2.8 Days to Disaster - Why We Are Running Out of Time in Low Earth Orbit

By Andy Tomaswick

{ https://www.universetoday.com/ }

15-12-2025 om 21:42 geschreven door peter  

2.8 Days to Disaster - Why We Are Running Out of Time in Low Earth Orbit

By Andy Tomaswick

{ https://www.universetoday.com/ }

15-12-2025 om 21:42 geschreven door peter  

The Geminid meteor shower peaks overnight on December 13-14. It’s a great year for the Geminids! Join EarthSky’s Deborah Byrd for details.

The biggest meteor shower of the YEAR peaks this evening- December 13-14- with up to 150 shooting stars every hour – here's the best time to see it

• READ MORE: NASA discovers a rock on Mars that 'doesn't belong there'

By WILIAM HUNTER, SENIOR SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY REPORTER

he biggest meteor shower of the year is almost here – and you won't want to miss it.

The Geminid Meteor Shower will reach its dazzling peak tonight, with up to 150 shooting stars visible every hour.

This celestial display is famous for its bright, multi–coloured meteors that light up the sky in yellow, red, green, and blue.

The shower is active until December 20, but will be at its most spectacular this evening.

The best times to watch this incredible show will be between midnight and 02:00 am local time, but they will start to appear any time after dark.

And with the crescent moon at just 26 per cent of its normal brightness, keen stargazers should be in for a great view of the approaching meteors.

All you need to see tonight's show will be your own eyes, a warm coat, and a bit of patience – with no need for specialist binoculars or telescopes.

So, here's everything you need to know to watch the Geminid Meteor Shower tonight.

The best meteor display of the year is not far away as the Geminids reach their dazzling peak tonight. Here's everything you need to know to see them. Pictured: The Geminids over Broadway Tower, Worcestershire

What are the Geminids?

Dr Greg Brown, astronomer at the Royal Observatory Greenwich, told Daily Mail: 'Space is not quite as empty as we might think. As objects like asteroids and comets roam through our solar system, they leave behind trails of dust and gas.

'The Earth regularly passes through these trails, sweeping up vast numbers of bits of debris like bugs on the windscreen of a car.'

As our planet crashes through this minefield, chunks of rock and dust crash down into our atmosphere, where they burn up with a bright flash.

During the Geminids, particles as small as a grain of sand race through the upper atmosphere at speeds up to 43 miles per second (70 km/s).

Since this cloud of debris is always in the same location, the meteor shower always occurs at the same time of year.

However, the Geminids are unique in that they come from the rocky asteroid 3200 Phaethon, rather than an icy comet like most other meteor showers.

Since this asteroid is rich in metals, the resulting meteors can flare in a stunning array of colours as they burn up in the atmosphere.

The Geminids are unique in that they are the debris from a rocky asteroid called 3200 Phaethon (artist's impression), rather than an icy comet

Due to the metals from 3200 Phaethon, the Geminids have a distinctive coloured glow and can flash yellow,  green, or blue. Pictured: A Geminid meteor over Arizona, USA

What are meteors?

'Like burning chemicals in your secondary school science lab, the colour of the flame is dependent on the chemicals that burn,' says Dr Brown.

'While many of the meteors will still be white, if elements like sodium and calcium are present, then coloured displays of yellow and violet can occur.'

How to see the Geminid Meteor Shower this evening

The best thing about meteor showers like the Geminids is that the best way to see them is without any special equipment.

Using anything like binoculars or a telescope will only restrict your field of view, so all you need is your own eyes and a bit of patience.

The Geminids appear to emerge from a single point, known as the radiant, located in the constellation Gemini from which they get their name.

You can find Gemini by looking up and left over the 'shoulder' of Orion and searching for the bright star Castor.

However, for the best view, you should focus your eyes a little to the side of the constellation so that the meteors appear in your more light–sensitive peripheral vision.

The Geminids will appear to emerge from the constellation Gemini, near the bright star Castor. To get the best view, wait until 2:00 am local time when this constellation is highest in the sky 

Dr Shyam Balaji, of King's College London, told Daily Mail: The best time to view the Geminid meteor shower is around 2 am local time when the radiant point is highest in the sky.

'However, you can start watching from mid–evening onward.'

In good conditions, viewers can expect to see upwards of 100 shooting stars an hour, or one or two every minute.

When viewing conditions are poor, you will be able to see fewer stars in the sky, so it's important to make sure you find the right stargazing location.

Dr Robert Massey, Deputy Executive Director at the Royal Astronomical Society: 'With a meteor shower what you want is the widest possible view – you want to be lying down, looking up at the broad panoply of stars, and watching for meteors.

'The best view is if you're away from sources of light pollution, so try and get away from at least direct lights in towns and cities, ideally out in the countryside.

'Obviously you also need a clear sky – if it’s cloudy you're not going to see anything.'

You should soon start to see short streaks of light that last for a second or two.

+7

View gallery

Under optimal conditions, you may see as many as 150 shooting stars per hour. To get the best view, make sure to find a place with a clear view of the sky and limited light pollution. Pictured: The Geminid Meteor shower seen from Virginia, USA 

+7

View gallery

+7

View gallery

After a week of stormy weather, the Met Office is forecasting light cloud cover and only sporadic rain for Sunday night 

Meteors usually aren't visible for long enough for you to point them out to someone else, so you will need to keep your eyes peeled.

Luckily, after a week of storms, the weather conditions for Sunday night are looking better for sky watching.

Read More

 Is life out there? NASA finds essential sugars on ancient asteroid Bennu 

The Met Office forecasts largely clear skies over the East of England and Scotland, with some patches of cloud over the South West and Wales.

Thanks to the waning crescent moon, the sky should also be dark enough for some excellent views of the Geminid Meteor Shower.

However, if you do miss out on the shower's spectacular peak, there will be opportunities to see the Geminids until December 20, albeit at a reduced rate.

Following that, keen fireball hunters will be able to catch the weaker but reliable Ursid Meteor Shower, peaking on December 22.

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

15-12-2025 om 18:41 geschreven door peter  

'Lost' books of the Bible expose secrets the Church is hiding about Jesus

By ROB WAUGH

The Bible is often seen as a fixed text that has remained largely unchanged for generations, but it was not always so. 

There are 66 books in the modern Bible, across the Old and New Testaments, but over 70 writings were circulated in early Jewish and Christian communities that were never accepted into the canon. 

These 'lost' books date from the late Second Temple period through the third century AD, spanning roughly the first century when Jesus lived up to about 300 AD. 

Many of these works were controversial or heretical, offering radically different portrayals of angels, giants, Jesus and humanity's origins. 

They reveal a world of competing ideas about faith, morality, and divine intervention that early church leaders ultimately rejected. 

Some describe heavenly beings mating with humans, others present Jesus in ways that conflict with the New Testament, and still others depict familiar figures in startlingly different roles. 

Though these texts were influential at the time, they were eventually excluded from Jewish and Christian scripture, leaving only fragments or references in historical records. 

Today, they survive mostly in manuscripts like the Dead Sea Scrolls or isolated copies preserved by groups such as Ethiopian Christians.

Many of these works were controversial or heretical, offering radically different portrayals of angels, giants, Jesus and humanity's origins 

One of the most famous of these texts is the Book of Enoch, which expands on the mysterious Nephilim, giants mentioned briefly in the Old Testament. 

According to the book, 200 fallen angels took human wives and had children, who became violent giants that devoured humanity's resources. 

God commands the angel Michael to bind the angels, and later, the Nephilim perish in the Flood. 

While it is not included in most Jewish or Christian canons, the Book of Enoch was widely read in antiquity and still holds canonical status for the Ethiopian Orthodox Church.

The Book of Enoch was not accepted due to its controversial apocalyptic visions, detailed angelology, like the Watchers' descent, mystical themes, and perceived theological inconsistencies with evolving doctrines 

Other texts offer unexpected portrayals of Jesus. The Apocalypse of Peter, written in the second or third century, describes Jesus laughing during the crucifixion, reflecting Gnostic beliefs that his physical body was an illusion. 

In it, Peter asks, 'What am I seeing, O Lord? Is it you whom they take? … Who is this one above the cross, who is glad and laughing?' 

The earliest known manuscript fragment of the Infancy of the Gospel of Thomas was only discovered in 2024, discussing one of Jesus' early miracles 

The Infancy Gospel of Thomas offers another radical departure, depicting a young Jesus wielding supernatural powers. 

He brings clay birds to life, curses a child who dies, blinds nearby adults, and later reverses these acts, even resurrecting someone who falls from a roof. 

But it also portrays a darker side, depicting Jesus as vengeful, even cursing a child to death for striking him on the shoulder. 

After Jesus kills the child for accidentally bumping into him, the villagers become upset and complain to Joseph and Mary. In response to their accusations, Jesus strikes the accusers with blindness.

In another episode, Joseph takes Jesus to a teacher to learn the alphabet, and the teacher becomes irritated when Jesus laughs at his instructions.

The omitted book begins when Jesus is just five years old, while the traditional Bible's first mention is of him at 12 years old. 

The Infancy Gospel of Thomas was rejected by the early Church because it portrayed Jesus as a violent, petulant child and conflicted with orthodox Christian teachings.

Its late composition date and association with Gnostic literature further led leaders to deem it inauthentic and heretical.

Perhaps the most controversial is the Gospel of Judas, rediscovered in the 1970s in a limestone box near the Nile. 

However, it was not written by the Apostle Judas who betrayed Jesus by handing him over to the Romans. 

Unlike the traditional New Testament account, this text portrays Judas Iscariot as Jesus' chosen disciple, entrusted with a divinely appointed betrayal. 

Jesus tells him, 'You will become the thirteenth … and you will be cursed by the other generations, and you will come to rule over them.' 

The Gospel of Judas presents Judas as someone who understands Jesus' mission better than the other disciples, challenging centuries of conventional interpretations.

These lost books, whether depicting angels and giants or offering alternative visions of Jesus' life and mission, provide a fascinating glimpse into the diversity of early Jewish and Christian thought. 

RELATED VIDEOS

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

15-12-2025 om 18:25 geschreven door peter  

Ancient cubed-shaped skull found in Mexico challenges human history

• MORE:  Mysterious species found living alongside our earliest ancestors deemed missing link in evolution

By CHRIS MELORE, US ASSISTANT SCIENCE EDITOR

An ancient cube-shaped skull unearthed in Mexico is rewriting our understanding of the ancient world, revealing a completely unique member of a society from 1,400 years ago.

This remarkable skull belonged to a man over 40 years old who lived during Mexico's Classic period, roughly between 400 and 900 AD, according to specialists from the National Institute of Anthropology and History (INAH).

It was discovered at the Balcón de Montezuma archaeological site in the mountainous northern Huasteca region of Mexico's Tamaulipas state.

Researchers determined through bone and teeth analysis that the man was born, lived his entire life, and died right there in the local mountains, with no evidence he ever moved or lived in another region.

The team added that the find was 'unprecedented' in this part of the world as a skull deformed to resemble a cube had never been found near Huasteca before.

The skull's unique appearance was the result of intentional cranial deformation, a practice where flat boards and bandages were pressed against a baby's soft head for years to mold it into a square shape.

This deformation was likely done without causing pain, as the skull bones of an infant are malleable, allowing families to gradually reshape the head as a cultural tradition.

Experts believe such rituals were performed to signify beauty, social status, or even spiritual connections in ancient Mesoamerican societies.

Researchers in Mexico have discovered a man's skull which was deformed to take the shape of a cube roughly 1,400 years ago (Pictured)

The skull was found at the Balcón de Montezuma archaeological site in the northern Huasteca region of Mexico's Tamaulipas state

Archaeologists have previously uncovered a variety of intentionally modified skulls across ancient Mexico, particularly elongated cone-like shapes among the Olmec and Maya.

