The year 2025 is coming to an end. During this time, astronomers have made many scientific discoveries that have enriched our knowledge of the Solar System, the Milky Way, and the universe as a whole. We have selected the 10 most important ones.

The most important scientific discoveries

Science is something that cannot be rushed and does not focus on studying just one thing. Scientists explore everything that seems interesting to them, and the results of their work can sometimes only be assessed decades later. This is especially true for a science such as astronomy, which studies processes that can last hundreds of millions of years.

Nevertheless, we have attempted to highlight ten of the most significant scientific discoveries that are worth mentioning when discussing the direction in which astronomical science has been moving this year.

1. Interstellar comet 3I/ATLAS

When scientists realized in July this year that the speck in the images from the ATLAS automated observation system was a comet, and that it had come to us from interstellar space, they already knew it would be a sensation. But no one expected it to be so unhealthy, because for several months, people were in hysterics: “An alien ship is flying towards us, there will be a landing.”

Scientists did not find any alien spacecraft. However, the chemical composition of this celestial body was studied in detail. Astronomers have confirmed that it is very similar to the “comets” that orbit the Sun. At the same time, differences were found between 3I/ATLAS and the two previous visitors from space, indicating that they can form under very different conditions.

2. Dark energy can evolve over time

In March, scientists working with a spectroscopic instrument to search for dark energy published the results of observations of 15 million galaxies that we see in a time range from the present to 11 million years in the past. And the results of these studies show that dark energy not only exists, but also changes over time.

This differs greatly from the standard model of the universe, according to which it remains constant. However, scientists are not yet rushing to talk about a revolution. Ideas about the variability of dark energy over time have been expressed before, and the results of the research do not prove anything conclusively. But now scientists have a new, powerful tool for revising existing theories.

3. The most energetic neutrino in history

In early February, the KM3NeT neutrino detector located in the Mediterranean Sea detected a particle with an energy of 220 petaelectronvolts (PeV). This is tens of thousands of times more than the most powerful accelerator on Earth can provide. Therefore, this particle is considered the most energetic neutrino ever seen by scientists.

There is no doubt that the particle came to us from space. At the same time, its origin remains a mystery, as scientists are still unable to confidently identify the process that could have caused it to appear. Among the possible explanations, they are even considering the explosion of a primordial black hole near the Sun.

4. A satellite has been discovered in Betelgeuse…

Betelgeuse is a giant red star in the Orion constellation, known to mankind since the dawn of history, but in the last decade, it has caused everyone to rack their brains over its behavior. It seemed as if it was about to explode as a supernova.

And in July 2025, scientists confirmed the presence of a companion star, whose mass is 1.5 times greater than that of the Sun. It is located so close that in about 10,000 years, the stars may merge into one. The very existence of this companion explains the long-term changes in Betelgeuse’s brightness.

5. …and Saturn has as many as 128

Saturn is a planet known not only for its rings but also for having the largest number of moons in the Solar System. In March 2025, scientists announced the discovery of 128 new bodies orbiting it. So now their total number is 274.

Most of them are very small bodies, with a diameter of less than a kilometer. However, they make you wonder how many more objects are flying around this planet. After all, among all the worlds revolving around the Sun, there is perhaps the most debris of all kinds.

6. Possible traces of life on Mars

In early September 2025, NASA employees released data showing that in 2024, the Perseverance rover found something that could be traces of life on the Red Planet. At that time, it was working at the bottom of an ancient river near the Bright Angel formation. The sample collected was once a layer of silt.

It is in such places that scientists expect to find traces of life, and this time they saw something resembling leopard spots or ripples on water. Researchers believe that this is very similar to the result of the vital activity of microorganisms that lived here when water still flowed through the valley and fed on the available minerals.

7. Space Quipu

In January 2025, the Internet was abuzz with news of the discovery of yet another largest structures in the universe. In fact, the galaxy cluster, dubbed Quipu, is significantly smaller than objects such as the Hercules-Corona Borealis Great Wall, but its size is still impressive.

With a length of 1.3 billion light-years, it exceeds the Sun in mass by 200 quadrillion times and is the largest neighbor of the Laniakea Supercluster, which includes the Local Group, including the Milky Way galaxy.

8. Waves run across the Milky Way disc

For many years, scientists have suspected that the Milky Way disc is not perfect, but warped at the ends. After observing millions of stars with the Gaia space telescope, they are now certain of this.

However, in 2025, based on the same data set, they discovered that this distortion is the result of waves running across the disk of our galaxy. In some places, stars shift upward relative to their plane, in others – downward.

Scientists suspect that this is due to a collision with another star system that the galaxy experienced in the past. However, there is also a theory that dark matter is to blame.

9. Signs of life on exoplanet K2-18b

Perhaps the most controversial discovery in astronomy this year was made in April by a group of astronomers studying the exoplanet K2-18b. It was known that it contained water, one of the main elements necessary for life to exist. This year, scientists confirmed the existence of two other substances on the planet: dimethyl sulfide and dimethyl disulfide.

Both of them appear on Earth mainly as a result of biological processes. So the news quickly became a sensation about the discovery of signs of life, although it was already clear at that point that K2-18b was too hot for that. However, this discovery is important in that it allowed scientists to take a fresh look at which substances are reliable biomarkers and which are not.

10. Formation of an exomoon

In September, scientists announced that they had discovered a satellite in the process of formation around the exoplanet CT Cha b. Previous discoveries of moons around planets outside the Solar System have been reported, but each time these discoveries have been refuted.

This time, we are talking about a young planet, near which scientists have detected seven different organic substances. It is believed that their molecules are contained in the dust disk surrounding the planet, from which a satellite is gradually forming.

• Posted in News, Science

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22-12-2025 om 22:45 geschreven door peter  

Located 611 meters above sea level, the Gradina site was discovered after reports involving the illegal excavation of “silver coins from Voćin” began surfacing amid Europe’s illicit antiquities markets. Efforts to track down information about the looted coin hoard ultimately helped lead archaeologists to the long-overlooked Croatian site.

Excavations Underway

Currently, excavations at the site are being led by Hrvoje Potrebica, a professor of prehistoric archaeology at the University of Zagreb. Working with colleagues, including researchers Franka Ovčarić and Luka Drahotusky-Bruket, systematic surveys and initial excavations at the site revealed the presence of stone ramparts and other features.

The site is now believed to potentially be one of the best-preserved prehistoric settlements ever uncovered in the region.

“These are some of the most visible ramparts, very well preserved, of a prehistoric settlement in this part of Croatia,” Potrebica said in a statement.

“Usually they were built of earth and wood, so they fell into disrepair,” Potrebica added, “but here it is different.”

An Ancient Site Emerges

Initial assumptions suggested the site dated to the La Tène culture of the late Iron Age, around the 1st century BCE, consistent with the Celtic silver coins first linked to the area.

That all began to change for Potrebica and his colleagues as their investigations continued, revealing discoveries that hinted at a much deeper origin for the ancient site. These included ceramic fragments the team uncovered, dating to the Late Bronze Age, roughly 1200 to 1000 BCE.

“These findings are very rare,” Potrebica said, adding that the ancient fortress structure encloses an area estimated to comprise ​​four hectares.

“At one point we decided to cut through the rampart, and we established a monumental construction consisting of three layers, earth, stone, and rammed earth, up to 2 meters high, in some places 7 to 8 meters on the outside,” Potrebica said.

A Remarkably Well-Preserved Site

In some sections, the archaeologists also uncovered a dry-stone defensive wall more than 1.5 meters thick, an exceptional level of preservation for prehistoric fortifications in this part of Europe.

Most prehistoric settlements in the region relied on perishable materials, including earth and timber defenses, and thus have largely deteriorated over time. The stone-built ramparts at Gradina, by contrast, remain clearly visible on the landscape, marking the site as a significant outlier.

This suggests a level of organization exhibited by its ancient builders, the likes of which had never been documented previously in the region during this period. Additionally, evidence of domestic structures and other signs of daily life point to its apparent use as a long-term habitation site.

“Here, at this place, we did not expect anything like this,” Potrebica said, adding that the team’s discoveries were unlike anything he had encountered in his profession in the last quarter century.

Fundamentally, the site’s rediscovery underscores both the scientific potential—and the risks—associated with illicit antiquities trafficking. Although illegal looting by metal detectorists at the site helped lead to its discovery, such activities also destroyed the original archaeological context of the artifacts removed.

Nevertheless, in this case, the removal and eventual black-market sale of coins from the ancient site led archaeologists to a novel discovery—one that is expanding our knowledge of the region’s inhabitants’ activities long before Roman or medieval times.

For Potrebica, the discoveries his team has made during their excavations are truly one of a kind.

“I have never seen anything like this,” Potrebica said.

Additional details about the team’s discovery, along with photos of the ancient site, can be found here courtesy of vpz.hr and Kristijan Toplak.

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

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

22-12-2025 om 22:24 geschreven door peter  

In a new paper titled “Agnosticism About Artificial Consciousness,” Tom McClelland, a philosopher at the University of Cambridge, argues that both sides are overconfident. The only honest answer right now, he says, is that we probably won’t know any time soon.​

Many users of large language models like ChatGPT have been convinced that the machine they are speaking to seems like a real person. Recent stories detail users falling in love with their chatbots, and due to the human-like interactions they can provide, these AI tools are increasingly being viewed as a substitute for real human connections in the 21st century. 

McClelland’s central idea concerns the confusion many people feel when dealing with an LLM. What does it mean to be conscious, and can all those zeroes and ones ever actually achieve it?

Everything scientists currently understand about consciousness comes from studying biological creatures like humans, and to a lesser extent, animals like octopuses and monkeys. When we try to apply those findings to computer systems built from silicon chips instead of neurons, he argues, we hit what he calls an “epistemic wall.” That is, a point at which our knowledge runs out and we can’t go further with the evidence we currently have.​​ We ‘guess,’ rather than ‘know.’

McClelland insists that claims about AI consciousness should follow a principle he calls “evidentialism.” So, if you say an AI is or isn’t conscious, your claim should be grounded in solid scientific evidence, not vibes, sci‑fi stories, or metaphysical faith. And that, he says, is exactly where current discussion fails.

In humans, the science of consciousness relies on messy but workable tools such as brain scans, behavioural experiments, and models like Global Workspace Theory, which link specific kinds of information processing with awareness rather than unconscious processing. Those tools allow reasonably confident judgments, say, about whether a patient in a coma shows signs of awareness or whether an octopus is likely to feel pain.

But none of these tools explains the “why” at the heart of the so‑called hard problem of consciousness. 

“We do not have a deep explanation of consciousness,” McClelland explains in the paper. “There is no evidence to suggest that consciousness can emerge with the right computational structure, or indeed that consciousness is essentially biological.”

Because we don’t understand the nuts and bolts behind consciousness, McClelland argues that confident ‘yes‑or‑no’ answers about future conscious-like AI systems are not scientifically responsible. In other words, we get lost in the “this thing is genuinely conscious” versus “this thing is a perfect non‑conscious mimic.”

