The purpose of this blog is the creation of an open, international, independent and free forum, where every UFO-researcher can publish the results of his/her research. The languagues, used for this blog, are Dutch, English and French.You can find the articles of a collegue by selecting his category. Each author stays resposable for the continue of his articles. As blogmaster I have the right to refuse an addition or an article, when it attacks other collegues or UFO-groupes.
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Deze blog is opgedragen aan mijn overleden echtgenote Lucienne.
In 2012 verloor ze haar moedige strijd tegen kanker!
In 2011 startte ik deze blog, omdat ik niet mocht stoppen met mijn UFO-onderzoek.
BEDANKT!!!
Een interessant adres?
UFO'S of UAP'S, ASTRONOMIE, RUIMTEVAART, ARCHEOLOGIE, OUDHEIDKUNDE, SF-SNUFJES EN ANDERE ESOTERISCHE WETENSCHAPPEN - DE ALLERLAATSTE NIEUWTJES
UFO's of UAP'S in België en de rest van de wereld Ontdek de Fascinerende Wereld van UFO's en UAP's: Jouw Bron voor Onthullende Informatie!
Ben jij ook gefascineerd door het onbekende? Wil je meer weten over UFO's en UAP's, niet alleen in België, maar over de hele wereld? Dan ben je op de juiste plek!
België: Het Kloppend Hart van UFO-onderzoek
In België is BUFON (Belgisch UFO-Netwerk) dé autoriteit op het gebied van UFO-onderzoek. Voor betrouwbare en objectieve informatie over deze intrigerende fenomenen, bezoek je zeker onze Facebook-pagina en deze blog. Maar dat is nog niet alles! Ontdek ook het Belgisch UFO-meldpunt en Caelestia, twee organisaties die diepgaand onderzoek verrichten, al zijn ze soms kritisch of sceptisch.
Nederland: Een Schat aan Informatie
Voor onze Nederlandse buren is er de schitterende website www.ufowijzer.nl, beheerd door Paul Harmans. Deze site biedt een schat aan informatie en artikelen die je niet wilt missen!
Internationaal: MUFON - De Wereldwijde Autoriteit
Neem ook een kijkje bij MUFON (Mutual UFO Network Inc.), een gerenommeerde Amerikaanse UFO-vereniging met afdelingen in de VS en wereldwijd. MUFON is toegewijd aan de wetenschappelijke en analytische studie van het UFO-fenomeen, en hun maandelijkse tijdschrift, The MUFON UFO-Journal, is een must-read voor elke UFO-enthousiasteling. Bezoek hun website op www.mufon.com voor meer informatie.
Samenwerking en Toekomstvisie
Sinds 1 februari 2020 is Pieter niet alleen ex-president van BUFON, maar ook de voormalige nationale directeur van MUFON in Vlaanderen en Nederland. Dit creëert een sterke samenwerking met de Franse MUFON Reseau MUFON/EUROP, wat ons in staat stelt om nog meer waardevolle inzichten te delen.
Let op: Nepprofielen en Nieuwe Groeperingen
Pas op voor een nieuwe groepering die zich ook BUFON noemt, maar geen enkele connectie heeft met onze gevestigde organisatie. Hoewel zij de naam geregistreerd hebben, kunnen ze het rijke verleden en de expertise van onze groep niet evenaren. We wensen hen veel succes, maar we blijven de autoriteit in UFO-onderzoek!
Blijf Op De Hoogte!
Wil jij de laatste nieuwtjes over UFO's, ruimtevaart, archeologie, en meer? Volg ons dan en duik samen met ons in de fascinerende wereld van het onbekende! Sluit je aan bij de gemeenschap van nieuwsgierige geesten die net als jij verlangen naar antwoorden en avonturen in de sterren!
Heb je vragen of wil je meer weten? Aarzel dan niet om contact met ons op te nemen! Samen ontrafelen we het mysterie van de lucht en daarbuiten.
11-03-2026
Sunday Morning's European Fireball Was Probably Only a Few Meters in Diameter
Sunday Morning's European Fireball Was Probably Only a Few Meters in Diameter
The fireball above Germany on Sunday March 8th, 2026. It glowed for about 6 seconds, and some observers even heard it from the ground. Image Credit: ALLSKY7 / Bernd Klemt – AMS76 Herkenrath/DE
On Sunday March 8th, people in Belgium, France, Germany, Luxembourg, and the Netherlands watched as a fireball crossed the sky. It travelled from the southwest to the northeast, flaming for several seconds. Dedicated meteor cameras, mobile phones, dashcams, and other cameras all captured the event. Some observers even heard the event from the ground. Fragments from the meteor struck homes and buildings in Germany.
The most recent fireball to capture international attention before this one was the Chelyabinsk Meteor in 2013. That was likely an asteroid that exploded in the air before it hit the ground. The ESA is analyzing the event, and they say that fireballs like this can happen from every few weeks to every few years.
The ESA has a planetary defence team, and they're gathering available data to determine how large it was. Their current assessment is that it was several meters in diameter.
It's unlikely that any dedicated survey telescopes saw the object before it entered the atmosphere because of its timing and the direction of its travel. We have only ever detected 11 impactors prior to them entering the atmosphere, so its non-detection isn't unusual. Of course, the Vera Rubin Observatory and its Legacy Survey of Space and Time (LSST) will soon add to that number.
This map shows individual sightings of the fireball. The blue arrow shows the meteor's trajectory. A red circle under a person indicates the witness saw the phenomenon travelling from left to right. A green circle indicates the opposite. A light blue/grey smaller circle on a witness indicates they heard a delayed sound. A purple one indicates they heard a concurrent sound.
Image Credit: International Meteor Organization.
But many dedicated meteor cameras did capture it, including those in the AllSky7 fireball network.
News outlets are reporting that some fragments of the meteorite have already been recovered. Once they find their way to laboratories, analysis will reveal its chemical composition is and its classification. Meteorites are classified into groups according to their relationships to other recovered meteorites. Some meteorites come from the same parent body, and studying these relationships can reveal things about the early Solar System.
The ESA says they will provide an update as they learn more.
An astronaut ventures outside his ship near an alien planet in "Project Hail Mary." (Sony Pictures / Amazon MGM)
“Project Hail Mary,”a science-fiction novel that’s just been turned into abig-budget, big-screen movie, tells the story of an unlikely astronaut who unexpectedly encounters an alien during a desperate mission to save their respective civilizations.
The astronaut (played by Ryan Gosling in the movie) and the alien have to figure out on the spot whether they’re friends or foes. They also have to come up with a translation system that can accommodate two completely different ways of communicating.
That all makes for a do-or-die space drama reminiscent of “Apollo 13” — but the day is fast approaching when advances in astronomy and artificial intelligence could take a lot of the drama out of alien contact.
Seth Shostak, senior astronomer for the SETI Institute, says he wouldn’t be at all surprised if our first encounter with aliens came in the form of AI-to-AI contact.
“My guess is that the aliens are going to be machines, because that’s what we’re doing, right?” he says in the latest episode of the Fiction Science podcast. “We’re just in the early days of building machines that can do things that humans have had to do in the past. I’m sure that 100 years from now, the most capable intelligence on this planet will not be some sort of soft and squishy biological thing. That’s going to be a machine. And so, if we hear the aliens, I suspect that it’s more than likely that they, too, will be machines.”
If you’re worried that talking about AI and the search for aliens will require delving deeply into spoilers, never fear: Artificial intelligence doesn’t really play a role in the “Project Hail Mary” movie. It’s mentioned only once in the Andy Weir novel on which the movie is based — merely to explain why the planners of the do-or-die mission opted not to use AI. (We do get into spoilers toward the end of this post, however, so consider yourselves warned.)
For more than 65 years, astronomers have been searching the skies for radio signals that might have been sent out by extraterrestrial civilizations. “The usual approach is to build a receiver that can monitor thousands — well, today, millions of different channels simultaneously,” Shostak says. “And you can just look at how that capability has improved over time. It turns out it follows what’s called Moore’s Law … which says that the speed of electronics more or less doubles every two years.”
It takes a lot of computing power to monitor millions of channels, and Shostak says he’s certain that AI will accelerate the search for extraterrestrial intelligence, better known as SETI.
There’s already evidence of that: Last November, the Breakthrough Listen Initiative reported that an AI system developed in partnership with NVIDIA could process real-time data from telescopes searching for fast radio bursts at a rate more than 600 times faster than the current data pipeline. The system improved detection accuracy by 7% and reduced false positives by nearly an order of magnitude.
“This technology doesn’t just make us faster at finding known types of signals — it enables us to discover completely unexpected signal morphologies,” Andrew Siemion, principal investigator for the Breakthrough Listen Initiative, said in a news release. “An advanced civilization might use burst-like communications, modulated signals or transmission schemes we haven’t even imagined. This AI system can learn to recognize patterns that a human might miss entirely.”
AI tools could help astronomers overcome some of the obstacles facing the SETI quest. For example, one group of researchers recently reported that signals from alien civilizations could be scrambled by stormy space weather. Improved pattern-recognition software just might be able to pick out the signal hidden in the cosmic noise.
AI models could also come into play for interpreting alien messages once they’re found. But Shostak isn’t focusing so much on that challenge. “Even if we never understand what the aliens are saying, just the fact that we pick up the signal and can tell that it’s an artificial signal — in other words, made by some technology — that’s very interesting, because we’ve proved that they’re there,” Shostak says.
Understanding what the aliens are saying “would be interesting to know, but I would consider that a secondary benefit of finding their presence,” he says.
Seth Shostak is senior astronomer at the SETI Institute.
(SETI Institute Photo)
Shostak compares the challenge of deciphering alien messages to the challenge that archaeologists faced when they unearthed Egyptian hieroglyphs. “The best way to decipher the hieroglyphics is to have lots of people working on the problem, so just make them known,” he says. “I think the same sort of logic applies here.”
Douglas Vakoch, the president of METI International, has spent a lot of time working on the message translation problem. You can tell that from his organization’s acronym, which stands for “Messaging Extraterrestrial Intelligence.” He says AI can play a supporting role in detecting and decoding alien messages, but not the starring role.
“We need to realize that when we humans try to find patterns hidden in radio static, we may start out with some cut-and-dried guidelines that are very similar to the clear rules used by AI. But often we fail to realize exactly how our rules fall short, because we don’t lay them out clearly,” Vakoch told me via email. “AI forces us to get clear about how we are attempting to solve problems, and simply learning from AI how it is attempting to solve a problem can make us say, ‘You’ve missed something critical. You need to do this instead.’ ”
In his view, discovering an alien message is only half the battle.
“An even greater challenge will be understanding what it means. And that’s where humans will continue to play a role, even as AI becomes more computationally sophisticated in the years to come,” Vakoch said. “Deciphering a message from extraterrestrials will be much more ambiguous. AI might help us detect patterns in alien messages that humans would miss, but we’ll still need people to figure out what the message means.”