Those cone-shaped skull changes are believed to have been achieved by gently binding infants' soft heads with cloth and bandages during the first months or years of their lives.

To the ancient Mesoamericans, these oddly-shaped skulls held a different significance depending on the ancient civilization making the changes to their babies. For example, the ancient Maya are believed to have done this for social status and beauty.

However, the newly discovered cube skull has left researchers with a mystery, as the team from INAH could not explain why this man was the only human to undergo this procedure in Tamaulipas.

Cube-shaped skulls, with their flattened tops that create a boxy profile, have typically been found at distant sites like El Zapotal in Veracruz and scattered Maya settlements in southeastern Mexico, far from the northern mountains where this fossil turned up.

With that in mind, the research team decided to test if the 40-year-old was truly a native of the northern Huasteca region.

Scientists looked at specific clues hidden in his bones and teeth. These clues are called 'stable oxygen isotopes,' or different versions of oxygen atoms that don't change over time.

The exact mix of these oxygen versions in bones and teeth come from the water a person drinks throughout their life.

The research team was able to confirm that this man spent his entire life in the region, making his cube-shaped skull more of a mystery since this ritual was unusual for the area

Water in different places, such as in rainy mountains or dry coasts, has its own unique oxygen 'fingerprint' because of the local climate and geography.

By testing those oxygen fingerprints in the man's tooth enamel, which formed in childhood, and bone collagen, which updates through adulthood, researchers saw the same mountain water pattern in both.

That made it a match for the local mountain water this person likely drank his whole life in Mexico's northern mountains.

Physical anthropologist Jesús Ernesto Velasco González said: 'Stable oxygen isotope studies in collagen and bioapatite samples from bone and teeth, a technique used to infer the geographic origin of the second individual's skeletal remains, indicate that he was born, lived, and died in this part of the mountains.'

'Therefore, the results rule out a direct mobility relationship with the groups of El Zapotal or those further south,' the researcher continued in a statement translated to English.

While the team is still trying to crack the mystery behind the cube-shaped skull, they said it likely wasn't just about looking different, but may have been a symbol of belonging to a larger cultural family that stretched across hundreds of miles of Mexican coastline.

RELATED VIDEOS

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

15-12-2025 om 18:07 geschreven door peter  

If you've ever dreamed of soaring over traffic on your daily commute, your dreams could soon be a reality – as the 'world's first' flying car enters production.

The Alef Model A Ultralight uses eight propellers hidden in the boot and bonnet to take off at any time.

And when you're done flying, the futuristic £235,000 vehicle can land and drive like any normal car.

After more than a decade of development, the US–based Alef Aeronautics has finally announced that the first customers will soon get their flying cars.

The futuristic vehicles will be hand–assembled in the company's facility in Silicon Valley, California.

However, Alef Aeronautics says that each car will take 'several months' of craftsmanship before it is safe to send out to customers.

The first handmade cars will only be delivered to a few customers to test out the experimental vehicles in real–world conditions.

The company says this slow rollout will allow it to work out any potential issues before the flying car enters mass production.

The 'world's first' flying car (pictured) has finally entered production, as Alef Aeronautics announces that its first all–electric vehicle will be hand assembled in the US 

Alef Aeronautics' futuristic vehicle can be driven around like a normal car on the streets or take off and fly using eight propellers hidden in its carbon–fibre mesh body 

Jim Dukhovny, CEO of Alef Aeronautics, says: 'We are happy to report that production of the first flying car has started on schedule.

'The team worked hard to meet the timeline, because we know people are waiting. We're finally able to get production off the ground.'

Unlike flying taxis, which rely on airports or vertiports, Alef Aeronautics says its vehicle is the first true 'flying car' that can both drive on the roads and fly.

The Model A is both a road–legal vehicle and an aircraft capable of taking off without wings via eVTOL (electric vertical take–off and landing).

On the ground, the Model A drives just like a normal electric car, thanks to four small engines in each of the wheels.

But the driver's seat is also surrounded by powerful propellers that provide enough thrust for flight at a cruising speed of 110 miles per hour (177 km/h).

The carbon–fibre mesh body – measuring around five metres by two metres – allows air to pass through the car while keeping the spinning blades safely covered.

The company says that the car will have enough room for the pilot and one passenger, and have a range of 200 miles (321 km) on the ground and 110 miles (177 km) in the air.

The company says that the flying car will have a range of 200 miles (321 km) on the ground and 110 miles (177 km) in the air

Mr Dukhovny claims the car, which is aimed at the general public, is relatively simple to use and would take just 15 minutes to learn. 

The Model A Ultralight, which will soon be in customers' hands, is a stripped–down prototype version of Alef's flagship Model A flying car.

The entire car weighs just 385 kg (850 lbs), so that it can be classified as an ultralight 'low speed vehicle' – a legal classification for small electric vehicles like golf carts.

That means the car will be capped at 25 miles per hour (40 km/h) on public roads despite being able to drive faster.

Having received airworthiness certification from the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) in 2023, Alef Aeronautics is now edging closer to making the Model A a reality – over a decade after the company was founded.

The company reports that it has received 3,500 pre–orders, collectively worth more than £800 million.

However, don't expect to see The Jetsons–style flying cars filling the air near you just yet.

Alef Aeronautics says that the first customers will only be allowed to test their flying cars under 'very controlled conditions'.

Alef Aeronautics will send a limited number of its flying cars to customers for them to test in 'very controlled conditions'

Read More

•  Emergency landing turns perilous as Boeing plane's gear fails on runway 

The company adds that each customer will need to receive training in compliance and maintenance before flying.

Likewise, creating each car involves robotic, industrial, and hand manufacturing, with rigorous testing of individual parts and a large number of test flights.

Mr Dukhovny has previously said he wanted to bring sci–fi to life and build an 'affordable' flying car, with the cost likely to be closer to £25,000 when built at scale. 

Eventually, Aleph Aeronautics says that the production process of the full–size Model A will be automated but, for now, only a limited number can be produced.

WHAT TYPE OF FLYING TAXIS COULD WE EXPECT TO SEE IN THE FUTURE?

Advances in electric motors, battery technology and autonomous software has triggered an explosion in the field of electric air taxis.

Larry Page, CEO of Google parent company Alphabet, has poured millions into aviation start-ups Zee Aero and Kitty Hawk, which are both striving to create all-electric flying cabs.

Kitty Hawk is believed to be developing a flying car and has already filed more than a dozen different aircraft registrations with the Federal Aviation Administration, or FAA.

Page, who co-founded Google with Sergey Brin back in 1998, has personally invested $100 million (£70 million) into the two companies, which have yet to publicly acknowledge or demonstrate their technology.

AirSpaceX unveiled its latest prototype, Mobi-One, at the North American International Auto Show in early 2018. Like its closest rivals, the electric aircraft is designed to carry two to four passengers and is capable of vertical take-off and landing

Airbus is also hard at work on an all-electric, vertical-take-off-and-landing craft, with its latest Project Vahana prototype, branded Alpha One, successfully completing its maiden test flight in February 2018.

The self-piloted helicopter reached a height of 16 feet (five metres) before successfully returning to the ground. In total, the test flight lasted 53 seconds.

Airbus previously shared a well-produced concept video, showcasing its vision for Project Vahana.

The footage reveals a sleek self-flying aircraft that seats one passenger under a canopy that retracts in similar way to a motorcycle helmet visor.

Airbus Project Vahana prototype, branded Alpha One, successfully completed its maiden test flight in February 2018. The self-piloted helicopter reached a height of 16 feet (five metres) before successfully returning to the ground. In total, the test flight lasted 53 seconds

AirSpaceX is another company with ambitions to take commuters to the skies.

The Detroit-based start-up has promised to deploy 2,500 aircrafts in the 50 largest cities in the United States by 2026.

AirSpaceX unveiled its latest prototype, Mobi-One, at the North American International Auto Show in early 2018.

Like its closest rivals, the electric aircraft is designed to carry two to four passengers and is capable of vertical take-off and landing.

AirSpaceX has even included broadband connectivity for high speed internet access so you can check your Facebook News Feed as you fly to work.

Aside from passenger and cargo services, AirSpaceX says the craft can also be used for medical and casualty evacuation, as well as tactical Intelligence, Surveillance, and Reconnaissance (ISR).

Even Uber is working on making its ride-hailing service airborne.

Dubbed Uber Elevate, Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi tentatively discussed the company’s plans during a technology conference in January 2018.

‘I think it’s going to happen within the next 10 years,’ he said.

RELATED VIDEOS

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

15-12-2025 om 17:48 geschreven door peter  

Forget the Bermuda Triangle: Scientists are baffled by a giant structure hidden beneath Bermuda that is 'unlike anything else on Earth'

• READ MORE: Scientist claims to have solved mystery of the Bermuda Triangle

By WILIAM HUNTER, SENIOR SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY REPORTER

The Bermuda Triangle might be one of the world's greatest mysteries, but scientists have just discovered something even more baffling in the area. 

Researchers have spotted an enormous stone structure hidden beneath Bermuda that is 'unlike anything else on Earth'.

The 12.4 mile (20km) layer of rock sits underneath the ocean crust below Bermuda.

No structure this thick has ever been found before, according to the team – who say it could help to answer one of the biggest questions about the famous island.

Bermuda sits on a raised area of ocean crust known as an 'oceanic swell', which lifts it above the surrounding area.

These formations are typically associated with volcanic activity, but there is no evidence to show that a volcano is to blame for Bermuda's strange geology.

There hasn't been an eruption on the island for more than 31 million years, and any volcanic swelling should have subsided over that time.

The new discovery suggests the last eruption injected molten rock into the crust where it froze into a raft, lifting the island 500 metres (1,640 ft) out of the sea.

Scientists have discovered a vast rock structure beneath Bermuda (pictured) that is 'unlike anything else on Earth'

Scientists found the raft of less–dense rock by tracking how seismic waves from distant earthquakes were deflected by the materials beneath the island 

In a paper published in the journal Geophysical Research Letters, researchers looked at recordings from a seismic station on Bermuda.

They traced the passage of powerful but distant earthquakes as they made their way through the rock 31 miles (50km) beneath the island.

By looking at where these seismic waves unexpectedly changed course, the researchers found the strangely thick layer of rock.

Dr William Frazer, a seismologist at Carnegie Science, told Live Science: 'Typically, you have the bottom of the oceanic crust and then it would be expected to be the mantle.

'But in Bermuda, there is this other layer that is emplaced beneath the crust, within the tectonic plate that Bermuda sits on.'

For geologists, this could represent a major step towards cracking Bermuda's biggest mystery.

While Bermuda is famous for its record of unexplained ship and aircraft disappearances, the bigger mystery for scientists is why its oceanic swell exists.

Island chains like Hawaii typically form because of volcanic activity above mantle hotspots – places where hot molten rock from the mantle rises towards the surface.

Scientists found a 12.4–mile–thick (20 km) layer of rock that sits underneath the ocean crust below Bermuda and lifts the island 500 metres (1,640 ft) out of the sea

Bermuda's most famous mystery is its history of shipwrecks, such as that of the SS Sapona (pictured), but scientists say the bigger puzzle is why the crust beneath the island is pushed so high above the surrounding terrain

As this hot material pushes its way through the crust to create islands, it also lifts the tectonic plate upwards to create an oceanic swell.

When the tectonic plate moves away from the hotspot, these swells gradually subside over time.

Since Bermuda has no evidence of volcanic activity for the last 31 million years, scientists couldn't explain why its swell was still so high.

However, since this newly–discovered layer is less dense than the surrounding rock, it both deflects passing seismic waves and pushes the island upwards.

Previous research has found that old lava on Bermuda is low in the mineral silicon, which suggests that it came from a layer of the Earth that is very low in carbon.