At first glance, this might sound like a technical quarrel among philosophers in their ivory towers, but McClelland’s agnosticism has direct implications for the rest of us, because laws, policies, and social norms are already being written under the assumption that we will soon have tests for machine consciousness.

In the immediate future, large tech companies are already pumping out rhetoric concerning the stages of their AI tools and marketing the next leaps in AI development. 

“There is a risk that the inability to prove consciousness will be exploited by the AI industry to make outlandish claims about their technology,” he writes. “It becomes part of the hype, so companies can sell the idea of a next level of AI cleverness.”  

In turn, McClelland is concerned that research grants and funding will be diverted to the study of AI consciousness, when in reality those funds could be used more effectively.

“A growing body of evidence suggests that prawns could be capable of suffering, yet we kill around half a trillion prawns every year. Testing for consciousness in prawns is hard, but nothing like as hard as testing for consciousness in AI,” he explains.

Beyond the financial interests of tech firms and their investors, there are obvious social, cultural, and even personal implications that we have already seen manifest. 

If we wrongly assume that advanced AIs are not conscious when they are, we could be creating and exploiting beings capable of suffering. But if we wrongly assume they are conscious when they are not, we risk pouring care, legal rights, and empathy into systems that do not actually feel anything, potentially at the expense of humans and animals who do. And this is the philosophical rub.

McClelland says that both mistakes become more likely if we pretend to know more than we do. He points out that people are already treating chatbots as if they were conscious companions, with surveys finding that more than a third of people have felt a system “truly understood” their emotions or seemed conscious. AI companies, meanwhile, have strong incentives to play up that impression. Without a clear scientific basis for deciding who, if anyone, is really conscious, public belief and marketing could drift far from reality.

According to the paper, McClelland suggests shifting the ethical spotlight from consciousness in general to a narrower and more morally urgent notion: sentience.

In simple terms, sentience is the capacity for experiences that are good or bad for the subject. For humans, it’s our ability to feel pleasure or suffering. Many moral theories already treat sentience as what really matters ethically, whether in humans, animals, or potentially even in digital minds. McClelland argues that even if we remain agnostic about whether an AI is conscious at all, we can still ask a slightly different question: if this system were conscious, what kinds of experiences would it be having?

Instead of trying to build a “consciousness meter” for AI, researchers and regulators could focus on designing systems whose internal states, as far as we can tell, would not naturally correspond to pain, fear, or despair if they were conscious. 

This shift opens up a practical path that, if applied, could change how companies and governments talk about and design advanced AI. It would encourage more transparency about architectures, more interdisciplinary work on the science of sentience and emotion, and a cautious approach to systems that imitate human distress or self‑awareness for persuasive effect.

As AI companies continue to push ever farther and faster in their race to stay ahead and generate revenue, the question of whether the things they are building are “alive” becomes increasingly important. Equally, as AI systems grow more capable and more lifelike, the primary risk is not just whether they become conscious, but whether our beliefs about their minds—right or wrong—reshape how we treat each other, structure our laws, and allocate our morals.

By avoiding leaps of faith and remaining skeptical, McClelland argues, the race towards future AI could be slowed down, thereby allowing for better regulation and transparency. 

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

22-12-2025 om 21:59 geschreven door peter  

Aliens will be found by 2075, top scientist insists - 'I am absolutely convinced there is life out there'

• READ MORE: Saturn's moon could harbour alien life, scientists announce 

By XANTHA LEATHAM, EXECUTIVE SCIENCE EDITOR

It's one of life's biggest questions – are we alone in the universe?

Now, in good news for sci–fi fans, one of Britain's top space scientists has declared she is 'absolutely convinced' there are aliens out there – and they will be found within the next 50 years.

Dame Maggie Aderin–Pocock, from University College London's Department of Physics and Astronomy, said she expects a 'positive detection' of life on another planet by 2075.

And, while it could be something very primitive, it's possible we could encounter a presence that has technology 'far superior' to ours.

'In the whole of the universe there are approximately 200 billion galaxies,' Dame Maggie told the Daily Mail.

'And so although certain conditions were in place for life to start here on Earth, and this is the only example we have of life, I'm absolutely convinced that there's life out there, because with so many stars, so many planets, why would it just occur here?'

Dame Aderin–Pocock made her prediction in an interview with the Daily Mail ahead of giving the Royal Institution Christmas lectures, which will air at the end of this month.

They are Britain's most prestigious public science lectures, and this year's focus is on the big questions space science still has to answer.

Dame Maggie Aderin–Pocock, from University College London's Department of Physics and Astronomy, said she expects a 'positive detection' of life on another planet by 2075

An illustration of a Hycean world, which experts believe K2–18b could be, orbiting its red dwarf star. Dame Maggie said we are getting 'tantalising glimpses' of possible life on planets such as this

A theory first put forward in 1961 argues that there is a high probability life must exist somewhere else due to the sheer number of planets in the universe.

Dame Maggie said this 'numbers game', also known as the Drake equation, is why she believes we are not alone.

She explained that in just our galaxy – the Milky Way – there are 300 billion stars.

'Each of those stars is a sun like our sun,' she said, 'and now we're detecting planets going around those stars.'

We are already getting 'tantalising glimpses' of possible life from some of these planets, she added, referencing a recent discovery regarding exoplanet K2–18b, which is 124 light–years from Earth.

Earlier this year, scientists detected molecules in the planet's atmosphere that can only persistently exist if there is some form of life.

The discovery was hailed as the most promising sign of life yet outside our solar system, with experts claiming the distant world is likely covered by an ocean and 'teeming' with living organisms.

When asked if she thinks we will find solid proof of life anytime soon, Dame Maggie replied: 'I think that's where the challenge lies – concrete evidence. But to put my money where my mouth is, in terms of getting a positive detection, I would say definitely in the next 50 years.'

The James Webb Space Telescope (pictured) is a powerful infrared observatory searching for signs of life on other planets

K2–18b is thought to be a a class of exoplanet possessing key ingredients for alien species because of their hydrogen–rich atmospheres and oceans of water

In September, NASA announced the discovery of what it believed to be the clearest sign of life ever found on Mars after findings unusual markings on mudstones in a dusty riverbed. 

Scientists think these features contain minerals produced by chemical reactions that could be associated with ancient Martian life.

But while aliens are, traditionally, depicted as little green men in a spaceship, the reality is likely very different.

'Grey sludge is probably the most likely thing we're going to find,' Dame Maggie said. However, there's a chance we could find something more sophisticated.

'We might find something that does evolve and that can communicate – and of course, their technology might be far superior to ours,' she added.

'I love the idea of aliens on the other side of the moon looking back at us, hoping we'll "grow up" soon.'

If – and when – we find life, we will have to be 'incredibly careful' about how we handle it, she warned.

'If there is any form of life, we need to make sure it is totally isolated,' she said. 'It cannot come into contact with any sort of human presence.

While it's likely any life discovered is microscopic, like marine phytoplankton (pictured), Dame Maggie said it's also possible alien life is more sophisticated than us 

In 2024, NASA's Perseverance rover spotted a vein–filled arrowhead–shaped rock on Mars that featured chemical signatures and structures that could have been formed by microbial life billions of years ago

'But we're building facilities to do just that so we can analyse them. Because it's hard to take all our scientific equipment to Mars, for example, but if we can bring samples from Mars to Earth and analyse them here on Earth, we can get a lot more understanding.

'Of course, the ultimate solution is to send me. Some people retire and potter around their garden, and my retirement plan is to potter around Mars.'

When questioned on the future of human space exploration – and possible settlement – Dame Maggie concluded: 'I see us as a space–faring people – I see that as the way forward.

'And I find that exciting that we won't just be Earth–bound. We will expand outwards.

Read More 

• Unravelling the mystery of the earliest life on Earth: Scientists uncover fresh chemical evidence of microbes in rocks more than 3.3 BILLION years old 

'It's the stuff of science fiction, literally, but science fiction does become science fact.

'One of the things I love about space is when you look at planet Earth from space, you don't see boundaries, you don't see country borders. You just see our planet. And that's what I would like space to be.

'I think space might be a way that we unite.'

The 2025 Christmas Lectures from the Royal Institution – 'Is there life beyond Earth?', with Dame Dr Maggie Aderin–Pocock, will be broadcast on BBC Four and iPlayer on 28th, 29th and 30th December at 7pm.

KEY DISCOVERIES IN HUMANITY'S SEARCH FOR ALIEN LIFE

Discovery of pulsars

British astronomer Dame Jocelyn Bell Burnell was the first person to discover a pulsar in 1967 when she spotted a radio pulsar.

Since then other types of pulsars that emit X-rays and gamma rays have also been spotted.

Pulsars are essentially rotating, highly magnetised neutron stars but when they were first discovered it was believed they could have come from aliens.

'Wow!' radio signal

In 1977, an astronomer looking for alien life in the night sky above Ohio spotted a radio signal so powerful that he excitedly wrote 'Wow!' next to his data.

In 1977, an astronomer looking for alien life in the night sky above Ohio spotted a radio signal so powerful that he excitedly wrote 'Wow!' next to his data

The 72-second blast, spotted by Dr Jerry Ehman through a radio telescope, came from Sagittarius but matched no known celestial object.

Conspiracy theorists have since claimed that the 'Wow! signal', which was 30 times stronger than background radiation, was a message from intelligent extraterrestrials.

Fossilised Martian microbes

In 1996 Nasa and the White House made the explosive announcement that the rock contained traces of Martian bugs.

The meteorite, catalogued as Allen Hills (ALH) 84001, crashed onto the frozen wastes of Antarctica 13,000 years ago and was recovered in 1984. 

Photographs were released showing elongated segmented objects that appeared strikingly lifelike.

Photographs were released showing elongated segmented objects that appeared strikingly lifelike (pictured)

However, the excitement did not last long. Other scientists questioned whether the meteorite samples were contaminated. 

They also argued that heat generated when the rock was blasted into space may have created mineral structures that could be mistaken for microfossils. 

Behaviour of Tabby's Star in 2005 

The star, otherwise known as KIC 8462852, is located 1,400 light years away and has baffled astronomers since being discovered in 2015.

It dims at a much faster rate than other stars, which some experts have suggested is a sign of aliens harnessing the energy of a star.

The star, otherwise known as KIC 8462852, is located 1,400 light years away and has baffled astonomers since being discovered in 2015 (artist's impression)

Recent studies have 'eliminated the possibility of an alien megastructure', and instead, suggests that a ring of dust could be causing the strange signals.

Exoplanets in the Goldilocks zone in 2017 

In February 2017 astronomers announced they had spotted a star system with planets that could support life just 39 light years away.

Seven Earth-like planets were discovered orbiting nearby dwarf star 'Trappist-1', and all of them could have water at their surface, one of the key components of life.

Three of the planets have such good conditions, that scientists say life may have already evolved on them. 

Researchers claim that they will know whether or not there is life on any of the planets within a decade, and said: 'This is just the beginning.' 

