Depositphotos.

De evolutie van UFO-studies: van randwetenschap tot voorhoedewetenschap

Inleiding

Sinds mensenheugenis hebben we de hemel boven ons bestudeerd met verwondering en een tikkeltje angst. Is er werkelijk leven buiten onze planeet, zoals we onszelf kennen? De afgelopen vier decennia heb ik het onderwerp UFO’s gevolgd, vaker naar de sterrengekeken dan ik kan tellen, en mezelf afgevraagd of een van die fonkelende objecten misschien een huis biedt aan wezens zoals wij. Soms vroeg ik me af of er planeten in het melkwegstelsel zijn die een spiegel vormen van onze eigen wereld. En ja, ik heb meerdere malen dingen aan de hemel gezien die ik niet kon verklaren. Dat betekent niet per se dat ik wezens uit andere werelden heb waargenomen die met hoge snelheid voorbijschieten; maar het betekent ook zeker niet dat ik dat niet heb gedaan. Wie over dit onderwerp bedachtzaam spreekt, zegt dat de waarheid daarbuiten ligt. En ik geloof sterk dat dit inderdaad zo is. Ik ben ervan overtuigd dat sommige voorwerpen die wij in onze lucht zien — en mogelijk zelfs door de ruimte reizen — niet van deze planeet zijn en geen product van de aard der dingen. Het is egoïstisch en grootheidswaanzin te denken dat ALLEEN op onze Aarde intelligent leven is  en niet op de biljoenen sterren en planeten om ons heen...

Verandering van perceptie - Van bagatellisering, belachelijk maken naar wetenschap

Decennialang werden onopgehelderde vliegende voorwerpen, beter bekend als UFO’s, nu UAP's genoemd, vrijwel uitsluitend afgedaan als speelse curiosa uit de wereld van sciencefiction en mythen. De publieke verbeelding werd al gauw overschaduwd door scepsis: wat bovennatuurlijke verklaringen leek de overhand te hebben, werd in wetenschappelijke kringen al snel als ongefundeerd, oncontroleerbaar en soms zelfs als belachelijk beschouwd. Journalisten, politici en wetenschappers wisten zich vaak geen beter woord te vinden dan ridicule om het onderwerp te benaderen, waardoor serieuze debatten over de realiteit en oorzaken van deze verschijnselen ontaardden in grapjes of ontkenning. De consequentie hiervan was dat veel waarnemingen niet gedocumenteerd of serieus onderzocht werden, en dat het wetenschappelijke gesprek over mogelijk niet-normale luchtverschijnselen werd verengd tot marginaal terrein.

De afgelopen jaren is dit patroon echter ingrijpend verschoven. Steeds meer onderzoekers erkennen dat er minder sprake is van louter fantasie of misinterpretatie dan aanvankelijk werd gedacht, en dat systematische waarnemingen, data-analyse en verantwoorde rapportage wel degelijk leiden tot bruikbare inzichten. Universiteiten, onderzoeksinstituten en onafhankelijke wetenschappers pleiten vaker voor een open maar kritische benadering van wat aanvankelijk als “ongebruikelijke” gebeurtenissen werd gecatalogiseerd. Ze benadrukken dat het opdoen van betrouwbare kennis mogelijk is wanneer er transparante methodes, reproduceerbare bevindingen en stringent getypeerde waarnemingen aan ten grondslag liggen.

Ook overheidsinstanties hebben hun houding aangepast en investeren in gestructureerde programma’s om de verschijnselen te bestuderen zonder de wetenschappelijke integriteit in gevaar te brengen. Een bekend en symbolisch voorbeeld is de betrokkenheid van NASA, die, hoewel vaak geassocieerd met traditionele ruimtevaart en technologische topprestaties, nu duidelijk heeft gemaakt dat het onderwerp van onverklaarde luchtverschijnselen aandacht verdient. De vorming van een gespecialiseerde UFO-studiegroep door NASA onderstreept een intentie om werkwijzen te verbeteren, dataficeren te harmoniseren en interdisciplinaire samenwerking te stimuleren. Daarmee ontstaat een nieuw plausibel kader waarin waarnemingen worden geëvalueerd op basis van evidence, meegewogen in de context van ruimtevaart, atmospherische wetenschap en data-analyse.

Samengevat markeert deze verschuiving een markant keerpunt: van een sfeer van bagatellisering en belachelijk maken naar een wetenschappelijke, transparante en serieuze aanpak van onbegrepen verschijnselen. Het traject is nog lang niet afgerond, maar de toon is onmiskenbaar verschoven richting nieuwsgierigheid, methodische inzet en een herontdekte legitimiteit van onderzoek naar wat ons al lang fascineert: het onbekende aan de grenzen van onze perceptie.

In de afgelopen drie jaar hebben hoge functionarissen publiekelijk hun verwarring over ongeïdentificeerde luchtverschijnselen toegegeven. Boven: Vier mysterieuze objecten gespot in Salem, Massachusetts, in 1952.

Foto-illustratie door Paul Sahre

NASA’s UFO-studiegroep

Een spelverdeler of een keerpunt? De opstelling van zo’n groep onder de paraplu van een van ’s werelds meest gerespecteerde ruimte- en wetenschapsinstellingen verleent een ongekende geloofwaardigheid aan het onderzoek naar UFO’s. In plaats van losse geruchten of sensationele rapporten fungeert deze werkgroep als een serieuze, methodische instantie die systematisch kalibratie, validatie en replicatie van bevindingen nastreeft. Door een multidisciplinair team samen te brengen—astronomen, datawetenschappers, ingenieurs, veiligheidsdeskundigen en psychologen—wordt geprobeerd een zo volledig mogelijk beeld te schetsen van wat er gezien kan zijn en hoe het in een breder wetenschappelijk kader past.