This carbon likely emerged from deep in the Earth's mantle when the supercontinent Pangea opened up to form the Atlantic Ocean 900 to 300 million years ago.

This could be what makes Bermuda so different from hotspot islands in the Pacific or Indian oceans, which are comparably much older oceans.

The researchers are now examining other islands around the world to see if there are any similar layers, or if Bermuda is truly one of a kind. 

Dr Frazer says: 'Understanding a place like Bermuda, which is an extreme location, is important to understand places that are less extreme and gives us a sense of what are the more normal processes that happen on Earth and what are the more extreme processes that happen.'

Bermuda's more famous mystery is why so many ships seemingly vanish without a trace within the region known as the Bermuda Triangle.

Located between Florida, Puerto Rico and Bermuda, the Bermuda Triangle's long history of deadly wrecks has prompted endless supernatural speculation.

But scientists now say that this may also have an entirely natural, scientific explanation. 

Dr Simon Boxall, an oceanographer from the University of Southampton, says that the Bermuda Triangle's record of disappearances is due to 'rogue waves'.

Otherwise known as extreme storm waves, these are unpredictable walls of water that can reach twice the height of the surrounding waves.

Towering up to 100 feet (30 metres) in the air, rogue waves are abnormally steep and can hit unexpectedly from directions other than the prevailing wind.

According to Dr Boxall, a large ship trapped by one of these killer swells could 'sink in a matter of two or three minutes'.

THE BERMUDA TRIANGLE 

The Bermuda Triangle is a section of the Atlantic Ocean roughly bounded by Miami, Bermuda and Puerto Rico where dozens of ships and airplanes have disappeared. 

Unexplained circumstances surround some of these accidents.

Although a range of strange theories have been proposed regarding the Bermuda Triangle, none of them prove that mysterious disappearances occur more frequently there than in other well–travelled sections of the ocean. 

Many people navigate the area every day without incident.

 

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

15-12-2025 om 17:18 geschreven door peter  

EarthExists, a private research collective working across astrophysics, chemistry, and planetary dynamics, claims to have uncovered evidence that governments anticipated the arrival of the interstellar object 31/ATLAS more than two decades ago, secretly building space programs designed to track and follow it long before the public was aware. 

Credit image: ESA showing a X-ray image of 31/Atlas.

Below is a brief summary of EarthExists’ analysis. You can read the full interesting reports Here and Here. 

A secret planetary defense system activated in 2025, and it wasn’t built for asteroids and it activated right on schedule. 

In 2025, a classified surveillance architecture quietly came online. Not by accident. Not as a test. It activated exactly when it was supposed to. The target? 3I/ATLAS, an interstellar object behaving nothing like a comet. 

This plan started 20 years ago. In 2005, an obscure aerospace paper outlined a system called CASSANDRA which you can read Here. Publicly, it was described as theoretical. Privately, it read like a construction manual. 

Designed to: Detect objects at extreme distances. Track them continuously beyond Earth orbit. Maintain persistent custody for decades and coordinate multiple classified sensor platforms. 

In 2006, it vanished from public discussion but in 2025, it went live. CASSANDRA is not a program, it’s a memory system. A centralized intelligence architecture designed to never lose track of anomalous objects, even if it takes decades. 

At the moment they activated CASSANDRA, unfamiliar system names appeared: 

• ORACLE VI 
• Space situational awareness platform 
• Assets positioned at Lagrange Point 1 
• ARGUS-VIS 
• Persistent classified sensor system 
• Adapted from terrestrial surveillance 
• UMBRA-3/C  
• No public record exists 

These systems don’t track debris. They track active targets. At all, a billion-dollar planetary surveillance network isn’t built for just a ordinary asteroid, comet or if you want to call it a rock. You build it if: You detected something decades ago or you received a signal predicting arrival. Either way; 3I/ATLAS was expected. 

Then the silence and cover-up began: A U.S. government shutdown. NASA communications go dark. No explanations. No updates. SETI quietly updates post-detection protocols IAWN flags 3I/ATLAS as a planetary defense concern No press conference. No announcement. Blurry images. 

C/2025 N1 UMBRA-3/1C CASSANDRA / ORACLE VI | ARGUS-VIS |

On October 3, 2025, the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter reached the perfect viewing angle. 

HiRISE engaged the target across four optical bands. Captured in 14-bit depth. But the public images were reduced to 8-bit. 98.5% of the data was stripped out by NASA. What you saw wasn’t the real and clear image of 31/Atlas. It was the filter. You can read it Here. 

But four days after perihelion, two possible leaked images appear. Labeled: CASSANDRA / ORACLE VI / ARGUS-VIS which you can see Here. 

11/11/2025 TELESCOPE STACKED IMAGE of 3I/ATLAS via — Ray’s Astrophotography

They show structured, geometric emissions coming from 3I/ATLAS. Not chaotic gas jets. Not random ice sublimation. 

Independent analysis indicates: Controlled matter ejection. Active trajectory adjustment. Emission geometry incompatible with natural models. This object isn’t tumbling through space. It’s maneuvering. 

Cassandra Document Report — The Cassandra Team Summer Session Program 2005.

Conclusion: CASSANDRA activated on time. The object displayed controlled behavior. The highest-quality data remains classified. This is not a comet. It is an artificial interstellar probe on a mission and Earth’s planetary defense system was built waiting for it. This comes as Earth prepares for its closest approach with 31/Atlas on December 19, 2025.

Source: EarthExists

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

15-12-2025 om 16:58 geschreven door peter  

The incredible true story of the Men In Black: Harry saw six aircraft over the bay. Then the suits came out of shadows... and the bodies followed

By STACY LIBERATORE, US SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY EDITOR

Before the movies, before the comic books, and before Tommy Lee Jones and Will Smith brought their suits to the big screen, the Men in Black were known only in whispers.

The legend of these shadowy figures - men in dark suits who threatened people who reported UFO sightings - was born in 1947, when a Washington state logger claimed he saw six flying orbs over Puget Sound.

On June 21, Tacoma resident Harold Dahl was out on the bay with his son, their dog and two crewmembers when he claimed to have spotted six massive, metallic, doughnut-shaped aircraft - each about 100ft across and gliding roughly 2,000ft overhead.

Dahl later described the sighting to an undercover intelligence agent, someone he believed was simply his supervisor.

The very next morning, a man in a black suit appeared at Dahl's home and invited him to breakfast, delivering a warning that would echo through UFO lore for generations.

Dahl's account was printed in the Tacoma Times, and months later, the 29-year-old journalist who covered it was dead under mysterious circumstances.

The story, now known as the Maury Island incident, is detailed in the newly released book Catastrophic Disclosure: The Deep State, Aliens, and the Truth, which argues Dahl's may be one of the first 'modern' UFO sightings.

'This might mark the first appearance of mysterious figures, either from the military or what has become known as the "men in black,"' authors Kent Heckenlively JD and Michael Mazzola wrote. 

A new book has detailed the origins of the legendary Men in Black, which started in 1947 when a man reported seeing six objects flying over Washington state. Pictured is an artist impression of what the man said he saw

On June 21, Tacoma resident Harold Dahl (pictured) was out on the bay with his son, their dog and two crewmembers when he spotted six massive, metallic, doughnut-shaped aircraft - each about 100ft across and gliding roughly 2,000ft overhead

The summer of 1947 became a landmark period for UFO sightings, from Ken Arnold's mysterious 'flying discs' near Mt Rainier to the infamous Roswell incident in New Mexico. 

Across the nation, Americans were captivated by reports of objects that defied explanation, and the federal government was paying close attention. 

But it was Dahl's encounter with the man in the black suit that cemented one of the most enduring legends in UFO history.

According to Heckenlively and Mazzola, such figures - whether military, intelligence or something altogether stranger - appeared in response to sightings like Dahl's, warning witnesses to keep quiet.

Dahl claimed he first saw five of the objects circling while a sixth appeared to be in distress. The craft made no sound, Dahl said, and he saw no propellers, motors or visible means of propulsion.

'A dull explosion followed, and the troubled craft ejected a stream of light metal that looked like thousands of newspapers, then heavier, darker rock, almost like lava,' the authors wrote.

Dahl reported that the damaged craft drifted out over the Pacific Ocean and vanished. He said the falling debris wrecked his boat, killed his dog and injured his son. 

He relayed everything to his supervisor, Fred Crisman, who, the authors note, was actually a former intelligence agent with the Office of Strategic Services (OSS), precursor to the CIA. It is not known how long Crisman and Dahl had been working at the same company.

Before the movies, before the comic books, and before Tommy Lee Jones and Will Smith brought them to the big screen, the Men in Black were known only in whispers

Dahl's story appeared in the Tacoma Times the next day. The reporter, Paul Luntz, was said to have also been visited by two men in black suits who threatened him to stop writing about the incident

The next morning, Dahl claimed, a man in a black suit knocked on his door and escorted him to a local diner.

'This was not as unusual as it might seem,' the authors explained. 'Many lumber buyers visited men in Dahl's trade to negotiate for salvaged logs.'

Over breakfast, the mysterious visitor calmly repeated Dahl's entire story back to him, then added: 'I know a great deal more about this experience of yours than you will want to believe.'

According to the book, he leaned in and warned Dahl never to speak of the sighting again, insisting the incident 'never happened' and hinting that if Dahl valued his family's safety, he would remain silent.

The story ran in the Tacoma Times the next day, reported by journalist Paul Lantz, who printed Dahl's description of the objects and confirmed the logger had alerted Crisman. 

Reports have suggested that Crisman shared the story with the news outlet.

Reports later suggested Lantz and his wife were also visited by two men in black suits after he published the article.

In a 2014 book, The Maury Island UFO Incident, authors Charlette LeFevre and Philip Lipson quote Lantz's granddaughter: 'My grandmother went into the kitchen to cook while they talked to Paul in the living room.

'She tried to listen. She said they were basically threatening Paul to stop… but Paul was bold and not afraid of them.'

What is now known as the Maury Island incident happened over Puget Sound (pictured)

A few months later, in August, Lantz published another startling report suggesting an Army plane crash in Kelso may have been 'sabotage.'

'The mystery of the 'Flying Saucers' soared into prominence again,' he wrote, after an informant claimed the aircraft was destroyed to prevent flying-disc fragments from reaching Hamilton Field for analysis.

The informant alleged the debris came from 'one of the mysterious platters' that had fallen near Maury Island. 

Lantz died on January 10, 1948. Some accounts stated his cause of death was 'a short, unspecific illness,' while his death certificate reportedly cited meningitis. 

His death was described by family as sudden and unexpected.

Dahl was later interrogated by the Seattle FBI, which publicly declared the story a hoax, though internal accounts painted a different picture.

Reports claim FBI Director J Edgar Hoover wrote: 'Please be advised that Dahl did not admit… his story was a hoax, but only stated that if questioned by authorities, he was going to say it was a hoax because he did not want further trouble in the matter.'

To this day, no one has definitively explained what Dahl saw on Maury Island, why an intelligence agent posed as his supervisor or why a man in a black suit knew details of the incident before Dahl ever repeated them. 

The FBI closed the case, the debris vanished, and the people closest to the story either recanted under pressure or never spoke about it again.

But in the years that followed, dozens of witnesses across the country reported their own encounters with men in black suits who arrived without warning, knew too much and left no trace.

What Harold Dahl  might have seen over Maury Island, North of Mt. Rainier in Washington State on June 21, 1947.
Illustration by Charlette L

RELATED VIDEOS

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

14-12-2025 om 23:12 geschreven door peter  

EXCLUSIVE: Eerie moment UFO spotted rising out of the sea in Suffolk before zipping off

BY Jackie Annett - Features Writer

Flying saucers, strange lights in the sky and objects that look like alien spaceships… every year Brits report hundreds of sightings of Unidentified Flying Objects (UFOs) and have been doing so for more than eight decades.