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

22-12-2025 om 21:32 geschreven door peter  

We come in peace! Scientist reveals exactly what our first contact with aliens will look like - and it's nothing like the movies

• READ MORE: Aliens will be found by 2075, top scientist insists

By WILIAM HUNTER, SENIOR SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY REPORTER

As astronomers scour the universe for traces of alien life, one researcher has revealed exactly what first contact will look like.

However, that meeting won't look like the close encounters of a Hollywood blockbuster.

According to the 'Eschatian Hypothesis', the first extraterrestrial civilisation we encounter is likely to be in its final moments of total collapse.

This is because, just like dying stars and supernovae, civilisations are likely to burn their brightest just before they vanish into darkness.

According to Dr David Kipping, of Columbia University, this theory means the first aliens are likely to be 'unusually loud'.

In a YouTube video, Dr Kipping says: 'Hollywood has preconditioned us to expect one of two types of alien contact, either a hostile invasion force or a benevolent species bestowing wisdom to humanity.

'But the Eschatian hypothesis is neither.

'Here, first contact is with a civilisation in its death throes, one that is violently flailing before the end.'

A scientist has revealed what our first encounter with aliens will be like, and it won't look anything like what we have seen in movies like Close Encounters of the Third Kind (pictured)

In a new paper, due to appear in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, Dr Kipping argues that finding aliens should follow the same rules as all other astronomical discoveries.

That means the first examples we discover are not typical of their class, but rather 'rare, extreme cases'.

To understand how this 'detection bias' works, imagine looking up at the night sky on a clear night.

Of the thousands of stars you can see, about a third will be giant, dying stars in the final stages of their lives.

This transitory period lasts less than 10 per cent of a star's lifetime, and only about one per cent of stars in the universe are in this giant phase.

However, since dying stars are so much brighter than their typical neighbours, they make up a huge proportion of the stars we can detect with the naked eye.

The same is even true of more extreme events such as supernovae - the vast explosions which occur when massive stars run out of fuel and collapse.

These explosions are staggeringly rare, with a Milky Way-sized galaxy only experiencing one every 50 years.

The supernovae from dying stars (pictured) are incredibly rare, but we see thousands every year because they are so bright. Scientists say that alien civilisations should be the same, in that we are more likely to find one burning brightly in its final moments - even if these are rarer 

For example, a nuclear war would produce a huge burst of energy that intelligent civilisations would be able to detect. Pictured: The Castle Union Nuclear Test, 1954

However, astronomers routinely discover thousands of supernovae every year, just because they are so incredibly bright.

According to Dr Kipping, there's no reason that our first discovery of alien life shouldn't follow the exact same rules.

He says: 'So, by extension, we should expect that the first detection of an alien civilisation to be someone who is being unusually loud.

'Their behaviour will probably be atypical, but their enormous volume makes them the most likely candidate for discovery.'

This means the first aliens we meet will be like a loud, obnoxious party guest - most people in the room don't act like that, but the ones that do get noticed by everyone.

However, when we consider what could cause a civilisation to become loud, the situation becomes a lot more bleak.

As civilisations become more advanced, they become more efficient - wasting less energy and using the energy they do have more sustainably.

Just like how a well-maintained modern house leaks less heat than an old, crumbling home, healthy civilisations shouldn't be giving off huge amounts of excess energy

This means our first encounter with aliens won't be a purposeful communication, like in the new film Disclosure Day. Instead, we are more likely to hear a civilisation's last desperate shouts 

In this sense, the volume of a civilisation is a sign of 'extreme disequilibrium' that heralds impending collapse.

For example, the intense heat and energy released by a nuclear war would cause a planet to light up in a way that sensitive telescopes could detect.

Likewise, some scientists have suggested that aliens could even use rapid human-caused climate change as a sign of intelligent life on our planet.

Some civilisations in total free-fall may even begin broadcasting signals into space in an attempt to reach other life.

Read More

• As the Disclosure Day trailer drops, scientists reveal what aliens could really sound like 

Dr Kipping has suggested that the famous 'Wow! Signal', detected by scientists in 1977, could have been a civilisation broadcasting one last desperate shout.

Instead of doing deep studies of promising star systems or patiently waiting for a coherent message, Dr Kipping says scientists should frequently scan the entire sky.

Brief unexplained signals, sudden flashes, or systems undergoing rapid, anomalous changes could all be signs of a loud civilisation going through collapse.

So, while it might not be a cheering thought, this theory could help find our first signs of life out amongst the stars.

WHAT IS THE FERMI PARADOX?

The Fermi Paradox questions why, given the estimated 200-400 billion stars and at least 100 billion planets in our galaxy, there have been no signs of alien life. 

The contradiction is named after its creator, Italian physicist Enrico Fermi.

He first posed the question back in 1950.

Fermi believed it was too extraordinary that a single extra-terrestrial signal or engineering project has yet to be detected in the universe — despite its immense vastness. 

Fermi concluded there must a barrier that limits the rise of intelligent, self-aware, technologically advanced space-colonising civilisations.

This barrier is sometimes referred to as the 'Great Filter'.

Italian physicist Enrico Fermi devised the so-called Fermi Paradox in the 1950s, which explores why there is no sign of alien life, despite the 100 billion planets in our galaxy

If the main obstacle preventing the colonisation of other planets is not in our past, then the barrier that will stop humanity's prospects of reaching other worlds must lie in our future, scientists have theorised.  

Professor Brian Cox believes the advances in science and engineering required by a civilisation to start conquering the stars will ultimately lead to its destruction.

He said: 'One solution to the Fermi Paradox is that it is not possible to run a world that has the power to destroy itself.

‘It may be that the growth of science and engineering inevitably outstrips the development of political expertise, leading to disaster.'

Other possible explanations for the Fermi Paradox include that intelligent alien species are out there, but lack the necessary technology to communicate with Earth.

Some believe that the distances between intelligent civilisations are too great to allow any kind of two-way communication.

If two worlds are separated by several thousand light years, it's possible that one or both civilisations would become extinct before a dialogue can be established. 

The so-called Zoo hypothesis claims intelligent alien life is out there, but deliberately avoids any contact with life on Earth to allow its natural evolution. 

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

22-12-2025 om 21:00 geschreven door peter  

AI is solving 'impossible' math problems. Can it best the world's top mathematicians?

AI is making gains in solving pure math problems. Can it crack the hardest problems in mathematics?

By Kit Yates  

AI has now cracked several rather difficult problems in math. How close is it to supplanting the world's best mathematicians? 

(Image credit: Adrián A. Astorgano for Future)

In October 2024, news broke that Facebook parent company Meta had cracked an "impossible" problem that had stymied mathematicians for a century.

In this case, the solvers weren't human.

An artificial intelligence (AI) model developed by Meta determined whether solutions of the equations governing certain dynamically changing systems — like the swing of a pendulum or the oscillation of a spring — would remain stable, and thus predictable forever.

The key to the problem was finding Lyapunov functions, which determine the long-term stability of these systems.

Meta's work made headlines and raised a possibility once considered pure fantasy: that AI could soon outperform the world's best mathematicians by cracking math's marquee "unsolvable" problems en masse.

After looking under the hood, however, mathematicians were less impressed. The AI found Lyapunov functions for 10.1% of randomly generated problems posed to it. This was a substantial improvement over the 2.1% solved by previous algorithms, but it was by no means a quantum leap forward. And the model needed lots of hand-holding by humans to come up with the right solutions.

A similar scenario played out earlier this year, when Google announced its AI research lab DeepMind had discovered new solutions to the Navier-Stokes equations of fluid dynamics. The solutions were impressive, but AI was still some distance from solving the more general problem associated with the equations, which would garner its solvers the $1 million Millennium Prize.

Beyond the hype, just how close is AI to replacing the world's best mathematicians? To find out Live Science asked some of the world's best mathematicians.

While some experts were dubious about AI’s problem solving abilities in the short term, most noted that the technology is developing frighteningly fast. And some speculated that not so far into the future, AI may be able to solve hard conjectures — unproven mathematical hypotheses — at a massive scale, invent new fields of study, and tackle problems we never even considered.

"I think what's going to happen very soon — actually, in the next few years — is that AIs become capable enough that they can sweep through the literature at the scale of thousands — well, maybe hundreds, tens of thousands of conjectures," UCLA mathematician Terence Tao, who won the Fields Medal (one of mathematics' most prestigious medals) for his deep contributions to an extraordinary range of different mathematical problems, told Live Science. "And so we will see what will initially seem quite impressive, with thousands of conjectures suddenly being solved. And a few of them may actually be quite high-profile ones."

From games to abstract reasoning

To understand where we are in the field of AI-driven mathematics, it helps to look at how AI progressed in related fields. Math requires abstract thinking and complex multistep reasoning. Tech companies made early inroads into such thinking by looking at complex, multistep logical games.

In the 1980s, IBM algorithms began making progress in games like chess. It's been decades since IBM's Deep Blue beat what was then the world's best chess player, Garry Kasparov, and about a decade since Alphabet's DeepMind defeated the period's best Go player, Lee Sedol. Now AI systems are so good at such mathematical games that there's no point to these competitions because AI can beat us every time.

But pure math is different from chess and Go in a fundamental way: Whereas the two board games are very large but ultimately constrained (or, as mathematicians would say, "finite") problems, there are no limits to the range, depth and variety of problems mathematics can reveal.

In many ways, AI math-solving models are where chess-playing algorithms were a few decades ago. "They're doing things that humans know how to do already," said Kevin Buzzard, a mathematician at Imperial College London.

"The chess computers got good, and then they got better and then they got better," Buzzard told Live Science. "But then, at some point, they beat the best human. Deep Blue beat Garry Kasparov. And at that moment, you can kind of say, 'OK, now something interesting has happened.'"

That breakthrough hasn't happened yet for math, Buzzard argued.

"In mathematics we still haven't had that moment when the computer says, 'Oh, here's a proof of a theorem that no human can prove,'" Buzzard said.

Mathematical genius?

Yet many mathematicians are excited and impressed by AI's mathematical prowess. Ken Ono, a mathematician at the University of Virginia, attended this year's "FrontierMath' meeting organized by OpenAI. Ono and around 30 of the world's other leading mathematicians were charged with developing problems for o4-mini — a reasoning large language model from OpenAI — and evaluating its solutions.

After witnessing the heavily human-trained chatbot in action, Ono said, "I've never seen that kind of reasoning before in models. That's what a scientist does. That's frightening." He argued that he wasn't alone in his high praise of the AI, adding that he has "colleagues who literally said these models are approaching mathematical genius."

To Buzzard, these claims seem far-fetched. "The bottom line is, have any of these systems ever told us something interesting that we didn't know already?" Buzzard asked. "And the answer is no."

Rather, Buzzard argues, AI's math ability seems solidly in the realm of the ordinary, if mathematically talented, human. This summer and last, several tech companies' specially trained AI models attempted to answer the questions from the International Mathematical Olympiad (IMO), the most prestigious tournament for high school "mathletes" around the world. In 2024, Deepmind's AlphaProof and AlphaGeometry 2 systems combined to solve four of the six problems, scoring a total of 28 points — the equivalent of an IMO silver medal. But the AI first required humans to translate the problems into a special computer language before it could begin work. It then took several days of computing time to solve the problems — well outside the 4.5-hour time limit imposed on human participants.

