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 NEARLY 13 YEARS AND 4 MONTH.
ON /30/09/2024 MORE THAN 2.230.520
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...
30-09-2018
We Now Know Atlantis Really Existed... AND Where
A lot of supporting evidence that this is the true location of the lost city of Atlantis.
Only a fool would not consider it as a possibility. My heart did jump in excitement, because honestly once we start digging there under that soil. The city will be uncovered. I am happy and sad because stone will only tell so much about this great city. Think of the possibilities that they had. The Richat Structure NEEDS to be excavated!
Scientists Give More Details On Cigar-Shaped UFO Moving Close To Earth
Scientists Give More Details On Cigar-Shaped UFO Moving Close To Earth
Scientists claim to have known the mysterious object that was observed flying through space. The space rock was spotted in 2017 and eventually called Oumuamua, which has been hurtling the solar system of the Earth.
A report from acclaimed astronomers of NASA, the European Space Agency and the German Max Planck Institute for Astronomy was released this week, revealing the origins of the cigar-shaped asteroid that was first noticed in October 2017.
The space rock was named by the site who first observed it and is the Hawaiian for a messenger from afar arriving first.
The report mentions that a high-powered telescope in Hawaii discovered a fast-moving object on an unbound orbit close to the Earth.
The report describes Oumuamua as a metallic or rocky object, around 400 metres in length and approximately 40 metres wide.
It also claims that the object has a density similar to a comet and has a dark red surface, which may suggest either an organic-rich surface identical to the outer solar system asteroids and comets or a surface similar to the dark side of Saturn’s moon Iapetus, containing minerals with nanoscale iron.
According to the report, Oumuamua left its home when it was ejected during planet formation and migration millions of years ago and has been linked to four possible star systems.
The report also mentions that Oumuamua moved faster than the existing laws of celestial mechanics. The Astrophysical Journal has been accepted the report.
When Oumuamua was first discovered, scientists could not explain precisely the long, thin asteroid flying so close to Earth.
The discovery sparked suggestions that the strange rock was an alien spaceship or probe exploring our solar system.
The only uncontested fact is that Oumuamua is the first object ever spotted flying into our solar system from deep space.
Filer’s Files #38 – 2018 Are the Aliens in Control? - PART I
Circle of lights over Stillwater, Minnesota on September 15, 2018
Filer’s Files #38 – 2018 Are the Aliens in Control? - PART I
In special reports, this week’s files cover: Wilbert Smith Discusses Communication with Aliens, Are Aliens in Control? Monthly Statistical MUFON Report for August 2018, Hurricane Florence Flooding Spreads as Storm Moves with 18 Dead and New Moon Rocket Design.
Unidentified Aerial Phenomena sightings were reported over Arkansas, California, Florida, Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Maryland, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Missouri, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, Oregon, and Pennsylvania.
Unidentified Aerial Phenomena sightings were reported over Austria, Philippines, Spain, and England in the United Kingdom.
The Filer Research Institute feels the scientific study of UFOs is for the benefit of humankind and is an important endeavor. The US Air Force investigated UFOs publicly for more than twenty years under Project Blue Book; and I continue this advanced research. I believe the God of the universe has spread life throughout the cosmos and UFO’s are visiting us in ever-increasing numbers.
We are in great need of donations to help with the cost of the website and software needed to run our newsletter.
Any donation would be greatly appreciated.
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Special Projects
Wilbert Smith Discusses Communication with Aliens
In a just recovered 1961 interview with television station CJOH, the former head of the official Canadian Government UFO investigations Wilbert Smith, was asked a number of questions about what he had learned during his days of investigating flying saucers for the Canadian government.
Wilbur Smith stated, “In 1950 I was attending a rather slow-moving broadcasting conference in Washington D.C. and found that the U.S. government had a highly classified project set up to study flying saucers so I reasoned that with so much smoke maybe I should look for the fire.” He was able to get permission to become the Official Director of the Canadian Government’s UFO Investigation in 1950. He was one of the foremost communications experts of the day and worked as the chief radio engineer for the Canadian government. In 1956, he headed the countries radio regulations department. More importantly, he was in charge of monitoring 50,000 radio frequencies in Canada, and ran the Top Secret “Radio Ottawa” where spies would radio in to intelligence services.
Have you communicated with aliens?
Smiths answer (A) “Some of the communications have been on a face-to-face basis but I have not been so honored myself. Some of the communications have been by ordinary radio, and I have received a few messages by this means. But by far the majority of the communications are by what we call Tensor Beam transmission, which uses a type of radio with which we are only vaguely familiar, and which I couldn’t possibly attempt to describe now. However, the mental images of the person wishing to transmit are picked up electrically amplified and modulated into a tensor beam, which is directed to the person to whom the transmission is addressed, and within whose brain the mental images are recreated. The transmissions are therefore very precise, and independent of language. I have had some experience with these transmissions myself and can say that they are like nothing within the conventional experiences of earth people.”
They spear to be from another planet and the studies o one saucer that fell in the US indicated it operated on some hitherto unknown magnetic principles. Our own geo-magnetics might well be the link to their technology.The theory of operation of the saucers became quite straight forward with all observe features explained qualitatively and questitatively.
Q: Do you believe that flying saucers are real?
A: Yes. I am convinced that they are just as real and tangible as most things we deal with in our everyday lives. I made enquires through the Canadian Embassy concerning the saucers: This is the most highly classified subject in the United State, rating higher than the H bomb. Flying saucers exist but their operandi is unknown but consegrated effort is being made by a small group headed by Doctor Vanever Bush. The entire matter is considered by the United States authorities to be of tremendous significances. The US would welcome help in geo-magnetics and are willing to discuss it with accredited Canadians.
Q: Why do you think they are real?
A: Because thousands of people have seen them, many under circumstances, which virtually preclude misinterpretation, many of these sightings have been coordinated with radar fixes. Photographs have been taken and physical evidence has been accumulated.
Q: Have you ever seen a flying saucer yourself?
A: I have seen several objects which I concluded were flying saucers simply because they couldn’t be anything else.
General Ramey and Jesse Marcelwith possible Roswell Craft debris
Q: Have you, you actually handled any material believed to be from a flying saucer?
A: If by that you mean material substance showing evidence of fabrication through intelligent effort and not originating on this planet, I have. But I cannot say from my own knowledge that it was ever part of a flying saucer. Unfortunately, most of my contacts in this direction were through classified channels, which for some particular reason, which I could never fathom, insisted in “Classifying” these matters, and I am not at liberty to discuss them further.
Q: How long have you been studying flying saucers?
A: I didn’t get around to active participation until 1950, when I was attending a rather slow-moving broadcastngi conference in Washington D.C. and having some free time on my hands, I circulated around asking a few questions about flying saucers, which stirred up a hornet’s nest. I found that the U.S. government had a highly classified project set up to study them, so I reasoned that with so much smoke maybe I should look for the fire. So I set about gathering as much sighting data as I could get a hold of and analyzing it, from which I concluded that there was a 91% probability that the saucers were real, and a 60% probability that they were alien craft of some kind.
Q: What is the “official” view of flying saucers?
A: I don’t even know if there is one, in Canada. It has been my experience that no one who takes even a little time to study the evidence available publicly remains skeptic very long. This is quite apart from those who have had access and studied the larger files of evidence collected by private and semi-official organizations.
(Wings markings in Roswell beam debris. Courtesy of Roswell Photo Interpretation Team)
Q: What have you found out about flying saucers?
A: There is much evidence that people who build and fly flying saucers are people very much like us. They have been seen on many occasions and there are many claims of personal contact having been established with them. Communications with these people tell us that they are our distant relatives; that we are descendants of their colonists on this planet, and that they still regard us as brothers even though we don’t often act like it. There is much evidence that the technology of these people is quite a bit ahead of ours, and that through study of the behavior of the saucers and from the alleged communications we have been able to piece together some of this amazing technology. We are informed that these people are really civilized, in that they regard all men as brothers; that they do not have wars, and live under conditions of personal freedom of which we cannot conceive.
Q: Have you any indication of why the saucers are here at this time?
A: There is much evidence in history, legend and the Bible, that flying saucers have visited this planet on many occasions in the past and that the present visitation is nothing new; it is simply a bit more intense than in the past and we have better news dissemination means now. I think that these people from elsewhere are concerned with our playing with atomic energy, and about our plans for space travel and interplanetary exploration and conquest. I am sure that they do not hold us in very high esteem, and are worried about what we might do if we ever got loose in space with nuclear weapons.
(Painting of Madonna and Child by Jacopo Del Sellaio Palazzo Vecchio – 1485)
Q: Have you any ideas about how flying saucers operate?
A: They are not nearly so self-limited in science as we are. Our observations indicate that the saucers can hover indefinitely in one place, or they can dart off with very high accelerations. Also, they can change direction quickly; all this with utter disregard of the laws of inertia, as we understand them. From this we conclude that they must understand these laws better that we do and have found ways of getting around the situation. Our own work along these lines, aided by tips from outside, indicates that the trick is through gravity control wherein the earth’s gravity field is bent to accommodate the action required.
Q: How do you think flying saucers affect religion?
A: As far as I can determine, these people from elsewhere are a great deal more religious than we are. They believe in a Supreme Creator, the brotherhood and divinity of Man, and a plan for the evolution of all. To these people, their religion is a matter of daily reality, not just Sunday profession, and they certainly seem to practice what we preach. I can find no contradictions with any of the religions of this planet.
Q: Do you have any idea where these people come from?
A: I am informed through the many contacts that these people come from everywhere; that there is no place in the universe where men can live that he does not live.
Q: How about traveling about in the universe? Doesn’t it take a terribly long time?
A: I am afraid our ideas about certain things are due for a severe revision in the not too distant future. I am informed that time is not at all what we think it is, but is in fact variable. Also, that the velocity of light is not at all a limiting velocity. It merely appears so to us because we can’t see any faster. I understand that these people from elsewhere can and do travel about a great deal and they don’t take years to do it.
A: “I have made no secret of the information with which I am entrusted, and will gladly pass it on to anyone who is sincerely interested and wants to learn. I am NOT a missionary.”
Note: According to Smith’s son Jim Smith, shortly before his death in 1962 Wilbert called his son in, and told him that he had in fact seen the alien bodies from a crash, and had been shown a crashed flying saucer outside of Washington D.C., while conducting the official Canadian investigation. The 1961 interview continues. Thanks to Nick Balaskas who recovered this interview. The Smith files are held at the University of Ottawa and at: http://www.presidentialufo.com/quotes.htm
Are Aliens In Control?
The history of the world suggests the aliens create situations controlling the major happenings and direction of world events. The abduction evidence suggests the aliens are trying to control our world for their purposes. The future is not in the hands of humanity, but in the control of the aliens. They are either hostile, neutral, or our friends. We can assume the aliens have the capability to destroy our civilization out right or invade us using military aggression. We may actually benefit from their interference for example the devolution of the Soviet Union likely prevented World War III. Several KGB Colonels insisted Soviet bases were attacked by triangle shaped UFOs and President Mikhail Gorbachev was threatened by aliens. On 26 December 1991, the Soviet Union was dissolved.
We are essentially powerless to stop an alien take over, but could probably mount an effective guerrilla type war against the abductions. The Earth’s air forces and air defense systems have tried unsuccessfully to engage the UFOs on several occasions. Occasionally a UFO is downed but generally the craft are immune to our weapons. The aliens have shown the ability and willingness to defend themselves when necessary. They have destroyed or disabled our defenses at will. Fortunately, they do not to carry out organized aggressive activity against military facilities. The United States, USSR and Cuban aircraft and missile sites have been destroyed or shut down. Although, they have not destroyed significant facilities on Earth, they give no indication that they wish to help humanity. It is likely the aliens have underground or underwater bases on earth and a nuclear war would hinder or destroy their operations.
We often hear that the aliens are our space brothers and will provide great benefits to humanity. Thus far, we have not received any known benefits such as cures for disease or solutions to our environmental problems. There are a few abductees who feel the aliens have healed them of disease or sickness. Seldom do the aliens reveal any knowledge that we can substantiate in any way. If advanced technology has been received it has come from crashed craft rather than an exchange of information. Often the communication is very similar to information obtained by channeling and seldom of a technical nature. Much of it sounds good, but there is no real substance or knowledge provided and it is often contradictory. There is very little hard evidence about or on aliens. We are not sure about alien motivations and goals. They are masters of deception and control and use it effectively to carry out their plan.
They may be apathetic to our feelings or concerns. They may be conducting an intense sociological and psychological study of humanity. The alien plan may be to avoid disturbing the test subjects and their environment.
If you study an ant colony you avoid damaging the colony, otherwise the results will be in error. When we visit the zoo, we watch the polar bears, but we don’t try to talk with them. Our intelligence level may be too low for them to attempt realistic communication. Perhaps, intelligent contact may have already taken place with some of our political leaders and agreement was reached not to exchange ideas with the average person. Its even possible the advanced alien visitors have not been told what the real mission is for the future.
All of the alien activity, energy, and effort that we have detected implies a very important motive. Many aliens appear to come from much older civilizations, where there suns may be wearing out and need a planet with a newer sun.
The Torah, Bible and Koran scriptures reveal the aliens are in a life and death struggle for the control of men’s minds, souls and for the final control of the Earth The abductees have been told been told mostly by the gray humanoids that their planet is dying, some type of disaster occurred, and they have come to Earth to seek provisions, their survival is in jeopardy, and they need our genetic strength. There is speculation they need us and our livestock as sources of food, for rejuvenation of their race, and raw materials. Fetal tissue an excellent source of healthly cells that would be useful in rejuvenation or cloning of the alien bodies. Many of the humans and humanoids aboard the UFOs seem as if they were cloned. Most abductees feel there is a grand deception going on. That they do not really like us, but simply play a game of friendship that is necessary rather than altruistic. In fact, it is fairly common for mothers and grandmothers of the abductees to report religious experiences from the past that have a strange similarity to today’s abductionsFor different times and beliefs there are different scenarios.
ALIEN NEEDS:
Mankind has something the aliens need. We can speculate the aliens need, sustenance, water, the ability to bare children and minerals. They need humans to prevent alien extinction and for the reproduction. of life itself. It is possible they gain nourishment from the body fluids, blood, fetal tissue, glandular secretions and enzymes they extract from animal mutilations and human abductions, We are not exactly sure how their digestive system operates, but they appear to take small amounts of cereal and absorb fluids through their pores. If no animals are available they could survive by a form of cannibalization. We are useful to the aliens because we raise the animals they use for nourishment and have done so for thousands of years. They often voice concern over nuclear war and the environment, because they need the Earth to survive. The Grays often communicate they come from various planets and star systems. I suspect that the Earth may in fact be their real or adopted home. Its probable they came from another planet at some time in the past and continue to travel to their original home.
ALIEN GOALS:
At any time the Gray’s may choose to conquer Earth, thus far it has suited their interest to kidnap, mutilate, and terrorize. As a military person, I believe some fairly effective means could be developed to counter many of the alien’s plans. I would like to believe at this moment effective counter-measures are under construction. Until we have some method of dealing with the aliens there is no need to alarm the general public by announcing their presence. There is some evidence that we may be involved be involved in an intergalactic war. The aliens are using us to improve their race with humans superior attributes of strength and ability to fight. There are ancient religious documents and modern accounts of UFOs being destroyed by other craft, an alien Force: Based on recent surveys mentioned on the Ron Reagan TV show, the son of our past president about 30% of the American public claims to have seen devils, ghosts or aliens. About 12% claim to have seen UFOs, if half were abducted we have a sizable alien force on this planet.
I would estimate that twelve million Americans have been abducted been abducted To accomplish this task, a large UFO fleet would be required with bases placed in convenient locations around the earth for ease of operation. Two thousand UFOs and their crews would be needed for the purpose of abductions. An estimated hundred bases with many underground, undersea or fairly deep space bases would be needed with about two UFOs per state in the United States. Lets assume each craft could abduct ten persons, for an hour each night. The ships and their ground crews would need maintenance work once each week. The aircrews could work about 300 nights a year, giving them one night off a week and two weeks vacation each year. Robots or part flesh such as Grays could work every day without rest. Each crew could be given quota of making 3,000 abductions a year. Multiplied by 2,000 crews the Grays could abduct 600,000 per year or about 6 million people over ten years Some crews may be needed be needed to find minerals, food, blood, animals, or what ever is deemed is useful by the aliens to keep the fleet in operation. Crews are usually described as having three to five members. The alien force may not number over 10,000 and would be too small to control the Earth’s population. They could be very vulnerable to attack by the military forces of our earth, if their bases were known. They appear to be breeding highbreds that are half human and half alien that could substantionally increase their numbers.
It seems impossible that this large a force could operate without crashing, or leaving evidence behind. There is strong indication that if a crash happens the authorities pick up the wreckage and the bodies. A military unit implies military enemies.
Monthly Statistical MUFON Report for August 2018
CMS continues to amass sighting reports from around the globe. In August 2018 there were 734 sightings reported to MUFON through CMS from the following countries;
US 464.
Canada 64,
UK 60,
France 22,
Australia,
Slovenia 12,
Germany 10, and
Brazil 6.
Director Jan Harzan writes, Looking back on 2017, it was a busy year for the Mutual UFO Network (MUFON), with more than 7,600 UFO reports filed by the public. From that larger number, the cases that occurred in 2017 numbered 5,985. MUFON Field Investigators, after careful investigation, closed out 608 of those cases as Unknown Aerial Vehicles and an additional 500 as Unknown-Other. Our research team weeded out the resolved cases-Identified Flying Objects-and those cases closed as Insufficient Data or as a hoax.
Worldwide U.S.
All reports 7,651 5,485
Unknown Aerial Vehicle 1,065 857
Unknown-Other 784 657
Information Only 857 584
2017 reports only 5,985 4,387
2017 UAVs 6 08 749
2017 Unknown-Other 500 580
2017 Info Only 334 498
Hurricane Florence Flooding Spreads as Storm Moves,18 Dead
WILMINGTON, N.C. — Emergency workers delivered truckloads of food and water to Wilmington, a city of 120,000 people mostly cut off from the rest of North Carolina by Florence’s still-rising floodwaters, as helicopters and boat pulled people from homes swamped by swollen rivers. The deadly storm still had abundant rain and high winds.
Hurricane Florence continued to ravage North Carolina on Sunday, prompting weather alerts for every county in the state. The storm moved sluggishly — it made landfall at about 6 mph Friday and had slowed to 2 mph on Saturday, dumping massive amounts of rain as it went. The deluge, called a 1,000-year rain. We send our prayers and help to those in need.
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- Gemiddelde waardering: 0/5 - (0 Stemmen) Categorie:FILER FILES - overzicht met foto's met dank aan Georges Filer en WWW.nationalUFOCenter.com (ENG)
Filer’s Files #38 – 2018 Are the Aliens in Control? - PART II
Filer’s Files #38 – 2018 Are the Aliens in Control? - PART II
UFO Sightings in the United States
Arkansas Game Camera
Hot Springs — The three pictures were taken by a game camera in my backyard on the following times….11:22pm 09/09/18…..2:10am 09/10/18…..2:22am 09/10/18. This is the second photo. No one else that I have talked to saw the lights. Thanks to MUFON CMS
California Object
Camarillo–I was in the backyard with my mother and my son I looked up and I saw a hovering Orb. I was all jacked that started in meeting more of the brightness and then with them in a look like there was a smaller or just below the larger object on September 18, 2018.
It hovered for a few minutes and then took off south southeast very slowly. Thanks to MUFON CMS
Florida Lights
Tampa— Walking the dog on September 15, 2018, it didn’t look like an airplane or jet it was small and white.
It moved slowly across the sky, then it’s gone. I was amazed and I couldn’t believe it and it just kept moving slowly till it was gone. I didn’t see it anymore and was gone. Thanks to MUFON CMS
Illinois Lights
Chicago — We saw 6 objects flying in formation above Chicago. Five were similar in that they had a shiny metallic like appearance like they were blinking.
One was in the middle of the formation, alternating red and white. They were moving pretty slow or they were so high up they appeared to be moving slowly, but staying in formation the entire time. Thanks to MUFON CMS
Indiana Light’
Fort Wayne — I work the night shift and some fellow colleagues and I have noticed an object in the sky at least the past three nights on September 16, 2018. The object moved south very slowly at a 40° angle from the earth surface. It pulsates different reds, yellows, greens, blues, and white lights.It does not make a noise. We do have two airports in Fort Wayne near this object. I personally live near the airport and observe many aircraft and this is nothing like that. My first guess would be a weather balloon admitting an LED light. But we’ve seen at the last three nights and would not make sense for someone to just release a big balloon with an LED light. I live near the airport and observe many aircraft and this is nothing like that. We’ve seen the lights the last three nights and would not make sense for someone to just release a big balloons with an LED outside. Thanks to MUFON CMS
Kentucky Object
Frankfurt –I was taking a picture of a rainbow from the hurricane that was blowing in and something flew into the picture. I don’t know what it was maybe you can shed light on this
Photo was taken on September 16, 2018. Thanks to MUFON CMS
Maryland Lights
Ocean City — My wife, a friend and I were sitting on our balcony at our condo, when my friend observed an orangeish light appear over the ocean. It was a very bright circle shape and would stay illuminated for 2-5 seconds, then fade out. A couple seconds would pass, then illuminate again in the same spot. A couple minutes would pass and it happened again, at a similar location. We tried to figure out if it was a plane or and the circle was way to big to be a plane and silent. After the third appearance. a second one appeared farther to the south doing the same thing but a little lower in the sky. We could see planes flying and their red and blue lights blinking. After about 10 visuals of the objects they stopped appearing. The lights were very bright my cell phone video doesn’t really show the size or brightness of them. In the videos you can’t see the boats lights which were just below on the ocean. Thanks to MUFON CMS
MassachusettsLight
Bellingham – About 8:30 pm my mother, stepfather and I stepped out onto the back porch on September 16, 2018. We noticed an orange orb of light in the southern sky just above the tree line. It was moving towards us. I took out my telescope to view it and quickly realized it was not a drone or a plane or helicopter. After about an hour it stopped at what seemed right above the edge of our yard. We then noticed a white orb of light in the western sky making movements all over the place and after about an hour disappeared. In the meantime the orange orb was making the same type of movements basically staying in the same small area altitude. We watched for hours in amazement. It is 11:07 pm now and it is still out there. I took some pictures through my telescope before coming in for the night
Lawrence — My mother, my two small children and I were out for a walk on September 19, 2018. I looked at the horizon and saw a glowing object flying through the clouds. I took out my phone and started taking pictures. The object appeared to disappear and then reappeared in the same spot, taking the same flight path.
An airplane then flew perpendicular to it and it became very apparent that the object was definitely not an airplane. We continued walking and stopped to talk to some neighbors. When we looked back up, the object was gone. I was excited and nervous at the same time about seeing the object. Thanks to MUFON CMS
Minnesota Circle of Lights
Stillwater — Witness was driving along 36 and Lake Elmo Avenue when he and his girlfriend saw this in the sky.
Witness observed for 4 minutes taking multiple pictures. Then it ascended quickly and was gone.
“No doubt in my mind it was a spacecraft of some kind” witness also positive it wasn’t some reflection or spot lights due to it flying away.mbe
Photo was taken on September 15, 2018. Thanks to MUFON CMS
Missouri Orb
Webb City –This picture was taken on August 31, 2018 at 1:49pm by a friend of mine as she and her sister were driving north on N. Rangeline Road. On September 3, 2018. My friend was the passenger and she was leaning over towards the center of the car to get a picture of heavy storms. She says that neither of them saw anything in the sky. When she pulled the picture up to view it and see if they got a good pic of the clouds they also saw this object. Surprised and they pulled into a parking lot and got out to check the sky but nothing was in the sky then. She shared the pic with me because she knew I have an avid interest in the subject of UFOs and paranormal happenings.
The pic does appear to be elevated in the sky and certainly no kind of reflection. Thanks to MUFON CMS
New Jersey Light
Margate — We came home from dinner on September 15, 2018, and I looked in the sky and said, “What are those four bright lights in the sky all in a straight line?” Then they started to get around and then got back. I thought this was crazy and unusual and asked my daughter to film it. Many lights and shaped cams out of these four lights and then they formed a straight line again. This went on for about ten minutes. We felt dizzy and light after the sighting . And felt very weird, hard to explain. Thanks to MUFON CMS
Oregon Lights
Portland— A few friends of mine were out at night on September 19, 2018, and saw 6 or more large obvious lights in the sky. The general lack of speed they exhibited was strange, usually a plane or a helicopter even when viewed from far away are obviously going from one point to another. These lights didn’t seem to have a particular sense of urgency. The lights themselves seem to be very large balls of light slowly trailing through the sky. The lights were together when they split into 6 separate lights. During the split, they were descending slowly, and stopped at the same time and hovered. They slowly re positioned themselves (either floating up or down) into a straight-ish line.
There is another “unlit” light hovering some distance above the rest of the lights. The general response from the witnesses was disbelief. Thanks to MUFON CMS
Pennsylvania Lights
I was on my porch (2nd. story up on “the Ridge”) looking west and hovering over the PA Turnpike (between Quakertown Exit and Lansdale exit) I kept staring at what I thought was an airplane on September 19, 2018. After other various planes flew thru the area, this one just stayed and made no noise, and refused to do anything other than hover. After about 20 minutes I decided to get my cameras out. I could not see anything in the viewfinder so I just started shooting while pointed in the direction of the subject. I transferred the files from the SD Card and sat in amazement. One looked like an X-Wing fighter from star wars. Others looked like puffed up Asian dragons from artwork I have viewed over the years. One look like a superhero with arms outstretched flying right for me with a determined expression! I am an artist and retired Professional Photographer. These “CRAFT” are not from local planet. Thanks to MUFON CMS
Worldwide UFO Sightings
Austria Lights
Innsbruck — Unknown lights appeared on the runway of Innsbruck Airport (LOWI) in Austria. The object was stationary, but due to darkness I could not see if it landed or was hovering slightly above the surface. Three lights were arranged linearly and the 4th light was exactly above the third light from the linear row (counted from the left from my perspective). I can exclude any commercial airplane or light aircraft, because I also observed the four lights exactly in the same intensity and shining, in a completely different angle of sight. This would not be possible from a stationary airplane with taxi landing-lights. Additionally no strobes were detected. The lights were present before I recognized them, but 5 minutes after my first sighting a convoy of multiple cars of about ten were heading towards the object and were circling one time around it and then headed back towers the terminal-building. The object was near the end of the runway in western direction. Two pictures from two completely different angles (distance between both viewing point 500 meters). After 20 minutes I decided to drive with my car parallel to the runway to observe the object more clearly, but it disappeared. I didn’t see it disappear, but after 5-6 minutes there were no lights anywhere on the runway. After this I just only saw the car convoy near the terminal building and the runway-lights were switched off with the last landings at 10 pm due to noise regulations. I’m a former employee of the Innsbruck Airport and I never experienced such convoys. I know runway and aircraft-type lights and these were unknown lights. Unfortunately the two photos of the two sighting locations are quite bad. In Reality the 3 linear lights in the row near ground were isolated ball shaped lights and exactly equidistant to each other. The distance of the 4th light to the third of the three lights below were also of the same distance as in the linear row. Thanks to MUFON CMS
Philippines Triangle
I was in the roof of my house doing a little stargazing when I look over the SE corner of my view on September 19, 2018. I saw a triangular shape craft that is quite huge that was gliding straight into the most cloudiest part of the horizon. It revealed a transparent triangular shape to me just before it disappeared into some heavier clouds. I think it went there to hide I don’t know. It was like in the movies on how a stealth object has this transparent effect it was like that just before it enters the cloudy area. I saw it flicker a bit while keeping its transparency but what surprises me is the thinner clouds helped exposed the object to me. I don’t know if anyone else in the Philippines saw it. P.S. do not tell me it’s an Airplane because I know what I saw. Thanks to MUFON CMS
Spain Orb
Valencia — The 15th of September of 2018 a blue static orb was seen floating above the Parc Benicalap, in the City of Valencia, Spain.
A blue static orb was seen floating in the sky above Parc Benicalap. Thanks to MUFON CMS
UK/ England Kent
Margate Beach— Out walking our dog and did not notice anything at the time. Only noticed the light within the photograph. No editing of the photo has taken place.
Photo was taken on September 15, 2018. Thanks to MUFON CMS
Lancaster — It was just hovering and then when I pulled my phone out to take pictures on April 27, 2018. it started to move weirdly as if trying to avoid my camera. This is the only clear picture I could get. It has no editing to it just the raw picture if anyone can make it clearer then that would be a great help. I first noticed it when I was in my back garden it was a clear day and I just saw it floating. When I first saw it, I immediately thought drone or a plane but it was too high to be a drone and it is not in the shape of a plane. It was just hovering and then when I went to take pictures, it started to move very fast and agile so I could only get one picture. I was mesmerized and being able to take this picture was fascinating as I believe in aliens. Thanks to MUFON CMS
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This Week's Top Space Stories!
This Week's Top Space Stories!
By Doris Elin Salazar, Space.com Contributor
Photo Credit: Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency
The Week's Top Space Stories
One of Saturn's moons has dust storms like Earth and Mars, tiny hopping rovers reach the asteroid Ryugu and a physicist says World War II bombings had ripple effects on the border between Earth's atmosphere and space. These are just some of the top stories this week from Space.com.
Photo Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Univ. of Arizona
1. Silent but visible Opportunity
The Opportunity Mars rover hasn't been heard from since June 10, but on Thursday (Sept. 20), NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) spotted the robot on the rim of Mars' Endeavour Crater. Opportunity has been stationary since a large dust storm kept the robot from recharging its solar-powered batteries.
Photo Credit: IPGP/Labex UnivEarthS/University Paris Diderot - C. Epitalon & S. Rodriguez
2. Distant dust storms on Titan
Researchers studied infrared data from the Cassini mission and found bright spots near the equator of Titan, one of Saturn's moons. The new work suggests that Titan is the third rock in the solar system, after Earth and Mars, to have dust storms.
This week, Europe's Ariane 5 rocket launched for the 100th time. The liftoff from Kourou, French Guiana carried two telecommunications satellites up into space.
A space and atmospheric physicist combed through World War II archival data and found that the war was felt at the edge of space. The violent bombing raids produced shock waves that briefly weakened the outermost layer of Earth's atmosphere, according to his findings.
A pair of tiny robots recently made it to the asteroid Ryugu, and have sent back exciting imagery. In addition to photography, the Japanese probes are designed to hop across the space rock's surface and gather data.
The Air Force Association (AFA) has argued "more harm than good" would result should the United States establish a separate space branch of the U.S. military. The professional military and aerospace association argued that, even if there's a need for a Space Force, now is not a good time to break up the Air Force which currently manages U.S. space systems.
Scientists working with the Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) spotted a second possible exoplanet during its first month of observations. Some researchers think the alien-world hunter may spot 10,000 exoplanets in just two years.
Japan's Kounotori 7 rocket — which translates to "white stork" — launched up towards the International Space Station on Sept. 22. Kounotori 7, also known as HTV-7, lifted off from Japan's Tanagashima Space Center, carrying onboard over 5 tons of food, science equipment and supplies to the space lab.
NASA officials like Jim Bridenstine and Bill Gerstenmaier spoke during congressional hearings on Sept. 26, where they emphasized that Mars is not superseded by the moon as a human-spaceflight target. They said the moon is a stepping stone to meet the Red Planet goal.
The interstellar space-rock 'Oumuamua may have come from around one of four possible stars, according to new research published Sept. 24. The hometown possibilities of this solar system visitor, whose name means "messenger from afar arriving first" in Hawaiian, include a sunlike star, and a red dwarf star.
From 166 miles (or 267 kilometers, if that’s more your speed) away, NASA’s Mars Opportunity rover is a bit hard to see. But after losing contact with the rover on June 10, 2018, the public has finally caught sight of the infamous 15-year-old rover again. (If you’re having trouble seeing it in this game of eye-spy, NASA’s got your back with the white box.)
HiRISE, a high-resolution camera manned by the the University of Arizona aboard NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, nabbed a photo of the Mars Opportunity Rover on September 20. The photo was taken from above the Meridiani Planum, the plains near the red planet’s meridian, where scientists suspect water may once have existed.
If anything, Opportunity chose a fitting, potentially final resting place. After heading into Perseverance Valley, a dust storm overtook the solar-powered rover and blocked its visibility significantly, causing it to enter hibernation mode. At worst, the dust storm completely blocked out Opportunity’s view. The amount of sunlight that reaches the surface of Mars is measured in tau, measured a little over 10 at peak storm. When HiRISE’s picture was recently taken, tau was recorded at approximately 1.3, or about 25 percent of sunlight reaching the surface.
NASA's Opportunity rover appears as a blip in the center of the square seen in the GIF above. This image taken by HiRISE, a high-resolution camera onboard NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, shows the dust storm over Perseverance Valley has substantially cleared.
The storm, which at one point completely enveloped Mars, peaked in mid-July. But even after the storm dissipated in August, Opportunity stayed silent. Since then, the loyal team at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory formulated a new outreach plan like Opportunity’s most persistent ex, listening for the rover multiple times a day with a system of “sweeps and beeps” that will continue. The team plans to continue this strategy until January 2019.
The rover Opportunity isn't working right now.
Whether Opportunity is simply taking a nap or resting for good remains uncertain. Exactly how much dust has fallen off the the rover’s solar arrays versus how much is coating the arrays is also not clear. Comparing the newest image to those taken a year ago, scientists do hope that Opportunity’s source of energy isn’t completely blocked, according to the University of Arizona. But it’s hard to tell whether Opportunity is experiencing other faults as well. Only time will tell.
Storms have gone global before. In its third summer on Mars, Opportunity faced another storm that blocked out all but 1 percent of the sun for the solar-powered rover.
Opportunity’s companion rover, Spirit, was launched along with it to the red planet, but a faulty wheel eventually caused it to get stuck in late 2009 and its last communication with Earth was in March 2010.
Opportunity, don’t ghost us. We see you. Nearly 14 years past original expiration date, we haven’t given up.
Opportunity launches from Earth on July 7, 2003 aboard the Delta II rocket from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida. It arrived on Mars on January 25, 2004.
An Opportunity shadow-selfie from 2004, when Opportunity was comparatively young (and had “only” doubled its mission length).
Bizarre Particles Keep Flying Out of Antarctica's Ice, and They Might Shatter Modern Physics
Bizarre Particles Keep Flying Out of Antarctica's Ice, and They Might Shatter Modern Physics
By Rafi Letzter, Staff Writer
A team recovers NASA's Antarctic Impulsive Transient Antenna (ANITA) after a successful flight.
Credit: Australian Antarctic Division
There's something mysterious coming up from the frozen ground in Antarctica, and it could break physics as we know it.
Physicists don't know what it is exactly. But they do know it's some sort of cosmic ray — a high-energy particle that's blasted its way through space, into the Earth, and back out again. But the particles physicists know about — the collection of particles that make up what scientists call the Standard Model (SM) of particle physics — shouldn't be able to do that. Sure, there are low-energy neutrinos that can pierce through miles upon miles of rock unaffected. But high-energy neutrinos, as well as other high-energy particles, have "large cross-sections." That means that they'll almost always crash into something soon after zipping into the Earth and never make it out the other side.
And yet, since March 2016, researchers have been puzzling over two events in Antarctica where cosmic rays did burst out from the Earth, and were detected by NASA's Antarctic Impulsive Transient Antenna (ANITA) — a balloon-borne antenna drifting over the southern continent.
ANITA is designed to hunt cosmic rays from outer space, so the high-energy neutrino community was buzzing with excitement when the instrument detected particles that seemed to be blasting up from Earth instead of zooming down from space. Because cosmic rays shouldn't do that, scientists began to wonder whether these mysterious beams are made of particles never seen before.
All the explanations were intriguing, and suggested that ANITA might have detected a particle not accounted for in the Standard Model. But none of the explanations demonstrated conclusively that something more ordinary couldn't have caused the signal at ANITA.
A new paper uploaded today (Sept. 26) to the preprint server arXiv changes that. In it, a team of astrophysicists from Penn State University showed that there have been more upward-going high-energy particles than those detected during the two ANITA events. Three times, they wrote, IceCube (another, larger neutrino observatory in Antarctica) detected similar particles, though no one had yet connected those events to the mystery at ANITA. And, combining the IceCube and ANITA data sets, the Penn State researchers calculated that, whatever particle is bursting up from the Earth, it has much less than a 1-in-3.5 million chance of being part of the Standard Model. (In technical, statistical terms, their results had confidences of 5.8 and 7.0 sigma, depending on which of their calculations you're looking at.)
Breaking physics
Derek Fox, the lead author on the new paper, said that he first came across the ANITA events in May 2018, in one of the earlier papers attempting to explain them.
"I was like, 'Well this model doesn't make much sense,'" Fox told Live Science, "but the [ANITA] result is very intriguing, so I started checking up on it. I started talking to my office neighbor Steinn Sigurdsson [the second author on the paper, who is also at Penn State] about whether maybe we could gin up some more plausible explanations than the papers that have been published to date."
Fox, Sigurdsson and their colleagues started looking for similar events in data collected by other detectors. When they came across possible upward-going events in IceCube data, he said, he realized that he might have come across something really game-changing for physics. [5 Mysterious Particles Lurking Underground]
The surface facility for the IceCube experiment, which is located under nearly 1 mile (1.6 kilometers) of ice in Antarctica. IceCube suggests ghostly neutrinos don't exist, but a new experiment says they do.
Credit: Courtesy of IceCube Neutrino Observatory
"That's what really got me going, and looking at the ANITA events with the utmost seriousness," he said, later adding, "This is what physicists live for. Breaking models, setting new constraints [on reality], learning things about the universe we didn't know."
As Live Science has previously reported, experimental, high-energy particle physics has been at a standstill for the last several years. When the 17-mile (27 kilometers), $10 billion Large Hadron Collider (LHC) was completed on the border between France and Switzerland in 2009, scientists thought it would unlock the mysteries of supersymmetry — the mysterious, theoretical class of particles that scientists suspect might exist outside of current physics, but had never detected. According to supersymmetry, every existing particle in the Standard Model has a supersymmetric partner. Researchers suspect these partners exist because the masses of known particles are out of wack — not symmetric with one another.
"Even though the SM works very well in explaining a plethora of phenomena, it still has many handicaps," said Seyda Ipek, a particle physicist at UC Irvine, who was not involved in the current research. "For example, it cannot account for the existence of dark matter, [explain mathematical weirdness in] neutrino masses, or the matter-antimatter asymmetry of the universe."
Instead, the LHC confirmed the Higgs boson, the final undetected part of the Standard Model, in 2012. And then it stopped detecting anything else that important or interesting. Researchers began to question whether any existing physics experiment could ever detect a supersymmetric particle.
"We need new ideas," Jessie Shelton, a theoretical physicist at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, told Live Science in May, around the same time that Fox first became interested in the ANITA data.
Now, several scientists not involved in the Penn State paper told Live Science that it offers solid (if incomplete) evidence that something new has really arrived.
"It was clear from the start that if the ANITA anomalous events are due to particles that had propagated through thousands of kilometers of Earth, then those particles were very likely not SM particles," said Mauricio Bustamante, an astrophysicist at the Niels Bohr Institute at the University of Copenhagen, who was not an author on the new paper.
"The paper that appeared today is the first systematic calculation of how unlikely is that these events were due to SM neutrinos," he added. "Their result strongly disfavors a SM explanation."
"I think it's very compelling," said Bill Louis, a neutrino physicist at Los Alamos National Laboratory who was not involved in the paper and has been following research into the ANITA events for several months.
If standard model particle created these anomalies, they should have been neutrinos. Researchers know that both because of the particles they decayed into, and because no other standard model particle would even have a fragment of a chance in a million of making it through the Earth.
But neutrinos of this energy, Louis said, just shouldn't make it through the Earth often enough for ANITA or IceCube to detect. It's not how they work. But neutrino detectors like ANITA and IceCube don't detect neutrinos directly. Instead, they detect the particles that neutrinos decay into after smashing into Earth's atmosphere or Antarctic ice. And there are other events that can generate those particles, triggering the detectors. This paper strongly suggests that those events must have been supersymmetric, Louis said, though he added that more data is necessary.
Louis said that at this stage he thinks that level of specificity is "a bit of a stretch."
The authors make a strong statistical case that no conventional particle would be likely to travel through the Earth in this way, he said, but there isn't yet enough data to be certain. And there's certainly not enough that they could definitively figure out what particle made the trip.
Fox didn't dispute that.
"As an observer, there's no way that I can know that this is a stau," he said. "From my perspective, I go trawling around trying to discover new things about the universe, I come upon some really bizarre phenomenon, and then with my colleagues, we do a little literature search to see if anybody has ever thought that this might happen. And then if we find papers in the literature, including one from 14 years ago that predict something just like this phenomenon, then that gets really high weight from me."
He and his colleagues did find a long chain of papers from theorists predicting that stau sleptons might turn up like this in neutrino observatories. And because those papers were written before the ANITA anomaly, Fox said, that suggests strongly to him that those theorists were onto something.
But there remains a lot of uncertainty on that front, he said. Right now, researchers just know that whatever this particle is, it interacts very weakly with other particles, or else it would have never survived the trip through the planet's dense mass.
What's next
Every physicist who spoke with Live Science agreed that researchers need to collect more data to verify that ANITA and IceCube have cracked supersymmetry. It's possible, Fox said, that when IceCube researchers dig into their data archives they'll find more, similar events that had previously gone unnoticed. Louis and Bustamante both said that NASA should run more ANITA flights to see if similar upward-going particles turn up.
"For us to be certain that these events are not due to unknown unknowns — say, unmapped properties of the Antarctic ice — we would like other instruments to also detect these sort of events," Bustamante said.
A team prepares ANITA for flight over the Antarctic ice.
Credit: NASA
Over the long-term, if these results are confirmed and the details of what particle is causing them are nailed down, several researchers said that the ANITA anomaly might unlock even more new physics at the LHC.
"Any observation a non-SM particle would be a game changer, because it would tell us which path we should take after the SM," Ipek said. "The type of [supersymmetric] particle they claim to have produced the signals of, sleptons, are very hard to produce and detect at LHC."
"So, it is very interesting if they can be observed by other types of experiments. Of course, if this is true, then we will expect a ladder of other [supersymmetric] particles to be observed at the LHC, which would be a complementary test of the claims."
In other words, the ANITA anomalies could offer scientists the key information necessary to properly tune the LHC to unlock more of supersymmetry. Those experiments might even turn up an explanation for dark matter.
Right now, Fox said, he's just hungry for more data.
For decades, scientists have been scanning Mars’ surface for signs of ancient life. But by digging a little bit deeper, they’ve come across historic habitable zones in unexpected places.
After expanding their search, a team of researchers found that the Red Planet’s ancient subsurface could have housed microbial life for hundreds of millions of years. By borrowing hydrogen electrons from water, microbes could’ve had enough energy to not only survive underground, but to thrive for miles below the surface. If true, future missions could search areas where the subsurface is now exposed and potentially prove the existence of Martian life once and for all.
The study, led by Brown University researchers and published in Earth and Planetary Science Letters, was inspired by a curious phenomenon on Earth. Vast communities of underground microbes here live in darkness without access to the Sun’s chemical energy, the sole source of energy for most organisms on the planet. These enterprising bacteria, though, manage to survive by bumming hydrogen electrons from the water molecules that seep into the subsurface, a process that produces enough energy for them to live on.
Mars obviously doesn’t have the surface water needed to support life nowadays, but with clear signs of historic, flowing water, it likely did. Similar microbes could have theoretically existed there, too.
Unexpected Advantages
Despite harsh conditions, Mars’ extremely thin atmosphere and intense radiation would have actually supported these ecosystems. When radiation hits surface water, it kicks off a process called radiolysis, where water molecules to break down into hydrogen and oxygen. Once the molecules are broken down, microbes can easily use the molecular hydrogen to fuel their existence.
To find out if these underground communities could have existed, the research team looked at three different factors. First, they used data from NASA’s Mars Odyssey spacecraft’s gamma ray spectrometer to chart abundances of thorium, potassium and uranium in Mars’ crust. These elements give off radiation when they break down, kickstarting radiolysis. They also decay at constant rates, so by calculating their current abundances, they could estimate how much radiation rained down throughout history.
Embedded lake beds and dried up rivers tell us that there was no shortage of water exposed to radiation, but the team still needed to figure out how much of it soaked into the ground. To do so, they used density measurements to see how porous Mars’ crust was, allowing them to estimate how much hydrogen dripped into the subsurface. The last step was to look for underground regions that boasted a comfortable temperature. They used geothermal and climate models to see which areas were warm enough to harbor liquid water, but weren’t so warm that heat from Mars’ core would harm the ecosystem.
Taken with NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter’s HiRISE camera, the image shows Syrtis Major, a volcanic region that’s exposes Mars’ ancient subsurface. The area is currently being considered as a landing site for NASA’s Mars 2020 rover.
(Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/University of Arizona)
Lively Beginnings
After adding up these factors, the researchers found that around 4 billion years ago, the Martian subsurface was soaking up enough hydrogen to energize microbes for hundreds of millions of years. Their model shows that the ecosystems extended several miles into the subsurface and could withstand both warmer and cooler conditions than expected. In fact, thick layers of ice actually trapped hydrogen molecules underground, making extremely cold regions the ideal home for hungry microbes.
“People have a conception that a cold early Mars climate is bad for life, but what we show is that there’s actually more chemical energy for life underground in a cold climate,” said the study’s lead author, Jesse Tarnas of Brown University, in a press statement. “That’s something we think could change people’s perception of the relationship between climate and past life on Mars.”
There are still a lot of factors to take into consideration, though. The study assumes that Martian microbes looked like those on Earth, when they could have behaved completely differently. Plus, whether or not any sort of life has existed on Mars is still unknown. But showing that it would have had enough energy to survive is another hopeful sign of extraterrestrials there.
The only way to prove this theory, though, is to investigate areas where the subsurface is now exposed, like deep meteor impact craters. Luckily, NASA’s Mars 2020 rover will soon be heading to the Red Planet, and will use this new data to continue our never-ending search for Martian life.
Les matériaux d’un OVNI sont actuellement étudiés par des scientifiques de haute volée – et les résultats sont DINGUES
Les matériaux d’un OVNI sont actuellement étudiés par des scientifiques de haute volée – et les résultats sont DINGUES
Des scientifiques de haut niveau affirment étudier du matériel provenant d’un OVNI qui s’est écrasé dans ce qu’ils disent être un développement potentiellement révolutionnaire.
To The Stars Academy, un groupe d’anciens membres des services secrets, d’employés du gouvernement américain et de scientifiques, prétend avoir sept échantillons d’une soucoupe volante abattue.
“Chaque échantillon représente différents éléments de phénomènes aériens non identifiés potentiels et leur mode de fonctionnement”, a déclaré l’académie.
Les premières études des objets dans le cadre du Projet de recherche ‘Adam’ ont donné des résultats incroyables, selon les rapports.
Les matériaux auraient appartenu à des phénomènes aériens non identifiés (UAP).
Selon To the Stars Academy, l’échantillon de magnésium-zinc-bismuth provient de la récupération d’un crash d’UAP, mais admet que la “source ne peut être vérifiée”.
Selon des experts, il n’existe “aucun précédent pour cette combinaison structurée de matériaux” et “l’objet ou la fonction véritable du matériau est inconnu”.
Fait intriguant, il est dit qu’un côté de l’échantillon semble avoir été produit en usine parce qu’il a un contour défini.
Ils ont également découvert que le matériau agit comme un guide d’ondes pour les fréquences térahertz (ondes électromagnétiques).
“D’autres tests sont prévus sur les matériaux”, a rapporté Disclose TV.
Le gouvernement américain stocke les matériaux capturés d’OVNI dans un immense hangar lourdement gardé près de Las Vegas, ce qui a également été affirmé récemment.
L’Advanced Aerospace Threat Identification Program (AATIP) du Pentagone a enquêté sur les soucoupes volantes pendant quatre ans à partir de 2008.
Le programme de 18 millions d’euros a été lancé après que l’ancien sénateur démocrate du Nevada, Harry Reid, eut insisté pour sa création.
Bigelow Aerospace, fondée par l’entrepreneur et ufologue Robert Bigelow, 73 ans, a travaillé aux côtés de fonctionnaires, dont Luis Elizondo, et il a été rapporté que des matériaux et des alliages d’OVNIS qui se sont écrasés sont entreposés au siège social de l’entreprise, à la périphérie nord de Las Vegas.
Le New York Times a rapporté l’année dernière que “sous la direction de M. Bigelow, la société a modifié des bâtiments à Las Vegas pour le stockage d’alliages métalliques et d’autres matériaux qui, selon M. Elizondo et les entrepreneurs du programme, avaient été récupérés de phénomènes aériens non identifiés.”
“Les chercheurs ont aussi enquêté sur des personnes qui ont dit avoir subi des effets physiques à la suite de contacts avec les objets et les ont examinés à la recherche de changements physiologiques.”
The trillion-star Andromeda galaxy, the focus of a new, student-run project called the Trillion Planet Survey, which aims to find signs of alien life.
Credit: S. Ozime
An ambitious, student-run hunt for intelligent aliens is underway.
The Trillion Planet Survey has begun scanning the huge Andromeda galaxy, as well as our own Milky Way, for beams of light that could have been produced by advanced alien civilizations. (The project's name stems from the fact that Andromeda harbors about 1 trillion stars, and stars in general are thought to host at least one planet on average.)
"First and foremost, we are assuming there is a civilization out there of similar or higher class than ours trying to broadcast their presence using an optical beam, perhaps of the 'directed energy' arrayed type currently being developed here on Earth," lead researcher Andrew Stewart, a student at Emory University in Atlanta, said in a statement. [13 Ways to Hunt Intelligent Alien Life]
"Second, we assume the transmission wavelength of this beam to be one that we can detect," Stewart added. "Lastly, we assume that this beacon has been left on long enough for the light to be detected by us. If these requirements are met and the extraterrestrial intelligence's beam power and diameter are consistent with an Earth-type civilization class, our system will detect this signal."
That system employs an image-analysis pipeline and the global network of small (1-meter-class, or 3.3 feet), robotically controlled telescopes operated by the Las Cumbres Observatorye.
Each telescope by itself captures a roughly 3 percent slice of Andromeda, which lies about 2.5 million light-years from Earth. The team will combine a set of these photos to create a single image, which will then be compared to a pristine "control" photo of the galaxy — one unsullied, for example, by satellites passing overhead.
Any differences between the two images could theoretically result from light signals produced by E.T. (though there could of course be natural explanations as well). Such "transients" will be processed by the data pipeline, which will help weed out false positives, team members said.
"One of the things the software checks for is, say, a satellite that did go through our image," Kyle Friedman, a senior from Granada Hills Charter High School in Los Angeles, said in the same statement. "It wouldn't be small. It would be pretty big, and if that were to happen the software would immediately recognize it and throw out that image before we actually even process it."
Stewart, Friedman and their colleagues are in the research group of cosmologist Philip Lubin, a professor of physics at the University of California, Santa Barbara, who has a lot of space-laser experience.
For example, Lubin is a key player in the $100 million Breakthrough Starshot program, which aims to develop a spaceflight system composed of lasers and tiny, sail-equipped spacecraft. These lasers could accelerate the robotic nanoprobes to 20 percent the speed of light, Breakthrough Starshot team members have said, so the craft could reach nearby exoplanet systems just decades after launch. (Using current rocket technology, such flights would take tens of thousands of years at a minimum.)
And Lubin has previously proposed looking for signs of "directed energy" spaceflight systems that E.T. might be using.
A still from a video shows how an array of Earth-based lasers would propel a sail-equipped "nanocraft" to a distant star system in the Breakthrough Starshot program. If intelligent aliens have also developed such spaceflight systems, the beams they're projecting out into space could be detectable, researchers say.
Credit: Breakthrough Prize Foundation
The Trillion Planet Survey is already observing Andromeda and getting the project's pipeline ready to go, team members said. The image analysis may be complete in just a few weeks, but similar observations could continue to be made indefinitely, so the researchers can hunt for signs they may have missed.
For most of the 60-year history of the search for extraterrestrial intelligence(SETI), researchers have hunted for radio signals. The new project is an example of a newer strategy known as optical SETI, which Trillion Planet Survey team members said should work in concert with the traditional method.
"In no way are we suggesting that radio SETI should be abandoned in favor of optical SETI," Stewart said. "We just think the optical bands should be explored as well."
The Maya Civilisation Was Far More Complex Than We Thought, Major Discovery Has Revealed
The Maya Civilisation Was Far More Complex Than We Thought, Major Discovery Has Revealed
In the autumn of 1929, Anne Morrow Lindbergh and her husband Charles flew across the Yucatán Peninsula. With Charles at the controls, Anne snapped photographs of the jungles just below.
She wrote in her journal of Maya structures obscured by large humps of vegetation. A bright stone wall peeked through the leaves, “unspeakably alone and majestic and desolate – the mark of a great civilization gone.”
Nearly a century later, surveyors once again took flight over the ancient Maya empire, and mapped the Guatemala forests with lasers.
The 2016 survey, whose first results were published this week in the journal Science, comprises a dozen plots covering 830 square miles, an area larger than the island of Maui. It is the largest such survey of the Maya region, ever.
The study authors describe the results as a revelation. “It’s like putting glasses on when your eyesight is blurry,” said study author Mary Jane Acuña, director of El Tintal Archaeological Project in Guatemala.
In the past, archaeologists had argued that small, disconnected city-states dotted the Maya lowlands, though that conception is falling out of favor.
This study shows that the Maya could extensively “exploit and manipulate” their environment and geography, Acuña said. Maya agriculture sustained large populations, who in turn forged relationships across the region.
Combing through the scans, Acuña and her colleagues, an international 18-strong scientific team, tallied 61,480 structures. These included: 60 miles of causeways, roads and canals that connected cities; large maize farms; houses large and small; and, surprisingly, defensive fortifications that suggest the Maya came under attack from the west of Central America.
What lidar can reveal.
(Luke Auld-Thomas and Marcello A. Canuto/PACUNAM)
“We were all humbled,” said Tulane University anthropologist Marcello Canuto, the study’s lead author.
“All of us saw things we had walked over and we realized, oh wow, we totally missed that.”
Preliminary images from the survey went public in February, to the delight of archaeologists like Sarah Parcak. Parcak, who was not involved with the research, wrote on Twitter, “Hey all: you realize that researchers just used lasers to find *60,000* new sites in Guatemala?!? This is HOLY [expletive] territory.”
Parcak, whose space archaeology program GlobalXplorer.org has been described as the love child of Google Earth and Indiana Jones, is a champion of using satellite data to remotely observe sites in Egypt and elsewhere.
“The scale of information that we’re able to collect now is unprecedented,” Parcak said, adding that this survey is “going to upend long-held theories about ancient Maya society.”
With support from a Guatemala-based heritage foundation called Pacunam, the researchers conducted the massive and expensive survey using lidar, or light detection and ranging. They mapped several active archaeological sites, plus well-studied Maya cities like Tikal and Uaxactun.
Lidar’s principles are similar to radar, except instead of radio waves lidar relies on laser light. From an aircraft flying just a few thousand feet above the canopy, the surveyors prickled each square meter with 15 laser pulses. Those pulses penetrate vegetation but bounce back from hard stone surfaces. Using lidar, you can’t see the forest through the invisible trees.
Beneath the thick jungle, ruins appeared. Lots and lots of them.
Extrapolated over the 36,700 square miles, which encompasses the total Maya lowland region, the authors estimate the Maya built as many as 2.7 million structures. These would have supported 7 million to 11 million people during the Classic Period of Maya civilization, around the years 650 to 800, in line with other Maya population estimates.
“We’ve been working in this area for over a century,” Canuto said. “It’s not terra incognita, but we didn’t have a good appreciation for what was really there.”
Archaeologist Arlen Chase, a Maya specialist at the University of Nevada at Las Vegas who was not involved with this survey, said for years he has argued that the Maya society was more complex than widely accepted.
In 1998, he and archaeologist Diane Chase, his wife, described elaborate agricultural terraces at the Maya city of Caracol in Belize. “Everybody would not believe we had terraces!” he said.
He gets much less push back now, he said. “The paradigm shift that we’ve predicted was happening is in fact happening” Chase said, which he credits to lidar data. He has seen lidar evolve from a “hush-hush type of technology” used by the military to map Fallujah streets to a powerful archaeological tool.
Chase, who previously used lidar at Caracol, where as many as 100,000 people lived, compares this technology to carbon-14 dating. Radiocarbon dating gives archaeologists a much more accurate timeline.
Lidar is about to do the same for archaeologists’ sense of space, particularly in densely forested areas near the equator. Two years ago, researchers used lidar mapped dense urban infrastructure around Angkor, the seat of the medieval Khmer Empire in Cambodia.
“We’re just getting started in so many major sites around the world, whether it’s Angkor Wat, whether it’s Tikal in Central America or major sites in Egypt,” Parcak said.
For all its power, lidar cannot supplant old-fashioned archaeology. For 8 percent of the survey area, the archaeologists confirmed the lidar data with boots-on-the-ground visits.
This “ground truthing” suggests that the lidar analysis was conservative – they found the predicted structures, and then some.
“There is still much more ground to cover and work to do,” said Acuña, who will continue to study the large ancient Maya city of El Tindal.
Could you imagine, Canuto said, what might be found through a lidar survey of the Amazon? With technology like this, no forested frontiers are final.
Is This The Best Video Footage Ever Filmed of the Mysterious Triangle-Shaped ‘UFO’?
Is This The Best Video Footage Ever Filmed of the Mysterious Triangle-Shaped ‘UFO’?
The mysterious triangle-shaped ‘unidentified flying object’ is perhaps one of the most famous of UFOs.
Seen on countless occasions all around the world, the triangle-shaped UFO is perhaps the ultimate proof that UFO does not necessarily mean Extraterrestrial.
All evidence currently seems to support the idea that the mysterious object is in fact nothing other than an ultra-secret flying vehicle belonging to the government of the United States.
Did the Government really reverse-engineer Alien technology and build a triangle-shaped man-made UFO? Image Credit: The Object Report.
Dubbed as the TR-3B, the triangle shaped UFO was spotted by a driver who was returning home from work when he managed to record using his mobile, one of the best videos of the mysterious flying object.
Upon reviewing the recording, he observed that he had, in fact, spotted something inexplicable, a bright triangular object, flying in the distance.
The video has already accumulated thousands of ‘Likes’ after the source, who spoke to The Daily Star on condition of anonymity, published the footage online.
What do you think, is this the actual TR-3 Black Manta?
“It looks like a TR-3B surveillance plane with the circles under each corner of the triangle, if that makes sense,” said one viewer, who was supported by others who seemed to share his view. Another commentator, curisouly, even recalled helping build such ships “in a secret governemnt base in the 1960s.”
Many UFO experts are conviced that the Tirangle-Shped UFO is in fact the so-called the TR-3 Black Manta, a surveillance aircraft of the United States Air Force, speculated to be developed under a black project.
The only evidence we currently have for such an aircraft is based largely on speculations about several reported sightings of mysterious flying wing aircraft over Antelope Valley, an area of desert in southern California.
This stretch of desert draws people interested in supernatural phenomena as well as UFO sighintgs and “black project”-related aircraft sigthings, since it is located in vicinity to several known military research and testing areas, such as Edwards Air Force Base in California, and United States Air Force Plant 42.
Several ufologists maintain that this type of stealth aircraft (the TR-3 Black Manta) is the result of decades of research and reverse engineering applied to alien spaceships that crash landed on Earth decades ago.
Rumors suggest that the TR-3 was said to be a subsonic stealth spy plane with a flying wing design. It was alleged to have been used in the Gulf War to provide laser designation for Lockheed F-117 Nighthawk bombers, for targeting to use with laser-guided bombs. The TR-3 was claimed to have been manufactured by Northrop.
Curiosuly, there have been several reports of tiernagle shaped flying pbjects in Russia, Europe, and Australia.
UFO experts as well as alien hunters argue that these events are not isolated and that the strange tirangle—shaped aircraft is real, and is the result of reverse-engineered alien technology.
However, there are those who believe that the footage filmed over Texas is not the actual TR-3 Black Manta, but most likely a reflection of light caught on the window of the car.
Anyway, let me know what you think, and post your comments below!
Researchers Unearth ‘Ancient Mask’ of King Pakal—The So-Called Palenque Astronaut
Researchers Unearth ‘Ancient Mask’ of King Pakal—The So-Called Palenque Astronaut
King Pakal has been referred to as “the astronaut of Palenque”, mostly because of the engraving that has been found on the slab of his sarcophagus, which many authors claim is the representation of a man inside of a spaceship.
The mask unearthed in Palenque is believed to be the first ever relic found that depicts the mighty ruler, Pakal “El Grande.”
K’inich Janaab Pakal I—commonly referred to as Pacal, or Pacal the Great was ruler of the ancient city-state of Palenque. His name means Shield in classic Maya Language.
He is known for having reigned for a total of 68 years, which is considered the longest reign in the history of America.
The Palace of Palenque. Image Credit: Wikimedia Commons. CC BY-SA 3.0
Pakal’s tomb has been heavily connected to the ancient astronaut hypothesis. In Erich Von Daniken’s 1968 Best Seller Chariots of the Gods, the sarcophagus lid was reproduced by the author who compared the drawing to a man inside a spaceship. More precisely, Von Daniken compared the lid of Pakal’s sarcophagus to depictions of Astronauts inside spacecraft during Project Mercury.
Von Daniken wrote:
“In the center of that frame is a man sitting, bending forward. He has a mask on his nose, he uses his two hands to manipulate some controls, and the heel of his left foot is on a kind of pedal with different adjustments. The rear portion is separated from him; he is sitting on a complicated chair, and outside of this whole frame, you see a little flame like an exhaust…”
Ancient alien theorists propose that the Sarcophagus lid of King Pakal clearly depicts him in some sort of spaceship during takeoff, and they argue that his hands appear to be manipulating some sort of machinery.
Now, experts have made a stunning new discovery.
Archaeologists have recovered a modeled mask which is believed to represent K’inich Janaab Pakal I. The finding was made during conservation works and archaeological studies in the ancient site known as El Palacio, in the archaeological zone of Palenque, in Chiapas, (Mexico). Experts report that in addition to the mask, they’ve also found ritual objects such as ceramic figures, carved bones, and flint.
“It is not a representation of a god. After looking at some images, it’s possible that it is Pakal the Great. We are quite sure of this at this time,” said archaeologist Arnoldo Gonzalez.
“During this process, under the (mask) head there were figurines, ceramic pieces, small plates, a lot of fish bones, which gives insight of a possible relationship with aquatics.”
Furthermore, according to Mexico’s the National Institute of Anthropology and History (INAH), archaeologists have also uncovered the remains of a substructure in the building commonly referred to as Casa C.
The bust of King Pakal was made during the conservation work aimed at addressing the accumulation of water in the east courtyard of the so-called House E, reports INAH.
The discovery is the result of the first stage of a conservation project that the Ministry of Culture of Mexico, through INAH, and with the support of the US Embassy in Mexico, made at the pre-Colombian site.
Un étrange OVNI photographié à Salta, en Argentine
Un étrange OVNI photographié à Salta, en Argentine
En cette fin de mois de septembre, plusieurs membres d’une même famille ont observé un OVNI très étrange dans le quartier El Prado, situé à Salta, en Argentine.
Le vendredi 21 septembre 2018, à minuit 20, Ignacio Pancetti, un architecte, marchait en famille à travers la place du quartier El Prado, au sud-ouest de la ville, lorsqu'il a été témoin d'un événement inhabituel. Il s’agissait d’un OVNI lumineux qui changeait de forme. Il était clairement visible et semblait se tenir à côté de la lune dans un ciel parfaitement clair.
«Il se dirigeait vers le sud-ouesten direction dunord-ouest. Je pensais que c'était un avionvolant àhaute altitude. Après ça,j’ai émis l’hypothèsed’un satellite. Et soudain, au-dessus de moi, il est resté immobile et a commencé à osciller.Puisil estparti avant derevenir. Serait-ce un avion qui amanœuvrépour perdre de l'altitude ? C'était fou. J'ai donc sorti mon téléphone portable (Samsung G. s7), j'ai placé le caméscope en position de zoom maximum (x8) mais un seul point de lumièreétaitvisible, sans plus de détails. Donc,j’ai continué à prendre desphotosetj’ailaissél'exposition maximaleavec un zoom x8. Et quand j'aivisionné les images, j'ai commencé àremarquercommentcette chosese transformait.Au départ ce n’était qu’une lumière, puisaprès avoir explosé,il a pris la forme d’unanneau avec une lumièreen soncentre.Cette lueur a ensuitedisparu,avant de réapparaîtreà nouveau.Un instantplus tard, il a denouveauexplosé.Au total, j'ai pris plus de 200 photos. Il a continuéà se mouvoir pendant8ou10minutes, mais je devais y aller. Et le phénomènes’est poursuivi. Quand j'aipublié les photos, beaucoup de gens ont dit l'avoir vu aussi», explique Ignacio.
En effet, à côté des photos de Pancetti sur Facebook, des personnes comme N. Avellaneda et Kookie Salinas ont affirmé avoir vu ce phénomène surnaturel.
« Ce qui a attiré mon attention est quecette chosene tombaitpas comme un météore, maisse déplaçait,avantde s'arrêter.Puis il s’est balancé et estrestéimmobiledans le ciel. Ce sont des choses qui donnent à réfléchir parce que ce n’étaitunobjeten chute libre, mais quelque chose quinous dépasse.C’étaitpeut être la manifestation d'une sorte d'énergiequi ne cessait d’exploser. Dans les images, vous ne voyez pas d'objet défini et précis. Et je suppose qu’ilétait àunebasse altitude parce que,malgréle zoom, jene parvenais pas à le voir endétails », poursuit l'architecte. Il ajoute que c’est la première fois qu’il a été témoin d’un OVNI similaire.
Cette année, il y a eu une véritable « vague d’OVNI » à Salta. Les observations ont été très fréquente depuis janvier. Des touristes à bord du fameux « Train des Nuages » ont observé un corps métallique qui se déplaçait dans le ciel au-dessus de la Quebrada del Toro.
A Rosario de la Frontera, le chef des pompiers local José Exequiel Álvarez a assuré avoir pris contact avec les conducteurs qui ont confirmé ce qui s’était passé. Lui-même avait filmé à deux reprises des lumières dans le ciel. A Orán, une flotte de lumières a choqué bon nombre de témoins.
For over 1,000 years, an ancient city has been untouched by human beings for the most part.
Below the green, dense and lush Petén rainforest of Guatemala lies the city, which was inhabited by millions of Mesoamerican native people who built what some refer to as an empire, but others would refer to it as home.
For the first time now, tens of thousands of incredible ancient structures have been identified and mapped out by a team of international archaeologists. They used techniques involving airborne light detection and ranging technology over 810 square miles or 2,100 square kilometers of the Guatemalan lowland.
In 2009, that LiDAR technique was first applied to the region. It focused on nothing but the immediate surroundings of particular individual sites. In February however, this vast metropolis was first discovered by archaeologists, as reported by the usual mainstream outlets to acknowledge such discoveries.
A science nonprofit group from Guatemala called the PACUNAM Foundation led the discovery, and six months later, their work is published in the journal Science.
This is insane: over 61,000 ancient structures have been confirmed within this area, and that includes houses, ceremonial centers, pyramids, and large palaces.
The thick, dense and rich forest canopy was penetrated by this LiDAR system, and that revealed distinct changes in elevation, allowing the researchers to, according to one article, “identify these topographical features as manmade walls, roads, and buildings without ever having to set foot on the ground. With this information, they are able to create three-dimensional maps in a matter of minutes, avoiding years of arduous fieldwork.”
“Seen as a whole, terraces and irrigation channels, reservoirs, fortifications, and causeways reveal an astonishing amount of land modification done by the Maya over their entire landscape on a scale previously unimaginable,”said Francisco Estrada-Belli, a member of the team in a statement.
Now it has been indicated that upwards of 7 to 11 million people were present in this place at the height of what is referred to as the Late Classic period, lasting from around 650 – 800 CE. Over 61,000 ancient structures have been identified in this surveyed region alone. If you want some perspective on that 7 – 11 million number, today New York City is home to about 8.5 million people.
Something unique about the situation seems to be the fact that the populations were very unevenly distributed, with varying levels of “urbanization,” spread out more than modern cities over 810 square miles, or 1,200 square kilometers.
It was even reported that these people figured out how to support such a large population in a creative way, and they modified the land for the intense agricultural production.
“It seems clear now that the ancient Maya transformed their landscape on a grand scale in order to render it more agriculturally productive,” said Marcello A. Canuto, a Maya archaeologist. “As a result, it seems likely that this region was much more densely populated than what we have traditionally thought.”
Extensive networks and causeways were also mapped out by the team, and those chambers connected the various urban centers according to them. The different city centers seem to have been extensively connected, with a much different distribution of population compared to today’s cities. Defensive systems were also at play in these places.
The authors concluded that their findings “generate new questions, refine targets for fieldwork, elicit regional study across continuous landscapes, and advance Maya archaeology into a bold era of research and exploration.”
What they found was astonishing: not only was this galaxy forming stars at an unexpectedly high rate, but the clouds that fuel the birth of stars were unusual as well. Galaxies that form stars at higher rates are called starburst galaxies, and COSMOS-AzTEC-1 seemed to fit that archetype. However, in starburst galaxies, the star-formation predominantly occurs at the center of the galaxy.
Surprisingly, astronomers detected two massive clouds of gas several thousand light-years away from where they thought the star-formation should be concentrated. When they investigated more closely, they found that the gas in COSMOS-AzTEC-1 is extremely unstable, fueling runaway star-formation, and turning it into a monster galaxy. And yet, when scientists attempted to model this galaxy, their computer simulations could not explain all of its characteristics. Simply put, COSMOS-AzTEC-1 shouldn’t exist.
Monster galaxy COSMOS-AzTEC-1 observed with ALMA. ALMA revealed the distribution of molecular gas (left) and dust particles (right). In addition to the dense cloud in the center, the research team found two dense clouds several thousand light-years away from the center. These dense clouds are dynamically unstable and thought to be the sites of intense star formation. CREDIT: ALMA (ESO/NAOJ/NRAO), TADAKI ET AL.
The international team of scientists, led by Dr. Ken-ichi Tadaki from the National Astronomical Observatory of Japan, that discovered COSMOS-AzTEC-1 published their findings in Nature on Wednesday, reporting that they achieved unprecedented angular resolution by observing the galaxy with ALMA. Poor resolution has impeded studies of submillimeter-bright galaxies in the early universe and has been an obstacle to understanding their physical and dynamical properties.
Studying galaxies like COSMOS-AzTEC-1 is important, as they are thought to be the ancient predecessors of massive galaxies in the present universe, and the improved resolution has revealed several unexpected findings. In addition to the mysterious off-center clouds, COSMOS-AzTEC-1 has a regularly rotating, ordered gas disk instead of a more chaotic distribution, which is what scientists expected. Not only does this complicate the common model of early galaxy evolution, but it makes future high-resolution observations of similar galaxies an imperative.
Radio telescope antennas of the ALMA ( Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array) project are seen in the Chajnantor plateau, Atacama desert, some 1500 km north of Santiago, on March 12,2013. The ALMA, an international partnership project between Europe, North America and East Asia, with the cooperation of Chile, is presently the largest astronomical project in the world. On March 13, 66 high precision antennas will be opened, located at an altitude of 5000 meters above sea level in the extremely arid Atacama desert. Credit: AFP PHOTO/Martin BERNETTI/Getty Images
Thankfully, the ALMA observations didn’t just raise more puzzles for scientists to solve; they also answered many long-standing questions about the nature of galaxies in the early universe. Before ALMA, astronomers knew that massive, young galaxies existed just 1 billion years after the Big Bang, but they were unable to answer how these galaxies formed or how they were able to stockpile massive reserves of gas so quickly.
One of the clues that this research team uncovered was hidden in the nature of COSMOS-AzTEC-1’s gas clouds, a feature that was previously unable to be observed. In normal galaxies, the gas clouds are in equilibrium; the gravity pulling the cloud inward is balanced by the gaseous pressure pushing outwards. Given the right environmental conditions, the gravity eventually becomes stronger than the pressure, causing the cloud to collapse, become extremely dense, and begin to form stars.
These stars and their eventual supernovae increase the outward pressure within the gas, stabilizing it, and regulating the rate of star formation. In COSMOS-AzTEC-1, the gas clouds are extremely unstable, and the outward pressure is significantly weaker than the gravity, which prevents any of the aforementioned stabilization. Instead, COSMOS-AzTEC-1 has a runaway star-formation rate over 1000 times that of our Milky Way galaxy, and Tadaki’s team estimates it will run out of gas in just 100 million years.
The mechanism that causes COSMOS-AzTEC-1’s gas instability remains unclear. Tadaki and his colleagues hypothesize that it could be caused by a galaxy merger: a collision between two or more galaxies that can transport gas efficiently throughout the galaxy and can initiate a burst of star-formation. However, their current observations didn’t detect any of the signs of such an event, and a merger wouldn’t entirely explain how COSMOS-AzTEC-1 was able to keep its enormous surplus of gas from becoming stars before it began its starburst period.
Despite the lingering questions though, Tadaki and his team’s research is a perfect example of how technological improvements will find the solutions to long-standing scientific mysteries and reveal unexpected secrets hidden throughout our universe.
SEE-THROUGH MAYA Ruins at the Classic Maya city of Tikal in northern Guatemala poke out of dense forests that, thanks to aerial laser mapping, have revealed the unexpected size and complexity of this ancient American civilization.
ICKANDGAK/PIXABAY
A laser-shooting eye in the sky has revealed the previously unappreciated size and complexity of ancient Maya civilization, both before and during its presumed heyday, scientists say.
Maya people in what’s now northern Guatemala built surprisingly extensive defensive structures and roads as part of political systems featuring interconnected cities, starting at least several hundred years before the rise of Classic Maya society, an international team reports in the Sept. 28 Science. Classic Maya sites date to between around 250 and 900.
Aerial laser maps of northern Guatemala obtained in 2016 and map-guided ground surveys and excavations in 2017 compel a reevaluation of traditional assumptions about the ancient Maya, the team concludes. A long-standing idea that Classic Maya civilization, which covered parts of southern Mexico and much of Central America, once contained relatively small city-states ruled by warring kings has drawn increasing skepticism over the last decade (SN Online: 4/17/18). Laser technology shot down that scenario by gazing through forests and vegetation at 10 Maya sites — as well as in two areas with signs of Maya-era activity but no named sites — dating from a couple hundred years before the start of the Classic period to near its end. “Every Maya city was bigger and more populated than we previously thought,” says archaeologist Francisco Estrada-Belli of Tulane University in New Orleans. Estrada-Belli led the investigation along with archaeologists Marcello Canuto, also at Tulane, and Thomas Garrison of Ithaca College in New York.
A small plane carrying light detection and ranging equipment, or lidar, emitted laser pulses that gathered data on the ground’s shape across 2,144 square kilometers of northern Guatemala. Based on the more than 60,000 lidar-identified structures, the researchers estimate that a minimum of 7 million to 11 million people inhabited northern Guatemala near the end of the Classic Maya period.
UNVEILING TIKAL Dense forest surrounds the city center of this Classic-era Maya site (top). Laser mapping of the same view (bottom) revealed structures and causeways hidden by the jungle.
F. ESTRADA-BELLI/PACUNAM
Lidar views of the ancient Maya’s urban and rural infrastructure are particularly impressive, Estrada-Belli says. Water control was crucial. Much of the unsettled wetlands throughout northern Guatemala contain remnants of crisscrossing drainage channels that form grids within what must have once been agricultural fields. Some channels extend for one kilometer or more. Remains of stone terraces and low walls enclose many cultivation areas.
Drainage channels and terraces controlled water flow and eased soil erosion in heavily cultivated fields. “The ancient Maya were good stewards of their environment,” Estrada-Belli says.
Evidence of carefully irrigated agricultural fields challenges a popular view that Classic-era centers relied on food from soil-damaging, slash-and-burn farming. That practice eventually contributed to Maya civilization’s downfall, some researchers have argued.
Although sustainable cultivation techniques appear to have been standard for the ancient Maya, farmland near the largest Maya cities would not have provided enough food for local populations, the researchers say. Additional food was imported from distant sites belonging to common political networks, the team suspects.
Laser maps show that Maya cities varied substantially in population density and typically included less crowded zones in between city centers and rural areas. Most sites had a surprising number of defensive structures, Estrada-Belli says. Strategically placed bridges, ditches, ramparts, stone walls and terraces suggest military conflicts occurred frequently.
That didn’t stop cities from maintaining long-distance contacts and forming networks of politically aligned sites. Raised roads, or causeways, connected the earliest Maya sites, including three dating to a few hundred years before the Classic period, to nearby centers. These 10- to 20-meter-wide causeways run for as many as 22 kilometers. Later Maya cities primarily contain short causeways that served as entrances to public and ritual areas.
The new study builds on previous, smaller-scale lidar studies in and around Caracol, a Classic Maya city in western Belize (SN: 3/14/16, p. 22). Archaeologists Arlen and Diane Chase of the University of Nevada, Las Vegas directed that research.
“The new lidar data show that interconnected Maya cities go back to at least 300 B.C.,” Arlen Chase says.
Further lidar-guided surveys and excavations are planned, Estrada-Belli says. Some newly identified causeways extend beyond the edges of lidar maps, a sign that Guatemala’s forests hold further Maya revelations, he adds.
There may be misaligned disks of material rotating around the black hole. Rings of gas may be breaking off and colliding, leaving gas to fall directly towards the black hole at unfathomable speeds.
We’ve known for decades that black holes exist, and that matter sometimes falls into them, and now we have the first published evidence – from a team of UK astronomers – of matter falling into a black hole at 30 percent of the speed of light. This is much faster than what’s been observed in the past, but it isn’t unexpected. Recent computer simulations suggest a mechanism – via misaligned disks around the hole – by which gas can fall directly in at high speed. The team used data from the European Space Agency’s X-ray observatory XMM-Newton to make the discovery. The black hole is a supermassive one, located at the heart of a galaxy known as PG1211+143, about a billion light-years away.
Ken Pounds of the University of Leicester, who led the team that made the discovery, said:
We were able to follow an Earth-sized clump of matter for about a day, as it was pulled towards the black hole, accelerating to a third of the velocity of light before being swallowed up by the hole.
The velocity of light is 186,000 miles (300,000 km) per second.
Cool, yes? These results appeared in a paper published September 3, 2018 in the peer-reviewed journal Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society.
The XMM-Newton spacecraft, via ESA/ University of Leicester/RAS.
The researchers used XMM-Newton data to examine at X-ray spectra (where X-rays are dispersed by wavelength) of the galaxy PG211+143. This object was already known as one likely to have a supermassive black hole at its core (as most galaxies now are thought to do). The team’s statement explained:
The researchers found the spectra to be strongly red-shifted, showing the observed matter to be falling into the black hole at the enormous speed of 30 per cent of the speed of light, or around 100,000 kilometers per second [60,000 mps]. The gas has almost no rotation around the hole, and is detected extremely close to it in astronomical terms, at a distance of only 20 times the hole’s size (its event horizon, the boundary of the region where escape is no longer possible).
Most infall to black holes doesn’t move so fast, because, before it enters the hole, the material forms an accretion disk. The astronomers explained:
… black holes are so compact that gas is almost always rotating too much to fall in directly. Instead it orbits the hole, approaching gradually through an accretion disk – a sequence of circular orbits of decreasing size.
Why, then, did the material observed in galaxy PG211+143 fall directly into a black hole? The astronomers said the high velocity could have been the result of misaligned disks of material rotating around the black hole:
The orbit of the gas around the black hole is often assumed to be aligned with the rotation of the black hole, but there is no compelling reason for this to be the case …
Until now it has been unclear how misaligned rotation might affect the in-fall of gas. This is particularly relevant to the feeding of supermassive black holes since matter (interstellar gas clouds or even isolated stars) can fall in from any direction.
As it turns out, theorists at University of Leicester recently used the UK’s Dirac supercomputer facility to simulate the ‘tearing’ of misaligned accretion disks around compact objects. The astronomers explained:
This work has shown that rings of gas can break off and collide with each other, cancelling out their rotation and leaving gas to fall directly towards the black hole.
And now, as often happens, the theoretical work has been followed by an observation. Pounds commented:
The galaxy we were observing with XMM-Newton has a 40 million solar mass black hole which is very bright and evidently well fed. Indeed some 15 years ago we detected a powerful wind indicating the hole was being over-fed. While such winds are now found in many active galaxies, PG1211+143 has now yielded another ‘first’, with the detection of matter plunging directly into the hole itself.
Characteristic disk structure from the simulation of a misaligned disk around a spinning black hole.
Image via K. Pounds et al./ University of Leicester/RAS.
Bottom line: Astronomers used data from ESA’s X-ray space observatory XMM-Newton to discover a supermassive black hole, in a galaxy about a billion light-years away, into which matter is falling at some one-third of light speed.
A balloon mission flying over the North Pole captured 6 million images of these bright blue noctilucent clouds in their home in the upper atmosphere.
On the cusp of our atmosphere live a thin group of seasonal electric-blue clouds. Forming 50 miles (80 km) above the poles in summer, these clouds are known as noctilucent clouds or polar mesospheric clouds (PMCs). This summer, a NASA balloon mission observed these clouds over the course of five days at their home high in Earth’s atmosphere. The resulting photos, which scientists have just begun to analyze, will help to better understand turbulence in the atmosphere, as well as in oceans and lakes and the atmospheres of other planets, and may even improve weather forecasting.
Atmospheric turbulence – small-scale, irregular air motions characterized by winds that vary in speed and direction – is important because it mixes and churns the atmosphere and causes water vapor, smoke, and other substances, as well as energy, to become distributed both vertically and horizontally.
Noctilucent clouds or polar mesospheric clouds observed by NASA balloons as they flew over the Arctic in July 2018.
On July 8, 2018, NASA’s PMC Turbo mission launched a giant balloon to study noctilucent clouds 50 miles (80 km) above the surface. For five days, the balloon floated through the stratosphere from its launch at Esrange, Sweden, across the Arctic to western Nunavut, Canada. During its flight, cameras aboard the balloon captured 6 million high-resolution images filling up 120 terabytes of data storage. The images include a variety of noctilucent cloud displays, revealing the processes leading to turbulence. Scientists are now beginning to go through the images and the first look has been promising.
Noctilucent (also called night-shining) clouds coalesce as ice crystals on tiny meteor remnants in the upper atmosphere. The results make brilliant blue rippling clouds that are visible just after the sun sets in polar regions during the summer. These clouds are affected by what’s known as atmospheric gravity waves — caused by the convecting and uplifting of air masses, such as when air is pushed up by mountain ranges. The waves play major roles in transferring energy from the lower atmosphere to the mesosphere.
Dave Fritts is principal investigator of the PMC Turbo mission at Global Atmospheric Technologies and Sciences in Boulder, Colorado. He said in a statement:
This is the first time we’ve been able to visualize the flow of energy from larger gravity waves to smaller flow instabilities and turbulence in the upper atmosphere. At these altitudes you can literally see the gravity waves breaking – like ocean waves on the beach – and cascading to turbulence.
The balloons were equipped with seven specially-designed imaging systems to observe the clouds. Each included a high-resolution camera, a computer control and communications system, and 32 terabytes of data storage. The seven imaging systems were arranged to create a mosaic of wide views extending 100 miles (160 km) across, with each narrow view able to image turbulence features as small as 20 yards (918 meters) wide. A lidar — or laser radar — measured the precise altitudes of the clouds as well as the temperature fluctuations of the gravity waves above and below the clouds.
Learning about the causes and effects of turbulence will help scientists understand not only the structure and variability of the upper atmosphere, but other areas as well. Turbulence happens in fluids across the universe and the results will help scientists better model it in all systems. Ultimately, the results will even help improve weather forecast models.
Bottom line: In July 2018, a NASA balloon mission floated over the Arctic to study noctilucent clouds 50 miles (80 km) above the surface.
That may be true in movies about old baseball players, but when it comes to old plazas of the Mayans, a better saying might be, “If you build it, they will come and find it … eventually.” That’s the case in a Guatemalan jungle where researchers using airborne laser scanning (LiDAR) have located over 60,000 distinct Mayan structures hidden by dense vegetation too difficult to explore on the ground. Those structures include a pyramid complex and were surrounded by an extensive network of roads. Were they expecting us?
“Even though some earlier lidar studies had prepared us for this, just seeing the sheer quantity of ancient structures across the landscape was mind-boggling.”
In a study published in Science, Ithaca College archeologist and co-author Thomas Garrison, described the Lidar scanning which began in July 2016 in northern Guatemala near the Mexican border. In a 12 period, they flew over 800 square miles of jungle, firing three lasers at 300,000 pulses of light per second. Lasers that managed to penetrate the canopy and then bounce back were picked up by a detector, which collected enough data to create a 3-D map of the topography with one-meter resolution.
El Castillo before excavation, 1860
“Seen as a whole, terraces and irrigation channels, reservoirs, fortifications and causeways reveal an astonishing amount of land modification done by the Maya over their entire landscape on a scale previously unimaginable.”
Marcello A. Canuto, director of the Middle American Research Institute at Tulane and study co-author, described the unbelievable scenes the archeologists saw on the map (see a video here and map samples here). It shows that the area was much more densely populated than previously thought – possibly between 7 million and 11 million people in this Maya Lowlands area at its peak during the Late Classical Period (650 to 800 CE). The irrigation canals and farm areas indicate how necessary and important agriculture was to this Mayan civilization, and how they changed the topology to accommodate it without the use of plows – techniques that could help farmers today.
Mayan pyramid
The power of LiDAR was shown in the discovery of the pyramid, a large structure that has somehow not been found in previous other searches of the area. And the abundance of roads and fortifications indicates that the Mayans were militarized defensively and waging wars earlier than previously thought. However, the LiDAR mapping is limited in that it can’t identify what time period the various structures existed in, giving instead one picture covering centuries of existence, as Garrison explains to Gizmodo.
“Not everything was occupied all at the same time, and it is now our job as archaeologists to sort all of this out. But we’re certainly happy to have these new problems!”
Spoken like a true archaeologist. They built it and he will keep on coming.
Rare triangle-shaped UFO caught over London, England
Rare triangle-shaped UFO caught over London, England
London England - 09-23-18 - The observer and videographer of this event states that he saw this triangle-shaped object flying above his head in London.
He states that he just had enough time to grab his 90x zoom camcorder and capture video and still frames of the enigmatic vehicle.
The object in question is seemingly unique in its color and shape in that the top or cupalo appears to be off-center as compared to other reports of triangle-shaped UFOs.
Of course with today's technology it is easy to create something like this and it is wise to be skeptical. You will see a blue color along with gray on the other side with the blue, off-centered top. Mufon case 95215.
Is Earth ready for alien contact? IT IS NOW - Government UFO expert pens contingency plan
Is Earth ready for alien contact? IT IS NOW - Government UFO expert pens contingency plan
EXCLUSIVE: A UFO expert who investigated alien sightings for the UK Government has drafted a contingency plan for the day humans discover extraterrestrial life.
Nick Pope, who worked for the Ministry of Defence (MoD) between 1985 and 2006, says the world is incredibly underprepared for the eventuality of extraterrestrial contact.
Whether humans discover alien microbes on Mars or detect radio signals from a distant civilisation, Mr Pope said “top-level strategic planning” needs to be readily available.
And exclusively for Express.co.uk, the UFO expert took it upon himself to draft a five-page-long document outlining what he thinks is an adequate response to discovering aliens.
You can read the entire contingency plan written by Mr Pope below.
Mr Pope said he believes people have grown disillusioned with outer space after the Apollo program failed to extend humanity’s reach into the stars.
He thinks this somewhat dampened public excitement around the hunt for alien life, which in turn has left our defences wide open.
Mr Pope said: “It’s an uphill struggle. It’s always tricky to convince people to spend money on what a lot of people might consider white elephant projects, considering a lot of the social problems we have.
“As often as I like to say questions like ‘are we alone or not in the universe’ – that is one of the most profound questions we could ask.
UFO expert Nick Pope drafted a response plan for when we discover alien life
(Image: NICK POPE/GETTY)
“And if we can get an answer to that, we want that answer and why wouldn’t we really push hard for it?”
According to Mr Pope, one of the biggest threats surrounding Earth’s lack of readiness is the possibility of coming in contact with deadly alien contaminants.
The UFO expert fears outside of NASA, there is no adequate legislation in place, to deal with potentially lethal extraterrestrial microbes and viruses.
In his drafted plan, Mr Pope urged the UK Government to ensure proper biological hazard containment protocols are in place.
He wrote: “In scientific terms, this danger is described as ‘back contamination’ and is part of ‘planetary protection’ policy.
‘Are we alone or not in the universe’ – that is one of the most profound questions we could ask
Nick Pope, UFO expert
“In NASA, this falls under the Office of Safety and Mission Assurance (OSMA).
“In the event of any sample-return or discovery-return mission, Her Majesty’s Government (HMG) will wish to seek robust assurances that the lead agency – probably NASA, but maybe the space agency of another nation, or a private company such as SpaceX – has appropriate biological hazard containment protocols in place.”
Mr Pope believes there is no adequate legislation in place to prepare for this
(Image: NICK POPE)
(Image: NICK POPE)
(Image: NICK POPE)
He now says he thinks people are simply unaware of the dangers lurking in space.
He added: “I don’t think people understand the issues. I don’t think people understand how close we might be to getting an answer."
According to Mr Pope, there are three ways in which humans might one day find the answer to “are we alone in the universe”.
The most likely of the three is the discovery of alien microbes, dead or alive, on alien worlds such as Mars.
(Image: NICK POPE)
(Image: NICK POPE)
The other two scenarios bank on technologically advanced alien civilisations beaming signals into space or sending spacecraft to Earth.
Mr Pope’s contingency plan outlines a set of guidelines on how to react to each of these scenarios.
These include immediate actions that would need to be taken in situations that directly threaten the safety of the planet.
He wrote: “There are three very different scenarios, which will be dealt with in turn, because each raises separate issues, where very different actions will need to be taken.”
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- Gemiddelde waardering: 0/5 - (0 Stemmen) Categorie:ALIEN LIFE, UFO- CRASHES, ABDUCTIONS, MEN IN BLACK, ed ( FR. , NL; E )
AN AUTHENTIC IMAGE OF A LARGE UFO HOVERING OVER L.A. WITNESSED BY 1 MILLION PEOPLE
AN AUTHENTIC IMAGE OF A LARGE UFO HOVERING OVER L.A. WITNESSED BY 1 MILLION PEOPLE
”Everything is in a process of investigation both in the United States and in Spain, as well as the rest of the world. The nations of the world are currently working together in the investigation of the UFO phenomenon. There is an international exchange of data.”
– General Carlos Castro Cavero (1979). From “UFOs and the National Security State, Volume 2,″ written by Richard Dolan.
Although the quote above comes from 1976, it also applies to decades prior. Fast forward to today and we now have thousands upon thousands of declassified documents (even though millions are still classified every year by the United States) that prove there was and still is a high level of interest in the UFO phenomenon from governments and military agencies worldwide. Documents indicate that these objects are tracked often on air/ground radar, sometimes simultaneously, as well as visually confirmed by the pilots scrambling to check them out. These objects perform maneuvers that defy our laws of physics and are clocked travelling at speeds no known aircraft on our planet can travel, at least some of them.
Here is a great example of a declassified document detailing what happens when the military has an encounter with a UFO.
“As the F-4 approached a range of 25 nautical miles it lost all instrumentation and communications. When the F-4 turned away from the object and apparently was no longer a threat to it, the aircraft regained all instrumentation and communications. Another brightly lighted object came out of the original object. The second object headed straight toward the F4.” (source)
To compliment these documents, we also have hundreds of statements from high ranking officials from around the world, like this one:
“There is a serious possibility that we are being visited and have been visited for many years by people from outer space, by other civilizations. Who they are, where they are from, and what they want should be the subject of rigorous scientific investigation and not be the subject of ‘rubishing’ by tabloid newspapers.” (source)
– Lord Admiral Hill-Norton, Former Chief of Defence Staff, 5 Star Admiral of the Royal Navy, Chairman of the NATO Military Committee
Here you will find a video of an air force pilot sharing his particular experience.
What Happened In 1942?
During the Second World War, UFO reports soared, especially after the atomic bomb was dropped. This is interesting given the fact that a number of the declassified documents indicate UFO incursions at several different military nuclear missile facilities around the globe. Perhaps the best and most well known example comes from 1967 at Malmstrom Air Force Base in Montana. The base controls a giant network of intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs), where a number of highly trained military personnel witnessed a red, glowing UFO hovering outside the gate. At that time, all of the ICBMs shut down including the back-up generators. Just to be clear, this doesn’t ever happen. A conference was held seven years ago at the National Press Club discussing this issue, you can view that here.
Here is a Wikileaks cable that discusses an incident in Algeria where flying “machines” that “obscure” their shape were spotted near military installations. There are too many examples to list here.
But prior to World War 2, the UFO issue was still prominent. We even have historical records and artwork of UFOs in antiquity that are well documented, you can find out more about that here. This particular article will focus on what happened above Los Angeles in 1942.
The picture you see above is of an object that hovered over Los Angeles in the early morning hours of February 25th, 1942. The small white dots around the object are artillery bursts. This incident happened only three months after Pearl Harbour. At the time, there was a lot of attention placed on the US and the US was on high alert.
Here are the facts:
Several radars detected an object about 120 miles west of Los Angeles
Within minutes, anti-aircraft batteries went on high alert
At approximately 2:20 am, the object was tracked on radar to within a few miles of the coast and a city blackout was ordered
Shortly after 3:00 am, the object appeared right over the city and anti-aircraft batteries opened fire
Approximately 1500 rounds were fired into the sky, not over the ocean but directly over the city
Three citizens died from the shelling and three more from heart attacks attributed to the shelling
A great deal of property damage was inflicted
Dr. Bruce Maccabee, an expert in photographic analysis, believed the objects to be roughly 100 feet or more in diameter
The event was witnessed by approximately 1 million people
Hearing from 1 of the million who saw this object
Below is some witness testimony from the event, his name was Scott Littleton, a Professor of Anthropology, Emeritus, Occidental College, Los Angeles, CA
“The two of us stood side by side in front of the house, huddling together in the chill night air and staring up into the sky. The planes we’d heard were not in sight, but what captured our rapt attention was a silvery, lozenge-shaped “bug,” as my mother later described it, that was clearly visible in the searchlight beams that pinpointed it. Although it was a clear, moonlit night, no other details could be discerned, despite the fact that, when we first saw it, the object was hanging motionless almost directly overhead. Its altitude is hard to estimate, especially after all these years, but I’d guess that it was somewhere between 4,000 and 8,000 feet. This may explain why we didn’t see the orange glow reported by several eyewitnesses in Santa Monica and Culver City, where the object was apparently much lower. (One witness suggests that this glow may simply have been the reflection of shell bursts against the object’s “silvery” body.)”
The official explanation for the event ranged from “nothing happened” to “balloons,” but all those who’ve studied this phenomenon in depth know that it’s been wrapped in secrecy for a very long time and the lid is just beginning to blow. The only problem is, all of the witnesses described something very different from the official explanation.
“Behind the scenes, high ranking Air Force officers are soberly concerned about UFOs. But through official secrecy and ridicule, many citizens are led to believe the unknown flying objects are nonsense.”
Former head of CIA, Roscoe Hillenkoetter, 1960 (source)
Did Hundreds of UFOs Just Portal into Our Solar System? - Examining the Possibilities of Q Anon's 'Sky Event'
Did Hundreds of UFOs Just Portal into Our Solar System? - Examining the Possibilities of Q Anon's 'Sky Event'
The title of this post alone may, if nothing else, throw some readers through a mental loop. If so, the topic of discussion may seem even more bizarre. But bear with it. This topic may be dense and to some, it may seem far-fetched. However, in truth, these subjects may have a significant impact upon our present and future lives.
Imagine, for a moment, if hundreds of spacecraft and giant, planet-size, cloaked spheres entered our solar system. What might the reaction be? Clearly, occurrences like this don't typically take place on a regular basis (at least not that we know of). Consequently, the images we are about to see may be particularly impacting for us.
Disclaimer Before beginning, it's important to note that though all of what we are about to discuss is based upon scientific possibility, not everything stated here is verified fact. All information may only be relevant for our own personal speculation. Even still, if proven true, these disclosures could lead to several very significant changes on our planet and beyond. With that said, let's get things started. To start the discussion, let's wind the clocks back to the year 2012.
Solar Tornadoes
Back in early 2012, scientists were busily observing our sun as it underwent its cycle of solar maximum. Naturally, numerous articles and commentaries were being published at the time on the subject of solar changes and various anomalies surrounding the solar cycle. Some of these publications came from official sources while others came from independent sources. In general, however, all of these publications piqued the curiosity of much of the American public.
One of these official sources—called Helioviewer—became particularly popular due to its ability to publish some of the most stunning close-ups of our sun from SOHO. Though many of these images were quite impressive, one of them appeared to reveal much more than mainstream astronomy might care to admit.
Do you remember seeing this image? Unfortunately, I was not able to find the original link it was published with. However, we do know the image originated from the SOHO telescopic array and came forward as official information at the time, though it appears the original link no longer functions.
At the time, the subject which astronomers referred to as solar tornadoes was a hot topic. These spiraling formations appeared to have been the result of the increasing energies of the sun during solar maximum. These anomalies were quite impressive, as each was actually several times larger than the Earth itself. However, these tornadoes actually shared the stage with another remarkable phenomenon.
Take another look at the image. What is the tornado connected to? By all appearances, there looks to be an invisible and yet perfectly defined spherical object connected to the tornado. If this object is in fact, real, it would easily dwarf the Earth as well. It looks to be the size of Neptune or even Jupiter in comparison to the sun.
If this image is real, what could it be? Let's set this mystery aside for a moment and consider what we know about our present situation on Earth.
Closed Observatories
The day of September 6th began with a very strange incident involving the FBI suddenly shutting down a solar observatory in Sunspot, New Mexico. News reports of this incident gave no explanation as to why the FBI suddenly showed up and closed this university-operated observatory down. Authorities gave no comment, and the citizens who live adjacent to Sunspot appeared to be largely unaware of the possible reasons behind the closure.
The strangest part of this story was that even the local police were ordered to exit the premises along with all observatory personnel—again with no explanation. If this does not seem strange, we should note the fact that this facility—called AURA or the Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy)—was not at all the only observatory to close suddenly around 9/11.
According to an online search, the live feeds to several solar observatories around the world all appear to have been cut on the exact same day—possibly only hours before or after the AURA Observatory in Sunspot. Below is an excerpt from a gaming forum in which a user posted evidence of these strange shutdowns of multiple solar observatories around the world.
National Solar Observatory Mysteriously Closed As Geomagnetic Storm Looms There is no [timetable] for the Observatory to be re-opened[.] [T]he observatory is closed just as a massive hole has opened up in the Sun’s corona, which means we’re officially on watch for a geomagnetic storm....we note that all these solar/space cams down at the same time:
National Solar Observatory shuts down over mysterious 'security issue' amid FBI activity and Blackhawk helicopters flying in and out as geomagnetic storm looms. https://www.dailymai...torm-looms.html
It might be understandable if one or two of these feeds was to go down periodically, seeing that regular maintenance to streaming hardware typically needs to take place. However, as things appear, the feeds from multiple countries all went down at nearly the same time (apparently within hours of one another) leaving many professional astronomers unable to take notice of possible changes within our sun.
Now going on for at least a day, we have little to no scientific data being recorded during what could be a significant geomagnetic storm. Under normal circumstances, there would be nothing of interest to hide with regard to a solar storm such as this. The storm was not that powerful and there did not appear to have been anything notable which an agency such as the FBI would care to hide. This may lead us to believe that something else might be taking place within or possibly around our sun.
Q Anon's "Sky Event"
For those who have kept up with the source, Q Anon, this subject might be somewhat familiar. However, for those who have not, we will give a brief review.
Q Anon came onto the public scene around October of 2017. At the time, this source was posting to the obscure website, 4Chan, and didn't seem to be very significant. It wasn't until Q began to post what appeared to be hinted predictions of major world events that more people began to take notice. Then when those predictions began to come true, much of the American public really started to catch on.
Due to the tendency for the Q source to oppose the old establishment—i.e., corrupt American government and globalist elitists—the corporate media has done everything it can to smear and to squelch any interest the public has shown in Q Anon. However, many of these efforts have only backfired and have actually introduced mainstream audiences to this highly iconoclastic voice—a voice which appears to be a group of high-ranking, military-based patriots who are working tirelessly to oppose tyrannical globalists.
It is important to realize when reading Q posts, that not much of what this source says is stated in plain language. In fact, at times, much of these statements are so cryptic that they may not register as relevant at the time they are posted. However, in many cases, the immense significance of these statements is proven over time.
There was one term which Q repeated a number of times in early April and May of this year (2018). The post appeared to be very simple and yet full of implication. It simply read, "Sky Event."
Four instances of the mention of the sky event (including repeats)
As in many cases, no one knows for certain what this term means. As we can see, one other anonymous poster inquired about its meaning and included an image of the Marina Bay Sands Hotel in Singapore. By Q's lack of direct response, it seems that this was not the actual reference to the sky-event statement. (Usually, Q gives affirmation to posters who make such inquiries and guess correctly.)
So if this sky event was not relative to a presidential meeting in Singapore or any other known event, what could it be? Does the statement have one or more meanings? Is it code, or could it be a prediction of some future occurrence?
The Sun's Portal
We all know the scientific discipline of astronomy. Though somewhat interesting, mainstream astronomy has a tendency to be dull, unchanging, and predictable. However, within the alternative community, astronomy often takes on a whole new dimension of possibility. According to numerous whistleblowers who are quite popular within these communities, the universe does not only consist of electromagnetic energy. The universe also is founded upon electro-plasmic energy, and this energy has become the new basis for much of the cutting-edge, holistic version of astrophysics.
In essence, stars are not merely balls of burning/fusing gases. They are electro-plasmic generators as well as sustained fields of what is referred to as torsion energy. We will not discuss torsion physics for the sake of time. For now, let's tackle this topic of electro-plasmic stars.
According to cutting-edge science, stars consist of a negatively charged core/black hole surrounded by a positively charge corona. These components interact with spacetime in a very interesting way. However, to keep the explanation simple, we will just say that the core and corona work together to create nuclear fusion on the surface.
In addition, this dynamic can actually behave as a hyper-dimensional gateway. According to whistleblower testimony as well as mainstream astronomic disclosures, high-energy connections between stars naturally exist and typically traverse great distances through space. This topic was covered by the website, the Daily Mail, among many others and is rather extensive in detail and implication. Let's examine.
Astronomers have exposed new proof that enhances the belief of interconnection between the planets and galaxies in the solar system. Dr. Stephan Keller of the Research School of Astronomy and Astrophysics at Australian National University revealed the intricate details of the findings, that connects the entire Universe. He said: 'By examining the positions of ancient groupings of stars, called globular clusters, we found that the clusters form a narrow plane around the Milky Way rather than being scattered across the sky.'
Cosmic beauty: The findings confirmed the filament that connects the Milky Way to the Universe 'Furthermore, the Milky Way’s entourage of small satellites are seen to inhabit the same plane. 'What we have discovered is evidence for the cosmic thread that connects us to the vast expanse of the Universe. 'The filament of star clusters and small galaxies around the Milky Way is like the umbilical cord that fed our Galaxy during its youth.' Dr. Keller's study enforces the view that the structure of the cosmos is made up of long filaments of galaxies and vast voids that spans millions of light years.
Though mainstream astronomy can leave much to be desired, for the most part, it appears to prove the above point rather well. Stars, planets, and entire galaxies are actually connected through these cosmic filaments which may be as old as each of these galaxies themselves. Though mainstream science commonly assumes the universe is in a constant state of imbalanced enthalpy or decay (which is largely inaccurate according to more recent scientific discoveries), the reality of this energetic connectivity within our universe suggests otherwise. Not only does our universe show evidence of sustained and balanced function, it displays an intrinsic and ubiquitous potential for evolution throughout the cosmos.
According to multiple whistleblowers, these high-energy connections can be used as gateways through which energy and possibly even spacecraft can travel through space. In fact, according to one whistleblower, covert off-planet space projects have developed a way to use these hyper-dimensional gateways to traverse vast distances of space in unbelievably short periods of time.
Secret Space Program whistleblower, Corey Goode, is one of several who claims to have served in an off-planet space program called Solar Warden. Not only was this program confirmed to exist by a number of other whistleblowers, but Goode has consistently demonstrated a considerable amount of knowledge in astronomy, classified science, intelligence operations, and even psychic reconnaissance.
During one of his terms of service in these covert projects, Goode claims to have served on a space vessel which traversed the solar system as type of security detail. While on these missions, he recalls how he and his colleagues passed downtime by perusing the database of information available to operatives and learning about multiple subjects in classified science. One of these subjects was that of heliophysics.
In addition to this research, Corey claims that either Solar Warden vessels or other types of ships were able to use cosmic filaments as shortcut gateways to travel the galaxy. According to his testimony, the feat is possible, but the technology and ingenuity necessary to accomplished such a feat may only be achieved through adequately technological (and consciousness) development.
These claims have been remarkable to hear. Yet, we may also be interested to know that Goode was not the only public figure to speak on these matters of advanced technologies.
Type II Civilizations
Many of us might be familiar with the work of one famed astrophysicist, Dr. Nikolia Kardashev. Kardashev may be best known for his breakthrough experiments in attempting to seek out intelligent ET life through various cosmic signals from deep space. Though he was born ahead of his time, Kardashev blazed several significant trails through the arena of astrophysics.
Nikolia Kardashev was also known for his theories on ET civilizations. In short, he developed a scale—now known as the Kardashev scale—which may help us determine the level of possible technological development of a civilization.
The Kardashev scale
Notice the various levels of development which Kardashev believed a civilization could achieve. Upon seeing these possibilities, we might wonder just what capabilities a species could achieve if they reached the level of Type II. To elaborate, here is an excerpt from the website, Futurism.com.
The next step up – a Type II civilization – can harness the power of their entire star (not merely transforming starlight into energy, but controlling the star). Several methods for this have been proposed. The most popular of which is the hypothetical ‘Dyson Sphere.’ This device, if you want to call it that, would encompass every single inch of the star, gathering most (if not all) of its energy output and transferring it to a planet for later use. Alternatively, if fusion power (the mechanism that powers stars) had been mastered by the race, a reactor on a truly immense scale could be used to satisfy their needs. Nearby gas giants can be utilized for their hydrogen, slowly drained of life by an orbiting reactor.
The ability to use the entirety of the energetic output of a star could yield some rather amazing technological developments. As a species achieved this feat, they would no longer need to rely upon limited fuel sources such as petroleum deposits or nuclear fission/fusion. In short, their version of solar power would take on a whole new meaning and would be worlds more superior to our own version here on Earth.
If a species achieve a Type II status, they would no longer need to worry about solar imbalances, droughts, or severe weather. They could predict the output of a star and regulate its output in a way that is most healthy for the system and the inhabitants thereof.
They could develop space-travel technology that would put ours to shame. Such a civilization could make achievements that may seem unimaginable, but one of these possible developments stands out.
If a civilization could use all of the energy of a star, this would mean that in some way, they were able to control the effects of the energy of the star and how it impacted their civilization at any given time. Eventually, their developments might include the ability to shield entire ships from the harmful effects of a star—allowing them to fly into stars to study them. Perhaps at some point, the civilization would develop a shielding technology (along with cloaking ability) that would cause their craft to be impervious to any harmful effects from stellar energy. Such technology might even allow them to use these stars as gateways.
Sun Cruisers
In early 2005, well-known author and independent researcher, Richard C. Hoagland, reported a number of highly intriguing incidents with what appeared to be planet-sized, spherical UFOs entering and exiting from our sun. These UFOs were so enormous and yet so fast in their movements, that they were barely perceivable by Earth-based telescopes. Even still, NASA instruments were able to detect them—creating quite an interesting puzzle for independent researchers to solve.
Below is an excerpt from an early DTM article written on this very subject. The article refers to a number of images taken by Earth-based telescopes and published by official sources. These images were later included in Hoagland's research.
February 2, 2005...
Anyone who understands particular movement in space knows that this is not at all space dust. Particles in space move at a single vector. They don't turn or change direction at all unless something causes this directional change artificially (hens the law of inertia).
This is a very large object. Again, it looks to be the size of the sun itself, and not only that, it is moving at an extremely high rate of speed. It is also making intelligent course corrections as it moves. It's moving fast enough to streak the lens, and far away enough that its trail drastically reduces in size.
This is not debris, and it is not space dust. It is likely a craft of some kind, which, at times, seems to be as bright as the sun.
[Above image] The gas giant on the left is normal. We can tell that it's a planet because it's on the elliptic, but the streak toward the lower left is most unusual.
[Above image] You can see a spiral structure in the trail of this object, which, according to Richard C. Hoagland, is evidence of accelerated electrons excited in a high strength magnetic field. This is most likely one of these spheres moving at incredible speeds.
July 31, 2002...
[Above image] There is a Mars-sized object on the right, but Mars is actually on the left. So there is another planet-sized object causing yet another CCD overload.
[Above image] Here is a closeup of the above slide. There is Mars on the left, and on the right is the sun-cruiser.
This image [above] was taken the next day. We can still see Mars, as it is a planet, and has a predictable direction, and a slower rate of travel, but the spec on the right is completely gone. Planets don't vanish or take off in less than 24 hours. That other sphere was no planet.
In this image [above], the object on the far right may be a planet. The two we see in the middle and on the left are both below the elliptic and moving too quickly to be planets. (These are stills from the original animation.)
This [above] is a coronal mass ejection in progress, but the interesting part is what happened just before this CME took place. In the animation on the "Cyberspace Orbit" website, two spheres can be seen rapidly approaching the sun, and entering into it. The subsequent CME irrupts immediately afterward.
As we might recall, the UFOs—due to their tendency to linger around the sun—were dubbed sun cruisers. These apparent vessels were believed to have been controlled by highly advanced ETs with the ability to use stars as gateways for travel. However, these phenomena are still shrouded in mystery.
If these were actual planet-sized spherical ships, the mere sight of them may cause unwanted concerns for any developed civilization. This may be why the alleged ships appear to be cloaked and transparent. To add, if several metallic planet-sized ships arrived in a solar system uncloaked, they would create an unhealthy amount of shadowing and could block out the sun from civilizations that depended upon it. This is one of several reasons why cloaking technology would be useful for travelers visiting our solar system.
If the above images do look somewhat familiar, they should. These are quite reminiscent of our images of interest.
The Images
There have been many sightings over the years of strange objects in the sky—both around the Earth and around our sun. These sightings have ranged greatly in shape, formation, frequency of sighting, and duration of the appearance of these craft.
Each of the thousands of sightings that have been reported or even those that have been classified and then declassified by the CIA have contributed to the very strong possibility that we are not alone in this universe. In fact, in all likelihood, we are not even alone in this solar system, on this planet, or even in our own neighborhood. So when we see these images, it is important for us to have that healthy amount of skepticism, but to also have a flexible mind so that we are able to adapt whenever we find the truth to be different than we originally thought.
The following images come from several Facebook posts from a user who preferred to remain mostly private at this time, so I will refrain from mentioning their name. They seem to be a generous individual who came across something extraordinary and was courteous enough to share their hobby with the world. We are grateful for the gesture.
(A) (B)
At first glance, some may not notice what exactly they are looking at. Is this simply a dirty lens viewing the night sky? No. By my understanding, these images were taken during the daytime with an iPhone 8, telescopic/lens adapter, and possibly a solar filter. The glowing object in the center is a somewhat distorted image of the sun. There are also objects surrounding the sun which are unknown.
(C) (D) (E)
We may look at these small, spotty objects and simply assume they are dust particles on the lens. However, dust is typically random in shape and arrangement. These small objects are not.
They appear to be actual objects distributed throughout three-dimensional space. As we may notice, the objects in the center image above (D) all appear to have the same vanishing point within the image, causing me to suspect that the image depicts a highly voluminous area, such as outer space.
(F) (G)
The image F and G appear to depict the same or similar objects as the others. There is no way for us to determine size relationships, as we do not know what we are actually looking at. Nor do we know the distance of these objects from the sun. However, from the above image on the left (F), we do see what appears to be a sort of corona or what could be compared to a solar bow-shock surrounding each object on the sun-facing side of each object. If these objects were advanced ships of some kind, we might expect to see something very similar—large ships traveling by their own power while being buffeted by the blast of the solar winds. In addition to these smaller objects, we see what appear to be enormous transparent spheres distributed in multiple locations throughout each image. If these do not represent smudges on a lens, this would make sense. These images appear to depict the familiar transparent spheres we have seen images of in past official astronomic photography. Notice how in some of these images, the light of the sun actually shines brighter on the side of the spheres closest to the sun—just as we might expect to see on a physical, transparent, and slightly opaque spherical object. What could these objects be?
Exploring the Possibilities
We can only speculate as to what might be taking place in our solar system at present. However, according to these images, it appears that something quite significant has just occurred. Unfortunately, we do not have the scientific evidence to validate what we see here. Yet, the reason we do not have this evidence is that many of the astronomic observatories that would have been gathering said evidence were conveniently shut down in less than 24 hours of one another.
These images show what appear to be not simply one, but many enormous, possible planet-sized spheres along with what looks to be dozens—if not hundreds of craft of some kind. All of these objects appear to be emanating from our sun (or from an original point near the sun). According to the linear trajectory of the apparent ships, they all appear to have gated in through the sun or to at least be moving away from the same central point of origin relative to the sun.
The original image of the solar tornado was similar to these in that it was correlated with a small solar ejection. If we imagine a planet-sized ship gating in from within the sun, it would make sense that as it left the solar surface it would have a plasma trail or possible plasma vortex attached to it similar to the way in which reported USOs (unidentified submerged objects) do as they emerge from beneath the water's surface before taking to flight.
It could be that the small geomagnetic storm we experienced on September 11 was the result of not simply one large UFO leaving the surface of the sun, but the possible result of hundreds of craft of multiple sizes gating into the solar system through our sun.
Of course, we must take into account the possibility that all of these images are mere flukes and could be lens flares or some other photographic hiccup caused by questionable iPhone hardware/software. There is a chance this could be the case. However, this does not seem to explain the numerous other connections we've discussed here. Why did so many solar observatories close in such a short period of time preceding what was claimed to be a mere geomagnetic storm? Why do the official SOHO images look so similar to these images recently taken of the sun? There appears to be some connection between these two occurrences.
Meeting the Neighbors
According to extensive research, there appears to be a particular consensus on the subject of the possibilities of ET contact. Many sources within alternative communities believe that the majority of ETs within the cosmos are largely benevolent and desire to assist humanity in whatever way they are able. Though there are reported to be a number of exceptions, for the most part, this appears to be agreed upon by most alternative sources of information.
Many are familiar with the text of the Law of One and the way in which it has impacted the truth community. According to this text, any being we meet within the universe can have a variety of different focuses and intentions upon meeting them. They could either be benevolent (or focused on serving others), malevolent (or negatively focused on selfish intentions), or they could be neutral and take a position of what we might consider scientific curiosity (or the position of an observer). Those who serve others typically define themselves in their generosity and their willingness to meet the needs of others. Those who are negative will typically behave like narcissists, sociopaths, or psychopaths depending upon the severity of their self-focus. These negative beings behave as though they are the center of the universe, and they consider anyone who does not acknowledge their assumed superiority to be evil. According to my understanding, the beings who are neutral must be discipline in their intent to avoid becoming involved in any opposition between the positive polarity and the negative polarity. Under normal circumstances, any ET we might meet out in space will be far more advanced than Earth humans. As Earthlings, we could consider ourselves to be at what is called 3rd density (or in some cases 4th). This means that with regard to spiritual maturity, we are old enough to cause trouble, but not mature enough to handle independent life in the galaxy. Consequently, we are stuck on one planet for the most part. When we evolve to a point where we can behave responsibly and respectfully toward all other beings we might encounter in our galaxy/universe, we might be able to travel outside of our solar system (though according to whistleblower testimony, various covert projects have already developed the ability to do so). In fact, according to research, many benevolent ET groups are interested in helping to assist us in achieving that level of maturity.
The Law of One text refers to this benevolent group as the Confederation. This group is said to consist of many different species of ETs all of which have matured to a point of self-sufficiency and balance in the galaxy. After they achieve this maturity, those within this group travel to different planets where civilizations are about to transition into hihger consciousness. These benevolent ETs may either observe the process of development or, at times, they render aid to ensure a smooth transition of the civilization into a state of independence. The task is typically hands-off for the most part, as too much interference can actually hinder those who are learning to be self-sufficient. According to multiple sources, this is why we do not see ETs walking the streets on the regular (or at least we believe we do not see ETs).
There are ETs which we might consider negative. Ironically, we do not actually need to worry about them coming to invade, necessarily. According to many sources, the negative ETs are already living here on Earth with us. These sources claim that these ETs are those behind the destruction of Earth's habitats, the degradation of human health, and the progressive imbalance upon the planet as a whole.
These negative ETs, with the help of psychopathic humans, have largely reduced the planet to desolation. However, thanks to humanity's process of natural and spiritual maturity (along with the assistance of multiple positive groups), this has not been allowed to occur.
Intentions
If there are hundreds of ET craft occupying our solar system at present, what could this mean? Why are they here?
These beings could intend to render aid when the act is most appropriate and beneficial for us. Alternatively, they may be here to simply witness the transition of humanity into a higher level of consciousness. According to multiple sources, this process of ascension is actually quite spectacular. In fact, in the case of present-day Earth humans, the transition we are said to be presently undergoing is completely unique in the universe. It has never happened before. Consequently, it is understandable that a large number of ET spectators would want to witness it.
I suppose there is a possibility that various negative ETs would want to take advantage of our transition or to perhaps stop it. However, considering the difficulties we appear to be having during this transition and yet the monumental levels of progress we are constantly achieving, I find it more likely that these negative beings are already on Earth and are throwing a few final tantrums before being completely defeated.
Full Circle
I have to say how bizarre it is to be able to write an article like this. To be honest, writing is not typically this easy for me. It takes time and quite a bit of mental and physical dedication. Mobility and lack of energy have been significant issues for me for several years now, as my friends will know. However, this post, in many ways, seems to have written itself.
The composition seemed to come to me automatically. The format, the subjects, sources, and even the images all seemed to simply pop into my head within in a matter of minutes. I stayed up until 3:00 am last night simply because the information was flowing so easily. Again this does not typically happen.
Even my dreams were out of the ordinary last night. I recall experiencing a conversation with someone who felt like family—possibly more than one person. I was consoling them and helping them to understand a difficulty they were experiencing. At the same time, I remember receiving some type of help or assistance from someone else. Though I can't remember too much detail about the interaction, I do remember the words of reassurance I heard as I woke up.
I heard a kind and gentle voice say, "Good luck," and as I opened my eyes, I realized that I had awakened at nearly the exact same time I would have, had I set my alarm. Also, I was in significantly less pain than I was the night before.
To be honest, I can't take full credit for writing in this way with such ease. I have to give credit where it is due, but in this case, I'm not sure where it is coming from. We could speculate, but I'd much rather evaluate the material for its informational content than go off on any tangents. I will say that the first time I wrote about the subject of sun cruisers, the experience was very similar.
There were numerous synchronizations and events that just seemed to work themselves out in order to help me finish the article. I experienced multiple numeric synchronizations including the numbers 9 and 1 as well as ascending numeric sequences both then and now. There was also the fact that this particular post could very well be the 912th post for the Discerning the Mystery website (though technically the 913th), and this very article came to me and was completed for the most part on 9/12/18.
During my process, the words of this post seemed to type themselves. The composition felt as though it already existed before I put much thought into it, and the way in which the subject seemed to assist in the overall disclosure process made the experience a truly joyful undertaking.
Closing
It's an honor to explore these possibilities with you, the audience. Even if none of these developments turn out to be accurate and are proven bogus, I hope that these recent events can help each of us realize that we have a mission to accomplish here on Earth. To add, we should keep in mind that even if a benevolent group of ETs comes to visit our system as witnesses or assistants, it is we—WE—who have the power and the duty to free ourselves.
No one is going to save us from our problems and we do not and have never needed them to. We have always had the power to change this planet for the better, I believe. It may only be now and in the coming moments, that we finally realize the fact.
Are we alone? It’s a question that remains unanswered now for thousands of years, and given the vastness of space, it will only be answered with extraterrestrial contact—otherwise every uncharted nook of the universe could be harboring alien life.
Whereas some believe we must explore out into galaxies to find biological brethren, countless others believe the life has come to us, mostly in the form of UFO, abductions, and other “conspiracy theories.”
But are the tens of thousands (or more?) eyewitness reports and video/photographic evidence just theories?
What about the countless military personnel who risk reputation and rank to testify on the shocking UFOs they’ve seen—so much so that some of them even convened at the National Press Club to discuss the matter?
Let this quote from Lord Admiral Hill-Norton, a Former Chief of Defense Staff, 5-Star Admiral, and Chairman of the NATO Military Committee, add credence to this otherworldly claim:
With all the of the documented incidents, one particularly fascinating moment was witnessed by roughly 1 million people in Los Angeles in 1942.
This is a photo of the flying object that nabbed the attention of LA locals and even the military, which actually responded with military fire—approximately 1,500 bullets:
The UFO was, understandably, seen as a threat since it had only been 3 months since Pearl Harbor.
“Several radars detected an object about 120 miles west of Los Angeles
Within minutes, anti-aircraft batteries went on high alert
At approximately 2:20 am, the object was tracked on radar to within a few miles of the coast and a city blackout was ordered
Shortly after 3:00 am, the object appeared right over the city and anti-aircraft batteries opened fire
Approximately 1500 rounds were fired into the sky, not over the ocean but directly over the city
Three citizens died from the shelling and three more from heart attacks attributed to the shelling
A great deal of property damage was inflicted
Dr. Bruce Maccabee, an expert in photographic analysis, believed the objects to be roughly 100 feet or more in diameter
The event was witnessed by approximately 1 million people.”
When multiple people end up dead and the United State military is forced to respond with violence, you know this isn’t just some fake news hoax.
Here is the eyewitness testimony from one of the roughly 1 million people who witnessed that night’s events, Scott Littleton, a professor from Occidental College in LA:
“The two of us stood side by side in front of the house, huddling together in the chill night air and staring up into the sky.
“The planes we’d heard were not in sight, but what captured our rapt attention was a silvery, lozenge-shaped “bug,” as my mother later described it, that was clearly visible in the searchlight beams that pinpointed it.
“Although it was a clear, moonlit night, no other details could be discerned, despite the fact that, when we first saw it, the object was hanging motionless almost directly overhead.
“Its altitude is hard to estimate, especially after all these years, but I’d guess that it was somewhere between 4,000 and 8,000 feet.
“This may explain why we didn’t see the orange glow reported by several eyewitnesses in Santa Monica and Culver City, where the object was apparently much lower. (One witness suggests that this glow may simply have been the reflection of shell bursts against the object’s “silvery” body.)”
Although the government ultimately tried to deny the incident by describing the UFO as anything but extraterrestrial life, many people are not so convinced.
Un chasseur d’OVNIs en ligne, Paranormal Crucible, a découvert il y quelques semaines des images intrigantes prises par l’astronaute Jim Irwin pendant la mission Apollo 15, en juillet 1971, la première où un buggy a permis aux astronautes de parcourir des distances importantes. Sur ce film, on distingue à l’arrière plan une forme plus claire présentant l’aspect classique d’un disque posé sur le sol lunaire ou flottant à une faible hauteur derrière un cratère. Sous le "disque", une tâche sombre peut-être interprétée comme l’ombre de l’OVNI supposé. La vidéo partagée sur YouTube a été coupée, remontée et en partie retouchée afin de souligner les contours de l'anomalie mais le film original ci-dessus est disponible sur le site des archives de la NASA, sous l’intitulé: «Journal Text: 120:06:18 2 minutes 47 seconds (Real Video Clip: 0.7 Mb or MPG Video Clip: 25 Mb)». Le prétendu disque apparaît à 1’20’’.
A lire aussi: Un OVNI filmé pendant la mission Apollo XV ?
What:Dark pill-shaped objects hovering and moving slowly
Video showing a dark, pill-shaped object hovering stationary in a gray sky over Colombia, with another similar object also then appearing and moving toward it, has been uploaded to YouTube. It's based on a MUFON report that was just sent (case 95063):
Saw tic-tac shaped black object hover.