Great Britain is considered to be one of the most active UFO hotspots in the world, despite the fact that government officials have long insisted they are not concerned about reports of strange activity in the sky.

Ufologists would disagree. They suggest the British government’s own files tell a very different story - one that finally came to light in 2008 - when the Ministry of Defence finally released its UFO files.

British author, researcher and TV presenter Lynn Picknett who writes about the paranormal says: “The MOD released 60,000 files on the subject. Which basically backs up the assertion over the years that they’ve been researching all sorts of anomalous phenomena.”

In fact the British Ministry of Defence has files on military personnel encountering UFOs going back over 80 years, according to a new programme on UFOs coming to Sky History.

One of the most famous sightings occurred at a Royal Air Force base where American soldiers were stationed, Rendlesham Forest, on December 26, 1980. Shortly after midnight, military personnel at RAF Woodbridge, 80 miles northeast of London, detected a strange object on their radar.

Andrew Collins, a science and history writer says: “Airmen were sent out in a vehicle to investigate, and came across this clearing in which was this otherworldly object surrounded with light. It rose up slightly, then moved backwards and disappeared. Over the next few nights, more and more sightings occurred. The whole episode was written up and recorded by the deputy base commander, Lieutenant Colonel Halt which was very unusual.”

It’s one of the most discussed UFO events on record, but just one of many that have been reported near British military bases. On August 13th, 1956, British Royal Air Force officers stationed at RAF Bentwaters claimed they saw fifteen unidentified flying objects on their radar screen racing along the coastline.

Nick Pope, a former British Ministry of Defence (MoD) employee who investigated UFOs for the government from 1991 to 1994 and is now a leading commentator on the subject says: “Military jets were scrambled to try and intercept these things. At one point, one of the objects was recorded at speeds of around 4,000 miles an hour.

“That was way faster than anything anyone had at the time. And reliable witnesses, the pilots saw them. They're simultaneously tracked on radar. At one point, these things are going in formation, and then they appear to converge and form a single object.”

If the British military has witnessed so many unexplainable events, why has the government always professed to have no interest in UFOs Ufologists say the answer can be found by examining the earliest British military encounters on record which were reported during World War II.

UFO investigator and podcaster Dan Zetterstrom says: “Files released show that Prime Minister Churchill was being briefed on these encounters during World War II. He was worried that any release of information would lead to mass hysteria, public panic.

“So, he covered up every UFO sighting that happened. He put a blanket secrecy ban on reporting on UFOs for 50 years. But while Winston Churchill wanted to hide UFO sightings from the public, he also felt it was important to study them, and initiated government funded projects to do just that.”

While many ufologists suspect the British government is still keeping their most explosive UFO files close to their chest, civilian research groups have investigated thousands of unexplained incidents. Some of the most intriguing occurred in a single town over the course of a decade: Warminster, England.

On Christmas Eve, 1964, local resident Mildred Head was startled awake by an unnerving noise coming from above her bedroom. Lynn Picknett explains: “It sounded like thousands upon thousands of tiles being ripped off and then thrown back on, which was utterly terrifying and also there was a vibration going through the house.”

The only explanation Mildred could come up with was that the noise may have been the result of military testing at a nearby Royal Air Force Base. That was until her neighbour, Marjorie Bay had a strange experience of her own.

Nick adds: “The very next day, Marjorie Bay was going to church when she was assaulted by a series of strange vibrations that she felt reverberating through her body, and shortly afterwards, dozens of other witnesses in and around Warminster reported the same thing. It was as if some unseen force was just taking a hold of people and shaking them.”

After residents reported hearing humming or droning noises and seeing strange lights in the sky, more than 300 assembled at their local town hall demanding answers. National papers took an interest and people started flocking to Warminster for nightly sky watches where others also witnessed these mysterious lights in the sky.

A video grab of a sighting of a strange cluster of lights floating above the moors between Skipton and Bolton Abbey in West Yorkshire.

(Image: Jam Press)

David Clarke recalls: “There was a classic photograph of a disc shaped object that was taken by Gordon Faulkner. And the Daily Mirror immediately put it on the front page, big splash. From that point onwards Warminster became the place to go and see flying saucers. It was the first sort of UFO hotspot in the British Isles.”

One area of Great Britain that has experienced UFO sightings on a near daily basis from ancient times right up until the present day, is Yorkshire. Private investigator Paul Sinclair and his team began researching and surveilling the area in 2009, setting up cameras around the clifftops along the North Sea. During one night in 2020, what they captured was particularly intriguing.

“We saw an object rise out of the water. I started filming. The entire sequence of events lasted about 90 seconds. We estimated the speed to cover six miles in 90 seconds was about 240 miles per hour before it seems to turn in and drop into the sea. So we’ve got an object that’s gone below the surface, risen from the sea, traveled six miles and then gone below the surface.

"We have footage of objects beneath the surface of the water. Or luminous light beneath the surface. And we’ve no explanation for that. We’ve filmed that on three occasions.”

• Ancient Aliens Britain’s UFO Files is available to watch on Sky History platforms.

{ https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/ }

14-12-2025 om 22:51 geschreven door peter  

EXCLUSIVE - Jeff Bezos and Lauren Sanchez's new UFO sauna: Inside $175m Beverly Hills compound after jaw-dropping transformation

By SARA MCGIFF

It might be Jeff Bezos's magnum opus.

And now his $175 million Beverly Hills mega-mansion is brought vividly to life - complete with UFO-inspired structures, sea-themed pools and lush landscaping  touching every part of the terrain - in these exclusive Daily Mail photos.

The completion of the mansion comes just six months after Bezos and his bride Lauren Sanchez tied the knot in Venice in what was hailed as the most jaw-dropping wedding of 2025.

The ten-acre California estate, once owned by media mogul David Geffen, has been transformed into a sprawling luxury compound, combining two neighboring properties, linked by a striking raised bridge.

Bezos bought the main mansion in 2020 in what became one of the priciest real estate transactions in Los Angeles history at a staggering $165 million price tag. He snagged the neighboring building for just $10 million.

And now, five years later, the full extent of his transformation can be revealed, marking yet another milestone in Bezos's ever-expanding real estate empire. 

The historic Benedict Canyon property was originally designed in the 1930s by world-renowned architect Roland Coate for Jack L Warner, the co-founder of Warner Bros.

Regarded as one of the last true symbols of Hollywood's Golden Age, the Georgian-style three-story mansion has retained its old-world charm, including its signature Greek portico - a grand architectural nod to the temple entrances of ancient Greece.

But Bezos has stamped his own absurdist vision onto the estate, installing an aquatic-core pool adorned with painted stingrays, an octopus, a sea turtle and a whole cast of other marine creatures. 

Jeff Bezos and Lauren Sanchez's $175 million historic Beverly Hills mansion is finally complete six months after their fairytale wedding and after five years of renovations - transforming into a Hollywood Golden Age oasis with an absurdist twist 

Bezos's five-year transformation starkly contrasts the property's former state after he purchased it in 2020 for $165 million, one of Los Angeles' priciest real estate deals

The ten-acre estate was originally designed in the 1930s by world-renowned architect Roland Coate for Jack L Warner, the co-founder of Warner Bros, before it was bought by media mogul David Geffen and then sold to the Amazon billionaire

In a separate nod - presumably to both the 1947 Roswell incident in New Mexico and his own space venture, Blue Origin - he's added a humorous flourish: a classic UFO-style sauna with a clear plastic observation dome, planted in the middle of a cactus garden and encircled by a firepit and teak furniture.

Overlooking the aquatic-themed pool is a ginormous wraparound balcony with four separate seating areas offering sweeping views of the estate - including two spots positioned directly in front of sliding doors, presumably leading into bedrooms.

The front of the estate boasts a broad, brick-paved motor court centered around a perfectly manicured circular fountain, ringed with bright red blooms and dense greenery that creates a dramatic, garden-island effect.

It's one of the few areas that still shows signs of ongoing work, with a ring of green cones marking off a section of the herringbone brick pavement that appears to be undergoing a small patch repair.

To the left of the front of the house is the second property that appears to act as a guest house.

Connected by a paved bridge, the other side also has a large rectangular pool, a hot tub, a lush green lawn and a full-sized beach volleyball court with a firepit and seating tucked to the side.

Fitness fanatic Bezos also made sure to install three pickle ball courts on the main property with a large viewing deck so players can compete in a professional environment.

Other features include a covered banquet table that seats more than 20 people beneath a long pergola beside the pickleball courts, along with a small vegetable garden in raised beds.

While retaining its Georgian style, Bezos has added his own absurdist touch, including an aquatic pool decorated with stingrays, an octopus, a sea turtle and other marine creatures 

Overlooking the aquatic pool, a massive wraparound balcony features four seating areas with sweeping estate views, including two positioned outside bedroom sliding doors

In a playful nod to the 1947 Roswell incident and his company Blue Origin, Bezos added a UFO-style sauna with a clear dome in the cactus garden, surrounded by a firepit and teak furniture

The estate's front boasts a brick motor court with a circular fountain and lush red blooms, while a small section of herringbone brickwork remains cordoned off for repairs 

To the left of the front of the house is the second property that appears to act as a guest house, set with a full-sized beach volleyball court, a pool and a firepit with seating tucked to the side

On the main property, Bezos also added three pickleball courts with a large viewing deck, creating a professional style playing area on the main property

To the side of the pickleball courts is a long banquet table that appears to have a capacity of 20 seats under a long pergola

A fleet of golf carts, tucked along the long driveway behind the pickleball courts, allows the couple to easily traverse the sprawling property

To isolate the property from the outside world, Bezos made sure to keep the marital home surrounded by high-security tall hedgerows.

A fleet of golf carts will make it easy for the couple to traverse around the property and are tucked away in the long driveway the ends behind the pickle ball court. 

The road to completion wasn't without setbacks. In April 2023, it emerged that work on the mega-mansion had been halted indefinitely after Bezos failed to complete a planning application for a new 'game court fence.' 

He had also planned to extend the estate with a pool house, powder room and new retaining walls.

The initial permits were granted in 2021, but when Bezos submitted a revised request in January 2023 to add a 'game court fence with lighting', it was denied due to incomplete paperwork.

The original plans sought to add roughly 1,000 square feet to the 28,000-square-foot mansion. Still, within a month, construction was back underway.

The mega mansion is just one piece of Bezos's sprawling real estate empire, estimated at around $600 million, as he and Sanchez split their time between luxury properties across the country - and around the world if you consider that mega yacht.

He recently transformed his ultra-exclusive Indian Creek Island retreat in Florida's famed 'Billionaire Bunker' into a real-life Amazon, complete with a dazzling canopy of tropical trees and a multimillion-dollar landscaping overhaul. 

The couple $600 million property portfolio also includes a reported $78 million mega mansion in Maui, Hawaii 

Bezos's $60 million Lake Washington estate in Seattle, Washington, which was his main stronghold before he decided to relocate to the East Coast to be closer to family in 2023

Beyond his land holdings, he also boasts a $500 million superyacht, Koru, recently seen in Florida, the Caribbean and off the coast of Ibiza in August

Exclusive Daily Mail photos revealed how the tech mogul, 61, packed the grounds of his $90 million estate with towering oaks, royal palms and dense greenery, turning the property into an exotic botanical garden worthy of a rainforest.

He also owns four separate apartments inside an art-deco block on Manhattan's Upper West Side.

Three of the apartments inside the complex at 25 Central Park West were bought back in 2019 for a reported sum of $80 million.

He then shelled out $16 million this spring for a fourth unit at the height of the pandemic in 2020.

The Amazon boss also owns a Texas ranch and homes in Washington, DC and Maui. 