Now Shostak is acknowledging that he might have to pay up. “Next time I see you, I’ll buy you a cup of coffee,” he says. “We haven’t found them yet. … Maybe it was just wishful thinking, but honestly, I think that it was more based on the known rate of improvement in the experiments to find the aliens.”
Maybe SETI astronomers just need more time to take advantage of Moore’s Law and AI. Maybe it’ll take another 20 years, or 200 years, to follow through on the promise of “Project Hail Mary” and connect with alien travelers. But in the meantime, I’ll take that cup of coffee.
Here come the spoilers
If you haven’t already read “Project Hail Mary,” it can be tricky to keep track of the movie’s scientific twists and turns. Some of those plot twists have interesting parallels to real-world science, and I can’t resist pointing them out.
In the movie, the stars in our neighborhood are in trouble because of a type of infection that spreads between them. Andy Weir had to break the laws of physics to allow for the existence of organisms capable of soaking up high levels of solar energy. The good news is that real-world physics would rule out the threat that sets the plot of “Project Hail Mary” in motion. For more about the science behind the story, check out this interview with Weir, hosted by Leo Laporte. (Spoilers start at the 32-minute mark.)
One of the plot twists in “Project Hail Mary” allows Gosling’s character to travel to Tau Ceti at close to the speed of light. Thanks to Einstein’s theory of relativity, the interstellar traveler experiences the trip as lasting less than four years, even though Tau Ceti is nearly 12 light-years from Earth.
Mars endured an unprecedented solar superstorm, and European Space Agency (ESA) orbiters, the Mars Express and ExoMars Trace Gas Orbiter, captured the chaos, highlighting the Red Planet’s radiation dangers.
When the storm hit Earth in May 2024, it produced brilliant auroras remarkably close to the equator, and its impact on Mars was no less significant. ESA’s Mars orbiters recorded massive doses of radiation, delivering 200 days’ worth in a mere 64 hours, according to a new paper published in Nature Communications—far more than has ever been recorded before.
Mars Flooded with Solar Radiation
“The impact was remarkable: Mars’s upper atmosphere was flooded by electrons,” says lead author and ESA Research Fellow, Jacob Parrott. “It was the biggest response to a solar storm we’ve ever seen at Mars.”
The storm consisted of three separate events, all of which the team observed. These included a radiation flare, a high-energy particle burst, and a coronal mass ejection. As the high-energy, magnetized plasma and radiation from these events hit the Martian atmosphere, they stripped electrons from neutral atoms, filling the sky with charged particles.
The solar storm’s effects were most clearly felt in two layers of the Martian atmosphere, one at 110 kilometers above the surface and the other at 130 kilometers. The lower level saw a 45% increase in electrons, while the higher layer experienced an unprecedented 278% increase.
“The storm also caused computer errors for both orbiters – a typical peril of space weather, as the particles involved are so energetic and hard to predict,” adds Parrott. “Luckily, the spacecraft were designed with this in mind, and built with radiation-resistant components and specific systems for detecting and fixing these errors. They recovered fast.”
Radio Occultation
ESA is pioneering a technique called radio occultation, utilizing multiple platforms to investigate the Martian atmosphere. Presently, the technique is used with Earth-orbiting satellites, but the team is working to bring it to other planets in our solar system.
The radio occultation process begins with Mars Express sending a signal to the Trace Gas Orbiter just as it vanishes over the horizon. That disappearance is key to the process, bending the signal through layers of the atmosphere on its way to the Trace Gas Orbiter and providing information about those layers along the way. To complete the work, the team confirmed their electron density measurements using NASA’s MAVEN orbiter.
“This technique has actually been used for decades to explore the Solar System, but using signals beamed from a spacecraft to Earth,” said co-author Colin Wilson, ESA project scientist for Mars Express and TGO. “It’s only in the past five years or so that we’ve started using it at Mars between two spacecraft, such as Mars Express and TGO, which usually use those radios to beam data between orbiters and rovers. It’s great to see it in action.”
Earth and Mars
Analyzing the data brings differences between our world and its neighbor, Mars, into clearer focus. Earth’s magnetic field shields our planet, mitigating some of space weather’s strongest effects. That shielding minimized the effects of the 2024 storm in the upper atmosphere while diverting many particles either to the poles or away from the planet entirely.
“Being exposed to the solar flare covered in the article whilst being unprotected would be like getting the worst sunburn of your life in a couple of seconds,” Parrott explained to The Debrief. “However, people are not going to be walking around in short sleeves on the Martian surface for many centuries. So whilst we have our space suits, a thicker ionosphere doesn’t affect the safety of humans much.”
“However, the ionosphere is critical for communications. Sometimes our links to the surface are blocked by ionospheric phenomena,” Parrott continued. “So future missions must be equipped with relay equipment capable of totally different frequency bands, as the frequency of the transmission can affect how a signal travels through the ionosphere.”
“Possible other refinements might be implementing “solar flare blackout” periods in communication scheduling as there is no point using power to transmit to a rover or base on the surface when the ionosphere is going to block all the signals,” Parrott concluded.
“If Mars’s upper atmosphere is packed full of electrons, this could block the signals we use to explore the planet’s surface via radar,” Colin said, “making it a key consideration in our mission planning – and impacting our ability to investigate other worlds.”
With life support infrastructure necessary for mere survival on Mars, this highly radiation- and space-weather-susceptible environment will require further study ahead of any crewed missions.
Ryan Whalen covers science and technology for The Debrief. He holds an MA in History and a Master of Library and Information Science with a certificate in Data Science. He can be contacted at ryan@thedebrief.org, and follow him on Twitter @mdntwvlf.
3I/ATLAS, the unusual interstellar comet that continues to fascinate astronomers, appears to be keeping an intoxicating cosmic secret, new research has revealed.
The latest findings come courtesy of the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA), which has revealed evidence supporting an unusually large amount of methanol, a form of alcohol, hidden away within the ancient icy interstellar wanderer, which was first discovered last summer.
The discovery suggests that 3I/ATLAS may contain more of the organic molecule than any other comet known in our solar system.
Fingerprints of the Distant Cosmos
Nathan Roth, who led the recent research and is the primary author on a new study detailing his team’s findings, compares observing the oddball comet 3I/ATLAS to “taking a fingerprint from another solar system.”
“The details reveal what it’s made of, and it’s bursting with methanol in a way we just don’t usually see in comets in our own solar system,” said Roth, who is presently a professor at American University.
The recent detections were made possible with ALMA’s Atacama Compact Array in Chile, thanks to observations spanning several dates late last year while 3I/ATLAS approached its closest distance from the Sun.
As the comet’s surface grew warmer, gas and dust were released from its surface, which caused its surrounding coma to increase and brighten, forming a halo-like luminous appearance. Based on studies of the comet’s coma, Roth and his colleagues were able to collect information they liken to the chemical “fingerprints” of its material components—offering a rare look at an object that was assembled long ago by cosmic forces in a far-distant planetary system.
An Intoxicating Discovery
The team’s observations produced faint submillimeter fingerprints of the molecule hydrogen cyanide (HCN), which is a nitrogen-bearing organic molecule common in the composition of comets. That isn’t all the team’s observations revealed, however: there was also a surprising abundance of methanol (CH₃OH), a type of alcohol, present in the comet’s coma.
More specifically, ALMA’s observations indicate that the interstellar interloper seems to possess quite a lot of methanol in contrast to the amounts of hydrogen cyanide it carries, which Roth and his colleagues say is far greater than what “native” comets from within our solar system tend to display. Based on separate measurements on multiple dates, the team says that the methanol to hydrogen cyanide ratios they observed were about 70 and 120.
In short, 3I/ATLAS not only has a lot of methanol; it probably has a significant amount more than most other comets.
A Unique Formation Process
What the current evidence suggests is that 3I/ATLAS is very different from comets in our solar system, given that the conditions under which it was made appear to have been so alien compared with those which give rise to comets in our own solar system.
Based on past observations made by NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope, 3I/ATLAS appeared to possess a coma consisting mostly of carbon dioxide while it was still a significant distance from the Sun. The addition of the new ALMA data adds methanol into the mix, and a surprising abundance of it, at least as far as comets are concerned.
Additionally, the high-resolution imaging made possible by ALMA’s sensitive array of telescopes also helped to reveal the movement of molecules escaping from 3I/ATLAS, which pointed to some unique observations involving the differences between how the hydrogen cyanide and methanol molecules behaved during this process. Namely, while the former appears to originate mostly from the core of the comet, the methanol it produces seems to be abundant not only in its nucleus, but also in the ice particles populating its coma.
As 3I/ATLAS neared the sun, these individual ice particles each began to sublimate, effectively functioning like an untold number of miniature comets themselves, releasing their methanol stores in the process. While such processes are known from past observations of comets originating from within our solar system, these phenomena had never been observed in relation to an interstellar object before the historic journey of 3I/ATLAS.
As 3I/ATLAS neared the sun, these individual ice particles each began to sublimate, effectively functioning like an untold number of miniature comets themselves, releasing their methanol stores in the process. While such processes are known from past observations of comets originating from within our solar system, these phenomena had never been observed in relation to an interstellar object before the historic journey of 3I/ATLAS.
With the discovery of additional confirmed interstellar objects in the years ahead, astronomers hope that observations of their unique behavior and composition can help to unravel many of the existing mysteries associated with distant planetary systems, their origins, and their formation processes.
Roth and his colleagues’ recent paper, “CH3OH and HCN in Interstellar Comet 3I/ATLAS Mapped with the ALMA Atacama Compact Array: Distinct Outgassing Behaviors and a Remarkably High CH3OH/HCN Production Rate Ratio,” was accepted for publication in The Astrophysical Journal Letters.
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 atmicah@thedebrief.org. Follow him on X @MicahHanks, and at micahhanks.com.
On Sunday, March 8, 2026, at 6:55 p.m. Central European Time (7:00 p.m. Kyiv time), as most Europeans were preparing to end their weekend, a dazzling flash lit up the night sky. The object, moving from southwest to northeast, was visible for approximately six seconds.
During this short period of time, the space traveler managed to leave behind a bright trail (“tail”) that was observed by thousands of people in Belgium, France, Germany, Luxembourg, and the Netherlands. The flight ended with a spectacular breakup into several fragments, accompanied by a sound effect similar to distant thunder or an explosion, which was clearly audible on the surface.
Thanks to an extensive network of special meteor observation cameras, in particular the European AllSky7 system, the flight was recorded with high accuracy. In addition to professional equipment, the internet is filled with hundreds of amateur videos shot on smartphones and dashcams.
VARIOUS CITIES, SPAIN – AUGUST 12: Meteors are seen along the Milky Way in the sky on August 12, 2024 in Madrid, Spain. The Perseid meteor shower is reaching peak visibility in the coming days.
