Overview

A high-stakes wager has brought together two prominent figures in the scientific community, pitting renowned Harvard astronomer Avi Loeb against professional skeptic Michael Shermer in a $1,000 bet over the discovery of extraterrestrial life by the end of the decade. The terms of their agreement, registered on the Long Now Bets platform, require ironclad scientific confirmation of alien intelligence by December 31, 2030. The outcome promises to either validate growing optimism in the search for life beyond Earth or reinforce skepticism rooted in decades of unfulfilled predictions.

The Terms of the Bet

The wager is more than a friendly challenge: the rules are explicit and stringent. For a win, at least two out of three major scientific organizations—NASA, the National Science Foundation, or the American Astronomical Society—must officially confirm the detection of extraterrestrial intelligence. As the video explains, “It’s not enough for someone to claim they saw a UFO or post a blurry video online. The victory requires irrefutable data signed off by major scientific bodies.” The criteria for discovery are broad, encompassing anything from “physics-defying artifacts” to interstellar technology fragments or even alien biological forms found on Earth, so long as their non-human origin is indisputable.

This careful standard aims to avoid the endless debates that often follow ambiguous sightings or unofficial announcements: “Either the science signs off with irrefutable data, or nothing happens.” The burden of proof lies heavily on those, like Loeb, who believe contact is imminent—a silence from the cosmos by 2030 would hand victory to the skeptics.

Harvard Astronomer Takes Up Skeptic Publisher’s $1,000 Bet on Alien Disclosure by 2030

Competing Visions: Optimism vs. Skepticism

Avi Loeb’s optimism is grounded in emerging technology and recent discoveries. He cites the significant advances in observational equipment—such as the Rubin Observatory and the Galileo Project’s global telescope network—as game-changers in the hunt for alien technosignatures. Loeb references the discovery of interstellar objects like Oumuamua and the mysterious “TR,” which reignited scientific debate about visitors from beyond our solar system. His statistical argument is compelling: with a galaxy full of ancient, potentially life-bearing systems, “civilizations had billions of years to send probes, and we may finally have the tools to detect their cosmic messages.”

On the other side stands Michael Shermer, whose skepticism is shaped by a long history of unmet predictions. Shermer has witnessed “decades of people promising imminent alien disclosure that never materializes,” leading him to dismiss the current wave of enthusiasm as another cycle of excitement without evidence. He is notably critical of recent U.S. congressional hearings on UFOs, where, despite dramatic testimonies, “no hard evidence is ever produced, only claims of secrecy and threats.” For Shermer, the wager is a challenge to believers: if they are so certain of impending disclosure, they should be willing to back it up with real stakes.

The Scientific Tradition of Wagers

The Loeb-Shermer bet is the latest in a long tradition of scientists settling debates through wagers. Such bets date back to the 19th century, with notable examples like Alfred Russel Wallace’s successful wager proving the Earth’s curvature against a flat-earther, and Stephen Hawking’s famous bet on black holes. These challenges are seen as a way to inject accountability and a sense of fun into profound scientific disagreements, while also pushing both sides to clarify the terms and standards of proof.

Implications for Science and Society

Beyond the personal stakes, the Loeb-Shermer bet reflects the broader tension in astrobiology and the search for extraterrestrial intelligence: how to balance open-minded inquiry with rigorous scientific standards. Whether or not the coming years produce a breakthrough, the wager underscores the need for extraordinary evidence in support of extraordinary claims—a principle that remains at the heart of scientific progress. As the countdown to 2030 begins, the world will be watching to see whether the cosmos finally yields its secrets, or if humanity must wait a little longer for definitive proof that we are not alone.

{   https://usubjects.com/  }

28-11-2025 om 18:12 geschreven door peter  

28-11-2025 om 18:00 geschreven door peter  

An international team of researchers has managed to record electrical discharges on Mars for the first time. These discharges originate from dust devils.

Martian winds constantly stir up whirlwinds of fine dust, which regularly appear in photographs taken by rovers exploring the Red Planet. Scientists have long suspected that these whirlwinds are capable of generating electrical charges. The mechanism of the phenomenon is as follows. As a result of friction between tiny dust particles, they become charged with electrons and then release their charge in the form of electric arcs several centimeters long, accompanied by audible shock waves.

It is well known on Earth that dust particles can become electrically charged, especially in desert regions, although this rarely leads to actual discharges. On Mars, due to its thin atmosphere, consisting mainly of carbon dioxide, the probability of this phenomenon occurring is much higher. This is because the amount of charge required to form sparks is much less than on Earth.

In order to confirm the existence of electrical discharges on Mars, a team of French scientists analyzed data collected by the microphone of the SuperCam instrument installed on board the Perseverance rover. They managed to identify electromagnetic and acoustic signatures comparable to small static electricity discharges that can be experienced on Earth by touching a door handle in dry weather. Their source was two dust devils.

The discovery of electrical discharges radically changes our understanding of the chemistry of the Martian atmosphere. It shows that the atmosphere of the Red Planet can reach a sufficient charge level to accelerate the formation of highly oxidizing compounds. Such substances can destroy organic molecules on the surface, as well as numerous atmospheric compounds, thereby profoundly disrupting the photochemical balance. The discovery may explain the surprisingly rapid disappearance of methane on Mars, which has been the subject of scientific debate for several years.

The electrical charges required for these discharges likely influence dust transport on Mars, playing a central role in the Martian climate, the dynamics of which remain largely unknown. They may also pose a risk to the electronic equipment of current robotic missions and create a hazard for potential future human missions.

• According to CNRS

• Posted in News, Science

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28-11-2025 om 17:41 geschreven door peter  

Russian launch pad 31 at the Baikonur Cosmodrome has been damaged. This could disrupt the supply schedule for the International Space Station.

The accident occurred during the launch of the Soyuz MS-28 spacecraft to the ISS from the Baikonur Cosmodrome. The Soyuz-2.1a rocket was damaged during lift-off from the launch pad. Judging by the live broadcast footage, the service cabin located under the launch pad and designed to provide access to the lower stages of the rocket collapsed. It is deployed during operations and retracted into a concrete niche before launch.

Launch pad number 31 is currently the only Russian launch complex suitable for manned launches of Soyuz spacecraft. It is also used to launch Progress supply vehicles.

At this point, it is unknown how serious the damage is and how it may affect the ISS. Prolonged repairs to the complex could disrupt the station’s supply schedule and crew rotation. The next launch from launch pad 31 (Progress MS-33) is scheduled for December 19.

It is worth noting that Roscosmos has acknowledged the accident. However, its official statement claims that all the necessary spare parts are available to repair the launch complex and that the damage will be repaired in the near future.

As for the Soyuz MS-28, it did not sustain any damage. The spacecraft has already successfully docked with the ISS.

• Posted in News, Tech

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28-11-2025 om 17:32 geschreven door peter  

Archaeologists have proven the existence of a lost ring of pits near Stonehenge, and say it could be Britain's largest prehistoric structure.

The ring of more than 20 pits, some of which are 10 metres deep and five metres wide, extends in an arc more than a mile across.

At their centre are the ancient sites of Durrington Walls and Woodhenge, 1.8 miles (2.9 kilometres) northeast of Stonehenge, where the henge builders held ritual feasts.

Using an array of novel scientific techniques, researchers now say that these pits were likely constructed by Neolithic people around 4,500 years ago.

Researchers say that carving the pits into Wiltshire's chalky ground would have taken an enormous amount of planning and effort.

Lead researcher Professor Vincent Gaffney, of the University of Bradford, told the Daily Mail that the vast structure was a 'cosmological statement'.

He says: 'They link Durrington walls henge and another site at Larkhill – a causewayed enclosure about a thousand years earlier. '

'And in doing so, inscribed a boundary into the landscape – setting aside an area of special significance.'

Scientists have proven the existence of a lost ring of pits nearby Stonehenge, which is likely the UK's largest prehistoric monument 

The pits surround ancient sites of Durrington Walls and Woodhenge, 1.8 miles (2.9 kilometres) northeast of Stonehenge (pictured). These sites are believed to be where the Stonehenge builders held ritual feasts 

The pits surrounding Durrington Walls were first found in 2020, and were immediately hailed as one of Britain's most impressive ancient sites.

The discovery of the pit circle appeared to further cement the Salisbury Plane's reputation as a uniquely important religious site for Britain's Neolithic people. 

This area is not only home to Stonehenge, but also a wider series of interconnected ceremonial structures, stone circles, and cemeteries from the Stone Age.

Durrington Walls, which sits at the epicentre of the pit circle, is a 'superhenge' that is believed to be the largest anywhere in the UK.

Likewise, the nearby 'Woodhenge' was an enormous timber monument built around 2500 BC, consisting of six concentric rings of posts of varying size forming an oval monument 40 metres across.

However, scientists have questioned whether the pits were really dug by humans or whether they might have been natural features of the landscape.

In a new research paper, titled 'The Perils of Pits', Professor Gaffney and his co–authors present a new batch of scientific evidence to prove the pits' human origins.

Since no one technique could answer all of their questions, the researchers deployed an array of techniques to work out the exact structure of the pits.

The pits encircle the ancient sites of Durrington Walls and Woodhenge. Woodhenge was an enormous timber monument built around 2500 BC, consisting of six concentric rings of posts of varying size forming an oval monument 40 metres across. Pictured: Stone pillars marking the locations of Woodhenge's timber posts

Scientists had questioned whether the pits were really man–made. So scientists used an array of scientific tests to work out their exact shape and structure 

First, they used a technique called electrical resistance tomography, which measures changes in electrical resistance at the surface to work out the size of underground structures.

Then, radar and magnetic imaging were used to assess their depth and shape.

'This in itself did not prove these features to be man–made,' says Professor Gaffney.

'So sediment cores were extracted and an array of techniques, including novel geochemistry, were used to characterise the nature of the soils.'

'Optically stimulated luminescence' was used to work out the last time that the soils were exposed to the sun, and 'sedDNA' to extract plant and animal DNA directly from the dirt.

This revealed that each pit had the same pattern of repeating layers, starting in the late Neolithic period – something that would be extremely unlikely to happen naturally.

These techniques also identified the DNA of sheep and cattle, which suggests that the pit circle was being occupied and farmed at the time.

Professor Gaffney says: 'It confirms that this structure – probably the largest prehistoric monument in Britain at least – is a purposefully constructed monument in a landscape which is itself exceptional.'

The researchers used a technique called electrical resistance tomography, which measures changes in electrical resistance at the surface to work out the size of underground structures (illustrated)

The researchers found that the pits had a consistent pattern of layers and even contained DNA of cattle and sheep. This suggests that they were deliberately built by humans 

By showing that these vast pits were carved by humans, the researchers have shown that Britain's ancient people were much more organised than had previously been believed.

