Dit is ons nieuw hondje Kira, een kruising van een waterhond en een Podenko. Ze is sinds 7 februari 2024 bij ons en druk bezig ons hart te veroveren. Het is een lief, aanhankelijk hondje, dat zich op een week snel aan ons heeft aangepast. Ze is heel vinnig en nieuwsgierig, een heel ander hondje dan Noleke.
This is our new dog Kira, a cross between a water dog and a Podenko. She has been with us since February 7, 2024 and is busy winning our hearts. She is a sweet, affectionate dog who quickly adapted to us within a week. She is very quick and curious, a very different dog than Noleke.
DEAR VISITOR,
MY BLOG EXISTS ALREADY 13 YEARS AND 2 MONTH.
ON 06/08/2024 MORE THAN 2.161.100
VISITORS FROM 135 DIFFERENT NATIONS ALREADY FOUND THEIR WAY TO MY BLOG.
THAT IS AN AVERAGE OF 400GUESTS PER DAY.
THANK YOU FOR VISITING MY BLOG AND HOPE YOU ENJOY EACH TIME.
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.
Druk op onderstaande knop om te reageren in mijn forum
Zoeken in blog
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 In België had je vooral BUFON of het Belgisch UFO-Netwerk, dat zich met UFO's bezighoudt. BEZOEK DUS ZEKER VOOR ALLE OBJECTIEVE INFORMATIE , enkel nog beschikbaar via Facebook en deze blog.
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 maandelijks tijdschrift uit, namelijk The MUFON UFO-Journal.
Since 02/01/2020 is Pieter ex-president (=voorzitter) of BUFON, but also ex-National Director MUFON / Flanders and the Netherlands. We work together with the French MUFON Reseau MUFON/EUROP.
ER IS EEN NIEUWE GROEPERING DIE ZICH BUFON NOEMT, MAAR DIE HEBBEN NIETS MET ONZE GROEP TE MAKEN. DEZE COLLEGA'S GEBRUIKEN DE NAAM BUFON VOOR HUN SITE... Ik wens hen veel succes met de verdere uitbouw van hun groep. Zij kunnen de naam BUFON wel geregistreerd hebben, maar het rijke verleden van BUFON kunnen ze niet wegnemen...
31-07-2024
'UFO' spotted over Ibiza after tourists notice white 'orb' floating in the sky
'UFO' spotted over Ibiza after tourists notice white 'orb' floating in the sky
A group of tourists were peacefully watching the sunset when a strange white 'orb' floated into their field of vision. In a matter of seconds, the strange entity vanishes, leaving some people convinced it's a 'UFO'
When jetting off to sunny Ibiza, UFOs are probably the last thing on your mind.
Yet, one group oftourists believe they spotted exactly this while soaking up a stunning sunset by the sea - and it's left the internet utterly baffled. Now a clip of the mysterious aerial entity came to light onPubity'sInstagram.
The UFO was spotted in Ibiza, Spain.
It captures a crowd relaxed on a cliff, before one woman suddenly runs to the edge. The air is then thick with gasps, yells and confused questions as all eyes lock on to something next to the moon.
Eagle-eyed viewers will clock a white blob, slightly out of focus, floating in the sky. But just as the lens zooms in, it shoots off and vanishes.
Unsurprisingly, this strange footage racked up countless comments online, with many viewers dishing out their own theories on what this might be. Unconvinced by the sighting, one person said: "It’s probably just a drone," as another sceptic joked: "Bro that UFO took a pill in Ibiza."
Meanwhile, someone else quipped: "They saw the bottled water prices n zoomed," while one more scoffed: "Ohhh yes because every video starts with 'hey I’m going to run towards the edge and scream look look look' nice try."
According to the Majorca Bulletin, this isn't the first time a UFO has been spotted in the region. Incredibly, Sóller - a town in neighbouring Mallorca - was allegedly a hotspot for UFO sightings in the 1970s to 1990s.
The Ibiza sighting also comes less than a year after US Congress passed legislation that demands its government to disclose some UFO records, under certain conditions.
Maria Calafat, who is reportedly working on a UFO-based project for Netflix, believes this alone is motivating more people to come forward with their own personal experiences.
She told the Majorca publication: "The recent declassification of thousands of UFO files by US Congress, has made these cases fashionable again."
What do you think? Let us know in the comment section below...
A mysterious UFO above a town in the United Kingdom was recently captured on camera and the object appeared to change shape as it moved through the sky.
The UFO was spotted by a resident of Bellshill in Lanarkshire on Friday, July 26.
“The skies have been beautiful lately with bright colours and when I heard the helicopter for the third time that day, I did look up and i caught a glimpse out the corner of my eye of it,” the witness told Glasgow Live.
“It was the way it was moving that made me want a closer look. I just thought it was strange and reminded me of something out of Harry Potter the closer it got.
“Even at one point it did look like a giant chicken, but still dark even when it passed over my house.”
Meanwhile in Brazil, another UFO was spotted and caught on video less than a week prior to the one in the United Kingdom.
The witness, Zona Desconhecida, said he was leaving a bakery when he saw a mysterious object hovering in the sky above Curitiba and captured what some are calling “The clearest video of a UFO ever taken.”
Not everyone is buying it, but many people on Reddit and YouTube were.
“Creepy as hell,” one viewer wrote. “I don’t think this is a balloon or drone look close that s—‘s like moving like there’s little legs on the sides moving and the eye or whatever also moves.”
“Amazing zoom on that camera, and a strong case for a UFO,” read another comment. “Without it taking off and showing speed, it’s hard for me to say for sure. But still, great submission.”
“When it finally comes into focus at the end, it just looks like smooth, uniformly shaped thing,” another person tried to explain. “The ‘landing gear’ and the light colored features on the side I think were just artifacts of it being out of focus.”
“Looks like the exact same thing that hovered over Bogota,” someone else wrote.
History is gearing up for the premiere of their new UFO reality show Unidentified: Inside America’s UFO Investigation. It airs this Friday, May 31 after Ancient Aliens. The show has already generated a ton of press, and the show cast members were key in influencing the Navy to take a closer look at UFO reports, as reported in Politico by Unidentified cast member Bryan Bender.
Bender’s article, and a new article in the New York Times that includes witness testimony from Navy pilots, has hit the media by storm. Now, in the middle of the media fervor, History has released these clips of interviews with some of those pilots.
CLIP 1 – Former Navy pilot Lt. Ryan Graves recalls his experience encountering UFOs while on the USS Theodore Roosevelt.
CLIP 2– Former Navy pilot Lt. Ryan Graves and Navy pilot Lt. Danny Aucoin discuss their experiences encountering UFOs while on active duty with the Navy.
CLIP 3 – Former Navy pilot Lt. Ryan Graves makes the shocking claim that multiple unidentified crafts appeared in the Middle East over the Arabian Gulf, while the carrier strike group was launching air strikes in Syria.
Promos
Visit the History channel website for Unidentified: Inside America’s UFO Investigationhere.
NASA Made a World-Shaking Discovery: Compelling Evidence of Past Life on Mars
NASA Made a World-Shaking Discovery: Compelling Evidence of Past Life on Mars
Story by Darren Orf
In its ancient past, Mars likely contained many of the necessarily ingredients for microbial life to flourish on its surface.
Now, a new discovery by NASA’s Perseverance rover shows a trifecta of compelling evidence—including the presence of water, organic compounds, and a chemical energy source—all on one rock located in the Jezero Crater.
Although this is the best clue yet that microbial life existed on Mars, there are still other explanations that could explain this geologic display without the existence of microbes.
“Is there life on Mars” is a question that has vexed astrobiologists and David Bowie alike. While the latter imagined some macabre collection of arachnids on the Red Planet, NASA scientists are fixated on finding evidence that microbial life once flourished on the fourth rock from the Sun. So fixated, in fact, that the space agency has spent more than $5 billion getting two immensely complicated robotic rovers—Curiosity and Perseverance—onto the Martian surface with this specific microbial mission in mind.
Now, one of those rovers might’ve discovered one of the most compelling pieces of evidence for Martian microbial life. Located on an arrowhead-shaped, three-foot-long rock nicknamed “Cheyava Falls” in the Jezero Crater (the 28-mile-wide crater that Perseverance has called home for the past three years), this “piece of evidence” is actually a trifecta of data points that suggest the presence of past microbial life. The rock in question features two vertical veins of calcium sulfate that likely formed from past water, and these stripes both flank a red band of rock filled with “leopard spots.”
NASA has discovered evidence of past water on Mars before, but it’s this narrow band of rock that brings new meaning to this discovery. Using its SHERLOC (Scanning Habitable Environments with Raman & Luminescence for Organics & Chemicals) and PIXL (Planetary Instrument for X-Ray Lithochemistry) instruments, Perseverance determined the existence of organic compounds within the rock. Oh, and those “leopard spots?” Those likely indicate chemical reactions that could’ve supplied energy to ancient microbial Martians.
While each of these discoveries—the presence of water, organic compounds, and chemical reactions—would be notable even if discovered separately, NASA has never seen all three in one location, meaning the geological chemistry of Cheyava Falls is possibly our best clue yet that Mars once hosted life.
“Cheyava Falls is the most puzzling, complex, and potentially important rock yet investigated by Perseverance,” Caltech’s Ken Farley, Perseverance project scientist, said in a NASA press statement. “We have our first compelling detection of organic material, distinctive colorful spots indicative of chemical reactions that microbial life could use as an energy source, and clear evidence that water—necessary for life—once passed through the rock.”
While this site is particularly exciting, it’s far from the first Martian discovery to cause considerable microbial hype. Just earlier this year, scientists studying a 2017 soil analysis from Curiosity’s ongoing mission in Gale Crater discovered an abundance of manganese in the soil—something that usually requires the presence of oxygen and (you guessed it) microbes.
An annotated image of the Cheyava Falls rock, the two vertical veins of calcium sulfate can be seen on the left and right of the image.
But all of these discoveries come with more than a few caveats. In Curiosity’s case, too little is known about the Mars’ oxidation process to be certain that microbes existed in Gale Crater, and this new discovery also isn’t immune from scientific scrutiny. One big head scratcher is the presence of millimeter-sized olivine crystals—a mineral that forms from magma. This may possibility explain how past volcanic activity could produce this geologic phenomena without relying on the presence of microbes at all.
“We have zapped that rock with lasers and X-rays and imaged it literally day and night from just about every angle imaginable,” Farley said in the press statement. “Scientifically, Perseverance has nothing more to give. To fully understand what really happened in that Martian river valley at Jezero Crater billions of years ago, we’d want to bring the Cheyava Falls sample back to Earth, so it can be studied with the powerful instruments available in laboratories.”
The “six-wheeled geologist” (as NASA calls it) doesn’t contain an onboard lab like its sister rover, Curiosity. But that’s actually a feature—not a flaw. NASA originally designed Perseverance to also be a sample retrieval mission, meaning that the space agency would send an additional spacecraft to retrieve samples from Perseverance and bring them back to Earth for further study.
However, with the costs of such a mission edging into the $11 billion range, bringing back samples of this Martian geologic wonder is in now question—as is the possibility of definitively understanding if there was once microbial life on Mars.