De groep houdt zich bezig met het bestuderen van gerapporteerde ontmoetingen met UFO’s en het analyseren van mogelijke wetenschappelijke verklaringen voor de waargenomen verschijnselen. Dit omvat het beoordelen van waarnemingsdata uit satellieten, radar- en fotografische waarnemingen, evenals getuigenverklaringen die op langere termijn herzien kunnen worden. Een cruciale stap in dit proces is het scheiden van betrouwbare signalen van ruis, niet-specifieke interpretaties en mogelijk misleidende artefacten die door menselijke perceptie of instrumentele beperkingen kunnen ontstaan. Daarnaast wordt er aandacht besteed aan het ontwikkelen van gestandaardiseerde methoden voor data-registratie, metadata-consistentie en kwaliteitscontrole, zodat bevindingen op lange termijn herhaalbaar zijn door onafhankelijke onderzoekers.

Op 31 mei 2023 hield NASA een bijeenkomst waaruit blijkt dat UFO’s een mysterie zullen blijven totdat we betere, nauwkeurigere gegevens hebben. Daarmee wordt de eis niet zozeer dat alles onmiddellijk verklaard moet zijn, maar dat de kwaliteit en betrouwbaarheid van de data essentieel zijn voor elke vooruitgang. In deze context fungeert de studiegroep ook als een transparant platform voor publiek en wetenschappelijk debat, waar bevindingen worden gedeeld, scrutinized en waar mogelijk geanonimiseerd gedeeld in een gecontroleerde omgeving.

Overheids- en militaire onthullingen - Geluid van insiders 

Naast NASA komen er steeds vaker onthullingen naar buiten van hooggeplaatste overheidsfunctionarissen, inlichtingenofficieren en militair personeel die het debat op een hoger niveau brengen. Deze insiders brengen getuigenissen naar buiten die niet louter als anekdotisch hoeven te worden gezien, maar als onderdeel van een soms lange geschiedenis van gedocumenteerde waarnemingen, onderzoeken en gedematerialiseerde rapportages. Ze beschrijven ervaringen die de twijfels van sceptici uitdagen en tegelijk de verantwoordelijke procedures benadrukken waarmee dergelijke feiten moeten worden geverifieerd en afgewogen. In veel gevallen wordt gespecieerd hoe meerdere getuigen onafhankelijk van elkaar soortgelijke kenmerken en patronen hebben waargenomen: snelle acceleraties, afwijkende aerodynamische manoeuvres, en een opmerkelijke stabiliteit tijdens turbulente omstandigheden. Sommigen voegen daaraan toe dat de waarnemingen gepaard gaan met meetinstrumenten die anomalieën registreren, zoals ongebruikelijke radiogolven, anomalieën in infraroodbeeldvorming en onverklaarbare responsen van sensoren.

Schokkende radarbeelden tonen Hellfire-raket afgevuurd door het Amerikaanse leger die afketst op een UFO boven de oceaan

Rapporten beschrijven objecten met geavanceerde vliegeigenschappen, die soms lijken te ontsnappen aan de bekende wetten van de aerodynamica en zelfs naadloos kunnen schakelen tussen verschillende media, zoals lucht en water, waardoor ze transmedium-vaartuigen lijken te zijn. In andere gevallen wordt gesuggereerd dat sommige waarnemingen mogelijk bestaan uit technologische demonstraties, prototypes of zelfs non-terrestrische technologieën die mogelijk in risicovolle proeven zijn ingezet. Daarnaast worden er bevindingen genoemd die suggereren dat overheden mogelijk delen of zelfs hele buitenaardse vaartuigen hebben teruggevonden, gedocumenteerd of onder langdurige geheimhouding geplaatst, wat het debat over autorisatie, classificatie en publieke verantwoording scherp houdt.

Of dit nu waar is of niet, het feit blijft dat dergelijke beweringen de horizon van wat als mogelijk wordt beschouwd aanzienlijk verbreden. Ze zetten overheden en militaire instellingen onder druk om transparanter, verifiëerbaarder en verantwoorder te handelen. Het gevolg is een toegenomen publieke interesse, een herijken van veiligheids- en technologiebeleid, en een gesprek over de implicaties voor nationale veiligheid, wetenschappelijke integriteit en ethische normen bij het omgaan met onbekende verschijnselen en potentieel revolutionaire technologieën. De combinatie van getuigenissen, feiten en onzekerheden maakt de kwestie complexer dan ooit en vraagt om zorgvuldige, feitelijke analyse en verantwoorde media-aandacht.

De evolutie van UFO-studies en maatschappelijke implicaties

Door de decennia heen is het veld van UFO-studies geëvolueerd van sensationele rapporten en mysteriezaaiers naar een doorwroet wetenschappelijk domein waarin gegevens, methodologie en transparantie centraal staan. In de beginjaren speelde het stigma een grote rol: waarnemingen werden vaak afgedaan als onbelangrijk of verkeerd geïnterpreteerd. Met de verschuiving naar gestructureerde rapportage, datasets en verificatie door onafhankelijke onderzoekers is de geloofwaardigheid aanzienlijk toegenomen. Instituten zoals NASA en andere ruimtevaartorganisaties hebben hun benadering verfijnd: open data, strikte waarnemingsprotocollen, en samenwerking met interdisciplinair teams van astronomen, natuurkundigen, psychologen en veiligheidsanalisten. Deze ontwikkeling heeft ervoor gezorgd dat het onderwerp op een verantwoord niveau wordt onderzocht, zonder sensationele hoogstandjes maar met reproduceerbare bevindingen.

De maatschappelijke implicaties zijn divers en diepgaand. Een “onthulling” van informatie—zij het geleidelijk of gedeeltelijk—kan het publieke vertrouwen in instituties versterken of juist ondermijnen, afhankelijk van de mate van transparantie en de duidelijkheid van communicatie. Het debat over buitenaardse intelligentie zet fundamentele vragen op tafel: wat weten we werkelijk over onze plaats in het universum, hoe definiëren we technologische vooruitgang, en welke ethische kaders gelden bij het delen van mogelijk wereldwijde kennis? Daarnaast beïnvloedt de mogelijkheid van technologische implica­ties uit kontakt met andere beschavingen ons begrip van wetenschap, defensie en internationale samenwerking. Het bestuderen van deze fenomenen kan leiden tot een bredere kijk op innovatie, het herijken van prioriteiten in ruimte- en onderzoeksbeleid, en een versterkt bewustzijn van de intrinsieke menselijke zoektocht naar betekenis, zonder dat dit per se hoeft te leiden tot sensationalisme of paniek.

