Wil je een videoclip bekijken en stoort het X-files-deuntje jou daarbij. Schakel het deuntje gewoon uit door in deze kolon, helemaal beneden op de 2 witte balkjes in het blauwe cirkeltje te klikken, tot een pijltje verschijnt. Veel kijk- en luisterplezier en bedankt voor jouw bezoek.
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.
UFO'S - MET HET LAATSTE NIEUWS OVER UFO'S BOVEN BELGIË EN IN ANDERE LANDEN...
UFO's in België en de rest van de wereld In België heb je vooral BUFON of het Belgisch UFO-Netwerk, dat zich met UFO's bezighoudt. BEZOEK DUS ZEKER VOOR ALLE OBJECTIEVE INFORMATIE ww.ufo.be.
Verder heb je ook het Belgisch-Ufo-meldpunt en Caelestia, die prachtig, doch ZEER kritisch werk leveren, ja soms zelfs héél sceptisch...
Voor Nederland kan je de mooie site www.ufowijzer.nl bezoeken van Paul Harmans. Een mooie site met veel informatie en artikels.
MUFON of het Mutual UFO Network Inc is een Amerikaanse UFO-vereniging met afdelingen in alle USA-staten en diverse landen.
MUFON's mission is the analytical and scientific investigation of the UFO- Phenomenon for the benefit of humanity...
Je kan ook hun site bekijken onder www.mufon.com.
Ze geven een maandeliiks tijdschrift uit, namelijk The MUFON UFO-Journal. Since 02/01/2013 is Pieter not only president (=voorzitter) of BUFON, but also National Director MUFON / Flanders and the Netherlands. We work together with the French MUFON Reseau MUFON/EUROP.
28-06-2017
NASA TO ANONYMOUS: NO, WE DON’T HAVE EVIDENCE OF ALIENS
NASA TO ANONYMOUS: NO, WE DON’T HAVE EVIDENCE OF ALIENS
Are we alone in the universe? Maybe not. Do we have any evidence of aliens? Definitely not.
At least not yet.
That was NASA’s response after the hacking collective Anonymous released a video claiming that the American organization was on the brink of revealing as-yet undiscovered extraterrestrial life forms.
Thomas Zurbuchen, the associate administrator of NASA’s Science Mission Directorate—who was heavily quoted in the Anonymous video—spoke out on Monday to confirm that NASA isn’t sitting on what is potentially the biggest space discovery ever.
But Zurbuchen’s comments did not rule out the chance of discovering alien life forms in the future, something that NASA is actively working on.
In 2018, it will launch its James Webb Space Telescope, which will be able to observe biosignatures—water, gases and other chemical fingerprints—that could point to life on other planets.
In its video, Anonymous quoted testimony given by Zurbuchen to the House Committee on Science, Space and Technology in April, in which he said that the organization was “on the verge of making one of the most profound, unprecedented discoveries in history.”
But Zurbuchen was clear in his written testimony to the same committee that “while we haven’t found definitive signs of life elsewhere just yet, our search is making remarkable progress and astrobiology is a focus of a growing number of NASA missions.”
So though NASA, alongside other experts, such as British astrophysicist Stephen Hawking, remain optimistic of finding life on other planets, NASA is not there yet.
The existence of parallel universes within an unseen dimension has long been one of the universe's biggest 'what ifs'.
Now the European Space Agency (EA) has approved a mission that will hunt for gravitational waves - mysterious space-time disturbances that could finally prove the existence of extra dimensions.
Physicists think that unknown dimensions could cause ripples through reality by modifying these gravitational waves.
Since gravity is likely to occupy all dimensions that exist, its waves are a promising way to detect unknown dimensions.
Scroll down for video
The LISA mission (artist's impression), now scheduled for 2034, will be made up of three identical satellites separated by 2.5 million km (1.5 million miles) in a triangular formation. The craft will follow Earth in its orbit around the sun while firing lasers between one another
GRAVITATIONAL WAVES
The universe is made up of a 'fabric of space-time'.
This corresponds to Einstein's General Theory of Relativity, published in 1916.
Objects in the universe bend this fabric, and more massive objects bend it more.
Gravitational waves are considered ripples in this fabric.
They can be produced, for instance, when black holes orbit each other or by the merging of galaxies.
Gravitational waves are also thought to have been produced during the Big Bang.
Physicists believe the waves can offer insights into fundamental physics.
For instance, they could shed light on the idea that, at one point, most or all of the forces of nature were combined into a single force.
In search of these waves, ESA has now given its Laser Interferometer Space Antenna mission (LISA) the green light for 2034 after decades of development and delays.
'I think there's a mixture of super-excitement and "at last",' Professor Mark McCaughrean, ESA's senior adviser for science & exploration, told New Scientist.
'We're finally over the starting line – it's great.'
LISA will be made up of three identical satellites, separated by 2.5 million km (1.5 million miles) in a triangular formation, that will follow Earth in its orbit around the sun.
The three craft will beam powerful lasers between one another as they search for ripples in space-time caused by gravitational waves.
The LISA satellites will read how these waves warp space by detecting tiny changes in the distances the laser beams travel.
Gravitational waves are often created by by celestial objects with very strong gravity, such as pairs of merging black holes.
The primary targets for LISA's observations will be merging supermassive black holes, Professor McCaughrean said, in a bid to better understand the powerful celestial bodies.
This is not the first time that scientists have delved into the origins of gravitational waves.
Earlier this year, researchers suggested that gravitational waves could also be evidence of an unseen, extra dimension.
The LISA satellites (artist's impression) will read how gravitational waves warp space by detecting tiny changes in the distances the laser beams travel
THE NEW SPACECRAFT
ESA has now given its Laser Interferometer Space Antenna mission (LISA) the green light after decades of development and delays.
LISA will be made up of three identical satellites orbiting the sun in a wide triangular formation.
The satellites will beam lasers between one another.
The presence of gravitational waves will cause tiny changes to the distances these lasers travel.
An extra dimension would change the way gravitational waves stretch space.
If these changes can be detected, it could help discover an extra dimension.
While scientists don't yet have the technology to prove this, by 2034 LISA could provide a route to testing ripples in space-time for evidence of parallel universes.
Speaking to New Scientist last month, Gustavo Lucena Gomez, who is leading a study into extra dimensions at the Max Planck Institute for Gravitational Physics in Potsdam, Germany, said: 'If there are extra dimensions in the universe, then gravitational waves can walk along any dimension, even the extra dimensions.'
Gravity is weaker than other fundamental forces, and experts have long wondered whether this is because some of it is escaping into an extra dimension.
The German team set out to calculate how an extra dimension would affect gravitational waves, and found two strange effects – extra waves at high frequencies, and a change in how gravitational waves stretch space.
As gravitational waves move through an extra dimension, the researchers found that they should generate a 'tower' of extra gravitational waves with higher frequencies.
But observatories are currently unable to detect frequencies that high, and instead focus on lower frequency gravitational waves.
Unknown dimensions could cause ripples through reality by modifying gravitational waves - changes in the space-time fabric. Since gravity is likely to occupy all dimensions that exist, its waves are a promising way to detect unknown dimensions (artist's impression)
Physicists think that unknown dimensions could cause ripples through reality by modifying gravitational waves - changes in the space-time fabric. These waves can also be triggered by two colliding planets or black holes (artist's impression)
This could make spotting the gravitational wave towers a challenge.
But detecting the change in how gravitational waves stretch space could be easier, according to the researchers.
Dr Lucena Gomez said: 'If extra dimensions are in our universe, this would stretch or shrink space-time in a different way that standard gravitational waves would never do.'
Gravitational waves stretch space as they ripple through the universe a bit like a rubber band – the ellipse gets longer in one direction and shorter in the other, before returning to its original shape.
The targets for LISA's observations will be merging supermassive black holes in a bid to better understand the powerful celestial bodies (artist's impression) but it could eventually be used to test ripples in space time for signs of an extra dimension
The existence of parallel universes within an unseen dimension has long been one of the universe's biggest 'what ifs' (stock image)
But an extra dimension could add another way for gravitational waves to stretch space, called a breathing mode.
In the same way that lungs expand as you breathe, gravitational waves cause space to expand and contract, in addition to stretching.
Dr Lucena Gomez said: 'With more detectors we will be able to see whether this breathing mode is happening.'
Dr Emilian Dudas, from the Ecole Polytechnique in France told New Scientist: 'Extra dimensions have been discussed for a long time from different points of view.