'The size of the structure demonstrates the society they lived in was capable of planning and motivating large numbers of people for religious purposes,' says Professor Gaffney.

Read More

• Stonehenge's secret SISTER: Ancient burial site discovered in Dorset 

The pit circle is so large that you cannot see across to the other side, but still traces a near–perfect circle around Durrington Walls.

This regularity suggests that the pits must have been laid out by pacing, which implies that the people of ancient Britain had a numerical system for counting.

If true, this could be some of the very earliest evidence for the ability to count in Neolithic Britain.

However, Professor Gaffney says we will 'probably not' ever know exactly why these pits were built.

The Stonehenge monument standing today was the final stage of a four part building project that ended 3,500 years ago

Stonehenge is one of the most prominent prehistoric monuments in Britain. The Stonehenge that can be seen today is the final stage that was completed about 3,500 years ago. 

According to the monument's website, Stonehenge was built in four stages:   

First stage: The first version of Stonehenge was a large earthwork or Henge, comprising a ditch, bank and the Aubrey holes, all probably built around 3100 BC. 

The Aubrey  holes are round pits in the chalk, about one metre (3.3 feet) wide and deep, with steep sides and flat bottoms. 

Stonehenge (pictured) is one of the most prominent prehistoric monuments in Britain

They form a circle about 86.6 metres (284 feet) in diameter. 

Excavations revealed cremated human bones in some of the chalk filling, but the holes themselves were likely not made to be used as graves, but as part of a religious ceremony.

After this first stage, Stonehenge was abandoned and left untouched for more than 1,000 years. 

Second stage: The second and most dramatic stage of Stonehenge started around 2150 years BC, when about 82 bluestones from the Preseli mountains in south-west Wales were transported to the site. It's thought that the stones, some of which weigh four tonnes each, were dragged on rollers and sledges to the waters at Milford Haven, where they were loaded onto rafts.

They were carried on water along the south coast of Wales and up the rivers Avon and Frome, before being dragged overland again near Warminster and Wiltshire.

The final stage of the journey was mainly by water, down the river Wylye to Salisbury, then the Salisbury Avon to west Amesbury. 

The journey spanned nearly 240 miles, and once at the site, the stones were set up in the centre to form an incomplete double circle. 

During the same period, the original entrance was widened and a pair of Heel Stones were erected. The nearer part of the Avenue, connecting Stonehenge with the River Avon, was built aligned with the midsummer sunrise. 

Third stage: The third stage of Stonehenge, which took place about 2000 years BC, saw the arrival of the sarsen stones (a type of sandstone), which were larger than the bluestones.

They were likely brought from the Marlborough Downs (40 kilometres, or 25 miles, north of Stonehenge). 

The largest of the sarsen stones transported to Stonehenge weighs 50 tonnes, and transportation by water would not have been possible, so it's suspected that they were transported using sledges and ropes. 

Calculations have shown that it would have taken 500 men using leather ropes to pull one stone, with an extra 100 men needed to lay the rollers in front of the sledge.

These stones were arranged in an outer circle with a continuous run of lintels - horizontal supports. 

Inside the circle, five trilithons - structures consisting of two upright stones and a third across the top as a lintel - were placed in a horseshoe arrangement, which can still be seen today. 

Final stage: The fourth and final stage took place just after 1500 years BC, when the smaller bluestones were rearranged in the horseshoe and circle that can be seen today.

The original number of stones in the bluestone circle was probably around 60, but these have since been removed or broken up. Some remain as stumps below ground level. 

Source: Stonehenge.co.uk 

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28-11-2025 om 16:51 geschreven door peter  

The team’s discovery was reported on November 17 in a new paper that appeared in Geophysical Research Letters.

An antenna sticks out like whiskers from NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter in this artist’s concept depicting the spacecraft, which has been orbiting the Red Planet since 2006. This antenna is part of SHARAD, a radar that peers below the Martian surface.

Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

A Discovery Below Martian Ice

In 2018, NASA first revealed the discovery of a mysterious feature beneath the Red Planet’s south pole, sparking a surge in interest over the possibility that a subsurface lake might exist there.

The discovery offered a tantalizing prospect, due primarily to the obvious associatio

However, new findings reported by a pair of MRO Shallow Radar (SHARAD) instrument scientists, Gareth Morgan and Than Putzig, throw cold water on the subsurface lake theory, pointing instead to the likelihood that this unusual feature hidden beneath the icy Martian south pole isn’t water at all, but instead a thick layer of rock and dust.

Based at the Planetary Science Institute in Tucson, Arizona, and in Lakewood, Colorado, Morgan and Putzig now say that their use of radar techniques made possible by SHARAD may be useful in future reconnaissance of the Red Planet, as scientists continue to search for subsurface resources like water that might not only be home to life, but which could be crucial for the survival of future crewed missions to Mars.

The European Space Agency’s Mars Express orbiter captured this view of Mars’ south polar ice cap Feb. 25, 2015. Three years later, the spacecraft detected a signal from the area to the right of the ice cap that scientists interpreted as an underground lake.

Credit: ESA/DLR/FU Berlin, CC BY-SA 3.0 IGO

A Special Rolling Maneuver

To obtain the recent data, the MRO performed a unique maneuver that involves rolling 120 degrees, which allows the SHARAD radar’s signal to penetrate deeper underground, and thereby producing enhanced imagery of the Martian subsurface regions it penetrates.

Use of this specialized technique has already proven to be effective enough in the past that scientists are now eager to use it at other sites on the Red Planet, including those where past observations may not have revealed promising indications of buried subsurface ice.

Previously, the researchers and their colleagues with the SHARAD team had unsuccessfully tried to observe the Martian South Pole region where the suspected lake existed. To overcome this, the SHARAD team went to the MRO’s operations team at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory to work on finding a way of increasing the size of the spacecraft’s rolls.

With the MRO’s radar antenna located near the back of the spacecraft, its body shields its view, which weakens the sensitivity of the instrument. However, JPL engineers were able to find a workaround with a little help from engineers at Lockheed Martin Space who built the spacecraft: this resulted in a series of commands that enabled the spacecraft to complete a 120-degree roll, allowing the MRO to direct its radar’s signal more effectively at the Martian surface

This map shows the approximate area where in 2018 ESA’s Mars Express detected a signal the mission’s scientists interpreted as an underground lake. The red lines show the path of NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, which flew both directly overhead as well as over an adjacent region.

Credit: Planetary Science Institute

Large Rolls Lead to Stronger Signals

The plan came to fruition earlier this year, when in late May SHARAD completed its initial very large roll, which successfully struck the target area. Penetrating nearly a mile of ice, the radar’s reflections revealed that the unusual subsurface feature that has intrigued scientists since its discovery in 2018 was likely not what they initially thought it might be.

“We’ve been observing this area with SHARAD for almost 20 years without seeing anything from those depths,” said Putzig in a statement. Now, with the data made possible by the MRO’s large roll, deeper radar penetration revealed a fainter signal than Putzig and Morgan expected, followed by no signal at all from an adjacent region they examined.

Their conclusion: something is causing the odd radar signal at the same location, revealed during past observations made using the Mars Advanced Radar for Subsurface and Ionospheric Sounding (MARSIS) instrument aboard the ESA (European Space Agency) Mars Express orbiter.

“While this new data won’t settle the debate, it makes it very hard to support the idea of a liquid water lake,” said Putzig in a statement, acknowledging the work that went into formulating the subsurface lake hypothesis.

Since the Martian south pole features a large cap of ice positioned above the planet’s very cratered terrain, the region beneath the icy exterior revealed with the SHARAD data appears very uneven. One possibility that could account for the 2018 observations made by MARSIS could be a large smooth feature, such as the remnants of an ancient flow of lava.

Going forward, additional observations using the MRO’s new very large roll capability could help to resolve the mystery once and for all, in addition to revealing clues to other longstanding mysteries associated with sites like Medusae Fossae along the Martian equator, which is also known to produce little in the way of radar returns.

Morgan, Putzig, and their colleagues’ paper, “High Frequency Radar Perspective of Putative Subglacial Liquid Water on Mars,” appeared in Geophysical Research Letters on November 17, 2025.

• Micah Hanks is the Editor-in-Chief and Co-Founder of The Debrief. A longtime reporter on science, defense, and technology with a focus on space and astronomy, he can be reached at micah@thedebrief.org. Follow him on X @MicahHanks, and at micahhanks.com.

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28-11-2025 om 15:35 geschreven door peter  

Before the Bible as we know it: the revelation of the Dead Sea Scrolls

©Reuters

Before the Bible as we know it: the revelation of the Dead Sea Scrolls
It's one of the greatest archaeological finds of the 20th century. Hidden in caves in the desert, the Dead Sea Scrolls were identified as ancient Jewish manuscripts—the only known surviving biblical documents written before 100 CE. Discovered in 1946 by Bedouin shepherds, the parchment scrolls have immense historical, religious, and linguistic significance, and shed light on events that took place over 2,000 years ago.

Browse those items and revisit the story behind this historic chance encounter.

©Shutterstock

The discovery
In 1946, three Bedouin shepherds chanced upon a collection of ceramic jars in a cave at Wadi Qumran, near the Dead Sea.

©Getty Images

Historic find
One of the shepherds, Muhammed edh-Dhib, volunteered to retrieve the jars. Curious, he opened one of the vessels and discovered inside a handful of parchment scrolls.

©Getty Images

The Bedouin
Not realizing how important they were, the shepherd took the scrolls, which numbered seven in total, back to his desert camp as keepsakes. Eventually, he decided to sell the documents, which subsequently changed hands over the next 12 months.

©Getty Images

Qumran Caves
In 1947, the scrolls caught the attention of American biblical scholar and archaeologist John C. Trever, who quickly realized the historical importance of these rare finds.

©Reuters

The Dead Sea Scrolls unveiled
The following year, the discovery was announced to an astonished world: what had been uncovered were manuscripts of immeasurable religious and historical significance, and subsequently declared as the only known biblical documents written before 100 CE.

©Shutterstock

Qumran Caves
By the end of 1948, scholars had yet to identify the original cave where the fragments had been found. The 1948 Arab–Israeli War had hampered all efforts to identify the site. But in 1949, Cave 1, as it became known, was rediscovered.

©Getty Images

Cave 1 site
The Cave 1 site yielded further Dead Sea Scroll fragments, plus linen cloth, jars (pictured), and other artifacts.

©Public Domain

Search for the Qumran caves
In November 1951, a full excavation of Qumran had commenced. By the end of 1952, five more caves had been discovered, each giving up yet more scrolls and fragments. In fact, 90% of the total number of scrolls discovered were found in Cave 4. Pictured: scrolls in situ.