Videotaped it. While videotaping on my phone, a second object rose from below. The first object disappeared behind clouds. Second object flew slowly out of view behind a building I was on vacation in Medellin, Colombia this summer. I was on the second floor of a building and looked out the window. I am always looking at the sky. I saw a black oval/ tic-tac shaped object floating in the sky. It was difficult to judge the distance. I immediately got my Samsung S9+ smartphone and began video taping the object. The object simply hovered in place. The object was pitch black, but there was a glow outlining the object. After about four minutes, the object started to fade behind clouds that moved in front of it. The clouds were large and far away, but the clouds were in front of the object. This leads me to believe the object was relatively large given the distance it was viewable with the naked eye. Almost as soon as the first object was blocked by the clouds, I noticed a second object rise from below. In the video, you can see the second object rise before I actually noticed it with my eyesight. The second object was more of a diamond shape. It moved slowly upward and wobbled/pulsated as it slowly ascended. This object also had a glow around it. At times, the second object had a shimmer. At this point, due to the 5 min video duration limit on the phone I stopped recording momentarily. I then re-initiated the video recording of the second object. I continued to record the second object for an additional 3 minutes 26 seconds before it moved out of view behind an adjacent building.
I have the videos posted to youtube and I can provide that to you if requested.
For some reason, my copy of the second video is corrupted and won't play on a computer. It does play on my phone. when I try to transfer it from my phone to my computer, the 1.81 gb file on my phone will only transfer 446 Mb to my computer.
These objects appear to be remarkably similar to the craft captured by F-18 gun cameras and released by the Department of Defense in December of 2017.
De rovers zijn heelhuids geland, hebben al foto’s gemaakt én een keertje ‘gehopt’.
De Japanse ruimtesonde Hayabusa2 – die eind juni bij de planetoïde Ryugu aanmeerde – liet de twee rovers gisteren los, waarop ze langzaam maar gestaag naar het oppervlak afdaalden. En nu is het verlossende woord dan eindelijk daar: beide rovers zijn heelhuids op Ryugu geland en hebben inmiddels al foto’s gemaakt, data verzameld en verzonden. Daarnaast heeft de Japanse ruimtevaartorganisatie bekend gemaakt dat in ieder geval één van de rovers zich momenteel op het oppervlak van de planetoïde verplaatst. Dat doet de rover door te ‘hoppen’ oftewel kleine sprongetjes te maken.
"I cannot find words to express how happy I am..." Y.T.
The MINERVA-II1 rovers have successfully landed on asteroid Ryugu, snapped photos & taken the first successful hop! Have a read about this world first and hear the comments from our Project Members.
Opluchting Het is ongetwijfeld een enorme opluchting voor de Japanse ruimtevaartorganisatie die 13 jaar geleden tijdens de Hayabusa-missie ook al een lander op een planetoïde probeerde te zetten. Dat mislukte. “Ik was ontroerd toen ik zag hoe deze kleine rovers met succes het oppervlak van een planetoïde verkennen, omdat we daar in de tijd van de Hayabusa-missie – 13 jaar gelden – niet in slaagden,” stelt Makoto Yoshikawa, namens JAXA. “Ik was met name onder de indruk van de beelden die van dichtbij van het oppervlak zijn gemaakt.” Hieronder zie je zo’n foto. Deze is gemaakt door Rover-1B. Het oppervlak van de planetoïde is goed zichtbaar. De vreemde vlek in de linkerbovenhoek is te wijten aan een reflectie van zonlicht.
Afbeelding: JAXA.
Hop! Ook heel bijzonder: de foto hieronder. Deze werd gemaakt terwijl Rover-1A over het oppervlak van Ryugu hopte. “Met deze foto kunnen we de effectiviteit van dit bewegingsmechanisme op een klein hemellichaam bevestigen,” stelt onderzoeker Tetsuo Yoshimitsu, eveneens verbonden aan JAXA. “Het is het resultaat van talloze jaren onderzoek.”
Afbeelding: JAXA.
De landing van de twee rovers kan gezien worden als een mijlpaal. En er volgen er ongetwijfeld nog meer. Zo is het de bedoeling dat Hayabusa2 in oktober de MASCOT-lander naar Ryugu stuurt. En in 2019 moet de sonde een kleine krater op de planetoïde creëren, materiaal uit die krater halen en terug naar de aarde brengen. Zoals het er nu naar uitziet, zal Hayabusa2 eind 2019 afscheid nemen van Ryugu en het verzamelde materiaal ongeveer een jaar later op aarde afleveren.
We still haven’t heard from the Opportunity rover on Mars, which went silent in June when a dust storm engulfed it. Now, at least, the dust has cleared, and we can see the rover!
View larger. | The HiRISE camera aboard NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) captured this image on September 20, 2018. The object centered in the square is the Opportunity rover, now visible again for the 1st time since a dust storm swept over it a little more than 100 days ago.
NASA said on September 25, 2018, that it still hasn’t heard from its Opportunity rover on Mars, which had been going strong on the red planet since landing there in early 2004.
But, NASA announced:
… at least we can see it again.
A high-resolution camera (HiRISE) aboard NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter captured a small object on the slopes of Mars’ Perseverance Valley. That object is Opportunity, which was descending into this valley on Mars when a dust storm swept over the region a little more than 100 days ago. NASA said:
The storm was one of several that stirred up enough dust to enshroud most of the red planet and block sunlight from reaching the surface. The lack of sunlight caused the solar-powered Opportunity to go into hibernation.
The rover’s team at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, hasn’t heard from it since. On September 11, JPL began increasing the frequency of commands it beams to the 14-year-old rover.
The tau — a measurement of how much sunlight reaches the surface — over Opportunity was estimated to be a little higher than 10 during some points during the dust storm. The tau has steadily fallen in the last several months. On Thursday, September 20, when this image was taken, tau was estimated to be about 1.3 by MRO’s Mars Color Imager camera.
This image was produced from about 166 miles (267 km) above the Martian surface. The white box marks a 154-foot-wide (47-meter-wide) area centered on the rover.
Image via Cassini during a Titan flyby in 2009. Bright spots near Titan’s equator around the time of its equinox have been interpreted as dust storms. Read the story here.
Bottom line: An image of the Opportunity rover on Mars, which has not been heard from since dust engulfed it in June, 2018. Updates on Opportunity can be found here.
Over the next several weeks, I’ll be conducting interviews with leading UFO researchers from countries around the world in an effort to paint a picture of global UFOlogy today.
This week, our global UFO trek takes us to New Zealand, and to Suzy Hansen, an author, researcher, experiencer, and former professional educationist. Suzy is the author of The Dual Soul Connection: The Alien Agenda for Human Advancement, with contributions by Dr. Rudy Schild, Emeritus Professor of Astrophysics, Harvard/Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, Cambridge, USA.
Suzy Hansen.
Suzy is also the founding Director of the UFOCUS NZ Research Network (NZ UFO sightings), and coordinator of Communicator Link (advocacy & support for experiencers/abductees). She was instrumental in lobbying for the release of the NZ MoD UFO Files in 2010/11. She has been lecturing internationally for more than 20 years and has featured in numerous interviews, articles and documentaries.
RG: Who have been the defining figures in New Zealand UFOlogy over the past 70 years (for better or for worse), and why?
SH: The most active and prominent researchers in my opinion were Fred and Phyllis Dickeson, Harold Fulton, Harvey Cooke (all gone now), and currently, the Dickeson’s son Bryan and I guess—myself!
The Dickesons were former NZ air force personnel who worked tirelessly to publicise UFO sighting investigation data. They established nationwide discussion groups and published the UFO magazines Satcu and Xenolog. They also hosted well-known UFO personalities to NZ, including author Erich von Daniken and contactee George Adamski.
Bryan Dickeson investigated UFO sightings throughout the ‘70s and ‘80s, and spoke at early New Zealand UFO conferences. He is also a trained regression therapist and investigated New Zealand’s first publicised abduction experience. Bryan now resides in Australia and has contributed significantly to Australia’s UFO research too. He has recently digitised some 6,500 New Zealand UFO sightings from his parents’ research material, which will soon be available to the public on UFOCUS NZ’s website.
The late Harold Fulton was also ex-air force and investigated some of New Zealand’s most significant UFO events along with the other researchers I have mentioned. His focus was on aviation sightings and his data was meticulous and scientific.
The late Harvey Cooke was perhaps the “Mr Personality” of UFO research here, and, although he never had a UFO sighting himself, his passion and enthusiasm for the subject was endless. Harvey contributed significantly through TV and radio interviews, organising conferences, and he ran one of the world’s longest-standing UFO groups for 55 years. His memory for names and dates was legendary.
RG: What do you consider to be the most compelling NZ UFO incident on record, and why?
SH: Without a doubt, the Kaikoura Lights sightings of 1978/79 are the most renowned NZ sightings. The two main sightings that occurred in December 1978/79 were captured on film, seen visually by pilots and a film crew onboard one of the flights, and appeared on Wellington Airport radar and the radar of the two Argosy aircraft involved. These anomalous lights were observed by many members of the public as well over a period of weeks.
One of the objects filmed during the Kaikoura Lights incident of 1978/79.
The Kaikoura Lights events effectively divided New Zealand society, as scientific groups and governmental departments carried out an attempted whitewash of the main sightings, attributing ever more ludicrous explanations to the events: it was Venus! It was the lights of squid boats reflected off the bottom of clouds! It was the streetlights of townships reflecting off the breasts of mutton birds flying south! The radar was faulty! (Not true).
In 2007 I was made aware of a piece of 16 mm television news footage by former a TV1 cameraman who had kept the reel concealed for years. It was digitised, and he told me it could settle the debate and silence skeptics for good, because it revealed a large light that split into two lights, both of which disappeared at speed in different directions. The footage was taken at the Clarence River mouth, where many sightings took place near Kaikoura. Unfortunately however, the footage was sold for a five figure sum to a documentary company in the States and has never been revealed to the public.
Dr. Bruce Maccabee, US optical data analyst, carried out an analysis of the film crew’s footage, and considers the Kaikoura sightings to be in the top 10 worldwide.
RG: What is the NZ government’s official stance on UFOs? When was the last time it issued a statement on the subject?
SH: The New Zealand government has generally refrained from making official statements about the UFO subject, with the exception of the Kaikoura Lights sightings, which attracted the attention of Sir Robert Muldoon, Prime Minister at the time. However the MOD UFO files released in 2010/11 revealed that as a result of investigations into the Kaikoura Lights, a number of governmental departments were involved in researching the event, including the Department of Scientific and Industrial Research (DSIR), Civil Aviation, Air Traffic Control, the Joint Intelligence Bureau, the Commissioner of Police, the Director of the New Zealand Meteorological Service, the Ministry of Transport, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade (MFAT), and the Director of Carter Observatory. Brief statements were made by government departments at this time in 1978/79. Any other official statements concerning the UFO topic have been made by the New Zealand Defence Force, the most recent being when the files were released.
‘The Beehive’ in Wellington, NZ, home to the executive wing of the NZ parliament.
RG: Does the NZ Ministry of Defence have an official UFO investigations unit?
SH: In September 1985, Wing Commander S. B. White, on behalf of Air Vice Marshal Ewan Jamieson, stated that New Zealand’s Ministry of defence has always claimed that it is not specifically charged with any formal responsibility for investigating UFOs, and neither is any other governmental Department, but that the Ministry does however take an active interest in all such reports and, within the limitations of its resources, conducts investigations as necessary.
However, the MOD UFO files revealed that although they did not have a funded UFO investigation unit, an official investigative committee was formed in the early-1970s and was disbanded in 1976. The members of this group included representatives of the Intelligence Service, the RNZAF, the Department of Scientific and Industrial Research, the Meteorological Service, Air Traffic Control, the Ministry of Transport and Carter Observatory. The outcome of their investigations suggested that they decided the UFO problem was a scientific matter rather than a threat to defence.
UFOCUS NZ’s archives contain a number of significant sighting events that witnesses state were investigated by the Air Force on behalf of the Ministry of Defence, including witness interviews, investigation of ground markings and other physical details, and photographs of specific areas. The witnesses state they were told by the air force representative that if they went to the media or spoke publicly about the investigations, the Air Force would deny all knowledge of it. Some witnesses report feeling intimidated.
RG: Has the NZ government shown more or less transparency on the UFO subject than the US, Australian, and British governments?
SH: Officially, the New Zealand government has refrained from involvement in UFO related matters, instead leaving such statements to the Defence Forces, on behalf of the Ministry of Defence.
In a letter to me dated 28 April 2009, the New Zealand Chief of Defence Force, Lt Gen Jerry Maeparae stated, “in the longer term, recognising the ongoing public interest in this topic, I should like to see a summary of information held about UFO sightings produced, in much the same way as that which is produced by the United Kingdom’s Ministry of Defence. Given existing constraints however I cannot predict when that objective may be achieved.”
In December 2009, following a further several months of lobbying, I received a follow-up letter from Lt Gen Mateparae, which stated, “I am pleased to be able to inform you that two NZ DEF officers have become that the task of assessing classified files in relation to this topic, with a view of the classification.”
New Zealand is a small country with a population of less than 5 million with limited resources to investigate UFO sightings, and I believe, as evidenced by the Chief of Defence Force’s letters, that the New Zealand Government and Ministry of Defence have largely taken their lead from the US, Australia, and British governments in terms of limited transparency and information. It is important to note that the MOD files released in 2010/11 consisted of only the air force UFO files. There still exist unreleased Navy and Army files, and restricted intelligence files.
RG: Does NZ have a national UFO investigations organisation today, and how many smaller NZ UFO groups are you aware of?
SH: In 2000, after 25 years of independent UFO research, I established the UFO Focus New Zealand Research Network(UFOCUS NZ), a nationwide UFO reporting and investigation network. At present we have a staff of seven investigators throughout the country who gather UFO related information and investigate sightings in their areas. Our staff over the years has included to air-traffic controllers, a pilot, a scientist, and an astronomer. We have a particular interest in aviation sightings, as New Zealand has a rich history of aviation-related UFO sightings, with a number of pilots and air traffic controllers who have been willing to go public on their sightings. As a result of this, in December 2013, we signed a written agreement of cooperation with a Chilean aviation/military UFO investigation group to share data and sighting reports pertaining to aviation sightings, and sightings that occur around the time of seismic/volcanic activity. As previously mentioned, on behalf of UFOCUS NZ, I was instrumental in lobbying the New Zealand Chief of Defence Forces for the release of the New Zealand Air Force MOD UFO files in 2010/11.
From the 1950s through to the mid-90s there were a number of UFO groups throughout New Zealand, formed by some of the early veteran UFO researchers I have mentioned who liked UFOCUS NZ, actively investigated sighting reports. Throughout the ’60s and ’70s there were a significant number of UFO sightings in New Zealand, coinciding with the times of known UFO flaps worldwide. Today, UFOCUS NZ is the only active UFO sighting investigation and research group in New Zealand.
RG: What are the most active regions of NZ for UFO sighting reports (hotspots)?
SH: We receive UFO sighting reports from all around New Zealand, and of course the population distribution plays a part in how many reports we may receive from certain areas. New Zealand is a largely rural society, with large areas that are sparsely populated.
Rural New Zealand.
Having said that, there are certain areas from which we have regularly received reports over the years, including the Central North Island volcanic plateau, the mysterious dome Valley north of Auckland, and the Kaipara Harbour where well-known New Zealand pilot and author Bruce Cathie observed a USO as he flew his DC3 transport plane over the harbour back in 1965. A significant number of UFO sightings were reported beginning just 10 days before the massive Christchurch earthquake in 2011, and continuing through to several weeks after the after-shocks had settled down.
However, the most prolific UFO sightings occurred in the Gisborne/East Cape area of the North island during what came to be known as the ‘Gisborne UFO flap’ of 1977 to 1980, and of course the Kaikoura Light sightings of 1978/79, which occurred over the northern end of the South Island.
Along with aviation sightings, UFOCUS NZ has a particular interest in sightings that occur around the time of seismic and volcanic activity in our country, which have been significant.
RG: Have you personally had any UFO sightings?
SH: Yes, I have had a number of UFO sightings, some of which I have documented in my book, The Dual Soul Connection. At age 8, in 1962, my family and I observed a long bright orange cigar-shaped light over a series of hills some 20 km away. We watched the light for one and a half hours, during which time it flared and pulsed in the sky before eventually moving off south. It was sighted by hundreds of people that night, and was reported in our national newspaper. This event changed my life and I developed an intense interest in space, stars, and even aviation. My mind was blown by the fact that this was not a natural phenomenon or aircraft, therefore “something” had to be flying it!
Suzy Hansen and her book, ‘The Dual Soul Connection.’
In 1975 I was a young 20-year-old teacher working in the Hawkes Bay region of New Zealand. While driving home to the city from a rural farming area my friend and I observed an unusual light in the sky which at first we thought was a helicopter or agricultural aircraft. However, the light suddenly “switched off” and reappeared over the hills adjacent to us, before repeating sequence two more times. After a few seconds the light disappeared and, having stopped the car to watch, we felt we could continue our journey; but the light reappeared behind us. It approached our car at speed, a massive light wider than the road, and the last I recall is being blinded by the brilliant light, deafened by a loud noise, and feeling the car lifting off the road before I must have lost consciousness. My next memory is of the car hitting the road again, but now it was no longer in late afternoon sunshine, but in complete darkness. We had lost 90 minutes of time. This incident catapulted me headlong into UFO site investigation and contact research.
From 1978 to 1986 I lived in the Gisborne/East Cape area of the North Island during the time of the Gisborne UFO flap. While fishing at a remote beach on the Cape I observe a large green ball of light rise out of the water and fly over the nearby hills. On another occasion I saw a matte black egg-shaped object flying over a range of hills, and other witnesses reported the same object.
RG: How long have you been involved in the UFO subject; roughly how many cases have you personally investigated; and what conclusions, if any, have you drawn about the underlying nature of UFO phenomena?
SH: This is my 44th year of research into the UFO and contact phenomena, and there is no sign of the workload lessening, or my interest waning. I have investigated hundreds of sightings and talked with hundreds of witnesses and contactees/abductees/experiencers in New Zealand and worldwide—thousands if you count my internet interviews. Of those sightings investigated, some twenty three or so were in-depth investigations involving sightings of actual craft, and, in some cases, entities/occupants associated with the craft. Now, some people may doubt the validity of those cases, but it is interesting that the witnesses were scientists, medical workers, emergency staff, pilots, along with farmers and truck drivers, who we consider credible witnesses who know their environments well. These are not the kind of people to hoax events or seek notoriety. It is through talking with these high calibre witnesses that one understands the enormity of the subject, the importance of critical thinking in investigation, the potential impact of possible contact in our future, and the extent to which these events changed the witnesses’ lives and worldviews forever.
My own sightings and experiences have led me to recognise there is a long-term agenda at play where UFO sightings are concerned. Although many sightings may be brief and random, those that are more in-depth, as I have described above, confirm my thoughts that just as many sightings and contacts are “by design,” meaning they occurred for a reason or purpose controlled by the occupants of the UFOs and this is evident in the way the events effect many witnesses, and in the prior sightings or paranormal incidents they often divulge to an investigator in the course of interviews. Of course, not all sightings are welcomed by witnesses, but there is much to be learned scientifically, socially, psychologically etc. from their descriptions.
Science is now validating the physics behind the descriptions UFO witnesses and experiencers have recounted for decades, and of course we now know there are plenty of habitable planets out there with similar attributes to Earth. I think it is only a matter of time until we truly understand why we have been observing “intruders” in our planetary airspace for decades, if not centuries and beyond. It could be that “disclosure” will occur under someone else’s timeline and control, not our own. As theoretical physicist Michio Kaku has said, we are not yet a united planetary civilisation, let alone an intergalactic civilisation prepared to meet our cosmic neighbours.
RG: How can NZ UFOlogy better itself?
SH: Well we are constantly working on this, and we continue to remain open-minded, but utilise critical thinking in investigations and research. Don’t be afraid to approach scientists and professionals for assistance and advice, and defer to greater knowledge (UFOCUS NZ utilises the skills of a number of professionals in our investigations). We should always do our homework. Keep abreast of worldwide research and network widely. Keep lobbying the MOD for further UFO files. And maintain a public profile.
For more information about New Zealand UFO research, visit: UFOCUS NZ. Suzy Hansen’s book describing her own personal UFO experiences is available here.
Take one space object with a reflectivity number just slightly higher than charcoal. Notice that it arrived close enough to wake up the rarely-alert asteroid warning system workers on October 31st, the date of a popular worldwide holiday. Stare at pictures of its dark surface long enough to conjure up an image that relates to the holiday. Throw in comments from astronomers that it’s “dead.” Stir it all together in a witch’s kettle and you have the Halloween Death Comet, a skull-ish Near Earth Object discovered days before Halloween in 2015 and returning just days after Halloween this year. Should we eat all of our candy quickly before the Death Comet destroys us the planet?
Do you really need a wild excuse like that to eat all of the candy quickly?
Asteroid 2015 TB145’s distance from Earth in 2015
Asteroid 2015 TB145 was discovered on Oct. 10, 2015 by the University of Hawaii’s Pan-STARRS-1 (Panoramic Survey Telescope and Rapid Response System). Before its eerie pareidolic skull image was visible, 2015 TB145 was considered to be dangerous NEO because of its size (between 2,050 feet and 2,297 feet or .6 km to .7 km) and its projected close pass to the Earth — 300,000 miles (480.000) or just slightly beyond the orbit of the moon at 1.3 lunar distances. We’re still here, so The Great Pumpkin (NASA’s Halloweenish nickname before its scarier face was seen) didn’t get close enough for a hit. What about this time?
“Although this approach shall not be so favourable, we will be able to obtain new data which could help improve our knowledge of this mass and other similar masses that come close to our planet.”
That’s astronomer-speak for “close enough to justify our funding but not enough to cause a panic.” Pablo Santos-Sanz from the Institute of Astrophysics of Andalusia (IAA-CSIC) and other astronomers think the more interesting aspect of the asteroid is the fact that it’s NOT an asteroid. Vishnu Reddy, a research scientist at the Planetary Science Institute, Tucson, Arizona, explains why.
“We found that the object reflects about six percent of the light it receives from the sun. That is similar to fresh asphalt, and while here on Earth we think that is pretty dark, it is brighter than a typical comet which reflects only 3 to 5 percent of the light. That suggests it could be cometary in origin — but as there is no coma evident, the conclusion is it is a dead comet.”
Comet with coma
“Coma” is that blurry aura seen around comets as they make their tight turn around the Sun. No coma means no more ice – the definition of a dead comet killed by the Sun – but better conditions for imagining the dead comet looks like a revolving skull glaring with its dead eyes at us Earthlings as it passes. (See how easy pareidolia is?)
2015 TB145 or the Death Skull Halloween Comet Asteroid Great Pumpkin will be closest to Earth on November 11th. It’s a safe bet that you will have no more candy to gorge on by then.
Unmarked black helicopters hold a special place in UFO and conspiracy lore. Since the 1960s, mysterious helicopters lacking any identifying markings or color have been reported near the sites of UFO sightings, alien abduction claims, men in black, and even cattle mutilations. There are all sorts of conspiracy theories about the origins of these unidentified aircraft including that they belong to various agencies of some secret shadow government or the UN, that they are demonic in nature, or that they might be shapeshifters.
Of course, US law enforcement agencies such as the DEA, U.S. Marshals, and FBI are known to use black helicopters for surveillance and transportation, so there could be some truth behind alleged black helicopter sightings. There usually is some truth to all conspiracy theories, however small it may be. To add fuel to the black helicopter conspiracy theory fire, an unmarked black helicopter recently appeared flying low over Chicago rooftops, thoroughly freaking out confused Chicagoans below. The helicopter was seen dropping soldiers and equipment onto a roof before flying away.
According to aviation sleuth Tyler Rogoway writing at The War Zone, “the UH-60M Black Hawk photographed and filmed all over Chicago does not appear to belong to the United States Army. The configuration of its antennas is unique and it does not have any Army titles or serials on it.” Rogoway points outthat over the last several years, the Department of Defense has transferred many of its Black Hawk helicopters to other federal agencies, so it’s likely this was some sort of drill or training operation conducted by a federal agency.
However, the Chicago Police Department, Illinois Military Department, and National Guard have all been tight-lipped on the matter and have not given any information about who might have been conducting these exercises or for what purpose. Naturally, that has left the mind of the collective internet to wander to the most conspiratorial It’s perfectly possible – and probable – that this was a drill to offer special forces the opportunity to train in a real urban environment.
Of course, there’s also the chance, however small, that something stranger or perhaps more nefarious just went down in Chicago in broad daylight and plenty of witnesses got it on camera. Given the ubiquity of cameras today, it’s likely harder for Them to hide or disavow operations in public places. If there is a Them, that is.
We all know there is. They don’t even try to hide it anymore. Still, without any more knowledge, all we’re left to do is sit on the internet and spin theories about what we all just saw.
The almighty tussle over whether we should talk to aliens or not
The almighty tussle over whether we should talk to aliens or not
Astronomers can't decide whether messaging ET would bring interstellar chaos or a new era of galactic collaboration. And what would we say?
credit: David Clapp/Barcroft Images/Barcroft Media via Getty Images
In November 1962, at a radar station overlooking the Black Sea at the western edge of Crimea, humankind sent its first message to extraterrestrials. It consisted of just three Russian words in Morse code, bounced off of Venus and ultimately headed towards HD 131336, a star almost 2,160 light years away. The first word, Mir, can be variously translated as ‘world’ or ‘peace’. The other words, Lenin, and SSSR, (the Latinised Russian acronym for the Soviet Union), were a little less ambiguous.
Unsurprisingly, we have not heard back from any extraterrestrial intelligence just yet. But since the Morse message, a handful of projects have sent messages beyond the confines of Earth. Some are ambitious attempts to condense human knowledge into a message decipherable by ET. The 1974 Arecibo message, composed by Frank Drake and Carl Sagan, sent graphics of DNA, humans and the solar system to a star cluster 25,000 light years away. In 1972 the Pioneer 10 spacecraft launched, carrying with it a plaque etched with a schematic of hydrogen and the spacecraft’s trajectory around Jupiter and out of the solar system. Five years later, Voyager 1 carried its own interstellar missive, in the form of a golden record carrying images of humans, maps and music by Bach, Mozart, Blind Willie Johnson and Chuck Berry.
Other messages, if they are ever intercepted, may leave ET rather underwhelmed about the prospect of intelligent life elsewhere in the Universe. In 2008, Doritos beamed a 30-second advert towards a solar system in the Ursa Major constellation, just 42 light years away from Earth. Three years earlier, the online classified adverts site Craigslist sent over 100,000 posts into outer space, on the off chance that someone in a far off galaxy was in need of an IKEA Billy bookcase in perfect condition (collection only).
Amongst this hodgepodge of messages, there has never been a sustained, scientific attempt to send a message to aliens. While the search for extraterrestrial intelligence (SETI) has coalesced around a handful of well-funded and significant projects, such as Breakthrough Listen at the Berkeley SETI Research Centre and the China’s FAST telescope, the scientists and amateur astronomers committed to messaging ET have mostly been left to go it alone. But why has the task of composing a message on behalf of the entire human race fallen to the handful researchers who are determined enough to push ahead with the project under their own steam? The problem, it turns out, is that no one can quite agree on the best way to message ET, or even if we should be doing it at all.
In the summer of 1997, just after finishing his dinner, Seth Shostak got the call that SETI researchers spend their lives waiting for. The SETI Institute, a not-for-profit organisation based in California that explores the origin of life in the Universe, had detected a signal from outer space directed exactly at the Earth. On the other side of the country, in West Virginia’s Allegheny Mountains, an antenna was picking up a narrow-band signal – the kind that only transmitters can emit – that appeared to be coming from a fixed spot in space.
As Shostak, who is a senior astronomer at the SETI Institute, waited for his colleagues to check the signal against the frequency of known Earth satellite, conversation at the Institute turned to “the protocols”. These are a set of principles that set out what should happen if researchers detect a sign of ET from outer space. The protocols, agreed by the International Academy of Astronautics in 1989, are brief – a little over 1,000 words that tell us what to do if we discover that we are no longer alone in the Universe.
There are nine parts to the “Declaration of Principles Concerning Activities Following the Detection of Extraterrestrial Intelligence”. The first three deal with confirming that the signal is indeed a sign of extraterrestrial life and include sharing data data about the finding with the UN and a long list of arcane-sounding bodies including the International Astronautical Federation, the International Institute of Space Law, Commission 51 of the International Astronomical Union and Commission J of the International Radio Science Union.
The next few points deal with the dissemination of the announcement, which should be made “widely through scientific channels and public media”, although the discoverer has first dibs on make the announcement public. The data, too, should be made available to other scientists in papers and through conferences so that they can verify the findings themselves.
“The most important responsibility that we have as scientists that are engaging in this field is to verify and follow-up on any discovery that we make,” says Andrew Siemion, director of the Berkeley SETI Research Centre in California. Working out whether we should respond – and deciding what to say if we do respond – is a much bigger question, says Siemion, and one that most scientists just haven’t got around to thinking about yet.
The reason for this is simple, Siemion says. Sending messages across space takes a really, really long time. Even if we found aliens on a planet orbiting Proxima Centauri – the closest star to us apart from the Sun – tomorrow, it’d still take almost four-and-a-half years for a message to reach the Earth and the same time for our return message. There just wouldn’t be any need for us to have a message ready to go, Siemion says.
Which brings us to point eight of the protocols. No response should be sent, it reads, until “appropriate international consultations” have been taken place. In 2010, this section of the protocol was updated to specify the United Nations as the kind of international body that should be consulted before any response is sent. Shostak and his colleagues, however, never got this far. The message they were tracking was actually a telemetry signal from SOHO, a solar research satellite operated by Nasa and the European Space Agency.
Still, the false alarm highlighted one thing – when it comes to messaging ET back, there is no consensus on what we should do. For Siemion, that’s simply a reflection of how young the SETI movement is. Breakthrough Listen, the most comprehensive search for extraterrestrial communications ever, only kicked off in January 2016 after the Israeli-Russian entrepreneur Yuri Milner provided $100 million in funding for the scheme. “There is an awful lot of searching left to do,” says Siemion, who is also the principle investigator for the Breakthrough Listen project. “Before we get into the game of transmitting messages we should at least take a few years or perhaps a few decades to do a little bit of listening before we do speaking.”
In 2015, Siemion was one of 28 signatories who warned of the possible dangers involved in messaging extraterrestrial intelligence (METI). Since humans have only just acquired the capability to send interstellar messages, it’s very likely that extraterrestrial civilisations, if they exist, will be much more advanced than we are. “We know nothing of [ET’s] intentions and capabilities, and it is impossible to predict whether [ET] will be benign or hostile,” wrote the authors of the letter, including Elon Musk. Stephen Hawking, too, has warned of the dangers of contacting an alien civilisation that may be much more advanced that us.
But Doug Vakoch, an astrobiologist who left the SETI Institute to set up METI International – an organisation that focuses on sending messages to outer space – isn’t convinced that messaging ET does pose that much of a risk. Television and radio broadcast already leak signals into space, and any civilisation a few hundred years or so more advanced than us is very likely to be able to detect those signals across interstellar distances, says Vakoch. “It’s not a case of making ourselves known to a civilisation for the first time, if they get our signal they have already detected our leakage.”
For Siemion, this cuts both ways. Since ET can overhear us anyway, why worry about sending a message to say hello? Would-be METI-ists might be better off picking up their phone and calling in to their local radio station, he points out. But there’s always the danger that if we do leave the extraterrestrial messaging down to a handful of renegade enthusiasts, that they might end up sending a message that doesn’t go down well with the aliens. It’s all very well sending Doritos adverts to the stars, but what if ET hates tortilla chips?
There’s also the problem of knowing what to say. The 1974 Arecibo message was remarkable for the amount of information crammed into its 210 bytes. The transmission included the numbers one to ten, the atomic numbers of hydrogen, carbon, nitrogen, oxygen and phosphorus (the components of DNA), the formula for the sugars and bases in DNA nucleotides and a graphic of the double helix structure as well as graphics of a human, the Solar System, and the Arecibo radio telescope itself.
This approach, Vakoch says, might not actually be that useful if we’re trying to start a conversation with ET. “If you try to send them everything in a very condensed message, you may end up getting nothing across,” says Vakoch. For METI International’s 2019 messages, Vakoch is planning on sending messages containing references to the periodic table. The idea being that certain elements, such as hydrogen, are abundant across the Universe so any receiving civilisation is likely to recognise a reference to the chemical signature of those elements.
Another important requirement is making sure that whoever is on the receiving end of the message knows what they’re tuning into, says Jacob Haqq-Misra, a researcher at the Blue Marble Space Institute of Science. “The basic idea is to define some sort of mathematical language,” he says. Initial messages might establish some basics. One is not equal to zero, but one is equal to one, for example. “And now we've established a common language, we can talk about physics with each other.”
In 2013, Haqq-Misra was involved in a short-lived project called Lone Signal that aimed to use a network of dishes to let people on Earth beam their own messages into space. The project, co-funded by the French cosmetics executive Pierre Fabre and the fashion photographer Greg Kadel fell apart after only transmitting for a short while.
“Their idea was you have this big celebrity launch party and it takes over the world,” Haqq-Misra says. “That was not what happened.” It costs thousands of dollars just to power a radio transmitter for a few hours, and Lone Signal just didn’t have the funds to make it happen. Not long after the glitzy launch party, the money ran out completely. The lack of funding into METI means that Haqq-Misra and many others like him now only dabble in METI alongside full time jobs, often elsewhere in research.
But for people like Haqq-Misra and Vakoch, the pull of METI remains palpable. While researchers are no closer to reaching a consensus on whether we should be messaging ET or not, Vakoch is already thinking about the messages he’ll be helping to send in 2019. The potentials gains from doing so, he says, are just too big to ignore. “This finally holds a mirror up to ourselves by another form of intelligence,” he says. “We just have an opportunity to reflect on ourselves differently.”
Want to know more about the future of space exploration?
This article is part of our WIRED on Space series. From the global fight over how we handle first contact with aliens to the endless search for dark matter and the inside story of China's top-secret space ambitions, we're taking an in-depth look at humanity's future amongst the stars.
I have previously reported that UFO sighting reports have been on a steep decline for three years. 2018 is continuing this steep dropoff.
I have previously reported that UFO sighting reports have been on a steep decline for three years. 2018 is continuing this steep dropoff.
Please note that I said “UFO sighting reports” and not sightings. I’ve been getting considerable mail that sightings are still up in North America and in Europe. It just seems that folks aren’t showing an enthusiasm for reporting their recent sightings. One UFO researcher commented, “We see so many, who has time to report them all!”
After my last report about the decline, I observed two things. One was a volume of mansplaining why this decline is occurring. The other was a host of copycat articles being posted, some with the most absurd numbers.
The numbers in this article are a snapshot as of Sept. 20. Keep in mind that people do report sightings years after the event. So a sample I take today might be off by 50 or 100 for a particular year, if I sample three to six months from now.
I’ve come to understand that the UFO sighting report databases are, in a sense, living documents and seem to have a creeping growth. If we were studying farm reports or the census from a particular year, the numbers, for the most part, are solid with a small margin of error. So please keep this in mind when I do a year-end report because the numbers may be slightly different.
Let’s look at an eight-year snapshot of National UFO Reporting Center data. Note that 2017 is displaying a seven-year low for UFO sighting reports. The decline from 2014 to 2015 was 1,788 reports. The decrease from 2015 to 2016 was 1,231 reports. Interestingly, the shrinkage from 2016 to 2017 was only 680 reports. Ordinarily, one might assume that the UFO sighting report deterioration might be leveling out to an average baseline.
Yet if we examine the first eight months of the past six years, including 2018, except for a spike in 2014, we generally see a steady downward trend. Where it will all settle out is anybody’s guess.
But let’s consider some of the possible reasons that have been offered by many readers. Some blamed the announcement of Space Force; sorry, the declines in reports started four years before the announcement.
Others blamed too many people with their heads down and focused on their pads and phones. Maybe.
Quite a few people suggested that the ETs may have run out of interest (or perhaps galactic grant funding) to continue their studies here on Earth. Still others expressed boredom with reporting UFO sightings, especially since Disclosure seems to be stalled. The mood was “Why bother?”
Some suggested that there’s a general apathy in the country given our chaotic political situation. Finally, there are many who wonder if the falloff in UFO sighting reports is the calm before a storm. Who knows?
ON THE ROAD
Michigan UFO Con-Tact. Sept 20-21
CNY UFO Club. Sept. 29, 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. Jamesville-Dewitt Community Library, 5110 Jamesville Road, Jamesville, New York
Greater New England UFO Conference. Oct. 4-5
UFO MEGA CON. March 24-30. Laughlin, Nevada
Ozark Mountains UFO Conference. April 12-14. Eureka Springs, Arkansas
Pine Bush UFO Festival. May 18. Pine Bush, New York
Sightings of unidentified flying objects have declined worldwide. This news, reported last week by The Guardian newspaper, should alarm and sadden anyone who has ever gazed in wonder at the sky above.
Two major websites for UFO reports — the National UFO Reporting Center and the Mutual UFO Network — have both registered a steep drop in global sightings. The decline began in 2014, a peak year for UFOs, and by last year the total number of sightings had reached just 55 per cent of the 2014 tally.
The Guardian quotes several academics as to why this is happening, with various theories advanced. But the author of the piece, Philip Jaekl, reports the shocking truth out there may be that “more people don’t care anymore” about UFOs.
“As we are accustomed to being inundated with wild claims churned out by politicians, media and advertisers, the next report of a UFO is no more believed than the long-range weather forecast,” he writes.
If UFOs really are going the way of the dodo bird, I blame the movies.
The rocket ships on sci-fi screens today are simply boring, whether they are piloted by earthlings or space aliens. These creations by model makers and special-effects wizards fail to excite the eye and mind, and hence the imagination that would lead us to see wonderful strange things in the sky.
Consider the interstellar vehicles of the bug-faced invaders in The Predator, currently in theatres. They resemble flying Xbox game controllers — hardly something to set the pulse racing, unless you’re a 12-year-old gamer.
The ungainly extraterrestrial craft in last year’s Alien: Covenant resembled a giant flying shrimp. It was built by a race called the Engineers, who certainly weren’t artists. The human spacecraft in the film weren’t any prettier, just flying boxes with protruding gizmos.
Don’t get me started on the spaceships of Solo: A Star Wars Story, this year’s underachieving instalment of the never-ending intergalactic soap opera. It’s heretical to say, I know, but I’m not a huge fan of Han Solo’s Millennium Falcon, which looks as if it was built out of Lego — and there actually is a Lego version of it. Any attachment I have to the Millennium Falcon is entirely nostalgic, not aesthetic.
Remember when humans and aliens used to take pride in the design of their spaceships?
I’m thinking about the flying saucer in The Day the Earth Stood Still, the 1951 classic. It had the archetypal UFO: a sleek silver machine of sculpted curves, built to inspire awe wherever it flew, and not just because it was from another planet.
The saucer was matched with a killer robot, a behemoth named Gort who was so beautifully crafted — there was nary a bolt or rivet to be seen — that you could almost forget that he came here to kill us all.
Gort was almost as cool as the Maschinenmensch, the female robot in Fritz Lang’s 1927 sci-fi epic Metropolis that, not so incidentally, inspired the design of C-3PO in the Star Warsfranchise.
Lang also had great taste in spacecraft design. Check out his beautiful rocket to the moon in Frau im Mond (Woman in the Moon), his 1929 sci-fi melodrama. This silent film offered a remarkably prescient view of how a real lunar mission would work, including the idea of multiple rocket stages.
A big part of the blame for the slump in good rocket design is that reality caught up with fantasy for sci-fi writers and filmmakers. There’s no atmosphere in deep space, so you don’t have to worry about friction. You can make spacecraft as lumpy and misshapen as you wish, and many science fiction designers have taken that science fact to heart.
The Lunar Module (LM) used for the Apollo missions was a real ugly duckling. In mechanical terms, it was crafted like a Swarovski crystal; in physical terms, it was as unprepossessing as a tin garden shed.
The Volkswagen company made note of this fact in a 1969 advertisement that ran after that year’s Apollo 11 lunar landing: “It’s ugly, but it gets you there,” ran the adline, equating the LM to Volkswagen’s utilitarian Beetle, which actually is a beautifully designed vehicle.
But Stanley Kubrick didn’t let reality get in the way of great design when he depicted a lunar visit in 2001: A Space Odyssey, which came out a year before Apollo 11. The Aries moon lander in the film is similar to Apollo’s LM, except it’s a gorgeous orb that refuses to put utility ahead of beauty.
Kubrick believed in UFOs. When he looked to the sky, as might we all, he expected to see wonderful machines, not flying scrap heaps. Otherwise, what’s the point of even looking up?
Peter Howell is the Star’s movie critic based in Toronto. Follow him on Twitter: @peterhowellfilm
In an age of wild claims churned out by politicians, media and advertisers, perhaps people don’t care as much any more
Philip Jaekl
Are aliens deserting us? Or do we simply not care any more? Photograph: Joe McBride/Getty Images
This month, the two major online sites for reporting UFOs – the National UFO Reporting Center and the Mutual UFO Network – both documented steep drops in worldwide sightings. The declines started around 2014, when reports were at a peak. They have since reduced drastically to 55% of that year’s combined total, many UFO interest groups have folded, and numerous previously classified government documents have been disclosed.
Do these declines reveal that UFO interest is becoming a blip on the human cultural radar? Perhaps UFO and alien lore is seeming more like a reflection of human culture, tied to the space age, motivated by conquering new existential frontiers.
It might not be a coincidence that the term UFO (unidentified flying object) and some of the phenomena that surrounds it – abductions and impossible technologies – are relatively recent. Before the 1940s, reports of sightings of objects in the sky were extremely rare. Centuries of recorded history give no clear indication of any such activity. Then, at the predawn of the space-age, around the time of the Roswell conspiracy, UFO culture was born, giving rise to everything from Space Invaders to The X-Files.
Possible answers as to why sightings are decreasing are varied. A key factor, however, may be that more people simply don’t care any more. As we are accustomed to being inundated with wild claims churned out by politicians, media and advertisers, the next report of a UFO is no more believed than the long-range weather forecast.
Before home video, photographs were the staple of UFO evidence. Video evidence, during the height of the 1990s UFO mania, was regarded by many as even more substantial. Amateur footage of glowing objects in the sky, as mysterious as they seemed real, made the cut for appearing on television – they were meant to be taken seriously and they fed an audience hungry for amazement, helped by a healthy dose of conspiracy theorising.
According to the cultural historian Stuart Walton, “Belief in UFOs is definitely in a state of decline, along with much else that could be classed as paranormal. Part of the reason is that the technology for providing documentary evidence of such matters is now widely available to everybody with a smartphone, and such purported evidence as there is on YouTube looks extremely threadbare.”
He adds: “It isn't so much that belief can exist without proof; it's that it must emphatically avoid proof to remain belief. We are in the process, paradoxically, of proving a negative hypothesis with UFOs: there never was any such thing.”
Indeed, indisputable evidence of intelligent life coming to Earth could be the greatest news of all time. Yet, after thousands of anecdotal, photo, and video reports have accrued over decades, what are we to conclude? With the greatest balance of scepticism and “wanting to believe”, all that can confidently be asserted is that some objects, appearing in the sky on film or video, seem unidentifiable.
Furthermore, government disclosure of its own video footage isn’t helping to maintain belief. Joseph Baker, sociology professor at Tennessee State University, says: “It’s actually better for UFOs when ufologists can claim that ‘the powers that be know everything and are hiding it from us’ rather than seeing that the government appears to have basically the same info about UFOs as the public: namely grainy, inconclusive visual evidence.”
Perhaps though, the declines in reported sightings may signify only an end to current trends in ufology. After all, from the 1940s aliens were originally characterised as saviours who could help humans transcend the cold-war paranoia of nuclear annihilation; especially marked at the time, after two world wars. But after events like Watergate and the Vietnam war fuelled distrust in government, UFOs came to be viewed more as a possible threat, and some came to believe their existence was verified in secret military documents.
Sharon Hill, a researcher on the paranormal and pseudoscience, says: “The ideas about UFOs and aliens continue to evolve as we project our social and cultural ideas on them. Since we have no single easy explanation for all these claims regarding the decline in sightings, the future vision of ufology seems rather open-ended. I don't think it's dead, just changing.”
UFO Case: Japanese Airlines JAL1628 (November 17, 1986)
UFO Case: Japanese Airlines JAL1628 (November 17, 1986)
Background
17 YEARS after being told the documents relating to this event were destroyed — I finally found them!
by John Greenewald, Jr.
The following is a description of the event, as archived by Wikipedia, to give a bit of background the case:
Japan Air Lines flight 1628 was a UFO incident that occurred on November 17, 1986 involving a Japanese Boeing 747-200F cargo aircraft. The aircraft was en route from Paris to Narita International Airport, near Tokyo, with a cargo of Beaujolais wine. On the Reykjavík to Anchorage section of the flight, at 17:11 over eastern Alaska, the crew first witnessed two unidentified objects to their left. These abruptly rose from below and closed in to escort their aircraft. Each had two rectangular arrays of what appeared to be glowing nozzles or thrusters, though their bodies remained obscured by darkness. When closest, the aircraft’s cabin was lit up and the captain could feel their heat on his face. These two craft departed before a third, much larger disk-shaped object started trailing them. Anchorage Air Traffic Control obliged and requested an oncoming United Airlines flight to confirm the unidentified traffic, but when it and a military craft sighted JAL 1628 at about 17:51, no other craft could be distinguished. The sighting lasted 50 minutes.
I first filed a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request for documents from the FAA back in 2001. Throughout the processing, they determined that I was a “commercial” requester, and they were going to charge me excessive fees for the search and duplication of responsive records, which totaled a little more than 100 pages. This was one of hundreds of examples of game play by our U.S. Government and Military agencies while processing my FOIA requests. When you file, you fit into one of three “fee categories.” The basic definition of categories is commercial, non-commercial, or all other.
What you pay for the request and records is dependent on which category you fit into. Commercial is the most expensive, wherein you pay for everything; search, document review and duplication. Their search fees can range from $45-$85 an hour, so if they want to send you a large bill, they certainly can! After a telephone conversation with Jean Mahoney on June 5, 2001, I was told I could withdraw my request and the documents would be sent to me free of charge. Although I do not have record of it since it was sent on a crashed computer which lost its data, I know I sent an email withdrawing my request in hopes to receive the package.
The package never came. Unfortunately, I received a letter in the mail that stated:
“On June 5, 2001, I contacted you to by telephone and discussed the fees for search, review, and duplication of documents pertaining to your May 9, 2001, request for UFO sightings in or around Alaska between 1981 and 1988. We have determined that you would be considered a commercial requester and would be charged for all search, review, and duplication of the records. I advised you that approximately 107 pages of documents could be made available to you outside of the FOlA without fees. These documents do not include radar tracking data and simulated radar data for JL1628. It was agreed that you would withdraw your request by either fax (907-271-2800) or E-Mail (jean.Mahoney@faa.gov) and l would forward the 107 pages to you on receipt of your withdrawal.
As of this date, I have not received your withdrawal. If I have not heard from you by July 12, 2001, we will consider your request cancelled. In addition, all documents pertaining to this UFO citing [sic] will be destroyed in 30 days from the date of this letter.”
This is the letter in 2009, reiterating their 2001 destruction of documents.
Due to irrelevant circumstances, I did not read this letter until the thirty day deadline had come and gone. Of course, I feared the worst; that the documents were destroyed. They were — each page according to them. In a later request in 2009, when I attempted to rekindle the search for records, I was told again, that the records were destroyed. I have told this story many times, as this is a really unfortunate state of events that resulted in the loss of valuable history.
Fast forward more than 17 years after my initial request. I believe I found the records. I discovered them in Record Group 237: Records of the Federal Aviation Administration, 1922 – 2008.Holding National Archives Identifier number 733667, and local identifier number 1203, I found more than 1,500 pages regarding the JAL1628 UFO encounter. I believe, but this is only a guess as of the writing of this article, that the FAA must have transferred a copy to the National Archives, but either did not keep a record of the transfer (which they should have) or they attempted to mislead me that the records had been destroyed, when in fact, they were not. Plus, this is more than 1,400 pages than the FAA’s original estimate, and more than 1,200 pages archived by NICAP’s original JAL1628 files.
I believe based on the folder they were discovered in, the time frame of the documents and the contents within, the below contain the records I sought in 2001, but was told they were destroyed.
In a bizarre twist to this story, I offer you the complete set of 1,569 pages, titled by their official file designation headers, listed in the order they were found.
Document Archive
The following records were scanned at a very high resolution size for clarity.
Open Minds UFO Radio: Chase Kloetzke is the Director of Investigations for the Mutual UFO Network (MUFON), the largest civilian UFO investigation organization. Chase is in charge of trained field investigators throughout the United States and a several other countries. As of June 30, 2018, MUFON has already received over 3600 reports. Chase was a Master Trainer/Master Instructor with the Department of Defense, has a Bio-mechanical Engineering accreditation, has received certification as a Private investigator, certified in international forensic and evidence collection and holds a Certified Professional Evidence Specialist (CPES) certification with the International Association for Property and Evidence, Inc. She uses her skills to ensure MUFON investigations adhere to professional law enforcement and scientific standards.
In this interview we discuss Chase’s approach to UFO investigations, recently becoming a certified lobbyist, and a unique opportunity she will soon have briefing lawmakers on the serious study of UFOs using recent findings.
During the Korean War, many UFO sightings were reported.
Mary Evans/Everett
In May 1951, one year into the Korean War, PFC Francis P. Wall and his regiment found themselves stationed near Chorwon, about 60 miles north of Seoul. As they were preparing to bombard a nearby village with artillery, all of a sudden, the soldiers saw a strange sight up in the hills—like “a jack-o-lantern come wafting down across the mountain.”
What happened after—the pulsing, “attacking” light, the lingering debilitating symptoms—would mystify many for decades to come.
As the GIs watched, the craft made its way down into the village, where the artillery air bursts were starting to explode. “We further noticed that this object would get right into...the center of an airburst of artillery and yet remain unharmed,” Wall later told John P. Timmerman of the Center for UFO Studies in a 1987 interview. Suddenly, the object turned, Wall said. And whereas at first, it had glowed orange, now it was a pulsating blue-green brilliant light. He asked his company commander for permission to fire at the object with armor-piercing bullets from an M-I rifle. As the bullets hit the body of the craft, he recalled, they made a metallic “ding.” The object started behaving still more erratically, shunting from side to side as its lights flashed on and off.
Wall’s recollections of what happened next are stranger still. “We were attacked,” he said, “swept by some form of a ray that was emitted in pulses, in waves that you could visually see only when it was aiming directly at you. That is to say, like a searchlight sweeps around and the segments of light...you would see it coming at you.”
He remembered a burning, tingling sensation sweeping over his body, as if he were being penetrated. The men rushed into underground bunkers and peeped through the windows, watching as the craft hovered above them and then shot off, at a 45-degree angle. “It's that quick,” he said. “It was there and was gone.”
Three days after the incident, the entire company of men was evacuated by ambulance, with special roads cut to haul out those too weak to walk. When they finally received medical treatment, they were found to have dysentery and an extremely high white- blood- cell count. “To me,” says Richard F. Haines, a UFO researcher and former NASA scientist, “they had symptoms that sounded like the effects of radiation.”
Was it an experimental new Soviet weapon?
In the wake of the Korean War, which ended in July 1953, dozens of men have reported seeing similar unidentified flying objects over the course of the 37-month conflict. The craft often resembled flying saucers. According to unofficial reports, as many as 42 were corroborated by additional witness reports—an average of more than one a month in just over three years.
At first, according to Korean war historian Paul M. Edwards, many researchers believed that the sightings were Soviet experiments, based on German technology and foreign research in anti-gravity. “These were supposedly so large they could carry 50 tons of weight and were powered by electromagnetic propulsion,” he writes in Unusual Footnotes to the Korean War. “What was being sighted, it was suggested, were discs the Russians were testing over the Korean skies.” But in the years since the fall of the Soviet UnionIron Curtain came down, a number of Soviet reports of sighting UFOs over Korea have trickled in, discrediting these theories.
Why were there so many UFO sightings throughout the Korean war? Were they the product of thousands of exhausted men under incredible stress—or a sign of something more mysterious? From 1952 until 1986, the United States Air Force ran Project Blue Book, a systematic study into unidentified flying objects and their potential threat to national security. When it was shuttered, in December 1969, the Air Force announced they had found nothing of note, and terminated all activity under the auspices of the study.
But many believe that the project ended abortively, and that there was more work to be done—leading to similar interviews with witnesses and other investigations being done by dozens of volunteers for decades after the project ended. Haines is one of them. He describes himself as a scientist with an open mind, rather than someone with something to prove. “I don't believe in them, I don't not believe in them,” he says. “I'm trying to let the data convince me one way or the other, which is the scientific approach.” But, he says, it’s striking how many accounts there are of similar sightings in the Korean War and other conflicts.
An aerial view of the Korean DMZ in the Chorwon District, where Francis P. Wall saw the UFO.
Yann Arthus-Bertrand/Getty Images
Other explanations?
In the early years of the Cold War, it was often theorized that these crafts might be Soviet or Chinese vessels, with technology unknown to American troops. Haines believes this theory has been conclusively disproved.
“If they were,” he says, “they would have been building those crafts for use in later wars like the Vietnam War, for instance.” The Soviet UFO sightings Edwards describes make it similarly unlikely—as do the impossibly high-tech specifications of some of the sightings. In Wall’s case, for instance, he described a kind of force field taking effect a while after he began shooting, where his bullets simply ricocheted away from the craft.
Haines, for his part, believes the rash of sightings across the Korean war might suggest that something in the universe is especially interested in how human beings behave in the throng of military action. “We tend to be very creative to fight a war,” Haines says, listing off the various sciences and technologies that might come into play in military action. “If you were interested in how another country or another race of people fought their wars, you’d want to collect information on that, wouldn’t you?” He trails off. “That’s one possible explanation. There may be others.”
But the vast majority of UFO sightings—as much as 80 percent—are later found to be totally ordinary phenomena, like clouds or human crafts, rather than anything otherworldly. In Wall’s case, precisely what he saw that day has never been conclusively proven or disproven. Without the testimony of other men in Wall’s regiment, it’s hard to ascertain whether they too had the same strange experience—, even if it can be corroborated that many did get very ill.
Why such long-lasting after-effects?
In the years following the war, Wall lost contact with many of the men in his regiment. After the experience, he remembered his company agreeing that they would not file a report, “because they'd lock every one of us up, and think we were crazy,” he told Timmerman. What made him choose to make a testimony, however, was the lasting after-effects of his illness, including permanent weight loss from 180 pounds to 138, stomach problems and periods of disorientation and memory loss after returning to the United States.
He retired in 1969, at the age of just 42, his daughter Renae Denny says, and spent 30 years out of work, struggling with the after-effects of the war. “Back then they didn’t know the name of it, but I guess you could say it was a form of PTSD,” she says. Over the years, he would tell and retell the tale of his strange UFO sighting. “The story was always the same,” says Denny. “It never changed through the years.” But there was other fallout: He was especially affected by the sounds of airplanes and once knocked his mother and sister to the ground after mistaking them for enemy troops. “I guess he would have flashbacks,” she says.
Wall’s recollections of the UFO sighting were consistent and acute. But whether what he remembered actually happened is harder to prove. Fighting conditions were almost intolerably stressful, and it’s entirely possible that he may have experienced some kind of hallucination, brought on by the terror of the situation, where he regularly feared for his life. It might also have been a moment of feverish delirium: Even the raised white-blood cell count that surprised army doctors, and Haines, is consistent with many of the bacterial infections which might also cause severe dysentery—as are hallucinations. In a later interview with Haines, Wall described how he had discussed what he saw with some 25 other men—but none ever came forward or could later be traced.
In 2002, British researchers demonstrated a link between UFO sightings and Cold War hysteria—and pointed out how the number of sightings had nosedived as radar improved. “That cannot be a coincidence,” David Clarke told the Guardian. “Those early confirmations were just a product of a primitive radar system.” The flurry of UFO sightings Haines describes may have been the dual effect of these two threats: a potentially world-destroying war on the horizon, and the incredible pressure of being in the military.
Wall had experiences in those years in Korea that would scar him until his death in 1999. One night, Denny says, he managed to make his way through a pitch-dark minefield, praying for his life as he went. Others who made the same journey were not so fortunate. “When he went in [to the war],” she says, “he was happy-go-lucky, just a totally different person to when he came out.”
Whether the UFO sightings that Wall and so many other men reported were a product of this personality-altering trauma, or the effects of something requiring much greater investigation, remains a mystery.
UFO researchers and UFO and Close Encounters of the Third Kind enthusiasts gathered in Hulett, Wyoming for the Devils Tower UFO Rendezvous last weekend. Held near the iconic natural phenomenon made famous from the Steven Spielberg movie, lectures discussed UFO research and the latest UFO news. OpenMinds.tv interviewed several of the speakers on their thoughts on the Close Encounters movie.
The legend of the utsuro-bune is still disputed. Were the fishermen visited by a princess from a foreign land, a Russian spy or aliens?
NAGAHASHI MATAJIROU/WIKIMEDIA COMMONS
On Feb. 22, 1803, a strange boat washed ashore in Japan. It was something the fishermen there had never seen before — a disc-shaped vessel, with windows on top and metal bands below. Inside they found strange writing etched into the walls, unusual fabrics they likened to bedsheets or carpet, and a passenger, a young, beautiful woman clutching a square box. She had red hair and pale pink skin, and she wore fine clothes, also made from strange fabric.
She spoke an unfamiliar language and refused to reveal the contents of the box she held. Could she have been an alien of some kind? Did these humble Japanese fishermen witness a close encounter? The hosts of Stuff They Don't Want You To Know, Matt Frederick and Ben Bowlin, examine the evidence in the podcast Utsuro-Bune: Ancient Japanese UFOs.
The legend of the story is known as the utsuro-bune, or "hollow ship." The fishermen at the time theorized that the woman was a princess from a foreign land, exiled for a torrid affair with a peasant. Perhaps she carried the head of her deceased lover in the box, and protected it so carefully for that reason. Ultimately the fishermen decided to put her back in her ship and set her adrift to meet her destiny.
Over time, some have suggested the fishermen encountered an alien, not a woman. The boat obviously wasn't a UFO, because it didn't fly, but it could have been a USO, or unidentified submarine object. The most compelling evidence is the ship itself. In the texts describing the incident, the men likened the ship to a rice pot or an incense burner. The metal bands and hard glass windows were nothing the fishermen had seen before. And the writing on the ship has been compared to similar alien symbols found on the hulls of crafts from Roswell, New Mexicoand the Rendlesham Forest incident.
There are more plausible explanations behind the encounter, however. Others suggest the woman was Russian and coming to persuade the Japanese to trade with them — or even to spyon them. The incident occurred during the Edo period when Japan's borders were strictly controlled, and the country traded only with China and the Netherlands. That isolation could also account for why the ship looked so unfamiliar to the fishermen. Round ships were not uncommon at the time, but the metal and glass encasings were.
The simplest explanation is that a round log-boat was covered with a dome to make it more seaworthy. But what about the writing on the ship, and the mysterious box the young woman carried? Could there really have been more to the story than meets the eye? Listen to the podcast to see what Matt and Ben think and then decide for yourself.
Moon Is Stepping Stone, Not Alternative to Mars, NASA Says
Moon Is Stepping Stone, Not Alternative to Mars, NASA Says
By Mike Wall, Space.com Senior Writer
NASA plans to start building a moon-orbiting space station called the Lunar Orbital Platform-Gateway in 2022. This outpost will be a waypoint for future missions to the lunar surface and more-distant destinations, such as Mars, agency officials say.
Credit: NASA
The moon has not superseded Mars as a human-spaceflight target, despite NASA's current focus on getting astronauts to Earth's nearest neighbor, agency officials stressed.
The Red Planet remains the ultimate destination, and the moon will serve as a stepping stone along the way, Jim Bridenstine, NASA administrator, and Bill Gerstenmaier, associate administrator of NASA's Human Exploration and Operations Mission Directorate, said during congressional hearings yesterday (Sept. 26).
"The moon is the proving ground, and Mars is the goal," Bridenstine said during testimony before the Subcommittee on Space, Science and Competitiveness, part of the U.S. Senate's Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation. [How Will a Human Mars Base Work? NASA's Vision in Images]
"The glory of the moon is that it's only a three-day journey home," Bridenstine added. "So, we can prove all of the technologies, we can reduce all of the risks, we can try all of the different maturations that are necessary to live and work on another world. And we can do it all at the moon, where, if there is a problem, if there is an emergency, we know that we can get people home."
He cited NASA's Apollo 13 mission in 1970, which famously managed to make it safely back to Earth despite experiencing a serious problem on the way to the moon.
Far from delaying a crewed Mars mission, which NASA aims to execute in the 2030s, the current and near-future moon work should "accelerate our path to get to Mars," Bridenstine said.
This reassurance is in keeping with the language of Space Policy Directive 1(SPD 1), which has spurred much of the moon work. SPD 1, which President Donald Trump signed in December of 2017, instructs NASA to return astronauts to the moon as part of a sustainable exploration program that will eventually bring more-distant destinations, such as Mars, within reach.
And about the current moon work: NASA plans to begin building a small space station in lunar orbit in 2022. This outpost, called the Lunar Orbital Platform-Gateway, could be ready to accommodate astronauts by 2026, NASA officials have said.
These crewmembers will stay aboard the Gateway for 30- to 90-day stretches, conducting a variety of science and exploration work. Some of these astronauts will head from the Gateway down to the lunar surface; the first such sorties could occur before the end of the 2020s, according to NASA officials.
Gateway visits, both human and robotic, won't all be NASA endeavors if everything goes according to plan. The U.S. space agency aims to make the outpost "interoperable" and open to use by private companies and other nations.
Like Bridenstine, Gerstenmaier stressed that Mars remains firmly fixed in NASA's human-spaceflight sights.
"Mars is not [taking] a back seat to the moon. What we see is, we need to do the activities around the moon to really prepare us to go to Mars," Gerstenmaier said in his appearance before the Subcommittee on Space, which is part of the U.S. House of Representatives' Committee on Science, Space and Technology.
"I don't think we're ready to go to Mars directly today," he added. "I see the moon as an enabler for Mars."
Gerstenmaier touched on the enabling nature of Gateway technology, singling out one piece of complex hardware as an illustrative example.
"So, this Gateway spacecraft we talk about around the moon — it can be moved to different locations around the moon. It could also be the basis for a Mars spacecraft," he told the subcommittee members. "We're going to try to size that ascent vehicle that comes off the moon — it takes the crews from the surface of the moon to Gateway — that vehicle will be sized toward a Mars-class lander."
NASA Video Appears To Show A Gigantic Object Coming Out Of The Sun
NASA Video Appears To Show A Gigantic Object Coming Out Of The Sun
A NASA video shows a gigantic shape emerging from the sun. The event was spotted on helioviewer.org, a website launched by NASA and the European Space Agency (ESA) to give regular people access to images and data from the sun. Archived images go back as far as 15 years.
The video clearly depicts a massive object exiting the sun and moving away quickly. It is shaped like a butterfly and manages to maintain a consistent structure as it moves away from the sun. Whilst some have speculated that it a normal solar ejection of some sort, such as a flare, it does not seem to match any known patterns consistent with a flare or any other usual solar activity.
Is our Sun a stargate?
The object is expansive, estimated to be as much as 100 times the size of Earth. The video has led some to suggest that the sun itself may, in fact, be a portal between dimensions and realities, or perhaps just our own reality and it acts as a “Stargate”. This idea was introduced by a man named Corey Goode. He claims to have been working on classified and secret space programs for many years, and that those programs have been in operation for even longer than his employment- such as the Warden Space Program thought to have begun in the 1980’s.
Darren Perks, an investigative researcher with Huffington post was informed by the Department of Defence that “Solar Warden” was indeed a program but had been shut down. Other theorists have pointed to the findings of Gary Mckinnon who gained access to Air Force Space Command and believes he read information suggesting an extraterrestrial presence in “Solar Warden”.
Whatever the explanation behind the strange butterfly emission is, the video itself is real. Perhaps in the future, more light will be shed on its origin and if it has any connection to alien life outside our solar system.
Wow! Asteroid Ryugu's Rubbly Surface Pops in Best-Ever Photo
Wow!Asteroid Ryugu's Rubbly Surface Pops in Best-Ever Photo
ByMike Wall, Space.com Senior Writer
This image of the asteroid Ryugu was captured by Japan's Hayabusa2 mothership from an altitude of about 210 feet (64 meters) on Sept. 21, 2018, just before the craft deployed two tiny, hopping rovers toward the space rock. This is the highest-resolution photograph obtained of Ryugu's surface to date.
Credit: JAXA, University of Tokyo, Kochi University, Rikkyo University, Nagoya University, Chiba Institute of Technology, Meiji University, Aizu University, AIST
The sharpest-ever photo of the big asteroid Ryugu shows a complex surface strewn with rocks and rubble.
Japan's Hayabusa2 spacecraft captured the image with its Optical Navigation Camera-Telescopic instrument at 12:04 a.m. EDT (0404 GMT) on Sept. 21, 2018, from a height of about 210 feet (64 meters), according to Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) officials.
Just 2 minutes after the image was taken, Hayabusa2 deployed two tiny, hopping rovers called MINERVA-II1A and MINERVA-II1B toward Ryugu. The little robots stuck their landings in a historic first and are currently exploring the space rock, gathering a variety of data. (Several other spacecraft have touched down softly on an asteroid, but none have been rovers deployed from a mothership like Hayabusa2.)
Another landing will come next week, if all goes according to plan. On Oct. 3, Hayabusa2 is scheduled to deploy a shoebox-size lander named MASCOT, which was built by the German space agency, DLR, in collaboration with the French space agency, CNES.
Like MINERVA-II1A and MINERVA-II1B, MASCOT will move by hopping rather than rolling, which is a good thing, given the roughness of Ryugu's surface, and the asteroid's low gravity, which makes traditional roving a nonstarter. Wheeled vehicles would float away from the rock as soon as they started rolling, Hayabusa2 team members have said.
The region of the Hayabusa2 highest-resolution image (outlined in yellow), seen from afar. Left: A global image of Ryugu. Right: A photo taken on Sept. 21, 2018, from a height of 230 feet (70 meters).
Credit: JAXA, University of Tokyo, Kochi University, Rikkyo University, Nagoya University, Chiba Institute of Technology, Meiji University, Aizu University, AIST
The $150 million Hayabusa2 mission launched in December 2014 and arrived in orbit around Ryugu in late June of this year. The orbiter also carries another bantam hopper known as MINERVA-II2, an "optional" rover that might be deployed sometime next year. And the mothership will drop down to the surface itself in 2019, snagging samples that will come to Earth in a return capsule in December 2020.
The various data gathered at Ryugu, and analyses of the returned sample, should help researchers better understand the early solar system and the role that carbon-rich rocks like Ryugu may have played in helping life get started on Earth, mission officials have said.
NASA has its own asteroid-sampling mission underway, with many of the same goals. The OSIRIS-REx spacecraft is scheduled to arrive in orbit around the near-Earth asteroid Bennu on Dec. 31 and return samples of the rock to Earth in September of 2023.
And about all those acronyms: MINERVA stands for "Micro Nano Experimental Robot Vehicle for Asteroid"; MASCOT for "Mobile Asteroid Surface Scout"; and OSIRIS-REx for "Origins, Spectral Interpretation, Resource Identification, Security-Regolith Explorer."
This spectacular photo shows the view from asteroid Ryugu from the Minerva-II1A rover during a hop after it successfully landed on Sept. 21, 2018. The probe is one of two that landed on Ryugu from the Japanese Aerospace Exploration Agency's Hayabusa2 spacecraft. It's the first time two mobile rovers landed on an asteroid.
Credit: Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency
The MINERVA-II1B rover captured this view of asteroid Ryugu on Sept. 21, 2018 shortly after separating from the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency's Hayabusa2 spacecraft. The asteroid appears at lower right.
Mysterious Cosmic Rays Shooting from the Ground in Antarctica Could Break Physics
NASA went searching for micro black holes in Antarctica. Instead, it detected cosmic rays shooting from the ground and some physicists think it could be evidence of a supersymmetric particle.
There’s something strange happening beneath the surface of Antarctica and it’s got nothing to do with Nazi UFOs. Rather, researchers are arguing that a decade-old experiment may have furnished the first evidence of a new type of particle that has evaded detection by some of the most sophisticated particle accelerators for years. If they turn out to be correct, it would change physics as we know it.
In 2006, NASA-affiliated researchers launched Antarctic Impulsive Transient Antenna (ANITA), a balloon experiment meant to observe high energy particles that shower the Earth from space, also known as cosmic rays. During ANITA’s flight, however, its instruments observed something that physicists couldn’t explain. In addition to detecting cosmic rays from space, ANITA also detected cosmic rays shooting fromthe ground as the high altitude balloon drifted over the Antarctic ice sheet.
Physicists have long known that high energy particles can penetrate deep into Earth, but none of the particles predicted by the Standard Model—the most accurate model of physics that has ever existed—should be able to pass all the way through the planet.
On Tuesday, a group of researchers led by the Pennsylvania State University physicist Derek Fox posted a new theory of these upward-shooting cosmic rays to arXivthat suggests they could be evidence of a particle that lies beyond the Standard Model. If Fox and his colleagues are correct, it would be the first evidence of a particle beyond the Standard Model of physics, the most accurate description of the universe humans have ever known.
The first ANITA mission launched from the McMurdo base in Antarctica in December 2006. The experiment flew to an altitude of about 120,000 feet where it spent a month drifting over Antarctica. It was equipped with sensors designed to detect pulses of radiation produced when ultra high energy neutrinos—a nearly massless particle with no electric charge—interact with the Antarctic ice sheet.
In the early 60s, the Soviet physicist Gurgen Askaryan theorized that when a high energy particle interacted with a dense dielectric medium—a type of insulating material that doesn’t conduct electricity—it would produce a shower of secondary charged particles whose radiation can be detected by standard radio antennas. This interaction, now known as the Askaryan effect, allows physicists to detect particles that hardly interact with normal matter (like neutrinos) by observing their secondary effects.
The goal of the ANITA mission was to use an array of antennas to detect the Askaryan radiation produced from high energy neutrinos interacting with the Antarctic ice sheet. Unlike photons, neutrinos don’t lose their energy as they propagate through the universe. This means that they can carry information from beyond the photon horizon (the limit that photon sources are still detectable from Earth) and provide a window onto the farthest reaches of the universe.
Furthermore, some models of physics that are “Beyond the Standard Model” predict the existence of incredibly small extra dimensions. Some of these theories predict that when cosmic rays interact with ice this produces micro black holes that open into these dimensions, which could be detected via the Askaryan effect.
Although the first ANITA mission didn’t detect any evidence of micro black holes, it did detect the Askaryan effect, the first time this had ever been observed from neutrino interactions with ice. Yet the researchers working on ANITA also got more than they bargained for when they also detected cosmic rays that appeared to be shooting out of the Antarctic ice sheet.
The first ANITA mission detected two “upward-pointing cosmic ray-like events” during its month-long sojourn above Antarctica. Unlike the cosmic rays that come from space and are reflected off the Antarctic ice sheet, which produce vertically polarized pulses of radiation, the two anomalous cosmic rays had nearly horizontal planes of polarization. This suggested that they either didn’t originate in space—or if they did, the radiation was produced by particles that had traveled all the way through Earth. In either case, this type of cosmic ray had never been observed before.
A second mission ANITA mission in 2009 as well as a third mission in 2014 detected another strange upward-pointing cosmic ray. The source of these cosmic rays remain a mystery, but a number of theories have been proposed. Some physicists think these upward-pointing cosmic rays are evidence of the decay of dark matter that exists in the Earth’s interior. Others have suggested that these cosmic rays can be explained with sterile neutrinos, a type of high energy particle that hardly ever interacts with ordinary matter.
At first, physicists attempted to explain these strange events as the result of a type of particle called a tau-neutrino decaying as it passed through Earth. This would produce an elementary charged particle called a tau-lepton, which would produce the type of signature observed by the ANITA balloons.
There was just one problem. ANITA observed the particles coming in at extreme angles—27 degrees and 35 degrees—that aren’t permitted within the Standard Model of physics. This suggested that either the Standard Model would have to undergo “significant” revisions to account for the observation—or, as Derek Fox and his colleagues recently suggested, ANITA may have observed the first evidence of a supersymmetric particle.
A penguin in Antarctica.
Image: Daniel Oberhaus
What is Beyond the Standard Model of Physics?
The Standard Model of physics was cobbled together over the course of the past century and currently serves as the most accurate model of the physical universe ever created. It describes most of the fundamental forces and classifies elementary particles.
Although the Standard Model has proven remarkably successful for making experimental predictions over the last few decades, it’s not able to explain everything. Some phenomena, such as gravity, the accelerating expansion of the universe, and neutrino oscillations are not incorporated in the model.
These deficiencies in the model have led some physicist to begin thinking about physics beyond the Standard Model (BSM). You may have heard of some of these exotic theories, such as string theory or M-theory, but so far there isn’t much evidence to support one theoretical version of BSM physics over another.
Inflating the balloon for the first ANITA mission in 2006.
According to the paper posted to arXiv this week, however, there are strong reasons to believe that the anomalous cosmic rays seen by ANITA could be evidence of a BSM particle.
This theory relies on a version of BSM physics called supersymmetry. Unlike string theory, which is a so-called “theory of everything” that overhauls the Standard Model, supersymmetry merely extends the Standard Model by adding a new class of massive particles into the mix.
“We argue that if the ANITA events are correctly interpreted then they require some beyond the Standard Model particle,” Fox told me on the phone. “The likely properties of the particle seem consistent in at least some ways with the predicted properties of the stau in some supersymmetric models.”
In supersymmetry, each of the elementary particles in the Standard Model has a heavier “superpartner.” Thus, leptons are matched with sleptons, electrons with selectrons, quarks with squarks, and so on. None of these theoretical supersymmetric particles, or sparticles, have been produced in a lab so far, which may be because the particles require too much energy to be made by contemporary particle accelerators such as the Large Hadron Collider. Thus some physicists hope to detect them by looking to astrophysical sources, which can produce the requisite amounts of energy to produce these more massive particles.
In the case of the upward-pointing cosmic rays, Fox and his colleagues argue that they are consistent with some of the predicted characteristics of the “stau,” the supersymmetric partner of the tau, which cannot be explained using the Standard Model of physics. The supersymmetric models predict that as a stau passes through Earth from space, it decays into a tau lepton and an as yet undetected lowest-mass supersymmetric particle before emerging on the other side of Earth—where the tau lepton could be registered by instruments like ANITA.
To arrive at this conclusion, Fox and his colleagues first demonstrated that the events observed by ANITA are not interpretable within the Standard Model. In the first place, the trajectories of the particles are “highly improbable” under the Standard Model. As Fox and his colleagues argue, to produce these trajectories using the Standard Model would require neutrino fluxes, or the number of neutrinos hitting a certain area in a certain amount of time, “well in excess” of those that have been cataloged by various cosmic ray observatories. Furthermore, they argued that the steepness of the angles of the cosmic rays are also highly improbable within the Standard Model.
A penguin colony in Antarctica.
Image: Daniel Oberhaus
Earlier this year, a team of researchers from Ohio State University’s Center for Cosmology and Astrophysics posted a paper to arxiv in which they detailed simulations of staus passing through the Earth to see if they would produce the same sort of signatures observed by ANITA when emerging on the other side. In particular, the researchers were interested in seeing whether simulations of high energy neutrinos interacting with nuclei in the Earth to create staus would reproduce the steep-angled particle trajectories detected by ANITA.
“Any proposed model for new physics would need to explain why such steep events are observed in the absence of a larger number of events near the horizon, and this turns out to be quite difficult to do,” Amy Connolly, the physicist at Ohio State University who led the research, told me in an email. “Our simulations found that even ultra-high energy neutrinos capable of propagating 10,000 km through the earth still do not give a preference for steep events. You still would expect even more such events from near the horizon.”
Nevertheless, Connolly and her colleagues argued that searching for staus with ANITA is a promising new research direction, but she cautioned against jumping to conclusions about the significance of the anomalous events seen by ANITA.
“Anytime an experiment has observed only two events of interest, there is a possibility that as more data is taken, the anomalous events may be found to be a background not previously anticipated,” Connolly told me. “Although it is exciting that ANITA can be sensitive to beyond the Standard Model physics, we must exercise caution and carry on assuming that the most likely possibility is that these events are an as yet unexplained background.”
This was a conclusion echoed by Fox, who said that it is difficult to make strong claims about anomalous events based on data from only one location. If what ANITA detected was actually evidence of a supersymmetric particle, researchers would expect to see similar signatures at other neutrino laboratories. Fox said this is why most physicists were hesitant to make any claims about the anomalous events when they were first published in 2016.
Antarctica.
Image: Daniel Oberhaus
“If it was confirmed that this was evidence of a beyond the Standard Model particle then there would’ve been a lot of physicists working through the consequences right away,” Fox said. “That’s not what happened. It doesn’t feel right for a lot of people and some of them prefer to be more conservative and wait for confirmation from other facilities.”
Fox and his colleagues took the first step in this direction by examining observations from the IceCube Neutrino Observatory in the Arctic to see if similar phenomena was hidden among the available observational data. After adjusting for differences in the IceCube detection system and ANITA, Fox and his colleagues identified three distinct events among the data that were analogous to the upward-pointing cosmic rays observed in Antarctica.
For now, Fox and his colleagues’ theory is just one interpretation of the ANITA data among many, and more data analysis needs to be done. The researchers are hopeful that the data from the fourth and latest ANITA mission, which launched in 2016 and is now in its data analysis phase, might reveal more examples of these upward-pointing cosmic rays.
Even more tantalizing is the data from a decade of continuous observations at IceCube, which has registered far more neutrino events than all the ANITA observations combined and thus may have several upward-pointing cosmic ray events hidden among the data.
“The stau is a particle that physicists have been searching for since they first turned on the Large Hadron Collider,” Fox said. “ They’ve been looking for it, but they just haven’t seen it. What makes this so exciting is that it potentially forges a direct connection between cosmic rays and the LHC.”
In 2010 a rash of UFO sightings across Somerset County, New Jersey swamped 911 and mystified locals. The incident remained mysterious for years—another unexplained mass sighting atop the pile of anecdotal evidence cited in defense of the UFO worldview, in which extraterrestrial or extra dimensional craft visit the Earth, for reasons unknown (though people have a lot of theories). But, unlike so many sightings with presumably mundane explanations, the truth of the Somerset UFO has finally been revealed.
In a Reddit thread titled “8 Years ago I caused a UFO panic” a New Jersey resident described how he and a friend, on summer break from college and bored, crafted the UFO out of trash bags.
Inspired by a high school science class “Solar Balloon,” a trash bag balloon floats thanks to the sun warming the air inside the trash bag above the temperature of the ambient air, the duo had ambitions. They scoured area Walmarts and dollar stores for the thinnest black plastic trash bags they could find. “We took a number of them, cut off the bottom ends, and taped them together into a huge balloon which we filled up with a leaf blower,” the UFO designer described on Reddit.
The UFO seen over New Jersey, shortly after launch.
REDDIT
After half an hour, their first balloon began to float and was soon out of reach. They built another and “got funny looks from cars driving by,” until their second attempt was dashed against a tree.
It was only years later that the amateur hot air balloonist stumbled across an article by reporter Stephen Stirling, writing for NJ.com, and discovered their first effort, the runaway balloon, had caused the UFO flap.
“We didn’t mean to let it go,” the balloon’s creator, who prefers to remain anonymous, toldNewsweek. “This wasn’t intentional and we didn’t realize anything had even become of it until years later.”
If put to scrutiny, the vast majority of UFO sightings turn out to have mundane explanations. Even extraordinary cases, like the 2014 footage of a UFO filmed by the Chilean Navy, can be explained, in that case citizen investigators linked the UFO to local flight patterns. But various efforts to systematize UFO sightings—including the United States Air Force’s multi-decade program, Project Blue Book—can only begin to account for the idiosyncratic. Blue Book concluded the vast majority of sightings were aircraft, balloons or astronomical phenomena, such as the planet Venus. A further ten percent were deemed likely hoaxes or “crackpot” cases. Still, about 22% of sightings researched by Project Blue Book remain unidentified. How many of these can be pinned on the bored and the playful?
EPASterrencluster Westerlund 2, gefotografeerd door ruimtetelescoop Hubble.
WETENSCHAP NASA’s zoektocht naar buitenaards leven beperkt zich in ons zonnestelsel vooral tot microben. Onder andere dankzij de satelliet Kepler en de HARPS-spectograaf werden de voorbije jaren echter duizenden nieuwe planeten ontdekt buiten ons zonnestelsel. De ruimtevaartorganisatie wil daarom dat er in de toekomst meer gezocht wordt naar intelligent buitenaards leven.
In april lanceerde NASA met TESS de krachtigste telescoop totnogtoe die zal worden ingeschakeld voor de zoektocht naar leefbare planeten buiten ons zonnestelsel. Ook voor de James Webb Space Telescope die in 2021 de Hubble moet vervangen zijn de verwachtingen hooggespannen. Daarnaast werkt ook het Europese agentschap ESA aan de nieuwe ruimtetelescoop CHEOPS en het ruimteobservatorium PLATO, Verwacht wordt dan ook dat het aantal nieuwe ontdekkingen nog verder in een stroomversnelling zal geraken.
Momenteel zijn er al 3.779 gekende planeten in ons heelal en de voorbije tien jaar werden nog duizenden andere kandidaten ontdekt. Het is dan ook een logische vraag of er op een van deze planeten (intelligent) leven bestaat.
Technosignaturen
NASA zal zich daarom in de toekomst concentreren op de speurtocht naar ‘technosignaturen’: signalen die het bewijs kunnen zijn van een geavanceerde buitenaardse samenleving. “Technosignaturen zoals bijvoorbeeld radio- of lasergolven, tekenen van massieve bouwwerken of een atmosfeer vol vervuilende chemicaliën kunnen wijzen op intelligent leven”, licht het agentschap toe in een mededeling.
Om de zoektocht naar technosignaturen op te drijven, organiseert NASA vanaf vandaag tot en met woensdag een Technosignatures Workshop in Houston. Daar worden de meest veelbelovende onderzoeksdomeinen in de kijker gezet en geven experts toelichting bij de zoektocht naar exoplaneten, artificiële radiosignalen en andere mogelijk aanwijzingen voor technologisch leven in het universum.
Thomas Zurbuchen, adjunct-bestuurder van NASA’s Science Mission Directorate, deelde gisteren via Twitter al mee verheugd te zijn over de nieuwe onderzoeksplannen van het agentschap.
I’m excited to announce that #NASA is taking the 1st steps to explore ways to search for life advanced enough to create technosignatures: signs or signals, which if observed, would let us infer the existence of technological life elsewhere in the universe: https://go.nasa.gov/2DvXIFN
EPAAls alles volgens plan verloopt, wonen er over twaalf jaar mensen op de maan.
WETENSCHAPVijftig jaar na de missie van Neil Armstrong en Buzz Aldrin keert NASA vanaf volgend jaar terug naar de maan. De bedoeling is deze keer een bemande kolonie op de maan te vestigen.
Uit plannen die de NASA presenteerde aan het Amerikaanse congres, blijkt dat de ruimtevaartorganisatie vanaf volgend jaar de eerste stappen gaat zetten voor het stichten van een maankolonie door voorraden te sturen. In 2020 vliegen er verkenningsrobots richting de maan, om te zoeken naar bruikbare grondstoffen en te beginnen met de kolonie. Vervolgens gaat het nieuwe ruimtestation The Gateway de ruimte in, dat als uitvalsbasis zal dienen. Rond 2030 kunnen mensen vervolgens landen op de maan.
Door het verblijf op de maan hoopt NASA te ontdekken of het voor mensen mogelijk is ver van de aarde te overleven. Daarmee kan het de eerste stap zijn voor bemande kolonies op Mars, een lang gekoesterde wens van onder anderen Elon Musk. NASA weet al wel dat de straling op de maan zo sterk is, dat er speciale kleding nodig is om er te kunnen overleven. Om die reden komen er nieuwe ruimtepakken die beschermen tegen die straling.7
AFPNeil Armstrong en Buzz Aldrin verbleven slechts twee uur op de maan.
De nieuwe missie naar de maan moet ook meer duidelijkheid brengen over de oorsprong en het functioneren van ons zonnestelsel. Armstrong en Aldrin liepen tijdens hun bezoek in 1969 slechts twee uur rond om een aantal metingen te doen en maanstenen te verzamelen. Ook de bezoeken in 1971 en 1972 waren slechts van korte duur. De nieuwe missie kan dus een pak nieuwe informatie opleveren.
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Zijn het aliens? Wetenschappers ontdekken meer mysterieuze radiosignalen uit ver sterrenstelsel
Zijn het aliens? Wetenschappers ontdekken meer mysterieuze radiosignalen uit ver sterrenstelsel
Al meer dan een decennium breken wetenschappers hun hoofd over krachtige flitsen uit de diepe ruimte.
Sommige wetenschappers denken dat deze snelle radioflitsen afkomstig zijn van natuurlijke bronnen, zoals neutronensterren of zwarte gaten.
Anderen denken dat het signalen zijn van buitenaardse beschavingen.
Verborgen patronen
Wetenschappers die betrokken zijn bij een initiatief dat bekendstaat als Breakthrough Listen hebben onlangs tientallen nieuwe radioflitsen gedetecteerd.
Ze komen allemaal uit een sterrenstelsel op zo’n drie miljard lichtjaar van de aarde.
Deze radioflitsen maken deel uit van verborgen patronen in een grote zee van kosmische signalen die onze kant op komen.
Het onderzoek hiernaar zou uiteindelijk antwoord kunnen geven op de vraag of we al dan niet alleen zijn in het heelal.
Buitenaardse intelligentie
Kunstmatige intelligentie moet gaan helpen om de verborgen patronen bloot te leggen.
“Het is een geweldige manier om nieuwe technieken te ontwikkelen die we uiteindelijk willen gaan gebruiken om andere soorten signalen te vinden die mogelijk afkomstig zijn van buitenaardse intelligentie,” zei Andrew Siemion van Breakthrough Listen.
In augustus vorig jaar ontdekte het team van Breakthrough Listen 21 snelle radioflitsen afkomstig van een bron die FRB 121102 is genoemd.
Nu blijkt dat tijdens waarnemingen nog eens 100 van deze flitsen zijn gedetecteerd.
Dichter bij huis
De technieken kunnen astronomen helpen om snelle radioflitsen dichter bij huis te vinden.
Die zouden we namelijk beter kunnen bekijken met behulp van optische en röntgentelescopen, aldus Avi Loeb van de Breakthrough Prize Foundation, waar Breakthrough Listen onder valt.
“We hebben nog steeds geen idee of de bron kunstmatig of natuurlijk is,” zei Loeb.
Buitenaardse megastructuren
Eerder suggereerde hij dat snelle radioflitsen mogelijk afkomstig zijn van radiozenders, gemaakt door een hoogontwikkelde buitenaardse beschaving, of bewijs zijn van krachtige energiestralen die worden gebruikt om buitenaardse sterrenschepen aan te drijven.
Men wil kunstmatige intelligentie op den duur ook gaan gebruiken om te speuren naar enorme buitenaardse megastructuren in de ruimte.
Deze man hackte de geheimen van de NASA. Wat hij aantrof is bijna niet te bevatten
Deze man hackte de geheimen van de NASA. Wat hij aantrof is bijna niet te bevatten
Op 19 maart 2002 stond de Britse National Hi-Tech Crime Unit op de stoep bij de Schotse systeembeheerder Gary McKinnon.
Hij werd gearresteerd op bevel van het Amerikaanse ministerie van Justitie en de NASA.
Een jaar lang hackte McKinnon topgeheime computers van het Pentagon en het ruimteagentschap.
Niet-aardse officieren
Wat hij ontdekte kan worden gezien als onweerlegbaar bewijs voor Majestic 12, een verondersteld geheim genootschap, en het geheime ruimtevaartprogramma dat hieruit is voortgekomen.
“Ik stuitte onder meer op een Excelbestand getiteld ‘niet-aardse officieren’,” zegt McKinnon in het nieuwe seizoen van de tv-serie Ancient Aliens.
“Ik maakte hieruit op dat het ging om een ruimtevloot met een menselijke bemanning,” vervolgt hij.
Meest schokkende
De schepen die onderdeel uitmaakten van de vloot waren voorzien van namen, maar op internet kon de hacker daar niets over vinden.
Enkele namen van de schepen hadden betrekking op leden van Majestic 12, merkt Nick Pope op, die jarenlang voor het Britse ministerie van Defensie werkte.
Het meest schokkende bestand dat McKinnon naar eigen zeggen tegenkwam, bevond zich op een computer van het Johnson Space Center van de NASA.
Sigaarvormige UFO
In een map genaamd ‘ongefilterd’ vond hij een foto in hoge resolutie die was gemaakt door een NASA-sonde.
Op de foto was een nogal ongewoon ruimteschip te zien.
“Ik dubbelklikte op de afbeelding, waarna langzaam maar zeker een buis- of sigaarvormige UFO tevoorschijn kwam,” vertelt McKinnon.
Hard bewijs
“Ik was erg verbaasd omdat ik hard bewijs had gevonden van wat in mijn ogen een UFO was, hoewel het ook een geheim ruimteschip kan zijn geweest,” vervolgt hij.
“Plotseling zag ik de muiscursor bewegen en werd de verbinding verbroken,” klinkt het.
History is an irresistible, inexorable force, moving on and plowing through time to leave many things simply buried in its wake even as it carves and barrels its way to the future. Of course there are the discoveries and artifacts from past times that we know of and which have helped to shape our vie of what the world was once like and how it developed. We know of the past through the various pieces of it we manage to dig up throughout the world, which illuminate history and allow us to cobble and piece together a cracked, often foggy window through which we can glimpse past events. However, sometimes a relic or artifact will emerge that shatters that window through time, sending spiderwebs of cracks through what we thought we could see and distorting our sense of what we think we know, something so jarringly out of place as to make us question even reality itself. Here are some of the strange objects from the depths of time that have been dug up only to remain anomalies stuck in some fringe realm of history like strange ancient insects in amber, and indeed by all rights should not even exist at all.
Probably the most widely known ancient technological anomaly was found quite by chance in 1900, when sponge divers off the remote coast of the Greek island of Antikythera found an ancient shipwreck that held ensconced within it a device from the far corners of history that would eventually go on to baffle the scientific world. At first the artifact looked to be merely a rusted out misshapen blob of bronze corroded and degraded over millennia banished under water, and it was placed in the National Museum of Archaeology in Athens along with other artifacts from the wreck, where it sat collecting dust for years before anyone would take another look at it, seemingly an unimportant, ugly mass of metal and rock at the time.
It was the archaeologist Valerios Stais who first realized that there was perhaps more to this strange lump of crud than met the eye, when he uncovered what appeared to be a whole gear wheel embedded within its mishmash. Stais surmised that this was perhaps part of some complex ancient machine, but at the time the scientific community was skeptical of this, and so the exciting discovery sat there without any further serious research for several more decades, a mere curious anomaly that no one could really make any sense of or was even willing to try. It would not be until the 1970s that another close look was taken at it, and what would come to be called the Antikythera Mechanism would finally have its ancient mysteries revealed after 2,000 years of being buried at the bottom of the sea.
A portion of the Antikythera Mechanism
In the 1970s, advanced imaging procedures allowed archeologists to peer into the device for the first time, and they were astounded by what they found. Rather than a solid clump of bronze and rock, it was found that there were dozens of complex gears, dials, and rotating hands embedded within, all precisely positioned into some sort of clockwork machine, with some marked with cryptic inscriptions. Over the years the complexity of this amazing machine was slowly revealed, and it quite frankly stumped the scientific community. Here was an ancient machine entwined with the mists of time, utilizing complicated, incredibly precise gear works far ahead of its time, with the earliest such machines of this quality previously thought to have emerged in around the 14th century. It was amazingly, impossibly advanced for its era, far beyond what was thought possible, and by all rights this thing should not have existed at all, but there it was.
At first it was unknown as to just what the purpose of the device could have possibly been, and it was often speculated at first to be some sort of navigational device. However, later research would show it to have most likely been a sort of early analog computer of sorts, in this case one for making precise astronomical calculations and mapping out the positions and movements of the sun, moon, planets, stars, as well as track the lunar phase and predict lunar and solar eclipses. Although there are parts still missing, reconstructions have shown that such is the amazing craftsmanship, sophistication, and ingenuity of the device that it was shockingly accurate, and could even compensate for the extra quarter-day in the astronomical year, long before the idea of a leap year had even been introduced into the mainstream Julian calendar. Considering that it is all still a mystery as to who built the machine, how it was made, or why it ended up on that unassuming ship, as well as the fact that nothing else remotely like it has been found from that era, the Antikythera Device is quite a perplexing anomaly indeed.
While the Antikythera Mechanism is the one of the most studied such historical oddity it is certainly not the strangest, and for that we have to take a look at some of the supposed discoveries of objects that physically should not exist at all. In June of 1936 there was a truly bizarre discovery made in London, Texas, in the United States, by a middle-aged couple who had been just out for a leisurely stroll near their home. During their walk, Max and Emma Hahn spotted something odd on the ground ahead of them and went to investigate what looked to be a rock with a piece of wood strangely protruding from it.
Curious as to why there should be this length of wood sticking out of a rock in the middle of nowhere, Max took it home and went about breaking the rock open. After breaking pieces of the rock away with a hammer and chisel, the couple were startled to see that the wood appeared to be the remnants of a handle of some sort of metal hammer head firmly encased within the rock. This is quite odd enough as it is, but it would get even stranger still when they took the unusual finding to a museum and the rock itself was found to be more than 400 million years old, and the head of the hammer itself was estimated at perhaps 500 million years old, with parts of its handle having supposedly begun to turn to coal over the eons as a testament to its vast age. Yet the object was obviously artificial, perfectly formed and the head possessing iron with a purity that could not occur in nature, unmistakably a hammer. How could this be?
The discovery was baffling, as of course there could not have been anyone around to fashion such a hammer so long ago, so was this the work of aliens, time travelers, or what? Creationists were certainly quick to jump on the discovery as well, and speculation soared. However, in the end although it is certainly odd, there is likely a more rational explanation. The problem is that the type of rock the hammer was found in, ancient limestone, is soft and could have been soluble and malleable enough to mold and form a concretion around the object over time under the right conditions, meaning a modern object such as a hammer could feasibly find its way into the midst of 400-million-year-old rock replete with fossils of long extinct organisms.
The London Hammer
Although this would be very rare and unusual, it still is seen as more probable than a modern human being losing a hammer hundreds of millions of years ago. In the end we will probably never know, as the so-called London Hammer has not since been studied and the hammer head itself has never been reliably carbon dated for its age, just the rock around it. Making answers all the more elusive is the fact that the mysterious hammer now resides at the Creation Evidence Museum, which is obviously run by creationists who don’t seem to want it examined any further, meaning we will likely never know what is going on here or even what truth any of it holds.
The London Hammer is reminiscent of other seemingly modern tools, parts, and equipment that have been anomalously found within stone or other materials that are often millions of years old. In 1820 some tools such as hammers and picks were found suspended in a layer of ancient limestone 50 feet below the ground at a stone quarry in Aix-en-Provence, France. Then, in 1852 a drill bit of all things was found ensconced within a solid chunk of coal that had been buried within a bed of ancient prehistoric clay and boulders in Scotland. There was no sign of any puncture in the coal or any indication as to how the drill bit could have been inserted within it, suggesting that it had been there when the coal formed, hundreds of millions of years ago.
More recently, in 1961 a group of friends in Olancha, California were looking for geodes when they found within one of them a modern spark of all things, and allegedly a geologist estimated the object as being 500,000 years old. In October of 1996 a group of researchers in the Kaluga region of western Russia located a screw complete with the fully formed head and nut embedded within rock that was found to be 300 to 350 million years old. Examination by various scientists showed that the object is most certainly artificial, but as to how it got into that rock no one knows.
The mysterious ancient spark plug
Some other anomalous ancient artifacts are a little harder to adequately classify, and defy easy categorization. In 1885, a strange object was found by an iron smelter at a foundry in Vocklabruck, Austria. There, within a block of solid coal, was discovered a perfectly-formed cuboid object of what seemed to be iron or some other type of metal, measuring 2.64 by 2.64 by 1.85 inches and weighing 1.73 pounds, its purpose unknown. The outlandish cube-like object was sent to the Salzburg Museum, where it was analyzed by the Austrian physicist Karl Gurls and found to be made not of iron, but rather of a strange alloy composing steel and nickel, although it would later be deemed to be actually made of a forged iron.
Further analysis showed that the object, whatever it was, was too precise in shape and made of too refined a metal to have been caused by any known naturally occurring phenomenon such as a meteorite strike, and was most likely machine-tooled and even probably just a part of a larger device or mechanism, although what type no one knows. What has come to be known as the Salzburg Cube or the Wolfsegg Iron has apparently been studied by scientists at the Geological Institute of Austria, who have also come to the conclusion that it seems to indeed be indeed artificial, and the object has even been featured in an 1886 edition of the scientific journal Nature, as well as an 1887 issue of the French journal L’Astronomie.
What was this strange object and how did it get within a chunk of coal dating to tens of millions of years ago? Was it truly a manufactured object, and if so what sort of enigmatic mechanism did it once belong to? It is difficult to tell for sure, as the Salzburg Cube has since disappeared completely, leaving only these vague 19th century reports behind. It might have been lost, misplaced, mislabeled, or filed away in some darkened backroom of a museum collection somewhere gathering dust, perhaps even stolen for unknown reasons. We only know for sure that it did exist, but without modern scientific analysis we will probably never know for sure what it was. Mysterious technology of the ancients, aliens in prehistory, time travelers, or unknown natural phenomena? Who knows?
Another truly bizarre historic discovery was made near Nampa, in Idaho, the United States in 1889 by workers who were in the process of digging a water well. The project necessitated drilling equipment, and at a depth of 300 feet under the earth a very strange object was spat forth from the steam pump of the machine, regurgitated up from the subterranean depths. There lying upon the ground was a miniature, brown figurine of some sort, which upon examination seemed to be made of some sort of clay. The figure had come up with a myriad of chunks and balls of the same material, and it was all coated with what was believed to be iron oxide. What was truly remarkable about the figurine was that it was a very skillfully carved likeness of what seemed to be a human woman, striking in its detail, including even faint markings that might be meant to represent clothing and jewelry. George Frederick Wright, a geologist at the Boston Society of Natural History, would later describe its discovery and the figure itself:
The record of the well shows that they had penetrated first about fifty feet of soil, then about fifteen feet of basalt, and afterwards passed through alternate beds of clay and quicksand, down to a depth of about three hundred feet when the sand pump began to bring up numerous clay balls, some of them more than two inches in diameter, densely coated with iron oxide. There is no ground to question the fact that this image came up in the sand pump from the depth reported. The object is about an inch and a half long, and remarkable for the perfection with which it represents the human form. It was a female figure, and had the lifelike lineaments in the parts which were finished that would do credit to the classic centers of art.
The Nampa Figurine
The thing is, how did it get into that strata deep down in the earth? The mysterious figurine was sent to be studied, and was found to have quartz grains that had been cemented by iron molecules, hinting at a vast age, and the rock where it was found was estimated to be around 2 million years old. This is obviously strange considering that this was the age of Homo habilis and Homo erectus, and these human ancestors at this point in time were not making detailed clay figurines, and even if they were why should it resemble in any way at all a modern human woman complete with clothing and jewelry? The so-called Nampa Figurine has of course been used to challenge current theories of human evolution and migration, with one researcher and author of The Hidden History of the Human Race, Michael Cemo, writing of it:
Other than Homo sapiens sapiens, no hominid is known to have fashioned works of art like the Nampa figurine. The evidence therefore suggests that humans of the modern type were living in America at the Plio-Pleistocene age which dates about 2 million years ago. According to current Darwinian theories of evolution, figurines like the Idaho image are made only by humans of the modern type, who came into existence only about 200,000 years ago.
It is a far-out theory indeed, and there have been other ideas as well, such as that this was dropped off by a time traveler or that it was, of course, aliens. However, skeptics have pointed out that the figurine may be more modern than it seems, and may have been lying on the surface before drilling even began, or that it was even an intentionally crafted hoax. Nevertheless, much controversy and debate has surrounded the Nampa Figurine, and its origins remain wreathed in mystery and lost to time. Equally as perplexing and controversial is a discovery allegedly made in 1938 in the Baian-Kara-ula mountains on the border of China and Tibet, by Chinese archeologist and professor Chi Pu Tei. His expedition purportedly came across an underground network of tunnels, caves, and caverns that seemed to have been artificially excavated, leaving smooth glazed walls suggesting some immense heat had been used. Tsum claimed that within this strange subterranean world they had found pictograms carved into the walls, which depicted star systems, the sun, and the moon, and even more bizarrely graves that supposedly held the remains of tiny humanoids measuring about 4 feet tall and with outsized heads. Perhaps even stranger were the objects they found half buried in the earth all around them.
The objects in question were a series of over 700 perfectly circular discs measuring up to a foot across, and which were said to have two grooves that emanated out from a perfectly round, 3/4″ hole in the center to form a double spiral. Within the spirals were claimed to be minuscule hieroglyphics of an unknown type, so small that they were barely visible to the naked eye, and which required a magnifying glass to make out in any significant detail. Although this would have been seen as a monumental discovery, the discs allegedly found themselves locked away in storage at Beijing university for decades until 1962, when Chinese archeologist Tsum Um Nui supposedly took a look at them and the story would get even more bizarre still.
After careful analysis of the discs, this Tsum Um Nui claimed that he had actually managed to decipher them, and that they told an epic tale and often tragic tale of visitors from the stars. According to Nui, the discs spoke of a spaceship that had crashed into the mountains carrying a contingent of alien beings called the Dropa. The crash smashed the ship beyond their ability to repair, and so these mysterious beings had been forced to find refuge in the mountains and adapt to life on Earth, creating the tunnels and caverns in the process. The discs even supposedly give the harrowing account of some of these Dropa being mercilessly slaughtered by the Han Chinese.
It sounds completely absurd, and the general scientific community agreed, refusing to publish Nui’s paper on the matter and generally looking upon his claims with raised eyebrows and outright disdain. According to some accounts, the archeologist was even forbidden from even talking about the discs anymore after that, but the whole weird tale caught the attention of Russian scientist W. Saitsew, who apparently acquired some of the discs and studied them himself in 1968. Saitsew allegedly found the composition of the discs to be quite odd, comprised of a strange mix of cobalt and other metals that made the surface nearly impenetrably hard and deepening the mystery of the hieroglyphs etched upon them. He also claimed to have discovered that when placed on a specialized turntable the discs hummed and oscillated as if they had once held an electrical charge or served as conductors of some type.
It is unclear what happened to what have come to be known as the Dropa Discs after this, and Tsum Um Nui himself allegedly fled China to Japan, where he vanished into obscurity. We are left with very little to go on, and indeed there is much to cast doubt on whether the Dropa Discs ever even existed at all. For one there are no discs now to examine, with the estimated 712 discs all allegedly disappearing over the years. There is also rather suspiciously a lack of any photographic documentation of them at all. The only supposed photographs of the Dropa Discs were purportedly taken by the Austrian engineer Ernst Wegerer, who apparently located two of the discs during a visit to the Banpo Museum in Xi’an, Shaanxi Province in 1974. However, the photographs are fairly controversial and the discs themselves are obscured by camera flash.
Alleged photo of the Dropa Discs
Other damning evidence against the existence of the Dropa Discs is that there are no real official scientific papesr written on them, with only the writings of Tsum Um Nui, the Russian scientists, and some second or third hand accounts to go on, and these are of questionable veracity at best. In fact, Tsum Um Nui appears to have no mention in any university or academic institution as an archeologist, and indeed it has been pointed out that Tsum Um Nui isn’t even a real Chinese name at all. There are likewise no official museum records to show that such discs were ever within their collections, nor is there any official documentation of the Chi Pu Tei expedition that supposedly found them in the first place, and indeed there is no way to know if it ever happened at all. Considering such a lack of any concrete evidence, if the Dropa Discs ever did exist then the Chinese have gone through great efforts to cover it all up. Perhaps more likely is that this is an intriguing archeological urban legend that has sort of taken up a life of its own. Regardless, these mysterious discs crafted by unknown hands have continued to be discussed and debated to this day.
With such mindbogglingly strange artifacts of course there have been numerous theories proposed over the years. One is that, in cases like that of the Antikythera Mechanism our understanding human technological development may be incorrect or skewed. Perhaps these ancient peoples were more advanced than previously thought, but we are still left with the conundrum that such discoveries are isolated and unique. If these civilizations had access to the ability to create such marvels, then where is the documentation of them and their schematics and plans? Indeed, if this technology was available shouldn’t there be more of these artifacts to be found rather than just single anomalies? Or was this perhaps just an expensive and exclusive technology and there are perhaps more examples out there that simply haven’t been found? There is no way to know.
Other ideas branch further out into the fringe. Besides the obvious creationist theories, there are the ideas that this is evidence of ancient aliens meddling with human affairs, that these are evidence of time travel, or even that it is all indicative of some sort of inter-dimensional phenomena. Perhaps it is even something beyond our ability to understand, some new phenomenon that we have no inkling of. Whatever the case may be, there sure have been some strange things dug up from the earth and from below the sea, and these ancient mysteries will likely go on to puzzle and baffle for some time to come.
Neutron star: a celestial object of very small radius (typically 18 miles/30 km) and very high density, composed predominantly of closely packed neutrons; thought to be formed form by the gravitational collapse of the remnant of a massive star after a supernova explosion, making it essentially a stellar corpse and too small to be a black hole.
Relativistic jet: beams of ionised matter accelerated close to the speed of light; associated with central black holes, galactic stellar black holes and neutron stars.
Rule of neutron stars and relativistic jets: relativistic jets do not come out of neutron stars with strong magnetic fields.
Until now.
According to their study published in the journal Nature, Astronomer Jakob van den Eijnden of the University of Amsterdam and his team of researchers observed a strange, unexpected and thought-to-be-impossible radio emission coming from Swift J0243.6+6124, a slow-spinning neutron star 24,000 light-years away from Earth in the constellation of Cassiopeia, discovered on October 3, 2017, with NASA’s orbiting Neil Gehrels Swift Observatory. This neutron star is part of a binary system, feeding off of a much larger star. The neutron’s gravity pulled the material and gas away from the other star and formed a disc between them. When it got big enough, the neutron star’s gravity pulled the disc in and energy created converted into the relativistic jet detected by the Swift satellite.
An illustration of a black hole
Except that it’s impossible for a dense dead star to create relativistic jets. Well, now make that improbable. In an article in The Conversation, astronomer and study co-author James Miller-Jones says this event requires a new theory on neutrons and jets.
“Recent theoretical work has suggested that under certain circumstances it might be possible to launch jets from the extraction of the neutron star’s rotational energy. In our case, this could have been enabled by the high rate at which matter was falling inwards. It would also explain why the jets that we saw were about 100 times weaker than seen in other neutron stars with weaker magnetic fields.”
Still here? Is this a big deal? Nathalie Degenaar, University of Amsterdam astronomer and study co-author, thinks so.
“This discovery not only means we have to revise our ideas about jets from such systems, but also opens up exciting new areas of research.”
A black hole eating a neutron star
In other words … more jobs for astronomers! James Miller-Jones agrees in ScienceAlert:
“Whatever the explanation, our result is a great example of how science works, with theories being developed, tested against observations and revised in light of new experimental results.”
Finally, a win for science! Crack open those science books, participate in science fairs, study your math and look at the stars. You too could be destined for an exciting career with good job potential in the field of astronomy.
In my book, Silver Screen Saucers: Sorting Fact from Fantasy in Hollywood’s UFO Movies, I devote an entire chapter to Hollywood’s historical engagement with the concept of alien abduction. The chapter documents the evolution of UFO abduction movies over six decades; it also features interviews with selected abductees (or “experiencers”), eliciting their personal perspectives on Hollywood’s depictions of a phenomenon that, to them, is closer to science fact than science fiction. One of the experiencers I interviewed is a gentleman named Peter Faust, who came to prominence in the mid-1990s following the publication of the bestselling book, Abduction: Human Encounters with Aliens, which was written by Harvard psychiatrist John Mack and devotes an entire chapter to Peter’s story. Peter was one of Mack’s early patients and appeared alongside the Pulitzer Prize-winning author in a 1994 episode of The Oprah Winfrey Show.
Peter claims his experiences trace back to his youth, and his first conscious recollection of them came in 1988 at the age of 33. John Mack would later invite Peter to participate in his group therapy sessions, and it was through these, and also through hypnosis, that he began to find the missing pieces of his puzzle.
During our interview, I asked Peter if his experiences are ongoing. He replied that, although their physical component has ceased, the effect of his experiences, both physical and mental, continues to be felt in his daily life. In this sense, he said, his experience is ongoing and will likely never end. When I asked him if he misses what he perceived to be his direct interactions with otherworldly intelligences, he told me:
“When you come back from that experience and go back into ordinary reality, trying to pay the mortgage and the bills and plan for retirement, you know, just back into human existence, there’s a gap there. You’ve reached a state of bliss, you’ve had contact with the divine, or whatever you want to call it, and thereafter there’s always a part of you that thinks ‘those are my people, those are my tribe, that’s my real home,’ and there’s a sense of longing for that, because you’ve had that taste of it. So in that regard I miss it. But I don’t focus on it because I have to live in this world. I think that’s what’s hard for many people who’ve had the contact experience.”
Dr John E. Mack, pioneering researcher of the abduction phenomenon. Peter Faust was an early patient of Mack’s and a core case study in his bestselling book, Abduction: Human Encounters with Aliens.
Here follows my full interview with Peter Faust…
RG: UFOs and Hollywood – what are your immediate thoughts?
PF: It seems to me that Hollywood has a history of sensationalizing the phenomenon and consistently presenting it as traumatic – that the beings are malevolent, and that there’s a threat of invasion.
RG: What’s your emotional state while watching abduction-themed entertainment products? Do they provoke in you a visceral reaction, or are you able to view them with detachment?
PF: They absolutely elicit a visceral reaction in me of the initial trauma and the disbelief that I felt at the time. It has been very difficult for me to watch these films without being triggered, so I avoid most of them, although I have seen a few over the years. The last one I saw was The Fourth Kind (2009).
The Fourth Kind (2009)
Aside from trauma, the other reaction I have is “This is not the whole story.” It’s disheartening that Hollywood leaves its exploration of the phenomenon at the level of trauma, invasion, and abuse, and that it hasn’t moved into the next level, which I personally have experienced, where these intelligences are trying to break through our consciousness and have a communion with us, a conversation with us, and are trying to impart a message to us.
RG: To what extent are your own experiences reflected in these products?
PF: I would say the initial aspects – the sense of “this can’t be happening,” “am I going crazy?, who do I trust, who do I tell?” The obsessional aspect of it – Close Encounters of the Third Kind captured that well. The complete shattering of one’s belief system and a feeling of alienation, of going crazy, of losing your mind, and the effect that it has on your family and loved ones.
Richard Dreyfuss at the verge of madness in Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977).
RG: After becoming aware of your experiences in adulthood did you find yourself drawn to UFO-themed entertainment media in the hope of finding answers?
PF: When I first went to Dr. Mack with my experiences in my 30s, he immediately said to me “Please don’t read any material or watch any films on this subject, and don’t talk to anybody else, so that our regression hypnosis sessions are not tainted by an overlay of what you’ve read or seen in the media.” So I did not look at any of these films or read anything on this topic until 1995 or 1996 after John’s book had come out.
RG: Are there any film or TV depictions of the experiencer phenomenon you’ve found to be particularly truthful or authentic?
PF: I would say that there isn’t one film that I can remember that depicts all of it, although I would say there are elements in all these movies that reflect parts of the experience. CertainlyClose Encounters of the Third Kind reflected the obsessional tone of it. Communion reflected another tone, and I would say that Taken reflected the feeling and importance of the individual recognizing their experiences and then finding others who have experienced the same. In that show there was a recognition among the characters that they were not alone in their experiences, that they were not isolated, that they were part of a collective experience, whereas in Communion it was more isolated to the individual.
Communion (1989).
Another movie, Knowing, was good in the sense that it depicted a consciousness trying to reach us and show us that there are worrying events occurring that they’re aware of, and they’re trying to connect with us. It shows an individual following the threads and coming to the point where he has actual contact with these beings.
RG: What facets of the experiencer phenomenon would you like to see filmmakers explore more in the future?
PF: What I would love to see Hollywood explore more is the arc of one person, or several people’s lives, who seem to not be connected, and who individually go through the process of horror and disbelief and then move through that to acceptance, then moving to a more mutual contact with the beings to discover their true intent. I don’t want to see any more straight horror films on this subject. I think the general public is ready for a film that depicts people waking up, having the experience, following the experience, people no longer traumatized by the experience, and then moving toward something larger and more profound.
Contact (1997).
A movie more along the lines of Contact. That film took it to the next level. None of the existing films show the transformation that happens for the individual. I think the subject as a whole is challenging Hollywood to explore the next arc of this ongoing story, which is ‘how will the collective consciousness of humanity respond to this larger reality?’ So in this sense, Contact, Knowing, and even Interstellar are the only films I can think of which depict a higher intelligence trying to communicate a message to us that’s to our benefit, but their methods of communication are mysterious and sometimes scary. Contact and Interstellar actually show us going out into space to meet these higher intelligences, whereas in the 1950s movies, the aliens came to us. But now we’re starting to have the technology to be able to go out there and meet them, and Hollywood is starting to depict that – that we can decipher their communication, we can decipher that they’re trying to connect with us, and that they’re actually trying to help us.
RG: What do you feel is the overall cultural effect of UFO-themed movies?
PF: It’s been a slow process of disclosure over sixty years using the mediums of our time, the mediums of communication, which are film and television. And I think ultimately humanity is being prepared for contact.
RG: Is this disclosure a planned political strategy, or is it a natural cultural process?
PF: Yes, it’s cultural. If we take a step back and put conspiracy theories to one side, I fundamentally believe that there is a collective form of preparation going on through mass media; we’re preparing ourselves for the possibility of contact. The media in any of its forms, from the town crier, to the newspaper, to the radio, to film and television, to the Internet, has always been a way for consciousness to expand; for humanity to broaden its view.
Knowing (2009).
RG: So, you feel that Hollywood has part to play in this process of awakening and acceptance? That Hollywood wields enough power as a medium to influence what people will think, and ultimately do?
PF: Absolutely, because all the seeds of our imagination are planted through film and television at this point in our history, and through the media more broadly. And if the seeds are “don’t react with terror,” “don’t react with fear,” “don’t react with a SWAT team,” then we’ll be more predisposed to that.
Tens-of-thousands of individuals the world over continue to report physical and/or mental interactions with otherworldly intelligences. Regardless of one’s personal perspective on this phenomenon, it is clear that, but for a few exceptions, Hollywood’s treatment of the subject has been crude and simplistic. All of the UFO experiencers I’ve spoken with over the years share the view that the entertainment industry should move beyond the genre trappings of sci-fi and horror, past even the explicitly “alien,” and focus instead on the “human;” on the frequently reported psychologically and spiritually transformative aspects of these experiences—whatever they may represent—at both individual and collective levels.
If you’ve never done any research on the UFO topic, you might be forgiven for thinking that the only people who see them are hicks with worrying family trees; certainly this is the stereotype that has been perpetuated by Hollywood. In reality, however, UFOs are reported by men and women from all walks of life, and from all social and economic backgrounds: from burger-flippers to bankers, sex-workers to surgeons, pot-washers to politicians. With this in mind, it should could come as little surprise that those who spend their working days in the skies above us also see their fair share of anomalous aerial phenomena. Indeed, cases of pilot encounters with UFOs stand among the most credible and dramatic ever recorded in the history of this enduring enigma.
Here are five of the the most compelling…
#5. Alderney Sighting, 2007
Captain Ray Bowyer got the fright of his life on 23 April 2007 while piloting a routine passenger flight from Southampton, England, to Alderney in the Channel Islands. Over a 15 minute period, he and his passengers witnessed two UFOs so large and imposing that Bowyer–a pilot with 18 years of flying experience–wanted nothing more than to land his aircraft as soon as humanly possible “and have a cup of tea.” Typical Brit.
Bowyer’s aircraft gradually converged on two stationary, cigar-shaped craft, each emitting a brilliant yellow light. To the naked eye, the objects appeared unnervingly large, despite initially being some 55 miles away, and Bowyer would later estimate that the two mystery craft were each up to a mile across. Bowyer also viewed the objects through 10X magnification binoculars, through which he could distinguish their seemingly solid form, which grew clearer still as his aircraft drew nearer to them.
Bowyer would later recall:
I found myself astounded but curious, but at 12 miles’ distance these objects were becoming uncomfortably large, and I was glad to descend and land the aircraft. Many of my passengers saw the objects as did the pilots of another aircraft, 25 miles further south [a plane near Sark, which confirmed the presence, general position and altitude of the first object from the opposite direction].
The encounter was thoroughly investigated but remains unexplained. Bowyer conservatively maintains that what he and his passengers witnessed was “definitely nothing from around these parts.”
#4. USS Nimitz Radar/Visual Encounter, 2004
At around 12:30 EST on November 14, 2004, an operations officer aboard the guided missile cruiser USS Princeton contacted two airborne US Navy jet fighters from USS Nimitz, instructing the pilots to change their course and investigate an unidentified blip that was showing up on the Princeton’s radar. The first fighter aircraft was piloted by Commander David Fravor, with his weapon systems officer in the back seat. The second jet was piloted by Commander Jim Slaight.
The weather conditions that day were near perfect: blue sky, no cloud cover, calm sea. When the jet fighters–both FA-18F Super Hornets–arrived at the site of the radar blip, the crew of four could see nothing untoward in the air. Below them, however, on the surface of the sea, they noticed an area “the size of a Boeing 737 airplane with a smoother area of lighter color at the center,” as if the waves were breaking over a large object just under the surface. Moments later, the crew noticed a strange object hovering erratically some 50 feet above the disturbance in the water. Both pilots later described the unidentified object as resembling a large bright white “Tic Tac” between 30 and 46 feet in length, with no visible engine or exhaust plume.
As Commander Fravor started a circular descent towards the object, it began ascending along a curved path, keeping a safe distance from the F-18 and mirroring its trajectory. Fravor then attempted to plunge his fighter below the object. No chance. The UFO accelerated “like a bullet from a gun” and was lost from his sight in less than two seconds. The nature and origin of the object remain a mystery (at least officially).
In 2017, Fravor spoke publicly about his “Tic Tac” encounter as part of a broader and ongoing public initiative to draw attention to the Pentagon’s shadowy UFO study program (now allegedly shut down), officially titled the Advanced Aerospace Threat Identification Program (AATIP).
#3. The Death of Thomas Mantell, 1948
On 7 January 1948, Captain Thomas Mantell, a 25 year old Kentucky Air National Guard Pilot, died while in pursuit of an Unidentified Flying Object. Mantell, who was honored with the Distinguished Flying Cross for his part in the Battle of Normandy, was one of four pilots ordered by the 156th Fighter Squadron to investigate UFO reports coming in to a number of military bases in Kentucky that afternoon, including Goldman Field at Fort Knox and Clinton County Army Airfield. The UFO was reported by military personnel as being up to 300 ft. in diameter, and white with a red border at the bottom.
The pilots, who were in radio communication with the control tower at Fort Knox, were ordered to approach the object, but it was now at a considerable altitude and appeared as little more than a dot in the sky. The pilots were then advised to break off direct pursuit and to level their altitude, a suggestion ignored by Mantell, who continued to climb in chase of the object. As Mantell got closer to the UFO, he told the control tower it looked “metallic,” and was of “tremendous size.” They would be some of his last words. It is thought that he blacked out soon after due to lack of oxygen. His plane spiralled to the ground, crashing on a farm south of Franklin, Kentucky. The cause of Mantell’s crash as listed by the Air Force officially remains “undetermined.”
#2. The Vanishing of Frederick Valentich, 1978
Yet another aircraft would be lost in an apparent UFO encounter in 1978. On October 21, at 7:12 pm, 20-year-old Frederick Valentich and the Cessna 182L light aircraft he was piloting mysteriously vanished over Australia’s Bass Strait. Shortly prior to his disappearance Valentich had advised Melbourne air traffic control that he was being orbited by a large craft some 300 meters above him. Valentich said the craft was long, with a shiny metal surface and a green light on it. He reported that the craft was approaching him from the Southwest. Moments later, the young pilot made what would be his final statement to air traffic control – or to anyone: “[the] strange aircraft is hovering on top of me again. It is hovering and it’s not an aircraft.” This was followed by 17 seconds of “metallic scraping sounds.” No trace of Valentich or his aircraft was ever found. The cause of his disappearance remains undetermined.
#1. Japan Airlines Close Encounter, 1986
This case, involving a Japanese Airlines Boeing 747 cargo plane en route from Paris to Tokyo, is arguably the most compelling example to date of an aircraft coming dangerously close to airborne technological objects seemingly not of terrestrial origin.
On November 17, 1986, at 5.11 pm local time, while flying at 35,000 feet over northeastern Alaska, veteran pilot Captain Kenju Terauchi, along with his first officer and flight engineer, noticed unusual lights some 2000 feet below and to the left of their 747. After a few minutes, the lights changed their position and suddenly appeared directly in front of the aircraft, and at much closer proximity—so close, in fact, that they lit up the cockpit and Terauchi said he could feel heat on his face. They now resembled two pairs of squarish arrays of pulsating “amber and whitish” lights. The captain estimated them to be “about the same size as the body of a DC-8 jet.” The objects then positioned themselves side-by-side.
Terauchi asked Anchorage flight control if it was tracking any objects near the aircraft. Negative. Terauchi would later note that his communication with flight control was garbled for several minutes, seemingly due to interference on the part of the UFOs. As the mysterious objects moved off to the left, the pilot sighted a third UFO some eight miles away; the aircraft’s radar detected it too, and it remained onscreen for several minutes. It was big—very big—and the smaller two objects were flying towards it. As Terauchi and co. looked behind them, they could see in the distance the “silhouette of a giant spaceship,” which was reflecting the lights from the ground. Terauchi would later refer to this immense Saturn-shaped object as the “mothership” and estimated it to be the size of “two aircraft carriers.” It remained behind them as the captain radioed Anchorage requesting permission to take evasive manoeuvres. Permission was granted, but the huge UFO held its position.
Meanwhile, Anchorage flight control had been in touch with the Air Force at Elmendorf Regional Operational Control Center to see if they were tracking anything anomalous—they were, but by 5.28 it had gone. At 5.40, Anchorage asked Terauchi if he would like to have jets scrambled to intercept, but he declined, fearing for the safety of the fighter pilots.
After a terrifying 30 minutes, Terauchi and his crew finally lost sight of the UFOs and landed his 747 safely at Anchorage, whereupon an investigation was launched by the FAA, which concluded that it could not confirm the event and that a split radar return was involved. Meanwhile, the debunking group CSICOP concluded that Captain and crew had simply misidentified the planets Jupiter and Mars. Years later, John Callahan, former Division Chief for Accidents and Investigations branch of the FAA, testified publicly to his first-hand knowledge of a CIA cover-up of flight data relating to this event.
‘Member in that movie Armageddon when Bruce Willis landed a spaceship on a freakin’ asteroid? I remember. While that might have seemed like an outlandish and unrealistic plot device at the time, it turns out that such an escapade may indeed be possible – if Bruce Willis is available, of course. That guy stays pretty busy. Die Hard 6, really?
Actually, even without Bruce Willis’ help, the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) announced this week that they have successfully landed rovers on the asteroid Ryugu. 162173 Ryugu is a potentially hazardous near-Earth object (NEO) measuring around 1 kilometer (0.6 miles) in diameter. Ryugu orbits the sun every 16 months and passes within a quarter of a lunar distance to Earth as it does, making it an object worthy of our attention.
The groundbreaking mission is part of the agency’s Hayabusa 2 asteroid sample-return mission, the ultimate goal of which is to collect material samples of Ryugu and safely bring them back to Earth for analysis. At least when we’re all incinerated by an asteroid impact, we will have known what it was made of.
To accomplish this feat, JAXA has deployed two tiny roverscalled MINERVA II which are able to hop and roll around the asteroid’s surface, taking photographs and collecting samples all the way. The rovers have already beamed back a few pictures, and they’re as incredible as you would imagine they are. The images show asteroid 162173 Ryugu to be just the type of barren, inhospitable rock an asteroid should be.