'Gravitational waves could be a new twist on looking for extra dimensions.'
HOW WOULD GRAVITATIONAL WAVES AFFECT AN EXTRA DIMENSION?
Last month, researchers at the Max Planck Institute set out to calculate how extra dimension would affect gravitational waves.
They found two strange effects – extra waves at high frequencies, and a change in how gravitational waves stretch space.
As gravitational waves move through an extra dimension, the researchers found that they should generate a 'tower' of extra gravitational waves with higher frequencies.
But observatories are currently unable to detect frequencies that high, and instead focus on lower frequency gravitational waves.
This could make spotting the gravitational wave towers a challenge.
But detecting the change in how gravitiational waves stretch space could be easier, according to the researchers.
Gravitational waves stretch space as they ripple through the universe a bit like a rubber band – the ellipse gets longer in one direction and shorter in the other, before returning to its original shape.
But an extra dimension could add another way for gravitational waves to stretch space, called a breathing mode.
In the same way that lungs expand as you breathe, gravitational waves cause space to expand and contract, in addition to stretching.
The researchers hope that this breathing space could soon be detected.
ESA's LISA satellite system, now scheduled for 2034, may offer a new way to make the necessary readings.
Some Of The World’s Top Scientists Met Recently To Discuss How To Find Alien Life
Some Of The World’s Top Scientists Met Recently To Discuss How To Find Alien Life
A remarkable meeting of minds took place in California last month on April 20 and 21. Stanford University was the scene for the second annual Breakthrough Discuss, where scientists from a variety of fields came together to tackle arguably the greatest question we have ever faced – are we alone in the universe?
The event was part of Breakthrough Initiatives, a bold program started by Russian billionaire Yuri Milner to spark advancements in the search for life. This includes searching for alien signals via Breakthrough Listen and potentially traveling to Proxima b, the closest exoplanet to Earth, with Breakthrough Starshot.
The idea of Breakthrough Discuss was not only to talk about these ventures, but also to explore the broader search for life. This includes finding potentially habitable worlds around nearby stars like the TRAPPIST-1 system and more recent discoveries relating to Enceladus. There were also discussions on the possibility of finding signals from aliens, known as the search for extraterrestrial intelligence (SETI).
“I’m just so delighted with this meeting,” Jill Tarter from the SETI Institute in Mountain View, California, told IFLScience. “We want to know what our place in the universe is. Are we part of something that’s quite common, or are we totally separate and unusual and unique?”
A panel discussion at the event. Jonathan O’Callaghan/IFLScience
Breakthrough Discuss began with a series of talks on red dwarf stars and their potential for hosting life. The idea has come to the fore recently, particularly with places like TRAPPIST-1 40 light-years away found to have multiple rocky planets in orbit. Red dwarfs are the most numerous stars in our galaxy, and their relative dimness compared to our Sun makes it easier to see and study the planets in orbit around them.
It’s still not clear if a planet in orbit around a red dwarf can be habitable; the stars are temperamental and prone to flaring. But they are undoubtedly attractive targets, and they may be some of the best places to look for life. Just the other day, a new planet was found around the red dwarf LHS 1140b, also about 40 light-years away, which has been heralded as a great place to look.
Guillem Anglada-Escudé from Queen Mary University of London gave the keynote talk of the conference, discussing how he and his team were going to study the nearest red dwarfs for planets. We already know Proxima Centauri 4.2 light-years away plays host to at least one – Proxima b – and it may have more. Now, Anglada-Escudé and his team will shift their focus to Barnard’s Star 6 light-years away, and other nearby red dwarfs, as part of a new project called Red Dots to find nearby planets. We should know by the end of the year if there’s anything there.
“We want to get more science done, look for more planets,” Anglada-Escudé, who was recently named one of Time’s 100 most influential people, told IFLScience. “You never know what’s there until you look for it.”
Anglada-Escudé presents his research at Breakthrough Discuss. Jonathan O’Callaghan/IFLScience
Finding these planets is only the first part, though. A number of scientists are now investigating what techniques we can use to work out if they have any life on them. Direct imaging of the surfaces will be next to impossible, so instead we’ll need to examine the atmospheres of the planets by studying the light that comes through them from their host star.
Most of the work in this area focuses on a handful of molecules such as oxygen and methane, but in total there are 1,500 molecules that could be useful. Huge upcoming ground-based telescopes – known as Extremely Large Telescopes (ELTs) – like the upcoming Thirty Meter Telescope in Hawaii and the Giant Magellan Telescope in Chile will help in this endeavor, as will NASA’s upcoming James Webb Space Telescope (JWST).
“I’m very excited about the planets around low mass stars,” Sir Martin Rees, the UK Astronomer Royal, told IFLScience. “And I think it’s very good to realize that the next-generation race to build giant ground-based telescopes is going to open up the possibility of getting real spectroscopic data on the nearest planets.”
The field has changed dramatically in just a few years. In 2009, when NASA launched its Kepler Telescope, we still weren’t sure how common planets were around other stars. Now we know of thousands, and we’re honing in on some that could be habitable. Every star is now thought to host at least one planet on average, and likely many more.
And the question of finding life is the driving factor of it all. We’ve got no idea if life like that on our planet is common, or if we’re a rare gem in a dead universe. We may be able to answer that question inside our own Solar System, with places like Enceladus and Europa looking like they may have the necessary conditions for life. But exoplanets carry an almost equal allure.
“It’s an amazing time to be involved in the search for life,” Lisa Kaltenegger, director of the Carl Sagan Institute at Cornell University in New York, told IFLScience. “This is the first time in human history we have the means to do it, and if we get really lucky and find life starts everywhere, we could actually have the proof that we’re not alone in hand pretty soon.”
Enceladus looks like a great bet for life in our Solar System. NASA/JPL-Caltech
The idea that life might be common in the universe has also driven SETI for decades, with early pioneers like Frank Drake in 1960 suggesting we might be able to hear signals from advanced civilizations around other stars. SETI has struggled for funding over the years, but Milner’s injection of $100 million ensures the search will continue for at least 10 years as part of Breakthrough Listen.
“We’ll take funding from any source we can,” said Tarter. “If we discover a signal, or if we discover life beyond Earth, that information is not coming to California, it’s coming to the planet. These kinds of scientific explorations should be international and global.”
Truth be told, it was somewhat of an odd marriage seeing SETI discussed alongside more grounded science at Breakthrough Discuss. The prospect of finding a signal from an alien civilization is still far-fetched; in six decades of searching, we’ve found nothing. It’s often said that if we don’t look we’ll never know, but SETI remains somewhat fanciful.
“I’m working on the search for life on other planets, planets orbiting alien suns,” said Kaltenegger. “And at this conference, it’s the most conservative thing that’s being talked about!”
That’s not to say there might be nothing out there, and it might well be worth the search. Andrew Siemion, director of the Berkeley SETI Research Center, presented the first scientific results from the first year of the Breakthrough Listen project, on which he is also the lead. While nothing was found, this is one of the most extensive searches to date. If it draws a blank after a decade, well, that may force a rethink.
“At what point do we give up on SETI?” a panel of experts at Breakthrough Discuss was asked. “Not any time soon,” replied Tarter.
TRAPPIST-1 may have three potentially habitable worlds. NASA/JPL-Caltech
And then there was the grand finale, the discussion about actually sending a spacecraft to a planet around another star. This project, called Breakthrough Starshot, was announced in April 2016 to considerable fanfare. Using a giant laser on Earth, a small chip with a massive sail would be accelerated to one-fifth the speed of light, reaching Proxima Centauri – and thus Proxima b – in just 20 years.
Breakthrough Discuss, however, highlighted just how difficult such a proposal might be. One attendee told IFLScience that they thought the project was now less likely to happen that it was a year prior, based on the huge number of challenges that have become apparent.
One is actually firing the laser at the spacecraft in the first place, laid bare by Zac Manchester from Harvard University in a fascinating talk titled “How to ride a laser beam”. He pointed out that the force of the laser hitting a flat sail could send it spiraling off course, so it may be necessary to use a spherical sail to stay on track for Proxima. This itself presents new challenges that have yet to be solved, such as how to spread the force of the laser over the whole sail.
Even if the spacecraft gets there, sending data back is also a huge issue. The chip at its center will be barely a gram in weight, with the sail mere atoms thick. Thus there will be no room for an antenna to transmit data – including images of the planet – back to our planet. Some novel ideas include using the sail itself as a giant antenna, although we don’t yet know if this is possible.