NASA’s Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART) made history almost two years ago. This was the first time humanity attempted to intentionally alter the motion of a space rock. They succeeded.
A spacecraftslammed into the tiny moon of an asteroid, all while its onboard camera and an Italian robotic onlooker called LICIACube snapped photos.
The footage is a treasure trove. On Tuesday, teams published five scientific papers in the journal Nature Communications. Each contains new insights into what these rocks are like, and how tricky it may be for future planetary defense missions to strike another asteroid to avoid an impact’s calamity on Earth.
Behold the final five-and-a-half minutes before DART intentionally collided into asteroid Dimorphos.
Here are five discoveries about this binary asteroid system so briefly encountered on September 26, 2022.
1. THE LARGER ASTEROID HAS AN OLDER SURFACE THAN THE LITTLE MOON.
Didymos and its moonlet Dimorphos are related to one another. But scientists still don’t know exactly how. One investigation looked at 16 craters on the larger asteroid, Didymos.
DRACO, the Didymos Reconnaissance and Asteroid Camera for OpNav scientific camera, was one image source. It took many photos of Didymos and smaller Dimorphos before impacting the latter’s surface.
The craters suggest that the Didymos surface is about 12.5 million years old. But the Dimorphos surface is a fraction of that, only about 90,000 years to 300,000 years old.
2. DIDYMOS IS A PILE OF RUBBLE.
Observations confirmed theoretical expectations: It’s essentially a clump of leftovers from a catastrophic event in the ancient past.
Scientists noticed Didymos boulders appear too large to have been excavated by whatever made the craters. Something grander was responsible, and its mess, rounded up through gravitational attraction, is now Didymos. The large boulders are heirlooms passed down from an ancient parent rock.
This image from Italy’s LICIACube show the plumes of ejecta streaming from the Dimorphos asteroid after NASA’s DART made impact. Each rectangle creates a different level of contrast. This helps viewers to better see the plume’s fine structure.
3. WE NEED TO KNOW MUCH MORE ABOUT FRACTURES ON DIMORPHOS’ BOULDERS.
Asteroid boulders live in an airless environment. But, they can be altered through thermal fatigue. As the Sun shines on them, cracks form.
The Dimorphos fractures were identified with the help of independent contributors who located them across boulders of different sizes. This work adds to what’s already been gleaned about the Near-Earth asteroid population from previous NASA, Japanese, and European missions.
The picture emerging from the data is that, should a kinetic impactor like DART slam into another space rock, the thermal cracks “may contribute to an enhancement in the ejected mass,” one study says.
4.ECLIPSES MAY BE ONGOING.
On the flip side, eclipses could be having an opposite effect: cooling rocks down.
This animation shows how Dimorphos’ orbit around Didymos was seen from Earth about one week after the DART impact.
Based on limited data about how Dimorphos now spins after DART struck it, scientists think the moonlet remains tidally-locked to Didymos. This means Dimorphos shows the same face to Didymos, like the Moon does with Earth. If this relationship is fostering eclipses, a periodic drop in temperature could be happening on the asteroids.
Like thermal fatigue from solar radiation, the cooling effect of eclipses must also be factored into deflection techniques. This asteroid duo provides a unique chance to investigate this. Other closely-studied asteroids and comets have no companion to block out light.
5. THE DIDYMOS SURFACE IS WEAKER THAN DRY SAND ON EARTH.
One major thing researchers want to know before visiting any celestial object is how much weight you can put on it. This is called bearing capacity. It reveals a lot about the formation history of the Solar System. And in the case of planetary defense, bearing capacity also informs how to build something that can effectively knock a space rock off a collision course with Earth.
“The low surface strength of Dimorphos likely contributed to DART’s significant impact on its orbit,” NASA officials wrote in an announcement published Tuesday. This also seems to be a trait of the larger asteroid, Didymos.
Researchers looked at DRACO’s final full image of Didymos before it slammed into the moonlet Dimorphos. DART didn’t touch Didymos. But boulders on its surface left tracks. Scientists studied nine of these paths. They determined that the bearing capacity of Didymos is “at least 3 orders of magnitude less than the bearing capacity of dry sand on Earth, or lunar regolith [dirt].”
Researchers have already learned so much about Near-Earth asteroids from the DART mission. Thanks to the European Space Agency’s upcoming Hera mission to survey the duo in October 2026, even more discoveries could emerge.
Een reis naar lokale legendes over de hele wereld Etherische figuren, die doen denken aan eeuwenoude legendes, komen op subtiele wijze tevoorschijn uit het tapijt van culturen en wenken nieuwsgierigen en dapperen om de blijvende kracht van folklore te ontdekken. Deze verhalen zijn het gefluister van generaties, die de essentie van het mysterieuze en magische vastleggen, en in deze galerij worden ze gevierd als de schatten van ons gedeelde menselijke erfgoed.
LEES VERDER door de galerij om de verhalen van weleer te ontdekken!
Het fluisterende bamboe (China) In het hart van het oude China fluistert een verhaal over twee geliefden, getransformeerd in bamboe, voor altijd samen zwaaiend in de wind. Deze legende, diep geworteld in de Chinese folklore, spreekt over de blijvende kracht van de liefde die echoot door de ritselende bamboebladeren. Het is een herinnering aan de veerkracht van de liefde en de eeuwige aanwezigheid in de natuur.
Anansi's Web (West-Afrika) Onder de Afrikaanse hemel weeft Anansi de Spin meer dan alleen maar webben; hij weeft verhalen over wijsheid. Deze bedrieger, een prominent figuur in West-Afrikaanse verhalen, leert levenslessen door zijn sluwe en avontuurlijke heldendaden. Elke streng van zijn web symboliseert de complexiteit van de beslissingen in het leven en de wijsheid die hij door ervaring verkrijgt.
Het noorderlicht (Scandinavië) Terwijl je in de Scandinavische nacht staart, ben je getuige van de etherische dans van de Aurora Borealis. Folklore vertelt over deze lichten als een hemels fenomeen, waar de geesten van de overledenen in de hemel spelen, verhalen van verwondering weven en het aardse rijk overbruggen met het mystieke.
Het monster van Loch Ness (Schotland) Gehuld in de mist van de Schotse folklore ligt Loch Ness, de thuisbasis van Nessie, het ongrijpbare monster. Deze legende geeft de essentie weer van de enigmatische charme van Schotland, waarbij Nessie de mysteries symboliseert die op de loer liggen in de diepten van onze verbeelding en in de donkere wateren van het meer.
Baba Yaga's Hut (Rusland) In het hart van de Russische folklore staat de hut van Baba Yaga, een bijzondere verblijfplaats op kippenpoten. De enigmatische heks, die vaak een cruciale rol speelt in verhalen over heldendom en speurtochten, belichaamt de dualiteit van de natuur – soms een helper, soms een belemmering, maar altijd een belangrijke figuur in het rijke tapijtwerk van de Slavische mythologie.
De Feniks (Midden-Oosten) Uit de as van oude verhalen uit het Midden-Oosten rijst de Feniks op, een prachtige vogel die vernieuwing en het eeuwige leven symboliseert. Dit mythische wezen, helder brandend en herboren uit zijn eigen ondergang, vertegenwoordigt de eindeloze cyclus van leven, dood en wedergeboorte, een krachtig embleem van veerkracht en hoop in de folklore.
Kraken (Noordse Zee) In de diepe, koude wateren van de Noordse Zeeën schuilt de Kraken, een legendarisch zeemonster dat gevreesd wordt door zeilers. Dit enorme wezen, vaak vergeleken met een reuzeninktvis, belichaamt de mysteries en verschrikkingen van de oceaan, een bewijs van de eeuwenoude fascinatie en angst van de mensheid voor de onbekende diepten van de zee.
El Dorado (Zuid-Amerika) Diep in het hart van Zuid-Amerika fascineert de legende van El Dorado, de stad van goud, ontdekkingsreizigers al eeuwenlang. Dit prikkelende verhaal spreekt over grenzeloze rijkdom en ambitie en weerspiegelt de eindeloze zoektocht van de mensheid naar ontdekkingen en de ongrijpbare aard van onze grootste verlangens.
De Banshee (Ierland) In de Ierse folklore is het treurige gejammer van de Banshee onder het maanlicht een voorbode van de dood. Deze spookachtige figuur, gehuld in mysterie, belichaamt de Keltische eerbied voor de overgang van leven naar dood, een aangrijpende herinnering aan de dunne sluier tussen het levende en het spirituele rijk.
Tengu (Japan) Hoog in de Japanse bergen wonen de Tengu: mystieke wezens die deels mens en deels vogel zijn. Deze wezens staan bekend als zowel beschermers als bedriegers van de bossen en symboliseren de complexiteit van de natuur en menselijke interactie, waarbij ze kattenkwaad en wijsheid vermengen in het rijke tapijtwerk van de Japanse folklore.
Bigfoot (Noord-Amerika) In de uitgestrekte, onbekende bossen van Noord-Amerika roept de legende van Bigfoot, een mysterieuze reus, nieuwsgierigheid en debat op. Dit ongrijpbare wezen, vaak omschreven als een torenhoge, harige figuur, belichaamt de wilde en onbekende aspecten van de natuur. Bigfoot dient als symbool voor de mysteries die nog steeds verborgen liggen in de afgelegen wildernis.
De regenboogslang (Australië) Centraal in de Aboriginal mythologie wordt de Regenboogslang vereerd als een krachtige scheppende godheid. Dit levendige, slangachtige wezen, geassocieerd met water en leven, weeft door de verhalen van de inheemse bevolking en symboliseert de schepping, vruchtbaarheid en de onderlinge verbondenheid van alle levende wezens.
La Llorona (Mexico) Het verhaal van La Llorona, gefluisterd langs de rivieroevers, spreekt over een spookachtige vrouw, die eeuwig rouwt om haar verdronken kinderen. Dit aangrijpende verhaal, doordrenkt van Mexicaanse folklore, dient als een waarschuwend verhaal over liefde, verlies en de gevolgen van iemands daden, dat door de eeuwen heen weerklinkt.
De Djinn (Midden-Oosten) In verhalen uit het Midden-Oosten zijn de Djinn bovennatuurlijke wezens, noch geheel goed, noch slecht. Deze raadselachtige wezens worden vaak geassocieerd met het vervullen van wensen en weerspiegelen de dubbele aard van menselijke verlangens en de complexe gevolgen die de vervulling ervan met zich meebrengt.
De Krampus (AlpenEuropa) In de ijskoude Alpengebieden vormt de Krampus een schril contrast met de feestelijke vreugde van Kerstmis. Deze gehoornde figuur, bekend om het straffen van zich misdragende kinderen tijdens de kerstperiode, belichaamt de oude gebruiken en duistere aspecten van wintervieringen en herinnert aan de balans tussen welwillendheid en discipline.
Valkyries (Noorse mythologie) In de Noorse mythologie kozen Walkuren, goddelijke vrouwelijke figuren, het lot van krijgers in de strijd. Deze krachtige wezens, die door de lucht vliegen, vertegenwoordigen de concepten van het lot en het hiernamaals, een integraal onderdeel van de Viking-overtuigingen en -cultuur.