Beyond his land holdings, he also boasts a $500 million superyacht, Koru, recently seen in Florida, the Caribbean and off Ibiza in August.

The one-of-a-kind vessel is a 417-foot, three-masted sailing yacht that was built in the Netherlands by Oceanco in 2021.

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

14-12-2025 om 22:29 geschreven door peter  

Why Are UFOs Everywhere in Contemporary Art?

Right now in New York, two exhibitions reveal artists' fascination with the unexplained.

by J. Cabelle Ahn 

Modern science and technology have done little to tamp down the public’s long-held fascination with UFOs, unexplained phenomena, and the possibility of life beyond Earth. If anything, this millennia-old obsession has only accelerated in recent years, as the Pentagon has declassified files on strange objects seen from Navy cockpits and Silicon Valley giants have spent billions of dollars chasing their own interplanetary ambitions.

The mysteries of the galaxy still vastly outweigh the knowns, and two shows in New York this winter tap into this perennial puzzle. “Voice of Space: UFOs and Paranormal Phenomena” at the Drawing Center (on view through February 1, 2026) gathers some three dozen works by artists ranging from René Magritte to Isa Genzken. “Paintings Made for Aliens Above” at P.P.O.W (on view through December 20, 2025), a solo exhibition of new paintings by Romanian artist Hortensia Mi Kafchin, probes the promises and failures of technofuturism.

Together, these exhibitions show how the allure of unidentified phenomena and the technology that might propel them are bound up with our own shifting belief systems—as well as how the cosmic can open a space to explore queerness, speculative worlds, and flashes of utopia glimpsed through dystopia.

Channeling UFOs

Unidentified objects in the sky have riveted artists since antiquity, with irregular planetary movements, meteor showers, and comets often treated as divine omens. On April 14, 1561, for example, people in Nuremberg famously reported seeing an aerial clash of mysterious globes, rods, and crosses. A blood-red aurora over Britain on March 6, 1716, was read as a celestial war between supernatural soldiers. Newtonian physics has since explained some of these phenomena—for instance, Halley’s Comet is now a known quantity with a predictable return date rather than a bizarre nocturnal anomaly heralding the fall of empires—but the skies have remained charged with artistic inspiration nonetheless.

René Magritte, Voice of Space (1931). Peggy Guggenheim Collection, Venice (Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation, New York)

© 2025 C. Herscovici / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York.

One classic example is René Magritte’s Voice of Space (1931), on loan from the Peggy Guggenheim Collection in Venice. Last exhibited in New York in 1965, the painting is the conceptual lodestar of the Drawing Center’s show of the same name. Described by the curator Olivia Shao as “the Mona Lisa of UFO paintings,” the canvas features three oversized silver orbs floating over a bucolic landscape, their smooth metallic forms eerily foretelling the countless visualizations of alien spacecraft that followed.

Although Magritte never described the work as being about aliens—he said the forms were inspired by the crotal bells common on horse-drawn vehicles of the period—other artists in the show embrace far more direct encounters with cosmic visitors. One such example is the 20th-century artist Paulina Peavy, whose multimedia works combine enigmatic figures and abstraction in the style of Italian futurism. Peavy’s works are often dually credited to her and Lacamo, a personal UFO that Peavy claimed to have met after attending a séance in 1932. Peavy, who died in 1998, even made bejeweled “trance masks” to better channel her extraterrestrial collaborator, while her multidimensional cosmology became a way to imagine a post-gender utopia far from the conservative reality of mid-century America.

More contemporary works eschew the channeling of possibilities for the visualization of present-day thinking. Also on view at the Drawing Center are two collages by Char Jeré, whose works interrogate the presumed worldview behind technology and consumerism. In an email, Jeré describes a potential unidentified encounter at a reservoir in upstate New York in 2001 as a partial inspiration.

The resulting collages feature everyday objects ranging from sandpaper and balloons to emergency medication and more. Jeré (who uses they/them pronouns) describes the works as “maps and incantations” ultimately intended to decolonize the present. “Like Gil Scott Heron points out in his anthem ‘Whitey on the Moon,’ we suffer in order for technological spectacle and scientific triumph to exist,” they say. “These collages resist the ‘wait your turn’ detritus that so often gets thrown at Black people, queer people, [and] people who have been marginalized.”

Cultivating the Unconsciousness

Elsewhere in the Drawing Center’s show, UFOs stand in for faith and expanded consciousness rather than literal flying saucers. “It’s also about transhistorical human experience, belief systems, cybernetics, and AI,” Shao says of the exhibition. “It’s an attempt to map where we are in the world.”

This convergence crystallizes in three pieces by Adam Putnam from his ongoing Visualization series (2021–), which now spans more than 650 small works on paper drawn from dreams and meditation. Describing the project as “an ever-expanding deck of tarot cards,” he considers its construction and expansion a way of “cultivating a connection to the unconscious or the super conscious mind.”

The backstory behind the addition of his works to the show reveals an almost supernatural intervention. “I let Olivia shuffle through a stack and pick whatever spoke to her,” he recalled. “One of the Visualizations [#59, 2021–22] she chose was quite remarkable because it came from a dream I had about UFOs… There is no indication of this outwardly, as it is a fairly abstract work, but something in it must have resonated with [her].”

This conception of the unconscious as an outer-dimensional force slots into a longer lineage. Putnam’s visualizations sit alongside drawings by Sigmar Polke, who in the late 1960s spoke of receiving “commands” from “higher beings.” Included in the show is his 1968 ballpoint drawing of a wavelength, Command of 28.8.68, with its title marking the date of “transmission.” For Polke, those higher beings could be seen as psychedelic, divine, or even extraterrestrial—an elastic category that let him tap into the era’s UFO fever to skewer West Germany’s consumer culture. His wavering signal supposedly arriving from the cosmos is, in the end, actually a conduit through which he could address terrestrial desires.

Paintings for Aliens

Four blocks south of the Drawing Center, a series of paintings by Kafchin at P.P.O.W. similarly examines how preoccupations with aliens sometimes represent distinctly earthly tensions. “The title ‘Paintings Made for Aliens Above’ itself is a political and social commentary about the hierarchy of our world and cultural context,” she says.

Kafchin’s paintings raid multiple eras of art history, with her reference points ranging from Salvator Rosa and Francisco Goya to Leonora Carrington and Max Ernst. The works feature a rotating cast of characters that includes, in her words, “Aliens (representing the unknown, the Celestial Strangers), A.I. learning from our madness… and the long impossible distances between the stars that separate different civilizations.”

This eclectic ensemble is informed by her personal history. “Born in 1986, I opened my eyes at a time when technology was synonymous with the future,” she recalls, noting that her father told her stories from Jules Verne, Issac Asimov, Arthur C. Clarke, and other sci-fi giants.

Kafchin’s works register the gap between that techno-utopian promise and the entangled realities of the present, to which her trans identity remains central. “We are people who think outside the box; it’s in our nature to vibe with magic, fantasy, tech, divination, and so on,” she says. “I need to be validated by a bigger power than anything we have on Earth, like, for example, the Intergalactic Federation or some more advanced neighbors.”

The paintings intentionally blur conspiracy and fact, aspiration, and invention. Kafchin cites “hyperstition,” the philosopher Nick Land’s theory that a fiction shared widely enough can bring a new reality into being.  “There is a borderline between hyperstition and conspiracy, like an unknown force that is training or harvesting our perception of reality or collective consciousness,” she notes. “It’s funny how UFOs and the image of aliens are in concordance with our times.”

In this register, UFOs become less about contact and more about cosmology—a way to reframe what it means to be human at all. As Jeré puts it, “If war, AI, and money can change the world, then art should also take on that same responsibility, or at least the challenge of refusing the world as it is.”

{ https://news.artnet.com/ }

14-12-2025 om 21:53 geschreven door peter  

The 3I Atlas Enigma: A Psychological, Sociological, and Scientific Exploration

By Seth H. Feinstein - MUFON State Director/ Photo analysis Team

Introduction

The discovery of 3I/Atlas on July 1, 2025, by the ATLAS telescope in Chile has opened one of the most intriguing chapters yet in the study of interstellar visitors. Only the third confirmed interstellar object ever observed—after ‘1I/ Oumuamua and 2/I Borisov—3I Atlas displays characteristics that are both comet-like and anomalous. Its hyperbolic trajectory confirms it came from outside the solar system, yet its composition and behavior challenge conventional expectations.

For the UFO/UAP research community, 3I Atlas has become a compelling case study. Not because it is alien, but because it highlights how scientific uncertainty intersects with public fascination, expert hypotheses, and the psychology of belief.

1. What We Know About 3I Atlas

3I Atlas exhibits a coma and a tail, suggesting active outgassing, though unusually high CO₂ levels dominate it. It's extremely fast, and an unbound orbit confirms its interstellar origin.

Most scientists interpret 3I Atlas as an icy body ejected from another star system, likely a fragment of a distant planetary system disrupted long ago.

Still, the combination of CO₂-dominance, high speed, and non-gravitational movement leaves room for debate—and curiosity.

This NASA image shows the trajectory as the 3I Atlas travels through the solar system

2. Why Speculation Has Flourished

Speculation thrives when:

 - The data is incomplete

 - The object is distant

 - Prior interstellar objects exhibited anomalies

 - Experts publicly entertain alternative possibilities

3I Atlas checks all four boxes.

Adding to the intrigue, Harvard astrophysicist Avi Loeb has proposed that 3I Atlas could be an extraterrestrial artifact, though he emphasizes this as a hypothesis, not a conclusion. The UFO

community naturally pays attention when credible scientists discuss technological possibilities.

3. What the Experts Are Saying

• Avi Loeb

Loeb suggests that the object's unusual trajectory could be consistent with a reverse Solar Oberth maneuver, a technique advantageous for a probe using the Sun’s gravity for acceleration. He also notes that the jet-like features might be consistent with technological thrusters.

However, Loeb repeatedly clarifies:

“By far, the most likely explanation is that 3I Atlas is a natural interstellar comet.”

• Steven Greer

Greer urges caution. He suggests that 3I Atlas is more likely a stray asteroid or rock, though he does not rule out the possibility of extraterrestrial debris. He warns that narratives around the object could be leveraged to generate unnecessary fear.

• Richard Dolan

Dolan considers Loeb’s hypothesis plausible enough for serious inquiry, noting the object's alignment with the ecliptic plane and unusual trajectory. He stresses that while the object is not proven to be technological, the anomalies justify close study.

• Marc Dantonio (MUFON Chief Photo Analyst)

Dantonio’s analysis emphasizes solid data: high CO₂ content, water ice, carbon monoxide, carbonyl sulfide, and possible cyanogen. He urges against sensationalism, focusing on what is known, rather than speculation.

• Michio Kaku

Kaku shocked many when he stated the newest images show:

- No tail or outgassing, despite a close approach to the Sun

- Apparent acceleration

- No visible mass loss

-An unexplained orbital shift

These observations have prompted some astronomers to ask whether 3I Atlas might be something constructed, not natural.

4. Why People Want 3I Atlas to Be Manufactured

Curiosity about 3I Atlas reveals deep psychological dynamics:

-Humans seek patterns and threat detection—a survival instinct.

-Uncertainty creates discomfort, pushing people toward definitive explanations.

- Believing in non-human intelligence gives life meaning, wonder, and purpose.

 -Conspiracy narratives offer order in a chaotic world.

 -UAPs fill a cultural space once occupied by traditional belief systems.

= Witnessing or believing in anomalies gives individuals a sense of belonging to a select group.

3I Atlas becomes a symbol - of mystery, potential, and our collective desire to understand our place in the cosmos.