Will Starshot get off the ground? Breakthrough Initiatives
And even if we get there, the flyby will be extremely brief. René Heller from the Max Planck Institute for Solar System Research in Germany said in a talk how, after 20 years of travel, the flyby would last just a matter of seconds. He instead proposed using Proxima’s companion stars, Alpha Centauri A and B, to slow down the spacecraft and enter orbit around Proxima b, something that would return much more data at the cost of a much longer mission. We’ve covered this interstellar roundtrip idea before if you want some more information.
But even if Starshot never gets off the ground, it is at least inspiring some critical thinking in the area of interstellar travel that has not been explored before. Even materials science stands to benefit, with Heller showing off a small piece of graphene that could be used to develop giant sails for traversing the Solar System and beyond.
And Yuri Milner himself seems anything but disheartened, explaining his ethos in a fascinating but sadly off-the-record discussion with IFLScience and other journalists. He remains committed to the cause though, and clearly wants to be part of a discovery that makes life on another planet a possibility, whether that’s humanity or an alien race.
“Breakthrough Discuss boldly demonstrated that we stand on the precipice of making one of the most amazing discoveries in the history of humanity,” Siemion told IFLScience.
For every speculative fantasy, the conference remained mostly grounded in science. If we are to discover we are not alone, the people who’ll find out were very likely here.
NASA Poised to Discover Alien Life –“We are On the Verge of Making One of the Most Profound Discoveries in History”
NASA Poised to Discover Alien Life –“We are On the Verge of Making One of the Most Profound Discoveries in History”
“Taking into account all of the different activities and missions that are specifically searching for evidence of alien life, we are on the verge of making one of the most profound, unprecedented, discoveries in history,” said Thomas Zurbuchen, associate administrator for the Science Mission Directorate during the recent congressional hearing of the committee on ‘Advances in the Search for Life,’ on April 29th.
Zurbuchen reported that NASA’s recent advances, such as the discovery of hydrogen in Saturn’s moon Enceladus and the Hubble team’s promising results from the oceans of Jupiter’s moon, Europa, are promising signs that we’re closer than ever to discovering evidence of alien life. Zurbuchen has been involved with several NASA science missions — Ulysses, the MESSENGER spacecraft to Mercury, and the Advanced Composition Explorer (ACE).
Here are key excerpts from Zurbuchen’s profound testimony at the April 29 hearimng:
“Now, with NASA missions like the Kepler and Spitzer Space Telescopes, we have discovered more than 3,400 exoplanets,with billions more just waiting to be revealed in our galaxy alone. This February, NASA’s Spitzer Space Telescope team announced the discovery of seven Earthsizedplanets, the most ever, found around a single star, called TRAPPIST-1. Three of theseplanets are firmly located in the habitable zone, the area around the parent star where a rocky planet is most likely to have liquid water. This system of seven rocky worlds – all of them with the potential for water, a key to life as we know it – is an exciting discovery in the search for life on other worlds.
“The TRAPPIST-1 system is just 39 light years away and its discovery tells us that there is plenty of planet making material in our little corner of the solar system, indicating that finding Earth-like planets may actually be closer to us than we originally thought. Future study of this planetary system could reveal conditions suitable for life. Since the initial observations, the follow-on findings for TRAPPIST-1 (and exoplanets in general) are occurring almost weekly, but the best is yet to come.
Image credits: On May 2, 2016, scientists announced the discovery of TRAPPIST-1, an alien solar system 40 light-years from Earth with a tiny, ultracool dwarf star and three small exoplanets that just might be habitable. This is NASA artist’s view of the TRAPPIST-1 star system above as seen from near one of the three alien planets circling their dim parent star.
NASA’s Spitzer, Hubble, and Kepler Space Telescopes will continue to help astronomers plan for such follow-up studies using NASA’s upcoming James Webb Space Telescope, launching in 2018. With much greater sensitivity, Webb will be able to detect the chemical fingerprints of water, methane, oxygen, ozone, and other components of a planet’s atmosphere. Webb also will analyze planets’ temperatures and surface pressures – key factors in assessing their habitability.
“The Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) mission will also launch next year, to survey the entire sky for nearby exoplanets, and the Wide Field Infrared Survey Telescope (WFIRST), launching in the mid-2020s, will directly image exoplanets and study their atmospheric chemistry for the first time using reflected light from their stars.
“NASA is studying mission concepts even beyond these near-term missions for the 2030s that would further explore and characterize the bounty of possible habitable Earth-like planets. These mission concepts include the Habitable Exoplanet Imaging Mission and the Large Ultraviolet/Visible/Infrared Surveyor, which would operate from the ultraviolet to the near-infrared like Hubble and WFIRST, and the Origins Space Telescope, which would operate from the mid-infrared to the far infrared like the James Webb telescope.
“For astrobiology, the key thing to remember is that answering the fundamental question of “is there life out there?” will require scientific breakthroughs from many different science fields, including ones that are not currently engaged in this exciting endeavor. This, however, demonstrates the nature of great research: it’s not just about answering questions that have been asked in the past, it is about finding entirely new questions that will have impact for a long time to come.”
Above is the video of the April 29th hearing. Fast forward to 22:00. The hearing will surveyed recent breakthroughs in a variety of fields that contribute to astrobiology, such as the continued discovery of exoplanets and research efforts to understand life’s origin on Earth and in the lab.
The Missing Link: Where Are Medium-Size Black Holes?
The Missing Link: Where Are Medium-Size Black Holes?
By Charles Q. Choi, Live Science Contributor
While black holes with masses of a few suns and ones with masses of millions of suns exist, scientists have been puzzled to see few with masses in between those two extremes. New work may suggest a reason why.
Credit: Ute Kraus/Wikipedia, CC BY-SA
For decades, while astronomers have detected black holes equal in mass either to a few suns or millions of suns, the missing-link black holes in between have eluded discovery. Now, a new study suggests such intermediate-mass black holes may not exist in the modern-day universe because of the rate at which black holes grow.
Scientists think stellar-mass black holes — up to a few times the sun's mass — form when giant stars die and collapse in on themselves. Over the years, astronomers have detected a number of stellar-mass black holes in the nearby universe, and in 2010, researchers detected the first such black hole outside the local cluster of nearby galaxies known as the Local Group.
As big as stellar-mass black holes might seem, they are tiny in comparison to the so-called supermassive black holes that are millions to billions of times the sun's mass, which form the hearts of most, if not all, large galaxies. The oldest supermassive black holes found to date include one found in 2015 — with a mass of about 12 billion solar masses — that existed when the universe was only about 875 million years old. This finding and others suggest that many black holes were born in the dawn of time, back when the universe was smaller and matter was more concentrated, making it easier for them to form and grow. [No Escape: Dive into a Black Hole (Infographic)]
Much remains uncertain about how black holes reach supermassive girth and influence the universe around them. As such, astronomers want to analyze intermediate-mass black holes of about 100 to 10,000 solar masses that they expect would serve as the middle stages between stellar-mass and supermassive black holes.
However, while astronomers have discovered a number of potential intermediate-mass black holes, the evidence remains inconclusive, said astrophysicists Tal Alexander at the Weizmann Institute of Science in Rehovot, Israel, and Ben Bar-Or at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, New Jersey.
Now these researchers suggest the dearth of these missing links may be due to the rate at which black holes may grow. They detailed their findings online June 19 in the journal Nature Astronomy.
In recent years, scientists have discovered a dozen or so instances of black holes devouring stars. If black holes grew solely by consuming stars and dense, compact objects such as white dwarfs and neutrons stars instead of, say, giant clouds of gas or dark matter, the researchers estimated that black holes would still grow at the relatively constant rate of one solar mass per 10,000 years. (If they could eat gas or dark matter, they could grow even faster, but the data regarding such materials in the early universe is more open to question.)
Although one solar mass per 10,000 years may not seem especially quick, it means that even a stellar-mass black hole could grow completely past the intermediate-mass stage after 10 billion years. In comparison, the universe is about 13.8 billion years old.
These findings suggest that the seeds for supermassive black holes "were created quite early on in galaxies, when things were more dense," Bar-Or told Space.com. These seeds already exceeded intermediate-mass stage by about 1.6 billion to 2.2 billion years after the Big Bang — "some or even most of the black holes may have passed the supermassive-black-hole mass threshold even earlier," Alexander told Space.com.