This year's tournament witnessed a significant leap forward. Google's Gemini Deep Think solved five of the six problems well within the time limit, scoring a total of 35 points. This is the sort of performance that, in a human, would have been worthy of a gold medal — a feat achieved by less than 10% of the world's best math students.

Research-level problems

Although the most recent IMO results are impressive, it's debatable whether matching the performance of the top high school math students qualifies as "genius-level."

Another challenge in determining AI's mathematical prowess is that many of the companies developing these algorithms don't always show their work.

"AI companies are sort of shut. When it comes to results, they tend to write the blog post, try and go viral and they never write the paper anymore," Buzzard, whose own research lies at the interface of math and AI, told Live Science.

However, there's no doubt that AI can be useful in research-level mathematics.

In December 2021, University of Oxford mathematician Marc Lackenby's research with DeepMind was on the cover of the journal Nature.

Lackenby's research is in the area of topology which is sometimes referred to as geometry (the maths of shapes) with play dough. Topology asks which objects (like knots, linked rings, pretzels or doughnuts) keep the same properties when twisted, stretched or bent. (The classic math joke is that topologists consider a doughnut and a coffee cup to be the same because both have one hole.)

Lackenby and his colleagues used AI to generate conjectures connecting two different areas of topology, which he and his colleagues then went on to try to prove. The experience was enlightening.

It turned out that the conjecture was wrong and that an extra quantity was needed in the conjecture to make it right, Lackenby told Live Science.

Yet the AI had already seen that, and the team "had just ignored it as a bit of noise," Lackenby said.

Can we trust AI at the frontier of math?

Lackenby's mistake had been not to trust the AI enough. But his experience speaks to one of the current limitations of AI in the realm of research mathematics: that its outputs still need human interpretation and can't always be trusted.

"One of the problems with AI is that it doesn't tell you what that connection is," Lackenby said. "So we have to spend quite a long time and use various methods to get a little bit under the hood."

Ultimately, AI isn't designed to get the "right" answer; it's trained to find the most probable one, said Neil Saunders, a mathematician who studies geometric representation theory at City St George's, University of London and the author of the forthcoming book "AI (r)Evolution" (Chapman and Hall, 2026), told Live Science.

"That most probable answer doesn't necessarily mean it's the right answer," Saunders said.

"We've had situations in the past where entire fields of mathematics became basically solvable by computer. It didn't mean mathematics died."

AI's unreliability means it wouldn't be wise to rely on it to prove theorems in which every step of the proof must be correct, rather than just reasonable.

"You wouldn't want to use it in writing a proof, for the same reason you wouldn't want ChatGPT writing your life insurance contract," Saunders said.

Despite these potential limitations, Lackenby sees AI's promise in mathematical hypothesis generation. "So many different areas of mathematics are connected to each other, but spotting new connections is really of interest and this process is a good way of seeing new connections that you couldn't see before," he said.

The future of mathematics?

Lackenby's work demonstrates that AI can be helpful in suggesting conjectures that mathematicians can then go on to prove. And despite Saunders' reservations, Tao thinks AI could be useful in proving existing conjectures.

The most immediate payoff might not be in tackling the hardest problems but in picking off the lowest-hanging fruit, Tao said.

The highest-profile math problems, which "dozens of mathematicians have already spent a long time working on — they're probably not amenable to any of the standard counterexamples or proof techniques," Tao said. "But there will be a lot that are."

Tao believes AI might transform the nature of what it means to be a mathematician.

"In 20 or 30 years, a typical paper that you would see today might indeed be something that you could automatically do by sending it to an AI," he said. "Instead of studying one problem at a time for months, which is the norm, we're going to be studying 10,000 problems a year … and do things that you just can't dream of doing today."

Rather than AI posing an existential threat to mathematicians, however, he thinks mathematicians will evolve to work with AI.

"We've had situations in the past where entire fields of mathematics became basically solvable by computer," Tao said. At one point, we even had a human profession called a "computer," he added. That job has disappeared, but humans just moved on to harder problems. "It didn't mean mathematics died," Tao said.

Andrew Granville, a professor of number theory at the University of Montreal, is more circumspect about the future of the field. "My feeling is that it's very unclear where we're going," Granville told Live Science. "What is clear is that things are not going to be the same. What that means in the long term for us depends on our adaptability to new circumstances."

21-12-2025 om 23:44 geschreven door peter  

Ancient Astronomical Alignments: Reading and Mapping the Stars at Early Advanced Civilization Sites

Walter Cruttenden

Many of the cuneiform tablets of Mesopotamia and hieroglyphs of Egypt make reference to the sun, stars, or planetary positions. Also, a number of ancient structures in many parts of the world are aligned with, or directly oriented toward, the cardinal points (East, North, South, and West) or celestial objects. A recent study by astronomy historian Michael Horkin involved cataloging 2000 Neolithic tombs and researching over 1000 others in France, Portugal, Spain, and North Africa. His paper, presented to the Royal Astronomical Society in England, points out that thousands of Neolithic structures erected prior to 1000 BC were apparently built to face the sun or key constellations.

Commenting on the study, E.C. Krupp, an archaeoastronomer with the Griffith Observatory in Los Angeles, states, “It implies a certain social organization in the commitment to build the construction of these monuments, as well as a system of celestial observation.” Yet, Horkin says about one part of the study, “We do not know much about the constellations as viewed by the [ancient peoples], since they were not literate.” Illiteracy is the common assumption about ancient and unknown cultures – but what are we to make of the vast number of megalithic structures, dolmans, cairns, and henges (like Stonehenge) that we find built and precisely aligned with astronomical coordinates?

Stonehenge.

(LuckyStep/Fotolia)

A Belief that ‘Prior’ Meant ‘Primitive’

If myth tells us there was a time when man was regularly reading the stars, communing with the Earth and the heavens, and generally studying from the book of Nature rather than symbols on paper, can we really say he was illiterate?

• The Hidden Message in Khafre’s Pyramid: What Were the Builders Trying to Tell Us?
• Looking to the Stars of Australian Aboriginal Astronomy
• A Circular Egyptian Mythology: Does the Dendera Zodiac Represent the Most Ancient Astronomy?

Most early and literate explorers did not recognize the astronomical alignments and mathematical characteristics inherent in the pyramids, Egyptian temple ruins, and other ancient megaliths. Since it was assumed that the people who built them must have been more primitive than the later people of Greece, and especially Rome, no one was looking for architectural features that required celestial calculations.

It wasn’t until the late 19th century, when the prominent British Astronomer Sir Norman Lockyer first seriously began to look at ancient temples around the world, that many astronomical alignments were noted. And even then, most archaeologists downplayed such observations as coincidence or merely structural aspects of primitive religious beliefs.

British Astronomer Sir Norman Lockyer.

(Public Domain)

Astronomical Alignment and Mathematical Feats at the Great Pyramid

Astonishingly, we had to wait until the 1960’s before any serious study of celestial alignment was undertaken at Stonehenge (which we now know can be used to predict eclipses), one of the most famous megalithic sites in the world. Because of this lack of interest in connecting the dots, so to speak, important clues that resided in temple alignments with solstices, equinoxes, and other celestial phenomena were completely missed and went undiscovered for centuries. Still today, many archaeologists dismiss much of this astronomical information as unimportant because it does not fit well with accepted interpretations of archaic civilizations.

Over the past few decades, though, the tide has slowly begun to turn, as irrefutable evidence reveals that sophisticated astronomy, mathematics, and other higher sciences were indeed incorporated into many ancient structures. The most obvious candidate for study is the Great Pyramid at Giza, which is larger than anything the Romans or Greeks ever built, and still the largest stone building on Earth.

The Great Pyramid of Egypt.

Credit: BigStockPhoto

With its original white (or possibly gold) capstone and limestone siding, it must have been an amazing sight, visible for miles (some ancient people referred to it as “The Light”). It is aligned to within 1/20th of a degree of the direction of the Earth’s rotation – not an easy feat. The massive base of the pyramid today appears to be level to within one centimeter, yet this accomplishment is said to have been performed with stone hammers, an assumption impossible to believe.

J. H. Cole, using modern surveying techniques, has accurately measured the pyramid, finding the ratio of the perimeter to the height a perfect imitation of a sphere (2 times Pi, the radius to circumference ratio of a sphere). Peter Tompkins, in his Secrets of the Great Pyramid, points out several other mathematical representations as well. Dividing the surface area of the Great Pyramid by the area of its base results in a number very near the golden mean (1.618), “a famous ratio in art and architecture.” In addition, he shows that the three great pyramids as they are laid out fit exactly into a rectangle aligned to the cardinal directions, measuring 1414 cubits by 1732 cubits, “a thousand times the square roots of 2 and 3 respectively.”

Still more interesting, in 1993 Robert Bauval (co-author of several books on the pyramids) noticed that the three main pyramids on the Giza Plateau were a mirror reflection of the three belt stars in the constellation Orion, a constellation important to the Egyptians. Bauval and others have also pointed out that the shafts in the Great Pyramid extending from the King’s and Queen’s Chambers also represent stellar alignments. Cutting such stones to the precise angles, placing them in a position so that their sides form a diagonal shaft that aligns with key astronomical coordinates (which must be calculated when most of the stars are not visible in that position, due to precession), embedding them in a massive structure comprised of millions of stones – some up to 70 tons – and doing it all without harder-than-stone tools or instruments or math, or even wheels, is pretty amazing stuff for a “primitive” culture. Or maybe that simplistic assumption is wrong.

Giza pyramids superimposed over the three stars of Orion's Belt.

(Davkal/CC BY SA 3.0)

The Mark of Early Advanced Civilizations?

One of the great enigmas presented by the ruins of many of these ancient cultures, most notably Egypt, is that they seemed to have arisen very quickly out of nothing. The Great Pyramid is supposed to have been built near the presumed beginning of this mysterious civilization. As author and rebel Egyptologist John Anthony West states, “The evidence for these advanced civilizations is almost universal in the sense that they all seem to be at their height near the beginning...practically all of them have deluge myths, practically all of them talk about earlier times, Golden Ages when people lived longer and were much more enlightened and advanced.”

• Has the Function of the Great Pyramid of Giza Finally Come to Light?
• Archeoastronomy Reveals Cosmic Dynastic Divide in Chinese Burial Pyramids
• Wild Animals in the Sky? Prehistoric Cave Art Suggests Ancient Advanced Astronomy

When Mesopotamia was being unearthed and some of the Biblical royal and city names could for the first time be confirmed as actual historical sites, there began to be good reason to take the stories of the Old Testament more literally, as well as some of the other myths and legends from prehistory.

There really might have been a flood of Biblical proportions, and a type of Noah’s Ark and the near loss of all that came before. It may not have happened exactly like the story, but there could have been massive flooding in some parts of the world that wiped away much evidence of prior civilizations. How else could civilization seem to develop out of nothing in Mesopotamia or Egypt 5000 years ago? The plant may have been chopped to the ground, but the roots would still be there.