5. Group Dynamics and the Pull Toward Negativity

UAP communities often form around high-intensity, ambiguous subjects. This fosters:

- Group bonding through shared threat narratives

 -Polarization, where groups amplify their dominant emotion

 -Worst-case thinking fueled by uncertainty

 -Rumor and mistrust in the absence of transparent data

These patterns are natural—but they must be recognized and managed to maintain scientific integrity.

6. Worst-Case Scenarios: Reality vs. Imagination

Hollywood has shaped public imagination for decades, presenting aliens as invaders. Films like Independence Day, Alien, The Thing, Signs, and War of the Worlds fuel fears that extraterrestrial technology equals danger.

In reality, the likelihood that 3I Atlas is:

- A piloted craft

-A deliberate probe

- Or a threat to Earth is extremely small.

A more grounded concern would be a close approach generating increased meteor activity.

The greater risks lie in public reaction—panic, misinformation, secrecy, or premature conclusions.

7. Final Thoughts: Why This Mystery Matters

My involvement began through the MUFON Photo Analysis Team. While others focus on the hard science, my contribution is more a psychological and sociological context surrounding our fascination with 3I Atlas.

This case reminds us that:

- Curiosity is healthy

- Speculation can inspire scientific breakthroughs

- Data, not fear, should guide us

- Wonder fuels discovery

Even if 3I Atlas turns out to be entirely natural, the process of studying it enriches astronomy, interdisciplinary sciences, and the UAP field.

The journey matters—and it moves humanity forward.

RELATED VIDEOS

{ Mufon.com }

14-12-2025 om 21:37 geschreven door peter  

Gemini was an American program in the 1960s, during which 12 launches of spacecraft of the same name were carried out. Its main goal was to teach people and technology to rendezvous and dock in space. In the future, this allowed the next important step to be taken – sending Apollo spacecraft to the Moon.

Why was the Gemini program created?

Exactly 60 years ago, on December 15, 1965, four astronauts were in Earth’s orbit at the same time for the first time. This happened during the flight of the Gemini-6 and Gemini-7 spacecraft. At one point, the ships were less than 2 meters apart, and the astronauts could clearly see each other through the portholes.

They did all this for a reason, but to understand the purpose and significance of that meeting in orbit, we need to go back to the first half of the 1960s. The space race is in full swing. The USSR won the first stage – the launch of the first satellite and the first man into orbit – but the US is hot on its heels. The Americans need to achieve something that their opponents can only dream of.

The next goal, the achievement of which will provide a reliable advantage, has already been defined – a flight to the Moon. A general flight plan for the Apollo program has already been approved, but it involves several things that NASA has not done before: maneuvers in orbit, rendezvous and docking of spacecraft in orbit, and extravehicular activities.

And all this had to be worked out in safer conditions. So, in parallel with the construction of Apollo spacecraft, landing modules, and giant Saturn 5 rockets, it was decided to implement a much simpler and less ambitious program called Gemini.

It was based on the ship of the same name, which was an enlarged version of the previous Mercury manned orbital vehicle. It differed from it in that it was a two-seater, had a docking hatch, and improved capabilities for orbital maneuvers. A modified Titan II ballistic missile was used for launches, which made it possible to minimize preparation time for the program’s implementation.

First flights

A separate selection of astronauts was conducted for the Gemini program in 1962. Initially, there were 508 pilots, whose number was gradually reduced until there were only seven left, who began to be trained for flights with the future goal that these same people might then fly to the Moon.

However, it all started with unmanned missions. The first one took place on April 8, 1964. The main goal was to check how the spacecraft would enter orbit and activate all its systems. This task was completed in 4 hours and 50 minutes, but the spacecraft remained in orbit for another four hours before burning up in the atmosphere. It simply did not have a heat shield.

It was tested along with the entire Earth return system during the subsequent Gemini-2 mission. It took place on January 19, 1965, and lasted only 18 minutes and 16 seconds. In fact, it was just a suborbital flight, during which the rocket left the atmosphere, the spacecraft separated, and landed.

Both flights were deemed successful, and two astronauts, Virgil Grissom and John Young, were sent into orbit on the next Gemini-3 mission. The latter died during ground tests for Apollo-1. The second flew to the Moon and on the shuttle, and left NASA in the 21st century. But back in March 1965, their mission was simple: to orbit our planet several times and land safely in a designated area. At that time, even that was not easy, but they did everything right.

Next was the Gemini-4 mission, which took place from June 3 to 7. The main event during this mission was the first American spacewalk. It was performed by Edward White while his colleague James McDivitt remained in the cabin. Soviet cosmonauts had made their first spacewalk just three months earlier, on March 18. The gap in the space race had narrowed to a minimum.

Record-breaking flights

The Americans managed to pull ahead during the next flight, which was carried out by the Gemini-5 spacecraft. Gordon Cooper and Charles Conrad managed to break the flight duration record set in 1963 by Valery Bykovsky on Voskhod-5. The Americans spent 7 days, 22 hours, and 55 minutes in orbit. Also during this flight, fuel cells for providing electrical power were tested for the first time.

At the same time, astronauts attempted to perform a rendezvous maneuver with another spacecraft for the first time. For this purpose, an Agena rocket was launched from the ground – essentially just an empty upper stage of a launch vehicle. However, this task was not successful.

Then December 1965 arrived. Initially, two manned launches were planned, during the first of which (Gemini-6) Walter Schirra and Thomas Stafford would again attempt to rendezvous with another Agena, but the launch of the latter, which was supposed to take place before their launch, was unsuccessful.

Therefore, plans had to be revised. Initially, on December 4, Gemini-7 was launched into space with Frank Borman and James Lovell on board. They had their own mission – to set a new record for flight duration and stay in space for 14 days. They accomplished it.

However, at the same time, it was decided that Gemini-6 would be launched into space on December 15, and shortly thereafter, the ships would attempt to rendezvous. They succeeded, demonstrating that NASA could handle one of the most difficult tasks during a flight to the Moon – the rendezvous of modules in space.

But getting close does not mean docking. That was the next big task, and it was accomplished by Neil Armstrong and David Scott aboard Gemini-8. The flight took place in March 1966, and this time, Agena successfully entered orbit, was successfully “caught”, and docked. The Apollo program was getting closer and closer.

Completion of the Gemini program

After that, there were four more flights under the Gemini-9 program. The flight was originally supposed to involve Elliot See and Charles Bassett, and was scheduled to take place in May 1966. However, on February 28, both pilots were killed in a T-38 training aircraft accident. Their places were taken by substitutes Thomas Stafford and Eugene Cernan.

But that was not the end of the trouble. Agena, whose docking was one of the main objectives of the mission, again failed to reach orbit, so they had to wait for a replacement. The launch was postponed, and this time the astronauts managed not only to approach it, but also to make two spacewalks.

Gemini-10, with John Young and Michael Collins on board, launched on July 18, 1966. This time, the astronauts managed to rendezvous with two target rockets. In addition, they performed two spacewalks.

Gemini-11, with Charles Conrad and Richard Gordon, launched in September of the same year, 1966. This time, the goal of the flight was to set a new record. The spacecraft traveled 1,374 km from Earth. In addition, the astronauts performed a spacewalk and conducted a series of experiments.

It was clear that everything that could be worked out on Gemini had already been worked out, and it was time to move on to Apollo. However, NASA management decided to work out the rendezvous, docking, and spacewalk procedures one more time. This is what the Gemini-12 crew did in November 1966.

The Gemini program ended, but not because it failed. On the contrary, it proved to be very successful, as American astronauts and engineers gained the most important thing – practical experience not only of flying in space, but also of purposeful work in it. This experience later came in handy not only during trips to the Moon, but also for the entire exploration of outer space.

Interestingly, when the Soviet Union learned about the Gemini and Apollo programs, it immediately perceived them as a threat to its leadership in space.

Soviet engineers attempted to implement a program very similar to Gemini, called Voskhod. And it even had some success. It was by stepping out of one of these spacecraft into open space that Alexei Leonov became the first person to do so. However, even in the Soviet Union, they understood that removing the ejection seat from the small Vostok to convert it from a single-seat spacecraft into a two- or even three-seat spacecraft was a very bad decision.

And most importantly, it is unclear why such risks were taken, since Gemini was valuable primarily as the first step toward Apollo, and by 1966-67, it was clear that the Soviet space program was not keeping up with it. In the end, Soviet cosmonauts did gain the same experience that allows them to feel at home in space. There, they reoriented their space program toward the exploration of Earth’s orbit.

But it is interesting in the Gemini program. These “basic orbital maneuvering exercises,” without which neither the station could be built, nor other planets could be reached, were completed by the USSR and the US back in the 1960s. But since then, despite the fact that many countries have declared themselves spacefaring nations, only one of them has been able to repeat this feat. We are talking about China, which in the 21st century was able to implement the Shenzhou and Tiangong programs. It seems that the Gemini “training” program is not so simple after all.

• Posted in Articles

RELATED VIDEOS

{ https://universemagazine.com/en/articles-en/ }

14-12-2025 om 18:36 geschreven door peter  

(Image Credit: Brewbooks/CC BY-SA 2.0)

“At the end of their lives, massive stars (stars much bigger than our Sun) explode in a supernova,” said Grayce Brown, project lead and a SETI Institute intern, in an email to The Debrief. “During the explosion, the core collapses in on itself, becoming very dense and forming a neutron star.”

“Neutron stars are incredibly dense: think of something as massive as the Sun squeezed into a ball that’s as wide as Manhattan!” Brown said, adding that they spin extremely fast—sometimes up to 700 revolutions per second—on account of their angular momentum. 

According to Brown, this quality is “the same physics that causes figure skaters to spin faster when they pull their arms closer to themselves while they’re spinning.”

“The spinning of such a massive, dense object generates a powerful magnetic field, causing charged particles to accelerate to the magnetic poles and be thrown out into space as cones of light,” Brown told The Debrief. “If the magnetic poles are misaligned with the rotation axis, these beams of light sweep around the neutron star as it spins, kind of like a lighthouse.”

“If Earth is in the path of the beams, the star appears to pulse in brightness,” Brown explained. “Hence, we call them pulsars!”

Cosmic Clocks

Brown explains that because of their extreme density and speed of rotation, pulsars tend to rotate with a high degree of consistency.

“We know some pulsar spin periods all the way to 12 digits past zero; that’s a trillionth of a second,” Brown told The Debrief. “Since we know the spin periods should be incredibly consistent over time, we should expect the pulses to be evenly spaced. If they’re not, then we know something else is responsible; that something is affecting the arrival time of the pulse.”

“In this way, we consider them cosmic timekeepers,” Brown says. “If the ticks of a ticking clock weren’t evenly spaced, you’d know something weird was happening!”

Scientists use accurate measurements of these pulses to search for subtle phenomena, such as low-frequency gravitational waves. As the pulsar’s radio waves travel through space, they pass through clouds of charged particles that can bend and slow the signals just a little. 

“Just like starlight twinkles as it passes through Earth’s atmosphere, pulsar radio waves twinkle as they move through space,” explained Brown. “Monitoring these patterns helps us not only improve pulsar timing but also advance broader fields of astronomy, including SETI research.”

“Our research isn’t really about the pulsar itself—the pulsar is just a tool to learn more about the space between us and the pulsar,” adds Brown. “By seeing how much the pulsar pulse is scintillated/delayed, we can learn how much ‘stuff’ is in the way, causing the light to be scattered.”

“These same scattering effects will impact any radio waves passing through that area of space, not just those from the pulsar,” Brown said. 

As radio waves travel from a pulsar to Earth, they create bright and dim patches across different frequencies. By following these changes in their patterns almost daily over 10 months, the team was able to change the scintillation into detailed timing setbacks. 

The Research

Over roughly 300 days, the researchers measured the scintillation bandwidth and found changes on timescales from days to months, including a broader, long-term variation of 200 days. The study also introduced a new method for more accurately estimating how scintillation changes with frequency, leveraging the Allen Telescope Array’s capabilities.