Een nieuwe periode van ontdekking en begrip

Wanneer we naar de toekomst kijken, lijkt het alsof de toenemende belangstelling voor UFO’s of UAP’s een hele nieuwe fase inluidt voor wetenschappelijke verkenning en menselijke nieuwsgierigheid. Deze verschijnselen roepen vragen op die verder gaan dan de onmiddellijke mysterie: wat is de aard van hun oorsprong, welke technologieën schuilen erachter, en welke wetten van natuurkunde dragen hieraan bij? Door het stimuleren van basiswetenschappelijk onderzoek kunnen onderzoekers theoretische modellen toetsen, instrumenten verbeteren en lanceerbaar maken wat ooit als ongrijpbaar lag. In dit proces kan de mensheid stappen zetten op het gebied van data-analyse, beeldverwerking, radar- en optisch waarnemen, en zelfs artificiële intelligentie die patronen detecteert die met het blote oog onzichtbaar blijven.

De verkenning van UAP’s biedt bovendien kansen om technologieën te ontwikkelen die de toekomst van de mensheid kunnen vormgeven. Denk aan geavanceerde sensoren en communicatiemethoden die ons begrip van energie, materiaalapatiteit en systemen op grote schaal kunnen verbeteren. De resultaten kunnen doorwerken in ruimtevaarttechnologie, langeafstandscommunicatie en efficiënter energiebeheer op aarde.

Daarnaast heeft deze zoektocht het potentieel om internationale samenwerking te versterken. Gedeelde nieuwsgierigheid en de drang om de grenzen van menselijke kennis te verleggen vormen universele motivaties die landen kunnen samenbrengen, ongeacht politieke of culturele verschillen. Het besef dat we mogelijk niet alleen zijn in het universum kan een sterker gevoel van menselijk samenhorigheid creëren. Het kan leiders aansporen om gezamenlijk te investeren in onderzoek, data-uitwisseling en gezamenlijke missies, met respect voor ethische, juridische en veiligheidskaders. Uiteindelijk zou dit kunnen leiden tot een nieuw tijdperk van vredevolle wetenschappelijke samenwerking en een bredere, inclusieve kijk op onze plek in het kosmische geheel.

Zwart-wit afbeelding uit video verstrekt door het ministerie van Defensie, gelabeld Gimbal, uit 2015, een onverklaard object is in het midden te zien terwijl het wordt gevolgd terwijl het hoog langs de wolken zweeft en tegen de wind in reist. Witte cijfers zijn rond de rand van de afbeelding te zien.

bu.edu

De onbekende grens - Van ridicule naar ERNSTIG wetenschappelijk terrein

De reis van UFO-studies van onderwerp van spot naar serieuze wetenschap is opmerkelijk en transformerend. Wat ooit als louter entertainment, complotdenken of oppervlakkige curiositeit werd afgedaan, wint tegenwoordig aan legitimiteit dankzij systematische waarnemingen, methodische analyses en transparante rapportage. Met de medewerking van gerenommeerde onderzoeksinstellingen, universiteiten en onafhankelijke onderzoeksnetwerken, evenals voormalige ambtenaren die hun ervaring en documenten delen, maken we licht op een terrein dat lange tijd in de schaduw lag. Deze samenwerking creëert een unieke cross-over tussen astronomische observaties, luchtvaarttechniek, datawetenschap, informatica, neurowetenschap en sociaologie, waardoor het terrein niet langer in silo’s kan worden gedacht.

Wat we vandaag doen, gaat verder dan anekdotes of sensationele beelden. Het doel is om hypotheses te formuleren, waarnemingen te verifiëren en een robuuste methode te ontwikkelen voor het evalueren van bewijs. Dit vereist open data, reproduceerbare analyses en voorzichtige interpretatie, zodat misverstanden en gehechtheid aan verlangens worden vermeden. De betrokken onderzoekers erkennen de hoge drempel van bewijslast en de noodzaak om kritisch te blijven, terwijl ze tegelijk de potentieel revolutionaire aard van bevindingen onderkennen.

De implicaties zijn diepgaand en reiken verder dan de wetenschap zelf. Een bevestigd fenomeen van buitenaardse oorsprong of onbekende technologische principes zou kunnen leiden tot doorbraken in communicatie-technieken, aandrijvingstechnologie, ruimtelijke verkenning en zelfs materiaalwetenschap. Verder heeft de verschuiving invloed op onderwijs, beleidsvorming en publieke perceptie: een cultuur van nieuwsgierigheid en bewijsverwerving kan de manier waarop wij ons universum, onze oorsprong en onze toekomst bekijken, fundamenteel veranderen. De onbekende grens blijft een uitdagend maar boeiend terrein, waarin heden en toekomst elkaar ontmoeten op de rand van wat wij kennen en wat nog ontdekt moet worden.

Een optimistische noot - Vooruitgang in zes jaar tijd

Wat de toekomst ook brengt, één ding is zeker. In de afgelopen zes jaar is er meer vooruitgang geboekt in het begrijpen van het UFO-fenomeen dan in de zestig jaar daarvoor samen. Die constatering onderstreept niet alleen de snelheid van nieuwe ontdekkingen, maar ook de ernst en de toewijding waarmee wetenschappers, beleidsmakers en onderzoeksinstellingen het onderwerp benaderen. Er is sprake van een verschuiving van terughoudend scepticisme naar een open, transparante en kritische aanpak, waarin data, verificatie en reproducibiliteit centraal staan. Betrouwbare waarnemingen worden verzameld, geclassificeerd en geconsumeerd met steeds geavanceerdere instrumenten: geodesische radars, high-resolution videotechnologie, spectroscopie en longitudinale analyses die patronen en anomalieën in kaart brengen zonder vooroordelen.

De tijdlijn van deze ontwikkeling is inspirerend. Grote onderzoeksnetwerken, internationale samenwerking en publiek-private partnerschappen hebben geleid tot een rijkere databank en een betere standaardisatie van rapportage. Burgers, piloten en professionals worden aangemoedigd om waarnemingen te documenteren en te delen, wat een bredere basis biedt voor peer-review en aanknopingspunten voor vervolggroepen. Het onderwerp zelf wordt verweven met naast elkaar liggende disciplines zoals astronomie, wiskunde, informatica en cognitieve wetenschap, waardoor we niet alleen kunnen verklaren wat mogelijk is, maar ook hoe het menselijke begrip evolueert.