De rattenvanger (Duitsland) De rattenvanger, een mysterieuze figuur uit de Duitse folklore, staat erom bekend een stad van ratten te bevrijden en later zijn kinderen weg te lokken. Zijn verhaal is een waarschuwend verhaal over beloften en gevolgen, dat door de eeuwen heen weerklank vindt.
De Nian (China) Het angstaanjagende beest Nian zou in de Chinese folklore zijn verslagen met behulp van rode lantaarns en vuurwerk. Deze legende symboliseert de triomf over angst en tegenspoed, gevierd tijdens het Chinese Nieuwjaar.
De Golem (Joodse folklore) In de Joodse folklore werd de Golem, een tot leven gewekt kleifiguur, gecreëerd om de gemeenschap te beschermen. Dit krachtige verhaal onderzoekt thema's als creatie, controle en de onbedoelde gevolgen van onze acties.
Kappa (Japan) De Kappa, waterwezens uit de Japanse folklore, staan bekend om hun kattenkwaad, maar toch zijn ze gebonden aan een beleefdheidscode. Deze wezens symboliseren de genuanceerde relatie tussen mensen en de natuurlijke wereld en weerspiegelen het delicate evenwicht van co-existentie.
The Selkie's Secret (Schotse en Ierse folklore) Selkies, zeehondenmensen uit de Schotse en Ierse overlevering, belichamen de thema's identiteit en vrijheid. Hun verhalen, vaak romantisch en tragisch, spreken over de transformerende aard van selkies en hun diepe verbinding met zowel land als zee, en reflecteren op het universele verlangen naar iemands ware thuis.
What could a future sovereign Mars economy look like?
What would the economy of a future Mars society look like, and how could it be self-sustaining while being completely sovereign from Earth and its own economy? This is what a recent study submitted to Space Policy hopes to address as a sole researcher discusses a model that could be used for establishing economic freedom on Mars, enabling both monetary and political stability across all Red Planets settlements. This study holds the potential to help scientists, economists, and world leaders better understand plausible governmental systems used by human settlers on other worlds while maintaining sovereignty from Earth and its own governmental law and order.
Here, Universe Today discusses this incredible study with Dr. Jacob Haqq-Misra, who is the Director and a Senior Research Investigator of Blue Marble Space Institute of Science (BMSIS) and sole author of the study, regarding the motivation behind the study, significant ideas presented in the study, the importance of establishing a sovereign economic system on Mars, eliminating capital exchange between Mars and Earth, how Mars can become a sovereign entity from Earth after humans settle there, and how an economic system can be established on a sovereign Mars. Therefore, what was the motivation behind the study?
“My motivation was to build on the idealistic framework for an independent Mars that I developed in my book Sovereign Mars,” Dr. Haqq-Misra tells Universe Today. “In my book, I describe five conditions for enabling Mars to be an independent planetary state, a juridical peer to Earth. In this new study, I develop a possible economic model that would be consistent with these five conditions.”
These five conditions outlined in Sovereign Mars include all permanent settlers on Mars completely acquiescing Earth citizenship and interests; Earthlings being unable to interfere with the Mars affairs, including financial, political, and social aspects; Earthlings requiring permission from Mars to conduct scientific investigations on the Red Planet; only Mars citizens can own land; and all resources brought from Earth, including technological or other items, will remain on Mars permanently.
For the study, Dr. Haqq-Misra dives deeper into the economic facets of a future sovereign Mars government while embodying these five conditions, specifically focusing on the financial aspects of such an economic system, including banking, currencies, capital ownership, and Earthling tourism. He emphasizes how such a system builds off the mistakes from Earth’s present-day economic systems that could potentially lead to both financial and political stability on Mars. He notes this is an “idealistic but feasible model” with the goal of establishing full economic freedom for future Mars citizens from Earth. So, what were the most significant ideas presented in this study?
“The first idea is ‘full reserve banking’,” Dr. Haqq-Misra tells Universe Today. “Our banking system today allows banks to loan out more money than they hold as cash in reserves, which is known as a ‘fractional reserve’ system. This can lead to problems such as a ‘run on the bank,” where too many people try to take out their deposits all at once, only to find that the bank does not have their money.”
Dr. Haqq-Misra continues, “The second idea is the diffusion of capital ownership. Many visions of space settlement imagine something like a world space agency or other centralized authority that could ensure justice and perhaps even serve as a way to redistribute wealth. But the centralization of sovereign power also carries significant risks for the abuse of such power. Some arguments even suggest a somewhat Marxists approach toward the centralized or government ownership of wealth-producing capital, which is then redistributed equitably, but this again carries significant risk of abuse and corruption. An alternative idea is to widely diffuse the ownership of capital, instead of wealth. This means that ownership of companies, equipment, and anything else that can generate wealth would be held in a wider range of hands than today—ideally, by everyone.”
Along with the five conditions of a sovereign Mars noted above, requirements will also be established by the full reserve banking system on Mars, including all transactions staying on Mars, no currency exchange with Earth, and currency issuance will be based on changes in population. All tourism on Mars will follow three conditions that coincide with the conditions of both a sovereign Mars and the Mars full reserve banking system, including tourists being unable to own capital on Mars, the prohibition of Mars currency from being returned to Earth, and no currency transactions from tourists while services would only be provided from the exchange of goods.
On present-day Earth, currency exchange is the primary method for purchasing goods and services, with a total of 180 currencies being recognized across 195 countries around the world. While the value of each currency across the globe varies daily, this system allows individuals from separate countries to own capital in other countries with minimal government interference. But what is the importance behind the complete lack of capital exchange between Earth and Mars?
“This is part of the idealistic framework in Sovereign Mars,” Dr. Haqq-Misra tells Universe Today. “Preventing exchange between the two planets would enable Mars to retain its maximum potential to develop new ideas in civilization, such as this economic model. In practice, these ideas could still be attempted on Mars even if there is some exchange between the two planets, although this may lead to different results.”
The prospect of sending humans to Mars has been the purview of science fiction and countless scientific discussions for over 100 years. this began with the Danish silent film A Trip to Mars and other films continuing throughout the 20th century while incorporating current Mars inhabitants or remnants of past Mars civilizations. While films of the last few decades of the 20th century and into the 21st century conveyed the first human trips to Mars, most recently with the film The Martian, little has been discussed regarding permanent human settlements on the Red Planet.
The closest this notion came was in the television series The Expanse, which depicted the Martian Congressional Republic on Mars being a sovereign entity from Earth, complete with its own military and political hierarchy. However, the economic system within this government wasn’t discussed in detail. But what steps need to be taken for Mars to become a sovereign entity after humans settle there?
“The biggest challenge is having sufficient infrastructure and resources to become self-sustaining on Mars,” Dr. Haqq-Misra tells Universe Today. “Some resources could be used on Mars, but not right away, and actually enabling an independent Mars may require benefactors with long-term visions for humanity or even Earth, without the need for an immediate or near-future financial return. I call this ‘deep altruism’ in Sovereign Mars.”
Additionally, regarding the importance of establishing a sovereign economic system on Mars and the steps required for this economic system to take hold, Dr. Haqq-Misra tells Universe Today, “We have many examples even in recent history of economic recessions and collapses. If space settlement is really to be a long-duration venture, then we need economic ideas that can remain sustainable over long timescales.”
Dr. Haqq-Misra continues, “The best way to establish this economic system would be for any initial settlers to agree on a method for implementing such a system prior to actually arriving on Mars. Part of the value in thinking about martian governance today is to anticipate such possibilities prior to the actual landing of humans on Mars. And thinking about governance on Mars can also help us gain better insight into our governance and economic systems on Earth.”
Sending humans to Mars could happen within the next decade, but sending humans to live there could be decades away, and establishing a sovereign Mars could be at least 100 years away, along with establishing and maintaining a sustainable economy separate from Earth. However, establishing protocols well in advance could lead to a smooth transition into an economic system on a sovereign Mars that is completely separate and free from the Earth’s systems.
Dr. Haqq-Misra concludes by telling Universe Today, “I am working with a talented group of students this summer through the BMSIS Young Scientist Program to examine historical analogues for sovereignty on Mars. We hope to have some new studies finished in the coming year.”
Will a future sovereign Mars successfully establish an economic system that is separate from Earth some time in the distant future? Only time will tell, and this is why we science!
Having Trouble Traversing the Sands of Mars? A Lizard Robot Might Help
Mars exploration vehicles typically have wheels, allowing them to traverse some challenging terrain on the Red Planet. However, eventually, their systems start to wear down, and one of their wheels gets stuck. The “Free Spirit” campaign in 2009 was the most widely known case. Unfortunately, that campaign wasn’t successful, and now, 15 years later, Spirit remains stuck in its final resting place. Things might have been different if NASA had adopted a new robot paradigm developed by Guangming Chen and his colleagues at the Nanjing University of Aeronautics & Astronautics Lab of Locomotion Bioinspiration and Intelligent Robots. They devised a robot based on a desert lizard, with adaptable feet and a flexible “spine” that, according to their calculations, would be well suited to traversing over Martian regolith.
Planning for traversing tough terrain isn’t limited to rovers that are stuck. Curiosity and Perseverance, perhaps the two best-known operating rovers on Mars, currently spend a lot of their time trying to avoid areas where they might become entangled. This limits their ability to capture any data from those areas, potentially missing out on some cool rocks, like the pure sulfur that Curiosity recently found for the first time on Mars.
A lizard-inspired robot, on the other hand, would have no trouble traversing such terrain. It also has some advantages over traversing different types of terrain, such as rocks. Most rovers don’t have enough leg lift to get over medium-sized rocks, whereas a legged robot would, especially one with adjustable “toes” that would allow it to grip a rock tighter than would otherwise be possible with typical legged robots.
Lizard-inspired robots aren’t only useful for walking – they can also jump like their biological cousins, as demonstrated in this video from UC Berkeley’s robotics lab. Credit – UC Berkeley YouTube Channel
The design for the robot itself is relatively simple – it has four “feet” that are offset from each other by a chassis that essentially looks like a desert lizard. It even has a tail for counterbalancing. Each foot has a series of three “toes” powered by springs. They also have a servo for ankle articulation and a bearing for rotational control. This combination allows the lizard robot to walk on all fours effectively and adjust each leg to best adapt to the surface it is “walking” over.
The authors performed a series of kinematic calculations for different types of terrain to help understand how the robot would interact with each of those surfaces. Kinematic calculations are typically used in robotics when designers attempt to find the best way to move a specific robot part. The calculations are relatively detailed in this case, given the number of variable parts. However, a control algorithm is possible using just on-board computation, allowing for some basic autonomous terrain navigation if architecture is ever adopted for use in space.
Building an actual prototype would be a great way to work on that navigation algorithm, and that’s precisely what the researchers did. They 3D printed many of the parts for the chassis and foot, embedded some batteries and controllers in the head and tail sections, and started testing the prototype on simulated Martian test terrain.
Mars isn’t the only place that could benefit from legged robots – they could work on the Moon as well, as Fraser discusses.
They tested everything from grasping loose regolith to climbing over small rocks, and their algorithm seemed to work effectively for handling the relatively simple terrain in the test bed. However, the robot’s actual speed of movement was slower than originally simulated, mainly due to technical difficulties in balancing the motions of the springs and the spine.