‘The Deluge’ by Francis Danby, 1840.

( Public Domain )

• Top Image: Egyptian pyramids under a night sky. Several researchers believe astronomical alignments at this site point to signs of an ancient advanced civilization.
• Source: CC0

By Walter Cruttenden

• Extract from Chapter 1: Astronomical Alignments in ‘Lost Star of Myth and Time’ by Walter Cruttenden.

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

21-12-2025 om 23:09 geschreven door peter  

{ https://www.universetoday.com/ }

21-12-2025 om 22:56 geschreven door peter  

Overview

A former U.S. Army insider has come forward with explosive claims about classified UFO programs, revealing his identity publicly for the first time. In an interview released on the YouTube channel "Redacted," Jorge Pabon, known previously only as "JP," describes his years working on secretive military projects involving underground ocean bases, alleged extraterrestrial cooperation, and advanced healing technologies. The interview, which is the first in a two-part series, delves into Pabon’s background, the risks of disclosure, and the broader implications for UFO transparency in the United States.

Insider Profile: From Shadows to Spotlight

Pabon, who served as an E4 with the U.S. Army and was attached to the Seventh Group Special Forces unit, outlined his official capacity during the interview. “I was a 91 Juliet—that’s a quartermaster of chemical repairs. I deal with water purification and I also do translation,” Pabon explained, noting his proficiency in three languages and experience as a paratrooper. While Pabon emphasized he was not a Green Beret, he clarified his role as a "Red Beret," attached to, but not formally part of, the Special Forces.

This distinction, according to Pabon, is significant when considering how information about classified operations is compartmentalized. “People that are higher ranks…have to stay [in] secure facilities. The people that are lower enlisted…go out to do the missions,” he said, highlighting a trend where lower-ranked soldiers often witness extraordinary events but remain in the shadows.

Claims of Hidden Technologies and Secret Bases

Pabon alleges that during his service, he was involved with programs related to advanced technologies, including so-called 'med beds' capable of healing human bodies within hours. He referenced a deleted tweet by former President Donald Trump as having hinted at such technology. Additionally, he discussed his alleged work on clandestine bases both on the moon and under the ocean, suggesting that these installations are part of ongoing secret operations.

The interview also broached the subject of cooperation between the U.S. government and non-human entities. While Pabon refrained from providing specific details due to national security concerns, he implied that the scope of these activities is vast and involves “hundreds of thousands” of personnel worldwide who have had similar experiences. “We’re doing the grunt work. When I say ‘we,’ it’s not only me, it’s more soldiers like me,” he stated.

Risks and Reluctance in Disclosure

Coming forward with such claims, Pabon acknowledged, carries significant risks. He cited both personal safety concerns and the potential spiritual and interdimensional implications of the information. “It goes beyond…it connects to the spiritual and interdimensional realm of things. I can’t really talk about it because of national security,” Pabon said, adding that many of his peers are hesitant to speak out due to these risks.

Pabon’s testimony adds a new voice to the growing chorus of whistleblowers advocating for greater UFO transparency. While his claims have not been independently verified and remain controversial, the interview provides a rare glimpse into the mindset and experiences of those who allege firsthand involvement in the U.S. government’s most secretive UFO programs.

The Path Forward

As the conversation around UFO disclosure continues to gain momentum in Washington and beyond, testimonies like Pabon’s highlight the complexities involved in bringing classified information to light. The second part of the interview is expected to explore these issues further, potentially shedding more light on what some believe could be the most significant story of our time: humanity’s relationship with advanced non-human intelligence.

{ https://usubjects.com/ }

21-12-2025 om 22:44 geschreven door peter  

NASA Now Letting Mars Rover Drive Autonomously

NASA

Think self-driving cars are impressive? Try a self-driving rover on a planet over a hundred million miles away.

On Wednesday, NASA announced that its Mars Perseverance rover had pulled off a stunning feat of endurance and self-sufficiency. Over the course of four hours and 24 minutes, the intrepid little robot managed to traverse 1,350.7 feet, or about a quarter mile. It’s the most any Mars explorer has traveled in a single Martian day — or “sol,” in the lingo — and it did it pretty much on its own.

That’s because the rover is largely autonomous. The human scientists choose its destinations, but the bot’s navigation software charts its actual course. 

“Engineers at [Jet Propulsion Laboratory] meticulously plan each day of the rover’s activities on Mars,” NASA explained in a statement. “But once the rover starts driving, it’s on its own and sometimes has to react to unexpected obstacles in the terrain.”

One navigation tool is Enhanced Autonomous Navigation, or ENav, which can scan for potential obstacles and hazards up to 50 feet ahead of the rover, which is farther in advance than previous Mars robots, and automatically plan around them.

“More than 90 percent of Perseverance’s journey has relied on autonomous driving, making it possible to quickly collect a diverse range of samples,” said Hiro Ono, a JPL autonomy researcher and lead author of a new paper published in IEEE Transactions on Field Robotics describing ENav, said in the NASA statement.

A video captured by the rover’s navigation cameras shows its epic journey, which took place on June 19, 2025. The images were taken every 16 feet for the first third of the journey, and every 3.3 for the final two thirds, according to NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, and then combined with virtual frames which were created by reconstructing using the rover’s detailed data in a computer environment.

The distance feat comes as the Mars Perseverance rover reaches another milestone. After nearly five years of roaming the Red Planet, it’s now traveled almost 25 miles. With the help of autonomous software, JPL scientists hope that the rover will amble on at least another 37 miles more.

“As humans go to the Moon and even Mars in the future, long-range autonomous driving will become more critical to exploring these worlds,” Ono said.

More Mars: 

• NASA’s Mars Spacecraft Spinning Helplessly After Signal Lost

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

21-12-2025 om 22:36 geschreven door peter  

An Area 51 Worker, an Underground Encounter, and the Question We Can’t Ignore

Some stories don’t sound dramatic because they’re polished or rehearsed.
They sound dramatic because the person telling them never wanted to tell them at all.

This is one of those stories.

What follows is not a claim of proof, nor an attempt to convince. It is a human account—filtered through trusted witnesses—of something that allegedly happened deep beneath Area 51, a place already wrapped in secrecy, silence, and unanswered questions.

A Casual Lunch That Took an Unexpected Turn

The story begins far from restricted airspace and warning signs. It starts at a lunch table in Las Vegas.

Legendary big-wave surfer Garrett McNamara, known for riding record-breaking waves in Nazaré and for the HBO documentary series The 100 Foot Wave, was eating with close friends. Someone brought along another guest—an older man with a long career in aerospace and defense work.

At first, nothing seemed unusual. Until someone, half-jokingly, asked the question people always ask when Area 51 comes up:

“So… did you ever see any aliens?”

Instead of laughing, the man reportedly went pale.

That moment, according to those present, changed the entire mood of the table.

Taken Underground

After some hesitation, the man allegedly explained that during his time working at Area 51, he had been escorted deep underground, into sections far removed from aircraft testing and conventional military research.

What he claimed to have seen there was not technology.

It was a being.

Described as reptilian in appearance, the entity was reportedly restrained, possibly chained, and held in some form of custody. The most unsettling part of the account was not how the being looked—but how it communicated.

The man claimed the entity spoke to him telepathically, directly into his mind.

There were no words spoken aloud. No interpreters. Just a sudden, overwhelming sense of communication that caused immediate panic.

He ran.

According to those retelling the story, the experience affected him so deeply that he later went on long-term medical leave, struggling with trauma ever since.

Importantly, the people sharing this story emphasized something crucial:
they were not seeking attention, publicity, or belief. They were simply repeating what a visibly shaken man told them—reluctantly.

A Second Story: “The Mantis Beings Don’t Want Humans Present”

As unsettling as the first account is, it wasn’t the only one mentioned.

Another individual—allegedly involved in monitoring or transcribing communications—overheard references to activities at S-4, a rumored installation often associated with advanced or non-human technology.

The statement he overheard was chilling in its simplicity:

“The Mantis beings don’t want any humans in the room.”

This detail matters because mantis-like entities appear repeatedly across UFO and abduction lore. They are often described as:

• Tall
• Insectoid
• Highly intelligent
• Authoritative, almost supervisory

In many accounts, they are not experimenters—but overseers.

The implication is uncomfortable:
humans may not be participants, but observers tolerated only when allowed.

Area 51 Was Never Just About Airplanes

To understand why stories like this persist, we have to look backward.

Presidential adviser Harold Malmgren publicly stated that he was briefed on “other world technologies” by Richard Bissell, the CIA official credited with founding Area 51.

This suggests something important:
non-human technology may not have arrived later—it may have been part of the original reason Area 51 existed at all.

Before spy planes, the region was an atomic test site. And nuclear facilities, time and again, appear linked to unexplained aerial phenomena.

That connection raises a disturbing but logical question:
Was Area 51 created to hide aircraft… or to hide something far stranger?

Prisoner, Partner, or Something Else Entirely?

One of the most troubling elements of this story is the idea of a non-human entity being held captive.

It doesn’t sit comfortably—even with those who believe in extraterrestrial contact.

Some attempt to reconcile this contradiction by suggesting:

• The entity may not have been a true biological being, but a controlled avatar or drone
• There may have been conflict or rule violations
• Human–non-human cooperation may exist, but not without tension

Claims by figures like Phil Schneider echo similar themes—underground bases, restricted levels, and violent encounters following misunderstandings or breaches of protocol.

Whether these stories are literal, exaggerated, symbolic, or intentionally distorted remains unknown.

Why Serious People Take These Stories Seriously

What stands out in this account is not certainty—but caution.

The speakers repeatedly emphasize that these ideas should be handled with low conviction:

• Don’t dismiss them outright
• Don’t accept them as fact
• Look for patterns, not conclusions

Physicist Hal Puthoff is mentioned as someone who often hints at extraordinary possibilities without direct confirmation—encouraging researchers to connect dots rather than chase headlines.

This approach closely mirrors the thinking of Jacques Vallée, who argued that the UFO phenomenon may involve consciousness, control systems, and intelligence far stranger than “aliens in spaceships.”

The Fringe Is Where the Future Often Hides

History shows us something uncomfortable:
many ideas that later reshaped science and society began at the fringe.

That doesn’t mean every strange story is true.
But it does mean automatic dismissal can be just as unscientific as blind belief.

This account—of a traumatized worker, an underground encounter, and beings who may not want us present—forces us to confront a deeper question:

What if we are not as informed, as central, or as important as we assume?

No one is asking you to “take this to the bank.”

But perhaps it deserves a place on the table—examined calmly, critically, and without ridicule.

Because if even a fraction of these stories reflect reality, then the mystery isn’t just about aliens.

It’s about how long humanity has been standing at the edge of a much larger truth, unsure whether we’re guests… or something closer to bystanders.

And maybe that’s why these stories refuse to disappear.