Dus, kijk omhoog naar de hemel: misschien ziet ook u iets buitengewoons. De boodschap is duidelijk: we bevinden ons aan de vooravond van een mogelijk revolutie in ons begrip van de ruimte, de technologie en de plek van de mens in het grote heelal. Een toekomst waarin nieuwsgierigheid, voorzichtigheid en samenwerking de richting bepalen.

Overwegingen voor een geïnformeerde burger

• Data is cruciaal. Zonder betrouwbare, hoogwaardige waarnemingen blijft het gissen. De roep om systematische verzameling en openbaarheid van data is essentieel voor elke wetenschappelijke doorbraak. In een tijdperk waarin data exponentieel toenemen, is het van belang te beseffen dat de kwaliteit van besluitvorming direct afhankelijk is van de integriteit, representativiteit en controleerbaarheid van die data. Dit betekent het investeren in gestandaardiseerde meetmethoden, metadata over context en beperkingen expliciet vermelden, en het waarborgen van herhaalbaarheid door het delen van meetprotocollen, analysecode en ruwe datasets waar mogelijk. Daarnaast dienen privacy, veiligheid en ethische overwegingen te worden afgewogen, zodat maatschappelijke belangen niet uit het oog verloren worden. Transparante kwaliteitsborging, inclusief peer-review en onafhankelijke validatie, versterkt het vertrouwen van burgers in wat wordt gemeten en gerapporteerd.
• Wetenschap werkt best met meerdere invalshoeken. Gegevens uit anekdotische getuigenissen kunnen aanwijzingen geven, maar de robuuste conclusies komen voort uit rigoureuze analyses, reproduceerbare waarnemingen en gecontroleerde hypothesetoetsingen. Diversiteit in methoden en perspectieven helpt biais te verminderen en maakt het mogelijk verschuivingen in kennis dynamisch bij te houden. Het is cruciaal om verschillende disciplines naast elkaar te laten fungeren: statistiek, experimenten, modelling, en kwalitatieve benaderingen kunnen elkaar aanvullen. Zo ontstaat een vollediger beeld dan uit één enkel paradigma. Communicatie over onzekerheden hoort daarbij: welke resultaten zijn robuust, welke onzekerheden blijven bestaan, en welke aannames lagen ten grondslag aan de conclusies?
• Open debat en transparantie zijn noodzakelijk. De geschiedenis heeft geleerd dat verkramping en geheimhouding innovatie kunnen schaden. Een cultuur van verantwoorde onthulling kan leiden tot bredere publieke steun en saamhorigheid. Dit vergt duidelijke richtlijnen voor toegankelijkheid van data, open publicatiekanalen, en mechanismen voor kritiek en foutcorrectie. Ook moet er ruimte zijn voor maatschappelijke stemmen, zodat zorgen en vraagstukken uit de samenleving worden meegenomen in onderzoeksprioriteiten en interpretaties.
• Internationale samenwerking kan van onschatbare waarde zijn. De grootste mysteries in de kosmos overstijgen landsgrenzen; samenwerking tussen naties kan leiden tot completere datasets en betere interpretatie. Gezamenlijke infrastructuren, gedeelde databanken en gestandardiseerde protocollen verrijken de kwaliteit en snelheid van wetenschappelijke vooruitgang. Bovendien helpt internationale samenwerking bij het voorkomen van verstoorde belangen, het delen van kosten en risico’s, en het vergroten van de legitimiteit van bevindingen op wereldschaal.
• Beleidsmakers en wetenschappers hebben een gezamenlijke verantwoordelijkheid om de publieke fascinerende maar vaak misleidende verhalen te corrigeren en een evenwichtig beeld te schetsen van wat bekend is, wat onbekend is, en welke vragen nog onbeantwoord zijn. Door betrouwbare uitleg te bieden, onzekerheden helder te communiceren, en toegankelijk beleid te vormen dat gebaseerd is op actuele inzichten, kunnen zij het draagvlak versterken en maatschappelijke keuzes ondersteunen die gebaseerd zijn op feiten, ethiek en transparantie.

Een terugblik op het huidige moment

De verschuiving in houding ten opzichte van UFO’s weerspiegelt een bredere verandering in hoe de mensheid kennis benadert en onze plaats in het universum uitlegt. Het is geen kwestie van het onkritisch aanvaarden van elk spectaculair verslag als onbetwist waar, maar van het erkennen dat sommige verschijnselen serieus wetenschappelijk onderzoek verdienen en mogelijk de grens tussen klassieke wetenschap en mysterie kunnen overbruggen. Deze nuance is cruciaal, want zij opent de deur naar een meer genuanceerde vorm van nieuwsgierigheid: geen blind geloof, maar wel weloverwogen verbeelding en bereidheid om hypotheses te toetsen.

Het debat is daarmee minder polariserend en meer onderzoekend geworden. Wetenschappers, overheidsinstanties en onafhankelijke onderzoekers zoeken naar methodische data, transparante rapportage en reproduceerbare resultaten. Samenwerking over landsgrenzen heen speelt een steeds belangrijkere rol, omdat de complexiteit van observaties vaak om grootschalige infrastructuur, gedeelde technieken en vergelijkbare standaarden vraagt. Internationaal gecoordineerde initiatieven kunnen de valkuilen van forensische biases en fragmentarische informatie verminderen en zo een robuuster beeld opleveren.

Ongeacht of er uiteindelijk bewijs wordt gevonden voor buitenaardse intelligentie of niet, zal de inzet van rigoureuze wetenschappelijke methoden, systematische data-analyse en open wetenschappelijk debat de manier waarop wij denken over onszelf en ons universum blijvend veranderen. Het gaat niet alleen om wat er buiten ons waarnemingsbereik ligt, maar ook om een verdiept bewustzijn van de grenzen en mogelijkheden van menselijke kennis, en de bereidheid om die grenzen waar nodig te herdefiniëren.