162173 Ryugu
Will we one day have to send Bruce Willis or another similarly steely-eyed hunk on a suicidal mission to land on an asteroid and blow it to bits? Given how much attention the White House is paying to asteroids and the other 15,000 near-Earth objects lately, it’s definitely possible – especially given that some scientists accuse NASA of hiding the truth about these NEOs.
This is why it’s important to live for today.
Asteroids have impacted the Earth many times throughout our planet’s history, causing mass extinction events and generally ruining everyone’s day. All of this has happened before and will happen again. When will the next one occur?
China successfully tests its hypersonic Starry Sky-2 aircraft that will fire nuclear missiles capable of travelling at 4,563 miles-per-hour to evade existing anti-missile defence systems
China successfully tests its hypersonic Starry Sky-2 aircraft that will fire nuclear missiles capable of travelling at 4,563 miles-per-hour to evade existing anti-missile defence systems
The hypersonic weapon rides on the shockwaves it generates, reports suggest
It can travel at six times the speed of sound – around 7,344km/h (4,563mph)
The flight test was deemed a 'huge success' by scientists involved in the project
Experts say it could signal China is now neck-and-neck with Russia and the US
China has successfully tested a hypersonic aircraft capable of carrying nuclear weapons that evade existing anti-missile defence systems, according reports.
The next-generation weapon, known as Xingkong-2 or Starry Sky-2, will ride the shockwave generated by the initial launch, which is handled by a rocket, to travel at six times the speed of sound, or Mach 6 – around 4,563mph (7,344kmph).
Starry Sky-2 will purportedly be able to switch direction during its flight, making it harder to track and intercept.
When the aircraft fires its missiles, these will also travel at top speeds of 4,563mph (7,344kmph) and will easily defeat conventional anti-missile defence systems.
Scientists involved in the latest test flight have heralded it as a 'huge success', with experts saying the aircraft signals China is now neck-and-neck with Russia and the United States in the race to create hypersonic warheads.
China has long been suspected of building an arsenal of hypersonic weapons, but this new test flight is the first proof the technology is actively being developed.
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China has tested a hypersonic aircraft called Starry Sky-2 (pictured) that could carry nuclear weapons and evade anti-missile defence systems, reports suggest
The China Academy of Aerospace Aerodynamics (CAAA) said in a statement the latest test flight – carried out at an undisclosed location in northwest of the country – was a 'huge success', writes South China Morning Post.
The Starry Sky-2 aircraft was carried into space before separating from the launcher rocket and flying on its own power.
Known as a 'waverider', these hypersonic aircrafts uses the shockwaves from its own flight as a lifting surface to travel through the air at fast speeds.
In the latest tests, the aircraft was able to maintain speeds greater than five-and-a-half times the speed of sound for 400 seconds at an altitude of 30km (19 miles).
Local reports suggest it also achieved a top speed of Mach 6.
'The test … has laid a solid technological foundation for engineering applications of the waverider design,' the CAAA statement claimed.
Hypersonic weapons can defeat existing anti-missile defences as they are designed to switch direction during their flight.
These missiles do not follow a predictable ballistic arc like conventional projectiles, making them much harder to track and intercept.
According to the CAAA, the aircraft landed 'whole' in the designated target zone.
However, this technology is not ready to be rolled-out yet.
The next-generation weapon, known as Xingkong-2 or Starry Sky-2, will ride the shockwave generated by the initial launch, which is handled by a rocket, to travel at six times the speed of sound, or Mach 6 – around 4,563mph (7,344kmph)
Starry Sky-2 (pictured) will purportedly be able to switch direction during its flight, making it harder to track and intercept
'I think there are still three to five years before this technology can be weaponised,' said Beijing-based military analyst, Zhou Chenming.
'As well as being fitted to missiles, it may also have other military applications, which are still being explored.'
Russia is widely-tipped to be developing a hypersonic weapon known as 'Zircon'.
The Zircon cruise missile purportedly travels between 3,800mph (6,115kph) and 4,600mph (7,400kph) – five to six times the speed of sound – putting Russia 'half a decade ahead of the US'.
According to Russian news agency Tass, it is set to go into production this year.
When the aircraft fires its missiles, these will also travel at top speeds of 4,563mph (7,344kmph) and will easily defeat conventional anti-missile defence systems
Known as a 'waverider', these hypersonic aircrafts uses the shockwaves from its own flight as a lifting surface to travel through the air at fast speeds
In the latest tests, the aircraft was able to maintain speeds greater than five-and-a-half times the speed of sound for 400 seconds at an altitude of 30km (19 miles)
In June, it was also revealed a US hypersonic missile had taken a step closer to reality.
Defence firm Lockheed Martin revealed details of a $928 million (£661 million) contract to make a radical new weapon that will travel more than five times the speed of sound.
The aerospace firm is working on an air-launched weapon system, dubbed the Hypersonic Conventional Strike Weapon (HCSW), under a new deal with the US Air Force.
In the first phase, the team will finalise the system requirements before moving on to design, flight tests, and initial production and deployment.
Work on the ultra-fast missile is taking place in Huntsville, Alabama, Valley Forge, Pennsylvania, and Orlando, Florida, according to Lockheed Martin.
Russia is believed to be developing a hypersonic weapon called the Zircon. The missile is capable of travelling twice as fast as the Royal Navy's Sea Ceptor missile (pictured), which would be responsible for shooting it down were it to attack British troops or mainland UK
WHAT ARE HYPERSONIC AIRCRAFT AND WHO IS DEVELOPING THEM?
Hypersonic aircraft are those capable of a hitting speeds five times the speed of sound or more.
The vehicles could be used to deliver missiles, including nuclear weapons, to targets around the world in a fraction of the time achieved by current craft.
Hypersonic vehicles travel so rapidly and unpredictably they could provide an almost-immediate threat to nations across the globe.
Once developed, the gap between identifying a military threat and launching an attack on it will drop from hours to minutes, even at long distances.
Since 2013, China has conducted seven successful test flights of its hypersonic glider DF-ZF.
The vehicle will be capable of speeds of between Mach 5 and Mach 10, or five to 10 times the speed of sound.
US officials tested tested HTV-2 in 2011, an unmanned aircraft capable of Mach 20, but the hypersonic flight lasted just a few minutes before the vehicle crashed.Additional expertise in Denver, Colorado, and Sunnyvale, California will also be involved in the project.
The US Air Force will grant Lockheed Martin up to $928 million for development of the weapon through early operational capability.
'Our goal is rapid development and fielding of the HCSW system, and this contract is the first step in achieving that goal,' said John Snyder, vice president of Air Force Strategic Programs at Lockheed Martin.
'Design, development, production, integration and test experts from across Lockheed Martin will partner with the Air Force to achieve early operational capability and deliver the system to our warfighters.
'We are incredibly proud to be leading this effort.'
It was first revealed back in April that the Pentagon pushed through development of the highly maneuverable weapons, which are designed to outpace detection and defensive capabilities.
The move follows repeated warnings from senior officials about rapid advances by China and Russia, who have unveiled their own versions in recent months.
Defence firm Lockheed Martin revealed details of a $928 million (£661 million) contract to make a radical new weapon that will travel more than five times the speed of sound. This 2010 file photo shows rival Boeing's X-51A WaveRider hypersonic vehicle under a B-52 bomber
Hypersonic weapons can beat regular anti-missile defences. This artist's impression, courtesy of the US Air Force, shows Boeing's hypersonic X-51A Waverider cruise missile currently under development
Arsenals of the ultra-fast intercontinental weapons could also be equipped with nuclear warheads with the capability of delivering devastating strikes across the planet.
In a statement, the Pentagon said Lockheed will receive up to $928 million to build a new, non-nuclear missile it is calling the 'hypersonic conventional strike weapon.'
'This contract provides for the design, development, engineering, systems integration, test, logistics planning, and aircraft integration support of all the elements of a hypersonic, conventional, air-launched, stand-off weapon,' the statement read.
Mike Griffin, the Pentagon's new defense undersecretary for research and engineering, said China had built 'a pretty mature system' for a hypersonic missile to strike from thousands of kilometres (miles) away.
'We will, with today's defensive systems, not see these things coming,' Mr Griffin said.
WHAT DOES RUSSIA CLAIM TO HAVE IN ITS MILITARY ARSENAL?
The Russian Ministry of Defence has been keen to promote a range of new super weapons currently believed to be in development.
President Putin unveiled a catalogue of doomsday weaponry as part of his annual 'State of the Nation' speech in March 2018.
However, questions remain about the true nature of their capabilities, how far into development the weapons truly are, and when they will be combat-ready.
RS-28 Sarmat ICBM
The RS-28 Sarmat is intended to replace the Soviet-designed SS-18 Voyevoda, the world's heaviest ICBM (Intercontinental Ballistic Missile).
It is known as 'Satan' in the West and carries 10 nuclear warheads.
Sarmat can unleash ten large thermonuclear warheads, 16 smaller ones, or a combination of both, according to the Russian Ministry of Defence.
Each warhead is purportedly capable of taking aim at a different target.
The hypersonic glide vehicle, dubbed Avangard, launches atop an intercontinental ballistic missile (IBM) before sailing on top of the atmosphere toward its target. Russia tested its latest IBM, the Sarmat missile, for the first time last year (pictured)
The (ICBM) weapons can strike targets via both the North and South poles.
TV broadcaster Zvezda, which is run by the Russian Ministry of Defence, has previously claimed the missile will be capable of wiping out areas the size of Texas or France.
It is also capable of carrying up to 24 of Russia's new Avangard hypersonic glide vehicles, designed to sit atop of an ICBM.
Putin says both weapons will be combat-ready in 2020.
Avangard Hypersonic Glide Vehicle
Russia is also believed to be developing a hypersonic weapon that can breach even the world's most advanced missile defence systems.
The Avangard hypersonic glide vehicle purportedly travels at 20 times the speed of sound and can hit targets anywhere in the world within half an hour.
The vehicle launches atop an intercontinental ballistic missile, or ICBM, before gliding on top of the atmosphere toward its target.
It is loaded with advanced countermeasure systems that allow it to skirt around the latest-generation of missile defence systems, Russia claims.
The vehicles are equipped with onboard countermeasure systems capable of dodging even the most advanced missile defence systems. This artist's impression shows how the glider could manoeuvre at high speed to bypass missile defences
The gliders are also highly unpredictable thanks to their manoeuvrability, making them almost impossible to track using conventional systems.
Each weapon could be loaded with a nuclear warhead, however military experts say the sheer speed of the vehicles means they could do damage even without an explosive payload attached.
Putin described his hypersonic arsenal as 'invincible' during a state-of-the-nation address in March 2018.
He claimed Avangard strikes 'like a meteorite, like a fireball' and was capable of reaching targets at 20 times the speed of sound.
At this speed the weapon could circle the Earth in just over half an hour.
Speaking to MailOnline, Neil Gibson, senior weapons analyst for Jane's by IHS Markit, said: 'I think the ability of hypersonic systems to defeat air-defence system is highly exaggerated.
'They have advantages and disadvantages as per any other weapon system.
'The fact is, the vast majority of ballistic missiles are already hypersonic anyway, it's the controlled flight when still hypersonic that we are talking about here.
'If nuclear armed, they just come under 'mutually assured destruction' style posturing. Using them is always possible of course.
'Conventionally-armed versions are more likely to be used, though any confusion with what they carry - nuclear or conventional warhead - could start an exchange of nuclear weapons if it is mistaken for a nuclear attack.'
Kinzhal Hypersonic Air Launched Missile
Another new missile, the hypersonic Kinzhal, travels at ten times the speed of sound, Putin says.
It is currently undergoing tests in southern Russia.
The hypersonic Kinzhal missile is launched from a high-altitude MiG-31 fighter jet and can be fitted with either nuclear, or conventional weapons.
This still shows the hypersonic Kinzhal, which travels at ten times the speed of sound and is currently undergoing tests in southern Russia
It has an effective range of 1,250 miles (2,000 km), although Putin claims its total range is actually 'unlimited'.
Russia has already conducted some 350 training missions with the military unit tasked with testing the Kinzhal.
Putin claims the new missile would be capable of striking 'anywhere in the world', and that its high speed and manoeuvrability allowed it to pierce any missile defence.
However, despite Putin's major promises, the missile has still not been able to stay airborne for more than a few minutes, according to US intelligence sources.
The new missile has purportedly been tested four times between November and February and crashed every time.
Burevestnik nuclear powered cruise missile
The burevestnik, or thunderbird, nuclear propulsion system for Russian cruise missiles aims to give them 'unlimited range and unlimited ability to manoeuvre', according to Sergey Pertsev, a developer.
Ministry of Defence officials said in July, 2018, that work on the unlimited-range missile is going according to plan.
Footage purported to show the missile in action, although it is unclear whether it was being powered by nuclear or conventional fuel.
The 'Burevestnik' nuclear propulsion system for Russian cruise missiles, pictured, is said to have 'unlimited range and unlimited ability to manoeuvre'
'Launching systems are also being designed, while technological processes to manufacture, assemble and test the missile are being improved,' an official said at the time.
However, experts have criticised the missile, including Jeffrey Lewis, a nuclear expert at the Middlebury Institute of International Studies at Monterey.
He told Vice's Motherboard: 'The nuclear-powered cruise missile is new—and bats**t crazy.'
Poseidon Drone Submarine
The Poseidon drone submarine is a sister project to burevestnik.
It is essentially a giant, nuclear-capable torpedo capable of carrying a two megaton nuclear warhead capable of obliterating military ports.
The Kremlin's Poseidon torpedo sub is designed to destroy 'enemy navy bases' and will be able to travel up to 70 knots (80 miles per hour), it claims.
Russian state news agency TASS says it has not been able to confirm details of the weapon.
The Poseidon drone submarine - with a miniature nuclear propulsion system - is shown undergoing a static test
However, it quoted a military source as saying: 'It will be possible to mount various nuclear charges on the 'torpedo' of the Poseidon multipurpose seaborne system, with the thermonuclear single warhead similar to the Avangard charge to have the maximum capacity of up to two megatonnes in TNT equivalent.'
With its nuke, the weapon 'is primarily designed to destroy reinforced naval bases of a potential enemy,' the report added.
Peresvet Combat Laser System
Named after a medieval warrior monk, very little is known about this system.
Many believe Peresvet is a jamming system carried on the back of military lorries, which can be used to 'blind' optical electronic equipment inside enemy vehicles using a laser beam.
According to ex-Russian Deputy Defense Minister Yuri Borisov the 'combat laser systems' that Putin addressed in his State of the Nation speech back in March had already been delivered to the nation's armed forces last year.
Many believe Peresvet is a jamming system carried on the back of military lorries (pictured), which can be used to 'blind' optical electronic equipment inside enemy vehicles using a laser beam
Once found only in works of fiction, Mr Borisov said such devices were now a very real and necessary tool of modern warfare.
'We can talk a lot about laser weapons and movies were made about them a long time ago and fantastic books have been written, and everyone knows about this,' Mr Borisov said in comments translated by the state-run Tass Russian News Agency.
But the fact that these systems have started entering service is indeed today's reality.'
Over the next several weeks, I’ll be conducting interviews with leading UFO researchers from countries around the world in an effort to paint a picture of global UFOlogy today. This week, our global UFO trek takes us to Australia, and to Bill Chalker, a veteran UFO researcher based in Sydney with a background in chemistry and mathematics. He has contributed to such publications as Rolling Stone and Reader’s Digest and has written chapters for books including UFOs and Government: A Historical Inquiry and all three volumes of Jerome Clark’s The UFO Encyclopedia. He is the author of The OZ Files(1996) and Hair of the Alien (2005) and Coordinator of the Sydney-based UFO Investigation Centre (UFOIC) and the Anomaly Physical Evidence Group (APEG).
Bill Chalker.
RG: Who have been the defining figures in Australian UFOlogy over the past 70 years (for better or for worse), and why?
BC: Edgar Jarrold is generally seen as a foundational figure in Australian ufology with his 1952 group, the Australian Flying Saucer Bureau, and his publication, The Australian Flying Saucer Magazine. More controversially, it is his departure from public ufology that helped spawn Gray Barker’s version of the “men-in-black” saga with his colourful book, They Knew Too Much About Flying Saucers(1956). South Australian ufologist Fred Stone tried unsuccessfully to take over Jarrold’s national reach. By the end of the 1950s, individual state groups began their rise with people like Peter Norris (the Victorian Flying Saucer Research Society, later VUFORS), Stan Seers (the Queensland Flying Saucer Bureau, now UFO Research (Qld)) and Dr. Miran Lindtner (the Sydney based UFO Investigation Centre (UFOIC) which I continue today). Judy Magee and Paul Norman became prominent in the Victorian group. Colin Norris provided a focus in South Australia, until the efforts of Vladimir Godic and Keith Basterfield during the 1970s encouraged a number of the state groups to adopt the generic group name of UFO Research and a scientific investigation focus. The 1970s also saw the rise of a national focus, following Dr. Allen Hynek’s 1973 visit, ultimately leading to the Australian Centre for UFO Studies operating from 1980.
Edgar Jarrold, a foundational figure in Australian UFOlogy.
It limped into the nineties a pale shadow of its former self. Most serious researchers had long since abandoned it in favour of the national networking vision established by ACOS and the earlier ACUFOS manifestation and UFORA, and because ACUFOS had lost direction and credibility with what was seen as the uncritical promotion of dubious material by its final incumbent co-ordinator. Vlad Godic led a revived national focus with his UFO Research Australia Newsletter and with Keith Basterfield, the UFO Research Australia organisation, which ended with Godic’s untimely death. The national focus was effectively re-empowered with Robert Frola and Diane Harrison’s Australian UFO Research Network (AUFORN). Robert Frola also focused on a national newsstand magazine—the Ufologist—which continued for two decades. While the Internet helped break down a lot of the barriers of a big country like Australia, it effectively energised individuals and state orientated groups. For example the blogs of Keith Basterfield, Paul Dean, and myself in terms of the individual approaches, and in terms of state orientated groups—UFO Research Qld, UFO Research NSW, and Victorian UFO Action (VUFOA). Other organisations and individuals provide alternate focuses such as my own low profile networking continuation of UFOIC, Moira McGhee’s INUFOR (Independent Network of UFO researchers), the Campbelltown based UFO-PRSA (The UFO & Paranormal Research Society of Australia), Rex and Heather Gilroy’s Blue Mountains UFO research, John Auchettl’s rather secrecy obsessed group PRA (Phenomena Research Australia) and Damien Nott’s Australian Aerial Phenomena Investigations (AAPI).
Syndey, Australia.
RG: What do you consider to be the most compelling Australian UFO incident on record, and why?
BC: I prefer to put forward my own list of “top ten” regional Australian cases, rather than one single case, as the list better reflects the complexity and nature of the UFO phenomenon. Despite various efforts to explain away some of my listed cases, they have stood up well. You can explore the details of each case, in part, through entries about each on my blogalong with a whole lot of other cases.
My personal top ten regional Australian case list: (in italics the reason for each case being chosen):
1954, August 31 – Sea Fury case, near Goulbourn, NSW, Australia (experienced naval pilot, radar visual confirmation, independent ground witnesses, apparent intelligent responses to witnesses’ thoughts about possible collision)
1992, July 23—Peter Khoury “Hair of Alien” DNA case—Sydney, Australia (abduction type encounter with female Nordic blonde yields anomalous hair sample that suggests “hybrid origin” and unusual genetic profiles. This case also led to my book Hair of the Alien (2005) and my on-going research into the “alien DNA paradigm” hypothesis – for further details see here.
1959, June 27—Father Gill UFO entity sighting—Boianai, Papua New Guinea(credible multiple witness sighting of animate entities on UFO with intelligent interactions)
1980, September 30 – George Blackwell’s Rosedale UFO landing physical trace case – Rosedale, Victoria Australia(compelling array of physical evidence—ground trace, missing water, effects on witness, other witness)
1993, August 8—Kelly Cahill’s abduction experience—Narre Warren North, Victoria, Australia(possible independent multiple witness UFO encounter with abduction dimensions and physical evidence)
1966, January 19—George Pedley’s Tully UFO nest encounter—Tully, Queensland, Australia(daylight close encounter with UFO take off leaving physical evidence – “UFO nest”)
1966, April 4—Ron Sullivan’s “bent headlight beam” experience—Burkes Flat, Victoria Australia(striking UFO encounter, physical traces, bent light beams, possible related fatality)
1966, April 6—Westall school daylight UFO landing” encounter—Westall, Victoria, Australia (multiple witness daylight landing, physical traces, “cover-up” dimensions)
1977-78—Gisborne UFO abduction milieu—Gisborne New Zealand(complex and high strangeness UFO and abduction milieu – entities, multiple witnesses, multiple abductions)
1973 May—August—Tyringham Dundurrabin intense UFO flap area, NSW, Australia (long term intense UFO flap, multiple witness, physical effects, paranormal dimensions, much of which was personally witnessed)
RG: What is the Australian government’s official stance on UFOs? When was the last time it issued a statement on the subject?
BC: While I would argue that Australia’s “official stance on UFOs” (that there was largely nothing to it all) was fully expressed back in 1984, it was restated and expanded upon in 1994 and again in 1996 and even later still. See my chapter in the UFO History Group’s monumental study, “UFOs and Government” (2012). My friend Paul Dean describes the drawn out Australian “swan song” in 2015 and 2016 posts on this theme:
“In the 1994, and further in 1996, the Australian Defence Department increasingly and officially washed their hands of the UFO/UAP matter. This came after some 44 years of official Defence handling of the issue, with the Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF) and the old Department of Air (DOA) begrudgingly doing the lion’s share of the investigative work – if you can call it ‘investigative work’ that is. See, judging by the thousands of declassified and released pages held now at the National Archives of Australia (NAA), its crystal clear that those in RAAF and Aviation officialdom did a sub-standard job of chronological filing, policy development, and last, but definitely not least, actual investigation. Veteran researcher Bill Chalker stated to me in my first phone conversation with him 6 years ago, that his opinion of the government’s handling of the matter, after looking through the files, was ‘an entirely lost opportunity’ for a proper ‘scientific appraisal’ of the UFO matter. He was right then, and he is right now.”
I describe my own take on this:
“Despite cases like the 1973 North West Cape event, the 1983 Melton/Rockbank incident and the 1987 SAS Learmouth report, during December 1993, the RAAF formerly concluded its long love-hate relationship with UFOs, or ‘Unusual Aerial Sightings’ (UAS) as they preferred to call them. The Department of Defence ‘swansong’ was dryly expressed in Enclosure 1 to Air Force file AF 84 3508 Part 1 folio 18 – RAAF POLICY: UNUSUAL AERIAL SIGHTINGS.”
In correspondence dated January 4, 1994, civilian UFO groups around Australia were informed by now Wing Commander Brett Biddington, on behalf of the Chief of Air Staff, that “The number of reports made to the RAAF in the past decade had declined significantly, which may indicate that organisation such as yours are better known and are meeting the community’s requirements.”
Parliament House, Canberra, Australia.
The “new” policy, which was an inevitable outgrowth of the downgrading of the RAAF’s role back in 1984, stated:
“For many years the RAAF has been formally responsible for handling Unusual Aerial Sightings (UAS) at the official level. Consideration of the scientific record suggests that, whilst not all UAS have a ready explanation, there is no compelling reason for the RAAF to continue to devote resources to recording, investigating and attempting to explain UAS.
The RAAF no longer accepts reports on UAS and no longer attempts assignment of cause or allocation of reliability. Members of the community who seek to report a UAS to RAAF personnel will be referred to a civil UFO research organisation in the first instance…
Some UAS may relate to events that could have a defence, security, or public safety implication, such as man-made debris falling from space or a burning aircraft. Where members of the community may have witnessed an event of this type they are encouraged to contact the police or civil aviation authorities.”
Given the rich history of political and military machinations that quite often effectively prevented opportunities for real science, the policy statement alluding to “the scientific record” is particularly perplexing. As a scientist who has examined in detail the RAAF “record” I can state with some certainty that their record was not particularly scientific and was largely defined by two criteria—national security and political expediency. This appeal to “the scientific record” is particularly puzzling as the RAAF regularly highlighted that national security not scientific investigation was their main focus. For example, in a 6 December 1968 memo from DAFI to HQSC in 554/1/30 Part 2, DAFI mentions, “As you are probably aware the Department of Air (later (DOD (Air Office)) is concerned solely with any possible threat to Australian security and does not go into detailed scientific investigation of UFO reports.”
Keith Basterfield reported Melbourne researcher Paul Dean’s recent interview with Brett Biddington who had since retired from the Air Force, who stated, “I wrote the 1994 policy and had a hand in the 1996 policy as well. After the Melbourne sightings I conducted an informal (in the sense I did not document it) literature review of UAS. I also sought help from civilian UFO organisations which claimed knowledge and understanding of the domain. I could find nothing on record that was defensible or sustainable. This is the reference to the “scientific record.”
I had spoken with Brett Biddington back in 2008. He indicated he had left the Air Force as “the most senior Air Force intelligence person in Australia during the 1990s.” He saw himself as still “the RAAF UFO/UAS expert” and regularly got RAAF enquiries. He regarded the “UAS regime” as a response to the Cold War and a way of finding data on “space debri.” He felt he encountered paucity of data in every respect, with “the veracity of the entire system in doubt.” He felt the UAS data had limited historical relevance. The RAAF’s response was always about the doubtful and limited veracity of UAS reports and the grief they caused for the RAAF. He told me that he never saw any case that grabbed his attention, not even the Melton case.
While I would agree that much of the data collected and assessed by the RAAF’s UFO/UAS programme was of limited merit, I also feel strongly that the lack of scientific investigations revealed numerous lost opportunities to do real science. Many impressive cases came to the attention of the RAAF, but rarely were they given the investigation they deserved—both a focus on national security where appropriate, and a scientific investigation. The scientific approach was not part of the RAAF’s investigations in any really significant way, hence the irony of a claim of “a consideration of the scientific record” informing the decision to end the RAAF’s reluctant and erratic embrace with the UFO problem. I wondered why the 1994 and 1996 policies were developed as the RAAF involvement had long since faded to a very low ebb and was always problematic. The UFO problem was always unwieldy and unmanageable for the RAAF. Controversy rather than resolution was a frequent feature. At times it seemed the RAAF were barely doing even a token effort. The RAAF largely resolved any dilemmas they had with intractable or unexplained cases by either burying them with unlikely explanations or simply ignoring the implications of often robust and unexplained events.
I have interviewed highly placed scientists within the Australian intelligence and defence community such as nuclear physicist Harry Turner who headed up the nuclear section of the Directorate of Scientific and Technical Intelligence within the Joint Intelligence Organisation and led a fight for a “UFO science” response within the Australian intelligence and military science community. The chief Defence scientist Dr John Farrands also had a deep interest in the UFO subject. He shared information, his perspectives and told me he had even contemplated writing a book on the subject, but would instead wait for mine. Sadly he passed away about a week after my book The OZ Files—The Australian UFO Storywas published, so I never got the opportunity to see what he thought of it.
If the Department of Defence had a sense of an efficient “burial” of “the UFO problem,” someone had forgotten to inform the alleged corpse. The UFO phenomenon has never really passed away, but you would be forgiven for believing it has had many resurrections. Remarkable events continue to occur, providing a challenging testament for the legitimacy of the UFO phenomenon.
RG: Does the Australian Ministry of Defence have an official UFO investigations unit?
BC: While the Directorate of Air Force Intelligence (DAFI) historically had the central responsibility for investigating UFOs (or UAS—Unusual Aerial Sightings—as they preferred to call them), the drawn out nature of the Australian government’s disengagement from the UFO subject has led to a somewhat fragmented and ad hoc current picture. Paul Dean has elaborated on this, indicating:
“There are currently two Australian government agencies who are equipped to, and indeed do, accept UFO reports from civil aviation flight crews. They are the Australian Transport Safety Bureau (ATSB) and Air services Australia (ASA). Of course, they do more than deal with infrequent UFO reports, and, in fact, are responsible for airspace management, the functionality of airports, pilot licensing, air safety, navigational systems, etc. Australia’s Department of Defence (DoD) also accepts and processes UFO reports, but their system is quite different from those of the ATSB and ASA. The DoD’s Directorate of Defence Aviation and Air Force Safety (DDAAFS) accepts reported military UFO cases via a form called an Air Safety Occurrence Report (ASOR). ASOR’s are processed through the Defence Aviation Hazard Reporting and Tracking System (DAHRTS), and are studied within the Closed Loop Hazard/ASOR Review and Tracking System. DDAAFS military UFO reports have proven very hard to obtain. But ATSB and ASA reports have been somewhat easier.”
RG: Has the Australian government shown more or less transparency on the UFO subject than the US and British governments?
BC: The Australian government’s approach was more of a middle ground, but defined in a somewhat ad hoc way by the principle of “the ties that bind,” namely Australia’s relationship with its major defence partners—the US and the UK. While Australia routinely followed the lead from the much larger scale UFO investigations of the US Air Force, the government also took stock of the approach of the UK, which only in more recent years had become more open with their UFO files.
My own direct access of the Australian government UFO files was generally pretty open. During 1982 to 1984 I was able to examine a continuity of DAFI UFO files from 1955 to 1982, and since then filled in many of the gaps before and after those years. Through those investigations I was able to make contact with a lot of official players, particularly Defence scientist Harry Turner. Keith Basterfield, through an Australian disclosure programme, extensively supplemented and complemented my earlier investigations of official government files.
RG: Does Australia have a national UFO investigations organisation today (something akin to MUFON), and how many smaller Australian UFO groups are you aware of?
BC: The Australian UFO Research Network (AUFORN) was the last and most recent of the national UFO investigation organisations in Australia, but this slowly lapsed, particularly following the closure of the national UFO magazine, the “UFOlogist.” Prior to AUFORN there was CAPIO in the 1960s, ACUFOS (and its ACOS roots) in the 1970s and 1980s, UFORA in the 1980s and early 1990s. In terms of smaller groups, these exist with most having either local or state focuses, the main ones being UFO Research Qld, UFO Research (NSW), UFO-PRSA, UFOIC, VUFOA, and AAPI. Sadly one of the best civilian groups, the Tasmanian UFO Investigation Centre (TUFOIC), has ceased operations. Many Internet/social media groups exist as I indicated in response to your first question about personalities. MUFON in Australia has had a rather ad hoc history in recent years. Its most recent reincarnation appears to be playing out under the umbrella of the Internet site Australian UFO Action. It remains to be seen if this will be a positive development. Unfortunately the proliferation of Internet and social media sites has made detailed UFO investigation by experienced researchers more difficult and problematic than in the past.
The Australian UFO Research Network (AUFORN) was the last and most recent of the national UFO investigation organisations in Australia.
RG: What are the most active regions of Australia for UFO sighting reports?
BC: Northern Queensland around Tully has had a rich UFO history particularly since the classic 1966 daylight UFO physical trace in Horseshoe Lagoon. St. George and Boulia Queensland also had a prolonged history. Coonabarrabran in NW NSW has a prolonged UFO focus, as well as the Bourke area. Tyringham on the Dorrigo Plateau and around Mount Butler/Armidale in the New England district has had a recurring focus. The Kempsey area, the Central coast and Blue Mountains regions of NSW also have long UFO focuses. The South coast of NSW, particularly around Kiama has a lot of UFO activity. Leitchville- Echuca, Rosedale- Gippsland and the Mallee district of Victoria seem to host a lot of activity. Northern South Australia, the Nullarbor and Bass Strait are often associated with extensive UFO activity. NW Western Australia, NW Cape/Exmouth and Corrigin in Western Australia seem to have regular UFO visits. Cressy, Maydena and central Tasmania are frequent locations as well. Pine Creek, Pine Gap and the north of the Northern Australia also host UFO activity. So there are a lot of areas to pick from and this listing is not complete.
The Pine Gap spy base near Alice Springs, Australia, operated by the NSA, CIA and NRO.
RG: Have you personally had any UFO sightings?
BC: In 1972 returning from a late chemistry practical class I had a “daylight disc” sighting just on dusk as I was crossing my college campus at the University of New England, on the outskirts of Armidale. At least another 2 students also saw this object. During the early hours (pre-dawn) of the same day on a nearby farming property—Mount Butler—3 students experienced a bizarre entity “possession” episode. This location became the focus of protracted UFO activity.
In 1973 I experienced my “UFO baptism of UFO fire” on the Dorrigo plateau at the remote Tyringham-Dundurrabin villages where locals were experiencing extensive UFO activity and apparently paranormal activity. I witnessed a number of sightings there and experienced some very strange phenomena. When I read Hunt for the Skinwalker it was kind of like UFO deja-vu for me.
Also back in 1969 I witnessed a so-called “angel hair” fall while others in my hometown at the same time witnessed a UFO. I handled the material and witnessed what my later chemistry training would describe as sublimation—the material disappeared in my hands.
RG: How long have you been involved in the UFO subject; roughly how many cases have you personally investigated; and what conclusions, if any, have you drawn about the underlying nature of UFO phenomena?
As a kid in my hometown of Grafton in 1966 locals, including police, but sadly not me, reported UFO sightings that made international headlines. That sparked my interest. But it was a strange ground trace episode at Bungawalban (to the north of Grafton) in April 1969 and my August 1969 “angel hair” experience that finally started to push me into active field investigation, first in the Grafton area, than Kempsey in the early 1970s, and New England when I went to university in Armidale. From that I was seconded into joining the Sydney based UFOIC group when I moved to Sydney. Since 1969 (I’ve not really counted), I’ve investigated easily hundreds of UFO cases, indeed probably thousands. In terms of conclusions the evidence I have personally examined tells me the core UFO phenomenon is probably rarer than we think, but it its far stranger than just the physical phenomena that is certainly at the heart of the mystery. I was examining the so-called paranormal aspects back in the 1970s, so the recent embrace of such aspects is simply revisiting aspects I have already examined extensively for decades.
I’m an advocate of open scientifically based investigations that are open to many other approaches, but also far greater mainstream support is needed. I have extensively researched high strangeness close encounter cases and hundreds of so-called abduction and contact cases. With the latter, evidence and critical thinking or common sense need to be our guides, along with regular reality checking and informed peer review. I am optimistic rather than pessimistic about the future of UFO research, but the uncritical nature of many approaches needs to be regularly confronted with calls for reality checks and sensible investigation.
RG: How can Australian UFOlogy better itself?
BC: Common sense, reality checks and critical thinking should be regular pit stops in research. More co-operative and less politicised scientific investigations need to be the norm rather than the exception. Sharing of quality documentation should also be a focus rather than a rarity. Deep investigations utilising a broad range of disciplines need to be more frequent, rather than uncritical acceptance of the wilder shores of ufology. History and science should be our allies rather than our enemies. If ufology continues its uncritical trajectory it will continue to be marginalised. There are a lot of competent investigators and researchers out there and greater networking, sharing and cooperation is needed. Try not to be too compartmentalised and isolated in approaches. Learn from others and keep an open mind.
There are a number of curious reports of unusual aircraft that have appeared over the years, some of which at least appear to indicate the presence of secret aviation projects that remain unknown to the general public. Unknown to us, that is, except for eyewitness reports that occur from time to time, which provide perplexing descriptions of these unusual, sometimes very large, and silent aircraft.
In fact, at one time the Federation of American Scientists (FAS) kept an eye out for reports of such “mystery aircraft.” What follows is a general description of one of the most popular varieties, as featured on the FAS website:
“A very intriguing aircraft was being reported in the late 1980s. Some observers claim to have witnessed a vast black flying wing, estimated at between 600 and 800 feet in width, passing silently over city streets in California. The craft moved so slowly one observer claimed that he could jog along with it. The aircraft reportedly executed bizarre maneuvers in which it stopped, rotated in place and hovered vertically, pointing its thin trailing edge toward the ground. This vehicle’s unlikely gyrations suggest that it is distinct from the other sightings, and could be a lighter-than-air craft pushed by slow- turning propellers.”
I have collected a number of reports from witnesses over the years that have claimed to see this aircraft, or at very least, one that is similar in its description and flight capabilities. On one occasion a number of years ago, I was filling in for the host of a Saturday night radio program in that used to air in my hometown of Asheville, North Carolina, when we received a live call-in from a gentleman named Brian, who shared a very vivid recollection of seeing this aircraft himself in 1988.
When Brian called into the program, he told us about having recently watched a television program on History Channel that recounted people’s experiences seeing large, silent triangular aircraft, which had prompted him to call in and share his own experience. “They were talking about that triangle shaped object that moves at snail-speed. My cousin and I witnessed that on a July night in 1988. It came straight over the mountain, just as slow and made absolutely no sound whatsoever,” he told us.
“I had just moved back from Arizona, and I was living on a farm out in Fairview, North Carolina,” Brian said. “My cousin had come over to have dinner with me. We grilled out and had some steaks. As he was getting ready to leave, and I was walking him out to his car, and we both looked up almost at the exact same instant.”
“And this monolith, and I’m not talking about something the size of a Boeing 747, I’m talking about, like, five 747s – came straight over the top of Cedar Cliff Mountain.”
“It was totally silent,” Brian said, “but it had three or four distinctively different colored lights on it, and it just barely went over us. I got my binoculars out, and I even got my hunting rifle and looked at it through my scope. And he and I stood there in total silence, for ten minutes watching this thing slowly move down 74, across where Reynolds High School is, across a little mountain range right there across the Parkway.”
“It never changed altitude. We just stood there, and we were looking at each other like, did we just see this?”
Brian told us his cousin tried to call the Asheville Regional Airport and report the observation shortly afterward but said that “they just laughed him off.”
“This thing was humongous,” Brian said, still sounding very much in awe of what he had seen many decades ago.
Above: Footage of a purported triangular aircraft, dated March 14, 2008, similar to the description given by “Brian” outlined above.
Of course, Brian’s recollection of the object he and his cousin witnessed in 1988 is not the only one of its kind; it is very similar to other reports from over the years which describe these large, slow-moving triangular aircraft. Arguably, some of the best historical research into appearances of this unusual aircraft have been provided by researcher David Marler, who documents his inquiries into these objects in his book Triangular UFOs: An Estimate of the Situation.
In the early 2000s the National Institute for Discovery Science (NIDS), a scientific investigative group founded by aerospace entrepreneur Robert Bigelow, began studying and collecting information on incident reports involving the “triangles.” In the estimation of NIDS researchers, there were at least some correlations between triangle sightings and known flight corridors used by the U.S. Air Force:
“NIDS has followed up on their study of last year that correlated sightings of large triangular or delta-shaped objects with Air Force Materiel Command and Air Mobility Command bases throughout the United States. Matches were made suggesting flight paths in and out of certain base locations… the reports jibe with over 150 separate reports of sightings of large triangular or deltoid shaped objects. Those eyewitness accounts, accumulated by NIDS, have mainly come from the United States. A small number of the sightings they have on file come from Canada and Europe.”
Despite such inquiries about unidentified triangular aircraft over the years, at present, there is no information pertaining to these aircraft that has been made available by any government institution, which gives a clear indication about their origin or purpose.
Thus, apart from the scant photos that have emerged over the years, and myriad reports by eyewitnesses, the mystery surrounding the triangles endures… for now at least. Perhaps that won’t always be the case, but despite the ambiguity surrounding various accounts that detail these alleged aircraft, they remain one of the most prevalent varieties of UFOs reported over North America and other parts of the world in modern times.
For centuries, people have reported strange things going on in Earth’s oceans, although perhaps there is no purported location where more strange activity is said to occur than the famous Bermuda Triangle.
Spanning an area between the coastal tips of Puerto Rico, Florida, and its namesake, Bermuda, the area roughly identified as the Bermuda Triangle has been recognized as an alleged “paranormal hotspot” for a number of decades. Popular articles on vanishing incidents that occurred in the region began to appear in newspapers and adventure magazines in the 1950s, which often played up the sensational idea of “mysterious” circumstances surrounding the disappearances that occurred there.
Modern researchers often note, however, that much of the hype about disappearances in the so-called “Triangle” is somewhat overblown. Things like whether or not a sailing vessel or aircraft disappearance falls into the broader “Bermuda Triangle” mystery often depends on the interpretation of the author in question, more than any clearly designated area where anomalies appear to be prevalent.
All of that said, I don’t personally ascribe much significance to claims about the Bermuda Triangle, although I do enjoy the novelty of occasional incidents, and even technical reports that turn up, which insinuate odd things about this area of the Atlantic. Equally novel is where some of these reports have been found.
Back in 2013, I wrote a book called The Ghost Rocketswhich dealt with reports of missile or torpedo-like objects seen by pilots and crew aboard commercial airliners. Toward the end of the book, I devoted a chapter to incident reports gleaned from NASA’s Aviation Safety Reporting System (ASRS), which allows pilots and other aviation professionals to log incident reports about possible aviation hazards anonymously (the anonymous reporting is intended to encourage people to file the reports, by removing threat of litigation and protecting general privacy of the observers).
The vast majority of reports filed with the ASRS have to do with mundane things, although occasionally there are some pretty hair-raising accounts given of things like near mid-air collisions and the like. Far less often, one may find things of a slightly stranger nature amidst the ASRS reports available online… and yes, at least a couple of these have to do with the famous Bermuda Triangle.
One such report was logged in April 2011 by the captain of an Airbus A319 aircraft, who described a technical issue the aircraft logged while en route to Bermuda, which required them to return to their departure airport. The report read as follows (with explanations for various acronyms and other technical terms enclosed in parentheses):
About halfway to Bermuda, we got (a Navigation Air Data Reference) 1 fault and (Ground Proximity Warning System) fault on the ECAM (electronic centralized aircraft monitor). After going through the ECAM procedures and reviewing the (quick reference handbook), and the non-normal supplemental manual, we still had no Captain (primary flight display) or (navigational display) information. We talked with Dispatch and Maintenance through phone patch and they suggested we return. Uneventful landing and review of computer printout showed loss of both (Air Data Reference) 1 and (Inertial Reference) 1.
All technical information about this in-flight anomaly aside, the reporter concluded by saying that, “I wouldn’t know why this occurred. Maybe we were too close to the Bermuda Triangle.”
In all likelihood, this was merely a playful reference to the lore associated with the area (keep in mind that the pilot in question was flight to Bermuda at the time, and hence the likely association). However, this is by no means the only ASRS report dealing with the unusual phenomenon that is often associated with the Bermuda Triangle.
In the following incident report, logged in May of 2016, the captain of a Boeing 737-NG filed a report after his Inertial Reference System showed “significant position errors” while traversing the Bermuda Triangle. The details of the 2016 report are as follows:
This report is NOT meant as a joke. Following an uneventful flight to SJU, on the return flight (with the same aircraft) we received several “VERIFYPOS: IRS-IRS” (Inertial Reference System) scratch pad messages. Checking POS SHIFT page three/three, we confirmed that our IRS position errors were significant. During this flight, the L IRS position error varied from two to five NM; the R IRS error varied from three to eleven NM. This did not cause any operational problems because our ANP stayed below 0.07 with very tight GPS and RADIO cross tuning accuracy. This defect was recorded in the aircraft logbook at [destination].
I did not think much more about it until I got home and my wife asked “Any issues today flying thru the Bermuda Triangle?” I never thought about such a coincidence during the flight, but we were within the southern edge of that area. If anyone is seriously tracking empirical data on navigation errors in that area, please pass on this report. I wonder if (Company) has any data on other navigational issues between CONUS and SJU, MDPC or MYNN? I have never seen such IRS accuracy errors in 22 years of operating this aircraft.
Unlike the earlier report, the captain who logged this incident report with the ASRS appears to have been quite serious about possible connections between the instrumental anomalies he experienced, and the location of the aircraft at the time they occurred. He concluded by saying, “If anyone is seriously tracking navigation anomalies within the ‘Bermuda Triangle’, please forward this report.”
While the majority of alleged disappearances and anomalies associated with this famous region of the Atlantic Ocean can be fairly easily ruled out as sensation or hype, there is at least a modicum of detailed technical reporting on the subject, as the two reports referenced here indicate, which might suggest something interesting about the region. But rather than being paranormal in nature, my guess would be that any supposed disturbance which may affect avionics like this would stem from the more plausible realms of geophysical or atmospheric phenomena… and if that were so, it could indicate a more down-to-earth reason for some of the oddities that have been associated with the Bermuda Triangle over the years.
PRACHTIG GECAMOUFLEERD RUIMTESCHIP GEFOTOGRAFEERD VANUIT VLIEGTUIG ( VIDEO )
PRACHTIG GECAMOUFLEERD RUIMTESCHIP GEFOTOGRAFEERD VANUIT VLIEGTUIG ( VIDEO )
Er is iets bijzonders gaande in de buitenaardse gemeenschap, want er worden de laatste tijd opvallend veel gecamoufleerde ruimteschepen waargenomen.
Zo zijn er nu prachtige beelden gemaakt van een dergelijk ruimteschip door een passagier in een vliegtuig boven India.
Het is ons opgevallen dat er steeds meer grote buitenaardse ruimteschepen worden gesignaleerd. Opvallend veel mensen nemen vreemde wolken waar aan de lucht, wat later allesbehalve wolken blijken te zijn. Zo schreven wij onlangs:
Zo worden grote vermomde ruimteschepen altijd standaard lenticulariswolken genoemd en zo zijn vreemde en niet natuurlijke/normale zaken gemakkelijk weg te moffelen onder de noemer "wolk".
Door de jaren heen zijn hier talloze artikelen verschenen over vreemd uitziende wolken, soms ook met kleinere UFO’s er omheen. Het zijn waarnemingen van mensen, foto’s en filmbeelden die aan duidelijkheid niets te wensen over laten.
Soms is er ook natuurlijk wel sprake van echt vreemd uitziende wolken en het is dan ook niet zo dat iedere ufo wolk een UFO is.
Op 24 september 2018 rond zes uur in de avond ziet een passagier in een vliegtuig hoog boven de wolken in India vanuit het raam een wel heel erg vreemd uitziende wolk.
Hieronder volgt de video genomen vanuit het vliegtuig en het bijzondere is dat deze wolk hoger is dan het vliegtuig dat zelf al hoog boven de wolken vliegt.
Je ziet de prachtige klassieke vorm van een ufo met bovenop een koepel. Meteorologen zullen ongetwijfeld ook weer een mooie naam bedenken voor dit ruimteschip, maar voor ons is het duidelijk dat er op dit moment buitengewoon veel belangstelling bestaat vanuit de ruimte voor onze planeet.
Niet alleen rond onze aarde worden ze steeds vaker waargenomen, ook in de buurt van de zon is het bijna wekelijks raak.
Enorme ruimteschepen in de buurt van de zon die een soort zig zag beweging maken, is moeilijk een planeet te noemen of een vuiltje op de lens.
We leven in bijzondere tijden, die door velen de eindtijd wordt genoemd.
Wat zou jij doen als dit enorme evacuatieschepen blijken te zijn en je zou een uitnodiging krijgen om mee te gaan? Zou je alles laten vallen en aan boord gaan of zou je er toch voor kiezen om hier te blijven en af te wachten wat er gaat gebeuren? We hebben er een poll van gemaakt op de homepage links onder het kopje "poll". Wij zijn benieuwd!
Enerzijds leven we in een mooie en anderzijds in een tijd dat je bijna geen foto of video meer kunt vertrouwen.
We zien iedere dag wel nieuwe beelden opduiken van UFO’s in talloze Youtube video’s, maar je weet dat 99 procent daarvan nep zijn.
Het is niet zo vreemd dat mensen tegenwoordig soms denken dat UFO’s niet bestaan omdat er eigenlijk alleen maar nepvideo’s in omloop zijn. Zogenaamd slimme jongens die geen enkele interesse hebben in het werkelijke UFO fenomeen, maar alleen maar “spannende” video’s willen maken, waardoor veel mensen kijken en hopelijk op een advertentie klikken.
En toch weten we zeker dat er betrouwbare opnames zijn van UFO’s, alleen moeten we daarvoor wel een eind terug in de tijd. Naar een tijd, ver voor internet, ver voor photoshop en ver voor de nepvideo’s.
We gaan terug naar wat ongetwijfeld één van de eerst gefilmde opnames betreft van UFO’s op 15 augustus 1950 rond de middag in de Amerikaanse staat Montana.
Op die dag was de manager van het plaatselijke baseball team van Great Falls Electrics, Nick Mariana, samen met zijn secretaresse Virginia Raunig aan het werk in het stadion.
Het stadion was leeg, het was de dag voor een wedstrijd en Nick ging naar buiten om het geheel aan een inspectie te onderwerpen. Opeens zag hij iets vanuit zijn ooghoeken en toen hij opkeek zag hij twee zilveren schijven, de klassieke vliegende schotel.
De twee objecten vlogen in formatie op korte afstand van elkaar en naar de schatting van Nick met een snelheid van zo’n 600 kilometer per uur. Hij riep zijn secretaresse en holde zo snel mogelijk naar de auto waar zijn camera in het dashboardkastje lag.
In die tijd was dat nog een 16 mm filmcamera zonder geluid. Al met al slaagde hij er toch nog in om de objecten 16 seconden lang te filmen. Niet lang nadat de schotels voorbij waren gekomen, verschenen er enkele militaire jets die langs vlogen.
De volgend dag verscheen de gebeurtenis in de lokale krant en niet veel later werd het verhaal opgepikt door alle grote nationale dagbladen en werd dit verhaal voorpaginanieuws.
Via de kranten werd ook de luchtmacht gealarmeerd en deze kwam vervolgens Mariana en zijn secretaresse Virginia Raunig, die ook de schotels had gezien, interviewen. De luchtmacht vroeg vervolgens of ze de film in hun laboratorium mochten analyseren.
Mariana gaf hier toestemming voor, echter toen hij de film terug kreeg, was deze de helft korter geworden dan toen hij deze inleverde. Niet alleen werd hem door de luchtmacht verteld dat hetgeen hij had gefilmd de straaljagers waren, maar ook ontkenden ze in alle toonaarden dat de originele film langer was geweest. Het stuk dat ontbrak was tevens het meest duidelijke deel van de opname.
Bijna twee jaar later werd Mariana benaderd door een Captain Ruppelt van de luchtmacht met het verzoek of ze de film nogmaals mochten onderzoeken. Mariano gaf toestemming nadat schriftelijk was vastgelegd dat ze geen verdere delen van de film zouden verwijderen.
De conclusie van dit veel uitgebreidere onderzoek was dat het geen straaljagers waren die te zien waren op de film en ook geen vogels, ballonnen of meteorieten. De uiteindelijke conclusie die nog staat tot op de dag vandaag is dat het onbekende vliegende objecten zijn.
Hierdoor is het fenomeen UFO een feit, want na diverse onderzoeken kwam de Amerikaanse luchtmacht zelf tot die conclusie.
Het verhaal van Nick Mariana is belangrijk, omdat hiermee onomstotelijk is komen vast te staan dat er UFO’s door ons luchtruim vliegen.
In dat kader is het aardig om de UFO melding die vandaag bij ons binnenkwam (dank!) hier te vermelden:
Naam: Stef
Woonplaats: Zeist
Ervaring:
Vanuit huis gezien, door het raam (geen sun-glare mogelijk, frontaal in beeld, geen ooghoek)). Op een heldere dag, 12:15 uur, blauwe lucht, 14 Graden C. ; 1 tot 1.5 seconden - zilveren bol met de glans van de zon aan de bovenzijde, in een rechte lijn naar het noord-oosten, zeer snel maar zichtbaar genoeg. Geen geluid. Van groot naar klein (van dichtbij naar ver). Hoogte onduidelijk (2 tot 3 km?) veel lager dan het gemiddelde vliegtuig aan de lucht. Grootte vanuit mijn visuele positie zo'n 4 á 5 millimeter. (Hoe te berekenen?)
Op 11 september maakte zij onder andere opnames van de planeet Saturnus en zag plotseling iets dat ze in al haar observaties nog nooit eerder was tegengekomen.
Dat zag er zo uit:
Saturnus, duidelijk herkenbaar aan de ringen, en een soort laserstralen die vanaf de planeet afkomstig lijken te zijn.
De volgende video bestaat alleen uit achter elkaar gezette beelden met daarop ook andere hemellichamen zoals de maan en Mars en vanaf ongeveer 2 minuut 57 seconden zijn de beelden van Saturnus te zien.
In de volgende korte video geeft Paula uitleg over wat zij heeft gezien met daarbij uiteraard de beelden.
Wat deze laserstralen betekenen weten we niet, maar wel dat het er alles behalve doods is op en rondom de planeet Saturnus, zoals we ook al eerder duidelijk maakten in een eerder artikel:
Zo verscheen in 2007 onderstaand foto, genomen door de Hubble ruimtetelescoop, met daarop de ringen van Saturnus en nog iets anders...
Naast één van de ringen zie je duidelijk een gigantisch ruimteschip. Ook een foto, gepubliceerd destijds in een Franse krant, laat heel duidelijk deze geweldig grote exemplaren zien rond de ringen van Saturnus.
DE ECHTE REDEN VOOR SLUITING ZONNE - OBSERVATORIUM ( VIDEO )
DE ECHTE REDEN VOOR SLUITING ZONNE - OBSERVATORIUM ( VIDEO )
Het is meer dan duidelijk dat er weer eens wordt gelogen wanneer de FBI als reden voor de inval bij het Solar Observatory in Sunspot kinderporno opgeeft.
Ondertussen wordt wel duidelijker wat nu echt de reden was dat dit observatorium, maar ook andere, in grote haast werden gesloten.
Er zijn ondertussen al talloze artikelen verschenen over de sluiting van het zonne-observatorium in de Amerikaanse staat New Mexico enkele weken geleden.
Wat nu naar buiten komt is dat op het huiszoekingsbevel van de FBI als reden van de inval "kinderporno" is opgegeven. Dit zou herleid zijn door middel van het IP adres van het observatorium dat gebruikt zou zijn voor het downloaden van kinderporno.
Klaarblijkelijk was de conciërge de verdachte omdat deze ook buiten de normale tijden toegang zou hebben tot ieder gedeelte van de gebouwen en het terrein. De man wordt met naam genoemd op het bevel en zou zijn eigen laptop hebben gebruikt met de draadloze verbinding van het observatorium. Het vreemde is wel dat de man na de show van de FBI niet is aangeklaagd.
Hoe vaak zou het excuus "kinderporno" al niet gebruikt zijn door opsporingsinstanties die een bepaalde machtiging willen lospeuteren bij een rechter. Je ziet het nu ook weer in de zaak Jos Brech, de man die eigenlijk moet worden vrijgelaten wegens totaal gebrek aan echt bewijs van de moord op Nicky Verstappen, maar gelukkig, daar blijkt ineens dat hij kinderporno in bezit had.
Wanneer ergens iemand kinderporno op zijn laptop heeft zal dit echt geen aanleiding zijn voor de FBI om binnen te vallen met complete teams, gebruik te maken van een zwarte helikopter in plaats van gewoon een auto, zal dit zeker geen reden zijn om de hele buurt te evacueren, dit nog los van de vraag wat mensen van de FBI in de radiotorens te zoeken hadden.
Een laptop met kinderporno is inderdaad walgelijk, maar vormt geen gevaar voor omwonenden voor zover ons bekend.
Het inmiddels weer geopende observatorium werd plotsklaps gesloten op 6 september 2018. Niet alleen dat, er waren meldingen van nog zes observatoria op verschillende plaatsen in de wereld waar de webcams offline gingen zonder opgaaf van redenen.
Naast de telescopen op de grond worden er via NASA ook een aantal ruimtetelescopen gebruikt om de zon te observeren. Zoals bijvoorbeeld de Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO), in feite een satelliet die in een elliptische omloopbaan om de aarde draait.
Op 9 september 2018 om 20.53 UT en ongeveer vijf uur later op 10 september 2018 om 2.09 waren er via de SDO beelden te zien van een object dat twee keer voor de zon langs schuift.
Dit gebeurt regelmatig bij dit soort opnames en meestal is dit dat de maan die gedeeltelijk het zicht op de zon blokkeert.
Het zag er zo uit:
Ook bij deze opnamen was volgens NASA niets bijzonders aan de hand, zoals gewoonlijk was het de maan die voor de zon langs schoof.
Wanneer de maan voor de zon schuift, dan heet dit op zijn Engels een eclipse en normaal gesproken zijn deze eclipses bij voorbaat bekend. In dit geval schijnt dat volgens Nancy Lieder van Zetatalk niet het geval te zijn geweest.
Daarnaast is het ook niet mogelijk dat de maan eerst van linksboven naar rechtsonder schuift en dan vervolgens weer terug schijnt te springen van rechtsonder naar linksboven. Zelfs als je volgens haar de beweging van de satelliet in ogenschouw neemt kan dit niet.
En tenslotte zijn de objecten die voor de zon langs gaan ook nog eens verschillend in grootte.
Nancy is ervan overtuigd dat dit de reden is dat het observatorium werd gesloten en ook al die andere observatoria waar dat gelijktijdig gebeurde of waarvan in ieder geval de webcams buiten werking werden gesteld. Via die observatoria krijgen mensen een ongehinderd zicht op de zon en als daar onverklaarbare objecten langskomen, dan kan men die onmogelijk verklaren.
Zij stelt dat de objecten die voor de zon langs schoven onderdeel vormen van de staart van de planeet Nibiru, waarin diverse manen voorkomen. Het verschil met normale planeten waar manen in een omloopbaan om de planeet bewegen, worden de manen van Nibiru als het ware op sleeptouw genomen.
Volgens Nancy Lieder bevindt de planeet Nibiru zich op dit moment ergens tussen de planeet Venus en de zon en dientengevolge de manen ook. Dit is dan ook de reden dat zij tussen de zon en het SDO kunnen schuiven.
(Voor de goede orde, onze vaste columnist Evert Jan Poorterman is het standaard oneens met Nancy Lieder en ook met de andere bekende Niburu onderzoeker Marshall Masters, die hij een zwamneus noemt.)
Dat een planeet één of meerder manen heeft komt wel vaker voor en is dus op zich niet zo bijzonder, maar wel dat de manen niet om de planeet draaien zoals onze maan, maar er als een soort parelketting achteraan slingeren wel.
Degene die al sinds het einde van de vorige eeuw zich bezighoudt met de planeet Nibiru of Planet X is Nancy Lieder van de website Zetatalk. Zij zegt in contact te staan met een buitenaardse beschaving, de Zeta's en van hen heel veel informatie te ontvangen omtrent het mysterieuze mini zonnestelsel.
Zo schreef zij met de informatie van de Zeta's in 1997 al over de manen van Nibiru en vergeleek zij deze met een parelsnoer en de reden daarvoor is omdat deze manen niet in een baan om de planeet draaien, maar achter elkaar als een soort slinger achter Nibiru aan zwieren.
Naast de manen bevindt zich achter de planeet een lang gestrekte roodachtige wolk bestaande uit ruimtepuin die er ook uitziet als de rode draak zoals die in de Chinese cultuur een prominente rol speelt en binnen allerlei profetieën ook wordt genoemd in relatie tot deze onbekende planeet.
At thetime of the great destruction of Earth, God caused a dragon from out of Heaven to come and encompass her about. The dragon was frightful to behold, it lashed its tail, it breathed out fire and hot coals, and a great catastrophe was inflicted upon mankind.
Indertijd gaf Nancy aan dat het er ongeveer als volgt uit zou zien:
Het zogenaamde parelsnoer, de rij manen, is enige tijd zichtbaar geweest zo rond 2003 en 2004 toen het stelsel in de buurt van onze zon kwam.
Er zijn toen ook de nodige beelden vastgelegd.
Het parelsnoer verdween toen uit beeld, vanwege de positie achter de zon en was alleen in 2010 nog zichtbaar op de SOHO telescopen van NASA en toen plotseling in 2014 begonnen ze weer op te duiken.
Ongeveer een week geleden publiceerden wij een artikel over een vreemd verschijnsel dat enkele jagers in de Amerikaanse staat Missouri overkwam. Een vreemd lichtgevend object met 12 stralen dat weerkaatste op het water en waarboven in een soort halve cirkel nogmaals 12 objecten te zien waren.
Voor ons was het een groot moederschip dat even tijdelijk zichtbaar werd, met daarboven een aantal kleinere UFO's in de rol van verkenners of iets dergelijks, maar voor Nancy is het iets anders.
Zij zegt dat het de zon is die precies met 12 stralen op het water schijnt en dat de halve cirkel die daarboven zichtbaar is, niets anders is dan het parelsnoer, de manen van de planeet Nibiru.
Daarnaast is er op 5 oktober schijnbaar nog een foto genomen tijdens zonsopgang in Noorwegen waarop dit parelsnoer ook zichtbaar was.
Wanneer Nancy Lieder gelijk heeft met haar theorie, dan zullen er de komende tijd meer beelden en waarnemingen van deze sliert manen moeten opduiken. Zij zegt verder dat het door de grote rode stofwolk met puin steeds moeilijker wordt om Nibiru te zien, behalve wanneer het licht erop schijnt, waardoor je een tweede zon effect krijgt, maar dat het parelsnoer steeds beter zichtbaar zal worden en dat het dit zal zijn wat een einde zal maken aan de planeet Nibiru doofpot.
Al met is het waarschijnlijker dat de sluiting van het zonne-observatorium meer te maken heeft met iets dat zich in de ruimte afspeelt, dan met kinderporno op een laptop van een conciërge.
RUIMTESCHIP HANGT VIER MINUTEN BOVEN WEG ( UPDATE )
RUIMTESCHIP HANGT VIER MINUTEN BOVEN WEG ( UPDATE )
Het zal je gebeuren dat als je ’s avonds naar huis rijdt er opeens een enorm "iets" boven de weg hangt.
Dat is exact wat er enkele dagen geleden gebeurde toen een man samen met zijn vriendin naar huis reed en gelukkig kon hij een aantal foto’s maken.
Update: 22 september 2018:
De avond voordat de getuige de bijzondere opname maakte van een ruimteschip dat boven de weg hing, is datzelfde object ook door een andere getuige op video vastgelegd.
Dit gebeurde bij de Shakopee Archery Range, eveneens in Minnesota en op ongeveer 85 kilometer afstand van de eerste waarneming.
Er bestaat geen enkele twijfel dat het om hetzelfde object gaat. Maar wat is het?
Origineel artikel: 17 september 2018
Wanneer je ’s avonds laat naar huis rijdt in het donker en je ziet opeens iets vreemds in de lucht, dan doet dat heel onwerkelijk aan.
Maar, als je het met je eigen ogen ziet en je slaagt er ook nog eens in om dit object te fotograferen, dan wordt het wel heel echt. Het volgende voorval speelde zich af op 14 september 2018 in Stillwater in de Amerikaanse staat Minnesota en is ingediend bij Mufon onder nummer 94921.
Een man reed samen met zijn vriendin naar huis toen ze plotseling iets vreemds boven de weg zagen.
De getuige is er absoluut van overtuigd dat het geen weerspiegeling of iets dergelijks is omdat nadat dit object een minuut of vier boven de weg had gehangen, dit opeens met grote snelheid wegvloog. Iets dat door hem en zijn vriendin beiden is gezien.
Ufoloog Scott Waring is heel benieuwd of er die avond ergens in de buurt mensen zijn vermist of tijdelijk zoek geweest zijn. Hij denkt namelijk dat wanneer een ruimteschip zo dichtbij de weg komt er een reden voor moet zijn. En die reden zou heel goed kunnen zijn dat ze van plan waren om één of meerdere mensen te ontvoeren.
UFO Passes Space Station On Live Cam, Sept 27, 2018, UFO Sighting News.
UFO Passes Space Station On Live Cam, Sept 27, 2018, UFO Sighting News.
Date of sighting: Sept 27, 2018 Location of sighting: Earths Orbit at ISS I was watching the live space station cam when I noticed a UFO passing in the background. The UFO seemed bright because of the reflecting light bouncing off of it and the station. The shape was hard to make out, but it does appear to be a curved triangle in shape and could very possibly be a USAF top secret TR3B, or an evolution of that craft. Now looking at the screenshots enlarged...I see it does have four corners, not three as I said in the video. Scott C. Waring
Alien Craft Caught On NASA Camera Zig-Zagging Near Our Sun, Sept 25, 2018, UFO Sighting News.
Alien Craft Caught On NASA Camera Zig-Zagging Near Our Sun, Sept 25, 2018, UFO Sighting News.
Date of sighting: Sept 25, 2018, 11:06 LASCO C3
Location of sighting: Earths Sun
Source: SOHO, NASA sun images
When an object travels in space in a straight line...it creates confusion about what it is...a meteor, comet or UFO? But when an object is captured by an impartial SOHO camera and is seen to weave back and forth making two 45 degree turns in just mere seconds...then we now that only an intelligently controlled craft could be capable of such maneuvers. This is 100% evidence that this is an alien craft.
Bus size UFO Passes over City In Illinois on Sept 22, 2018, UFO Sighting News.
Bus size UFO Passes over City In Illinois on Sept 22, 2018, UFO Sighting News.
Date of sighting: Sept 22, 2018 Location of sighting: Casyville, Illinois, USA Source: MUFON #95126 This rectangle UFO was seen passing over Illinois yesterday. The UFO is about the size of a city buss and is very flat. This flying object had to have been seen by thousands of residents below. So hopefully there will be a video of this uploaded so we can see its movement. I searched and could not find any other reports of this incident, but will keep you posted. Scott C. Waring Eyewitness states:
I was driving down 157 through Casyville Illinois after 4pm Saturday 22nd and saw this.
White UFO Seen On Live NASA Space Station Cam, Sep 20, 2018, UFO Sighting News.
White UFO Seen On Live NASA Space Station Cam, Sep 20, 2018, UFO Sighting News.
Date of discovery: Sept 20, 2018 Location of discovery: Earths orbit at space station I was watching the NASA live space station cam looking for UFOs when I spotted this little guy. A white disk moved over the space station. It was small so I'm sure NASA didn't notice it, otherwise they would have gone to blue screen to hide it. The UFO passes the space station, but at a great distance, as if it didn't want to be noticed by the astronauts. Scott C. Waring-Taiwan
“Hidden In Plain Sight” Denver’s International Airport New Ad Campaign
“Hidden In Plain Sight” Denver’s International Airport New Ad Campaign
Denver International Airport has displayed a new advertising campaign revolving around both their new construction site and the conspiracy theories that have hovered around the idea that there is more happening at this airport than meets the eye.
On Sept 4th 2018, Denver International Airport (DIA) tweeted something that is either a genius marketing ploy or a ‘hidden in plain sight’ scenario.
DIA is known for its creepy murals and a demonic blue horse statue which stands at the front of the airport as well as a statue of Anubis.
Inside the airport there are weird murals and statues that refer to a one-world government, yet a stone with a cryptic description and underneath the stone a time capsule which is to be opened by 'the people of Colorado' in 2094.
Furthermore, it is said, there is an underground area beneath the airport which is not accessible to the public.
Most of the underground areas are not being used, dead baggage equipment, long highways, and many chain link fences and locked up fences.
This underground area is just the first level that leads to secret lower levels - there are five secret underground buildings with a depth of from 75 to 120 feet on each one, all with interconnecting tunnels to each other and with 2.50 to 3.00 mile long and 16 feet wide.
These underground buildings are to serve many different purposes, such as medical research labs, prisons, work camps, military accommodations, food storage, etc.
Hiding things in plain sight is a great way to get things swept under the rug and avoided. Could this be the tactic being taken by DIA?
V-shaped UFO launched from Secret Base in Antarctica
V-shaped UFO launched from Secret Base in Antarctica
A strange V-shaped object has been spotted on Google Earth and it looks like some sort of a V-shaped UFO or stealth craft being launched in Antarctica, a smoke trail is visible behind the 10 meters long craft.
The question is whether this V-shaped object is just a shadow of a rock formation, or a rock that sticks out of the snow or.. could it be that Google Earth has photographed a UFO or man-made stealth craft launched from a secret base in Antarctica.
To the left of the possible launch path is a circular disk with a diameter of 8 meters.
Google Earth coordinates: 72°1'32.19"S 169°34'59.68"E
Japan’s space rovers successfully landed on Asteroid Ryugu (First Stunning Images)
Japan’s space rovers successfully landed on Asteroid Ryugu (First Stunning Images)
Two space rovers have landed safely on an asteroid after Japan’s spacecraft Hayabuza2dropped them there on September 13, 2018.
The scientists behind the historic mission expressed their delight as the rovers sent back the first images from the surface of the space rock Ryugu.
Photo right taken by Rover-1B on Sept 21 at 13:07 JST It was captured just after separation from the spacecraft. Ryugu's surface is in the lower right. The misty top left region is due to the reflection of sunlight. 1B seems to rotate slowly after separation, minimising image blur.
Dubbed MINERVA-II1, the robotic explorers are the first of their kind to be successfully landed on an asteroid.
The rovers will use the low gravity conditions on Ryugu to hop across the asteroid’s surface, measuring temperatures and sending images back to Earth via Hayabusa-2.
This is a picture from MINERVA-II1. The color photo was captured by Rover-1A on September 21 around 13:08 JST, immediately after separation from the spacecraft. Hayabusa2 is top and Ryugu's surface is below. The image is blurred because the rover is spinning.
Next month the spacecraft will deploy an explosive device to blast a hole in the asteroid, allowing rock samples to be taken from its depths.
Following that it will release a French-German landing vehicle known as the Mobile Asteroid Surface Scout (MASCOT) to explore the surface in greater detail.
This dynamic photo was captured by Rover-1A on September 22 at around 11:44 JST. It was taken on Ryugu's surface during a hop. The lower half is the surface of Ryugu, while the white region on the right is due to sunlight. (Hayabusa2 Project)
Unknown laser beams being fired from Saturn into deep space
Unknown laser beams being fired from Saturn into deep space
Paula Gilley has been watching the skies for quite some time looking for anomalies in the skies, besides she is watching and monitoring the Moon, Sun and other planets with her telescope.
On September 11, 2018 at 6.59pm while monitoring Saturn Paula saw something she had never seen before, more precisely, the recording shows unknown laser beams coming from Saturn.
Paula: “I bumped up contrast and saturation; I have seen many forms of pixels even square one but never have seen laser beampixels?” “That's a new one!”
Besides the interesting first video which also shows the laser beams coming from Saturn, starting at about the 2.57 mark, the second short video below clearly shows several laser beams or energy waves being fired from Saturn into deep space.
Guests and residents of Minnesota’s American Stillwater became the accidental witnesses of a bizarre phenomenon.
A vast circle made of multiple glowing balls appeared in the sky above the city later in the evening. Many witnesses managed to get the odd anomaly on videos and photographs.
Not long when all those videos and pictures got to the internet. Many ufologists concluded that it was an invisible UFO hovering above the earth.
They say the mysterious object was in camouflage to hide from human eyes, but the aircraft lights became visible to the observers.
Meanwhile, some sceptics would say it was just a spotlight on the clouds.
Either of the theories was not yet confirmed.
It was later discovered that no installations of projectors in the area at the time.
The witnesses reported the lights quickly flew to the side and did not disappear.
Some ufologists think that majority of UFOs are not alien as military and other government agencies secretly created them.
Scientists Give More Details On Cigar-Shaped UFO Moving Close To Earth
Scientists Give More Details On Cigar-Shaped UFO Moving Close To Earth
Scientists claim to have known the mysterious object that was observed flying through space. The space rock was spotted in 2017 and eventually called Oumuamua, which has been hurtling the solar system of the Earth.
A report from acclaimed astronomers of NASA, the European Space Agency and the German Max Planck Institute for Astronomy was released this week, revealing the origins of the cigar-shaped asteroid that was first noticed in October 2017.
The space rock was named by the site who first observed it and is the Hawaiian for a messenger from afar arriving first.
The report mentions that a high-powered telescope in Hawaii discovered a fast-moving object on an unbound orbit close to the Earth.
The report describes Oumuamua as a metallic or rocky object, around 400 metres in length and approximately 40 metres wide.
It also claims that the object has a density similar to a comet and has a dark red surface, which may suggest either an organic-rich surface identical to the outer solar system asteroids and comets or a surface similar to the dark side of Saturn’s moon Iapetus, containing minerals with nanoscale iron.
According to the report, Oumuamua left its home when it was ejected during planet formation and migration millions of years ago and has been linked to four possible star systems.
The report also mentions that Oumuamua moved faster than the existing laws of celestial mechanics. The Astrophysical Journal has been accepted the report.
When Oumuamua was first discovered, scientists could not explain precisely the long, thin asteroid flying so close to Earth.
The discovery sparked suggestions that the strange rock was an alien spaceship or probe exploring our solar system.
The only uncontested fact is that Oumuamua is the first object ever spotted flying into our solar system from deep space.
Watch – US Navy Aircraft Carrier Spotted With A UFO On Board
Watch – US Navy Aircraft Carrier Spotted With A UFO On Board
YouTube footage appears to show a UFO beside a Navy helicopter onboard a US aircraft carrier. It shows a US jet about to land and a fighter shadowing it while a triangular object can be seen beside a Navy helicopter.
YouTube channel Section 51 slowed down the footage for effect.
Many commenters of the video believe the object is a TR-3B, an alleged anti-gravity spy plane of the US Air Force black project.
Some explain that the object in question is being developed with the use of reverse-engineered alien technology, but it is in any case not alien as it is built on Earth.
However, sceptics suggested the object was altered using CGI technology. They explained that CGI was improving, making it almost impossible to know what was real and what was fake.
Meanwhile, ufoofinterest.org tweeted a video showing the supposed original US Navy video without a UFO in sight to prove that it had been edited.
The group called SECTION 51 hoax promoter and CGI artist.
As Seven Solar Observatories Mysteriously Closed, A UFO Spotted Near the Sun
As Seven Solar Observatories Mysteriously Closed, A UFO Spotted Near the Sun
The solar observatory that the FBI closed down under suspicious circumstances is scheduled to reopen. But one woman thinks she has the explanation for the strange closure after finding a UFO-like disc near the Sun.
The FBI mysteriously shut down the operation of the National Solar Observatory (NSO) in Sunspot, New Mexico on September 6 with officials remaining at the site.
No official explanation yet on the presence of FBI in the area.
The reopening of the solar observatory this week has sent conspiracy theorists into overdrive.
During the time the NSO has been shut down, six more observatory cameras have also gone offline. One in Spain, Chile, Australia, Pennsylvania and two in Hawaii.
Now, a person claimed that she saw a massive UFO when she snapped images of the Sun. According to the woman, she saw a gigantic UFO and a vast fleet of smaller crafts following it as they were passing behind the sun.
Some conspiracy theorists suggest that the image shows the reason the solar observatories were closed down. They believe that the move of the FBI was for them to keep the discovery under wraps.
Maria Hill of Salem, Indiana took the image on September 11. The picture seems to show spaceships luring near the Sun.
Ms Hill posted the story on Facebook alongside the images. She said that he took a picture of the Sun in the eastern sky on the morning using her iPhone8 with a camera lens adapter, but she snapped more than she expected.
Ms Hill said that she found a green circular door-like object, which was at the centre of the vortex/wormhole. She also saw a serpent snake at the top right over it, by a circular disc. She is confident this has meaning with the disc and the snake.
UFOs and Nukes – Government and Military Whisleblowers Go Public
UFOs and Nukes – Government and Military Whisleblowers Go Public
Government and Military Whistleblowers from around the world officially go public about UFO incursions at nuclear weapons facilities. This is a truly historic event taped LIVE at the National Press Club in Washington, DC.
UFOs and Nukes – Government and Military Whisleblowers Go Public
UFOs and Nukes – Government and Military Whisleblowers Go Public
Government and Military Whistleblowers from around the world officially go public about UFO incursions at nuclear weapons facilities. This is a truly historic event taped LIVE at the National Press Club in Washington, DC.
Japan's Hopping Rovers Capture Amazing Views of Asteroid Ryugu (Video)
Japan's Hopping Rovers Capture Amazing Views of Asteroid Ryugu (Video)
By Hanneke Weitering, Space.com Staff Writer
Two tiny, hopping rovers that landed on asteroid Ryugu last week have beamed back some incredible new views of the asteroid's rocky surface.
The Japanese Aerospace Exploration Agency's (JAXA) Hayabusa2 sample-return mission dropped the two nearly identical rovers, named Minerva-II1A and Minerva-II1B, onto the surface of Ryugu on Sept. 21. In a new video from the eyes of Minerva-II1B, you can watch the sun move across the sky as its glaring sunlight reflects off the shiny rocks that cover Ryugu's surface.
"Please take a moment to enjoy 'standing' on this new world," JAXA officials said in a statement released today (Sept. 27). The video was shot over the course of 1 hour and 14 minutes beginning on Sept. 22 at 9:34 p.m. EDT (0134 GMT on Sept. 23). [Japan's Hayabusa2 Asteroid Ryugu Sample-Return Mission in Pictures]
The Hayabusa2 mission's MINERVA-II1B rover snapped this photo of asteroid Ryugu right before it hopped across the asteroid's surface on Sept. 22, 2018, at 8:46 p.m. EDT (12:46 a.m. GMT on Sept. 23).
Credit: JAXA
Unlike the rovers that have landed on Mars, these twin rovers have no wheels. Instead of rolling across the asteroid's surface, these are designed to "hop" across the asteroid's surface.
They can hop horizontal distances of up to 50 feet (15 meters), and because Ryugu's gravity is so weak, it can take them up to 15 minutes to land.
The Minerva-II1 rovers have been snapping photos both from the surface of Ryugu and from the air while performing these giant leaps. When the hopping rovers are in motion, the images they take can appear a bit distorted, as you can see in the images from Minerva-II1B above.
MINERVA-II1A captured the shadow of its own antenna and pin on Sept. 22, 2018, at 8:48 p.m. EDT (12:48 a.m. GMT on Sept. 23).
Credit: JAXA
The other rover, Minerva-II1A, managed to snap a photo of its shadow in between hops. In the rover's shadow, you can see its antenna and its "pin" — a device that helps provide friction while hopping, protects the rover's solar cells while landing, and measures the asteroid's surface temperature with a built-in thermometer, JAXA officials said in the statement.
Another view from Minerva-II1A shows a bizarre, football-shaped rock formation on the surface of Ryugu.
The Minerva-II1A rover captured this close-up shot of a rock formation on asteroid Ryugu on Sept. 22, 2018, at 8:43 p.m. EDT (12:43 a.m. GMT on Sept. 23).
Credit: JAXA
The Minerva-II1 rovers aren't the only spacecraft the Hayabusa2 mission will deploy at Ryugu. In October, it will drop a lander called MASCOT. And in 2019, another hopping rover, called Minerva-II2, will join the club.
Later next year, the Hayabusa2 mothership will descend to the asteroid's surface to collect samples, which it will bring back to Earth sometime in 2020.
Email Hanneke Weitering at hweitering@space.com or follow her @hannekescience.
A Japanese Probe Is About to Drop Two Hopping Robots Onto Asteroid Ryugu
A Japanese Probe Is About to Drop Two Hopping Robots Onto Asteroid Ryugu
By Mike Wall, Space.com Senior Writer
Artist's illustration of Hayabusa2's hopping rovers, MINERVA-II1A (back) and MINERVA-II1B (foreground), exploring the surface of the asteroid Ryugu. Both rovers are scheduled to land on Ryugu on Sept. 20, 2018.
Credit: JAXA
A Japanese asteroid-sampling probe is about to get up close and personal with its target space rock.
The Hayabusa2 spacecraft will drop two tiny rovers onto the asteroid Ryuguthis week, possibly as early as Thursday (Sept. 20), if all goes according to plan.
The Hayabusa2 team began prepping seriously for the epic maneuver last week. The current schedule calls for the mother ship to descend toward Ryugu today (Sept. 19) and for the two little disk-shaped robots, known as MINERVA-II1A and MINERVA-II1B, to deploy as early as tomorrow, U.S. time. (Officials with the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency, or JAXA, have cited Sept. 20 and Sept. 21 for these events, but that's apparently on Japan time, which is 13 hours ahead of U.S. Eastern Daylight Time.) [Japan's Hayabusa2 Asteroid Mission in Pictures]
Each MINERVA-II rover measures 7 inches wide by 2.8 inches tall (18 by 7 centimeters), with a mass of about 2.4 lbs. (1.1 kilogram). And they won't "rove" in the traditional sense; instead of rolling along on wheels like a Mars or moon explorer, the duo will hop from place to place on Ryugu.
"Gravity on the surface of Ryugu is very weak, so a rover propelled by normal wheels or crawlers would float upwards as soon as it started to move," Hayabusa2 team members wrote in a MINERVA-II1 description. "Therefore, this hopping mechanism was adopted for moving across the surface of such small celestial bodies. The rover is expected to remain in the air for up to 15 minutes after a single hop before landing, and to move up to 15 m [50 feet] horizontally."
The rovers will move autonomously, exploring multiple areas on the surface of the 3,000-foot-wide (950 meters) Ryugu, the update added. The duo will gather a variety of data with their science gear, which includes temperature sensors, optical sensors, accelerometers, gyroscopes and a total of seven cameras that are shared by the two rovers.
The upcoming touchdowns kick off an extended surface-exploration campaign for the $150 million Hayabusa2 mission, which launched in December 2014 and arrived in orbit around Ryugu on June 27 of this year. Hayabusa2 is scheduled to drop a larger lander called MASCOT onto the asteroid next month, and another little hopping rover, MINERVA-II2, next year.
And the Hayabusa2 mothership will make several forays of its own to the surface next year, grabbing Ryugu material each time. The orbiter will leave Ryugu in December 2019, and its samples will return to Earth in a special capsule a year later.
This photo of Ryugu was taken by Japan's Hayabusa2 probe on June 26, 2018, just one day before the spacecraft's arrival at the asteroid.
Credit: JAXA, University of Tokyo, Kochi University, Rikkyo University, Nagoya University, Chiba Institute of Technology, Meiji University, University of Aizu, AIST
Scientists will study this returned dirt and rock in detail to learn about the early history of the solar system, and the role asteroids may have played in helping life get going on Earth, mission team members have said.
MINERVA-II stands for "Micro Nano Experimental Robot Vehicle for Asteroid, second generation." The first-generation rover flew aboard the original Hayabusa mission, which arrived in orbit around the asteroid Itokawa in September 2005. In a historic first, Hayabusa returned a tiny sample of Itokawa to Earth in 2010. But its MINERVA hopper did not land successfully on the space rock.
Hayabusa2 isn't the only asteroid-sampling mission operating right now. NASA's OSIRIS-REx probe is closing in on its target, the 1,640-foot-wide (500 m) near-Earth asteroid Bennu. OSIRIS-REx is scheduled to arrive in orbit around Bennu on Dec. 31 and return samples of the space rock to Earth in September 2023.
Cosmic radiation is made up of incredibly tiny particles moving incredibly fast, nearly at the speed of light — the sort of phenomenon a human body isn't very well equipped to withstand. That radiation travels across all of space, but Earth's atmosphere buffers us from the worst of its impacts. That means the farther away from Earth's surface you go, the more cosmic radiation your body absorbs. [Space Radiation Threat to Astronauts Explained (Infographic)]
An artist's depiction of ESA's Trace Gas Orbiter at work around Mars.
Credit: D. Ducros/ESA
By the time you're traveling to and from Mars, that gets to be a very big problem. "Radiation doses accumulated by astronauts in interplanetary space would be several hundred times larger than the doses accumulated by humans over the same time period on Earth, and several times larger than the doses of astronauts and cosmonauts working on the International Space Station," Jordanka Semkova, a physicist at the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences and lead scientist on the new research, said in a statement. "Our results show that the journey itself would provide very significant exposure for the astronauts to radiation."
Those results are based on data from the European Space Agency's Trace Gas Orbiter, a spacecraft that has been circling the Red Planet since 2016. One of the instruments it carries is a dosimeter, which has been taking measurements throughout the orbiter's journey.
According to the team behind the new research, those measurements show that just getting to and from Mars would expose astronauts to at least 60 percent of the current recommended maximum career exposure.
What precisely that recommended maximum is varies with sex and age, but it ranges from 1 sievert for a 25-year-old woman to 4 sieverts for a 55-year-old man. (The measurement of sieverts already accounts for differences in weight.)
But 60 percent just for the round-trip is particularly concerning, since presumably the point of going to Mars is to spend at least a little time on the planet's surface — ideally, without overdosing on radiation.
Child porn investigation, not aliens, triggered solar observatory closure, documents show
Child porn investigation, not aliens, triggered solar observatory closure, documents show
The entrance to Sunspot Observatory is blocked near Alamogordo, N.M., Friday, Sept. 14, 2018.
DYLAN TAYLOR-LEHMAN/ALAMOGORDO DAILY NEWS VIA AP
By ALLYSON CHIU | The Washington Post | Published: September 20, 2018
In the days following reports that a solar observatory in New Mexico had been abruptly evacuated and closed with FBI agents on the scene, the Internet exploded with theories.
Aliens? UFOs? Some other mysterious extraterrestrial encounter?
Questions outnumbered answers as the National Solar Observatory in Sunspot, N.M., stayed shuttered for 10 days earlier this month, its entrance roped off with crime-scene tape and guarded by security personnel. Federal authorities remained tight-lipped, which only fueled speculation and frustrated local law enforcement, who were also kept in the dark.
On Monday, the facility reopened, and for the first time in more than a week there was finally a sliver of information about what had caused the sudden closure. The Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy, which manages the observatory and its surrounding buildings, said in a statement that it had been cooperating with an "on-going law enforcement investigation of criminal activity" at the site. There was no additional information, and both federal and local agencies declined to provide any details.
But, much to the disappointment of conspiracy theorists, what appears to have triggered the observatory's complete shutdown was a janitor that had allegedly been using the observatory's WiFi to download and distribute child pornography, according to newly unsealed court documents.
In July, FBI agents investigating child sexual exploitation traced the location of several IP addresses linked to child pornography activity to the observatory, according to a 39-page search warrant application.
During an interview with federal authorities on Aug. 21, the facility's chief observer said he had found, on a number of occasions, the same laptop hidden and running in various seldom-used offices around the observatory. He described the contents of the laptop as "not good," according to court documents.
A federal agent immediately went to the observatory, located deep within Lincoln National Forest, and took the laptop into evidence.
According to the warrant application, the only person in the facility at the same time the alleged child porn downloads occurred was a janitor who had started work there about a year ago. The observatory's cleaning contract was owned by the janitor's parents, authorities said.
"[The janitor] has a key to the building and unlimited access to the building, and is familiar with which offices are used only a handful of times a year," the warrant application said. The application included the name of the janitor but because he has not been charged with anything at this time, The Post is not identifying him.
The day after the laptop was seized, the janitor was allegedly seen by the chief observer leaving the office where it had been found. The janitor asked the chief observer, who relayed the interaction to federal agents, if anyone else had entered the office because the cleaning supplies he had left there were missing. Later, the janitor claimed "someone had been entering the Observatory at night, in order to steal the wireless Internet service," and expressed concerns about "lax security," court documents reported.
Then, the janitor's actions allegedly became even more bizarre, prompting the observatory's staff to become worried about their own safety. At one point, he was described as "frantic," authorities said.
Aside from continuing to "feverishly" search the facility, the documents state that the janitor said, "it was only a matter of time before the facility 'got hit,'" and that he "believed there was a serial killer in the area, and that he was fearful that the killer might enter the facility and execute someone."
In response to the janitor's behavior, the management of the observatory, without input from the FBI, shut it down and evacuated its personnel. The facility's cleaning contract with the janitor's parents was also terminated.
The FBI obtained a warrant to search the janitor's home and on Sept. 14, federal agents seized cellphones and laptops, and storage devices including SD cards, thumb drives and an external hard drive, court documents said.
No charges have been filed and an arrest warrant for the man has not been issued, Reuters reported. An FBI spokesperson told Reuters the case is still under investigation.
A recreation of former military spy and Pentagon employee Luis Elizondo delivering his talk at the Mutual UFO Network Symposium in Cherry Hill, New Jersey.
ILLUSTRATION BY ALEX FINE
“I know what I saw.”
It was late July, and Teresa Tindal, a 39-year-old administrator for a consulting firm, was describing the incident that made her a believer: a round, golden object hovering in the evening sky over Tucson, Arizona. Weather balloon? No way. It could only be one thing: a UFO.
This kind of certainty had brought her—and 400 other people—to the Crowne Plaza hotel in Cherry Hill, New Jersey, for the Mutual UFO Network (MUFON) Symposium, the “premiere UFO event of the year,” according to its literature. They had gathered to talk about extraterrestrials, UFOs and how to avoid being abducted by an alien mothership (hint: yelling at it doesn’t work). “There are too many people that have seen things,” Christine Thisse, 44, a soft-spoken mother from Michigan, told Newsweek.
There were the typical guest speakers giving talks with titles like “Unexplained Disappearances in Rural Areas” and “Report From Mars,” in which a physicist lays out his theory that 75,000 years ago an intergalactic nuclear war wiped out a Martian civilization. And there were famous abductees, like Travis Walton, a former logger whose story of alien captivity became the 1993 movie Fire in the Sky.
But this year offered another attraction—a new, and extremely unlikely, superstar: Luis Elizondo. Seven months earlier, The New York Times had published a front-page story on the Advanced Aviation Threat Identification Program, a “shadowy” initiative at the Pentagon that “investigated reports of unidentified flying objects.” Elizondo, a burly Miami native with a billy-goat beard and colorful tattoos, was the career military intelligence official put in charge of the program a few years after it formed in 2007, until, according to the Pentagon’s press office, it was discontinued in 2012. (Elizondo insists the work is ongoing.) Last year, he resigned from the Pentagon, protesting what he considered lackluster support and unnecessary secrecy—red meat for the X-Files crowd. “Why aren’t we spending more time and effort on this issue?” he wrote to Defense Secretary James Mattis in his resignation letter.
In the private sector, Elizondo soon found an unlikely ally in his quest for the truth: Tom DeLonge, the former frontman for the pop/punk band Blink-182, the group behind a song called “Aliens Exist.” Turns out DeLonge actually believed it. In 2017, he launched To the Stars Academy of Arts and Science, and Elizondo quickly became its public face. The mission: to advance UFO research, produce science-fiction-themed entertainment about UFOs and, with luck, glean some insight into the super-advanced technology displayed by UFOs (such as spaceships that can seemingly defy gravity) that the Pentagon keeps ignoring.
Bright lights off the coast of California prompted UFO speculation on social media in 2015, but the military revealed it was a routine missile test.
MARCUS YAM/LOS ANGELES TIMES/GETTY
The academy claims to have attracted more than 2,000 investors and raised roughly $2.5 million, and Elizondo found a mostly enthusiastic crowd in Cherry Hill. “Sometimes people may have associated you with being fringe—being out there,” he told the MUFON audience over a buffet dinner. “All along, you were right.” Not everyone was convinced: Some cited a lack of evidence in his presentation. Tindal was suspicious of the Pentagon connection. “It could be a cover for something else,” she said.
But if Elizondo is trying to lend credibility to research on unexplained sightings, why would he partner with a guy whose band had a hit album titled Enema of the State? And why would he choose as a venue a UFO conference teeming with conspiracy theorists?
“We have to start somewhere,” he told Newsweek that day. “I don’t get invited to Stanford or MIT.”
Super Hornets and Tic Tacs
Each year, thousands of people report UFO sightings to various authorities—the police, the Pentagon, radio talk show hosts. By one count, more than 100,000 sightings have been reported since 1905. Nearly all can be explained away as clouds, meteors, birds, weather balloons or some other quotidian phenomenon. Efforts at rational debunking serve only to harden the conviction of the true believers, who are convinced that abundant evidence of alien visitations is hidden in secret military documents—literal X-files—locked away in the bowels of the so-called deep state.
The X-files conspiracy theory is the beating heart of the UFO community—an article of faith among enthusiasts and the basis of almost every call to action on social media (#Disclosure). It is also encouraged by some prominent people, including John Podesta, who lamented on Twitter a few years ago that he’d failed to secure the #disclosure of the UFO files,” despite being President Bill Clinton’s chief of staff.
When Elizondo went public, it gave a sheen of credibility to the conspiracy crowd. His background is typical of a straight-arrow military officer with a distinguished career. He is the son of a Cuban exile who participated in the Bay of Pigs—the failed CIA-sponsored plot to overthrow Fidel Castro in 1961. Elizondo worked as a bouncer while attending the University of Miami. After graduating in 1995, he joined the Army and trained to be a military spy. Later, at the Pentagon, Elizondo showed no sign of being a disgruntled employee or a loon, spending much of his career in the shadows, chasing militants in South America and the Middle East.
In 2010, he started to run a small group charged with investigating reports of “unexplained aerial phenomena”—a less controversial term for UFOs. It was an obscure, low-budget initiative created three years before at the behest of then-Senator Harry Reid of Nevada. Details are murky, but the $22 million program seems to have been operated jointly by Elizondo and Bigelow Aerospace, a Nevada-based defense contractor whose billionaire owner, Robert Bigelow, is an avid believer in UFOs.
Luis Elizondo.COURTESY OF TO THE STARS ACADEMY OF ARTS AND SCIENCE
Two months before the Times published its front-page story, Elizondo retired from the Pentagon. He shows Newsweek what he says is a copy of his resignation letter, dated October 4, 2017, and addressed to Mattis. The letter expresses some frustration about the lack of attention his program was getting. And it suggests that something he learned at the Pentagon turned him into a true believer. “Despite overwhelming evidence at both the classified and unclassified levels,” he wrote, “certain individuals in the Department remain staunchly opposed to further research on what could be a tactical threat to our pilots, sailors, and soldiers, and perhaps even an existential threat to our national security.”
What was Elizondo referring to? He is cagey but describes one piece of “evidence”—an audio and video clip from a 2004—that sounds like the kind of potential threat noted in his resignation letter. The clip was leaked to the Times—Elizondo insists it wasn’t him—and has since become a staple of UFO lore: On a routine training mission off the coast of San Diego, two F/A-18F Super Hornets were instructed to investigate what a confidential report later characterized as “multiple anomalous aerial vehicles.” The pilots reported that the “vehicles” descended from approximately 60,000 feet down to 50 feet in a blink of an eye. One of the pilots reported that the vehicles looked like white Tic Tacs.
Elizondo is not the only high-powered military talent at the academy venture. Chris Mellon, who served as the deputy assistant secretary of defense for intelligence during the Clinton and George W. Bush administrations, has also signed on. In his former job, he had oversight of the Pentagon’s super-secret special access programs, among the most highly classified, compartmented black operations. Last February, Mellon wrote an op-ed in The Washington Post titled “The Military Keeps Encountering UFOs. Why Doesn’t the Pentagon Care?”
Another colleague, Jim Semivan, is a 25-year veteran of the CIA’s National Clandestine Service, an undercover arm of the agency. Semivan retired from the CIA in 2007 and, like Elizondo and Mellon, joined the newly established To the Stars Academy last year. “My partner Jim Semivan is a spy,” DeLonge gushed on Twitter last November.
Academy co-founder Hal Puthoff is another strange bedfellow. He’s an electrical engineer who did controversial research for the CIA and Defense Intelligence Agency on psychic abilities and worked as a contractor for the Pentagon program.
Ground Control to Major Tom
In an interview with podcaster Joe Rogan a few weeks after his company launched last October, DeLonge explained how his new venture was two years in the making, forged through clandestine meetings with an assortment of high-level national security and defense industry individuals. (DeLonge declined to be interviewed for this story. He “is not doing any press right now,” said his spokesman.)
According to the rocker, they disclosed various E.T. secrets to him, one being an alien body in government possession. DeLonge, because of his celebrity platform and engagement with a younger demographic, was chosen to ease out the truth, gradually, and through fantasy/sci-fi stories.
“Why you?” interviewer Rogan asked. “Because,” DeLonge replied, disclosure “has to be managed a certain way for people to understand.”
In addition to presenting himself as the designated UFO messenger for the U.S. government, DeLonge discussed Atlantis (the lost continent), how “different alien races were coming here for resource extraction” and how these aliens have genetically engineered humans periodically to goose humanity’s evolution.
DeLonge has a gift for bringing talented people together, says Elizondo. “He sees the puzzle and can put it together like few people can.” But there are those in the UFO community who are skeptical of the rock star’s motives. They believe he simply wants to profit off his fetish—he sells UFO-related books, websites and merchandise—and that his antics are part of the business plan.
Tom DeLonge launched To the Stars Academy of Arts and Sciences in 2017, and describes himself as the designated UFO messenger for the U.S. government.
LEANN MUELLER
There’s certainly a large market for what DeLonge’s peddling. Pseudo-documentary shows on cable TV, such as Ancient Aliens (now in its 13th season) and UFO Hunters, have passionate audiences. Later this fall, the History Channel will run a new UFO dramatization series based on Project Blue Book, an actual top-secret Pentagon program in the 1950s and ’60s that investigated UFO sightings and reports. The program’s leader was a scientist who was a UFO skeptic before being persuaded that the topic should be taken seriously. Since the program was shut down in 1968, the U.S. government has consistently denied searching for UFOs—until last year, when Elizondo came out of the shadows.
On the question of whether UFO encounters are genuine, Elizondo has asserted many times, including in his talk to the MUFON audience, that “ultimately the data will speak for itself.” Asked where the data are, Elizondo responds with a variation of the hidden-by-the-deep-state argument. The Pentagon program, he says, commissioned “large volumes” of academic studies and data but much of it is “FOIA-exempt,” he says, meaning that Freedom of Information Act requests yield little information. (The day before the conference began, a Las Vegas TV show obtained a list of what it claimed were several dozen of the studies, including one on “invisibility cloaking” and another on “brain-machine interfaces.”)
This argument contradicts Reid’s assertion, in a March interview with New York magazine, that “we have hundreds and hundreds of papers, pages of paper, that have been available since it was completed. Most all of it, 80 percent at least, is public.” It also contradicts what Mellon wrote last February in his Washington Postop-ed, which referred to a “growing body of empirical data.”
Mellon is referring specifically to data from military radar detection of unidentified aerial phenomena and the cockpit video and audio recordings from Naval fighter jet pilots who have supposedly encountered this phenomenon. The 2004 sighting wasn’t the only time military pilots saw the Tic Tac, says Mellon. Pilots spotted a similar UFO on at least one other occasion; they described it falling down into the water and moving around just under the surface. In addition, says Mellon, “there are dozens of cases in the last few years, not involving Tic Tacs per se but Navy personnel and warships. It is absolutely not a one-off event.”
Footage from the Tic Tac video.
COURTESY OF UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE
Mellon finds the Tic Tac video compelling, but experts outside the believers’ circle do not. “All such unusual sights can be explained by either natural or human-made phenomena,” says Avi Loeb, chair of the Harvard Astronomy Department. In other words, the pilots could have been seeing optical illusions generated by their instruments, or the sun, or a bird or clouds. Or, as has happened before, experimental, classified aircraft being tested in the area.
Last year, CNN showed the Tic Tac video to Neil deGrasse Tyson, the astronomer and author. “Call me when you have a dinner invite from an alien,” he quipped.
Skeptics also take aim at the conspiracy theory itself. If alien spaceships are so numerous, why don’t the thousands of observation satellites in orbit, most aimed at Earth, pick them up? “You can say, ‘The U.S. government is covering it up,’ but then every government is covering it up, not just ours,” says Seth Shostak, senior astronomer at the SETI Institute. “I find that unbelievable.”
So if Elizondo wanted the Pentagon and others to take him seriously, why would he come to this fringe conference? And, for that matter, why would he, Mellon and their highly credentialed colleagues join forces with a rock star flake like DeLonge?
Elizondo has heard the whispers and read the conspiracy theories on Reddit. “No, I am not running a government disinformation campaign,” he says in an exasperated tone. “I took a huge risk in leaving a safe job to do this. If this doesn’t pan out, I’ll be working at Walmart.”
‘Don’t Look Now but We Have Foreign Interest’
The next six months or so will be pivotal to the success of To the Stars, Elizondo says. That’s when he expects to be able to present more data on UFO sightings. As the Academy’s head of Global Security and Special Programs, he serves as a liaison to the government, including Congress, the Pentagon and the intelligence services.
But there are still more questions than answers. Is he working behind the scenes to get some of the information that he knows from his Pentagon days declassified? He wouldn’t say. When will the public have access to this information? “That is being addressed,” he replies. Over the summer, the Senate Armed Services Committee asked at least one of the Super Hornet pilots to brief staff members about the Tic Tac incident.
A satellite photo of Area 51.
DIGITALGLOBE/GETTY
“In the end, I’m not worried about credibility,” Elizondo says. “I’m worried about facts.” Reminded that the only facts the public has are grainy videos, he insists, “There is data. It’s not out yet.”
Elizondo says UFO believers weren’t the only ones at the MUFON conference. “You ready for this? Ukrainians and the U.N. Why would people from the U.N. and the Ukrainians, which we know are probably tied to the Russians, be there?” They signed up, he says, “after they knew I was coming. Foreign intelligence. That means they’re taking this seriously. Either they have a program or want a program, or they want to know if this is bullshit. But either way, don’t look now but we have foreign interest.”
Elizondo understands why many remain dubious. “You can’t take things at face value. I get it. I’m a career spy,” he says. “But in the end, as crazy as it sounds, this is real.”
Correction, 9/20, 12:30 p.m.:Due to an editing error, the previous version of this story misquoted Luis Elizondo as saying "aliens exist." The piece has been updated to reflect what he said: "this is real."
A New Mexico solar observatory reopened Monday after an 11-day FBI investigation of a janitor who was suspected of using the facility’s internet to download child pornography, federal court documents revealed Wednesday.
The National Solar Observatory in Sunspot, New Mexico, abruptly closed Sept. 6 over an undisclosed security issue. The lack of explanation fueled conspiracy theories, given the facility’s close proximity to Roswell – the location of a supposed UFO sighting in 1947.
An FBI officer said she was “investigating the activities of an individual who was utilizing the wireless internet service of the National Solar Observatory … to download and distribute child pornography.”
Officials on Monday said the observatory did not communicate with the public during the investigation because they didn’t want the suspect to be tipped off.
“[O]ur desire to provide additional information had to be balanced against the risk that, if spread at the time, the news would alert the suspect and impede the law enforcement investigation. That was a risk we could not take,” officials said.
Investigators determined the observatory’s janitor had used his laptop to connect to the facility’s wireless internet system, an FBI affidavit said. Federal authorities obtained a warrant to the search the suspect’s residence, Reuters reported, citing FBI records.
On Sept. 14, FBI agents removed three cell phones, five laptops, one iPad, an external hard drive, and other electronic devices, from the suspect’s home, FBI records showed.
An FBI spokesman said the case is still under investigation. According to the FBI, the suspect has not been arrested or charged.
Sunspot is located in South Central New Mexico, about a four-hour drive from Albuquerque.
Scientist invents technology to see multidimensional beings
Scientist invents technology to see multidimensional beings
Daniel Nemes scientist and inventor, originally from Spain but residing in Colombia, since he was 14 years old he became interested in astronomy and science. He was a member of the astronomical group of Madrid, Spain.
He says that the project started when he read an article in a magazine about the Dark Matter of the universe and the multidimensional universe momentarily interested him and called attention so he had the initiative to perform mathematical calculations and optical experiments to be able to capture images of ” the beyond”.
He discovered a method of capturing far superior to infrared, ultraviolet, black light, video camera with TV without antenna, etc. And that method I call ENERGIVISION . I use special lenses, ultrasensitive screens of his invention and above all sunlight. The images that he captures are of unknown origin. He explains that his theory is that they are images of other planes. However he says he has not traveled to other places to expose the invention. He has tried to make known to the scientific community and only answered a scientific body of the USA and in a rude way. The media have ignored and silenced the discovery along with the images captured.
Daniel Nemes says: “The only way I have to publicize my invention and the captures are by Facebook, since 2015 I have posted 1000 photos on my facebook. When I started to publish my images on my social network I had a lot of rejection, it was very hard and even insults towards me, fortunately my images are now more known and when I post on my facebook or in other groups it is rare to receive a disqualification or insult ” .
Judge for yourself the following images, the note is at the discretion of each person.
If you want more information about this technology I suggest you go to the following link: Daniel Nemes
In 1968, science fiction and fantasy authorJames Blish adapted a set of eight Star Trek: The Original Series episodes into a collection of short stories published under the title Star Trek 2.The collection included the Harlan Ellison story “The City on the Edge of Forever,” widely regarded as one of the best episodes of the original series. In one of the stories in Star Trek 2, Blish came up with a hypothetical location for planet Vulcan, home of the logical, pointy-eared Vulcans.
Vulcans actually can be pretty emotional when they want to be too. Look at that face: pure unbridled rage. Or sheer ecstasy, it’s hard to tell with these Vulcans.
Blish’s chosen location for Vulcan was 40 Eridani, a triple star system in the constellation of Eridanus some just 16 light-years from our own Sun. In 1991, Star Trek creator Gene Roddenberry admitted that the location had become part of the Star Trekcanon. In a strange twist of life imitating art, astronomers have now found a planet exactly where Blish and Roddenbery said Vulcan was.
The research which led to the discovery of the real-life Vulcan was led by University of Florida astronomer Jian Ge. Jian and other astronomers have been monitoring around 150 nearby stars for planets as part of the Dharma Planet Survey, a search for rocky habitable planets. Using the DEFT Telescope in Arizona, Jian and colleagues found a super-Earth just 16 light-years away orbiting the star HD 26965 – the price location for Vulcan in the Star Trek canon.
The planet lies in the “Goldilocks” zone of habitability.
One of the researchers who contributed to the discovery says that “HD 26965 may be an ideal host star for an advanced civilization” due to its size and distance from its host star. The University of Florida’s Bo Ma, lead author of the paper outlining the discovery, says that unlike most of the host stars of known exoplanets, “anyone can see 40 Eridani on a clear night and be proud to point out Spock’s home.”
Is it time to turn our search for extraterrestrial life into a search for Spock? Let’s hope not. The Search for Spock was terrible. I’m more of a Voyage Home fan.
When the California two-spot octopus isn’t attempting to bring more eight-legged cephalopods into this world, it prefers to be alone. Known to scientists as Octopus bimaculoides, the alien-like invertebrate spends most of its time hiding or searching for food, asocial males avoiding asocial females until their biological clocks say it’s time to partner up. That is, until they are on MDMA. In a groundbreaking study released Thursday, researchers describe how octopuses on the drug act similarly to a socially anxious human on MDMA: They open up.
Gül Dölen, Ph.D., is an assistant professor of neuroscience at Johns Hopkins University and the co-author of the new Current Biologypaper. She tells Inversethat when octopuses are on MDMA, it’s like watching “an eight-armed hug.”
“They were very loose,” Dölen says. “They just embraced with multiple arms.”
While MDMA is known to trigger prosocial behavior in mice and humans, it has never been witnessed in invertebrates, animals that have no backbone. Vertebrates and invertebrates have wildly divergent bodies and brain structures, and for a long time scientists didn’t think the latter had the capacity to be social. They only recently realized invertebrates deserved a second look.
Because of improvements in molecular genetic analysis, Dölen explains, we’re beginning to understand the ways in which both groups evolved from a common ancestor. The findings of the new study add evidence to the idea that social behaviors have a long evolutionary history — going back much farther than we ever believed. The electrifying results could significantly impact what we know about the evolution of brains and why MDMA-assisted therapy seems to be such a useful tool in treating post-traumatic stress disorder and anxiety.
“After the MDMA, it was like an eight-armed hug.”
An octopus differs from a human in ways far beyond the obvious. A heap of no bones and 33,000 genes, octopuses are belived to be Earth’s first intelligent beings. They are utterly different from all other animals, with a central brain that surrounds the esophagus and two-thirds of their neurons in their arms. They’re separated from humans by more than 500 million years of evolution. But despite the differences between octopuses and humans, Dölen and her colleague Eric Edsinger, Ph.D., a research fellow at the University of Chicago’s Marine Biological Laboratory, choose to focus on a single crucial similarity. The brain of the California two-spot octopus contains a serotonin transporter that enables the binding of MDMA — much like human brains.
This means that serotonin — believed to help regulate mood, social behavior, sleep, and sexual desire — is an ancient neurotransmitter that’s shared across vertebrate and invertebrate species. Dölen and Edsinger hypothesized this before the octopuses were ever bathed in MDMA.
“We needed to check the genome to make sure that the genes that encode the serotonin transporter, which is the protein that MDMA binds to, was still a binding site in octopuses even despite the fact that so much evolutionary time had passed,” Dölen explains.
“We performed phylogenetic tree mapping and found that, even though their whole serotonin transporter gene is only 50 to 60 percent similar to humans, the gene was still conserved. That told us that MDMA would have a place to go in the octopus brain and suggested it could encode sociality as it does in a human brain.”
That’s a revolutionary suggestion because scientists only very recently began to accept that invertebrates are even capable of being social. After all, without MDMA, California two-spot octopuses prefer to be loners. In a 2017 study in the Journal of Experimental Biology, researchers from Queen Mary University London wrote that the possibility that invertebrates could have emotions has “traditionally been dismissed by many as emotions are frequently defined with reference to human subjective experience, and invertebrates are often not considered to have the neural requirements for such sophisticated abilities.”
But recent studies, illustrating a shift in thinking, have shown that invertebrates like sea slugs, bees, and crabs all display various cognitive, behavioral, and phsyiological phenomena that suggest internal states reminiscent of emotions.
This is why the fact that octopuses can bind serotonin is so important. Serotonin is a key mitigator of the emotional aspectsof human behavior and sociality. That octopuses, one of the most advanced invertebrates, have a similar pathway geared toward social behavior despite the fact that their brains are organized very differently suggests that sociality is spread across the animal kingdom.
“There have been studies showing that serotonin is important for social behaviors for both invertebrates and vertebrates, and this really confirms to me that it’s true that serotonin is conserved across hundreds of millions of years of evolution,” says Dölen.
This became clear when she observed how octopuses acted after they were bathed in MDMA. Individual octopuses were put into the middle zone of a glass aquarium that was divided into three. From the middle zone, the subject octopus had the option to move into the zone on either side of it. On one side, there was another octopus in a cage, and on the other, there was a “novel toy object” (a Stormtrooper figurine). Sociality was measured by the number of seconds the subject octopus spent on the side with the caged octopus compared to the Stormtrooper side. Five octopuses were used in the control experiment, and four were used during the MDMA trial.
The study design.
Watching the individual control octopuses — those that hadn’t been bathed in MDMA — during 30-minute test sessions, the researchers found that all of the octopuses spent more time with the Stormtrooper when the social chamber contained a male. When the social chamber contained a female, both male and female octopuses tentatively explored that area.
They would “push against the wall and sort of delicately touch the container that had the octopus in it,” says Dölen.
But when these octopuses were on MDMA, they were notdelicate with their movements toward the caged individuals. After being placed in a bath with MDMA for 10 minutes then washed with saline for 20 minutes, they re-entered the three-zone aquarium. This time around, they spent significantly more time with the other octopus, whether it was male or female, and the eight-armed hugging commenced.
“This paper is welcomed, as the behavioral neuroscience of cephalopods is very understudied,” Dalhousie University invertebrate behavioral physiologist Shelley Adamo, Ph.D., who was not involved with the current paper, tells Inverse. Adamo also studies the interactions between behavior and physiology in invertebrate model systems. “We know little about how their brains work. This paper breaks new ground by examining the underlying molecular basis of at least one neurotransmitter system.”
But she also cautions that it’s too early to jump to conclusions because the paper’s evidence that “the octopus were engaging in ‘social’ behaviors is not especially strong.” There could be alternative explanations for all that friendliness: Maybe the drug altered their foraging behavior and the target octopus “smelled” like food (cephalopods are occasionally cannibalistic). Maybe the MDMA changed their typical hunting behavior, and being hungry could explain why both male and female octopuses were interested in the target.
“As with most interesting papers, it raises a number of questions: What would two octopus do if they were both on MDMA and they could contact one another?” Adamo asks. “The small sample size — a necessary evil for most studies on cephalopods — means that the data is not as robust as it could be.”
Dölen has two hypotheses to explain what happened. Qualitatively, it looks like octopuses on MDMA, much like humans, could just like touching in general and the octopus in the cage “is the most interesting object that an octopus would want to touch.” Or it could be that the drug really does make them social. The latter, she believes, is the most robust hypothesis: MDMA affects human interest in social touch as well, and that seems to be preserved in octopuses as well.
“What this says to me is that in the brain of an octopus, the neural circuits and transmitters that are required for social behavior must exist and they are just suppressed most of the time,” says Dölen. “Octopuses appear to suspend their asociality during important mating periods through a suppression mechanism in their brain.”
The MDMA used in the study was provided by the Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies (MAPS), the nonprofit organization that funds the FDA-approved Phase 3 clinical trials of MDMA-assisted psychotherapy in patients with severe PTSD. This research, Dölen says, has intrigued MAPS founder Rick Doblin, and with good reason. It suggests that perhaps the best way to gain insight into MDMA’s mechanisms and therapeutic importance isn’t by taking an fMRI picture of the brain and examining the regions it activates, which has been standard practice in MDMA research. From Dölen’s point of view, the fact that octopuses don’t have same brain regions as humans but still carry the genes that enable MDMA binding means that molecular and cellular information is going to be more useful than anatomical data.
“Octopuses don’t have the same parts of the brain that we think are important for social behavior, a region called the nucleus accumbens,” says Dölen.
“What we’re arguing is that the brain regions don’t matter. What matters is that they have the molecules, the neurotransmitters, and some configuration of neurons. They have the serotonin transporter and that’s enough.”
NASA’s Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite, better known as TESS, has one mission: To find exoplanets around the brightest stars near the Earth. In just five months, it’s clear TESS is up to the task. On Tuesday, NASA announced TESS had just identified two potential planets around distant stars and released the first set of images captured by TESS. In the same week, collaborators at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s Kavli Institute for Astrophysics and Space Research submitted two papers outlining the evidence for the two planets.
In papers uploaded to the preprint server arXiv, the MIT researchers described a “super-Earth” that orbits its star once every 6.27 days and a “hot Earth” with an even shorter orbital period of just 11 hours. The first planet has a radius between four and five times that of Earth — hence its designation as a “super-Earth,” or a planet that is more than two but fewer than ten times the size of Earth. The hot Earth is a little closer in size to our planet, with a radius about 1.32 times that of Earth.
A closer look at the papers reveals what we know about the two new planets.
NASA_TESS✔@NASA_TESS
The @NASA_TESS team is excited to announce the mission's first candidate planet -- a super-Earth around the bright star Pi Mensae, nearly 60 light-years away. The planet orbits every 6.3 days. The discovery is now being reviewed by other scientists to validate it. Stay tuned!
On Sunday, a team led by Xu Chelsea Huang, Ph.D., a postdoctoral fellow at MIT’s Kavli Institute, submitted its findings on8the planet that orbits the star Pi Mensae (HD 39091) to arXiv. About 59.6 light years from Earth, this star is visible to the naked eye, and astronomers have previously discovered another planet orbiting it — a gas giant with a 5.7-year orbit. The newly discovered one orbits the star in just about that many days.
The researchers found the planet by measuring how the light emitted by its star dimmed periodically. This dimming indicated that something was intermittently coming between us and the star — in this case, a planet. This finding is evidence that TESS’s concept is working, as the satellite’s sole purpose is to map the sky and investigate transiting planets.
This graph shows how the light emitted by the star Pi Mensae (HD 39091) dipped when the planet passes between it and us.
It’s too early to tell what the conditions on this planet are like, but its size suggests that it could have a gas atmosphere like Neptune or Uranus.
“We also think this planet might be evaporating right now, given the intense irradiation it gets from its host star,” Huang told Space.com.
Since Pi Mensae (HD 39091) is an exceptionally bright star, scientists are confident that they will be able to further study its super-Earth using atmospheric spectroscopy, giving insights into its composition and habitability.
NASA_TESS✔@NASA_TESS
A second @NASA_TESS candidate planet has been discovered! Slightly bigger than Earth, this planet orbits LHS 3844, a M dwarf star 49 light-years away, every 11 hours. This find is being reviewed by other scientists, and we're looking forward to studying this cool "hot Earth."
On Wednesday, hot on the tail of TESS’s first images, a team led by Roland Vanderspek, Ph.D., the TESS deputy principal investigator at MIT’s Kavli Institute, submitted its findings on a hot Earth that orbits the M dwarf star LHS 3844, which is just under 49 light years away. And no, this hot Earth is not a sexy version of our planet.
So-called because of its extremely short orbital period and similar size to our planet, a hot Earth usually orbits very close to its home star. Often, its orbital distance is only a few times the radius of the star itself. This makes it a very hot Earth, indeed.
The planet’s extremely short 11-hour orbital period indicates that it almost certainly is tide-locked, meaning that one side of the planet always faces the star and one side always faces away. Therefore, this planet probably has one side that is molten lava and one side that is completely frozen. Imagine the Moon, but more extreme.
But despite the fact that this planet is almost certainly not a candidate for finding life, its proximity to LHS 3844 will allow scientists to study it closely as it transits twice a day.
These two discoveries come extremely early on in TESS’s two-year mission, indicating that many more exoplanet candidates will be identified soon. With over 200,000 stars on TESS’s mission schedule, odds are many of them will reveal transiting planets. At that point, astronomers will have their hands full studying all of them.
Alien Conspiracy – FBI Mysteriously Shut Down An Observatory and Order Evacuation
Alien Conspiracy – FBI Mysteriously Shut Down An Observatory and Order Evacuation
The move of the FBI to shut down a US observatory and lock down the surrounding area has sent alien conspiracy theorists into a frenzy.
The FBI mysteriously closed the National Solar Observatory (NSO) in Sunspot, New Mexico. The sudden decision has prompted theories about the reason as law enforcement keep mum about it.
On September 6, the observatory was suddenly shut down without apparent reason and after more than a week, no sign of reopening. Authorities have yet to explain the closure.
The Sunspot post office has been closed indefinitely. The United States Postal Service spokesman said that they were informed on September 6 that they would be evacuated and the surrounding area without further reason. They were just told to be out of the area until they were allowed to return.
Benny House of Otero County Sheriff said the FBI is refusing to tell them the reason. He stressed that they have people up there at Sunspot that requested them to standby while they evacuate it. However, nobody would elaborate on them the reason as the FBI were up there.
The Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy (AURA) spokeswoman said the evacuation was due to a security issue and they decided to evacuate the facility. AURA is the one that manages the observatory.
With the mysterious closure, conspiracy theorists have given their opinions. Many think that the solar observatory has captured a UFO on a photo while taking pictures of the sun. Others believe that there could be just a massive solar flare. However, most of them agree that there is definitely something off about it.
Wild Claims – UFOs Sabotaged NASA, SpaceX and Mars Probes
Wild Claims – UFOs Sabotaged NASA, SpaceX and Mars Probes
Three major space missions have been compromised, and UFOs have something to do with them, according to wild claims online.
Extraterrestrials reportedly have hacked and destroyed probes designed to scan the galaxy as a warning to humankind.
Conspiracy theorists had highlighted such apparent strange events as when a UFO was observed before the explosion of the SpaceX rocket in 2016 and before the disappearance of a Russian probe to Mars.
As far-fetched as it seems, these bizarre occurrences have sparked theories that intelligent aliens are monitoring our galactic missions very closely.
SpaceX rocket
Carrying a satellite Amos-6, the SpaceX Falcon-9 rocket exploded three minutes before the fire test. The satellite would have helped Facebook to extend their broadband across the world.
Conspiracy theorists spotted a strange grey orb, which appears a second before the explosion.
Some claimed the Pentagon fired a weapon to the rocket because the latter was becoming a competitor with Pentagon’s satellites.
NASA Voyager 2
In August 1977, the NASA’s Voyager 2 probe was launched to study outer planets. It’s the lone spacecraft to have visited Uranus and Neptune and has been the third most-distant human-made object from Earth that remains in contact with the space agency’s headquarters.
However, something extraordinary took place in 2010.
Voyager 2 started transmitting unreadable data for several weeks. German pseudoscience author Hartwig Hausdorf suggested aliens had hacked or reprogrammed the equipment in deep space.
Russia Mars moon probe
Russia’s Phobos 1 and 2 satellite probes were launched to explore the Martian moon in 1988, but one was reportedly lost. The second probe managed to reach the Moon and started sending back photos of the atmosphere and the surroundings, including images of strange objects with seemingly very thin eclipse shape on the surface of the moon.
The probe also managed to send a photo showing a large object between the spacecraft and Mars. Shortly after, the probe disappeared forever.
Conspiracy theorists claim the unidentified object was a giant cylindrical UFO, which cast the previous eclipse type shadow on the surface.
They have highlighted such bizarre events as when a UFO was seen seconds before the SpaceX rocket exploded in 2016 and before a Russian probe to Mars’ moon vanished.
These strange occurrences, as far-fetched as it seems, have sparked theories that intelligent lifeforms are closely monitoring our galactic missions.
SpaceX rocket
A SpaceX Falcon-9 rocket carrying a satellite Amos-6, which would have extended Facebook’s broadband across the globe, exploded three minutes before a scheduled fire test.
Some claimed the Pentagon had fired a weapon next to the rocket because SpaceX is becoming a competitor with its military satellites.
Sceptics said the UFO was simply a bird that appeared far bigger from a distance.
When Musk was asked about extra-terrestrial life, he replied on Twitter: “It is unknown whether we are the only civilisation currently alive in the observable universe, but any chance that we are is added impetus for extending life beyond Earth.”
In another reply on the social media site, the South African entrepreneur said: “There are no aliens, officially at least.”
DS
MYSTERY: A UFO was spotted flying past seconds before SpaceX rocket exploded
Nasa Voyager 2
NASA’s Voyager 2 probe, launched in August 1977 to study outer planets, is the only spacecraft to have visited the icy giants Uranus and Neptune.
It has been the third most-distant man made object from Earth and remains in contact with the space agency’s headquarters.
In 2010 something very strange happened.
Voyager 2 began transmitting unreadable data for several weeks prompting speculation that it had been hacked.
A German pseudoscience author Hartwig Hausdorf suggested aliens had tampered with the equipment in deep space.
"It seems almost as if someone has reprogrammed or hijacked the probe – thus perhaps we do not yet know the whole truth,” he said.
However NASA has a simpler explanation, blaming the malfunction on the memory of an on-board computer which within weeks was fully operational again.
While the science data was unintelligible, they insisted the probe was neither hacked or reprogrammed.
YOUTUBE
UFO: Shortly before it vanished the Russian probe beamed this strange image
It is suggested a cosmic ray from a solar storm could have struck the spacecraft.
Russia Mars moon probe
Russia launched satellite probes Phobos 1 and 2 to explore the Martian moon of the same name in 1988.
One was reportedly lost because of an error with radio command.
But the second probe reached the Moon and began sending back pictures of the atmosphere and the surroundings.
YOUTUBE
MARS: This object was captured by Russian probe exploring the Martian planet before it cut off
The incredible image showed some very strange objects, including what appeared to be a very thin eclipse shape on the moon's surface.
Shortly before the probe disappeared for ever, it sent back a photo showing a huge object between the spacecraft and Mars.
Conspiracy nuts claim the UFO was a giant cylindrical spaceship which they suggested cast the previous eclipse type shadow on the surface.
They believed it was the “first ever leaked account of an alien mothership in the solar system”.
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Mysterious solar observatory evacuation caused by a child porn investigation, FBI docs say
Mysterious solar observatory evacuation caused by a child porn investigation, FBI docs say
Joel Shannon USA TODAY
The Sunspot Solar Observatory telescope sits next door to the Apache Point Observatory. On Sept. 6, the observatory was closed and evacuated due to an undisclosed security issue.
File photo/Daily News
The sudden and previously unexplained evacuation of a New Mexico solar observatory on Sept. 6 was prompted by a child pornography investigation, according to Federal Bureau of Investigation documents.
An individual is suspected of "utilizing the wireless internet service of the National Solar Observatory in Sunspot, New Mexico, to download and distribute child pornography,” Reuters reported Wednesday, citing newly unsealed FBI records.
A laptop at the facility was seized without the knowledge of the suspect — a janitor, the Albuquerque Journal reported. The evacuation came after that person became increasingly agitated, prompting concerns about the safety of staff at the observatory, the publication reports.
In the wake of the evacuation and closure, officials provided little information, leading to widespread speculation and conspiracy theories. The observatory's proximity to Roswell — the site of an alleged UFO crash — helped fuel speculation, Reuters says.
The observatory reopened this week.
The Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy, the organization that oversees the observatory, reported Sunday that the site had been evacuated due to "law enforcement investigation of criminal activity" at Sacramento Peak, the mountaintop on which the observatory is located.
Authorities determined there was no risk to staff and that regular work could commence on Monday, the release stated.
The person being investigated has not been arrested or charged, Reuters reports.
'Ask a Spaceman' Reveals Why You Wouldn't Want to Enter a Wormhole
'Ask a Spaceman' Reveals Why You Wouldn't Want to Enter a Wormhole
By Elizabeth Howell, Space.com Contributor
Whether you're a fan of "Star Trek,", "Doctor Who" or the Marvel universe, all of these franchises have at least one thing in common —– they use wormholes to move people through space rapidly. Are wormholes a real thing, or just a staple of science fiction?