(Photo by Aldara Zarraoa/Getty Images)
A spiralling smoke trail lingered in the sky for minutes after the blast.
Credit: Marcel W. via IMO
“Space landing” in Koblenz
Although most such objects burn up completely in the atmosphere, this case turned out to be special. Small pieces of debris — meteorites — were reported to have fallen in Koblenz-Güls (Germany). One of them pierced the roof of a private house, according to DW.
Found fragments of the meteorite. Photo: merkurist.deFragments of the meteorite collected by eyewitnesses to the explosion. Photo: merkurist.de
Despite the dramatic nature of the situation, there were no reports of casualties or significant damage. However, the very fact that the debris reached the surface in a densely populated area aroused great interest among meteorite researchers.
Why were the telescopes silent?
The most interesting question in this story is: why did none of the large survey telescopes that scan the sky around the clock for asteroid threats warn of the approach of this object?
The answer lies in the physics and geometry of lighting. The object approached Earth from the “bright part of the sky,” which made it virtually invisible to ground-based optical instruments. The situation was exacerbated by the time of the event — almost dusk, when atmospheric illumination is at its maximum for detecting dim celestial bodies.
To date, astronomers have only managed to detect 11 objects before they entered the atmosphere. This shows that small bodies measuring several meters remain an extremely difficult target for modern astronomy, especially if they are “hidden” in the sun’s rays.
The scale of the planetary defense problem
From a global security perspective, objects of this size (up to 5-10 meters) do not pose an existential threat. They usually disintegrate in the upper layers of the atmosphere, turning into dust and small debris. However, as the case in Koblenz shows, even small fragments can reach the ground.
Infographic explaining the scale of the disaster in comparison with the size of asteroids. Source: ESA
ESA notes that such events are part of the natural life cycle of our planet. Space rocks of this size enter Earth’s atmosphere quite frequently — from once every few weeks to once every few years. However, most of them fall into oceans or desert areas, remaining unnoticed.
Scientists are now collecting data from all available sensors to determine the mass and composition of the meteorite. The debris found in Koblenz will be sent for laboratory analysis. This will allow us to learn more about the object’s origin: whether it came from the main asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter, or was a fragment of a comet.
Wow did you see that? This security cam footage caught a triangle UFO flying over the area of Slovakia toward the mountains. They heard it, but didn't see it...why? Because the infrared security camera can see things the human eye cannot. We can't see infrared, it's just a fact. This is not three orbs, it's a single craft and it's big! About the size of two city buses or more.
Scott C. Waring - UFO Sightings Daily, now back in Taiwan
Eyewitness states:
I was with two other friends on a hill in Prejta, and when I was next to the car, I heard something from the village that sounded like something disturbing the local geese. But when I walked towards the car, the sound grew louder and was still like geese, but it was also synchronized and artificial, and it passed over us and was loud, but we didn't see anything, even though we kept looking at the sky, we didn't see anything, even though it was a clear night and the moon was shining, so everything was clearly visible. This happened at 11:15 p.m. on February 25, 2026.
“Plots veegt een asteroïde je stad weg en niemand zag het aankomen”: waarom we volgende keer misschien minder geluk hebben
Zondag explodeerde een metersgroot stuk ruimterots onverwacht in onze atmosfeer. Een deel van deze meteoriet veroorzaakte zelfs schade in Duitsland. Maar het had erger kunnen aflopen. HLN-wetenschapsexpert Martijn Peters legt uit waarom niemand dit zag aankomen, hoe het komt dat wetenschappers de hemel halsstarrig afspeuren naar gevaarlijke asteroïden en wat de kans is dat zo’n exemplaar ons treft. “De ‘kleintjes’ vormen meer gevaar.”
Martijn Peters
Op zondag 8 maart trok een vuurbol – ook wel bolide genoemd – een vurig spoor door de hemel. Veel mensenwaren getuigen van dit zes seconden durende spektakel. Volgens ruimtevaartagentschap ESA was het stuk ruimterots dat in onze atmosfeer uiteenspatte en grotendeels opbrandde, groter dan een meter. Enkele brokstukken wisten de aarde te bereiken in Duitsland en zorgden voor schade aan huizen. Dit keer raakte niemand gewond, maar in de toekomst hebben we misschien minder geluk.
Want ons zonnestelsel is niet bepaald netjes: al miljarden jaren zweven er restjes rond. De meest tot de verbeelding sprekende zijn ongetwijfeld kometen. Die zijn honderden tot duizenden meters groot en bestaan uit stof, gruis en ijs. Wanneer ze in de buurt van de zon komen, verschijnt plots hun staart. Maar dat zijn er slechts enkele duizenden. Talrijker zijn de asteroïden. Wetenschappers schatten hun aantal op bijna anderhalf miljoen. Deze relikwieën van rots en metaal bestaan in alle maten en gewichten, van enkele meters tot honderden kilometers groot.
Bij verwoesting denken velen meteen aan reusachtige, kilometersgrote exemplaren. Dat is volkomen terecht. Een asteroïde van 1 kilometer veroorzaakt wereldwijde problemen. Eentje van 10 kilometer of meer, zoals degene die het einde van de dinosauriërs inluidde, vertelt haast niemand meer na. Maar over deze ‘joekels’ maken wetenschappers zich weinig zorgen. Dat heeft twee redenen. De kans op zo’n inslag is bijvoorbeeld ongelooflijk klein: minder dan één keer per half miljoen jaar, afhankelijk van de grootte. Daarnaast hebben we ze zo goed als allemaal (meer dan 90%) in kaart gebracht. Een wereldwijde ramp is dus extreem zeldzaam.
Waar astronomen eerder wakker van liggen en de hemel naar afspeuren, zijn de ‘kleintjes’. Die vormen het grootste gevaar voor ons. In de astronomie spreken we van een ‘potentieel’ gevaarlijk object als het aan twee voorwaarden voldoet. Zo moet het 140 tot 1.000 meter groot zijn, groot genoeg om een stad te verwoesten. De kans op zo’n inslag bedraagt niet langer honderdduizenden tot miljoenen jaren, maar slechts tienduizenden jaren. De andere voorwaarde is dat de ruimterots de aarde dicht genoeg nadert. Bij ‘gevaarlijk’ dichtbij spreken wetenschappers over 7,5 miljoen kilometer, knuffelafstand in ruimtejargon.
Op dit moment hebben astronomen wereldwijd 11.573 asteroïden van die grootte ontdekt. Een op de vijf (2.532) komt dicht genoeg bij de aarde en krijgt het label ‘gevaarlijk’ van ruimtevaartagentschappen. Gelukkig slaat meer dan 99% de komende 100 jaar met zekerheid niet in. Er is echter een grote ‘maar’ in dit hele verhaal. Volgens wetenschappers hebben we slechts 40% van de asteroïden tussen de 140 en 1.000 meter groot ontdekt. Met andere woorden, er zweven er duizenden rond die ‘gevaarlijk’ zijn en waarvan we het bestaan niet kennen.
Hoe komt dat? Wel, ze zijn goed in verstoppen. We nemen asteroïden waar met behulp van weerkaatst zonlicht. Vaak is dat bitter weinig. Een ruimterots van enkele honderden meters waarnemen tegen een donkere achtergrond is daarom een ware nachtmerrie voor wetenschappers.
Een ander probleem is dat we enkel de hemel afspeuren tijdens de nacht. Heel wat onontdekte asteroïden bevinden zich nabij de zon. Naderen ze ons van de dagkant, dan zien we ze pas voor het eerst als ze ons voorbijvliegen. Tot slot zijn er ook moeilijkheden door technische beperkingen van telescopen en onze atmosfeer. Wetenschappers hopen hier wel verandering in te brengen met nieuwe telescopen in de ruimte, zoals de NEO Surveyor van NASA en de NEOMIR van ESA.
Maar wat met asteroïden die 30 tot 140 meter groot zijn? Zijn die dan niet gevaarlijk? En hoeveel zijn er? Ook die kunnen een stevige impact hebben wanneer ze de atmosfeer binnenvliegen. Bestaan ze voor het grootste deel uit steen, dan barsten ze uit elkaar. Is het vooral ijzer en nikkel, dan overleven ze de tocht door de atmosfeer en slaan ze in. Maar zelfs bij een ontploffing hoog in de lucht ontstaat er schade op de grond door de schokgolf en de hitte. En het probleem bij deze asteroïden is dat we nog geen 3% van de naar schatting half miljoen exemplaren hebben ontdekt. Het risico op een inslag ligt hier op één per enkele honderden jaren.
Er zijn waarschuwingssystemen zoals ATLAS (Asteroid Terrestrial-impact Last Alert System) die de nachtelijke hemel in de gaten houden voor deze kleine onruststokers. Maar zij kunnen ons slechts enkele dagen tot weken voorbereidingstijd geven. De asteroïde van baan veranderen is niet meer mogelijk, maar we kunnen wel de impactzone evacueren. Tenminste, als de asteroïde ons niet vanaf de zon nadert. Nog niet zo lang geleden maakten we dit mee. Op 15 februari 2013 ontplofte onverwacht een asteroïde van 20 meter boven Tsjeljabinsk in Rusland. Duizenden gebouwen raakten beschadigd en 1.500 mensen raakten gewond.
De conclusie is duidelijk. Het zijn de kleine ruimterotsen waarvoor we moeten oppassen. We hebben wel een voordeel in dit hele verhaal: het grootste deel van de aarde is bedekt met water en slechts een klein deel van het landoppervlak is bewoond.
KIJK.
How Meteors and Meteorites Form: A Journey from Space to Earth
Comets, Asteroids, and Meteors | Learn all about what they are made of and how they differ
Vuurbal die gisteravond door de hemel kliefde, richtte ook ravage aan in Duitsland: wat was dat precies? En kan er nog iets volgen?
“Ik wist niet wat ik zag. Een fel brandend object met een witte staart aan de hemel.” Onze tiplijn 4040 stond zondagavond omstreeks 19 uur roodgloeiend. Van Langemark tot Lummen staarden Vlamingen vol ongeloof naar de hemel, waar een vuurbol te zien was. Wat was dat vreemde object? Is het gevaarlijk? En moeten we vrezen voor een nog grotere inslag? Marc Van den Broeck van Volkssterrenwacht Urania legt uit: “Mogelijk ging het om een steen ter grootte van een voetbal.”
Ingrid De Vos - Journalist bij HLN
“Dit was duidelijk geen klassieke vallende ster zoals we die in augustus zien. Dat is vaak maar een stofje van een komeet dat in een fractie van een seconde verdwijnt. Nu waren mensen getuige van een spektakel van vijf seconden, vol gloed en uiteenspattende lichtdeeltjes. Dat wijst erop dat een brokstuk ruimtepuin — een overblijfsel uit de tijd dat onze wereld miljarden jaren geleden werd gevormd — de dampkring is binnengedrongen. In eerste instantie dacht ik aan een kiezelsteentje, maar omdat er ook een luide knal is gehoord, gaan we er nu van uit dat het eerder een steen ter grootte van een voetbal was.”