Although the researchers said that intermediate-mass black holes may exist in the present day in dense areas such as globular clusters of stars, they remain difficult to identify because the light produced by objects falling into them is "not spectacular, and there are other objects that can produce it," Alexander said.
Instead, "the ultimate way of finding and identifying intermediate-mass black holes is not by the emission of light, but by the emission of gravitational waves," Alexander said. Gravitational waves are ripples in the fabric space and time, and the Evolved Laser Interferometer Space Antenna (ELISA) mission currently planned for 2034 could detect gravitational waves generated "when two intermediate-mass black holes coalesce together, Alexander said.
Recent studies suggest that the ocean that's sloshing beneath the icy shell of Saturn's moon Enceladus, seen here in a photo by NASA's Cassini spacecraft, may be a potentially habitable environment.
Credit: NASA/JPL/Space Science Institute
NASA is not preparing to drop an alien-life bombshell, despite what you may have heard.
Last week, the hacking group Anonymous posted a video on YouTube suggesting that the space agency is about to announce the discovery of life beyond Earth. The video has made a big splash online — so big that NASA science chief Thomas Zurbuchen addressed the rumor today (June 26).
"Contrary to some reports, there's no pending announcement from NASA regarding extraterrestrial life," Zurbuchen said via Twitter, where he posts as @Dr_ThomasZ.
"Are we alone in the universe? While we do not know yet, we have missions moving forward that may help answer that fundamental question," he added in another tweet today.
Anonymous' video focuses not on hacked documents but rather on testimony Zurbuchen gave back in April during a hearing of the House of Representatives' Committee on Science, Space, and Technology. (The 12-minute video also touches on some other topics, including the seven Earth-size planets circling the star TRAPPIST-1 and several supposed UFO sightings.)
During the April 26 hearing, which was called "Advances in the Search for Life," Zurbuchen laid out the progress NASA has been making in the hunt for life in the cosmos. He cited, among other things, the thousands of exoplanets spotted by the agency's Kepler space telescope, the recent discovery of hydrogen in the geysers blasting from the south pole of Saturn's moon Enceladus, and the possible detection of water-vapor plumes emanating from the Jovian satellite Europa.
"Taking into account all of the different activities and missions that are specifically searching for evidence of alien life, we are on the verge of making one of the most profound, unprecedented discoveries in history," Zurbuchen said during the hearing.
Anonymous: NASA Is About to Announce the Discovery of Intelligent Alien Life
In the recent video, Anonymous takes the second half of this sentence and runs with it.
"NASA: 'Mankind is about to discover extraterrestrial life,'" an Anonymous spokesman wearing the group's famous Guy Fawkes mask intones, with a digitally altered voice, at the beginning of the video.
This interpretation isn't strictly wrong. But "on the verge" is a far cry from "has found evidence," and anyone expecting an Earth-shattering announcement from NASA in the next few weeks or months is bound to be disappointed.
The south pole of Jupiter is seen from an altitude of 32,000 miles (52,000 kilometers) in this enhanced color mosaic of images from NASA's JunoCam. Cyclones up to 600 miles wide (1,000 km) are visible.
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/SwRI/MSSS/Betsy Asher Hall/Gervasio Robles SCOTT BOLTON - 3
Juno gets a first look at Jupiter's marvelous poles, the world's largest (current) aircraft goes for a spin, Earth science loses on the proposed NASA budget and two astronauts perform an urgent spacewalk — it's Space.com's top news stories of the week.
Jupiter whirls
The first science results from NASA's Juno probe reveal huge cyclones raging near Jupiter's north and south poles and the workings of is spectacular auroras. Juno is the first spacecraft to get a close look the planet's beautiful and bizarre poles. [Full Story: Mysteries at Jupiter: NASA's Juno Probe Reveals Cyclones, Auroras & Surprises]
Astronauts kept freeze-dried mouse sperm on the International Space Station for nine months — and when brought back to Earth it gave rise to healthy pups. [Full Story: Freeze-Dried Space Sperm Gives Rise to Healthy Baby Mice]
After a computer relay box malfunctioned, NASA astronauts Peggy Whitson and Jack Fischer went out for a quickly-planned spacewalk to replace the failed part. (Don't worry, a backup took over in the meantime.) Whitson built the replacement from spare parts aboard the International Space Station. [Full Story: Astronauts Restore Space Station to Full Health in Quick Repair Spacewalk]
Clash of the dwarfs
New research suggests that most of the Milky Way's antimatter could come from the collision of two special kinds of white dwarfs — the Earth-size cores of dead stars. [Full Story: Supernova Face-Off May Solve 40-Year-Old Antimatter Mystery]
Mammoth flier success
A massive blimp-like aircraft called the Airlander 10 successfully flew for 180 minutes and landed, testing its improved landing technology and handling. It's the third test flight for the world's largest aircraft currently flying, which is designed to stay in the air for up to 5 days at a time with people on board. [World's Largest Aircraft Completes Successful Test Flight]
Earth science nix
The White House's official 2018 budget request curtails five NASA Earth-science missions, including the Plankton, Aerosol, Cloud ocean Ecosystem satellite; the Orbiting Carbon Observatory-3 experiment; the Climate Absolute Radiance and Refractivity Observatory Pathfinder; the Earth-viewing instruments aboard the Deep Space Climate Observatory spacecraft and, now, the Radiation Budget Experiment. [Full Story: Trump's 2018 Budget Request Axes 5 NASA Earth-Science Missions]
The Cassini spacecraft has seen Saturn through the seasons as the planet has orbited the sun, watching its dramatic changes. Now, it's finally the planet's solstice and the end of the spacecraft's second extended mission — just in time for its Sept. 15 Grand Finale dive into the planet's atmosphere. [Full Story: Saturn Solstice: Cassini Gets 'Ringside Seat' to Dramatic Seasonal Changes]
Listening in
The world's most sensitive dark matter detector, XENON1T, has gone online deep beneath a mountain in Italy, completing a 30-day science run hunting for the minuscule fireworks that could be caused by a certain type of dark matter ramming into a xenon atom inside the detector. [Full Story: The World's Most Sensitive Dark Matter Detector Is Now Up and Running]
It's a Phantom
The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) has selected Boeing to build the U.S. military's new XS-1 space plane. The plane, called the Phantom Express, is designed to launch to the edge of space to deploy a second stage rocket, which would deposit a satellite in orbit. [Full Story: US Military's XS-1 Space Plane Will Be Built by Boeing (Video)]
Maak kennis met Planeet Y: ons zonnestelsel telt misschien tien planeten
Maak kennis met Planeet Y: ons zonnestelsel telt misschien tien planeten
Tim Kraaijvanger
Naast Planeet X schuilt er mogelijk nog een tiende planeet in de Kuipergordel, namelijk Planeet Y. Deze planeet is ongeveer even groot als Mars of de aarde.
In het wetenschappelijke vakblad Astronomical Journal schrijven wetenschappers Kat Volk en Renu Malhotra van de universiteit van Arizona dat er bewijs is gevonden dat er niet acht of negen, maar tien planeten om de zon draaien. De astronomen keken naar de omloopbanen van ruim 600 Kuipergordelobjecten. Deze objecten zijn brokstukken, die overgebleven zijn na de vorming van het zonnestelsel. Inmiddels draaien deze kleine en grote ruimtestenen al zo’n 4,5 miljard jaar om de zon.
Toch merkten de astronomen een afwijking op in de oriëntatie van de banen van de meeste verre Kuipergordelobjecten. Het baanvlak wijkt acht procent af ten opzichte van het gemiddelde baanvlak. “Uit onze berekeningen blijkt dat er maar één logische verklaring is: er zweeft ergens een planeet ter grootte van Mars”, aldus Volk.
Een schematische weergave van de positie van Planeet Y. De onderzoekers hebben de planeet afgebeeld als een soort tweede aarde, maar de kans is extreem klein dat er leven mogelijk is op deze verre, ijskoude planeet.
Je kunt het baanvlak van het zonnestelsel het beste zien als een A4’tje. Vrijwel alle objecten in het zonnestelsel draaien op dit platte vel om de zon. Er zijn afwijkingen – bijvoorbeeld Pluto – maar gemiddeld gezien lijken de meeste planeten, asteroïden en kometen op dit A4’tje te rusten. “Zeker in de Kuipergordel moet het baanvlak nauwelijks afwijken, omdat de banen van deze objecten worden bepaald door de zon en de grotere planeten”, zegt Malhotra. “Toch zien we een afwijking bij Kuipergordelobjecten op 50 AE tot 80 AE van de zon.” In vergelijking: 1 AE is de afstand van de aarde tot de zon. “De kans is kleiner dan twee procent dat het gaat om een statistische afwijking.”