©Public Domain

The Isaiah scroll
Among the manuscripts Bedouin shepherd Muhammed edh-Dhib had initially retrieved was the Isaiah scroll (pictured), which contains almost the whole Book of Isaiah.

©Public Domain

The Isaiah scroll
This is the oldest complete copy of the Book of Isaiah. Written on 17 sheets of parchment, it's the only scroll from the Qumran caves to be preserved almost in its entirety.

©Public Domain

Habakkuk Commentary
That initial 1946 discovery also unearthed the Habakkuk Commentary, a pesher (a type of commentary in Hebrew) written sometime in the later half of the 1st century BCE.

©Getty Images

Genesis Apocryphon
Another of the original finds included the Genesis Apocryphon (pictured). The document records a conversation between the biblical figure Lamech, son of Methuselah, and his son, Noah.

©Public Domain

Further research
Between 1951 and 1956, 11 caves in Qumran were identified as depositories for various scrolls by a team from the American Schools of Oriental Research, headed by Roland de Vaux.

©Public Domain

Damascus Document
Interestingly, the existence of the Damascus Document, found in Cave 4 in 1952, was already known to scholars: two fragments had previously been found in 1897 as part of the Cairo Geniza collection of manuscripts discovered in a synagogue in Egypt.

©Getty Images

Origin of the Dead Sea Scrolls
To this day, lively debate surrounds the origin of the Dead Sea Scrolls. The general view among biblical scholars is that the scrolls were the product of a sect of Jews living at Qumran called the Essenes.

©Getty Images

Language
The text of the Dead Sea Scrolls is written in four different languages: Hebrew, Aramaic, Greek, and Nabataean.

©Getty Images

Fragmented history
In all, scholars have assembled a collection of nearly 900 separate scrolls from the 11 caves. Unfortunately, the majority of the scrolls consist of tiny, brittle fragments.

©Public Domain

The largest scroll
The aforementioned Isaiah scroll is the exception. It measures about 734 cm (24 ft) long and ranges from 25.3 to 27 cm high (0.83 to 0.89 ft), with 54 columns of text.

©Getty Images

Shrine of the Book
The seven original scrolls are housed in the purpose-built Shrine of the Book, with the Isaiah scroll a central exhibit. Also housed here is the Aleppo Codex, a medieval bound manuscript of the Hebrew Bible.

©Getty Images

Shrine of the Book
The shrine's unique white dome embodies the lids of the jars in which the first scrolls were found.

©Shutterstock

Israel Museum
The Shrine of the Book is part of the Israel Museum, located in Jerusalem.

©Public Domain

Museum exhibitions and displays
Since their discovery, small portions of the Dead Sea Scrolls have been put on temporary display in exhibitions at museums around the world. Pictured is a queue of people outside the National Museum of Natural History in Washington, D.C. for the very first touring exhibition in 1965.

©Reuters

The Internet
By 2008, fragments of the Dead Sea Scrolls were being photographed digitally with the aim of making the 2,000-year-old documents available to the public and researchers on the Internet.

©Getty Images

Dead Sea Scrolls online
Pictured: a conservation analyst from the Israel Antiquities Authority examines fragments of the 2,000-year-old Dead Sea Scrolls at a laboratory before photographing them.

©Getty Images

Partnership with Google
In 2011, Israel put 5,000 fragments of the ancient Dead Sea Scrolls online in a partnership with Google.

©Reuters

Dead Sea Scrolls online library
Today, anyone with an interest in the history of the scrolls can view a digital archive of images and read more about one of the greatest archaeological finds of the 20th century.

©Reuters

Cave 12, and the stolen scrolls
In 2017, archaeologists stumbled across another cave on cliffs west of Qumran. However, closer examination revealed that Cave 12 had been plundered, probably in the 1950s. Sadly, the scrolls it undoubtedly concealed are believed lost forever.

• See also: Predictions from Jesus that have come true

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28-11-2025 om 14:40 geschreven door peter  

Onderzoek naar Humanoïde Figuren en de Men In Black: Legenden en Ontmoetingen uit het Verre Oosten

Inleiding

Legendes en folklore uit het Verre Oosten zijn net zo fascinerend als die uit andere delen van de wereld. Overal ter wereld bestaan er verhalen over mysterieuze humanoïde figuren, vreemde ontmoetingen met onzichtbare wezens, en de bekende “Men In Black”. Vooral in regio’s zoals Azië, waar rijke culturen en oude tradities samengaan met moderne getuigenissen, worden deze verhalen nog steeds verteld en gedeeld. In dit artikel nemen wij je mee op een reis door enkele opmerkelijke en onverklaarbare ervaringen uit het Verre Oosten, met verhalen die net zo griezelig als intrigerend zijn. We bespreken ontmoetingen met bizarre wezens, waarnemingen van de Men In Black, en parallellen met bekende Amerikaanse verhalen zoals die van de Mothman en de Black-Eyed Children. Elk verhaal wordt gepresenteerd met de oorspronkelijke sfeer en diepgang, en laat zien dat deze mysteries nog altijd voortduren zonder duidelijke oplossing.

Verslagen over de Men In Black dateren tientallen jaren terug in het Verre Oosten

Humanoïde Figuren en Onbekende Creaturen in Maleisië en Singapore

Een van de meest opvallende gebeurtenissen vond plaats in september 2015, toen een golf van meldingen over vreemde, gevleugelde humanoïde wezens naar voren kwam in zowel Maleisië als Singapore. Eén van de meest onthutsende ervaringen werd gedeeld door freelance journaliste Lea Foo. Terwijl zij onderzoek deed naar een artikel over paranormaliteit in een oud, vervallen huis in Bukit Tunku, nabij Kuala Lumpur, beleefde zij een avond die haar leven veranderde.

Het huis was oud en volgelig, de ramen waren gebarsten en de sfeer griezelig. Gewapend met slechts een zaklamp ging zij het huis binnen, vastberaden haar onderzoek te voltooien. Al snel hoorde zij geritsel vanuit een van de kamers. Toen zij op de deur afliep, zagen haar heldere, gloeiende rode ogen haar onmiddellijk aankijken vanuit de duisternis. Vervolgens stonden de ogen recht naar haar gericht terwijl een humanoïde figuur zich oppoetste en opstond. Foo schatte dat het wezen ongeveer tien voet (3 meter) lang was en een menselijke vorm had, maar de huid leek leerachtig en afgezet met grote, vleermuisachtige vleugels die zich uitbreidden.

Op het moment dat het wezen een afschuwelijk schriek gaf, verloor Foo haar grip op haar zaklamp, waardoor zij in complete duisternis belandde. Ze rende snel naar de hoek van de kamer, zich stevig tegen de schaduwen klevend. Ze hoorde het gehijg en de ademhaling van het dier, dat na enige tijd haar positie leek te zoeken. Plotseling sloeg het weer met zijn vleugels, waardoor een ademende wind en een vieze, rotte vleesgeur door de kamer sloegen.

Wat Foo zich later realiseerde, was dat er kort daarvoor een soortgelijk wezen was gesignaleerd in Singapore. Deze verhalen blijven voortbestaan, en in het hele regio’s is de fascinatie met deze wezens nog altijd springlevend.

Vergelijkbare Ontmoetingen in Singapore

In dezelfde periode, eind augustus 2015, was Fergus Thomas, een 46-jarige leraar, aan het wandelen met zijn hond in Istana Woodneuk, een afgelegen gebied in Singapore dat ooit deel uitmaakte van een koninklijk paleis. Het was vroeg in de ochtend, ongeveer 6 uur, toen hij plots een oude, vervallen woning naderde. Vanuit nieuwsgierigheid keek hij door een raam en zag daarin een gevleugelde humanoïde figuur hangen van een deurpost af. Het wezen was minstens zes voet lang, ademde duidelijk, en had vleugels die rond het lichaam waren gewikkeld, vergelijkbaar met die van een slapende vleermuis. Het had een menselijke kop, maar met meer haar dan normaal.

Thomas herinnert zich dat het dier niet bewoog en mogelijk zich niet bewust was van zijn aanwezigheid. Hij sloop snel weg met zijn hond, onder de indruk en verward door wat hij had gezien. In dezelfde regio, in Changi, deed een student, Mildred Wan, eveneens een bijzondere waarneming. Tijdens een dagwandeling in een verlaten ziekenhuis, zag hij in een nabijgelegen boom een gevleugeld wezen dat een angstaanjikkende gil liet horen toen hij de deur uitliep. Hij hoorde geluiden die leek op rustende apen of dieren in de bomen, maar zodra hij het wezentje zag, voelde hij dat het op hem joeg, alsof het op de jacht was.

Het wezen verdween plotseling uit zicht, en de ervaring liet hem niet los. Dit soort verhalen suggereren dat dergelijke gevleugelde humanoïde wezens, vaak met bloedrode ogen en onheilspellende geluiden, nog altijd deel uitmaken van het lokale folklore en de collectieve verbeelding.

De Mothman Sighting Voorheen Gelinkt aan Fukushima?

Een bekend fenomeen dat overeenkomsten vertoont met de bovenstaande waarnemingen, is die van de Mothman. Het beroemde verhaal van de Mothman vindt haar oorsprong in Point Pleasant, Verenigde Staten, in 1967. Maar vergelijkbare verschijningen werden ook gerapporteerd in overige delen van de wereld, waaronder Europa, Oekraïne en Japan. Vooral in de nabijheid van grote rampen leek de aanwezigheid van dergelijke wezens vaak vooraf te gaan aan een tragedie.

In Japan, vlak voor de Fukushima-ramp in 2011, werd ook melding gemaakt van een mysterieuze verschijning in de regio rondom de nucleaire site. Een zakenman, Marcus Pules, was die avond aan het wandelen met een vriend in Okuma, dicht bij de ramplocatie. Plots hoorden ze een “woest geluid”, dat eerst leek op het slagen van een golfslag, maar al snel veranderde in een oorverdllende krijs die leek op het remmen van een grote stadsbus. Terwijl ze omhoog keken, zagen ze een grote, zwarte vleugelachtige figuur die op het dak van de reactor zat. Het scheurde zich los en scheerde door de lucht, cirkelend rondom de nucleaire locatie, en kwam recht op hen af.

De ogen van het wezen waren helderrood en de vleugels verstrakten zich uit tot een grote spanwijdte. De ontmoeting eindigde - net op het uiterste moment van een botsing - toen het wezen zich omdraaide en wegvloog in de duisternis. Of dit vooraf was een waarschuwing voor de ramp, blijft tot op heden onderwerp van speculatie en legendes.