Aanvankelijk werd gedacht dat het om een meteoor ging:
“Omdat die steen met een waanzinnige rotvaart op onze dampkring beukte. Ter vergelijking: de spaceshuttle remt af tot 10.000 kilometer per uur voor hij de atmosfeer induikt. Dit brokstuk vloog naar binnen met een snelheid van 100.000 kilometer per uur. Door de enorme wrijving met de lucht op 70 kilometer hoogte werd de steen zó heet dat hij begon te gloeien en uiteindelijk met een klap uiteenspatte. Dat is de flits die iedereen zag.”
“Deze vuurbol was uniek vanwege het tijdstip. Dergelijke vuurbollen zien we een paar keer per jaar, maar meestal ’s nachts, als iedereen nog in bed ligt, of in de vroege ochtend. Dat het zich ’s avonds voordoet, is veel zeldzamer. Voor mij is het al tien jaar geleden dat ik het nog eens meemaakte. Dat heeft te maken met de hoek waarin het ruimtepuin op ons af komt vliegen. Stel je de aarde voor als een auto die door een sneeuwstorm rijdt: als chauffeur zie je de vlokken op je voorruit afkomen, terwijl ze in je achterruit net van je wegvliegen. De ochtendhemel is de voorruit van de aarde, de avondhemel de achterruit. Gisteravond keken we dus door de achterruit en zagen we toch een voltreffer.”
“De lichtflits die we zagen was een stuk krachtiger dan we gewend zijn. En in Duitsland hebben ze het geweten: volgens de politie zijn daar meteorieten door daken geboord bij Koblenz, in de Hunsrück en in de Eifelin de regio Rijnland-Palts. Dat is voor onze contreien uiterst uitzonderlijk. Als er effectief brokstukken de grond raken, spreken we van een meteoriet. Meestal is zo’n steen al tot stof verpulverd voor hij de aarde raakt. Dan blijft het bij een mooi schouwspel en spreken we van een meteoor. Elke dag valt er zo’n ton kosmisch stof op onze planeet, maar dat gebeurt vrijwel altijd geruisloos.”
“Absoluut niet. Dit was puur gruis, materiaal dat al miljoenen jaren in de ruimte rondvliegt. Dat het gisteren onze baan kruiste, is puur toeval. Meteorieten die de grond raken, komen meestal in de oceaan of in onbewoond gebied terecht. Slechts 10 procent van de aarde is dichtbevolkt. We zijn gisteravond vooral getuige geweest van een zeldzaam en krachtig natuurverschijnsel.”
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DARPA Reveals the X-76: The X-Plane Aims to Combine Helicopter Freedom With Jet Speed
A DARPA artist’s concept for the X-76. The latest DARPA renderings likely incorporate a degree of artist’s license but make an interesting comparison with Bell renderings.
DARPA
DARPA Reveals the X-76: The X-Plane Aims to Combine Helicopter Freedom With Jet Speed
On modern battlefields, speed and unpredictability increasingly determine survival, and as we’ve seen in the current U.S.-Iran conflict, fixed airbases and long concrete runways that once enabled airpower are starting to look like strategic vulnerabilities.
On Monday, DARPA revealed its newest X-plane, the X-76, an experimental aircraft designed to combine the “go anywhere” flexibility of vertical lift with cruise speeds typical of conventional fixed-wing aircraft.
The X-76 is the centerpiece of DARPA’s Speed and Runway Independent Technologies program, or “SPRINT,” a joint effort with U.S. Special Operations Command. The program is designed to overcome one of aviation’s oldest trade-offs. Helicopters and other VTOL aircraft can reach tight spaces, but they are slower. Meanwhile, traditional fixed-wing aircraft are faster, but they require runways, which limit their operating range and survivability in contested environments.
DARPA has announced that, following a critical design review, Bell Textron has been selected to begin building the X-76 demonstrator, marking the program’s transition into manufacturing, integration, and ground testing ahead of a planned flight-test phase in early 2028.
“For too long, the runway has been both an enabler and a tether, granting speed but creating a critical vulnerability,” DARPA SPRINT program manager, Commander Ian Higgins, said in a press release. “With SPRINT, we’re not just building an X-plane; we’re building options.”
Concept art rendering of the X-76.
(Image Source: Bell Textron)
DARPA’s public renderings reveal the X-76 is not an operational aircraft meant to be fielded as-is. Rather, it is a proof-of-concept technology demonstrator meant to show that the underlying engineering can work at full scale, and to generate real-world data that could shape what comes next.
According to DARPA, the X-76 is intended to mature technologies needed for runway-independent operations while cruising at speeds exceeding 400 knots. The aircraft would also be capable of hovering and operating from unprepared surfaces. Together, those capabilities would blur the line between the roles traditionally filled by helicopters, tiltrotors, and fixed-wing aircraft.
SPRINT’s ambitions are also a window into how the U.S. military’s priorities have shifted as precision weapons and long-range surveillance proliferate.
As we saw in the opening days of the U.S.-Israeli war against Iran, fixed airfields can be mapped, targeted, and logistics hubs can become predictable choke points. Given this reality, having vertical lift capabilities is no longer about convenience. It is about dispersal, resilience, and keeping forces moving even when the infrastructure they once depended on becomes an enemy
The X-76 announcement is also notable for what it signals about the program’s maturity. SPRINT began Phase 1 in late 2023, then moved to Phase 1B in 2024 with contracts to two performers: Aurora Flight Sciences and Bell.
In 2025, DARPA selected Bell for the next stages, awarding it the contract for Phases 2 and 3 to complete design, build the X-plane, and move toward flight testing. The Critical Design Review completed this year marks a milestone that often separates promising concepts from hardware that can actually be assembled, tested, and flown.
In a release by Bell Textron, the company emphasized the symbolic and practical weight of the experimental plane’s designation. “Bell is honored to receive the X-76 designation and continue the spirit of American innovation, honoring the founding of the United States in 1776,” Bell’s senior vice president of engineering, Jason Hurst, said.
That 1776 reference is not subtle. DARPA says the X-76 designation was chosen specifically to coincide with the United States’ 250th anniversary, framing it as a “deliberate nod to the revolutionary spirit of 1776.”
Concept art rendering of the X-76. (Image Source: DARPA, Colie Wertz)
So what exactly is the X-76 trying to prove?
Publicly, DARPA and Bell are focused on the outcomes rather than the engineering schematics.
DARPA’s announcement highlights the aircraft’s target performance envelope. The demonstrator is designed to hover in austere environments and take off and land without prepared runways. At the same time, it is expected to sustain cruise speeds above 400 knots—roughly the territory of many turboprops and some regional jets, but far beyond conventional helicopter performance.
“The goal of the program is to provide these aircraft with the ability to cruise at speeds from 400 to 450 knots at relevant altitudes and hover in austere environments from unprepared surfaces,” DARPA’s SPRINT program description reads.
Bell, for its part, points to a specific enabling approach using “stop/fold” technology. In a statement, the company describes the X-76 build phase as a move toward a “brand-new X-plane with first-of-its-kind stop/fold technology,” intended to support runway independence with jet-like speeds.
A wind tunnel model of one of Bell’s fold-away rotor design concepts.
Bell
Concept art of the X-76 shows an aircraft equipped with folding rotor blades that can be stowed after transitioning to forward flight, reducing drag and enabling higher cruise speeds than traditional rotorcraft.
That basic idea—getting the lift of rotors without paying the aerodynamic penalty of carrying them through high-speed cruise—has been a recurring theme in vertical-lift engineering for decades. Rotors are incredibly efficient at hovering and low-speed flight, but they become a drag and vibration problem as speed climbs.
Crewed and uncrewed design concepts utilizing fold-away proprotor technology that Bell unveiled in 2024 as part of its work on DARPA’s SPRINT program.
Bell
Tiltrotors like the V-22 Osprey pushed that boundary, yet still live with compromises because the rotors remain a dominant feature at all speeds. If initial renderings are any indication, the X-76 demonstrator will be built around a more radical transition—vertical lift when you need it, streamlined cruise when you don’t—which could open a new design space.
DARPA’s own messaging puts it in operational terms. When Cmdr. Higgins calls the runway a “tether,” he is highlighting a modern vulnerability: speed is valuable, but speed tied to predictable basing can be strategically limiting.
By aiming for runway-independent operation, DARPA is implicitly pursuing a future in which aircraft can disperse, relocate, and operate from austere locations—complicating an adversary’s targeting problem while improving response times for time-sensitive missions.
The SPRINT’s partnership structure also hints at where this could matter first. Special operations forces routinely operate at the edge of infrastructure—short on time, long on distance, and often constrained by where aircraft can safely land.
A platform that could move people or critical cargo quickly without relying on long runways could, in theory, compress timelines for infiltration, resupply, or medical evacuation, while expanding the number of usable launch and recovery sites.
DARPA’s program description stresses that the demonstrator is meant to validate integrated concepts that “can be scaled to different-sized military aircraft,” suggesting that the endgame is not a single airframe, but a portfolio of possible derivatives.
An earlier (2021) Bell rendering showing three related design concepts with fold-away rotor blades.
Bell
There are good reasons DARPA is pursuing this as an X-plane effort rather than a direct acquisition program. “Runway-independent” and “high speed” are not especially difficult goals on their own. The challenge is combining them in a single aircraft with useful payload capacity, manageable complexity, and a transition mode that is both safe and repeatable.
The hardest part comes during the transition from hovering to fast forward flight. That is when mechanical stress, heat, and tricky aerodynamic forces all come into play at once. That is why the X-76 is being built as a test aircraft first. DARPA wants to find out what can actually be built, controlled, and reproduced reliably before considering large-scale production.
With its Critical Design Review now complete, DARPA says the SPRINT program is shifting to manufacturing, integration, assembly, and ground testing of the X-76 demonstrator. Flight tests under Phase 3 are scheduled to begin in early 2028.
For now, though, the X-76 is not really a new operational jet. It is a high-stakes experiment meant to answer a larger question: can the runway become optional without sacrificing speed or survivability?
A computer-generated image of a Bell future tiltrotor carrying out a personnel recovery mission over the sea. This was schemed under the HSVTOL project, which is closely related to SPRINT.
Bell
If the X-76 demonstrator succeeds, it will give the Pentagon something it increasingly values in an era of long-range precision fires and contested logistics: more ways to move fast without being predictable.
As SPRINT program manager, Cmdr. Higgins notes, “We’re working to deliver the option of surprise, the option of rapid reinforcement, and the option of life-saving speed, anywhere on the globe, without needing any runway.”