Despite any problems that arose during physical testing, this new robot iteration is a step in the right direction, as this lab has been designing similar systems for years. They also plan to continue to another version, including mounting a continuous power supply and fully implementing an autonomous navigation algorithm. Their research is funded by both Jiangsu Province and the Chinese Ministry of Science and Technology, so it seems it will continue to gain support, at least for the foreseeable future.
Image of Sierra Space's full-scale Large Integrated Flexible Environment (LIFE®) on the test stand at NASA Marshall Space Flight Center. (Credit: Sierra Space)
Ae inflatable habitats the future of human space exploration? This is what the space-tech company, Sierra Space, hopes to achieve as theyrecently conducted a successful Ultimate Burst Pressure test on June 18 with its Large Integrated Flexible Environment (LIFE®) technology at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center. The goal of these tests is to inflate the test article until it explodes while ascertaining if the maximum pressure falls within NASA’s strict safety guidelines regarding a recommended operating pressure of 60.8 psi (maximum operating pressure of 15.2 psi times four as a safety factor). Upon explosion, Sierra Space engineers immediately found the recent test achieved 74 psi, thus exceeding NASA’s safety standards by 22 percent.
“We are 100 percent committed to maintaining U.S. leadership in Low Earth Orbit. Sierra Space is leading the way with the first commercial space station to replace the International Space Station when it is decommissioned and ensure there is no gap in LEO,” said Sierra Space CEO Tom Vice. “Our revolutionary, expandable space station technology reinvents the space station. Our technology, for the first time, will enable the right unit economics that will usher in the full commercialization of space. Our biotech and industrial partners will utilize our factories of the future to innovate new products that will massively disrupt terrestrial markets and benefit life on Earth.”
This recent test marks the technology’s second full-scale structural test and seventh key validation test, which comes after Sierra Space successfully conducted its first full-scale burst test in December 2023, achieving 77 psi and exceeding NASA’s safety standards by 27 percent. Both test units stood at more than 6 meters (20 feet) in height and had volumes of 300 m3 (10,594 ft3), or approximately 1/3rd of the pressurized volume of the International Space Station (ISS). Sierra Space is now planning for the first test of its 500 m3 (17,657 ft3) space station technology in 2025, which will be 55 percent of the pressurized volume of the ISS.
December 2023 burst test of the Large Integrated Flexible Environment (LIFE®)
“No other company is moving at the speed of Sierra Space to develop actual hardware, stress-tested at full scale, and demonstrate repeatability. We’ve taken a softgoods system that very few companies around the world have been able to design, and now we have consistent, back-to-back results,” said Shawn Buckley, VP of Earthspace™ Systems, Space Stations, at Sierra Space. “A second successful full-scale test is an absolute game changer. We now know it’s possible to equal or surpass the total habitable volume of the entire International Space Station, in a single launch.”
While these two recent tests were conducted at full-scale, Sierra Space conducted two sub-scale burst tests in July 2022 and November 2022, achieving maximum pressures of 192 and 204 psi, respectively, with NASA’s safety standards being 182.4 psi given the sub-scale sizes, thus both tests successfully exceeding these safety standards.
July 2022 sub-scale burst test
November 2022 sub-scale burst test
Sierra Space stated in June 2023 that they hope to launch a “pathfinder” version of the LIFE® habitat in 2026 with the goal of the technology being an essential piece to the Orbital Reef commercial space station, with the latter scheduled to be operational in 2027. Given its size, Sierra Space estimates the LIFE® habitat can comfortably accommodate four astronauts with the remaining volume being used for science experiments, exercise equipment, small medical facilities, and the Astro Garden® system, which can potentially grow food in space and has previously undergone testing at the Sierra Space Madison WI facility.
This comes as numerous commercial space companies are attempting to launch their own space stations, including the Axiom Station, Starlab Space Station, Haven-1, and the aforementioned Orbital Reef space station. Additionally, this also comes as NASA announced their plans to “retire” the ISS in 2030, although the agency announced in a July 2024 white paper that they will evaluate the possibility of extending the lifetime of the ISS if no commercial space stations are able to accommodate space-based research at that time.
How will Sierra Space’s Large Integrated Flexible Environment (LIFE®) technology help advance human space exploration in the coming years and decades? Only time will tell, and this is why we science!
New evidence reaffirms that cave art on the Indonesian island of Sulawesi is the oldest known in the world, according to a study that now dates the enigmatic paintings to 51,200 years ago.
The findings push back the timescales on human activity on Sulawesi, raising new questions about the origins of the island’s ancient art and its relationship to early human migrations.
An aerial view of Karampuang hill in south Sulawesi, where the cave is located.
BRIN Google Arts & Culture
The entrance to Leang Karampuang cave, where some of the oldest cave art has been found.
Google Arts & Culture
Recent studies involving advanced laser ablation techniques examined the images on the cave’s walls, which include ancient depictions of animals like pigs and bovines along with stick renderings of anthropomorphic shapes. The new analysis reveals that the art is likely several thousands of years older than previously thought.
However, the extreme age of the art within the cave may point to another intriguing possibility: that its creators were not modern humans, and instead may have been one of our ancient hominin cousins. Such a discovery, if proven, would have profound implications for the origins of figurative art and the cognitive capabilities of our now-extinct hominin relatives.
THE ENIGMA OF SULAWESI
Renowned for its ancient cave paintings, Sulawesi has long fascinated archaeologists. Among the island’s most notable works of cave art include a 14-foot-wide panel that depicts crude imagery of early humans hunting what are commonly believed to be warty pigs and dwarf bovines with spears.
Past work had already revealed the presence of what archaeologists recognized as some of the world’s oldest rock art on the island. A process known as solution uranium-series (or U-series) was used to analyze calcite deposits that had formed over the art on the walls of Maros-Pangkep, a rock art location on the southern portion of the island. This technique, which scans rock walls without taking physical samples, provides a more accurate estimate by distinguishing between layers of sediment.
Cave art found at Maros-Pangkep on southern Sulawesi
(Credit: Cahyo/Wikimedia Commons/CC BY-SA 3.0).
However, in their recent study, researchers led by Indonesian archaeologist Adhi Augus Oktaviana used what they describe as “a novel application of this approach,” called laser-ablation U-series imaging, which allowed them to more accurately date some of the earliest cave art in the area.
In a recent study detailing their work, the researchers write, “This method provides enhanced spatial accuracy,” resulting in older minimum ages for previously dated art.
The scene, covered with calcium carbonate deposits, shows three human figures and a pig.
Dominic Julian/BRIN Google Arts
Three human-like figures and a large pig are drawn on a limestone cave wall. Griffith University
REDATING THE WORLD’S OLDEST CAVE ART
The new analysis revealed remarkable results. A hunting scene found at the Leang Bulu’ Sipong 4 location, previously dated to at least 43,900 years ago during previous analysis, has now been revealed to have a minimum age closer to 51,200 years ago, making the art at the location at least 4,040 years older than initial estimates had placed it.
“Painted at least 51,200 years ago, this narrative composition, which depicts human-like figures interacting with a pig, is now the earliest known surviving example of representational art and visual storytelling in the world,” the authors of the new study state.
The authors add that their new analysis reveals a much deeper origin of figurative portrayals of animals and humans than previously recognized.
Image comparison revealing separation between pigment and sedimentation buildup on the cave walls at Sulawesi
(Credit: A.A. Oktaviana / Wikimedia Commons)
Of course, revising the dates of the cave art on Sulawesi raises new questions about what species of ancient hominin had actually served as the ancient artists in residence. According to most commonly accepted timelines, modern humans are believed to have left Africa as recently as 50,000 to 60,000 years ago, although possibly as early as 90,000 years ago.
Considering those nearer estimates for when these ancient migrations might have begun, it does raise questions about how likely it is that modern humans could have been present on Sulawesi by the time the newly redated cave art was produced. The earliest known modern human remains on the island date back to no earlier than 25,000 years ago, although evidence of human presence in the form of rock shelters and stone tool use has been found that suggests humans may have been there far earlier, even as much as 118,000 years ago.
While the possibility of modern humans arriving on the island that long ago presents a challenging question, there is little doubt that our ancient hominin cousins were present on Sulawesi by then. Past fossil discoveries have presented compelling evidence of the presence of hominins on the island as far back as 194,000 years ago.
While pushing back the timescales for the use of figurative art on the island of Sulawesi and raising questions about what species could have made it, the new findings also challenge past ideas that attribute the origins of such art to Europe toward the end of the Ice Age.
To figure out when the cave paintings were made, the team used a new technique to date calcium carbonate deposits that formed on top of the art.
Dominic Julian/BRIN Google Arts
The team’s discoveries also suggest that it is possible humans may have been creating such art long before their arrival in Asia, if not even further back to times before modern humans are believed to have left Africa; a controversial possibility that some researchers, including British anthropologist Chris Stringer, have begun to propose in recent years.
However, if it were ever proven that some other hominin species had possessed the necessary cognitive development required to create figurative art so long ago, it would potentially upend our existing ideas about the capabilities of our early human ancestors and their hominin relatives.
At the very least, the authors concede in their study that the new findings suggest “a rich culture of storytelling developed at an early period in the long history of H. sapiens in this region — in particular, the use of scenic representation to tell visual stories about human-animal relationships.”
In 1962, many American moviegoers were treated to an unusual display during screenings of the popular Universal Newsreels that aired before feature presentations. That year, a segment entitled “Now Hear This! Italians Unveil Talking Chimp” was shown, introducing audiences to Renata, a chimpanzee who had reportedly been trained to say “mama” by her handler.
“As explained by her foster mother, this is one of the most extraordinary chimps in the world,” announcer Ed Herlihy’s famous voice could be heard saying in the decades-old footage. “You don’t have to know Italian to understand Renata’s accent when she gets her cue.”
Then, as Renata’s handler taps her on the chin, the chimpanzee is shown saying the word “mama” several times.
The footage, likely viewed as little more than a novelty at the time, represented something potentially extraordinary: evidence of a non-human primate displaying the ability to speak, albeit crudely. Despite Renata’s unique talent, the footage was largely forgotten, and prevailing wisdom continued to insist that humans were the only primates with the required neural circuitry capable of speech.
However, Renata was not the only known example of a chimpanzee who displayed a limited ability to learn and speak human words. Decades later, in a video uploaded to YouTube on August 17, 2007, a chimpanzee named Johnny was also shown saying “mama,” seemingly in response to requests from his owner, after which he was awarded a treat.
Now, an international team of researchers that reviewed the footage of Renata and Johnny have concluded that in at least three known instances, chimpanzees were indeed able to learn human words and exhibit limited speech capabilities.
“We recovered original footage of two enculturated chimpanzees uttering the word ‘mama’ and subjected recordings to phonetic analysis,” write the authors of a new study published in Nature: Scientific Reports by Axel G. Ekström and colleagues. “Our analyses demonstrate that chimpanzees are capable of syllabic production, achieving consonant-to-vowel phonetic contrasts via the simultaneous recruitment and coupling of voice, jaw and lips.”