De ijskoude planeet ter grootte van Mars draait op een afstand van ruwweg 60 AE (negen miljard kilometer) om de zon. Dat is ruim twee keer de afstand van de zon naar Neptunus. Op dit moment is Neptunus de laatste planeet van ons zonnestelsel.
En Planeet X dan? Er blijft één vraag over: worden de banen van deze Kuipergordelobjecten niet gewoon beïnvloed door Planeet X? Planeet X bestaat mogelijk echt en is een object op een afstand van 500 tot 700 AE van de zon. Deze planeet is ongeveer tien keer groter dan de aarde.
“Nee, Planeet X is te ver verwijderd om invloed uit te oefenen op deze Kuipergordelobjecten”, zegt Volk. “De afstand tot de zon moet kleiner zijn dan 100 AE om zulke baanafwijkingen te veroorzaken.”
De zoektocht naar Planeet Y Een object ter grootte van Mars zou makkelijk gespot moeten worden, toch? De onderzoekers beweren dat de kans dertig procent is dat het object nog nooit is gevonden omdat we nog niet goed genoeg keken. Als Planeet X en Planeet Y echt bestaan, dan is de kans groot dat we deze objecten de komende jaren gaan vinden. De komende jaren verschijnen er allerlei nieuwe telescopen.
ALS PLANEET X EN PLANEET Y ECHT BESTAAN, DAN IS DE KANS GROOT DAT WE DEZE OBJECTEN DE KOMENDE JAREN GAAN VINDEN
Alternatieve verklaring Als de afwijking van de Kuipergordelobjecten niet is veroorzaakt door Planeet Y, wat is dan de meest waarschijnlijke verklaring voor dit verschijnsel? Wellicht dat de afwijking dan is veroorzaakt door een passerende ster. “Dit zou betekenen dat de ster ergens in de afgelopen tien miljoen jaar rakelings langs het zonnestelsel scheerde”, beweert Malhotra. Als het langer dan tien miljoen jaar geleden is gebeurd, dan zouden de Kuipergordelobjecten langzaam teruggaan naar het oude baanvlak. “Dat lijkt ons een onwaarschijnlijk scenario.”
De landing van Philae op komeet 67P was geen succes. De lander stuiterde op het oppervlak en eindigde ergens in een ravijn. Hadden we niet beter een robotslang kunnen sturen?
Een robotslang. Het klinkt misschien als een absurd idee, maar laat het eens op je inwerken. Zo’n slang heeft een flexibel lichaam en kruipt gemakkelijk over het oppervlak van een komeet, planeet of maan. Een Marsrover valt uit wanneer een wieltje kapot gaat, maar dat geldt niet voor een robotslang. Die heeft immers geen wielen.
Zo’n robotslang kan op plekken komen waar een normale rover niet komt. Er zijn plannen om in de toekomst een maanbasis onder het oppervlak te bouwen, bijvoorbeeld in een lavabuis. Op die manier worden astronauten beschermd tegen kosmische straling en meteorieten. Zulke tunnels moeten echter geïnspecteerd worden of ze geschikt zijn voor mensen om in te wonen en te werken. Perfect werk voor een robotslang, want die kruipt gemakkelijk door de gangen.
Robotslang naar het ISS Leuke toekomstplannen, maar gebeurt er op korte termijn nog iets? Ja, Noorse wetenschappers van SINTEF onderzoeken momenteel of het mogelijk is om een robotslang naar het internationale ruimtestation te sturen. Omdat dit ruimtestation continu in een vrije val verkeert, is er sprake van gewichtloosheid aan boord van het ISS. Dit vraagt om een slimme oplossing, want hoe kruipt een robotslang van de ene kant van het ruimtestation naar de andere kant?
Slimme voortbeweging De SINTEF-onderzoekers hebben wel een idee. Wanneer de robotslang vast zit aan de wand van het ruimtestation, kan hij zichzelf van achteren intrekken. Vervolgens strekt hij zich aan de voorkant uit, waardoor de slang opschuift. Eigenlijk lijkt dit op hoe slangen in het wild bewegen. Op dit moment onderzoeken SINTEF-wetenschappers welke sensoren de robot nodig heeft om zich bewust te zijn van de omgeving.
Artistieke impressie van Astrobee aan boord van het internationale ruimtestation. Drie Astrobee’s worden ergens tussen juli 2017 en juni 2018 gelanceerd.
Astrobee Er wordt reikhalzend uitgekeken naar Astrobee. Astrobee is een robot die binnenkort in het internationale ruimtestation vliegt. Deze drone kan bijvoorbeeld zelfstandig op zoek naar gereedschap, zodat astronauten dit niet zelf hoeven te doen. Even voor jouw beeldvorming: in het internationale ruimtestation liggen tienduizenden verschillende onderdelen. Het juiste gereedschap of het perfecte moertje vinden is dus wel iets lastiger dan op aarde. SINTEF-onderzoekers schrijven dat ze veel hopen te leren van Astrobee, waardoor ze hun eigen robotslang nog beter kunnen maken.
The world of science creates mysteries as fast as it solves them — and sometimes even faster. Here are just a few of those mysteries that are waiting to be solved.
1. The impossible EM drive…works?
Since first hearing rumors about NASA’s physics-breaking propulsion system late last year, a paper describing their device has passed peer-review, and China claims to be testing their own version in space right now.
And yet, no one can explain how this fuel-less drive is able to violate Newton’s Third Law: everything must have an equal and opposite reaction. If we learn anything this year or next, let’s hope we can get to the bottom of this confounding machine.
2. Humpback whales have been forming mysterious “super-groups,”
and we still don’t know why. Back in March, never-before-seen groups of up to 200 whales were appearing off the coast of South Africa, which is weird, because seven is usually the upper limit for these solitary animals.
The behavior could be due to changes in prey availability, or because the species has been making a surprising comeback in recent years, but the jury’s still out on this one.
Findlay et. al. 2017
3. Astronomers have found evidence of ahuge ninth planeton the edge of our Solar System
— but we still can’t find it, even after NASA recruited thousands of people to search for clues.
But earlier this year, we finally got an official candidate for the mysterious presence, so hopefully we don’t have to wait too much longer to discover what’s truly out there.
4. Archaeologists made a stunning discovery inside Egypt’s Great Pyramid of Giza
— evidence of a strange void behind the pyramid’s north face, and an unknown cavity high up in its northeastern edge.
It’s suspected that these could represent secret chambers that have eluded researchers and looters alike for thousands of years, and archaeologists are now hoping to non-invasively scan the insides of the giant tomb to figure it out.
5. Can we please figure out the nonsense that is the Tully Monster?
The 300-million-year-old creature had fins like a cuttlefish, eyestalks like a crab, and a rather intimidating “jaw-on-stick,” and this jumble of body parts has seen it compared to everything from molluscs, arthropods, and worms, to more complex vertebrates like lampreys.
Here’s what it might have looked like:
6. We still don’t know what’s causingfast radio bursts — arguably the weirdest phenomena in the known Universe.
They’re some of the most explosive signals ever detected in space, but they’re so confounding, some scientists have even resorted to “Aliens?”
But with the exact location for one of these signals being finally pinned down last month, we might be on the brink of figuring out what’s causing them.
have found signs of a phenomenon that goes beyond the standard model of physics, and together they’ve hit a certainty level of 4 standard deviations, indicating a 99.95 percent chance this isn’t a mistake.
If this result can be supported by further experiments, it would have profound implications for our understanding of particle physics, and force scientists to draw up a whole new branch of physics to explain it.
8. The “Alien Megastructure” star
that just won’t quit. Located 1,500 light-years away, KIC 8462852 (or Tabby’s star), has been experiencing unprecedented dips in brightness — while most stars experience periodic dimming of about 1 percent, this star has clocked dips of a whopping 22 percent.
Tabby’s star is so weird, one astronomer famously suggested aliens could be involved. With the latest bout of strange light patterns giving researchers more data to work with, let’s hope they can finally figure this one out.
Air Force
9. The US Air Force’s mysterious X-37B space plane
just landed after a record-breaking 718 days in orbit, but we still have no idea what it was doing up there.
As officials remain tight-lipped about what the unmanned drone was doing up there for so long, rumors have been circulating that the military might be testing NASA’s EM Drive in space. Can we solve two mysteries in one?