Tim McMillan is a retired law enforcement executive, investigative reporter and co-founder of The Debrief. His writing typically focuses on defense, national security, the Intelligence Community and topics related to psychology. You can follow Tim on Twitter:@LtTimMcMillan. Tim can be reached by email: tim@thedebrief.org or through encrypted email:LtTimMcMillan@protonmail.com
An artist's impression of 3I/ATLAS is shown as it passes near the sun, illuminating one side of the comet. On the side of the comet closer to the sun, the methanol gas is shown in blue, with icy dust grains still present in the gas. On the dark side of the comet, the hydrogen cyanide is shown in orange. Credit: NSF/AUI/NSF NRAO/M.Weiss
Comet 3I/ATLAS continues to make astonishing headlines, thanks to new findings from astronomers using the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA). This new research reveals that 3I/ATLAS is packed with an unusually large amount of the organic molecule methanol—more than almost all known comets in our own solar system.
"Observing 3I/ATLAS is like taking a fingerprint from another solar system," shares Nathan Roth, lead author on this research, and a professor with American University. "The details reveal what it's made of, and it's bursting with methanol in a way we just don't usually see in comets in our own solar system." The findings are posted on the arXiv preprint server.
ALMA observations of an interstellar visitor
Using ALMA's Atacama Compact Array in Chile, on multiple dates in late 2025, the team observed 3I/ATLAS as it approached our sun. As sunlight warmed its icy surface, 3I/ATLAS released gas and dust, forming a glowing halo (or coma) around its core. By analyzing this coma, astronomers revealed the chemical fingerprints of the material it is composed of, allowing them to study how objects might be made in another planetary system, without leaving our own.
The team focused on the faint submillimeter fingerprints of two molecules: methanol (CH₃OH), a type of alcohol, and hydrogen cyanide (HCN), a nitrogen-bearing organic molecule commonly seen in comets. The ALMA data reveal that 3I/ATLAS is heavily enriched in methanol compared to hydrogen cyanide, far beyond what is typically seen in comets born in our own solar system. On two observing dates, the team measured methanol-to-HCN ratios of about 70 and 120, placing 3I/ATLAS among the most methanol-rich solar system comets ever studied.
What the chemistry reveals about origins
These measurements imply that the icy material from 3I/ATLAS was formed by (or experienced) very different conditions than those that shape most comets in our own solar system. Previous work with the James Webb Space Telescope has shown that 3I/ATLAS had a coma dominated by carbon dioxide when it was far from the sun, and these new ALMA results add methanol as another unusual detail in its chemical inventory.
ALMA's high resolution for imaging also allowed the team to see how different molecules move away from the comet, revealing surprising differences between methanol and hydrogen cyanide. Hydrogen cyanide appears to come, for the most part, directly from the comet's core, or nucleus, which is typical for comets in our solar system. Methanol, on the other hand, appears to come from both the nucleus and from ice particles in the coma.
These tiny, icy grains act like mini-comets: as the object moves closer to the sun, where ice turns into gas, they also release methanol. Similar behavior has been observed in some solar system comets, but this is the first time the physics of such detailed outgassing has been traced in an interstellar object.
Comet 3I/ATLAS is only the third confirmed object ever seen passing through our solar system from interstellar space, after 1I/'Oumuamua and 2I/Borisov. Observations of these objects also revealed unusual properties. As astronomers continue to discover and study more interstellar objects, our understanding of planet formation in other planetary systems continues to grow more interesting.
Publication details
Nathan X. Roth et al, CH3OH and HCN in Interstellar Comet 3I/ATLAS Mapped with the ALMA Atacama Compact Array: Distinct Outgassing Behaviors and a Remarkably High CH3OH/HCN Production Rate Ratio, arXiv (2025). DOI: 10.48550/arxiv.2511.20845
Nathan X. Roth et al, CH3OH and HCN in Interstellar Comet 3I/ATLAS Mapped with the ALMA Atacama Compact Array: Distinct Outgassing Behaviors and a Remarkably High CH3OH/HCN Production Rate Ratio, The Astrophysical Journal Letters (2026). DOI: 10.3847/2041-8213/ae433b , iopscience.iop.org/article/10. … 847/2041-8213/ae433b
For a long time, space was considered a static and cold place, where huge chunks of rock flew through the void without any changes for millions of years. However, a recent study by astronomers at the University of Maryland (UMD) paints a very different picture. It turns out that binary asteroid systems are veritable “cosmic sandboxes” where objects constantly interact, exchanging material in a remarkable way reminiscent of a slow game of snowballs.
The boulder-covered moon Dimorphos 8.55 seconds before colliding with the DART spacecraft. On the right is the same image after correcting the lighting conditions of the surface and shadows cast by the boulders, revealing a fan-shaped pattern of stripes (highlighted in color for emphasis). Source: NASA/JHU-APL/UMD
Do you know that approximately one in six asteroids, or about 15%, flying past Earth are not actually “lone wolves”? These are binary systems where a smaller companion orbits a larger object. Previously, scientists believed that these pairs simply existed side by side under the influence of gravity, but data published in the Planetary Science Journal proves that there is a fairly close connection between them.
The research team discovered that asteroids constantly “throw” rocks and dust at each other. These are not catastrophic collisions that tear celestial bodies apart, but gentle, almost delicate touches. These “cosmic kisses” gradually change the landscape of both bodies, transforming their surface into a dynamic environment that is constantly evolving.
Photographic evidence: a fan of dust and rocks
The key to the discovery was unique footage taken by a NASA spacecraft as part of the DART (Double Asteroid Redirection Test) mission in 2022. Before deliberately crashing into the asteroid Dimorphos, the spacecraft managed to transmit extremely clear images of the surface to Earth.
This image of the asteroids Didymos and Dimorphos was taken by NASA’s DART mission seconds before the spacecraft crashed into Dimorphos on September 26, 2022. The impact on the smaller asteroid had a noticeable effect on the orbit of the larger one. Source: NASA/Johns Hopkins APL
While analyzing these images, Professor Jessica Sunshine and her team noticed something strange — bright fan-shaped stripes stretching across the entire surface of Dimorphos. At first, scientists blamed camera defects or errors in data processing. But after carefully cleaning up the images, it became clear: what they were looking at was the first visual confirmation in history of the natural transfer of material from one asteroid to another.
The Italian Space Agency’s LICIACube recorded the collision of the spacecraft with Dimorphos. This LICIACube image, taken seconds after the collision on September 26, 2022, shows rocky debris flying off the smaller asteroid. Source: ASI/NASA
“It looked as if someone had thrown space snowballs at the asteroid,” Professor Sunshine shares his impressions. These stripes are nothing more than “scars” from low-speed impacts left by material flying in from a neighboring asteroid.
Solar engine
Where does this “traveling rock” come from? Scientists explain this phenomenon as the YORP effect (the Yarkovsky–O’Keefe–Radzievsky–Paddack effect). This is a complex term for a fairly simple process: solar radiation heats the uneven surface of a small asteroid, causing it to spin faster and faster.
When the rotational speed becomes critical, centrifugal force begins to exceed the weak gravity of the asteroid. Rock fragments, dust, and boulders lying on the surface of Didymos’ parent body simply fly off into open space. And since Dimorphos is nearby, a significant portion of this “debris” falls into its gravitational trap and gently settles on its surface. Thus, the Sun acts as an invisible engine, spinning asteroids into cosmic sprinklers.
Detective work with pixels
Finding these stripes was a real challenge. In the original DART images, they were almost invisible due to complex lighting and the play of shadows from numerous boulders. Tony Farnham and Juan Rizos from the University of Maryland have developed special algorithms to “remove” excess light and shadows.
The Didymos-Dimorphos binary asteroid system in Space Engine
The probe’s flight itself complicated the task: it approached its target in almost a straight line, which meant that the angle and lighting angle remained virtually unchanged. This created the illusion that the stripes might just be an optical effect. However, the creation of a 3D model of the asteroid put everything in its place. The more accurate the model became, the clearer the fan-shaped structures appeared. They were concentrated along the equator of Dimorphos — precisely where, according to the laws of physics, the material ejected from Didymos should have landed.
Physics of “soft” collisions
We are used to cosmic speeds of thousands of kilometers per hour, but in the world of double asteroids, everything is different. Harrison Agrusa’s research showed that debris from Didymos traveled toward the moon at a speed of only 30.7 cm/s. This is three times slower than a person walking at a normal pace in a park.
The Didymos-Dimorphos binary asteroid system in Space Engine
It is precisely thanks to this “turtle-like” speed that unique patterns are formed. Instead of creating huge craters, the rocks gently sink into the loose soil (regolith), leaving long rays of deposits. This is not destruction, but a gradual “increase” in the mass of the moon due to its “big brother.”
Checking the theory with sand
To finally confirm their hypothesis, scientists led by Esteban Wright conducted a series of experiments on Earth. At the UMD Institute of Physical Sciences and Technology, a special setup was created: balls were thrown at different angles into a container filled with sand mixed with colored gravel (simulating the surface of Dimorphos).
High-speed cameras captured an incredible resemblance: when the “stranger” hit the boulders on the surface, some of the matter was deflected, while other matter penetrated through the cracks, forming the very fan-shaped rays that we see in photographs from space. Computer modeling at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory confirmed these results.
Next stop: the Hera mission
This discovery radically changes our understanding of how to protect Earth from asteroid threats. If we want to change the trajectory of an asteroid, we need to understand how dynamic it is and how it exchanges mass with its moons.
The next major event will take place in December 2026, when the European Space Agency (ESA) mission called Hera will arrive at the Didymos-Dimorphos system. It will conduct a thorough “inspection of the scene” after the DART impact. Scientists hope to see the very stripes that may not have been completely destroyed by the explosion and gain new insights into how this amazing cosmic conveyor belt works.
The energy crisis is not just a global problem. If there are civilizations in the Universe that are thousands or millions of years ahead of us, their appetite for energy should be enormous. Instead of building thousands of thermonuclear reactors in an attempt to reproduce the processes inside stars, they could have taken a simpler and more logical approach: take a ready-made star and “wrap” it in a giant solar battery. New research by astronomers suggests that such objects should be sought not near bright giants, but near the modest “babies” of our Universe.
The Legacy of Freeman Dyson
Dyson sphere through the eyes of Copilot AI
The very idea of megastructures surrounding stars belongs to the outstanding theoretical physicist Freeman Dyson. Back in the 1960s, he suggested that any sufficiently developed civilization would sooner or later face a shortage of resources on its planet. One solution could be a “Dyson sphere” — a colossal structure made of mirrors or solar panels rotating around the sun, intercepting almost 100% of its radiation.
Interestingly, Dyson himself initially referred to his idea as a “little joke” in conversations with journalists. However, over the years, he changed his mind, recognizing the concept as entirely viable and logical from a thermodynamic point of view. Today, the search for such structures is one of the priorities of SETI (the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence project), since a Dyson sphere is the most striking “technosignature” that can be detected from a distance of many light years.