"Wormholes, right?" says Sutter says in today's episode, which is Episode 6 of the series overall. "[They are] a staple of science fiction, where you can just —– boop! —- go somewhere else in the universe as fast as the plot needs to go."
To understand how a (theoretical) wormhole works, first you need to know a bit about the science of black holes, which Sutter covered in Episode 4 and Episode 5. Basically, there are several kinds of black holes. The type that Sutter focuses on is stellar-mass black holes, which happen after huge stars reach the end of their lives and explode in a supernova.
What's the deal with wormholes? Astrophysicist Paul Sutter explains in episode 6 of the Facebook Watch series "Ask a Spaceman."
Credit: Ask a Spaceman/Space.com
After a supernova happens, the resulting gravitational collapse creates a black hole, which is an extremely massive object that traps all matter and light that get too close. Black holes can only be seen only by using the radiation they emit, or by tracking their gravitational effects on other objects. And they are one possible way of generating a wormhole.
If you picture a black hole as a funnel, Sutter explains in the video, objects that get "trapped" in the black hole pass beyond its event horizon (the mouth of the funnel) and then move down. So, where's the wormhole? It's an equal and opposite funnel attached to the black hole funnel, mouths facing outwards. Sometimes this kind of wormhole is called a "white hole.".
There are a few problems with the white hole theory, Sutter saidys. It's hard to figure out exactly how you get in to the white hole from the black hole. The mathematics behind white holes show that they are incredibly unstable. Whitle holes might evaporate or even "snuff out" a black hole altogether after forming.
But even if wormholes connecting a black and a white hole could exist, they are deadly. Because once a person or a spacecraft gets in to the black- hole- event horizon, they would just get trapped, Sutter saidexplains. There's no way they could escape the hole from either the black hole side or the white hole side, because, by definition, you can never pass back out beyond a black hole's event horizon; you have to go to the singularity, whether or not it's connected to a white hole singularity.
So maybe it's best to leave the wormholes and "wibbly wobbly" science of time to "Doctor Who," or one of the "Star Trek" captains.
The episodes will be released weekly on Wednesdays at 12 p.m. EDT (1600 GMT), so " like" the Facebook page or check back later to see more. Sutter also responds to reader questions in every episode. Click here to learn more about past topics the show has covered, such as the Big Bang and Pluto.
Sutter is a cosmologist at Ohio State University and chief scientist at Columbus Ohio's the Center of Science and Industry in Columbus, Ohio. He has a long-running podcast, also called "Ask A Spaceman.". You can catch all past episodes of his podcast here.
NASA Announces Spacecraft Flyby of Object Four Billion Miles from Earth
NASA Announces Spacecraft Flyby of Object Four Billion Miles from Earth
by Penny Starr
National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) scientists held a “science chat” on their Facebook page on Wednesday outlining the “farthest planetary encounter in history” as the New Horizons spacecraft heads to the edge of the solar system to inspect a mysterious “object.”
The spacecraft will have a “close encounter” with the object just after midnight on Jan. 1, 2019.
“We’re coming down on what is going to be a truly historic event,” said Mike Buckley, a public affairs specialist with the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory in Maryland where the scientists manage the New Horizons mission.
“In just over 100 days the New Horizons spacecraft will add another chapter to its remarkable story with a flight past the Kuiper Belt object nicknamed ‘Ultima Thule,’” Buckley said. The new nickname for 2014 MU69 comes from medieval literature and refers to a distant, unknown world.
Ultima Thule is four billion miles away from Earth, having passed Pluto, the last target of the spacecraft’s flyby, in 2015. It’s located in a previously unknown part of the solar system, according to Alan Stern, New Horizons principal investigator, who took part in the chat from the Southwest Research Institute in Boulder, Colorado.
He said the story started with the discovery of Pluto decades ago.
“Its discovery was the harbinger of our knowledge now that there’s a whole third zone to the solar system,” Stern said.
“We’re a billion miles beyond Pluto now traveling at 32,000 thousand miles per hour over 24/7 — on our way to the first flyby to an object out in the Kuiper Belt,” Stern said.
The New Horizons will be the first spacecraft to explore what scientists say is a sea of stars in a deep freeze in deep space.
The flyby will be three times closer to the Ultima Thule than it was to Pluto, an encounter that captured some stunning images of the dwarf planet and its moons.
Scientists compared the Kuiper Belt to an archeological dig because that part of space is like going back in time to when the solar system first formed.
They expressed excitement about the flyby, which will begin on Christmas Day and culminate on the first day of 2019.
You can find out more about the New Horizons mission by visiting
The creators of Star Trek made the decision to base Spock’s home solar system around one that exists in real life- the triple star system that houses primary star 40 Eridani A. The star, also known as Keid or HD26965, has been revealed to possess at least one planet in orbit. The other two stars, Eridani B and C, have been dismissed as possessing any habitable planets due to the environmental hazards posed by the two suns, which include dangerous flares and the sterilization effects of a white dwarf. Eridani A, however, is thought to have a “habitable zone” where it is possible for a planet to support life.
40 Eridani A, The Real-Life Planet Vulcan
An artist's depiction of planet 40 Eridani A (Credit: Don Davis)
Characteristics of 40 Eridani A that are similar to our own sun have given rise to hopes that the planet in question may be host to lifeforms, in whatever shape they come, or at least have the potential to support life. While the planet is not quite in the habitable zone, the possibility of life has not been ruled out yet. It is double the size of Earth and has a much shorter year, lasting only 42 days. Like the planet Vulcan in the hit series Star Trek, the new planet will likely be fairly hot, due to its close proximity to its sun.
The find has been hailed as the first Earth-like planet of its size found by the Dharma Planet Survey, a project that is in the process of detecting and categorizing large Earth-like planets that may be of interest in future exploratory missions.
It is reported that 40 Eridani A was specifically chosen by Gene Roddenberry due to its age and characteristics. At 4 billion years old and the most viable star in the system, Roddenberry felt that it would give Vulcans the time needed to evolve into a functional humanoid race.
The research is described in a paper posted to the preprint server arXiv.org on July 18 and scheduled for publication in the journal Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Societynext month.
It was not caused by extraterrestrials. It was not caused by secret military operations. It was not caused by unusual sunspot activity or incoming asteroids. It was not caused by foreign hackers. Those were all possible reasons given since September 6th when the Sunspot Solar Observatory in Sunspot, New Mexico, was mysteriously shut down and evacuated, along with some of the surrounding area, by the FBI, which kept local law enforcement in the dark while allowing surveillance by Blackhawk helicopters. It was a sight and a secret operation made for conspiracy theories and they flourished. In fact, they barely dissipated when the facility was reopened on September 17th with the vague explanation that there was a criminal investigation.
It turns out there was. When you hear the real reason, you may wish it was one of the others.
“According to a search warrant filed in U.S. District Court in Las Cruces, the FBI began investigating after a wireless signal at the observatory, located on Sacramento Peak in the Lincoln National Forest, accessed child porn multiple times since January. During an interview on Aug. 21, the facility’s chief observer told agents he had found a running laptop with child porn on it in an empty office several months before.”
The Albuquerque Journal had access to the search warrant and reports that someone whose job is identified as “chief observer” first believed that the laptop belonged to a research student but nothing was done because he was “distracted by an urgent matter within the facility.”
It gets worse.
Further investigatin determined the laptop actually belonged to a part-time janitor under a contract to the facility which gives him entry authorization and full access to all areas. After the laptop was secretly seized, the janitor began to act suspiciously, at first complaining about “missing some cleaning supplies.”
“(The janitor) had continued to look feverishly through the facility and continued to make comments about the lax security.”
Those comments were made to the chief observer, who became even more concerned, according to the search warrant, when the janitor predicted that the poor security would cause the facility to be “hit” – possibly by a serial killer who would “enter the facility and execute someone.”
News channel KTSM.com reports that, while the janitor is identified by name in the warrant as the main suspect, charges have not yet been filed. If that makes the returning employees, local residents and Sunspot law enforcement officials nervous, CBS Albuquerque affiliate KRQE reports that the observatory director and the Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy, which runs the observatory, say there’s nothing to worry about.
“Given the significant amount of publicity the temporary closure has generated, and the consequent expectation of an unusual number of visitors to the site, we are temporarily engaging a security service while the facility returns to a normal working environment.”
Eerie Ring of UFO Lights over Minnesota captured by several witnesses
Eerie Ring of UFO Lights over Minnesota captured by several witnesses
A strange ring of lights like a flying saucer type has been spotted in the sky over Minnesota by several witnesses on different locations on September 14, 2018.
A couple drove home when they suddenly saw something strange above the road at Stillwater in the state of Minnesota.
The man and his girlfriend are absolutely convinced that it is not a reflection or something like that because after the object had been hanging over the road for about four minutes, it suddenly flew away with great speed.
They managed to capture two images of the UFO.
Another witness noticed the UFO above Shakopee Archery Range, Jackson Township, Minnesota and recorded the object, see below video.
No doubt it is the same object despite it has changed its color, but what is it?
White UFO Seen On Live NASA Space Station Cam, Sep 20, 2018, UFO Sighting News.
White UFO Seen On Live NASA Space Station Cam, Sep 20, 2018, UFO Sighting News.
Date of discovery: Sept 20, 2018 Location of discovery: Earths orbit at space station I was watching the NASA live space station cam looking for UFOs when I spotted this little guy. A white disk moved over the space station. It was small so I'm sure NASA didn't notice it, otherwise they would have gone to blue screen to hide it. The UFO passes the space station, but at a great distance, as if it didn't want to be noticed by the astronauts. Scott C. Waring-Taiwan
PROJECT BLUE BOOK: THE STUNNING TRUE CASES BEHIND HISTORY'S NEW UFO SHOW - IGN FIRST
PROJECT BLUE BOOK: THE STUNNING TRUE CASES BEHIND HISTORY'S NEW UFO SHOW - IGN FIRST
The truth is out there, and it's declassified.
BY LAURA PRUDOMAll September long, IGN is highlighting the best TV coming your way in the 2018-2019 season. Today, we're delving into the mysterious world of Project Blue Book, executive produced by Robert Zemeckis. The sci-fi drama tells the story of Dr. Allen Hynek, a genius college professor recruited by the U.S. Air Force to spearhead the titular operation that researched thousands of real-life cases involving Unidentified Flying Objects, many of which were never solved. The series premieres this winter on History.
It's often said that truth is stranger than fiction, but nowhere is that more evident than in History Channel's new scripted drama series Project Blue Book, based on the real-life, previously classified government investigations into UFOs that took place during the 1950s and '60s.
The show stars Game of Thrones alum Aidan Gillen as Dr. Allen Hynek, an inquisitive but practical scientist who became one of the world's leading ufologists thanks to what he encountered while working on the top-secret government project.
Gillen admits that Hynek's real-life trajectory proved to be one of the most surprising and compelling aspects of the series for him. "For somebody who joined the US Air Force as a scientific advisor, to ultimately become the person who sets up the Center for UFO Studies, and a leading figure in that world, and still retain his credibility as a scientist... He wasn’t a quack who was convinced human beings were visited daily by little green men, you know? That’s really interesting," Gillen tells IGN.
"He started as a skeptic, and did not end as a skeptic. He was a very open-minded scientist who would never take an easy out and always thought logically. At the same time, he didn’t jump to explain things away in illogical ways, like, 'well these are definitely visitors from other planets.' In fact, he was quite wary of that kind of assumption. He wanted people to keep an open mind about the possibility that there was stuff there, but not be too quick to assume where it came from."
In the show, as in reality, Hynek is recruited by the Air Force to investigate inexplicable phenomena, but rather than seeking the truth, it soon becomes clear that the government is far more interested in providing palatable, mundane answers for these extraordinary encounters in an attempt to prevent mass hysteria. Thus, he's partnered up with Captain Michael Quinn (Michael Malarkey), a by-the-book military man who is initially happy to toe the party line without asking too many questions. Quinn is an amalgam of real-life characters, but was initially based on Edward J. Ruppelt, an Air Force Captain who oversaw Project Blue Book and its predecessor, Project Grudge.4
IGN has an exclusive first look at a scene from Project Blue Book's premiere, which sees Quinn insisting on a logical explanation for an unsettling close encounter, while Hynek maintains that he needs firsthand evidence in order to be convinced that a potential UFO is nothing more than a weather balloon. Check it out below:
Malarkey offers us some insight into what's going through his character's head in the pivotal scene. "I think he’s starting to realize that Hynek is not the kind of guy who’s just gonna be bossed around and be an underling, which he was kind of hoping for," he says. "And he’s kind of realizing, 'okay, this guy is brilliant, but this is going to be a problem if it continues like this. So, maybe I need to teach this guy a lesson, and show him just what we’re up against here and what we’re dealing with, so he can have a firsthand experience that this isn’t a game, this is life or death. If we stall, we’re holding back proceedings.' It’s the first time we see the conflict of interest, where Quinn’s going, 'we need to close the cases,' and Hynek’s going, 'well, we can’t close the cases if it’s not one hundred percent sure that that’s what happened.' And I’m like, 'you’re missing the point, buddy.' And that’s the first time we see that difference of motive for why they’re doing what they’re doing."
Adds Gillen, "It’s pretty important for Quinn to see that Hynek is game, or for Hynek to test Quinn - [although] he’s really testing himself. And as our story progresses, we will possibly see little shifts in that dynamic, and that relationship. And I don’t mean in that it’s an endless power play, or anything like that - it’s just them getting comfortable with each other, and inspiring each other to go further in their own ways to get to the truth. And ultimately, to find themselves as a team or a union that’s more powerful [together] than individually."
Despite Quinn's attempts to keep things moving and keep his superiors happy, Malarkey admits that teaming up with Hynek "appeals to parts of Quinn’s intellect as well. He’s been used to dealing with meatheads and people who are just barking orders. And it’s the first time he’s had to go in depth and chat back and forth with another person. He’s been used to working alone. And I think he’s realizing, as time goes by that, yeah, he actually is interested. He’s spent so long shoving off that part of him that would even allow himself to be interested, and once that door is opened, he starts seeing a lot more of the subtextual things that are going on in the chain of command. And starting to get a little upset about being left in the dark about all that stuff."
While the show takes some artistic liberties in adapting Hynek's story, Project Blue Book truly is based on real-life reports and investigations into UFOs, many of which were classified up until a few years ago. There were approximately 12,000 cases reported during that period, and while many sightings did have earthbound answers, there are still 700 cases that are unexplained to this day - something that Malarkey admits helped convince him that there may indeed be other life out there in the universe.
"What surprised me the most, I think, was the sheer quantity of stories, and especially ones that are unsolved... Seeing images, hearing actual accounts. I’m a hundred percent positive there’s a lot of fake stuff in there, but the fact that there’s that much stuff, some of the stories that are just so detailed and realistic … it just made me think about it a lot more than I ever have, and, I think, tip into the point of going, 'yeah, I know pretty much for sure that there’s something else going on.' I was a considerer, now I’m a believer."
Over the course of his research and filming the show, Malarkey says he discovered some pretty disturbing stories that made him think twice about possible explanations for these cases. "I think the most disconcerting thing for me is the amount of Air Force pilots who are up there in the skies, continuously seeing these things, and also mysteriously disappearing or being silenced or having issues or dying. There’s obviously cover-ups going on. And the fact that no one is telling us why it’s so serious to cover something like this up or what it is, it makes me believe that there is something huge to be covered up," he admits. "And also, working closely with the Air Force and learning nonverbals and how things work, this was a serious national crisis. It wasn’t just 'oh, let’s check out the flying saucers!' It's like, 'This is a crisis, we’re at breaking point. Potentially there’s gonna be anarchy and complete mayhem in the United States.'"
Sounds like a pretty good justification for a cover-up, right?
To delve deeper into the mysteries of Project Blue Book, keep an eye out for it this winter on History, with a premiere date to be announced soon.
Les “champignons verts” sont les images des lampadaires situés dans le bas de l’image, créées par de multiples réflexions parasites sur les surfaces des lentilles de l’objectif de l’appareil photo.
Face aux insondables cieux étoilés, nous ne sommes pas seuls. Qu’il s’agisse d’Ovni (Objet volant non identifié) ou PAN (Phénomène aérospatial non identifié), la réponse n’est pas toujours celle qu’on imagine ou qu’on espère, esprits rêveurs que nous sommes. Avant la conférence prévue vendredi à Annonay, Xavier Passot nous ramène les pieds sur terre.
Xavier Passot a lu des histoires fantastiques durant son travail au sein du Geipan.
“Le 28 mai 1977, à partir de 3 heures du matin, une étudiante fait trois observations d’un phénomène lumineux qui l’intrigue. Une boule de couleur jaune se déplace lentement avant de disparaître. Un autre témoin viendra sur les lieux de l’observation le lendemain entre 2 et 4 heures du matin. À la verticale de l’endroit d’observation indiqué par le premier témoin, il constatera la présence de la… Lune.”
1er juillet 1977 à chabeuil : Envoûtés par Vénus
“Le 1er janvier 1977, entre 19 h 30 et 19 h 45, deux personnes en voiture ont leur attention attirée par un objet très lumineux. Ils décrivent d’abord une boule très brillante immobile de couleur blanche située à 150 mètres�environ d’altitude puis un engin émettant une lumière très intense. L’observation a duré� environ 10 minutes avant que l’objet ne décrive une courbe de 45° et disparaisse en direction du Sud. La cartographie du ciel établie a posteriori montre la présence de Vénus dans le secteur du ciel observé.”
30 août 1979 à lus-la-croix-haute : des champignons pourtant pas hallucinogènes
“Le 30 août 1979, un cultivateur se rend dans un champ de seigle et aperçoit au sol un rond brûlé�de 10,50 mètres de diamètre. Il remarque que l’herbe est plus verte à l’intérieur du cercle que dans la prairie avoisinante. Aux environs du 20 septembre, ce même témoin découvrira que des champignons du type rosés des prés ont poussé à l’intérieur et extérieur du cercle.”
25 juillet 1993 à Saint-Etienne-de-Lugdares : la piste à l’Ovni devient piste de danse
“Dans la nuit du 24 au 25 juillet 1993, entre 2 h 45 et 3 h 30, trois témoins observent un phénomène lumineux blanc qui se déplace en tournant sur lui-même avec de nombreux points lumineux. L’enquête montrera rapidement qu’il s’agit d’un projecteur multifacettes d’une discothèque voisine, dont la lumière se reflétant sur le plafond nuageux bas peut s’apercevoir de très loin.”
1er décembre 2004 à Annonay : Débris
“Le 1er décembre 2004, vers 19 h 30, un témoin observe, dans le ciel, une boule blanche fort lumineuse qui descend à très grande vitesse. Avant d’atteindre le sol, cette boule se transforme en un petit point rouge et disparaît. Un autre témoin observera �également ce phénomène qui lui fait penser à une fusée éclairante. Les témoins ont probablement observé une rentrée atmosphérique (météorite ou bout de satellite entrant dans l’atmosphère).”
19 juin 2007 à Nyons : une navette spatiale pas si extraterrestre
“Une personne rapporte son observation faite le 19 juin 2007 à 22 h 10. Depuis son balcon, le témoin a son attention attirée par le passage silencieux Nord-Sud d’un phénomène très lumineux suivi de près par un second au volume beaucoup plus important. L’ensemble se déplace à vitesse constante et disparaît derrière une colline dans une trajectoire descendante. Un passage de la station spatiale internationale (ISS), accompagné de la navette qui venait de se séparer de la station, a eu lieu ce jour-là.”
26 octobre 2011 à Loriol-sur-Drôme : l’appel de phare aérien
Ceci est un… avion.
Photo Xavier Passot 2011
“Le 26 octobre 2011, vers 20 h 30, un témoin observe dans le ciel (région de la constellation du Verseau) une étoile extrêmement brillante. Le témoin s’étonne de constater que l’intensité lumineuse diminue progressivement pour finir en un tout petit point dans le ciel. L’observation fait penser à un avion vu de face, phare allumé, vu à une distance de plus de 10 km (qui rend les feux vert et rouge invisibles) et qui aurait changé de direction.”
Notre dossier complet à lire dans les éditions Drôme-Ardèche du Dauphiné Libéré de ce mercredi 19 septembre
Lâcher de lanterne thaïlandaise qui, dans le ciel, peut apparaître comme un étrange phénomène lumineux.
Photo Xavier Passot 2012
Par Etienne GENTIL | Publié le 19/09/2018 à 06:01 | Vu 41853 foisµ
The universe may be teeming with life, but we have yet to find any beyond Earth. These are the best prospects, says Stephen Fleischfresser.
Saturn’s moon Enceladus.
STOCKTREK IMAGES / GETTY IMAGES
You may have noticed that there are not a lot of aliens around. Which is weird, because many scientists think there should be life all over the universe. There’s even a formula called the Drake equation which tells us it probably exists.
However, alien life doesn’t have to be intelligent to be exciting. Any evidence of life elsewhere in the universe would be an amazing discovery! As we learn more about space, planets, chemistry and biology, we get more clues as to where we should be searching. Here are some of the places where scientists think we might find extraterrestrial life.
1 | ENCELADUS
Enceladus, named after a giant in Greek mythology, is actually a smallish moon of Saturn. It’s only 500 km in diameter, and when compared to Saturn’s largest moon Titan, with a diameter of 5,000 km, it seems pretty tiny.
Enceladus was discovered by the English astronomer William Herschel in 1789, but all he could really see was a dot through a telescope. For a very long time that’s all anyone knew, and most people thought this little moon was totally boring.
But in the 1970s NASA launched the Voyager spacecraft missions and they revealed a rather pretty, and surprising, icy world. Importantly the surface of Enceladus, composed of thick ice, was made up of different regions - some were very young, and some were very old. This told scientists that there were active geological processes going on.
In 2005, NASA’s Cassini spacecraft gave us a whole new outlook when it discovered huge spouts of salty water vapour, mixed with sand and simple organic compounds of carbon and hydrogen, venting from Enceladus’ surface. This led scientists to think that there must be a huge sub-surface ocean that is kept warm by some sort of energy source. In 2017, scientists confirmed the presence of hydrogen molecules which suggests the presence of hydrothermal vents in the moon’s ocean.
Taken together, this means that Enceladus is probably the most exciting place in the solar system to look for life.
PS. There’s another moon very similar to Enceladus orbiting Jupiter, called Europa. It too could support life, but its icy surface is much thicker than Enceladus’, making it difficult to investigate.
2 | TITAN
Titan is Saturn’s largest moon. It’s half as big again as our moon. It’s huge! It also has a thick atmosphere and is the only other place in the solar system to have lakes and rivers. Perfect!
But there are a few problems. The atmosphere is mostly nitrogen, the lakes and rivers are made of liquid methane and the temperature is almost -180°C.
So perhaps, not so perfect after all.
Just like Enceladus, Titan was visited by the Voyager probes, but unfortunately, they couldn’t see much through the thick, hazy atmosphere first noted by its discoverer in 1655, the Dutch astronomer Christiaan Huygens.
Once again, the Cassini spacecraft came to the rescue. It arrived at Saturn in 2004 and landed a probe, appropriately called Huygens, on Titan’s surface in 2005. The probe, together with radar mapping from orbit, revealed another young and geologically active world with a possible sub-surface ocean.
Subsequent research has revealed the presence of many different kinds of complex organic molecules, a number of which are necessary for life as we know it. Some scientists have suggested that life might be hiding in the oceans below or in the lakes and rivers, but it is so cold on Titan that anything living there might be very different from life on Earth.
3 | MARS
Mars has always been fascinating to Earthlings. It is one of only three planets, along with Venus and our own world, at just the right distance from our sun to make it a likely place for life. Scientists call this the ‘habitable zone’ because it is possible for planets, with the right atmosphere, to have liquid water on their surfaces.
We know that Mars has water, but it’s mostly frozen in polar ice caps, which were first seen by Herschel. We also know that millions of years ago Mars probably had the right sort of conditions for life as we know it.
In the 1970s NASA’s Viking landers reported that Martian soil had been exposed to water and nutrients and that lots of carbon dioxide was given off, just as it would if bacteria in the soil were alive. Then, in 2018, the Curiosity rover discovered organic compounds in the soil. Indeed, the recent discovery of organisms that eat hydrogen in Antarctica, where conditions are much like Mars, has boosted hopes of finding life.
So that’s it for the solar system. But what about planets orbiting other stars in the galaxy, known as ‘exoplanets’? Unfortunately, we know a lot less about exoplanets because they’re so far away, but astronomers have worked out that there are lots of them that might be able to sustain life. Let’s take a look.
4 | TRAPPIST-1 PLANETS
Forty light-years away is a tiny star known as TRAPPIST-1. It’s a red dwarf star, which is the most common type of star in the galaxy. Orbiting this little lukewarm star is not one, but seven rocky planets. All of these planets are a good size, with the smallest being about half the size of Earth and the largest being one fifth larger than our own world.
What’s weird is that they are all so close to their tiny star, with at least three in the star’s habitable zone. While some argue that only one of these could really sustain life, TRAPPIST-1 offers some great opportunities for future research.
5 | PROXIMA CENTAURI B
Discovered in 2016, the closest rocky exoplanet to Earth is Proxima Centauri b. If you were travelling at light-speed it would take you four years to get there.
Proxima b, as it’s also known, is in the habitable zone of the orbit of the red dwarf star Proxima Centauri and so has fairly mild surface temperatures. It’s between 1.5 and three times the mass of Earth and is known as a ‘super-Earth’ planet.
Unfortunately, Proxima b’s star is extremely active and the surface of the planet gets blasted by roughly 30 times more UV radiation than the Earth and is constantly bombarded by a huge stream of gas known as a ‘stellar wind’. This wind would have ripped away any atmosphere that Proxima b might once have had. Nonetheless, life might survive beneath a planet’s surface, and because Proxima b is so close to Earth, scientists are excited to learn more about it.
6 | ROSS 128-B
This is the most recently discovered exoplanet in a habitable zone and might be the most exciting of them all.
The star Ross 128 is 11 light-years away and doesn’t emit much radiation, making it one of the friendliest places for life that scientists have found outside our own solar system.
In orbit around this small, gentle star is a rocky exoplanet known as Ross 128-b. The planet is 1.3 times larger than Earth and 20 times closer to its sun. But because Ross 128 is so quiet, the planet would probably be warm rather than hot. Scientists estimate that although Ross 128-b is only just inside the habitable zone, it might well have surface temperatures ranging from 21°C to -60°C. While that might be on the chilly side for us, there are plenty of lifeforms, particularly microorganisms, who would think that’s balmy. Although there is still much to discover about Ross 128-b, it’s probably the best place to look for life outside our own cosy corner of the Milky Way.
Image captionThe RemoveDebris is a demonstration satellite that was launched from the space station in June
JUNKY SKIES
If aliens ever visit our planet, their first impression could be that Earthlings are a messy bunch: There’s an estimated 7,500 tonnes worth of discarded satellites, rocket parts, and other debris currently floating in our planet’s orbit.
Now, efforts are underway to clean it up. One such effort: RemoveDEBRIS. In April, the team out of Surrey Space Centre (SSC) sent its RemoveDEBRIS satellite to the International Space Station (ISS) aboard a SpaceX Dragon spacecraft; on Sunday the satellite launched from the ISS to demonstrate one of several debris-wrangling technologies.
The short sequence shows a small, shoebox-sized object tumbling end over end about 6-8m in front of the University of Surrey spacecraft.
Suddenly, a bright web, fired from the satellite, comes into view. It extends outwards and smothers the box.
"It worked just as we hoped it would," said Prof Guglielmo Aglietti, director of the Surrey Space Centre.
"The target was spinning like you would expect an uncooperative piece of junk to behave, but you can see clearly that the net captures it, and we're very happy with the way the experiment went."
AIRBUSImage captionThe net as it was stowed in its firing mechanism
If this were a real capture, the net would be tethered to the deploying satellite, which would then tug the junk out of the sky.
As this was just a demonstration, the net and the box (which was actually pushed out from RemoveDebris to act as a target) will be allowed to fall to Earth on their own. Their low altitude means it should take only a couple of months before they burn up in the atmosphere.
There has been much talk about the need to clean up space, but the Surrey satellite is the first to try out practical solutions.
Shortly, RemoveDebris will test a new camera system to track space junk - again, on a target it has brought along for the experiment.
Later, perhaps early in the New Year, there will be a demonstration of a harpoon that can snare junk. And finally, RemoveDebris will deploy a large membrane - what is termed a "drag sail", which will brush against the high atmosphere and pull the whole mission into a destructive dive towards the planet.
Image captionArtwork: How the net experiment was envisioned before its deployment
There are now millions of discarded pieces of metal and other materials in orbit - everything from old rocket segments to accidentally dropped astronaut tools, even flecks of paint.
The fear is that if we do not soon start taking this litter out of the sky, it will become a significant threat to active satellites.
Alastair Wayman is an engineer with the aerospace giant Airbus, which is also involved in the RemoveDebris project.
"If there are collisions, as there have been previously, then they will create lots of space debris. That debris then collides with more spacecraft, and you get even more space debris. It's a kind of snowball effect," he told BBC News.
The issue of space junk is particularly pressing because a number of companies are in the planning stages of launching thousands of new satellites.
Already there are calls for a tough new approach to licensing these spacecraft that would demand operators be able to bring down rapidly any of their hardware that fails in orbit.
The miniature harpoon to be tested on the mission
DEBRIS DEMO
For this demo, the satellite released a shoebox-sized objectto act as its target, then fired a spider-like web that wrapped around the box.
“It worked just as we hoped it would,” SSC Director Guglielmo Aglietti told BBC News. “The target was spinning like you would expect an uncooperative piece of junk to behave, but you can see clearly that the net captures it, and we’re very happy with the way the experiment went.”
In a full-scale version of the technology, the net will remain tethered to the RemoveDEBRIS satellite so it could pull the captured junk out of the sky when it dives toward the Earth at the end of its mission.
But since this was just a demonstration, both the box and the net will simply burn up in the Earth’s atmosphere within the next couple of months. Had the demo occurred higher up in the atmosphere, though, both would have continued to orbit the planet along with the rest of the space junk.
TRASHTOR BEAM
In 2019, the RemoveDEBRIS satellite will demonstrate another technology — a harpoon that snares space junk. Russian scientists are also building a gigantic space laser to zap junk out of the sky, and NASA is working on a large, flat sheet it hopes to use to envelop debris.
And, really, we have no time to waste. This debris already threatens the rockets and satellites already in commission. More cluttered space could make it difficult to launch new spacecraft. If that happens, we might be stuck hoping aliens do find us — after all, we won’t be able to go out hunting for them.
Weird Infrared Signal Emanates Across Space, But What Created It?
Weird Infrared Signal Emanates Across Space, But What Created It?
By Yasemin Saplakoglu, Live Science Staff Writer
A group of researchers recently observed a mysterious infrared emission coming from near a pulsar in NASA's Hubble Space telescope data. This animation depicts one possible source of the emission: a "fallback disk" or a disk that formed from materials of the parent star falling back into the neutron star after a supernova.
Credit: ESA/N. Tr’Ehnl (Pennsylvania State University)/NASA
Space is filled with bizarre signals that we scramble to put meaning to — and now, researchers have detected yet another mysterious signal. This one emanated from near a neutron star, and for the first time, it's infrared.
So, what's nearby that could have created the weird signal? Scientists have a few ideas.
When a star reaches the end of its life, it typically undergoes a supernova explosion— the star collapses, and if it has enough mass, it will form a black hole. But if the star isn't massive enough, it will form a neutron star. [Supernova Photos: Great Images of Star Explosions]
Neutrons stars are very dense and, as their name suggests, are made up mostly of closely packed neutrons. Neutron stars can also be called "pulsars" if they are highly magnetized and rotate rapidly enough to emit electromagnetic waves, according to Space.com.
Typically, neutron stars emit radio waves or higher-energy waves such as X-rays, according a statement released by NASA yesterday (Sept. 17). But an international group of researchers from Penn State, the University of Arizona and Sabanci University in Turkey observed something interesting in NASA's Hubble Space Telescope data: a long signal of infrared light emitted near a neutron star, the researchers reported yesterday in The Astrophysical Journal.
This signal, they found, was about 800 light-years away and was "extended," meaning it was spread across a large stretch of space, unlike typical "point" signals from neutron stars that emit X-rays. Specifically, the signal stretched across 200 astronomical units (AU) of space, or 2.5 times the orbit of Pluto around the sun, according to a statement from Penn State. (One AU is the average distance from Earth to the sun — about 93 million miles, or 150 million kilometers.)
Such extended signals have been observed before, but never in the infrared, lead author Bettina Posselt, an associate research professor of astronomy and astrophysics at Penn State, told Live Science.
This illustration depicts a "pulsar wind nebula" another source that could have produced this infrared signature.
Credit: Pulsar wind nebula
Based on previous data, the amount of infrared radiation is much more than the neutron star should be emitting, Posselt said. So "all of the emission in infrared we see is likely not coming from the neutron star itself," Posselt said. "There's something more."
The neutron star in question, RX J0806.4-4123, is one of the nearby X-ray pulsars collectively known as the Magnificent Seven. They are bizarre characters: They rotate much more slowly than typical neutron stars (it takes 11 seconds for one rotation of RX J0806.4-4123, whereas typical ones rotate in a fraction of a second), and they're much hotter than they should be based on when they formed.
In their study, the researchers proposed two possibilities for what could have snuggled up near RX J0806.4-4123 and emitted these mysterious signals: a disk of dust that surrounds the pulsar, or a "pulsar wind nebula."
A "fallback disk" — that could stretch 18 billion miles across — could have formed from the remnants of a resident star following a supernova explosion, Posselt said. Such disks that "have been long searched for, but not found" would most likely be made up mainly of dust particles, she added.
The inner part of such a disk would likely have enough energy to produce infrared light, Posselt said. This could also help explain why RX J0806.4-4123 is so hot and spins so slowly. "The disks in the past could have provided some extra heating," and also slowed down its rotation, Posselt said.
The second explanation is that perhaps the infrared signal is coming from a nearby pulsar wind nebula.
A pulsar wind can form when electrons from a neutron star are accelerated in an electric field produced by the neutron star's fast rotation and strong magnetic field, according to the NASA statement. As the neutron star moves through space, typically faster than the speed of sound, it crashes into the interstellar medium — those tiny bits of gas and dust that reside between large celestial objects. The interaction between the interstellar medium and the pulsar wind can produce the so-called pulsar wind nebula, which could give off infrared radiation, Posselt said.
Pulsar wind nebulas are typically seen emitting X-rays, so a pulsar wind nebula that radiates only in the infrared is "definitely interesting," Posselt said.
The military is making it easier than ever for soldiers to distance themselves from the consequences of war. When drone warfare emerged, pilots could, for the first time, sit in an office in the U.S. and drop bombs in the Middle East.
Now, one pilot can do it all, just using their mind — no hands required.
Earlier this month, DARPA, the military’s research division, unveiled a project that it had been working on since 2015: technology that grants one person the ability to pilot multiple planes and drones with their mind.
“As of today, signals from the brain can be used to command and control … not just one aircraft but three simultaneous types of aircraft,” Justin Sanchez, director of DARPA’s Biological Technologies Office, said, according to Defense One.
THE SINGULARITY
Sanchez may have unveiled this research effort at a “Trajectory of Neurotechnology” session at DARPA’s 60th anniversary event, but his team has been making steady progress for years. Back in 2016, a volunteer equipped with a brain-computer interface (BCI) was able to pilot an aircraft in a flight simulator while keeping two other planes in formation — all using just his thoughts, a spokesperson from DARPA’s Biological Technologies Office told Futurism.
In 2017, Copeland was able to steer a plane through another simulation, this time receiving haptic feedback — if the plane needed to be steered in a certain direction, Copeland’s neural implant would create a tingling sensation in his hands.
NOT QUITE MAGNETO
There’s a catch. The DARPA spokesperson told Futurism that because this BCI makes use of electrodes implanted in and on the brain’s sensory and motor cortices, experimentation has been limited to volunteers with varying degrees of paralysis. That is: the people steering these simulated planes already had brain electrodes, or at least already had reason to undergo surgery.
To try and figure out how to make this technology more accessible and not require surgical placement of a metal probe into people’s brains, DARPA recently launched the NExt-Generation Nonsurgical Neurotechnology (N3) program. The plan is to make a device with similar capabilities, but it’ll look more like an EEG cap that the pilot can take off once a mission is done.
“The envisioned N3 system would be a tool that the user could wield for the duration of a task or mission, then put aside,” said Al Emondi, head of N3, according to the spokesperson. “I don’t like comparisons to a joystick or keyboard because they don’t reflect the full potential of N3 technology, but they’re useful for conveying the basic notion of an interface with computers.”
READ MORE: It’s Now Possible To Telepathically Communicate with a Drone Swarm [Defense One]
IS ER NOG IEMAND DIE HET SPROOKJE VAN DE PIRAMIDEN GELOOFT ? ( VIDEO }
IS ER NOG IEMAND DIE HET SPROOKJE VAN DE PIRAMIDEN GELOOFT ? ( VIDEO )
Op school wordt ons geleerd dat de piramiden van Gizeh zo rond 2.500 voor Christus zijn gebouwd.
Ieder normaal logisch denkend mens zal tot de conclusie komen dat dit een onmogelijkheid is, gezien de mathematische precisie waarmee deze zijn gebouwd, het enorme gewicht van de stenen en de, volgens de historici, gebrekkige gereedschappen uit die tijd.
Het volgende is wat in de Wikipedia staat over de piramiden van Gizeh:
De Piramiden van Gizeh in Egypte behoren tot de bekendste en oudste bouwwerken van de mensheid. De piramiden zijn tevens de bekendste van de Egyptische piramiden. Ze bevinden zich ongeveer acht kilometer ten zuidwesten van de stad Gizeh.
De piramiden werden gebouwd tijdens de vierde dynastie (tussen circa 2551 en 2472 v.Chr.) en zijn dankzij hun zeer stabiele constructie goed bewaard gebleven.
Deze piramiden zouden dus gebouwd zijn in een tijd waarin in ons land het volgende gebeurde:
Even voor de Tweede Wereldoorlog werden ten zuiden van Buurse in het Zendvelderveld interessante vondsten gedaan: twintig scherven van handgevormd aardewerk, acht stukken bewerkt vuursteen en een gedeelte van een stenen bijl. De vondsten wijzen op een prehistorische nederzetting die daar moet hebben gelegen. Twee van de scherven zijn versierd met een visgraatmotief. Deze versiering maakt het mogelijk om de vondsten nauwkeuriger te dateren, omdat elk tijdperk zijn eigen materialen, vormen en versieringen kent.
De versierde scherven uit het Zendvelderveld horen bij het aardewerk van wat archeologen de Enkelgrafcultuur noemen. Dit volk van boeren leefde aan het eind van de nieuwe steentijd (het neolithicum), tussen ongeveer 2900 en 2500 v. Christus. Een paar families woonden in een kleine nederzetting van niet meer dan enkele boerderijen op nog geen kilometer van de huidige Duitse grens.
We praten letterlijk over het stenen tijdperk. Misschien waren ze in Egypte iets verder gevorderd, maar toch, het gaat over volkeren op de rand van of net uit het stenen tijdperk. Neem een kwartier de tijd om de volgende video te bekijken en daarna zal je absoluut tot de conclusie komen dat deze piramiden niet door de Egyptenaren gebouwd kunnen zijn rond 2.500 voor Christus.
De redenen waarom dit zo is, zijn overweldigend en je vraagt je af hoe een zichzelf respecterende wetenschapper kan vasthouden aan het sprookjesverhaal. Er is dan ook maar één antwoord mogelijk op de vraag waarom wij en onze kinderen de onzin over de piramiden krijgen voorgeschoteld.
De reden is dat wij onze werkelijke geschiedenis niet mogen kennen. Want, als die bij ons bekend zou zijn, dan vallen de huidige machtsstructuren zoals religies met donderend geraas ineen en gaan mensen ineens zelf nadenken.
Het zou het einde betekenen van de programmering van de bevolking, want niemand zou nog een woord geloven van wat ze wordt voorgespiegeld. De mens zou in opstand komen en zou opnieuw contact willen met de verre voorouders.
Daarom is het grootste gevaar voor de machthebbers het ontdekken van onze werkelijke geschiedenis, want dat zou onmiddellijk het het einde van hun heerschappij inluiden.
Maak vandaag een begin met het zelf nadenken. Je zult merken dat wanneer je dat eenmaal doet, je veel beter bent dan je ooit had kunnen vermoeden en dingen ineens logischer zijn.
Sloop de machtsbolwerken door met nadenken te beginnen, de rest volgt vanzelf.
When one geologist stumbled across a massive mound 65 years ago, he had no idea his discovery would spark one of the world’s strangest scientific mysteries.
The site in Irkutsk, Siberia was discovered in 1949 and is a huge convex cone with a funnel-shaped recess and a rounded hill in the middle, which looks a little like an eagle’s nest with an egg nestled inside it.
The origin of the Patomskiy crater has baffled scientists for decades and theories for its existence have ranged from a nuclear blast to a secret gulag mine and even a meteorite strike.
The site in Irkutsk, Siberia was discovered in 1949 and is a huge convex cone with a funnel-shaped recess and a rounded hill in the middle, which looks a little like an eagle's nest with an egg nestled inside it
THE PATOMSKIY CRATER
The mysterious crater - also known as the 'eagle's nest' - was discovered 65 years ago in Irkutsk, Siberia, by a Russian geologist.
The cone is 80 metres tall from the lowest point of its base and measures 150 metres wide.
It is thought to be just 250 years old, although estimates differ widely.
Scientists previously suggested it was a slagheap, but now think there were not enough people living in the area to create it.
Some people believe it was made by aliens.
Scientists threw out the idea that the mound was made as the result of a uranium ore explosion as the site has low background radiation.
They have floated the idea that it could have been made by a volcano, but none have been found nearby.
An impact made by a meteorite is the favourite theory but no evidence of fragments has been found.
It is thought there is something with a high iron content over 100metres below the crater, which could be a meteorite.
The crater is 'alive' and changes shape - by rising and falling - constantly.
Trees nearby the site are reported to grow abnormally fast.
The current thinking is that the site was indeed created by a meteorite strike, but no evidence has been found to support the theory.
The cone is 80metres tall and has a diameter of 150metres at its widest. The depth of the inner circle ditch is around 10metres.
It was named Patomskiy after a nearby river and was discovered by a geologist called Vadim Kolpakov who tried and failed to arrange a scientific trip to examine the site, but numerous expeditions have taken place since and one last year collected samples.
Theories that the mound is a giant slagheap have been thrown out as there were not enough people living nearby when the crater is thought to have formed to create such a pile.
And there were never labour camps or gulags in the region.
Half a tonne of samples were taken from the site and removed by helicopter last year.
The samples led scientists to dismiss ideas of a uranium ore explosion as the background radiation at the site is low and no uranium has been found nearby either.
This left them with two main theories – one of a volcano and another of a meteorite.
However, the mysterious site has not given up any meteoritic material and the area is not thought to be volcanic.
In fact there are no volcanoes within thousands of kilometres of the Patomskiy crater and it also seems to be relatively new.
The origin of the Patomsky crater has baffled scientists for decades and theories for its existence have ranged from a nuclear bomb blast, a secret Gulag mine and meteorite strike
The cone is 80metres tall and has a diameter of 150metres at its widest. The depth of the inner circle ditch is around 10metres
Scientists thought the crater was only between 100 and 500 years old and could be the result of the Tunguska meteorite, which fell in the Krasnoyarsk region in 1908, but whose crater has never been discovered.
It is thought the meteorite was sighted just 70km away from the ‘eagle’s nest’ and that distance is a mere 10 to 15 seconds of flight.
As the Tunguska event occurred in 1908, the age coincides, but modern tests have shown that the crater is actually 250 years old – so it could have been formed by a previous meteorite that fell when the area was virtually unpopulated.
The strange mound was found in Irkutsk, Siberia (pictured) was discovered in 1949 but it was only last year that scientists took samples from the site
The crater was named Patomsky after a nearby river and was discovered in Siberia (pictured) by a geologist called Vadim Kolpakov who tried and failed to arrange a scientific trip to examine the site. The first expedition only took place last year
Scientists now think that there is something with a high iron content and ferromagnetic materials buried between 100 and 150 metres underneath the crater.
They believe it could be a meteorite or another incredibly dense object, but they are not certain.
The fact that the crater is ‘alive’ as its shape changes constantly - by rising and falling - and that the trees nearby the site are reported to grow abnormally fast, adds to the mystery.
Scientists now think that there is something with a high iron content and ferromagnetic materials buried some 100 to 150 metres underneath the crater (pictured)
It was first thought to be a meteorite crater … but it acts mysteriously like a UFO crater … and it’s in Siberia where locals fear it and some believe it could be the result of a neutron star drilling completely through the planet. So, what IS it? ‘It’ is the Patom Crater and it has baffled scientists for decades while scaring both researchers and locals with its strange and allegedly deadly powers. Now a team has developed a new theory explaining its existence that isn’t has cool as a neutron star drilling through the center of the Earth but perhaps more plausible.
The Patom or Patomskiy crater, aka “Fire Eagle Nest,” was discovered in 1949 by Russian geologist Vadim Kolpakov in the Irkutsk region of southeastern Siberia, a remote area hundreds of miles from the nearest big city. Kolpakov himself was puzzled by what he found – a circular mound made of crushed limestone measuring 520 feet (160 meters) in diameter and 139 feet (40 meters) in height, with a mound in the depressed center of the ring standing 39 feet (12 meters) high. That’s a pretty unusual 250,000 cubic meter (8,800,000 cu ft) pile of limestone weighing about one million tons. What could have caused it … or put it there?
Patomsky crater
(Dmitry Semenov: Wikipedia)
“I thought I was mad. From a distance it reminded me of a giant pit mine and I even wondered if people were there. Why would they be? This is a dense area of the taiga. Plus there were no NKVD labor camps around here – I knew it for sure. Secondly, I thought that it might be an archeological artefact, but the local Evenk and Yakut people were not ancient Egyptians. They can’t built rock pyramids.”
Kolpakov bravely climbed the mound, despite warnings from the indigenous people he had just insulted that “Fire Eagle Nest” had an evil power that caused deer and other animals to stay away from it and eventually and mysteriously killed anyone who stepped inside of it. While it didn’t affect Kolpakov, the leader of an expedition in 2005 died shortly afterward of a heart attack. Coincidence?
Kolpakov believed he was standing in a meteorite crater near the Patomskiy river. While some who agreed with him suggested it was from a fragment of the 1908 Tunguska meteorite, brave expeditions after the fateful one in 2005 determined it to be about 500 years old. Theories formed from data collected during those expeditions (and subsequently rejected) included a volcanic eruption (too small, no other craters), a super-dense, metallic, cylindrical object crashed (no one has found any metal), an underground nuclear explosion (no radiation), a spaceship landed there (and left a pile of limestone?), a fragment of a neutron star drilled through the Earth (where’s the entry hole?) or some sort of Siberia-only, warming-freezing, possibly methane-related phenomenon like the Siberian craters.
A recent article in Russia Beyond reveals the latest and most plausible theory for the Patom crater:
“A phreatic (steam) explosion, that happened either during magma emplacement into hydrous rocks or due to the faulting and decompression of heated hydrous rocks.”
A what? A hydrous rock or mineral is one which has undergone a chemical reaction that added water to its crystalline structure (amphibole, lawsonite, zoisite, chloritoid, talc, etc.). Magma emplacement is the vertical migration of magma that is driven by gravity. So, magma hits the water-filled rocks, heats up the water, creates steam, causes an explosion and leaves a crater and a mound behind to baffle natives and scientists.
This theory explains why Kolpakov felt heat, which may be the reason why animals avoid it and why vegetation may be unable to grow around it. However, if there was enough magma and hydrous rocks to form one crater, why aren’t there more?
Science, especially geology, is still leading in the race to explain the Patom Crater, despite efforts to promote pseudoscience reasons. One thing is certain — never insult or underestimate the abilities of indigenous peoples.
Hackers may have gained control over Sun Weapon Solar Observatory, New Mexico
Hackers may have gained control over Sun Weapon Solar Observatory, New Mexico
In what can only be considered one of the most bizarre information leaks of 2018, an alleged DARPA whistleblower known only as ‘Sam’ appeared on Clyde Lewis’s Ground Zero radio show on Wednesday where he made the claim that Chinese bad actors are likely to blame for hacking the National Solar Observatory (NSO) in Sunspot, New Mexico, and may have been using or intended to use the facility as a solar weapon which is what prompted the FBI to take over the facility last Thursday along with a nearby post office and several homes, reports Intellihub.
The reason they want to hack it is because the NSO in Sunspot is part of an intranet that also includes HAARP, HAMMER, and SMACC,” he explained. “Through this network we have been very successful at manipulation the solar surface and the coronasphere to the point that we can actually trigger coronial mass ejections of controlled size, duration, density, and intensity.”
The whistleblower told Lewis “they are using scalar waves to trigger them” which are “transmitted through HAARP” at “unheard of” power levels.
“Understand, HAARP is capable of transmitting signal strengths in excess of 50 gigawatts,” he said. “They require so much energy and the energy has to be such a high quality that it can only be provided by SMACC.”
National Solar Observatory in Sunspot, NM.
(uıɐɾ ʞ ʇɐɯɐs/Flickr)
“SMACC has its own nuclear reactors and you have to control the quality of electricity, the exact frequency with extremely accurate micro values all the while delivering unheard of voltage.”
“By hacking into the computers at the NSO they now have access to an intranet — the intranet connects the NSO, HAARP, HAMMER, and SMACC because they feed upon and require each other,” he explained.
“You must have a network because there are so many thousands of gigabytes of information in constant flow to make this work… it’s delicate.”
Their mission is the master control of the solar surface and the earth’s meteorological configuration — they need to control the weather — they need to control the sun — and they are oftly close.”
HAARP stands for High-frequency Active Auroral Reseach Program. HAMMER stands for High Altitude Meteorological Manipulation Energy Reseach. SMACC stands for Scalar Magnetic Amplification Cognizant Configuration.
A top secret US military aircraft has been spotted in the skies above Seattle, according to bizarre claims online.
A video, posted by an account called 'Ufo disclosure' on September 18, shows a triangular UFO speeding across the sky, not far from another aircraft.
The clip, which is captioned 'Triangle UFO or TR-3B filmed in Seattle', shows what some claim is a US Air Force spy plane.
TR-3 planes do not officially exist, but according to conspiracy theorists, they are a class of US surveillance aircraft, developed in complete secret.
Pictured: A 'Black Triangle UFO' above Seattle, WA
'Black Triangles' have also been spotted above Australia and Russia.
Pictured: A US Air Force Lockheed Martin F-117A Nighthawk taking part in a flying-display at the Dubai Air Show in 2007
(Image: Universal Images Group Editorial)
'Black Triangle' UFO sightings have become relatively common in recent years, particularly above the United States, but they have also been 'spotted' above Australia and Russia.
It's thought TR, which it has been suggested stands for 'Tactical Reconnaissance', might be to blame for the sightings.
According to some claims online, the class of aircraft was first used during the 1991 Gulf War, to pick out targets for US stealth bombers.
Of course, there is no proof these planes actually exist, but they remains subject to almost relentless Internet speculation, and sightings like this will only add fuel to the fire.
“We often think of plants as being passive and at the mercy of their environment. My jaw literally dropped when I first saw these videos … They beautifully illustrate how active and complex plants really are.”
New research explores how plant communication systems respond to threats from hungry insects. The study, published September 14, 2018, in the peer-reviewed journal Nature, suggests that once wounded, plants use calcium signals to warn distant tissues of future attacks.
The study found that a chemical called glutamate – which is an abundant neurotransmitter in animals, including humans – activates a wave of calcium when the plant is wounded.
A hungry caterpillar, first working around a leaf’s edges, approaches the base of the leaf and, with one last bite, severs it from the rest of the plant. Within seconds, a blaze of fluorescent light washes over the other leaves, a signal that they should prepare for impending attacks by the caterpillar or its kin. That fluorescent light tracks calcium as it zips across the plant’s tissues, providing an electrical and chemical signal of a threat.
Image via Toyota/Gilroy.
Gregg Howe is a professor at Michigan State University and a study co-author. Howe said in a statement:
We often think of plants as being passive and at the mercy of their environment. My jaw literally dropped when I first saw these videos … They beautifully illustrate how active and complex plants really are.
When a plant’s leaf is wounded, an electrical charge races across the plant to warn other tissues of possible danger. Howe said:
For decades, it’s been known that leaf damage, inflicted by mechanical wounding or caterpillar munching, rapidly activates defense responses in distant, undamaged leaves of the plant. But what triggers this rapid response has largely remained a mystery.
The researchers thought the trigger might be calcium. That’s because it’s ubiquitous in cells and often acts as a signal of a changing environment. And because calcium carries a charge, it can produce an electrical signal. But it is hard to track because its concentration levels spike and dip quickly.
[The researchers] developed plants that produce a protein that fluoresces around calcium, letting the researchers track its presence and concentration. Then came caterpillar bites, scissor cuts, and crushing wounds.
In response to each kind of damage, the plants light up as calcium flows from the site of damage to other leaves. The signal moved quickly, about one millimeter per second, reaching out to distant leaves in just a couple minutes.
A few minutes later, levels of a defense hormone – called jasmonate – spiked in those distant leaves. They were preparing the plant for future threats by producing noxious chemicals that ward off predators.
The results suggest that glutamate exiting a plant wound leads to rapid propagation of a calcium wave, which in turn leads to production of jasmonate and defense responses.
Bottom line: In a video from a new study, a caterpillar eats a leaf, and the plant sends a warning signal to other leaves.
Retired Air Force Commander Claims New Evidence Will Blow The Lid Off Rendlesham UFO Event
Retired Air Force Commander Claims New Evidence Will Blow The Lid Off Rendlesham UFO Event
A retired Air Force worker claims he holds strong evidence on the 1980 UFO event the Rendlesham Forest. He said he saw “some type of superior intelligence” that could “change size and shape”.
The colonel named Charles Halt gather statements from air traffic controllers who were on duty the due day close the Bentwaters Royal Air Force Base in the UK.
They told him they saw a UFO performing amazing aerial movements. They didn’t speak up until their retirement because they were scared.
The military personnel on duty in the base RAF Bentwaters and RAF Woodbridge witnessed a fast triangle UFO in the field of Rendlesham Forest. Same encounters had resumed the next night again.
Halt, who was a deputy base commander at Bentwaters, underwent a series of inexplicable lights which involved a mysterious craft moving through the trees and dropping a hot matter.
Along with a tape recording, Halt also filed a report, describing a laser-like light one of the UFOsemitted as his men were observing.
Halt told The Huffington Post that what he and the others saw in the Rendlesham forest was beyond their imagination.
“The military has nothing to do with it, other than the cover-up, but I can tell you, there is some type of superior intelligence that can change size, change shape, do funny things. What I saw, I’m firmly convinced, didn’t have anything that we know or could relate to, inside it. Maybe they’re not a being as we know, maybe they’re an entity that just has intelligence, and we just can’t relate to it.”
Photo credit: Col. Charles Halt, Ret.
Moreover, Halt explained how after many years he managed to retrieve some sworn statements from air traffic controllers who were witnesses at the same time.
“They saw the object go across their scope — a 60-mile scope — in two or three seconds. Thousands of miles an hour,” he told the BBC. “It came back across their scope again, stopped near the water tower. They observed it. They watched it go over into the forest where we were.”
A few years after the Rendlesham event passed, the air traffic controllers retired. Then, they decided to tell Halt everything they detected that night.
“They told me that they knew anytime an air traffic controller reported a UFO, they got de-certified. So they said nothing.”
Charles Halt recently blamed the US government for concealing important UFO data. Furthermore, he claims a presence of a top-secret bureau dealing with extraterrestrial activities.
Halt told the HuffPost that there is a contract civilian agency in charge of everything. He alleged this agency consists of former military and top-notch scientists.
However, his biggest frustration is the years of lies and misinformation about the Rendlesham incident. This includes the disappearance of essential files concerning the case.
In 2011, the UK declassified thousands of UFO files, but the ones connected with this one weren’t among them.
Halt said: “It doesn’t surprise me at all, because they were probably taken from them by somebody, or sent somewhere by direction. Trust me — that’s the way it works. It’s very disappointing on one hand, and it’s also frightening. Who knows what else is going on?”
Hey, Spock! Real-Life 'Planet Vulcan' Orbits Sun Featured in 'Star Trek'
Hey, Spock! Real-Life 'Planet Vulcan' Orbits Sun Featured in 'Star Trek'
By Meghan Bartels, Space.com Senior Writer
An artist's depiction of what the newly discovered planet orbiting 40 Eridani A, a star made famous by the series "Star Trek," might look like.
Credit: Don Davis
"Star Trek's" planet Vulcan, ancestral home of Spock and his species, just became a little more real, thanks to a team of exoplanet scientists.
Because "Star Trek" creators eventually associated planet Vulcan with a real star, called 40 Eridani A, scientists have wondered for years whether a factual equivalent of the beloved science fiction planet exists, with or without pointy-eared inhabitants. And now, a team of scientists has said that the star really does host at least one planet.
"This star can be seen with the naked eye, unlike the host stars of most of the known planets discovered to date," Bo Ma, lead author of the new research and an astronomer at the University of Florida, said in a statement. "Now, anyone can see 40 Eridani A on a clear night and be proud to point out Spock's home." [The Top 10 Best 'Star Trek' Episodes Ever]
That star, located about 16 light-years away from Earth, is also known as HD 26965. It's a bit orange, because it's a little smaller and cooler than our sun. But it also has some clear similarities to Earth's star: It's about the same age and sports a fairly similar sunspot pattern. That's good news for people hoping for real-life Vulcan residents. "HD 26965 may be an ideal host star for an advanced civilization," Matt Muterspaugh, an astronomer at Tennessee State University and a co-author on the new research, said in a statement.
Two additional stars accompany HD 26965, and they would be visible from the planet's surface. The planet itself doesn't look quite as appealing as the star, because this world seems to orbit a little too close to its sun to be in the habitable zone where liquid water can be retained on the surface. However, scientists are still pinning down precisely what other characteristics determine a planet's habitability. The newfound planet is about twice the size of Earth, and its year lasts about 42 days.
The researchers behind the discovery are excited about more than just the "Star Trek" connection, though, they said. The new find is also the first so-called super-Earth discovered by the Dharma Planet Survey, which is designed to hunt down relatively small planets around relatively bright stars.
The new research is described in a paper posted to the preprint server arXiv.org on July 18 and scheduled for publication in the journal Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society next month.
Artefacts With Extraterrestrial Carvings And Engravings Found In A Mexican Cave
Artefacts With Extraterrestrial Carvings And Engravings Found In A Mexican Cave
Mysterious artefacts with engravings of "extraterrestrials" and "Nacelle" unearthed in a Mexican cave is just mind blowing stuff and is next to incredible if you was to ask my opinion based on the evidence, the story and the actual statues themselves I can't help but get a little excited.
The prospects that this could literally change our history as we know it, but for the better and for a clean out of the lies, contradictions and other shady recognition from dubious sources?
A group of explorers discovered in a Mexican cave evidence of what they boast to be the best evidence of extraterrestrial contact on Earth. The group of explorers recently visited the cave and explored it in detail. In two cases, the researchers made unexpected discoveries, including several stones sculpted with images depicting etchings related to extraterrestrials. On the surface of the stones, the group of researchers found evidence of what many people interpret as "extraterrestrial spacecraft" and "humanoid beings"; One of the stones, apparently fractured in the past, evidently shows the top of a spaceship with a being that some people believe is not of this world.
The painting shown here contains an alleged alien who is next to a former leader of a prehispanic culture who receives a corn seed, as well as some other symbols that have not yet been deciphered; these artifacts have been nicknamed "stones of the first encounter".
It is said that local legends speak of a mysterious "ship" that has been hidden somewhere near the caves since time immemorial. This is the main reason why the group of explorers searched the area three months ago.
His research yielded totally unexpected results. They found what they believe is the ultimate proof that the aliens visited the Earth thousands of years ago and that they had direct contact with the ancient cultures that inhabited Mexico at that time. What the discovery suggests or what implications the group of explorers will have to see. José Aguayo explained how the INAH - National Institute of Anthropology and History - can not say anything about the discovery because it is not a typical archaeology for a main reason; the artifacts describe things that contradict the dominant story and differentiate everything we have been told about our history and origins.
If, at some point, the National Institute of Anthropology and History decided to collect the artefacts, it would have enormous implications for both parties since INAH, an official government agency, would essentially accept one of the most important "facts": the existence of beings. not earthly, they have directly influenced the ancient cultures of the whole world.
The story can be found in two places here in Spanish and here in English.
Here is another bit of research that I found online and guys it get's even more stranger and stranger because of the look of these incredible statues? I must admit that I wasn't them mini statues having the look of an Alien grey? That absolutely threw me for six! The classic look of the big tear shaped eyes and the big head with a small mouth, that is the look these mini sculptures, statues have. I mean, they even have a mini baby Alien grey in the arms of the "mother Alien".
Other sculptures appear to show spaceships flying through the air. The mystery objects are reportedly popular among locals who live near the caves in an unspecified area of Mexico.
Very old statues could be up to 7,000 years old some top researchers have claimed?
In this next stone is a really, odd looking and very, very bizarre engraving of what can only be described and called a UFO? You just have to look at it in full, take it in and you can see exactly what the person who engraved this stone was trying to tell us? That Aliens are real and we've been contacted by Alien in our ancestors past? It is up for grabs and up for debate but here is a tangible, physical proof of the legend, story so that for me is as good as any evidence which quite literally proves it.
UFO MANIA - The Truth Is Out There YouTube Video link can be found here:
This next stone statue is exactly how I would carve an Alien in stone. This is what it is, if you take it for what it is and don't put any long winded spin on to it, then it is just a statue of an Alien. If you put spin on to it, then it becomes anything you want it to be?
I've found some amazing images from the actual cave in Mexico and there is overwhelming evidence of Aliens who (at one time) visited Earth and who knows, they may of even influenced the concepts of ships, trade and the exchange of ideas among each other knowing the route humanity would take.
So yeah, everything since the first contact could all of been known in advance because of the Aliens known information that once a species is enlightened to trade, travel and intelligence of inventions and numbers then the route taken is pretty much mapped out already? Who knows, the Roswell crash might of been the time when sophisticated and extremely small technology was introduced to keep us on track and stop us from killing each other in more wars like world war one and world war two?
It's pure speculation but my opinions could of happened and they might of been slightly different but not a lot because all I need to do is take away the Alien element and the rest of what I said pretty much happened like I said! So don't be quick to shrug it off because just because I said the Alien word that doesn't mean it is all rubbish from then on wards?
The supposedly ancient sculptures have sparked claims that aliens visited earth thousands of years ago. Maybe they did because if this was to represent a human at that time, this would be rejected as not looking anything like a human? So it begs the question, is this really depicting a real Alien visitor because maybe these people never depicted other humans in their artwork and only their Gods and them being the visiting Aliens.
That looks uncannily similar to an Alien as we would say they look in today world? Maybe they look like this and it's an innate thought that we all have inside of what they look like?
Mr. Spock (tweede van links) met zijn opvallende spitse oren
FOTO: AP
“Fascinerend”, zo zou Mr. Spock - net als ‘Trekkies’ - vermoedelijk in zijn ruimteschip Enterprise hebben gereageerd op de mededeling van wetenschappers dat zij zijn mogelijke thuisplaneet hebben gevonden
Mr. Spock is in de legendarische sf-televisieserie ‘Star Trek’ afkomstig van de op de Aarde gelijkende planeet Vulcan. Waar die zich precies en in welk zonnestelsel bevindt is in de serie niet uitgelegd. De bedenker ervan, Gene Roddenberry, heeft in 1991 in een brief aan amateur-astronauten wel laten weten dat de ster waarrond Vulcan draait, 40 Eridani A is.
In het kader van het Dharma Planet Survey is nu een “super-Aarde” (buiten ons zonnestelsel) gevonden die rond ster HD 26965 draait, aldus een onderzoeksteam van de Tennessee State University. Zowat zestien lichtjaar van ons verwijderd draagt die de bij ‘Trekkies’ bekende naam 40 Eridani A.
De exoplaneet is ongeveer dubbel zo groot als de onze en heeft 42 dagen nodig voor een omloop. De moederster is wat koeler en wat minder groot dan de onze, maar heeft dezelfde leeftijd. Ze is bij een heldere nacht met het blote oog zichtbaar. HD 26965 zou ook een ideale partner kunnen zijn voor een geavanceerde beschaving.
Sunspot Observatory to reopen with lame excuse for FBI evac, alien truthers unconvinced - PART I
Sunspot Observatory to reopen with lame excuse for FBI evac, alien truthers unconvinced - PART I
“AURA has been cooperating with an ongoing law enforcement investigation of criminal activity that occurred at Sacramento Peak,” the Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy (AURA) wrote in an online statement on Sunday.
sunspotsolarobservatorySunspot Solar Observatory will transition back to regular operations starting September 17th. Full statement from AURA here: ow.ly/LeLw50iRynb Thank you for your patience during our temporary closure!
koo8212What happend something weird going on ??? 👽🔭
dat_1_alpacaYeah wtf America explain I am confusion
longhorn_aCant wait for yall to sweep this incident under the rug without ever releasing the actual cause of what was going on, in hopes we'll all just forget 😉
chef_ojs_worldOn September 6th, the Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy (AURA) and the National Science Foundation (NSF) made the decision to temporarily vacate the Sunspot Solar Observatory at Sacramento Peak, New Mexico as a precautionary measure while addressing a security issue. The facility closed down in an orderly fashion and is now re-opening. The residents that vacated their homes will be returning to the site, and all employees will return to work this week. AURA has been cooperating with an on-going law enforcement investigation of criminal activity that occurred at Sacramento Peak. During this time, we became concerned that a suspect in the investigation potentially posed a threat to the safety of local staff and residents. For this reason, AURA temporarily vacated the facility and ceased science activities at this location. The decision to vacate was based on the logistical challenges associated with protecting personnel at such a remote location, and the need for expeditious response to the potential threat. AURA determined that moving the small number of on-site staff and residents off the mountain was the most prudent and effective action to ensure their safety. In light of recent developments in the investigation, we have determined there is no risk to staff, and Sunspot Solar Observatory is transitioning back to regular operations as of September 17th. Given the significant amount of publicity the temporary closure has generated, and the consequent expectation of an unusual number of visitors to the site, we are temporarily engaging a security service while the facility returns to a normal working environment. We recognize that the lack of communications while the facility was vacated was concerning and frustrating for some. However, our desire to provide additional information had to be balanced against the risk that, if spread at the time, the news would alert the suspect and impede the law enforcement investigation. That was a risk we could not take.
“During this time, we became concerned that a suspect in the investigation potentially posed a threat to the safety of local staff and residents. For this reason, AURA temporarily vacated the facility and ceased science activities at this location.” It should be noted that AURA declined to mention whether the suspect was of extraterrestrial origin.
Given the observatory’s remote location in the mountainous Lincoln National Forest in New Mexico, this explanation may have been at least somewhat plausible, were it not for the bizarre way in which the FBI handled the September 6 evacuation of the observatory and nearby residents.
NatlSolarObservatory@NatSolarObs
·
AURA Statement about the Status of the Sunspot Solar Observatory at Sacramento Peak, New Mexico:
Did "authorities" NOT think leaving site entirely vacant & not secure for 10 days, causing those around the world 2 focus on NSO, would not in and of itself "alert the suspect and impede the law enforcement investigation" ? Y was local Sheriff not brought in? #SunspotObservatory
#SunspotObservatory What kind of security issue requires the FBI to show up and evacuate the area, but then leave the security of said area to two renta-a-cops (no offense).
Even the local Sheriff, who was kept in the dark about the investigation throughout, was skeptical.
“But for the FBI to get involved that quick and be so secretive about it, there was a lot of stuff going on up there,” Otero County Sheriff Benny House said, as quoted by Alamogordo News. “There was a Blackhawk helicopter, a bunch of people around antennas, and work crews on towers but nobody would tell us anything.”
Sunspot Solar Observatory is one of the largest active solar telescopes in the world and is conspicuously located near the White Sands Missile Range. While the Sunspot facility itself is low security, its proximity to a US military weapons testing site and Holloman Air Force Base could make it a prime target for international (or interplanetary) espionage.
When it comes to the #SunspotObservatory bullied closure scandal, let’s see, what will the govs cover story be? Let’s guess together: swamp gas? Chinese spies? Russian spies? Just a private FBI employee educational outing? Jupiter? Terrorists from Venus? Weather balloons…;0)
Naturally, speculation throughout the entire episode was rife, but reached fever pitch upon the sudden announcement of the Observatory's reopening, coupled with the rather damp squib explanation:
Narrator voice: Authorities scrambled to stop news of First Contact, announcing “criminal activity” even as they threated scientists the Solarians first reached to keep silent or face prosecution under the Alien Enemies Act.#SunspotObservatory#SolarObservatory cc @emilylitella
Matthew R Francis@DrMRFrancis
A cryptic partial explanation of the weirdness going on at the Sunspot Solar Observatory in NM http://aura-astronomy.org/news/news.asp?newsID=389 …
Must have been quite a big safety threat if they pull out a black hawk. I think they used less material to hunt the Zodiac killer..#SunspotObservatory#FalseFlag
Bob Moore@BobMooreNews
Sunspot observatory will reopen Monday after mysteriously closing, which management now says was because of a criminal investigation of someone who “potentially posed a threat to the safety of local staff and residents.”
On the other hand, one more theory could be creative PR on the part of the Observatory. “With the excitement this closure has generated, we hope you will come and visit us as we reopen, and see for yourself the services we provide for science and public outreach in heliophysics,”Sunspot Observatory's website states. The facility has reportedly even hired private security to handle the expected increase in tourist activity at the site in the wake of the bizarre episode.
Aliens of zonnevlam? Veel vragen blijven onbeantwoord na heropening zonnewacht in New Mexico
Aliens of zonnevlam? Veel vragen blijven onbeantwoord na heropening zonnewacht in New Mexico
De zonnewacht in New Mexico die vanwege een ‘veiligheidsprobleem’ plotseling werd gesloten, is weer open.
Het bezoekerscentrum van het Sunspot Solar Observatory heeft de deuren weer geopend, zo is bevestigd.
Het observatorium, dat is voorzien van een unieke telescoop waarmee superscherpe beelden van de zon kunnen worden gemaakt, werd op 6 september opeens gesloten op last van de FBI.
Sceptisch
Het internet wil nu antwoorden. Probeert de overheid misschien bewijs voor aliens onder het tapijt te vegen?
De FBI houdt de kaken stijf op elkaar en weigert commentaar te geven op de sluiting en evacuatie van het gebouw.
De lokale sheriff Benny House, die tijdens het onderzoek in het duister werd gehouden, reageerde sceptisch op de officiële verklaring – dat er sprake zou zijn van een veiligheidsprobleem.
Geheimzinnig
Hij zei het vreemd te vinden dat de FBI er zo snel bij betrokken werd en er zo geheimzinnig over deed.
Het Sunspot Solar Observatory in New Mexico is één van de grootste actieve zonnetelescopen en bevindt zich vlak bij de White Sands Missile Range, waar het Amerikaanse leger wapens test.
Ook veel internetgebruikers zijn sceptisch en hebben op social media hun onvrede geuit over de gang van zaken.
NatlSolarObservatory@NatSolarObs
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AURA Statement about the Status of the Sunspot Solar Observatory at Sacramento Peak, New Mexico:
Sunspot Solar Observatory is transitioning back to regular operations as of September 17th.
Did "authorities" NOT think leaving site entirely vacant & not secure for 10 days, causing those around the world 2 focus on NSO, would not in and of itself "alert the suspect and impede the law enforcement investigation" ? Y was local Sheriff not brought in? #SunspotObservatory
#SunspotObservatory What kind of security issue requires the FBI to show up and evacuate the area, but then leave the security of said area to two renta-a-cops (no offense).
When it comes to the #SunspotObservatory bullied closure scandal, let’s see, what will the govs cover story be? Let’s guess together: swamp gas? Chinese spies? Russian spies? Just a private FBI employee educational outing? Jupiter? Terrorists from Venus? Weather balloons…;0)
Luis Elizondo shot to notoriety practically overnight last year when the Pentagon’s secretive Advanced Aviation Threat Identification Program (AATIP) was made public. Elizondo directed the now-defunct program and currently serves as Director of Special Programs at To The Stars Academy of Arts & Science – you know, that one. After The New York Timespublished a report describing AATIP and the numerous videos and reports of anomalous aerial phenomena it had collected, Elizondo began speaking out about the program’s documented evidence of aircraft which display “characteristics that are not currently within the US inventory nor in any foreign inventory that we are aware of.” AATIP made headlines for a few months before fading into obscurity like every non-political story has since 2016.
The report even included military footage of anomalous aircraft which could easily outfly the best we have in the skies.
Elizondo is back this week, this time penning an editorial for his own page on Medium.com. In the piece, titled “Why Social Stigma About Unexplained Phenomena Holds Humanity Back,” Elizondo describes how human beings “tend to avoid associating ourselves with anything that will isolate us from the larger group or make us sound strange, or that might draw negative attention from our peers.” Social media has made this worse, Elizondo writes, in that it has provided an outlet for hoaxsters, sensationalized stories, and a medium in which true believers are ridiculed in public. Sounds pretty accurate.
This isn’t the first time Elizondo has spoken out against the social stigma associated with belief in UFOs. Earlier this year, Elizondo told Las Vegas Now that many government and military officials dismiss credible UFO research out of the belief that they are somehow demonic or counter to dominant Judeo-Christian belief systems.
How much knowledge throughout history has been hidden or destroyed for the same reasons?
Elizondo claims that during the cold war, the U.S. Government actively suppressed or discredited verifiable evidence of UAP in order to keep the public focused on more important matters like defeating the Russians and keeping the economy going. At least we can be glad that’s over, right? The article adds that despite the current body of evidence which suggests that unidentified aerial phenomena (UAP) do indeed exist, “many people would rather look the other way than be associated with what’s been labeled ‘crazy,’ or ‘fringe.’”
Elizondo ends his piece with somewhat of a dire warning, claiming that overcoming the stigma surrounding UFOs is “key to our survival as a species:”
As a species, it’s crucial to understand the things we can’t explain, in order to survive. And that means being open to new ideas, possibilities, and data. When it comes to UFOs, ignoring the unknown is similarly harmful because it might mean failing to seize upon opportunities and new understandings. As a society, we have to recognize that stigma serves only to keep our heads in the sand. Our future depends on transparency and truth.
He’s got a point. Just imagine what could be done if all of the world’s governments could openly share UFO and UAP evidence and throw even a small percentage of their annual military budgets towards the legitimate study of these unexplained phenomena. Might we finally discover the truth about extraterrestrial visitors or unexplained phenomena? Or could the truth be much more benign and all of these stories are merely another smokescreen to hide the fact that the United States has fallen behind other superpowers in terms of aerial capabilities? In either case, we’ll likely never know.
There’s still much to be discovered under the Egyptian sands. A lot of cat people statues mostly, if recent discoveries are to be any indicator. Just a month after a sphinx in the style of the well known Great Sphinx of Giza was reportedly discovered, yet another sphinx statue has been found, according to the Ministry of Antiquities. While this newly discovered sphinx isn’t as massive as the sphinx of Giza, it’s remarkable in how well preserved it is and, unlike the claimed second great sphinx, there’s actually pictures of this one.
The sphinx was discovered during a preservation project at the temple of Kom Ombo in Aswan during efforts to protect the temple against damage from groundwater erosion. While excavating the temple, archaeologists found an incredibly well preserved sandstone sphinx buried in the sands that they believe comes from the Ptolemaic period of Egyptian history, which lasted from 320 BCE to 30 BCE.
Egypt’s General Secretary of the Supreme Council of Antiquities Dr. Mostafa Waziri announced that a team of Egyptian archaeologists uncovered a sphinx statue at the recently excavated Kom Ombo temple http://bit.ly/2pjtSu8
Egyptian archaeologists have discovered a new sandstone sphinx in the southern city of Aswan that likely dates back to the Ptolemaic era. https://www.cbc.ca/1.4826331
New sphinx statue uncovered by Egyptian archeologists | CBC News
Egyptian archaeologists draining water from a temple in the southern city of Aswan have uncovered a sandstone sphinx likely dating to the Ptolemaic era.
One of the more interesting things about this sphinx is the face. This slightly quizzical and oddly comforting cat person, head slightly askew, looking like the least terrifying temple guardian imaginable. If sphinxes didn’t by default sit so firmly in the uncanny valley, it would be adorable. In contrast to the great sphinx, which, despite the erosion, looks rather intimidating and much more like a guardian of something, this Ptolemaic sphinx might offer a more complex look at the character of the sphinx in Egyptian mythology, or show how the mythology had changed by the time the Ptolemaic dynasty of Macedonia had replaced the Egyptian Pharaohs of old.
Beyond the big one that everyone knows, there are a ton of sphinx statues in Egypt.
The Ptolemaic dynasty was the last ruling family of ancient Egypt, before the Roman empire swept in and did the Roman thing—see: Cleopatra. An insultingly brief history of the fall of the Egyptian empire goes like this: for thousands of years Egypt, was a powerful and independent monarchy. This is when many of the icons of ancient Egypt—the pyramids, Ramses II, King Tut, etc—were around. Then, around 671 BCE, the Assyrians came in and conquered Egypt. They left some Pharaohs in charge, who then, with the help of Greek mercenaries, kicked the Assyrians out and almost won back the glory of old. Then the Persian empire came from the east and said “Nah, that’s ours.” Then, Alexander the Great came out of Macedonia said “Excuse me, but I believe you’re holding my Egypt.” Being that Alexander already owned a solid chunk of the known world, it was probably true and the Persians let Egypt go without a fight. Then Alexander died and rule of Egypt passed to one of his generals, Ptolemy. He called himself Pharaoh and the Egyptians said “Sure.” Ptolemy’s dynasty would rule for roughly 300 years before Rome decided it was their turn. So it goes.
Greece had its own version of the Sphinx. While it looks friendly, this is the one that would eat you if you were bad at riddles
(Photo by Rosemaniakos CC BY 2.0)
It’s interesting to see how the iconography of Egypt remained throughout those periods of turmoil. Even after almost 400 years of getting passed around like a hot potato, the sphinx remained an important icon in Egypt. It didn’t remain unchanged though. Like much of the Ptolemaic period, you can see the Hellenistic influence creeping in and merging with with the traditional Egyptian style. Let it be a lesson to you if you’re ever trying to do some conquering of your own: don’t change the symbol, just subvert it.
They're ba-ack... And they keep coming back! Starting in 2009, hundreds of visitors have descended every Labor Day weekend on the picture perfect town of Exeter, New Hampshire for the annual Exeter UFO Festival.
This year, the festival drew a large crowd of alien enthusiasts, who spent the weekend swapping stories they insist happened. Panelists, ufologists, and the layman who swore they'd seen a flying saucer or even been abducted - there were enough out of this world tales ringing through the microphones at the Exeter fest to keep Steven Spielberg in goosebumps for the rest of his life.
Founded by local historian and freelance writer Dean Merchant and his wife Pamela and now operated as a fundraiser by the Exeter Area Kiwanis Club, the festival commemorates and celebrates the rich history of New England's "experiencers," a term applied to anyone who could have had brush with something that could be extraterrestrial. Thanks in part to a history of alleged run-ins, including 1965's "Incident at Exeter" and Betty and Barney Hill's strange nighttime 1961 sighting in Lincoln (widely considered to be the first documented claim of an alien abduction), the Granite State's wide open fields are considered especially ripe for extraterrestrial contact... so much so that this year's fest included a trolley ride that took attendees on a "UFO Safari" in the nearby fields.
Your intrepid reporter was unable to get on the trolley, but I did ride out to some of the nearby hot spots on my own, paying special attention to the site of the Exeter incident, so named by author John G. Fuller in his 1966 book on the subject. The story goes something like this: 18-year-old Norman Muscarello had been out late one night with his girlfriend and was attempting to hitchhike home down Route 150. He walked most of the way through the woods when suddenly he saw five flashing red lights that were so bright a nearby farmhouse and the surrounding area were turned red by the illumination.
When the lights moved toward him, he dove into a ditch, and when the lights then moved back toward the farmhouse and into the woods, Muscarello ran into the road and stopped an oncoming car for help. The driver took him to the Exeter police station and a patrolman named Eugene Bertrand drove back to the scene with him to see what the ruckus was about. The cop saw the lights, too — as did a second officer who he had called for backup.
It works, right? Here's what the approximate location of the Incident at Exeter looks like now, from our drive to the site:
The fest itself, held over Labor Day weekend each year, commemorates the above incident to the day, while the mysterious tale of Betty and Barney Hill occurred four years earlier. While on the road returning home to Portsmouth up north, the couple experienced an encounter much more terrifying even than Muscarello's. They say they not only saw what appeared to be a ship, they blacked out and lost time, their watches stopped, and their clothes were torn.
Their niece, Kathleen Marden, was thirteen when her Aunt Betty called her mother the next day to relay the experience. Marden has become a prominent Ufologist in her own right, and seems like the closest thing to experiencer royalty for her proximity to such a famous case. She's written numerous books on the subject, but the one that sold out at the festival was her recounting of her family's tale, Captured! The Betty and Barney Hill UFO Experience.
"When my aunt and uncle arrived home, they took a nap, and when they woke up, my aunt called my mother," says Marden, who says she had just gotten home from school that fateful afternoon. Her aunt was concerned, says Marden, "that the craft had come so close to them they might have been exposed to radiation."
Marden's aunt also noticed new shiny spots on the trunk of their car, at the same location they had heard an intense buzzing sound during the encounter the night before. Marden and her parents and two brothers soon went to the Hills' home to hear the story. "I saw the spots," says Marden. "I held the watches."
Asked if she believed her family had been singled out for any reason or purpose, Marden put more stock in their worth than her aunt and uncle had: "Betty and Barney had the opinion that they just happened to be in the right place at the right time, or you could say the wrongtime. I believe it is more than coincidence."
As ufologist Peter Robbins, the MC of this year's fest, explains to me, Exeter is just one star in a growing constellation of UFO conventions and festivals around the country. A few others: May's convention in Portland, Oregon, a June gathering in Pinebush, NY and the MUFON Symposium, which this year took place in Cherry Hill, New Jersey.
"Over the past decades, aliens have so deeply ingrained themselves into popular culture," Robbins says. "Even in the back of the minds of the most hardened skeptics, even the most conservative astronomers, they know that the universe is teeming with life."
Want to take your own road trip to a UFO fest or convention? Next up is the Greater New England UFO Conference in Leominster, Massachusetts, October 5th through the 6th. And if you miss that, start planning now for next summer: UFOs (fests) are all around you.
Iranian state media fell for a spoof of a YouTube video showing a fake UFO on US aircraft carrier USS Gerald R. Ford.
YouTube
Iranian media fell hard for a badly photoshoped video claiming to show a UFO on the deck of a US aircraft carrier.
The website used anonymous YouTube comments to suggest the US had a secret stealth jet program, and that nobody respected the military.
The video is clearly false for a variety of reasons and falls well below the standards of good reporting.
Iranian media dived deep into a bizarre conspiracy theory around a badly edited video on YouTube that claimed to show an unidentified flying object on the deck of the USS Gerald R. Ford, the US's newest supercarrier.
Tasnim News Agency, an Iranian website with close ties to the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, wrote up a YouTube video from SECTION 51 2.0, a channel that promises: "Exclusive UFO Footage from all over the world" while adding a disclaimer that the videos are for entertainment purposes only.
Tasnim buys hook, line, and sinker the UFO's presence aboard the deck of the Ford, while mistakenly referring to the US Navy aviation units captured on video as US Air Force jets.
Here's the conspiracy video, see if it looks right to you:
The video claims to have been shot in September 2018 in the Mediterranean Sea. Not only does theUS Navy not have any carriers in the Mediterranean now, the Ford, which has only just recently been commissioned, hasn't been to the Mediterranean yet.
Here's the real, unedited video from July, 28, 2017. It shows the first ever US Navy F/A-18 fighter jet's arrested landing and catapult launch from the Ford.
While the video does show an historic first in naval aviation, it's not quite first contact with alien life.
Tasnim then goes straight to YouTube's comments section on a fake video about UFOs to bash the US military and suggest deception.
"This is why no one respects the military anymore," Tasnim quoted an anonymous YouTuber as saying.
Tasnim's story on the fake video of a UFO on a US aircraft carrier has been its most-viewed article for days now, despite obvious factual problems. Whether the world has lost respect for the US military as a result of this article, or perhaps lost respect for Tasnim, remains an open question.
Filer’s Files #37 – 2018 Alien Contact: The Difficult Truth - PART I
Reykjavik,, Iceland cloud UFO on September 7, 2018
Filer’s Files #37 – 2018 Alien Contact: The Difficult Truth - PART I
Liz, Vicky, George III and IV
George A. Filer III
New Jersey State Director
MUFON Eastern Region Director
In special reports, this week’s files cover: Admiral Delmer S. Fahrney and UFOs, Derrel Sims Alien Hunter, Queensland, Australia Mutilated Cows Found, Alien Contact: The Difficult Truth, Spy Satellites Down, Deep State Arrests Imminent? September Comet, and Monthly Statistical MUFON Report for August 2018
Unidentified Aerial Phenomena sightings were reported over Arizona, Arkansas, California, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Maine, Minnesota, Missouri, New Jersey, New Mexico, North Carolina, and Texas.
Unidentified Aerial Phenomena sightings were reported over Australia, Canada, Iceland, Iran, Japan, Netherlands, New Zealand, Sweden, and England in the United Kingdom.
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The Filer Research Institute feels the scientific study of UFOs is for the benefit of humankind and is an important endeavor. The US Air Force investigated UFOs publicly for more than twenty years under Project Blue Book; and I continue this advanced research. I believe the God of the universe has spread life throughout the cosmos and UFO’s are visiting us in ever-increasing numbers.
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Special Projects
Admiral Delmer S. Fahrney and UFOs
“No agency in this country or Russia is able to duplicate at this time the speeds and accelerations which radars and observers indicate these flying objects are able to achieve… there are objects coming into our atmosphere at very high speeds.” Admiral Delmer S. Fahrney, former head of the Navy’s guided-missile program, printed in New York Times, January 17, 1957, p. 31. “Reliable reports indicate there are objects coming into our atmosphere at very high speeds and controlled by thinking intelligence’s.”
Fahrney was American naval officer, aeronautical engineer. Holder patents on aircraft, guided missile developments. Decorated Legion of Merit.Fahrney gained recognition in developing the. first. ucav. target drone in World War II. A squadron of drones was used successfully in dropping 2000 pound bombs on Japanese military installations in the Pacific.
He was a friend of my close friend Commander Bethune who flew regularly to Wright Patterson AFB to inspect crashed UFOs. Its believed the Navy obtained the secret of anti-gravity propulsion from these craft.
Retired Rear Adm. Delmer S. Fahrney said he has talked with a number of scientists and engineers who reported seeing strange flying objects. He added, “There are signs that intelligence directs such objects because of the way they fly. They are not entirely actuated by automatic equipment.” He said, “By the way they change position in formations and override each other would indicate that their motion involves a tremendous amount of technology of which we have no knowledge, and that their development must have taken a long period of time.”
On January 16, 1957 – the day after the National Investigations Committee on Aerial Phenomena (NICAP’s) Board of Governors met for the first time – Board Chairman Delmer S. Fahrney called a press conference. News media all over the country quoted his statements identifying him as one of the few “top brass” to speak out in defense of UFOs.
We absolutely know that many high ranking Navy officers were interested in the phenomenon. Roscoe Hillenkoetter himself joined NICAP and was willing to speak very publicly and to congress about the goodness of what NICAP was doing and that UFOs seemed to be a real but non-terrestrial mystery. He was far from alone.
Office of Naval Research chief Admiral Calvin Bolster apparently believed the same, although Keyhoe and Fahrney were never able to get him to come out publicly with a statement. Several other Navy officers were NICAP members and Keyhoe occasionally got “leaks” from Navy people who obviously disliked USAF policy.
There were many in the Navy sympathetic to research on the phenomenon and impatient with their rival service. One of these “conversations” which resulted in a massive “leak” was reported by UFOnetwork
Derrel Sims Alien Hunter
Derrel Sims, the Alien Hunter, is one of the world’s leading experts on alien abductions. His 38+ years of field research have focused on physical evidence and led to his groundbreaking discoveries of alien implants and alien fluorescence. As a former military police officer and CIA operative, Sims has a unique insight to the alien organization, which he believes functions similarly to an intelligence agency. Sims is also a compassionate and skilled therapist, who has helped hundreds of alien experiences all over the world come to terms with what they’ve witnessed.
I have begged certain mutilation investigators, do check these animals bodies for certain things. I am not in contact with these particular cases in Australia, so that’s a moot point here. The real issue is that in my opinion, this animals should be checked with various equipment to see what else might be involved. One of the things is critical in my view, is that these animals be checked for florescence and then samples to be taken if the florescence is present. This of course, involves the florescent site, as well as Control samples on the animal.
The second thing that should happen in my opinion, is to check the animal with the metal detector. There’s only been one case that I know of that someone actually checked hey mutilated Cow with a metal detector. The assistant, while waiting for the “ investigators” to arrive, found an object moving inside the Cow, that was giving off a distinct signal. The young man who did this inadvertent test… Realized at that point he needed to go pick up the ‘Real investigators” at the airport. Unfortunately, he left the animal, and did his job. He picked up my friend and his associates Bill Burns and Company. Then they did the mutilation investigation. Which basically yielded nothing, other then we have mutilated animal with the same strange circumstances!
The glaring point is, there was no object moving around in the animal. SO, did someone or something return while everybody was gone, and get the moving implanted device? We will never know now. The poor rancher had lost many cattle in prior mutilation cases. He literally was in tears over his circumstance. NOTATION: when you find good evidence don’t leave the body.
There’re other things to should be done as well in these cases. There should be soil samples taken immediately around the animal carcass. A police officer friend of mine, did a calculation case, in which HE precisely, Took samples of soil in all directions, in I spoke like manner, as far as 300 feet from the area of the cow. This yielded some good information. It indicated that there were disturbances, in the soil, that was noted with varying determinations at various distances. What this suggested to us, is that regardless of how the mutilation occurred, someone in a helicopter, deposited the body back in its original position. So even if the mutilation occurred somewhere else, by alien, or buy an intelligence operation, the animal was brought back to this location and dropped.
Clearly some of these animals, our intelligence operations. Clearly some of these animals are part of alien mutilation operations. Clearly some of them, are both. By that I mean one following the others procedures. In other words, they appear to be spying on each other. They appear to be seeing what each other has done with the animal. To underscore this find, it is important to note that human pharmaceuticals have been found in some of these related cattle mutes.
Originally, circa 1960-80’s, at the Jicarllio Apache Indian Reservation, on the Valdez Ranch, florescent splotches were found on certain cattle. This indicates something like a paintball type indicator was shot onto these cattle in an identifying manner. Since paint ball guns were not around back then, and no reported paintball plastic projectiles were found, it seems some other method was used. The bottom line is, the cattle were pre-marked, and later found mutilated. Since, near that particular reservation, in the late 60s, a 20 kiloton nuclear device was set off, underground, by the military, ostensibly for the early practices of fracking for natural gas??? It seems that the intelligence boys may have been checking the cattle for radiation levels? At least that’s the story.
Florescent splotches may be of different colors but often white
I wish people would use other devices and check for these other possibilities. Derrel Sims, R.H.A.,CM.Ht. http://alienhunter.orgBooks: Alien Thanks toKGRA Digital Broadcasting
Graziers Mick and Judy Cook were working on their property in Cloverly, north-west of Mackay, when Mr. Cook noticed a dead cow carcass which appeared to have had its body mutilated, with its entire udder, ears and tongue removed. “It was like it had been surgically removed, I certainly couldn’t do as neat a job with a very sharp knife, and it definitely wasn’t an animal,” Mr. Cook said. “I saw the body parts missing, there was no blood, even where the parts had been removed, no sign of struggle, just dead.”
Local veterinarian David Lemmon said in his 40 years working in the industry, often with livestock, he had never heard of or seen anything like it. “I deal with everything, you know — all creatures great and small. And I can’t think of any explanation for it, that’s not normal human behavior is it? That’s something quite bizarre and ill, I would say the person that has done that is not mentally stable. “We’re talking eyes, we’re talking ears, we’re talking udders. No, I’ve never heard of anything like that ever, that’s something or someone very ill who’s done that.”
On the same trip, Mr. Cook said he travelled, about an hour’s drive from his house on rough terrain, when he found another dead cow.
The second one looked like it had been there for some time.” By that point we are probably two hours from your nearest neighbor, it’s very mountainous country … there’s no way anyone can get there unless they come straight past our house.” “People don’t use those parts, it’s just not something you would wish on your worst enemy.”
Mr. and Mrs. Cook said they had attempted to contact local police unsuccessfully. According to Mr. Cook, he and his wife came across two dead cows with their udders removed around the same area about ten years prior.
“They basically said other people around the world have been finding similar cases since ’75 and starting in Yankee land.”
Cases of cow mutilation and murders have been reported around the world for over four decades, with one or two carcasses found, sometimes dozens, with body parts such as ears, lips, eyes, noses, anuses and genitalia removed with “surgical precision”. Speculation surrounding who — or what — might be responsible for the killings and mutilations ranged from satanic worshipers and government agents to aliens.
In the mid 70s the American FBI launched an investigation into the widespread cow deaths, however, were unable to offer a conclusion stating that their investigation was hindered by a lack of jurisdiction. While no solution has been confirmed to date, some scientists claim ordinary decomposition or even carrion animals are responsible. Animals such as vultures, Tasmanian devils and coyotes often eat soft tissue body parts first which could explain why parts of the mouth, tongue, anus and eyes are often the parts found missing on the cows.
They weren’t, however, able to offer an explanation for the mass number of cow deaths over the years — for now it remains a mystery.
With Alien Contact: The Difficult Truth, the long-awaited first volume of what will eventually become a multi-book series, author/researcher/abductee Derek Tyler demonstrates that he is a powerful force to be reckoned with. Colon Mummaon writes, “Drawing on a lifetime of hardcore research and personal experience, private conversations with insiders and interviews with over three thousand abductees,” Mr. Tyler has produced a manuscript which is unique, original and compelling. He brings a fresh, authoritative insight into the complex, covert world that threatens not just this country, but all of humanity. I have read the major worlds on UFOs/aliens and had come to the conclusion, as has Dr. Jacques Vallee, a fellow researcher with Dr. Allen Hynek, that the grays are, as one of his classic book’s title states, “Masters of Deceit.”
He also addresses the dark world of the Illuminati/NWO and their mutual designs to achieve a one world government and police state. By reading this book, one will find information I have not seen in print before. As another top researcher/writer, Leo Zagami, has stated the timetable for this descent into worse that an Orwellian existence is 2020.
Being RH Negative blood type, now I may have a hint of why I have been so petrified with the thought or subject of torture all my life. This book is a cold splash of water in the faces of those who believe that all aliens are our benevolent space brothers. If you can “handle the truth” about Aliens and who is really running the world and this country, then this book is for you. Excellent application of logic to both hard and soft data. Conclusions most logical and profound. This book is helpful better understanding the truth about UFO’s and our visitors. . My personal interest in all this lies not with whether or not UFO’s are visiting our planet (which clearly they are and have been) but is much more directed to the secrecy thrown over the topic from the 1930’s on. In particular, the Roswell event which everyone should view as highly embarrassing to our country and to our military.
Since then the public has been treated as idiots or second class citizens who are not able to handle the truth.
Tyler claims the “grays” are cloned beings who have an IQ of “about 80” and are “used to carry out the dirty work.” His military contacts have also revealed that they “are terrible pilots” and are responsible for most of the crashed UFOs such as Roswell that have been recovered. The future implications of what started with Truman’s establishment of Majestic 12 and has greatly expanded from the time of the Roswell incident is a threat to every citizen on this planet. Unfortunately power and money held by a very few due to the UFO topic is changing the USA and the world and the future
The light of truth must be shined on this topic and understood by the average person around the world. Tyler discusses the most extensive psychological warfare operation in history and shows how easily even the cleverest of people can be manipulated. Tyler also includes descriptions of his own, previously-unreported, sightings. The reader is allowed to share his thoughts and emotions as he re-lives an extended sighting. He also provides fascinating transcripts of off-the-record conversations with highly-placed sources deep within the black ops community.
The reader is made to understand the fear, frustration and sense of isolation which are unavoidable when one realizes that they have become an alien abductee, that their life has been forever changed. Tyler gives the reader a highly personal and brutally honest account of coming to terms with the sudden realization that, when faced with the technological capabilities of these aliens, we find ourselves to be utterly powerless and forever vulnerable, and that the presumed safety of our own homes is nothing but an illusion.
According to his sources, Tyler says that only 12 – 20 people in the United States have access to the full picture of UFOs and the alien presence on Earth, and are aware that much of our advanced technology was given to mankind by alien races. He also claims that the military knows who has been abducted and within a few hours re-abducts those who have been taken in order to use their heightened psychic powers for remote viewing and espionage, erasing their memories afterwards.
Tyler claims the “grays” are cloned beings who have an IQ of “about 80” and are “used to carry out the dirty work.” His military contacts have also revealed that they “are terrible pilots” and are responsible for most of the crashed UFOs that have been recovered.
He joined Connie Willis to discuss terrifying accounts and research on aliens, their agenda, and his life as a military abductee. Tyler said his research is “stressful and it’s frustrating and its dangerous” because of his belief that he is exposing the secrets about abductions.
Tyler refers to NASA, as a “public relations agency” which exists to keep the public in the dark about the real source of the space program, which he believes is the military. He also thinks that technology exists that allows the alien races to remove souls from people’s bodies so that they can be inhabited by other beings while the original soul is kept in a container that Tyler described as a type of “faraday cage” that blocks or traps electromagnetic energy. He believes that this has happened to him and no disclosure of this explosive information will be forthcoming anytime soon. The war with some aliens will continue. Thanks to Derek Tyler
Comet Visible With Binoculars
During September a comet is visible with binoculars or a telescope. During its apparitions, Giacobini–Zinner can reach about the 8th magnitude, but in 1946 it underwent a series of outbursts that made it as bright as 5th magnitude. It is the parent body of the Giacobinidsmeteor shower (also known as the Draconids).
n Monday (Sept. 10) at a distance of 94.2 million miles (151.5 million km) from the sun. On the same day, the comet will also be at perigee, its closest point to Earth, at a distance of 36.3 million miles (58.5 million km).
As to what you should expect to see, the brightness of 21P will probably hold at near seventh magnitude all through the rest of September. Unfortunately, seventh magnitude is below the threshold of naked-eye visibility even under a dark, clear sky, but using good binoculars or a small telescope and sky map depicting the comet’s path against the constellations, you should have no difficulty in spotting the object.
. The comet will be primarily a morning object all through September, well-placed for observation in the after-midnight and predawn hours. On the evening of Oct. 8 this year, the Earth will intersect the plane of the comet’s orbit. Will we pass through an appreciable cloud of particles in the wake of the comet’s September passage? While a meteor storm is unlikely, it is possible. NASA’s interactive app.
Spy Satellites Down,Deep State Arrests Imminent?
The editor cannot confirm this story but allegedly six different insider sources have confirmed that several spy satellites and computer systems for the Deep State have been blinded, in a stunning attack. There is widespread agreement among these insider sources that some sort of major, visible action against this genocidal, globalist entity is now impending. Three of these insider sources are only speaking to us at this time, at least in terms of any public figures they communicate with. One of these sources is conveying the shared wisdom of five different military “units” of up to eight personnel each.
The code names of the now-disabled satellites are Snow White, Corona and Big Bird, followed by a one or two-digit number. These covert satellites were apparently the communications backbone of the Deep State. This mass shut-down of spy satellites appears to be a move that paves the way for swift actions that the Deep State cannot predict in advance.
This may come in the form of the unsealing of a whopping fifty-one thousand, seven hundred and one sealed indictments, and the arresting of the suspects therein. Clear evidence also suggests that these perpetrators will be subject to military, not civilian, trials — meaning the proceedings will not drag out over ten or twenty years. This is something all of us really need to think about and get clear on now, before any future data dumps that may throw us into emotional trauma. Since the highest-level offenders will likely be prosecuted in DC, this mass event may come to be known as the Washington Trials, in homage to the Nuremberg Trials.
Swat Teams will likely conduct sweeps. It is not known exactly who the indictments are attempting to arrest. The 74,000 deaths last year due to illegal drugs is a priority target for this administration. The bulk of the drug trade comes out of Mexican Cartels with illegal immigrants bringing much of the drugs to major cities creating a 100 billion in profits to buy various politicians. It is well known by police that they have been told not to arrest various drug dealers even though they know who they are and their locations.
Another possibility is mass arrests of known terrorists or spies who have crossed into the US thru the US borders. The hundreds of fires throughout the west suggest terrorists are at work. Each sealed indictment must be produced by a secret grand jury, convened for the occasion. The secret grand jury hears evidence and, if convinced by the information, it files a sealed order for the pending arrest of the accused. For this same reason, I imagine these secret grand juries are being held in SCIF (Sensitive Compartmented Information Facility) rooms. The members of the criminal cartel are unaware that a complex operation is being conducted against them until they all get arrested at once — in a surprise sting attack.
This is a documented political fact — easily confirmed with government judicial database. This is a shadow World War III that is being fought at a scope far beyond what most people could ever even imagine. We can also expect that the highest-level criminals from the legislative and executive branches will be prosecuted in Washington, DC. It will be interesting to see how the news media handles the arrests. Thanks to Divine Cosmos
Monthly Statistical MUFON Report for August 2018
CMS continues to amass sighting reports from around the globe. In August 2018 there were 734 sightings reported to MUFON through CMS from the following countries;
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Filer’s Files #37 – 2018 Alien Contact: The Difficult Truth - PART II
Filer’s Files #37 – 2018 Alien Contact: The Difficult Truth - PART II
UFO Sightings in the United States
Arizona Light
Payson — We were camping on the rim at 7,000 feet and at about 5:00pm noticed a reflective white silver circular stationary solid object in the sky at approximately 30,000 feet straight up, which looked like a star. It remained stationary in the same spot for over 30 minutes before it was covered by clouds from the approaching storm. I took pictures of it and upon examining the pictures noticed it was NOT a star but a UFO. Thanks to MUFON CMS
Arkansas Rectangle
Denali National Forest— This is a photo shot in Denali in sequence in July 2007. The before and after photos of same shot taken within seconds of each other don’t have this anomaly.
This isn’t my photo. A friend took this on vacation, visiting the park during a cruise excursion. He was showing me his vacation photos when I noticed the smudge like spot in the upper right hand corner. I zoomed in and we felt that the level of detail was alarming. He did not see this object while he was there taking the photograph. Thanks to MUFON CMS
California Object
Westwood— From my patio, I have spent all summer and watching the same object DAILY. It is basically in the same place today on September 8, 2018 as it has been. I know where to look but occasionally have to ‘scan’ the area. It moves extremely slowly and at times it will be in a different area of the sky. This is Not a weather balloon.
I have also seen over UCLA, three other smaller objects —that have met up with this ‘main object’. The main object is larger, and can at times be seen somewhat easily by the naked eye. I have purchased a spotting scope (30-90X90mm) and tripod recently in an attempt to get a better view/image of this object and getting even decent images are tough.
The ‘main object looks like a slightly slanted white/silvery parachute. The scope has now given me a better view.
Sylmar— I took a picture of a wall I had put up and seen these weird lights with trails behind them. Not sure what they are. Thanks to MUFON CMS
Florida Lights
Titusville – On September 7, 2018, I took the trash out just after dark and saw this thing in the sky. I ran in to get my husband. A plane flew by, but it had much smaller blinking lights on it and the lights had a different appearance. The thing had five lights, two on each side and one in the middle. It hovered in the northern sky and then when I ran in to get my camera it started moving north. I was able to get a couple of pictures before it flew out of sight Thanks to William Puckett, Director Http://www.UFOsnw.com
Georgia Lights
Augusta — My name is Donnie Brooke – UFO Hunter. Since 2010, there have been five UFO sightings in the Augusta, Ga. area. I am theorizing that the 4 light triangle is a TR3B spacecraft, and the 3 light boomerang is a TR6 TELOS air and spacecraft. The other 3 sighting’s I have no explanation for. I believe the triangle and boomerang crafts are affiliated with The Secret Space Program known as Project Solar Warden. I am theorizing that President Trump’s Space Force is disclosure in reference to Project Solar Warden In the early to mid 2000’s, a Scottish computer hacker known as Gary McKinnon was successful in hacking a NASA computer system data base. Allegedly he found evidence of “United States Secret Space Ships” and “Non Terrestrial Officers”. I believe that Project Solar Warden ballooned from Project Horizon (an operation proposal in 1952 to build a military outpost on the moon). I believe that Project Solar Warden has shown itself in the Augusta, area (Grovetown) in 2017. These sightings are officially genuine unknowns. Thanks to Donnie Brooke Pro Wrestler / UFO Hunter donniebrooke@mail.com
Illinois Lights
Great Lakes– I went outside to untangle dog and, noticed 3 bright lights in triangle shape in between houses in the neighborhood that were very bright and did not move! Light was silver in color but did not change or flicker. I had Goosebumps the whole time, and kept a steady eye the whole 3 minutes of the sighting. Then one at a time they just got smaller until they disappeared. I texted my husband and father right after and shared the pictures. I had never seen anything like this before! Thanks to MUFON CMS
Maine Orbs
I was outside with my 5 kids and husband and my son pointed it out.
There was no sound and no trail of smoke or anything behind it. The photo was taken on September 13, 2018. Thanks to MUFON CMS
Minnesota Object
River Falls— I was riding in a car to go to the airport and flying back to Canada on June 28, 2018. My flight departed at 6:30am. The sky is still very dark when I left River Falls, Wisconsin. I took some photos of the thunder and lightning as the sky was brighter. I took a lot of the sky when the lighting flashed every 20 to 40 seconds. At the beginning, I didn’t notice the object not till I cheek my iPhone camera in the car. In the middle of this photo was the lightning and a strange object that was way too big to hanging in the sky. The first photo that showed this object so I posted it on my Facebook. Thanks to MUFON CMS
Missouri Object
Driving down 364 thought I saw a hot air balloon, but then another object appeared. They never moved and were just gray not bright and colorful. After I took a picture two more objects appeared in the picture that were not there. Thanks to MUFON CMS
New Jersey Lights
Ewing Twp– The witness viewed an unknown object from her living room bay window on June 18th, 2016, at 9:15pm to 9:32 pm. A turquoise blue anomaly was 300 feet away positioned across street above a 12 feet white fence within a neighbor’s backyard. The estimated size of partial top view appeared 8 feet across and 4 feet above the top of horizontal fence line. I believe it came through a vortex to this dimension due to the manner it disappeared. It was not a lucid craft but I could not see through it, At 9:30 pm, the object began pulsating in and out movement fashion to a lighter blue shade. Then a vertical dark line appeared in the middle section of the blue anomaly that was situated above the in-ground pool. Witness decided to snap a photo at that point due to change of color the anomaly cloaked itself prior to disappearing..
I had two investigative special paranormal teams come inside house to gather evidence one year a part to see if any changes occurred. Both of the teams agreed the house is active, but no harm and peaceful. The house was blessed with Holy Water in past twice. The spirits are not negative and protective of my family. Thanks to Rosa
New Mexico Object
Edgewood— Outside with my dogs last trip out for the night on September 10, 2018, I caught sight of a very bright fast moving object coming from the west heading due east at a very high altitude. I shined a bright flashlight it at the object knowing the light would not reach it. But it stopped and came back to straight overhead and it stopped and descended to a much lower altitude around 10,000 feet. Hovered for a few seconds then shot straight back up, then flew north and made a very bright flash. I was amazed that whatever it was changed directions. It was very large maybe a 1/4 acre wide and a half acre long kind of almond shaped. It shot back up faster than anything I have ever seen. It was fast and big!. Thanks to MUFON CMS
North Carolina Square-Shaped UFO
Columbus — A mysterious square-shaped UFO was photographed on the night of August 18th, 2018, by Javion Hill as he drove southwest of Charlotte, NC. The image was posted on his Facebook page. It may have been an experimental military craft, Hill told the Charlotte Observer that there was something frightening about the experience and he didn’t sleep that night. Earlier this year, footage emerged of a so-called “huge UFO mothership..Thanks to MUFON CMS
Texas Square
Bacliff – I was watching a shrimp boat over water when a black square appeared on August 28, 2018. At first it was just a black square and then a round disk appears to be dragging it but they are both hovering.
The disk had a light in the middle of it and was black on the edge. It started to move and form over water to land. We followed while taking pictures while it seemed to be changing shapes. Then it disappears. Thanks to MUFON CMS
UFO Sightings Worldwide
Australia Orbs
Melbourne— I was exchanging few past topics with my mates in the back area of my house, I was filming the sun for fun sake and noticed some white line moving randomly in the background. I was not sure whether it is an unidentified flying object, but when I slowed down the speed of the video finally clearly able to see and felt that the object is definitely an UFO. When I realized it is not a human made object initially I felt a bit nervous and was unable to think elsewhere. Thanks to MUFON CMS
Canada Light
St. John’s— On my way home last night my friend and I observed many flashing lights in the sky above St. John’s. We stopped and watched for about 5 or more minutes. There was at least 5 or 10 different locations for the flashing. I’ve seen these before but only one or two at a time.
Thanks to MUFON CMS
Toronto — We have a problem. The city’s skies lit up Thursday evening September 6, 2018, with what appeared to be a fireball-shaped object hovering in the night sky. The strange glowing orb flickering in the eastern sky caused quite a stir on social media, with numerous Twitter users sharing photos and videos of the unidentified object, which one user said just hovered in the sky instead of moving or disappearing. Thanks to http://dailyhive.com/
Iceland Disc
Reykjavik — I was amazed by clouds during my way from home to work so I made many pictures and videos on September7, 2018. But there was a UFO in the sky. I think that this is a UFO so I’m sending this material to you.
I published video and pictures on Facebook, group called ‘Away from home living in Iceland’ and after some hours I got more than 100 reactions, it means that people are interested. Thanks to MUFON CMS
Iran Lights
Tehran — This happened over western Tehran on September 8, 2018, and I was a passenger on the car. I suddenly saw more than 100 spots/dots or bright strange glowing objects in the sky.
They were in a web like pattern emitting from UFO into the ground and it looked like it was scanning something. The beams in the air had various different glowing lights, but predominantly green and white. We thought initially maybe they were laser beams coming from an earthly source , but it looked like all lights were originating from a UFO. We were stunned. When I began filming it was just the UFO itself.
I recorded for about 50 seconds and again 5 minutes later for 2 minutes. In summary I observed numerous lights/bright objects beamed from sky into the ground in a web like pattern , and then they aggregated into a rope like pattern and were recalled into the UFO. Thanks to MUFON CMS
Japan Orbs
Shizuoka City — In 8th September 2018, at 4pm I saw something not like dusts or balloons, or papers. At first, some white things were floating in the sky at very high altitude never fluttering like paper. These were not like the way balloons floating. They were just shifting smoothly from Southwest to east without fluttering. There were colorful ones who showed up next that flew smoothly to the east. Then it went above of a cloud and I couldn’t see them anymore. Thanks to MUFON CMS
Netherlands Red Star
Amsterdam— Evening around 19:30 (7:30pm) whilst on my roof terrace I saw a very clear RED STAR around 500 meters from the ground, I would guess 1-2km from me. It was bright and just hovered there. I thought at first it may be a drone. Strangely at the exact time I spotted this I was also being disturbed by the sounds of many police sirens in and around my neighborhood and in the distance.
The light then started to rise straight up, steadily up and up and came to a stop very high from where I first spotted it. It then started to move toward the west at the same speed. The speed too is fast as Schipol (Amsterdam’s airport) isn’t far and many aircraft land in and around the city. It suddenly produced flashing white lights very similar to an aircraft. It then turned towards the north then I felt it vanished into the distance.
I finished what I was doing and again had a look and it was back. Red again and moving steadily in an easterly direction. When it again was going in the distance it AGAIN displayed aircraft lights.
Within three minutes later an aircraft landing on a runway which was not registered online as being at use at the moment. No aircraft had landed there for over 10 minutes prior and none afterwards. This is Schipol, one of the world’s busiest airports. Any runway open is used. The aircraft which landed offered no sound as it flew past. I can assure you that from my roof terrace any aircraft seen from there can always be heard, even if the wind’s direction is off, only excepting high winds would you perhaps not. Of which there was none last evening. I feel that this ‘craft’/light changed into an aircraft to land? I have honestly never seen anything like it CMS
New Zealand Disc
Auckland Airport — Was watching an aeroplane flight EK 448 come in from Dubai on September 8, 2018. a clear spring day at Auckland International airport. I caught a shot of a UFO in the photo but it wasn’t there when I originally took the photo. To the left of the tree was the aeroplane in the distance and to the right was a UFO but much closer. Seems like a solid cigar / strange shaped object. No wings can be seen. Definitely not a helicopter. Too big to be a bird ? Thanks to MUFON Thanks to MUFON CMS
Sweden Orb
Boras — 1. We were watching the lunar eclipse that happened in Sweden on August 11, 2018.. 2. I just randomly saw it. Sadly I didn’t have my phone with me so I couldn’t record. 3.”Oh it’s probably a drone” But I didn’t hear any buzzing sounds and it looked like it was miles away. (we sat on a cliff) 4.It went very slowly to the left in the air, after that up and down pretty quickly, then to the right. Where it later disappeared out of thin air. 5. I didn’t know what to think, 6. It just swooshed. Going faster then everything I’ve ever seen. Thanks to MUFON CMS
UK/England Object
Bradford– The object flew across the night sky like a plane with constant white light then split into three or four gold orange lights leave a halo or same colored entrails.
Photo was taken on July 7, 2018
Radio signal caught on low frequency bat detector on September 11, 2018. lasting 15 minutes.. Sounds like Alien chatting https://youtu.be/xvWiaZvqbhA Thanks to MUFON CMS
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NOT ONE OF A KIND Scientists thought Ahuna Mons (shown in the center of this image constructed from surface maps taken by NASA’s Dawn spacecraft) was the only icy volcano on dwarf planet Ceres. Now it seems it’s just the youngest.
NASA’S GODDARD SPACE FLIGHT CENTER
Scientists have spotted the ghosts of nearly two dozen ice volcanoes on dwarf planet Ceres.
Found using topographic maps from NASA’s Dawn spacecraft, the slumped remains of once-grand cones suggest that Ceres has experienced continual eruptions for billions of years, the researchers report September 17 in Nature Astronomy.
When Dawn arrived at Ceres in 2015, scientists noticed just one cryovolcano, which spews water instead of magma: Ahuna Mons, a four-kilometer-high mountain that formed at most 240 million years ago (SN Online: 9/1/16). At the time, researchers wondered why Ceres didn’t seem to have any other volcanoes.
One possibility is that older volcanoes have been erased or altered over time. So planetary scientist Michael Sori of the University of Arizona in Tucson and colleagues ran computer simulations which showed that cryovolcanoes like Ahuna Mons slump and relax into shorter, wider domes over millions of years.
“If you pour a thick liquid like honey, you see it slowly spread and flow and flatten over time,” Sori says. “We think the same thing was going on on Ceres.”
Highs and lows
The sites of 22 ice volcanoes on dwarf planet Ceres are shown in this topographical map (black dots), created with data from NASA’s Dawn spacecraft.
Hover over the numbered dots for zoomed-in looks at three of the volcanoes.
M. SORI ET AL/NATURE ASTRONOMY 2018
Using that insight, the team picked out the remains of 21 ice volcanoes on the small world. The newly identified domes, plus Ahuna Mons, range from 16 to 86 kilometers wide and 1.1 to 4.4 kilometers tall. All but one show their age, being shallower, wider and shorter than Ahuna Mons. The exception, Yamor Mons, is similar to Ahuna Mons in size and steepness, but located near Ceres’ north pole. There, temperatures are cold enough — below –173° Celsius on average — to keep the ice rock hard, preventing it from spreading out.
Sori and colleagues estimate that the ghost volcanoes formed hundreds of millions to about 2 billion years before Ahuna Mons. Older volcanoes could exist, but are probably unrecognizable. The team calculates that the volcanoes should have spewed out an average of 10,000 cubic meters of water per year. That’s thousands of times less material than volcanoes on rocky planets, such as Earth or Venus, which erupt molten rock. So icy volcanism seems less important to Ceres’ history than rocky volcanism was to other worlds, the team concludes.
Whether that’s true of all cryovolcanic worlds, or just Ceres, remains to be seen. Other signs of ice volcanoes have been spotted in the solar system, including on Pluto and on icy moons Europa and Enceladus.
Robbie Williams hunts for aliens at ranch plagued by paranormal events in documentary
Robbie Williams hunts for aliens at ranch plagued by paranormal events in documentary
The singer recalls a close encounter with a UFO as he and director Jeremy Corbell wander the reservation at 3am in Hunt The Skinwalker
EXCLUSIVE
By Richard Moriarty
X FACTOR judge Robbie Williams turns alien hunter in a new film.
The Angels singer, 44, visits a ranch plagued by paranormal events — and recalls a close encounter with a UFO.
HUNT THE SKINWALKER
The Angels singer is looking for aliens in new documentary Hunt The Skinwalker
The documentary Hunt The Skinwalker follows scientists investigating a Navajo reservation in Utah, US.
The owners fled in 1996 after seeing 7ft “alien figures”, UFOs, cattle mutilations, crop circles and strange creatures.
Robbie, 44, appears on camera as he and director Jeremy Corbell wander the reservation at 3am. He says: “We’re hunting for the proverbial paranormal needle in a haystack.”
The star, whose interest in aliens began 10 years ago, later claims he once came within touching distance of a UFO.
HUNT THE SKINWALKER
The trailer features a dark, grainy clip of a shadowy figure at the ranch
HUNT THE SKINWALKER
The singer joins a team investigating mysterious events at a ranch in the US
HUNT THE SKINWALKER
The team are handed pictures of what looks like a UFO
HUNT THE SKINWALKER
The team use night vision to track down potential alien activity
And Robbie, previously treated for prescription drugs addiction, joked the incident had nothing to do with any pills.
He said: “I’ve experienced phenomena I can’t explain. I’ve seen one right above me. I could have hit it with a tennis ball. No substance was involved.”
Robbie urged his 2.6m Twitter followers to see the film on iTunes.
REX FEATURES
Robbie claims he was once touching-distance from a UFO
J’ai compilé deux articles qui nous offrent un tour d’horizon de la manière dont est traité le phénomène ovni dans certains pays européens
******************************************
Sur ARTE INFO : Le ciel européen n’est pas vierge de phénomènes inexpliqués. L’horizon de l’Italie, du Royaume-Uni ou encore de la France se nimbe à intervalles réguliers de mystères, sur lesquels ne se penchent pas seulement les amateurs de science-fiction ou les chercheurs d’extraterrestres…
Les gouvernements ont toujours prêté beaucoup d’attention à ce qui se passe dans leur espace aérien. Ils ont depuis longtemps confié l’étude des phénomènes les plus mystérieux à leurs militaires, experts aérospatiaux et scientifiques.
C’EST EN ANGLETERRE
que l’intérêt des militaires pour les phénomènes aériens inexpliqués a été le plus clairement assumé. Un département Ovnis a même été créé au sein du ministère de la Défense. De 1950 à 2009, une « hotline » a par ailleurs permis de recueillir les appels de citoyens observant des phénomènes aériens non identifiés (PAN) dans le ciel britannique. Nick Pope, ancien fonctionnaire du ministère de la Défense, en charge des enquêtes sur les PAN de 1991 à 1994, estimait dans un article publié en 2009 par The Guardian que « Le ministère de la Défense n’aurait pas dû fermer sa hotline. C’est un jour triste pour la science ». En 2010, les archives nationales britanniques publiaient des documents déclassifiés concernant les ovnis. Ces dossiers sont constitués de témoignages, d’analyses de militaires ainsi que de débats parlementaires. Après avoir annoncé que tous les dossiers avaient été déclassifiés, le ministère de la Défense a dû avouer que de nouveaux documents devaient être rendus publics d’ici 2015.
Selon Nick Pope, des ovnis ont bien atterris en Angleterre, notamment dans la forêt de Rendelsham. Il a consacré un livre à cet événement intervenu le 26 décembre 1980.
LES DOSSIERS ITALIENS
L’intérêt des militaires italiens pour les phénomènes non identifiés a été dévoilé récemment grâce au travail de deux journalistes italiens, Lao Petrilli et Vincenzo Sinapi. Ils se sont plongés dans les archives déclassifiées de l’aéronautique militaire et en ont tiré un livre intitulé Ufo – I dossier italiani (en français : Ovni – Les dossiers italiens), qui recense les cas les plus inexpliquables. Contrairement au ministère de la Défense britannique, l’aéronautique militaire italienne continue à recueillir des témoignages et à enquêter sur les ovnis.
EN FRANCE
des cas inexpliqués C’est le Geipan (Groupe d’études et d’informations sur les phénomènes spatiaux non identifiés), un organisme dépendant du CNES (Centre national d’études spatiales), qui est en charge de la question. Le Geipan classe les phénomènes en quatre catégories : ceux parfaitement identifiés (9 %), ceux probablement identifiés (28 %), ceux non identifiables (par manque de données, 41 %)
LA VAGUE BELGE
Entre 1989 et 1990, les militaires du plat pays ont pratiqué une véritable chasse aux soucoupes volantes. Suite à une série de témoignages et d’observations faisant état de phénomènes étranges, l’armée fait décoller des Mirages F16 pour tenter d’intercepter ces supposés ovnis. Une enquête parlementaire a eu lieu, sans donner de résultats probants. Cet épisode a été surnommé « la vague belge ».
4 NOVEMBRE 2016 L’Espagne déclassifie 1 900 pages de dossiers ovnis.
Dernière déclassification officielle de taille ! Le ministère de la Défense espagnol vient tout juste de mettre en ligne près de 80 rapports officiels d’observations d’ovnis qui représentent 1 900 pages de documents s’échelonnant entre 1962 et 1995. On peut y découvrir des comptes rendus d’époque, des télex, des reconstitutions sur graphiques et plans, ainsi que des photos et leurs analyses.
L’intérêt réside évidemment dans la qualité des sources, militaires et policières principalement, impliquant aussi l’aviation civile.
La procédure de déclassification a été initiée en 1991 dans un rapport interne de la section de sécurité des vols remis au général de la division des opérations de l’Air. Ce dernier a acté la déclassification, qui a ensuite été examinée par les chefs d’état-major ainsi qu’au plus haut niveau politique, afin d’obtenir l’officialisation de la démarche d’ouverture de ces dossiers tenus secrets jusqu’alors.
C’est le SHYCEA, service chargé de la conservation du patrimoine historique et documentaire de l’armée de l’air espagnole, qui a été chargé de mettre les documents en ligne. Chaque dossier est consultable dans son intégralité sur la page Expedientes ovni de la bibliothèque numérique du ministère de la Défense.
L’un des rapports, par exemple, signale la présence d’un « objet qui se déplace à grande vitesse, à 540 000 km/h. L’observation fut confirmée par le lieutenant-colonel Pedro Crespi ». Ce cas date du 31 juillet 1992. Il a été observé aux Baléares.
ET DANS LE MONDE ?
Aujourd’hui trente-trois pays ont une activité officielle de recherche sur les ovnis, associant soit la marine, l’armée de l’air, le ministère des Transports (Canada), le ministère de la Défense, l’Académie des sciences (Chine), la Garde civile (Espagne), la gendarmerie, l’Agence spatiale (Indonésie), le ministère de la sécurité générale (Italie), le ministère des Affaires étrangères (Norvège), la police, la CIA et le FBI (USA). Certains ont procédé à des déclassifications, comme le Brésil, la Grande-Bretagne ou encore les États-Unis.
Il est surprenant de voir le plus souvent tourner en ridicule les témoignages des personnes ayant observé des objets ou des phénomènes dans le ciel.
En effet, ce qu’ils voient peuvent être des phénomènes naturels encore inconnus de la science, des avions militaires étrangers survolants un territoire sans autorisation, etc…Ce rôle de veilleur volontaire ou involontaire devrait être reconnu tout naturellement comme étant la suite des activités humaines depuis des millénaires dont l’une des passions fut d’étudier la voûte céleste, de réaliser des calculs infinis, et d’émettre des hypothèses dont beaucoup se sont vérifiées.
Comme nous l’avons vu ci-dessus, des organismes privés et publics, des organismes scientifiques, les Militaires, des gouvernements s’en occupent
On pourrait penser qu’un forum comme les Mystères des Ovnis devrait être un lieu de discussions tout a fait banal comme il y en a des milliers sur le net parlant de sujets aussi divers que variés voir très surprenants ou complètement loufoques.