Een Bizarre Ontmoeting op de Nachtbus in Tokyo

Men in Black kennen we vooral als een westers fenomeen, maar ook in Azië worden ze regelmatig gesignaleerd. In Japan, bijvoorbeeld, werd een opvallende ontmoeting gerapporteerd door een man genaamd “Kazu,” die de ervaring deelde met een onderzoeker, Brent Swancer. Zijn goede vriend Nobu, die een grote interesse had in UFO’s en vreemde verschijnselen, was op een late avond onderweg in een drukke metrobus in Tokio.

Nobu zat alleen in de bus totdat een oudere man, volledig gekleed in het zwart, enkele haltes na hem instapte. Hij koos bewust een zit recht tegenover Nobu, ondanks dat er andere lege stoelen waren. De man leek nerveus, bewoog vaak met zijn handen en glipte herhaaldelijk met zijn hoofd in de spiegel van de bus om Nobu te bekijken. Nobu merkte dat de man zenuwachtig was, gekleed in een loszittend zwart kostuum, met een hoed die leek op een combinatie tussen een fedora en een bowler. Hij zat op een korte briefcase, die hij voortdurend fischte en die zijn lange, dunne vingers benadrukte.

Wat de man bijzonder maakte, was dat hij sigarettenrook of zweet op zijn huid leek te hebben dat onverklaarbaar was bij het koude weer buiten. Daarnaast zag Nobu dat de huid van de man, onder de make-up of zweetdruppels, lichter en bleek was, alsof iets niet klopte. Nobu voelde dat de man niet leek te slapen of normaal te zijn. Zijn intuïtie zei dat hij met iemand te maken had die niet helemaal menselijk was, of in ieder geval niet van deze wereld.

Uiteindelijk besloot Nobu dat het verstandig was om de bus te verlaten. Toen hij opstapte, keek hij nog een laatste keer naar de man, maar die was verdwenen. Zijn ervaring bleef hem bij, en de ontmoeting gaf hem een onverklaarbaar gevoel van onveiligheid en verwarring.

Werken de Men In Black ook in het Verre Oosten?

“De Yamada-zaak”: Integraal of Veelzeggend?

Een ander, nog bekender verhaal, is dat van “Tom”, die op een avond drie mannen in donker pak bij zijn deur zag staan. Ze vroegen specifiek naar “de heer Yamada” en drongen erop aan om hem te spreken. Hoewel Tom hen vriendelijk verwees en meende dat ze zich vergisten, voelde hij dat er iets mis was. De mannen waren zeer bleek, hadden bijna zwartkleurige ogen en spreken met een stijf, onnatuurlijk accent. Ze werden aandringender, maar gingen uiteindelijk weg.

Kort daarna verscheen een ander geheimzinnig figuur: een man gekleed in zwart, met een strak gezicht en zonder emoties. Hij leek meer op een agent uit een sciencefictionfilm dan op een gewoon persoon. Tom liet weten dat hij zich zeer bedreigd voelde, en dat hij had de ervaring dat die mannen mogelijk van de Men In Black waren, of in ieder geval geassocieerd met ultrageheime overheidsoperaties of buitenaardse entiteiten.

Oordelen en Interpretaties

De verhalen uit het Verre Oosten passen in een groter patroon dat wereldwijd wordt waargenomen: vreemdelingen gekleed in zwart, mysterieuze vleugelachtige wezens, humanoïde figuren met glanzende of glinsterende ogen, en ontmoetingen die vaak ‘s nachts plaatsvinden. Hoewel sceptici wijzen op verklaringen zoals misidentificaties van dieren, psychologische projecten, of folklore-achtige verhalen, zijn er ook talrijke getuigenissen die de kracht van deze anomalieën onderstrepen.

Veel onderzoekers benadrukken dat de verhalen vaak overeenkomsten vertonen in motief en beschrijving, zelfs over culturele en geografische scheidslijnen heen. Dit wijst volgens sommigen op een dieper, ongekend fenomeen dat niet eenvoudig is uit te leggen binnen de conventionele wetenschap. Anderen blijven sceptisch vanwege gebrek aan bewijsmateriaal en het grote aantal menselijke interpretaties en folkloristische invloeden.

Conclusie

De verhalen over humanoïde wezens, de Men In Black en mysterieuze vliegende wezens uit het Verre Oosten blijven een bron van fascinatie en debat. Of het nu gaat om optische illusies, folklore, complottheorieën of echte ontmoetingen, één ding is zeker: deze verhalen worden door vele mensen gedeeld en blijven de menselijke verbeelding prikkelen. Ze geven ons een glimp van de grensgebieden tussen realiteit en fantasie, en houden de hoop levend dat er nog veel te ontdekken valt in de diepe mysteries van onze wereld.

In de toekomst zullen nieuwe getuigenissen, onderzoek en wetenschappelijke doorbraken mogelijk meer duidelijkheid brengen over deze verschijnselen. Tot die tijd blijven deze verhalen een belangrijke bron van folklore en onzekerheid, die ons uitnodigen om altijd onze ogen en geesten open te houden voor het onbekende.

{ PETER2011 }

27-11-2025 om 22:19 geschreven door peter  

 3D Model Unlocks Just Who Made Easter Island's Moai

Gary Manners

Researchers at Binghamton University have created the first comprehensive three-dimensional model of Easter Island's Rano Raraku quarry, providing unprecedented insights into how the iconic moai statues were produced. The groundbreaking digital reconstruction, built from over 11,000 drone photographs, reveals 30 distinct workshop areas where ancient Polynesian carvers simultaneously created the massive stone figures, challenging long-held assumptions about centralized authority in monument construction.

The project emerged from necessity after a devastating wildfire swept through the quarry in October 2023. When researchers arrived at Rapa Nui in January 2024, a local community group requested comprehensive documentation in case the site suffered permanent damage. Professor Carl Lipo from Binghamton University's Department of Anthropology, along with colleagues Thomas Pingel and Kevin Heard from the Geography Department, seized the opportunity to create what he describes as "archeological Disneyland" in digital form.

• Easter Island and the Mysteries of the Moai
• Photos Reveal Giant Easter Island Moai Statues are Covered in Mysterious Symbols

Mapping the Sacred Quarry

The team conducted approximately 30 drone flights, capturing 22,000 high-resolution images at 30-meter increments above the volcanic crater. Using advanced computer software, they stitched these photographs into a detailed three-dimensional model that took months to complete. The resulting interactive visualization allows anyone with an internet connection to explore the quarry from angles impossible to see even when physically present on the remote island.

"You can see things that you couldn't actually see on the ground," explained Lipo in a statement from Binghamton University. "You can see tops and sides and all kinds of areas that you'd never be able to walk to." The quarry sits within a volcanic crater too steep and rugged to safely traverse, making traditional documentation methods incomplete and potentially dangerous.

The comprehensive 3D model of Rano Raraku quarry reveals complex spatial organization of production activities across the quarry.

(PLOS ONE)

The model documented 426 moai in various stages of completion, 341 extraction trenches, 133 voids where finished statues once stood, and five anchor points used for lowering the massive figures down slopes. Perhaps most significantly, it revealed production features previously unknown to researchers, including quarrying areas on the crater's exterior slope and a sophisticated system of carved holes and bollards that facilitated statue transport.

• Study Claims to Have Solved Mystery of Giant Easter Island Hats
• New Moai Statue Found on Chile's Easter Island Excites Researchers

Unfinished moai attached to bedrock by “keels” along their backs demonstrate how carvers worked underneath from both sides until figures were separated from the source material. This production stage, difficult to document through traditional methods, is visible in the 3D model.

(Carl Lipo/Binghampton University)

Decentralized Production Challenges Assumptions

The research, published in the journal PLOS One on November 26, fundamentally challenges theories that monument building requires hierarchical political structures. By identifying 30 separate workshop areas, each employing different carving techniques and working simultaneously, the team demonstrated that moai production followed a decentralized, clan-based pattern rather than centralized control.

"We see separate workshops that really align to different clan groups that are working intensively in their specific areas," Lipo noted. "You can really see graphically from the construction that there's a series of statues being made here, another series of statues here, and that they're lined up next to each other. It's different workshops."

This pattern aligns with historical accounts from early ethnographers who described Rapa Nui as organized into multiple independent kin-based groups competing for prestige through monument construction.

The digital model revealed at least three distinct quarrying methods used across the site. In 143 cases, carvers defined facial features before outlining the head and body. Another 120 instances show blocks completely outlined before detailed carving began. Five examples demonstrate sideways carving into near-vertical cliff faces. This technological diversity suggests autonomous groups adapting to local geological conditions rather than following standardized procedures imposed by a central authority.

The findings carry implications far beyond Easter Island archaeology. As societies worldwide grapple with questions of governance and cooperation, Rapa Nui provides evidence that complex cooperative activities and large-scale projects can emerge through horizontal social networks rather than vertical power structures. The island's inhabitants successfully coordinated monumental construction across generations while maintaining decentralized political organization.

Moai statues at Ahu Akivi on Easter Island.

(Phil Whitehouse / CC BY 2.0)

Preserving Cultural Heritage Through Technology

Thomas Pingel emphasized the revolutionary nature of their technological approach: "The quality of this model is far above what could be done even just a couple of years ago, and the ability to share such a detailed model in a way that is accessible from anyone's desktop computer is remarkable." The project represents a leap forward in archaeological documentation, offering preservation benefits alongside research value.

The three-dimensional documentation serves as a crucial baseline for monitoring erosion, climate impacts, tourism effects, and site degradation at the UNESCO World Heritage location. Following the 2022 wildfire that threatened the quarry, local heritage managers from the Rapa Nui Comunidad Indígena Mau Henua recognized the urgent need for comprehensive records to assess damage and develop protection strategies.

Despite 140 years of documentation efforts beginning with Lieutenant-Captain Geiseler's 1882 descriptions, systematic data for Rano Raraku remained incomplete. Katherine Routledge's pioneering 1914 survey inventoried 293 moai, but subsequent studies produced varying counts and incomplete publications. The new model finally provides researchers and cultural heritage managers with comprehensive, accessible data for the first time.

Looking forward, Lipo hopes the model will inspire rather than replace physical visits. "People on the island are afraid that if we build three-dimensional models that no one will go to the island," he acknowledged.

"But I think this actually will inspire people to go there. Because otherwise, you're just seeing sort of snapshots of stuff. This is an incredible landscape of stuff that you could really go visit, that you'll want to see."

The research demonstrates how ancient technology and engineering knowledge enabled Polynesian seafarers to accomplish remarkable feats. Previous experiments showed that relatively small teams of 15-50 people could transport even the largest moai by "walking" them upright using ropes, eliminating the need for massive centralized labor forces. The quarry evidence now confirms this decentralized production model extended to statue creation itself.