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

21-12-2025 om 21:22 geschreven door peter  

Steven Spielberg drops trailer for UFO thriller 'Disclosure Day' revealing humanity's first contact with aliens

By STACY LIBERATORE, US SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY EDITOR

Legendary director Steven Spielberg, the visionary behind 'E.T.' and 'Close Encounters of the Third Kind,' has returned to the big screen with his latest project, 'Disclosure Day.' 

The first trailer offers a tantalizing glimpse into a story that promises to shake the world with revelations about alien life, while keeping much of the plot shrouded in mystery.

The star-studded cast includes Emily Blunt, Josh O'Connor, Colin Firth, Colman Domingo, Eve Hewson and Wyatt Russell.

Clocking in at two minutes and seven seconds, the teaser opens with a haunting question: 'If you found out we weren't alone, if someone showed you, proved it to you, would that frighten you?'

Viewers are then thrust into Blunt's world, as she portrays a meteorologist abruptly seized by a mysterious extraterrestrial force during a live broadcast. 

O'Connor plays a determined man on a mission to reveal the truth about alien life to the world.

The trailer is packed with cryptic crop circles, high-speed chases, eerie creatures and chilling hints that humanity may not be alone in the universe.

Adding to the buzz, cryptic billboards appeared in Times Square and Los Angeles on December 10, bearing the message: 'All will be disclosed — Spielberg 06.12.26.'

This is a developing story... More updates to come 

Emily Blunt portrays a meteorologist abruptly seized by a mysterious extraterrestrial force during a live broadcast

Adding to the buzz, cryptic billboards appeared in Times Square and Los Angeles on December 10, bearing the message: 'All will be disclosed — Spielberg 06.12.26'

Spielberg's fascination with UFOs and outer space began in childhood, when his father woke him one night to watch the Perseid meteor shower from a field near their home in Haddon Heights, New Jersey. 

That early wonder inspired his first amateur film project at just 17, a 1964 feature, length sci-fi movie called 'Firelight', which he screened at a local Phoenix theater for family and friends, charging $1 per ticket.'

That film seemed to set the director on path about the unknown, as hist 1977 'Close Encounters of the Third Kind' was released, followed by 'E.T' in 1982.

Both films were blockbuster hits, with ET becoming the highest-grossing film of all time for over a decade, surpassing Star Wars.

More recently, in 2005, Spielberg revamped the timeless 'War of the Worlds' that was one of that year's top films.

He has returned to his roots with 'Disclosure Day,' which was based on an his original story, but penned by r David Koepp, who helped write 'Jurassic Park,' 'Jurassic Park: The Lost World,' and 'War of the Worlds.'

'Just watched this chilling clip from Steven Spielberg's new UFO film Disclosure Day (trailer dropped [Tuesday])—Emily Blunt's weather forecast turns into straight-up ALIEN NOISES live on air, a UFO enthusiast posted on X.

'These eerie clicks and guttural sounds are TERRIFYING.' 

The trailer is packed with cryptic crop circles, high-speed chases, eerie creatures and chilling hints that humanity may not be alone in the universe

Steven Spielberg fascination with UFOs and outer space began in childhood, when his father woke him one night to watch the Perseid meteor shower from a field near their home in Haddon Heights, New Jersey

Josh O'Connor plays a determined man on a mission to reveal the truth about alien life to the world

Another fan shared online: 'For a half-century, every new Steven Spielberg release has always felt like a must-see event. 

'Already looking forward to seeing 'Disclosure Day' next year -- and I love that Emily Blunt is playing a Kansas City TV meteorologist. Midwest meteorologists are the best!'

Mysterious movie posters for the film recently appeared under the bright lights of New York's Times Square, showing an eerie eye peering through the silhouette of a bird.

While the image sparked many questions, the trailer appears to answer at least one.

In the newly released clip, there is a shot of bizarrely behaving robins that flying into an apartment where Blunt and O'Connor are sitting.

One social media users posted on X about the billboard, saying: 'This billboard in Times Square is not just promoting another movie. 

'It is signaling the return of the filmmaker who reshaped the medium itself. Spielberg, the most influential director in the history of cinema, the man whose last name is a synonym for Hollywood, is about to debut his first original sci-fi story in years.' 

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

20-12-2025 om 22:47 geschreven door peter  

UFO expert reveals why you're more likely to see an 'alien' over Christmas

By JORDANA SEAL, NEWS REPORTER

It's not just Santa people should be looking out for next week as experts say you're more likely to see an 'alien' over Christmas. 

In December, the UFO Reporting Centre see a huge surge in UFO sightings with a massive spike on Christmas Day.

Christian Stepien, technical director at the centre in America said the reason for the increased reporting could be due to festive firework and light displays. 

Ron James from the Mutual UFO Network told The Daily Beast: 'We do have a slight uptick twice a year in the summer and around the holidays. 

'There are a few reasons why people might be paying more attention: they might be off work, they're doing family activities and things they don't normally do, so there are more possibilities for people to encounter things. Then, of course, there's always Santa Claus and the reindeer. 

'If there is an uptick, I can understand that because there's a lot of people out during time shopping and doing things. 

'They might be looking up in the air so I can understand it if there is.'

In 2021, there were a whopping 75 sightings reported on December 25. 

File image: In December, the UFO Reporting Centre see a huge surge in UFO sightings with a massive spike on Christmas Day

Accounts of UFOs peaking during the festive period go all the way back to Christmas 1965.

Astronaut Wally Schirra Jr. was aboard Gemini 6 when he spotted an usual 'object'.

At the time, he stated: 'We have an object, looks like a satellite going from north to south, probably in polar orbit. Looks like he might be going to re-enter soon.You just might let me pick up that thing.'

Adding to his report, fellow astronaut Thomas Stafford noted: 'I see a command module and eight smaller modules in front. The pilot of the command module is wearing a red suit.' 

Mission control was sent into hysteria until Wally began to play Jingle Bells on the harmonica and revealed it was all a joke. 

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

20-12-2025 om 22:23 geschreven door peter  

Space challenge

The Space Shuttle program was the first full-fledged attempt to create a partially reusable space system. Within its framework, the shuttle itself was reused, as well as a pair of solid-fuel boosters that landed on parachutes. However, due to a number of technical compromises inherent in the program’s architecture and the immaturity of the technologies involved, it cannot be considered a success from an economic point of view. Yes, the shuttles were reused. However, their restoration and preparation for a new launch required much more time and money than had been anticipated during the development phase. As a result, the cost of launching a shuttle far exceeded the cost of launching a conventional rocket.

Several rocket designs were also developed that involved reusing first-stage engines, which, according to the designers’ concept, were to be dropped by parachute. However, these designs were never implemented. One of the main reasons for this was that the space industry was still predominantly the preserve of countries. With guaranteed government contracts, there was no point in rocket manufacturers reducing the cost of launches.

This situation began to change at the beginning of the 21st century with the emergence of a number of private companies ready to challenge the traditional aerospace giants. One of them was SpaceX. When the company first announced its plans to reuse the first stage of the Falcon 9 rocket, most experts were extremely skeptical. Some even openly ridiculed them. But SpaceX was ready to take on the challenge.

From parachutes to jet landing

Initially, SpaceX chose a traditional approach and attempted to implement the idea of returning the stage using parachutes. Attempts were made during the first two Falcon 9 launches. In both cases, the stage disintegrated in the atmosphere upon re-entry. Experts quickly realized that this was a dead end. Even if the stage had survived re-entry, the parachute system had a number of problems, one of which was its considerable weight, and another was that the stage would land in seawater, which could damage the engines.

Instead, a controlled reentry and jet landing scheme was chosen. To develop the necessary technologies, SpaceX built Grasshopper, a vehicle capable of vertical takeoff and landing. Testing began in 2012.

At the same time, engineers tried to obtain as much data as possible about the rocket’s behavior during actual space flight and actively experimented. In 2013, SpaceX succeeded in reactivating the engines of the separated first stage for the first time. And in 2014, the first controlled splashdown in the ocean took place. The company also began preparing autonomous barges, which were to be used for most of the landings. However, even then, most experts still did not believe in SpaceX. It was believed that even if the company recovered the stage, the cost of servicing it would negate the whole idea of reusability.

Historic landing

The first real attempt to land the Falcon 9 stage was made in January 2015. It failed. The next time, the company came extremely close to success, but during contact, the stage tipped over onto the barge and exploded.

On December 22, SpaceX made another attempt to recover a stage from space. The task was made easier by the fact that this time the landing was not on a barge, but on land. And this time, SpaceX was successful. The stage with the serial number B1019 made a historic landing at Cape Canaveral, proving the viability of the idea.

The final confirmation was to be the landing on a barge. After two more failures, on April 8, 2016, SpaceX finally succeeded in solving the problem. For the first time in history, humanity had a rocket with a reusable first stage.

The Reusable Revolution

However, even after all this, not everyone was ready to believe in success. After all, it is not enough to simply return the stage; it must be possible to launch it into space again, and it must be cheaper than using a new stage.

This task was accomplished a year later when the stage with the side number B1021 successfully returned from space for the second time. The final step was the commissioning of Falcon 9 Block 5, the “final” modification of the rocket, whose design incorporated the results of all SpaceX experiments. It was destined to become SpaceX’s workhorse, which ultimately changed the landscape of global space exploration. As of December 16, 2025, 523 of the 524 launches of this modification of Falcon 9 were successful.

As for reusing stages, out of 531 attempts, SpaceX failed to recover the stage in only six cases. This number is higher than the total number of Falcon 9 launches because its first stages are also used in Falcon Heavy launches.

Over the years, SpaceX has raised the bar for the maximum number of launches for first stages several times. Initially, it was 10 launches, then 20, and now 40. At the time of writing, the record was held by stage B1067. It has flown into space 32 times.

Thanks to a combination of unprecedented reliability and lower prices than its competitors, reusability has allowed SpaceX to capture a huge share of the global launch market. Falcon 9 launches are now effectively produced on an assembly line basis. It is launched more often than all other rockets combined.

Only in 2025 did several companies come close to repeating SpaceX’s success. Blue Origin has achieved the most significant results so far. On its second attempt, it managed to land the New Glenn rocket stage on a barge. China’s Landspace could have gone down in history as the third company to build a reusable rocket. However, the first attempt to land the Zhuque-3 stage was unsuccessful. Next in line are Long March 8, built by the China Academy of Launch Vehicle Technology, and Neutron from Rocket Lab.

SpaceX, in turn, is preparing to take the next step and create the first fully reusable space system in history. In recent years, the company has been actively testing its giant Starship rocket. If all goes well, its first landing could take place as early as 2026.

Whatever the future holds for all these rockets, one thing is certain: space exploration will never be the same again. And the beginning of this new path was laid ten years ago, when Falcon 9 managed to do what was previously considered impossible.

• Posted in Articles, Questions 

{https://universemagazine.com/en/news-en/science-en/ }

20-12-2025 om 22:12 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.

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

20-12-2025 om 21:45 geschreven door peter  

EXCLUSIVE - I was dead for 105 minutes and learned exactly how you get into heaven... then Jesus spoke six words into my mind and sent me back

A man who was clinically dead for an astonishing 105 minutes has said his experience in heaven gave him a mission: sharing what he learned about the afterlife with the world.