J’ai regardé une émission grand public qui a traité deux sujets : les ovnis et le paranormal
Curieusement, le sujet consacré aux ovnis fut tourné en dérision de la manière la plus grotesque
Alors que le sujet consacré au paranormal fut traité presque avec gravité. La présentatrice n’était d’ailleurs pas loin de se prêter à une séance de voyance ou quelque chose du même genre. Certes, il y a l’évocation des extra-terrestres qui obscurcit le débat :les souvenirs des invasions qui ont mal tourné sont très proches voir encore d’actualité pour beaucoup de pays. Mais rassurons-nous ! l’affirmation officielle est catégorique : les distances sont incommensurables, il y a trop d’observations, etc..etc…les arguments sont nombreux pour nier la visite d’une vie intelligente venant d’ailleurs. Et pourtant, nos dirigeants demandent à leurs scientifiques de rechercher de la vie extra-terrestres et dépensent des milliards pour trouver quelques molécules, voir des animacules sur une comète Il est pourtant raisonnable de penser que ce qui est commun sur notre planète à savoir la coexistence de la vie moléculaire avec celle des organismes intelligents a de grandes chances de se reproduire dans tout l’univers. Et je ne vois pas pourquoi elle serait trop différente de nous..des mêmes conditions de vie devant amener l’émergence d’organismes semblables.
Somme toute, si on réfléchit à ça on comprend mieux l’intérêt des articles ci-dessus. Nos dirigeants préfèrent ne rien laisser au hasard…on sait jamais n’est-ce pas ?.
Elon Musk and SpaceX have announced that Japanese entrepreneur and billionaire Yusaku Maezawa will be the company’s first Moon tourist.
Yusaku Maezawa. Image credits SpaceX.
Last week, SpaceX unveiled its plans to send two passengers aboard a rocket on a trip around the Moon. The company didn’t disclose any names at the time, but a tweet by owner Elon Musk hinted that one of the passengers may be Japanese. That hint was spot-on: Yusaku Maezawa, a Japanese entrepreneur and billionaire, has purchased all the seats on the Big Falcon Rocket’s (BFR) first crewed flight.
A mission of culture
“Finally I can tell you that I choose to go to the Moon!” Maezawa said during an announcement Monday evening.
Maezawa, a known and enthusiastic art collector, plans to embark with six to eight artists, which will accompany him around the Earth’s natural satellite. The artists have not yet been chosen, but the billionaire hopes they will include a musician, sculptor, painter, film director, dancer, photographer, architect, novelist, and fashion designer. Part of the project — which Maezawa christened #dearMoon — will involve them creating work inspired by their journey after they return to Earth.
“One day when I was staring at his painting, I thought, ‘What if Basquiat had gone to space and had seen the Moon – what wonderful masterpiece would he have created?” Maezawa said, referring to a 1982 painting by Jean-Michel Basquiat he bought last year.
“If you should hear from me, please say yes and accept my invitation. Please don’t say no,” he added for all the artists out there.
Musk described Maezawa as ‘incredibly brave’ for embarking on this mission, adding that his desire to participate in and pay for this trip restored Musk’s faith in humanity.
The mission is slated to launch as soon as 2023, though Musk said he can’t be sure about that timeline yet as “things do not go right in reality” and that “usually there are setbacks and issues”.
“It’s not 100 percent certain that we succeed in getting this to flight,” he addded, “but we’re going to do everything humanly possible to bring it to flight as fast as we can and as safely as we can.”
Rocket v2.0
The BFR is also getting some changes to its design, Musk revealed alongside Maezawa’s participation on the mission. The rocket will be 387 feet (118 meters) tall, a full 40 feet (12 meters) taller than previous versions. It’s also going to receive front actuator (steering) fins, as well as three back wings to function as landing pads. The system’s spaceship is expected to carry up to 100 people and 150 tons (136 metric tonnes) of supplies.
The first portion of the system has already been built, Musk added. Total development costs for the rocket fall somewhere between US$2 billion and US$10 billion.
“It’s hard to say what the development cost is,” he said. “I think it’s roughly US$5 billion”
SpaceX did not reveal any exact figures on how much Maezawa paid for the lunar flight, only that it as a significant sum and that a down payment has already been made.
“He’s paying a lot of money that would help with the ship and its booster,” Musk said on Monday. “He’s ultimately paying for the average citizen to travel to other planets.”
The dwarf planet Ceres is the largest object in the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter. It’s also one of the most interesting cosmic bodies in the area, with studies showing it may have water-vapor plumes and even a subsurface ocean. Now, new research shows that the dwarf planet’s geology is even more fascinating than meets the eye. Apparently, volcanoes have been erupting on the surface of Ceres for the past billion years. But these aren’t your typical volcanoes — instead of explosively spewing lava, they gently ooze ice!
The ice volcanoes
Ceres, which stretches only 965 km (600 miles) across, was first spotted on Jan. 1, 1801 by Sicilian astronomer Giuseppe Piazzi. At first, Ceres was called a planet, but as more asteroid belt members were discovered, the cosmic object was demoted to an asteroid status. Its status changed again in 2006 when it was promoted to a dwarf planet — a classification it shares with Pluto.
In 2015, NASA’s Dawn mission discovered a huge volcano on the surface of Ceres. Called Ahuna Mons, the volcano measures 19 km (12 miles) at its base and stands 4.8 km (3 miles) tall. All its features suggested that Ahuna Mons was a young volcano, no older than 200 million years. This was downright perplexing to scientists, seeing how Ceres is geologically dead. Volcanic activity in the inner solar system generally wanes over time as the interior of a body cools, as is the case on Venus, Mars, and Earth’s moon. Why would a 4.5-billion-year-old Ceres suddenly become volcanically active?
Ahuna Mons, of course, is not your typical volcano. It’s what scientists call a cryovolcano — a volcano that erupts icy material instead of molten lava. Cryovolcanism can be spotted elsewhere on the moons Enceladus, Europa, and Triton, and perhaps on many other worlds in the outer solar system. These eruptions are likely powered by the bodies’ internal heat and make for some of the best places to search for life beyond Earth because they expel material buried from potentially life-friendly reservoirs below the surface.
Now, a team of researchers led by Michael Sori of the University of Arizona found that Ahuna Mons is not alone. By studying topographic maps captured by Dawn, the researchers found 32 large domes measuring more than 6.2 miles in diameter, which they suspected may be volcanoes. They eventually settled on 22 domes that suggest cryovolcanic activity, all of them estimated to be less than a billion years old.
Ceres.
Credit: NASA/Jet Propulsion Laboratory.
According to the researchers, it’s likely that Ceres has grown a new cryovolcano every 50 million years, on average. These findings help to explain some of the dwarf planet’s puzzling features, showing, for instance, that Ahuna Mons is not the only cryovolcanic construct on Ceres but rather one of many. The results also suggest that although Ceres has been continually cryovolcanic for the past billion years, the amount of eruptive activity is actually but a fraction of what geologists typically see on Earth (100,000 times less volume), much less even than has occurred on Mars and Venus.
In addition to being less productive, the volcanic eruptions on Ceres are also much tamer than those on Earth. Instead of violent eruptions of ash, plume, and lava, cryovolcanoes simply ooze out cryomagma — a salty mix of rocks, ice, and other volatiles such as ammonia — which freezes on the surface.
The causes themselves of cryovolcanic eruptions on Ceres are still a mystery but future research could come up with an explanation as more probes visit other bodies in the solar system.
Scientific reference: Cryovolcanic rates on Ceres revealed by topography, Nature Astronomy (2018). DOI: 10.1038/s41550-018-0574-1.
HUGE Cigar Shaped Craft Captured On Camera Above US Lake- They Are HERE
HUGE Cigar Shaped Craft Captured On Camera Above US Lake - They Are HERE
UFO sightings are back on the rise and this recent Cigar shaped craft sighting is a rather fantastic capture. CHILLING footage has emerged of an unidentified flying object above a lake in the US, sparking confirmation of alien life on Earth.
In the clip, a man is filming a lake on his mobile phone before a startling sight leaves him convinced he has seen an alien ship. Apparently the cameraman was that excited/anxious, hence how shaky the camera is!
“Hey, this is a spacecraft,” the cameraman says as he turns his camera around.
And above the water, a silver line can be seen hovering, not like anything ‘man-made’ and seen ever before!
As the footage is slowed down, it becomes clearer that the object looks like a cigar above the tree line.
This was captured at Lake Norman in North Carolina, US, and shared on YouTube channel The Hidden Underbelly 2.0.
And the terrifying footage has re-fuelled the debate on whether there is alien life or planet earth! Some believed this is solid evidence!?
“Yes, we have many of them here. Among other things we’ve seen here,” one viewer said.
“There is more going on than you know.”
While another added: “Great catch!”
But there are some who had other ideas.
A third said: “I believe there are advanced military aircraft in our skies.”
This is not the only time UFOs have been spotted recently, though. A cloud that looked suspiciously like a flying saucer appeared over a tower block earlier this month, making many wonder whether this was some kind of cloaked craft!
While a police helicopter in America circled a UFO above Los Angeles in July – please check out the clip below!
U.I.P SUMMARY
It definitely does appear that UFO sightings are back on the rise with this great capture (even though the cameraman finds it pretty much impossible to stand still whilst recording!). When the video stops shaking around so much you can quite clearly see that it is a cigar shaped craft and quite unlike any ‘human made’ craft.
We recently reported that UFO sightings are starting to drop in number, we now appear to have to eat our own words! The truth of the matter is that the elite are trying to restrict us all from what we see and KNOW!
Italian Parachutist Comes In Contact With Huge Bright UFO Orb – Incredible Footage!
Italian Parachutist Comes In Contact With Huge Bright UFO Orb – Incredible Footage!
Recently an Italian pilot and Parachutist came in close contact with a HUGE fiery Orb way up high above the clouds. This is the first time one of these huge orbs have been recorded so closely and already this video is being deleted off the internet by the elite.
We are waiting to hear more information about this incredible sighting, but one thing is for sure, this is the real deal people and an awesome capture! This is no flare (too high up) and definitely NO rocket (they would NEVER be this close!).
Please check out the incredible footage below. We are still awaiting an official statement by those onboard the plane.
U.I.P
This has to be one of the sightings of the year and you can tell it’s an important capture, not just by how clear the footage is but also by how the deathly silence surrounds this brilliant footage, suggesting that the elite don’t want you and I to know of this!
We will keep you updated on this fantastic footage, and we are also trying to interview those onboard the plane, so watch this space.
I personally have seen one of these huge orbs above Bristol U.K about 5 years ago and they are very very REAL!!!
APSpaceX topman Elon Musk (links) maakt de naam bekend van de eerste passagier, de Japanse zakenman Yusaku Maezawa.
WETENSCHAPDe Japanse zakenman en kunstverzamelaar Yusaku Maezawa is de eerste passagier die mee mag met een particuliere ruimtevlucht van SpaceX. Hij zal met een raket een reis langs de maan maken en daarna weer naar de aarde terugkeren.
De 42-jarige miljardair was in Los Angeles aanwezig toen in het hoofdkwartier van SpaceX werd bekendgemaakt wie de eerste maantoerist wordt. Maezawa zegt dat het zijn levenslange droom is om de ruimte in te gaan. Alleen al de gedachte aan de reis doet zijn hart sneller kloppen, zei hij. “Hij is de moedigste mens, hij wil het liefste van iedereen en is de grootste avonturier”, vindt SpaceX-oprichter Elon Musk.
“Eindelijk kan ik u vertellen dat ik uitgekozen ben om naar de maan te vliegen”, aldus Maezawa, die rijk werd met de verkoop van kledij op internet. “Het is mijn levensdroom. Sinds ik kind ben, hou ik van de maan.”
Maezawa zal niet alleen vliegen, maar zes tot acht kunstenaars uit de hele wereld meenemen - die niets moeten betalen. Ze moeten inspiratie opdoen voor een kunstproject. Aan welke kunstenaars hij denkt, wil Maezawa nog niet zeggen.
Weekje weg
De vlucht wordt gemaakt met de Big Falcon Rocket, of Falcon 9. Dat is een nieuwe raket van het ruimtevaartbedrijf van de Tesla-topman, die nog in ontwikkeling is. De ontwikkeling van het ongeveer 118 meter hoge ruimteschip zal volgens Musk ongeveer 5 miljard dollar kosten.
De Falcon 9 zal om de maan vliegen en ze daarbij naderen tot op zo’n 200 kilometer. De vlucht zal ongeveer een week duren en zal, “als alles goed gaat”, plaatsvinden in 2023, zei Musk.
AP
Kostenplaatje?
Hoeveel betaald moet worden voor de ruimtevlucht van SpaceX, is niet bekend. De Japanner betaalt “zeer veel geld” voor de reis, zo klonk het. Een precies bedrag wilden noch Musk noch Maezawa kwijt.
SpaceX maakte vorig jaar al bekend dat het mensen naar de maan wil brengen. Toen was er sprake van twee kandidaten, die een “aanzienlijk voorschot” hadden betaald. De tot dusver laatste bemande vlucht naar de maan, of zijn omgeving, gebeurde in 1972.
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- Gemiddelde waardering: 0/5 - (0 Stemmen) Categorie:HLN.be - Het Laatste Nieuws ( NL)
GEHEIMZINNIG GROTTENSTELSEL OP MALTA VERBERGT BANDEN MET BUITENAARDSEN
GEHEIMZINNIG GROTTENSTELSEL OP MALTA VERBERGT BANDEN MET BUITENAARDSEN
Het eiland Malta, gelegen in de Middellandse Zee net ten zuiden van Sicilië, heeft een lange rijke geschiedenis.
Die geschiedenis gaat nog veel verder terug dan duizenden jaren en het is niet voor niets dat daar langwerpige schedels zijn “verdwenen”.
Keer op keer komen er aanwijzingen dat onze geschiedenis veel verder terug gaat dan ons wordt geleerd op school. Vandaag gaan we naar het zonnige eiland Malta in de Middellandse Zee waar iets bijzonders is ontdekt aan het begin van de vorige eeuw.
Het Ħal Saflieni Hypogeum op Malta is een ondergronds complex, een hypogeum dat als begraafplaats en waarschijnlijk ook als tempel dienst heeft gedaan.
Hypogeum is Grieks en betekent "onder de aarde" . Het complex is aangelegd in de periode tussen 4000 - 2500 v. Christus en is daarmee ouder dan de Egyptische piramiden en ook ouder dan bijvoorbeeld de Minoïsche beschaving op Kreta. Het diepste punt van het hypogeum ligt 10,6 meter onder de straat. Het gehele complex omvat meer dan 500 m².
Het complex is bij toeval ontdekt in 1902 en staat sinds 1980 op de werelderfgoedlijst van UNESCO.
Het hypogeum ligt in de kleine plaats Paola. Het ligt onder een gewoon woonhuis. Aan de buitenkant is niets meer te zien dan een informatiebord. Het woonhuis is op de begane grond omgevormd tot een hal met daarin een kassa en een wachtruimte voor bezoekers.
Het hypogeum bevindt zich op korte afstand van het bovengrondse tempelcomplex van Tarxien, en kan gezien worden als de onderaardse pendant ervan.
De wijk waarin het hypogeum ligt, was vanouds op Malta bekend als "Tal-Gherien", dat "van de grotten" betekent. De ondergrond in deze wijk bevat van nature holtes en grotten.
Geschiedenis: Sommige delen van het hypogeum zijn 6000 jaar oud en dateren uit de beginfase van het neolithicum. Dat is de periode waarin de landbouw zich ontwikkelde en de mensen zich meer in groepen gingen vestigen en organiseren. Op veel plaatsen in Europa werden megalithische monumenten gebouwd, zoals in Nederland de hunebedden. De mensen beschikten echter in de nieuwe steentijd, zoals het neolithicum ook wel genoemd wordt, nog niet over gereedschappen van brons of ijzer. Al het gereedschap moet van hout, been of steen zijn geweest.
Waarschijnlijk is het gedeelte van het hypogeum dat boven het oppervlak uitstak het oudste. Hiervan zijn echter maar weinig resten over. De ondergrondse delen liggen op drie niveaus. Het bovenste niveau is het oudste en dateert van 3600-3300 voor Christus. Het middelste niveau dateert van 3300-3000 v.Chr. Het onderste is het jongste en is aangelegd tussen 3150 en 2500 voor Christus.
Het hypogeum is gebruikt als begraafplaats. Een van de kamers van het bovenste niveau bevat nog de originele resten van een begrafenis. De mensen uit deze prehistorisch periode hadden waarschijnlijk behoefte aan een collectieve begraafplaats, en bouwden deze ondergronds.
In de periode 1991-2000 werd het monument afgesloten voor het toerisme, omdat het enorme aantal bezoekers te veel schade aanrichtte. Het monument werd geconserveerd. Vanaf 2000 worden maar heel weinig bezoekers tegelijk toegelaten. Om het monument te behouden voor toekomstige generaties wordt het microklimaat geregeld. De temperatuur, de luchtvochtigheid en de hoeveelheid kooldioxide in de lucht worden constant in de gaten gehouden.
Het hypogeum kan in groep, onder leiding van een plaatselijke gids, bezocht worden. Reserveren is noodzakelijk, afhankelijk van de periode weken tot maanden vóór het geplande bezoek. Fotograferen in het hypogeum is niet toegestaan.
Misschien is er wel een heel andere reden dat het hypogeum zoveel mogelijk voor normale mensen verborgen moet blijven, want naast de verhalen zoals hierboven zijn er nog een aantal geheimzinnige zaken die je niet aantreft bij de algemene informatie.
Eén van die vreemde zaken zijn de langgerekte schedels van Malta.
Er zijn in totaal elf van deze schedels gevonden en niet alleen zien ze er bijzonder uit, ze hebben ook een genetische afwijking vergeleken met onze schedels. Bij ons mensen gaat het als volgt met de schedel:
De schedel van een pasgeboren baby is nog niet goed gesloten. Op het hoofd van je baby zitten twee fontanellen: een zacht plekje midden bovenop en een kleiner plekje op het achterhoofd. Een fontanel is een opening tussen twee schedelplaten. Deze schedelplaten groeien in de loop van een paar maanden naar elkaar toe.
Bij de langgerekte schedels van Malta ontbreekt er bij één schedel ieder spoor dat er ooit schedelplaten aan elkaar zijn gegroeid en bij anderen is dat wel gebeurd, maar op heel afwijkende manieren vergeleken met (normale) mensenschedels. Daarnaast ontdekt men dat er bij sommige schedels drie kleine gaatjes in het hoofd zijn geboord. Dit is gebeurd dan in een tijd waarin mensen alleen beschikten over stenen werktuigen volgens de Wikipedia.( De mensen beschikten echter in de nieuwe steentijd, zoals het neolithicum ook wel genoemd wordt, nog niet over gereedschappen van brons of ijzer. Al het gereedschap moet van hout, been of steen zijn geweest.) Toch knap als je dan drie gaatjes in schedels weet te boren.
In eerste instantie werden de schedels tentoongesteld in het museum van Valetta, maar al snel verdwenen ze daar zonder opgaaf van redenen. Niemand weet waar ze nu zijn en het schijnt dat van de oorspronkelijke 11 er 6 helemaal spoorloos zijn.
We treffen in één van de oudste bouwwerken op aarde vreemde langgerekte schedels aan met genetische afwijkingen vergeleken met normale menselijke schedels en bij sommigen met drie geboorde gaatjes in het hoofd en niemand vindt dat vreemd. Wij hebben eerder een aantal artikelen geschreven over andere plekken waar eveneens langgerekte schedels zijn gevonden.
Alle schedels zijn zo snel mogelijk weer uit het publieke domein gehaald voordat iemand er echt kritische vragen over kon stellen. Kortom, we weten op dit moment niets zeker over de oorsprong van die schedels, maar er is nóg een hele vreemde zaak betreffende het hypogeum.
In de jaren dertig van de vorige eeuw ging een medewerkster van de Britse ambassade, Lois Jessop, op excursie in de grotten. Het was een tour onder leiding van een gids toen ze op een gegeven moment in een grote (graf)kamer kwamen, waar opeens de grond ophield en je in een soort afgrond naar beneden keek. Zij was nieuwsgierig en terwijl iemand haar vasthield, leunde ze zover mogelijk naar voren met een kaars om te zien of ze wat kon ontdekken.
Het volgende is hoe ze haar ervaring beschreef:
Ik hield mijn kaars hoger en staarde in de afgrond en bedacht dat het geen goed idee was om verder te gaan zonder een heel goede gids. Toen zag ik ongeveer 20 reusachtige gestalten die vanuit een opening ergens diep beneden kwamen. Ze liepen achter elkaar langs een smalle rand beneden. Ik schat dat ze ongeveer zeven tot negen meter groot waren omdat hun hoofden tot ongeveer halverwege de muur aan de overkant kwamen. Hun hoofden waren bedekt met lang wit haar, naar beneden gekamd en het zag er onverzorgd uit. Ze liepen heel langzaam, met grote passen. Toen ineens stopten ze allemaal, draaiden zich om en hieven hun hoofden op om naar mij te kijken. Tegelijkertijd hieven ze allemaal hun armen op en met hun handen wenkten ze mij. De beweging die ze maakten was alsof ze iets wilden pakken of voelen en hun handpalmen waren naar beneden gericht.
Enkele weken na bovenstaand voorval gebeurde er iets ergs. Volgens Jessop ging een groep van 30 studenten de grot in naar dezelfde plek waar zij was geweest, maar zij kwamen niet terug en niemand heeft hen ooit weer gezien. De grot achter hen stortte in en men kon het geschreeuw om hulp en de angstkreten van de studenten nog dagenlang horen als een soort echo in de grotten. Hulpverleners die een zoektocht organiseerden slaagde er niet in hen te traceren en hun lichamen zijn nooit gevonden. Na deze gebeurtenis werd het complex door de overheid gesloten voor het publiek.
Een ander mysterie, meer van de laatste jaren, is dat er geluiden worden gehoord. Dat niet alleen, die geluiden vallen in de frequentie van 110 tot 111 hertz. Dat zijn geluidsfrequenties die een bepaald effect hebben op het menselijk lichaam en geest.
-110 111 Hz kwam voor in oude tempels, er werd op een frequentie van 110 Hertz gechant. Deze hogere gamma frequenties leiden dus tot o.a. hogere niveaus van bewustzijn en mystieke ervaringen.
-Door die hoge Hertz waarden zijn er veranderingen in de verbanden tussen linker- en rechterhersenhelft.
Als je regelmatig wordt blootgesteld aan de frequentie van 110 of 111 Hertz, activeert dit een gebied in de hersenen (aan) dat effect heeft op ons humeur, empathie en sociaal gedrag, volgens ‘bio-behavioral’ wetenschappers.
Kortom, het lijkt alsof het hypogeum veel meer geheimen verbergt dan men ons wil laten geloven. Dat, toen men eenmaal ontdekte dat er waarschijnlijk verbanden zijn met buitenaardse beschavingen het hoog tijd werd om aan damage control te doen en de toegang tot de grotten zo moeilijk mogelijk te maken.
David is a UFO researcher and author. He’s had a lifelong interest in the subject of UFOs and joined the Mutual UFO Network (MUFON) as a field investigator trainee in 1990. Since then he held several positions within MUFON before becoming an independent researcher. Since then he has written a highly regarded book on triangle shaped UFOs, Triangular UFOs: An Estimate of the Situation, and has been featured on several television programs. David has one of the most extensive personal libraries of UFO books, journals, magazines, newspapers, and case files from around the world that covers the last 65 years.
Photo Credit: Robert Simmon (Terre), NASA/JPL (Neptune)/NASA Goddard
The Week's Top Space Stories
Satellites are monitoring Hurricane Florence, NASA's new mission will study the thinning ice sheets in Antarctica, a newfound exoplanet may answer questions about mid-sized worlds and experts say a Space Force might cause more problems than it solves. These are just some of this week's top stories from Space.com.
Photo Credit: NOAA
1. Preparing for Hurricane Florence
Hundreds of thousands of people were ordered to evacuate as Hurricane Florence, a Category 2 storm as of Sept. 13, approached landfall on the eastern coast of the United States. The National Hurricane Center expects portions of North Carolina, South Carolina and Virginia to be affected by potentially life-threatening rainfall. Satellites are closely monitoring Florence's structure and path.
This September, set your gaze skyward and look for a bright comet whose orbit Jupiter captured. Comet 21P/Giacobini-Zinner will be visible by binoculars, but it will be easier to enjoy with a small telescope.
NASA plans to launch the Ice, Cloud and land Elevation Satellite-2 spacecraft this weekend. The satellite is designed to travel over a thousand orbital paths every 3 months and retrace its steps to take incredibly precise measurements of ice sheet depth with bright-green laser beams.
Water may have been with the Earth since our celestial home first began taking shape. Two new studies suggest tiny dust grains circling around a young sun could have held enough water to explain the amount found on today's blue planet. Additional work will be needed to confirm these findings.
The OSIRIS-REx mission to Bennu, a near-Earth asteroid, started its studies of the space rock Sept. 11. It will now begin analyzing the dust around the asteroid to ensure a safe approach in December of this year, NASA officials said.
A fast-moving burst of solar wind recently escaped a hole in the outer atmosphere of the sun. This gave Earth's northern lights a boost last week, as the solar wind produced a geomagnetic storm high up in the planet's atmosphere.
A panel of former U.S. defense officials are not convinced that a Space Force is needed. While the Pentagon is obligated to follow President Trump's order to start the process of making a new service, some experts warn that rushing to set up a U.S. Space Command might make more problems than it solves.
On Sept. 6, the Indian Space Research Organisation displayed the spacesuit it designed for the first crewed mission of their human spaceflight program, Gaganyaan. Weeks ago, India announced a timeline that would send its astronauts into space by 2022.
Photo Credit: Robert Simmon (Terre), NASA/JPL (Neptune)/NASA Goddard
10. Newly-discovered exoplanet may solve planet-size questions
A graduate student worked with an international research team to analyze data from NASA's Kepler Telescope. They found a exoplanet ripe for new discoveries, because this world is a special size and relatively close to Earth.
A test version of NASA's Orion spacecraft used three parachutes to touch down safely after being released from an aircraft 6 miles (9.5 km) up on Wednesday (Sept. 12). Early data analysis from the testing, which will evaluate the spacecraft's ability to re-enter Earth after journeying to the moon, suggests the trial was a success.
SpaceX made a major announcement late Thursday (Sept. 13) when the company revealed it has signed a deal to fly a private passenger on a trip around the moon using its Big Falcon Rocket. SpaceX promises more details in a press conference Monday night (Sept. 17). You can read our main story here and take a look at our early thoughts on potential changes in SpaceX's BFR rocket.
Come on, universe, what’s a guy gotta do to get just one little shred of evidence of extraterrestrial life? It doesn’t need to be anything too extraordinary. No antennaed green humanoids, no crawling masses of purple ooze, no silicon-based crystal creatures. At this point I’d be content with a single dead microbe clinging to the side of a meteor. I’m not picky – I just need to know: are we alone?
Of course, I’m not alone in my need to know. The search for alien life currently involves some of the most sophisticated astronomical equipment and laboratories on Earth, but has still yet to find conclusive proof of anything else out there in space crawling around eating and farting and dying like us. NASA has identified loads of planets which might support life, but the problem is they’re all so far away that we’ll likely never be able to reach and analyze them – in our lifetimes, anyway. Unless we hurry up and get that immortality thing together.
In more promising news, a team of NASA scientists has just published a study claiming that the closest known exoplanet, Proxima Centauri b, just might possibly be able to support life. The planet, also called Proxima b or Alpha Centauri Cb, lies just 4.2 light-years away from Earth in the constellation of Centaurus. That’s only 40 trillion kilometers, or 25 trillion miles, the cosmic equivalent of a stone’s throw.
Alpha Centauri, left, Beta Centauri, right, and Proxima Centauri, circled in red.
Proxima b orbits the star Proxima Centauri and is roughly the size of Earth. For some time, astronomers have thought the planet to be uninhabitable due to the fact that it experiences extreme solar flares and radiation from its nearby star. However, the scientists behind this most recent study believe there could be scenarios in which Proxima b could still support life.
For example, if the planet happens to be tidally locked, meaning the same side faces its host star as it orbits, then surface water could allow for enough heat exchange between the hot and cold sides to support life throughout the whole planet. “An ocean-covered Proxima b could have a much broader area of surface liquid water but at much colder temperatures than previously suggested,” the authors write, adding that “Proxima b could be an inhabited, mostly open ocean planet with halophilic life.”
Another scenario could be that the planet formed much farther away from Proxima Centauri and has been slowly getting closer throughout its history, meaning some of the planet may still be habitable. UniverseToday has a good breakdown of all of these hypothetical scenarios and an interview with Anthony D. Del Genio of NASA’s Goddard Institute for Space Studies concerning this new research.
It’s important to note, though, that all of these scenarios are hypothetical and were produced through a new type of planetary simulation software used by NASA in their hunt for exoplanets. Could our nearest neighbor support life? How convenient would that be? Let’s hope we get that EM Driveworked out soon. I need to know.
A Mystery Man dies not too far away from the Solar Observatory, New Mexico
A Mystery Man dies not too far away from the Solar Observatory, New Mexico
The Sunspot Solar Observatory in Mexico reopened on Monday, Sep 17, 2018 but people are dissatisfied with the official explanation as it offers a few new but vague details about the circumstances surrounding the evacuation.
Even the local Sheriff, who was kept in the dark about the investigation throughout, was skeptical. ”But for the FBI to get involved that quick and be so secretive about it, there was a lot of stuff going on up there,” Otero County Sheriff Benny House said, as quoted by Alamogordo News. “There was a Blackhawk helicopter, a bunch of people around antennas, and work crews on towers but nobody would tell us anything.”
On September 6th, the Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy (AURA) and the National Science Foundation (NSF) made the decision to temporarily vacate the Sunspot Solar Observatory at Sacramento Peak, New Mexico as a precautionary measure while addressing a security issue.
AURA has been cooperating with an on-going law enforcement investigation of criminal activity that occurred at Sacramento Peak. During this time, we became concerned that a suspect in the investigation potentially posed a threat to the safety of local staff and residents. For this reason, AURA temporarily vacated the facility and ceased science activities at this location.
The facility closed down in an orderly fashion and is now re-opening. The residents that vacated their homes will be returning to the site, and all employees will return to work this week.
A criminal activity and they were concerned that a suspect potentially posed a threat to the safety of local staff and residents. Really?
And who is the suspect, a human, an alien, a humanoid or was it a UFO?
1972 photo of a Viking space probe at White Sands Missile Range, near the Sunspot Observatory.
USAF/Reuters
To make it even more mysterious on Sep 12, 2018 the New Mexico State Police found a mystery manwho died not too far away from the solar observatory.
According to the NPS release, while closing WSNM, park rangers discovered an unattended vehicle in the Alkali Flat Trail parking lot.
After searching the immediate area, park rangers expanded their search to the Alkali Flat Trail where they discovered an unresponsive man about a half mile from the trailhead between 10 p.m. and 11 p.m., the release states.
New Mexico State Police responded to WSNM then confirmed the man was dead upon their arrival.
“Any car park in an area needs to have a reason for being there,” Sauter said. “For example, our back-country campers, they need to have a permit on their dash and back in our back-country camping trails which they have their water and camping gear.”
NPS will be coordinating with NMSP to investigate the incident and.. of course no further information is being released due to the ongoing investigation they stated.
Multiple UFOs Fly Across Moon – Shot by Amateur Astronomer – Rome, Italy – July 29, 2018
Multiple UFOs Fly Across Moon – Shot by Amateur Astronomer – Rome, Italy – July 29, 2018
Case File Information
TBV Investigations Case Number: 257854
Date of Event / Case File: 07/29/2018
Name of Witness: Alessio
Case File Status: Unidentified
Background
The following case was submitted to The Black Vault / TBV Investigations on August 1, 2018. It was shot by an amateur astronomer / photographer taking a video of the moon. The video was submitted for analysis, and due to the nature of the video, it was assigned to multiple investigators for multiple perspectives.
Lead Case Investigator: Monica Salazar
Additional Analysis done by: Jim Kerr, Michael Glenn and Paul Wright
Witness Testimony
The following was the original testimony, as submitted by the witness. It was sent to John Greenewald, Jr. of The Black Vault through a mutual friend, and the identifying name has been removed. The witness is not a “UFO enthusiast” nor a “UFO Hunter” but captured the video by chance. It has been edited slightly for clarity.
“Hello I am a friend of ___________ and I want to report a sighting.
It was the day after the Red Moon (or Blood Moon) and the weather was clear. To record the passage of the Moon I used the follow equipment:
-Sky-Watcher Maksutov SkyMax 127/1500 OTA -T2 ring -Pentax HD DA AF 1.4x rear converter -Pentax K-70
Thank you for your attention, best regards.
Alessio”
The Evidence
The following high resolution video was submitted for analysis.
Original / Uncut Video
Cropped to Highlight “Anomalies”
The Analysis
by Monica Salazar, TBV Investigations
The video was recorded on July 29th, 2018, at 1.08 AM.
In the beginning of the video you can see a zoomed in image of the moon. The clear details of the moon show that it was obviously a high powered camera with an adequate zoom lens. As mentioned by the witness, the specs of the camera are as follows:
-Sky-Watcher Maksutov SkyMax 127/1500 OTA -T2 ring -Pentax HD DA AF 1.4x rear converter -Pentax K-70
(ALL meta data is listed below, for reference)
You can clearly see all the craters and detailed lining of the moon showing a good camera focus. At about 2:52 (of the “original” video) you can see a dark object cross in front of the moon. Taking the zoom into consideration, it appears that the anomaly is flying at a high altitude. If these were bugs, birds or bats flying much lower to the ground, most likely they would be out of focus and not appear in the video, or if they do, be largely out of focus given the focal length of the lens in conjunction with the clarity of the moon. Objects nearer to the lens would largely be invisible or drastically out of focus.
The height is very hard to determine, since there are no reference objects in the frame, other than the moon. We know the moon is 252,088 miles away from Earth, but to properly give some kind of calculation, another “reference object” needs to be in the frame to compare. Since there is none, it is highly speculative to try and pinpoint an exact altitude.
Later in the video at about 3:10 a greater wave of objects pass through the same view. I was able to count at least 38 objects in total. The objects seem to travel at a relatively fast speed. Judging by the speed the earth is rotating (1600km/hr) and the way the moon moves across the screen I would have to say the anomalies are traveling faster than any commercial jet plane (about 740-930 kph or 500 knots) in my best estimation.
This case was reviewed by other investigators and their opinions vary on what the objects might be. However, everyone, including myself, is in agreement that there is no evidence in the raw video that it has been tampered with, manipulated or is a CGI hoax.
Additional analyses are as follows:
Jim Kerr, TBV Investigations
“I am not only an amateur astronomer but a ufologist as well. Since approx 2011, I have followed and researched videos and photos of unidentified objects traversing the moon. There are many good examples on the internet, but there are also those that are migrating flocks of birds. In all the footage I have analyzed, I have never seen the large number of objects as depicted in TBV case # 257854.
On 08-08-2018 I downloaded the video from case # 257854 to Sony Vegas video editing software. In this edited version, I shortened the length of the video. There is no sound in this edited version as I didn’t want to voice my opinions in the video. There are repeating clips with several different video effects along with cropped footage in an attempt to identify these objects. I sent the video to John Greenewald for distribution to the assigned investigators.
Keep in mind; this footage is not in sharp focus which is no fault of the camera or operator. Due to the earth atmosphere, video footage and objects will appear to slightly shift, morphing, pulsate and slightly go in and out of focus. With that said, the objects also appear slightly out of focus appearing to change shape slightly and morph in size. Is this because these objects were close to the lunar surface or outside earth’s atmosphere at an unknown distance from the moon? That, of course, is a possibility but let’s talk about the flight characteristics of these objects. Some of the objects are traveling faster and slower than others. Also, some change course slightly coming closer to one another.
In my opinion, these objects are a flock of migratory birds, but of course, I could be wrong. From what I have observed even with these objects being slightly out of focus, they behave like migratory birds. My recommendation to investigators is, research the geographical location of this sighting for migratory bird activity along with their flight characteristics.”
The bird theory is addressed in detail below.
Michael Glenn, TBV Investigations
“I used Adobe Premier to check out the video as well. The objects definitely exist in the image based on simple analysis using inverted imaging, and the way they warp the edges of the moon image when they leave the lighted areas. Slow moving compared to bugs, bats, or satellites. A plane would have definition, wings etc. in their silhouette. Birds would be moving about as fast as the bats, perhaps a bit slower. I think this is upper atmosphere based on the slowness of some of them, and the lack of formation that birds might have. They also sway in an odd way, negotiating for space with each other in intelligent ways.”
Possible Explanations
I followed Mr. Kerr’s advice and I was able to find flocks of one kind of bird that does migrate in the area of Rome which are the Starlings, however their pattern of flight does not seem to mirror that of the video. If you look at starlings’ migration pattern they actually form a giant cloud in the sky and they travel in the hundreds, not in just a few like depicted in the video.
This photograph shows what starlings look like, as they migrate over the moon. Starlings fly in a much more dense concentration of birds, andtherefore, look nothing like the anomalies above.
Official Caption: Starlings migrating from northern Europe fly in the sky of Rome with the moon in the background on Nov. 3, 2014. About one-million starlings migrate in Rome during autumn and winter time and draw beautiful patterns in the sky before spending the nights in the trees by the Tiber river, creating chaos in the neighborhood with their droppings. (AFP Photo/Gabriel Bouys)
Example of a full moon, with birds on how they appear. This example shows much less of a zoom/focal length of the lens, but offers a reference point to compare what birds would look like. Zoom in to get the details on the lunar surface like the video above, these birds would most likely be out of focus and not appear as sharp as the anomalies do above. Official caption: The moon provides the perfect backdrop for watching birds migrate at night. Observers with spotting scopes and small telescopes can watch the show anytime the moon is at or near full. Photo illustration: Bob King
Another migratory bird of the region is the Honey Buzzard. Here is a video of a migration of the Honey Buzzard, also not even close to resembling the anomaly movements, density, number of “birds” etc.
The movement of the objects seem to not mimic the flight of birds when comparing to other videos of bird migrations, not only those above, but other videos found online. There are also very few birds that can get tens of thousand of feet into the air. Given the detail on the moon and the size within the frame, if these were birds, they would have to be at a very high altitude to move that slow within the video. If they were fairly low to the ground, even for migratory birds, they would likely be seen going very fast through the video, and caught on very few frames of video. These appear to be very high, but the exact altitude can not be determined. In addition, birds migrate in much larger numbers, and even if only a small “group” of the larger migratory group was capture in front of the moon, the density of the birds do not match migratory patterns by most birds referenced for the region.
I would assume that the anomalies shown on the video are most likely not birds of any kind, at least, any birds that I could find. Any additional feedback from Italian/European bird experts is welcomed.
Based on the evidence, a flock of birds seems unlikely at this time.
Bats Flying In Front of Moon
You can see with this video, when objects (in this case bats) are much lower to the camera, they go through the frame very quickly. One example above is at 0:46 of the video, and it is very quick as the bat flies by. Another occurs at approximately 1:32.
Based on the evidence, bats flying across the frame seems unlikely.
Satellites Flying By
This is probably the closest match to the anomalies caught above. However, there are key differences. First, the anomalies above seemingly do not move in a straight line, and seem to even interact with each other. Satellites will traverse across a camera’s field of view in a straight or slightly curved line, but do not change speed or adjust course. In addition, investigator Jim Kerr assisted me in checking Stellarium to see if there were any satellites in the area that were possibly captured by the witness’ camera, and there were not. When I asked him to verify what was in the sky, he said:
“A search of Stellarium (equatorial view) showed nothing unusual with the moon from a view point in Rome, Italy on July 29, 2018 @ 1:08am. No satellites or asteroids were noted crossing the moon at that time.”
Below, you will find Stellarium screen shots for Rome Italy, July 29, 2018 @ 1:08am.
Balloons Caught on Video
There is a possibility that the objects could be balloons, but it is fairly unlikely. Given the assumed high altitude, for so many “toy” balloons (standard helium filled party balloons) to be released from the surface of Earth from a party or major event, and for them to reach such heights and maintain a relative “formation” by sticking together, is too coincidental. In addition, there is a case where a larger “Google Balloon” was captured by an amateur astronomer while photographing the moon. Although it is hard to discern the movement from the photograph, you can see that it does not appear to be a similar type object. In addition, weather balloon or “Google Balloons” never are launched together in such a quantity, so I think a type of weather balloon (or Google Balloon) is safely ruled out.
Amateur astronomer Luis Verdiales, from Puerto Rico, spotted the ‘small black disc’ flying across the face of the moon during a rare celestial event when the planets aligned together – and aviation experts managed to work out it was one of Google’s balloons.
Based on the evidence, balloons seem unlikely.
Digital Manipulation
Many of us all considered a hoax, but there is no sign or evidence of any digital manipulation. TBV Investigations’ Paul Wright also looked at the video, and sees exact characteristics when he views the moon through his high powered lens, including the “hazing” effect around it. He extracted the “meta data” of the video, and everything matches what the witness reported, in regards to the technical specs of the camera. It also appears to be the raw file, and not edited.
Meta Data
Conclusion
I do not believe this is some kind of bird migration, and although there are similarities to satellites crossing the sky, Stellarium does rule out such an explanation. Balloons are also highly unlikely and we find no evidence of a hoax or digital manipulation. Therefore, I rule out all plausible explanations at this time, with no other reasonable explanation to explore.
For now, I would close this case and I will classify it as Unidentified, however, I am always open to feedback or other angles to explore.
Astronomer Have Spotted A Mysterious Object, Which Is 570 Billion Times Brighter than the Sun
Astronomer Have Spotted A Mysterious Object, Which Is 570 Billion Times Brighter than the Sun
So bright that it pushes the energy limit of physics. Billions of light years away, there is a giant ball of hot gas that is brighter than hundreds of billions of suns. It is hard to imagine something so bright. So what is it? Astronomers are not really sure, but they have a couple theories.
They think it may be a very rare type of supernova — called a magnetar — but one so powerful that it pushes the energy limits of physics, or in other words, the most powerful supernova ever seen as of today.
This object is so luminous that astronomers are having a really difficult time finding a way to describe it. “If it really is a magnetar, it's as if nature took everything we know about magnetars and turned it up to 11,” said Krzysztof Stanek, professor of astronomy at Ohio State University and the team's co-principal investigator, comedically implying it is off the charts on a scale of 1 to 10.
The object was first spotted by the All Sky Automated Survey of Supernovae (ASAS-SN or “assassin”), which is a small network of telescopes used to detect bright objects in the universe. Although this object is ridiculously bright, it still can’t be seen by the naked eye because it is 3.8 billion light years away. ASAS-SN, since it began in 2014, has discovered nearly 250 supernovae, however this discovery, ASASSN-15lh, stands out because of its sheer magnitude. It is 200 times more powerful than the average supernova, 570 billion times brighter than the sun, and 20 times brighter than all the stars in the Milky Way Galaxy combined.
“We have to ask, how is that even possible?” said Stanek. “It takes a lot of energy to shine that bright, and that energy has to come from somewhere.” Todd Thompson, professor of astronomy at Ohio State, has one possible explanation. The supernova could have generated an extremely rare type of star called a millisecond magnetar — a rapidly spinning and very dense star with a crazy strong magnetic field.
This is how crazy magnetars are: to shine as bright as it does, this magnetar would have to spin at least 1,000 times a second, and convert all of that rotational energy to light with pretty much 100 percent efficiency — making it the most extreme example of a magnetar that is physically possible.
“Given those constraints,” Thompson said, “will we ever see anything more luminous than this? If it truly is a magnetar, then the answer is basically no.”
Over the coming months, the Hubble Space Telescope will try to solve this mystery by giving astronomers time to see the host galaxy surrounding this object. The team may find that this bright object lies in the very center of a large galaxy — meaning the object is not a magnetar at all — and the gas around it is actually evidence of a supermassive black hole.
If that is the case, then the bright light could be explained by a new kind of event, said study co-author Christopher Kochanek, professor of astronomy at Ohio State. It would be something that has never, ever been seen before at the center of a galaxy.
Whether it is a magnetar, a supermassive black hole, or something else entirely, the results are probably going to lead to new thinking about how objects form in the universe.
A congressionally-mandated report recommends that NASA lead efforts to directly image possibly Earth-like exoplanets, using upcoming technologies. A major goal is finding habitable – maybe even inhabited – worlds.
The National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine (NASEM) in Washington, D.C., just released a new congressionally mandated report that aims to guide scientists’ study of exoplanets in the years to come. Among other things, the report urges NASA to lead a comprehensive direct imaging mission – using a new advanced space telescope – to study Earth-like exoplanets orbiting stars similar to our sun. The report is called Exoplanet Science Strategy.
The past several years have seen an explosion in the number of known exoplanets, or planets orbiting distant suns. At the moment, there are 3,779 confirmed planets, plus an additional 2,737 candidates awaiting verification. How many have been directly imaged? Fewer than two dozen, according to Wikipedia’s list of directly imaged exoplanets.
Many of the discovered exoplanets orbit close to their stars, and thus images are exceedingly difficult to image. Many are gas giants like Jupiter and Saturn, but others are smaller and rocky, like Earth. These rocky worlds would be the most difficult to image, but they’re of particular interest to astronomers and scientists, since at least some of them have the potential to be habitable and maybe even host life of some sort.
When scientists speak of Earth-like exoplanets, they’re basically referring to rocky planets of a similar size to Earth. With the limited information we currently have about these worlds, it’s still unknown how many of them have actual similarities to Earth, in terms of water, atmosphere, composition, habitability and so on. Obtaining that information is the next step in exoplanet research.
From the report:
The past decade has delivered remarkable discoveries in the study of exoplanets. Hand-in-hand with these advances, a theoretical understanding of the myriad of processes that dictate the formation and evolution of planets has matured, spurred on by the avalanche of unexpected discoveries. Appreciation of the factors that make a planet hospitable to life has grown in sophistication, as has understanding of the context for biosignatures, the remotely detectable aspects of a planet’s atmosphere or surface that reveal the presence of life.
The cover of the new report, Exoplanet Science Strategy 2018, by the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine.
There are two main goals as outlined in the report:
To understand the formation and evolution of planetary systems as products of star formation and characterize the diversity of their architectures, composition, and environments.
To learn enough about exoplanets to identify potentially habitable environments and search for scientific evidence of life on worlds orbiting other stars.
The overall objective is to use both theory and observations to search for evidence of past and present life elsewhere in the universe. Rocky planets like Earth are the primary focus, given what we know about how life evolved here. A growing number of such worlds have been discovered by various missions and telescopes such as the Kepler Space Telescope, including ones in their stars’ habitable zones, although most are quite distant. The new TESS mission, which just launched a few months ago, is currently looking for similar planets closer to our own solar system.
A key aspect of that objective is to directly image these planets, which will require funding and long-term monitoring to see results. The report recommends using instruments that can directly image an exoplanet by blocking the light emitted by the parent stars – such as with a coronagraph or starshade.
Being able to determine what conditions are actually like on some of these rocky worlds – or even detect possible biosignatures – would open an exciting new chapter in exoplanet research. Other recent studies have shown that even planets covered completely in water – as some water worlds are thought to be – could potentially support life (both water and geologically active land masses are thought to have been necessary for life on Earth). Such discoveries increase the possibility of many worlds being able to support life, not just ones that are more “Earth-like.”
Artist’s concept of one of the Earth-sized exoplanets orbiting the star TRAPPIST-1. A growing number of such worlds are now being discovered. How many of them could support life?
Image via ESO/M. Kornmesser.
In addition to the new direct imaging capabilities, the report also notes that other ground-based observations will be essential. This would include the future Giant Magellan Telescope and the proposed Thirty Meter Telescope. These telescopes could not only provide advanced imaging and spectroscopic abilities of entire planetary systems, they could also detect molecular oxygen – a potential biomarker – in the atmospheres of rocky planets. The report further recommends that the National Science Foundation should invest in both telescopes to provide all-sky access.
The Kepler Space Telescope, now nearing its end of its mission, looked at stars relatively close by, while TESS will focus on stars even closer, in our sun’s immediate neighborhood. Another space telescope, however, the Wide Field Infrared Survey Telescope (WFIRST), would look at stars much further out, for which we still have little information as to planets, and enable a large direct imaging mission. WFIRST received the Academies’ highest priority in the 2010 Astronomy and Astrophysics Decadal Survey.
In addition, the report recommends that the James Webb Space Telescope should be used to systematically collect data on exoplanet atmospheres early in its mission.
The model of NASA’s interdisciplinary collaboration initiative – the Nexus for Exoplanet System Science – should also be expanded by supporting a cross-divisional research effort inviting proposals for interdisciplinary research. The report also calls on NASA to support a robust individual investigator program – including grants for theoretical, laboratory, and ground-based telescopic investigations to fully realize the scientific payoff of exoplanet missions.
The Planetary Habitability Laboratory currently lists 55 known exoplanets as potentially habitable, including these “top” ones.
Image via PHL @ UPR Arecibo (pal.upr.edu) July 2, 2018.
The report goes even further however, and is not limited to just scientific interest. It also acknowledges another very important issue – the discrimination and harassment that exist in the scientific workforce and how that can affect the exoplanet research community by posing barriers to the participation of people from certain demographic groups:
To maximize scientific potential and opportunities for excellence, institutions and organizations should take concrete steps to eliminate discrimination and harassment and to proactively recruit and retain scientists from underrepresented groups.
The discovery of a growing number of Earth-sized exoplanets, some potentially habitable, is one of the most exciting developments in space science. The new report from NASEM urges NASA to make more detailed observations of these worlds a priority, which is great news. Such near-future studies may well lead to one of the most important discoveries in history –another inhabited world.
Released By The U.S. Air Force: Soldier Talks About Various E.T. Races
Released By The U.S. Air Force: Soldier Talks About Various E.T. Races
The United States Air Force has allowed the release of this video in 2012 showing a soldier discussing various ET races. In it, several fellow service members can be heard asking about Reptilian related ET's. He knows he is being filmed yet allows it to happen. Awareness Is Key. Analyze This. Look.
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- Gemiddelde waardering: 0/5 - (0 Stemmen) Categorie:ALIEN LIFE, UFO- CRASHES, ABDUCTIONS, MEN IN BLACK, ed ( FR. , NL; E )
Video of UFO – Orb While Filming Moon With Nikon P900 – 18 Aug 2018
Video of UFO – Orb While Filming Moon With Nikon P900 – 18 Aug 2018
I was filming the moon on the early evening of August 18th2018 with a Nikon P900 and captured this object slowly flying to the right.
It's most easily seen on the left and then to the right of the moon several seconds later.
I didn't see the object while filming.
After discovering the capture I researched several "moon" videos to see if anything else seen something similar.
Some captured satellites.
This is not a satellite. Satellites fly by much faster...within a second of time. This object is on screen for around a minute and twenty seconds.
I also checked software like Stellarium, etc. to see if there were any moon transits by satellites or debris at the time. I found nothing in our databases so far.
Undeniably an object that is unidentified. If anyone can find a moon transit of debris or a faraway satellite in any of the databases, please post it. I found none.
Check out some of Crrow777 and Martin Stubbs YouTube captures...you'll see some that look very similar. Thanks to them both for providing the references.
And no...this is not fake or cgi. I have no idea how to produce images like this.
The director of the National Solar Observatory in New Mexico states that the closure is not about aliens
The director of the National Solar Observatory in New Mexico states that the closure is not about aliens
It has been a week since the National Solar Observatory in Sunspot, New Mexico, was shut down, evacuated, and visited by FBI agents— and the undisclosed “security issue” behind all this activity remains a mystery to the public.
Strange UFO In The Sky Over New Jersey Seen From Multiple Locations
Strange UFO In The Sky Over New Jersey Seen From Multiple Locations
These strange lights were filmed from 3 separate locations in New Jersey - Ocean city, Somers Point and Margate. The witnesses claim the lights where part of one huge object.
Sondes de la NASA et de SpaceX : Une affirmation explosive suggère que les missions ont été “sabotées par des OVNI”
Sondes de la NASA et de SpaceX : Une affirmation explosive suggère que les missions ont été “sabotées par des OVNI”
Les OVNI ont délibérément saboté trois grandes missions spatiales, selon des affirmations farfelues en ligne.
Des théoriciens du complot sont convaincus que les extra-terrestres ont piraté et détruit des sondes conçues pour explorer la galaxie en guise d’avertissement aux humains.
Ils ont mis en lumière des événements aussi bizarres que l’explosion d’un OVNI quelques secondes avant l’explosion de la fusée SpaceX en 2016 et avant la disparition de la sonde russe Phobos II en orbite autour de Mars.
Ces événements étranges, aussi farfelus qu’ils puissent paraître, ont déclenché des théories selon lesquelles des formes de vie intelligentes suivent de près nos missions galactiques.
La Fusée de SpaceX
Une fusée SpaceX Falcon-9 transportant un satellite Amos-6, qui devait étendre le haut débit de Facebook dans le monde entier, a explosé trois minutes avant un lancement d’essai programmé.
La compagnie d’Elon Musk a accusé une anomalie dans la quantité d’oxygène absorbée alors qu’elle chargeait le propergol dans la fusée.
Cependant, les théoriciens du complot aux yeux de faucon ont un point de vue différent.
Ils ont repéré un objet étrange – décrit comme un “globe gris” – qui apparaît une seconde avant que la fusée n’explose en une boule de feu.
Et ils sont convaincus que c’est un OVNI ou même un drone.
Certains ont prétendu que le Pentagone avait tiré quelque chose à côté de la fusée parce que SpaceX devient un sérieux concurrent pour le déploiement de satellites militaires.
Les sceptiques ont dit que l’OVNI était simplement un oiseau qui semblait beaucoup plus grand de loin.
Lorsque Musk a été interrogé sur la vie extra-terrestre, il a répondu sur Twitter : “On ne sait pas si nous sommes la seule civilisation actuellement vivante dans l’univers observable, mais il y a des chances que nous soyons est une impulsion supplémentaire pour étendre la vie au-delà de la Terre.”
Dans une autre réponse sur le média social, l’entrepreneur sud-africain a déclaré : “Il n’y a pas d’extraterrestres, du moins officiellement.”
La sonde Voyager 2 de la NASA
La sonde Voyager 2 de la NASA, lancée en août 1977 pour étudier les planètes les plus éloignées, est le seul vaisseau spatial à avoir visité les mastodontes de glace Uranus et Neptune.
C’est le troisième objet le plus éloigné de la Terre et il reste en contact avec le quartier général de l’agence spatiale.
En 2010, quelque chose de très étrange s’est produit.
Voyager 2 a commencé à transmettre des données illisibles pendant plusieurs semaines, ce qui a donné lieu à des suppositions selon lesquelles la sonde avait été piratée.
Un auteur pseudo-scientifique allemand, Hartwig Hausdorf, a laissé entendre que des extraterrestres avaient manipulé l’équipement dans l’espace lointain.
“On dirait presque que quelqu’un a reprogrammé ou détourné la sonde – nous ne connaissons donc peut-être pas encore toute la vérité”, a-t-il dit.
Cependant, la NASA a une explication plus simple, imputant le dysfonctionnement à la mémoire d’un ordinateur de bord qui, en quelques semaines, était à nouveau pleinement opérationnel.
Même si les données scientifiques étaient inintelligibles, ils ont insisté sur le fait que la sonde n’avait été ni piratée ni reprogrammée.
On pense qu’un vent cosmique d’une tempête solaire a pu frapper l’engin spatial.
La sonde russe Phobos II
La Russie a lancé les sondes Phobos 1 et 2 pour explorer la lune martienne du même nom en 1988.
L’un d’eux aurait été perdu à cause d’une erreur de commande radio.
Mais la deuxième sonde a atteint la lune martienne et a commencé à renvoyer des images de l’atmosphère de Mars et des environs.
L’image incroyable montre des objets très étranges, y compris ce qui semble être une forme d’éclipse très mince à la surface de la lune.
Peu de temps avant que la sonde ne disparaisse pour toujours, elle a renvoyé une photo montrant un énorme objet entre le vaisseau spatial et Mars.
Les conspirationnistes prétendent que l’OVNI était un vaisseau spatial cylindrique géant qui, selon eux, projetait l’ombre à la surface de Mars.
Ils croyaient qu’il s’agissait de la “première fuite d’un vaisseau mère extraterrestre dans le système solaire”.
New Mexico Solar Observatory Re-Opening Monday After Criminal Investigation
New Mexico Solar Observatory Re-Opening Monday After Criminal Investigation
By Mike Wall, Space.com Senior Writer
Aerial view of the Sunspot Solar Observatory site on Sacramento Peak in New Mexico. Sunspot will re-open Monday (Sept. 17) after having been closed for 10 days while authorities investigated criminal activity.
Credit: National Solar Observatory/NSF
It wasn't aliens, or a doomsday solar flare.
No, the Sunspot Solar Observatory — a National Solar Observatory facility high up on New Mexico's Sacramento Peak — has been closed for the past 10 days because of a criminal investigation.
"AURA has been cooperating with an ongoing law enforcement investigation of criminal activity that occurred at Sacramento Peak," AURA representatives wrote in a statement Sunday (Sept. 16). "During this time, we became concerned that a suspect in the investigation potentially posed a threat to the safety of local staff and residents. For this reason, AURA temporarily vacated the facility and ceased science activities at this location."
But things are about to get back to normal.
"In light of recent developments in the investigation, we have determined there is no risk to staff, and Sunspot Solar Observatory is transitioning back to regular operations as of September 17th," the statement added.
AURA officials had previously cited a "security issue" as the cause of the closure (which also affected a nearby post office) but did not elaborate. The FBI was apparently involved but kept pretty much everyone, including local law enforcement, in the dark about what was going on.
As often happens, rumors rushed in to fill the information-free void. Speculation ranged from the ridiculous (that the government wanted to squash news of an alien-life detection or civilization-destroying solar flare) to the plausible (that some bad actor had planted spy gear on the Sunspot grounds, which provide a good view of the White Sands Missile Range and Holloman Air Force Base).
That latter explanation may still be in play; AURA has not disclosed the nature of the criminal activity being investigated.
"We recognize that the lack of communications while the facility was vacated was concerning and frustrating for some," Sunday's AURA statement added. "However, our desire to provide additional information had to be balanced against the risk that, if spread at the time, the news would alert the suspect and impede the law enforcement investigation. That was a risk we could not take."
The Sunspot Solar Observatory was established in 1947. Its main eye on the sky today is the Dunn Solar Telescope, which was completed in 1969 and helps researchers better understand the sun, solar activity and its effects on Earth.
Nine people, from New Mexico State University and AURA, work at the observatory, AURA representatives said.
A NASA study of certain bubbling lakes in the Arctic suggests that methane deposits are being released due to an understudied phenomenon called ‘abrupt thawing’. Methane — which is 30 times more potent at trapping heat than carbon dioxide — has been frozen for potentially thousands of years and its sudden release could significantly impact the climate by the end of the century.
Methane bubbles up from the thawed permafrost at the bottom of the thermokarst lake through the ice at its surface.
Credits: Katey Walter Anthony/ University of Alaska Fairbanks.
Methane and carbon dioxide are both produced in thawing permafrost as animal and plant remains decompose. As long as this organic matter remains frozen, it will stay in the permafrost. However, if it thaws, it starts decaying, releasing carbon dioxide or methane into the atmosphere — which is why scientists are deeply concerned with the present development.
Right now, Earth’s atmosphere contains roughly 850 gigatons of carbon (a gigaton is about the weight of 100,000 school buses). Scientists estimate that there is about twice as much carbon frozen in permafrost than present in the atmosphere today.
That doesn’t mean that all of the carbon will end up in the atmosphere. The trick is to find out how much of the frozen carbon is going to decay, how fast, and where. The full picture seems to be even more complex than previously thought. In a new study, scientists have discovered a new source of methane that hasn’t been accounted for by climate models — methane emissions from ‘thermokarst‘ lakes.
Such lakes form when permafrost taws at a faster rate and deeper levels than usually happens. This sudden thawing creates a depression which fills up with rainwater, ice, and snow melt. The water’s presence then leads to even more thawing at the shores of the lake, speeding up the rate of methane release into the atmosphere.
“The mechanism of abrupt thaw and thermokarst lake formation matters a lot for the permafrost-carbon feedback this century,” said first author Katey Walter Anthony at the University of Alaska, Fairbanks. “We don’t have to wait 200 or 300 years to get these large releases of permafrost carbon. Within my lifetime, my children’s lifetime, it should be ramping up. It’s already happening but it’s not happening at a really fast rate right now, but within a few decades, it should peak.”
Walter Anthony and colleagues used a combination of computer models and field measurements to reach the conclusion that abrupt thawing more than doubles previous estimates of permafrost-derived greenhouse warming.
“Within decades you can get very deep thaw-holes, meters to tens of meters of vertical thaw,” Walter Anthony said. “So you’re flash thawing the permafrost under these lakes. And we have very easily measured ancient greenhouse gases coming out.”
Current models estimate carbon emission from thawing permafrost as a gradual process. These new results suggest that in reality, the Arctic’s thawing feedback loops are more complex than we suspected. It’s all especially concerning considering that the IPCC — the leading international body for the assessment of climate change — did not incorporate any permafrost carbon emissions and the resulting amplification of climate change in its most recent climate projections.
This means that it will be even more challenging to keep global temperatures below the 1.5- or 2- degrees Celsius target set by the international community under the Paris Agreement.
Even so, methane emissions from thawing permafrost pale in comparison to the amount of human fossil fuel emissions. According to the researchers, permafrost methane emissions account for only 1% of the global methane budget. So the best thing we can do is to transition as fast as possible to a carbon-neutral society.
“But by the middle to end of the century the permafrost-carbon feedback should be about equivalent to the second strongest anthropogenic source of greenhouse gases, which is land use change,” Walter Anthony said.
A new factor has been added to the debate on whether or not living organisms could exist on Jupiter. You probably know Jupiter is a Jovian planet, a giant formed primarily out of gases. So how could alien life be able to exist in an environment where most of the phases of matter are absent? The answer is simply found in the element of water.
Within the rotating, turbulent Great Red Spot, perhaps Jupiter’s most distinguishable characteristic, are water clouds. Many of the other clouds in this enormous perpetual storm are comprised of ammonia and/or sulfur. Life theoretically cannot be sustained in water vapor alone; it thrives in liquid water. But according to some researchers, the fact alone that water exists in any form on the planet is a good first step.
The Great Red Spot is still a planetary feature which stumps much of the scientific community today. As it has been observed for the past century and a half, the Great Red Spot has been noticeably shrinking. The discovery of water clouds may lead to a deeper understanding of the planet’s past, including whether or not it might have sustained life, as well as weather-related information.
Some scientists have pondered the possibility that, due to the hydrogen and helium content in its atmosphere, Jupiter could be a diamond-producing“factory.” They have further speculated that these diamonds could enter into a liquid state and a rainfall of liquid diamonds would be in the Jovian’s weather forecast.
Likewise, the presence of water clouds means that water rain (a liquid) is not entirely impossible. Máté Ádámkovics, an astrophysicist at Clemson University in South Carolina, had this to say on the matter:
“…where there’s the potential for liquid water, the possibility of life cannot be completely ruled out. So, though it appears very unlikely, life on Jupiter is not beyond the range of our imaginations.”
Scientists are acting accordingly, researching the part which water plays in the atmosphere and other natural systems on Jupiter. They remain skeptical but eager to follow up on the new discovery. They shall also strive to find out just how much water the planet really holds.
SpaceX’s BFR is taking on a new shape. Just days after sharing images of a new Tintin-inspired design for the Mars-bound rocket, CEO Elon Musk has posted more concept art alongside details of some additional features. The BFR, expected to complete test firing next year, could send the first humans to Mars as early as 2024.
It’s a big development for the company’s largest-ever rocket, unveiled 12 months ago at the International Astronautical Congress in Adelaide, Australia. The rocket eclipses even the Falcon Heavy, the world’s most powerful operational rocket that completed its first test launch in February. Where the Heavy has a liftoff thrust in the region of 2,500 tons, the BFR has a thrust of 5,400 tons. The new rocket uses 31 Raptor engines, powered by liquid oxygen and methane.
The altered design, depicted below, adds new fins to the rocket that Musk admits bear a resemblance to the ones found in the Tintin comics:
The new BFR design launching into space.
The redesigned nose plays a key role in operations:
The rocket has been designed with reusability in mind, enabling humans to visit Mars and refuel by extracting resources from the area. The company will send two unmanned ships to Mars in 2022, followed by two more unmanned ships and two manned ships in 2024. Each ship will carry around 100 tons, meaning the six will send double the mass of the International Space Station to Mars. These will be used to set up refueling stations, laying the groundwork for self-sufficiency, and making the first step to a multi-city Martian colony.
SpaceX's BFR in action.
The BFR is also expected to send the world’s first private passenger on a trip around the moon. SpaceX announced the development last week, declaring that “only 24 humans have been to the Moon in history” and “no one has visited since the last Apollo mission in 1972.” The company plans to announce further details about the identity of the passenger and their reasons at a livestreamed event on Monday at 6 p.m. Pacific time.
While it’s a serious moment for the company, Musk couldn’t help dropping a reference to comedy spy thriller Austin Powers in the replies:
The FBI and the Blackhawk helicopters are gone and the employees of the Sunspot Solar Observatory on Sacramento Peak in New Mexico are slowly coming back after the facility was mysteriously evacuated and closed on September 6thwithout explanation, causing rumors and conspiracy theories of all sizes and flavors to flourish. While the reason given for the closure seems to make sense in hindsight, the stress it caused local residents (some of whom were also evacuated) and law enforcement officials makes many wonder if it wasn’t overkill … or if there’s still some things they’re not being told.
“However, our desire to provide additional information had to be balanced against the risk that, if spread at the time, the news would alert the suspect and impede the law enforcement investigation. That was a risk we could not take.”
The Richard B. Dunn Solar Telescope
A spokesperson for AURA, the Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy which runs the 71-year-old solar observatory in Sunspot, New Mexico, finally revealed on September 16th that the investigation was criminal in nature, but gave no details on the crime itself.
“AURA has been cooperating with an ongoing law enforcement investigation of criminal activity that occurred at Sacramento Peak. During this time, we became concerned that a suspect in the investigation potentially posed a threat to the safety of local staff and residents. For this reason, AURA temporarily vacated the facility and ceased science activities at this location.”
Temporarily? Eleven days of evacuation plus a total news blackout at a facility whose main feature is a telescope makes one say more than “Hmm.” The observatory is near Holloman Air Force Base, the White Sands Missile Range and, of course, Roswell. The investigation was done by the FBI and the owners of the Blackhawk helicopters, not members of local law enforcement, who were asked to leave and kept in the dark.
As of this writing, there is no news of arrests being made or criminal charges being filed as a result of the alleged criminal investigation. The nine employees are back on the job and the facility is again open for tourists. How long will it take before they’re tired of being asked the same questions that have nothing to do with the Dunn Solar Telescope or the sun?
While the sun continues to shine everywhere else, Sunspot seems to be under a dome covered with an SPF 100 suncreen.
Fishermen saw ‘robot-like creatures with slit mouths and crab pincers in most bizarre alien abduction ever’, secret hypnosis files reveal
Fishermen saw ‘robot-like creatures with slit mouths and crab pincers in most bizarre alien abduction ever’, secret hypnosis files reveal
The never-seen-before notes describe how the two men were fishing when a UFO hovered above them and three strange beings emerged
EXCLUSIVE
By Emma Parry, Digital US Correspondent
THE two men involved in one of the most bizarre ‘alien’ encounters on record recalled seeing "creatures with slit-like mouths and crab pincers" while under hypnosis, top secret files obtained by Sun Online reveal.
Charles Hickson and Calvin Parker claim they were captured by three alien creatures and taken into a UFO while they were fishing in Pascagoula, Mississippi, on October 11, 1973.
PHILIP MANTLE
The secret notes have so far been hidden from the public
Now never-seen-before handwritten notes of a secret interview conducted on them under hypnosis reveal how they both described strange creatures looking like robots with unusual eyes, grey skin and crab pincers for arms.
The interview was conducted in 1973 by case investigators Professor J Allen Hynek and Dr James Harder - and the terrified men’s account was enough to convince the pair that they were telling the truth.
Dr Harder’s files include notes from the interview and other information he gathered - and offer a unique insight into the infamous sighting almost 45 years ago.
On one handwritten page Dr Harder writes: “I asked what the ‘creatures’ looked like and got a description which included 1. No neck, no helmet 2. crab-like hands, two digits … 3. slit-like ‘mouth’.
JONNY DILLON
Charles Hickson and Calvin Parker, pictured, were left traumatised by the 1973 encounter
PHILIP MANTLE
The strange notes were taken during an interview conducted with the men under hypnosis
The beings did not communicate and had a “robot businesslike attitude”, the men recalled during the hypnosis session.
Charles, 42, and Calvin 19, were sat on the banks of the Pascagoula River, when they claim they heard a whizzing sound overhead.
They said that an oval shaped "craft", some 8ft across, suddenly appeared near them and seemed to levitate about 2ft above the ground.
A door opened and three creatures - who were "humanoid" in shape and about 5ft tall - emerged and seized the men, "floating" them into the UFO, they later told police.
Both men reported being paralysed and numb - while Calvin claimed that he had fainted due to fright.
JONNY DILLON
A sketch of the creatures which allegedly "abducted" by Calvin and Charles
PHILIP MANTLE
This page describes how the "craft" never touched the ground and three creatures came out
The men said the creatures had claws at the ends of their arms, "carrot-like" growths for their nose and ears, and only one leg.
One page of Dr Harder’s handwritten notes states: “Key novel features - 1. Cessation of sensation upon contact. 2. “floating” them along one foot from the ground. 3. Crab-like arm appendages. Two ‘pincers’ of equal size.”
There was a “possible suggestion” they were “robot” due to their “lack of usual eye structure, pincers on arms and “possible fused lower ‘limbs’” according to the notes.
JONNY DILLON
The creatures allegedly had no neck, slit-like mouths and carrot-like nose and ears
PHILIP MANTLE
Dr Harder and Professor Hynek were sent to study the case but most of their research files - except these notes - have vanished
JONNY DILLON
We reported on the bizarre Pascagoula 'alien abduction' in 1973
JONNY DILLON
A sketch of the UFO which the men claim they were taken onboard by the "alien creatures"
“After they touched them they felt nothing but weightlessness,” the doctors’ notes read.
On the ship, Charles claimed that he was examined by what looked like a large football-shaped mechanical eye, about 6 to 8 inches in diameter, that seemed to scan his body.
Calvin claimed that he could not recall what had happened to him inside the craft.
GETTY
Dr Hynek was a renowned astrophysicist who coined the term "close encounters'
The men said they were released after about 15-20 minutes and the creatures levitated them, with Charles's feet dragging along the ground, back to their original positions on the river bank.
In another page of the notes, Dr Harder said attorney Joe Colingo described the men as looking "scared to death" and "as frightened as any two adult human beings as I've ever seen."
Philip Mantle, a former director of investigations for the British UFO Research Association, managed to obtain the file containing the handwritten notes during his research.
PHILIP MANTLE
Many of Dr Harder and Prof Hynek's files relating to the case have mysteriously vanished
JONNY DILLON
Ufologist Philip Mantle is calling for anyone who knows where the other files are to get in touch
However - in a bizarre twist - he says that many of Prof Hynek’s and Dr Harder’s other notes and tapes from the case are mysteriously missing.
Hynek was a consultant to top secret UFO studies by the US Air Force including Project Blue Book (1952–1969). He initially started as a skeptic but went on to found the Centre for UFO Studies in 1973.
The astronomer also coined the phrase 'Close Enounters of the Third Kind' which was used as the title of Steve Spielberg's $20million blockbuster about UFOs in 1977.
His files were spread out between Northwestern University, the Centre for UFO Studies while Dr Harder's were kept at private facilities.
But Philip claims that dozens of boxes related to the case have vanished.
Philip, who has published the book Pascagoula - The Closest Encounter written by Calvin Parker, said: "No one knows who took these files.
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- Gemiddelde waardering: 0/5 - (0 Stemmen) Categorie:ALIEN LIFE, UFO- CRASHES, ABDUCTIONS, MEN IN BLACK, ed ( FR. , NL; E )
RUIMTESCHIP HANGT VIER MINUTEN BOVEN WEG...
RUIMTESCHIP HANGT VIER MINUTEN BOVEN WEG...
Het zal je gebeuren dat als je ’s avonds naar huis rijdt er opeens een enorm "iets" boven de weg hangt.
Dat is exact wat er enkele dagen geleden gebeurde toen een man samen met zijn vriendin naar huis reed en gelukkig kon hij een aantal foto’s maken.
Wanneer je ’s avonds laat naar huis rijdt in het donker en je ziet opeens iets vreemds in de lucht, dan doet dat heel onwerkelijk aan.
Maar, als je het met je eigen ogen ziet en je slaagt er ook nog eens in om dit object te fotograferen, dan wordt het wel heel echt. Het volgende voorval speelde zich af op 14 september 2018 in Stillwater in de Amerikaanse staat Minnesota en is ingediend bij Mufon onder nummer 94921.
Een man reed samen met zijn vriendin naar huis toen ze plotseling iets vreemds boven de weg zagen.
De getuige is er absoluut van overtuigd dat het geen weerspiegeling of iets dergelijks is omdat nadat dit object een minuut of vier boven de weg had gehangen, dit opeens met grote snelheid wegvloog. Iets dat door hem en zijn vriendin beiden is gezien.
Ufoloog Scott Waring is heel benieuwd of er die avond ergens in de buurt mensen zijn vermist of tijdelijk zoek geweest zijn. Hij denkt namelijk dat wanneer een ruimteschip zo dichtbij de weg komt er een reden voor moet zijn. En die reden zou heel goed kunnen zijn dat ze van plan waren om één of meerdere mensen te ontvoeren.
Strange Series of Anomalies Stretching Across Pacific Ocean
Strange Series of Anomalies Stretching Across Pacific Ocean
Weather modification transmitter dish site at MIMIC beam source and prove of ionospheric heaters in Antarctica?
We have another set of mystery anomalies on MIMMIC Map. This time the patterns cross the entire Pacific Ocean. They stretch from the West Coast of the USA, All the way over Hong Kong to China
Hong Kong is full in the path of the anomalies and.. a giant typhoon Cat 5!
Image left: Siple Station Antarctica - Image right: Lake on Island Annobon
Once again beams are coming from a location in Antarctica but also from a remote island Annobon. On top of the island is a drained lake with a diameter of 700 meters. This lake has been turned into an "Arrecibo-Sized" Weather Modification Site according to Florida Marquis who found the location, see video Island Annobon here.
Coordinates Island Annobon: 1°25'36.42"S 5°37'59.36"E
About the location in Antarctica it is suggested that the beams are coming from the Siple Station, maybe a coincidence but the station is not visible on Google Earth.
Glowing Disk Hovers Over Road In Minnesota For Four Minutes Before Shooting Off, Sep 2018, Photos, UFO Sighting News.
Glowing Disk Hovers Over Road In Minnesota For Four Minutes Before Shooting Off, Sep 2018, Photos, UFO Sighting News.
Date of sighting: September 14th, 2018 Location of sighting: Stillwater, Minnesota at 10 PM Source: MUFON 94921 On the night of Sept 14th a person was a driving along when they suddenly noticed a glowing ring of lights hovering over the road. I am curious to know if any travelers went missing this night. For the UFO to come this close to the road, it must have had a purpose. Perhaps it was abducting someone or attempting to contact someone. I wonder if the eyewitness noticed that time had passed quickly...if they themselves had been abducted and placed back afterwards. Scott C. Waring
Report states:
The witness was driving along 36 and Lake Elmo Ave in Stillwater, MN when he and his girlfriend saw this in the sky. Witness observed for 4 minutes taking multiple pictures. Then it ascended quickly and was gone. "No doubt in my mind it was a spacecraft of some kind" witness also positive it wasn't some reflection or spot lights due to it flying away.
‘UFO’ spotted onboard US Navy aircraft carrier, EXTRAORDINARY YouTube footage shows
‘UFO’ spotted onboard US Navy aircraft carrier, EXTRAORDINARY YouTube footage shows
A “UFO” parked beside a Navy helicopter was spotted onboard a US aircraft carrier, YouTube footage of the landing of a US Navy F-15 fighter jet appeared to show.
The footage, slowed down for effect, was published by “Section 51”, a US-based conspiracy theory YouTube channel collecting footage of “unidentified flying objects”.
It shows a fighter shadowing a US jet as it comes into land, while a triangular object can clearly be seen beside a Navy helicopter.
Commenting on the video, many people believed the object was a TR-3B, a supposed anti-gravity spy plane vehicle some maintain the US air force is developing.
One amazed YouTube user wrote: “TR-3B. It really exists!"
Another offered a detailed explanation, writing: “I think it's a TR-3B, the latest of the US's black projects vehicles.
“This is the next generation of secret technology developed by the skunk works and other secret development programs.
“It is in any case not alien. It might have been developed with the use of reverse-engineered alien technology. But built on this planet.”
Others were not so convinced, with user Jim Hatch penning: “Pretty sure they wouldn't leave it parked on the deck of an aircraft carrier, was it an alien spacecraft or some sort of secret technology?”
The footage appeared to show a UFO-like object right next to a Navy helicopter
(Image: Section 51/GETTY)
The video showed a UFO-type object on a US aircraft carrier
(Image: GETTY)
And others suggested the object was Photoshopped into the footage, joking about the triangle craft's “stealth shadow”.
One said: “Nice CGI.”
Another sceptic said: “So tell me why a craft which can defy gravity and travel faster than anything known by mankind, which doesn't use fossil fuel stands on the deck of an aircraft carrier?”
But there were some who were not sure what to think.
Matt Simon said: “The problem with today's CGI is that it's getting damn near impossible to know what is real and what is fake.
Section 51 says its videos are for entertainment purposes only
(Image: GETTY)
The existence of UFOs has never been proven
(Image: GETTY)
“Unless you're right there to actually witness it with your own eyes, when you see a compelling video and wonder if it's real or fake, sometimes all you can do is shake your head and shrug your shoulders.”
Eventually, ufoofinterest.org, which claims to “debunk hoaxes, conspiracies and misinformation”, rubbished the UFO claims.
The group tweeted a video which showed the original US Navy training footage with no UFO in sight, proving it had been doctored.
They said: “Triangle shaped UFO spotted on US Aircraft Carrier in the Mediterranean Sea?
“It's interesting to check out which sources the hoax promoter and CGI artist SECTION 51 used to fabricate his latest video.
“Here's a source without that fake UFO.”
ufoofinterest.org@ufoofinterest
Triangle shaped #UFO spotted on US Aircraft Carrier in Mediterranean Sea? It's interesting to check out which sources the #hoax promoter and #CGI artist SECTION 51 used to fabricate his latest video.
US observatory denies involvement of aliens in its ‘security’ closure
US observatory denies involvement of aliens in its ‘security’ closure
A sign at the entrance to the National Solar Observatory in Sunspot, N.M. The facility has been closed since it was evacuated on September 6. (Photo via The Washington Post)
An American solar observatory has denied that aliens were involved in its security-related closure in a state known for secretive military testing and a suspected UFO crash.
The New Mexico solar observatory remains closed after being evacuated for unknown reasons last week.
“I can tell you it definitely wasn’t aliens,” a spokeswoman for the National Solar Observatory, part of the Sunspot Solar Observatory consortium, toldThe Washington Post.
Meanwhile, an investigation was underway by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI).
“We don’t know anything. We’re just as curious as anyone else,” one guard said.
No local law enforcement was involved in the case as the FBI remained on the scene.
“They wouldn’t give us any details,” Otero County Sheriff Benny House said. “I’ve got ideas, but I don’t want to put them out there. That’s how bad press or rumors get started, and it’ll cause paranoia, or I might satisfy everybody’s mind and I might be totally off base.”
The observatory is also taking the chance to attract the people’s attention to its work.
“With the excitement this closure has generated, we hope you will come and visit us when we do reopen, and see for yourself the services we provide for science and public outreach in heliophysics,” it said.
Mars Explorers Could Live in 'Igloo' Near Red Planet's North Pole
Mars Explorers Could Live in 'Igloo' Near Red Planet's North Pole
By Elizabeth Howell, Space.com Contributor
This artist's illustration depicts a novel Mars colony base concept by researchers at Switzerland's Federal Polytechnic School in Lausanne, which would use an igloo-like habitat near the Martian north pole as a home for astronauts.
Credit: EPFL
Mars explorers could live in an igloo-like structure near the Red Planet's frigid north pole, to take advantage of the seasonally abundant solar energy in that region, a new study suggests.
The Martian poles are famous among scientists for their layered deposits of ice and dust, as well as for containing perchlorate. Perchlorate is commonly used as a rocket fuel here on Earth, and some microbes here actuallytap the stuff for energy.
According to the new Mars-outpost concept — which was outlined by researchers at Switzerland's Federal Polytechnic School in Lausanne (known by its French acronym EPFL) — the base would initially host humans on the surface for a 288-day stretch: During that time, the north pole is bathed in sunlight continuously. [How Will a Human Mars Base Work? NASA's Vision in Images]
The outpost would be covered by a dome made of polyethylene fiber shrouded in a 10-foot-thick (3 meters) layer of ice — sort of like an igloo.
Underneath the dome would be a central core, which would include the living space, and three capsules that would serve as airlocks between that space and the exterior. Since the dome would overlie the core and capsules, it would protect Mars explorers against radiation and micrometeorite strikes, and keep internal atmospheric pressure constant as well.
Research base, artist view.
Credit: Copyright EPFL
"The poles may pose more challenges in the beginning, but they are the best location for the long term since they harbor natural resources that we may be able to use," study lead author Anne-Marlene Rüede, a student minoring in space technology at EPFL's space engineering center, said in a statement from EFPL.
"We wanted to develop a strategy based on technologies that have been selected accordingly and outline a test scenario so that, 20 years from now, astronauts will be able to carry out this kind of space mission," she added.
The explorers would live off the land for at least nine months at a time, harvesting water, oxygen and nitrogen from the nearby ice. The carbon dioxide in the Martian atmosphere, as well as the silicon, iron, aluminum and sulfur in the soil, could be used to manufacture bricks, glass, plastic and fuels (such as hydrogen or methanol), the researchers said.
Crane landing, artist view.
Credit: Copyright EPFL
Here's how the mission planning would go. First, robots would fly alone to the Martian north polar region to make a small living space for the crew, and to scout for locally available natural resources.
The crew would come next. During the second mission, astronauts would use a sort of crane system that would orbit around Mars and move equipment from spacecraft down onto the planet's surface.
Crane take off, artist view.
Credit: Copyright EPFL
"The crane vehicle could be reused several times and would be powered by fuel produced on Mars. It would reduce the payload that space shuttles would have to carry up to the research base," study co-author Claudio Leonardi, a scientist at EPFL, said in the same statement. "The vehicle's docking system would be similar to that used on the International Space Station: once a shuttle was docked, the vehicle would unload the cargo and crew and set them down on Mars."
Crane landing with crew module, artist view.
Credit: Copyright EPFL
The researchers envision the base initially supporting a crew of six explorers. But putting the idea into effect could potentially lead to even bigger things down the road, study team members said.
Crane on orbit, artist view.
Credit: Copyright EPFL
"We would need to conduct an initial mission to try everything out for the first time," Rüede said. "And the better that initial mission is thought out, the faster we will be able to get things going and move on to colonization."
The study has been accepted for publication in the journal Acta Astronautica. It was also presented last week at the International Tourism Talks of the Future conference in Vixouze, France.
YouTube Goes Nuts Over Apparent Footage of 'UFO' Aboard US Aircraft Carrier
YouTube Goes Nuts Over Apparent Footage of 'UFO' Aboard US Aircraft Carrier
The amateur footage, said to have been captured by a pilot filming the landing of a US Navy F-15 fighter jet aboard the USS Gerald Ford, sparked a debate about the video's authenticity.
The video, published by 'Section 51', a US-based YouTube channel collecting footage of unidentified flying objects, shows a fighter shadowing a US jet as it comes in for a landing aboard the carrier, accidentally sighting a grey metallic triangle-shaped object parked next to a Navy helicopter.
The footage, slowed down for effect and accompanied by appropriately eerie music, has racked up 500,000+ views on YouTube, and pitted users into a debate on whether the video has been tampered with.
Multiple users were sure that it was the TR-3B, an alleged ultra-secret anti-gravity spy plane vehicle some believe is being developed by the US Air Force.
"TR-3B. It really exists!" one YouTube user excited wrote. "I think it's a TR-3B, the latest of [the US's] black projects vehicles," another added, launching into a detailed explanation. "This is the next generation of secret technology developed by the skunk works and other secret development programs. It is in any case not alien. It might have been developed with the use of [reverse] engineered alien technology. But built on this planet."
Others suggested the object was Photoshopped into the footage, joking about the triangle craft's "stealth shadow." "Nice CGI," one user said, complementing the author.
"Pretty sure they wouldn't leave it parked on the deck of an aircraft carrier were it an alien spacecraft or some sort of secret technology," another skeptic noted. "So tell me why a craft which can defy gravity and travel faster than anything known by mankind, which doesn't use fossil fuel stands on the deck of an aircraft carrier?" another user asked.
Some simply weren't sure what to believe. "The problem with today's CGI is that it's getting damn near impossible to know what is real and what is fake. Unless you're right there to actually witness it with your own eyes, when you see a compelling video and wonder if it's real or fake, sometimes all you can do is shake your head and shrug your shoulders," one user said.
Eventually, ufoofinterest.org, a site whose self-described purpose is to 'debunk hoaxes, conspiracies and misinformation,' crashed the conspiracy party, showing the footage with the 'UFO', along with the original US Navy training footage, with no 'UFO' anywhere in sight.
ufoofinterest.org@ufoofinterest
Triangle shaped #UFO spotted on US Aircraft Carrier in Mediterranean Sea? It's interesting to check out which sources the #hoax promoter and #CGI artist SECTION 51 used to fabricate his latest video.
Based on the best-selling book by George Knapp & Dr. Colm Kelleher, Hunt for The Skinwalker investigates the confidential, most extensive scientific study of a paranormal hotspot in human history. This is an exclusive OpenMinds.tv interview with filmmaker Jeremy Corbell at the friends and family pre-premeire screening in Las Vegas.
Get the book: Hunt for the Skinwalker: Science Confronts the Unexplained at a Remote Ranch in Utahhttps://amzn.to/2vYs6Tf
—Transcript of Interview—
Alejandro: Okay. So we’ve got an exclusive interview with Jeremy Corbell, we’re at a premiere of the movie. Of course, Open Minds listeners know who Jeremy is, and they know I’m a huge fan of your films-
Jeremy: Thanks, man.
Alejandro: … so this is really exciting, this has gotta be exciting for you.
Jeremy: This is, man. This is the premiere of Hunt for the Skinwalker, that film goes live on iTunes on September 11th for everybody to watch, but you and everybody gets to see today, really, the pre-premiere before it’s launched to the public. And man, this is an exciting movie, two hours and seven minutes, plus an hour and a half of bonus features. You have never seen footage from inside Skinwalker Ranch. This film shows you hours of it. During active investigations by the NIDS team. It’s incredible. So thanks to George Knapp and all the work that he’s done for over two decades, this movie is gonna show it to you. It’s gonna show all the goods.
Alejandro: So cool. So a couple of parts, cattle mutilations have happened on that ranch, there’s been UFO sightings, a lot of people feel that those are a type of phenomena related to aliens. Were there aliens at the ranch, you think?
Jeremy: Well, whatever is there certainly is alien to us. We don’t know for sure the nature of this reality. There seems to be something that’s been here longer than us, and recorded since the beginning of recorded human history. We see a pantheon of that at the ranch, it really, truly is like a paranormal Disneyland. And you might not believe it, or someone else might not believe it. They might dub it aliens or portholes or dimensional beings, I don’t know. Nobody knows. But the fact of the matter is yes, craft are visible there. Huge craft. Beings that we would call aliens, that are certainly alien to us, occur and interact, close encounters, with people not only on the ranch, but in the Uintah Basin. So look man, I don’t know what’s going on there. If I try to give you a theory it would be a guess. What I do now is that it’s worth and worthy of investigation, and that’s what this film is going to do, it’s going to light a fuse, man.
Alejandro: And it’s gonna show that the government felt it was worthy of investigation and spent millions of dollars doing that.
Jeremy: It’s gonna break the news, it’s gonna tell you in-depth the connection between the 22 million dollars from Harry Reid, that all began with Skinwalker Ranch, it was targeted and focused on Skinwalker Ranch. The majority of that funding went to Skinwalker Ranch. AATIP, what we were told through the New York Times, is a very small part of the bigger truth. And this film, with the bonus materials, will clarify that.
Alejandro: Last question is, with this film, what is your intent, what is your main goal, with getting this information out?
Jeremy: Alejandro, you know my main goal. That is to weaponize your curiosity, take you from being a passive observer and consumer to a participant. That’s it.
Why Social Stigma About Unexplained Phenomena Holds Humanity Back
Why Social Stigma About Unexplained Phenomena Holds Humanity Back
Like most other biological systems on this planet, humans are largely motivated by self-preservation and conflict avoidance.
As a species, we tend to avoid associating ourselves with anything that will isolate us from the larger group or make us sound strange, or that might draw negative attention from our peers.
In essence, stigma results in a paralysis of communication.
And when left unaddressed, it exerts a chilling influence over society and across generations. This is true whether we are trying to find the cause for diseases, reasons for environmental change, or primers for global conflict.
Throughout history, there are times when we, as a society, found it more convenient and socially acceptable to ignore uncomfortable topics. The results were often catastrophic both to our moral fiber and the health of our species. Stigma regarding certain psychological conditions once led to a life sentence in an asylum and forced lobotomies simply because stigma prevented families having a conversation about mental illness.
There has been similar social stigma in recent decades around the topic of Unidentified Aerial Phenomena (UAPs), or UFOs — a topic that has been relegated to conspiracy theorists, B-Movie villains, and the weird uncle no one wants to talk to anymore. As was the case with other topics that hold stigma, many people would rather look the other way than be associated with what’s been labeled “crazy,” or “fringe.”
When I was assigned Director of the Advanced Aerospace Threat Identification Program (AATIP), my colleagues and I experienced enough to know with absolute certainty that UAPs exist. Furthermore, they don’t seem to care if whether or not we believe in them and they are here with or without our permission.
How can we have an honest conversation about National Security and humanity if we can’t even address the topic of a potential threat or opportunity?
Consider this example from pop culture. In the famous Harry Potter series, the evil wizard Voldemort is so vile that other wizards are afraid to even utter his very name. The idea is if you don’t mention his name, it minimizes the threat and makes him less real. But ironically, the stigma of his name only makes him more powerful.
Refusing to acknowledge UAPs in our airspace is no different.
If we don’t overcome the social stigma about UAPs and address them, we may end up on the wrong side of history — only in this case, we’re not talking about fantasy and wizards, we are talking about reality and national security.
Here’s why we can’t afford to allow stigma to drive our fears and bury our heads in the sand:
Social stigma hinders government processes.
Social stigma is often the product of fear concerning topics that have no answers and are poorly understood. Project Blue Book provides a useful example.
From 1952–1969, the U.S. Air Force conducted a series of studies on UAPs. The goals of Project Blue Book were to determine whether UAPs were a national security threat and to scientifically analyze UFO-related data. For 17 years, Project Blue Book compiled reports of tens of thousands of UFO sightings, classifying 700 of these incidents as “unidentified.”
In 1966, the Air Force requested another committee, headed by Dr. Edward Condon, to look into these sightings. Two years later, they released the “Condon Report,” which concluded that the sightings they examined showed no signs of unusual activity. This prompted the Air Force to shut down Project Blue Book the following year.
Upon its dismantling, the project announced that despite nearly one thousand unidentified sightings, there was no evidence of extraordinary phenomena in our airspace.
These dismissive conclusions in the public versions of both Project Blue Book and the Condon Report simply weren’t supported by the facts. There were hundreds of credible eyewitness reports by trained observers, many with high-level security clearances, who witnessed these objects. Our country has put people in the electric chair based on the testimony of just two corroborating witnesses who aren’t particularly trained in the art of observation.
As is the case with other controversial topics, this verifiable evidence was suppressed and diluted due to stigma surrounding the topic of UAPs.
But there are always two sides to an argument.
During the time of the inquiries, the U.S. Government was in the middle of a cold war and, in all fairness, could not afford to be distracted on a wild goose chase for which they had no answers. As long as Americans weren’t under attack from these unusual phenomena, attention was rightfully placed towards more tangible matters. I don’t necessarily agree with that mindset, but I understand it.
Self-imposed stigma often makes a problem worse.
Tabloids and social media have certainly not helped the issue of stigma. These outlets frequently provide their consumers with sensationalized stories that only reinforce the stigma of certain topics.
The rise of social media means that now, everyone has a voice.
But many of those voices are less motivated by truth and instead seek to spread their own agendas. A simple search on Google about the program I once helped run, AATIP, results in hundreds of hits, many of these from purportedly reputable sites with “Deep-State” sources. These sites are run by the same individuals who claim to have inside knowledge of UAPs but have never provided one shred of evidence or proof that they have access to Government insiders.
But not all social media sites or Youtube channels have it wrong. Those sites which emphasize data collection, facts, and objectivity are usually on the right track. Surprisingly, some sites appear to have a strong understanding of the bizarre nature of the phenomena and a few well-placed sources of information. One specific example I have found is “UFOJesus,” a humorous YouTube channel that seems to have some credible inside information and insight.
No matter the medium, frank and honest conversation is crucial to moving forward as a society.
Overcoming stigma is key to our survival as a species.
If there is one thing that nature has shown us time and time again, it’s that we either adapt, or we die out.
As a species, it’s crucial to understand the things we can’t explain, in order to survive. And that means being open to new ideas, possibilities, and data. It’s always been this way, dating back to when mankind lived in caves. If you heard something roaming outside, you had to investigate. If you didn’t, you and your family would be unaware of a potential predator.
At the same time, an animal wandering around outside your cave could also mean food, which would keep your family alive so they could then flourish. If you stayed in the cave and never ventured outside, you might survive the night but probably not in the long run.
When it comes to UFOs, ignoring the unknown is similarly harmful because it might mean failing to seize upon opportunities and new understandings.
As a society, we have to recognize that stigma serves only to keep our heads in the sand. Our future depends on transparency and truth.
Top political members asked how much taxpayers’ cash was spent on the Advanced Aerospace Threat Identification Program (AATIP) which investigated flying saucer reports for four years from 2008.
Mr Pope said: “I think the powerful House Armed Services Committee was as fascinated and mystified by the revelations about the Pentagon's UFO project as everyone else.
“Some committee members and staffers may have been angered that they were kept in the dark about AATIP, not least because the US government had previously denied there was any official interest in UFOs.
“The record of Congressional proceedings that mentions AATIP suggests to me that the committee asked for and received a brief on this UFO project from the Defense Intelligence Agency, possibly with a view to holding formal Congressional hearings.
“These hearings might be narrowly focused on AATIP, looking into how taxpayers' dollars were spent and what the DIA concluded.
“This would almost certainly include investigation of the three declassified videos that have been released, showing US navy jets chasing unidentified objects.
“Hearings should probably go wider than just looking at AATIP, and should look at the UFO phenomenon as a whole.
“It would be a great opportunity to get to the bottom of the UFO mystery.”
Mr Pope said he is aware from private sources that discussions are taking place and he would be happy to testify.
He said President Donald Trump has stayed quiet on the subject on the subject of UFOs but Hilary Clinton had indicated she would request information on Area 51.
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- Gemiddelde waardering: 0/5 - (0 Stemmen) Categorie:ALIEN LIFE, UFO- CRASHES, ABDUCTIONS, MEN IN BLACK, ed ( FR. , NL; E )
Four New Technologies That Are Driving Archaeology Into the Future
Four New Technologies That Are Driving Archaeology Into the Future
Modern archaeologists are trading in the shovel and brush for innovative new tech.
By Sarah Sloa
When your profession is studying ancient temples and cultural artifacts, you need a toolbox that matches the magnitude of the job. Brushes, buckets, and sieves have long been the foundation of an archaeologist’s work, but today, those essentials are paired with groundbreaking technology to deepen human understanding of our collective past.
While studying the Cajamarca culture, which existed in the highlands of northern Peru, archaeologist Solsire Cusicanqui Marsano has a variety of high-tech tools that enable her to analyze without doing damage.
Marsano, a Ph.D. candidate at Harvard University, looks for evidence of their way of life by excavating settlements, pottery, bones, and other artifacts. A key part of her hunt is the use of high-tech tools, which allow her to identify the best sites before she has to grab the shovels and break ground.
“I´m using different types of technology in every step of my work,” Marsano tells Inverse. Below are just some of the high tech tools used by a modern archaeologist.
1. CAMERA DRONE
Marsano uses drones to survey the regions she suspects could reveal ancient clues — and to hunt for archeological sites in danger. Her drone of choice is the DJI Mavic Pro, a small and powerful unmanned aerial vehicle that can zoom around the arid, high-altitude mountains around her. With the Mavic, Marsano is as equally able to peer into the hard-to-reach Ventanillas de Combayo — a mountainside necropolis almost 10,000 feet above sea level — as she is able to spot the patches of looting holes that spread like chickenpox throughout the valley.
The DJI Mavic Pro, which can zip at 40 miles per hour, is complete with FlightAutonomy technology that allows it to sense obstacles up to 49 feet away — a crucial feature when you’re diving around ancient tombs. Importantly the drone also films at a 4k resolution frame rate at 30 frames per second and shoots 12 megapixel stills. Those features are important to Marsano, giving her both the gift of vision and information acquisition.
2. AGISOFT PHOTOSCAN
Marsano later processes the photographs taken with the Mavic with a sophisticated software program called Agisoft Photoscan. It allows her to create 3D models of her sites — virtual replicas that are geographically accurate representations of where she works. Marsano, and other archeologists who do the same, can layer these digital, 3D models over pre-existing maps to get a better sense of the areas tophography and elevation. Essentially, the photogrammetry software stitches together the hundreds of photographs taken with the drone, resulting in a composite image. Goodbye treasure map, hello perfectly accurate digital model.
But those aren’t the only technological tools that archaeologist use to amp up their work.
3. MUON TOMOGRAPHY
Muon tomography is an imaging technique first developed in the 1950s and then elevated by scientists at the Los Alamos National Laboratory in 2002. Muons are elementary particles generated by cosmic rays, both naturally and artificially. With a technique called muon scattering tomography, archaeologists are able to visualize the inner structures within structures in a non-invasive way — whether the structure is an Egyptian pyramid or a subterranean mine.
It’s using particle physics to zoom into a void. Muons are high-energy particles with a mass 207 times that of an electron — meaning that they can penetrate deep into matter like limestone and granite. When employed by archaeologists, this tech helps them visualize spaces that haven’t quite breached, while locating and visualizing where they hope to go.
Courtesy of Takeshi Inomata/University of Arizona
4. LIDAR
LIDAR is an acronym for Light Detection and Ranging and has a wide use of applications ranging from navigating autonomous cars to helping farmers sense where they should apply fertilizer. Archeologists also make use of the remote sensing method: In the hands of excavators, LIDAR is used to create highly accurate and detailed 3D maps of ground surface tomography. It not only maps hundreds of miles — it alerts archeologists to the possibly hidden temples and tombs on those maps as well.
A LIDAR instrument consists of a laser, scanner, and GPS receiver. The laser sends out light pulses capable of penetrating deep vegetation, which in turn generates 3D information about the surface characteristics of the region its evaluating.
In 2018, archeologists announced that they used LIDAR to map 470 deep-jungle square kilometers, a process that revealed more than 15,000 ancient Maya architectural remains — a huge jump from the eight square kilometers and 1,000 structures they had identified previously. Laser scans can expose networks of temples and palaces, if archeologists shoot them in the right direction.
The Andean people flourished as their own society in the Cajamarca valley until they were eventually conquered by the Incas in the late 1400s. And in 1533, Spanish conquistador Francisco Pizarro executed the last Incan emperor.
Human history can easily be covered by nature, but archaeologists like Marsano can use drones and LIDAR and Muon Tomography to uncover our past.
A new winged robot helps explain why airborne insects are so doggone hard to swat.
Scientists have wondered how these tiny pilots pull off such rapid twists and turns, but researchers haven’t been able to test all their ideas by monitoring real insects or using tethered robots. Now, a free-flying, insect-inspired robot, described in the Sept. 14 Science, gives researchers an alternative. Programming the bot with different flight control strategies and comparing its movement with real animal flights could reveal which techniques winged insects and other creatures use for airborne acrobatics.
The new robot can control how much it turns or rolls to the left or right — or pitches forward or backward — by precisely adjusting the flapping speed and angles of its wings. The bot is nimble enough to zip around at about 25 kilometers per hour and do aerial somersaults.
Matěj Karásek, a bioinspired roboticist at Delft University of Technology in the Netherlands, and colleagues used the robot to investigate how fruit flies execute rapid banked turns. The researchers had suspected a fruit fly doesn’t make these hairpin turns by intentionally turning to the left or right. Instead, the team thought that simply rolling to the side and pitching forward or backward would angle the insect in the proper direction. Their experiments with the bot supported this theory. When Karásek’s team programmed the robot to roll and pitch, but not to point itself left or right, the bot’s banked turns closely resembled those of real fruit flies.
This flapping robot could also help examine the flight methods of other animals, such as hummingbirds. Or it could be used for search-and-rescue jobs, building inspections or pollinating plants inside greenhouses, Karásek says.
SMOOTH MOVES
A nimble, insect-inspired bot that twirls and zips around in the lab could help scientists better understand how winged animals weave through the air.
Strange Two Kilometer Long Strip of Structures Unearthed By Melting Ice In Antarctica
Strange Two Kilometer Long Strip of Structures Unearthed By Melting Ice In Antarctica
A two-kilometer series of 22 eerie-looking buildings was unveiled by the thawing of ice in Antarctica - leading to the assertion that the installation was a fail-safe for the global elite or a World War III landing site.
Coordinates for unknown base Latitude 75° 0'46.98"S Longitude 0° 4'52.71"E
Experts say the bizarre-looking series of buildings is the size of a small town - and seems to have been buried for years.
North of the settlement deep in Antarctica, where temperatures can drop to -130F (-90C), there seems to be a runway, and the entire area is covered with apparent vehicle tracks.
According to a researcher who deals with the unexplained, the nearest official scientific research station is Troll, a Norwegian research station at Jutulsessen, 200 miles northeast of the structure near the Princess Martha Coast in Queen Maud's Land of Norway.
Ce sujet peut être dense et, pour certains, il peut sembler tiré par les cheveux. Cependant, en vérité, ces sujets peuvent avoir un impact significatif sur notre vie présente et future.
Imaginez un instant que des centaines de vaisseaux spatiaux et de sphères géantes, de la taille d’une planète, soient entrés dans notre système solaire. Quelle pourrait être la réaction ? De toute évidence, de tels événements ne se produisent généralement pas de façon régulière (du moins pas à notre connaissance). Par conséquent, les images que nous sommes sur le point de voir peuvent avoir un impact particulier pour nous.
Mise au point avant de commencer :
Avant de commencer, il est important de noter que bien que tout ce dont nous allons discuter soit basé sur des possibilités scientifiques, seul une partie des éléments sont vérifiés. Toutes les informations ne peuvent être pertinentes que pour notre propre spéculation personnelle. Si ces révélations s’avèrent vraies, elles pourraient mener à plusieurs changements très importants sur notre planète et au-delà. Certains éléments sont factuels et d’autres sont de l’ordre du «croisement d’infos» Cela étant dit, commençons les analyses!
Pour commencer la discussion, remontons les pendules à l’année 2012.
Tornades solaires :
Au début de 2012, les scientifiques étaient occupés à observer notre soleil pendant qu’il subissait son cycle de maximum solaire. Naturellement, de nombreux articles et commentaires ont été publiés à l’époque sur le thème des changements solaires et des diverses anomalies entourant le cycle solaire. Certaines de ces publications provenaient de sources officielles et d’autres de sources indépendantes. En général, cependant, toutes ces publications ont piqué la curiosité d’une grande partie du public américain.
L’une de ces sources officielles, Helioviewer, est devenue particulièrement populaire en raison de sa capacité à publier certains des plus beaux gros plans de notre soleil de SOHO(Solar and Heliosperic Observatory). Bien que plusieurs de ces images soient assez impressionnantes, l’une d’entre elles semblait révéler beaucoup plus que ce que l’astronomie conventionnelle pourrait vouloir admettre.
Vus souvenez-vous avoir vu cette image ? Nous savons que l’image provient du réseau télescopique SOHO et qu’elle a été présentée comme information officielle à l’époque, bien qu’il semble que, comme par hasard, le lien original ne fonctionne plus.
À l’époque, le sujet que les astronomes appelaient les tornades solaires était un sujet brûlant (petit jeu de mot ^^). Ces formations en spirale semblent avoir été le résultat de l’augmentation des énergies du soleil pendant le maximum solaire. Ces anomalies étaient assez impressionnantes, car chacune était en fait plusieurs fois plus grande que la Terre elle-même. Cependant, ces tornades ont en fait partagé la scène avec un autre phénomène remarquable.
Regardez à nouveau l’image. À quoi la tornade est-elle liée ? Tout porte à croire qu’il s’agit d’un objet sphérique invisible et pourtant parfaitement défini relié à la tornade. Si cet objet est réel, il éclipserait facilement la Terre. Il semble avoir la taille de Neptune ou même de Jupiter par rapport au soleil.
Si cette image est réelle, que pourrait-elle être ? Mettons ce mystère de côté pour un instant et considérons ce que nous savons de notre situation actuelle sur Terre.
7 Observatoires Solaires fermés simultanément :
La journée du 6 septembre a commencé par un incident très étrange impliquant le FBI qui a soudainement fermé un observatoire solaire à Sunspot, au Nouveau Mexique. Les médias n’ont pas expliqué pourquoi le FBI s’est soudainement pointé avec un hélicoptère «Blackhawk» et a fermé cet observatoire universitaire ainsi que la Poste qui est localisé à quelques centaines de mètres. Les autorités n’ont fait aucun commentaire, et les citoyens qui vivent à proximité de Sunspot ne semblaient guère au courant des raisons possibles de la fermeture. La police locale est également laissée dans l’ignorance totale.
Observatoire Solaire à Sunspot, au Nouveau Mexique
Selon une recherche en ligne, les données en direct de 6 autres observatoires solaires du monde entier semblent avoir été coupées exactement le même jour, peut-être seulement quelques heures avant ou après l’Observatoire AURA à Sunspot. Cela concerne les observatoires suivants : Australie (Network Dome Camera located in Sydney), Chili (SOAR Observatory), Espagne (BRT Tenerife Telescope), Hawaii (observatory at the University of Hawaii Hilo et Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope observatory), et Pennsylvanie (JAT Observatory)
Il serait compréhensible qu’un ou deux de ces flux soit interrompu périodiquement, étant donné que l’entretien régulier du matériel de streaming doit généralement être effectué. Cependant, il semble que les flux provenant de plusieurs pays se soient tous arrêtés presque en même temps (apparemment à quelques heures d’intervalle), laissant de nombreux astronomes professionnels dans l’impossibilité de voir les changements possibles autour de notre Soleil.
Depuis au moins une journée, nous n’avons que peu ou pas de données scientifiques enregistrées pendant ce qui pourrait être une «tempête géomagnétique importante». Dans des circonstances normales, il n’y aurait rien d’intéressant à cacher face à une tempête solaire comme celle-ci. La tempête n’était pas si puissante que ça et il ne semblait pas y avoir eu quoi que ce soit de notable pour qu’une agence comme le FBI aurait voulu la cacher. Cela peut nous amener à croire que quelque chose d’autre pourrait se produire à l’intérieur ou peut-être autour de notre soleil.
Apparition «d’Ovnis» proche du Soleil :
Le 11 septembre 2018, Maria G. Hill de Salem, Indiana, a photographié quelque chose d’extraordinaire près du soleil que l’on peut décrire comme de grands ovnis en forme de disque ainsi qu’une flotte énorme de petits ovnis qui accompagnent les ovnis massifs en forme de disque.
Gina a écrit sur son Facebook : 11 septembre 2018 à 8 h 02 Salem, Indiana.
«C’est ce qui est apparu dans mon appareil photo après que j’ai pris une photo du soleil dans le ciel dans l’est ce matin. iphone 8 avec un adaptateur d’objectif.»
L’objet rougeoyant au centre est une image quelque peu déformée du soleil. Il y a aussi des objets entourant le soleil qui sont inconnus.
Nous pouvons regarder ces petits objets tachetés et simplement supposer qu’il s’agit de particules de poussière sur l’objectif. Cependant, la forme et la disposition de la poussière sont généralement aléatoires. Ces petits objets ne le sont pas.
Ils semblent être des objets réels répartis dans l’espace tridimensionnel. Comme nous pouvons le remarquer, les objets de l’image centrale ci-dessus semblent tous avoir le même point de fuite à l’intérieur de l’image, ce qui m’amène à soupçonner que l’image représente une zone très volumineuse, comme l’espace extérieur.
Certaines images semblent représenter des objets identiques ou similaires aux autres. Il n’y a aucun moyen pour nous de déterminer les relations de taille, car nous ne savons pas ce que nous regardons réellement. Nous ne connaissons pas non plus la distance entre ces objets et le soleil. Cependant, à partir de l’image ci-dessus à gauche (F), nous voyons ce qui semble être une sorte de couronne ou ce qui pourrait être comparé à un choc d’arc solaire entourant chaque objet du côté tourné vers le soleil de chaque objet.
Si ces objets étaient des vaisseaux avancés d’une sorte ou d’une autre, nous pourrions nous attendre à voir quelque chose de très similaire – de grands vaisseaux voyageant par leur propre force tout en étant secoués par l’explosion des vents solaires.
En plus de ces objets plus petits, nous voyons ce qui semble être d’énormes sphères transparentes réparties en de multiples endroits sur chaque image. Si celles-ci ne représentent pas des taches sur une lentille. Ces images semblent dépeindre les sphères transparentes familières dont nous avons vu des images dans des photographies astronomiques officielles passées.
Remarquez comment, dans certaines de ces images, la lumière du soleil brille plus brillamment du côté des sphères les plus proches du soleil, tout comme on pourrait s’attendre à le voir sur un objet sphérique physique, transparent et légèrement opaque.
Cela me rappelle cette magnifique vidéo bien plus ancienne :
Un extrait de la mission STS-75 (navette spatiale Columbia – lancée le 22 février 1996) tiré des Archives Martyn Stubbs de la NASA :
Corrélation avec COBRA :
Cobra a publié des codes pour le Mouvement Résistance, comme il le fait souvent et deux de ces codes se lisaient comme suit : «L’invasion du domaine L2 a commencé» / «VITRIOL Keyhole activée» et «ALT4Y4LOC2».
Décryptage :
1) Dans le code donné plus haut à savoir «ALT4Y4LOC2» a été publié le 1er septembre et on peut reconnaitre «LOC» qui fait référence au «Lunar Operation Command» donc à des opération sur des bases lunaire militaires.
2) Le code «L1 domain invasion started» (L’invasion du domaine L1 a commencé) a été publié le 9 semptembre.
L1 étant un point de Lagrange : plus d’infos sur ce lien :
Ces deux codes importants on été donc publié le 1er et le 9 septembre donc quelques jours avant les fermetures des observatoires solaires et les observations «d’OVNIS». Cobra avait annoncé que les Forces Galactiques bienveillantes avançaient vers l’espace sublunaire et que d’autres Forces nouvelles arrivaient dans le système solaire au fur et à mesure que la Cabale est retirée et que les bombes Toplets ( bombes à Quark ) sont retirées.
Corrélation avec «L’Événement Céleste» de QAnon :
Pour ceux qui ont suivi la source QAnon (source confirmée par cobra avec 70 % d’informations véridiques), ce sujet pourrait être quelque peu familier. Cependant, pour ceux qui ne l’ont pas encore fait, je vais faire un bref rappel.
La source d’information QAnon est arrivé sur la scène publique vers octobre 2017. À l’époque, cette source était affichée sur l’obscur site Web, 4Chan, et ne semblait pas très importante. Ce n’est que lorsque Q a commencé à afficher ce qui semblait être des prédictions suggérées d’événements mondiaux majeurs que davantage de gens ont commencé à s’en rendre compte. Puis, lorsque certaines de ces prédictions ont commencé à se réaliser, une grande partie du public américain a vraiment commencé à comprendre.
S’agit t-il d’une prédiction de cet arrivage massif d’ovnis ? Ou une référence à l’événementdont parle Cobra et d’autres ? S’agit t’il d’un code qui n’a rien à voir ?
Mise à jour du 16 /09 2018 : La FEMA aux USA va tester pour la première fois une «Alerte présidentielle» :
Il ne s’agit pas d’un message politique, mais d’un message d’urgence envoyé par le président Donald Trump dans le cadre du système de l’Agence fédérale de gestion des urgences pour prévenir le public en cas d’urgence nationale.
La majorité des utilisateurs de téléphones cellulaires recevront une alerte le jeudi 20 septembre, avec l’en-tête «Alerte présidentielle» et le message «C’EST UN TEST du Système national d’alerte d’urgence sans fil. Aucune action n’est nécessaire.»
WEA a été techniquement lancé en avril 2012, mais ce sera la première fois que la FEMA testera le système au niveau présidentiel dans l’espoir de résoudre les problèmes, a déclaré l’agence dans un communiqué de presse cette semaine.
Plus de 100 opérateurs téléphonique, dont les plus grands (Verizon, AT&T, Sprint, T-Mobile), participeront au test d’alerte d’urgence, selon la FEMA.
La FEMA effectuera également un test de son système d’alerte d’urgence (EAS) pour les radiodiffuseurs et les télédiffuseurs le même jour, deux minutes après le test de la WEA.
( Note ExoPortail : Ce genre de message sont généralement envoyé pour alerter d’une catastrophe naturelle, attaque terroriste ou, je cite, «tout autre situation d’urgence» )
Nous connaissons tous la discipline scientifique de l’astronomie. Bien que intéressante, l’astronomie dominante a tendance à être ennuyeuse, immuable et prévisible. Cependant, au sein de la communauté alternative, l’astronomie prend souvent une toute nouvelle dimension de possibilité.
Selon de nombreux dénonciateurs qui sont très populaires au sein de ces communautés, l’univers ne se compose pas seulement d’énergie électromagnétique. L’univers est également fondé sur l’énergie électroplasmique, et cette énergie est devenue la nouvelle base d’une grande partie de la version holistique et avant-gardiste de l’astrophysique.
Essentiellement, les étoiles ne sont pas simplement des boules de gaz qui brûlent ou fusionnent. Ce sont des générateurs électroplasmiques ainsi que des champs soutenus de ce que l’on appelle l’énergie de torsion. Nous ne parlerons pas de la physique des torsions pour gagner du temps. Pour l’instant, abordons ce sujet des étoiles électroplasmiques.
Selon la science de pointe, les étoiles se composent d’un noyau chargé négativement et d’un trou noir entouré d’une couronne chargée positivement. Ces composants interagissent avec l’espace-temps d’une manière très intéressante. Cependant, pour garder l’explication simple, nous dirons simplement que le noyau et la couronne travaillent ensemble pour créer une fusion nucléaire à la surface.
De plus, cette dynamique peut en fait se comporter comme une passerelle hyperdimensionnelle. Selon les témoignages de dénonciateurs et les révélations astronomiques courantes, il existe naturellement des liens à haute énergie entre les étoiles, qui traversent généralement de grandes distances dans l’espace. Ce sujet a été couvert par le site Web, le Daily Mail, parmi beaucoup d’autres, et il est assez détaillé et implicite. Examinons la situation.
Les astronomes ont exposé de nouvelles preuves qui renforcent la croyance en l’interconnexion entre les planètes et les galaxies dans le système solaire.
Le Dr Stephan Keller de l’École de recherche en astronomie et en astrophysique de l’Université nationale australienne a révélé les détails complexes des résultats, qui relient l’Univers entier.
Il a dit :
«En examinant la position d’anciens groupes d’étoiles, appelés amas globulaires, nous avons découvert que les amas forment un plan étroit autour de la Voie lactée au lieu d’être dispersés dans le ciel»
Bien que l’astronomie dominante puisse laisser beaucoup à désirer, pour la plupart, elle semble prouver le point ci-dessus plutôt correctement. Des étoiles, des planètes et des galaxies entières sont en fait reliées par ces filaments cosmiques qui peuvent être aussi vieux que chacune de ces galaxies elles-mêmes.
Bien que la science dominante suppose généralement que l’univers est dans un état constant de déséquilibre et de désintégration (ce qui est largement inexact d’après des découvertes scientifiques plus récentes), la réalité de cette connectivité énergétique dans notre univers suggère le contraire. Non seulement notre univers présente des preuves d’une fonction soutenue et équilibrée, mais il présente un potentiel intrinsèque et omniprésent d’évolution dans l’ensemble du cosmos.
Civilisations de type II
Beaucoup d’entre nous connaissent peut-être le travail d’un astrophysicien célèbre, le Dr Nikolia Kardashev. Kardashev est peut-être mieux connu pour ses expériences révolutionnaires dans la recherche d’une vie ET intelligente au moyen de divers signaux cosmiques provenant de l’espace lointain. Bien qu’il soit né en avance sur son temps, Kardashev a ouvert plusieurs pistes importantes dans le domaine de l’astrophysique.
Nikolia Kardashev était également connu pour ses théories sur les civilisations ET. Bref, il a mis au point une échelle – maintenant connue sous le nom d’échelle de Kardashev – qui pourrait nous aider à déterminer le niveau de développement technologique possible d’une civilisation.
Consommations énergétiques estimées des trois types de civilisations définies par l’échelle de Kardachev
Une civilisation de Type II – peut exploiter la puissance de leur étoile entière (non seulement transformer la lumière des étoiles en énergie, mais contrôler l’étoile). Plusieurs méthodes ont été proposées à cet effet. La plus populaire est l’hypothétique «Sphère Dyson». Ce dispositif, si vous voulez l’appeler ainsi, engloberait chaque centimètre de l’étoile, rassemblant la plus grande partie (sinon la totalité) de son énergie produite et la transférant sur une planète pour une utilisation ultérieure. Alternativement, si l’énergie de fusion (le mécanisme qui alimente les étoiles) avait été maîtrisée par la course, un réacteur à une échelle vraiment immense pourrait être utilisé pour satisfaire leurs besoins. Les géants gaziers voisins peuvent être utilisés pour leur hydrogène, lentement drainé de la vie par un réacteur en orbite.
Que la raison soit en rapport à des Ovnis ou à une activité absolument anormale du soleil, ou un « corps étranger », il se passe définitivement quelque chose avec la zone proche du soleil que les autorités ne veulent pas que l’on voit. J’espère que l’analyse vous aura intéressé, en continuant à suivre cette affaire.
Uniquement pour les articles m’ayant demandé beaucoup de temps et de travail, j’offre la possibilité de me soutenir par un Don si l’article vous à intéressé. Bien sur il n’y a aucune obligation, ni même de montants et l’article reste consultable gratuitement ainsi qu’en intégralité. Ceci est donc à votre convenance et à votre gentillesse.
History is amazing. It gives a peak and an insight into the whereabouts and future alike. However, it can be deceptive at times as well. Indeed, there have been instances when the facts about the royalty, repressive clan, elite or the despots, have been lied about, in accordance with the suitability.
As of present the phenomenon is continuing. History has pitfalls which indicate a disparate focus. Here are some pointers which instigate on the same:
So, there has been a map found in 1513 by Piri Reis. He was the admiral in the 16th century of a Turkish fleet. This map depicts Antarctica to be free of ice; the same is applicable for coastline of America. This cannot be possible. Especially, since apparently Antarctica had ice on it for millions of years! Yet again, the map utilizes math and the longitude and latitude system. While, the fact is that the latter was delved by Professor Charles Hapggod and ascertained that at that time, nothing of the sort ever existed.
piri-map The Piri Reis map shows the western coast of Africa, the eastern coast of South America, and the northern coast of Antarctica.
Pyramids have always welcomed queries, speculation and utmost fantasy. The author Semir Osmanagic discovery of the pyramids in Bosnia to be over 25,000 years old is indeed mind boggling. Again, the Egyptologists do not abide by this at all. It is indeed surprising that how is this possible, when the first civilization of humanity appeared 6,000 years ago.
The pyramids of Bosnia are hills, was claimed by an Egyptologist. But, the physicist Slobodan Mizrak has recorded high electromagnetic intervals at the tip, which is no ways a natural occurrence. In fact, the archaeologists have also taken concrete from the pyramid and tested them. In accordance with the tests, the construction material was witnessed to be 5 times stronger than ever analyzed by the PUT, Polytechnical University of Turin. Since, when have hills been made of such strong materials!
Studies suggest the pyramids in Bosnia are covered in soil aged around 12-15,000 years old
It has been said and claimed by the historians time and again that the first civilization dates back to 6,000 years ago. However, The Great Sphinx of Giza has been witnessed of having 15,000 years of water erosion, even when it is one of the driest places in the world. Indeed, the findings and claims do not match!
And, it is not done yet!
So, there is the statue of Ramses II, nestled in Luxor in Egypt. Fabricated of red granite, its density level is equivalent to quartz crystal. The statue is an epitome of sacred geometry and advanced mathematics. It is really surprising as to how the ancient Egyptians managed that with the hand tools. In fact, the archeologist Christopher Dunn documented and presented evidence that the Egyptians could not have made these.
The statue of Ramses II is an epitome of sacred geometry and advanced mathematics.
And, there are lies not just about the archeology there is much more to it.
So, every individual thinks that Hitler escaped his bunker. However, it has recently been unfurled by the FBI that he lived into his 70s in Argentina. In the year 1999 it was the US Government found guilty of the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr. So, do not just believe in history blind folded. There is a lot which remains to be explored and questioned.
How NASA's Mission to 'Touch the Sun' May Reveal Clues About Alien Worlds
How NASA's Mission to 'Touch the Sun' May Reveal Clues About Alien Worlds
By Meghan Bartels, Space.com Senior Writer
An artist's depiction of a so-called "hot Jupiter"-type planet orbiting a star of about the same size as our sun.
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech
NASA's new mission to the sun may reveal clues about alien worlds, too.
Every day, we rely on the sun for warmth and light, but we need Earth's atmosphere to protect us from our star's harsh conditions — and because in the end our sun is just another star, the same could be true of life on other worlds, planetary scientists told Space.com.
That means studying our sun up close could teach us about planets in distant solar systems as well. And a NASA mission may soon begin to do just that: This fall, the Parker Solar Probe, which launched in August, will start investigating how our star works. Exoplanet scientists are watching the mission to see what data it might offer them about exotic worlds. [Launch Photos! NASA's Parker Solar Probe Blasts Off to the Sun]
"We can learn so much from our sun and particularly for other sun-like stars," Evgenya Shkolnik, an astrophysicist and planetary scientist at Arizona State University, told Space.com. In particular, she wants a better sense of the high-energy particles and photons, or particles of light, stars produce. "It's critically important to understand all these things for exoplanet hosts, for sure," she said.
We know about the dangers of those particles and photons from our own experiences here on Earth, where the planet's atmosphere buffers us from the worst side effects of living near the sun: Only with extreme sunbathing do we absorb enough ultraviolet radiation to damage the DNA inside our cells enough to potentially kill us with cancer, and only during the most extreme solar outbursts, called coronal mass ejections, do its highly charged particles overwhelm Earth's magnetic field and thus interfere with our technology.
If an exoplanet is less fortunate in its natural protections or in its star's temperament, those high-energy particles and photons could be the deciding factors in an exoplanet's habitability, said Ravi Kopparapu, a planetary scientist at NASA. Even if a planet develops an atmosphere, if it's bombarded by too many stellar particles, that barrage can destroy the atmosphere. "They can strip away the atmosphere and then make the planet uninhabitable," Kopparapu told Space.com.
But both types of high-energy outflow are incredibly difficult to study at a distance — hence the appeal of piggybacking on the Parker Solar Probe.
The spacecraft's path through the sun's broiling outer atmosphere will allow it to get within 4 million miles (6 million kilometers) from what we consider the sun's surface — about the same distance many exoplanets are from their stars, Shkolnik said. In fact, in her lectures about these planets, she edits images of the solar eclipse and planet depictions to convey the incredible environment around these planets.
"I show the corona and put fake exoplanets in there because it is amazing to think that these planets are actually streaming through their suns' coronae," Shkolnik said. Many of those planets are what scientists have dubbed "hot Jupiters" and are uninhabitably gaseous themselves — but that might not be the end of the story.