You’d think its Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter has seen everything there is to see on the Martian surface during its 11-year orbit, but a snapshot taken over the planet’s South Pole has revealed something we can’t explain.
At 19.7 inches (50 centimeters) per pixel, we’re looking at a feature hundreds of meters across, so did something punch its way through, or is it the result of a massive collapse? Until we get further evidence, your guess is as good as mine.
Hacker group Anonymous claims Nasa is on the verge of announcing alien life
Hacker group Anonymous claims Nasa is on the verge of announcing alien life
Hacker collective Anonymous has released a video repeating others' claims that Nasa is on the verge of announcing contact with alien life.
The video, released on an unofficial YouTube channel claiming to be affiliated with Anonymous, repeats the text of three articles from the conspiracy website Ancient-Code.com, according to the Daily Mail.
The video, which runs with advertising, has garnered over half a million views.
Anonymous claims head of Nasa Science Mission Directorate Professor Thomas Zurbuchen said at the meeting: "Our civilisation is on the verge of discovering evidence of alien life in the cosmos.
"Taking into account all of the different activities and missions that are searching for alien life, we are on the verge of making one of the most profound, unprecedented discoveries in history."
Recent discoveries in our solar system and beyond have boosted the hopes of those who long for first contact with alien life.
In April, scientists announced that the Cassini space probe had discovered hydrogen on the Saturn moon of Enceladus, the "missing ingredient" that could support microbial life on the seafloor of the icebound moon.
And just this month, scientists at Nasa's Ames Research Centre revealed the "most reliable" catalogue yet of potential planets in our galaxy, bringing the total to 4034.
According to the scientists, more than 2300 planets spotted during the Kepler missions have been confirmed so far, including more than 30 terrestrial-sized planets that lie in the "Goldilocks Zone" of their star considered conducive to life.
The new findings represent an explosion in knowledge about potential havens for alien life on other planets.
"Only in the last few decades have we been able to detect the existence of other worlds," said House Committee on Science Space and Technology chairman Lamar Smithin at an April 26 hearing. "The pursuit of evidence of life beyond our planet fascinates the American people."
Anonymous' video opens by reading the text of an article responding to that Congressional hearing and predicting the imminent announcement of the discovery of extraterrestrial life.
That article, and two other read aloud in the video, appeared on the website Ancient Code between January and April of this year, DailyMail.com can confirm.
The articles ran without bylines. The Ancient Code website appears to be registered in Croatia.
Hacker group Anonymous claims Nasa is on the verge of announcing alien life
Hacker group Anonymous claims Nasa is on the verge of announcing alien life
Hacker collective Anonymous has released a video repeating others' claims that Nasa is on the verge of announcing contact with alien life.
The video, released on an unofficial YouTube channel claiming to be affiliated with Anonymous, repeats the text of three articles from the conspiracy website Ancient-Code.com, according to the Daily Mail.
The video, which runs with advertising, has garnered over half a million views.
Anonymous claims head of Nasa Science Mission Directorate Professor Thomas Zurbuchen said at the meeting: "Our civilisation is on the verge of discovering evidence of alien life in the cosmos.
"Taking into account all of the different activities and missions that are searching for alien life, we are on the verge of making one of the most profound, unprecedented discoveries in history."
Recent discoveries in our solar system and beyond have boosted the hopes of those who long for first contact with alien life.
In April, scientists announced that the Cassini space probe had discovered hydrogen on the Saturn moon of Enceladus, the "missing ingredient" that could support microbial life on the seafloor of the icebound moon.
And just this month, scientists at Nasa's Ames Research Centre revealed the "most reliable" catalogue yet of potential planets in our galaxy, bringing the total to 4034.
According to the scientists, more than 2300 planets spotted during the Kepler missions have been confirmed so far, including more than 30 terrestrial-sized planets that lie in the "Goldilocks Zone" of their star considered conducive to life.
The new findings represent an explosion in knowledge about potential havens for alien life on other planets.
"Only in the last few decades have we been able to detect the existence of other worlds," said House Committee on Science Space and Technology chairman Lamar Smithin at an April 26 hearing. "The pursuit of evidence of life beyond our planet fascinates the American people."
Anonymous' video opens by reading the text of an article responding to that Congressional hearing and predicting the imminent announcement of the discovery of extraterrestrial life.
That article, and two other read aloud in the video, appeared on the website Ancient Code between January and April of this year, DailyMail.com can confirm.
The articles ran without bylines. The Ancient Code website appears to be registered in Croatia.
Researchers Kat Volk and Renu Malhotra studied the orbits of objects in the Kuiper Belt, the asteroid field where Pluto is located. Objects in the Kuiper Belt orbit at an incline relative to the rest of the solar system. Typically, unusual orbits like these can be explained by the gravitational influence of nearby planets, but there are no existing planets that could have caused this kind of tilt.
Heather Roper/LPL
One explanation, proposed by the researchers, is that there is another planet out there messing with those Kuiper Belt objects. According to the pair's calculations, the undiscovered planet would have to be about the same size as Mars. The researchers predict that the mystery planet is around twice as far away from us as Pluto, at 50 to 55 AU.
But there's good reason to be skeptical that this planet exists at all. A planet as large and close as the researchers claim shouldn't be too difficult to spot, so if it does exist it would be surprising that it was not noticed before now. There are several sky surveys like Pan-STARRS and NEOWISE that should have picked it up.
But just because they haven't seen anything yet doesn't mean that Planet 10 isn't out there. It could be particularly hard to spot, dark and non-reflective, or hiding in a region of the sky where we haven't looked at in detail. If Planet 10 isn't out there, that means something else is causing the strange orbits of all the objects in the Kuiper Belt, which might be an even bigger mystery.
It will probably take a very long time to find out for sure if Planet 10 is really out there, but expect a lot of astronomers and planetary experts to weigh in over the coming weeks and months. If Planet 10 does exist it'll only be a matter of time until we find it.
Astronomers believe they have found signs of a planet with a mass between that of Earth and Mars beyond Neptune.
The movement of objects in the Kuiper Belt – thousands of asteroids, comets and dwarf planets orbiting the Sun beyond Neptune – suggests a planet is hiding among them.
GETTY
MARS FUNSIZE: The planet is believed to between the size of Mars (pictured) and Earth
“Something as massive as Mars would be needed”
Kat Volk
Neptune – the eighth planet in our Solar System – is the furthest from the Sun so far proven to exist.
Scientists claimed to have discovered a ninth planet beyond Neptune – dubbed somewhat unimaginatively “Planet Nine”.
So – if it’s existence is confirmed – the new planet would be the tenth world in our Solar System.
Only a heavenly body the size of Mars or bigger would have enough mass to alter the orbits of other objects in the Kuiper Belt, researchers at the University of Arizona's Lunar and Planetary Laboratory say.
Research fellow Kat Volk, of LPL – whose study will be published in The Astronomical Journal – said: “The most likely explanation for our results is that there is some unseen mass.
“According to our calculations, something as massive as Mars would be needed to cause the warp that we measured."
CLATECH
ICY GIANT: An artist's impression of Planet 9
The LPL team are sure their calculations point to a new planet – not Planet 9.
Planet 9 – which was also discovered through its effects on objects in the Kuiper Belt – is thought to be four times the size of Earth and 10 times its mass.
It is believed to be about 500 to 700 “astronomical units” from Earth – up to 65 trillion miles away.
Whatever is affecting the Kuiper Belt objects the researchers have spotted is much nearer.
GETTY
KUIPER BELT: Two asteroid belts sit between Mars and Jupiter and beyond Neptune
Ms Volk said: “[Planet 9] is too far away to influence these Kuiper Belt objects.
"It certainly has to be much closer than 100 AU to substantially affect the KBOs in that range."
The team hope a new telescope being built in Chile, the Large Synoptic Survey Telescope, may help them check out more objects in the Kuiper Belt, including the possible Planet 10.
Voyager 2's views of Uranus and Neptune as the probe flew past in the 1980s. New NASA missions could further explore the gas worlds.
Credit: Left: NASA/JPL-Caltech; Right: NASA
New NASA mission ideas would study the gassy environments of Uranus and Neptune, two planets on the edge of the solar system that spacecraft have visited only once.
The agency has several potential mission concepts on the table, including flybys, orbiters and even a spacecraft to dive into Uranus' atmosphere, agency officials said in a statement.