Dean Braxton, 68, told the Daily Mail how a simple hospital procedure to remove kidney stones in 2006 went horribly wrong, causing a massive infection that stopped his heart.

Doctors failed to resuscitate the Christian minister from Washington state, and had already begun filling out the paperwork before sending his body to the morgue, when he miraculously woke up.

Braxton said hospital staff dubbed him the 'Miracle Man' after doctors reported he suffered no brain damage and returned to perfect health, despite his body being clinically dead for one hour and 45 minutes.

Normally, the human brain begins to experience irreversible damage within five to 10 minutes of being without oxygen, highlighting the extraordinary nature of his survival.

Braxton said he was not afraid during his near-death experience (NDE), rather he felt overwhelming joy, peace and comfort - a revelation that transformed his outlook on life and gave him an 'eternal perspective.'

The Washingtonian said he was taken into another realm he called heaven, where he was met by dead relatives, angels, Jesus and God.

'It's not your time, go back,' Braxton recounted about what Jesus told him before sending him back to Earth. That moment, as he remembers it, has inspired his mission to help others encounter God themselves.

Dean Braxton (pictured) was clinically dead for 105 minutes and claims he journeyed into the afterlife

Braxton, a Christian minister, has been talking about his experience with audiences around the world for 20 years

Once in this realm, the minister said that everything he encountered, which he referred to as 'creations,' made him feel welcomed - even the trees and animals.

'I felt like everything was alive, nothing was dead - and I don't mean just alive in a sense of like grass that I have in my front yard. I mean, they were alive where they were intelligent,' Braxton told the Daily Mail.

'It seemed like everything had an attitude - a good attitude, not a bad one - and they were glad I showed up.'

The pastor went on to say he was greeted by his family members who had already passed away, led by his grandmother, Mary.

This welcome eventually extended to generations of Braxton's ancestors, including those he had never met during his lifetime.

Braxton said that this encounter was life-changing and revealed how important family is to God. He said it showed him that individual families matter just as deeply as the broader 'family of God.'

'I didn't know that until I got there, how important it was. So that really changed my outlook upon my own family,' Braxton said.

He added that his wife, Marilyn Braxton, had to adjust to an entirely new husband after his NDE.

Braxton said his wife, Marilyn Braxton (right), had to adjust to an entirely new husband after his near-death experience changed his perspective on life

Braxton said all of his family members who had previously passed away greeted him in heaven

(Stock Image) 

While the people Braxton said he encountered in heaven could speak verbally, he claimed the primary way those in the afterlife communicated was thought-to-thought.

Most often, he said this took the form of instant pictures rather than words. Braxton told the Daily Mail that if someone wanted to talk about a table, for example, they would directly transmit the complete picture of that table into his mind.

He said this concept was ideal because it gave the fullness of the thought instantly. There were no misunderstandings and no need for lengthy explanations, making every conversation deeply intimate, even if the meeting was brief.

Eventually, Braxton said he approached what he called 'the edge of heaven,' a place he couldn't physically describe but believed would mean leaving the realm of Earthly reality if he crossed that barrier.

Braxton (pictured) has been called the 'Miracle Man' after suffering no brain injuries despite being dead for one hour and 45 minutes

After reaching that point, Braxton detailed how Jesus communicated with him and said, 'It's not your time. Go back.'

As many near-death experiencers have expressed in the past, Braxton said he didn't want to leave heaven, but was told by Jesus three separate times that it was time to return to Earth.

The pastor said he still remembers viewing his lifeless body and the family and nurses gathered around him in the hospital before reentering the living world.

'I just remember that my heart started beating again, and the doctors ran over, and they started doing all their stuff,' Braxton told the Daily Mail. 'They didn't expect me to live even after I came back.'

Braxton explained that his NDE did not change his physical body, but did transform his entire outlook on the world and the message he spreads through his ministry.

'I came back a different person, and my wife had to adjust because she had a whole different husband,' he said.

Before he experienced near-death, Braxton said he made decisions based on what felt good or practical in the moment. After, however, he asks: 'How does this impact eternity?'

He realized that almost everything on Earth - possessions, achievements, even many problems - will eventually deteriorate or fall apart, so he has invested his time and energy in things that last forever, especially relationships with people and helping them connect with God.

'I want people to meet Jesus really badly because of my encounter with him,' Braxton said. 'Sometimes I'll go to a place, and people come, and I say, "It's not about me, it's about your encounter with God. You're here, he's here, that's all that matters."

'My words don't get you in, Jesus does.'

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

20-12-2025 om 21:31 geschreven door peter  

The puzzled voice of a US Air Force pilot reporting his terrifyingly close call with a UFO has been heard for the first time.

Traveling at supersonic speed, the unknown craft came within a 10 feet of the pilot's wing, who was conducting a secret mission over California.

The pilot, who identified as 'Troy 21,' told local air traffic control (ATC) in Los Angeles: 'This is going to sound weird, but I just had something pass underneath my wing, maybe a football-sized object right underneath my wing.'

During the September 17, 2024 incident, ATC is heard asking Troy 21 if he thought the object might have been a drone, but the stunned pilot couldn't tell.

Troy 21 replied that his sensor operator was looking for the UFO on the plane's cameras, adding that it was a 'dark gray cylindrical object' no bigger than a football.

The pilot quickly informed ATC that they had spotted the UFO again about 60 miles from where it first buzzed Troy 21's plane.

Later in the recording, another air traffic controller in Los Angeles can be heard on the radio dismissing the incident, saying that 'there was UFO reported here, but that's all taken care of now. So you don't have to worry about it... it's gone.'

Former FBI agent Ben Hansen told NewsNation the mysterious object must have be traveling at Mach 2, or twice the speed of sound, to get so far away so fast.

The strange object then moved off at high speed and was seen minutes later 60 miles away from the aircraft

The Air Force pilot was not able to tell if the object was a drone, but UFO expert and former FBI agent Ben Hansen said the chances of that were unlikely

'You hear them call out what they believe they're tracking this object, about 60 miles away, because they've got their own airborne radar,' Hansen told NewsNation.

'If true, within the two minutes when they called back, that would place this object going about Mach 2... That would absolutely, in my opinion, eliminate any prosaic explanation of a drone,' Hansen added.

Hansen was able to secure a copy of the recording after it was not released to the public.

According to the UFO expert, the air traffic controller involved reported the incident to the National UFO Reporting Center (NUFORC).

The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) recognizes NUFORC as one of the official channels pilots are able to use to make reports about UFOs and other strange sightings.

Hansen noted that this pilot and his crew were likely carrying out a drug interdiction mission for the US Department of Homeland Security when they encountered the tiny UFO.

He added that their aircraft, a Beechcraft 350C, has been converted by the government to house a sophisticated radar system.

Typically it can spot drug traffickers and other illegal activity, but during this flight, the military crew caught a glimpse of an unknown object around 2:30pm on a clear day.

'It's broad daylight. They got a good look at this thing, a cylindrical dark object that passes underneath their wing so close,' Hansen said.

'There's big problems with that happening in controlled airspace like they were and they weren't notified of any air traffic that was supposed to be in the area,' the former FBI special agent continued.

The host of UFO Witness, Ben Hansen, said the 2024 UFO report raises serious concerns since the object passed so close to a manned airplane

Troy 21's plane had advanced radar that reportedly tracked the UFO up to 60 miles away, but air traffic controllers later said there was nothing else to worry about and that the object was now 'gone'

Hansen noted that his team has not spoken to the crew of the aircraft at this point.

He added that because of the secret nature of their flight, the pilot and crew wouldn't be able to say much about the September 17 encounter.

Hansen's computer simulation seen during his interview is based completely on the audio recording of the incident.

The host of 'UFO Witness' on Discovery+ admitted that the object could have passed under the wing from a different direction than the one seen in the video, but this was the best guess of what happened.

'We do know their description is pretty exact,' Hansen added.

As for the possibility of the UFO being a drone, Hansen noted that military drones and some hobby drones can go as high as 20,000 feet (where this encounter took place) but he believes the chances it was drone are unlikely.

The UFO was spotted near what Hansen calls a 'military operations area,' but the object was not in that zone, meaning anyone flying a commercial drone would have had to report their activity.

The incident is one of the latest close encounters that have many Americans believing alien life has been visiting Earth for decades.

Now, some government officials are looking to expose whatever is allegedly being hidden, including Florida congresswoman Anna Paulina Luna.

After a classified meeting with Air Force whistleblowers, she revealed to The Grant Mitt Podcast this week that she 'absolutely believes' that the UFOs they and others have described are 'of non-human origin.'

Rep. Luna and others believe the Trump administration will soon declassify what the US government knows about UFOs and alien encounters.

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

20-12-2025 om 21:10 geschreven door peter  

• READ MORE: Joe Rogan uses three haunting words to predict Americans' reaction to UFO disclosure

By STACY LIBERATORE, US SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY EDITOR

The pilot of a private jet was left stunned after spotting a small, silver cylinder hovering near his wing thousands of feet above Rhode Island.

A newly released video of the live air traffic control (ATC) broadcast captures the tense moment, with the pilot telling the ground team, 'It appears to be standing still,' as the mysterious object floated beside him.

The object hovered near the wing tip, briefly pacing the aircraft, before drifting out of view.

ATC confirmed there were no other reports in the area and asked whether the object could have been a drone or a balloon.

Flying a Piper PA-32RT-300T Turbo Lance II, which seats up to five passengers, the pilot said he could see no attachments on the object and described it as 'astonishing' while maintaining an altitude of roughly 3,500 feet.

Other pilots in the region chimed in over the radio, with one remarking, 'I want to believe him,' while ATC joked, 'Good luck with the aliens.'

No official FAA or NTSB report has been made public, a common occurrence for unexplained aerial phenomena unless they pose a direct hazard.

The video was uploaded to the YouTube channel VASAviation, run by a corporate pilot and certified flight instructor from Spain, which regularly posts ATC frequency conversations. 

The pilot of a private jet was left stunned after spotting a small, silver cylinder hovering near his wing thousands of feet above Rhode Island (STOCK)

The clip, which has been viewed more than 14,000 times, was posted about a month ago, indicating that the sighting likely occurred around that time.

Recently, the broadcast made its way to social media, appearing on X this week, where it has quickly gone viral.

While the pilot did not believe the object was a balloon, some experts offered alternative explanations. 

Mick West, a British-American science writer and conspiracy theory investigator, suggested that a weather balloon was the most plausible scenario.

Other social media users speculated that it could have been a military test of new technology. 

'UFOs are a brilliant cover,' one X user commented, while another questioned, 'Do you think they'd really test it on a commercial flight?' 

Michael Harrison added, 'Truthfully? Yeah, I do. It also has the benefit of keeping the UFO narrative fresh.'

Aviation enthusiast Anthony Dohrmann, founder and CEO of AI-powered virtual caregiver company Electronic Caregiver, offered a more grounded perspective. 