In their paper, the researchers state that they conducted an online experiment in which participants were provided recordings of the utterances to listen to but were not told they were listening to chimpanzees. The participants “reliably perceived chimpanzee utterances as syllabic utterances, primarily as ‘ma-ma,’” the researchers write.
The researchers conclude that the vocal abilities great apes possess have largely been underestimated, writing that “Chimpanzees possess the neural building blocks necessary for speech.”
Great apes do not appear to display any signs of language use in nature, and it is noteworthy that Renata and Johnny appear to have learned their unique talents through human coaching. However, the findings are significant since they show that at least one nonhuman great ape species does possess the required neural components to facilitate speech, whether or not they utilize such faculties on their own in the wild.
Although speech is not an ability chimpanzees normally rely on, the same cannot be said of their overall ability to communicate. Recent studies have shown that chimpanzees frequently use gestures while communicating in a way similar to that of humans. In at least a few instances, chimpanzees have also shown a remarkable ability to understand human language. One notable example involves Kanzi, a bonobo who reportedly understands close to 3000 human words and has exhibited the ability to answer questions using a special keyboard that reproduces human words.
In their new paper, Ekström and colleagues note that past studies involving chimps and their ability to exhibit rudimentary speech had been largely dismissed due to lack of rigorous analysis. However, the new findings appear to support these previously unconfirmed observations, which have often cited words like “mama” as being among the ones most commonly learned by chimps.
Indeed, there could be more to the prevalence of this particular word in past studies involving chimpanzee speech. As the study’s authors note, “mama” is often among the first words human infants learn and may, in fact, have deeper roots as one of the earliest spoken language words ever created by humans.
“Accordingly, it has been argued that ‘mama’ may have been among the first words to appear in human speech,” the authors of the new study write.
“Our data complements this picture: chimpanzees can produce the putative ‘first words’ of spoken languages.”
The team’s new study, “Chimpanzee utterances refute purported missing links for novel vocalizations and syllabic speech,” was published in Nature: Scientific Reports on July 25, 2024.
0
1
2
3
4
5
- Gemiddelde waardering: 0/5 - (0 Stemmen) Categorie:SF-snufjes }, Robotics and A.I. Artificiel Intelligence ( E, F en NL )
SR-91 Aurora: A Highly Classified American Aircraft
SR-91 Aurora: A Highly Classified American Aircraft
For decades, the US military has pursued the dream of dominating the skies with hypersonic platforms, a dream that China and Russia are also striving to become a reality. In this scenario of fierce competition, a disturbing question arises: is it possible that a Mach 5 aircraft, the mythical SR-91 Aurora, already existed and that its existence has been hidden from us?
The classified SR-91 Aurora project
Whispers about the Aurora, a supposedly classified hypersonic aircraft, have resonated in aviation circles since the 1980s. Yet evidence of this enigmatic triangular craft is as elusive as the wind. Is it conceivable that the United States not only managed to develop and operate a fleet of these aircraft at Mach 5+ during the 1980s but also kept this achievement in the shadows to this day? The truth could be more labyrinthine than we imagine.
The Pentagon, known for its “black programs,” has secretly funded the development of advanced technologies throughout history. Today, the most clandestine efforts are grouped under Special Access Programs, or SAPs, which restrict information to even those with the highest security clearances. Some of these recognized SAPs are never fully revealed, and others remain eternally anonymous.
After examining historical reports, declassified documents, testimonies and discussion forums, it is extremely unlikely that the United States has ever secretly operated a fleet of hypersonic aircraft. However, this does not rule out that such technological marvels have once touched the imposing doors of the hangars of Area 51.
Technology cost-benefit analysis for the SR-91 Aurora
It is vital to remember that there is a vast difference between technology that is mature and reliable enough for mass production and combat operation and that which, although within reach, is not sustainable from economic, resource or even political perspectives.
SR-91
For example, the iPhone in your pocket is not necessarily the most advanced smartphone in the world; It is simply technology that can be mass-produced for a specific price and consumer. The latest communications technology would probably be much more expensive, potentially less reliable, and capable of leaving you in awe.
Aeronautical programs are advancing in a similar way: an extraordinary plane can be built for $2 billion, but that does not mean that mass production can begin immediately. Technology demonstrations, prototypes and limited production of exotic aircraft are a reality at facilities such as the Lockheed Martin plant in Palmdale or Area 51.
SR-91 Aurora: A response to the need to see without being seen
Sometimes, these efforts do not produce the expected results, are too costly, or require excessive maintenance. And sometimes, America‘s deepest secrets are buried in the desert, condemned to oblivion.
The SR-91 Aurora, if it ever existed, was conceived in response to a strategic need for aerial reconnaissance, a testament to the relentless quest for technological supremacy in a world where secrets and shadows play a crucial role.
Lockheed‘s SR-71 Blackbird, an unrivaled aerial beast and aviation’s fastest gem, laughed in the faces of more than 4,000 missiles with its dazzling speed during its golden era as a sky spy. This colossus, capable of challenging Mach 3 as if it were child’s play, made the most sophisticated surface-to-air missiles and elite fighters useless. So, when the Air Force decided to retire this very expensive technological marvel in the late 1980s, the world could only speculate: the United States must have something even more impressive in its arsenal.
It was not for less. The secret corridors of the Pentagon and Congress whispered about an heir to the Blackbird throne. But now, decades later, fact and fiction have become intertwined in a labyrinth of classified theories and programs, real or imagined, including those that may still lurk in the shadows.
Among whispers and rumors, there was talk of Aurora, a hypersonic, triangular plane taken from the bowels of science fiction, which seemed to be a first cousin of Lockheed Martin‘s SR-72 project, announced with great fanfare before this began. New era of hypersonic arms race.
Despite the rise of satellites, the need for aerial reconnaissance never died, as did the legend of the SR-71, which was even briefly resurrected in the 1990s to satisfy the hunger for aerial intelligence. The popular belief was that the Air Force would not let the SR-71 die without already having a worthy successor ready, warming up its engines in some secret location.
SR-91 Aurora: Many have followed its thread without finding its skein
And maybe they weren’t wrong. There are clues, threads of a larger plot, that point to evidence of an extraordinarily fast plane in those years, possibly related to Aurora.
In April 1992, on two separate occasions, journalist Steve Douglass, scanning the skies over Southern California, captured radio conversations that defied logic. A mysterious plane, with the callsign “Gaspipe,” coordinated with Edwards Air Force Base. The words captured by Douglass suggested that this craft flew at otherworldly altitudes and speeds. “You are at sixty-seven thousand [feet], eighty-one miles,” the controller indicated, and then, “Seventy miles, thirty-six thousand. Above the glide slope. Words that conjure images of a machine challenging the limits of the sky.
Was the SR-91 Aurora a real US military project?
There is no concrete evidence to confirm the existence of the SR-91 Aurora. Although it has been the subject of speculation and conspiracy theories, the lack of tangible evidence and the absence of official information suggests that it could be more of a myth or legend within the realm of military aviation.
What capabilities would a hypersonic aircraft like the SR-91 Aurora have?
If the SR-91 Aurora had existed, it is expected that it would have reached speeds exceeding Mach 5, which would have allowed it to perform reconnaissance and surveillance missions at extremely high speeds, making it difficult to detect and track by enemy air defense systems.
How is the SR-91 Aurora related to the SR-71 Blackbird?
The SR-91 Aurora is often considered the hypothetical successor to the SR-71 Blackbird, a spy plane that was a technological marvel of its time. It is speculated that the Aurora would have been designed to exceed the Blackbird’s capabilities, especially in terms of speed and operating altitude.
What advanced technologies would be expected on the SR-91 Aurora?
The SR-91 Aurora, had it been developed, would likely have incorporated advanced technologies such as high-temperature resistant composite materials, innovative propulsion systems to achieve hypersonic speeds, and stealth technologies to reduce its visibility to enemy radars.
Why do rumors about the SR-91 Aurora persist despite the lack of evidence?
Rumors about the SR-91 Aurora persist due to the public’s fascination with secret and advanced military technology. The story of the Aurora feeds into the culture of the Pentagon’s
Not many aircraft in military aviation history have been shrouded in mystery and conjured as much speculation as the SR-91 Aurora. First appearing in the 1980s, “Aurora” was listed in a black program spy plane request, and ever since, this mysterious airframe has remained cloaked in secrecy. It was an attempt by military engineers to come up with a hypersonic plane design that would clock over Mach 5.0; no other aircraft has been reported to do so.
The SR-91 Aurora entered public awareness through the Los Angeles Times and Aviation Week & Space Technology reports in the mid-1980s. All the reports made the point that “Aurora” had been included inadvertently in the budget for 1995, which the U.S. government had submitted for “black aircraft production,” insinuating a clandestine project with funding greater than nearly $1 billion for the B-2 Spirit. By 1986, funding for the black project had swelled to about $2.7 billion, according to a procurement document obtained by Aviation Week.
In the 1980s, with the world’s fastest plane, the SR-71 Blackbird, reaching the end of its service life, a replacement had to be taken into consideration. That very impressive flying machine was powered by Pratt & Whitney J58 engines and represented an early effort at stealth design that could break Mach 3.2. According to analysts, the U.S. was capable of fielding a Mach 5.0 airframe and probably did so with the SR-91 Aurora.
Over the years, several reports and sightings have been viewed as a confirmation of the existence of the Aurora. One such sighting was reported by an engineer in 1989 over the North Sea, which claimed that the Aurora was a triangular-shaped aircraft. However, considering the speed at which the aircraft is supposed to fly, such sightings do not seem very credible. When the Aurora was supposedly flying, the Air Force’s B-2 bomber and F-117 Nighthawk were operational and would have accounted for the sightings.
In 2000, Nic Outterside of the Aberdeen Press and Journal cited anonymous sources that RAF/USAF Machrihanish in Kintyre, Argyll, served as a base for Aurora airframes. The long runways would be suitable for high-altitude experimental aircraft. More evidence appeared in the form of an answer to a parliamentary question in 2006 which stated that the British Ministry of Defense had been told by the United States that the U.S. Air Force had plans to produce a Mach 4.0-6.0 supersonic airframe, though no evidence conclusively proved that such a project existed.
So-called “sky quakes” over Los Angeles, first observed in the early 1990s, have also been attributed to the Aurora. In 1993, Bill Sweetman of Jane’s Defense Weekly reported that U.S. Geological Survey seismologists had recorded tremors consistent with a sonic boom from a high-altitude supersonic aircraft. These tremors were not in line with any known aircraft, suggesting something faster and more advanced.
Though countless claims and sightings have been made, the SR-91 Aurora has not been confirmed by U.S. officials. If it does exist, it would shatter the Blackbird’s speed record into minute pieces, truly heralding a new era in hypersonic flight.
The SR-91 Aurora has seldom failed to impress the imagination of aircraft enthusiasts and military analysts. From fact to fiction, and through internet myth, Aurora is what aerospace ambition and the mysterious represent.
Warp drives, hypothetical propulsion systems that move spacecraft by compressing or “warping” spacetime around them rather than producing thrust like conventional engines, have long been the subject of ongoing research in physics. Although the concept has its roots in science fiction, many researchers over the last several decades have contributed to a growing realization that such technologies could actually work, at least in theory.