The interactive 3D model is freely accessible online, allowing researchers, students, and curious observers worldwide to explore this archaeological treasure. The team will continue analyzing the model to extract new insights about quarrying strategies, production sequences, and social organization. As Lipo emphasizes, this unprecedented documentation tool enables analysis that was never possible with traditional methods, potentially revealing new chapters in the story of one of humanity's most enigmatic achievements.

• Top image: The main quarry of Easter Island, home to nearly 1,000 moai statues.  
• Source: Carl Lipo/Binghampton University

By Gary Manners

References

{ https://www.ancient-origins.net/news-history-archaeology }

27-11-2025 om 21:51 geschreven door peter  

Fluisteringen van het Heelal: Een Wetenschappelijke Verkenning van Extraterrestrische Signalen en Kosmische Mysteries

Inleiding

De menselijke fascinatie voor het buitenaardse en het onbekende is al even oud als de mensheid zelf. Sinds de vroege geschiedenis van de mythologie en de astronomische observaties is de zoektocht naar buitenaards leven en de mysteries van het heelal een universeel thema geweest. In het moderne tijdperk, gekenmerkt door technologische vooruitgang en uitgebreide wetenschappelijke onderzoeken, blijft deze fascinatie onverminderd. Het online artikel "Whispers of the Cosmos," gepubliceerd door Alienated Media op 27 december 2024, vertegenwoordigt een synthese van poëtische beschrijvingen en wetenschappelijke observaties, die samen een beeld schetsen van de recente ontdekkingen en de resterende raadsels die het heelal omhullen. In deze scriptie wordt het artikel kritisch geanalyseerd, waarbij de kernwetenschappelijke aspecten worden uitgelicht en gekoppeld aan bredere kosmische vraagstukken, inclusief andere kosmische raadsels en patroonmodellen die de zoektocht naar buitenaards leven en de aard van het universum kenmerken.

AFBEELDING GECREEERD DOOR ARTIEST

Signalen uit Kepler-186f: Een Voorbode of Simpel Toeval?

Een van de meest intrigerende elementen uit het artikel is de melding van 'fluisteringen' – zwakke radiofrequenties die van de exoplaneet Kepler-186f zouden komen. Deze planeet bevindt zich in de leefbare zone van een rode dwergster, op ongeveer 490 lichtjaar afstand van de aarde. De onderzoekers van het SETI-instituut meldden een laagfrequente, smalle-band-band emissie die herhaaldelijk werd waargenomen en niet kon worden toegeschreven aan bekende natuurlijke of menselijke bronnen.

De wetenschappelijke bron, artikel gepubliceerd in The Astrophysical Journal (juni 2024), geeft aan dat de herhaalde waarnemingen aanleiding geven tot optionele interpretaties; maar het blijft onzeker of deze signalen daadwerkelijk duiden op buitenaardse intelligentie. Dr. Maya Patel, die leiding geeft aan de onderzoeksgroep, geeft aan: “We hebben terrestrische interferentie en natuurlijke bronnen uitgesloten, maar de herkomst blijft ambigu.” Deze voorzichtigheid is kenmerkend voor de moderne wetenschappelijke houding – het bevestigen van het bestaan van buitenaardse communicatie vereist meer bewijs dan een enkele waarneming.

De zoektocht naar intelligente signalen uit exoplanetensystemen is niet nieuw. Sinds de beginjaren van SETI is men betrokken bij de poging om technologische signaturen te detecteren die niet natuurlijk kunnen worden verklaard. De verkenning van Kepler-186f voegt een nieuw hoofdstuk toe aan deze zoektocht, die vaak wordt gekleurd door populaire media en UFO-verhalen. Het onderscheid tussen serieus wetenschappelijk onderzoek en de volksverhalen over UFO’s en buitenaardse contacten blijft een breed debatpunt.

Illustratie van de aarde-achtige exoplaneet Kepler-186f. 

(Science)

Op een hoger abstractieniveau kunnen deze signalen worden geïnterpreteerd als een mogelijke component binnen het framework van SETI, dat de speurtocht naar technologische 'activiteiten' in het heelal betreft. Tegelijkertijd past deze waarneming binnen het patroon van signalen die worden aangemerkt als ‘possible communicatiesignalen’ of natuurlijke ruis, een proces dat zich herhaalt in verschillende exoplaneet-systemen. Daarmee wordt de vraag gesteld: is het mogelijke bewijs van buitenaards intelligent leven (BEL) een uitzondering, of een regel die we nog niet volledig kunnen plaatsen binnen onze wetenschappelijke paradigma's?

Donkere Materie en de Kosmische Raadsels

Een andere kernaspect uit het artikel is de verwijzing naar de ‘fluisteringen van donkere materie’, dat ongeveer 27% uitmaakt van de totale massa-energie van het heelal. Donkere materie is sinds de ontdekking van haar existentie in de jaren 1970 een van de grootste raadsels van de kosmologie. Ondanks uitgebreide observaties, waaronder de recente gegevens van de Euclid-telescope van het European Space Agency (ESA), blijft haar aard ondoorgrondelijk.

De gravitational lensing-effecten die door Euclid zijn gemeten, verstrekken gedetailleerdere inzichten in de verdeling en aanwezigheid van donkere materie, maar vormen geen aanwijzingen voor haar bestaan als een deeltje dat interactie heeft met licht of materie op een directe wijze. Dr. Luis Ortega van CERN wijst op de limieten van onze kennis: “We kunnen de voetsporen zien, maar de dader blijft verborgen.”

De invloed van donkere materie op de structuurvorming in het heelal is enorm. Zonder haar zou het universum niet de grote kosmische structuur kunnen hebben ontwikkeld zoals wij dat nu waarnemen. Hoewel donkere materie niet rechtstreeks lijkt te opereren binnen de context van UFO-rapportages (die doorgaans betrekking hebben op zichtbare, verdachte of niet-natuurlijke verschijnselen), stimuleert haar mysterieuze aard bredere speculaties over onbekende krachten en dimensies die verder gaan dan de huidige wetenschappelijke modellen.

Naast donkere materie kun je het patroon van zogenaamde ‘onverklaarbare verschijnselen’ op grote schaal binnen het universum opmerken, waaronder de waarnemingen van anomalieën in de kosmische achtergrondstraling en mogelijk zelfs fenomenen die wijzen op extra dimensies of multiversa. Deze theorieën bieden een kader waarin de onverklaarbare en onzichtbare aspecten van het heelal worden geïntegreerd, en bieden wellicht een breder kosmisch raamwerk waarin de ‘fluisteringen’ en mysteries kunnen passen.

Nieuwe Horizons en de Voortdurende Ontdekkingen

De rol van de ruimteverkenner New Horizons in deze context is cruciaal, hoewel niet direct gericht op het detecteren van buitenaardse bewijzen. Sinds diens succesvolle flyby van Pluto in 2015 verzamelt de missie data over de uiterste regionen van ons zonnestelsel en de Kuiper-asteroïdenbelt. De uitgebreide instrumentatie, ontworpen voor het meten van elektromagnetische signalen en fysische kenmerken, wordt beschouwd als een basislijn voor het detecteren van afwijkingen die kunnen wijzen op natuurlijke of artificiële bronnen.

Mission manager Emily Zhang benadrukt dat deze missie, ondanks haar oorspronkelijke doelstellingen, waardevolle gegevens levert die kunnen worden gebruikt om het elektromagnetische landschap van het heelal nader te bestuderen. De mogelijkheid dat buitenaardse signalen zich kunnen manifesteren als fonkelende zwaluwen in het elektromagnetisch spectrum wordt door haar en andere astrofysici niet uitgesloten.

Hoewel New Horizons niet specifiek is ontworpen voor UFO-detectie, illustreert haar rol het belang van langdurige, diepe-ruimte verkenningen waarin anomalieën kunnen worden gedocumenteerd en begrepen. Door systematisch gegevens te vergelijken en anomalieën te rangschikken kunnen wetenschappers patronen ontdekken die wellicht passen binnen groter kosmisch raamwerk, inclusief patronen die nu nog als ‘ongeïdentificeerd’ worden beschouwd.

Patroon herhaling en kosmische resonantie: nieuwe mustertheorieën

Naast de genoemde thema's is het belangrijk om in deze context ook andere patroonmodellen te overwegen die de kosmische raadsels kunnen verrijken. De wetenschap heeft zich bijvoorbeeld verdiept in de concepten van ‘kosmische resonantie’ en ‘patroonherhaling’ op grote schaal.

Het idee van resonantie in het heelal stelt dat bepaalde frequenties en patronen zich herhalen op verschillende schaalniveaus, van kwantummechanica tot galactische structuren. Het bekende voorbeeld hiervan is de ‘Galactische Ring’, een structureel patroon dat opnieuw lijkt te verschijnen in verschillende galactische schema’s, vergelijkbaar met muzikale resonanties die zich in verschillende toonhoogtes manifesteren. Sommige wetenschappers speculeren dat dergelijke patronen mogelijk verbonden zijn met onderliggende fundamentele natuurkrachten – of zelfs met hogere dimensies en multiversa – en dat zij als 'kosmische signalen' kunnen fungeren die wij willen interpreteren als mogelijke communicatie of raadsels.

Daarnaast worden patronen zoals de ‘delende fractalen’ in de structuur van het universum, en de herhaalde patronen in de kosmische achtergrondstraling, vaak aangevoerd als bewijs dat het heelal mogelijk is ingericht volgens een ‘cosmisch architectonisch patroon’. Hoewel deze theorieën nog controversieel blijven, geven ze ruimte voor nieuwe interpretaties waarin het universele patroon zich uitstrekt tot het onzichtbare en het onbekende, en wellicht zelfs tot verborgen communicatie met buitenaardse intelligenties.

Conclusie

De analyse van het artikel "Whispers of the Cosmos" onthult dat hoewel de recente wetenschappelijke observaties – van de exoplaneet Kepler-186f tot dark matter en de buitenplanetaire verkenningen met New Horizons – veel vragen oproepen, zij vooral de complexiteit en de mysterieuze aard van ons heelal onderstrepen. De waarnemingen van potentiële buitenaardse signalen blijven voorlopig in de sfeer van probabilistische plausibiliteit; ze vereisen meer bewijs en gedegen analyse voordat zij kunnen worden bestempeld als bewijs van buitenaards intelligent leven.

Tegelijkertijd weven deze waarnemingen zich in de bredere context van kosmische raadsels en patroonmodellen die het universum mogelijk volgens hogere ordeningen of resonantieprincipes laten functioneren. Donkere materie en energie, de patronen in de kosmische structuren, en de onbestemde signalen uit exoplaneet-systemen maken onderdeel uit van een groter intellectueel mozaïek dat nog lang niet volledig doorgrond is.