Slotbeschouwing

In een tijd waarin de grenzen van de menselijke kennis voortdurend worden uitgedaagd, imponeert de geschiedenis van UFO-studies als een treffend symbol van hoe wetenschap en wonder, twijfel en redelijkheid met elkaar verweven raken. Het pad van randverschijnselen naar frontlinie-wetenschap is niet lineair en is doordrenkt van controverse, maar de recente ontwikkelingen laten een hernieuwde moed en toewijding zien bij onderzoekers, ingenieurs en beleidsmakers. Nieuwe meetinstrumenten, betere data-analyse en vruchtbare interdisciplinaire samenwerking hebben de mogelijkheid geboden om eerder onverklaarde waarnemingen op een systematische en reproduceerbare manier te benaderen. Tegelijkertijd roept dit thema vragen op over methodologie, transparantie en verificatie, die ons dwingen om staalhard te marmeren wat we weten en wat we nog moeten leren.

De toekomst biedt ons de belofte van een genuanceerder begrip van wat er in onze atmosfeer gebeurt en mogelijk zelfs verder daarbuiten. Dit kan leiden tot onverwachte mogelijkheden voor technologie en veiligheid, maar ook tot een herdefinitie van onze positie in het universum en een diepere waardering van onze gedeelde verantwoordelijkheid voor de planeet en haar bewoners. Eén ding blijft onveranderd: we zullen blijven zoeken, blijven kijken en blijven leren, ook wanneer twijfel de eerste reflex blijft. In die voortdurende speurtocht schuilt de ware kern van vooruitgang.

Tot slot: de oproep aan de lezer

Wanneer u ’s nachts naar de sterren kijkt, weet dan dat er een groeiende gemeenschap is van mensen die hetzelfde doen, met hetzelfde doel: begrip. Blijf nieuwsgierig, kritisch en verantwoordelijk. Deel kennis, stel vragen en laat wetenschappelijke principes leidend zijn in het gesprek. Misschien ziet u zelf ooit iets wat uw verbeelding tart en uw begrip van het universum uitbreidt. Als we samen blijven zoeken, misschien ontdekken we uiteindelijk niet alleen wat er in de lucht rijdt, maar wat het betekent om mens te zijn te midden van de onmetelijke en stille ruimte.

{ PETER2011 }

11-10-2025 om 21:29 geschreven door peter  

Learn all about the bizarre hollow Earth theory

©Shutterstock

Learn all about the bizarre hollow Earth theory
While you may have heard of the Flat Earth Society, and understand what they believe about the Earth's shape, have you ever heard of the hollow Earth theory? While the theory may have been rooted in science originally, it has since diverged to become something closer to science fiction. However, that hasn't stopped people from believing in it!

Want to find out more about the theory that's been around for more than 300 years? Click through the following gallery to learn all about the far-fetched hollow Earth theory.

©Shutterstock

What is the theory?
The hollow Earth theory posits that we live on the outer layer of our planet, however the inside is hollow, and may be home to a completely different world.

©Shutterstock

What does this earth look like?
The theory has led to many ideas about what this inner Earth would look like, including anything from vague references to luminous atmospheres to a lush tropical paradise with advanced species.

©Public Domain

How did it come to be?
While the hollow Earth theory actually came to be through a scientific hypothesis, the root of the idea has been around for thousands of years.

©Getty Images

Roots in mythology
Before science had anything to do with it, numerous cultures have held the belief that there is a hidden world below our feet.

©Getty Images

Ancient Greeks
The Ancient Greeks believed that caverns in the Earth led to the underworld. They also believed in a place called Tartarus, located even deeper than the underworld. This would've been where Zeus imprisoned the Titans.

©Public Domain

Celtics
In Celtic mythology, a cave called Oweynagat was the gate to the underworld. Supposedly it is where fairies and demons lured mortals to their doom.

©Getty Images

The Mandan people
The Mandan people supposedly lived underground, but found out about the “Earth plain” when they climbed a vine out to the surface. After describing what they had seen, some of their people climbed the vine to the surface until it finally snapped. The legend suggests that many of the Mandan people are still left underground. The Mandan are a Native American tribe of the Great Plains, and have lived primarily in what is now North Dakota.

©Public Domain

Hinduism
"Patala" is the name of the underworld in Hindu mythology. It is supposedly the lowest realm.

©Shutterstock

Trobriand Islands
People from the Trobriand Islands, in Papua New Guinea, hold the belief that their ancestors came from a subterranean land by the name of "Obukula."

©Getty Images

Chinese mythology
The supposed realm of the dead in Chinese mythology, Diyu is made up of various subterranean caverns and chambers. The number of levels varies depending on Buddhist and Taoist interpretations.

©Shutterstock

Christianity
And, of course, there is the idea of hell within Christianity, which is frequently referred to as a location “below” us, whereas heaven is up above.

©Shutterstock

From myth to science
While the hollow Earth theory clearly has a basis within mythology and religion, it became its own scientific idea in the late 1600s.

©Getty Images

Edmond Halley
In 1692, astronomer Edmond Halley (of Halley’s Comet fame) was a proponent of the idea of a hollow Earth from a more scientific perspective, suggesting that the Earth had inner shells, a core, and magnetic poles.

©Shutterstock

Magnetic field
The reason for this assumption was the shifting of Earth’s magnetic field. He hypothesized that it was due to the Earth being made up of concentric circles, with a hollow space in the middle.

©Shutterstock

And there was life
Not only did he posit that the center of the Earth was hollow, but he also suggested that there was life. He suggested that living things could exist between the concentric circles, and that there must be light between them.

©Shutterstock

Comparing them to apartments
In support of this statement, Halley said: “We ourselves, in Cities where we are pressed for room, commonly build many Stories, one over the other, and thereby accommodate a much greater multitude of Inhabitants.”

©Shutterstock

Almost there
While you may be looking at this theory as ridiculous, Halley was actually quite close to reality. The Earth is made up of layers, and we are on the outermost one (the crust). There is even some basis for the shifting of magnetic fields!

©Public Domain

John Cleves Symmes Jr.
Similarly to Halley, John Cleves Symmes Jr. also believed in a multi-layer world with a hollow core. The differentiation? We could enter this world through holes (pictured) at the North and South Pole. He even attempted to go to the North Pole himself.