"There is talk of whether or not moons around these hot Jupiters could be habitable," Shkolnik said. (Scientists haven't discovered any such moons yet, but they're still honing their ability to spot planets, which are much larger.) "That's not a crazy thought, because we think that the moons of Jupiter and Saturn might be places to look for life in our solar system," Shkolnik said.
So Shkolnik is watching for the data Earth's solar probe will beam home beginning later this year, in hopes of using it to isolate information about habitability near at least other sun-like stars. "I won't know how hard or easy that analysis will be until I see the data," she said. [The 7 Earth-Sized Planets of TRAPPIST-1 in Pictures]
And high-energy radiation like ultraviolet light doesn't just potentially destroy ill-shielded life; it can also trick scientists into thinking someplace is more lively than it really is. That's because ultraviolet radiation can break down water and create oxygen, one of the key molecules scientists look for as a potential signature of life. Extrapolating data from the Parker Solar Probe may stop scientists from being fooled by these fake biosignatures, Kopparapu said.
Perhaps most valuable will be any understanding the spacecraft can give us of how the sun's dynamics are shaped by its magnetic field, which seems to guide much of what happens in and around a star.
"Somehow, it's all related to the sun's magnetic field," Shkolnik said. "Even if we don't have the details, we know that much."
India Unveils Its Own Spacesuit Design for 2022 Astronaut Flights
India Unveils Its Own Spacesuit Design for 2022 Astronaut Flights
By Meghan Bartels, Space.com Senior Writer
India's space agency is designing a spacesuit for its astronauts to wear on trips off Earth; this spacesuit was displayed in August.
Credit: Pallava Bagla/Corbis/Getty
The Indian Space Research Organisation showed off the spacesuit it has designed in-house for its first human space missions at an event held on Sept. 6.
The display comes weeks after the country announced an ambitious timeline to launch its first crewed mission by 2022 in time to commemorate the 75th anniversary of the country's independence. The human-spaceflight program is called Gaganyaan and will build on the legacy of India's first astronaut, Rakesh Sharma, who flew in 1984. But this time, India is developing every aspect of the program, which means tackling problems like spacesuit design. [The Evolution of the Spacesuit in Photos]
According to reports by Indian news publications, the agency has already manufactured two of the bright-orange suits and will build a third before crewed flights begin. During the presentation last week, a suit was displayed with text explaining that it is made of four layers and weighs less than 11 lbs. (5 kilograms).
The spacesuits, which have been in the works for two years, are each equipped with an oxygen cylinder that can support an astronaut for an hour, local reports added.
The first crewed flight in the program is expected to last between five and seven days and carry three astronauts into orbit.
NASA Plans to Build a Moon-Orbiting Space Station: Here's What You Should Know
NASA Plans to Build a Moon-Orbiting Space Station: Here's What You Should Know
By Mike Wall, Space.com Senior Writer
NASA is planning a deep-space habitat around the moon called the Lunar Orbiting Platform Gateway, as the next destination for astronauts. The cis-lunar space station will be a waypoint for future missions to the moon and beyond.
Credit: NASA
You've probably heard about the moon-orbiting space station that NASA plans to start building in the next half-decade.
This outpost, known as the Lunar Orbital Platform-Gateway, will help humanity extend its footprint out into deep space and also enable a variety of interesting scientific and commercial activities on and around the moon, NASA officials have said.
But maybe you're a little hazy on the details of the Gateway (a much nicer shorthand than the acronym LOP-G) — what it will look like, for example, or where exactly it will set up shop. If so, the following primer on the basics of this planned deep-space station should help. [21 Most Marvelous Moon Missions of All Time]
A small outpost
NASA plans to build and visit the Gateway using the agency's Space Launch System (SLS) megarocket and Orion deep-space capsule, both of which are still in development.
The first piece of the 55-ton (50 metric tons) outpost, its power and propulsion element (PPE), is currently scheduled to lift off in 2022. Other key components, such as a robotic arm, a crew habitat module and an airlock, will follow in relatively short order, if all goes according to plan. The Gateway could be ready to accommodate astronauts by the mid-2020s, NASA officials have said.
Those crewmembers won't have nearly as much room to roam as they do on the 440-ton (400 metric tons), Earth-orbiting International Space Station (ISS). As currently envisioned, the Gateway will feature a minimum of 1,942 cubic feet (55 cubic meters) of habitable volume, compared to the 13,696 cubic feet (388 cubic m) on the ISS.
The ISS typically houses six crewmembers at a time, who serve missions of five to six months apiece. And these missions overlap; rotating international crews have occupied the ISS continuously lsince November of 2000.
An artist’s illustration of NASA’s planned Lunar Orbital Platform-Gateway outpost (left), being approached by an Orion spacecraft.
Credit: NASA
The Gateway, however, will support a maximum of four crewmembers at a time, and they will be more or less isolated, living and working at the station for 30- to 90-day stints. Because getting NASA astronauts out to lunar orbit will require expensive (and, therefore, relatively infrequent) SLS-Orion launches, the Gateway will likely be uninhabited for most of the year — unless other users want to take advantage of the outpost, that is.
"It doesn't have to be U.S. crew. We're trying to use interoperability standards for both the docking, power, avionics, a lot of other systems," John Guidi, deputy director of the Advanced Exploration Systems division of NASA's Human Exploration and Operations Mission Directorate, said in June during a presentation with the space agency's Future In-Space Operations (FISO) working group.
"The attempt there is to open up the ability for other nations, other companies, to dock," Guidi added. "They would have to bring their own resources. We won't have food, water, etc. available for everybody. We're just planning enough for our missions. But that is a capability we want to have in this Gateway."
There will be lots for Gateway dwellers to do. They could operate rovers on the lunar surface with virtually no commanding latency, for example, or take sorties down there themselves. And they'll doubtless conduct lots of scientific experiments aboard the outpost, just as ISS crewmembers do today. (Meanwhile, doctors and mission planners will be carefully monitoring how these astronauts cope mentally and physiologically with their deep-space environment.) [Moon Base Visions: How to Build a Lunar Colony (Photos)]
But the outpost will host and support research year-round, no matter how often astronauts visit, NASA officials have said. The agency envisions affixing a variety of scientific gear to both the interior and the exterior of the mini-station, and many of these devices will gather data autonomously.
NASA has big plans for the Lunar Orbiting Platform-Gateway, a small, moon-orbiting space station that the agency aims to start building in 2022.
Credit: NASA
A jumping-off point
The Gateway will, of course, be much more distant from Earth's surface than the ISS, which circles a mere 250 miles (400 kilometers) above our planet.
NASA plans to assemble the Gateway in a highly elliptical "near-rectilinear halo orbit," which will bring the outpost within 930 miles (1,500 km) of the lunar surface at closest approach and as far away as 43,500 miles (70,000 km). (Reminder, the moon lies about 238,900 miles, or 384,400 km, from Earth on average.)
This six-day orbit will keep the Gateway out of the moon's shadow at all times, permitting constant communication with Earth, NASA officials have said. And with this orbit, the outpost can serve as a jumping-off point, both for landers headed down to the lunar surface and for vehicles venturing out into deep space.
"We eventually want to go to Mars, and the systems that are going to take crew to Mars and back are going to be fairly large — very large," Guidi said.
As much as possible, NASA wants to avoid having to haul this heavy gear out of Earth's deep gravity well, to make Red Planet treks more efficient and cost-effective, Guidi added. And the Gateway should be able to help with that.
"So, we're thinking if we can use the SLS-Orion to take us to cislunar space, [in other words, to] go to the Gateway, we can move the Gateway a little bit in orbit — and the PPE is capable of doing that — dock to Mars-type transportation-habitation systems and send them off," Guidi said. Then, when those craft return, they can "again rely on SLS-Orion to make the link between the lunar environment and home," he said.
Step by step
The ball is already rolling on Gateway hardware design. For example, NASA expects to announce the prime contractor for the PPE in March of next year.
And five different companies — Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman, Bigelow Aerospace, Boeing and Sierra Nevada Corp. — are scheduled to deliver "ground prototypes" of their proposed habitat modules for testing sometime next year. (NASA is also negotiating with a sixth potential habitat-module contractor, NanoRacks, agency officials have said.)
If everything works out, NASA astronauts could set foot on the moon before the end of the 2020s, Guidi said. This goal is in keeping with President Donald Trump's Space Policy Directive 1, which instructs the agency to set up a long-term, sustainable outpost on the lunar surface.
That same directive also makes clear, however, that humanity's push out into the solar system should not end at the moon.
"Mars is still important. It's still the long-term goal," Guidi said. "But the near-term focus is more about our neighbor in cislunar space."
Scientists are pushing the limits of 3D printing with these shape-shifting materials
Scientists are pushing the limits of 3D printing with these shape-shifting materials
The tech could be used to create magnetically controlled implants or "soft robots."
by Tom Metcalfe
MIT researchers are developing 3D-printed materials that can change their shape in response to changes in magnetic fields.
Ben Gruber / Reuters file
Three-dimensional printing has been used to create all sorts of things, from car parts and experimental rocket engines to entire houses. Now scientists at MIT have found a way to 3D print objects that can change shape almost instantaneously in response to magnetic fields.
So far the researchers have created a few demonstration objects with the new technology, which uses plastic “3D ink” infused with tiny iron particles and an electromagnet-equipped printing nozzle. These include a plastic sheet that folds and unfolds, a star-shaped object that can catch a ball and a six-pointed structure that scrunches up and crawls like a spider.
But the researchers see broad applications for small shape-changing devices — what some call "soft robots" — especially in medicine.
“You can imagine this technology being used in minimally invasive surgeries,” said Xuanhe Zhao, a professor of engineering at MIT and a member of the team that developed the 3D-printed shape-shifting technology. “A self-steering catheter inside a blood vessel, for example — now you can use external magnetic fields to accurately steer the catheter.”
Other uses could include magnetically controlled implants to control the flow of blood, and devices that could be guided by magnet through the body — to take pictures, clear a blockage or deliver drugs to a specific location, Zhao said.
The technology might one day make it possible to 3D print entire soft robots, Zhao said. These could have information stored as magnetic data directly inside their structural materials, instead of needing additional electronics.
“The MIT soft robotics development is very cool ... It's an important step in terms of being able to control materials,” said Jim McGuffin-Cawley, an engineering and materials science professor at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, who was not involved with the MIT project. He noted that the technology allows researchers to make precise changes to the shape-shifting materials by using magnetic fields to control very small moving parts inside the materials themselves.
MIT is releasing free software and a recipe for its magnetic ink so that other scientists around the world can use the technology and print their own shape-shifting materials, Zhao said.
“With these three components they can design their own untethered, fast-transforming soft robots,” he said. “We hope this method can find very important applications in the fields of soft robotics [and] materials.”
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SETI Neural Networks Spot Dozens Of New Mysterious Signals Emanating From Distant Galaxy
SETI Neural Networks Spot Dozens Of New Mysterious Signals Emanating From Distant Galaxy
The perennial optimists at the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence, or SETI, have joined the rest of the world in deploying AI to help manage huge data sets — and their efforts almost instantly bore fruit. Seventy-two new “fast radio bursts” from a mysteriously noisy galaxy 3 billion miles away were discovered in previously analyzed data by using a custom machine learning model.
To be clear, this isn’t Morse code or encrypted instructions to build a teleporter, à la Contact, or at least not that we know of. But these fast radio bursts, or FRBs, are poorly understood and may very well represent, at the very least, some hitherto unobserved cosmic phenomenon. FRB 121102 is the only stellar object known to give off the signals regularly, and so is the target of continued observation.
The data comes from the Green Bank Telescope in West Virginia (above), which was pointed toward this source of fast and bright (hence the name) bursts for five hours in August of 2017. Believe it or not, that five-hour session yielded 400 terabytes of transmission data.
Initial “standard” algorithms identified 21 FRBs, all happening in one hour’s worth of the observations. But Gerry Zhang, a graduate student at UC Berkeley and part of the Breakthrough Listen project, created a convolutional neural network system that would theoretically scour the data set more effectively. Sure enough, the machine learning model picked out 72 more FRBs in the same period.
A Berkeley GIF visualizing the data of a series of bursts.
That’s quite an improvement, though it’s worth noting that without manual and traditional methods to find an initial set of interesting data, we would have little with which to train such neural networks. They’re complementary tools; one is not necessarily succeeding the other.
The paper on the discoveries, co-authored by Cal postdoc Vishal Gajjar, is due to be published in the Astrophysical Journal. Breakthrough Listen is one of the initiatives funded by billionaires Yuri and Julia Milner, of mail.ru and DST fame. The organization posted its own press release for the work.
The new data suggests that the signals are not being received in any kind of pattern we can determine, at least no pattern longer than 10 milliseconds. That may sound discouraging, but it’s just as important to rule things out as it is to find something new.
“Gerry’s work is exciting not just because it helps us understand the dynamic behavior of FRBs in more detail, but also because of the promise it shows for using machine learning to detect signals missed by classical algorithms,” explained Berkeley’s Andrew Siemion, who leads the SETI research center there and is principal investigator for Breakthrough Listen.
And if we’re being imaginative, there’s no reason some hyper-advanced civilization couldn’t cram a bunch of interesting info into such short bursts, or use a pattern we haven’t yet grokked. We don’t know what we don’t know, after all.
Whatever the case, SETI and Breakthrough will continue to keep their antennas fastened on FRB 121102. Even if they don’t turn out to be alien SOS signals, it’s good solid science. You can keep up with the Berkeley SETI center’s work right here.
On Saturn’s small moon Enceladus, perpetual fountains of alien seawater launch all sorts of curious stuff into space: water, salt, silica, and even simple carbon-containing compounds fly into the void—many of which are ingredients for life as we know it.
Now, scientists working with data from a dead spacecraft have discovered something even more potentially intriguing: heavy organic compounds containing hundreds of atoms arranged in rings and chains. These are the most complex organic molecules uncovered so far at Enceladus, and—sorry, Europa—they may make the moon the most promising place in our solar system to search for life beyond Earth.
“What we know today is telling us that Enceladus is an outstanding target to go look for life, and there may be microbes living in that ocean today,” says Cornell University’s Jonathan Lunine.
SATURN 101
How did the rings around Saturn form? How many moons does the planet have? See stunning NASA images of the gas giant studied by Christian Huygens and Giovanni Cassini.
Discovered by the Saturn-exploring Cassini spacecraft in late 2005, icy jets erupting from Enceladus were a surprise to most scientists. Blasting through fissures in the south polar region, the jets contain seawater from a global ocean locked beneath the moon’s icy shell. Over the years, scientists have been able to study those jets and calculate the salinity and acidity of the ocean, identify ejected organic compounds such as methane, and determine that hydrothermal vents in the seafloor are providing heat and energy.
But these newly detected complex molecules spin that story forward and raise questions about whether they’re the work of lifeless chemistry or a sign pointing toward alien life.
“We cannot decide this hundred-million-dollar question, but it certainly shows that something is going on there, that complex organic chemistry is happening and that we can probe it from space,” says Frank Postberg of the University of Heidelberg, lead author on the paper describing the results today in the journal Nature.
“The moon freely delivers its organic inventory at high concentrations to the Cassini spacecraft. That’s just an amazing finding.”
Saturn's icy moon Enceladus sinks behind the planet in a farewell portrait from NASA's Cassini spacecraft, which destroyed itself by diving into the ringed giant on September 15, 2017.
Cassini's very last image shows the region on Saturn's night side where the probe entered the planet's atmosphere, sealing its fate. Here, the planet's swirling clouds glow with light reflected from its rings.
PHOTOGRAPH BY NASA, JPL- CALTECH, SPACE SCIENCE INSTITUTE
Cassini captured this picture of majestic Saturn and its famed rings as the NASA spacecraft hurtled toward its doom on September 14, 2017.
PHOTOGRAPH BY NASA, JPL-CALTECH, SPACE SCIENCE INSTITUTE
Cassini gets one of the closest, most detailed views of Saturn's rings during the final phase of its mission.
PHOTOGRAPH BY NASA, JPL-CLATECH, SPACE SCIENCE INSTITUE
Enceladus appears as a thin crescent under the bright bulk of Saturn in this Cassini image released on September 14.
PHOTOGRAPH BY NASA, JPL-CALTECH, SPACE SCIENCE INSTITUTE
The rings of Saturn lay sprawled against the cosmos in one of the last images from Cassini.
PHOTOGRAPH BY NASA, JPL-CALTECH, SPACE SCIENCE INSTITUTE
Saturn takes center stage in this Cassini image taken mere hours before the end of the mission.
PHOTOGRAPH BY NASA, JPL-CALTECH, SPACE SCIENCE INSTITUTE
Saturn's wide but thin rings seem almost solid enough to skate across in this unprocessed picture from Cassini.
PHOTOGRAPH BY NASA, JPL-CALTECH, SPACE SCIENCE INSTITUTE
As part of ts farewell tour, Cassini took this picture of Saturn's largest moon, Titan.
PHOTOGRAPH BY NASA, JPL-CALTECH, SPACE SCIENCE INSTITUTE
A closeup of frigid Titan reveals dark splotches that Cassini revealed are lakes of liquid hydrocarbons.
PHOTOGRAPH BY NASA, JPL-CALTECH, SPACE SCIENCE INSTITUTE
That includes information Cassini gathered while flying near the planet’s E ring. Thin and diaphanous, this ribbon is formed by dust and ice ejected by Enceladus. As Cassini skirted the E ring’s edge, some of its particles collided with an onboard instrument designed specifically to study cosmic dust and return information about its ingredients.
Postberg and his colleagues decided to look at data gathered during E ring flybys between 2004 and 2008, when the instrument was least contaminated by interplanetary dust from elsewhere in the solar system. Over 15 separate intervals, the spacecraft collected and studied about ten thousand dust particles. And in roughly one percent of those, Postberg and his colleagues identified the signatures of complex organic compounds.
“It was kind of a needle in a haystack problem,” he says.
Clinging to grains of water ice ejected by Enceladus, these heavy, carbon-containing molecules had been launched into space, just waiting for Cassini to come by and collect them upon impact. What’s more, the large compounds are likely fragments of even larger parent molecules that could weigh thousands of atomic mass units, Postberg says.
Floating Film
It’s the first time such heavy organics have been identified at Enceladus. Previously, Cassini detected lighter, gassy molecules such as methane and ethane, which contain one or two carbon atoms and a smattering of hydrogens; these molecules weigh in at around 15 atomic mass units.
But the newly detected molecules are as heavy as 200 atomic mass units and comprise anywhere between seven and 15 carbon atoms, handfuls of hydrogens, as well as nitrogen and oxygen.
“While we have found large molecules outside of Earth before, this is the first time they have been detected emerging from a liquid water ocean,” says Morgan Cable of NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, who looks for life in improbable places on Earth. (Recently, scientists also found complex organics on cold, dry Mars.)
“Many large organic molecules are not stable in liquid water for extended periods of time, so one of the next questions to ask is, where are these organic molecules coming from?”
Postberg and his colleagues think it’s likely that newly formed heavy organics rise to the top of the moon’s buried ocean and end up floating in a layer near areas where water erupts from fissures at the south pole. There, they stick to ice grains that are carried into space by bubbles rising from the seafloor to the surface.
“Our oceans have a thin film of organic molecules floating on top—think 'oil slick' but made up of life and its byproducts—that covers the ocean to a significant extent,” Cable says. “Now it seems that Enceladus has this too. But is it also made by life?”
Lying in Wait
Though tantalizing, this soup of carbon-containing riches is not an indication of life yet. Many processes could have crafted such structures in the absence of extraterrestrial metabolisms.
“Are they being made by abiotic processing at the bottom of the ocean, where the rock and water meet, or are they the waste products of microbes? That’s the question, with a capital Q,” Lunine says.
Fundamentally, the molecular soup tells scientists that the environment beneath Enceladus’s icy shell is capable of extremely complex chemistries. Whether those reactions are completely independent of life and fueled simply by chemistry and geology, are part of a prebiotic mix from which life could one day emerge, are currently building alien microbes, or are perhaps the waste products of extraterrestrial lifeforms already living in the Enceladian sea is still unknown.
Fractures in the icy shell snake along the south polar region of Enceladus in this Cassini picture.
PHOTOGRAPH BY NASA, JPL-CALTECH/SPACE SCIENCE INSTITUTE
“We should try to go back to Enceladus as soon as we can,” Lunine says. “It’s waiting for us. It’s not going anywhere, and think of all that microbial poo that could be spewed out into space and analyzed today.”
The instruments needed to answer these questions already exist—all it takes is a return trip. One such mission, designed by Lunine and his colleagues and called the Enceladus Life Finder, could have flown in the near future. But NASA declined to fund the project.
Soon, though, a fleet of spacecraft will be sent to explore another icy ocean world: Europa, which orbits Jupiter. Scientists don’t yet know what kinds of chemistry take place in that alien sea, or if the ingredients needed for life as we know it are similarly abundant.
For now, Enceladus will have to wait. And so will scientists, who will continue hoping that maybe someday soon, they won’t need to mine archival data to answer one of humanity’s most pressing questions, and instead coax this promising astrobiological target into revealing its secrets in real time.
Ruimteobservatorium dat middelpunt is van buitenaards complot vraagt om geduld. Ondertussen zijn webcams van deze andere observatoria uitgeschakeld
Ruimteobservatorium dat middelpunt is van buitenaards complot vraagt om geduld. Ondertussen zijn webcams van deze andere observatoria uitgeschakeld
Een ruimteobservatorium dat het middelpunt is van complottheorieën over aliens en dat nog steeds gesloten is, heeft mensen gevraagd om ‘geduld’ te hebben.
Het Sunspot Solar Observatory in Sunspot in New Mexico trok de aandacht toen het werd gesloten door FBI-agenten, die naar verluidt aankwamen in mysterieuze Blackhawk-helikopters.
Dit leidde tot suggesties dat het observatorium iets vreemds had ontdekt, zoals buitenaardsen of UFO’s.
Veiligheidsprobleem
Het observatorium is slechts een kleine 200 kilometer verwijderd van de plek waar het Roswellincident plaatsvond.
De FBI wilde alleen kwijt dat het gebouw was ontruimd vanwege een ‘veiligheidsprobleem’.
In de dagen erna liet de lokale sheriff weten dat hij geen idee heeft wat er aan de hand is. Ondertussen blijft het gebouw dicht.
Geheim
De National Solar Observatory (NSO), die het ruimteobservatorium beheert, schreef op Facebook dat het gebouw uit voorzorg tijdelijk is ontruimd.
Veel Facebookgebruikers vroegen waarom de NSO de feiten geheim blijft houden. Velen hadden het over complottheorieën over aliens of speculeerden dat er iets vreemds aan de hand is met de zon.
“Waarom vertellen jullie ons niet gewoon wat er aan de hand is?” schreef iemand. “De FBI moet eerlijk zijn.”
Opvallend is dat ook andere zonne- en ruimtecamera’s buiten werking zijn, aldus Zero Hedge. Het gaat daarbij om:
Een sterrenwacht of observatorium is een instituut van waaruit sterren en andere hemellichamen worden bekeken en bestudeerd. Er wordt onderscheid gemaakt tussen professionele sterrenwachten en volks- of publiekssterrenwachten. In Amerika is een observatorium (National Solar Observatory) dat zich uitsluitend bezighoudt met het bestuderen van de zon. De hoofdvestiging hiervan bevindt zich in Boulder, Colorado, en er zijn een tweetal andere vestigingen waarvan er één zich bevindt in de plaats Sunspot in New Mexico en de andere in Kitt Peak in Arizona.
Nu was er iets bijzonders aan de hand bij het observatorium in Sunspot vorige week.
Sinds die tijd is er een storm aan speculaties losgebarsten over wat nu wel niet de reden is van het , in grote haast, sluiten van dit obsevatorium.
Sheriff Benny House vertelde dat de FBI razendsnel te werk ging, compleet met een Black Hawkhelikopter en teams met mensen die bezig waren met antennes en dergelijke. Hij vertelde geen flauw idee te hebben waarom de FBI zo snel hierbij werd betrokken.
Het feit dat de FBI zo snel kwam, betekent dat de tijdfactor in dit hele verhaal belangrijk is. De FBI werd erbij gehaald om te zorgen dat het observatorium heel snel werd gesloten, zodat niemand nog dingen vanuit de gebouwen kon communiceren met de buitenwereld. Ze hebben ook de gebouwen uitgekamd om te zorgen dat er geen verborgen USB sticks of iets dergelijks achterbleven waardoor men misschien een indicatie zou kunnen krijgen over de reden van de sluiting.
Eén van de theorieën die de ronde doen is dat men door het observeren van de zon heeft ontdekt dat we een soort echte mini ijstijd tegemoet gaan en dat dit iets is, dat niet in het officiële verhaal past en dat men er daarom alles aan heeft gedaan om alle bewijsmateriaal daar weg te halen. Het is tenslotte een observatorium dat zich bezighoudt met de zon, dus wat het ook is, grote kans dat het iets te maken heeft met de zon.
In de volgende video zie je hoe een vader en zoon voorbij de afzetting gaan en het terrein opwandelen.
Wat ze zien is verbazingwekkend. Auto’s staan overal alsof ze plotseling in de steek zijn gelaten, deuren van de gebouwen zijn open en je kunt zo naar binnen lopen. Ook uit de beelden blijkt dat mensen daar in grote haast zijn vertrokken.
En plots zien ze in een prullenbak een DVD van het X-Files spel Unrestricted Access liggen.
Terwijl ze verder rondlopen, ruiken ze een vreemde lucht en krijgen een beetje beklemmend gevoel. Het doet allemaal onwerkelijk aan, alsof je rondloopt in een spookstad.
Ook Tyler van Secureteam is nog druk aan het speculeren over wat het zou kunnen zijn en in zijn video hieronder zie je beelden van het complex die gemaakt zijn vanuit een drone. Op een gegeven moment heeft Tyler het over twee mannen die hij ziet lopen en vraagt zich af welke lui dat wel niet zullen zijn en of ze misschien gewapend zijn.
Die twee zijn waarschijnlijk de twee mannen uit de video hierboven, want die horen op een gegeven moment een drone als ze daar lopen.
Kortom, verwarring alom en het mysterie blijft voorlopig voortduren.
Het Engelse werkwoord to woord cloak betekent verbergen, het niet zichtbaar zijn en dat is wat er regelmatig gebeurt met UFO’s.
Vaak zien ze eruit als een wolk in een lucht waar op je op dat moment eigenlijk helemaal geen wolk zou verwachten en ook in Nederland worden dit soort UFO’s waargenomen.
De meeste mensen kijken naar de grond als ze over straat lopen of op het scherm van hun smartphone. Wanneer ze wat meer naar de lucht zouden kijken, dan is er grote kans dat er veel meer vreemde dingen waargenomen zouden worden.
Door de jaren heen zijn hier talloze artikelen verschenen over hoe ze zich vermommen, cloaken, en dat het liefst in wolken.
Het navolgende is een ervaring van een lezer (dank!) en kan ook anderen misschien helpen om sneller vreemde zaken in het luchtruim te ontdekken:
Ik lees zojuist dit artikel op jullie site en kan hierin relateren. Het onderwerp "UFO's" heeft mij sinds mijn jeugd geboeid en door de loop der jaren er veel artikelen over gelezen, documentaires en de nodige "UFO" filmpjes gekeken. Ben nu in de dertig dus heb redelijk wat jaren in de materie kunnen duiken.
Persoonlijk vind ik maar enkele van de talloze filmpjes interessant (overtuigend zeg ik dus niet) vanwege de veelal arme kwaliteit van de meeste filmpjes en om enigzins sceptisch/gereserveerd te blijven i.r.t. wat er allemaal mogelijk is met foto/video bewerking of ik noem maar iets als lens-flares / halo's.
Voor mijzelf hou ik het op een combinatie van logisch relativeren c.q. een rationale motivering vinden op "wetenschap" en "feiten" gebaseerd en dat er meer tussen hemel en aarde bestaat.
De filmpjes die mij meestal boeiden waren de filmpjes waarin gecloakte objecten zich in wolken bevonden en met de wolken meebewogen of de wolken met hen...
Of "gecloakte" objecten hoog in de lucht die binnen enkele minuten een heel wolkenpakket om hun heen kregen, een smoke-screen zeg maar. Vroeg mij altijd af en hoopte er eigenlijk op dat ik dit ooit zelf met eigen ogen zou mogen aanschouwen.
Wat bedoel ik met gecloakte objecten voor de beeldvorming ? Cloaking als in de films Predator. De contouren van meestal schotel of delta-vormen zijn flauw zichtbaar vanuit een bepaalde hoek en waarschijnlijk lichtval (ben geen expert) waarbij je door of voorbij iets lijkt te kijken maar er bevindt zich degelijk wat.
Met cloaking is men best ver zoals jullie zelf ongetwijfeld weten maar in deze "ufo"-films gaat het om objecten die enkele honderden meters tot een paar kilometer wijd kunnen zijn.
Eind februari 2015 reed ik terug van Zwolle richting het West-Friesland door de polders en over de Markerwaarddijk. Al snel vielen mij enkele enorme schotelvormige gaten in het wolkendek op waarvan ik schatte dat die boven Noord Holland dreven in ik meen Zuid of Zuidwestelijke richting.
Het eerste waar ik aan dacht was de film Independence Day : het moment voordat de UFO's door het wolkendek breken en daarna aan die filmpjes van gecloakte objecten in de lucht.
Eenmaal thuis en op dit onderwerp zoekende leerde ik dat dit werd verklaard als het verschijnsel "Pilotengaten". Ik ben geen expert en probeer zoals gezegd alles tegen elkaar af te wegen dus ik hield het voor mijzelf op 55% dat het voor ons onbekende gecloakte objecten waren en 45% op "Pilotengaten" gerealiseerd door normale vliegtuigen.
De rit van het Oosten naar het Westen duurde langer als een uur en gedurende die tijd had ik goed zicht op de "Pilotengaten". Voor mijn beeld bleven de vormen in het wolkendek redelijk stabiel tijdens de gehele rit. De eerste keer in mijn leven dat ik dit fenomeen had gezien en sindsdien geen "Pilotengaten" meer gezien.
Wat ik later apart vond was het feit dat ik 2 gaten had gezien terwijl het luchtruim op diverse hoogtes over het IJsselmeer / Noordwest Nederland door tig vliegtuigen worden gebruikt (ervan uitgaande dat de gaten in deze contreien waren ontstaan). Ik hield het erop dat het misschien zou kunnen dat onder bepaalde omstandigheden en op een bepaald tijdstip deze twee specifieke "Pilotengaten" echt door vliegtuigen waren gemaakt, de 45% kans :)
2 maanden later zag ik op internet artikelen voorbij komen omtrent "mysterieuze zwarte ringen" die wereldwijd opeens in de lucht verschenen en na verloop van tijd weer oplosten. De filmpjes hiervan vond ik zeer intrigerend en redelijk geloofwaardig.
Okee, zwarte ringen in de lucht zijn geen "reguliere UFO's" maar het is de inleiding tot het volgende :
Circa 2 maanden na het zien van filmpjes over deze "zwarte ringen" was ik op zoek naar artikelen / filmpjes van de Pilotengaten die ik toen in februari had gezien in de lucht.
Tijdens het bekijken van de zoekresultaten viel het mij op dat heel recent links waren gepost met UFO en Utrecht in de titel. Ik klikken en het betroffen opnamen van een "zwarte ring" in de lucht boven Utrecht.... ! Dat terwijl er een paar maanden geleden dus redelijk wat meldingen over de hele wereld waren i.r.t. "zwarte ringen" in de lucht.
De verklaring voor deze "zwarte ring" zou uiteindelijk zijn dat deze afkomstig waren van een toneelstuk, te weten : The Day After. Kan zo zijn, heb het stuk niet bezocht maar er was best wat vuur en rook als ik de trailer van dit toneelstuk zo zag dus het zou kunnen.
Terwijl ik zo zat te zoeken leerde ik dat er zich een "UFO" bevindt te Utrecht op het gebouw de "Inktpot" als overblijfsel van een expositie op hoogte. Nooit geweten en ik vond het wel grappig. Niet om een verband te zoeken met de "zwarte UFO ring" boven Utrecht of iets dergelijks, gewoon grappig maar uiteindelijk wel twee aparte gebeurtenissen die 1e helft van 2015 in de lucht i.r.t. UFO-onderwerp i.m.o.
Nu weet ik helaas niet meer of het vorig jaar of het jaar daarvoor was maar ik zat op een dag op mijn balkon (3 hoog) 's-middags een sigaret te roken met een bakkie thee. De lucht was bijna vrij van wolken in de richting waar ik naar keek en 50 meter tegenover mij staat een gebouw van 3 hoog en daarover heen kijk je onbelemmerd de lucht in richting het Zuidoosten.
Tijdens het kijken naar de lucht viel het mij op dat ik lijnen zag in de verte in het luchtruim nabij de enkele wolken die er waren en die in de wolken opgingen. Ik ging mij focussen en ik was echt flabbergasted toen ik de contouren zag van een gecloakt object in de lucht.
Geen "Pilotengaten" maar dit was the real deal ! Ik zat enkele minuten met complete verbazing in de lucht te kijken. Op alleen zicht schatte ik in dat het ongeveer boven het Markermeer / Flevoland / Provincie Utrecht hing, op welke hoogte ook lastig om in te schatten maar toch minimaal al wel een aantal honderden meters tot een paar kilometer als ik het als zodanig vanaf mijn positie in West-Friesland kon aanschouwen.
Ik zag het object van opzij als het ware en het leek mij een delta-vorm te hebben. Ook het formaat was bizar, inschattend misschien richting een kilometer of wat meer lang. Zoals ik al zei is het lastig om afstanden en dimensies in te schatten van iets wat zich tientallen kilometers ver weg kan bevinden op een x-hoogte maar dat dat ding groot was... daar ben ik 100% zeker van.
Het was echt heel lastig om te zien en je moest je echt wel focussen en ook weten waar je naar zoekt maar ik kon toch niet de enigste zijn ? Zelfs met steeds meer mensen die naar de grond (telefoon) kijken moest minimaal 1 iemand dit ook hebben gezien ? Ik naar binnen en daarna weer naar buiten.
Ik was al overtuigd dat wat ik had gezien echt was maar ik nam toch even break. Weer terug op mijn balkon en focussen in de lucht en het was er nog steeds in de verte. Het bewoog zich langzaam voort en toen viel ik in de volgende fase van verbazing...
Het luchtruim was zoals gezegd goed vrij van wolken m.u.v. de wolken die nu voor een kwart het gecloakte object verhulden. In een mum van een paar minuten tijd ontstonden er nog meer wolken om het gecloakte object heen en was niet meer zichtbaar.
Het wolkenpakket wat zich had gevormd op de plek van het object bewoog nu net zo langzaam in dezelfde richting als waar ik net tevoren het object had zien gaan. Precies zoals hoe ik in het verleden de weinige voor mij redelijk geloofwaardige filmpjes van gecloakte objecten in wolken had bekeken op het internet.
Of het om Mensen / Aliens / andere entiteiten of een combi gaat wil ik mij niet aan wagen. Mijn wens was vervuld, ik had nu zeker weten een "UFO" gezien.
Maar dan kan er toch iemand tegen aan vliegen als het een kilometer of meer lang is ? Zoals hoe ik stealth / camouflage / cloaking begrijp wil je niet op de radar of met het oog zichtbaar zijn van de diverse luchtverkeersleidingen maar toch moeten er vliegtuigen worden omgeleid om niet tegen zo'n gevaarte te knallen dus er moeten insiders zijn, dat lijkt mij goed mogelijk.
Hologrammen etc. laat ik achterwege als optie want anders wordt het te langdradig wat het eigenlijk al is geworden :)
Niet gefilmd ? Stom genoeg heb ik het inderdaad niet geprobeerd of er eigenlijk niet eens aan gedacht waar ik later spijt van had. Ging daarna op bezoek bij mijn ouders en heb nog een aantal minuten in hun tuin gestaan kijkende in het luchtruim en het hele verhaal uitleggende aan mijn pa en hopende dat het weer opdook zodat ik het kon laten zien aan mijn vader.
Die weet dat ik af en toe in ben voor een geintje maar hij wist dat ik op dat moment over wat ik had gezien bloed serieus was dus hij liet mij mijn ding in de tuin doen totdat ik het na een tijdje had opgegeven.
Dat dus mijn persoonlijk relaas omtrent een gecloakt, ik meen deltavormig object van een kilometer of langer in het luchtruim van Nederland.
It was fun poling holes in the recent story about a tiny hole poked in the International Space Station which an astronaut held his finger over until Russian cosmonauts patched it with a modern version of chewing gum and duct tape. Funny stuff … until it was revealed that the hole was not the result of a micrometeorite impact but an accidental drill hole made by a Soyuz contractor who himself had patched it up so the capsule could pass inspection. Unfortunately, that wasn’t the end of it. Further inspections by the crew have found evidence of more mysterious drill dents and unexplained scratches … this time on the outside. Don’t shout “Aliens!” … yet.
Russian astronaut Sergei Prokopyev showed the original 'drilled hol during a video released by the space agency Roscosmos
“Traces of drilling have been found not only inside the spacecraft’s living compartment, but also on the screen of the anti-meteorite shield that covers the spacecraft from the outside and is installed 15 millimeters away from the pressure hull.”
That chilling revelation was given to the TASS news agency by “a rocket and space industry source.” Prior to plugging the two-millimeter hole discovered after pressure began to drop in the ISS on August 30th, cosmonauts conducted an extensive examination of the area surround it both inside and out. Photo and video images taken of the outer hull using an endoscope (that cheer you just heard was from gastroenterologists) showed more evidence of non-reported-or-repaired drilling.
“During the analysis of those images, traces of drilling were found on the anti-meteorite shield … the top of the drill came through the pressure hull and hit the non-gastight outer shell.”
With that discovery, the finger-pointing began. The non-gastight anti-meteorite outer shell is the last piece installed before the spacecraft is taken to the final assembly workshop. Another anonymous source (see, the Russians use them too) gives this evidence:
“When Soyuz MS-09 has just arrived to the final assembly workshop, it was photographed in details. No hole and no signs of drilling… were found. The spacecraft was drilled later, when it was fully assembled.”
Photographs of the anti-meteorite shield taken when it arrived also showed no damage. That implies the drilling scratches and dents were made at the very end of the assembly cycle or during the 90-checkout. Hmm. How did none of this get caught during the entire 90-day inspection? Have they not heard of fine-toothed combs?
The sources don’t believe the damage occurred while the Soyuz was moved to the Baikonur space center in Kazakhstan or when it was connected to the rocket and placed on the launch pad.
This additional information seems to have been released AFTER a commission consisting of specialists from Roscosmos, the Energia Rocket and Space Corporation and the Central Research Institute of Machine-Building completed their investigation and Roscosmos director general Dmitry Rogozin said the damaged materials would be studied “for as long as it takes” but “within reasonable limits.”
Within reasonable limits? This is the only vehicle in use for transporting crew member to and from the ISS. Would he feel the same way if it was a NASA-made capsule … or Musk-made? How quickly would they bring up the pot-smoking? NASA chief Jim Bridenstine contacted his Russian counterpart and offered assistance to continue the investigation, identify all of the parties involved in this serious problem and insure that the crew can return safely.
Sergei Prokopyev (pictured) explained on a video released Monday by the Russian space agency Roscosmos how the crew last week located and sealed the tiny hole that created a slight loss of pressure
It’s not aliens. However, if it’s someone paying the contractor to sabotage the ship or the ISS, who might that be? And why?
Roscosmos director Dmitry Rogozin said that the hole could have been drilled during manufacturing or while in orbit. He did not say if he suspected any of the current crew of three Americans, two Russians and a German aboard the station (pictured)
Mysterious moon swirls have finally been explained
Mysterious moon swirls have finally been explained
"This was the final piece in the puzzle of understanding the magnetism that underlies these lunar swirls."
by Chelsea Gohd
Light and dark markings swirl over the moon, looking like cream swirled into coffee or clouds against a slate gray sky. These lunar swirls may result from ancient, magnetic lava just below the moon's surface, according to one new study.
A joint study between researchers at Rutgers University and the University of California, Berkeley, pointed to the moon's internally generated magnetic field and past volcanic activity to explain the lunar swirls.
An image of the Reiner Gamma lunar swirl from NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter.NASA LRO WAC science team
Researchers have known for some time that lunar swirls share space with localized magnetic fields and that when those fields deflect particles from solar wind, parts of the moon's surface weather more slowly than other parts. "But the cause of those magnetic fields, and thus of the swirls themselves, had long been a mystery," Sonia Tikoo, co-author of the study and a researcher at Rutgers University-New Brunswick's Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences, said in a statement. "To solve it, we had to find out what kind of geological feature could produce these magnetic fields — and why their magnetism is so powerful."
The researchers developed mathematical models for these localized fields, or "geological magnets" as they're described in the statement. These models showed that each lunar swirl must exist above a narrow, magnetic object located just below the lunar surface.
Even stranger, researchers think that these subsurface magnetic objects are ancient, long, narrow lava tubes formed by flowing lava or lava dikes, which are vertical sheets of magma in the crust of a moon or planet. Past experiments have shown that, when heated above 1,112 degrees Fahrenheit (600 degrees Celsius) in a zero-oxygen environment, certain minerals in moon rocks break down and release metallic iron, making the rocks extremely magnetic.
So, when the moon was erupting lava over 3 billion years ago, these magnetic lava tubes or lava dikes were likely created and became highly magnetic as they cooled down, according to the statement
Sonia Tikoo, co-author of a new study explaining lunar swirls and researcher at Rutgers University's Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences, looks at moon rock samples in a petri dish.
"No one had thought about this reaction in terms of explaining these unusually strong magnetic features on the moon," Tikoo said in the statement, referring to the lava becoming magnetic moon rock under the surface and causing lunar swirls. "This was the final piece in the puzzle of understanding the magnetism that underlies these lunar swirls."
This study was published July 26 in the Journal of Geophysical Research: Planets.
Are we truly alone in the cosmos? New study casts doubt on rise of alien life in our galaxy
Are we truly alone in the cosmos? New study casts doubt on rise of alien life in our galaxy
The Milky Way may be vast, but some scientists suggest that we are the galaxy's only inhabitants.
by Seth Shostak
A recent study titled "Dissolving the Fermi Paradox" suggests that we may be alone in the galaxy.
ViewStock / Getty Images
It’s something people tell me all the time, and usually in hushed tones: “With a trillion planets out there, we really can’t be the only intelligent beings in the galaxy.” In other words, given the enormous amount of real estate in space, aliens are sure to exist. So why haven’t we found any?
I don’t dispute this straightforward idea because, after all, it underpins the search for extraterrestrial intelligence (SETI). But not everyone agrees. A recent paper by three researchers at the University of Oxford is throwing shade on those who feel confident that the cosmos is thick with extraterrestrials.
The Oxford academics were addressing a puzzle known as the Fermi Paradox, which describes the disconnect between our expectation of many worlds swarming with aliens and the fact that they remain undiscovered. Nearly 70 years ago, the celebrated physicist Enrico Fermi mouthed a deceptively simple question: “Where is everybody?” He made a quick estimate of how long it would take for any society bent on building an empire to colonize the entire Milky Way and realized it was only a few tens of millions of years, which is nearly 1,000 times shorter than the age of the galaxy.
This raised an obvious problem: There’s been more than enough time for aliens to spread out, and yet we don’t see them.
Perhaps the Fermi Paradox is keeping you awake at night. If so, the Oxford scientists offer some succor. The source of your discomfort, they say, could be your inflated estimate of how many alien societies might be out there.
To make such estimates, nearly everyone deploys the Drake Equation — a simple formula that was cooked up by astronomer Frank Drake in 1961. It reckons how frequently intelligent species arise by multiplying the probability that biology will appear with the likelihood that it will become smart enough to develop science and technology.
Most people who wield the Drake Equation simply suppose (which is to say, guess) the values of its terms. For example, they might say that the chance that microbes will eventually bubble out of the primordial soup of a watery planet is between one and 10 percent. But the Oxford scientists rightly point out that we really don’t know this percentage with any degree of accuracy. It could be that the probability that biology will arise is many orders of magnitude less. Similar issues apply for some of the other terms in the Drake Equation.
If we own up to the true extent of these uncertainties and do the requisite math, the Oxford study finds that there’s at least a 53 percent chance that we’re alone in the Milky Way and at least a 40 percent chance that we’re alone in the visible universe. Homo sapiens could be the smartest thing going.
This result, they claim, melts the Fermi Paradox like butter on a hot griddle — maybe no one has colonized the galaxy because no one else inhabits it.
Perhaps now you can sleep better. If so, great, but I can’t.
While there’s no arguing against the fact that many of the steps that lead to intelligent creatures have unknown and possibly very low probabilities, that situation could change soon. The discovery of microbes on one of the moons of Jupiter or Saturn — something that might happen while you still have your teeth — would strongly boost the chance of finding life elsewhere, and essentially guarantee that biology is as universal as door dings in a parking garage. At that point, the analysis by the Oxford team could itself dissolve.
Frankly, exploration is seldom done well on blackboards. For 2,000 years academics argued over the possibility that a continent-size land mass sat at the bottom of the globe. The ancient Greeks suggested that this was required by symmetry, which may have qualified as a good idea in 350 B.C. A better, if less optimistic, argument could have been made in the year 1600 by noting that all of the waters of the southern Atlantic and Pacific Oceans explored to date were known to be devoid of any large polar continent. Since these two sprawling bodies of water cover 55 million square miles, whereas a land mass the size of Antarctica is 5 million square miles, the a priori chances were more than 10-to-one against there being a continent just out of sight to the south.
Obviously this analysis would have been wrong, but it demonstrates that you don’t make new discoveries by computing probabilities, only by investigating — by actually doing an experiment. In the case of the Antarctica hypothesis, that meant sending ships south.
We can try to reckon the odds of success in our hunt for cosmic confreres. That’s always worthwhile. But, such exercises should not deter us from an actual search.
Dr. Seth Shostak is senior astronomer at the SETI Institute in Mountain View, California and host of the “Big Picture Science” podcast.
Google Maps est l’un des endroits préférés des ufologues pour dénicher des OVNIS en visite sur notre planète. Le dernier cas en date nous vient du Brésil où des internautes pensent avoir découvert un objet volant non identifié sur une image de Google Street View.
Alors véritable OVNI, ou simple objet terrestre ?
Un OVNI dans le ciel brésilien ?
La photo a été prise au-dessus du Parque Eloy Chaves, situé à Jundiaí, dans l’État de São Paulo, au Brésil. L’objet doré est bien visible au loin dans le ciel bleu dégagé, et il fait effectivement penser à un vaisseau volant. La photo du mystérieux objet récupérée sur Google Street View a très vite été partagée des milliers de fois sur les réseaux sociaux et les commentaires ont abondé.
Évidemment, les ufologues pensent avoir découvert une énième preuve de l’existence des extraterrestres et de leur grand intérêt pour notre planète. Pourtant, l’étrange objet sur cette photo prise au-dessus de la Avenida Luiz José Sereno, sur la Estrada da Ermida, pourrait être une simple anomalie dans la prise de vue des cameras de Google.
Et ce ne serait pas la première fois que cela arrive.
Un simple bug logiciel plutôt qu’un OVNI
L’idée que des soucoupes volantes survolent la Terre est très excitante, mais l’explication de ces « phénomènes » pourrait être bien plus simple en réalité. Ce que beaucoup d’ufologues prennent pour un OVNI pourrait en effet être simplement un ballon, un cerf volant, un débris transporté par le vent, ou un bug graphique du logiciel de Google. Et oui, même les services du géant Google n’échappent pas aux bugs !
En effet pour modéliser le monde, la société utilise ses Google Cars qui parcourent la planète pour prendre des clichés de tous les endroits. Et pour ce faire, les Google Cars n’utilisent pas une seule caméra mais plusieurs à la fois. Un algorithme développé par Google se charge ensuite de les assembler. C’est justement à ce stade que des bugs ou des artefacts se glissent parfois dans les images de Maps.
Il arrive aussi que de la poussière ou de la matière organique se dépose sur les lentilles des caméras de Google, donnant lieu à d’étranges tâches qu’on pourrait prendre pour des objets extraterrestres. Un problème que corrigent en général les algorithmes de Google. Mais il arrive que certaines passent entre les mailles du filet. Les ufologues ont ainsi reporté au fil des ans de nombreux supposés « OVNI » dans les images de Maps.
D’autres cas de prétendus OVNI reportés dans Google Maps
En juin dernier, la chaîne YouTube spécialisée dans le paranormal et les « phénomènes étranges et inexpliqués », NowYouKnow, a publié une vidéo montrant une étrange tache ovale photographiée dans le ciel de la province de Neuquen par Google Earth. Nous en avions parlé dans cet article. Malheureusement, Google a actualisé ses clichés de Street View et le supposé OVNI n’est plus visible.
En mai 2018, une tache similaire avait été découverte dans Google Maps par un ufologue du nom de Pedro Ramirez. Ce qui Ramirez a considéré comme « un vaisseau construit par une civilisation extraterrestre avancée » a été photographié au-dessus de Punalu’u Black Sand Beach, une des plus célèbres plages de Hawaï. Mais il y a de grande chance que le supposé OVNI soit en réalité une tâche causée par un dépôt de poussière sur l’optique de la caméra de Google, un drone ou simplement un débris emporté par le vent.
Plusieurs clichés de Google Maps supposés montrer des vaisseaux aliens ont également été identifiés par les ufologues sur des photos de l’Antarctique. L’ufologue russe Valentin Degterev a par exemple publié une photoqui selon lui montre le site du crash d’un vaisseau extraterrestre. Une allégation démentie par Andrew Flemming, un chercheur travaillant pour le British Antarctic Survey, qui pense lui qu’il s’agit simplement d’une crevasse comme on en trouve beaucoup dans la région.Le même Valentin Degterev pense avoir découvert une autre preuve de l’existence des extraterrestres sur cette photo de Maps prise en Antarctique. Mais le supposé vaisseau alien pourrait bien n’être qu’un simple rocher en réalité. Vous pouvez aussi jeter un œil à cette image de Google Maps où des internautes pensent reconnaître les restes d’une soucoupe volante… qui se serait écrasée en Antarctique.
NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory spacecraft captured this image of a giant hole (dark patch at top) in the sun's outer atmosphere, or corona, on Sept. 11, 2018.
Credit: NASA/SDO
The northern lights just got a boost thanks to a big hole in the sun's atmosphere, and there could be something of a repeat showing tonight.
A moderate geomagnetic storm made flickering auroras visible to skywatchers as far south as Minnesota and Wisconsin early this morning (Sept. 11), according to Spaceweather.com.
That storm was triggered by an especially potent and fast-moving burst of solar wind — the stream of charged particles flowing constantly from the sun — which escaped through a gaping hole in the sun's outer atmosphere, known as the corona.
The northern and southern lights result when such particles slam into molecules high up in Earth's atmosphere, generating a glow. Earth's magnetic field channels these particles toward the planet's poles, which explains why the auroras are usually restricted to high latitudes. But special circumstances — such as coronal holes and giant explosions of solar plasma called coronal mass ejections — can extend the intensity and the reach of these dazzling light displays.
A moderate geomagnetic storm brought the northern lights within sight of skywatchers as far south as Minnesota and Wisconsin in the early morning hours of Sept. 11, 2018.
Credit: NOAA/SWPC
The geomagnetic storm responsible for this morning's ramp-up is now subsiding, Spaceweather.com reported. But there's still a 70 percent chance of minor storming through tomorrow (Sept. 12), according to forecasters with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's Space Weather Prediction Center.
So, look up tonight if you live in the upper Midwest, New England, the Pacific Northwest or somewhere else along similar latitude lines — you may just get lucky!
Scientists do not yet know what causes the mysterious fast radio bursts, but a form of alien transportation has been suggested.
Image:The mysterious signals were found in data collected by the Green Bank Telescope in the US
By Alexander J Martin, science & tech reporter
Scientists searching for extraterrestrial life say they have spotted 72 mysterious signals from an alien galaxy using artificial intelligence (AI).
The researchers at the SETI (Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence) Institute discovered the unusual signals when examining 400 terabytes of radio data from a dwarf galaxy three billion light years away from Earth.
Almost all artificial intelligence technology involves automating data analysis, combing through huge data sets to identify patterns or unusual occurrences.
The signals they spotted - fast radio bursts (FRBs) - are bright and quick pulses which were first discovered in 2007 and are believed to come from distant galaxies, although it is not yet know what causes them.
"The nature of the object emitting them is unknown," SETI said, adding: "There are many theories, including that they could be the signatures of technology developed by extraterrestrial intelligent life."
Last year, scientists at Harvard University suggested that FRBs could result from energy leaks from powerful transmitters built by alien civilisations in order to send giant light sail ships on interstellar voyages.
A light sail would use the tiny amount of pressure exerted by light to produce a small but constant acceleration which allows a spacecraft to reach a great speed.
The FRBs were detected in data collected by the Green Bank Telescope, part of the US Radio Quiet Zone, where wireless communications signals are banned to prevent interference with the telescopes.
Gerry Zhang, a PhD student at Berkeley, developed the machine-learning algorithm used to examine the 400tb of data, in which another researcher had already identified 21 FRBs.
"Gerry's work is exciting not just because it helps us understand the dynamic behavior of FRBs in more detail," said SETI's Dr Andrew Siemion, "but also because of the promise it shows for using machine learning to detect signals missed by classical algorithms."
Dr Siemion added: "These new techniques are already improving our sensitivity to signals from extraterrestrial technologies."
The results of their research have been accepted for publication in the Astrophysical Journal.
Newfound Alien World May Bridge Rare Gap in Planet Types
Newfound Alien World May Bridge Rare Gap in Planet Types
By Doris Elin Salazar, Space.com Contributor
A size comparison of the Earth, Wolf 503b and Neptune. The color blue for Wolf 503b is imaginary; nothing is yet known about the atmosphere or surface of the planet.
Credit: Robert Simmon (Terre), NASA/JPL (Neptune)/NASA Goddard
A student who began her master's degree in May partnered with an international team of researchers to discover a special cosmic neighbor twice the size of Earth.
Graduate student Merrin Peterson and a team of Canadian, German and American scientists used data from NASA's Kepler telescope to study Wolf 503b, a planet located 145 light-years away in the patch of sky where the constellation Virgo is visible.
Peterson, a student at the Institute for Research on Exoplanets (iREx) at the University of Montreal, said in a Sept. 6 statement released by the university that the discovery of this world happened rather quickly. The find occurred after she and her adviser, Björn Benneke, ran a program in May 2018 to find "interesting exoplanet candidates'' from a recent release of Kepler data, she said. [10 Expoplanets That Could Host Alien Life]
According to the statement, exoplanet Wolf 503b orbits an old "orange dwarf" star slightly dimmer than the sun, and goes around it quite closely and quickly — every six days. Wolf 503b is also fascinating because there's nothing in our solar system quite like it for comparison, according to university officials. Its size puts the exoplanet in a scientific sweet spot — Wolf 503b is in the zone where it might be a rocky "super-Earth," or gaseous like a "sub-Neptune."
Merrin Peterson, an Institute for Research on Exoplanets (iREx) graduate student who started her master’s degree at the University of Montreal in May 2018.
Credit: University of Montreal
Kepler has studied the radii of thousands of exoplanets strewn across the universe, but because of a yet-to-be-well-understood phenomenon that researchers call the Fulton gap, there aren't many exoplanets 1.5 to 2 times the size of Earth. This is what makes additional observations of Wolf 503b — with a radius 2.03 times that of Earth — brimming with discovery potential.
Typically, these Fulton-gap planets observed by Kepler are challenging to study. They orbit distant, dim stars, according to the statement, making it hard for researchers to figure out their density, measure the wavelengths of light coming from them or investigate their atmospheres.
But this star is relatively close to Earth, making it appear brighter and riper for study.
"Wolf 503b is one of the only planets with a radius near the gap that has a star that is bright enough to be amenable to more detailed study," Benneke, also at University of Montreal, said in the statement.
An artist's concept shows the size of super-Earth 55 Cancri e compared with Earth. A ground-based telescope in Spain was able to identify 55 Cancri e, which suggests that telescopes on the ground help in the search for habitable planets around other stars.
Credit: NASA/JPL
According to Peterson, this star's proximity and brightness will help support several tests, like measuring the star's movement when tugged by the planet to determine Wolf 503b's mass. Knowing the mass will help scientists learn about the composition of our celestial neighbor. ''At its radius, if the planet has a composition similar to Earth, it would have to be about 14 times its mass," university officials said. ''If, like Neptune, it has an atmosphere rich in gas or volatiles, it would be approximately half as massive.''
And once the Jame Webb Space Telescope takes flight, scientists will be able to observe Wolf 503b for the presence of water in its atmosphere, or other chemical content. According to the research team, characterizing Wolf 503b's atmosphere will inform astronomers about what other Fulton-gap-size planets might be like.
"Wolf 503b offers a key opportunity to better understand the origin of this radius gap as well as the nature of the intriguing populations of 'super-Earths' and 'sub-Neptunes' as a whole," the study authors wrote in their paper.
The paper detailing Peterson's findings was accepted Aug. 30 for publication in The Astronomical Journal.
Are octopuses aliens? Bizarre new theory suggests the sea creatures’ eggs arrived on earth on a comet from outer space
Are octopuses aliens? Bizarre new theory suggests the sea creatures’ eggs arrived on earth on a comet from outer space
A group of 33 scientists think octopuses descend from alien material that came to earth on an icy comet
By Saqib Shah
THEY sure look strange, but could octopuses be extraterrestrials? 33 scientists think so.
From being able to switch colour and shape to guessing footie results, the eight-armed sea-dwellers aren't easy to pin down.
GETTY - CONTRIBUTOR
Have our alien overlords been living alongside us all along?
But an extraordinary new theory claims these creatures descend from organic alienmaterial that hitched a ride on an icy comet that smashed into Earth hundreds of millions of years ago.
And those touting the idea aren't tinfoil-hat-wearing loonies either.
The group of 33 happen to be researchers from reputable institutions who published their findings in an actual scientific journal.
They claim octopuses evolved from squids after the introduction of alien DNA.
GETTY - CONTRIBUTOR
33 scientists are standing by the bizarre new theory
According to the experts, the "remarkable evolution of intelligent complexity" that resulted in the emergence of the octopus 270 million years ago goes against what we know about Darwinian evolution - that it's a slow, gradual process.
They say the genes behind this ultra-fast form of natural selection don't appear to have come from an ancestral origin.
The study, published in Progress in Biophysics and Molecular Biology, claims: "The genome of the octopus shows a staggering level of complexity with 33,000 protein-coding genes more than is present in Homo sapiens.
THE SIMPSONS
Did the Simpsons already predict this theory? The show's aliens Kodos and Kang definitely look like octupuses
"Its large brain and sophisticated nervous system, camera-like eyes, flexible bodies, instantaneous camouflage via the ability to switch colour and shape are just a few of the striking features that appear suddenly on the evolutionary scene.
"The transformative genes leading from the consensus ancestral nautilus to the common cuttlefish to squid to the common octopus are not easily to be found in any pre-existing life form.
"It is plausible then to suggest they seem to be borrowed from a far distant 'future' in terms of terrestrial evolution, or more realistically from the cosmos at large."
The new paper hinges on previous ideas put forward by its authors several decades back, chief among them the Panspermia hypothesis.
This theory suggests that extraterrestrials seeded Earth's population billions of years ago when viruses, microbes and even tiny life forms arrived on our planet from outer space.
It all sounds a bit like Ridley Scott's Alien origin movie Prometheus, only swap out naked humanoid ETs for sea molluscs.
In the paper, the researchers indicate that octopus eggs were among these new forms of life that came from an alien source, hinting at why today they're so darn clever.
However, a number of other researches have gone on the record to dismiss the findings, which even the authors claim are fanciful.
These include biologist P.Z. Myers, who debunked the paper as “garbage,” and urged that the “novelties” in cephalopod evolution don't point to octopuses having originally come from another planet.
In a review of the recent study, Max Planck Institute of Molecular Genetics scientist Karin Moelling noted that there's no evidence to back up the claim that octopuses came from aliens, thus making it impossible to take the paper seriously.
She added that there are other, more simpler explanations for the so-called "Cambrian explosion", where scores of life forms appeared on earth between 485 million to 541 million years ago, reports Inquisitr.
But one thing everyone should agree on is that the insane theory makes for fun food for thought.
What animals do you think could be aliens? Let us know in the comments.
“If it looks like a duck, and quacks like a duck, we have at least to consider the possibility that we have a small aquatic bird of the family anatidae on our hands.” – Douglas Adams
Smart man, that Douglas Adams. He, of course, is the renowned and brilliant author of the Hitch Hiker’s Guide to the Galaxy stories – originally a BBC radio series, later turned wildly popular novel series and then hit movie. That quote above is from his lesser known work: Dirk Gently’s Holistic Detective Agency, also quite popular among his fans.
It’s pretty well common sense, that is, if a thing appears to be a thing, it probably is that thing. There are exceptions though. Outside of a discussion of the fallibility of our senses, the weirdness of our world quite regularly presents us with items and ideas that defy that ineffable logic above.
One such item – an item that actually belongs to a group of objects known as out-of-place-artefacts – is called the Klerksdorp Sphere (or spheres as is actually the case). Also commonly known as the grooved spheres, the Klerksdorp Spheres are what some are calling definitive proof of the advanced technological abilities of ancient (pre-historic) cultures. You might think that Erik von Däniken should have his hands in this argument, but as far as I can tell he doesn’t.
The spheres are described as small, smooth metal spheres, usually about an inch in diameter, many with concentric grooves running around their circumference. Those forwarding claims of advanced ancient technology claim that they are perfect spheres, which, if you’re familiar with sculpture you’re aware of how difficult that is to achieve. The spheres apparently vary in colour between a dark blue to varying hues of red. But their most impressive feature is that, according to some, they could not be manufactured on Earth, but rather could only be made in space. The common story is that this has been confirmed by NASA. They are said to be perfectly balanced and to be the hardest objects known to man (alternately they are claimed to only be as “hard as steel”).
The Klerksdorp Spheres
The spheres have been found by miners and rock hounds in and around a mining operation near a small town called Ottosdal, South Africa, which is owned by a local mining company called Wonderstone Ltd. Wonderstone’s primary product is a mineral called Pyrophyllite – composed of aluminum silicate hydroxide (Al2Si4O10(OH)2). Pyrophyllite is a relatively soft mineral used in manufacturing, from train brakes to aerospace technologies and even as a sculpture medium. The Wonderstone deposit is said to be somewhere between 2.8-3 billion years old, and it is inside this Pyrophyllite deposit that all of the Klerksdorp Spheres have been found.
That number is generally blamed for the confusion. The more conspiratorial among us claim that, since the Klerksdorp spheres consist of a different, much harder material than the Pyrophyllite, this means that they cannot be natural formations and if they are not natural, then they must be manufactured. Pyrophyllite is sedimentary rock which generally measures a three on the Mohs scale of hardness, while the spheres, which remain unmeasured, appear much harder (highly scientific, I know). This apparent discrepancy combined with the fact that the parent deposit of stone is roughly 3 billion years old, we have a duck that doesn’t appear to be a duck.
Add to this the story that they are perfect spheres, so highly balanced that they baffled NASA scientists, and you’ve got a ready-made out-of-place-artefact.
The problem is, much of the above is not true.
The spheres have been studied by a number of people since their first discovery, most notably Paul. V. Heinrich, Geologist and Archaeologist at Louisiana State University, and a team led by Professor of Geology at the University of Johannesburg, Bruce Cairncross. Also notably, no record exists of any NASA funded or directed study of these artefacts.
There are many photos that show (without much room for argument) that most known examples are actually not perfect spheres. In fact, many aren’t even spherical at all. They’re generally described by researchers as flattened spheres or discs. Sometimes they’re even inter-grown, like soap bubbles. Some have concentric grooves and others don’t. And as mentioned, at least insofar as no such record exists, they have never been measured for hardness (though I can’t imagine why not). But since they are quite easily broken open to reveal a well-defined internal radial structure, the contention that they are so hard they cannot be scratched, even by metal tools, is easily dismissed[1].
Another issue is, as may already be obvious, that they are not made of metal. According to Paul Heinrich – who used petrographic and x-ray diffraction analysis to determine their composition – the majority of the spheres are actually made of hematite, while some few of them consist of magnetite or wollastonite.[2]Hematite is an iron-ore mineral, the most common and important iron-ore mineral on the planet, in fact. It’s used in many manufacturing processes, though most famously in jewellery, its polished black appearance is apparently quite appealing, though its colour can range from black to silver-grey to brown and reddish-brown.
As to the question of how such hematite deposits could form inside the Pyrophyllite, and how they could emerge with such a manufactured appearance, both Cairncross and Heinrich agree, as do several other geologists, that the spheres are what’s known as volcanic concretions.
A concretion is the result of the process of precipitation of mineral cement within the spaces between sediment grains. In simpler terms, it means that the small grains of iron-ore sediment, slowly filter through the considerably larger substrate grains of the host mineral – in this case Pyrophyllite – eventually collecting in small pockets within the deposit. It most often produces small, hard, roughly spherical stones within other, softer sedimentary host materials. As with the Klerksdorp Spheres, concretions also often have characteristic grooves, which are believed to be a result of fine-grained laminations within which the concretions grew – basically, the shape of the hole in which they found themselves.[3]
Concretions on Bowling Ball Beach, south of Mendocino, CA
Now, far be it for me to tell you what’s what, but this process is really quite well-understood and documented. And there are other examples of such concretions found all around the world. There are even some that seem even more incredible than the incredible Klerksdorp Spheres, namely The Waffle Rock of West Virginia. And while some experts have claimed that it’s odd for hematite and Pyrophyllite to interact in this way, but, as with most geologic processes, it’s not outside of the realm of possibility for two such materials to meet and interact in a way that’s consistent with their own physical properties.
All of the pseudo-scientific claims surrounding these objects revolve around the notion that they could not have formed naturally. Cairncross, Heinrich, et al, seem to have lain waste to that idea. Statements these researchers have made regarding their conclusions have been twisted and distorted by tabloid journalists in years past, and have muddied the waters surrounding the mythical nature of these artefacts. But rest assured, the truth can be found with a little digging.
References.
[1] Writers at Virtuescience.com cite a quote by Roelf Marx, a member of Cairncross’ research team, which claims that the stones cannot be scratched. No original citation of these remarks seems to exist, therefore it may be erroneous. http://www.virtuescience.com/grooved-spheres.html
[2] Heinrich, P.V., 2007, South African concretions of controversy: South African Lapidary Magazine. vol. 39, no. 1, pp. 7-11.
[3] Cairncross, B., 1988, “Cosmic cannonballs” a rational explanation: The South African Lapidary Magazine. v. 30, no. 1, pp. 4-6
Jellyfish have a complicated relationship with humans: They are often feared by beachgoers because of their sting. They can get unintentionally caught up in commercial fishing nets. Some jellies can even clog intake pipes of coastal power and desalination plants, and in high concentrations, can force closures of popular beaches.
For scientists, however, jellyfish are fascinating research subjects – they play important roles in the marine ecosystem and are a key source of food for some fish and sea turtles. Some even protect commercially valuable species, such as oysters, from predators.
Whatever your view may be, many misconceptions exist about jellyfish. Let’s bust the top three myths:
Myth #1: Jellyfish are all the same species
On the contrary, there are more than 200 documented species of true jellyfish (and many more of their stinging relatives) across the globe. The environmental conditions required for each species to thrive can differ. In fact, NOAA and Smithsonian Institution scientists recently found that sea nettles in the Chesapeake Bay are considerably different than those in the open ocean and recognized it as a new species.
Myth #2: Jellyfish go after people
Not true. Any contact with jellyfish is incidental. Humans are not on their menu, but when we are in their environment we can get in the way of their tentacles. While jellyfish don’t have a brain, they can sense light and have coordinated swimming behaviors, which help keep them in good places to hunt for microscopic plants and fish eggs/larvae, or other prey like fish, worms, and crustaceans.
Myth #3: Applying urine to a jellyfish sting can reduce the pain
Perhaps the most interesting of myths, the use of urine to treat stings, has been tested and proven unhelpful. A better idea? Try an acidic liquid like vinegar. There are also several commercially available products marketed for stings.
What to do if you get stung: First, look for any tentacle adhering to skin, and flush the area well with cold ocean water. Do not rub the sting area because you could inadvertently distribute the venom further into the body. Then vinegar or evidence-based commercial product should be applied if there is continuing pain.
Image via NOAA.
Bottom line: NOAA busts three myths about jellyfish.
Massive armada of UFOs emerging out of a giant “spiral” near the sun?!
Massive armada of UFOs emerging out of a giant “spiral” near the sun?!
On September 11, 2018, Maria G. Hill from Salem, Indiana has photographed something extraordinary near the sun what can be described as large disk-shaped UFOs as well as a huge fleet of smaller UFOs that accompany the massive disk-shaped UFOs.
Gina wrote on her Facebook: September 11, 2018, 8:02 AM Salem, Indiana:
“This is what showed up in my camera after I took a picture of the sun in the eastern sky this morning. iPhone 8 with a camera lens adapter.”
“A green circular door-like object is at the center of the vortex/worm hole and a serpent snake at the top right above it, by a circular disc. I am sure this has a symbolic meaning with the snake and the disc – pictures and videos are on my timeline” she continued.
Besides, in the two videos here and here Gina talks about the massive UFO disks and the fleet of smaller UFOs.
If the objects in the images are not lens flares or objects reflecting in the lens of the camera, but massive mother ships and a fleet of smaller UFOs, then could that be the reason for the sudden shutdown of 7 solar observatories?
A bizarre, unexplained situation has unfolded in and around the tiny enclave of Sunspot, New Mexico. A week after U.S. federal government officials ordered the evacuation of the National Solar Observatory facility there, as well as a nearby post office, the first site remains closed due to a “security issue” and no one can or will say what it is.
Members of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), and potentially other federal government agencies, arrived in Sunspot on or about Sept. 7, 2018, at which point they ordered everyone out of the National Solar Observatory site, which is technically at Sacramento Peak, situated above the tiny town. They also told the clerk in the Sunsport Post Office to evacuate.
"The Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy [AURA] who manages the facility is addressing a security issue at this time," AURA spokesperson Shari Lifson, told the Alamogordo Daily News on Sept. 7, 2018. "We don’t know [when the facility will open again]."
"We are working with the proper authorities on this issue," she continued. "The local authorities do know and are aware of the situation. I don’t know when the facility was vacated but it was within the last day. It’s a temporary evacuation of the facility. We [will] open it up as soon as possible.”
NATIONAL SCIENCE FOUNDATION4The National Observatory Facility at Sacramento Peak above Sunspot, New Mexico.
This "temporary" evacuation has now lasted seven days and it's not entirely clear how much of Sunspot is still off limits, with some residents complaining about not being able to get to their homes. Lifson had no additional information when the Albuquerque Journal asked for an update on the situation on Sept. 12, 2018. The Apache Point Observatory, about half a mile away from the Sacramento Peak site, never closed and remains in operation.
Lifson might be right that local authorities know that there is a situation, but there is no indication that they know what it is specifically. No one, including AURA's spokesperson, seems to know knows for sure what law enforcement entity told people to leave the post office. Otero County Sheriff Benny House said the FBI asked him to support the initial evacuations at the observatory itself, but gave him no other information and that he and his deputies left after there was no evidence of an ongoing or imminent threat.
GOOGLE EARTH
A map showing all of Sunspot, New Mexico, with the town's post office marked to the right and the Sacramento Peak observatory facility at the lower left.
"There was a Black Hawk helicopter, a bunch of people around antennas and work crews on towers but nobody would tell us anything," Sheriff House explained tothe Alamogordo Daily News on Sept. 7, 2018. "We went up there and everything was good. There was no threat. Nobody would identify any specific threat. We hung out for a little while then we left. No reason for us to be there. Nobody would tell us what we’re supposed to be watching out for."
It's important to note that AURA has consistently described the situation was a "security issue" rather than a "risk" or a "threat," which strongly suggests the reason for the evacuations was not tied to something such as a bomb threat. Had there been a danger of some sort chemical or biological hazard, the responding officials would have been wearing suitable protective gear.
There are unconfirmed reports that some individuals were dressed as if they were responding to some sort of hazardous material spill, but it seems curious that Sherrif House would have left this detail out of his comments. That sort of incident, or even a crime such as murder, also wouldn't explain why the FBI and other federal officials would have had to descend on Sunspot, do so without apparently alerting local law enforcement or U.S. Postal Service officials in advance, and then refuse to explain the situation in any way to them. The FBI declined to even confirm or deny that it had been or was still in Sunspot to the Albuquerque Journal.
A map showing the general area around the National Solar Observatory facility at Sacramento Peak near Sunspot, New Mexico. Hollman Air Force Base is marked to the left. White Sands Missile Range is off the map, due north of Holloman.
"The Sacramento Peak Observatory serves the solar physics community as the only high-resolution solar facility with extensive spectroscopic capabilities open for community access in the United States and as a development testbed for the high-order AO [Adaptive Optics] capability needed for DKIST [Daniel K. Inouye Solar Telescope]," the National Science Foundation, which technically owns the site, said in a draft environmental impact statement that it published in February 2018. "The 4-meter Daniel K. Inouye Solar Telescope (DKIST) is currently under construction on Haleakalá in Maui, Hawai'i, and is planned to replace the function of DST [Richard B. Dunn Solar Telescope] for NSO [National Solar Observatory]."
The National Science Foundation commissioned the environmental impact survey as part of deliberations about whether to curtail operations at the site, transfer greater responsibility for the facilities to another entity, or shutter it all together, due to funding constraints. Before the U.S. government closed the National Solar Observatory at Sacramento Peak completely due to the ongoing "security issue," there were reportedly only a limited number of researchers and other personnel there anyway, as the Dunn Solar Telescope is the only remaining part of the facility that is still in operation.
The Richard B. Dunn Solar Telescope inside the observatory is a vacuum telescope designed to track the Sun and its movements while gathering imagery and spectroscopy data about the rays it emits and its sunspots. It is possible that the telescope could point low enough to gather useful information about objects at Holloman or White Sands in the valley below. It is also possible that the U.S. government could have had concerns about what it might be able to see in outer space, or at least who saw what and what they did with that information, but this seems quite unlikely.
Richard B. Dunn Solar Telescope is a massive installation. It doesn't just resemble an iceberg, it's similar to one in that the majority of it is hidden from view below the surface. The facility looks right out of a science fiction movie and penetrates hundreds of feet below the ground.
µIt seems more plausible that a foreign operative or an operative working on a foreign government's behalf might have been able to install an antenna/sensor apparatus onto the top of a structure that is part of the facility and within line-of-sight of the valley below without anyone noticing. This could allow them to persistently gather electronic intelligence on whatever might be happening on, around, and over White Sands and at Holloman. With the capabilities of modern electronics and batteries, it's possible that such a system wouldn't even need to be hard wired.
For instance, check out this 360 photo of a publically accessible viewpoint and weather station adjacent to the main solar telescope tower up at Sacremento Peak. The small building is covered with antennas and electronics which have a perfectly clear line of sight to the valley below. Clandestinely placing a sensor package here that is able to collect certain emissions while blending in with the clutter seems like a relatively rudimentary task—hiding in plain sight if you will.
This is just one area of a fairly large complex of observatories and other buildings, many of which are in disuse, but which may already be adorned with antennas and other electronics and have an unobstructed line-of-sight towards White Sands. Otero County Sheriff House's comment in which he states there were officials and workmen inspecting towers and antennas could indicate that there were looking for just such a device.
An annotated satellite image of the National Solar Observatory complex at Sacramento Peak, at the low left, and the associated enclave of Sunspot, New Mexico.
Individuals looking to spy on Holloman or White Sands could have been using the local post office to send copies of that information to their handlers or to an intermediate location, as well. A suspect could even work or live up there. As such, the FBI or other agencies could have decided to temporarily shut down its operations in order to comb it for evidence, even just as a basic precaution.
"We don't know what they [the FBI] took, what their reason for being there was," Sergeant Jon Emery of the Otero County Sheriff’s Office told KOB 4, a local NBC affiliate television station in Albuquerque, on Sept. 13, 2018. "We have no information on it." It is not clear if federal authorities have removed anything from the site, or, if they did, what it might have been.
Using the site as a possible testing location for some sort of sensor or directed energy weapon, or even commandeering the high-powered telescope for a national security use, such as spying on or blinding enemy satellites, also comes to mind. The telescope has been used for laser experiments in decades, but there isn't even circumstantial evidence that points to the U.S. government using it for a similar purpose today. Nor would evacuating a town to do so make much sense.
The nearby Apache Point Observatory, which is more active than its northerly neighbor, does have a high-power laser system that is used for taking lunar measurements.
A Notice To Airman (NOTAM) is currently posted warning aviators to stay away from the site, but that isn't too odd considering the facility openly uses a device that can harm pilots' and passengers' eyes. The NOTAM reads:
!FDC 8/9292 ZAB NM..AIRSPACE SUNSPOT, NM..LASER RESEARCH WI AN AREA DEFINED AS APACHE POINT OBSERVATORY, 324649N1054913W OR THE BOLES /BWS/ VOR 098 DEGREE RADIAL AT 10NM, SFC-FL600. AT A TYPICAL ANGLE OF 45 DEGREES, FM THE SFC, PROJECTING UP TO FL600 AVOID AIRBORNE HAZARD BY 5NM. THIS BEAM IS INJURIOUS TO PILOT'S/AIRCREW'S AND PASSENGER'S EYES. ALBUQUERQUE /ZAB/ ARTCC, 505-856-4500 IS THE FAA COORDINATION FACILITY. 1809140110-1809140230
The incident is very strange, to say the least. It sounds more like the opening of an '80s science fiction adventure film than something that is actually happening and it has begun to trigger all types of outlandish theories. These include that the telescope identifying a world-changing solar flare or spotted proof of alien life in our solar system. Both of these suppositions seem to have been shot down by the director of the telescope facility, who said his teamwould gladly release the data the telescope was collecting before feds arrived.
But something is going on out of the ordinary up there, and based on what we do know, it seems like espionage is a real possibility.
UPDATE: We have posted a new article with video from inside the complex and new details here. And yes, the story just keeps getting stranger.
Unexplained 'Security Issue' Keeps National Solar Observatory Facility Shuttered
Unexplained 'Security Issue' Keeps National Solar Observatory Facility Shuttered
By Mike Wall, Space.com Senior Writer
Aerial view of the Sunspot Solar Observatory site on Sacramento Peak in New Mexico. Sunspot is part of the National Solar Observatory, which is funded by the US National Science Foundation.
Credit: National Solar Observatory/NSF
It's been more than a week, and a National Solar Observatory (NSO) facility in New Mexico is still closed for an undisclosed "security issue."
The NSO's Sunspot Solar Observatory, on Sacramento Peak in the southern part of the state, was evacuated last Thursday (Sept. 6), as was a nearby post office, according to the Albuquerque Journal. FBI agents have reportedly been investigating the site, and they're apparently keeping local law-enforcement personnel in the dark.
The Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy (AURA), which manages the Sunspot observatory with funding from the U.S. National Science Foundation, hasn't said much, either. The organization released a statement saying that AURA "is addressing a security issue" at Sunspot "and has decided to temporarily vacate the facility as a precautionary measure until further notice." AURA "is working with the proper authorities on this issue," the statement adds, without specifying who those authorities are.
And we may not get answers anytime soon. At 2 p.m. EDT (1800 GMT) today (Sept. 14), AURA Corporate Communications Coordinator Shari Lifson sent out an email update, which stated that AURA "has decided that the observatory will remain closed until further notice due to an ongoing security concern."
Unsurprisingly, the dearth of information has led to a lot of speculation about what's going on. The rumors range from the downright silly (the feds shut Sunspot down to keep news about a deadly solar superflare from getting into our panicky heads) to the intriguingly believable (this may be an espionage investigation).
Observatory team members have shot down one of the more farfetched theories, however. The "telescope did not see aliens," Sunspot Solar Observatory director James McAteer, who's also an associate professor of astronomy, solar physics and space weather at New Mexico State University, told Albuquerque news station KOB4.
"All data will be made public in its unaltered form," McAteer added. "Nothing is hidden or kept secret."
The FBI hadn't returned a phone call as of press time. The agency has consistently declined to comment on the Sunspot situation over the past week, according to other news organizations.
This story was updated at 2:30 p.m. EDT to include the latest update from Shari Lifson and James McAteer's comments.
After long believing that exploding stars forged the coveted metal, researchers are now divided over which extraordinary cosmic event is truly responsible.
Across history and folklore, the question of where Earth’s gold came from—and maybe how to get more of it—has invited fantastical explanation. The Inca believed gold fell from the sky as either the tears or the sweat of the sun god Inti. Aristotle held that gold was hardened water, transformed when the sun’s rays penetrated deep underground. Isaac Newton transcribed a recipe for making it with a philosopher’s stone. Rumpelstiltskin, of course, could spin it from straw.
Modern astrophysicists have their own story. The coda, at least, is relatively clear: About four billion years ago, during a period called the “late veneer,” meteorites flecked with small amounts of precious metals—gold included—hammered the nascent Earth. But the more fundamental question of where gold was forged in the cosmos is still contentious.
For decades, the prevailing account has been that supernova explosions make gold, along with dozens of other heavy elements on the bottom few rows of the periodic table. But as computer models of supernovas have improved, they suggest that most of these explosions do just about as well at making gold as history’s alchemists. Perhaps a new kind of event—one that has traditionally been difficult, if not impossible, to study—is responsible.
In the past few years, a debate has erupted. Many astronomers now believe that the space-quaking merger of two neutron stars can forge the universe’s supply of heavy elements. Others hold that even if garden-variety supernovas can’t do the trick, more exotic examples might still be able to. To settle the argument, astrophysicists are searching for clues everywhere, from alchemical computer simulations to gamma-ray telescopes to the manganese crust of the deep ocean. And the race is on to make an observation that would seal the deal—catching one of the cosmos’s rarest mints with its assembly line still running.
* * *
In 1957, the physicists Margaret and Geoffrey Burbidge, William Fowler, and Fred Hoyle laid out a set of recipes for how the lives and deaths of stars could fill in almost every slot in the periodic table. That implied that humans, or at least the elements making up our bodies, were once stardust. So was gold—somehow.
“The problem itself is rather old, and now for a long time has been the last stardust secret,” said Anna Frebel, an astronomer at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
The Big Bang left behind hydrogen, helium, and lithium. Stars then fused these elements into progressively heavier elements. But the process stops at iron, which is among the most stable elements. Nuclei bigger than iron are so positively charged, and so difficult to bring together, that fusion no longer returns more energy than you have to put in.
To make heavy elements more reliably, you can bombard iron nuclei with charge-free neutrons. The new neutrons often make the nucleus unstable. In this case, a neutron will decay into a proton (popping out both an electron and an antineutrino). The net increase of a proton leads to a new, heavier element.
When additional neutrons are thrown into a nucleus more slowly than it can decay, the process is called slow neutron capture, or the s process. This makes elements such as strontium, barium and lead. But when neutrons land on a nucleus faster than they decay, rapid neutron capture—the r process—occurs, beefing up nuclei to form heavy elements including uranium and gold.
In order to coax out the r-process elements, the Burbidges and their colleagues recognized, you would need a few things. First, you have to have a relatively pure, unadulterated source of neutrons. You also need heavy “seed” nuclei (such as iron) to capture those neutrons. You need to bring them together in a hot, dense (but not too dense) environment. And you want all this to happen during an explosive event that will scatter the products out into space.
To many astronomers, those requirements implicate one specific kind of object: a supernova.
A supernova erupts when a massive star, having fused its core into progressively heavier elements, reaches iron. Then fusion stops paying off, and the star’s atmosphere crashes down. A sun’s worth of mass collapses into a sphere only about a dozen kilometers in radius. Then, when the core reaches the density of nuclear matter, it holds firm. Energy rebounds outward, ripping apart the star in a supernova explosion visible from billions of light years away.
A supernova seems to tick the necessary boxes. During the star’s collapse, protons and electrons in the core are forced together, making neutrons and converting the core into an infant neutron star. Iron is abundant. So is heat. And the glowing ejecta keep expanding out into space for millennia, dispersing the products.
By the 1990s, a specific picture had begun to emerge in computational models. Half a second after the core of a massive star collapses, a gale of neutrinos streams out, continuing for up to a minute. Some of that wind would blow off iron nuclei that could serve as seeds, along with lots and lots of neutrons.
“That was the hope,” said Thomas Janka of the Max Planck Institute for Astrophysics in Garching, Germany. “This was, I would say, the most interesting and the most promising site for forming the r-process elements for almost 20 years.” And the explanation still has its adherents. “If you open a textbook, it will tell you that the r process is made by supernova explosions,” said Enrico Ramirez-Ruiz, an astrophysicist at the University of California, Santa Cruz.
But as supernova models got more and more sophisticated, the situation got worse, not better. Temperatures in the neutrino-driven wind didn’t seem to be high enough. The wind might also be too slow, allowing seed nuclei to form so abundantly that they wouldn’t find enough neutrons to build up heavy elements all the way up to uranium. And the neutrinos could also convert neutrons back into protons—meaning there might not even be a lot of neutrons to work with.
That left theorists circling back to one of the strongest points of the supernova model. Supernovas make neutron stars, which seem indispensable to the process.
“They are fantastic for this type of nucleosynthesis,” said Stephan Rosswog at Stockholm University. “You start with this gigantic amount of neutrons that you don’t have anywhere else in the universe.” But a neutron star also has a strong gravitational field, he said. “The question is just, well, how can you convince the neutron star to eject something?”
One way to crack open a neutron star would be to use the same explosion that birthed it. That didn’t seem to work. But what if you came back later, and tore one open again?
* * *
In 1974, radio astronomers found the first binary neutron-star system. With each orbit, the pair were losing energy, implying that one day they would collide. The same year, the astrophysicists James Lattimer and David Schramm modeled what would happen in such a situation—not specifically the clash of two neutron stars, since that was too complicated to calculate at the time, but the similar merger of a neutron star and a black hole.
While supernova explosions can briefly outshine the entire galaxies that host them, neutron stars are extremely difficult to see. The supernova that produced the Crab nebula was observed by many different cultures in the year 1054; the neutron star it left behind wasn’tdetected until 1968. A merger of two neutron stars would be still more difficult to find and understand. But although nobody had ever seen one, this kind of exotic event could be responsible for the r-process elements, Lattimer and Schramm said.
Picture two neutron stars approaching their final embrace. In the last few orbits around each other before glomming together into a bigger neutron star or a black hole, the pair are wracked by enormous gravitational tides. The collision ejects enormous amounts of material.
“Kind of like you squeeze a tube of toothpaste, stuff comes flying out the end,” said Brian Metzger, a theoretical astrophysicist at Columbia University. Behind each neutron star stretches a tail, with perhaps 10 neutrons to every proton, all heated to billions of degrees. Heavy nuclei form in about a second. Because they have so many extra neutrons they are unstable, radioactive. They glow, eventually decaying to things like gold and platinum.
At least, this is how it works in simulations.
(Lucy Reading-Ikkanda / Quanta)
* * *
Neutron star mergers and supernovas are both capable of making making r-process elements. But there’s a big difference in just how much each of those options can make. Supernovas produce perhaps our moon’s worth of gold. Neutron star mergers, by contrast, make about a Jupiter-size mass of gold—thousands of times more than in a supernova—but they happen far less frequently. This allows astronomers to search for the distribution of r-process elements as a way to track their origins.
“Think of r-process [elements] as chocolate,” Ramirez-Ruiz said. A universe enriched in the r-process elements predominantly by supernovas would be like a cookie with a thin, evenly spread glaze of chocolate. By contrast, “neutron star mergers are like chocolate chip cookies,” he said. “All of the chocolate, or the r process, is concentrated.”
One way to assess the distribution and rate of r-process events is to look for their byproducts on Earth. Long after supernovas light up the Milky Way, the nuclei they make can coalesce onto interstellar dust grains, slip past the solar and terrestrial magnetic fields, and fall to Earth, where they should be preserved in the deep ocean. A 2016 paper in Nature that looked at radioactive iron-60 in the deep-sea crust found traces of multiple nearby supernovas in the past 10 million years. Yet those supernovas did not appear to correspond with r-process elements. When the same team looked in deep-sea crust samples for plutonium 244, an unstable r-process product that decays over time, they foundvery little. “Whatever site is creating these heaviest elements is not a very frequent one in our galaxy,” Metzger said.
Not everyone agrees with that conclusion. Another team, led by Shawn Bishopat the Munich Technical University, still hopes to find radioactive plutonium on Earth from recent supernovas. In work now underway, his team is searching for hints of r-process elements in sediments that contain microfossils: the tiny remnants of bacteria that take in metals from their environment to make magnetic crystals.
Astronomers can also look for evidence of a chocolate chip-cookie universe farther afield. The r-process element europium has one strong spectral line, allowing astronomers to look for it in the atmospheres of stars. Among the old stars that are found in the halo of the Milky Way, observed r-process signatures have been hit or miss. “We can find two stars that have very similar, say, iron content,” Ramirez-Ruiz said. “But their europium content, which is the signature for the r process, can change by two orders of magnitude.” Because of this, the universe is looking more chocolate chip than chocolate glaze, argues Ramirez-Ruiz.
Astronomers have found an even cleaner example. Many dwarf galaxies experience just one brief burst of activity before settling down. That gives them a narrow window for an r-process event to occur—or not. And up until 2016, not one star in any dwarf galaxy seemed to be enriched in r-process elements.
That’s what made the phone call MIT’s Frebel received one night so surprising. Her graduate student Alex Ji had been observing stars in a dwarf galaxy called Reticulum II. “He called me at two in the morning and said ‘Anna, I think there’s a problem with the spectrograph.’” One star in particular appeared to have a strong europium line. “I made this joke. I said, ‘Well, Alex, maybe you found an r-process galaxy,’” Frebel said. He actually had, though. Reticulum II has seven stars enriched in the r-process elements, all implicating a single, otherwise uncommon event.
(Lucy Reading-Ikkanda / Quanta)
* * *
To advocates of the neutron-star merger model, all of this fits nicely. Neutron star mergers are naturally rare. Unlike a single massive star collapsing and going supernova, they require two neutron stars to form, to be in a binary orbit, and to merge perhaps a hundred million years later. But critics also point out that they might be too rare.
In our galaxy, neutron star mergers could happen as rarely as once every hundred million years, or as often as once every 10 thousand years—rates that differ by a factor of 10,000. “The thing that shook me is: The people who were saying neutron star mergers are going to explain the r process were also taking this highest rate,” said Christopher Fryer, an astrophysicist at Los Alamos National Laboratory.
When Fryer and colleagues used more moderate guesses about how often neutron star mergers occur and how much r-process material they yield, they found that neutron star mergers can explain only 1 percent of the r-process elements observed in the universe. And if the true rate lies at the lowest end, they could contribute a hundred times less again. “More people are going back to ‘Huh, what other sources of r process can we have?’” Fryer said.
That’s where supernovas may see their stock rise again. If perhaps 1 percent of core collapse supernovas behave differently than the standard simulations predict, they might also be able to make considerable amounts of r-process elements in a chocolate chip pattern. One way to salvage a supernova explosion is if a star detonates with massive, magnetically powered jets instead of neutrinos, argues Nobuya Nishimura, an astrophysicist at Keele University in England, and his colleagues in a recent paper. That would create a rapid explosion of neutron-rich matter, allowing seed nuclei to grow into at least some of the r-process elements. “It’s not like you can have a tea party there,” Fryer said. “You just need to stay [in that region] for 100 milliseconds.”
The answer, many astronomers believe, will end up being some kind of compromise. That shift may already be happening. “R process is really not rprocess anymore now,” Frebel said. Maybe it can be broken in half, with the “weak” r-process elements lighter than barium coming from supernovas, and the heavier ones like gold coming from neutron star collisions.
* * *
And there’s one more dark horse still lurking out there: the merger of a neutron star and a black hole, which Lattimer and Schramm had originally considered. The neutron star in the pair would still eject material, just as before. But the rate of those events is even fuzzier. “Maybe even they are the dominant ones producing r-process elements,” Janka said. “We don’t know. We need better data.”
That data may already be on its way. The last few orbits of a neutron star merger or a merger between a neutron star and a black hole warp and drag space-time so much that gravitational waves roar out of the system. LIGO (the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory), which has already succeeded at “hearing” such a crescendo between merging black holes, is approaching a sensitivity that should let it start picking up neutron star mergers in distant galaxies. The longer it doesn’t, the less often it seems these events occur. Once LIGO reaches its full design sensitivity, a nondetection could spell doom for neutron star merger models. “If they still have not found something, there will be a moment in which Enrico [Ramirez-Ruiz] and Brian [Metzger], etcetera, should wonder, and get back to the board,” said Selma de Mink, an astrophysicist at the University of Amsterdam.
The dream, though, is to go beyond making inferences about r-process events and see one actually in action. Twoteams may have already done so. In 2013, the Swift satellite picked up a short gamma-ray burst: a type of event also attributed to colliding neutron stars. Other telescopes zoomed in on the aftermath.
In simulations, an observational signature called a kilonova follows neutron-star mergers. The radioactive nuclei made through the r process spread and glow, causing the system to ramp up in brightness for about a week before starting to fade. And these elements are so opaque that only red light can penetrate out. The 2013 event matched both predictions, but it was so far away that it was hard to fully interpret. “It’s not compelling, but it’s suggestive,” Metzger said.
Many of the astronomers who made that discovery are now part of teams hoping to find a closer, more definitive kilonova. That entails pouncing on a LIGO signal from merging neutron stars and quickly finding its source in the sky with more traditional telescopes—perhaps even measuring its light spectrum using something like the upcoming James Webb Space Telescope. In doing so, it may be possible to see a cloud of newborn r-process elements—or to infer something from their absence. “The world of gamma-ray bursts has trained us very well,” said Wen-fai Fong of the University of Arizona. “It is definitely like a race. How quickly can you react?
Astronomers with the Breakthrough Listen program used AI (artificial intelligence) to find 72 repeating, short, unpredictable radio bursts, from a mysterious source 3 billion light years away.
Researchers with Breakthrough Listen said on September 10, 2018, that they’ve now used artificial intelligence, AI, to discover 72 new fast radio bursts from a mysterious source some 3 billion light-years from Earth. The source is a known “repeater” of fast radio bursts – the only such object known to date – calledFRB 121102.
Fast radio bursts, aka FRBs, are bright pulses of radio emission, lasting just milliseconds. They’re thought to originate in distant galaxies.
Most FRBs are one-offs, but this source – FRB 121102 – emits repeated bursts. FRB 121102 emitted 21 bursts previously detected during Breakthrough Listen observations made in 2017 with the Green Bank Telescope in West Virginia. Now – using AI – astronomers have found 72 more
What are these mysterious bursts? Previous studies showed the bursts from 121102 emanating from a galaxy 3 billion light-years from Earth. Beyond that, we don’t know much about the source. Theories range from highly magnetized neutron stars, blasted by gas streams near to a supermassive black hole, to suggestions that the burst properties are consistent with signatures of technology developed by an advanced civilization.
The 72 newly discovered FRBs are not about new observations. They’re about new and more powerful data-analysis techniques, made possible by artificial intelligence.
Breakthrough Listen researchers used artificial intelligence to search through radio signals recorded from a fast radio burst, capturing many more than humans could. Image via Breakthrough Listen/Berkeley.edu.
The statement from Breakthrough Initiatives continued:
In search of a deeper understanding of this intriguing object, the Listen science team at the University of California, Berkeley SETI Research Center observed FRB 121102 for five hours on August 26, 2017, using the Breakthrough Listen digital instrumentation at the [Green Bank Observatory]. Combing through 400 TB [terabytes] of data, they reported … a total of 21 bursts.
All were seen within one hour, suggesting that the source alternates between periods of quiescence and frenzied activity.
Now, UC Berkeley Ph.D. student Gerry Zhang and collaborators have developed a new, powerful machine learning algorithm, and reanalyzed the 2017 GBT dataset, finding an additional 72 bursts that were not detected originally.
Zhang’s team used some of the same techniques that internet technology companies use to optimize search results and classify images. They trained an algorithm known as a convolutional neural network to recognize bursts found with the classical search method … and then set it loose on the 400 TB dataset to find bursts that the classical approach missed.
Gerry Zhang said:
This work is only the beginning of using these powerful methods to find radio transients. We hope our success may inspire other serious endeavors in applying machine learning to radio astronomy.
Bottom line: Breakthrough Listen astronomers used AI (artificial intelligence) to find 72 repeating, short, unpredictable radio bursts from a mysterious source known as FRB 1211023, located some 3 billion light years away.
Richard Dolan Show (Chinese Ufology) Interview with Cheuk Fei
Richard Dolan Show (Chinese Ufology) Interview with Cheuk Fei
DESCRIPTION
Broadcast KGRA show 8/13/18. Richard interviews Chinese Ufology Expert Cheuk Fei.
Richard Dolan is one of the world’s leading researchers and writers on the subject of UFOs, and believes that they constitute the greatest mystery of our time. He is the author of two volumes of history, UFOs and the National Security State, both ground-breaking works which together provide the most factually complete and accessible narrative of the UFO subject available anywhere. He also co-authored a speculative book about the future, A.D. After Disclosure, the first-ever analysis not only of how UFO secrecy might end, but of the all-important question: what happens next?
#RichardDolan #UFO #Disclosure For the home of exclusive content from author, historian, and radio host Richard Dolan. Take a look at his member site. Richard has dedicated the last two decades to uncovering the truth about UFOs and, more recently, the dark covert operations known as false flags. Join his member site here: http://richarddolanmembers.com/ Check out books by Richard Dolan at https://www.richarddolanpress.com/ UFOs AND DISCLOSURE IN THE TRUMP ERA An 85-page analysis by Richard Dolan on the geopolitics of the UFO phenomenon and the issue of Disclosure in our time, with an analysis of the current presidency. THE SECRET SPACE PROGRAM AND BREAKAWAY CIVILIZATION A 70-page analysis by Richard Dolan, adapted from one of his lectures on one of the most controversial topics of our era. Released in August 2016. UFOS FOR THE 21ST CENTURY MIND A must-have UFO book. For beginners and experienced researchers alike, historian Richard Dolan covers the full range of this incredibly complex topic in his uniquely engaging style. He offers fresh insights on everything connected to UFOs. "A beautiful, pragmatic tapestry that gives context to this fascinating and enigmatic subject." "Another classic Dolan study. . . . Should be required reading." "The best writer on the subject in recent years."
On today's show, an Interview with Mike Clelland, author of The Messengers: Owls, Synchronicities, and the UFO Abductee, from December 7, 2015.
For more on this topic, check out Mike's book:
The Messengers: Owls, Synchronicity and the UFO Abductee Richard Dolan Press https://amzn.to/2ABAsoD
Richard Dolan is one of the world’s leading researchers and writers on the subject of UFOs, and believes that they constitute the greatest mystery of our time. He is the author of two volumes of history, UFOs and the National Security State, both ground-breaking works which together provide the most factually complete and accessible narrative of the UFO subject available anywhere.
UFOs and the National Security State: Chronology of a Coverup, 1941-1973
He also co-authored a speculative book about the future, A.D. After Disclosure, the first-ever analysis not only of how UFO secrecy might end but of the all-important question: what happens next?
A.D. After Disclosure: When the Government Finally Reveals the Truth About Alien Contact
WETENSCHAP & PLANEET Het Amerikaanse ruimtevaartagentschap NASA heeft vandaag zijn geavanceerde laser ICESat-2 gelanceerd, een missie van een miljard dollar die moet nagaan in hoeverre het ijs op de opwarmende aarde aan het smelten is. De satelliet van een halve ton werd om 6.02 uur plaatselijke tijd met een Delta II-raket de ruimte in gebracht van op de Amerikaanse luchtmachtbasis Vandenberg in Californië.
De missie is “buitengewoon belangrijk voor de wetenschap”, zo had Richard Slonaker, bij NASA verantwoordelijk voor het programma ICESat-2, voor de lancering aan journalisten uitgelegd. Sinds tien jaar had het agentschap geen instrument meer in de ruimte om de dikte van de ijslagen op de planeet te meten.
Met ICESat-2 zullen de metingen “uiterst precies” zijn, tot op de dikte van een potlood, verzekerde een lid van de ploeg, Kelly Brunt.
De vorige missie, ICESat, werd in 2003 gelanceerd en liep in 2009 af. De wetenschappers kwamen toen te weten dat het pakijs dunner wordt en dat de oppervlakten bedekt met ijs verdwijnen in de kuststreken van Groenland en Antarctica.
Lying within Thiruvananthapuram, in Kerala, India, is a grand structure known as Padmanabhaswamy Temple, with the name derived from the word Padmanabha, meaning “One emerging from the lotus.” Dating back to at least the 6th century and steadily renovated throughout the 16th century by the Kings of the Travancore Royal Family, it is one of the 108 temples of Vaishnavism, or the worship of Vishnu, one of the main deities of Hinduism. Indeed, the lavish temple prominently displays an enormous statue of Vishnu depicted in an unusual reclining position upon the five-hooded serpent Anantha, or Adi Sesha, with the whole thing measuring 20 feet square and carved from a single vast slab of stone. This is already quite a grand place, with its unique architecture, its massive statues and ornate sculptures, and copious amounts of gold leafing and a gold plated exterior. It also holds a dark and ancient mystery that has remained unsolved to this day, and mysterious doorway that has remained sealed for centuries and leads to the unknown.
Padmanabhaswamy Temple has featured heavily in lore and literature, especially within Sangam Tamil literature and poetry, where it was often depicted as having once been a wondrous place full of vast riches and with walls crafted from gold, and known as one of the the richest temples in the world. Yet in addition to its sheer splendor, it is also a place of great mystery, with its exact year of founding unknown and much of the complex unexplored or kept secret from the outside world for hundreds of years, and in recent times it has been found to be even more impressive and mysterious than it already was.
Padmanabhaswamy Temple
In 2011, the ancient temple was finally explored more thoroughly after long being mostly closed off entirely from the outside world by the secretive royal family of Travancore, and it was found to house 6 massive sealed underground vaults, labelled A to F, and all closed off with ornately designed solid iron or granite doors that were locked tight and seemed to be utterly immovable. It appeared that they had never been opened by the priests of the temple, and it was completely unknown as to what was there in the ancient darkness beyond. At the time these doors and the mysterious vaults that lie behind them captured the public imagination, and the media watched every new development carefully as preparations were made to enter and catalogue the contents of these forgotten places. Much speculation swirled at the time as to what would be discovered within, with ideas ranging from that they would find mere dust and bones, others who surmised they held unfathomable riches, and others still certain that they held curses or even the secrets of the universe. Nobody knew as crews began trying to open them.
Getting the formidable vaults open would quickly prove to be easier said than done. Starting from vault A it was immediately apparent that these were protected, forbidden places not meant to ever be opened, and very likely intentionally sealed for the rest of eternity, and it took nearly a full day of nonstop effort with modern equipment to pry the first vault open, which held within it a vast trove of treasure beyond perhaps anyone’s expectations. There glittering in the murk were jewels, coins, gold and silver bars, solid gold idols and figurines, diamonds, gemstone encrusted artifacts and ceremonial garb, ornate jewelry, over 2,000 pounds of gold coins, and a massive gem and diamond studded golden throne. One of the members of the government committee sent to oversee the project would say of the breathtaking sight:
When the granite slab was removed, almost absolute darkness prevailed behind it – it was diluted only by a dim ray of light from the doorway. I looked into the black pantry, and I saw an amazing sight: like stars shimmered in the sky on a moonless night. Diamonds and other precious stones flashed, reflecting the faint light coming from the open door. Most of the treasures were stacked in wooden chests, but eventually the tree turned into rubbish. Precious stones and gold simply lay in piles on the dusty floor. They were not really arranged systematically. There were baskets, some earthen pots, some copper pots, and in all these things, these things were kept. It was a magnificent experience. There are no words to describe it. I have never seen anything like this.
Other vaults in the temple would prove to be equally as hard to open, yet also bursting with mind-boggling amounts of lost treasure, until an estimated $22 billion dollars’ worth of loot was eventually catalogued from the vaults, all thought to be the result of the accumulation of thousands of years of donations and gifts to the temple and its deity from Kings and dynasties across the land. Yet for all of this amazing wealth uncovered, although 5 of the vaults were opened, one remained stubbornly resistant to all efforts to disgorge its secrets. Vault B, also called Bharatakkon Kallara, is unique amongst the others, considered to be a Holy repository closely associated with the Deity Vishnu and with an exceptionally sturdy solid iron door lacking any nuts, bolts, locks, knobs, or latches, and adorned with the image of two gigantic cobras on each side denoting it as a special and sacred place indeed, and it is not even included in the official temple inventory. Initial efforts to open Vault B met with failure, and indeed its secrets remain sealed away to this day.
There are many strange stories, rumors, and legends associated with the mysterious Vault B. One is a legend that states that the door is impossible to open by any earthly means, that it had been in fact sealed by a mystical spell and mantra that could only be undone by the one who had cast it or an equally powerful priest. If a proper counter spell called a “Garuda Mantra” is uttered, it is said that the door will magically unlock and open to disgorge its secrets. Additionally, anyone who tries to forcefully open the door is rumored to be cursed for trying, and that to actually force it open is to flirt with unimaginable catastrophe. Indeed, it has long been rumored that many of the original committee tasked with trying to divulge the chamber’s secrets have met with freak accidents and misfortune, further bolstering the idea that the vault is cursed.
Another persistent rumor is that the vault is protected by a spell called a Naga Bandham, or “snake binding spell,” which is said to conjure up the protection of serpent deities. According to this tale, anyone who tries to enter the inner sanctum of the chamber will incite the fury and wrath of these snake spirits, and there is one unverified account of this in action. In the 1933 book Travancore; a guide book for the visitor, author Emily Gilchriest Hatch describes a harrowing incident in which some people visiting the temple tried to pry the vault open in 1931, only to find it crawling with countless venomous snakes that sent them running in terror. In this curse, it is said that a particular set of soundwaves at a specific frequency is to be aimed at the inner lock mechanism, which will supposedly disengage the curse and open the door.
Yet another rumor is that the door to the vault issues forth the sounds the crashing waves of the sea, leading to the idea that it is attached somehow by a secret tunnel to the ocean. According to this story, opening that door could very well unleash a catastrophic flood that would inundate all of Kerala, and that it is best left untouched. In every one of these scenarios we have curses, misfortune, death, cataclysm, and deadly snakes, but while these may just be legends the fact remains that Vault B has never been opened. What lies within it? Some say that it holds a treasure the likes of which the world has never seen, and there is also the theory that is contains tomes of magical and esoteric knowledge, but no one really knows. The only one said to understand the secret of this mysterious locked chamber is Uthradom Thirunal Marthanda Varma, the head of the erstwhile royal family of Travancore, and he has vowed never to reveal it.
The soundtrack of Indiana Jones is playing in you head now, isn’t it? For now, the mysterious Vault B of Padmanabhaswamy Temple keeps its ancient enigmas buried within it, and it is one of the most heavily guarded and monitored places on the planet. Here heavily armed guards and state of the art surveillance equipment keep watch on it and the other vaults, although despite this it is estimated that millions of dollars’ worth of treasure has “disappeared” from here since it was made known to the outside world, and it is even believed that Vault B may have very well been raided in past eras through some as yet undiscovered subterranean tunnel. What will happen if this ancient place is ever opened? Will we find treasure beyond our wildest dreams, or curses, cataclysm, and black magic? Can it even be opened at all by any means we possess? We may never know.
Mystery continues to surround the sudden shutdown last week of the national Sunspot Solar Observatory in New Mexico, and has remained closed since without explanation.
The observatory, nearby “White Sands Missile Range”, built by the U.S. military in 1947 has been involved in solar research since that time, when it realized the sun could interfere with radio communications.
Since authorities are tight-lipped, people are starting to carry out research on their own.
One man has filmed the Solar Observatory with its drone, see video here, but another man has infiltrated the restricted area and has filmed it all.
The video is outright eerie, but the most bizarre moment, albeit in a coincidental way, is when he spots an X-Files Unrestricted Access DVD laying out prominently in one of the buildings.
The man who found the X-files Unrestricted Access DVD said that there was a weird smell inside the building.
He also talked to other people outside the gate who said that every single house is empty and nothing has cleaned up, they moved out very quickly.
Why do astronomers have such a DVD in their possession and later on to put the dvd for the video game X-files Unrestricted Access in the trash just inside of a locked door at the abandoned Sunspot Solar Observatory is very suspicious or it must be that they deliberately have placed the dvd in plain sight for a reason.
It is just speculation but the X-files Unrestricted Access DVD could be a hint that they accidentally have transmitted signals to aliens and got a response? Did they have received signals or messages from an extraterrestrial race or eventual astronomers with ‘unrestricted access’ already had contact with aliens in our solar system or near the sun and something went wrong?
Throughout human history there have been those mysterious books, artifacts and relics said to hold some sort of vast powers or mystical knowledge. History is steeped in such tales, and there have been many who have spent their whole lives trying to find these lost artifacts. One such item that has managed to elude clear understanding is an ancient text etched upon stone, which would go on to become one of the most influential manuscripts on the practice of alchemy and a basis for much occult knowledge, but which remains buried in the mists of time. It is an item of alleged great power, holding secrets of magic, alchemy, the human mind, and possibly even the universe itself.
One of the cornerstones of early alchemy was a mysterious tablet said to contain a vast trove of secrets of magic and the universe and which would go on to become one of the most revered and sought after pieces of magical documentation in all of Western Occultism. Referred to variously as the Smaragdine Table, Tabula Smaragdina, or more commonly simply the Emerald Tablet, this elusive object is said to be one or even a series of rectangular green plaques, onto which are etched various symbols and inscriptions that spell out all manner of magical knowledge, in particular having to do with alchemy and the transmutation of matter from one form to another, as well as the method for creating the legendary Philosopher’s Stone and for manipulating the very matter of the universe itself. It is even said to hold the secrets to transforming one’s own consciousness and attaining a sort of enhanced conscious state and enlightenment.
While the appearance and the secrets contained within are mostly agreed upon, the tablet has a murky history wreathed in the unknown, which has obfuscated its true origins and author. The most commonly cited version has it that the tablet was originally written by the father of Hermetic magic and alchemy himself, the legendary 5th century philosopher and priest Hermes Trismegistus, back in ancient Greece. Hermes supposedly wrote the Hermetic Corpus, a series of sacred texts that are the basis of Hermeticism, and the Emerald Tablet is said to have been his masterpiece. Other myriad theories include that the tablet was written by the son of the biblical Adam and Eve, Seth, that it was discovered clutched in the priest’s dead hands in a tomb under the statue of Hermes in Tyan in the 8th century by an Arabic mage named Balinas, that it was unearthed by Alexander that Great in an Egyptian tomb, or even that it was created by Thoth, the king priest of Atlantis a full 38,000 years ago.
Whatever the case may be, legends flock to and surround the tablet and where it went off to. One common tale is that it was buried under the Pyramids in Egypt, while others claim it was sequestered away within the Ark of the Covenant or that is was returned to the buried ruins of Atlantis. With so many legends and myths spiraling about the Emerald Tablet, it is hard to say who wrote it or when, or where it is now. What is known is that it was first translated into Latin by Hugo von Santalla in the 12th century, and that at least in this version Hermes Trismegistus is credited as the author. It is also known that the alleged writings upon it were highly influential in alchemy at the time, and this makes it all the more curious that no evidence of the actual physical existence of the lost tablet has ever been uncovered. We only know of it from written accounts and various translations, and some of these were from highly influential people, including Roger Bacon, Michael Maier, Aleister Crowley, Albertus Magnus, Eric John Holmyard, Julius Ruska, and Carl Jung, who claimed to have been visited by the tablet in his dreams.
A reconstruction of what the Emerald Tablet might look like.
None of these translations is exactly the same and may or may not be based on what was actually written on the physical tablet, and further complicating matters is the fact that interpretations of what is written vary from writer to writer. Perhaps the most well-known and intriguing of the various translations and commentaries on the Emerald Tablet was penned by none other than the English scientist, mathematician, astronomer, theologian, and philosopher Sir Isaac Newton, who actually wrote a surprising amount of work on the subject of alchemy. Newton allegedly spent much time working with the text of the tablet, and managed to produce one of the more famous translated sections, which reads:
Tis true without lying, certain and most true.
That which is below is like that which is above and that which is above is like that which is below to do the miracles of one only thing
And as all things have been and arose from one by the mediation of one: so all things have their birth from this one thing by adaptation.
The Sun is its father, the moon its mother, the wind hath carried it in its belly, the earth is its nurse.
The father of all perfection in the whole world is here.
Its force or power is entire if it be converted into earth.
Separate thou the earth from the fire, the subtle from the gross sweetly with great industry.
It ascends from the earth to the heaven and again it descends to the earth and receives the force of things superior and inferior.
By this means you shall have the glory of the whole world and thereby all obscurity shall fly from you.
Its force is above all force. For it vanquishes every subtle thing and penetrates every solid thing.
So was the world created.
From this are and do come admirable adaptations whereof the means (or process) is here in this. Hence I am called Hermes Trismegist, having the three parts of the philosophy of the whole world
That which I have said of the operation of the Sun is accomplished and ended.
The meaning seems very open to interpretation, but Newton purportedly was very impressed by the knowledge and processes written of on the tablet, and it has been postulated that it could have even had an influence on his theories of the laws of motion and universal gravitation. He is also said to have believed that the tablet contained the literal recipe for creating the legendary Philosopher’s Stone, and that if one could comprehend the text and its intricate, arcane messages and geometrical patterns then they would acquire the ability to fashion the stone. Newton was by many accounts actually quite obsessed with the Philosopher’s Stone, writing much about it, and he believed the Emerald Tablet was the key. He also supposedly found within the text all manner of alchemical secrets, which he believed to be not merely symbolic, but that these were literal processes that could be carried out and performed in a laboratory setting. He would write of the tablet:
I am a skeptic by nature but I have no alternative than to offer subjective support to the claim that the Emerald Tablet has transformative properties. There are other things besides the transmutation of metals which none but they understand.
Isaac Newton
Did Newton gain any secrets from the tablet and did it indeed influence his work? No one really knows. It is all very intriguing, but in the end there is no certainty that any of those who have translated the tablet ever even saw the actual tablet themselves. It seems more likely that they worked with alleged transcripts of the original tablet, and that there is a very good chance that much of the information was changed or corrupted over time and through subsequent translations throughout history. There is also the possibility that this seemingly almost mythical tablet may have never even existed at all, that this is all merely a legend that has taken on a life of its own. Considering all of the conflicting and often confusing information on the Emerald Tablet, as well as the uncertainty over who actually supposedly wrote it or where it came from, we are left with very little that is concrete, and cannot adequately unravel the myth from any possible reality.
We are in the end left with many questions and few answers. Was there ever this mystical Emerald tablet upon which were emblazoned profound secrets of the universe? How did this come to be such a foundation for alchemy throughout history? Who wrote this and where did it go to? What exactly did it contain, and was it literal methods of alchemy and magic or merely symbolic? Did any of it actually work and if so, how? Did the tablet ever even exist at all? The possible answers to this historical enigma are varied, but we will likely not know until that mysterious green tablet is finally found, buried out there somewhere and lost to time.
During the Korean War, many UFO sightings were reported.
Mary Evans/Everett
In May 1951, one year into the Korean War, PFC Francis P. Wall and his regiment found themselves stationed near Chorwon, about 60 miles north of Seoul. As they were preparing to bombard a nearby village with artillery, all of a sudden, the soldiers saw a strange sight up in the hills—like “a jack-o-lantern come wafting down across the mountain.”
What happened after—the pulsing, “attacking” light, the lingering debilitating symptoms—would mystify many for decades to come.
As the GIs watched, the craft made its way down into the village, where the artillery air bursts were starting to explode. “We further noticed that this object would get right into...the center of an airburst of artillery and yet remain unharmed,” Wall later told John P. Timmerman of the Center for UFO Studies in a 1987 interview. Suddenly, the object turned, Wall said. And whereas at first, it had glowed orange, now it was a pulsating blue-green brilliant light. He asked his company commander for permission to fire at the object with armor-piercing bullets from an M-I rifle. As the bullets hit the body of the craft, he recalled, they made a metallic “ding.” The object started behaving still more erratically, shunting from side to side as its lights flashed on and off.
Wall’s recollections of what happened next are stranger still. “We were attacked,” he said, “swept by some form of a ray that was emitted in pulses, in waves that you could visually see only when it was aiming directly at you. That is to say, like a searchlight sweeps around and the segments of light...you would see it coming at you.”
He remembered a burning, tingling sensation sweeping over his body, as if he were being penetrated. The men rushed into underground bunkers and peeped through the windows, watching as the craft hovered above them and then shot off, at a 45-degree angle. “It's that quick,” he said. “It was there and was gone.”
Three days after the incident, the entire company of men was evacuated by ambulance, with special roads cut to haul out those too weak to walk. When they finally received medical treatment, they were found to have dysentery and an extremely high white- blood- cell count. “To me,” says Richard F. Haines, a UFO researcher and former NASA scientist, “they had symptoms that sounded like the effects of radiation.”
Was it an experimental new Soviet weapon?
In the wake of the Korean War, which ended in July 1953, dozens of men have reported seeing similar unidentified flying objects over the course of the 37-month conflict. The craft often resembled flying saucers. According to unofficial reports, as many as 42 were corroborated by additional witness reports—an average of more than one a month in just over three years.
At first, according to Korean war historian Paul M. Edwards, many researchers believed that the sightings were Soviet experiments, based on German technology and foreign research in anti-gravity. “These were supposedly so large they could carry 50 tons of weight and were powered by electromagnetic propulsion,” he writes in Unusual Footnotes to the Korean War. “What was being sighted, it was suggested, were discs the Russians were testing over the Korean skies.” But in the years since the fall of the Soviet UnionIron Curtain came down, a number of Soviet reports of sighting UFOs over Korea have trickled in, discrediting these theories.
Why were there so many UFO sightings throughout the Korean war? Were they the product of thousands of exhausted men under incredible stress—or a sign of something more mysterious? From 1952 until 1986, the United States Air Force ran Project Blue Book, a systematic study into unidentified flying objects and their potential threat to national security. When it was shuttered, in December 1969, the Air Force announced they had found nothing of note, and terminated all activity under the auspices of the study.
But many believe that the project ended abortively, and that there was more work to be done—leading to similar interviews with witnesses and other investigations being done by dozens of volunteers for decades after the project ended. Haines is one of them. He describes himself as a scientist with an open mind, rather than someone with something to prove. “I don't believe in them, I don't not believe in them,” he says. “I'm trying to let the data convince me one way or the other, which is the scientific approach.” But, he says, it’s striking how many accounts there are of similar sightings in the Korean War and other conflicts.
An aerial view of the Korean DMZ in the Chorwon District, where Francis P. Wall saw the UFO.
Yann Arthus-Bertrand/Getty Images
Other explanations?
In the early years of the Cold War, it was often theorized that these crafts might be Soviet or Chinese vessels, with technology unknown to American troops. Haines believes this theory has been conclusively disproved.
“If they were,” he says, “they would have been building those crafts for use in later wars like the Vietnam War, for instance.” The Soviet UFO sightings Edwards describes make it similarly unlikely—as do the impossibly high-tech specifications of some of the sightings. In Wall’s case, for instance, he described a kind of force field taking effect a while after he began shooting, where his bullets simply ricocheted away from the craft.
Haines, for his part, believes the rash of sightings across the Korean war might suggest that something in the universe is especially interested in how human beings behave in the throng of military action. “We tend to be very creative to fight a war,” Haines says, listing off the various sciences and technologies that might come into play in military action. “If you were interested in how another country or another race of people fought their wars, you’d want to collect information on that, wouldn’t you?” He trails off. “That’s one possible explanation. There may be others.”
But the vast majority of UFO sightings—as much as 80 percent—are later found to be totally ordinary phenomena, like clouds or human crafts, rather than anything otherworldly. In Wall’s case, precisely what he saw that day has never been conclusively proven or disproven. Without the testimony of other men in Wall’s regiment, it’s hard to ascertain whether they too had the same strange experience—, even if it can be corroborated that many did get very ill.
Why such long-lasting after-effects?
In the years following the war, Wall lost contact with many of the men in his regiment. After the experience, he remembered his company agreeing that they would not file a report, “because they'd lock every one of us up, and think we were crazy,” he told Timmerman. What made him choose to make a testimony, however, was the lasting after-effects of his illness, including permanent weight loss from 180 pounds to 138, stomach problems and periods of disorientation and memory loss after returning to the United States.
He retired in 1969, at the age of just 42, his daughter Renae Denny says, and spent 30 years out of work, struggling with the after-effects of the war. “Back then they didn’t know the name of it, but I guess you could say it was a form of PTSD,” she says. Over the years, he would tell and retell the tale of his strange UFO sighting. “The story was always the same,” says Denny. “It never changed through the years.” But there was other fallout: He was especially affected by the sounds of airplanes and once knocked his mother and sister to the ground after mistaking them for enemy troops. “I guess he would have flashbacks,” she says.
Wall’s recollections of the UFO sighting were consistent and acute. But whether what he remembered actually happened is harder to prove. Fighting conditions were almost intolerably stressful, and it’s entirely possible that he may have experienced some kind of hallucination, brought on by the terror of the situation, where he regularly feared for his life. It might also have been a moment of feverish delirium: Even the raised white-blood cell count that surprised army doctors, and Haines, is consistent with many of the bacterial infections which might also cause severe dysentery—as are hallucinations. In a later interview with Haines, Wall described how he had discussed what he saw with some 25 other men—but none ever came forward or could later be traced.
In 2002, British researchers demonstrated a link between UFO sightings and Cold War hysteria—and pointed out how the number of sightings had nosedived as radar improved. “That cannot be a coincidence,” David Clarke told the Guardian. “Those early confirmations were just a product of a primitive radar system.” The flurry of UFO sightings Haines describes may have been the dual effect of these two threats: a potentially world-destroying war on the horizon, and the incredible pressure of being in the military.
Wall had experiences in those years in Korea that would scar him until his death in 1999. One night, Denny says, he managed to make his way through a pitch-dark minefield, praying for his life as he went. Others who made the same journey were not so fortunate. “When he went in [to the war],” she says, “he was happy-go-lucky, just a totally different person to when he came out.”
Whether the UFO sightings that Wall and so many other men reported were a product of this personality-altering trauma, or the effects of something requiring much greater investigation, remains a mystery.
Lincoln, Nebraska photo was taken on September 2. 2018.
Filer’s Files #36 – 2018 – UFOs Are Real - PART I
In special reports, this week’s files cover: Major-General Wilfred de Brouwer and UFOs, Prominent Planets in September, President Clinton’s UFO Warnings, John Podesta says UFOs Are Real, Mars Town and Writing, Cosmonaut Victor Afanasyev Sees UFO in Orbit, Alleged Ohio Telepathic Contact, Monthly Statistical MUFON Report – for Total 757 Sightings in July 2018.
Unidentified Aerial Phenomena sightings were reported over Arizona, California, Colorado, Florida, , Kentucky, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Nebraska, New Jersey, New Mexico, Texas, and Washington.
Unidentified Aerial Phenomena sightings were reported over Canada, Italy, Germany, Portugal, Puerto Rico, and England in the United Kingdom.
The Filer Research Institute feels the scientific study of UFOs is for the benefit of humankind and is an important endeavor. The US Air Force investigated UFOs publicly for more than twenty years under Project Blue Book; and I continue this advanced research. I believe the God of the universe has spread life throughout the cosmos and UFO’s are visiting us in ever-increasing numbers.
Help keep NationalUFOCenter.com and Filer’s Files online. We are in great need of donationsto help with the cost of the website and software needed to run our newsletter. Any donation would be greatly appreciated.
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Special Projects
Major-General Wilfred de Brouwer and UFOs
General de Brouwer states, “In any case, the Air Force has arrived to the conclusion that a certain number of anomalous phenomena has been produced within Belgian airspace. The numerous testimonies of ground observations compiled in this [SOBEPS] book, reinforced by the reports of the night of March 30-31 [1990], have led us to face the hypothesis that a certain number of unauthorized aerial activities have taken place. Until now, not a single trace of aggressiveness has been signaled; military or civilian air traffic has not been perturbed nor threatened. We can therefore advance that the presumed activities do not constitute a direct menace. The day will come undoubtedly when the phenomenon will be observed with technological means of detection and collection that won’t leave a single doubt about its origin. This should lift a part of the veil that has covered the mystery for a long time. A mystery that continues to the present. But it exists, it is real, and that in itself is an important conclusion. Major-General Wilfred de Brouwer, Deputy Chief, Royal Belgian Air Force, “Postface” in SOBEPS’ Vague d’OVNI sur la Belgique – Un Dossier Exceptionnel, Brussels: SOBEPS, 1991.