NASA released a study of potential future missions in support of the forthcoming Planetary Science Decadal Survey, a publication of the National Research Council that is used to help determine what missions NASA should pursue. The next survey covers science priorities from 2022 and 2032. [Auroras on Uranus Dazzle in New Hubble Telescope Views]
"This [NASA] study argues the importance of exploring at least one of these planets and its entire environment, which includes surprisingly dynamic icy moons, rings and bizarre magnetic fields," Mark Hofstadter, a planetary scientist at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, said in the statement. Hofstadter was one of the two co-chairs of the science team that produced the report.
"We do not know how these planets formed and why they and their moons look the way they do," added fellow co-chair Amy Simon, senior scientist of planetary atmospheres research at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Maryland. "There are fundamental clues as to how our solar system formed and evolved that can only be found by a detailed study of one, or preferably both of these planets."
Both planets have been visited by a single spacecraft, Voyager 2, which flew by Uranus and Neptune in 1986 and 1989, respectively. Voyager 2 was tasked with viewing the largest planets of the outer solar system and took advantage of a rare planetary alignment to visit Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune on the probe's way out of the solar system. (The spacecrat's twin, Voyager 1, studied Jupiter and Saturn and entered interstellar space in 2012.)
Since then, however, telescope technology has improved enough so that scientists can perform some studies of Uranus and Neptune from the ground. Researchers using the W. M. Keck Observatory in Hawaii, for example, have tracked giant storms appearing and disappearing on Uranus in recent years. However, no concentrated long-term program is possible on the ground, because telescope time is competitive and spread among several targets.
Studies suggest that Uranus and Neptune both have liquid oceans beneath their clouds, making up about two-thirds of their mass, NASA officials noted in the statement. It's a different environment from the much bigger Jupiter and Saturn (which are about 85 percent gas by mass) and smaller, rocky planets such as Earth or Mars, which are almost 100 percent rock.
"It's not clear how or where ice giant planets form, why their magnetic fields are strangely oriented, and what drives geologic activity on some of their moons," NASA added in the same statement. "These mysteries make them scientifically important, and this importance is enhanced by the discovery that many planets around other stars appear to be similar to our own ice giants."
Pew Pew Pew! Why Scientists Are Fired Up About Futuristic Space Lasers
Pew Pew Pew! Why Scientists Are Fired Up About Futuristic Space Lasers
By Mindy Weisberger, Senior Writer
This artist's concept shows a representation of NASA's Ice, Cloud and land Elevation Satellite-2 (ICESat-2) and its six-beam scanning pattern.
Credit: NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center
WASHINGTON — Pew, pew, pew! Epic laser battles with highly concentrated beams of deadly light punching through starship hulls, slicing off limbs — or instantly vaporizing spacecraft, bodies and even planets — have been a much-loved and time-honored tradition in science fiction for many decades.
But anyone who has gripped a handheld laser pointer to lead a presentation or to tease a cat knows that lower-energy versions of lasers are quite common today. The focused light of lasers can be used for microscopy, to provide targets for weapons, to perform certain types of delicate surgery or to create spectacular visual displays at rock concerts.
And lasers are also frequently used in space — not as weapons, but to help scientists conduct highly precise measurements and observations, a group of NASA engineers and designers explained in a panel on June 16 here at Future Con. [The Most Dangerous Space Weapons Ever]
If you've ever marveled at the highly detailed Martian topography in the geobrowser Google Mars, you have lasers to thank, said Luis Ramos-Izquierdo, an optical systems engineer at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland.
For four-and-a-half years, the Mars Orbiter Laser Altimeter (MOLA) used lasers to collect data on Mars' surface elevation, which was used to generate the most detailed global topographic map of any planet in our solar system, according to NASA.
Ice, ice baby
Closer to home, the Global Ecosystem Dynamics Investigation (GEDI), scheduled to launch in 2019, will use laser technology to create 3D maps of Earth's forests and calculate their biomass, Ramos-Izquierdo said.
Another NASA mission using lasers to peer at Earth is named Ice, Cloud and Land Elevation Satellite-2 (ICESat-2). Scheduled to launch in 2018, ICESat-2 will use an array of six lasers — three paired beams — to track ice-sheet thickness and changes across Greenland and Antarctica, so that scientists can better estimate the risks posed by melting ice due to climate change, panel member Brooke Medley, a research associate with Earth Sciences Remote Sensing at the Goddard Space Flight Center, told the Future Con audience.
ICESat-2 is continuing the work started by an earlier mission, ICESat-1, which was the first satellite to deploy lasers from space to measure surface elevation in the Greenland and Antarctic ice sheets, according to NASA.
The amount of ice cover in those two regions is enormous: Greenland's area is about three times the size of Texas, while Antarctica is roughly twice the size of the contiguous United States — far too big to accurately measure elevation changes from the ground or by airplane, Medley said. ICESat-2 will conduct multiple passes overhead at an altitude of 299 miles (481 kilometers), and its lasers will gather data that will enable researchers to calculate ice volume and track changes over time.
Kate Ramsayer, Luis Ramos-Izquierdo, Brooke Medley, Erwan Mazarico, Evan Hoffman and Jennifer Sager from NASA Goddard Space Flight Center extoll the many virtues of space lasers, in the Future Con panel "NASA's Space Lasers" on June 16, 2017.
Credit: M. Weisberger/Live Science
Another NASA satellite that resembles a mirror-studded disco ball — the LAser GEOdynamic Satellite (LAGEOS) — has been pinging back laser light beamed from Earth since it launched in 1976, returning data that enabled scientists to create the first models of Earth's gravitational field. Currently, there are two LAGEOS satellites in orbit, and their orbits are so stable that unless a piece of space debris collides with them, they'll be circling the planet for at least 1 million to 2 million years, according to panelist Evan Hoffman, a scientist with the Space Geodesy Project at Goddard.
In the moon's vicinity, the Lunar Orbiter Laser Altimeter instrument on the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter used lasers to gather billions of data points from the moon's surface while in orbit, enabling scientists to build the most detailed maps to date of lunar topography, Erwan Mazarico, a research associate with Planetary Studies at Goddard, said at the panel.
Lasers have also helped NASA researchers bring broadband to the moon, Jennifer Sager, lead system engineer and project manager with the Science and Planetary Operations Control Center at Goddard, told the panel audience. The Lunar Laser Communication Demonstration tested a two-way communication system between Earth and the moon using a pulsed laser beam, establishing a data download rate of 622 megabits per second, Sager said.
And researchers are even investigating whether lasers could be used defensively in space — not to battle invading extraterrestrials, but to nudge aside space debris that could damage equipment or threaten astronauts, Hoffman added.
An artist's conception of NASA's moon-bound LADEE spacecraft using lasers to communicate with Earth.
Credit: NASA
Lighting the spark
Appearing at a conference like Future Con — where attendees are particularly enthusiastic about the real-world science behind their favorite sci-fi moments — allowed all of the scientists in the panel to touch upon some of the more interesting aspects of their research, even though the entire presentation was less than an hour, Mazarico told Space.com.
But each of the panelists could happily have spoken about lasers for much longer, Ramos-Izquierdo added.
"In reality, any one of us could talk for hours about our work and what we do — I could have gone on and on and on," Ramos-Izquierdo said.
"But it's good that they get a variety of the things we do at NASA, and maybe how it all comes together — for communication, for mapping the planet, for exploration. We gotta do all that work now, for science fiction to become real," he said.
Talking about space lasers at Future Con also brought NASA science directly to kids, perhaps encouraging the next generation of engineers and scientists, Mazarico told Space.com. And giving children a chance to meet the people behind the lasers might help them see themselves in those roles as adults, Medley added.
"We're just people that you could be passing in the street," she said. "Science isn't out of reach — it's something that is accessible for anyone."
Planet 10? Another Earth-Size World May Lurk in the Outer Solar System
Planet 10? Another Earth-Size World May Lurk in the Outer Solar System
By Hanneke Weitering, Space.com Staff Writer-Producer
A planetary-mass object the size of Mars may be lurking in the outer solar system.
Credit: Heather Roper/LPL
A planet-size object may be orbiting the sun in the icy reaches of the solar system beyond Pluto.
Scientists at the University of Arizona's Lunar and Planetary Laboratory (LPL) have determined that an unseen object with a mass somewhere between that of Earth and Mars could be lurking in the Kuiper Belt, a region beyond Neptune filled with thousands of icy asteroids, comets and dwarf planets.