©Public Domain

On tour
Symmes wanted everyone to know about this theory, so he toured the US in the early 1800s. He ended up influencing numerous people, including…

©Shutterstock

Jeremiah Reynolds
While Symmes never managed to create an expedition, Jeremiah Reynolds did. A newspaper editor, Reynolds was convinced by Symmes' theory and organized an expedition to Antarctica. Unfortunately, the ships never made it to their destination.

©Public Domain

Concave hollow Earth
There was also a theory, put forth by physician and alchemist Cyrus Teed, that we actually lived in the center of the hollow Earth. He created a cult called Koreshan Unity in the late 1800s based on the idea.

©Public Domain

Disproving the theory
In 1774, the idea of a hollow Earth was categorically disproven by a mathematician named Charles Hutton.

©Shutterstock

Schiehallion experiment
The experiment measured the mean density of the Earth, thereby proving that it was too dense to be hollow. Hutton was one of the members involved.

©Shutterstock

Earthquakes
Seismic waves also disprove a hollow Earth. The time it takes for seismic waves to move through the Earth is in contradiction to the concept of a completely hollow sphere.

©Public Domain

The move to science fiction
While this theory may sound straight out of a science fiction novel, in reality, the scientific theory came first! However, there have been many pieces of literature based around the idea of a hollow Earth.

©Getty Images

‘Journey to the Center of the Earth’
Jules Vernes’ 1864 novel was one of the first to discuss the idea of inner worlds (though Dante’s ‘Inferno’ did predate it). This novel opened up a new subgenre for science fiction writers.

©Public Domain

‘At the Earth’s Core’
First a book and then a film, Edgar Rice Burroughs’ novel dealt with the hollow Earth realm called Pellucidar.

©Public Domain

‘The Goddess of Atvatabar’
Using Symmes’ interpretation of a hollow Earth, William R. Bradshaw created the world of Atvatabar. Entering through a Symmes hole (the entrance at the North Pole), Atvatabar is shown as an advanced society with many spiritual motifs.

©Shutterstock

Hollow Earth theorists today
Despite the theory being disproved, there are still people who believe in the idea of a hollow Earth today. Many use conspiracy theories to justify the lack of evidence, suggesting that much of the information has been covered up.

See also: What are the world's weirdest conspiracy theories?

RELATED

{ Stars Insider }

11-10-2025 om 16:08 geschreven door peter  

Precise date interstellar visitor will reveal itself as 'alien mothership' or comet confirmed

• READ MORE: Interstellar object defies NASA's expectations as it nears Earth

By STACY LIBERATORE, US SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY EDITOR

The mysterious interstellar visitor streaking through our Solar System is just days away from revealing its true origins.

Harvard professor Avi Loeb told DailyMail.com that if the object, dubbed 3I/ATLAS, is a comet, it should 'disintegrate into fragments' as it swings closest to the sun on October 29, 2025. 

The European Space Agency's Jupiter probe will have a front-row seat, capturing the moment it either breaks apart or, as Loeb speculated, 'releases mini-probes as a technological mothership.'

'When a comet gets close to the sun, solar radiation heats its icy nucleus,' Loeb explained. 

'Volatile ices like carbon dioxide, carbon monoxide, or water sublimate directly into gas, carrying away dust and small rocks. 

'This process can cause the comet to break apart if the mix of ice and dust cannot withstand the thermal stress.'

But if it does not, Loeb said, it could release 'a fleet of mini-probes to study multiple targets simultaneously.'

Loeb noted there is a 30 to 40 percent chance the object 'does not have a fully natural origin,' noting the possibility it is a 'Trojan Horse,' where a technological object masquerades as a comet.

Harvard professor Avi Loeb told DailyMail.com that if the object, dubbed 3I/ATLAS, is a comet, it should 'disintegrate into fragments' as it swings closest to the sun on October 29, 2025

The ESA's Jupiter Icy Moons Explorer (Juice) craft will have a view of the object when it comes 125 million miles from the planet and monitor it through November.

'During November and December, terrestrial observatories will also be able to monitor 3I/ATLAS and check whether it disintegrated like a natural comet or released mini-probes as a technological mothership,' Loeb explained.

While the professor believes there is a possibility it is of alien origin, NASA has long said the object is a natural comet.

The American space agency released images of 3I/ATLAS as it soared past Mars on October 3, showing it as cylindrical-shaped. 

Stargazers on social media shared color-enhanced images of the object, which showed the interstellar visitor having a green glow. 

Loeb and many other scientists are anticipating the visitor's journey to the sun as it will finally put the mystery to rest. 

3I/ATLAS will appear as a fuzzy ball of light in the blackness of space, and if it does disintegrate, the professor said it will break into independent, smaller dots of light. 

'Comets disintegrate primarily as a result of heating by the sun, but sometimes also by gravitational tides and rotational stress from outgassing,' Loeb explained.

NASA released images of 3I/ATLAS as it soared past Mars on October 3, showing it as cylindrical-shaped. Stargazers on social media shared color-enhanced images of the object, which showed the interstellar visitor having a green glow

'The catastrophic breakup of a comet into multiple fragments is difficult to forecast without knowing its detailed composition and material strength.' 

So far, ESA’s Mars orbiters have not spotted any verified fragments, only faint artifacts and noise, as 3I/ATLAS moves closer to the sun.

Some reports have claimed that mysterious objects have been spotted with 3I/ATLAS, but Loeb told Daily Mail that these are false.

'There are unrelated contemporary comets, background stars and images of the moons of Mars, Phobos and Deimos, which appear in some images. But so far, no verified object branched off 3I/ATLAS,' the professor explained.

The object was first identified in July 2025 by the ATLAS telescope network, which looks for objects that might hit Earth.

Earlier images taken by the Vera C Rubin Observatory in Chile this summer had unknowingly photographed the object as well, but no one realized it was there at the time.