“All radio signals passing through the interstellar medium experience scintillation,” noted Dr. Sofia Sheikh, co-author and Technosignature Research Scientist at the SETI Institute. “Understanding these effects helps distinguish natural signals from potential artificial transmissions, which is vital for SETI and other radio astronomy studies.”

By mapping how signals are delayed and distorted, astronomers can refine techniques for high-precision pulsar timing, which also helps to advance their efforts toward identifying any possible extraterrestrial technosignatures.

“If we receive a transmission from an intelligent civilization in another star system, that signal will have to pass through interstellar space,” says Brown. “Just as we have seen with pulsars, the signal will be scattered and scintillated.”

Still, one of the greatest challenges SETI investigations face involve the potential that a promising signal might turn out to have Earthly origins. 

“We need some way to differentiate between signals coming from Earth and signals coming from beyond our Solar System,” Brown told The Debrief. “Because of this research, we know how much scintillation to expect from a radio signal traveling through this pulsar’s region of interstellar space.”

“If we don’t see that scintillation,” Brown concludes, “then the signal is probably just interference from Earth.”

The team’s recent findings were published in The Astrophysical Journal.

• Chrissy Newton is a PR professional and the founder of VOCAB Communications. She currently appears on The Discovery Channel and Max and hosts the Rebelliously Curious podcast, which can be found on YouTube and on all audio podcast streaming platforms. Follow her on X: @ChrissyNewton, Instagram: @BeingChrissyNewton, and chrissynewton.com. To contact Chrissy with a story, please email chrissy @ thedebrief.org. 

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

14-12-2025 om 18:13 geschreven door peter  

The Mantis Beings: Guardians, Overlords, or Earthly Teachers?

The Mantis Beings: Guardians, Overlords, or Earthly Teachers?

Among the many alien races described by witnesses . the Greys, the Nordics, the Tall Whites, one stands apart for its strange mixture of reverence and fear: the Mantids, or Mantis Beings.
Unlike the small, emotionless Greys who allegedly perform cold experiments, these towering insectoid figures are often said to be in charge, calm, commanding, and eerily intelligent.

But for one researcher, fascination with the mantis species began long before any talk of UFOs. It started with a single, half-drowned insect floating in his backyard pool.

A Personal Encounter with Earthly Mantises

Ten years ago, the researcher scooped what he thought was a stick from his pool. It turned out to be a praying mantis, seemingly lifeless. On a whim, he placed it in the garden near a bed of flowering mint and left it there.
Half an hour later, when he opened the front door, the mantis was alive—standing on the doorstep as if asking to come inside.

From that day forward, the mint patch became a mantis sanctuary. He stopped using insecticides, fenced the area off, and let the creatures thrive.
What started as a dozen mantises soon became dozens more, and by the third year, hundreds. Every spring, precisely on May 1st, they would hatch again, like clockwork.

Even as the climate grew harsher and fewer survived, the little guardians continued to return. The sanctuary became a symbol of protection, patience, and mystery – an echo of something greater.

As his interest in UFOs deepened, the researcher couldn’t ignore the strange coincidence: mantis-like aliens appear repeatedly in abduction stories.

Witnesses describe them as tall, insectoid beings, often standing six to eight feet tall, with elongated limbs, large black eyes, and an aura of authority.
In these accounts, it is the mantids who oversee the operations, while smaller Greys perform the manual work. Abductees frequently sense telepathic communication, calmness, and even compassion from the mantids – as if they are the “managers” of the entire encounter.

The idea that the most spiritual and commanding alien race might resemble an earthly insect suddenly felt less coincidental. Maybe, he joked, treating the garden mantises kindly could earn him goodwill with their interstellar counterparts, “our future mantis overlords.”

“Man vs. Mantis”: When Symbolism Becomes Reality

During his sanctuary years, he came across a documentary called Man vs. Mantis, created by a musician and filmmaker who had his own extraordinary experiences with these creatures.
After forming a connection with mantises, the filmmaker began seeing them everywhere, in dreams, in real life, even through family members’ experiences. Whether this was coincidence, synchronicity, or something stranger, it mirrored a pattern reported by others: once the mantis enters your awareness, it never fully leaves.

The researcher invited the filmmaker onto his radio show, Coast to Coast AM, to discuss the phenomenon. Their conversation highlighted how deeply personal and transformative these encounters can become, whether grounded in reality, psychology, or something beyond comprehension.

Are the Mantids Real?

When asked what he truly believes, the researcher gives a measured answer: “About sixty percent.”
He doesn’t claim certainty, only curiosity. Perhaps the mantids are symbolic messengers, archetypes of wisdom and balance. Perhaps they are real beings observing us through the thin veil between biology and myth. Or perhaps they are both – creatures that inhabit the boundary between nature and the unknown.

Either way, every May 1st, when the next generation of green guardians hatches in his garden, he’s reminded that mystery doesn’t only come from the skies. Sometimes it crawls out of the mint bed, stretches its delicate arms toward the sun, and looks straight back at us.

Whether they exist as interdimensional overseers or simply as some of Earth’s most remarkable insects, mantises command attention. Their patience, stillness, and precision have fascinated humans for centuries.

And maybe – just maybe, the reason these beings appear in our myths, our sightings, and our imaginations is simple:
they’re reminding us that intelligence and beauty don’t always come in human form.

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

14-12-2025 om 18:03 geschreven door peter  

The Role of Artificial Intelligence in Enhancing Cybersecurity for Space Missions: A Case Study of NASA Vulnerability Detection and Mitigation

AI Finds Vulnerability at NASA Allowing Takeover of Space Missions

Abstract
This essay examines a recent incident where an artificial intelligence (AI) system discovered a critical security flaw within NASA’s spacecraft communication infrastructure, preventing potential cyberattacks that could have jeopardized vital space missions. Through a detailed analysis of the incident, the underlying vulnerabilities, and the technological response, this paper underscores the transformative impact of AI on cybersecurity. It further explores the implications for safeguarding high-stakes aerospace operations and advocates for the broader adoption of automated AI-driven security tools.

Introduction
The current era of digital transformation has revolutionized the aerospace sector, augmenting communication, control, and data processing capabilities of space agencies like NASA. Yet, this technological advancement introduces new cybersecurity vulnerabilities, especially as systems become more interconnected. Traditional security assessments, relying primarily on manual reviews, often fall short in detecting sophisticated or overlooked flaws. The emergence of AI-driven security tools offers an innovative solution, capable of continuous, comprehensive, and rapid analysis. This essay investigates a specific incident in which AI identified and remedied a three-year vulnerability in NASA’s spacecraft communication software, highlighting the potential of such technologies to protect critical infrastructure from cyber threats.

Background: NASA’s Communications Infrastructure and the Vulnerability
NASA’s space missions rely heavily on secure and reliable communication systems to transmit commands, telemetry, and data between Earth and spacecraft. Central to this infrastructure is CryptoLib, a software library responsible for encrypting and authenticating exchanges between ground stations and spacecraft. The integrity of this software is paramount, as any breach could lead to unauthorized command issuance, mission sabotage, or data theft.

For over three years, NASA's cybersecurity team conducted manual audits and code reviews of its software systems. Despite these efforts, a significant flaw persisted unnoticed. The flaw was located in CryptoLib’s authentication mechanism and was not trivially exploitable remotely; instead, it required either physical access or vulnerabilities such as credential theft to activate. Nonetheless, its existence posed a critical threat, given that sophisticated attackers could leverage this bug to hijack or disrupt space missions, potentially causing catastrophic consequences and incurring financial losses over billions of dollars.

Nature of the Vulnerability

The vulnerability in CryptoLib was related to its authentication protocol, specifically a flaw in the implementation of cryptographic checks that could be bypassed under certain conditions. Although the vulnerability did not present an immediate remote exploit, it was still considered dangerous due to its exploitability via stolen credentials or malicious insiders. Attackers could potentially send malicious commands with high privileges, compromising sensitive operations like Mars rover instructions or satellite control.

The complex source code, extensive legacy components, and the rapidly evolving software environment contributed to the vulnerability's persistence. Human reviewers, constrained by the sheer volume of code and limited by cognitive biases, failed to detect this flaw during three years of manual checking. This persisted despite NASA’s rigorous security protocols, illustrating the limitations of traditional analytical techniques.

The Role of AI in Detection: AISLE’s Intervention
The turning point in identifying this vulnerability was the application of AISLE (Artificial Intelligence for Secure Logical Examination), an advanced cybersecurity algorithm developed by a California-based startup. AISLE leverages machine learning, pattern recognition, and anomaly detection to scrutinize large codebases automatically.

Unlike traditional methods that depend on predefined rules or human intuition, AISLE continuously scans the entire source code, learning from historical patterns to identify suspicious anomalies or deviations. When applied to NASA’s CryptoLib code, AISLE flagged numerous irregularities—potential warning signs that warranted further investigation.

Remarkably, AISLE’s analysis, performed within days, detected a subtle inconsistency in the cryptographic validation process. Although the specific flaw was not evident to human reviewers, the AI system’s anomaly detection capabilities highlighted the structural weakness of the authentication implementation. These findings prompted rapid assessment and verification by security engineers.

Rapid Remediation and Validation
In response, NASA’s cybersecurity team prioritized the patching process, updating the CryptoLib authentication protocol to eliminate the identified flaw. The automated AI-generated insights enabled a swift turnaround—entirely within four days—shortening what could have been a protracted manual review process.

Post-remediation validation confirmed the robustness of the revised code, and continuous monitoring was implemented to detect any future anomalies. This rapid response prevented potential exploitation, exemplifying the efficacy of AI-powered cybersecurity in high-stakes environments.

Implications of AI-Driven Security in Space Missions

This incident underscores several key implications for the future of space mission security:

1. Enhanced Detection Capabilities
   AI-based tools like AISLE significantly augment manual review processes by identifying vulnerabilities that may escape human detection. Their ability to analyze vast codebases rapidly ensures comprehensive coverage, reducing the risk of overlooked flaws.

2. Continuous and Adaptive Monitoring
   Unlike periodic manual audits, AI systems operate continuously, adapting to code changes and new threats in real time. This persistent vigilance is crucial for protecting sensitive infrastructure against evolving cyber threats.

3. Rapid Response and Mitigation
   Automated analysis accelerates the detection-to-remediation cycle, minimizing the window of vulnerability. As demonstrated in NASA’s case, this approach facilitates near real-time security responses, critical for mission-critical systems.

4. Proactive Security Frameworks
   AI’s predictive capabilities enable proactive identification of potential vulnerabilities during development stages, rather than reactive responses after exploitation occurs. This shifts cybersecurity from a defensive to a preventative paradigm.

Challenges and Considerations

Despite these advantages, deploying AI-driven cybersecurity tools faces challenges:

• False Positives and Alert Fatigue
  AI systems may generate false alarms, overwhelming security teams. Fine-tuning algorithms to balance sensitivity and specificity remains essential.

• Limited Context Understanding
  AI tools analyze code patterns but may lack contextual understanding of operational implications. Expert validation remains necessary for critical decisions.

• Privacy and Ethical Concerns
  The use of AI in security should adhere to strict privacy standards, ensuring that proprietary or sensitive information is protected.

• Integration with Existing Systems
  Seamless integration of AI tools into current cybersecurity workflows requires effort and investment, alongside adequate training.

Future Perspectives: AI as a Standard in Space Infrastructure Security
The NASA incident exemplifies the growing importance and effectiveness of AI in securing space missions. Moving forward, several developments are anticipated:

• Broader Adoption Across Agencies
  Other space agencies and private spaceflight companies are likely to adopt AI tools to fortify their cyber defenses, recognizing their proven efficacy.