Major General Wilfried De Brouwer headed the Operations Division in the Belgian Air Staff and helped investigate a rash of sightings over Belgium in 1989. For two years hundreds of people in Belgium saw a triangular craft of hundred and twenty feet on each if three sides. Usually its brilliant beaming spotlights were spotted.” The triangle flew slowly above the Belgian countryside and was spotted by police and military personnel as well as by the public. It made no noise but could accelerate instantly and easily outrun the fastest fighter aircraft. Belgium’s defense minister, Guy Coeme, asked De Brouwer to handle the sightings personally and visual and radar sightings proved unbelievable maneuverability and speed far in advance of any known aircraft. The triangle was invading Belgian airspace despite NATO cooperation. De Brouwer interviewed hundreds of eyewitnesses including high ranking military officers. The US, UK, France and Germany all denied that the craft was theirs. Thirteen different police officers spotted and chased the craft with rectangular windows and a dome on the top. Thanks to UFOnetwork
Charlie Quinn writes, “I think that Bill Clinton tried to gradually sensitize the American people to the evident reality of penetration of our air space by UFOs and the clear and present danger that they represent.”
Documents released under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) reveal the deep involvement of Mrs. Clinton in the Rockefeller Initiative to try to force the White House to release an alleged stash of confidential files on UFO and alien sightings and research across all departments.
Yesterday, Express.co.uk told how the Clintons had refused to discuss their respective roles in the failed bid to ensure the release of such files 21 years ago.
Their involvement came after a briefing on the disclosure movement from the late billionaire philanthropist Laurence Rockefeller at his extensive ranch in August 1995.
Today, in the second part of our investigation, we reveal how the powerful businessman’s bid to get the truth out there seemingly pitted the controversial husband and wife against each other, with the latter helping Rockefeller with drafts of the letter.
Further confirmation of that fact can be gleaned from the motion picture “Contact”. In that movie, which clearly tended to ESTABLISH alien contact with human beings, Clinton allowed videotapes of himself to be used in the context of the movie. While there was an official declaration that the President did not endorse the theme of the movie, he is shown in one film clip saying… “Yes, this is true. It is a fact”.
Jodie Foster in Contact
Webb Hubbell , in his book, stated that Clinton, as President, assigned him to find out as much as possible about the existence of UFOs and Hubbell, as we know, remains a loyal supporter of Clinton and friend. Is all of this just coincidence? I think not. In his book, “The Day after Roswell”, Colonel Corso stated, “Clearly that S.D.I- the so-called Star Wars program was developed to provide a shield of protection , not against Russian aggression, but against the aggression of alien cultures.” It has been successful in shooting down some UFOs. I also believe that the Egyptian air crash was due to a complete power failure while in flight – a power failure that could – – – I emphasize the word “could”– be explained by interference caused by UFOs. Thanks to Charlie Quinn
Hillary and Bill Clinton pictured separately with Laurence Rockefeller at his ranch in August 1995
The buzz is noises from the camp of presidential hopeful Hillary Clinton amid claims she will force “UFO disclosure” if she makes it to the White House. The disclosure movement seeks release of ALL top-secret and confidential files held by US authorities on anything to do with aliens and UFOs. Conspiracy theorists and Ufologists claimed various governments have evidence of alien visitations which have been withheld from the public amid fears over potential impacts on religion, science and the rule of law.
Bill and Hillary have long intrigued the movement after making little publicized moves in the 1990s to bring about disclosure after meeting with Laurence Rockefeller. Things really heated up in January when Mrs. Clinton said she wanted to open up on what is happening at the mysterious Area 51 military base in Nevada, where UFO conspiracists believe evidence of alien technology is hidden away.
Responding to questions about UFOs during an interview in New Hampshire, she said: “I am going to get to the bottom of it.” Thanks to Paradigm Research Group. Washington (CNN)There has long been an air of conspiracy surrounding theories of alien life, and the head of Hillary Clinton’s campaign said Thursday, “It’s time to do away with the secrecy. On May 16, 2016, 2016, Hillary Clinton promised if elected she would investigate the alien phenomenon. Could this be the actual reason she lost the election?
CNN’s Jake Tapper pulled aside Clinton campaign chair John Podesta, who was a guest on “The Lead,” to talk aliens. “The U.S. government could do a much better job in answering the quite legitimate questions that people have about what’s going on with unidentified aerial phenomena,” Podesta said.
Podesta has made his interest in the possibility of alien life and conspiratorial leanings toward Area 51 well known. During his time serving in the Obama administration, Podesta tweeted, “Finally, my biggest failure of 2014: Once again not securing the #disclosure of the UFO files. #thetruthisstilloutthere cc: @NYTimesDowd and Wikipedia.”
Mars Town and Writing
Norman Bryden writes, “Images show a probable travel system laid out on Mars as a grid, with buildings located within the matrix.
Some of the light-colored road-like structures appear as two lanes of traffic separated by dividers. Bridges and underpasses are present.
There may also be vegetation growing in the photo. The dark areas suggest a large
group of trees or large plants.
Z AEgO L CL
Many places on Mars have large signs that can be seen from space while ground level rocks frequently contain what appears to be an alphabet similar to English letters. The modern English alphabetis a Latin alphabet consisting of 26 letters, each having an uppercase and a lowercase form: The same letters constitute the ISO basic Latin alphabet. The Latin script, was introduced by Christian missionaries into England that began to replace the Anglo-Saxon futhorc from about the 7th century. In the year 1011, a monk namedByrhtferð recorded the traditional order of the Old English alphabet. He listed the 24 letters of the Latin alphabet first (including ampersand), then 5 additional English letters, starting with the Tironian noteond (⁊), an insular symbol for and: A B C D E F G H I K L M N O P Q R S T V X Y Z & ⁊ Ƿ Þ Ð Æ.
It seems logical that Martian lettering is much older than English,: tin pr Greek and suggest Martian writing was transferred to Earth. The similarity of the letters appears to be more than a coincidence. There is speculation Martians brought writing from Mars to Earth thousands of years ago possibly after a disaster on Mars. Gravity on Mars is only one third 0.375 that of Earth and less than half the speed is needed to blast off from Mars than from Earth…
Are These Relics from a Lost, Ancient Martian Civilization?
Cosmonaut Victor Afanasyev Sees UFO in Orbit
Victor writes, “It followed us during half of our orbit.We observed it on the light side, and when we entered the shadow side, it disappeared completely.
It was an engineered structure, made from some type of metal, approximately 40 meters long with inner hulls.
The object was narrow here and wider here, and inside there were openings. Some places had projections like small wings.
The object stayed very close to us. We photographed it, and our photos showed it to be 23 to 28 meters away.“Cosmonaut Afanasyev commented on sightings of an alien UFO sighting that occurred while traveling to the Solyut 6 space station, April of 1979.
Ohio Telepathic Contact
WRIGHT-PATTERSON AFB– De, Bob, Kay Allen, Cyndie LePori, and Sandi Duffy were in the car driving to see the Serpent Mound in southern Ohio. We were driving on the peripheral road around Wright-Patterson AFB, and Bob was telling us about working and retiring from W-P AFB. All of a sudden, clear as day, Cyndie, Kay, and Sandi received an unexpected telepathic communication from an ET that is on the base in an underground bunker behind the Air Force Museum runway. The ET was very excited for he knew we could communicate and visualize him. Someone in the car suggested we ask questions from the alien
We asked his name. First we got Kay said it sounded like Alvin. We asked again and got Kelvin. We finally settled on Elfin, because he said he was a little like an elf and he liked the comparison. We asked if he was okay. He said, ‘yes’ that he was not being held without his consent. He had the ability to leave at any time, but that he stays to up-grade the vibrational energies of those he comes in contact there. He said, “He was doing well and was having fun with everyone”. We got the distinct impression that everyone who comes into contact with him gets a rather large dose of ‘unconditional love’ and instantly falls in love with him.
He is small, with human characteristics; his eyes are a little larger and have a greater function than ours. His head is slightly larger, too, but not overly large. He doesn’t have much hair on his body like we do and he’s not quite as ‘pink’ skinned as we are, a little more ‘green-grey’ but not like the ‘grays’. The difference is similar to being ‘olive’ rather than being ‘light’ skin tone. He’s much more ‘olive’ than we are as depicted in artist’s rendition… We did not asked how he got there or from which crash. We just knew he had been there for many years—the feeling was at least 50 and that he had not aged much, only the humans around him have aged. He had been injured, initially, but healed easily. They had done some test on him in the early years, but now, they mostly watch him to make sure his health is stable & good—which it is.
We asked him about how he could leave if he wanted to and we got a visual that a ship would come over head and he would be transported up thru a light beam, but that he was not concerned about staying—he is being ‘in service’ by interacting with those around him. It is easy to remote view him, he is quite happy to have the visit. On our return trip by the base later that evening, he bid us ‘hello’ once again. We told him about our increditable day and he sent us a ‘wave of unconditional love’ for sharing with him. We all felt it and were lulled into silence of appreciation.
It is with his permission that I tell you these things. He said, “He would like disclosure because he says that secrets do not serve the greater good of all.
In conclusion, I’m sure that all this can be easily substantiated by any remote viewer and welcomed for interacting with him. Elfin is more than willing to communicate, all you need to do is ask! It was great meeting you at the IUFOC. Joyfully, Sandi
Monthly Statistical MUFON Report – forTotal 757 Sightings in July 2018
Valencia Island Kerry, Eire — on June 20, 2018.
CMS continues to amass sighting reports from around the globe. In July 2018 there were 734 sightings reported to MUFON through CMS from the following countries;
US 497,
UK 78, Canada 62,
France 24,
Brazil 8,
Australia 7,
Germany 7,
Portugal 6, and
Spain 4.
These states had sighting reports:
California 59, Florida 39, Washington 29, Texas 27, Oregon 23, New York 22. Pennsylvania 22, Michigan 21, Ohio 17, Missouri 15, Nevada 13, Arizona 13 and New Jersey 13.
Dr. Hovind writes “Aircraft have been found buried in ice in Greenland that are more than 3,000 years old according to the ice melting rings . You’re kidding!” laughed the lab worker quipped Kent. “! In case you don’t know, I work at the Denver National Ice Core Laboratory here in Colorado. And we’ve been taking cores of ice from Greenland and Antarctica. It’s dry… very cold… the glaciers are MILES THICK… but their annual growth rings are very THIN.” “We’ve measured the ice… and I tell you, man, it’s 135,000 years old! Your 4,000 years is a joke.” “I’d like to see your lab,” said Kent, calmly. The next day my friend Kent met the worker at the lab. The employee ushered him into the giant freezer which stored the long cores from ice drilling. “See this core from Greenland?” said the worker. “We drilled down and brought it up from 10,000 feet. See the rings? This core takes us back 135,000 years. You’ll notice the rings along its length… dark – light – dark – light.“Well, these represent annual rings, because in summer the top layer of snow melts and then re-freezes as clear ice, which shows up dark here. In winter, the snow doesn’t get a chance to melt, so it packs – and shows up as a white layer. These layers of dark – light – dark – light, indicate 135,000 summers and winters.”
Dr. Hovind looked him in the eye. “Aren’t you assuming those are annual rings?” Let’s step back a few years… to the famous lost squadron.
THE LOST SQUADRON
In 1942, during World War II, some war planes landed in Greenland. When the war ended, those planes were left there and forgotten. In 1990, an aircraft enthusiast came up with the bright idea to find them and fly them off again. He organized a group and they went searching. As it turned out, they had to use radar, because the planes were under the ice… in fact, so deep under the ice, the men had a hard job finding them. Do you know, that lost squadron had got covered by 263 feet of ice in 48 years!
Let’s do some arithmetic. * 263 feet divided by 48 years… that’s an ice growth of about 5.5 feet per year. Now divide 10,000 feet by 5.5. And you get 1,824 years for ALL of the ice to build up. We should allow longer for the fact that the deeper ice is pressed into finer layers. Note: those planes did not sink into the ice, due to pressure on the ice. The ice had grown OVER them.
ARE THESE ANCIENT AIRCRAFT IN ICE?
P-38 Lightning Aircraft
Okay, would you do some math? Can you work this out,? The Denver National Ice Core Laboratory said that 10,000 feet of ice had to be 135,000 years old! So the 263 feet deep of “Lost Squadron” ice – how old should that be? That’s right… 3,419 years old. Does that mean those aircraft are 3,419 years old? What do you think?
HERE COMES THE SEQUEL
In April, 1999, Kent visited Bob Cardin at his museum in Middleboro, Kentucky. Cardin had dug out and was restoring the P-38. You may be wondering, how did they get that plane out? Ingenious. They had melted a hole down to the airplane, broken it apart and brought up the pieces through the hole.“When you dug it out,” asked Kent, “did you see any layers of ice… dark – light – dark – “Yeah, I did, as a matter of fact.”“How many layers of ice were there?”“Many hundreds of them.”HUNDREDS OF RINGS IN 48 YEARS? “How could there be many hundreds of annual rings in only 48 years?”“THOSE ARE NOT ANNUAL RINGS. That’s not summer and winter,” replied Cardin. “ It’s warm – cold – warm – cold – warm –cold. You can get ten of those in one day.”And that’s a fact!
Yet, the scientific elite was still calling them annual rings. Somebody’s either is ignorant… or lying.
I’m worried. The textbooks you read today are textbooks not only about science, but about evolution. They’re trying to sneak evolution in with the science. Sneaking beer ads in with football matches doesn’t mean beer is football. Sneaking evolution in with the science doesn’t make it science.
Radiocarbon dating involves determining the age of an ancient fossil or specimen by measuring its carbon–14 content. Carbon–14, or radiocarbon, is a naturally occurring radioactive isotope that forms when cosmic rays in the upper atmosphere strike nitrogen molecules, which then oxidize to become carbon dioxide. Radiocarbon dating methods are frequently used in determining the ages of ancient artifacts and fossils. These methods invariably give a great age for the ancient item in question. Radiocarbon dating is based on the fact that carbon-14 (an isotope of the extremely common element carbon) decays into another carbon isotope, carbon-12, at an exact rate. By measuring the ratio of carbon-14 to carbon-12, experts can determine the age of something that dates from ancient times.
However, according to the journal Science News, “The older an artifact is, the less certain scientists can be about its age” (Barry 2007: 344). Chris Turney of the University of Exeter in England similarly noted: “With radiocarbon, it’s not possible to obtain absolute dates—there’s always a bit of an unknown” (ibid).
One of the biggest factors in throwing off carbon dates is the fact that nuclear testing, which began around 1950, “blasted out radiation [into the atmosphere] that scientists see clearly as a spike in the radiocarbon record” (ibid.). Most problematic in absorbing this spike in radiation has been charcoal, which scientists use frequently in their dating of ancient finds. To rectify this, Michael Bird of the University of St. Andrews in Scotland created ABOX, a specialized cleaning protocol that rids archaeological samples of nearly all modern nuclear contamination.
According to Richard Gillespie of the Australian National University (the institution at which Prof. Bird first created his technique), “ABOX showed some dates are seriously wrong” (ibid.). Referring to the fact that many Australian fossils were re-dated under the ABOX technique, Gillespie commented, “Something like a hundred dates were wrong and we ended up chucking them all out. Some of the dates were 10,000 years out” (ibid.).
Jeff Pigati of the U.S. Geological Survey has improved on the ABOX method. His system is, in his own words, “especially important for very old samples. Even very small amounts of modern contamination can be fatal for old samples” (ibid., 345).
There is another problem with carbon dating, one that goes beyond adjusting for the increased presence of radiation post-1950. This fact was suspected by no less than Willard Libby, the Nobel Prize-winning inventor of carbon dating, as Science News reported:
Even in the early days, Libby suspected that the carbon-12 to carbon-14 ratio had not remained constant through time. Work on solar cycles and the Earth’s magnetic field proved him right. Both phenomena are known to influence radiocarbon amounts by altering the level of cosmic radiation entering the atmosphere (ibid.).
The uncertainties surrounding science’s most popular dating method underscores how cautious scientists must be before setting in stone any date for an artifact or fossil. In the words of Prof. Gillespie, “Although 26,000 [years ago, according to modern dating assumptions] is pretty well nailed down now, there’s a sort of best guess for what comes after that” (ibid.). Until an infallible dating method is discovered, the dates of ancient discoveries will remain dubitable and controversial.
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- Gemiddelde waardering: 0/5 - (0 Stemmen) Categorie:FILER FILES - overzicht met foto's met dank aan Georges Filer en WWW.nationalUFOCenter.com (ENG)
Filer’s Files #36 – 2018 – UFOs Are Real - PART II
Filer’s Files #36 – 2018 – UFOs Are Real - PART II
UFO Sightings in the United States
Arizona Light
San Tan Valley — Was video recording a storm and saw a streak go past the clouds on September 2, 2018.
I was filming and later went through the video frame by frame on IPhone and see a long cylinder shaped figure dart past the clouds in 1-2 seconds. Frame 31 seconds to 32 seconds in the video. Thanks to MUFON CMS
California Object
Los Angeles — I was in my backyard building a wooden bench when I looked to my right and immediately saw a white balloon like orb floating in the sky. I initially thought it was a balloon but it was at a good distance away and would have to have been a very large balloon. Because of the size I took my phone out and started to film. It remains somewhat stationary in the sky for a few minutes and then starts to move in a southwestern direction toward the sun. My neck was getting sore from filming because it was there for so long. In some of the video it appears that an emission comes from the bottom of it as it starts to move like a small thruster. My camera and I are moving so much that it’s hard to tell how direct of a path the object is flying.. It became harder to see as it flew toward the sun and I eventually lost it. Thanks to MUFON CMS
Colorado Light
Denver–- On August 18th, 2018, I was on an airplane flying from North Carolina to Los Angeles. When we were passing Denver, Colorado I saw a thunderstorm a couple of miles away directly in front of my window. I pulled out my phone to take a video of the lightning because I thought it looked pretty cool from how high up we were. While I was filming, I noticed a flashing red and white light flying. It was flying the opposite direction in straight line of the plane I was in. The object started to descend and stopped blinking for a second, and then when it started blinking again, it climbed and kept flying away. It looked almost like a drone, but because of our 30,000 feet altitude there is no way it was a drone. It moved to quickly to be a plane.
Note: I believe that the witness may have seen a distant aircraft which was passing in the opposite direction. The apparent abrupt change in altitude and the reversal of direction could have been due to movement of the cell phone camera. Thanks to William Puckett, Director Http://www.UFOsnw.com
Kentucky Triangle
Monticello — I was outside on September 1, 2018, and the UFO photo was taken at 5:07 PM. A storm was coming in very slowly from the south west form Albany Ky. I thought I’d try take some picture of the sky and captured a triangle or V shaped UFO. I captured it when I took the pictures. It have been moving very fast for the picture was only 1 to 2 seconds apart. It seem black and has a white glow around it in the photo. Maybe it way of shielding its self or anti gravity propulsion? Photos were taken with a ZTE N817 phone sorry for the pixels. Thanks to MUFON CMS
Maryland Light
Baltimore Not much to say since I never observed the object it wasn’t until I reviewed my pictures. I saw the glow on the right side of the picture on the outdoor event on September 1,/2018 from 20:00 – 21:00 hours on Pier 5 across from MECU Pavilion.
Thanks to MUFON CMS
Massachusetts Disc
South Chatham–My wife and I were down at Forest Beach on September 3, 2018, when off in the distance we saw an orb rising to the level of the star. Then it started to proceed towards us in a north easterly direction and it literally went right over our heads spinning and doing weird shapes. It was flashing different lighted designs around the circumference of the object etc. etc. I shot some video on my iPhone that shows basically what we saw. It looked much more intense. …. On June 11 of this year my wife and I had a major citing here in Cape Cod. We saw between 11 and 22 UFOs in the sky at the same time. Thanks to MUFON CMS
Michigan Lights
Manistee — Going to restaurant to take out and noticed the bright light in the SE sky. Thought it was a star but the brightest star was smaller and just white. This object glowed yellow/orange and moved slow. Took pictures and starred at it over an hour. Call wife out and she saw it too.
Photo was taken on August 31, 2018. Thanks to MUFON CMS
Nebraska Disc
Lincoln— I took a photo of sky because it was going to rain. I did not see object in photo personally until I looked at photos on my phone. Taken from inside a vehicle.
Photo was taken on September 2. 2018.
+Thanks to MUFON CMS
New Jersey Cigar
Sandy Hook — On Labor Day 2018, I had just arrived to the beach on the Jersey Shore when I laid down to get some sun around 3 pm. Almost immediately, I noticed an object of unknown size at an altitude between 70,000 and 140,000 feet 2 to 4 times larger than a typical commercial airliner. The sky was mostly clear The object was parallel to the shoreline and shaped like a slender cigar. When I first laid eyes on it the object vacillated from white to platinum-silver on the edge of the cloud, effectively removing itself from camouflage. This color-change action is what allowed it to be plainly visible to me, in effective giving up it cloud-white camouflage. It moved at the pace of satellite and then continued to change colors from platinum-silver to blue and red to invisible to white and so on repeatedly. The object moved from the north to the east, then stopped. It moved back about 10% toward its original position toward north, then stopped again. It was among the most beautiful sights I have ever seen and the color and lights that is exuded were unlike anything I’ve ever seen before. After staring for over a minute, all the while it vacillating between invisibility and it’s 4 colors, I began to perceive a circular aura about the object and sense in some way that it was trying to communicate. I turned to my friend to ask if he could see it too which he affirmed. Neither of us saw anything like it before.
I turned to some strangers a few feet away one screamed, “Oh my God! What the @& is that?!” Thanks to MUFON CMS
New Mexico Orb
Deming— My husband gets home from work on September 4, 2018. He kissed us hello and I said lets go feed the ducks. We headed outside at 6:30pm and my husband and I immediately saw this huge “star” hovering above the setting sun. We are always looking at the sky, my husband is a flight director at the Deming Blimp site. Mars is the first one in the sky and it appears over the Florida Mountains. This “star” was the opposite direction over the setting sun. I grabbed our camera because phone cameras can’t pick up stars well. My husband and I called our neighbors and they went outside and saw it as well. We watched it for 40 minutes. During that time it never moved with the earth and never blinked like a star, just shown like a spotlight. It did however change from a circle to a guitar pick shape. Another bright light appeared above and to the left of the original light and moved straight down toward earth and disappeared. Then 3 lights appeared around the original light and moved straight down and disappeared. The original light seamed to join them at this point and moved down and disappeared but it shrank to disappear. The orb came back about 8:30 pm with another light hovering to its left for 10 minutes and then disappeared.
Thanks to MUFON CMS
Texas Triangle
El Paso— I was on my way to work the morning of August 31, 2018, at 6:25 in the morning. I stared at the sunrise as usual because I have to stop at a damn red light, right before I get on the freeway to work. I glanced to the right and saw a glowing triangle and thought it was weird. So I took several pictures and a short video with my Samsung Galaxy S8. It’s still new to me and noticed afterwards that the phone does an amazing thing automatically…..it stabilized the video on its own. Yes I did zoom in on the object and luckily it worked perfectly. Even if it’s explainable, it is an interesting video and pictures. Thanks to MUFON CMS
Washington D.C.
Film Photograph of UFO seen over US Capital midsummer, taken with disposable camera.
UFO Hovers over United States Capitol, Photo taken on July 1, 2018. Thanks to MUFON CMS
Worldwide UFO Sightings
Canada Light
Thunder Bay — I was sitting beside my kitchen window and typing on my computer on August 23, 2018. I had a funny feeling and turned my head towards the sleeping giant and witnessed the blue UFO hovering. The object looked blue and seemed to change form as if an electrical current was pulsating within. Well I was amazed and a little peeved my phone wouldn’t focus. Lost sight of it when it went south behind trees. Thanks to MUFON Thanks to MUFON CMS
France Triangle
Bobigny— I was going home, and I passed by a construction site and saw a triangular shape behind a building. The top emitted a blue light, but no traces of propulsion or movement of air, or electro-magnetic phenomena (MHD or others).
It was a very slow flight, which seems impossible for a human vehicle with such a shape.
I was very surprised, compared to the planes I see coming and going from Le Bourget airport, that’s located not far away.
By the time I found the right setting, I just had time to film 5 seconds and it disappeared behind a housebreak on the right. Thanks to MUFON CMS
Italy Disc
Naples— May 8, 2018, first day of a weeklong tour: “Pompeii, Herculaneum and classical campania (Andante tour company). in the morning we were on our way from the hotel to the (Greek) temples site and museum at Paestum. I sat at the back of the bus. i stood up to take two pictures of the Bay of Naples as we passed by. i didn’t notice the object. There was a little stairwell to the rear bus exit. i sat in the same seat throughout the tour and never noticed a spot on the window: I’m sure if there had been, someone would have pointed it out. Thanks to MUFON CMS
Mexico Disc
Mexico City — The event occurred in the morning of September 15, 2017″ stepping out of the tour bus, this was the first photo I took that day. I wanted to get the statue and church tower in the same frame. I don’t know if I noticed the object. Down lower to the right was a building one of the three tour guides said was located there since the time of Cortes. Behind me was a long park at the end of which is the Coyote Fountain. I was showing my album of pictures to the couple who own the shop where I get my photos processed, one said, “that looks like a ufo” she was the first to notice it. always before she said she wouldn’t believe in ufos unless she saw one.
UK Object
London— I was sunbathing on the bank of a pond in Bushy Park, Hampton, West London when I witnessed a strange round grey shape moving through a thin layer of white cloud above me travelling in a straight line. The best way to describe it would be a round grey shadow in the cloud, like a smudge. I watched the shadow move through the clouds but once clear I was unable to see it anymore. I’m not sure of the size or height but the object itself was pretty high up in the sky as I could see a commercial aircraft which appeared very small in the sky in comparison. The sky itself was pretty clear. I wondered if there was anything that could have cast the shadow up into the sky. The following day I returned to the same location where I witnessed 4 dark military helicopters travelling in the same direction as the shadow had. Between the military helicopters there was a single white and blue helicopter. I believe the date was on or around the 25th June 2018 in the afternoon. Thanks to MUFON CMS
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HYBRID HUMANS: Author Daniella Fenton claims ancient ETs engineered human race
Ancient astronauts travelled through a "wormhole" in the Pleiades star cluster but couldn't survive on Earth, it's claimed.
Extraterrestrials decided instead to "alter the genetic make up" of early human ancestors so they became more intelligent.
The proof is in the fusion of Chromosome-2 around 780,000 years ago based on the book Hybrid Humans written by Daniella Fenton.
Chromosone-2 is found in all large-brained humans, including Neanderthals and Denisovans, but no other primate species.
"The three species went on to become advanced humans with art, culture and increasingly complex technologies," said Mrs Fenton.
"The fusions site in on an active gene which expresses itself in brain structure, immunity and reproductive functions - important systems for upgrading to a new human species.
"Instead of a small number of humans having the fusion and a large group not having it, instead there was a rapid total replacement with all humans on Earth having 46 rather than 48 chromosomes, this tells us it gave enormous benefits to become so dominant.
"Approximately 800,000 years ago human brain size went into a sudden rapid increase in size and complexity which has long been a mystery to archaeologists."
DANIELLA FENTON
THEORY: Author Daniella Fenton said the DNA of humans changed dramatically due to alien science
She went on: "This was not the only change at this time and two very extraordinary changes are the sudden appearance of miR-941, which played a crucial role in human brain development.
"The gene is highly active in controlling decision-making and enabling language abilities and appeared suddenly formed out of junk DNA."
What Mrs Fenton claims are the "signature of aliens" is dramatic changes to a neocortex gene called ARHGAP11B – associated with sight and hearing in mammals.
The official explanation for Chromosome-2, the second largest in humans, does not involve aliens.
Researcher JW IJdo concluded Chromosome-2 "marks the point at which two ancestral ape chromosomes fused to give rise to human Chromosome-2."
DANIELLA FENTON
HYBRID HUMANS: The book claims aliens engineered mankind 780,000 years ago
“Approximately 800,000 years ago human brain size went into a sudden rapid increase in size and complexity which has long been a mystery to archaeologists.”
Daniella Fenton
The Australian author, who studied equine genetic and is a spirtualist and certified shaman, claims to have physical evidence to support the ancient alien theory.
Her husband Bruce is also a writer who worked on the research.
They researched a book called Alcheringa which promotes the theory an alien spaceship exploded in our atmosphere hundreds of thousands of years ago and the survivors, who couldn't survive without the mother ship, engineered Homo sapiens.
Mrs Fenton claims the melted wreckage of the crashed craft explains the mysterious Australites tektite buttons, unexplained dark glass objects thought to be ejected in meteorite impacts.
She claimed that geologists have dated the remains of a 1km sized melted object to around 780,000 years ago.
She added: "According to a NASA study the resulting liquid glass (containing around 80% silica from melted quartz crystal) formed spheres in space which then instantly froze and began to fall into our atmosphere.
"As they entered they heated and melted to form unique button shapes before landing right across Australasia.
"These Australite tektite buttons are unique in the 4.5 billion year history of our planet and remain a total mystery to science because they can’t understand how they formed."
The Hybrid Human theory also believes the alien astronauts arrived from the Pleiades star cluster, thought to contain several thousand stars.
It is among the nearest star cluster to Earth and the one which is most visible to the naked eye.
It is believed one planet could exist around the star HD 23514 due to the exceptional number of hot dust particles surrounding it.
Mrs Fenton points to how Pleiades has been referenced repeatedly by various cultures.
She said: "All around the world ancient cultures talk about ancestral beings from the Pleiades and portals that connect those stars with this planet, this includes mythology in Japan, Indonesia, Mexico, American Indians, ancient Egypt, Sumeria and Aboriginal Australia."
A painted rock shows that humans tried their hand at symbolism as early as 73,000 years ago, pointing to the roots of modern cognition patterns.
Image credits Christopher S. Henshilwood et al., 2018, Nature.
International researchers report discovering the oldest evidence of abstract drawing to date. The artifact in question is a fragment of polished rock painted with a crosshatch pattern of nine fine lines, unearthed from a 73,000-year-old archaeological stratum at the Blombos Cave in South Africa.
“Do you do portraits, too?”
It’s not easy determining symbolism from art when dealing with some of the earliest graphic productions humanity has ever created. The main difficulty lies in determining whether the splotches of pigment were applied deliberately or not. After intentionality is established, the next step is to determine whether the images you’re dealing with are doodles or storytelling crutches, or whether they held particular meaning.
Needless to say, across the huge divides of time and culture that separate us from our ancestors, both points can be very tricky to handle.
The oldest known sample of art we’ve found before now is the shell of a freshwater mussel engravedwith a zigzag pattern discovered in Tirnil, Java, in a 540,000-year-old archaeological layer. Decorated trinkets discovered in several archeological sites in Africa, likely used for personal adornment, have been dated to roughly 70,000 years ago.
A rendition of the crosshatched pattern seen on the fragment of stone. Image credits Christopher S. Henshilwood et al., 2018, Nature.
Still, art does not necessarily a symbol make. A symbol is a mark, sign, or word that represents an idea, another object, or a relationship. While the main trait of art is beauty or its ability to encapsulate an emotional message, a symbol is, foremost, an abstraction. As such, accurately telling apart art and symbolism is very important for anthropology. Both art and symbols “are a prime indicator of modern cognition and behavior”, the team writes — the latter especially so, since abstraction requires that extra bit of intellectual brawn to handle.
Well, we have new evidence pointing to the roots of abstract thinking at least 30,000 years earlier than previously discovered works suggested.
Abstrart
The artifact, detailed by an international team that includes scientists from Norway, France, South Africa, and Switzerland, is a fragment of siliceous rock (silcrete) adorned with nine fine lines in a crosshatch pattern. It was found during excavations at the Blombos Cave, South Africa, in a 73,000-year-old archeological stratum. According to the team, the lines were drawn using an ocher (the iron ore from which the eponymous color is derived) pencil.
Ocher and silcrete implements used in the reconstruction efforts. Image credits Christopher S. Henshilwood et al., 2018, Nature.
Determining whether the pattern was deliberately drawn fell primarily on the shoulders of the team’s French members, who have a background in the chemical analysis of pigments.
They started by trying to reproduce the lines through various techniques — an approach known as experimental or experiential archeology, as it relies on direct experience gained from experimentation — that were available to the people living around the cave at the time. These included whittling ocher fragments to a point or an edge to see which shape better recreates the lines, as well as applying watery solutions of ocher powder using brushes.
Closeup of the original markings. Image credits Christopher S. Henshilwood et al., 2018, Nature.
They then compared the lines against their ancient counterparts from a microscopic, chemical, and tribological (the science of friction and wear) standpoint. According to the team, the lines were intentionally drawn with a pointed ocher implement (akin to a pencil). As such, the pattern represents the earliest known abstract drawing to date.
Closeup of the reconstructed lines. Image credits Christopher S. Henshilwood et al., 2018, Nature.
With intentionality established, the next step was to decide whether the team was looking at a symbol or just pretty doodles. This step was surprisingly simple, however. Blombos Cave is the site of an ongoing excavation by teams from the University of Bergen (Norway) and the University of Witwatersrand (South Africa) that began in 1991. Over the years, many other objects with symbolic markings — including ocher fragments that feature very similar crosshatched engraving — were uncovered in the same archaeological stratum in which the present artwork was discovered.
It’s been two weeks since the International Space Station’s crew repaired a small leak, but there are far more questions than answers.
On the evening of August 29, ground control operators in Houston and Moscow identified a pressure loss in the ISS, which cosmonauts and astronauts traced to a leak in the hull of the Russian Soyuz MS-09 capsule and repaired with a patch kit. The hole was quite small — about two millimeters in diameter — and didn’t pose a significant safety risk to the crew. Though it didn’t cause the space station to lose much air, it did raise eyebrows.
In the days since, Russian officials have entertained rumors of sabotage to the point that NASA and Russia’s space agency Roscosmos found it necessary to issue a joint statement on Thursday announcing plans for top administrators to meet face-to-face over the matter.
“NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine and Roscosmos General Director Dmitry Rogozin met for the first time yesterday via teleconference to discuss the status of International Space Station (ISS) operations in response to a request from Roscosmos.”
As a result of this teleconference, Bridenstine and Rogozin agreed to an in-person meeting at the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan sometime around October 10.
Bridenstine already has a visit to Russia and Kazakhstan planned for that time, as the Russian Soyuz MS-10 spacecraft is scheduled to launch from Baikonur Cosmodrome on October 11, when it will carry NASA astronaut Nick Hague and Russian cosmonaut Aleksey Ovchinin to the ISS.
Jim Bridenstine✔@JimBridenstine
Yesterday I spoke with my counterpart at @roscosmos, General Director Dmitry Rogozin. He informed me about Roscosmos’ decision to establish a commission to investigate the cause of the leak in the Soyuz spacecraft docked to the @Space_Station. More here: https://go.nasa.gov/2N9kAzB
NASA, Roscosmos Statement on International Space Station Leak
The following is a joint statement from NASA and the Russian space agency Roscosmos about the investigation into a pressure leak on the International Space Station Aug. 29-30:
And while the whole joint announcement may sound extremely diplomatic and collaborative, it is hard to ignore the darker subtext. The release alludes to rumors that have swirled since the leak was repaired. Initially attributed to a micrometeoroid impact, the hull leak has since been blamed on a power drill of some sort. It’s not clear whether the hole happened on Earth or in space.
“We want to find out the full name of who is at fault — and we will.”
“We are able to narrow down the cause to a technological mistake of a technician. We can see the mark where the drill bit slid along the surface of the hull,” Rogozin told RIA Novosti on September 3, as translated for Ars Technica. “We want to find out the full name of who is at fault — and we will.”
Again, it’s not clear whether this hole was made accidentally or intentionally, nor whether it was made in space or on the ground — where perhaps a patch was applied that later dried out and came loose in space, an event that has occurred on a previous Soyuz craft — but Rogozin’s resolve has resulted in the formation of a Roscosmos-led commission into the matter.
Since then, Russian news outlets have speculated on possible sabotage by NASA astronauts, suggesting that the astronauts sought to create an emergency situation in order to get a sick colleague back to Earth sooner.
According to Russian newspaper Kommersant, this version of events is being considered a top possibility. But Rogozin and Bridenstine’s announcement doesn’t hint at this tension, instead laying the bulk of the blame on media reports.
The hole in the ISS appeared to have been caused by a drill.
“The Administrator and the General Director noted speculations circulating in the media regarding the possible cause of the incident and agreed on deferring any preliminary conclusions and providing any explanations until the final investigation has been completed,” reads Thursday’s joint statement.
For his part, Rogozin has rejected the rumors.
“The recent gossip and rumors circulating about the incident at the ISS hinder the work of Roscosmos experts and are designed to subvert the friendly relations among the crew members of the space station,” he wrote on Facebook, reported state-owned Russian news outlet TASS on Wednesday. “All statements citing unnamed sources are inadmissible until Roscosmos special commission concludes its work,” he wrote, referring to the anonymous sources on which the news stories fueling the rumors have relied.
Despite this public caution and diplomacy, though, Ars Technica reports that Roscosmos sources have continued to leak inflammatory theories and accusations to the Russian press. Among these leaked accusations is the leading theory, as suggested by Kommersant, that NASA damaged the module in an attempt to force an emergency evacuation for an ill crew member. The logic behind this theory is that because it would require a joint evacuation of astronauts and cosmonauts, NASA could get the evacuation it wanted without having to pay the estimated $85 million for a new Soyuz pod.
Sources for Russian news outlets cited the scratch marks around the hole, which suggest that somebody was drilling in microgravity since it would be harder in that environment to get firm footing for a drill bit.
For its part, NASA crew aboard the ISS has vehemently denied the notion. In an interview with ABC News on Tuesday, station commander Drew Feustel said those claims are ridiculous.
“The crew had nothing to do with this on orbit.”
“I can unequivocally say that the crew had nothing to do with this on orbit, without a doubt, and I think it’s actually a shame and somewhat embarrassing that anybody is wasting any time talking about something that the crew was involved in,” Feustel said.
Needless to say, this whole thing has become a mess.
The Soyuz spacecraft is produced by Russian firm RKK Energia and is the only spacecraft model that currently carries humans between Earth and the International Space Station.
SpaceX, Boeing, and NASA are developing their own capsules. Just a month ago, NASA announced that it would test the Boeing-made CST-100 Starliner capsule in mid-2019 and it would test the SpaceX Crew Dragon capsule in April 2019. The NASA/ESA-operated Orion spacecraft, which is being built by Lockheed Martin and Airbus and would carry four people to and from the ISS, is also in development. These new capsules would reduce or eliminate US dependence on Russia’s Soyuz capsule.
This he-said-she-said situation represents a rare lapse in the usually friendly relationship between US and Russian space programs, a relationship that has remained mostly cordial despite the icy diplomatic relations the countries are experiencing back on Earth. Regardless of how this mess shakes out, the US will soon be able to ferry astronauts to the ISS without Russia.
Employees from the National Solar Observatory in Sunspot, New Mexico, were told to leave as agents rushed to the research centre last Thursday.
The building remains on lockdown, surrounded with yellow tape, as no timeframe has been given to local police for it to re-open.
A post office nearby was also cleared out and employees have been transferred to another branch.
And no one has given an explanation why.
“Maybe one of the employees tried to mail out their finding”
YouTube viewer
"We have temporarily vacated this facility as a precautionary measure," a spokeswoman for the Association for Universities for Research in Astronomy said.
"We're working with the proper authorities on this issue."
But Tyler Glockner, who runs YouTube conspiracy channel secureteam10, thinks astronomers in the observatory spotted something the government did not like.
He speculated, while taking images of the sun, they may have come across a secret military project or even extraterrestrial life.
Tyler went on to add that the FBI would have been brought in to remove any evidence of this.
SG
BIZARRE: The FBI placed the area on lockdown
His video has now racked up more than 300,000 hits in less than 24 hours.
And viewers were quick to share their thoughts.
"They don't even close a school for this long after a shooting, something big has happened," one person claimed.
Another added: "Maybe one of the employees tried to mail out their findings."
And a third claimed: "Suspicious considering that NASA just launched a probe to go within 6million miles of the Sun to take images."
TWITTER
BLOCKED: FBI taped off the entrance to the National Solar Observatory
It is not the first time claims have surfaced over alien life, though.
Why Social Stigma About Unexplained Phenomena Holds Humanity Back
Why Social Stigma About Unexplained Phenomena Holds Humanity Back
Like most other biological systems on this planet, humans are largely motivated by self-preservation and conflict avoidance.
As a species, we tend to avoid associating ourselves with anything that will isolate us from the larger group or make us sound strange, or that might draw negative attention from our peers.
In essence, stigma results in a paralysis of communication.
And when left unaddressed, it exerts a chilling influence over society and across generations. This is true whether we are trying to find the cause for diseases, reasons for environmental change, or primers for global conflict.
Throughout history, there are times when we, as a society, found it more convenient and socially acceptable to ignore uncomfortable topics. The results were often catastrophic both to our moral fiber and the health of our species. Stigma regarding certain psychological conditions once led to a life sentence in an asylum and forced lobotomies simply because stigma prevented families having a conversation about mental illness.
There has been similar social stigma in recent decades around the topic of Unidentified Aerial Phenomena (UAPs), or UFOs — a topic that has been relegated to conspiracy theorists, B-Movie villains, and the weird uncle no one wants to talk to anymore. As was the case with other topics that hold stigma, many people would rather look the other way than be associated with what’s been labeled “crazy,” or “fringe.”
When I was assigned Director of the Advanced Aerospace Threat Identification Program (AATIP), my colleagues and I experienced enough to know with absolute certainty that UAPs exist. Furthermore, they don’t seem to care if whether or not we believe in them and they are here with or without our permission.
How can we have an honest conversation about National Security and humanity if we can’t even address the topic of a potential threat or opportunity?
Consider this example from pop culture. In the famous Harry Potter series, the evil wizard Voldemort is so vile that other wizards are afraid to even utter his very name. The idea is if you don’t mention his name, it minimizes the threat and makes him less real. But ironically, the stigma of his name only makes him more powerful.
Refusing to acknowledge UAPs in our airspace is no different.
If we don’t overcome the social stigma about UAPs and address them, we may end up on the wrong side of history — only in this case, we’re not talking about fantasy and wizards, we are talking about reality and national security.
Here’s why we can’t afford to allow stigma to drive our fears and bury our heads in the sand:
Social stigma hinders government processes.
Social stigma is often the product of fear concerning topics that have no answers and are poorly understood. Project Blue Book provides a useful example.
From 1952–1969, the U.S. Air Force conducted a series of studies on UAPs. The goals of Project Blue Book were to determine whether UAPs were a national security threat and to scientifically analyze UFO-related data. For 17 years, Project Blue Book compiled reports of tens of thousands of UFO sightings, classifying 700 of these incidents as “unidentified.”
In 1966, the Air Force requested another committee, headed by Dr. Edward Condon, to look into these sightings. Two years later, they released the “Condon Report,” which concluded that the sightings they examined showed no signs of unusual activity. This prompted the Air Force to shut down Project Blue Book the following year.
Upon its dismantling, the project announced that despite nearly one thousand unidentified sightings, there was no evidence of extraordinary phenomena in our airspace.
These dismissive conclusions in the public versions of both Project Blue Book and the Condon Report simply weren’t supported by the facts. There were hundreds of credible eyewitness reports by trained observers, many with high-level security clearances, who witnessed these objects. Our country has put people in the electric chair based on the testimony of just two corroborating witnesses who aren’t particularly trained in the art of observation.
As is the case with other controversial topics, this verifiable evidence was suppressed and diluted due to stigma surrounding the topic of UAPs.
But there are always two sides to an argument.
During the time of the inquiries, the U.S. Government was in the middle of a cold war and, in all fairness, could not afford to be distracted on a wild goose chase for which they had no answers. As long as Americans weren’t under attack from these unusual phenomena, attention was rightfully placed towards more tangible matters. I don’t necessarily agree with that mindset, but I understand it.
Self-imposed stigma often makes a problem worse.
Tabloids and social media have certainly not helped the issue of stigma. These outlets frequently provide their consumers with sensationalized stories that only reinforce the stigma of certain topics.
The rise of social media means that now, everyone has a voice.
But many of those voices are less motivated by truth and instead seek to spread their own agendas. A simple search on Google about the program I once helped run, AATIP, results in hundreds of hits, many of these from purportedly reputable sites with “Deep-State” sources. These sites are run by the same individuals who claim to have inside knowledge of UAPs but have never provided one shred of evidence or proof that they have access to Government insiders.
But not all social media sites or Youtube channels have it wrong. Those sites which emphasize data collection, facts, and objectivity are usually on the right track. Surprisingly, some sites appear to have a strong understanding of the bizarre nature of the phenomena and a few well-placed sources of information. One specific example I have found is “UFOJesus,” a humorous YouTube channel that seems to have some credible inside information and insight.
No matter the medium, frank and honest conversation is crucial to moving forward as a society.
Overcoming stigma is key to our survival as a species.
If there is one thing that nature has shown us time and time again, it’s that we either adapt, or we die out.
As a species, it’s crucial to understand the things we can’t explain, in order to survive. And that means being open to new ideas, possibilities, and data. It’s always been this way, dating back to when mankind lived in caves. If you heard something roaming outside, you had to investigate. If you didn’t, you and your family would be unaware of a potential predator.
At the same time, an animal wandering around outside your cave could also mean food, which would keep your family alive so they could then flourish. If you stayed in the cave and never ventured outside, you might survive the night but probably not in the long run.
When it comes to UFOs, ignoring the unknown is similarly harmful because it might mean failing to seize upon opportunities and new understandings.
As a society, we have to recognize that stigma serves only to keep our heads in the sand. Our future depends on transparency and truth.
Corners of the internet are atwitter about a possible alien coverup after reports that a Blackhawk helicopter and federal agents swooped in and inexplicably evacuated a remote part of New Mexico, including a prominent solar observatory.
The Dunn Solar Telescope at the Sunspot solar observatory hides most of itself underground.
"There was a Blackhawk helicopter, a bunch of people around antennas and work crews on towers, but nobody would tell us anything," Otero County Sheriff Benny House told the Alamogordo Daily News. "I don't know why the FBI would get involved so quick and not tell us anything."
Five days later, the observatory's website confirms the entire facility is closed to both staff and the public until further notice.
"The Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy (AURA) who manages the facility is addressing a security issue at this time," AURA spokesperson Shari Lifson said in an emailed statement. "It's a temporary evacuation of the facility. We will open it up as soon as possible."
The FBI field offices in Albuquerque and in El Paso, Texas, didn't respond to a request for comment.
Meanwhile, in the vacuum created by the lack of an official explanation, plenty of people on YouTube and social media and in tabloid publications have stepped in to suggest their own.
Some say the evacuation could be part of a government effort to cover up a discovery involving aliens, an impending solar flare or something else extra-planetary. Others on Reddit and elsewhere think the security issue may involve a foreign power attempting to use the observatory's antennas to spy on nearby White Sands Missile Range.
The observatory was built by the military in 1947 when it realized the sun could interfere with radio communications. The National Science Foundation ran the facility from the 1960s until this year, when operation was transferred to AURA and New Mexico State University.
Hopefully it isn't now in the process of being unwillfully transferred to aliens or foreign spies. We shall see.
Thousands are embedding microchips under their skin to 'make their daily lives easier'
Thousands are embedding microchips under their skin to 'make their daily lives easier'
Thousands of Swedish people are having microchips embedded under their skin instead of using ID cards, key cards and even having to purchase train tickets.
3,000 Swedes Have Microchips Installed
It is estimated that 3,000 people have had a microchip installed in Sweden and the chip is smaller than a single grain of rice. The increase in people having chips installed under their skin has been on the increase over the last three years. The microchip technology was first used in Sweden in 2015.
Ulrika Celsing said that the microchip in her hand had helped her to replace the need to carry around many daily necessities. This includes her office key card and gym card. When the 28-year-old arrives at work, she simply has to wave her hand close to a small box and then enter a code, and the door opens.
Rail Line Scans Passengers Hands to Take Fares
SJ Rail Line, which is owned by the state, began to scan passengers hands with microchips to take their fare when they were onboard the train. It has been said that the chips could also be used to make purchases in much the same way as a contactless credit card, but up to now, no one has tested it.
The procedure to insert the microchip is much the same as having a piercing. The chip is inserted by syringe into the hand of the person. Celsing said that she had her chip installed during a work event and all she felt during the procedure was a slight sting. Ben Libberton, a microbiologist for the MAX IV laboratory in Sweden, said that the microchip implants might cause a reaction or infection in the immune system of the body.
Group Micro-chipping Is Becoming the In-thing
There is also the risk of biohacking, modification of bodies using technology. This is said to be on the increase as more people use technology such as Fitbit and Apple Watches. Bionyfiken, a biohacking group from Sweden, began organizing implant parties where people in groups had chips inserted en masse in the US, UK, Germany, France, and Mexico.
50 employees at a vending machine company in Wisconsin had microchips inserted into their hands, and they could use them to purchase snacks, log into their computers and use other office equipment.
The 10 million strong country has proven that Sweden is more willing to share their personal details. Details have been recorded by the social-security system of the country and are readily available. It was said that people could find out the salaries of other people by calling up the public tax authority. Many people in Sweden do not have the belief that the technology is at risk of being hacked. A microbiologist said that the data that is collected is and shared is limited, so there should be no fear of hacking.
The Body Might be the Next Big Platform for Technology
It has been estimated that the human body will become the next big platform for technology. All of the wearable technology of today will be implanted within the body within the next 5 to 10 years. No one wants to carry around a smartphone or smartwatch that is clumsy when they can have the same technology installed in their body.
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NASA announces winners of competition to design 3D-printed habitat for Mars
AI SpaceFactory's habitat is built from a material composed of a mixture of basalt fibre extracted from Martian rock, and renewable bioplastic derived from plants
NASA announces winners of competition to design 3D-printed habitat for Mars
NASA has selected the five winning designs in the latest stage of its 3D-printedHabitat competition, which include a community of modular pods made from the Martian surface, and a vertical egg-like container.
The On-Site Habitat Competition invited groups to design a sustainable shelter for a crew of four astronauts on a mission to Mars, using construction techniques enabled by 3D printing technology.
Teams had to come up with a solution that tackles the issues of transporting materials from Earth to Mars, as well as the differences in atmosphere and landscape on the new planet.
Each was required to create digital representations of the physical and functional characteristics of a house on Mars using specialised software tools.
Arkansas-based team Zopherus was awarded first place with its 3D-printed modular habitat concept
"We are thrilled to see the success of this diverse group of teams that have approached this competition in their own unique styles," said Monsi Roman, programme manager for NASA's series of Centennial Challenges.
"They are not just designing structures, they are designing habitats that will allow our space explorers to live and work on other planets. We are excited to see their designs come to life as the competition moves forward."
The top five teams were selected by NASA in partnership with Bradley University of Peoria, Illinois, out of 18 groups from around the globe. Ranked using a points system, they will all share part of a $100,000 prize depending on what score they achieved.
The winning Zopherus habitat is built from materials taken from the Martian surface
Arkansas-based team Zopherus was awarded first place with its modular habitat for humans on Mars, 3D-printed without human interference with materials made from the Martian surface.
In the concept, a lander would scan its surroundings and select an optimum print area, while autonomous robots are deployed from the vessel to gather materials for the 3D printer.
The lander seals to the ground to provide a protected, pressurised print environment, and then mixes materials, and begins to print the hexagonal structure.
Each Zopherus habitat is 3D-printed using a mixture of ice, calcium oxide and Martian aggregate
Thanks to its hexagonal structure, multiple Zopherus habitats can be printed to stand close to one another, creating a community.
Each structure is built using a specialised composite Martian concrete material – made from ice, calcium oxide and Martian aggregate – which are collected by rovers and fed into the lander for mixing.
A large window on the mezzanine level of each habitat provides expansive views of the Martian landscape, as well as allowing light to nurture a small hydroponic garden for growth of vegetation and production of oxygen.
AI SpaceFactory's habitat boasts an egg-shaped design to deal with atmospheric pressure
AI SpaceFactory came in second place with its vertical, egg-shaped structure, which is designed with a double shell system to deal with the internal atmospheric pressure and structural stresses that would occur on Mars.
Like the Zopherus habitat, the Marsha design is made using materials harvested from the Martian surface, removing the dependency on rockets to transport materials from Earth.
Each Marsha habitat stands alone as a separate structure
The team developed an innovative mixture of basalt fibre, extracted from Martian rock, and renewable bioplastic (polylactic acid) derived from plants that would be grown on Mars.
Unlike the communal format of the Zopherus habitats, each Marsha habitat stands alone as a separate structure.
Kahn-Yates' design features a series of holes to allow daylight in
Third place team Kahn-Yates also designed its habitats as individual volumes, with sleek, oblong forms intended to minimise the impact from potential dust storms.
After the space-faring module arrives on Mars, its exterior shell would split off as it lands, leaving behind a pre-fabricated core. After landing, a five-axis print arm would extends from the top of the core and print a foundation using materials found on the Martian landscape.
The arm then prints a concrete shell, while secondary nozzles print HDPE (high-density polyethylene) layers on either side of the shell, effectively sandwiching the Martian concrete in the middle.
Daylight is allowed into the habitat by means of reducing or eliminating portions of the central concrete layer in the exterior shell makeup, to have just the HDPE layers as the skin. This would aid gardening and food production, according to the team.
SEArch+/Apis Cor's habitat features a double-shell structure to provide protection from solar radiation
In fourth place is SEArch+/Apis Cor, which submitted a habitat boasting a double-shell design to shelter the structure from galactic solar radiation. The habitat designed by the fifth-place team, Northwestern University, features a unique spherical shell and outer parabolic dome.
The On-Site Habitat Competition is the third phase in NASA's 3D-Printed Habitat Centennial Challenge, which was created to explore construction technologies needed to create sustainable housing solutions on Earth, the Moon, Mars and beyond.
Northwestern University designed a dome-shaped habitat with a unique entryway system
Phase one, the Design Competition, took place in 2015 and required teams to submit architectural renderings. Submissions included Foster + Partners' proposal for a 93-square-metre habitat printed from regolith, the loose soil and rocks found on the surface of the Red Planet.
Phase two, the Structural Member Competition, took place in 2016-2017 and focused on material technologies, asking teams to create structural components.
There are still four more phases of the challenge to follow, culminating in a head-to-head print of finalists' designs in early 2019.
Triangular UFO Caught On Video Moving In The Sky Over El Paso, Texas
Triangular UFO Caught On Video Moving In The Sky Over El Paso, Texas
A driver passing by El Paso, Texas recorded something strange in the sky of what appears to be a glowing triangular-shaped UFO. Ufologists are at a loss with the object moving completely silent.
The video shows the strange object moving at high speed in the sky. The UFO appears to be a glowing triangle with a bright backlight, flying without any sound. Some believe that it could be an extraterrestrial aircraft.
Many reports of triangle-shaped craft around the world but not often they are captured on any media. The capture of this type of flying craft surprised American researchers of extraterrestrial civilizations and the aliens.
As apparent aliens appear on the planet every year more often than before, they are also manifested more and more in a fantastic way. Some observers shared their thoughts about the video after analyzing and verifying its authenticity. They note that it was strange the car appeared to pace the UFO so well.
According to the videographer, he was driving to work and noticing a mysterious light in a triangular shape toward the horizon. He took his Samsung Galaxy S8 smartphone out and snapped photos and a short video.
The incident reportedly took place on August 31, 2018, at 6:25 in the morning. He stared at the sunrise as usual because he had to stop a red light. Before he got on the freeway to work, he noticed the UFO to the right. He thought it was weird, so he took multiple pictures and a short video.
SpaceX Will Fly a Private Passenger Around the Moon on Its Giant BFR Rocket
SpaceX Will Fly a Private Passenger Around the Moon on Its Giant BFR Rocket
By Mike Wall, Space.com Senior Writer
SpaceX's giant Mars vehicle has a crewed moon mission on its docket.
A "private passenger" has signed up for a trip around the moon aboard SpaceX's BFR rocket-spaceship combo, company representatives announced via Twitter this evening (Sept. 13). SpaceX founder and CEO Elon Musk will fill in the details Monday (Sept. 17), during a webcast that begins at 9 p.m. EDT (0100 GMT on Sept. 18). You can watch the SpaceX moon shot webcast live here, courtesy of SpaceX.
Musk may already have given us a clue about the private space explorer's identity. Somebody on Twitter asked Musk if he was the passenger, and the billionaire entrepreneur responded by tweeting an emoji of the Japanese flag. [The BFR: SpaceX's Giant Spaceship for Mars in Images]
SpaceX has signed the world’s first private passenger to fly around the Moon aboard our BFR launch vehicle—an important step toward enabling access for everyday people who dream of traveling to space. Find out who’s flying and why on Monday, September 17.
Even without the mystery of whom, exactly, SpaceX has signed for the "BFR Lunar Mission" (as SpaceX dubbed it), it sounds like it will be an epic trip.
"Only 24 humans have been to the Moon in history," SpaceX wrote in a subsequent Twitter post. "No one has visited since the last Apollo mission in 1972." NASA's last Apollo lunar mission was Apollo 17, which sent astronauts Gene Cernan, Harrison Schmitt and Ron Evans to the moon in December 1972. Cernan and Schmitt landed on the moon while Evans remained in orbit.
SpaceX announced in February 2017 that two people had signed up for a weeklong trek around the moon, which the company aimed to launch before the end of 2018. That mission was to use SpaceX's Dragon crew capsule and Falcon Heavy rocket. Had SpaceX followed through with that plan, it could have returned humans to the moon near the 50th anniversary of NASA's historic Apollo 8 mission around the moon in December 1968.
But this June, The Wall Street Journal reported that the flight had slipped into 2019 at the earliest. SpaceX representatives told the WSJ that such a mission remained in the company's plans, but they didn't lay out a timeline or other details. Presumably, we will get a timeline on Monday and perhaps learn if the passenger flying on the BFR trip is one of the folks who signed up for the original Dragon-Falcon Heavy flight.
The BFR — which is short for "Big Falcon Rocket" (or the "Big F------ Rocket") — is still under development. It will consist of the most powerful rocket ever built and a spaceship capable of carrying 100 or so passengers at a time to and from Mars, Musk has said. Both of these elements will be reusable.
The BFR's main job will be to help enable Red Planet settlement — that's the chief reason that Musk founded SpaceX back in 2002, after all — but it will also perform a variety of other tasks.
Indeed, Musk has said that SpaceX plans to phase out all of its rockets and spacecraft, letting the BFR take over everything eventually. The company envisions the BFR performing satellite launches, cleaning up space junk, carrying folks on superfast "point-to-point" trips here on Earth — and, of course, helping our species spread out into the solar system, to the moon, Mars and beyond.
EPA/NASAHet gaatje in de capsule Sojoez MS-09, dat aan het ISS hangt.
WETENSCHAP & PLANEETSpecialisten hebben nieuwe sporen van boorpraktijken in de aan het Internationaal Ruimtestation ISS hangende capsule Sojoez MS-09 gevonden, zo heeft een niet nader genoemde bron uit de Russische raket-en ruimtevaartindustrie aan het Russische staatspersbureau Tass gezegd.
Op 30 augustus ontsnapte er even zuurstof uit het ISS omdat er een gaatje van 2 mm was in de wand van de Sojoez MS-09 die voor bemand transport naar en van de spacemeccano instaat. Het gat werd gedicht, de zes opvarenden waren en zijn niet in gevaar.
De oorzaak van het geboorde gaatje, in een deel van de Sojoez dat niet naar de Aarde terugkeert, is nog steeds niet gekend, allerhande speculaties deden de ronde.
“Er zijn niet alleen binnen de leefruimte van het ruimtetuig sporen van boren gevonden, maar ook op het scherm van het schild, aan de buitenzijde, dat tegen meteorieten moet beschermen en dat zich 15 mm van de drukromp bevindt”, aldus de bron. Bij het boren is door de drukromp gegaan en is de niet-gasdichte wand geraakt, luidde het ook.
Assemblage
Een andere bron uit de ruimtevaartindustrie zegt dat de niet-gasdichte bescherming tegen meteorieten wordt aangebracht vóór de finale assemblage van de Sojoez. In die werkplaats is het ruimtetuig gedetailleerd gefotografeerd. Er zijn geen sporen van boren of een gaatje gevonden, het boren moet later hebben plaatsgevonden, zei de bron. Ook het meteorietenschild is vóór plaatsing gefotografeerd en daar was ook niets aan te zien.
Het ruimtetuig kan dus ofwel tijdens het allerlaatste assemblagewerk of tijdens zijn negentig dagen durend verblijf in de testruimte beschadigd zijn geraakt. Het is zeer onwaarschijnlijk dat dit tijdens het transport naar de lanceerbasis Bajkonoer of daar gebeurde.
Geen nieuwe lekken
Maar een ander staatspersbureau, Sputnik News, meldde op gezag van een eveneens niet nader genoemde bron uit de Russische raket- en ruimtevaartindustrie dat er geen nieuwe lekken zijn gevonden.
Een bron bij de commissie van raketbouwer Enes aargija, die het lek in de Sojoek onderzoekt, sprak tegenover Tass tegen dat nog meer schade aan de capsule is vastgesteld. “Sommige berichten in massamedia omtrent meer schade die op het ruimtetuig Sojoez MS-09 is gevonden stroken niet met de werkelijkheid”, luidde het bij het staatsbedrijf.
Zowel de Russische vicepremier Joeri Borisov als ruimtevaartbureau Roscosmos heeft de berichten van de hand gewezen dat Amerikaanse astronauten verantwoordelijk zouden zijn voor het gaatje in de aan het Internationaal Ruimtestation (ISS) hangende Sojoez-capsule.
Op 30 augustus ontsnapte er even zuurstof uit het ISS omdat er een gaatje van 2 millimeter was in de wand van de Sojoez MS-09. Het werd gedicht en de zes opvarenden waren nooit in gevaar.
De oorzaak van het gaatje is nog altijd niet gekend, maar allerhande speculaties doen intussen wel de ronde. Tot zelfs de insinuatie in de krant Kommersant dat een Amerikaanse opvarende van het ISS verantwoordelijk zou zijn, omdat die zo zijn terugkeer naar huis had willen versnellen.
“Het is absoluut ontoelaatbaar om een schaduw te werpen op zowel onze kosmonauten als de Amerikaanse astronauten”, zei vicepremier Borisov. “Er is een onderzoek aan de gang. Het is verkeerd om een dergelijk verdict uit te spreken.”
Dat het drukverlies zich voordeed nadat het ruimtetuig al maanden in de ruimte was, is wel een “vaststaand feit”, voegde de politicus eraan toe. Het ISS is niettemin een plaats “waar geen politieke onmin is of mag zijn”.
“Roddels”
Als hoofd van het Russische ruimtevaartbureau Roscosmos viel Dmitri Rogozin de vicepremier bij. De “roddels” ondermijnen de vriendschappelijke relaties onder de zeskoppige bemanning, die uit Amerikanen, Russen en een Duitser bestaat. De geruchten “hinderen” ook het werk van de deskundigen van Roscosmos, zo klinkt het. “Alle uitlatingen op gezag van niet nader genoemde bronnen zijn ontoelaatbaar zolang de speciale (onderzoeks)commissie van Roscosmos haar werk niet heeft afgerond”, aldus Rogozin.
Forget about Area 51. That’s old news. A joke. The newer, hipper secret facility is Area 52, and Ancient Aliens has the scoop.
Area 51 is so old and well known that it’s the butt of jokes on movies like Independence Day. People with dial-up know about Area 51. Virtually everyone knows of the “secret” facility. What if, however, as Ancient Aliens suggests, Area 51 were just a coverup for a bigger, experimental extraterrestrial facility?
To make the conspiracy even deeper, what if there were multiple Area 52 facilities? Is there a massive secondary covert operation being obscured by the now not-so-top-secret Area 51?
People who live near Area 51 have reported all sorts of oddities and extraterrestrial tech for decades. There’s no denying something is going on there. Thanks to the Freedom of Information Act, the CIA declassified documents that acknowledged Area 51 in 2013. Located in Southern Nevada, this top secret facility has been the location where revolutionary technology is developed. The military and government, however, have not provided much other than saying the facility is there. No word on the function of the facility.
Giorgio A. Tsoukalos went to meet with a former employee of Area 51 to get more information. According to TD Barnes, a radar and electronics employee for over four decades at Area 51, there is a considerable amount of evidence related to extraterrestrials. There is extensive reverse engineering of top secret craft, with everything from antimatter propulsion and warp drive on the agenda. At one point in the 1980s, they even developed an antiquated bunker-busting tech called “Rods from God.” For all intents and purposes, it was a secret space program.
Hiding decades of alien contact evidence, Area 51 may have outlived its purpose as a strategic military asset. If that’s the case, is it just a decoy?
Tsoukalos took another trip to Rachel, Nevada in 2018. He met with a researcher and a lifelong mining expert. The miner said he’s seen various shady activities, and believes heap mining is being used at Tempiute Mine to hide massive amounts of dirt being removed during the creation of underground facilities. Furthermore, that may be just the tip of the underground iceberg. It’s likely one of many secret government facilities connected by underground high speed trains including the following locations:
Cheyenne mountains in Colorado Springs
Dulce, NM – Archuleta Peak is where UFOs have been sighted
Los Alamos, NM
Albuquerque, NM
Roswell, NM
Area 51, NV
Wright-Patterson Air Force Base
On the doorstep of where Orville and Wilbur Wright defied reality, Wright-Patterson Air Force Base serves as one of the most high techs locations in the military. Indeed, it may hold greater strategic importance than Area 51. Furthermore, there have been rumors of aliens at Wright-Pat for a long time, and some underground as well.
Going as far back as the 1947 Roswell crash, the location has been involved with news of UFOs. Wright-Patterson was the home of the Foreign Technology Division, which conducted Project Sign and Project Blue Book. The most famous UFO and foreign technology program, Project Blue Book tracked over 12,000 sightings. Most were categorized as high altitude air planes, but over 700 cases still remain.
Additionally, a former employee named LTC Marion Magruder worked at infamous Hangar 18, and saw quite a bit during his 38 years there. The first day he arrived in 1973 he was told there were aliens.
Montauk Air Force Station
Decommisioned in 1981, the Montauk Air Force Station is widely believed to be a cover for an underground facility. Multiple whistle-blowers say a secret facility under the base is still onging, and the entry is from far away at the Brookhaven National Laboratories. Furthermore, the facility is notorious for experiments using other-worldly technology and human test subjects in what’s commonly called the Montauk Project.
Declassified documents reference something called MKUltra, a program run by the Army and CIA to develop mind control and remote influence abilities. To that end, something called the Montauk Chair, harnessing ET technology & innate psychic abilities, was used to transform reality, to manifest thought into physical reality (telekinesis, remote viewing, teleportation). It’s compared to the Throne of Ptah, who was the god before all other gods in Egyptian mythology. Is the Montauk Chair the same as the Throne of Ptah?
Advanced Aerospace Threat Identification Program
AATIP and Bigelow Aerospace has been discussed before, and it’s compelling evidence. AATIP allows exception to FOIA requests, allowing the government to be even more covert. Combined with all of the aforementioned, it paints a picture of massive government cover-up.
There you have it. Ancient Aliens proposes a massive government cover-up of alien technology, and it’s all being done under our feet. Do you believe there are secret facilities being obscured by the attention given to Area 51?
Je hebt vast al eens gehoord van Area 51. Maar wat weet je van Area 52?
Je hebt vast al eens gehoord van Area 51. Maar wat weet je van Area 52?
Vrijwel iedereen is intussen wel bekend met Area 51. Maar wat als er naast Area 51 nog een grotere geheime basis is waar bijna niemand iets over weet? Wat als er meerdere van zulke Area 52’s zijn?
Mensen die in de buurt van Area 51 wonen melden al decennialang vreemde waarnemingen.
In 2013 werd het bestaan van de basis officieel bevestigd toen geheime CIA-stukken over Area 51 werden vrijgegeven.
Reverse engineering
In het nieuwe seizoen van Ancient Aliens wordt gesproken met iemand die in Area 51 heeft gewerkt.
Volgens T.D. Barnes, die meer dan 40 jaar op de basis werkte, is er een aanzienlijke hoeveelheid bewijs dat verband houdt met buitenaardsen.
Hij zei dat met behulp van reverse engineering technologieën uit topgeheime vaartuigen werden verkregen. Denk daarbij aan antimaterie-aandrijving en de warp drive.
Rods from God
In de jaren tachtig zou er zelfs een technologie zijn ontwikkeld die Rods from God werd genoemd. Die technologie had te maken met een geheim ruimtevaartprogramma.
Er kwam ook een onderzoeker en mijnbouwexpert aan het woord, die zei dat hij in de omgeving van de basis vaak verdachte activiteiten heeft gezien.
Hij suggereerde dat de Tempiute Mine in Nevada wordt gebruikt om een enorme hoeveelheid grond te verbergen die naar boven is gehaald tijdens de aanleg van diverse ondergrondse bases.
Aliens
Volgens hem zijn er vele geheime bases die middels een ondergronds netwerk met elkaar verbonden zijn. Daaronder vallen Dulce, Los Alamos, Roswell en Area 51, aldus de onderzoeker.
Verder werd een oud-medewerker van de beruchte Hangar 18 op Wright-Patterson Air Force Base geïnterviewd.
L.T.C. Marion Magruder, die 38 jaar in Hangar 18 werkte, maakte gedurende zijn carrière heel wat vreemde dingen mee.
Zo kreeg hij op zijn eerste werkdag in 1973 te horen dat er aliens waren.
In defence of conspiracy theories (and why the term is a misnomer)
In defence of conspiracy theories (and why the term is a misnomer)
Jeremy Renner as US journalist Gary Webb in the 2014 film Kill The Messenger. The film is an account of Webb’s role in uncovering CIA links to cocaine importation to the US. Sierra / Affinity,Bluegrass Films,The Combine
Senior Lecturer in Philosophy, University of Tasmania
Disclosure statement
David Coady does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.
The Conversation UK receives funding from Hefce, Hefcw, SAGE, SFC, RCUK, The Nuffield Foundation, The Ogden Trust, The Royal Society, The Wellcome Trust, Esmée Fairbairn Foundation and The Alliance for Useful Evidence, as well as sixty five university members.
Before 2012, if you had voiced suspicions that the Australian government had been anything but open and honourable in dealing with East Timor – its newly independent but impoverished neighbour – you would likely have been dismissed as a conspiracy theorist. But it was then revealed Australian Secret Intelligence Service agents had bugged East Timor’s cabinet office during treaty negotiations over oil and gas fields.
Yesterday’s conspiracy theories often become today’s incontrovertible facts. In the mid-1990s, journalist Gary Webb’s claims that CIA officials conspired with drug dealers bringing crack cocaine into the United States were dismissed by many as a prime example of a conspiracy theory. But the claims were true.
It’s reasonable to suppose many of the views that are now dismissed or mocked as conspiracy theories will one day be recognised as having been true all along. Indeed, the net effect of terms such as “conspiracy theory” and “conspiracism” is to silence people who are the victims of conspiracy, or who (rightly or wrongly) suspect conspiracies may be occurring. These terms serve to herd respectable opinion in ways that suit the interests of the powerful.
Karl Popper: popularised the term ‘conspiracy theory’.Wikimedia Commons
Ever since the philosopher Sir Karl Popper popularised the expression in the 1950s, conspiracy theories have had a bad reputation. To characterise a belief as a conspiracy theory is to imply it’s false. More than that, it implies people who accept that belief, or want to investigate whether it’s true, are irrational.
On the face of it, this is hard to understand. After all, people do conspire. That is, they engage in secretive or deceptive behaviour that is illegal or morally dubious.
Conspiracy is a common form of human behaviour across all cultures throughout recorded time, and it has always been particularly widespread in politics.
Virtually all of us conspire some of the time, and some people (such as spies) conspire virtually all of the time. Given people conspire, there can’t be anything wrong with believing they conspire. Hence there can’t be anything wrong with believing conspiracy theories or being a conspiracy theorist.
Thinking of conspiracy theories as paradigmatically false and irrational is like thinking of phrenology as a paradigm of scientific theory. Conspiracy theories, like scientific theories, and virtually any other category of theory, are sometimes true, sometimes false, sometimes held on rational grounds, sometimes not.
It’s a striking feature of much of the literature on conspiracy theories, like much of the literature on terrorism, that authors assume they are referring to the same phenomenon, while a glance at their definitions (when they bother to offer them) reveals they are not.
But seeking a fixed definition of the term “conspiracy theory” may be an idle pursuit, since the real problem with the term is that, although it lacks a fixed meaning, it does serve a fixed function.
A new Inquisition?
It’s a function similar to that served by the term “heresy” in medieval Europe. In both cases these are terms of propaganda, used to stigmatise and marginalise people who have beliefs that conflict with officially sanctioned or orthodox beliefs of the time and place in question.
If, as I believe, the treatment of those labelled as “conspiracy theorists” in our culture is analogous to the treatment of those labelled as “heretics” in medieval Europe, then the role of psychologists and social scientists in this treatment is analogous to that of the Inquisition.
Stefano di Giovani, The Burning of a Heretic, circa 1423-1426.Wikimedia Commons
Outside the psychology and social science literature some authors will sometimes offer some, usually heavily qualified, defence of conspiracy theories (in some sense of the term). But among psychologists and social scientists the assumption that they are false, the product of an irrational (or nonrational) process, and positively harmful is virtually universal.
Whenever we use the terms “conspiracy theory”, “conspiracism” or “conspiracist ideation”, we’re implying, even if we don’t mean to, there is something wrong with believing, wanting to investigate, or giving any credence at all to the possibility people are engaged in secretive or deceptive behaviour.
One bad effect of these terms is they contribute to a political environment in which it’s easier for conspiracy to thrive at the expense of openness. Another bad effect is their use is an injustice to the people who are characterised as conspiracy theorists.
Following the philosopher Miranda Fricker, we may call this a form of “testimonial injustice”. When someone asserts that a conspiracy has taken place (especially when it is a conspiracy by powerful people or institutions) that person’s word is automatically given less credence than it should because of an irrational prejudice associated with the pejorative connotations of these terms.
When professional psychologists imply these terms it can constitute a form of gaslighting; that is, a manipulation of people into doubting their own sanity.
I hope and believe that in the future these terms will be widely recognised for what they are: the products of an irrational and authoritarian outlook. Prior to Popper, we got along perfectly well without these terms. I’m sure we can learn to do so again.
Een ode aan complottheorieën en complotdenkers. Lees het artikel van deze docent
Een ode aan complottheorieën en complotdenkers. Lees het artikel van deze docent
Als je vóór 2012 had gezegd dat de Australische overheid geen goede intenties had met betrekking tot Oost-Timor, zou je waarschijnlijk zijn weggezet als complottheoreticus.
Toen bleek opeens dat de Australian Secret Intelligence Service het kabinetskantoor van Oost-Timor had afgeluisterd tijdens onderhandelingen over olie- en gasvelden.
Het gebeurt veel vaker dat complottheorieën later feiten worden, schrijft docent David Coady van de Universiteit van Tasmanië.
CIA
In de jaren negentig claimde journalist Gary Webb dat de CIA samenzweerde met drugsdealers om cocaïne naar de VS te smokkelen. Velen zagen hem als een complotdenker, maar Webb bleek uiteindelijk wel gelijk te hebben.
Coady merkt op dat complottheorieën een slechte reputatie hebben. Mensen die erin geloven worden gezien als irrationeel.
Dat is volgens hem vreemd, aangezien complottheorieën net als wetenschappelijke theorieën en vrijwel alle andere soorten theorieën soms kloppen en soms niet kloppen.
Ketterij
Coady trekt een parallel met de term ‘ketterij’ die in de middeleeuwen in Europa werd gebruikt.
In beide gevallen zijn het termen die gebruikt worden als propaganda, bedoeld om mensen die andere overtuigingen hebben te stigmatiseren en marginaliseren.
Mensen die in onze cultuur worden bestempeld als ‘complottheoretici’ kunnen worden vergeleken met de ‘ketters’ in middeleeuws Europa.
Inquisitie
Vandaag de dag vervullen psychologen en sociale wetenschappers de rol van de Inquisitie, aldus Coady.
Vrijwel alle psychologen en sociale wetenschappers zijn namelijk van mening dat complottheorieën niet kloppen, schadelijk zijn en het gevolg zijn van een irrationeel proces.
Een negatief gevolg hiervan is dat ze bijdragen aan een politiek milieu waarin het juist makkelijker is voor een complot om te blijven bestaan.
Manipulatief gedrag
Een ander negatief gevolg is dat de mensen die worden bestempeld als complottheoretici onrecht wordt aangedaan, stelt de docent.
Volgens Coady zijn het juist de professionele psychologen die een irrationele en autoritaire visie hebben.
Ze maken zich schuldig aan manipulatief gedrag door mensen hun eigen gezond verstand in twijfel te laten trekken, besluit hij.
Mysterieuze evacuatie zonneobservatorium leidt tot complottheorieën over aliens. Wat is hier aan de hand?
Mysterieuze evacuatie zonneobservatorium leidt tot complottheorieën over aliens. Wat is hier aan de hand?
Berichten over de inzet van een Blackhawk-helikopter en FBI-agenten om een deel van New Mexico te evacueren, waaronder een zonneobservatorium, hebben op internet geleid tot speculatie over een cover-up.
Het zonneobservatorium in Sunspot in New Mexico werd vrijdag stilgelegd door FBI-agenten. Mensen in de directe omgeving werden geëvacueerd.
“Er was een Blackhawk-helikopter en mensen werkten rond antennes en torens, maar niemand wilde ons iets vertellen,” zei sheriff Benny House.
Gesloten
“Ik weet niet waarom de FBI er zo snel bij betrokken is en ons niets heeft verteld,” voegde hij toe.
Op de website van het observatorium wordt bevestigd dat de hele installatie tot nader bericht gesloten is.
De Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy (AURA), die het observatorium beheert, liet bij monde van een woordvoerster weten dat het gaat om een tijdelijke evacuatie.
Buitenaards leven
Op YouTube en in tabloids wordt nu beweerd dat het observatorium is gesloten omdat er een ontdekking zou zijn gedaan met betrekking tot buitenaards leven, die men in de doofpot zou willen stoppen.
Op Reddit wordt gespeculeerd dat een buitenlandse macht de antennes van het observatorium heeft geprobeerd te gebruiken om de nabijgelegen White Sands Missile Range te bespioneren.
Het zonneobservatorium is in 1947 gebouwd door het Amerikaanse leger, nadat het tot de ontdekking was gekomen dat de zon radiocommunicatie op aarde kan verstoren.
De mens stamt af van aliens. Volgens een vooraanstaande wetenschapper is dit het bewijs
De mens stamt af van aliens. Volgens een vooraanstaande wetenschapper is dit het bewijs
Mensen die op aarde leven zijn afstammelingen van aliens. Dat heeft de Wit-Russische wetenschapper Pjotr Vitsjaz gezegd.
Hij deed deze uitspraak over de oorsprong van het leven op onze planeet tijdens een bijeenkomst over ruimtevaart afgelopen maandag in Minsk.
“Waar kwam de mens vandaan? Er is al veel gezegd over het feit dat wij de kolonisten zijn, dat mensen uit de ruimte kwamen,” citeerde zender Belsat hem.
Oude rotstekeningen
“Ik ben van mening dat er […] geen bewijs is dat de mens afstamt van de aap,” zei Vitsjaz.
“Kijk naar oude rotstekeningen,” zei hij volgens persbureau BelaPAN. “Op veel daarvan staan raketten en astronauten afgebeeld.”
“Waar kwamen zij vandaan? Waarom hebben voetafdrukken van mensen die vandaan de dag worden gevonden door archeologen een totaal andere omvang?” vroeg hij.
Buitenaardse oorsprong
We hebben geen bewijs, het is slechts een hypothese, aldus de academicus.
Het hoofd van de Wit-Russische Academie van Wetenschappen zei te hopen dat de theorie over een buitenaardse oorsprong van de mens ooit zal worden bewezen.
De bijeenkomst, waar onder meer 90 kosmonauten aanwezig zijn, duurt nog tot 15 september.
Een sterrenwacht of observatorium is een instituut van waaruit sterren en andere hemellichamen worden bekeken en bestudeerd. Er wordt onderscheid gemaakt tussen professionele sterrenwachten en volks- of publiekssterrenwachten.
In Amerika is een observatorium (National Solar Observatory) dat zich uitsluitend bezighoudt met het bestuderen van de zon. De hoofdvestiging hiervan bevindt zich in Boulder, Colorado, en er zijn een tweetal andere vestigingen waarvan er één zich bevindt in de plaats Sunspot in New Mexico en de andere in Kitt Peak in Arizona.
Nu was er iets bijzonders aan de hand bij het observatorium in Sunspot vorige week.
Het gebeurde afgelopen donderdag en zelfs het nabijgelegen postkantoor werd ontruimd en het personeel (tijdelijk) overgeplaatst naar een ander kantoor.
Maar, het meest vreemde van alles is toch wel dat er geen enkele verklaring wordt gegeven door de FBI. Ze reageren simpelweg nergens op, ook niet op vragen van plaatselijke televisiestations.
Ook de mensen die weggestuurd zijn van het postkantoor kregen geen enkele reden te horen en ook niet hoelang het allemaal zou gaan duren. Ook de plaatselijke sheriff weet niet veel meer dan de bevolking en het gevolg is uiteraard dat er druk wordt gespeculeerd over de reden van de sluiting.
Eén ding is wel zeker, als de FBI er zo snel bij betrokken wordt en zo geheimzinnig doet en alles afsluit, dan is er echt wel wat bijzonders aan de hand.
Zou het kunnen zijn dat ze bij dat observatorium iets ontdekt hebben nabij de zon wat ze eigenlijk niet hadden mogen zien. Hebben ze misschien duidelijk de grote ruimteschepen waargenomen die daar al jarenlang worden gesignaleerd?
Of is het iets anders en heeft het misschien te maken met de nadering van de planeet Nibiru?
Wat het ook is, dit observatorium houdt zich bezig met de zon en alles wat zich daar afspeelt.
WAT DOEN AL DIE VERBORGEN RUIMTESCHEPEN HIER ? ( VIDEO )
WAT DOEN AL DIE VERBORGEN RUIMTESCHEPEN HIER ? ( VIDEO )
Al vele jaren doet zich een vreemd fenomeen voor van grote UFO’s zich proberen te verbergen in wolken.
Het aantal waarnemingen hiervan neemt toe en de vraag is dan ook wat al die objecten hier doen.
De meest gemakkelijke manier om mensen met een kluitje het riet in te sturen is door te zeggen dat er steeds meer vreemde en onnatuurlijke wolken voor komen en dat dit ok is, want we voegen ze gewoon toe aan de nieuwe wolkenatlas.
Zo worden chemtrails nu verklaard als volkomen normale wolken en die geven we de naam homomutatis.
De uitlaatgassen van vliegtuigen veroorzaken condenssporen. Door sterke winden kunnen ze zich uitspreiden tot Homomutatus-wolken.
Zo worden grote vermomde ruimteschepen altijd standaard lenticulariswolken genoemd en zo zijn vreemde en niet natuurlijke/normale zaken gemakkelijk weg te moffelen onder de noemer "wolk".
Door de jaren heen zijn hier talloze artikelen verschenen over vreemd uitziende wolken, soms ook met kleinere UFO’s er omheen. Het zijn waarnemingen van mensen, foto’s en filmbeelden die aan duidelijkheid niets te wensen over laten.
Soms is er ook natuurlijk wel sprake van echt vreemd uitziende wolken en het is dan ook niet zo dat iedere ufo wolk een UFO is.
De mooiste waarnemingen zijn dan ook die zoals de volgende, waar heel duidelijk een kleinere UFO zich losmaakt van een groot vermomd moederschip.
En nu zijn er weer een aantal mooie opnames naar buiten gekomen, zoals de volgende van een waarneming op 9 september boven Reykjavik in IJsland.
Een wolk die niet thuishoort in de lucht zoals die daar op dat moment eruit ziet.
Enkele dagen daarvoor wordt in Bangalore in India ook een merkwaardige wolk waargenomen.
De filmopnames zijn gemaakt op 5 september door een man die onderweg was naar het ziekenhuis toen hij de bizarre lucht boven zijn hoofd ontdekte.
Hierna volgen de bewegende beelden en wanneer er wordt ingezoomd zie je dat er zich een groot object bevindt achter/in de wolken.
De vraag die natuurlijk blijft is waarom al die ruimteschepen hier op dit moment zijn. Misschien in afwachting van grootse dingen die staan te gebeuren op aarde en mogen straks “de uitverkorenen” instappen voor de ruimtereis van hun leven.
As a follow-up to my earlier article on a potential connection between Mothman and the Crop Circle phenomenon, I thought I would share with you another strange story from Crop Circle maker, Matthew Williams. As I noted in the previous article, Matt is someone who openly admits to having made numerous, complex formations – primarily (but certainly not exclusively) in the fields of the county of Wiltshire, England. Matt, however, does not take the view that he is a straightforward hoaxer. Rather, he concludes that some form of presently unknown phenomenon deliberately interacts with the Circle makers, driving them to make the impressive formations that appear every year in the U.K.
Matt told me a very strange story of a remarkable incident that occurred in the summer of 1996. It all began just after he parked in his car atop Knap Hill, which is an ancient hill situated deep in the heart of Wiltshire’s Crop Circle country. Matt was looking down on what has become known as the East Field, a location where a number of intricate Crop Circle formations have appeared over the years, when: “I was sitting in the car about 9 o’clock at night, and suddenly saw this light that seemed to be coming from Adam’s Grave [a 196-foot-long, 19-foot-high, long-barrow with an ancient burial-chamber at its southeast end], which is on Walker’s Hill. I had all my equipment with me – cameras, night-scopes and binoculars – and so I jumped out of the car and focused on Adam’s Grave. It was a bright, moonlit night and Walker’s Hill was all lit up.
“Through the binoculars I could see a chap on top of it holding what seemed to be a torch. I could tell he was wearing what looked like either a long, dark coat or a black cloak. So, I then got my night-vision equipment for a better look and could see he was walking back and forwards on Adam’s Grave. Well, I watched him for a few minutes and then went back to the car to get some food. Then, about ten minutes later, I thought I’d take a look again.”
It was at that point, as Matt revealed, that things became decidedly strange: “When I looked up again, I could see that there was a group of figures standing in a circle around this man. What was stranger was that I could only make out their shape, but not their clothing. And as I watched, they began what looked like a dance: a ritual dance like those of the Native American Indians. But the weird thing was that he was just stood there, and it was like he couldn’t even see them.”
But that was nothing compared to what happened next, as Matt made very clear to me: “Whatever these creatures were, they suddenly began to shrink in size, to about the size of small children. They carried on doing this wild dance, like a ceremony; but what was odd was they seemed to glitter, particularly on their arms, like little globes of light flickering. I thought: What the hell are they? So, I packed the equipment back in the car, edged my way towards Adam’s Grave and hoped no-one could see me, and then sprinted the last bit to surprise them and see what was going on. But when I got there, the figures were gone and the chap was gone, too. The moon lit up the whole area, but there was no-one, nothing. I stood around for a while, searched out the whole area, and then went back to the car. There wasn’t really much more I could do.”
You can have most any “fringe” beliefs or interests and still disguise yourself as an upstanding, yet adorably eccentric, member of normal society, but Atlantis is the point of no return. Once you start talking about Atlantis, you’re done for. So, let’s talk about Atlantis. According to Plato, The lost city of Atlantiswas an ancient island superpower ruled located in the eastern Atlantic ocean—which was named after the lost city. Atlantis was, according to Plato, a stunningly gorgeous and opulent place, built upon concentric circles of land and water. It was wealthy and powerful beyond measure until, in the course of one day and one night, the whole thing went sideways and a cataclysm wiped the city of Atlantis off the map and out of the history books. According to some esoteric traditions, Atlantis was the birthplace of the so-called “Mystery Schools” that wove their way through western philosophy after the city’s destruction.
The accepted explanation for Plato’s story of Atlantis, however, is that it was just a story, meant to teach a lesson of morality and show Plato’s philosophy on governance. Still, there are countless people who believe that Plato was talking about a real place that was destroyed by a real cataclysm. Plato himself says, in effect, “I know this sounds like nonsense, but I swear I ain’t lyin’.” But we’ve never found evidence, and now that we can image the sea floor, and have found evidence of sunken cities, shouldn’t the fact that we haven’t found Atlantis put this whole thing to bed? Well, what if we haven’t been looking in the right places? What if the ruins of the island-bound seafaring superpower were sitting, right under our noses the whole time, in the middle of the Sahara desert?
An Idealistic Depiction of the Atlantean Mystery Temple by J. Augustus Knapp for the book The Secret Teachings of All Ages by Manly P. Hall (1928).
It sounds like a stretch. Yet, that’s what a new video by YouTube channel Bright Insight is proposing, building off the work done by George S. Alexander and Natalis Rosen in the documentary Visiting Atlantis. In a 20 minute long video that’s surprisingly clear, sober, and well edited Bright Insight lays out the case for the Richat structure—also known as the eye of the Sahara—being the true location of Atlantis.
The Richat structure is an earthen structure of unknown origin in Mauritania, on the northwest coast of Africa. It consists of concentric circles of raised ground, bordered by mountains to the north and facing the sea to the south. It’s very big. It also happens to be almost the exact same size as the measurements Plato gave for Atlantis (depending on how you interpret ancient Greek units of measurement).
Plato states that the city of Atlantis was 127 stadia in diameter. According to Dictionary.com, one stadia is approximately 607 feet. This is the conversion used in the video, which works out to 127 stadia equaling 77,089 feet and 23.49 kilometers. Measuring the Richat structure in Google Earth gives a diameter of between 22 and 24 kilometers. That’s pretty close to the measurements for Atlantis. However, other sources say that a stadia is between 607 and 630 feet, which doesn’t seem like a big difference until you realize that 27 feet of variance per stadia, multiplied by 127 stadia, comes out to 3429 feet. While that’s the upper end of the possible variance, it has to be said that the Richat structure would fit the bill a bit less if it was three quarters of a mile too small. It’s not a lot, but it sure wouldn’t be perfectly exact.
Bird’s eye view of the Richat structure.
The surrounding areas match the description of Atlantis fairly note-for-note as well. Plato describes the city as being bordered to the north by mountains notable for their great number and beauty. The Richat structure is indeed ringed by mountains to the north. In the video, mention is made of geologic surveys which show that the mountains to the north of the Eye of the Sahara had waterfalls falling from them when the Sahara desert was not yet a desert, which would be fairly noteworthy.
Further arguments made include the timeline of the fall of Atlantis matching up pretty nicely with the proposed date of the Younger Dryas impact hypothesis, which argues that the impact of a comet or asteroid triggered the Younger Dryas period of rapid and sudden climate change and sea level variation.
It’s an interesting proposal and a surprising one. Usually when you watch a YouTube video on subjects like the lost city of Atlantis, you come out of it measurably dumber for having done so. It is hard to believe that if there’s an argument this convincing to be made (ignoring whether or not it’s true), I somehow haven’t heard of it before. That generally means something is either being deliberately suppressed, or is easily and thoroughly debunked. Unfortunately, it’s usually the latter. Without the credentials to make a real judgement, I’ll say this: I’m certainly more interested in the topic of Atlantis than I was before, and I’m really glad to know there are people on YouTube who appreciate production value.
Last week, here at Mysterious Universe, I wrote a couple of articles on the Roswell affair of July 1947. My position on Roswell is very clear: I think that a highly-classified, and highly controversial, experiment was at the heart of the case, and not the crash of an extraterrestrial spacecraft and its crew. For the vast majority of people in Ufology, Roswell is considered to be the most credible crashed UFO case of all. But, if Roswell does collapse – as a UFO event, at least – then what does that say about the rest of the high-profile crashed UFO incidents on record? The fact is that when we go digging, we do see solid reasons why we should be wary of the supposed credibility of these incidents, too. We’ll start with the 1950s and a case that allegedly occurred less than a year after the Roswell event took place.
In March 1948, a UFO is alleged to have crashed at Hart Canyon, Aztec, New Mexico. As with Roswell, there are tales of dead aliens and a hasty cover-up of the facts. The story started to circulate in the late-1940s and arguably reached its peak in 1950, when the story was profiled significantly in Frank Scully’s book, Behind the Flying Saucers. There’s no doubt that much of the story came from a shady (as in very shady) businessman named Silas Newton. Indeed, Newton was shady to the point that the FBI opened a file on him and his shenanigans. You can see the Newton file for yourself at this link at the FBI’s website, The Vault.
Of particular note is the fact that in the early 1950s, Newton was quietly approached by military-intelligence personnel. In an astonishing state of affairs, the two men in question made it very clear to Newton that they knew his story of a crashed UFO at Hart Canyon was absolute bullshit, but they wanted him to continue to promote the story. Was this a way for those same military-intelligence personnel to further bury the Roswell incident amid more and more tales of crashed UFOs, and far away from controversial experiments? Almost certainly. Whatever the answer, we can say with a high degree of certainty that Newton was used – by the military – to promote a bogus crashed UFO event.
In 1952, a story surfaced to the effect that a Flying Saucer had fallen on the island of Spitsbergen, off the coast of Norway. The CIA took an interest in the saga and wrote the following: “Writing in the German magazine Der Fliger, Dr. Waldemar Beck says that a flying saucer which recently fell at Spitsbergen has been studied by eminent Norwegian and German rocket experts. He writes that Dr Norsal, a Norwegian expert in rocket construction, went to the place where the flying saucer had fallen a few hours after it had been discovered in the mountains of Spitsbergen by Norwegian jet planes.”
Agency staff had this to say, too: “In the wreck of the apparatus the expert is said to have discovered a radio piloting transmitter with a nucleus of plutonium transmitting on all wavelengths with 934 hertz, a measure that has been unknown so far. The investigation has also shown that the flying saucer crashed because of a defect in its radio piloting system. The saucer which carried no crew has a diameter of 47 meters. The steel used in the construction is an unknown ally. It consists of an exterior disc provided at its peripheral with 46 automatic jets. This disc pivots around the central sphere which contains the measurement and remote control equipment. The measurement instructions have an inscription in Russian.”
What is particularly intriguing about all this is not the CIA’s response to it, but the reaction of the National Security Agency. Under the terms of the Freedom of Information Act, several hundred UFO-themed documents have surfaced from the vaults of the NSA. One of those documents tells the story of the Spitsbergen case, but notes that it was, and I quote, “a plant.”Planted by who? The United States? The Russians? We still don’t have the answers to those questions. But, yet again, we have what appears to be a fabricated story of a crashed UFO, disseminated for reasons that are not fully clear.
In May 1953, a UFO is alleged to have crashed outside of Kingman, Arizona. A man named Arthur Stansel – but who went under the alias of “Fritz Werner” – claimed knowledge of the crash, and also of the recovery of a small, humanoid body at the crash-site. It’s a classic case of its type. But, again, we have good reasons to dismiss it as a UFO event. At the time, Stansel worked on an atomic-bomb-based program called Operation Upshot-Knothole. It was overseen by the Atomic Energy Commission and ran from mid-March 1953 to early June 1953. The Kingman crash occurred in the middle of the tests. Ufologists have suggested that the blast of one of the bombs caused a UFO to crash to the ground at Kingman, killing the pilot. But, when we dig deeper we find a far more plausible story that offers a definitively down-to-earth explanation for the mystery of Kingman.
Early Cloud Penetration is an Atomic Energy Commission document that tells the story of something very intriguing. Although it is dated January 27, 1956, its focus is on certain events that occurred back in 1953: “In the event of nuclear warfare the AF is confronted with two special problems. First is the hazard to flight crews who may be forced to fly through an atomic cloud. Second is the hazard to ground crews who maintain the aircraft after it has flown through the cloud…In the 1953 Upshot-Knothole tests, monkeys were used so that experiments could be conducted on larger animals nearer the size of man. QF-80 drone aircraft were used, their speed more nearly approximating that of current operational aircraft.”
There are rumors that one of the QF-80 drone planes developed a problem and, as a result, crashed near Kingman. The alien? A charred monkey, found in the wreckage of the doomed plane. To hide the extent to which the United States was researching the effects of radiation on military aircraft, amazing tales of a crashed UFO and a dead alien were encouraged to be spread. And, let’s not forget that Stansel was himself working on the very same program that was using the monkeys.
I started this article with Roswell – which occurred in the 1940s. Today’s article casts a great deal of doubt when it comes to some of the crashed UFO tales of the 1950s. Next, I’ll turn my attentions to the 1960s, and the crashed UFOs that were actually nothing of the sort.
The National Solar Observatory in Sunspot, New Mexico, and a nearby United States Postal Service office, were evacuated and shutdown for security reasons on September 9, 2018 observatory officials said but they refused to tell us the reason for the sudden shutdown.
Then, NASA tries to explain what happened on September 9, 2018 by issuing a statement that there were two lunar transits passing in front of the sun.
“On Sept. 9, 2018, NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory, SDO, saw two lunar transits as the Moon passed in front of the Sun. A transit happens when a celestial body passes between a larger body and an observer.
The Moon does not, of course, actually change direction, but it appears to do so from SDO’s perspective based on the fact that the spacecraft’s orbit essentially catches up and passes the Moon during the first transit.
It has become known that 6 more Solar Observatories (Australia, Chile, Spain, Hawaii (2), and Pennsylvania) have been shutdown: We note that all these solar/space cams down at the same time as the Solar Observatory in New Mexico.
AXIS 232D Network Dome Camera located in Sydney Australia Webcams located at SOAR Observatory – The Southern Astrophysical Research Telescope located in Chile BRT Tenerife Telescope Webcam located in Spain Webcam located at Mauna Kea observatory at the University of Hawaii Hilo Webcam from the Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope observatory in Hawaii Webcam at JAT Observatory in Fairless Hills, Pennsylvania
But there’s more; on September 11, 2018 Maria G. Hill from Salem, Indiana has photographed something extraordinary near the sun what can be described as large disk-shaped UFOs as well as a huge fleet of smaller UFOs that accompany the massive disk-shaped UFOs.
Gina wrote on her Facebook: September 11, 2018 8:02AM Salem, Indiana. “This is what showed up in my camera after I took a picture of the sun in the eastern sky this morning. iphone 8 with a camera lens adapter.”
“A green circular door-like object is at the center of the vortex/worm hole and a serpent snake at the top right above it, by a circular disc. I am sure this has a symbolic meaning with the snake and the disc - pictures and videos are on my timeline” Gina said. Besides, in the two videos here and here Gina talks about the massive UFO disks and the fleet of smaller UFOs.
If the objects in the images are not lens flares or objects reflecting in the lens of the camera, but massive mother ships and a fleet of smaller UFOs, see images above, then could that be the reason for the sudden shutdown of 7 solar observatories?
What’s going on? National Solar Observatory in New Mexico evacuated for 'safety reasons'!
What’s going on? National Solar Observatory in New Mexico evacuated for 'safety reasons'!
The National Solar Observatory in New Mexico has been evacuated and locked down, the FBI is involved and they are not telling us the reason.
Could it be that astronomers who work at the observatory have photographed 'Something' near the sun or in deep space that must remain secret or there’s something else going, but for now it remains mystery.
The National Solar Observatory in Sunspot, New Mexico, and a nearby United States Postal Service office, were evacuated for security reasons Thursday, observatory officials said.
"We have decided to temporarily vacate this facility as a precautionary measure. And we're working with the proper authorities on this issue," Association for Universities for Research in Astronomy spokeswoman Sheri Lofson said.
Friday, both properties remained closed to the public, with yellow caution tape around the property.
Sunspot is located in the Sacramento Mountains in Otero County about 15 miles south of Cloudcroft. There is currently a working telescope at the observatory, where New Mexico State University also conducts research.
"As locals I feel that we should know what's going on around us," Cloudcroft resident Roger Wiley said. A spokesman for the Otero County Sheriff's Office said they are not involved in the investigation.
A post office in the area has also been shut down. (Even the Post Office has not been told why).
"Right now, what we're told is that they've temporarily evacuated the area. We haven't been told why or when that expires," said Rod Spurgeon, a spokesman with the USPS reports KVIA.News - KVIA video news here.
According to a commenter at ATS: But for the FBI to get involved that quick and be so secretive about it, there was a lot of stuff going on up there, House said. “There was a Black hawk helicopter, a bunch of people around antennas and work crews on towers but nobody would tell us anything, what their purpose was nobody will say.
Strange disk found 6 km from an unknown base in Antarctica
Strange disk found 6 km from an unknown base in Antarctica
Two interesting objects in the middle of nowhere in Antarctica.
First object seems to be a structure/base (50 x 30 meters) and the second object is a circular object with a diameter of 30 meters.
The distance between the UFO disk and the base is just 6 km.
Why they have built a base in such remote area and the circular object could be a crashed UFO?
The crashed disk is part of a secret project and the test/operation is guided from that base or the UFO disk is extraterrestrial and the base has been set up to investigate the UFO?
Bloodline Anomaly, Anunnaki, Enki And Extraterestrials – Michael Lee Hill with Glenn Bogue
Bloodline Anomaly, Anunnaki, Enki And Extraterestrials – Michael Lee Hill with Glenn Bogue
Glenn Bogue’s a noteworthy scientist who conveys a novel point of view to the Anunnaki/antiquated outsiders field. Glenn’s been voyaging a considerable measure and takes back to the show huge amounts of data accumulated over a late spring of research and encounters intended to come to an obvious conclusion, collect the bits of the riddle and shake our reality. Hosts Janet Kira Lessin together with Dr. Sasha Lessin interview researchers Michael Lee Hill and author Glenn Bogue on Cosmic Conspiracy, Anunnaki, Enki And Extraterestrials.
School Teacher In Texas Shares Picture Of UFO Sighting Near Laredo
School Teacher In Texas Shares Picture Of UFO Sighting Near Laredo
After years of his strange sighting near Laredo, an elementary school teacher is finally coming forward. San Antonio resident Marcelino Castillo said that he was cleaning out his photo drive when he saw the picture again. It was the time he decided to share it on Facebook finally. The photograph reportedly shows a sunrise with a strange rectangular object hovering in the sky 30 minutes north of Laredo.
Castillo said he was traveling to Mexico when he took the photo a couple of years ago. He stated that when he first noticed the light, he believed it was a plane, but he just took a picture of the sunrise. When he zoomed in, he thought right there that he got an incredible picture.
Castillo said that he did not share the photo with anyone for fear they would think he was crazy.
He was skeptical about sightings like he snapped with all the photoshopping and other technologies people do nowadays. However, when it happened to him, it suddenly not far-fetched, according to Castillo.
Now, Castillo is a self-proclaimed believer. He encourages anyone who sees something like that to bring it out as it could help somebody to open his or her mind about the existence of UFOs.
A Strange Square UFO Hovering In The Night Sky Scares NC Man To Death
A Strange Square UFO Hovering In The Night Sky Scares NC Man To Death
A husband and father, 35, claims he doesn’t necessarily believe in UFOs but cannot resist posting an alleged UFO sighting near Charlotte on Facebook.
Javion Hill of Kings Mountain in North Carolina said he captured multiple photographs of the object during a storm on the night of August 18, as he drove on U.S. 74 southwest of the largest city in North Carolina.
The images show something square having edges fringed in lights hovering above the treeline. Hill said the craft frightened him to the point that he could not sleep that night.
Mr Hill was on his way home with his wife on the speakerphone and noticed there was a tornado coming, so he was trying to take a photo of the clouds for his wife.
But then he saw something unusual that left him baffled. He started trying to take as many pictures as he could while driving.
Mr Hill said that he pulled over at the next exit trying to get a video, but the aircraft had disappeared then a heavy rain followed instantly.
He further stated that the actual object was bigger than what was seen in the picture.
He was worried for his safety even after the sighting. He claimed to be an unbeliever in UFOs until that moment.
September brings a chance to see a comet. It will be bright enough that you can readily glimpse it using binoculars, though it will be much easier to see using just a small telescope.
Comet Giacobini-Zinner was discovered in December 1900 by the French astronomer Michel Giacobini at the Nice Observatory in France. Initially, Giacobini calculated that this newfound comet had a relatively short orbital period of just under 7 years, but no one saw the object during its anticipated 1907 return.
Then in 1913, about six months before the comet was expected to return to perihelion, the German astronomer Ernst Zinner at the Dr. Karl Remeis-Observatory in Bamberg, Germany, discovered a comet. It carried his name for a week (going by "Comet Zinner") before astronomers figured out that it was, in reality, the lost Comet Giacobini, which had a slightly shorter orbital period than astronomers originally calculated. [Bright Comets of 2018: When, Where and How to See Them]
Ever since then, the comet has borne the names of both men. Observers missed Comet 21P/Giacobini-Zinner twice more in 1920 and 1953, when it wasn't well placed for observation, but it has been seen at 14 other returns.
A Jupiter lineage
Comet Giacobini-Zinner is catalogued officially as 21P/Giacobini-Zinner. The "21P" means that it's the 21st short-period comet to have its orbit calculated. The very first comet to have its orbit calculated ("1P") was the famous Halley's Comet.
A short-period comet returns to the sun's vicinity at intervals of 200 years or less. Comet 21P belongs to Jupiter's "family" of comets, which contains hundreds of comets with orbital periods less than 20 years that don't venture beyond the orbit of Jupiter. In other words, the biggest planet in the solar system has captured scores of small comets, and because of Jupiter's strong gravitational field, it will occasionally perturb a comet's orbit.
Comet 21P's orbital period varies between 6.4 and 6.6 years, so its perihelion — or its closest approach to the sun — can happen in any month. This happens because the comet's orbit may shift a little every time it passes by Jupiter. This year, Giacobini-Zinner will arrive at perihelion on Monday (Sept. 10).
Astrophotographer Rolando Ligustri captured this view of Comet 21P/Giacobini-Zinner on Aug. 14, 2018.
21P is a small comet, only about 1.2 miles (2 kilometers) in diameter, locked in a small and interesting orbit. It is more steeply inclined to the plane of the solar system (32 degrees) than all but about 1 percent of all known periodic comets. This unusual orbital geometry brings the comet to perihelion only five days before it crosses the plane of Earth's orbit going from north to south (a point in its orbit called the "descending node"). [Photos: Spectacular Comet Views from Earth and Space]
Currently, this point in space is only 3.3 million miles (5.2 million km) outside of the Earth's orbit, close to where our planet will be on Oct. 8. If the comet were to pass us on that date, it would be at its smallest possible distance from Earth while at opposition to the sun, which means the viewing circumstances would be at their absolute best. This almost happened in 1946 (when 21P reached the nodal crossing point 15 days too early) and again in 1959, but this time, the comet's arrival here is 21 days too late.
What to expect
This month provides us with one of the best opportunities to see 21P/Giacobini-Zinner. The comet will arrive at perihelion on Monday (Sept. 10) at a distance of 94.2 million miles (151.5 million km) from the sun. On the same day, the comet will also be at perigee, its closest point to Earth, at a distance of 36.3 million miles (58.5 million km).
As to what you should expect to see, the brightness of 21P will probably hold at near seventh magnitude all through the rest of September. Unfortunately, seventh magnitude is below the threshold of naked-eye visibility even under a dark, clear sky, but using good binoculars or a small telescope and sky map depicting the comet's path against the constellations, you should have no difficulty in spotting the object. Interestingly, in a few cases, the comet has experienced unexpected short-term outbursts in brightness around the time of perihelion, making it appear about a half-magnitude brighter. That would place 21P right at the verge of naked-eye visibility.
Binoculars are not likely to reveal much more than a fuzzy blotch of light. But through the eyepiece of a 4-inch telescope, magnifying at 100x, the comet should have a teardrop shape; the head (also called the coma) should appear well-condensed. Search for a bright, diffuse spot of light at the center of the coma, appearing almost like a star that cannot be focused. As for the tail, look for a narrow beam of light protruding out from the coma.
With larger instruments and higher magnification, you might even catch sight of a jet or streamer extending out from the coma. When volatile material on the comet's surface reacts to the harsh temperatrues and radiation fron the sun, material shoots out into space like a jet, creating streaks of light that appear to emanate from the comet's coma.
When and where to look
This sky map shows the approximate location of Comet 21P/Giacobini-Zinner during its closest approach to Earth, on Sept. 10, 2018, at 2:27 a.m. EDT (0627 GMT), as seen from New York City.
The comet will be primarily a morning object all through September, well-placed for observation in the after-midnight and predawn hours. Currently, Giacobini-Zinner is located in the constellation of Auriga, the charioteer. In the nights that follow its closest approach, 21P will track on a southeastward trajectory against the background stars. On the morning of Sept. 11, the comet will reach a spot on the sky bordering three constellations: Auriga; Taurus, the bull; and Gemini, the twins.
Make a special effort to look for 21P during the morning hours of Sept. 15; on that date, it will cross through Messier 35, a beautiful star cluster in Gemini. Of M35, the 19th century British astronomer William Lassell wrote in the "New Handbook of the Heavens" (McGraw Hill, 1948), "It is a marvelously striking object. No one can see it for the first time without an exclamation."
Walter Scott Houston, who wrote a column called "Deep-Sky Wonders" in Sky & Telescope magazine for nearly half a century, called M35 his "personal favorite open cluster." In this cluster, faint stars form curves and festoons, with a reddish star in the center. This cluster will be the backdrop for 21P on the morning of Saturday, Sept. 15.
And if you're using a moderately large (6-inch aperture or greater) telescope, don't be fooled by the faint, little, open star cluster NGC 2158, which is in the same field of view as M35 and looks like the head of a small comet. Back in 2012, in a column on Gemini, I shared how I stumbled across NGC 2158 and, for a few short moments, thought that I had discovered a comet. Many others have fallen into this same trap, including "Scotty" Houston himself!
From Sept. 16 to Sept. 22, Comet 21P will travel along the border separating Gemini and Orion, the hunter. Then, on Sept. 23, the comet will enter the large and very dim stellar wilderness known as the constellation of Monoceros, the unicorn, where 21P will reside for the rest of the month. As we move into October, the comet will likely dim as it rapidly pulls away from both the sun and Earth. It will also drop progressively lower in the sky, reaching the boundaries of Canis Major, the big dog, by Oct. 10.
To figure out exactly where Comet 21P will appear, as viewed from a specific location and time, check out this ephemeris calculator from NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory. You can also track the comet with NASA's interactive app.
Meteors, too?
It stands to reason that this Earth-kissing comet can also produce a stream of meteors ("comet crumbs?") that can periodically interact with our planet. Skywatchers first noticed these meteors in October 1926, two months before the comet itself passed by, coming from the direction of the head of the constellation Draco, the dragon. So, the meteors were christened the October Draconids, or Giacobinids. Stupendous meteor "storms" with rates of 4,000 to 6,000 meteors per hour accompanied the visits of 21P in 1933 and 1946. Nowadays, the Draconid meteor shower peaks around Oct. 8, but usually only in those years surrounding 21P's return, especially very favorable ones (such as this year).
This sky map shows the Draconid meteor shower's radiant, or the point from which the meteors seem to originate.
On the evening of Oct. 8 this year, the Earth will intersect the plane of the comet's orbit. Will we pass through an appreciable cloud of particles in the wake of the comet's September passage? While a meteor storm is unlikely, it is possible. We'll have more to say on this in early October, so stay tuned!
Editor's note:
If you capture an amazing photo of Comet 21P/Giacobini Zinner and you'd like to share it with Space.com and our news partners for a possible story or image gallery, please contact managing editor Tariq Malik at spacephotos@space.com.
Joe Rao serves as an instructor and guest lecturer at New York's Hayden Planetarium. He writes about astronomy for Natural History magazine, the Farmers' Almanac and other publications, and he is also an on-camera meteorologist for Verizon FiOS1 News in New York's Lower Hudson Valley. Follow us @Spacedotcom, Facebook and Google+. Original article on Space.com.
Photo Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/SSI/Hampton University
The Week's Top Space Stories
The space station hole could have been caused by "human error," scientists will blast a diamond with antimatter, and a software engineer knit an extraordinary stellar map — it's Space.com's best news stories of the week.
Photo Credit: Sarah Spencer
1. Knitting the universe
Australian software engineer Sarah Spencer hacked a knitting machine from the 1980's to create an enormous, stunning star map that even lights up!
A fire destroyed the National Museum of Brazil in a catastrophic tragedy. Brazil's biggest meteorite was one of the few things to actually survive the fire.
Russian reports suggest that the hole found in a Soyuz space capsule attached to the International Space Station may have been caused by a human before the craft even launched.
Photo Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/SSI/Hampton University
5. Saturn's famous hexagon
In a new study using observations from the Cassini probe, researchers have found a hexagonal vortex above Saturn's famous hexagon jet stream, possibly suggesting that the hexagon is actually more like an enormous tower.
Researchers think that they could explore the "dark sector" of the universe, the large amount of energy and particles we can't yet detect, using the theoretical "dark photon," which they hope to create by shooting antimatter at a diamond.
New research has revealed even more about the seven planets in the TRAPPIST-1 system. Some of the planets, which are mostly rocky, could have about 250 times more water proportionally than is in Earth's oceans.
Antarctica is now officially the most well mapped out region, or continent for that matter, in the world. Drawing upon hundreds of thousands of images collected by polar-orbiting satellites between 2009 and 2019, a consortium of scientists has released the first version of the Reference Elevation Model of Antarctica (REMA).
Few people have set foot on Antarctica, one of the most inhospitable places on the face of the Earth. Luckily, our eyes in the sky have recorded the surface of the continent in excruciating detail so we might see what it looks like without having to put boots on the ground.
The new map covers approximately 98% of Antarctica to a latitude of 88 degrees south — just a small area right near the South Pole is missing due to a lack of satellite coverage. The resolution is a mind-boggling 2-8 meter — it means we can now see objects down to the size of a car, and even smaller in some areas.
In order to assemble the map from thousands of stereoscopic pairs of images into a huge topographic map, the scientists fed the data into a supercomputer and had to develop the software from scratch. The map’s total size is a staggering 150 terabytes.
“Up until now, we’ve had a better map of Mars than we’ve had of Antarctica,” Ohio State University glaciologist Ian Howat, who led the mapping effort, said in a press release. “Now it is the best-mapped continent.”
The same region seen with prior available surface imaging (left) and REMA (right).
The project is important for a number of reasons. Now that they know the height of absolutely every feature on Antarctica, scientists can make far better forecasts for ice sheet collapse and glacier melt. With a narrower range of uncertainty, we can now come up with better estimates for sea level rise and improve climate change projections.
The Antarctic peninsula.
Credit: REMA.
“If you’re someone that needs glasses to see, it’s a bit like being almost blind and putting on glasses for the first time and seeing 20/20,” Howat told The New York Times.
Researchers will continuously update the map with new data, which will help researchers all over the world with investigations from changing snow cover to the thinning of glaciers to changes in volcanic activity. And, not the least, scientists can now plan field expeditions to unexplored regions of the continent.
This topography map, called Bedmap2, was compiled by the British Antarctic Survey and incorporates millions of new measurements, including substantial data sets from NASA's ICESat satellite and an airborne mission called Operation IceBridge.
Puzzling Swirls on the Moon May Come from Ancient, Magnetized Lava
Puzzling Swirls on the Moon May Come from Ancient, Magnetized Lava
By Chelsea Gohd, Space.com Staff Writer
The Reiner Gamma lunar swirl is seen decorating the moon's surface, an image taken with NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter. One new study hopes to end the mystery surrounding these stunning lunar patterns.
Credit: NASA LRO WAC science team
Light and dark markings swirl over the moon, looking like cream swirled into coffee or clouds against a slate gray sky. These lunar swirls may result from ancient, magnetic lava just below the moon's surface, according to one new study.
A joint study between researchers at Rutgers University and the University of California, Berkeley, pointed to the moon's internally generated magnetic fieldand past volcanic activity to explain the lunar swirls.
Researchers have known for some time that lunar swirls share space with localized magnetic fields and that when those fields deflect particles from solar wind, parts of the moon's surface weather more slowly than other parts. "But the cause of those magnetic fields, and thus of the swirls themselves, had long been a mystery," Sonia Tikoo, co-author of the study and a researcher at Rutgers University-New Brunswick's Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences, said in a statement. "To solve it, we had to find out what kind of geological feature could produce these magnetic fields — and why their magnetism is so powerful." [How the Moon Evolved: A Photo Timeline]
Sonia Tikoo, co-author of a new study explaining lunar swirls and researcher at Rutgers University's Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences, looks at moon rock samples in a petri dish.
Credit: Nick Romanenko/Rutgers University
The researchers developed mathematical models for these localized fields, or "geological magnets" as they're described in the statement. These models showed that each lunar swirl must exist above a narrow, magnetic object located just below the lunar surface.
Even stranger, researchers think that these subsurface magnetic objects are ancient, long, narrow lava tubes formed by flowing lava or lava dikes, which are vertical sheets of magma in the crust of a moon or planet. Past experiments have shown that, when heated above 1,112 degrees Fahrenheit (600 degrees Celsius) in a zero-oxygen environment, certain minerals in moon rocks break down and release metallic iron, making the rocks extremely magnetic.
So, when the moon was erupting lava over 3 billion years ago, these magnetic lava tubes or lava dikes were likely created and became highly magnetic as they cooled down, according to the statement.
"No one had thought about this reaction in terms of explaining these unusually strong magnetic features on the moon," Tikoo said in the statement, referring to the lava becoming magnetic moon rock under the surface and causing lunar swirls. "This was the final piece in the puzzle of understanding the magnetism that underlies these lunar swirls."
This study was published July 26 in the Journal of Geophysical Research: Planets.
Like pours of cream spilled into coffee, lunar swirls appear to curl in patchy globs across the surface of the moon. The most famous one is the tadpole-shaped Reiner Gamma. At 40 miles long, it’s caught the eye of astronomers since the Renaissance. Exactly why the moon is replete with these natural features, however, has been a point of academic debate for the last 50 years. Now, scientists from Rutgers University and the University of California, Berkeley say they have an answer.
In a paper published in the Journal of Geophysical Research the team claims it all comes down to the geological history of the moon. Recently, scientists have begun to accept that lunar swirls like Reiner Gamma emerged in places where local magnetic fields once shielded parts of the moon’s surface. The moon doesn’t have a strong magnetic field anymore, but researchers estimate that it did have one between 2.7 and 4.2 billion years ago. Remnants of that ancient magnetic field are now embedded in the lunar crust beneath the swirls.
Studying how the moon’s magnetic fields arose billions of years ago helped reveal why lunar swirls exist, study co-author and planetary scientist Sonia Tikoo, Ph.D., explained on Thursday. “We had to find out what kind of geological feature could produce these magnetic fields,” she said.
Swirls east of the moon's Firsov crater.
The team developed a mathematical model, incorporating what was already known about the geometry of the swirls and the strength of the magnetic field hotspots beneath them. This model indicated that the underlying magnetized rocks would have to be shallow, narrow, and strongly magnetized — factors that point to the existence of archaic lava tubes.
“We suggest that these rocks were likely injected into the crush in the form of dikes or subsurface channels of flowing lava and they cooled slowly, leading to the enhancement of their metal content and enabling the rocks to capture a stable record of the Moon’s ancient magnetic field,” the scientists write.
The lava tubes theory fits nicely with what we already know about magnetism and moon rocks. Previous experiments demonstrated that moon rocks become highly magnetic when heated above 600 degrees Celsius. On Earth, where there’s free-floating oxygen, not much would happen at those temperatures, but on the moon, high temperatures — like those potentially found in lava tubes — cause minerals to break down and release metallic iron. If the iron is near a strong magnetic field, it will then become magnetized itself.
The researchers believe this process creates a swirl. The only real way to find this out though is to visit a lunar swirl and study it directly — something that, if NASA’s moon colony plan stays on track, could happen in the relatively near future.
Mystery of the Deep: Strange Footprints Found 2.4 Miles
Mystery of the Deep: Strange Footprints Found 2.4 Miles
Seventy percent of the Earth’s surface is hidden beneath the ocean, yet 95 percent of it remains unexplored to the human eye.
Strange footprints have been found on the bottom of the ocean floor by a deep-diving robot as part of a British study from the National Oceanographic Center in Southampton.
Scientists ruled out the possibility of the mysterious tracks, measuring 6.5 feet in length and 13 inches deep, discovered 2.4 miles below the surface of the Pacific Ocean between Mexico and Hawaii, being the result of mining or scientific operations.
They also said that the tracks were too large to be created by fish or any other deep-sea creatures.
“Analysis revealed that the depressions were not randomly distributed,” lead author of the research, Dr. Leigh Marsh, told the Express, adding that the most likely culprits are “deep-diving whales.”
Even though whales normally do not dive so deep, similar tracks found across the globe suggest that the large aquatic mammals can occasionally plunge to a depth of 2.5 miles and even more.
Scientists believe that “electronic depth-tags, attached to the animals, will provide direct evidence that whales can dive to these abyssal depths.”
While the discovery of mysterious footprints on the ocean floor has left researchers scratching their heads, conspiracy theorists have been quick to claim that UFO technology is to blame.
Vreemde ‘voetafdrukken’ ontdekt op de zeebodem. Wie of wat heeft ze achtergelaten?
Vreemde ‘voetafdrukken’ ontdekt op de zeebodem. Wie of wat heeft ze achtergelaten?
De oceanen beslaan ruim 70 procent van het aardoppervlak. Daarvan is 95 procent nog niet verkend.
Een duikrobot van het Britse National Oceanographic Centre heeft nu vreemde ‘voetafdrukken’ op de zeebodem aangetroffen.
Wetenschappers hebben uitgesloten dat de mysterieuze sporen, die 2,5 meter lang en 33 centimeter diep zijn, veroorzaakt zijn door mijnbouwwerkzaamheden of wetenschappelijk onderzoek.
Te groot
Ze zeiden verder dat de sporen te groot zijn om door vissen of andere diepzeedieren te zijn gemaakt.
De sporen zijn ontdekt tussen Mexico en Hawaï, op een diepte van vier kilometer.
“De analyse heeft aangetoond dat ze niet willekeurig verdeeld zijn,” citeerde de Daily Expresshoofdonderzoeker Leigh Marsh, die toevoegde dat ze waarschijnlijk zijn veroorzaakt door diepduikende walvissen.
UFO-technologie
Hoewel walvissen normaal gesproken niet zo diep duiken, zijn elders op aarde soortgelijke sporen gevonden die erop wijzen dat grote zeezoogdieren soms duiken naar dieptes van vier kilometer of meer.
Wetenschappers willen de dieren gaan voorzien van een elektronische chip om te kijken of walvissen echt zo diep kunnen duiken.
Terwijl de mysterieuze voetafdrukken op de zeebodem onderzoekers voor een raadsel stellen, claimen complottheoretici dat UFO-technologie hiervoor verantwoordelijk is.
We live in a time of anonymous op-ed exposés and tell-all books with unnamed sources, so it’s not surprising that anonymity permeates the field of ufology as well. Yet it’s still refreshing that someone involved in a UFO sighting and subsequent “panic” some eight years ago has decided to come partially out of the closet and, while not revealing his name, discloses how he … get ready for it … faked the UFO that created many sightings, extensive news coverage and a ‘UFO Panic in New Jersey’. Will that be the title of a sci-fi thriller, a disclosure documentary or a how-to UFO video?
“I first noticed when all our mechanics started looking up at the sky. It looked like a big black strip fluttering in the air. Maybe a cylinder.”
Photos by David Gard/For The Star-LedgerAn unidentified object floats over Somerville and Bridgewater causing a flurry of phone calls to Somerville police this morning. Below, Damian Wadiak, Terry Weil and Jane Kronenwetter, from the sales department at Autosport Honda on Route 22 in Bridgewater, look at the object.
On May 13, 2010, nj.com reported UFO sightings (clink link for photos) over Route 22 in Bridgewater and Somerville, New Jersey. Shortly before noon, radio station NJ 101.5 received numerous calls, as did the Somerville Police Department, reporting the mysterious object. Well, “mysterious” might be a stretch as the object looked like a giant stretched balloon, but this is New Jersey and people still remembered what happened on 9/11 and decided to follow the advice that “If you see something, say something.” The Air Traffic Control Tower in Morristown, Solberg Airport in Hunterdon, Somerset Airport in Bedminster and Blairstown Airport in Warren County were all contacted and reported seeing nothing unusual.
Time for true confessions
“8 years ago I caused a UFO panic.”
That’s the title of a Reddit post this week by thatsboots3010. While he doesn’t reveal his name, he gives all of the pertinent details about what happened on May 13, 2010.
“One college summer break 8 years ago my friends and I were bored. We remembered a demonstration from a high school science class of a “Solar Balloon“. This was just a really thin black plastic bag you’d fill with air, seal, and then set out in the sun. The sun would heat the air in the black bag and the bag would become buoyant and float.”