In In January 2016, a separate group of scientists predicted the existence of a Neptune-size planet orbiting the sun far, far beyond Pluto — about 25 times farther from the sun than Pluto is. This hypothetical planet was dubbed "Planet Nine," so if both predictions are correct, one of these putative objects could be the solar system's 10th planet.
The so-called "planetary-mass object" described by the scientists from LPL appears to affect the orbits of a population of icy space rocks in the Kuiper Belt. Distant Kuiper Belt objects (KBOs) have tilted orbits around the sun. The tilted orbital planes of most KBOs average out to something called the invariable plane of the solar system.
But the orbits of the most distant KBOs tilt away from the invariable plane by an average of 8 degrees, which signals the presence of a more massive object that warps its surroundings with its gravitational field, researchers said in a study due to be published in The Astronomical Journal.
"The most likely explanation for our results is that there is some unseen mass," Kat Volk, a postdoctoral fellow at LPL and the lead author of the study, said in a statement. "According to our calculations, something as massive as Mars would be needed to cause the warp that we measured."
These KBOs act a lot like spinning tops, Renu Malhotra, a professor of planetary sciences at LPL and co-author of the new study, said in the statement.
"Imagine you have lots and lots of fast-spinning tops, and you give each one a slight nudge … If you then take a snapshot of them, you will find that their spin axes will be at different orientations, but on average, they will be pointing to the local gravitational field of Earth," she said. "We expect each of the KBOs' orbital tilt angle to be at a different orientation, but on average, they will be pointing perpendicular to the plane determined by the sun and the big planets."
An artist's impression of the undiscovered, planet-size object in the Kuiper Belt
Credit: Heather Roper/LPL
It may sound a lot like the mysterious Planet Nine, but the researchers say the so-called planetary-mass object is too small, and too close, to be the same thing. Planet Nine lies 500 to 700 astronomical units (AU) from Earth, and its mass is about 10 times that of Earth. (One AU is the average distance at which Earth orbits the sun — 93 million miles, or 150 million kilometers. Pluto orbits the sun at a maximum distance of just less than 50 AU.)
"That is too far away to influence these KBOs," Volk said. "It certainly has to be much closer than 100 AU to substantially affect the KBOs in that range."
Though no planet-size objects have been spotted in the Kuiper Belt so far, the researchers are optimistic that the Large Synoptic Survey Telescope (LSST), which is currently under construction in Chile, will help find these hidden worlds. "We expect LSST to bring the number of observed KBOs from currently about 2,000 to 40,000," Malhotra said.
"There are a lot more KBOs out there — we just have not seen them yet," Malhotra added. "Some of them are too far and dim even for LSST to spot, but because the telescope will cover the sky much more comprehensively than current surveys, it should be able to detect this object, if it's out there."
New High-Speed, Sustainable Helicopter Concept Whirls into Air Show
New High-Speed, Sustainable Helicopter Concept Whirls into Air Show
By Kacey Deamer, Staff Writer
A new rotorcraft design was presented by Airbus Helicopters at the Paris Air Show this week, and Airbus claims it can reach a cruising speed of 250 mph (400 km/h) without a deafening roar or trade-off in sustainability.
The copter concept — code-named "Racer," for Rapid and Cost-Effective Rotorcraft — was designed as part of the Clean Sky 2 European research program, which aims to reduce carbon dioxide emissions and lessen noise levels produced by aircraft.
The helicopter has a main rotor and a "box-wing" design with additional smaller rotors, which offers more efficient aerodynamics by providing lift and forward momentum while the copter cruises, according to Airbus Helicopters officials. [Supersonic! The 11 Fastest Military Airplanes]
"[Racer] aims to bring increased speed and range at the right cost, thanks to a simple, safe and proven aerodynamic formula," Guillaume Faury, Airbus Helicopters CEO, said in a statement.
The new helicopter could reach speeds of nearly 250 mph (400 km/h), thanks to new technology and an advanced aerodynamic design.
An "eco mode" will add to the helicopter's fuel efficiency. The option is still being tested by the engine manufacturer, but according to Airbus Helicopters, it would allow for an electrically powered "start and stop" of one engine in flight to save fuel and increase range. A low-weight body also adds to fuel efficiency and aerodynamics, according to Airbus.
Construction of a demonstration Racer craft is expected to begin in 2019, with initial flight tests planned for the following year.
Another aerospace advancement announced by Airbus this year is the Pop.Up, a "multimodal transportation concept." The futuristic passenger capsule concept could transform into different modes of transit, with attachable wheels for driving, propellers for flying or the ability to join a train-like transit system, such as the high-speed transit concept known as the Hyperloop.
A lot of people think there could be intelligent life out there somewhere
(Photo: Getty)
Hacktivist group Anonymous has released a YouTube video in which it claims NASA could soon announce the discovery of alien life.
Anonymous is known around the world for its work. In the past, it's taken on the likes of Isis, Donald Trump, and Westboro Baptist Church – the small American religious group that campaigns against homosexuality.
In it's latest video, Anonymous states that a NASA spokesperson called Professor Thomas Zurbuchen told a recent US Science, Space, and Technology committee meeting that extraterrestrial life could soon be proven.
What if there are two Donald Trumps?(Photo: Corbis)
"Our civilisation is on the verge of discovering evidence of alien life in the cosmos," Zurbuchen supposedly said.
"Taking into account all of the different activities and missions that are searching for alien life, we are on the verge of making one of the most profound, unprecedented discoveries in history."
Anonymous has also written about alien life on its website. It said: "The evidence sure seems to imply that something is going on in the skies above.
"It would cost a lot for spaceships and a continuous flow of taxes and black budget dollars could imply a rational that there is more than meets the eye and or that of public knowledge."
Obviously, this is speculation. At present, there's no evidence – at least none we know of – that proves the existence of alien life. But many think it's a possibility.
Last week, NASA discovered 219 new planets, ten of which are rocky planets possibly not all that dissimilar to Earth. Although these planets are in the solar system's 'Goldilocks Zon'e, which means they're too hot or cold to be habitable.
If there’s one thing we’ve learned from the history of mass extinctions, rogue asteroids are not good for the planet. That’s why the latest news from the Kuiper asteroid belt is disconcerting at best, apocalyptically frightening at worst. A group of astronomers has uncovered evidence that a warp in this asteroid belt beyond Neptune is being caused by a mysterious small planet hiding inside it. Is this Planet X? Planet 10? Planet 9? Will we decide on a name before it wipes us out?
“The most likely explanation for our results is that there is some unseen mass. According to our calculations, something as massive as Mars would be needed to cause the warp that we measured.”
According to their new report in the Astronomical Journal, scientists Kat Volk and Renu Malhotra from the University of Arizona’s Lunar and Planetary Laboratory have discovered a strange warp in the solar system’s plane. While the planets and most other space objects orbiting the sun are predictably planar, things can get unpredictable at 55 astronomical units (55 AU is 55 times the distance of Earth from the sun) in the area filled with Kuiper Belt Objects. Volk and Malhotra say they’ve found a section that has an 8 degree tilt away from where models say it should be. That can mean only one thing.
No, not aliens. The Kuiper Belt is being warped by an object large enough to have a belt-bending gravitational pull. Volk and Malhotra determined that a tilt away from the norm of that magnitude could be caused by an object whose mass is somewhere between that of Mars and Earth, making it a planet. Is it Planet X, Dr, Volk?
“The observed distant KBOs are concentrated in a ring about 30 AU wide and would feel the gravity of such a planetary mass object over time, so hypothesizing one planetary mass to cause the observed warp is not unreasonable across that distance.”
Volk prefers to refer to the warp-inducer as a “planetary mass object” for now and casts doubt on it being the rumored Planet X because it’s too close to the sun – Planet X, if it exists, is predicted to be more like 500 to 700 AU from the center of the solar system. If it’s not Planet X but it’s at least the size of Mars, why hasn’t any telescope picked it up?
“The chance that we have not found such an object of the right brightness and distance simply because of the limitations of the surveys is estimated to be to about 30 percent.”
A Kuiper Belt Object
In other words, it’s possibly in front of a dense cluster of stars whose brightness overwhelms it, causing astronomers using today’s telescopes to simply avoid wasting their time (and burning their retinas) staring at the spot. That could change with new data from the Outer Solar System Origins Survey, which is tracking and recording the thousands of objects beyond Neptune. Or it could be seen by the Large Synoptic Survey Telescope which is scheduled to be operational in 2020.
Will that be enough time to protect us from rogue asteroids knocked towards us by this belt-warping new planet with no name?
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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 66 jaar jong.
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