De rol van technologische instrumenten zoals New Horizons wijst op een belangrijke factor – dat systematisch, langdurig en geïntegreerd onderzoek noodzakelijk is voor het ontmaskeren van het onbekende. Gelijktijdig onderstrepen these ontdekkingen dat de meest waardevolle kennis voortkomt uit een combinatie van poëtische nieuwsgierigheid en rigoureuze wetenschappelijke methodologie.

De voortdurende zoektocht naar antwoorden op deze kosmische fluisteringen vereist niet alleen technologische vooruitgang en fundamenteel wetenschappelijk onderzoek, maar ook een open geest en een bereidheid om de patronen in het heelal te ontdekken die misschien meer vertellen dan wij nu kunnen vermoeden. Het is vooral aan de menshheid om de juiste vragen te blijven stellen en de antwoordende fluisteringen van het heelal te blijven luisteren.

Bronnen:

• The Astrophysical Journal, juni 2024
• Euclid Space Telescope Data, European Space Agency
• Interviews met Dr. Maya Patel (SETI Institute) en Dr. Luis Ortega (CERN)
• Observaties van New Horizons, NASA/ESA
• Theoretische modellen over kosmische patronen en resonanties

{ PETER2011 }

27-11-2025 om 21:31 geschreven door peter  

RELATED VIDEOS

{ https://www.universetoday.com/ }

27-11-2025 om 20:56 geschreven door peter  

“The Age of Disclosure” is set to be released in select theaters on Nov. 21.

The Age Of Disclosure

Aliens Are Real, U.S. Government Officials Have Admitted. ‘The Age of Disclosure’ Director Dan Farah Wants You to Know There’s More to the Story

27-11-2025 om 20:36 geschreven door peter  

Scientists have come up with an unusual way to stop the Gulf Stream collapsing and plunging Europe into another Ice Age - and it involves MELTING an ice sheet

• READ MORE: Gulf Stream on the verge of collapsing reveals key 'fingerprint'

By JONATHAN CHADWICK, ASSISTANT SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY EDITOR 

Melting the West Antarctic Ice Sheet could save the Gulf Stream, a remarkable new study reveals. 

The vast icy mass in the southern hemisphere contains around 750,000 cubic miles of ice – enough to fill Wembley Stadium nearly three billion times. 

As it melts, the West Antarctic Ice Sheet sends salty water towards the North Atlantic, which helps the water stay dense enough to keep the crucial ocean current moving, the study authors reveal. 

However, the scientists stress that in other ways the melting of the West Antarctic Ice Sheet would be a total disaster.  

If the ice sheet melted, it would raise sea levels by up to 14 feet (4.3 metres) – causing flooding, fatalities, infrastructure damage and more.

The findings suggest we may have to choose between saving the Gulf Stream (which would stop Europe from entering a deep freeze) and saving the West Antarctic Ice Sheet (which would prevent global flooding). 

According to study author Dr Sacha Sinet, climate scientist at Utrecht University, which terrifying scenario is worse is 'hard to tell'. 

Ultimately, reducing greenhouse gas emissions might be the only way to save both the Gulf Stream and the ice sheet – and avoid both eventualities. 

There are two ice sheets on Earth: the Greenland Ice Sheet in the Northern Hemisphere and the Antarctic Ice Sheet in the Southern Hemisphere (divided into east and west). According to the study's findings, melting of the West Antarctic Ice Sheet could keep the AMOC from collapsing 

The Gulf Stream is only a small part of a much wider system of currents, officially called the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation or AMOC. 

A 'conveyor belt of the ocean', AMOC moves warm water near the ocean's surface northwards – from the tropics to the northern hemisphere. 

When the warm water reaches the North Atlantic (Europe and the UK, and the US east coast), it releases the heat and then freezes. 

As this ice forms, salt is left behind in the ocean water.

Due to the large amount of salt in the water, it becomes denser, sinks, and is carried southwards – back towards the tropics – in the ocean depths below. 

Eventually, the water gets pulled back up towards the surface and warms up ('upwelling'), completing the cycle.

Experts think AMOC brings enough warmth to the northern hemisphere to keep temperatures there relatively mild, so if the AMOC were to slow down or collapse, large parts of Europe and the US could enter a deep freeze.

But according to the Utrecht University researchers, the West Antarctic Ice Sheet is potentially the AMOC's unlikely saviour. 

The researchers used a complex computer model, CLIMBER-X to examine how the AMOC would respond to different speeds and timing of ice sheet collapse

Scientists think AMOC brings enough warmth to the northern hemisphere that without it, large parts of Europe could enter a deep freeze. This remarkable satellite picture showing the extent of snow across Britain on January 7, 2010 gives an idea of what this could be like

The team used a computer model called CLIMBER-X to predict what would happen if both Greenland and Antarctica started melting rapidly in the future due to continuing global warming. 

CLIMBER-X simulates the response of the Earth to changes in different climate-related factors, such as changes in greenhouse gas concentrations. 

Amazingly, the model revealed that the West Antarctic Ice Sheet's melting water didn't always increase the risk of an AMOC collapse. 

Under some conditions, such as when its melting was rapid and began to slow down as Greenland's melt peaked, it could prevent a total collapse.

The effect happens because Antarctic meltwater changes how layers of water behave in the Southern Ocean, which eventually sends slightly saltier water toward the North Atlantic. 

Over time, this helps the water stay dense enough to keep the AMOC moving, at least according to the computer model. 

Previous studies have already shown that melting of the Greenland Ice Sheet destabilises the AMOC. When its meltwater pours into the North Atlantic, it can slow down or stop the sinking of dense water that helps drive it. 

Amazingly, the study, published in Science Advances, seems to suggest the opposite for West Antarctic Ice Sheet. 

An ice sheet is a mass of glacial land ice extending more than 50,000 square kilometers (20,000 square miles). The West Antarctic Ice Sheet is the western segment of the Antarctic Ice Sheet - and is more strongly affected by climate change 

Greenland melt generally destabilises the AMOC, whereas, as we have shown, West Antarctic Ice Sheet's melt may, under certain conditions, stabilise it,' Dr Sinet told the Daily Mail. 

However, if the timing is wrong, such as if the West Antarctic Ice Sheet's melt peaks too late or is too slow, its stabilising effect vanishes. 

In fact, the West Antarctic Ice Sheet's meltwater could even accelerate the AMOC's tipping point.

Dr Sinet stressed that greenhouse gas emissions need to be curtailed to avoid both collapse of the AMOC and melting of the West Antarctic Ice Sheet.

But the new findings may be helpful to understand the nuances of a warming world.  

'If emissions remain too high to preserve the stability of key tipping elements, then understanding whether the AMOC collapses or not becomes essential for anticipating the climate impacts that societies will need to prepare for,' he told the Daily Mail. 

'The important distinction is that the Greenland effect is well established and broadly accepted, whereas the influence of West Antarctic melt remains poorly understood and lacks consensus, and will likely continue to be debated for some time.' 

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

27-11-2025 om 18:45 geschreven door peter  

Scientists are baffled as a mysterious halo of red light appears over a small Italian town for the second time in 3 years

• READ MORE: Dark matter is seen for the first time in eerie image  

By WILIAM HUNTER, SENIOR SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY REPORTER

Scientists have been baffled by a mysterious halo of red light that has appeared over a small Italian town for the second time in three years.

An incredible image captures the bizarre UFO–like ring floating above Possagno, a tiny town in the foothills of the Italian Alps.

The photograph was taken by photographer Valter Binotto, who watched as the glowing structure flashed in the sky at 10:45 local time on November 17.

Strangely, this ring bears a striking resemblance to another red halo that was spotted by Mr Binotto in the same location in March 2023.

This year's halo was estimated to be 150 miles (200 kilometres) across and hovered at an altitude of around 60 miles (100 kilometres).

However, Mr Binotto does not believe that there are any extraterrestrial forces to blame.

Instead, these rings are likely to be a rare lighting–related phenomenon called an 'emission of light and very low–frequency perturbations due to electromagnetic pulse sources', or ELVEs for short.

These glowing rings are so rare that they were only discovered by NASA in the 1990s, making spotting two over the same tiny town extremely unlikely.

A photographer has captured a baffling image of a red UFO–like halo floating over the small Italian town of Possagno (pictured)

Scientists believe that ELVEs are triggered when enormously powerful lightning bolts send an electromagnetic pulse (EMP) shooting through the upper atmosphere.

These pulses collide with a part of Earth's atmosphere called the ionosphere, which stretches between 50 and 400 miles (80–644 kilometres) above the ground.

Here, the electromagnetic radiation excites charged particles of nitrogen, causing them to give off a red glow.

This is a similar process to how electromagnetic radiation from the sun causes the glow of the Northern Lights.

However, ELVEs are enormously difficult to photograph because they only last for one thousandth of a second.

That is 100 times less time than it takes for you to blink.

For this reason, Mr Binotto says he has to use a specialised camera setup to record extremely high–framerate video and start recording as soon as the right conditions arise.

When the lightning has passed, he is then able to select the few frames when the ELVE is visible.

This is the second time that a red ring has appeared over the town, with a similar structure appearing in March 2023

But, even with all this preparation and years of attempts, Mr Binotto has only ever captured an ELVE on three occasions.

Mr Binotto told Daily Mail: 'It is a very rare phenomenon. Only a few lightning strikes are capable of generating it, and sometimes they occur when conditions are not suitable for photographing them – because it is daytime, the sky is covered with clouds, or simply because I am asleep.

'With the first one, I couldn't believe my eyes. I had seen others in photos, but never so powerful and well–defined. Even with the others, the emotion was immense.'

Given that these events are so rare and difficult to spot, it might seem unusual that two have been seen above Possagno in just two years.

However, this strange coincidence likely has less to do with any special characteristics of Possagno and more with Mr Binotto's skills as a photographer.

ELVEs are extremely large and appear at very high altitudes, meaning they can be seen from hundreds of miles away.

For example, Mr Binotto's 2023 ELVE was actually caused by a lightning strike near Vernazza, around 185 miles (300 kilometres) to the south.

Likewise, this latest halo was the product of a storm above Ancona, which is roughly 174 miles (280 kilometres) to the southeast.

This ring is likely a structure known as an 'emission of light and very low–frequency perturbations due to electromagnetic pulse sources', or ELVEs for short. These are rings of red or green light created by electromagnetic pulses produced by powerful lightning strikes 

ELVEs are just one part of a class of strange phenomena known by scientists as transient luminous events (TLEs), which include so–called 'red sprites' that sometimes appear above storms. Pictured: Red Sprites seen from the International Space Station

Since these halos only need a powerful lightning strike to occur, there is nothing preventing them from being seen over any town in the world.