Why are white and red dwarfs ideal candidates?
In a new study published in Nature, astronomer Amirnezam Amiri from the University of Arkansas has revisited traditional views on where exactly to look for these megastructures. Most previous theories have focused on solar-type stars, but Amiri suggests turning our attention to low-mass stars: white dwarfs and red dwarfs.
Red dwarfs are the most common stars in our galaxy. They burn extremely slowly, providing energy to the surrounding space for trillions of years. White dwarfs are the remains of stars that have already “retired,” but they continue to steadily emit heat over enormous periods of time.
According to Amiri’s calculations, these stars are the best sources for long-term energy supply to megastructures. They are stable, not prone to frequent catastrophic outbursts (like some massive stars), and allow for the creation of an energy system that will operate almost indefinitely.
Compactness – the key to saving resources
One of the main problems with building the Dyson sphere is the incredible amount of materials required. To encircle the Sun at the distance of Earth’s orbit, it would be necessary to literally break down several planets the size of Jupiter into atoms. However, the rules of the game change for red and white dwarfs.
The habitable zone (where temperatures allow water to remain liquid) around a red dwarf is located very close to the star, typically between 0.05 and 0.3 astronomical units. For a highly developed civilization, this is the ideal place:
Material savings.The sphere will have a much smaller radius, which means it will require significantly fewer resources to build.
Efficiency. The closer the panels are to the light source, the more compact and manageable the entire energy farm is.
Stability. A compact sphere is more easily held in place by the star’s gravity, reducing the risk of structural failure.
James Webb in search of alien engineers
The most practical part of Amiri’s research is devoted to how we can detect such objects from Earth. According to the laws of physics, the Dyson sphere cannot simply absorb energy — it has to release it somewhere (discharge excess heat), otherwise it will simply melt. This heat is emitted in the form of infrared light.
To an outside observer, a star in a “wrapper” will look very strange:
Abnormal dimness. The star will appear significantly fainter than it should be based on its mass.
Spectrum change.Instead of visible light, the observer will see a uniform “black” spectrum of infrared radiation.
Artificial signals. If the sphere consists of separate panels (a so-called “Dyson swarm”), they can create unusual flickering or radiation bursts that cannot be explained by natural processes.
No dust. Building the sphere requires a huge amount of matter, so the aliens will most likely “clean” the system of dust and asteroids, using them as raw materials.
Amiri claims that modern observatories, such as the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), already have sufficient sensitivity to detect such infrared anomalies. We already have the tools to detect aliens — we just need to know what to look for.
Are we alone in the Universe?
Of course, Dyson spheres remain pure theory for now. Any such prediction is based on a number of assumptions: that aliens exist, that they develop according to similar physical laws, and that they want to build such large-scale objects in the first place. Perhaps they have found even more sophisticated ways of obtaining energy that we cannot even imagine.
However, such studies make us think about the future of humanity. If we want to survive as a species in the long term, we will have to become a “Type II civilization” on the Kardashev scale — one that completely controls the energy of its star. Studying possible Dyson spheres around white dwarfs is not only a search for “little green men,” but also an attempt to glimpse our own future millions of years from now.
Freeman Dyson once said that “The Universe is far more interesting than we can imagine.” And if somewhere in the depths of the Milky Way a red dwarf suddenly began to shine unusually dimly, it is possible that someone’s giant energy farm has been operating there for millions of years.
All you need to know about missing former Air Force General with 'UFO secrets'
All you need to know about missing former Air Force General with 'UFO secrets'
Retired US Air Force General William Neil McCasland vanished from his New Mexico home, with FBI joining search as journalist warns disappearance poses grave national security concerns
William Neil McCasland's disappearance has sparked major concerns
(Image: United States Air Force)
NEED TO KNOW: UFO Expert and Ex-US Air Force General Vanishes
Former US Air Force General William Neil McCasland has mysteriously vanished from his home in Albuquerque, New Mexico, sparking fears over national security.
The 68-year-old, who has unprecedented knowledge of UFO sightings, disappeared without a trace after leaving his house on foot. He left his mobile phone behind and is believed to have medical issues.
Local police have issued a Silver Alert and the FBI has joined the desperate search for the missing general.
McCasland's disappearance has raised serious concerns due to his potential knowledge of highly classified extraterrestrial information. During his Air Force career, he oversaw research at the secretive Wright Patterson Air Force Base, long linked to UFO conspiracies and the infamous Roswell incident.
Investigative journalist Ross Coulthart warned the situation amounts to a "grave national security crisis". "This is a man with some of the most sensitive secrets of the United States in his head," he said on his Reality Check podcast.
Coulthart believes the timing is suspicious, coming after President Trump's recent comments about possible government knowledge of extraterrestrial contact. "The fact that Gen. Neil McCasland has disappeared off the face of the earth is a grave national security crisis for the United States of America," he added.
However, neither law enforcement nor the FBI have publicly acknowledged the disappearance as suspicious or linked it to McCasland's former military position.
Disappearance of US Airforce General with 'top-secret UFO knowledge' is ‘national crisis'
A former US Airforce General has vanished after leaving his New Mexico home this week, sparking concerns about his well-being as well as the release of secrets he might know
The disappearance of a former US Airforce General who is believed to have unprecedented knowledge on reported UFO sightings has gone missing from his home in Alberquerque, New Mexico, sparking serious concerns for his safety.
Law enforcement in the area report that William Neil McCasland vanished without a trace after leaving his home on foot.A 'Silver Alert'has been made by the local County Sheriff’s Office, who have also asked the public to come forward with any information that may help find the retiree, who is believed to have "“medical issues", according to reports
Since the initial alert made,the FBIare believed to have joined the search efforts for the 68-year-old.
It is unknown why McCasland decided to leave his house or where he was heading, although he is believed to have his mobile phone behind before hisunexplained departure.
The Bernalillo County Sheriff’s Office issued a Silver Alert for the missing retiree, seeking help from the public in locating him
(Image: Bernalillo County Sheriff’s Office)
McCasland's disappearance has sparked national security concerns, with some stressing that the former Airforce general may have secret and highly sensitive knowledge relating to UFO sightings.
Investigative journalist Ross Coulthart told listeners to his “Reality Check” podcast that the incident ammounted to a "grave national security crisis", especially if McCasland has knowledge of supposed "extraterrestrials".
“This is a man with some of the most sensitive secrets of the United States in his head", warned Coulthart.
At one point during his illustrious Airforce career McCasland is believed to have overseen research at the secretive Wright Patterson Air Force Base, a site long associated by conspiracists with classified space weapons programmes as well as possible extraterrestrial sightings such as the infamous Roswell incident.
Coulthart also postured that the disappearance may be connected to recent comments by PresidentDonald Trumpon the possibility of the US Government having knowledge of extraterrestrial contact.
Trump has told the US Pentagon to "release" files related to aliens and UFOs
(Image: Getty)
“The timing is screechingly relevant,” Coulthart said. “The fact that Gen. Neil McCasland has disappeared off the face of the earth is a grave national security crisis for the United States of America."
"This is a man with some of the most sensitive secrets of the United States in his head."
While Coulthart is not alone in believing McCasland's disappearance to be suspicious, neither law enforcement nor the FBI have publicly acknowledged it as being so.
There has also been no official links made to McCasland's former position in the Airforce.
If governments confirm nonhuman intelligence, research suggests reactions will vary widely.
People with high intolerance of uncertainty may struggle more when familiar assumptions about reality change.
Preparing mental health systems to support vulnerable individuals will be important if disclosure occurs.
Source: Greg Rakozy / Unsplash
On February 19, 2026, President Donald Trump directed federal agencies to begin identifying and releasing government files related to unidentified anomalous phenomena (UAP)—the official term now used for what were once called UFOs. The order calls for agencies to locate and release records tied to UAP investigations, including materials addressing evidence of potential nonhuman intelligence, fueling worldwide curiosity about what the U.S. government may reveal after decades of unexplained aerial events.[6]
If those records confirm the presence of nonhuman intelligence, the implications would be profound. But perhaps the most fascinating question would be:
How would humans respond to learning we are not alone?
When reality changes
Human beings rely on mental models to navigate the world. These models include assumptions about the structure of reality and our place in the universe. When new information challenges those assumptions, people must update their understanding of how the world works.
Research on individuals who have experienced events that dramatically changed their worldview suggests that such moments can trigger existential questioning, confusion, and a strong drive to make sense of the new information.[1] This type of schematic reevaluation can, for some, cause emotional distress that has been referred to by psychologists as ontological shock.
But responses to worldview-challenging experiences are not uniform. Studies of anomalous experiences show that individuals vary widely in how they interpret and integrate such events, with reactions ranging from awe, curiosity, and reflection to distress or uncertainty.[2]
Psychologist Tim Lomas has suggested that these moments may sometimes be better understood as “ontological fracturing.” Rather than implying the collapse of a worldview, the concept describes situations in which previously stable assumptions develop cracks that require reinterpretation and gradual integration over time.[7]
His 2024 study published in the Journal of Humanistic Psychology provides some evidence of how people respond to disclosure-like information. Using grounded-theory analysis of posts on X (formerly Twitter), the study identified four broad response categories: concern, positive reactions, skepticism or indifference, and critical engagement.[7]
Rather than producing a single collective reaction, the findings revealed a wide range of responses. Even events interpreted by some observers as partial “disclosure” did not produce universal shock. Instead, reactions reflected diverse interpretations shaped by prior beliefs, expectations, and attitudes toward the topic.
This research underscores the idea that new information never lands in a neutral environment. It is processed through existing beliefs and characteristics of unique individuals. And it is important to anticipate a spectrum of responses.
What we do know is that reality changes produce periods of uncertainty, which can be harder for some to process than others.
Uncertainty and psychological reactions
While most people adapt during periods of uncertainty, some people have what is called intolerance of uncertainty, which is a dispositional trait where individuals perceive unknown or ambiguous situations as highly stressful, threatening, or unacceptable.
Intolerance of uncertainty exists along a spectrum in the population. However, research suggests that roughly 10 percent of individuals show elevated levels of this trait, which is strongly associated with anxiety, worry, and difficulty tolerating ambiguous situations. Individuals high in this trait often experience a strong need for predictability and control, and may respond to uncertainty with excessive worry, avoidance behaviors, or attempts to impose clear explanations even when definitive answers are not available.[4,5]
Intolerance of uncertainty contributes to multiple forms of psychological distress, including anxiety disorders, obsessive–compulsive disorder, and depression.[4]
For some people, uncertainty about nonhuman intelligence may lead to curiosity or philosophical reflection, while for others the same uncertainty may feel deeply disturbing. When clear explanations are not immediately available, people often try to fill the gap with narratives that restore a sense of certainty.