Now, a new study takes a novel approach to the conceptual study of warp drives: what might happen if such a futuristic propulsion system broke down? More specifically, the team involved with the study aimed to simulate key signatures—gravitational waves in this case—that would result from what they call warp drive “containment failure.”
WARP DRIVES IN SCIENCE FICTION
Although the warp drive concept was arguably made famous by its appearances in Star Trek, the idea has its origins much earlier. One of the earliest known fiction works to feature warp drive propulsion was a 1931 novel by John W. Campbell, Islands in Space. However, the term “space-warp drive” would not appear until almost two decades later in Fredrick Brown’s 1949 story “Gateway to Darkness.” Decades after that, the idea would also become a mainstay of interstellar transportation in the fictional universes of Star Trek,Star Wars, and other science fiction franchises.
Hypothetically, warp drive propulsion could actually exist, although bringing the technology to fruition would first require overcoming hurdles that include finding exotic sources of energy to power it, as well as relativistic issues that arise from implementing travel under such conditions.
According to Dr. Katy Clough of Queen Mary University of London, the lead author of the recent study, warp drives still look good on paper despite such problems.
“Even though warp drives are purely theoretical, they have a well-defined description in Einstein’s theory of General Relativity,” Clough said in a recent statement, “and so numerical simulations allow us to explore the impact they might have on spacetime in the form of gravitational waves.”
Through collaboration with gravitational physicists at Queen Mary University of London, the University of Potsdam, the Max Planck Institute (MPI) for Gravitational Physics in Potsdam, and Cardiff University, the international team used numerical simulations to examine the consequences of a warp drive breakdown.
Specifically, the team sought to explore the generation of gravitational waves such a “containment failure” would produce and whether signatures from such an event might be registered by Earth-based gravitational wave detectors.
Dr. Sebastian Khan of Cardiff University’s School of Physics and Astronomy and one of the paper’s co-authors, said it was “only natural that we carry on the tradition of warp drive research in the era of gravitational wave astronomy,” noting the early work in 1994 by Miguel Alcubierre, who is credited with constructing the first mathematical solution for warp drive physics while working on his Ph.D. at Cardiff University, after which he also worked at the MPI in Potsdam.
WARP DRIVE COLLAPSE
According to the team, when a warp drive collapses, it should produce gravitational waves, a form of energy-carrying wave generated under conditions where large amounts of mass are accelerated or disturbed, normally associated with celestial events.
On Earth, physicists have been studying gravitational waves since the first one was officially detected in 2015. Current research generally focuses on targets that include mergers between neutron stars, supermassive black holes, and other cosmic phenomena. According to the research team in their new paper, the breakdown of a warp drive would produce a noticeably different signature from these celestial sources of gravitational waves, resulting in a high-frequency burst.
Unfortunately, this quick gravitational burst would not register on detectors currently in use. However, this raises the intriguing question of whether warp drive transportation might produce perturbations in spacetime that might generate detectable signatures fairly often, at least if it were already in use by any spacefaring civilizations traversing the cosmos.
While no detectors capable of spotting these specific signatures presently exist, the technology required to build them does. This means that scientists might potentially be able to detect warp drives in use by alien civilizations, even if we are still a long way from harnessing the technology ourselves.
Dr. Khan notes that while the team’s study paves the way toward the detection of such hypothetical signals, it does not offer guidance on how prospective warp drive detectors might be built.
The researchers also explored the energetic aspects of hypothetical warp drive failure, revealing that a wave of negative energy matter would be released, after which alternating positive and negative waves would follow. The resulting net energy increase, the team says, might also produce a detectable signature.
“For me, the most important aspect of the study is the novelty of accurately modeling the dynamics of negative energy spacetimes,” Dietrich said, adding that the prospect of detecting signatures such technologies would produce might have other real-world applications.
Apart from the detection of advanced alien propulsion systems, Dietrich says the team’s findings could at least “help us better understand the evolution and origin of our universe, or the avoidance of singularities at the center of black holes.”
However, the team admits that detecting gravitational wave signatures from alien warp drives, while a far-fetched possibility, is nonetheless worth investigating.
“Even though we are skeptical about the likelihood of seeing anything, I do think it is sufficiently interesting to be worth looking at,” Dr. Clough said in a statement.
The team’s new paper, “What no one has seen before: gravitational waveforms from warp drive collapse,” appeared in The Open Journal of Astrophysics on July 25, 2024, and can be read in its entirety at the arxiv.org website.
Footage went viral Monday of an alleged UFO flying through the skies over Ibiza.
Video shared on Twitter shows a group of people sitting on what appears to be a cliffside during a gorgeous sunset on the Mediterranean island off the coast ofSpain. A woman and whoever is filming then start running and pointing at the skies as a blurry white object flies over them.
The thing appears to hold still for a moment as it comes into focus … except, what you’re looking at isn’t a UFO. It’s the moon, shining brightly over the ocean. Things seem silly for a second. Then the reflection under the moon zooms off at speeds unknown in any type of human technologies.
I’ve seen my fair share of UFO videos in my life, but this one actually kind of freaked me out.
It’s the type of click-baity stuff they show at the start of a found footage horror film. A woman appears to yell “Look! Look! Look!” while pointing at something in the skies. The group gasps in unison as the thing zooms off into the atmosphere. The clip has everything in the horror story recipe book.
So this is either one of the best staged UFO encounters ever … or its real.
Some view Carl Jung as a UFO debunker, others as a UFO believer, but the truth is he was somewhere in the middle. Either way, it is certain that Jung was an avid UFO researcher and fascinated with the topic. He wrote a book about the psychological symbolism and the role the UFO mythos plays in the unconscious mind.Moreover, on several occasions Jung complained that his studies would have been much easier if the UFO phenomenon was not real.
Jung the Psychologist
Jung was born in Switzerland in 1875. His father was a pastor in the Swiss Reformed Protestant Church, and his mother was from a wealthy Swiss family. He was the Jungs’ fourth child, but was the only child who survived into his childhood. As such, he grew up as an only child. Later, he wrote that he remembered enjoying his solitude.
His first experience with neurosis was at the age of twelve when a fellow student shoved him, causing him to fall and hit his head on the ground very hard. He remembered associating this experience with schoolwork, and whenever he had to go to school or do schoolwork he would faint. Overhearing his parents’ concern that this condition would cause him to be unable to support himself as an adult, Jung fought to overcome the problem and eventually returned to academics.
Although Jung had a profound interest in spirituality, his experiences triggered an interest in psychology and he decided to pursue a career in medicine. It wasn’t long before he realized that studies in psychology would allow him to combine his interests in medicine and spirituality, and in 1902, he completed his doctoral dissertation, which was titled “On the Psychology and Pathology of So-Called Occult Phenomena.” He graduated with a medical degree from the University of Basel.
After graduating, Jung went to work with psychiatric patients at the University of Zurich asylum. He wrote a paper on word association that he sent to Sigmund Freud. Freud was impressed with Jung’s work, and they quickly became very close. Freud considered Jung his successor. However, after several years, Jung began to develop his own ideas beyond the work of Freud, and due to their disagreements, the relationship turned adversarial.
Carl Jung (bottom right), Sigmund Freud (bottom left), and others at a 1909 celebration of the founding of Clark University, Worcester, Massachusetts. Credit: Library of Congress
Freud’s work with the ego and unconscious served as a foundation for Jung’s work. They both felt that disconnects between the conscious and unconscious minds caused neurosis in people. They also both relied on dream interpretation to explore a person’s unconscious mind as a method for subsequently resolving neurosis. In fact, one story holds that Jung and Freud interpreted each other’s dreams and both completely disagreed with the other’s analysis, thus hastening the dissolution of their friendship.
A major area of disagreement between the two was that Jung did not believe a person’s unconscious was driven solely by sexual desires, as Freud did. Jung believed other strong emotions such as fear and aspiration were just as influential. He also conceived of a deeper level of the unconscious called the collective unconscious, which he believed is a part of our unconscious mind that holds ideas and concepts shared by all humankind. He believed these base ideas are then shaped by our cultural perceptions and personal experience. For example, we all have ideas around the notions of mothers, fathers, wise elders, etc. Jung called these shared notions archetypes. Jung felt that these archetypes not only would manifest in dreams, but could be seen in people’s creative works and behavior, including art, religion, and mythology.
Jung’s contributions to psychology are numerous. Even today his ideas of extraversion and introversion are a mainstay in personality psychology. He also came up with the idea of psychological complexes and synchronicities. All of these ideas and terms are commonly used in everyday conversation today, and all were made popular by Jung.
Jung and Alchemy
It is the idea of the archetype that brought Jung to have a particular interest in UFOs. When Jung interpreted psychological meaning he would search for archetypal figures. As mentioned earlier, such figures could be a mother or father.But, in a mythological story, the archetype may be the hero, a dragon, or even a planetary entity such as the sun. However, Jung also had an interested in alchemy.
Alchemy is typically connected to legends of ancient mystics attempting to unravel the secret of turning lead into gold. The work of alchemists is credited with the development of modern chemistry. However, another side of alchemy is spiritual in nature, relating to personal transformation. Jung had a passion for alchemy in this sense, and felt that the metal lead was a metaphor for an impure soul, whereas gold was a metaphor for a perfected soul. Jung’s interest in alchemy was thus as a method of purifying the soul.
The Tabula Smaradina (Emerald Tablet), a print by Mathias Merian from the 1600s displaying alchemical symbols and imagery. Credit: Mathias Merian
Jung wrote a couple of books focused on interpreting alchemical symbolism and processes as different stages of personal growth that mirrored his ideas. He felt these symbols were archetypes that were unconsciously manifesting in the work of alchemists. Although he acknowledged the physical goals of alchemy (an attempt to transmute lead into gold), Jung did not give it much attention in his writing and focused on the non-physical aspects that related to his psychological theories. This is very similar to the way he approached the topic of UFOs.
Jung and UFOs
In 1951, Jung wrote to a friend in the United States: “I am puzzled to death about the phenomena, because I haven’t been able yet to make out with sufficient certainty whether the whole thing is a rumour with concomitant singular and mass hallucination, or a downright fact.”
Book cover to Jung’s Flying Saucers: A Modern Myth of Things Seen in the Skies. (Credit: Princeton University Press.)
Although Jung showed an interest in the mystery of the physical reality of the UFO phenomenon, professionally he stated, “As a psychologist, I am not qualified to contribute anything useful to the question of the physical reality of Ufos.” However, Jung could contribute by analyzing the unmistakable psychological side to the UFO phenomenon. In 1958, several of Jung’s papers regarding the psychology of UFOs were published in a book. It was originally published in German, but in 1959 it was translated to English under the title, Flying Saucers: A Modern Myth of Things Seen in the Skies.
In the book, Jung argued that although there may be a physical reality to UFOs, there is certainly a portion of the phenomenon that is fantasy. He examined the difficulty many have in accepting fantastical stories of UFOs, even when they come from pilots, and points out, “What is worse, most of the stories come from America, the land of superlatives and of science fiction.”