{ https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/index.html }

11-10-2025 om 14:50 geschreven door peter  

Robots receive major intelligence boost thanks to Google DeepMind's 'thinking AI' — a pair of models that help machines understand the world

{ https://www.livescience.com/technology/robotics }

10-10-2025 om 22:19 geschreven door peter  

1561 hemels verschijnsel boven Neurenberg, afgebeeld in een geïllustreerd nieuwsbericht (door UFO-liefhebbers beschreven als een luchtgevecht van buitenaardse oorsprong en door sceptici beschouwd als een zonnespectakel)

Bron: Publiek Domein

Wagens van de Goden, Schepen aan de Hemel: Ongeïdentificeerde Luchtverschijnselen uit het Verleden

Inleiding

Al eeuwenlang beschrijven mensen glinsterende voorwerpen aan de hemel die niet eenvoudig te plaatsen zijn binnen de gangbare verklaringen. Sommige hemelverschijnselen zoals kometen, meteorenzwermen, boliden, aurora’s of zelfs aardbevingachtige bliksem — allemaal aspecten die vandaag de dag vaak begrijpelijk zijn — werden in het oude rijkdommen van verhalen en waarnemingen uitgebreid gerapporteerd. Tegenwoordig noemen we zo’n fenomeen Unidentified Aerial Phenomena (UAPs). Sommigen denken aan buitenaardse oorsprong, anderen zien het als mysterieuze verschijnselen of als symbolen van maatschappelijke onrust. Het onderwerp trekt nog altijd aandacht, zowel in politieke kringen als in de wetenschappelijke wereld. De komende tekst probeert dit onderwerp vanuit een historisch perspectief te plaatsen: wat zinspeelden oude volkeren in hun stille uurtjes op tegen de lucht, en hoe raken die oude verhalen verweven met hedendaagse debatten over UAPs?

Oud historisch beeld - Tekenen van beroering

In de literatuur en in inscripties uit verschillende culturen verschijnen steeds weer scènes waarin onbekende of onverklaarbare verschijningen in de lucht als teken van maatschappelijke onrust en naderend onheil dienen. Een bekend voorbeeld uit de Bijbel is het boek Ezechiël, waarin de profeet spreekt over een goddelijke strijdwagen die heet gloeit en waarin vier levende wezens te zien zijn. Deze beelden lijken zowel menselijk als vreemd, met hun vier gezichten en vier vleugels. In vele culturen duiken soortgelijke motieven op: het beeld van voertuigen die door de hemel heen scheuren of die op een andere manier bovennatuurlijk licht uitstralen.

Giovanni Battista Fontana, De Visioen van Ezechiël, 1579.

(Publiek Domein)

Een andere rijke traditie komt uit de oude Indiase epische werken, de Mahābhārata en de Rāmāyana. In de hindoeïstische mythologie worden de vimāna’s genoemd: vliegende strijdwagens die de goden meevoeren naar de verste uithoeken van het universum. In vele mythen hollen goden in deze voertuigen door de ruimte en vervullen ze zowel dagelijkse als kosmische taken. In afbeeldingen en verhalen uit Azië zijn deze vimāna’s vaak afgebeeld als schitterende, indrukwekkende machines die snelheid en macht uitstralen. Ook hier wordt het beeld van de hemel als route en arena voor goddelijke daden afgebeeld.

Krishna en Rukmini als bruidegom en bruid in een hemelse wagen getrokken door Ganesha, India, Rajasthan, Bundi, 1675-1700.

(Los Angeles County Museum of Art)

In het Middellandse Zeegebied dragen historische keren een soortgelijke thematiek. In de Romeinse en Griekse literatuur duiken meldingen op van verschijnselen in de lucht die op de een of andere manier het klimaat van oorlog en macht weerspiegelen. Een voorbeeld uit de geschiedschrijving is de Romeinse historicus Livius, die beschreef hoe tijdens de Tweede Punische Oorlog “schepen schitterden aan de lucht” of als “grote vloot” in de hemel verschenen. Of het nu echte schepen waren, vreemde wolkenformaties of iets anders, de formulering beklemtoont een moment waarin de visue­le wereld in de geschiedenis verweven raakt met ook de plek waar oorlog en macht plaatsvinden. Zulke beschrijvingen suggereren dat mensen altijd de lucht hebben geïnterpreteerd als een spiegel van wat in de aardse omgang plaatsvindt.

Een ander klassiek voorbeeld komt bij Plutarchus voor, in de Life of Lucullus. Wanneer de Romeinse legers tegenover koning Mithridates VI van Pontus stonden, werd een vreemd fenomeen aan de hemel waargenomen: het leek op een grote, vlamachtige bol die tussen de legers neerdaalde. Volgens Plutarchus had het object een vorm die leek op een wijnvat (pithos) en een kleur die leek op gesmolten zilver. De waarnemers schrokken en trok zich terug. Of dit nu een meteoriet betrof of iets anders, de beschrijving geeft aan dat het fenomeen zo’n impact had dat beide partijen het als een kwaadaardige voorteken zagen.

Een derde opmerkelijke getuigenis komt uit de Joods-Romijnse geschiedschrijving van Flavius Josephus. Gebeurtenissen rondom oorlogen tussen Romeinen en Joden roepen soms de indruk op van bovennatuurlijke verschijningen: “karren” of strijdkrachten schoten door de wolken terwijl er een reeks scherp beschreven gebeurtenissen in de lucht plaatsvond. Voor veel getuigen lijkt het alsof dergelijke verschijnselen de uitkomst van gevechten vooruitbellen of –zo niet – een teken vormden dat het lot troef had.

Een koning en zijn gevolg confronteren dames onder een hemelse strijd, Frans, circa 1600.

(Publiek domein)

Van middeleeuwen tot millenniumwisseling:

Het christelijke doembeeld en de evolutie van het begrip UAP Naar de overgang van oud naar middelbaar en daarna naar modern denken, verschuift de betekenis van dergelijke waarnemingen vaak van pure interpretatie naar een bredere zoölogie van angst en hoop. In de christelijke traditie kreeg de “shield of faith” van de apostel Paulus een symbolische plaats, terwijl “schepen die door de hemel varen” werden geïnterpreteerd als een metafoor voor de bescherming van de Kerk en zijn gelovigen. In de context van de middeleeuwse Ierse literatuur verschijnt het idee dat occultverschijnselen in de lucht een soort teken van de hemel zouden kunnen zijn, en zo wordt het een symbool van de veiligheid die de Kerk biedt.