A newly released video of the live air traffic control (ATC) broadcast captures the tense moment, with the pilot telling the ground team, 'It appears to be standing still,' as the mysterious object floated beside him. Pictured is flight data of the plane

Flying a Piper PA-32RT-300T Turbo Lance II (STOCK), which seats up to five passengers, the pilot said he could see no attachments on the object and described it as 'astonishing' while maintaining an altitude of roughly 3,500 feet

He suggested that the object could have been a weather balloon, which are often launched at night and carry cylindrical payloads.

'[They] have a kind of translucent material that can reflect city lights or catch sunlight higher up, making it hard to judge their true altitude,' Dohrmann explained. 

He added that such balloons can appear to hover or rise slowly, sometimes at about 1,000 feet per minute, and noted that many are launched in nearby Massachusetts.

Dohrmann also pointed out that amateur hobbyists frequently experiment with balloons and other small devices at lower altitudes. 

Read More

• 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 

'They're supposed to go in a certain direction, but things don't always work like they're supposed to,' he said.

The broadcast incident comes just months after a veteran US fighter pilot broke his silence about a near-collision with a UFO that defied the laws of physics and left the Air Force in stunned disbelief.

Major Ryan Bodenheimer, a retired F-15 and F-16 combat pilot, revealed in a YouTube video that one of the 'wildest experiences' of his career involved a close encounter with a rectangle-shaped UFO as he flew with his squadron over southern Wyoming.

Bodenheimer, who served in the Air Force for 13 years, said the large craft suddenly appeared out of nowhere during a training mission and looked to be on a collision course with his plane.

'Then I realized we weren't going to hit, and all of a sudden it came more into view, and it was a rectangular shape. This was like essentially a perfect rectangle,' Bodenheimer revealed in his video on June 8.

The military veteran described the UFO as being 30 to 50 feet in height and appearing to be glowing around the edges of its bright white body as it flew alongside the Thunderbirds, the Air Force's elite aerobatic demonstration squadron.

Bodenheimer added that this craft had no visible vapor trail coming from an engine, no radar signal, and was traveling at approximately 400 knots (460 miles per hour).

'It really was defying any type of aeronautical laws that I've learned,' Bodenheimer said.

Major Ryan Bodenheimer (pictured) spent 13 years flying F-15s and F-16s for the US Air Force and revealed this summer that he had two encounters with unexplainable UFOs over the US

Bodenheimer then revealed that his report to air traffic control left officials in 'dead silence' before the entire matter was apparently dismissed as an 'anomalous object.'

The strange rectangle UFO got so close to Bodenheimer's F-16 Falcon at 30,000 feet in the air that he said he could make out every detail of the craft before it eventually flew off and was never seen again.

When air traffic controllers in Denver asked Bodenheimer if he could give them any more details about the UFO, he revealed that it had a cream-colored interior that became transparent or had a hole in its center.

'I know it sounds like I'm talking about a delicious pastry, but this was the wildest experience I've ever had,' the fighter pilot joked.

The only evidence of Bodenheimer's sighting was a report made by air traffic control saying that an object had been spotted in the area where the Thunderbirds were training that day, but he never heard from anyone about the incident again.

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

20-12-2025 om 20:44 geschreven door peter  

Geoscientists Find Explanation for Mysterious Structures within Earth’s Mantle

For decades, scientists have been baffled by two enormous structures buried deep inside Earth. These anomalies may retain geochemical signatures distinct from the surrounding mantle. Yet, their origin remains enigmatic. Rutgers University geodynamicist Yoshinori Miyazaki and colleagues offer a striking explanation for these anomalies and their role in shaping Earth’s ability to support life.

The illustration shows a cutaway revealing the interior of early Earth with a hot, melted layer above the boundary between the core and mantle.

Image credit: Yoshinori Miyazaki / Rutgers University.

The two enigmatic structures, known as large low-shear-velocity provinces and ultra-low-velocity zones, sit at the boundary between Earth’s mantle and its core, nearly 2,900 km (1,800 miles) beneath the surface.

Large low-shear-velocity provinces are continent-sized blobs of dense, hot rock.

One sits beneath Africa; the other is perched under the Pacific Ocean.

Ultra-low velocity zones are thin, molten patches clinging to the core like lava puddles.

Both types of structures slow seismic waves dramatically, signaling unusual composition.

“These are not random oddities,” said Dr. Miyazaki, co-author of a paper published in the journal Nature Geoscience.

“They are fingerprints of Earth’s earliest history.”

“If we can understand why they exist, we can understand how our planet formed and why it became habitable.”

“Billions of years ago, Earth was covered by a global ocean of magma.”

“As it cooled, scientists expected the mantle to form distinct chemical layers, similar to frozen juice separating into sugary concentrate and watery ice.”

“But seismic studies show no such strong layering. Instead, large-low shear velocity provinces and ultra-low velocity zones form irregular piles at the planet’s base.”

“That contradiction was the starting point. If we start from the magma ocean and do the calculations, we don’t get what we see in Earth’s mantle today. Something was missing.”

The team’s model suggests that over billions of years, elements such as silicon and magnesium leaked from the core into the mantle, mixing with it and preventing strong chemical layering.

This infusion could explain the strange composition of large low-shear-velocity provinces and ultra-low-velocity zones, which can be seen as solidified remnants of what the scientists termed a basal magma ocean contaminated by core material.

“What we proposed was that it might be coming from material leaking out from the core,” Dr. Miyazaki said.

“If you add the core component, it could explain what we see right now.”

“The discovery is about more than deep-Earth chemistry.”

“Core-mantle interactions may have influenced how Earth cooled, how volcanic activity unfolded and even how the atmosphere evolved.”

“That could help explain why Earth has oceans and life, while Venus is a scorching greenhouse and Mars is a frozen desert.”

“Earth has water, life and a relatively stable atmosphere.”

“Venus’ atmosphere is 100 times thicker than Earth’s and is mostly carbon dioxide, and Mars has a very thin atmosphere.”

“We don’t fully understand why that is. But what happens inside a planet, that is, how it cools, how its layers evolve, could be a big part of the answer.”

By integrating seismic data, mineral physics and geodynamic modeling, the authors reconceived large low-shear velocity provinces and ultra-low-velocity zones as vital clues to Earth’s formative processes.

The structures may even feed volcanic hotspots such as Hawaii and Iceland, linking the deep Earth to its surface.

“This work is a great example of how combining planetary science, geodynamics and mineral physics can help us solve some of Earth’s oldest mysteries,” said study co-author Dr. Jie Deng, a researcher at Princeton University.

“The idea that the deep mantle could still carry the chemical memory of early core–mantle interactions opens up new ways to understand Earth’s unique evolution.”

“Each new piece of evidence helps fill in gaps in Earth’s early history, turning scattered clues into a clearer picture of its evolution.”

“Even with very few clues, we’re starting to build a story that makes sense,” Dr. Miyazaki said.

• J. Deng et al. 2025. Deep mantle heterogeneities formed through a basal magma ocean contaminated by core exsolution. Nat. Geosci 18, 1056-1062; doi: 10.1038/s41561-025-01797-y

{ https://www.sci.news/ }

19-12-2025 om 22:22 geschreven door peter  

Joe Rogan invoked three words that still haunt Americans more than two decades later while discussing how the country might react to an alien threat.

Speaking on his podcast, Rogan said such a world-changing event could evoke reactions similar to those seen 'after September 11th.'

'It was a horrible tragedy, but there was a beautiful result temporarily, where everybody was really united,' he said on Thursday.

'There were American flags on everybody's cars in Los Angeles. In New York, everyone was friendly.' 

Rogan added that Americans had all decided that we were together and that we were faced with a real threat and that we had to be united, suggesting a similar reaction would unfold in the event of visitors from another world.

Along with the widespread displays of American flags, there were spontaneous memorial vigils, national unity under the 'United We Stand' theme, lawmakers singing 'God Bless America,' and a surge in support for military and first responders.

The discussion was sparked when Rogan referenced a famous moment from history, recalling Ronald Reagan's speech at the United Nations. 

'Imagine how united we would be if faced with an alien threat from another world,' he said. 'We'd forget our differences and realize that, at the core, we're all connected.' 

Joe Rogan released a new podcast on Thursday, where he shared his feelings about how Americans could react to an alien threat

Rogan said such a world-changing event could evoke reactions similar to those seen 'after September 11th'

Rogan's guest, Michael P. Masters, a professor of biological anthropology at Montana Tech, agreed, expanding on the idea by suggesting humanity may be linked by a deeper, shared consciousness, an idea he said some researchers associate with the UFO phenomenon.

'If we recognize that we are just fingerprints on the same hand, then we're all iterations of the same overarching consciousness,' Masters said. 

'And there may be aspects of that reflected in the UFO phenomenon.'

Rogan has a long-standing obsession with the topic of extraterrestrial life and UFOs, and in his stand-up comedy. 

He often expresses the view that aliens 'are out there' and that the government might be covering up the truth.

The podcaster also believes that, given the 'hundreds of billions of galaxies' and stars in the universe, it is mathematically certain that 'for sure there's something else out here.'

While often focusing on the physical evidence, he has also explored alternative theories with guests, such as the idea that aliens might be interdimensional beings or human time travelers from the future, which aligns with Masters' theories.

Masters, who holds a PhD in anthropology from The Ohio State University, has gained attention beyond academia for his unconventional theories about UFOs. 

'Imagine how united we would be if faced with an alien threat from another world,' he said. 'We'd forget our differences and realize that, at the core, we're all connected.'

Rogan's guest, Michael P. Masters, a professor of biological anthropology at Montana Tech, agreed, expanding on the idea by suggesting humanity may be linked by a deeper, shared consciousness, an idea he said some researchers associate with the UFO phenomenon

In his books, including Identified Flying Objects and The Extratempestrial Model, he argues that some UFO encounters may not involve extraterrestrials at all.

Instead, Masters has proposed that the beings described in many sightings could be future human descendants traveling back through time, a hypothesis he has publicly discussed for years.

'The phenomenon may be our own distant descendants coming back through time to study us in their own evolutionary past,' he said in a 2019 interview.

While Rogan expressed confidence that something unexplained is occurring, Masters emphasized caution, noting that many claims surrounding UFOs and alien encounters require further study as stigma around the topic continues to fade.

Masters also argued the 'gray' alien archetype, large heads, big eyes, thin bodies, mirrors projected human evolution amid declining robustness, fertility issues and genetic engineering. 

He linked abductions involving reproductive material extraction to future humans addressing fertility crises, citing cases like Jim Penniston's Rendlesham Forest message, claiming the need for genetic material.

Rogan and Masters touched on government reverse-engineering, whistleblowers like Bob Lazar, transmedium craft, and Peruvian tridactyl mummies resembling grays, with Masters cautious pending further study.

Rogan expressed conviction in the phenomenon, while Masters shared a personal sighting and childhood 'tasking' inspiring his research. 

The episode framed UFOs as potentially intratemporal, urging discernment of encounter reports amid diminishing stigma. 

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

19-12-2025 om 22:10 geschreven door peter