In uncertain environments, speculation, misinformation, and conspiracy theories can spread quickly because they offer simple explanations for complex or ambiguous events.
Another factor that will raise uncertainty and is likely to shape public reactions is whether nonhuman intelligence is perceived as a threat. Research in risk psychology shows that emotional responses to unfamiliar events are strongly influenced by perceived threat rather than objective risk, particularly when a phenomenon is both unknown and difficult to control.[8]
Reported UAP encounters over the past several decades generally describe objects that appear to be engaged in observational behavior rather than hostile actions. Military pilots and other observers frequently report objects maneuvering near aircraft or appearing to monitor training exercises, but there are no widely documented cases of direct attacks associated with these events.[9]
Context reduces uncertainty. That's why it is important that government disclosure provides adequate information in a thoughtful way that gives people the opportunity to make sense and meaning out of information being released.
Vulnerable populations and disclosure
These differences in how people tolerate uncertainty suggest that some individuals may have greater difficulty integrating a discovery of nonhuman intelligence than others.
Individuals who already struggle with psychological stress or high levels of anxiety and/or intolerance of uncertainty may find a sudden shift in humanity’s understanding of reality particularly challenging. People whose identity or worldview is strongly tied to existing beliefs about reality or religious beliefs may also need time to reconcile the discovery with their current frameworks for understanding how this new information affects them.
In these situations, mental health professionals may play an important role in helping individuals distinguish evidence from speculation and integrate new information into coherent personal narratives.
A discovery like no other
History shows that humanity has repeatedly faced discoveries that reshaped how we understand our place in the universe—from recognizing that Earth wasn't flat or that the sun does not revolve around it, to modern science’s view of our tiny planet in a vast and ever-expanding cosmos. Each of these moments required people to reconsider long-held assumptions about our reality, and societies ultimately incorporated those discoveries into new ways of understanding the world.
What is in the files that will be released remains unknown. The vast majority of our society will likely adapt to whatever is revealed. However, waiting to find out before thinking ahead about the needs of vulnerable populations could put a significant strain on our societies and mental health care systems.
If nonhuman intelligence becomes a confirmed reality, mental health professionals will not only need to adapt their own perspectives but also help lead the way in guiding individuals through the process of making sense of a larger and more complex universe than humanity has previously imagined.
References
Argyri, E. K., Evans, J., Luke, D., Michael, P., Michelle, K., Rohani-Shukla, C., Suseelan, S., Prideaux, E., McAlpine, R., Murphy-Beiner, A., & Robinson, O. C. (2025). Navigating groundlessness: An interview study on dealing with ontological shock and existential distress following psychedelic experiences. PLOS ONE, 20(5), e0322501. https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.03225…
Baum, S. D., Haqq-Misra, J., & Domagal-Goldman, S. D. (2011). Would contact with extraterrestrials benefit or harm humanity? A scenario analysis. Acta Astronautica, 68(11–12), 2114–2129. https://arxiv.org/abs/1104.4462
Carleton, R. N. (2012). The intolerance of uncertainty construct in the context of anxiety disorders: Theoretical and practical perspectives. Expert Review of Neurotherapeutics, 12(8), 937–947. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/23002938/
Morriss, J., Goh, K., Hirsch, C. R., & Dodd, H. F. (2023). Intolerance of uncertainty heightens negative emotional states and dampens positive emotional states. Frontiers in Psychiatry, 14, 1147970. https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC10073686/
Lomas, T. (2024). Unidentified anomalous phenomena (UAP) disclosure as ontological shock? Exploring diversity among social media responses to a congressional UAP hearing. Journal of Humanistic Psychology. https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/00221678241251871
"This very arid soil houses a treasure," ecologist María Fernanda Pérez told Live Science after the Atacama Desert produced a rare winter bloom.
Flowers popped up in the driest place on Earth earlier this month thanks to a strong El Niño, which increases precipitation in Chile.(Image credit: César Esteban Pizarro Gacitúa)
For the first time in a decade, plants in theAtacama Deserthave started flowering in the middle of winter, covering a portion of the driest desert on the planet in white and violet hues.
The rare bloom is the result of rain in northern Chile during the Southern Hemisphere's fall. About 0.4 inches (11 millimeters) fell in mid-April, which combined with the morning fog known locally as "camanchaca" to activate vegetation that can remain dormant for up to 15 years.
Two of the first species to color the landscape this year were the "pata de guanaco" (Cistanthe grandiflora), with its bright fuchsia-colored flowers, and the white "sighs of the field" (Nolana baccata).
The flowering has occurred in an area covering between 115 and 155 square miles (300 to 400 square kilometers), said César Pizarro, head of the Biodiversity Conservation section and Scientific Research at the National Forestry Corporation (Conaf) in Atacama. A full flowering desert, which occurs in spring (September to October) due to winter rains, can extend over about 5,800 square miles (15,000 square km), with more than 200 species in bloom.
Typically, the desert flowers bloom in spring in years when at least 0.6 inches (15 mm) of rain falls between June, July and August. This is related to the El Niño phenomenon — which increases precipitations in Chile above average.
A photo shows a rare winter bloom in the Atacama, with fuschia "pata de guanaco" (Cistanthe grandiflora) dotting the landscape.(Image credit: César Esteban Pizarro Gacitúa)
The bloom happened in the Southern Hemisphere's winter thanks to a strong El Niño in April.(Image credit: César Esteban Pizarro Gacitúa)
A lizard crawls along the desert floor during the rare winter bloom.(Image credit: César Esteban Pizarro Gacitúa)
In 2015, the rains fell in March, activating the vegetation in winter, just as is happening now.
That year it also rained in July and August, causing the desert to explode with flowers in spring.
If precipitation occurs in the coming weeks, atmospheric humidity would be higher than normal, potentially causing a flowering desert in September. However, this is not forecast.
A lone yellow flower rises above the brush, thanks to the increased autumn rainfall fueled by the El Niño weather pattern.(Image credit: César Esteban Pizarro Gacitúa)
A closeup of a yellow flower dotted with water.(Image credit: César Esteban Pizarro Gacitúa)
A cactus blooming in the Atacama this summer, which is the Southern Hemisphere's winter.(Image credit: César Esteban Pizarro Gacitúa)
Alternatively, if La Niña occurs soon, the flower patches blooming this winter are probably the last ones that will be seen this decade (because of the El Niño, La Niña cycles), and there will not be a huge flowering next spring, Francisco Squeo, president of the Institute of Ecology and Biodiversity (IEB) and researcher in the Department of Biology at the University of La Serena, told Live Science.
The rare winter flowering of the Atacama Desert is not without problems. The main one, according to María Fernanda Pérez, associate professor of ecology at the Pontifical Catholic University of Chile , is that pollinators do not arrive as quickly as the plants react to rain. "If the seeds germinate and flower but the pollinators do not arrive, the seeds run out," she told Live Science.
Fuschia Cistanthe grandiflora flowers, shown on the left and right, were among the first flowers to pop up thanks to a rare desert bloom in the Atacama. The purple flowers (center) bloomed later. (Image credit: César Esteban Pizarro Gacitúa)
This is likely happening now, as there are currently no bees, moths, beetles or other pollinators present due to low temperatures, according to Pizarro. Only mites and a few reptiles, birds and mammals have been seen.
Herbaceous plants — like those flowering in the Atacama Desert — have a self-pollination mechanism that activates if a pollinator does not arrive in a given year. But this backup occurs late in flowering.
A major scientific unknown is what happens if this decoupling between flowering and pollinators caused by anomalous events , persists over time, as no seeds would be added to the reserve of those that remain dormant for the next reactivation.
"This very arid soil houses a treasure. [A] seed bank that has been resilient," she said.
With climate change, anomalous events like this year's winter bloom could become more frequent, potentially meaning annual plants do not reproduce. The flowering desert would only be left with bulbous plants, drastically reducing its diversity, or leaving room for invasive species, Pizarro said.
The Atacama Desert in northern Chile is often described as the driest place onEarth. With almost no rainfall, intense ultravioletradiation, and extremely salty soils, parts of the region are so extreme that scientists often liken its arid environment to the surface of Mars.
And yet, remarkably, even despite the harsh surface conditions, a variety of organisms continue to survive below ground.
A recent study from the University of Cologne has revealed that microscopicworms known as nematodes form surprisingly diverse communities throughout the Atacama Desert. Published in Nature Communications, the research shows that underground biodiversity increases with increasing moisture, while elevation and temperature determine which nematode species can survive in different parts of the desert.
Life Beneath an Extreme Landscape
Nematodes are among the most common varieties of tiny lifeforms that are found in soils worldwide. These minuscule worms often play a crucial role in helping control microbes and are important for moving nutrients through the soil. They live in many places, from the deep sea to the Arctic. As a result, they are useful for studying how life adapts to harsh environments.
“Soils are important for the performance of an ecosystem, for example, for carbon storage and nutrient supply,” said Dr. Philipp Schiffer of the University of Cologne’s Institute of Zoology and a co-author of the study. “This is why understanding the organisms — not microbes, but multicellular animals — that live there is so important.”
Although the Atacama Desert has been studied for decades, the diversity of animals living in its soils remains poorly understood.
Studying Atacama’s “hidden” Lifeforms
The research team surveyed nematode populations across six different regions of the Atacama Desert to better understand how life persists in these extreme conditions. The sites spanned a range of environments, from moist, high-altitude areas with abundant vegetation to salty desert plains blasted by ultraviolet light, and even rare oases fed by fog.
The team collected soil samples from diverse habitats, including sand dunes, salt flats, riverbeds, and mountain slopes, to assess nematode biodiversity and population structure. Their analysis focused on both the variety of species present and the reproductive strategies used by nematodes in each setting.
When the conditions are right, the Atacama Desert transforms.
Image credit: Abriendomundo/Shutterstock.com
Asexual Survival Strategies
The findings revealed clear differences in nematode communities across the Atacama. In the highest and most inhospitable regions, many species reproduce asexually through parthenogenesis, generating offspring without fertilization. This pattern supports the hypothesis that asexual reproduction provides an advantage in extreme environments, where finding mates can be challenging.
The study also found that nematode diversity was highest in areas with more moisture. Regions with greater rainfall supported a wider range of species, while temperature differences shaped which communities could survive in each area.
Flowers popped up in the driest place on Earth earlier this month thanks to a strong El Niño, which increases precipitation in Chile.
(Image credit: César Esteban Pizarro Gacitúa)
Fragile Ecosystems in a Changing Climate
The results suggest that stable soil ecosystems can exist even in extreme places, but these systems may be more fragile than previously believed. In some areas, the researchers found simpler food webs, showing that these ecosystems also have less ecological complexity.
“In some of the examined regions, simplified food webs indicate that these ecosystems are already damaged and may therefore be more susceptible to disruptions,” the researchers noted.
Understanding how organisms adapt to extreme environments could become increasingly important as climate change expands arid conditions across many parts of the planet.