Rond de millenniumwisseling groeit de belangstelling voor iets wat we vandaag UAPs noemen. De mensen in die tijd worstelen met de betekenis van het eind der tijden, en het teken van de hemel wordt opnieuw belicht in een modern jasje. In deze periode verschijnt ook een nieuwe vorm van beschouding: waarin men zoekt naar een rationele uitleg, maar waarin religie en mysterie nog steeds een belangrijke rol spelen. Het verhaal van talloze getuigen die met UAP’s te maken hebben, of die beweren religieuze formulering te vinden in wat ze waarnemen, blijft actueel. Voor velen biedt ufologie een manier om geloof en wetenschap samen te brengen: een plek waar zowel zingeving als objectieve verklaring mogelijk lijkt te zijn.

Een onverklaard object in een videobeeld geleverd door het Amerikaanse ministerie van Defensie, gelabeld als Gimbal, uit 2015.

(Ministerie van Defensie via AP)

Moderne duiding

Wat betekenen UAPs nu? Vandaag de dag lopen de interpretaties uiteen. De Amerikaanse belangstelling voor UAPs is onder andere ingegeven door verwerkte en eerder geheime beelden die uitlekken, maar ook door een beleg van een voormalige inlichtingenambtenaar die beweert dat de regering “off-world” technologie bezit. Tegelijkertijd concludeert een recente NASA-rapportage dat er geen bewijs is dat UAPs buitenaards van oorsprong zijn. De discussie draait om de vraag of dit soort waarnemingen wél een interessant venster openen op onze technologische vooruitgang, of dat ze vooral angst en onzekerheid teweegbrengen.

Toch is er een duidelijke continuïteit: mensen projecteren de onzekerheid van de eigen tijd op wat zich in de lucht afspeelt. Oude samenlevingen zagen krijgsdaden en goddelijke machten in de hemel, toen als voorteken van onheil, nu als indicatie van onbekende technologieën of onbekende motivaties. De spanning tussen interpretatie en verificatie blijft bestaan. Zelfs als we naheldere verklaringen vinden voor sommige verschijnselen — zoals meteorieten of atmosferische verschijnselen — blijft er ruimte voor interpretatie en verbeelding.

De menselijke neiging tot projectie op het onbekende Een belangrijke les uit de geschiedenis is dat UAP-achtige waarnemingen nooit uitsluitend een kwestie van “waar” of “niet waar” zijn. Ze reflecteren ook de staat van de maatschappij waarin ze voorkomen. Wanneer er onrust heerst, wanneer de machtsdynamiek verscherpt of wanneer grote toevloed van informatie plaatsvindt, worden verschijnselen in de lucht vaak geherinterpreteerd als tekenen van bredere sociale processen: onzekerheid over toekomst, angst voor verlies van controle, of hoop op een oplossing vanuit iets wat groter en machtiger lijkt.

Daarom kunnen we concluderen dat UAPs, zowel in het oude als in het moderne tijdperk, een venster bieden op menselijke zorgen. Ze tonen hoe mensen zoeken naar houvast en zingeving wanneer de wereld intensiever verandert dan ooit tevoren. Of uiteindelijk de objecten in de lucht nu al dan niet buitenaards zijn, de symboliek en de impact ervan spreken een universeel verhaal: de behoefte om onze crisis naar een hoger niveau te tillen, naar de hemel, naar het onbekende.

An unclassified sketch of a UAP from the CIA.

(Public Domain)

Qua uitleg: wat kunnen we vandaag als leerpunt meenemen?

• Historische continuïteit: verschijnselen in de hemel zijn altijd gebruikt als symbolen van verandering en onzekerheid. Ze dienen als culturele spiegels waarin samenlevingen hun angsten en hoop projecteren.
• Interpretatie voorop: de wijze waarop men een hemelverschijnsel beschrijft, zegt vaak iets over de tijd waarin het onderzoek plaatsvindt, meer dan over de oorsprong van het fenomeen zelf.
• Wetenschap en geloof: ufologie kan functioneren als brug tussen geloof en wetenschap, een plek waar mensen zoeken naar een gecombineerde betekenis die beide dimensies erkent.
• De rol van bewijs: in hedendaagse debatten blijven verificatie en transparantie cruciaal. Het uitlekken van beelden en de beschikbaarheid van data beïnvloeden publieke perceptie en beleidsbeslissingen.

Slotsom

Wij zien in de geschiedenis een duidelijke lijn: van Bijbelse en Indiase mythes tot moderne rapportages over UAPs, groeiende maatschappelijke belangstelling voor wat zich in de hoogte voltrekt. Of die verschijnselen uiteindelijk buitenaards zijn of niet, raakt ons vooral in ons menselijk vermogen om de wereld te interpreteren en onze toekomst te vormen. De oude waarnemers zochten naar tekenen, naar een taal die iets vertelde over hun tijd, en misschien ook een richting bood voor wat komen zou. Vandaag blijven we die drang voelen: een zoektocht naar verklaringen, maar ook naar betekenis. Soms lijken de objecten in de lucht ons te helpen begrijpen hoe dicht we bij het onbekende staan — en hoe hardnekkig onze behoefte is om orde te brengen in wat we zien.

Eindigen we met een gedachte die eeuwenlang overeind blijft: de mens blijft de hemel lezen als een kaart van zijn eigen zorgen en hoop. Of er nu kaartjes, strijdwagens of glanzende schepen aan de hemel verschijnen, onze reactie zal altijd gekleurd zijn door de tijd waarin we leven. De geschiedenis leert ons dat de lucht meer zegt over mensen dan over objecten daarboven. Het is een spiegel waarin we onszelf zien worstelen met onduidelijkheid, met onzekerheid, maar ook met de eeuwige behoefte aan begrip en richting. Zo blijft de fascinerende relatie tussen UAPs en menselijke ervaring ons wat te zeggen heeft over hoe wij ons plaatsen in het grote verhaal van de kosmos.

{ PETER2011 }

10-10-2025 om 21:58 geschreven door peter