Read More

• Radical new theory of consciousness could finally explain what happens when you die 

ELVEs are just one part of a class of strange phenomena known by scientists as transient luminous events (TLEs).

These events are rarely seen, poorly understood, and extraordinarily tricky to study.

Some of the strangest TLEs include 'sprites', which appear like gigantic red jellyfish reaching their tendrils above the clouds.

The largest sprites can extend up to 60 miles (96 kilometres) above the cloud tops of large storms, but are so faint they can only be seen at night or from space.

WHY DOES LIGHTNING STRIKE?

Lightning occurs when strong upward drafts in the air generate static electricity in large and dense rainstorm clouds.

Parts of the cloud become positively charged and others negatively charged.

When this charge separation is large enough a violent discharge of electricity happens — also known as lightning.

'Lightning is a major hazard that claims many lives every year,' the UN's World Meteorological Organization says

Such a discharge starts with a small area of ionised air hot enough to conduct electricity.

This small area grows into a forked lightning channel that can reach several miles in length.

The channel has a negative tip that dispels charges to the ground and a positive tip that collects charges from the cloud. 

These charges passes from the positive end of the channel to the negative end another during a lightning flash, causing the charge to be released. 

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

27-11-2025 om 18:33 geschreven door peter  

UN confirms planetary defenses will observe interstellar comet 3I/ATLAS as it races through our solar system

By CHRIS MELORE, US ASSISTANT SCIENCE EDITOR

The United Nations (UN) has confirmed that Earth's planetary defenses will be observing the interstellar comet 3I/ATLAS as it races through our solar system. 

Starting on November 27, a global team of scientists with the International Asteroid Warning Network (IAWN) will kick off a two–month campaign to track the comet as it nears our planet.

'While it poses no threat, comet 3I/ATLAS presents a great opportunity for the IAWN community to perform an observing exercise due to its prolonged observability from Earth and high interest to the scientific community,' the UN explains on its website. 

'This 3I/ATLAS campaign is the 8th IAWN observing exercise since 2017 – IAWN holds these exercises roughly once a year.'

While 3I/ATLAS was only discovered in July 2025, the UN explained that this 'comet campaign' has long been planned. 

'IAWN had been planning to do a Fall 2025 comet campaign since 2024 to exercise capabilities for measuring the position of comets, which pose additional astrometric challenges as they appear as fuzzy extended objects compared to point–like asteroids in a telescope's field of view,' it added. 

The news comes shortly after NASA put claims that the object could be an alien spacecraft to bed once and for all. 

'We want very much to find signs of life in the universe... but 3I/ATLAS is a comet,' said Amit Kshatriya, a senior NASA official, at a press conference. 

Stargazers recently captured brand new clear images of the interstellar object 3I/ATLAS using lower quality telescopes compared to those used by NASA

NASA's sophisticated HiRISE camera was supposed to provide a detailed image of the interstellar object near Mars, but the photo shown on Wednesday was blurry and vague

Since it was first spotted in July, the object – dubbed 3I/ATLAS – has captivated scientists and internet users alike, even prompting Kim Kardashian to ask NASA for answers.

Many scientists maintained it was merely a comet visiting us from a different solar system. 

However, others – including a member of US Congress and a Harvard researcher – were convinced that the object was an alien spacecraft. 

Last week, NASA released photos snapped by three of its Mars spacecraft as they passed just 18 million miles away from the object. 

These pictures finally put any speculation to rest, as they confirmed the object's identity.

And unfortunately for alien hunters, the US space agency says that 3I/ATLAS is a comet.  

The one man holding on to hope that the object could be extraterrestrial is Harvard professor Avi Loeb, who has shared new amateur telescope images of the interstellar object, captured between November 22 and November 24.

The photos reveal a glowing, fuzzy 'head' called a coma, along with a narrow tail stretching over 600,000 miles and pointing toward the sun instead of away from it like a typical comet.

Recent telescope images have produced clearer views of the object than the photos shared by NASA on November 19

NASA maintained that 3I/ATLAS was a comet with no signs of extraterrestrial life

One appears to reveal the shape of 3I/ATLAS, showing a cone–like object covered in a bright haze.

The images came from everyday skywatchers using small backyard telescopes around the world, including in Japan, Spain, and Chile.

Professor Loeb noted that a clear shot of the object on November 22, which showed its bright green body and long 'anti–tail,' was taken by Mitsunori Tsumura using a common 20–inch backyard telescope used by stargazers worldwide.

Another caught a sharp image of the interstellar visitor over Spain that same night using a 12.4–inch telescope - a very popular size used by hobbyists in their backyards.

Perhaps the sharpest picture Professor Loeb highlighted came from Paul Craggs of Canada, who was able to capture a clear image of the comet's current shape while traveling over North America on November 21.

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

27-11-2025 om 18:18 geschreven door peter  

Easter Island mystery is SOLVED: Scientists finally pinpoint who built the iconic stone heads 900 years ago

• READ MORE: New 'stone head' statue mysteriously appears on Easter Island

By WILIAM HUNTER, SENIOR SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY REPORTER

One of the biggest mysteries surrounding Easter Island may finally be solved - as scientists pinpoint who built the iconic stone heads over 900 years ago.

In the past, researchers assumed that the 12 to 80-ton statues would have required the combined efforts of hundreds of labourers to build and move.

However, new archaeological evidence shows that the statues, known as moai, were not carved by a single powerful chiefdom.

Instead, each moai was carved by a small clan or by an individual family, with as few as four to six people working on a single statue.

Using a new 3D model of the island's main moai quarry, which you can explore below, archaeologists identified 30 unique 'workshops' where the statues were produced.

The researchers found that each clan seemed to have had their own unique artistic style, specialised techniques, and preferred digging sites.

Lead author Professor Carl Lipo, of Binghamton University, says: 'We see separate workshops that really align to different clan groups that are working intensively in their specific areas.

'You can really see graphically from the construction that there's a series of statues being made here, another series of statues here and that they're lined up next to each other.'

Researchers have finally solved the mystery of the Easter Island heads (pictured), as they reveal who built these enormous monuments 900 years ago 

Scientists have combined 22,000 photos of the Rapa Nui quarry, where hundreds of heads can be found, into a single 3D model (pictured) that you can explore below

Moai production on Rapa Nui began sometime around the 13th century as Polynesian communities began to carve ever larger monuments.

By the time the first Western explorers arrived in the 1700s, there were almost 1,000 statues dotted around the island, with many more lying partly finished inside the Rano Raraku quarry.

However, how and why this island community invested such vast resources in building these monuments has remained a mystery.

'The quarry is like the archaeological Disneyland,' says Professor Lipo.

'It's always been this treasure of information and cultural heritage, but it's remarkably underdocumented.'

In a new study, published in the journal PLoS One, Professor Lippo and his colleagues attempted to solve this puzzle by creating a detailed digital map of the quarry.

Using a drone, the researchers took some 22,000 pictures of the site and stitched them into a single 3D model that anyone can explore.

In addition to preserving the site for future study, this incredible map has also revealed some surprising details that have remained hidden from previous studies.

Using a new 3D model of the site where the heads, known as moai, were produced, scientists revealed that each head was manufactured by a small family or clan rather than by a central authority 

Professor Lipo says: 'You can see things that you couldn't actually see on the ground. You can see tops and sides and all kinds of areas that just would never be able to walk to.'

Importantly, this revealed just how different each of the workshops really was.

For example, the moai were usually carved by refining the facial details first before outlining the head and body.

But others carved out the entire block first before starting on the face, while others worked sideways into the cliffs.

Likewise, some moai bear the distinct signs of a unique artistic vision, including some which have a distinctively feminine appearance.

The workshops also appear to have been divided by natural features of the rock, rather than by broad geographical areas.

The researchers say this shows that access to the quarry wasn't controlled by a single authority, but rather that individual groups negotiated between themselves.

These findings challenge the view that large monuments like the moai are evidence of a large, powerful hierarchy that mobilised lots of people on a single project.

Archaeologists found evidence of 30 different 'workshops' (picture), each with their own unique style and methods 

Some clans even had their own unique style, with one group producing a female moai (pictured)

Easter Island timeline 

This supports a growing amount of evidence that building and moving the moai wouldn't have required nearly as much labour as previous researchers believed.

In the past, people believed that the moai were dragged on their backs from the quarry to their final positions, which would have taken a huge amount of effort.

But in a recent study, anthropologists found that the people of Rapa Nui likely used ropes to rock the statues in a zig–zag pattern.

By attaching ropes to either side of the head and pulling back and forth, the moai can be rocked side to side and shuffled forward in a 'walking' motion.

This technique would have allowed small teams of people to move the enormous moai over long distances with relatively little effort.

The stone heads were then moved along specially made 'moai roads', which connected the quarry to their final destination. 

Made to be around 4.5 metres wide with a concave profile, the researchers found that the specific shape of these roads helped to stabilise the heads and made them more likely to shuffle forwards. 

Using a combination of 3D modelling and real–life experiments, Professor Lipo and his collaborators previously found that they could 'walk' a moai with just 18 people.

This method proved so easy that people only needed to pull the ropes with one hand once the rocking had started. 

This supports the idea that the moai were produced and moved by a far smaller number of people than scientists had previously thought, with studies showing that as few as 18 people could 'walk' the sculpture using ropes 

This is further evidence that moai production likely took place on a small scale, with only a few people needing to be involved at any time.

The researchers estimate that making a moai would only take four to six carvers and as few as 10 to 20 additional personnel to carry supplies and help with tool and rope production.

This makes sense since anthropologists believe that Rapa Nui was not politically unified, but instead consisted of many small and independent family groups.  

Professor Lipo says: 'When we look at the ability for people to move giant statues, it doesn't take that many people to do it.

'So that it really connects all the dots between the number of people it takes to move the statues, the number of places, the scale at which the quarrying is happening and then the scale of the communities.'

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

27-11-2025 om 18:01 geschreven door peter  

Harvard Scientists Say There May Be an Unknown, Technologically Advanced Civilization Hiding on Earth

By Victor Tangermann

Image: Getty / Futurism

What if — stick with us here — an unknown technological civilization is hiding right here on Earth, sheltering in bases deep underground and possibly even emerging with UFOs or disguised as everyday humans?

In a new paper that’s bound to raise eyebrows in the scientific community, a team of researchers from Harvard and Montana Technological University speculates that sightings of “Unidentified Anomalous Phemonemona” (UAP) —  bureaucracy-speak for UFOs, basically — “may reflect activities of intelligent beings concealed in stealth here on Earth (e.g., underground), and/or its near environs (e.g., the Moon), and/or even ‘walking among us’ (e.g., passing as humans).”