“In light of increasing global aridity, which is affecting more and more regions worldwide, these results are becoming increasingly relevant,” Schiffer said.
The research demonstrates that basic ecological patterns, such as precipitation and altitude, continue to influence biodiversity even in some of the planet’s most extreme environments. The Atacama Desert continues to serve as a valuable natural laboratory for understanding how life endures at the limits of environmental tolerance.
Austin Burgess is a writer and researcher with a background in sales, marketing, and data analytics. He holds a Master of Business Administration, a Bachelor of Science in Business Administration, and a Data Analytics certification. His work combines analytical training with a focus on emerging science, aerospace, and astronomical research.
UFOs Seen Leaving Ocean Near Virgin Islands Feb 24, 2026, UFO UAP Sighting Paranormal News
UFOs Seen Leaving Ocean Near Virgin Islands Feb 24, 2026,UFO UAP Sighting Paranormal News
Date of sighting: Feb 24, 2026
Location of sighting: Virgin Islands
Source: NUFORC
Guys this is rare, I mean really really rare. This is several small glowing UFOs coming out of the ocean off the coast of the Virgin Islands. You can see the water and myst rising from all around it and the lights rising up and out of our atmosphere. Since the earth is 75% covered in water, it makes sense that 75% or more of the alien bases on Earth are also underwater. Here is absolute proof of that.
Scott C. Waring - UFO Sightings Daily
Eyewitness states:
I was in my backyard and when I look up I saw it and I have a video.
The recent “Doomsday” Oarfish sightings in California, Mexico, and Vietnam are raising concern
The recent “Doomsday” Oarfish sightings in California, Mexico, and Vietnam are raising concern
Geophysicist Stefan Burns has reported a recent surge in sightings of Oarfish, often nicknamed the “doomsday fish” because of their alleged connection to major natural disasters. These unusual deep-sea creatures have reportedly been spotted or washed ashore in several places recently, including California, Mexico, and Vietnam.
Oarfish, known in Chinese as a dizhenyu or, earthquake fish, can grow to more than 30 feet in length and typically inhabit the deep ocean, far below the surface. Because they rarely appear near shore, beach stranding's are considered extremely uncommon. Some theories suggest they rise toward the surface when they somehow sense seismic activity before an earthquake,
Kiyoshi Wadatsumi, a scientist who studies earthquakes at the nonprofit organization e-PISCO, said, “Deep-sea fish living near the sea bottom are more sensitive to the movements of active faults than those near the surface of the sea.”
According to Kiyoshi Wadatsumi’s explanation, the recent sightings of oarfish in California, Mexico, and Vietnam may indicate that unusual activity is occurring in the deep waters of these regions.
In a recent example, two rare oarfish, both still alive, washed ashore near Cabo San Lucas in Mexico, drawing attention from locals and researchers alike. (The second video shows an oarfish that had washed ashore in Mexico and was still alive.)
The emails organising the meeting involved redacted participants and an outside source, raising fresh questions about who was involved and why a supposedly closed programme was still being discussed at the highest levels of government.
PHOTO Pixabay
For years the Pentagon insisted its secret UFO study programme quietly ended in 2012. But newly released Navy recordsobtained through the Freedom of Information Act have reignited the mystery.
The documents reveal that a classified briefing about the Advanced Aerospace Threat Identification Program, or AATIP, took place in March 2022 at a secure military facility in Washington.
The Advanced Aerospace Threat Identification Program (AATIP) was a classified initiative within the U.S. Department of Defense focused on studying unidentified aerial phenomena (UAP). Established in 2007, AATIP was spearheaded by the former Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, who advocated for its creation based on concerns that these unexplained sightings could pose national security risks. The program was funded through a budget allocation linked to the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) and operated largely outside public view.
How a Secret UFO Programme First Began
AATIP first emerged publicly in 2017 when reports revealed that the United States Department of Defense had quietly funded a programme to study unidentified aerial phenomena, commonly called UFOs. The initiative began in 2007 unde
The effort was strongly supported by former Nevada senator Harry Reid, who believed unusual aerial encounters reported by military personnel deserved serious investigation. The programme focused on incidents involving aircraft and objects performing manoeuvres that appeared to defy known technology.
Many of these encounters involved Navy pilots who reported observing mysterious craft moving at extreme speeds or changing direction in ways conventional aircraft could not achieve. The best known example is the famous 'Tic Tac' incident involving the USS Nimitz carrier strike group in 2004.
The programme was reportedly run by counterintelligence officer Luis Elizondo, who later resigned from the Pentagon in 2017 and became a public figure in the push for greater transparency on UFO investigations.
Although the Department of Defense later acknowledged AATIP existed, officials maintained the programme had a limited scope and was closed years earlier.
What FOIA Emails Reveal About the 2022 Briefing
The newly released Navy records tell a more complicated story. Two separate FOIA requests submitted nearly a year apart both produced the same responsive document. It was a chain of emails arranging a 23 March 2022 briefing covering AATIP and another Pentagon office called the Airborne Object Identification and Management Synchronisation Group, known as AOIMSG.
The event was divided into three sessions. One was unclassified and scheduled to last about 50 to 55 minutes followed by a short question session. Two other presentations were classified at the TS SCI level, meaning Top Secret Sensitive Compartmented Information.
Those classified discussions took place inside a secure facility known as a SCIF located in Roosevelt Hall at the National War College on the Fort McNair campus in Washington.
Perhaps the most striking detail in the released records is that the original invitation email was labelled as coming from a non Department of Defense source. This suggests the briefing was arranged through communication between government officials and at least one outside individual or organisation.
However the identities of the participants remain hidden. All names and contact details were removed from the documents under FOIA privacy rules.
Redacted Names Hint at Possible Key Figures
Although the released documents conceal the names involved, the structure of the FOIA requests provides clues.
One request specifically searched for emails sent to or from Brennan P McKernan, who has previously been reported as a director connected to the Pentagon's UAP task force. Another request required the keyword 'Elizondo' and sought communications involving Luis Elizondo as a private citizen.
The fact that the email chain was considered responsive to both searches strongly suggests those names appear somewhere within the redacted header fields such as the sender or recipient lines.
This does not prove either individual attended the briefing. But it indicates that their names were at least mentioned in connection with the planning or communication surrounding the event.
All identifying information was removed under FOIA exemption rules protecting personal privacy.
Why the Briefing Raises New Questions About AATIP
The March 2022 presentation is notable because it took place years after AATIP was officially said to have ended.
The briefing itself was described as an 'AATIP AOIMSG Presentation,' suggesting that the earlier programme was being discussed alongside its successor office. AOIMSG was established in 2021 to coordinate the Pentagon's approach to unidentified airborne objects.
The presentation reportedly included discussion of congressional reports and multiple 'Tic Tac' incidents. That wording is significant because public attention has largely focused on a single encounter involving the USS Nimitz. The use of the plural term suggests that other similar events may have been examined during the classified briefing.
While the released emails do not confirm who attended or what information was presented behind closed doors, they show that AATIP remained part of official discussions within secure military settings.
Chickpea plants growing in a variety of the investigated lunar soil simulant mixtures. Some of the plants are exhibiting signs of stress, including yellowing to the leaves. Credit: Jessica Atkin.
Life's capacity to survive in simulated lunar and Martian soils has been explored in twopapers published in Scientific Reports. Treating simulated lunar soil with both symbiotic fungi and worm-produced compost can significantly improve the likelihood of reproduction for chickpea plants growing in the soil, indicates one study. A separate paper suggests that some microbes may be able to absorb enough water from the atmosphere to grow in simulated Martian soil at atmospheric humidity levels comparable to those on the planet.
Lunar soil—known technically as lunar regolith—does not support healthy plant growth, as it contains high concentrations of certain metals such as aluminum and zinc, does not allow water to filter through easily, and lacks the microbiome found in Earth soils. Previous research has investigated several ways to improve the fertility of lunar soil, although plants grown in these treated soils typically display various signs of stress, including stunted growth and leaf yellowing.
Jessica Atkin and colleagues grew chickpea plants (Cicer arietinum) in samples of simulated lunar soil that they treated in two ways: by adding vermicompost—produced by red wiggler earthworms (Eisenia fetida) as they decompose biowaste—at different concentrations; and by inoculating half of the soil samples at each concentration with arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF). On Earth, AMF improve the nutrient circulation properties of soil, reduce the quantity of potentially toxic metals available for absorption by plants, and produce a protein that helps bind soil together to reduce erosion. The authors then measured the quantity and weight of chickpea seeds produced, along with the plants' heights and root mass.
The authors found that chickpeas could only flower and produce seeds in samples treated with both AMF and vermicompost. Compared with control plants grown in 100% commercial potting mix, the treated plants in simulated lunar soil produced a significantly lower number of seeds. However, the average seed weight was comparable between plants grown in 25% and 50% vermicompost and the control plants. AMF-treated plants also had a significantly greater dry shoot and root mass than untreated plants, indicating improved plant growth.
Experimental set-up of the MMS-2 incubation. (a) One side of a two compartment Petri dish was filled with 1 g of heat-treated MMS-2; the other side contained 10 mL of Milli-Q water or a saturated salt solution. (b) Plates were sealed with Parafilm and placed in a sterile bag before incubation at 30 °C in a forced convection oven at ambient pressure. For each condition and sampling day, three replicate plates were opened once and then discarded after DNA extraction. Credit: Scientific Reports (2026). DOI: 10.1038/s41598-026-35595-2
The authors therefore suggest that soil regeneration strategies from Earth may be viable on the moon. However, they caution that all plants grown in some percentage of lunar soil simulant showed signs of stress compared to the control plants.
In a separate study, Jyothi Raghavendra and colleagues investigated growing conditions for microbes in simulated Martian soil. For 60 days, they measured the mass of DNA present in 500 milligrams of simulated soil, kept in a sterile environment at 34% atmospheric humidity—comparable humidity to conditions on Mars.
The authors found that the DNA mass increased up to day 30, indicating that microbes already present in the soil grew despite the inhospitable conditions. However, the measured DNA mass had decreased back to zero by day 60. Raghavendra and co-authors argue that their results could inform experiments to determine habitability conditions for microbes on Mars.
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Over mijzelf
Ik ben Pieter, en gebruik soms ook wel de schuilnaam Peter2011.
Ik ben een man en woon in Linter (België) en mijn beroep is Ik ben op rust..
Ik ben geboren op 18/10/1950 en ben nu dus 75 jaar jong.
Mijn hobby's zijn: Ufologie en andere esoterische onderwerpen.
Op deze blog vind je onder artikels, werk van mezelf. Mijn dank gaat ook naar André, Ingrid, Oliver, Paul, Vincent, Georges Filer en MUFON voor de bijdragen voor de verschillende categorieën...
Veel leesplezier en geef je mening over deze blog.
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