• Evolution of AI Techniques
  Advances in explainable AI will improve transparency, enabling humans to understand AI decisions, thereby fostering trust and more effective collaboration.

• Robotics and Automated Response
  Integration of AI with autonomous systems could enable automatic threat mitigation, creating self-healing infrastructure capable of defending itself against cyber intrusions.

• Policy and Regulation Frameworks
  Regulatory bodies may develop standards for AI-based cybersecurity, ensuring consistent and stringent application across sectors.

Conclusion
The detection and mitigation of a three-year vulnerability in NASA’s communication system via AI exemplifies the transformative potential of artificial intelligence in cybersecurity. As space missions become increasingly complex and interconnected, the importance of automated, adaptive, and rapid security solutions cannot be overstated. While challenges remain, the NASA case vividly demonstrates that AI tools like AISLE are vital in safeguarding high-value, mission-critical infrastructure from cyber threats. Embracing these technologies promises a more resilient, secure future for space exploration and other sensitive industries.

{ PETER2011}

14-12-2025 om 17:45 geschreven door peter  

Comet 3I/ATLAS, only the third known object from interstellar space to pass through our solar system, is about to make its closest approach to Earth. On Friday, Dec. 19, it will come within about 170 million miles of the planet while moving on the far side of the Sun. The alignment should give Earth and space-based telescopes one of their best opportunities to study it, and NASA says it poses no threat.

Astronomers have followed 3I/ATLAS since its discovery on July 1. Hubble photographed it on July 21 from 277 million miles away, revealing a teardrop-shaped cloud of dust wrapped around its icy core. The comet stayed visible through September before slipping too close to the Sun to be observed. 

In early October, three NASA spacecraft at Mars-MRO, MAVEN, and Perseverance-picked it up again. MRO's HiRISE camera, usually aimed at the Martian surface, captured the clearest view: a tiny, pixel-like puff representing the coma, the dusty envelope created as sunlight warms the nucleus.

Ongoing observations will help scientists refine estimates of the comet's size and composition and better understand the dust particles in its coma. Current measurements suggest it could span anywhere from 1,444 feet to 3.5 miles.

3I/ATLAS follows two earlier interstellar objects, 1I/'Oumuamua and 2I/Borisov. Unlike 'Oumuamua, which behaved more like a rocky object, 3I/ATLAS displays classic comet activity. Even so, some of its traits have generated debate. Harvard astrophysicist Avi Loeb, who previously raised the possibility that 'Oumuamua might be artificial, has again questioned whether this object could have a technological origin, though most scientists continue to interpret it as a natural comet.

• Related video: Interstellar comet 3I/ATLAS is traveling at 130,000 mph (Space)

Loeb wrote that comets shed gas and dust when sunlight warms icy pockets on their surfaces, which produces a small push similar to a rocket. He noted that an artificial object could experience similar non-gravitational forces, either through propulsion or by collecting material as it moves through interstellar space, making it appear comet-like in low-resolution images. 

"Given these features, it may resemble a comet in unresolved images like the ones we have of 3I/ATLAS," he wrote. "However, a spacecraft could also display artificial lights, release excess heat from its engine or maneuver in unusual ways."

He highlighted several other features he considers unlikely for a natural object, including the comet's trajectory. Loeb wrote that its path is aligned with the plane of the planets to within five degrees, something he calculates as having only a 0.2 percent chance of occurring by accident.

He also pointed to a jet of material directed toward the Sun before and after perihelion, which he calls unusual for familiar comets. He argued that its timing placed it unusually close to Mars, Venus, and Jupiter while keeping it unobservable from Earth at perihelion. He also contends that the object's estimated mass and high speed make it unlikely to be a naturally occurring rock randomly entering the inner solar system.

Scientists will continue studying the comet after its closest approach. "Observations are expected to continue for several more months as 3I/ATLAS heads out of the solar system," NASA noted.

The European Space Agency's JUICE spacecraft also observed 3I/ATLAS last month and saw intense activity as sunlight heated the comet, causing its ices to sublimate. ESA expects most of JUICE's data to arrive in late February.

After passing Earth, 3I/ATLAS will move on toward Jupiter in spring 2026, providing another chance to examine this rare visitor from beyond the solar system.

More Space

• Wonder | NASA publishes long-awaited photos of interstellar visitor 3I/ATLAS
• History | Earth has an unexpected new moon-and it's been here for decades
• Extraterrestrial | Harvard scientist tells Joe Rogan: 3I/ATLAS might be alien tech
• Close Encounter | Startling close call as undetected asteroid flies close to Earth

RELATED VIDEOS

{ chron.com }

14-12-2025 om 17:13 geschreven door peter  

Did the James Webb telescope really find evidence of alien life? Here's the truth about exoplanet K2-18b.

"It's almost certainly not life," Tessa Fisher, an astrobiologist at the University of Arizona who was not involved in the research, told Nature.com.

So what did JWST actually find on K2-18b, and how close are we to solving the ultimate mystery of space? Here's everything you need to know.

What did JWST find on K2-18b?

Unlike optical telescopes such as Hubble, JWST cannot image the surfaces of distant planets directly; instead, its infrared instruments hunt for chemical signs of life — or biosignatures — in planetary atmospheres by mapping how starlight is absorbed or reemitted by molecules in those atmospheres. The resulting graphs of light, called spectra, can reveal the composition of that planet's atmosphere, providing clues about its surface conditions.

Related: 

• 32 alien planets that really exist

In the new Cambridge-led study, scientists using JWST's Mid-Infrared Instrument (MIRI) peered into K2-18b's atmosphere to detect traces of two sulfur-based molecules called dimethyl sulfide (DMS) and dimethyl disulfide (DMDS) — compounds that are known to be produced only by microscopic life-forms like phytoplankton on Earth. If DMS can be produced by some natural mechanism, scientists currently don't know about it, and will have to run extensive tests to uncover it.

The findings add to earlier observations made by the same team using two different JWST instruments in 2023, which also reported possible traces of DMS in the planet's atmosphere.

While the Cambridge team admitted in the statement that they are "deeply sceptical" of their own results, the same release also trumpeted these detections as the "most promising" evidence yet of life beyond Earth, painting a picture of an oceanic planet that could be "teeming with life." (Other studies have argued that K2-18b's ocean may, in fact, be made of magma.)

Nikku Madhusudhan, lead author of both Cambridge studies, stressed that no actual life has been detected on K2-18b yet.

"That's not what we're claiming," Madhusudhan, a professor of astrophysics at Cambridge, told Live Science. "But in the best-case scenario, it's the potential for life."

The team's DMS detection reached the three-sigma level of statistical significance, meaning there is a 0.3% probability that the signals occurred by chance. However, this still falls far short of the required five-sigma level that denotes a statistically significant scientific discovery.

Responding to criticism that the team may have overstated their study's significance, Madhusudhan said it's in the public interest to know how this research is progressing.

"This is the taxpayer paying us, and they have a right to enjoy the process," Madhusudhan added. "If we're sending a robot to Mars, we're not waiting until it goes and finds life to celebrate the act of sending it. We announced that we are sending robots to Mars, and we're excited about the possibility. This is the equivalent of that."

"No strong evidence"

For now, the public has little more than the Cambridge team's study to go on. The complete set of MIRI data on which the team based their discovery will become publicly available April 27, according to NPR, at which point outside researchers can begin to comb through it and formulate peer-reviewed responses.

In the meantime, various researchers have already attempted to re-create the findings using their own data models and have come up short.

In January, a team of scientists independently analyzed K2-18b's atmosphere using the same JWST instruments used in the 2023 study. The team found "no statistically significant or reliable evidence" of DMS on K2-18b, the researchers wrote in a paper published to the preprint server arXiv.

More recently, on April 22, University of Oxford astrophysicist Jake Taylor reanalyzed the JWST spectra shared in the new Cambridge study, using a simple data model that's routinely utilized in exoplanet studies. Taylor's analysis, also published to arXiv, found no traces of DMS, either.

"There is no strong evidence for detected spectral features in K2-18b's MIRI transmission spectrum," Taylor wrote.

Looking only at the Cambridge team's study, Schwieterman also saw cause for hesitation in proclaiming that biosignatures exist on K2-18b.

"When DMS interacts with ultraviolet light from the star, it splits apart into components that reform into other molecules like ethane (C2H6) and ethylene (C2H4)," Schwieterman said. "The paper does not report the detection of these molecules, which is puzzling because you'd expect these gases to appear together."

What comes next?

Everyone, including the Cambridge team, agrees that more observations of K2-18b are necessary to bring clarity to this puzzle. This means researchers will have to request more time with JWST to observe the alien planet as it swoops in front of its star.

Luckily, this is a near-monthly occurrence, with K2-18b completing a transit of its star every 33 days. Budgeting more time to watch these transits should be "trivial" for the telescope, Madhusudhan said.

"One transit is eight hours, roughly," Madhusudhan added. "You only need about 16 to 24 hours of JWST time. To give you a sense of scale, JWST observes thousands of hours every year."

If additional observations can increase the statistical significance of the team's DMS detection, the next step will be to prove that some unknown natural process isn't producing the molecule instead, Schwieterman said. This will take rigorous experimentation and some creative thinking here on Earth. Finally, scientists will need to look at planets that are similar to K2-18b to see if DMS is a common signature around the cosmos.

{ https://www.livescience.com/space }

14-12-2025 om 16:45 geschreven door peter  

There’s an electrifying new development in Mars science. NASA’s Perseverance rover has just captured proof of a weather phenomenon that was long suspected, but until now, never observed: electric discharges that brew within the dust devils that torment Mars’ surface.

The discovery, described in a new study in the journal Nature, confirms that lightning discharges occur in the Martian atmosphere. The dust devils that the discharges appear in are a common fixture on the Red Planet. Like on Earth, they’re whirlwinds created by rapidly rising columns of warm air heated by their proximity to the ground, shooting their way through the cool air which falls to take the rising warm air’s place. 

On Mars specifically, it was suspected that dust trapped in this whirlwind whips together to create a static charge through friction, a manifestation of the same so-called triboelectric effect that causes a spark after you shuffle across a carpet and touch a metal doorknob.

“Triboelectric charging of sand and snow particles is well documented on Earth, particularly in desert regions, but it rarely results in actual electrical discharges,” lead author Baptiste Chide, a member of the Perseverance science team and a planetary scientist at L’Institut de Recherche en Astrophysique et Planétologie in France, said in a NASA statement about the research. “On Mars, the thin atmosphere makes the phenomenon far more likely, as the amount of charge required to generate sparks is much lower than what is required in Earth’s near-surface atmosphere.”

That lightning on Mars had eluded detection until now was a long source of frustration to Mars scientists, as it had already been established to take place on other planets like Saturn and Jupiter, which are far more distant and aren’t observed up close by robots as we do the Red Planet.

The finding required some astonishing good luck. The detection was made by a microphone on the rover’s SuperCam instrument designed to analyze the acoustics of Martian rocks zapped by the SuperCam laser — or in other words, to record sound, not zips of static discharges. 

But the instrument kept picking up more and more electrical disturbances, in all logging 55 since its mission began in 2021, NASA said. Sixteen of them were recorded when a dust devil passed directly over the rover. Because the the number of discharges didn’t increase during the planet’s frequent dust storms, the scientists surmise that it must be coming from the dust devils instead — which, in another fortunate twist, happened to pass by the rover more often than anyone anticipated, allowing them to confirm the suspicion.

The discovery has exciting implications. Lightning can cause unique chemical reactions and affect the chemical balance of the planet’s surface, perhaps altering the odds of creating complex compounds — and possibly even organic molecules.

More on Mars: 

• Scientist Say They’ve Found Caves on Mars That May Contain Life

RELATED VIDEOS

{ https://futurism.com/category/space }

13-12-2025 om 22:55 geschreven door peter