For the sake of argument, and to examine the psychological aspects of the phenomenon, Jung presumed that UFOs are fantasy. This is an important aspect that many critics overlook when they characterize Jung as dismissive of the phenomenon altogether. UFO researchers also tend not to appreciate the portions of Jung’s book in which he examined the UFO phenomenon in regards to archetypal imagery and alchemic symbolism. Jung himself assures his readers that although his work may appear to be “unbridled fantasy” to those unfamiliar with psychology, it is actually based on “thorough research into the history of symbols.”
In his book, Jung observed that most UFO sightings describe the objects as disc shaped, which is a symbol that is often seen in alchemy and existed in the mythology of other cultures. For example, the Hindu and Buddhist symbol of the mandala is a circular disc-shaped symbol. Jung believed that the mandala is a protective sphere, which is elicited in the unconscious in times of emotional tension. Jung noted that, around the time of many of the UFO sightings, the world was under a collective stress due to “Russian policies and their still unpredictable consequences.” In short, he felt that perhaps UFOs were appearing in visions at the time because of the world’s Cold War jitters, and that the UFOs were a manifestation of a need for protection and salvation.
Jung’s book also provided detail of the analysis of particular sightings and art. One of the significant contributions to ufology made by the book is a focus on two historical broadsheets, a type of ancient newspaper, that recorded mysterious apparitions that many have speculated to be UFO related. Although Jung asserted that these reports were in the UFO literature prior to the publication of his book, Jung clearly made them popular as potential ancient UFO sightings.
The first is referred to as the Basel Broadsheet, and it dates back to 1566. It was written by Samuel Coccius and is a report of “many large black globes” that were seen flying in front of the sun “with great speed.” The Basel Broadsheet notes, “Some of them became red and fiery and afterwards faded and went out.” Jung noted the similarity of this phenomenon to modern UFO accounts.
The Basel Broadsheet from 1566 analyzed by Carl Jung in his Flying Saucer book. Credit: Wickiana Collection, Zentralbibliothek Zürich
The second report is called the Nuremberg Broadsheet and dates back to 1561. This report chronicles a “very frightful spectacle” that was witnessed by several people. Again, “globes” were seen near the sun, “some three in a row, now and then four in a square, also some standing alone.” There were also “two great tubes.” Jung noted that in UFO literature large tubes are considered “motherships,” and have been reported to have smaller discs that appear to fly out of them.
The Nuremberg Broadsheet from 1561 analyzed by Carl Jung in his Flying Saucer book. Credit: Wickiana Collection, Zentralbibliothek Zürich
The Physical Reality of UFOs
In his book, Jung also examined the possibility of the physical reality of UFOs. He noted that, “unfortunately,” UFOs cannot be dismissed as purely psychological in nature. He pointed to numerous sightings, some of which have been caught in photographs and on radar. Jung even poked fun at astronomer Donald Menzel, a UFO debunker, saying that he “has not succeeded, despite all his efforts, in offering a scientific explanation of even one authentic UFO report.”
Jung was well-versed on UFO research. He wrote, “since 1947 I have collected all of the books I could get a hold of on the subject.” He was also a member of the National Investigations Committee on Aerial Phenomena (NICAP), an early civilian UFO organization that included many credible members. In fact, in his book, Jung often referred to the work of Major Donald Keyhoe, a cofounder and director of NICAP.
Prior to releasing his book, Jung was considered by UFO researchers to be a proponent of the physical reality of UFOs. In 1955, he wrote an article on UFOs for a British journal called the Flying Saucer Review. In the article, Jung stated that he had never seen a UFO himself, but that “I can only say for certain: these things are not a mere rumour: something has been seen.”
He went on to argue that the U.S. Air Force “despite its contradictory statements,” considers the phenomenon to be real and they conduct official investigations. He warned that, by concealing information on the topic, the military is making it more likely that people will panic since the public is denied “an adequate picture of what is happening.”
Jung also stated that “the ‘disks’ (that is, the objects themselves) do not behave in accordance with physical laws, but as though without weight, and they show signs of intelligent guidance, by quasi human pilots, for their accelerations are such that no normal human could survive.”
Not much was made of Jung’s 1955 article until it was reprinted in 1958 by the Aerial Phenomena Research Organization (APRO) in the organization’s bulletin in July 1958. APRO posted the story as part of an announcement that Jung had agreed to become an official consultant for the organization. The New York Herald Tribune quickly picked up on the report and printed a story with the headline, “Dr. Jung Says ‘Flying Disks’ Suggest Quasi-Human Pilots.”
APRO Bulletin from July, 1958 with reprint of Jung’s article on UFOs. Credit: APRO
Jung was not happy with the implication that he believed UFOs represented a physical phenomenon and later wrote a letter to United Press International news agency clarifying his position. He wrote: “I expressly state that I cannot commit myself on the question to the physical reality or unreality of the UFOs since I do not possess sufficient evidence either for or against.” He then stated, “Something is seen, but it isn’t known what.” Jung later repeated this statement in his 1958 book and in several letters.
Although Jung was clearly embarrassed by the public perception that he conclusively believed flying saucers were physical in nature, he later reiterated his prior statements and earlier criticisms of the U.S. Air Force’s handling of the matter in very strong words. He wrote:
In spite of the fact that I hold my judgment concerning UFOs—temporarily let’s hope—in abeyance, I thought it worthwhile to throw a light upon the rich fantasy material which has accumulated round the peculiar observations in the skies. Any new experience has two aspects: (I) the pure fact and (2) the way one conceives of it. It is the latter I am concerned with. If it is true that the [American Air Force] or the Government withholds telltale facts, then one can only say that this is the most unpsychological and stupid policy one could invent. Nothing helps rumours and panics more than ignorance.
It is no wonder that many have been confused as to Jung’s official stance on UFOs. He seems to have believed the phenomenon and sightings to be real, but is uncertain whether UFOs are a physical reality or are limited to a psychological phenomenon. He stated that although “by all human standards it hardly seems possible to doubt this any longer,” in the decade or more he had been studying the topic, neither he nor anyone else seems to have learned much from the study of the physical aspect of UFOs. Jung said that this is precisely why he found it much more fruitful to study the psychological aspects of UFOs, an area in which he felt he had gained an abundance of knowledge.
Jung may be right. Concrete physical proof of UFOs continues to elude us to this day. Yet, Jung is another example of a luminary who garners a great amount of respect in his field of study, who also had the vision to seriously consider the UFO phenomenon. His UFO interest is a story that should not be forgotten, and his insights into the phenomenon may help guide us today, just as his insights into the human mind continue to be a part of the bedrock of modern psychological understanding.
A version of this article originally appeared in Open Minds UFO Magazine. Back issues can be found here.
A group of UFO researchers with backgrounds in science have come together to analyze an alleged UFO video they have confirmed comes from the Department of Homeland Security (DHS). The object in the video was captured by a thermal imaging camera on a DHS aircraft, and according to the researchers, it exhibits characteristics that cannot be explained by any known aircraft or natural phenomenon.
The video is overlaid with the sort of telemetry one would expect from a military or law enforcement thermal image video. It shows an object apparently moving very quickly over land and then into the ocean. It seems to be tumbling or changing shape. It moves over buildings, through trees, and eventually over the ocean. Then things get weird. The object appears to go in and out of the ocean without slowing down, and at the end of the video is either joined by another object or breaks in two.
All of the primary witnesses have requested anonymity. However, several communications from alleged DHS employees indicate that the video caused quite a stir on the base.
A still from the video in which the unknown objects appears to be flying through trees.
Research on the video began when an acquaintance to the pilot of the aircraft that captured the video contacted Daina Chaviano, a famous Cuban-born fantasy and science fiction author. She is also a volunteer with the Mutual UFO Network (MUFON) in Florida, where in her spare time she investigates UFO reports. She took the UFO case to her colleague, Morgan Beall, who runs the Florida MUFON chapter.
Chaviano and Beall were so impressed by what they saw they assembled a small group of skeptical researchers with backgrounds in various fields of science and technology. The pilot’s acquaintance requested strict control of the information provided and that knowledge of the investigation be limited to a very few people, so until now, the researchers have not shared any information regarding their investigation.
Today, the group released a 161-page report detailing their findings.
The object was filmed over Rafael Hernandez Airport in Aguadilla, Puerto Rico. (Credit: Google Maps)
They are vague when it comes to the identity of Chaviano’s informant. They say this person and others who provided information wanted to remain anonymous “to ensure no issues arise with the source’s employers.”
However, the group says: “The source of this video evidence was vetted and identified.”
They say they are absolutely certain that the information comes from sources on board the DHS aircraft and the video is genuine. Their investigation also confirmed what they were told.
Their sources told them that the UFO incident began at about 9:20 pm on the evening of April 25, 2013 at the Rafael Hernandez Airport in Aguadilla, Puerto Rico. It involved the crew of a DHC-8 Turboprop aircraft from U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP), a division of DHS.
A U.S. Customs and Border Protection Bombardier DHC-8Q200. (Credit: U.S. Customs and Border Protection)
The DHC-8 took off on a routine flight and soon after takeoff they noticed “a pinkish to reddish light over the ocean that was in their vicinity and approaching toward the south.”
The crew was concerned the tower had not told them about the incoming traffic, so they called it in. The tower told them they also had a visual on the object, but they were unsure of its identity.
Once the object got close to land, its lights turned off, but at this time the DHC-8 was able to begin tracking and filming the object with their onboard thermal imaging system. The DHC-8 did not approach the object, but circled the area and filmed it.
The DHC-8 did not pick up the object on radar. However, their radar was looking downward to track ships on the ocean, not objects in the sky.
According to the source, a flight was delayed by the presence of the object. The research group was able to confirm from airport records that a FedEx flight scheduled to leave at 9:10 pm was delayed until 9:26 pm.
Image of the flight log from the UFO reporting showing the a delayed flight at the time of the UFO event. (Credit: SCU)
The researchers also confirmed the flight time and path of the DHC-8 via radar data they obtained from a Freedom of Information Act Request to the U.S. Air Force 84th Radar Evaluation Squadron (RADES) group. The radar data confirmed that the DHC-8 took off at approximately 9:16 pm and circled the airport twice before leaving the area about 10 minutes later.
Flight path of the DHC-8 according to the radar data obtained via a Freedom of Information Act Request. (Credit: SCU)
The researchers note that there was an unknown object or objects tracked on radar a few minutes prior to the DHC-8’s take off, but it is not known for certain that this was the same object that was later caught on video. The unidentified radar strikes were just off the shore to the north and northwest of the airport and lasted about 16 minutes from 8:58 pm to 9:14 pm.
When reading the times, the radar data is presented in a different time zone than the local times. The researchers explained this on their website: “Aviation times reflect Zulu time which corresponds to Greenwich Mean Time (GMT). The video displays the Zulu time April 26th at 1:22 AM at the top left of the initial frames. Converting this Zulu time to Puerto Rico’s local time gives April 25th at 9:22 PM. Puerto Rico uses Atlantic Standard Time and does not use daylight savings time.”
Radar data showing the flight path of the DHC-8 and the unknown radar hits between 8:58 pm and 9:14 pm. (Credit: SCU)
The research group also thoroughly analyzed the video to determine the nature of the object in the film. They consulted thermal imaging experts to determine the capabilities of the system used for the filming, and broke the film down frame by frame to determine the object’s approximate size, speed, temperature and flight path.