Yes, that’s a direct quote from the paper. Needless to say, the researchers admit, this idea of hidden “crypoterrestrials” is a highly exotic hypothesis that’s “likely to be regarded skeptically by most scientists.” Nonetheless, they argue, the theory “deserves genuine consideration in a spirit of epistemic humility and openness.”

The interest in unexplained sightings of UFOs by military personnel has grown considerably over the past decade or so. This attention grew to a peak last summer, when former Air Force intelligence officer and whistleblower David Grusch testified in front of Congress, claiming that the US had already recovered alien spacecraft as part of a decades-long UFO retrieval program.

Even NASA has opened its doors for researchers to explore mysterious, high-speed objects that have been spotted by military pilots over the years.

But several Pentagon reports later, we have yet to find any evidence of extraterrestrial life.

That hasn’t dissuaded these Harvard researchers, though. In the paper, they suggest a range of possibilities, each more outlandish than the next.

First is that a “remnant form” of an ancient, highly advanced human civilization is still hanging around, observing us. Second is that an intelligent species evolved independently of humans in the distant past, possibly from “intelligent dinosaurs,” and is now hiding their presence from us. Third is that these hidden occupants of Earth traveled here from another planet or time period. And fourth — please keep a straight face, everybody — is that these unknown inhabitants of Earth are “less technological than magical,” which the researchers liken to “earthbound angels.”

UFO sightings of “craft and other phenomena (e.g., ‘orbs’) appearing to enter/exit potential underground access points, like volcanoes,” they write, could be evidence that these cryptoterrestrials may not be drawn to these spots, but actually reside in underground or underwater bases.

The paper quotes former House Representative Mike Gallagher, who suggested last year that one explanation for the UFO sightings might be “an ancient civilization that’s just been hiding here, for all this time, and is suddenly showing itself right now,” following Grusch’s testimony.

The researchers didn’t stop there, even suggesting that these cryptoterrestrials may take on different, non-human primate or even reptile forms.

Beyond residing deep underground, they even speculate that this mysterious species could even be concealing themselves on the Moon or have mastered the art of blending in as human beings, a folk theory that has inspired countless works of science fiction.

Another explanation, as put forward by controversial Harvard astrophysicist Avi Loeb, suggests that other ancient civilizations may have lived on “planets like Mars or Earth” but a “billion years apart and hence were not aware of each other.”

Of course, these are all “far-fetched” hypotheses, as the scientists admit, and deserve to be regarded with plenty of skepticism.

“We entertain them here because some aspects of UAP are strange enough that they seem to call for unconventional explanations,” the paper reads.

“It may be exceedingly improbable, but hopefully this paper has shown it should nevertheless be kept on the table as we seek to understand the ongoing empirical mystery of UAP,” the researchers conclude.

More on UFOs: 

• New Law Would Force Government to Declassify Every UFO Document

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{ https://futurism.com/ }

27-11-2025 om 16:40 geschreven door peter  

{ https://mysteriousuniverse.org/ }

27-11-2025 om 16:24 geschreven door peter  

The Kuiper Belt is a vast ring of icy bodies beyond Neptune, home to Pluto and countless smaller objects. Astronomers have long known that this belt is not uniform, and that it contains subtle clumps and gaps, like the rings of Saturn seen from far away. One of these clumps is called the “kernel,” a tight crowd of small, cold, almost circular orbits centered around 44 times Earth’s distance from the Sun (44 astronomical units, or AU).

In the new study, the astronomy team from Princeton report evidence for a second, similar crowd just inside that one, at about 43 AU, which they dub the “inner kernel.” The objects in this inner kernel move on nearly circular paths, with low tilts relative to the Solar System’s main plane. According to the researchers, these traits mark these curious bodies as members of the “cold classical” Kuiper Belt, a population thought to have stayed relatively undisturbed since the early days of the Solar System.

Across a catalog of 1,650 tracked Kuiper Belt Objects, the inner kernel appears as a real concentration of orbits: it spans about 42.4–43.6 AU in distance, and its members have especially low “free” eccentricities (a measure of how stretched their orbits are once after you strip away planetary gravity effects). The team estimates that objects in this inner kernel may make up around 7–10 percent of all so‑called classical Kuiper Belt objects, and roughly 14–21 percent of the coldest, most undisturbed ones.

So a big question now remains. Is the “kernel” and the “inner kernel” one large structure out there in the dark expanse of space, or are they separate?

The orbits of these objects are very stable. Their closest approaches to the Sun stay well above a theoretical “stability boundary” near 37 AU, and even in the most extreme case their paths don’t dip inside about 40 AU. That suggests they have not been violently scattered inward by Neptune, but instead survived more or less where they formed, or were gently moved there.

Compared with the outer kernel at 44 AU, the inner kernel looks “colder” in one key respect: its free eccentricities are smaller on average, meaning the orbits are more nearly circular when planetary influences are factored out. That difference could make the inner kernel a better example of how much shaking and shuffling the Kuiper Belt has experienced. If giant planets like Neptune migrated outward in jumps, as some models suggest, each jump could have left behind gravitational gaps in the belt’s structure. The presence of two closely spaced, cold clumps might be telling the story of how smooth or violent that process really was.

The main part of the Kuiper Belt begins at Neptune’s orbit

(Image: NASA).

There is also a strange piece of orbital context. The structure’s orbit has a particular resonance with Neptune. In simple terms, between the two clumps of Kuiper Belt objects, there is a special region where Neptune’s gravity keeps time with them in a steady rhythm called the 7:4 resonance. While Neptune goes around the Sun seven times, the objects in the belt goes around four times. In places like this, those repeated tugs can either sweep objects away or herd them together, a bit like a parent pushing a child on a swing in just the right rhythm, so the lack of objects between the two clumps might be caused by this resonance, although the researchers are not yet sure that this is really the reason.​​

This was an interesting find, according to the researchers, as it points to a possible cause of the “inner kernel” structure. 

Beyond the discovery of this new structure inside the belt, the study is notable because the researchers turned to tools more familiar from data science than from traditional astronomy.

First, they re‑described each orbit in a way that tries to peel away the steady, predictable nudges from the giant planets. The raw orbital elements of a Kuiper Belt object, its eccentricity (how elongated the orbit is) and inclination (how tilted it is), are a mix of a “forced” part set by the collective gravity of the planets and a “free” part that reflects the object’s own history. Using established mathematical techniques from celestial mechanics, the team calculated these free components for each of the 1,650 objects in a recent catalog of classical Kuiper Belt objects.

They then fed each object’s distance from the Sun, free eccentricity, and free inclination  into a clustering algorithm called DBSCAN (Density‑Based Spatial Clustering of Applications with Noise). DBSCAN looks for dense swarms of points in a cloud of data, marking them as clusters, while treating isolated points as noise.

Because DBSCAN’s behavior depends on how you tune its settings, the team adopted a conservative strategy. They only trusted results from runs where the algorithm clearly picked out a “kernel‑like” feature matching the known 44 AU kernel, and then asked whether, under those same settings, another cluster appeared.

In every such case, the inner kernel popped out at about 43 AU. Changing the parameters slightly sometimes caused the algorithm to merge the inner and outer kernels into one broader cluster, underlining the ambiguity of whether these are two distinct structures or two peaks in a single large one.

“There are two alternative explanations that we cannot distinguish between: either the kernel is significantly larger than previously thought, or there is an additional distinct structure in the cold classical Kuiper belt,” the authors explained. “In either case, the inner kernel, as described here, is the additional component.”

For now, the authors are cautious. The inner kernel clearly shows up in the data as they have processed it, but it is not yet clear whether it is a truly separate structure or simply the inner edge of a larger, more complex kernel. It’s especially cold orbits, however, hint that it might carry a slightly different history, and that makes it valuable for testing models of how Neptune moved and how the outer Solar System settled into its current shape.

The real test will come with more data. The Vera C. Rubin Observatory’s Legacy Survey of Space and Time (LSST), due to begin full operations later this decade, is expected to discover and track thousands more Kuiper Belt objects. With that flood of new orbits, astronomers will be able to see whether the inner kernel sharpens into a well‑defined band or blurs into a broader structure.

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

27-11-2025 om 15:57 geschreven door peter  

The Speed of Light

Based on present-day physics, scientists know the speed of light is the greatest speed at which anything in our universe can travel. That astronomical rate is clocked at 186,000 miles per second. Due to the immense distances separating points in outer space, scientists have adopted the distance light travels in one year, 5.88 trillion miles, as a universal measurement scale.

Proxima Centauri is the star nearest to our own, even though that cosmic neighbor is 4.2 light-years away from Earth. Over four years of light-speed travel would be required to cross such a distance.

For shorter distances in space, scientists rely on astronomical units, which are equal to the distance between Earth and the Sun. Although humanity has yet to conquer light-speed travel, Voyager 1 still manages to zip along at the relatively quick 11 miles per second. This adds up to 3.5 AU each year as the craft continues its journey.

Communications Challenges

Somewhere in the middle of these two ends of the cosmic measuring scale is the less commonly used figure known as the “light day,” denoting the distance light travels in a single Earth day.

That distance has begun to add up and impact the effectiveness of communications with Voyager, which are maintained through NASA’s Deep Space Network. Mission engineers spent weeks last November dealing with just one episode of technical difficulties due to communications lag. At billions of miles from Earth, the commands and responses took 23 hours to travel in each direction from Voyager 1 to Earth.

During that event, silicon dioxide from a rubber diaphragm had accumulated in a fuel tank, cutting off a crucial fuel thruster tube. Thrust was drastically lowered, as the liquid hydrazine fuel was impeded from flowing freely. It took 40 small thrusts from the obstructed system to even push Voyager into proper alignment for effective communication with Earth.

In the end, the mission engineers elected to return to a set of thrusters that had themselves been turned off years earlier due to malfunctions, although of a less severe sort than those plaguing the system last year. At one point during the operation, power was so low that the mission team had to take the calculated risk of turning off Voyager 1’s heater in deep space to power the systems required to bring the old thrusters back online.

The Future of Voyager 1

Despite the challenges of communicating over such a massive distance, NASA plans to maintain contact with Voyager 1 as it crosses the monumental 16.1 billion-mile threshold to reach one full light-day from Earth.

The celebration may be bittersweet, though. Three radioisotope thermoelectric generators power the craft, which are expected to run out of energy in the next decade. Many of Voyager 1’s systems are no longer functional, as those generators are even now providing much less power than the craft utilized at launch. Over the years, many concessions have been made, reverting to backup thrusters, disabling instruments, and cutting power to keep the mission continuing long past its expected lifespan.

As such, the one light day milestone may be the last outstanding achievement for humanity’s farthest step into the cosmos.

• 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.

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27-11-2025 om 15:39 geschreven door peter