The video (seen at the top of the story) is just under 4 minutes long, but the unknown object was tracked for about 2 1/2 of those minutes. Although it was difficult for the group to calculate the exact location of the object on the first half of its flight, they are confident of its position in the second half.
They have determined that the object came in from the ocean, from the north or northwest of the airport’s airstrip, and then flew over the airstrip, then turned back to the north and headed back out into the ocean.
Estimated flight path of the unknown object. The thinner lines estimate possible paths of the object in the first part of its flight. The thicker line shows the path the researchers believe is most likely. The researchers are more confident of the location of the object during the second half of its flight. This data corresponds with what the SCU researchers found. (Credit: SCU)
During this time the DHC-8 was circling the airport. As can be seen in the map created by the researchers, the aircraft was moving along the shore, turning to the south, and eventually lost site of the object over the ocean as they continued south.
The flight path of the DHC-8 during the filming of the unknown object posted on Reddit by an anonymous user. This path was calculated using the data in the video. It is marked “heli,” because the Reddit user believed the aircraft to be a helicopter and was unaware it was a DHC-8.
The report states: “The object was between three to five feet in length and its speed varied between approximately 40 mph to 120 mph. Its median speed was roughly 80 mph.”
The report goes on to note that an interesting characteristic at the end of the flight was when it apparently submerged into the ocean, traveled for over half a mile, and then flew back out.
According to the report: “Its speed through the water reached a high of 95 mph and average 82.8 mph.”
The unknown object returning to the ocean.
One suggestion has been that the object was merely a balloon. However, the researchers reject this idea for several reasons. They say the wind speeds at the time were 8 to 13 mph at ground level and 12 to 18 mph at 400 to 3200 feet. This means the object was moving too fast to be carried by wind currents. It also changed directions from heading south back to the north, and it went underwater with minimal loss of speed.
Another possibility is that the object was actually a bird. The object appears dark on the screen, and for this type of thermal imaging that would mean it was warmer than the ambient air. This is how a bird would appear. However, the researchers note that the object was moving much too fast to be a bird. They note that peregrine falcons, which do occasionally visit Puerto Rico, have an average horizontal speed of 40 to 56 mph, and a maximum of 65 to 69 mph.
The researchers also examined the possibility that the object was a drone. Their research did discover that the Navy is working on a drone that can fly through the air and dive into the ocean and become a submarine. It is called a “Flimmer.”
They found that current Flimmer drones have not been tested underwater and have an airspeed of 68 mph. They also noted that the fastest known underwater battery powered torpedo travels at 50 mph.
The researchers do acknowledge that it could be possible that the Navy is secretly testing a Flimmer drone that is much more advanced. However, they question why the military would so recklessly test it over a civilian area and airport runways.
In conclusion they state: “There is no explanation for an object capable of traveling under water at over 90 mph with minimal impact as it enters the water, through the air at 120 mph at low altitude through a residential area without navigational lights, and finally to be capable of splitting into two separate objects. No bird, no balloon, no aircraft, and no known drones have that capability.”
A still image from the video just after the object apparently split into two separate objects.
They do not profess to know what the object was, and they welcome “reasonable” suggestions.
However, as to be expected, there are those who have suggested that “they know” the object is extraterrestrial in nature, and at least one of those suggestions has come from an anonymous source who has intimate knowledge of this event.
An anonymous letter was sent to one of the researchers that is very similar to one that was sent to John Greenewald, owner of the website TheBlackVault.com. The only thing Greenewald knew about the video was related to a low resolution copy that was leaked to a Puerto Rican UFO researcher. Many assumed the video was taken from a helicopter.
The letter references the exact type of thermal system and aircraft that was used to capture the video. The message was accompanied by a high resolution version of the thermal video, which was then posted on YouTube by Greenewald. The anonymous letter states: “Alien technology is no doubt under the ocean near Puerto Rico!”
Is alien technology being demonstrated in this video? This careful report, which the researchers say took over 1000 man hours to complete, indicates that whatever took place, it is certainly unusual. The entire report is 161 pages long, and thoroughly explains their work, and how they came to the conclusions they did.
The report on the Puerto Rico incident can be found at ExploreSCU.org. Click the image to go to the site.
Even if the report had come to a mundane conclusion, the effort put into the investigation is remarkable. However, the fact that they could not determine what the object was, and have determined that it displayed characteristics that cannot be explained, makes the report remarkable.
Robert Powell, a retired engineer who worked in the semiconductor industry, who helped author the research paper, says although they have finally released their report, “work on this video will continue.”
Powell, Beall, Chaviano, and the rest of the researchers working on the report posted a high resolution version of the video, their report, and an animation of the radar data they obtained on a website called the Scientific Coalition for Ufology.
Powell says they have reached out to other scientific organizations that have shown an interest in the UFO phenomenon, including 3AF Sigma2, a group that is part of the French National Aeronautical and Astronautical Association. The French scientists have agreed to review their work and provide input.
Powell says, “We hope that this report will generate ideas and thoughts from other scientists that may provide more insight into the characteristics of the object seen in the video.”
To download the report, view the video, and find out more about the investigation, visit: ExploreSCU.org.
Hanging on the wall near the British government’s UFO Desk was what one of the men who occupied that desk called “the most spectacular UFO photo ever sent to the Ministry of Defence (MoD).” The photo has since disappeared, but the story of how the picture was obtained, and what it showed, has not.
Nick Pope ran the MoD’s UFO project from 1991 to 1994. When he was first assigned to the position, he was not excited about it. He felt the issue was ridiculous and he was not looking forward to having to deal with a bunch of UFO nuts. However, over the years, Pope found there were credible cases of incredible things, and began to see there was something truly mysterious about the phenomenon. One of the cases that lead him to this conclusion had to do with a photo that was made into a poster that he found hung in the office near his desk when he began working the UFO desk.
A recreation of the Calvine UFO photo poster. (Credit: Channel 5)
“I first came across this story in 1991, when I joined the UFO project,” writes Pope on his website. “A poster-sized enlargement of the best photo was prominently displayed on the office wall.”
“The X-Files first aired in the UK in 1994 and I acquired the same nickname (Spooky) as Fox Mulder, for obvious reasons,” Nick continues. “Mulder famously had his ‘I want to believe’ UFO poster on his office wall and though uncaptioned, I suppose this was my equivalent.”
The photo showed a picture of a large diamond shaped craft with a jet in the background. When he asked about the photo, Pope was told that they had officially determined the image was real. They estimated the craft to have been 25 meters (over 80 feet) in diameter.
However, if asked, they were instructed to answer, “no definite conclusion had been reached regarding the large diamond-shaped object.”
Pope learned that the object had been photographed on August 4, 1990. Two people had been walking near the town of Calvine in Scotland when they spotted the large diamond-shaped object. They described the object as looking metallic. It sat in one position, hovering silently for several minutes before taking off vertically at, as Pope writes, “a massive speed.”
During the sighting, the witnesses also saw a military aircraft that they thought might be a harrier jet, but they were unsure whether the jet was escorting the craft, chasing it, or whether the jet pilot was even aware of the diamond-shaped UFO.
The witnesses had taken several photographs and sent them to the Scottish Daily Record newspaper. The paper contacted the MoD, and the MoD was somehow able to convince the paper to hand over the photographs along with the negatives.
” The photos were then sent to the Defence Intelligence Staff (DIS) who then sent them on to imagery analysts at JARIC (Joint Air Reconnaissance Intelligence Centre). Yet at the time, MoD hadn’t even publicly acknowledged that there was any intelligence interest in UFOs at all,” Pope explains.
“We implied and sometimes stated that we didn’t ‘investigate’ UFOs, but merely ‘examined sightings to see if anything reported was of any defence interest’ – as if the two were somehow different!”
Pope say the MoD was actually very interested in these cases, but often less interested in where the craft came from than what they could learn from it. They had hoped to identify some sort of technology they would be able to appropriate.
Nick Pope, former MOD UFO investigator, at the International UFO Congress. (Credit: Peter Beste/Open Minds)
Either way, the Calvine UFO photos impressed the UFO desk investigators enough that they hung the poster in the office.
“At one particularly surreal briefing on the UFO phenomenon my DIS opposite number indicated the photo and pointed his finger to the right: ‘It’s not the Americans’, he said, before pointing to the left and saying ‘and it’s not the Russians.’ There was a pause, before he concluded ‘and that only leaves …’ – his voice trailed off and he didn’t complete the sentence, but his finger was pointing directly upwards,” recalls Pope.
The office where the UFO desk was located also housed other non-UFO related projects.
Pope says the reaction of some colleagues who came to visit unaware of the UFO program had amusing reactions to the poster.
Pope writes, “You’d have this surreal moment when they’d stop mid-sentence, stare at it, point and say ‘what the hell’s that?’ – this wasn’t the archetypal distant, blurred UFO photo. This was up close and personal, reach out and you can touch it stuff. ‘I don’t know what it is, but it’s not one of ours’ was our stock answer to the inevitable question.”
Eventually, around 1994, Pope says his superior determined the craft was a secret American aircraft or drone. Pope says they had already asked the U.S. if the craft or something similar of theirs was being tested over the UK, and were told they were not. Pope believes his boss had decided to support a potential cover-up by the Americans and the MoD and removed the poster. It was never to be seen again.
Although Pope has discussed these photographs in the media and has posted an article on his website, no one has come forward to claim they took the photos. Nor has anyone at the Scottish Daily Record come forth to discuss any involvement. The case remains a mystery.
AI Sharpened Image of Purple UFO! May 18, 2004 - Provo Canyon, Utah, USA, UAP Sighting News.
AI Sharpened Image of Purple UFO! May 18, 2004 - Provo Canyon, Utah, USA, UAP Sighting News.
Hey all, I wanted to check out this UFO photo from back in 2004 in Utah, because so many people tried to claim that it's a bird. So much disinformation trying to confuse the public and distract them from the truth out there. So...I used ai to correct the photo and sharpen it and it's clearly a purple triangle UFO over the mountains of Provo, Utah. In this video below...I debunk the debunkers. This is 100% proof that it's not a bird, it's a UFO.
Beste bezoeker, Heb je zelf al ooit een vreemde waarneming gedaan, laat dit dan even weten via email aan Frederick Delaere opwww.ufomeldpunt.be. Deze onderzoekers behandelen jouw melding in volledige anonimiteit en met alle respect voor jouw privacy. Ze zijn kritisch, objectief maar open minded aangelegd en zullen jou steeds een verklaring geven voor jouw waarneming! DUS AARZEL NIET, ALS JE EEN ANTWOORD OP JOUW VRAGEN WENST, CONTACTEER FREDERICK. BIJ VOORBAAT DANK...
Druk op onderstaande knop om je bestand , jouw artikel naar mij te verzenden. INDIEN HET DE MOEITE WAARD IS, PLAATS IK HET OP DE BLOG ONDER DIVERSEN MET JOUW NAAM...
Druk op onderstaande knop om een berichtje achter te laten in mijn gastenboek
Alvast bedankt voor al jouw bezoekjes en jouw reacties. Nog een prettige dag verder!!!
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 73 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.