College students. Summer vacation. Were illegal substances and adult beverages involved? Quite possibly, but their main concern was finding cheap (they’re college students) black plastic bags and thin but strong tape to connect them into a huge balloon. Someone provided a leaf blower to fill the balloon, the sun provided the fuel to heat the air and a thirty-minute wait (Two beers? One joint?) was all that was needed to send the balloon aloft.
Being college students on summer break, this was enough fun to waste the rest of the day on it, so thatsboots3010 says they built a second balloon and launched it as well. Other than a few looks from passing cars, that was the end of it.
“I moved out of the area but when I get together with my friend we always bring this up and have a good laugh.”
Well, that was it until a few years ago when thatsboots3010 saw the article in nj.com about the UFO “panic” he and his friends caused and then recently when he entered the confessional of Reddit and admitted in the most 2018 of ways – anonymously – that he was the terrestrial behind the non-alien UFO of 2010.
The proper use of garbage bags.
Should there be an investigation to reveal his true identity? After all, police were called, radio shows were interrupted, airports were bothered and residents were panicked. Far smaller incidents have prompted far bigger searches. Then again, looking at the pictures, perhaps it’s better to use this as a learning experience and issue a corollary to the popular security warning:
“If you see something, say something. However, if it looks like a duct-taped garbage bag balloon and it floats like a duct-taped garbage bag balloon, it’s probably a duct-taped garbage bag balloon.”
Airplanes are terrifying. No matter how many times you get into a plane, there’s a tiny voice in the back of your head reminding you “this ain’t natural,” but that’s coming from someone who has to put down enough overpriced hard liquor every time he gets into one of those steel death tubes to forget the reality of being unceremoniously tossed across the globe. There’s not a lot that will quell that fear either, and every other day there seems to be more good reasons to keep your feet on the ground. As if mechanical failures, disappearances, and hijacking weren’t enough to worry about, now there’s a report coming from Porterville Municipal Airport in California of a mysterious “pulling” that caused the crashes of two separate airplanes in two days. Luckily, both crashes were minor and no one was seriously injured, but it’s a bit disconcerting that we have to add “spooky forces” to the list of excuses for not flying.
The first incident happened on Friday, August 31. According to Visalia Times Delta, a small airplane was landing at Porterville Municipal Airport when it veered off and crashed into a sign at the airport, no one was injured and the plane suffered only minor damage. According to police, the pilot said that she was landing when she felt the aircraft pulling to the side and lost control. All three parties involved (the pilot, the plane, and the sign), are fine, and the plane was able to taxi across the runway back to the hangers.
So far there’s nothing out of the ordinary, accidents happen. However, less than 24 hours later a very similar incident occurred involving a completely different pilot and a completely different plane, but the same mysterious pulling.
Unrelated plane crash, but what if terrible pilots just start using this as an excuse, and every time they blunder they just say that a wizard did it?
This time the pilot was taking off when the plane was suddenly pulled off the runway and ended up overturned in a nearby field. Motorists saw the incident and called 911. According to police officer Sgt. Brian Nix:
“His aircraft began pulling to the left and veered off the runway and into the dirt field. As he attempted to maneuver the aircraft to recover, it began to lift and ultimately overturned.”
The pilot was uninjured but the plane received moderate damage.
According to the Visalia Times, these incidents remain unexplained. The events at Portersville Airport have been reported to the FAA, who will likely begin an investigation of the phenomena. If anyone want’s to dust off their old tinfoil thinkin’ cap, here’s a little morsel for you: the airport was founded in 1946 after it was transferred to the town from the U.S. Army. Now, it’s true that that’s the case for a lot of the infrastructure in the U.S., but it’s also true that unexplained phenomena and the U.S. military go together like airport bars and awkward conversations.
“Have you heard about all those wizards crashing planes?”
A Melbourne-based Family Claims to Have Spotted UFO Above Their House
A Melbourne-based Family Claims to Have Spotted UFO Above Their House
Paul says his whole family was mystified by the object.
Picture: Paul Steinberg/SuppliedSource:Supplied
Three mysterious bright red lights hovering without a sound in the sky had made a man, and his family stunned and claimed that there was no natural explanation for what they spotted.
The Melbourne family claimed to have noticed something strange floating above their house over the weekend and even snapped a photo of the bizarre object.
Paul Steinberg said that he and daughter were in the driveway of their home in North Caulfield at around 8 pm when they both saw the UFO.
Mr Steinberg said that the strange aerial thing was flying just under the clouds and appearing like with three red lights in a triangular formation moving without making any noise in a westerly direction.
Mr Steinberg further stated that they could not figure out what it was and it took them a few moments to realise it was travelling quite fast at what he estimated to be around 500km/h.
He called the attention of his wife and two other children outside, and they all witnessed unusual activity above them.
The 45-year-old, along with his children aged between 11 and 18 and his wife, all watched the bright red lights zoomed silently overhead.
Mr Steinberg said that they wanted to discount all conventional explanations they knew, including Venus, drones, planes, and satellites.
He estimated the UFO to be about 1.5km above them and claimed the lights were still easily distinguishable, which made them think the UFO was huge and too high and big for it to be a drone.
The RAAA said it was most likely a plane with winds covering up the sound of the engine.
Source:istock
He said the object covered the distance from the family’s home to Albert Park, about 8.5km away, in under two minutes.
“It was very steady and silent for the most part but when it got into the distance it started to move around erratically, up and down and left and right — all over the place,” Mr Steinberg said. “During the time we could it, the lights sometimes disappeared before reappearing in a different spot.” He said it danced in the sky for about 10 minutes before it completely disappeared. Mr Steinberg claimed the way it was moving, how fast it was travelling and the fact that it was silent made it nothing like he and his family had ever seen before. However, Regional Aviation Association of Australia (RAAA) CEO Michael Linke told news.com.au there was probably an earthly explanation for the odd sight. “It was more than likely an aircraft,” he said. “Depending on the prevailing winds, you would not be able to hear the engine.”
PILOT TAKES AMAZING PHOTOS FROM HIS COCKPIT, AND THEY WILL TAKE YOUR BREATH AWAY. AMAZING
PILOT TAKES AMAZING PHOTOS FROM HIS COCKPIT, AND THEY WILL TAKE YOUR BREATH AWAY. AMAZING
From incredible storms to even lightning bolts – the photos he captures are truly magnificent.
Being a pilot, you get to see a bunch of beautiful sights from above. Being a pilot for a South American airline, you also get to witness the stunning phenomena of storms as your job requires flying over regions that experience them. Meet Santiago Borja Lopez – a Quito, Ecuador-based pilot who works for Ecuador Airlines. Whenever the pilot is off-duty, he pulls out his camera to capture the magnificent sights he witnesses in air. From incredible storms to even lightning bolts – the photos he captures are truly magnificent. Keep on scrolling to take a look and follow Santiago’s journey on Instagram. You can read more about one of Santiago’s shots in our previous article.
#1 ‘A Colossal Cumulonimbus Flashes Over The Pacific Ocean As We Circle Around It At 37000 Feet En Route To South America’
#2 ‘I’ve Never Seen Lightning Like This One’
#3 Night Flashes, Atlantic Ocean
#4 An Ominous Storm Over Panama City
#5 Night Sky
#6 Magic
#7 Tormenta, Coast Of Venezuela, South America
#8 Flying Over The Colombian Amazonia About To Enter Ecuadorian Airspace To Descend Over The Andes Into Guayaquil
#9 A Magnificent Storm Developing Over The Atlantic Ocean, A Few Miles South Of Jamaica
#10 Mooning Around, Super Moon, At 2,900m In Quito, Ecuador
#11 ‘Looking Like A Nuclear Explosion, This Great Cumulonimbus Is Discharging Its Power Over Colombian Rainforest’
Scientists have used artificial intelligence to uncover 72 previously undiscovered fast radio bursts (FRBs)—mysterious space signals that travel billions of light years through space and flash for just a fraction of a second—the alien-hunting Breakthrough Listen project has reported.
Nobody knows the origin of these elusive, quick-fire signals, but researchers have speculated that some of them come from neutron stars sitting near black holes, interstellar clouds or nebulas. Some even think they might be a sign of alien life. Most FRBs are only detected once, but one—FRB 121102—has bleeped again and again.
Researchers with Breakthrough Listen—a program supported by scientists like the late Stephen Hawking—used the Green Bank Telescope in West Virginia to probe the repeating FRB back in August 2017. Vishal Gajjar, of UC Berkeley, and his team initially found 21 bursts from a galaxy three billion years away in data gathered over a five-hour period.
Scientists have now developed a machine learning algorithm that pried dozens more FRBs from the same dataset. UC Berkeley doctoral student Gerry Zhang and colleagues’ neural network-based algorithm sifted through some 400 terabytes of data to reveal the additional FRBs. According to Breakthrough Listen, this kind of tech is used to optimize search engines and sort through images.
The space agency’s groundbreaking Cassini spacecraft became the first to orbit the gas giant.
Saturn emits natural radio waves because of its powerful magnetic field and when charged particles are accelerated through the field they give off radio emissions which can sound likes whizzes and static.
When Cassini reached the planet, the second biggest in our solar system behind Jupiter, it recorded dozens of radio waves.
A YouTube conspiracy video has highlighted a file on July 25, 2004, which when raised in pitch can sound eerily like a creature from a science-fiction movie.
It claims that NASA’s note on the file stated: “A most intriguing file, we do not know what to make of it.”
Some have theorised the sound when digitally enhanced reveals communication from an alien lifeform and possibly musical notes.
It emerged Cassini began detecting Saturn’s radio waves two years earlier when it was 234 million miles from the ringed planet.
Scientists learned that the natural radio waves differs at the northern and southern hemispheres and with the pattern of the waves worked out that the length of day on Saturn would be just 10.67 hours after several revisions.
On Saturn every season lasts seven Earth years.
GETTY
WEIRD: The NASA spacecraft Cassini picked up an extremely strange radio signal from Saturn
Cassini was the first mission to ever study the mysterious planet and its moon, including the largest one dubbed Titan.
This super-sized moon – one of 63 near saturn – is believed to have lakes, mountains and possibly volcanoes.
One theory suggests the foggy world could have many of the chemical compounds which started life on Earth.
Cassini came as close as 15 miles to the icy surface of Saturn, capturing massive ocean beneath the frozen crust which might have conditions suitable for life.
NASA's revolutionary Kepler space telescope has found around 50 earth-sized planets which are in a habitable zone from their star to support life.
Scientists think they might have the answer, and it's less to do with lack of understanding, and more to do with the feedback they're getting.
Getting positive or negative reactions to something you do or say is a greater influence on your thinking than logic and reasoning, the new research suggests – so if you're in a group of like-minded people, that's going to reinforce your thinking.
Receiving good feedback also encourages us to think we know more than we actually do.
In other words, the more sure we become that our current position is right, the less likely we are to take into account other opinions or even cold, hard scientific data.
"If you think you know a lot about something, even though you don't, you're less likely to be curious enough to explore the topic further, and will fail to learn how little you know," says one of the team members behind the new study, Louis Marti from the University of California, Berkeley.
For the research, more than 500 participants were recruited and shown a series of colored shapes. As each shape appeared, the participants got asked if it was a "Daxxy" – a word made up for these experiments.
The test takers had no clues as to what a Daxxy was or wasn't, but they did get feedback after guessing one way or the other – the system would tell them if the shape they were looking at qualified as a Daxxy or not. At the same time they were also asked how sure they were about what a Daxxy actually was.
In this way the researchers were able to measure certainty in relation to feedback. Results showed the confidence of the participants was largely based on the results of their last four or five guesses, not their performance overall.
You can see the researchers explain the experiment in the video below:
The team behind the tests says this plays into something we already know about learning – that for it to happen, learners need to recognise that there is a gap between what they currently know and what they could know. If they don't think that gap is there, they won't take on board new information.
"What we found interesting is that they could get the first 19 guesses in a row wrong, but if they got the last five right, they felt very confident," says Marti. "It's not that they weren't paying attention, they were learning what a Daxxy was, but they weren't using most of what they learned to inform their certainty."
This recent feedback is having more of an effect than hard evidence, the experiments showed, and that might apply in a broader sense too. It could apply to learning something new or trying to differentiate between right and wrong.
And while in this case the study participants were trying to identify a made-up shape, the same cognitive processes could be at work when it comes to echo chambers on social media or on news channels – where views are constantly reinforced.
"If you use a crazy theory to make a correct prediction a couple of times, you can get stuck in that belief and may not be as interested in gathering more information," says one of the team, psychologist Celeste Kidd from UC Berkeley.
So if you think vaccinations are harmful, for example, the new study suggests you might be basing that on the most recent feedback you've had on your views, rather than the overall evidence one way or the other.
Ideally, the researchers say, learning should be based on more considered observations over time – even if that's not quite how the brain works sometimes.
"If your goal is to arrive at the truth, the strategy of using your most recent feedback, rather than all of the data you've accumulated, is not a great tactic," says Marti.
What prophecies and warnings are there for Europe? The South African Nicolaas van Rensburg predicts shocking events for Europe. Many frightening events of Nicolaas van Rensburg have already taken place.
But there are still some ominous predictions to be made which we should regard as a warning for Europe. I consider Nicolaas van Rensburg's prophecies to be warnings for Europe.
Nicolaas van Rensburg's prophecies include a world economic crisis, environmental disasters, wars, civil wars, immigrants from foreign countries and hunger in the world.
The sublime prophet of His Nicolaas van Rensburg: One of the most important seers of our time is undoubtedly His van Rensburg.
The word "his" derives from the African and means "seer". It can be said that Rensburg is considered the African Nostradamus of modern times. He was born on August 30, 1864 and died on March 11, 1926. Rensburg had many visions throughout his life - about 700 pictures, symbols or shows were registered, which he had communicated to other people.
Rensburg was a simple man - he earned his living by working as a farmer. As a child he worked as a shepherd boy - the only book he ever read was the Bible. His visions began in his childhood.
He participated in the Boer War for the rest of his life. During this time he had visions about the course of the Boer War. And gave them to the public.
1. world war ahead and the reasons that led to it.
Nicolas van Rensburg foresaw communism in Russia and the resulting oppression of Christians, as well as the collapse of communism.
He could predict the flu epidemic of 1918.
He predicted riots in mining in South Africa.
It predicted a world economic crisis of 1929.
He also had visions of the 2nd World War.
He foresaw the division and reunification of Germany.
He foresaw the developments in South Africa for the year 1948. Independence from South Africa, India and Ireland.
He also reported on racial problems in South Africa before they broke out and the further development of the South African state.
He saw Margaret Thatcher as Prime Minister of England
He predicted the arrest and release of Nelson Mandela.
Nicolas van Rensburg saw the death of Princess Diana.
The conflict in the Gulf War.
He saw the strengthening of black power in South Africa.
He saw the attack on the WTC on 11.09.2001.
He saw Saddam Hussein in the Iraq war.
Murder of the South African mining magnate Brett Kebble.
He saw another world economic crisis after 1929. He indicated that it should be a controlled crisis to take over certain leadership positions.
Nikolas Rensburg had apocalyptic visions. Among them were sometimes:
The deliberate disinformation by the media.
A unified European leadership.
A large number of immigrants in Europe and the resulting frustration of the population.
Financial collapse and resulting famine.
Peace negotiations in which people die.
Uprising in parts of Europe.
Destruction of Japan by environmental disasters
A great war is to break out in spring.
Rensburg speaks of the invasion of the Russians, but they are stopped.
Fights against the Russians in Spain and in Syria and Palestine.
A strengthened German army with secret weapons and the defeat of the Russian invasion together with the USA.
Of course you can’t really stand on Mars. But you can do the next best thing with this cool new 360-degree interactive panorama from NASA’s Curiosity rover. Notice the settling dust!
Mars is coming up on its perihelion, or closest point to the sun, on September 16, 2018, and, as often happens when Mars draws closest to its source of light and heat, a global dust storm has been raging for several months on the red planet. The dust storm began in May 2018, and went global in June, blotting out the sun from Mars’ surface and cutting off signals from NASA’s Opportunity rover, which still sits silent. Meanwhile, though, the dust storm has abated, and now NASA has released a new 360-degree panorama from its Curiosity rover, made with images acquired in August, shown in the interactive video above.
Isn’t it great?! Take a minute to explore the video, and you will see clouds of dust still hanging in the Martian air, off in the distance, as well as dust on the surface of the rover itself.
View larger. | NASA’s Curiosity rover acquired the images to create this 360-degree panorama at its location on Vera Rubin Ridge on August 9, 2018. Image via NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS.
The Curiosity rover also snagged a new rock sample on August 9. The drilling site is pictured below:
It took 3 attempts for the Curiosity rover on Mars to drill this hole on the Vera Rubin Ridge, but it succeeded on August 9, 2018. Scientists crowed: “Curiosity has successfully drilled, and generated a pile of drill tailings.”
NASA said the new drill sample “delighted” Curiosity’s science team, because:
… the rover’s last two drill attempts were thwarted by unexpectedly hard rocks. Curiosity started using a new drill method earlier this year to work around a mechanical problem. Testing has shown it to be as effective at drilling rocks as the old method, suggesting the hard rocks would have posed a problem no matter which method was used.
After the drilling, the rover stopped to survey its surroundings on Mars – producing the 360-degree panorama featured in the video above and photos below. NASA said:
The panorama includes umber skies, darkened by a fading global dust storm. It also includes a rare view by the Mast Camera of the rover itself, revealing a thin layer of dust on Curiosity’s deck. In the foreground is the rover’s most recent drill target, named ‘Stoer’ after a town in Scotland near where important discoveries about early life on Earth were made in lakebed sediments.
That’s some optimistic thinking indeed from Curiosity’s science team!
EPA, NASAFrank Borman was niet onder de indruk van de maan.
WETENSCHAP & PLANEETHij was commandant van de Apollo 8-missie in 1968. Samen met zijn crew de eerste mensen die rond de maan vlogen, exact 50 jaar geleden. Je zou denken dat ex-astronaut Frank Borman lyrisch is over het fabelachtige avontuur dat hij beleefde. Niets is minder waar.
Dat blijkt uit een vermakelijk interview van de 90-jarige voormalige NASA-astronaut met This American Life. Terwijl zijn mede-astronauten Jim Lovell en Bill Anders hun ogen uitkeken tijdens de allereerste bemande missie rond de maan, verveelde commandant Frank Borman zich dood.
“Ik was daar enkel en alleen omdat het de Koude Oorlog was”, vertelt Borman. “Ik wilde meedoen aan het grote Amerikaanse avontuur om de Sovjets te verslaan. Maar dat was het enige dat me motiveerde. Die verdomde Russen kloppen.”
De ruimte zelf vond hij maar niets, om nog maar te zwijgen over het gevoel van gewichtloosheid. “Dat was misschien interessant voor de eerste 30 seconden. Dan was dat iets normaal.” De commandant werd er wel stevig ziek van. “Kotsen werkt hetzelfde als op aarde”, vertelt hij daarover. “Het is ongemakkelijk. Ik probeerde het op te vangen in een afvalzak, maar ik kon niet alles pakken.”
“Geen enkele kleur”
En ook de magisch nabije blik die hij mocht werpen op de maan, kon hem niet bekoren. “Verwoesting. Een hoop kraters. Geen enkele kleur. Gewoon wat verschillende tinten grijs”, klaagt hij. Terwijl zijn makker Jim Lovell zich vergaapte aan de machtige grijze bal en wanhopig wenste dat hij die kon gaan bestuderen, dacht geen haar op het hoofd van Borman eraan om ooit op dat ding te stappen.
NASA
De aarde
Het enige dat de aanvoerder écht interessant vond aan de belevenis, was het zicht dat de astronauten kregen op de aarde, die boven de maanhorizon verscheen. Crewlid Bill Anders nam toen het nu wereldberoemde kiekje van de aarde vanuit de maanbaan.
Dat beeld kon ook Borman écht smaken. Onze bol, amper een duim groot. “Daar zaten de belangrijkste dingen in mijn leven. Mijn familie, mijn vrouw, mijn ouders. Dat was het absolute hoogtepunt van de missie, vanuit een emotioneel oogpunt.”
Toen hij een jaar later opnieuw de kans kreeg om de ruimte in te gaan en zelfs te wandelen op de maan, paste hij voor de kans. “Ik ben waarschijnlijk de slechtste persoon om naar de maan te sturen”, klinkt het. We geven hem geen ongelijk.
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Mythische stad Atlantis gevonden in de woestijn? Video van waarheidszoeker gaat viraal
Mythische stad Atlantis gevonden in de woestijn? Video van waarheidszoeker gaat viraal
Jimmy Bright, eigenaar van het YouTube-kanaal Bright Insight, claimt de mythische stad Atlantis te hebben gevonden.
In een virale video, die in enkele dagen tijd al ongeveer een miljoen keer is bekeken, stelt de blogger dat de Richatstructuur in de Maur Adrar-woestijn – ook wel het Oog van de Sahara genoemd – de plek is waar Atlantis zich bevindt.
De beroemde filosoof Plato zei dat Atlantis een rijk was dat zich duizenden jaren geleden uitstrekte van Italië tot Egypte.
Weggevaagd
Het gigantische eiland zou in een enkele dag zijn weggevaagd als gevolg van een natuurramp.
Volgens Bright steeg de zeespiegel aanzienlijk tijdens het Jonge Dryas, waardoor Atlantis werd verzwolgen door de golven.
De buitenste cirkel van de Richatstructuur heeft een doorsnee van 23,5 kilometer, wat overeenkomt met de afmetingen die Plato gaf, aldus de blogger.
Cirkels
Het Oog van de Sahara lijkt volgens hem op de beschrijving in Plato’s dialogen. Zo schreef hij dat de belangrijkste stad van Atlantis bestond uit concentrische cirkels.
Die zie je ook terug in de Richatstructuur, zei Bright.
Mythische stad
Al sinds de middeleeuwen speuren onderzoekers naar Atlantis. Sommigen van hen plaatsten de mythische stad in de Atlantische Oceaan en de Middellandse Zee.
Er zijn ook complottheorieën die Atlantis hebben gelinkt aan de Zuidpool en de Noordzee.
TWEE VLIEGTUIGEN CRASHEN DOOR ONBEKENDE "TREKKRACHT" ( VIDEO )
TWEE VLIEGTUIGEN CRASHEN DOOR ONBEKENDE "TREKKRACHT" ( VIDEO )
Kort na elkaar crashen twee kleine vliegtuigen op een vliegveld in Californië, waarbij beide piloten melding maken van een geheimzinnige kracht die aan het vliegtuig trekt.
Alhoewel men driftig op zoek is geweest naar een oorzaak van dit alles, is er tot nu toe geen enkele mogelijke oorzaak gevonden.
Ongeveer een week geleden zijn er merkwaardige dingen gebeurd in de kleine Amerikaanse plaats Porterville. Een stadje in een vrij afgelegen gebied waar eigenlijk nooit wat gebeurt.
Het plaatsje heeft een eigen vliegveld en dat is mede te danken aan de Amerikaanse luchtmacht die dit hier tijdens de Tweede Wereldoorlog een bouwde voor het testen van allerlei zaken en het trainen van piloten.
Na de oorlog werd het vliegveld overgedragen aan de stad en vandaag de dag wordt het gebruikt door kleine vliegtuigen.
Een klein vliegtuig landde op het vliegveld, maar tijdens en na de landing gebeurde er iets vreemds.
In het toestel zat een vrouw, een ervaren vlieger klaarblijkelijk, die later vertelde dat ze tijdens de landing een vreemde kracht waarnam die als het ware aan het toestel begon te trekken.
Ze slaagde er wel in om te landen, maar kreeg toch het toestel niet onder controle, met als gevolg dat ze aan het einde van de landingsbaan tegen een object botste wat omschreven wordt als een “airport marker”.
Ze was verder niet gewond en ook het toestel was niet zo zwaar beschadigd en er werd dan ook niet teveel aandacht besteed aan dit ongeluk. De politie werd gebeld, de luchtvaartautoriteiten ingelicht en de nodige rapporten gemaakt.
Minder dan 24 uur later gebeurt er op datzelfde vliegveld weer een ongeluk, waarbij de piloot van geluk mag spreken dat hij nog leeft.
Een klein vliegtuig vertrekt van de startbaan en tijdens de start merkt de piloot dat er een soort vreemde kracht aan zijn vliegtuig trekt. Hij slaagt er niet in om het toestel op de baan te houden, het trekt naar links het veld in. De piloot probeerde het toestel onder controle te krijgen maar vanwege de al hoge snelheid schiet toch de neus van het toestel omhoog. Vervolgens draait het toestel om de eigen as om tenslotte ondersteboven neer te komen in het grasland.
Gelukkig heeft de piloot het er levend afgebracht. Het toestel is behoorlijk beschadigd.
De onderzoeken naar beide ongelukken zijn nog in volle gang, maar vooralsnog heeft niemand enig idee waar die mysterieuze trekkracht vandaan kwam.
Wanneer twee vliegtuigen met ervaren piloten op twee dagen achter elkaar iets dergelijks overkomt, dan lijkt het zeker dat ze zich die kracht niet inbeelden, maar dat er werkelijk iets gebeurd is in Porterville.
Wat dan precies is vooralsnog een raadsel en Tyler van Secureteam denkt dat het misschien iets te maken heeft met dat hier vroeger een militaire basis gevestigd was.
Of zou het misschien iets te maken kunnen hebben met de vreemde krachten die werkzaam zijn op onze planeet vanwege de komst van een andere, onbekende planeet?
Voorlopig alleen maar raadsels en geen antwoorden.
Cloaked UFO sticking out of the clouds filmed over Reykjavik, Iceland
Cloaked UFO sticking out of the clouds filmed over Reykjavik, Iceland
The photographer saw something in the sky directly over the N1 gasoline station in Artun, Reykjavik, Iceland and decided to film it.
The short video shows a flying saucer type object, most likely a lenticular cloud but left to the this UFO cloud there is another object partially cloaked that is sticking out of the cloud formation.
Despite the photographer refers to the flying saucer like cloud it is the second partially cloaked object that makes it interesting, see above image.
The photographer says: I was amazed by clouds during my way from home to work so I made many pictures and videos. But there was also UFO. I think that this is UFO so I’m sending this material to Mufon report 94745.
Black square UFO appears from the clouds above Wisconsin
Black square UFO appears from the clouds above Wisconsin
On June 26, 2018 a photographer caught a black square UFO hanging in the sky below the clouds on June 26, 2018.
The photographer says: I was riding in a car to go to the airport and flying back to Canada.
The sky is still very dark when I left River Falls, Wisconsin. The sky was lightening on the middle of our trip and I took some photos of the thunder and lighting.
I took a lot of images of the sky when the lighting flashed every 20 to 40 seconds. At the beginning, I didn't notice the object till I checked my iPhone camera in the car. It was the first photo that showed this object. Other photos that I took at the same time didn’t show the object.
I was so happy to be able to take a very special photo so I posted it on my Facebook right away when I landed in Toronto. Mufon report 94740.
Top-secret US technology SPOTTED? Mysterious ‘triangle UFO’ linked to military experiments
Top-secret US technology SPOTTED? Mysterious ‘triangle UFO’ linked to military experiments
A SHOCK "triangular UFO" has been spotted close to a secretive US military base, amid speculation that the aircraft is the mysterious TR-3B on a test-run in Texas.
Incredible footage has captured a bizarre "triangle UFO" flying across the El Paso sky in Texas this week.
The mysterious sighting has been linked to top-secret US technology developed at a nearby military research base.
Online viewers speculated that the aircraft, which has left many baffled, was a TR-3B aircraft, which is part of a "black government project".
Several sightings of "black project" aircrafts have been recorded close to military testing areas, such as Edwards Air Force Base in California, and United States Air Force Plant 42.
In April, UFO hunters claimed a 500-metre-long object off the coast of Antarctica as an underwater alien lair.
The website, UFO Sightings Hotspot, believes it does not fit the normal iceberg description. “I’m not an iceberg expert but this object is really peculiar and looks like a vessel disguised as an iceberg,” the site reads.
2. The Martian structure 'identical' to a Japanese tomb
There’s a Kofun Era tomb in Japan which looks identical to a mound on Mars from above.
Alien hunters spotted the pair on Google Maps and Google Earth’s Mars feature respectively, and believe it’s evidence that Martians settled on Earth hundreds of years ago after a terrible event forced them off the Red Planet.
They do look similar. But could it just be a coincidence?
One eagle-eyed user noticed what looks like a spaceship parked – but not very discretely hidden - in Romania.
After years of speculation, it eventually emerged that it’s actually a water tower built during the last century. No sign of alien life forms here then, but an easy mistake to make.
Could this be a crashed flying saucer? YouTube users secureteam10 spotted the strange object in a restricted area of Arizona - which only makes it even more curious.
Not everyone is convinced, of course – some say it could just be a yurt.
In the remote British territory of South Georgia, 810 miles from the Falklands Islands, a strange site has been found on Google Maps.
According to alien hunter SecureTeam10, the object and the lines leading up to it are all signs of an UFO crash landing as the vehicle "came to a screeching halt in the snow".
Alien-hunting YouTube channel sectureteam10 have spotted something on Google Earth. There's a cloud formation that stretches from Antartica across the planet to the North Pole.
While the UFO fanatics suspect something sinister is afoot, it could also be due to a glitch in Google Earth uploads.
Neil Armstrong: We were ordered to 'move away' by ALIENS on the Moon
Neil Armstrong: We were ordered to 'move away' by ALIENS on the Moon
Watch out conspiracy theorists. The truth is, America really did make it to the moon, but what happened when they were there is the real question. Neil Armstrong claims that there was an alien species on the moon when they visited and that they were made to move away.
Armstrong claims that there were ships and structures on the moon that were not human-made. The idea is both thrillings and terrifying that an alien species could exist so close to the planet humans call home.
Armstrong was not the only one to have encountered and recalled these abnormalities. Buzz Aldrin also took videos of the strange occurrences, and they both reported back to Houston who censored this information from the American people to keep the country from rising in panic.
Aliens on the Moon
The interview transcription is below:
“Professor: What really happened out of Apollo 11?
Armstrong: An amazing thing, even though we have always known of this possibility. The fact is that they (aliens) have ordered us to turn away!
Professor: What do you mean “warned to move away”?
Armstrong: I cannot go into details; there are structures on the Moon, and not ours. I can only say that their ships were far superior to ours both in size and technology. Wow if you were big! … And menacing!
Professor: But NASA also sent to the moon missions after Apollo 11 ….
Armstrong: Naturally, NASA had already announced at that time, and could not risk panic on Earth.”
Personally I will always believe that humans have been to the moon. There is not much that can be done to change my thoughts on that. But the possibility that there was something happening on the moon that we were not told about seems all too likely. How’s that for an explanation of video inconsistencies.
Thus began the story of a man who spotted a UFO in Seborga in the province of Imperia, Italy.
Our witness comment: It is about 8 am, in the direction of the hill I see two illuminated objects with a disc form, so fast “almost at supersonic speed” that I had difficulty following them with my phone.
Immediately after the report was taken in the event by the Italian association alien research or better (A.I.R.A), which after a series of checks, inspections and interviews have come to the conclusion that this is an exceptional case and really consists of unidentified intelligent objects.
The president of the association, the ufologist Roberto Maggioni has come to the conclusion that the witness was very reliable after three direct interviews and investigations, confirming that the video is interesting and unique.
There are many ufologists involved in this case, including a well-known Italian ufologist which comment:
On the scene we have two unidentified luminous objects, one of them makes small rotary movements, while after we have a second object arrive at a moderate speed, then after a pause, splashes away at supersonic speed. Among the objects appear bright points that seem crazy and head in all directions: the witness states that they were not visible to the naked eye and so we are inclined to think it is just “dust” in backlight.
The behavior of the two UFOs in our eyes is meaningless and devoid of connections, this could be a confirmation that it was not a human creation, but a alien behavior to us unknown. With this we can say that we have filed another extraterrestrial phenomenon? It is not 100% sure but ufologists of every nation are working on the case to determine more precisely if it is a fake or a real encounter with two floating UFOs in the Italian skies, what do you think about the UFO in Seborga?
(Natural News) Gilbert Levin served as the lead investigator of the Labeled Release life detection experiment that was carried out on the two Viking Landers that NASA sent to Mars in 1976. Although his instrument ultimately yielded positive results at both locations, the finding has been largely memory-holed.
In a video posted to REAL.video, Levin talks about how his job working for the Health Department of the State of California determining water health inspired him to create his revolutionary approach using radioactive tagging. This eventually led to him being awarded a NASA contract in 1958 to develop a method to find extraterrestrial life, and his method was used in the Viking Missions in 1976.
In the video, he details how the experiment worked. Essentially, it entailed adding a drop of specially engineered radioactive food into a small cup of soil from Mars and monitoring the air above it to look for any radioactive gas that microorganisms would breathe out if present.
Few believed this would be successful on Mars, but with the first drop of the nutrient on Martian soil, a big amount of gas came out and was present for the full week of the experiment. Similar results were seen at the other landing site 4,000 miles away.
Could it have been related to chemicals in the soil rather than microorganisms? Just in case, they had an experiment ready to figure this out. They took a duplicate sample of the same soil and heated it to 160 degrees C to kill any microorganisms – a temperature that would at least kill those known on Earth – but not so high that it would destroy any oxidizing chemicals that would give a false positive. This “control” was carried out more than once and replicated on Viking 1 and Viking 2, ruling out the possibility that chemicals were responsible. In addition, the active sample was held in a chamber and after a few months, nothing showed up on the test, likely indicating that the microorganisms had died.
Naysayers first said the effect must be due to ultraviolet light, but when they sent out an arm to move a rock and take a sample from underneath it, the result was the same – yet for some reason, NASA wrote it off as containing “no organic matter.”
For the next 37 years, NASA and other scientists have been trying to explain away Levin’s results, but none have succeeded, nor have they reproduced any chemical that would explain away those results in a lab or even in theory.
Since his experiment, NASA has refused to send in similar life-finding experiments and rejected his proposals to carry out additional missions. Ambiguous answers would hurt their program, he believes, saying that this is motivated by politics and not science. After all, scientists who get positive results replicate and expand them, and NASA is clearly uninterested in doing that.
If there is life on Mars, he believes it must exist throughout the universe, but NASA and the government are doing everything they can to keep this information under wraps. Recently, he told The Space Show: “I am certain that NASA knows there is life on Mars” adding that there is “substantial and circumstantial evidence for extant microbial life on Mars.”
Lots of signs point to life on Mars
There are plenty of signs to support that notion. For example, NASA’s Curiosity rover discovered that methane on Mars has cyclical and seasonal spikes. With more than 90 percent of Earth’s atmospheric methane being created by living organisms like microbes, this is pretty solid evidence of life. Not surprisingly, team members on the Curiosity mission have already tried to explain it away, saying that water rock chemistry could be responsible.
In July, the Mars Express orbiter from the European Space Agency found an underground lake under a mile of ice toward the south pole of Mars. Although evidence of water has been seen on the planet before on a smaller scale, an underground lake it pretty hard to ignore.
In fact, Levin says that with everything we know about the planet now, it would be more surprising to prove that there isn’t life on Mars than that there is life on the Red ?Planet. He said that “it’s getting to the point where the shoe is on the other foot. It’s very hard to image a sterile Mars.”
Les triangles nocturnes et suite de l'immense ovni triangulaire prés de l’aéroport de Genève
Les triangles nocturnes et suite de l'immense ovni triangulaire prés de l’aéroport de Genève
Un article de Daniel Robin, Responsable du Réseau Ovni Investigation
Après l’affaire de Viry (publiée sur le site Ovnis-Direct) dans laquelle deux témoins ont observé un immense triangle noir, stationnaire dans le ciel, près de l’aéroport de Genève, je présente dans cet article un nouveau cas impliquant ces mystérieux « triangles de la nuit » qui sont très présents dans nos espaces aériens en ce moment.
En ce qui me concerne, j’estime que ces manifestations de « triangles noirs » sont à prendre très au sérieux.
Bien que ces engins ne semblent pas se comporter de façon agressive quand ils se manifestent, nous ne connaissons pas leurs réelles intentions à notre égard.
Je pense que ces affaires devraient susciter beaucoup plus d’attention et de réactions de la part du public.
Une prise de conscience générale s’impose selon moi, car les populations pourraient être confrontées, dans un avenir peut-être proche, à des situations auxquelles elles n’ont pas été préparées. Elles pourraient mal réagir face à des événements étranges.
Monsieur Aurélien M. (la grande majorité des témoins souhaite garder l’anonymat) m’a adressé un mail le samedi 11 août 2018, dans lequel il indiquait vouloir me faire part de ce qu’il avait vu avec un collègue de travail dans la nuit du 4 au 5 août 2018 à 2h30 du matin.
Dans un premier temps, je pris contact avec lui par téléphone, lui demandant de m’envoyer un récit détaillé de son observation.
Voici son témoignage :
« Bonjour Monsieur Robin,
Suite à notre conversation téléphonique d’hier, je ne peux pas vous envoyer des photos de notre site (usine), car c’est un site privé (désolé).
Par contre, comme je vous l’ai expliqué hier par téléphone voici ce qu’il m’est arrivé :
Je travaillais dans la nuit du 4 août au 5 août (le témoin est pompier professionnel et travaille souvent la nuit).
Les faits se sont déroulés le 5 août 2018 à 2h30 du matin sur la commune de Hordain (59111, située dans le nord-est de la France, près de Valenciennes).
Le ciel était dégagé, étoilé, pas de vent, c’était très agréable (une nuit d’été).
Avec mon collègue de travail, nous étions à la fenêtre lorsque nous avons aperçu deux lumières blanches au-dessus d’un bâtiment à une hauteur d’environ 70 à 80 mètres, et à une distance de deux-cents mètres.
Ces lumières éclairaient, mais elles n’étaient « agressives ».
Elles n’éclairaient pas le sol.
J’ai dit à mon collègue : tu as vus c’est bizarre, ces deux lumières au-dessus du bâtiment.
Il me répondit : oui, c’est peux être un avion.
Du fait que nous ne puissions pas voir la troisième lumière, nous n’avons plus suivi les deux lumières. De plus, il y avait un arbre en face de notre fenêtre.
Cinq minutes plus tard, nous vîmes de nouveau une lumière passer au-dessus de l’arbre puis deux autres en forme de triangle a une vitesse estimée à cinq km/h, et passer ensuite au-dessus d’un tunnel d’usine situé sur notre site.
La masse était importante. J’estime les dimensions de l’engin à environ vingt mètres sur vingt mètres sur vingt mètres et une épaisseur environ la moitié du tunnel (six à sept mètres environ). Sur le coup, nous sommes restés « scotchés » par l’évènement.
Peu après, j’ai pris une lampe torche très puissante, puis je suis sorti pour éclairer la masse qui survolait le tunnel. Cette masse était noire. Elle était plus foncée que la nuit, mais je ne peux pas vous dire de quelle matière elle était faite.
Elle était comme faite de métal.
De plus, au passage du triangle aucun bruit n’était perceptible. Il n’y avait pas de bruit de moteur ni de bruit d’hélice, pas de souffle, rien.
Sans les trois lumières qui étaient à chaque extrémité du triangle, nous n’aurions rien remarqué.
Une fois le triangle passé de trois quarts au-dessus du tunnel, j’ai pris un véhicule pour le suivre.
J’ai dépassé le tunnel et je me suis m’arrêté à une vingtaine de mètres au-dessus de lui, puis je suis descendu du véhicule. J’ai pris ma lampe torche et j’ai éclairé en direction du tunnel, et la, plus rien, le triangle avait disparu.
J’ai fait une reconnaissance aux alentours, et plus rien, le triangle c’était comme « évaporé ».
Je suis revenu vers mon collègue et nous avons reparlé de ce phénomène étrange, car nous étions deux à l’avoir vu.
Voilà notre nuit du 4 au 5 août 2018, que je n’oublierais jamais. Le plus bête dans cette histoire, c’est qu’aucun de nous deux a eu l’idée de prendre son téléphone pour filmer l’ovni.
Je reste à votre disposition pour plus de renseignements. Désolé de ne pas faire plus…
Salutations, Aurélien M. »
Comme il l’indique dans son récit, Aurélien M. prit une lampe torche puissante pour éclairer la masse triangulaire noire qui survolait le tunnel de l’usine.
Sur les photos envoyées par le témoin, le tunnel dont il s’agit est une vaste structure surélevée qui traverse l’usine.
Au cours d’une seconde conversation téléphonique avec le témoin, il revint sur cet épisode de son observation et il me fit part d’un phénomène étrange.
Il m’expliqua, en effet, qu’il avait dirigé le faisceau de sa lampe en direction de l’engin, mais que le faisceau « passait au travers de la masse noire » (sic).
C’est comme si le faisceau lumineux de la lampe torche ne touchait pas la masse sombre et n’était pas arrêtée par elle. Elle ne faisait pas barrage au faisceau.
Pourtant, il m’affirma que la masse semblait faite d’une sorte de métal avec des motifs en forme de crans. La surface inférieure du triangle était crantée, c’est-à-dire qu’elle comportait des motifs en relief comme dans l’image ci-dessous.
Ce phénomène étrange décrit par le témoin pose de nombreuses questions sur la technologie mise en œuvre par ces mystérieux « triangles noirs ».
Il suggère une grande maîtrise de la matière et de l’énergie par une physique qui semble très en avance sur la nôtre.
Ci-dessus : Une surface crantée avec des motifs en relief à sa surface. La surface inférieure de l’engin triangulaire observé par Aurélien M. offrait les mêmes motifs en relief. D’après le témoin c’était comme de la « tôle » qui aurait été travaillée. Le plus troublant est que le faisceau de la lampe torche du témoin semblait passer à travers la masse métallique.
Le 18 août 2018, soit 13 jours après son observation, Aurélien M m’adressa une série de photos dans lesquelles étaient incrustés des dessins de l’engin triangulaire.
La reconstitution est fidèle à la scène vécue par les témoins.
La masse triangulaire noirs dont on voit les dimensions imposantes est passée à très basse altitude et très lentement au-dessus des bâtiments de l’usine. Elle ne faisait aucun bruit.
Ci-dessous deux documents (publiés avec l’autorisation du témoin) montrant le triangle passant à basse altitude (20 mètres environ) au-dessus du tunnel de l’usine. Tout en bas, reconstitution en 3D du triangle.
Black holes are so outlandish that the scientists who first thought them up figured they couldn't possibly exist in reality. They form from massive, collapsed stars and are so dense that nothing can escape their gravitational pull, including light. Black holes mess with spacetime so badly that scientists have long wondered. How do these things look, exactly? We may be on the cusp of seeing one thanks to the Event Horizon Telescope, but back in 1979, Jean-Pierre Luminet created the first "image" using nothing but an early computer, lots of math and India ink. The problem with imaging a black hole is that, by definition, they don't emit light or radiation.
Luckily, large black holes are usually next to other stars and suck away their matter, something astronomers can see. "As [gases from stars] fall towards the black hole, it becomes hotter and hotter and begins to emit radiation. This is a good source of light: the accretion rings shine and illuminate the central black hole," writes Luminet in his e-Luminesciences blog. The distinguishing feature of a black hole is its "event horizon" boundary, the point of no return for matter and light.
At its periphery, materials sucked in from adjacent stars form an "accretion disk," famously depicted in Interstellar (below) as two bright, perpendicular disks. That's just an illusion, though -- there's only one disk at the equator, but the light is bent upward by the black hole's extreme gravity (via gravitation lensing).
Luminet's image depicts two other important phenomena not seen in Interstellar. One is the fact that the energy and light are stronger near the edge of a black hole and weaker farther out. Another is the Doppler and Einstein effects caused by the accretion disk's rotation, which would make light appear to be brighter on one side, depending on the spin direction. In Luminet's image, the accretion disk spins counter-clockwise, so its light approaches the viewer on the left and recedes on the right, making the left-hand side look brighter.
All that causes the black hole to be much brighter in the center and left, as depicted in Luminet's image, but not on the "Gargantua" black hole created by Interstellar's effects team.
"A realistic image must show a strong asymmetry of the disk's brightness, so that one side is far brighter and the other is far dimmer," he says. (Interstellar's black hole expert Kip Thorne was very aware of that, but director Christopher Nolan left it out so as not to confuse the audience.) Luminet calculated all of that back in 1979 using the IBM 7040 mainframe, an early transistor computer with punch card inputs. The machine generated isolines for his image that were "directly translatable as smooth curves using the drawing software available at the time," he told Engadget in an email.
To create the final image though, he relied on his other passion: art. Using numerical data from the computer, he drew directly on negative image paper with black India ink, placing dots more densely where the simulation showed more light. “Next, I took the negative of my negative to get the positive, the black points becoming white and the white background becoming black.”
The result is an image that still holds up and is closer to reality than the CGI done by Interstellar's whiz kids. What's more, subsequent computer simulations created by NASA Goddard and others still show the same defining elements -- a thin "photon ring" at the center, Doppler and Einstin-shifted light and a double accretion disk caused by gravitational lensing. Not bad for someone with just punch cards and India ink.
After posting the video on Facebook, he said: 'One can't plan on capturing such images. It was a lucky shot.'
Mr Maier's incredible video quickly went viral, attracting 1.4 million views and more than 25,000 shares.
One commenter said it looked 'as if someone had poured a bucket of water up there'.
Amateur filmmaker Peter Maier, 27, who captured the incredible timelapse video, said: 'One can't plan on capturing such images. It was a lucky shot'
Some viewers were so taken aback they thought the video must have been a fake, which prompted Mr Maier to post the original version.
An avid mountaineer, Mr Maier always carries five or six cameras in his backpack to capture the wonders of the natural world on camera.
A microburst is an intense small-scale downdraft produced by a thunderstorm or rain shower. There are two types of microbursts - wet microbursts and dry microbursts.
Several fatal and historic air crashes have been attributed to the phenomenon and flight crew training now goes to great lengths on how to recover from microbursts.
One commenter said it looked 'as if someone had poured a bucket of water up there'. Mr Maier himself described it as a 'tsunami from heaven'
Everything You Need To Know About The Extraterrestrial Hypothesis (Video)
Everything You Need To Know About The Extraterrestrial Hypothesis (Video)
(Arjun Walia)What is the extraterrestrial hypothesis? (ETH) It’s one of the multiple hypotheses’ which exist in order to explain the UFO phenomenon. Yes, objects performing manoeuvres that defy our belief and understanding of physics have been spotted, filmed, and tracked on radar. With all of the UFO disclosure that’s happened over the past few years, a trend that doesn’t seem like it’s going to stop, the ETH is one that holds strong over multiple others, or as explained in the lecture below, a combination of others, to explain what is going on here. The lecture is given by Richard Dolan, historian and one of the world’s leading UFO researchers.
If, for instance, if it turns out that all physical evidence is consistent with a mundane interpretation of the causes of UFO reports, there will be little reason to continue to speculate about the role of extraterrestrial beings. If, on the other hand, the analysis of physical evidence turns up very strong evidence that objects related with UFO reports were manufactured outside the solar system, then one must obviously consider very seriously that the phenomenon involves not only extraterrestrial vehicles but probably also extraterrestrial beings.” –
The ETH separates itself from the others for a couple of big reasons, one is the fact that multiple people from ‘within’ have come forward explaining that not only has there been a UFO cover-up, but an extraterrestrial cover-up as well. Secondly, the observed highly advanced, physics-physics manoeuvres these crafts that have been seen and filmed by people and military agencies are not produced by any nation on Earth. Lastly but not least, all of the supposed encounters between people and extraterrestrial beings, there is no shortage found within the lore.
There is abundant evidence that we are being contacted, . That civilizations have been monitoring us for a very long time and that their appearance is bizarre from any type of traditional materialistic Western point of view.
At the same time, we have to think about extra dimensions, parallel universes, and more…There could be multiple explanations for the UFO phenomenon, and multiple cases that don’t actually represent the same thing.
There are many factors to consider here, and the lecture below is great for discussing that. I (the ETH) opens up new science, new paradigms, and leaves no aspect of humanity untouched. Science, history, technology, consciousness, and more will all be changed and transformed at a more rapid pace. This is one of the greatest stories in human history, and as independent media, we must keep talking about it because mainstream media always seems to have some sort of agenda, with all topics, from terrorism to UFOs and GMO’s and as I’m sure you know, much more.
Here is a couple of articles that goes into more detail regarding the latest on that:
We have, indeed, been contacted — perhaps even visited — by extraterrestrial beings, and the US government, in collusion with the other national powers of the Earth, is determined to keep this information from the general public.
-Victor Marchetti (Second Look, Volume 1, No 7, Washington, DC, May, 1979)
I joined the CE team in 2010 shortly after finishing university and have been grateful for the fact that I have been able to do this ever since There are many things happening on the planet that don’t resonate with me, and I wanted to do what I could to play a role in creating change. It’s been great making changes in my own life and creating awareness and I look forward to more projects that move beyond awareness and into action and implementation. So stay tuned arjun@collective-evolution.com
MILIEUNa zes jaar voorbereiding is de grote schoonmaak van oceanen met de plasticvanger van ‘Ocean Cleanup’ officieel begonnen. Dat is een opkuissysteem dat snel en efficiënt plastic vuilnis uit de zee moet halen. Hoe werkt dat dan juist?
De oceaanschoonmaker is een buis van meer dan zeshonderd meter lang. De installatie drijft los in zee, dus zonder verankering aan de bodem. Door wind en golven beweegt de buis zich sneller dan ronddrijvend afval. Plastic dat zich aan en vlak onder de oppervlakte bevindt, wordt door de buis en het 3 meter brede scherm eronder ‘opgeveegd’. Vissen en andere zeedieren zullen met de neerwaartse stroom die voor de buis en het net ontstaat onder de installatie door zwemmen, dat is althans de bedoeling.
Onder invloed van wind en met behulp van kabels neemt de buis een U-vorm aan, waardoor het plastic zich tussen de armen verzamelt. Als het goed is, verplaatst de installatie zich vanzelf naar plekken waar het meeste afval drijft. Om de paar maanden haalt een schip het plastic op. Dat wordt aan land gebracht en zoveel mogelijk gerecycleerd.
De bedenkers lieten het ding gisteren te water aan de Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco. De eerste opkuis vond plaats tussen Hawaii en San Francisco, een gebied van bijna 4.000 kilometer breed, dat drie keer zo groot is als Frankrijk. Voor de eerste Ocean Cleaner, bedacht door de toen 18-jarige Nederlander Boyan Slat, werd maar liefst 27 miljoen euro aan crowdfunding ingezameld.
EPA
“Plastic is niet de vijand”
“Dat mensen plastic gebruiken, is niet het probleem. Dat we dat plastic zomaar weggooien en dat het dan in zee belandt, dat is wel een probleem.” Dat zegt Lonneke Holierhoek van The Ocean Cleanup.
“Plastic is niet de vijand”, klinkt het. “Plastic is een mooi product, het is bestendig, het is goed op verschillende manieren toe te passen. We vinden alleen dat het niet in de oceaan moet belanden.” Dat kan door überhaupt minder plastic te gebruiken, maar er zijn meer manieren. “We zijn gebaat bij betere recycling. Dat we verpakkingen bijvoorbeeld slimmer plannen. Zodat we niet nog meer plastic creëren, maar het plastic dat er is beter benutten.”
En daar zit volgens Holierhoek een probleem: “Er is te weinig stimulans om waarde te halen uit het plastic dat we al hebben. Zeker bij een lage olieprijs is het goedkoop om nieuw plastic te maken. Daarmee maak je de plasticberg alleen maar groter.” Zij vindt dat ook de industrie daar een taak in heeft. “Producenten kunnen plastic zo maken dat het goed te recyclen is. De recyclingindustrie kan nog een hoop innovatie gebruiken.”
Veel plastic in de Grote Oceaan is afkomstig uit landen als Indonesië, de Filipijnen en China. Holierhoek: “Het heeft te maken met armoede. Veel mensen wonen op plekken waar geen infrastructuur is die elke week het vuilnis ophaalt.”
RVTestfase van de plasticvanger in Amerika, eerder dit jaar.
MILIEUMorgen is het eindelijk zover. Na zes jaar begint de grote schoonmaak van de de oceanen met de plasticvanger die gelanceerd werd door de toen 18-jarige Nederlander Boyan Slat.
Degenen die zaterdag in San Francisco over de Golden Gate Bridge rijden of lopen, zullen hun ogen uitkijken. In de loop van de middag komt daar een bijzonder gevaarte voorbij: een honderden meters lange zwarte buis die naar open zee wordt gesleept. Het is de eerste plasticvanger van Boyan Slat, de jonge Nederlandse uitvinder die zich ten doel heeft gesteld het plastic in de oceanen op te ruimen.
Na jaren van voorbereiding gaat de grote schoonmaak nu echt beginnen. Het wordt de lakmoesproef voor de plannen van de 24-jarige Slat, die zes jaar geleden zijn idee lanceerde om afval in zee op te ruimen met lange drijvende armen. Het leverde hem een cultstatus op. Hij wist wetenschappers en sponsors aan zich te binden. Zijn groepje medewerkers groeide uit tot een professionele organisatie waarin miljoenen omgaan. Nu moet blijken of hij de hooggespannen verwachtingen kan waarmaken. De wereld kijkt mee.
Drijvende vuilnisbelt
Slats organisatie, The Ocean Cleanup, wil een drijvende vuilnisbelt opruimen die zich bevindt in de Stille Oceaan, tussen Hawaï en Californië. Daar heeft zich onder invloed van zeestromen een immense hoeveelheid plastic verzameld: 80.000 ton in een gebied drie keer zo groot als Frankrijk. Van visnetten tot verpakkingen, van kratten tot microplastics. De afvalberg weegt ruwweg evenveel als 450 Jumbo Jets.
Voor de ambitieuze opruimactie heeft The Ocean Cleanup een 600 meter lange metalen pijp ontworpen, waaronder een flexibel scherm hangt dat het plastic moet tegenhouden. Deze enorme sliert gaat zaterdag vanaf een voormalige basis van de Amerikaanse marine op weg naar zijn plaats van bestemming en zal daarbij onder de Golden Gate Bridge door komen.
Zodra de constructie – System 001 gedoopt – op zijn plek ligt, moeten de voorbereidingen voor de bouw van de tweede installatie beginnen. Het is de bedoeling dat uiteindelijk een vloot van zestig van deze drijvers op de plasticsoep wordt afgestuurd. Zo denkt Slat in vijf jaar de helft van de zogeheten Great Pacific Garbage Patch weg te kunnen werken. Of die ambitie haalbaar is, zal afhangen van het resultaat dat hij bereikt met System 001.
Jiri BullerCEO en oprichter van de Ocean Cleanup, Boyan Slat, tijdens een event in de voormalige werkspoorfabrieken.
Hoe werkt de plasticvanger?
De installatie drijft los in zee, dus zonder verankering aan de bodem. Door wind en golven beweegt de buis zich sneller dan ronddrijvend afval. Plastic dat zich aan en vlak onder de oppervlakte bevindt, wordt door de buis en het 3 meter brede scherm ‘opgeveegd’. Vissen en andere zeedieren zullen met de neerwaartse stroom die voor de buis en het scherm ontstaat onder de installatie door zwemmen, dat is althans de bedoeling.
Onder invloed van wind en met behulp van kabels neemt de buis een U-vorm aan, waardoor het plastic zich tussen de armen verzamelt. Als het goed is verplaatst de installatie zich vanzelf naar plekken waar het meeste afval drijft. Om de paar maanden haalt een schip het plastic op. Dat wordt aan land gebracht en zoveel mogelijk gerecycleerd.
Geen zekerheid
Proeven met schaalmodellen en prototypes hebben Slat en zijn team vertrouwen gegeven dat het systeem gaat doen wat het moet doen. Maar geen zekerheid. De vraag is hoe het gevaarte zich zal houden midden op de oceaan, met stormen en golven die 12 meter hoog kunnen worden. Welk effect hebben corrosie, uv-straling en levende organismen die zich aan het materiaal hechten? Het moet allemaal duidelijk worden in de praktijk.
Het is makkelijker om spullen in de ruimte heel te houden dan op zee, zegt Slat op zijn kantoor in Rotterdam. “Een poos geleden zou dat mijn grootste zorg zijn geweest. Ons prototype op de Noordzee ging al vrij snel kapot. Daar hebben we veel van geleerd. Nu heb ik er meer vertrouwen in dat het systeem intact blijft.” Het spannendst is voor hem de vraag hoe efficiënt het systeem het plastic vangt en vasthoudt. “Hoe gedraagt het plastic zich als het stormt? Gaat het dan onder de drijver door? Daar zit voor mij de onzekerheid”, aldus Slat.
Kansrijk project
Gerbrant van Vledder, oceanograaf aan de TU Delft, helpt The Ocean Cleanup met computersimulaties van golfbewegingen. Als de wind draait, moet ook de installatie draaien. Als het stormt, moet het plastic binnen de U-vorm blijven. “Ik zie het als een kansrijk project, maar ik kan geen garantie geven. Het gaat erom dat het systeem tijdens een storm minder plastic verliest dan het in rustig weer verzamelt.”
System 001 is uitgerust met stabilisatoren, camera’s om de omgeving in de gaten te houden, verlichting, reflectoren voor radar en akoestische boeien om zeedieren weg te houden als het plastic wordt opgevist. Ook drones houden een oogje in het zeil. Met GPS is de positie van het systeem te volgen.
Nederlandse vlag
De Nederlandse overheid houdt de veiligheid op zee en gevolgen voor het milieu in de gaten. Daarover heeft Slat dit jaar een overeenkomst getekend met het ministerie van Infrastructuur en Waterstaat. Het systeem, dat buiten de territoriale wateren ligt, ‘vaart’ onder Nederlandse vlag. Verder is er samenwerking met de Amerikaanse kustwacht, het Amerikaanse milieuagentschap EPA en de oceanische dienst NOAA.
In de loop der jaren zijn de plannen van Slat verscheidene malen gewijzigd. Aanvankelijk was het de bedoeling om armen van 100 kilometer in zee te plaatsen, verankerd aan de zeebodem. De uitvoering van dit idee zou extreem duur en ingewikkeld zijn geworden. Daarna werd gedacht aan drijvers van 1 of 2 kilometer lang met zwevende ankers. De versie die nu naar de Garbage Patch gaat is nog korter. De zwevende ankers zijn verdwenen.
ANPBoyan Slat tijdens de presentatie over de voortgang van The Ocean Cleanup, eind 2017.
Kritiek
The Ocean Cleanup wekt niet alleen bewondering. Uit wetenschappelijke hoek klinkt ook kritiek op de methode-Slat. Onlangs gaven vijftien Amerikaanse experts nog te kennen dat ze twijfelen aan het nut van zijn operatie. Een van hen is Eben Schwartz van de California Coastal Commission. “De enorme aandacht voor dit project leidt ons af van het echte probleem”, zegt Schwartz. “Verreweg het meeste plastic in de oceanen komt van het land. Daar moeten we de vervuiling tegengaan, bij de bron.”
Volgens Schwartz drijft slechts 3 procent van al het plastic dat in de oceanen terecht komt aan de oppervlakte in zogeheten gyres, cirkelvormige oceaanstromingen waarin afval zich concentreert. Waar de rest blijft, is niet helemaal duidelijk. Vast staat dat veel plastic op kusten aanspoelt en – afgebroken tot kleine stukjes en microplastics – zinkt of wordt opgegeten door zeedieren. Schwartz: “Ik hoop dat het project van Boyan Slat een succes wordt, maar ik vrees dat we ons richten op een heel klein deel van het probleem.”
Half procent
Jan Andries van Franeker, marinebioloog bij Wageningen Marine Research, rekent voor hoe weinig de schoonmaak volgens hem oplevert. “The Ocean Cleanup schat zelf dat in de Pacific Garbage Patch zo’n 80.000 ton plastic drijft. Jaarlijks verdwijnt naar schatting 8 miljoen ton in zee. Slat zegt in vijf jaar de helft van het afval in de Garbage Patch te kunnen opruimen: dus 40.000 ton. In die tijd verwijdert The Ocean Cleanup dus een half procent van wat de mens er jaarlijks in stopt.”
Boyan Slat en zijn team zouden hun kennis en creativiteit beter kunnen richten op oplossingen om de hoeveelheid afval te beperken, zegt Van Franeker. Zoals het opvangen van plastic in riolen en rivieren of het ontwerpen van volledig recycleerbaar verpakkingsmateriaal. “Als je dan toch aan opruimen op zee denkt, denk dan aan technieken die toepasbaar zijn bij riviermondingen of op de kustlijn.”
Aanvulling
Slat verweert zich tegen deze kritiek door erop te wijzen dat opruimen en voorkomen van vervuiling elkaar niet uitsluiten maar aanvullen. Veel organisaties zijn bezig met preventie, maar niemand ontwikkelde technologie om het afval in de oceanen op te ruimen, zegt hij. “Wij vinden ook dat voorkomen moet worden dat plastic in zee komt. Maar zelfs als dat vandaag stopt, drijven er nog grote hoeveelheden rond die schadelijk zijn voor het zeeleven. Dat willen we opruimen voordat het plastic in microdeeltjes uiteenvalt en niet meer kan worden weggehaald.”
Volgens Slat komt veel kritiek voort uit een zekere afkeer van het grootschalige, bedrijfsmatige en technologische karakter van zijn methode. “In milieukringen hebben altijd vooroordelen bestaan tegen grootschaligheid, ondernemerschap en technologie. Allemaal eng.”
Jiri BullerEen kleinere modulaire versie van de Ocean Cleanup gepresenteerd door CEO en oprichter van de Ocean Cleanup, Boyan Slat in 2017.
Eben Schwartz denkt dat de schoonmaak vrijwel onmogelijk zal zijn zonder schade aan het zeeleven. Hij vreest dat vissen op het plastic afkomen om ervan te eten en dat zeeschildpadden, zeehonden en dolfijnen verstrikt raken en slachtoffer worden als het plastic uit het water wordt gehaald. Onnodige bezorgdheid, reageert Slat. Ook nu eten vissen plastic en kunnen zoogdieren vast komen te zitten in ronddrijvende netten.
Hij liet onafhankelijk onderzoek doen naar de milieu-effecten van zijn onderneming en daaruit blijkt dat de extra risico’s voor dieren vrijwel verwaarloosbaar zijn, zeker als een aantal aanbevolen maatregelen wordt genomen om dierenleed te voorkomen. “We houden de situatie in de gaten met camera’s. Tijdens het ophalen van het plastic kijken biologen of er dieren tussen zitten.”
Ondanks zijn kritiek wil Van Franeker gezegd hebben dat hij waardering heeft voor het wetenschappelijk onderzoek dat The Ocean Cleanup heeft gedaan naar verspreiding en typering van plastics in zee. “Dat hebben ze gedaan op een schaal die niemand anders voor elkaar heeft gekregen. Daarvoor verdienen ze een compliment. Met de media-aandacht die hun projecten trekken werken ze mee aan bewustwording. Aan de andere kant kan de boodschap dat we onze rotzooi kunnen opruimen het gevoel van urgentie doen afnemen.”
Recycleren
Twijfel is er ook bij critici over de bruikbaarheid van het plastic dat uit zee wordt gehaald. Als dat een tijd in het zoute water heeft gelegen en aan zonlicht heeft blootgestaan is er niet meer zoveel mee te doen, wordt gezegd. Slat wuift de bedenkingen weg. Zijn zonnebril, gemaakt met oceaanafval, moet het ongelijk van de critici bewijzen.
“Over drie maanden vaart de eerste boot uit om plastic op te halen. Het verwerken van het afval tot korrels is al geregeld met recyclingbedrijven in Californië. Ik denk dat we over een jaar kunnen onthullen welke producten we gaan maken. Meer dan vijftig ondernemingen hebben belangstelling getoond. Zij begrijpen dat de waarde van het materiaal schuilt in het verhaal: dat het product afkomstig is uit de Great Garbage Patch.”
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We're Probably Living in a Simulation, Elon Musk Says
We're Probably Living in a Simulation, Elon Musk Says
By Mike Wall, Space.com Senior Writer
The Andromeda galaxy and everything else in the known universe, including us, could be part of an advanced simulation. Indeed, this is the most probable scenario, SpaceX CEO Elon Musk said on comedian Joe Rogan's podcast on Sept. 7, 2018.
Credit: S. Ozime
Elon Musk thinks we're all probably trapped in a "Matrix"-like pseudo existence.
The universe is 13.8 billion years old, so any civilizations that may have arisen throughout the cosmos have had loads and loads of time to hone their technological know-how, the SpaceX founder and CEO explained early this morning (Sept. 7) during a long, wide-ranging and very entertaining appearance on comedian Joe Rogan's popular podcast, "The Joe Rogan Experience."
"If you assume any rate of improvement at all, then games will be indistinguishable from reality, or civilization will end. One of those two things will occur," Musk said. "Therefore, we are most likely in a simulation, because we exist." [13 Ways to Hunt Intelligent Aliens]
"I think most likely — this is just about probability — there are many, many simulations," he added. "You might as well call them reality, or you could call them multiverse."
The "substrate" on which these simulations are running, whatever it may be, is probably quite boring, at least compared to the simulations themselves, Musk further told Rogan.
"Why would you make a simulation that's boring? You'd make a simulation that's way more interesting than base reality," Musk said, citing the video games and movies that humanity makes, which are "distillation[s] of what's interesting about life."
The billionaire entrepreneur is far from alone in this interpretation; a number of physicists, cosmologists and philosophers find the simulation hypothesis compelling. If even one advanced alien civilization with a predilection for creating simulations has ever arisen out there, the reasoning goes, then it could theoretically pop off thousands — or perhaps even millions or billions — of "fake" universes. And it would be hard for the inhabitants of these digital realms to figure out the truth, because all the evidence they could gather would likely be planted by the creators.
Indeed, the simulation idea is one of many possible explanations for the famous Fermi paradox, which basically asks, "Where is everybody?" ("Everybody" being aliens, of course.)
This was far from the only ground that Musk and Rogan covered during their 2.5-hour conversation. For example, Musk reiterated his concerns about unregulated and uncontrolled artificial intelligence; stressed that a bright and appealing future for humanity involves exploring and settling other worlds, both in our solar system and beyond; and discussed the traffic-reducing potential of extensive tunnel systems, which his Boring Company aims to build in big cities around the world.
Musk also talked at length about Tesla, the electric-car company he runs, and the need for our species to wean itself off fossil fuels. Musk described humanity's mass displacement of carbon from the ground to the atmosphere (and from there into the oceans) as an incredibly dangerous experiment whose ultimate outcome is unknown.
"We should not do this," he told Rogan. "We know that sustainable energy is the end point. So why are we doing this experiment? It's an insane experiment. It's the dumbest experiment in human history." [Images of Melt: Earth's Vanishing Ice]
Musk also casually mentioned that he has an idea for an electric supersonic plane that takes off and lands vertically. But he said he doesn't view the development of this concept as a priority at the moment, given the other pressing problems humanity needs to solve.
Musk and Rogan sipped whiskey throughout their conversation. And at one point, the comedian lit up a joint, and Musk took a puff.
This was apparently a rare event; the SpaceX CEO said he almost never smokes marijuana (which is legal in California, where The Joe Rogan Experience is taped) and doesn't enjoy it, because it saps his famous productivity.
"It's like a cup of coffee in reverse," Musk said. "I like to get things done. I like to be useful."
He told Rogan that ideas are bouncing around inside his head all the time — "it's like a never-ending explosion" — and that he realized he was different from other people when he was just 5 or 6 years old.
"I thought I was insane," Musk said. As a kid, he added, he worried that authority figures might notice his "strangeness" and put him away somewhere.
There was so much other interesting stuff as well. For example, Musk appreciatively handled a samurai sword in the studio that Rogan said was 500 years old. And at one point toward the end of the conversation, Musk said, "This may sound corny, but love is the answer." (Another choice quote: "I don't know what would happen if I got in a sensory-deprivation tank. Sounds concerning.")
We leven hoogstwaarschijnlijk in een simulatie. Elon Musk vertelt in deze populaire podcast waarom
We leven hoogstwaarschijnlijk in een simulatie. Elon Musk vertelt in deze populaire podcast waarom
Elon Musk denkt dat we allemaal gevangen zitten in een Matrix-achtige schijnwereld.
Het universum is 13,8 miljard jaar oud, dus beschavingen die elders in de kosmos zijn ontstaan hebben meer dan genoeg tijd gehad om zich te ontwikkelen, legde de baas van SpaceX uit tijdens de populaire podcast van komiek Joe Rogan.
“Computergames zullen uiteindelijk niet te onderscheiden zijn van de realiteit, of de beschaving komt ten einde,” zei Musk. “Eén van die twee dingen gaat gebeuren.”
Multiversum
“Om die reden leven we hoogstwaarschijnlijk in een simulatie, omdat we bestaan,” vervolgde hij.
Ik denk dat er heel veel simulaties zijn, aldus Musk. “Je kunt ze realiteit noemen, of het multiversum.”
Het ‘substraat’ waar deze simulaties op draaien, wat het ook moge zijn, is waarschijnlijk nogal saai, in ieder geval in vergelijking met de simulaties zelf, vertelde hij.
Zeker niet de enige
“Waarom zou je een simulatie maken die saai is?” vroeg hij. “Je maakt alleen simulaties die veel interessanter zijn dan de basisrealiteit.”
Hij voegde toe dat videospelletjes en films die mensen maken ook gaan over de dingen die het leven interessant maken.
De miljardair is zeker niet de enige die stelt dat we in een simulatie leven. Er zijn veel natuurkundigen, kosmologen en filosofen die openstaan voor deze theorie.
It’s not often discussed in America, but military bases and testing sites are all around us. Depending on where you live, you might be only a few miles away from some seriously spooky stuff and not even realize it. Such is the case for a few perplexed and concerned homeowners in Satellite Beach, Florida this week after they discovered a strange, unidentified metal object in their backyard. Metal debris from our nation’s past is everywhere, but what makes this case curious is the home’s proximity to Patrick Air Force Base.
All the weirdest stuff happens near Air Force bases. It is known.
Patrick AFB is the current home of the 45th Space Wing which manages all of the unmanned launches at the Eastern Range, consisting of Kennedy Space Center and Cape Canaveral. That means this wing oversees most launches of satellites for the military, National Reconnaissance Office, and National Security Agency. Prior to that, the base served as a base for anti-submarine operations during World War Two. With such a history, there’s no telling what might lay under the ground surrounding the base.
Which is why homeowners are so concerned about what might lie underneath their house. Residents of Satellite Beach, Florida have for years been telling urban legends the area, and this mysterious discovery might have proven some of them true. Satellite Shores resident Sandra Sullivan discovered an unidentified metal object in her yard with a metal detector and is now concerned that the object might be leaching harmful chemicals into the ground around her home – or worse. Upon discovering the object, Sullivan got in touch with federal investigators who confirmed that the ground upon which her home sits was in fact used as a military dump.
Just the thing to drive property values up. For the right buyer.
The only concrete information coming from experts who have examined the object is that it’s not a bomb and it’s not a chemical drum. That leaves, well, just about everything else. Fuel rods? Depleted uranium shells? De-engineered alien warp drives? Who knows?
Despite the alarm, Satellite Beach City Manager Courtney Barker says that while the presence of old military hardware is alarming, noone has been harmed by any discarded materials – yet:
I’ve heard rumors all my life because I’ve grown up here. We checked with Brevard County and our records here at the city and we’ve never received any complaints ever about anybody digging up anything in their yards.
Barker says Satellite Beach city council members are consulting with state and federal safety experts to develop a new set of guidelines for potential dangers stemming from the area’s past as a landfill for the military’s space launches.
And who knows what some of those satellites might have been carrying?
While this unidentified object is in all likelihood a piece of inert scrap metal, it really makes you wonder what else might have fallen into the seas or deep underground during the last several decades of rocket launches, experimental aircraft tests, and who knows what else. The real losers in war are always civilians – even if only due to the toxic aftereffects of research, development, and testing here on good ol’ American soil. We should have listened to Eisenhower.
When it comes to the paranormal, there seem to be certain places that are well-suited to or seem to draw the most activity. Old abandoned places, ruins, graveyards, dilapidated houses, these are the usual suspects for haunted places, but there are always exceptions to this, and certainly one of these would be military bases, and these locations also have on occasion drawn to them strange stories of the unexplained. It seems that the men and women stationed here would already have enough to worry about besides ghosts and ghouls, but here we will look at some very curious accounts of encounters with strange entities from beyond our understanding at military installations.
One report comes from a witness called Sergeant M., who in 2015 was assigned to 24-hour-desk duty, which entails keeping a full 24-hour watch at a barracks. One of their duties was to keep an eye on soldiers who were demonstrating psychological issues or who had been confined to their barracks to protect those around them and were considered “high risk.” The witness relates a tale about one such individual, who had been kicked out for being a troublemaker and an “angry, hate filled individual that never progressed past Private Second Class in his 20 months in uniform.” The mysterious individual was also apparently rumored to be into black magic and Satanism, and most of the others had kept well away from him. According to the witness, this unruly individual left the barracks without making any effort at all to clean out his filthy room, which would be described thus:
When he was kicked out, he left his barracks room a complete mess. I’ve seen portable toilets cleaner than his room. The toilet had been broken and didn’t flush, but he had continued to use it. In the closet there were mountains of trash, and rotten food in the sink and refrigerator. The shower was also filled with garbage and water. Aside from the mess, there were strange things as well. When the commander, First Sergeant and myself, the Supply Sergeant, went into his room, we found chicken bones tied together, hanging from strings from the ceiling. They had been lashed together to make seemingly archaic symbols. We counted roughly two dozen before we quit counting. The floor was covered in grime and candles had been lit in a circle. All of the furniture had been stacked out of the way or shoved in the closet. I’ll spare you the description of the smell. But the whole room had an unsettling feeling to it. The air in the room felt wrong. I couldn’t tell at the time if it was the smell or the filth. Whatever the reason, I didn’t want to be in there. We called a special cleanup team and put in a work order to have the room stripped and cleaned by professionals. After they were finished, the room was spotless.
Not long after this, there allegedly began to trickle in reports of strange phenomena surrounding the room in question. Even though it was still unoccupied there were claims that things could be heard banging around within, and odd odors would also emanate from the room, such as a scent of burning plastic that could not be identified. The witness says that he ended up being assigned to the duty roster that put him into close proximity to the “haunted” room, and one evening he had a very terrifying experience as he was on duty with a private. It started when they suddenly heard a roar come from the room, which he describes as sounding “like metal tearing while someone played a recording of a scream, except distorted and in reverse.” The startled men then warily approached the room, and the witness would say of what happened next thus:
Being the senior ranking, I instructed the soldier to call the Barracks Representative (LNO) and have him get to the desk as soon as possible. Five minutes later, he and I are using his master key to gain access to the room while my Private covers the hallway from the desk, staying with the phone and also watching our backs. As soon as we enter the foyer, we’re hit with the smell of dog poo and burned plastic. Neither of us can identify the source, but the room is completely empty. We sweep and clear every nook and cranny, later agreeing that we felt like we were being watched the whole time. We found nothing but the smell remained.
We decided to re-secure the room and not log the incident, because I, for one, didn’t want to look like a crazy idiot when my boss’s boss read my report. We move for the door. We exit, turn and go to close the door behind us when a massive force hits the door from inside the room, shoving the Barracks Representative out of the doorway and slamming the door shut. None of the doors are allowed to slam, they all have hydraulic arms at the top to prevent that. They’re not even quick to close if a 200 lb male leans on them, so one slamming so hard it could move a grown man is impossible – especially considering it had worked moments prior when we entered the room.
We tried to open the lock again, but this time the keycard wouldn’t work. We agreed that neither of us wanted to go in again anyway, and we agreed not to report any of it, because we would be taken as seriously as anyone else. After that incident, I kept an ear out but didn’t hear anything nearly as dramatic again. On another occasion, it sounded like there was some kind of shuffling coming from the room, like someone moving around, but I kept a stalwart face about it and ordered my private to stay away from it as well. To this day, I cannot explain what happened in that room.
What was this? Was it some sort of demonic entity conjured up by the troubled soldier who had left? It is hard to say. In another case defying classification the tale is told by the nephew of the eyewitness, but it is no less spooky. The uncle, called Bob, was reportedly a new soldier in the Army in 1985, and at the time he was on fence patrol duty at a base in Arizona. As he and a partner made their way around the perimeter, he claimed that they had heard an anomalous noise from behind them, and turned to see a strange sight indeed. According to the one relaying the account:
When they turned around, they saw an old man dressed in buckskin with long hair in braids. Bob described it was being so grey that “it almost glowed”. The man was standing approximately thirty feet behind them. Both men drew their weapons, as the old man was in a “shoot to kill” area, with warning signs all over the place. Neither Bob or the other man wanted to shoot an old man. They figured that he must have Alzheimer’s, and had wandered into the base or something. After all, he was not being threatening, and appeared harmless.
The men shouted to the old man, telling him he was in a restricted area and that he needed to put his hands in the air. Bob thought they’d walk him to post call and call the local police department who would be able to get him back home. Bob tried the radio, but it was just static. Calling his friend to help, both he and Bob turned to tinker with the walkie. Although they only looked away for “half a second”, to quote my uncle, when they turned back the old man was gone. In his place was a massive cottontail (rabbit), just sitting there, watching them.
The two startled men looked around to see if the old man was still around, but the mysterious stranger was gone, nowhere to be seen. All that was there was this rabbit sitting there staring at them in the desert night. They warily continued on with their duty, and shortly after heard the noise again, this time from the opposite side of the perimeter fence. When they looked, they were shocked to see the same old man standing there on the other side, staring in at them. Since this was a military base, the fence was very high, around 10 feet, and decked out with razor wire, very secure, so it seemed impossible that the old man could have gotten over the fence so quickly without being detected. This was frightening enough that the two men quickly got out of there and never spoke of it with their commanding officer.
This case is particularly interesting due to the location, Arizona, and the apparent shapeshifting quality of the strange intruder. One phenomena often reported from the southwest United States is that of what are called Skinwalkers, basically shape changing entities from Native lore that have been sighted all over the region by often very reliable witnesses. Is that what these two men saw? Unfortunately, this is a second hand account that is impossible to verify, so it is all left to imagination and speculation.
If it was a Skinwalker it certainly wouldn’t be the only one reported by military personnel. In the wake of my own article outlining my personal experiences with a group of what could have very well been these creatures, I was given a curious account by a reader who says he encountered one in New Mexico, where he had been stationed at the White Sands Missile Range. According to the witness, he had been on guard duty one evening along with a partner and it was typically a rather uneventful, even boring duty, yet on this night they would have a frightening encounter that has stayed with them ever since.
White Sands Missile Range
The witness says that as they conducted their patrol his partner stopped him and pointed off into the barren surrounding desert wilderness, where there appeared to be two pinpoints of light hovering over the scrub, around 6 feet in the air. Thinking it was perhaps just a wild animal, they crept closer to its position to find that it seemed to be a tall, dark figure just standing out there in the middle of nowhere in the dark. It then became apparent that this cloaked individual was a man, although with a deeply wrinkled face that looked “ancient.” The witness would describe what happened next:
We were a little spooked because there should have been no one out there at this time, especially that close to the base. And this guy, he gave off a weird vibe, just standing there staring at us even as we approached. His face, he looked like he was maybe Native American, and I couldn’t tell so well but his skin looked creased, craggy and pockmarked, somehow ancient. He was wrapped up in some kind of cape or cloak and we couldn’t see his hands or feet. We called out to him to identify himself but this guy, he didn’t flinch. I don’t even know if he heard us or not.
Well, now we are a bit unsettled, and think we are dealing with a seriously disturbed individual or some senile old fart from a reservation, so we know we have to apprehend him or at least get him out of there. We start getting closer to this guy, who is still standing stock still like a statue and that is when it happens BOOM, he just sort of drops, there is a flutter of the cape, and he is gone. Just gone. My partner calls out in surprise and right then a coyote runs right past us, practically close enough to touch, before dashing off into the night. That old guy, there is no sign of him. It freaked us out for sure.
It seems like a classic Skinwalker encounter. What did those guys see out there? There have been strange paranormal encounters reported from bases in other areas of the world as well. One account was given by a witness named Adolph Schäfer, who claims to be the equivalent of a sergeant in the unified armed forces of Germany, called the Bundeswehr. He claims to have had a very anomalous experience when he was just a cadet at boot camp in East Germany. One evening at around 5 PM they were apparently out doing drills when they heard some sort of “eerie, unexplainable noises” coming from one of the nearby buildings. They did not think much of it at the time, but then at 8PM the power grid began to go on the fritz, with lights flickering everywhere, which was odd as it had been inspected just a few days before.
The base drill sergeant was convinced that it was just a faulty generator, and had the witness go out with three others to fix it. The men then made their way to the basement where the generators were kept, and there they found that two of the generators worked fine, although one had inexplicably been turned off. It was when they got to the larger third generator when things would get ominous down there in the dank basement, and the witness says of what happened thus:
The third generator was the largest main source of power in the base. The first thing I noticed were the scratches: this seemingly super-hard-to-break hunk of metal had what I think were scratches and cuts – claw marks – piercing its outer metal shell like a buzzsaw. So deep, the scratches had cut the cords inside and had damaged the batteries as though they were paper. After a moment of thinking I knew this couldn’t have been a person doing this, seeing as nothing any cadet had could cut through that tough metal so easily, I immediately rushed up the stairs to tell my drill sergeant, hoping he would know what to do. He told me, “The most we can do is tell base command and put someone guard the door, and have the generator replaced. Good thing reporting this, cadet Schäfer.
After getting a pat on the back, I resumed my daily training routines without anything too odd happening. But some hours later, sometime in the night (I can’t be exactly sure when), I heard scratching noises, but not from the basement, they were too close and too loud… as if they were in the sleeping quarters. After that moment of realization, I opened my eyes and looked around. I saw what I thought was someone in the corner, going through a bag… But, when I looked around the room, sheer terror came into me: all the bunks were full, every one.
“Wait….the hell?”, I thought to myself. But, then, as if it had heard what I was thinking, the “thing” in the corner turned to face me. It was a pale grey, with no nose, and claws like razors. This thing was skinny and two feet taller than my six-foot self. After that I just froze in a blank stare of horror. In my mind seconds turned to minutes, minutes turned to hours and hours turned to days….I think I passed out of terror, because all I remember after that is waking up to my buddies and sergeant looking at me, while talking to me, telling me I looked sick. And I felt sick too, like all energy from me was drained for days on end.
Also strange is another case from way over in Afghanistan, where a witness named Jerry Aberdeen saw something very unusual during his tour of duty out in that forsaken wasteland. It is an account that seems hard to really categorize, but seeming to deal with ghosts, demons, or some other supernatural being.
The incident happened to him while he was stationed at an air base in in Mosul, Ninewah Province in 2004, and the witness would say:
I was attached to 2/3 INF 3 SBCT at FOB Patriot. A call went out on the radio that FOB Diamondback (the airfield) was under attack. Everyone on every FOB from, Courage, Blickenstaff, Patriot and Marez jumped into the closest vehicle and headed to the airfield to counter the attack. I was in a vehicle with some other infantry guys, an engineer and a PsyOps guy. When we got to the airfield we saw some dudes trying to climb over the wall. The gunner opened up on them and the rest of us took up a position in a ditch on the other side of the road and opened fire. There were three of us side by side, the engineer, the PsyOps guys and myself. We fired and one guy and he dropped from the top of the wall (hard to tell who actually shot him). Right after he fell there was stream of black smoke coming out of him. The engineer made that comment that he must have been wearing a suicide vest and it malfunctioned. A few seconds later the black smoke grew larger and started to take a human looking form. What happened next all three of us saw and there was no doubt. The now fully materialized black smoke was standing upright and now had red smoky glowing eyes and a weird looking mouth. The damn thing actually smiled at us and turned to, sort of run but it just dissipated after it took a few steps. Very hard to describe how it all happened. All three of us just looked at each other wide eyed for a second or two. After it was all over we only spoke about once then never again.
What sort of entity was this, if it ever really existed at all? There is no way to know. And that seems to be a recurring theme with all of these reports. Here we have looked at an assortment of cases of what seem to be very odd paranormal entities of some sort, but which seem to elude easy categorization. What are these things and what do they want? Are we looking at ghosts, Skinwalkers, demons, or all of the above? Considering the range of differences between these cases there is probably no clear answer that can explain all of them, and they probably represent very different disparate phenomena, but one common question we can ask why have they been drawn to these military installations? Or are these merely creepy campfire stories being told by some soldiers for a good laugh? As usual we are left with some very jolting accounts and hints, but no clear answers to any of these, and once again we have more to pile onto the great big pile of weird things we may never understand.
Born in Township, Minnesota in 1908, Daniel William Fry claimed a distinctly close encounter of the alien kind while working at the White Sands Proving Ground, New Mexico: he asserted he took a flight in an extraterrestrial spacecraft – on Independence Day, 1949, no less – to New York and back in barely half-an-hour! So the story went, Fry intended to celebrate the holiday period with colleagues and friends from the base in the nearby town of Las Cruces. Unfortunately, he missed the bus and was forced to remain on-base – utterly alone.
It was, said Fry, a blisteringly-hot night; and given the fact that the air-conditioning system in his quarters was pretty much useless and made the room “unbearably hot and stuffy,” he decided to do a bit of exploring in the vast expanse of desert that makes up what is today called the White Sands Missile Range. It’s highly unlikely that Fry ever anticipated coming into contact with a being from another world while he roamed the isolated area; and yet that is precisely what he said did happen.
White Sands Missile Range Museum
“I headed first in the direction of the old static test stand, on which we were mounting our largest rocket motor,” said Fry. “About two thirds of the way to the test stand, a small dirt road intersects the main road, and leads off to the right toward the base of the Organ Mountains.” He added: “Directly ahead of me, and just over the peaks of the Organ Mountains, an especially bright group of stars seemed to beckon to me as I walked leisurely along. Then, suddenly, the brightest of the stars simply went out…something I could not see was eclipsing the light of the star.” Fry soon found out what that something was. Out of the skies descended “a spheroid, considerably flattened at the top and bottom. The vertical dimension was about sixteen feet, and the horizontal dimension about thirty feet at the widest point…if viewed from directly below it might appear to be saucer shaped, but actually it was more nearly like a soup bowl inverted over a sauce dish.”
As Fry looked on in complete and utter awe (“as a child might stare at the rabbit which a stage magician has just pulled from his hat”), a disembodied voice – that went by the name of A-lan – told the shocked Fry that the fantastic device appearing before him was being remotely-controlled by a “mother-ship” orbiting the planet at a height of around 900 miles. Then there came a truly bombshell-style question: would Fry like to take a ride across the country in the alien craft? Of course, the answer was: Yes! And so – Fry maintained – that’s exactly what he did. He jumped aboard and was whisked across the night-sky to New York and back in no more than half-an-hour. The journey may not have been a long one; but it was said to have been a highly profound one. While Fry was on-board the futuristic flying machine, the voice of A-lan related a wealth of data relative to the forgotten and lost history of human culture:
“Tens of thousands of years ago, some of our ancestors lived upon this planet, Earth. There was, at that time, a small continent in a part of the now sea-covered area which you have named the Pacific Ocean. Some of your ancient legends refer to this sunken land mass as the ‘Lost Continent of Lemuria or Mu.’ Our ancestors had built a great empire and mighty science upon this continent. At the same time, there was another rapidly developing race upon a land mass in the southwestern portion of the present Atlantic Ocean. In your legends, this continent has been named Atlantis.”
According to A-lan, “increasing bitterness” between the two cultures, as well as “their constantly increasing command of destructive energies,” led to a catastrophic war. He explained to Fry: “…the resulting nuclear radiation was so intense and so widespread, that the entire surface became virtually unfit for habitation, for a number of generations.” Before departing (having thoughtfully returned Fry to White Sands), and in a fashion that would become all-too-typical of the Space-Brothers, A-lan gave Fry a message pertaining to the potential for overwhelming atomic disaster that faced modern-day humanity: “As nuclear weapons proliferate among your nations, it should always be remembered that ‘An ounce of understanding is worth a megaton of deterrent.’”
In 1954, shortly after going public with his fantastic story, Fry outright flunked a lie-detector test; and it was later learned that his much-flaunted “doctorate,” bestowed upon him around early 1960, had, in reality, been obtained via a London, England mail-order organization called the Saint Andrews College. But this did not stop Fry from developing a large following of like-minded individuals. From 1954 onward, Fry delivered numerous lectures across the United States, and wrote such publications as Atoms, Galaxies and Understanding; To Men of Earth; Steps to the Stars; Curve of Development; Can God Fill Teeth?; and Verse and Worse.
One year later, he established a group that went by the name of Understanding Inc., and which, in 1959, was described as follows: “From a start of nine members at El Monte, California in 1955, Understanding Inc., has grown into an international organization of more than sixty units and many members-at-large throughout the world. These units and members have sponsored hundreds of lectures and meetings, circulated thousands of books and magazines to reach many people in the spirit of ‘bringing about a greater degree of understanding among all the peoples of the earth and preparing them for their eventual inevitable meetings with other races in space.’”
Such was the interest in Fry’s claims of alien contact thatUnderstanding Inc. went on to publish a monthly newsletter that ran for no less than 23 years: nearly 250 issues were published between 1956 and 1979. Moreover, at its height, in the early 1960s, Understanding Inc. was able to boast of almost 1,500 members, and became the recipient of an impressive 55-acres of land near Tonopah, Arizona that had been donated by a Reverend Enid Smith. The true irony of this was that the buildings, first intended by Smith to act as a religious college, were shaped like classic flying saucers. Understanding, Inc. took full control of the property by 1976; however, with membership of Understanding, Inc. falling by that point, and with Fry’s finances not being what they once were, the site ultimately fell into disrepair: in late September and early October 1978, the kitchen and the library were burned to the ground by an arsonist and were never rebuilt. And further tragedy followed: one year later, Fry’s second wife, Florence, died from breast-cancer – he had divorced wife number-one, Elma, in 1964.
Although Fry’s place within the annals of Ufology was largely over by the dawning of the 1980s, he continued to give the occasional lecture and interview, before ultimately passing on in December 1992 – still standing by his every claim of that strange, long-gone, }4, 1949 night when he sailed high across the starlit skies of the United States, with nothing but an intergalactic disembodied voice for company.
My view on all this? Fry was a great storyteller. And I do mean stories. His photos and footage of alleged flying saucers were far from being credible. He failed a lie-detector. And his “doctorate” came via mail-order. Time to move on to far more credible things, methinks…
Strange fireball-shaped object hovering in the sky over Toronto
Strange fireball-shaped object hovering in the sky over Toronto
The city’s skies lit up Thursday evening with what appeared to be a fireball-shaped object hovering in the night sky.
The mysterious, large ball appeared before midnight, prompting reports of UFO sightings in Pickering and Scarborough.
The strange glowing orb flickering in the eastern sky caused quite a stir on social media, one user said just hovered in the sky instead of moving or disappearing.
It looks like the mysterious light source, is coming from below a disk shaped object then the footage shows also a smaller orb flying away from the light source.
Mile Long UFO Caught During Sunset Over Reykjavik, Iceland On Sept 2018, Video, UFO Sighting News.
Mile Long UFO Caught During Sunset Over Reykjavik, Iceland On Sept 2018, Video, UFO Sighting News.
Date of sighting: Sept 9, 2018 Location of sighting: Artun, Reykjavik, Iceland Source: MUFON #94745 This UFO was caught just today and was seen during sunset over Iceland. The UFO measures over a mile across has a shape of large disk, AKA flying saucer. This is a fantastic video of the UFO and it appears he didn't see the craft till viewing the video at home, otherwise he probably would have focused in it a lot more. I often say its easiest to record a UFO during sunset, because the angle of the setting sun, the UFO and the eyewitness makes a perfect triangle which causes the cloaked UFO to be revealed...for a few minutes only. This is one beautiful alien craft. Such UFOs have been seen recently by a pilot over the ocean near the UK back in 2007. Click here to see interview with pilot. Scott C. Waring Eyewitness states:
I saw it directly over the N1 gasoline station in Artun, Reykjavik.
Black UFO Seen Coming From Gulf of Mexico Over Texas, Aug 28, 2018, Photos, UFO Sighting News.
Black UFO Seen Coming From Gulf of Mexico Over Texas, Aug 28, 2018, Photos, UFO Sighting News.
Date of sighting: Aug 28, 2018
Location of sighting: Bacliff, Texas, USA
Source: MUFON #94751
This dark black UFO was seen over Trinity Bay in Texas. The bay is connected to the Gulf of Mexico. This UFO was seen coming from the direction of the Gulf and may have come from an underwater alien base off shore. Since the ocean covers 75% of the earths surface, its just logical to assume aliens would use ocean floors for bases. Also remember if UFOs work in space, then they will work under water.
Scott C. Waring
Eyewitness states:
Hovered over water, then went in a over land, looked like it was carrying a cage.
Top secret US base houses living and dead ALIENS from Roswell UFO crash site in vaults and burial grounds, former worker claims- PART I
Top secret US base houses living and dead ALIENS from Roswell UFO crash site in vaults and burial grounds, former worker claims- PART I
Retired Air Force Engineer Raymond Szymanski, who worked at the Ohio base for 39 years, makes the revelations in his book 50 Shades of Greys
EXCLUSIVE By Emma Parry
A TOP secret US Air Force base contains a vast complex of underground tunnels and vaults filled with living and dead aliens, a former worker at the site has claimed.
Raymond Szymanksi believes the UFOs and aliens from the infamous 1947 Roswell incident were bought to the Wright-Patterson Air Force Base (WPAFB) in Dayton, Ohio for inspection and kept in secret tunnels.
GLEN MCCURTAYNE
The Wright-Patterson Air Force Base in Dayton, Ohio (pictured) houses a vast complex of vaults filled with living and dead aliens, according to a former engineer
The extra-terrestrial researcher, who worked as an engineer and senior scientist at WPAFB for 39 years, detailed the full extent of the "alien" activity at the base in a book called 50 Shades of Greys.
Szymanski, who is the first person to break rank and publicly talk about the “secrets” of the base, heard of the alien conspiracy during his first week at the base.
He claims his mentor Al asked him, "Have you heard about our aliens?", as he showed him around.
Szymanski claims Al went on to tell him there was a there was a system of tunnels and vaults underground at the WPAFB housing both living and deceased extra-terrestrial beings.
Speaking exclusively to the Sun Online, he said: “I was assigned to the Avionics Laboratory's Management Operations Office to work with my mentor Al, an industrial engineering and MBA graduate.
“During my first week, Al provided me with some totally unexpected and unsolicited sage advice.
GLEN MCCURTAYNE
Raymond Szymanksi believes the UFOs and aliens from the infamous Roswell 1947 Roswell incident were bought to the top-secret US base
GUZELIAN
In 1947 the military claimed they had recovered a "flying disc", which had crashed in Roswell, New Mexico, but later retracted the statement (pictured, an alien conspiracy theorists believe was recovered from the site)
“He said that in 1947 there was a crash down in Roswell and they brought the machines and the aliens here for inspection and said they keep them in secret tunnels under the base.
“When I asked him how he came to know about the secret, he responded, 'Everybody who works on base knows’.
“I was stunned. Me, a young co-op student barely into his first week, was now initiated into a small select group of 10,000 people and given their most incredible secret ever - that we have aliens and their craft in our tunnels on our base.’”
GLEN MCCURTAYNE
Szymanski claims this disc-shaped structure on the Ohio base is an ancient burial ground and believes its size and shape is no coincidence
GLEN MCCURTAYNE
The engineer, who later became an extra-terrestrial researcher, claimed his mentor Al told him that the Roswell aliens were taken to the base for testing
GLEN MCCURTAYNE
He said: “I was stunned. Me, a young co-op student barely into his first week, was now initiated into a small select group of 10,000 people and given their most incredible secret ever"
GLEN MCCURTAYNE
The former worker also said Building 219 on the base was previously used as a paediatrics clinic and a "creepy" high chair is still in the basement
Following the bizarre conversation Szymanski began to carry out research into the “secret” UFO and extra-terrestrial activity at WPAFB.
He discovered that The Foreign Technology Division (FTD) on the base housed Project Blue Book, the Air Force's official UFO investigation project from 1952 -1969.
“For the next four decades I had dozens if not hundreds of brief conversations regarding the 'secret' I'd been given during my first week on base,” he said.
GUZELIAN
In a witness interview that resurfaced in June this year, a police officer claimed he saw soldiers "hauling away a creature" from the crash site
“The important fact established here is that not one single person at that time ever said, ’We have no aliens here, you crazy son of a b*tch’... I saw lots of smiles but no denials.'
“I’ve been basically investigating locations on the base that I think could contain clues to its history relative to extraterrestrials and UFOs ever since.
“By looking at evidence, which I document in the book in text and photographs, it would appear to me as if the stories are true.”
What is the Roswell Incident?
The 1947 Roswell incident is one of the most discussed and controversial UFO theories in history.
On 8 July, Roswell Army Air Field revealed they had found a "flying disc", which had crashed in the New Mexico deesert.
But the next day they retracted the statement and said the disc was just a damaged US Air Force balloon.
In a witness interview that resurfaced in June this year, a police officer claimed he saw soldiers "hauling away a creature" from the crash site.
US Deputy Sheriff Charlie Forgus said: "When we got there, the land was covered with soldiers. They were hauling a big, creature.
"The bodies must have been 5 feet tall."
The police officer said the flying object was "100ft across" and claimed there were as many as four hundred soldiers in the area.
Szymanski claims the aliens found at the crash site were housed in secret underground tunnels on the Wright-Patterson Air Force Base in Datyon, Ohio.
GLEN MCCURTAYNE
The former engineer also showed a note written by his mentor Al, where he is believed to have mentioned "flying"
Szymanski says he’s seen the tunnels and vaults in which aliens - or "greys" - could be kept but as he’s never seen an actual alien he can’t be sure if they are still on the base.
The engineer believes that state-of-the-art climate-controlled facilities and deep underground cyrogenic chambers were built at WPAFB to preserve debris, alien technology artifacts, and corpses recovered from UFO crash sites.
According to UFO researchers, leaked documents and whistleblower reports as many as 14 to 16 alien corpses were transported to WPAFB.
AIR FORCE
Pictured, a photo from the Air Force's "The Roswell Report," released in June 24, 1997, which discusses the UFO incident in Roswell
GLEN MCCURTAYNE
In a photograph from 1947, Air Force General Roger Ramey is seen holding debris which is believed to have come from the Roswell incident
Though Szymanski never encountered any of these greys himself, he claims to have had three separate encounters with real-life "Men In Black" type characters on and around the Dayton base. He said the men wore black suits and black hats even in the middle of an Ohio summer and spied on him on three occasions.
Szymanski believes the main job of these men is to steal evidence that researchers like himself have acquired on aliens and UFOs, and that they are most likely part of a government agency.
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- Gemiddelde waardering: 0/5 - (0 Stemmen) Categorie:ALIEN LIFE, UFO- CRASHES, ABDUCTIONS, MEN IN BLACK, ed ( FR. , NL; E )
Top secret US base houses living and dead ALIENS from Roswell UFO crash site in vaults and burial grounds, former worker claims- PART II
Top secret US base houses living and dead ALIENS from Roswell UFO crash site in vaults and burial grounds, former worker claims- PART II
GLEN MCCURTAYNE
The extra-terrestrial researcher, who worked as an engineer and senior scientist at WPAFB for 39 years, detailed the full extent of the "alien" activity at the base in a book called 50 Shades of Greys
GLEN MCCURTAYNE
The military's statement about the Roswell "flying disc" hit headlines in 1947, before they mysteriously changed their account
Apart from the underground tunnels, Szymanski also believes there are four potential burial sites on the AFB grounds where aliens have been buried.
Szymanski has pictured one of the sites in his book where, he says, it is quite possible that a 4ft tall alien grey has been laid to rest standing in a vertical standing position as opposed to laying horizontally, as is customary for humans.
Szymanski also suggests that the bodies of eight aliens are buried under a car park next to the Foreign Technologies Division for UFO Reverse Engineering.
The former scientist claims to have had three separate encounters with real-life "Men In Black" type characters on and around the Dayton base
The Roswell incident has fascinated UFO hunters and conspiracy theorists ever since the US military announced in a press release they had found the remains of a crashed flying saucer in the New Mexico desert in July 1947.
The following day officials retracted the statement but witnesses came forward to say they saw alien bodies with the crashed craft which were taken away - something the US government has always denied. Szymanski believes governments have good reason or keeping the existence of aliens under wraps - to keep us safe.
GLEN MCCURTAYNE
Szymanski believes governments have good reason or keeping the existence of aliens under wraps - to keep us safe
He said: "We still aren’t ready for full disclosure, the governments like to keep secrets cause that’s what keeps us safe sometimes.
"The last time the Air-Force made the announcement ‘hey we’ve got a flying saucer’ that didn’t go so well, so what would happen if they announced it this time?
"I really don’t see a change, I don’t think the fact that we have cell phones or 150,000 cable TV channels will make us any more prepared than the people were in 1947 after Roswell.”
Szymanski knows his theories may sound far fetched but he says he just wants to document his research and let people decide for themselves.
He said: “I present new theories, I show you evidence and I let you make up your own mind."
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Before the dinosaurs, giant insects ruled the world.
Okay, prehistoric insects weren’t this big … but they were bigger than our insects today. Poster for the film “The Deadly Mantis” (1957) by artist Reynold Brown, via Wikimedia Commons.
When you complain about dead bugs on your windshield, be thankful that insects today are considerably smaller than their prehistoric ancestors.
Hundreds of millions of years ago, giant insects were common on Earth. Consider Meganeura, a genus of extinct insects from approximately 300 million years ago, related to modern-day dragonflies. One member of this group – M. permiana – was first described by researchers in Kansas in 1937 as having a wingspan of over 2 feet (0.6 meters). It’s still considered one of the largest known insects that ever lived.
While over a million insect species live today, truly giant insects no longer exist. Why did they disappear?
There are two main reasons. The most important is that our atmosphere has changed. Millions of years go, the air surrounding our planet was warmer, moister and contained more oxygen. During the Carboniferous and Permian periods, Earth’s air contained 31-35 percent oxygen, as compared to just 21 percent oxygen in the air today.
Oxygen levels are especially important for insects because they don’t have lungs. Instead, they rely on air flowing through a series of opening across their bodies called spiracles, which connect directly to the tissues that need oxygen.
Fossil remains of M. monyi, a member of the extinct insect genus Meganeura. Their wingspans could reach 2 feet (0.6 meters). This specimen is housed at the Fossil at the Museum of Natural History in Toulouse.
But there’s another reason giant insects disappeared. As ancient dinosaurs evolved the ability to fly, eventually becoming modern birds, they put a cap on insect size through predation and competition.
The earliest known bird – Archaeopteryx – appeared about 150 million years ago. Birds proved to be faster and more agile than the giant insects. In an article in LiveScience, paleobiologist Matthew Clapham of UC Santa Cruz commented:
The change in insect size is gradual. This gradual change fits quite nicely with the gradual evolution in birds at the time.
Where giant insects fit in the history of life on Earth.
Bottom line:Hundreds of millions of years ago, giant insects were common on Earth. The decline in atmospheric oxygen and the rise of birds contributed to their demise.
A new crop circle has appeared in Reigate Hill, Surrey according to a recent report. While the reports are still recent and not much is known about the circle, including specific details about the formation that could tell us more about how it got there, this one is quite fascinating in design.
Why talk about crop circles? As we will discuss below, they are a phenomenon that simply can’t be ignored. Formations show up every single year and come with great mystery, even in the scientific realm. Many do not realize some of the amazing things that are happening inside crop circles that blow the board and rope theory out the window.
“Some of these formations are so immense and complex as to defy reason. And after all these decades, none of the perpetrators have been caught in the act of making any of the truly extraordinary formations.”
– Richard Dolan, historian, academic, author, and one of the world’s leading UFO researchers (source)
Richard’s thoughts there are quite telling of this reality, and even scientific minds are at a loss for words as although they believe the circles are done by humans, they are calling it the most science oriented art movement ever.
For example, Richard Taylor, a University of Oregon physicist, published a paper on them in the 2011 issue of Physics World, stating:
“Crop circle arts are not going to give up their secrets easily. This summer, unknown artists will venture into the countryside close to your homes and carry out their craft, safe in the knowledge that they are continuing the legacy of the most science-oriented art movement in history.” (source)
But what would cause a physicist to conclude that these works do not have an extraterrestrial explanation? Or to even consider the issue seriously?
Here are the pictures of the most recent crop circle reported in the UK. Thanks to CropCircleConnector for the images.
Facts About Crop Circles
When you begin to explore the reality of crop circles you start to realize how one cannot simply pass the phenomenon off as people walking out into a field with some ropes and boards and making a design. It would be naive to make such a claim.
Above is a picture of an 800 foot crop circle that appeared in Wiltshire, England back in 2001. It caused a lot of commotion, and as you can see, it was very beautiful and extremely complex. The design consisted of 409 circles that form what’s known as a triskelion, a symbol that dates back thousands of years. There is some great footage of it in the documentary Crop Cricles: Quest for Truth by Academy Award-winning director William Gazecki. You can view that here.
“It was so large that it took us half an hour to find the center.” (quote taken from video link below)
There are some more great images of it in this YouTube video. You can also see footage of it taken by a helicopter flying above from the documentary Thrive in this video (at the 26.16 minute mark). This circle marks just one of thousands of verified formations that continue to baffle scientists, researchers, and onlookers alike.
Richard Taylor, the aforementioned scientist who studied these circles, again expressed his belief that this was one of the greatest art revolutions in history when he published his scientific analysis of crop circles in the journal Nature in 2010.
After studying the affected grass in the lab, he concluded that the circle makers must be using GPS devices, lasers, and microwaves to create these designs because the nodes of some of the stalks had been blasted out on one side. This same effect has been replicated by highly localized microwave heating, which is what causes the stocks to flop over to one side.
While he was able to come up with a scientifically feasible explanation for this phenomenon, he fails to address how hoaxers could come into possession of such advanced technology. It’s clear that there would be no other way to make some of these circles, so what is really going on here?
“If something like this caused the formations, then we are clearly talking about a highly sophisticated agency behind the phenomenon.” – Richard Dolan (source)
Did you know that the electromagnetic field over the area where a circle appears is usually electrostatically charged? Or that there is a rare form of electromagnetic energy called an “ionized plasma vortex,” also known as ball lighting, involved with these formations? (source)
The helicopters you see in the video are military helicopters. Military involvement with UFOs is well documented, and this should be no surprise. For more information on that you can read this article.
These are verified facts, which is why studies published in scientific journals have tried to come up with explanations that differ from unknown or extraterrestrial. For example, Dr. Terence Meadon, a professional physicist, meteorologist, and archaeologist at the University of Oxford, said that these balls of light are a result of wind currents and ionized plasmas. Whatever the case may be, the fact that scientists are taking note should signal that this phenomenon is worth our attention.
End Of The Moon Landing Conspiracy? NASA Releases 4K Video Of The Moon
End Of The Moon Landing Conspiracy? NASA Releases 4K Video Of The Moon
NASA has released what is being dubbed a 4K virtual tour of the moon which allows the general public to take a peek at Earth’s natural satellite in more intricate detail than ever before.
The video was compiled from images taken by NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter spacecraft over a period of nine years. It follows a previously released video from NASA seven years ago and incorporates the original imagery along with newly compiled footage of the lunar surface.
Ernie Wright of NASA’s Space Visualisation Studio explained in a blog post released on the official NASA website that the tour is designed to zoom in on some interesting sites to illustrate the variety found in the lunar landscape. He explains that some of the selected sites are on the near side of the moon and will, therefore, be very familiar to both professional and amateur astronomers, but some of the sites lie on the so-called dark side of the moon which can only be seen clearly from space.
NASA releases 4K virtual tour of the moon
Among the fascinating sites delved into in the course of the video is the Tycho Crater. The origins of this crater, which is estimated to be one hundred million years old, features a bizarrely placed 100-meter-wide boulder at its summit which is still a completemysteryto scientists studying thehistoryof the moon. The video also zooms in on the Tauruas-Littrow Valley which is notable for being deeper than the Grand Canyon. Another exceptional point of interest about the Tauruas-Littrow Valley is that it was the original site of the Apollo 17 moon landing crew. The video demonstrates the path that the astronauts followed during their three days on the lunar surface and zoomed in on the rover vehicle and the bottom half of the lunar landing which have been in place for the past forty-six years.
It has been speculated that this emphasis on the original site of the moon landing was an attempt by NASA to dispel rumours that the moon landing in 1972 was fake. However, it is unlikely that this video will be enough to remove doubt from the millions of people across the world who believe that the original NASA missions to the moon were not all that they appeared to be.
Trumpets of the Apocalypse: Could this be the answer?
Trumpets of the Apocalypse: Could this be the answer?
Since 2011, strange reports have ebbed in concerning strange noises coming from the skies including humming, grinding metal, disparate noises that speak to the general hustle and bustle of the city and most bizarrely of all, trumpets. This year, new reports of this phenomenon have come in from areas as geographically disparate as Canada and Indonesia. Now, investigative journalist Linda Moulton Howe is on a mission to get to the bottom of this scientifically baffling mystery.
Strange noises come from the sky – could this be the answer?
Various theories have been put forward since 2011 to explain the source of these bizarre sounds. One of the first theories to emerge came from the Azerbaijani geophysicist Elchin Khalilov who suggested that the phenomenon was caused by "acoustic-gravity waves caused by powerful solar flares and plasma emissions from the sun." However, this theory has not gained a great deal of traction and experts in the field of solar physics, such as David Hathaway of NASA, have said that they doubted that solar activity could be connected to the sounds.
Other theories have suggested that the sounds might be emanating from subtle movements of the tectonic plates. However, this theory can be dismissed for some reasons. Firstly, no unusual seismic activity has been detected in the areas which have been afflicted by the sounds during the event and secondly, if the noises were caused by a movement of the plates, then the phenomenon would surely have been detected long before 2011.
The above theories are based on the idea that the noises directly must be caused by a naturalphenomenon. However, Moulton Howe is not convinced that this is the case. Given that these recognisable noises started quite abruptly in 2011, she believes that it is more likely that the noises come from a man-made origin. She has theorised that the noises may have been tests of a controversial project called the Voice of God weapons. Since 2001, it is believed that the American Defense Department had been trying to create methods of causing disturbing noises and visions to psychologically target their opponents in the Middle East.
It is unknown as to whether Moulton Howe is correct in this hypothesis. However, since the noises have been known to be accompanied by visions of strange cityscapes in regions such as China, it is entirely probable that this disturbing phenomenon is something wholly created by human beings.
For someone who gets violently seasick, Boyan Slat spends a lot of time thinking about the ocean. The Dutch inventor has designed the world’s first ocean plasticcleanup system but admits he won’t be on the ship with it when it launches out of San Francisco on Saturday. “I am not a man of the sea,” he says.
System 001 — a floating barrier nearly 2,000ft long — snakes its way out under the Golden Gate Bridge into the Pacific. Its destination is the Great Pacific Garbage Patch, a gyre of plastic waste twice the size of Texas held in position by ocean currents between California and Hawaii." data-reactid="12">After five and a half years of hard work, the 23-year-old Slat will watch from dry land as System 001 — a floating barrier nearly 2,000ft long — snakes its way out under the Golden Gate Bridge into the Pacific. Its destination is the Great Pacific Garbage Patch, a gyre of plastic waste twice the size of Texas held in position by ocean currents between California and Hawaii.
plastic pollution problem,” Slat tells TIME in a phone interview a few days before the launch, in between final preparations. “For sixty years it has only gotten worse and worse. Now hopefully we’re turning the tide.”" data-reactid="13">If all goes to plan, Slat says, an array of 60 systems could reduce the amount of plastic there by half by 2025. “I hope that this will be a turning point for the plastic pollution problem,” Slat tells TIME in a phone interview a few days before the launch, in between final preparations. “For sixty years it has only gotten worse and worse. Now hopefully we’re turning the tide.”
The eradication of the garbage patch, and more broadly the salvation of our oceans, has been Slat’s single-minded goal ever since he was 16 years old, when a diving trip to Greece yielded more plastic bag sightings than fish. Struck by the idea for a floating barrier that could collect plastic using the power of ocean currents alone, he founded his company, The Ocean Cleanup, aged just 18.
Boyan Slat, CEO of The Ocean Cleanup
System 001 was featured on TIME’s list of the best inventions of 2015. The project has come a long way since then, Slat says. “It takes a trained eye to see the similarities.”" data-reactid="26">The idea grabbed imaginations around the world. In 2015, an early prototype of System 001 was featured on TIME’s list of the best inventions of 2015. The project has come a long way since then, Slat says. “It takes a trained eye to see the similarities.”
What was originally envisaged as a large rigid barrier arranged around a central tank for collecting plastic, is today an unmanned, modular system that moves with the currents, naturally gravitating to areas of higher concentration. From the air it looks like a pipeline sitting on the surface of the sea, but beneath the waves lies a 10ft deep ‘skirt,’ which traps plastic accumulated by the current.
sea life will be protected from becoming ensnared. The hope is that plastic will accumulate as if on a seashore, ready to be collected by boats and taken for recycling." data-reactid="28">Because the system is solid rather than a net, Slat says sea life will be protected from becoming ensnared. The hope is that plastic will accumulate as if on a seashore, ready to be collected by boats and taken for recycling.
McDonald’s are moving to remove single-use plastics from their stores. (Some say not fast enough.) The U.N. says over 8 million tons of plastic still enter the oceans each year – the equivalent of a garbage truck full of plastic every minute." data-reactid="29">It’s an ambitious plan, and one that has received millions of dollars of funding thanks to fast-shifting public opinion on plastic. In December 2017, 193 countries signed a U.N. resolution to eliminate ocean plastic pollution, and big corporations like McDonald’s are moving to remove single-use plastics from their stores. (Some say not fast enough.) The U.N. says over 8 million tons of plastic still enter the oceans each year – the equivalent of a garbage truck full of plastic every minute.
But reducing our addiction to plastic is just one half of the equation, Slat says. “These garbage patches won’t go away by themselves. Even if we were to close the tap today the plastic would still be there in 100 years.”
System 001 floating in the San Francisco Bay before its launch
published in the journal Scientific Reports. “But of course what’s going to happen over the next few decades is that all the other 92% of plastic will be turned into microplastics as well,” Slat says. “So the sooner we get it out, the better.”" data-reactid="44">Slat sees his mission as a race against time. Plastic gradually breaks down into smaller and smaller pieces called microplastics which can eventually enter the food chain. Currently, however, just 8% of the plastic mass in the Pacific garbage patch is microplastics, according to research carried out by The Ocean Cleanup published in the journal Scientific Reports. “But of course what’s going to happen over the next few decades is that all the other 92% of plastic will be turned into microplastics as well,” Slat says. “So the sooner we get it out, the better.”
A thorny question remains in what will happen to the plastic that is brought back to shore from The Ocean Cleanup’s systems. Slat says he wants to turn it into branded merchandise, but acknowledges that all depends on the quality of the plastic, which remains a mystery. In any case, most of the plastic in the oceans is single-use, Slat argues. “By not making it into anything single-use, you can already reduce the chances of it ending up back in the oceans by 99%,” he says.
But it’s possible that lots of the waste returned to land will have to be carted off t }o third-party recycling plants and eventually recycled into more single-use plastics that might one day return to the oceans. The task ahead isn’t so much Herculean as Sisyphean.
Nevertheless, Slat isn’t dissuaded easily. “Big problems require big solutions,” he says. “If anyone has any better ideas, we’d love to know.”
Fishermen saw ‘robot-like creatures with slit mouths and crab pincers in most bizarre alien abduction ever’, secret hypnosis files reveal
Fishermen saw ‘robot-like creatures with slit mouths and crab pincers in most bizarre alien abduction ever’, secret hypnosis files reveal
The never-seen-before notes describe how the two men were fishing when a UFO hovered above them and three strange beings emerged
EXCLUSIVE
By Emma Parry, Digital US Correspondent
THE two men involved in one of the most bizarre ‘alien’ encounters on record recalled seeing "creatures with slit-like mouths and crab pincers" while under hypnosis, top secret files obtained by Sun Online reveal.
Charles Hickson and Calvin Parker claim they were captured by three alien creatures and taken into a UFO while they were fishing in Pascagoula, Mississippi, on October 11, 1973.
PHILIP MANTLE
The secret notes have so far been hidden from the public
Now never-seen-before handwritten notes of a secret interview conducted on them under hypnosis reveal how they both described strange creatures looking like robots with unusual eyes, grey skin and crab pincers for arms.
The interview was conducted in 1973 by case investigators Professor J Allen Hynek and Dr James Harder - and the terrified men’s account was enough to convince the pair that they were telling the truth.
Dr Harder’s files include notes from the interview and other information he gathered - and offer a unique insight into the infamous sighting almost 45 years ago.
On one handwritten page Dr Harder writes: “I asked what the ‘creatures’ looked like and got a description which included 1. No neck, no helmet 2. crab-like hands, two digits … 3. slit-like ‘mouth’.”
JONNY DILLON
Charles Hickson and Calvin Parker, pictured, were left traumatised by the 1973 encounter
PHILIP MANTLE
The strange notes were taken during an interview conducted with the men under hypnosis
The beings did not communicate and had a “robot businesslike attitude”, the men recalled during the hypnosis session.
Charles, 42, and Calvin 19, were sat on the banks of the Pascagoula River, when they claim they heard a whizzing sound overhead.
They said that an oval shaped "craft", some 8ft across, suddenly appeared near them and seemed to levitate about 2ft above the ground.
A door opened and three creatures - who were "humanoid" in shape and about 5ft tall - emerged and seized the men, "floating" them into the UFO, they later told police.
Both men reported being paralysed and numb - while Calvin claimed that he had fainted due to fright.
JONNY DILLON
A sketch of the creatures which allegedly "abducted" by Calvin and Charles
PHILIP MANTLE
This page describes how the "craft" never touched the ground and three creatures came out
The men said the creatures had claws at the ends of their arms, "carrot-like" growths for their nose and ears, and only one leg.
One page of Dr Harder’s handwritten notes states: “Key novel features - 1. Cessation of sensation upon contact. 2. “floating” them along one foot from the ground. 3. Crab-like arm appendages. Two ‘pincers’ of equal size.”
There was a “possible suggestion” they were “robot” due to their “lack of usual eye structure, pincers on arms and “possible fused lower ‘limbs’” according to the notes.
JONNY DILLON
The creatures allegedly had no neck, slit-like mouths and carrot-like nose and ears
PHILIP MANTLE
Dr Harder and Professor Hynek were sent to study the case but most of their research files - except these notes - have vanished
JONNY DILLON
We reported on the bizarre Pascagoula 'alien abduction' in 19734
JONNY DILLON
A sketch of the UFO which the men claim they were taken onboard by the "alien creatures"
“After they touched them they felt nothing but weightlessness,” the doctors’ notes read.
On the ship, Charles claimed that he was examined by what looked like a large football-shaped mechanical eye, about 6 to 8 inches in diameter, that seemed to scan his body.
Calvin claimed that he could not recall what had happened to him inside the craft.
GETTY
Dr Hynek was a renowned astrophysicist who coined the term "close encounters'
The men said they were released after about 15-20 minutes and the creatures levitated them, with Charles's feet dragging along the ground, back to their original positions on the river bank.
In another page of the notes, Dr Harder said attorney Joe Colingo described the men as looking "scared to death" and "as frightened as any two adult human beings as I've ever seen."
Philip Mantle, a former director of investigations for the British UFO Research Association, managed to obtain the file containing the handwritten notes during his research.
PHILIP MANTLE
Many of Dr Harder and Prof Hynek's files relating to the case have mysteriously vanished
JONNY DILLON
Ufologist Philip Mantle is calling for anyone who knows where the other files are to get in touch
However - in a bizarre twist - he says that many of Prof Hynek’s and Dr Harder’s other notes and tapes from the case are mysteriously missing.
Hynek was a consultant to top secret UFO studies by the US Air Force including Project Blue Book (1952–1969). He initially started as a skeptic but went on to found the Centre for UFO Studies in 1973.
The astronomer also coined the phrase 'Close Enounters of the Third Kind' which was used as the title of Steve Spielberg's $20million blockbuster about UFOs in 1977.
His files were spread out between Northwestern University, the Centre for UFO Studies while Dr Harder's were kept at private facilities.
But Philip claims that dozens of boxes related to the case have vanished.
Philip, who has published the book Pascagoula - The Closest Encounter written by Calvin Parker, said: "No one knows who took these files.
"Were they taken deliberately, part of a possible cover-up? Or could they simply be lying in a collector's attic somewhere?
"The fact is that no one knows but we do know that these files and documents did exist and we are confident that they are 'out there' somewhere.
"We are asking anyone out there who might have these documents and files or may know of there whereabouts, or may have even been a witness themselves to the event, to please come forward.”
SpaceX wants to give rise to a human settlement on Mars.
Starting small with a couple of spaceships and expanding out into a sprawling metropolis, a colony on the red planet is partially the vision of Paul Wooster, principal Mars development engineer for SpaceX. Speaking at the 21st Annual International Mars Society Convention in August, Wooster detailed how SpaceX is grappling with some of the big questions that come with taking on one of the biggest projects in human history.
“The idea would be to expand out, start off not just with an outpost, but grow into a larger base, not just like there are in Antarctica, but really a village, a town, growing into a city and then multiple cities on Mars,” Wooster said. The convention notes that Wooster is a long-time supporter that attended early conferences and also served as a founding member of the Mars Society.
SpaceX founder Elon Musk detailed the company’s plans to reach Mars at the International Astronautical Congress in Adelaide, Australia, in September 2017. A newly designed “BFR” rocket that measures 348 feet tall will produce liftoff thrust of 5,400 tons from 31 Raptor engines. SpaceX will launch two rockets and their corresponding spaceships to Mars in 2022, filled with supplies for future missions. The company will send four more in 2024, two of which will ferry the first humans to the planet to set up an outpost.
Musk's BFR slide in its whole.
Wooster explained that each spaceship would carry around 100 tons of supplies, meaning the six ships would ferry around double the mass of the International Space Station to Mars. The ships would probably serve as the home for the first humans initially, as they work to extract resources and become self-sufficient fast. The humans will be tasked with extracting at least one tonne of ice per day, part of which will help make the methane fuel to bring the humans and rockets back to Earth.
The six ships are the first steps to permanent Martian cities. The humans will then need to consider establishing surface power, developing landing pads, habitats, greenhouses, additional life support, and all the other amenities to encourage a functioning settlement.
“All the capabilities you need to have a growing population on the surface,” Wooster said.
The BFR.
The humans will also have to consider tasks like setting up a suitable recycling system — no word on whether they’ll use color-coded bins. Another future issue is surface mobility, with artist concepts detailing pressurized rovers and a space suit for moving around the surface.
There are also questions about what they would be doing in their day-to-day life, once the settlement is stable. Researchers could learn more about the history, geology and climate of Mars. Teams could dive sub-surface, looking at questions about whether there ever was life on Mars — and if there is still life on Mars.
“These types of things are real opportunities for pretty much anyone in the broader Mars-related community to engage in,” Wooster said. “SpaceX is focused on getting the transportation architecture set up as quickly as possible, but it’s really to enable all these other types of activities.”
Ancient Mayan Statue Has QR Code On It's Face. Aliens Warning Us?
Ancient Mayan Statue Has QR Code On It's Face. Aliens Warning Us?
The ancient Mayan ruins of Mexico have nearly all, but a few, been excavated and their treasures placed in museums all over Mexico. This is not news. However, what may come as a shock to many, is that there are believers worldwide who fully believe that these statues hold proof that they were indeed made by ancient aliens, how inhabited our earth many, many years ago.
One such piece is that of an ancient Mayan statue, which has a face out of the ordinary. In fact, the face is a flat tablet, which looks remarkably like the QR codes we use in modern society to scan into our smart devices. There’s no doubt that its intention at the time was not to enable people thousands of years later to use as a scanning code, but experts have come to the conclusion it is more likely a warning of some kind, maybe of a disaster forthcoming sometime in the future.
Ancient Mayan Message?
News states “A photo of a statue with what looks like a QR code for a face has been making the rounds on social media, with some of the most imaginative people suggesting that it's evidence of ancient aliens. The "ancient aliens" would also have to be time traveling aliens, as QR codes were only invented in 1994. So the most likely explanation is that it's a modern statue.”
So, to believe its authenticity, people not only have to believe that the Mayans were indeed some alien race, but also that these aliens had the technology to be able to jump through time to thousands of years previously.
Whether or not people believe, a few have tried scanning the code into their smart devices to see just exactly what comes up. Nothing interesting! And there is speculation that it is no more than a model made by a Mexican electronic company to promote their products. It is up to you to come to your conclusions!
I took a few minutes to transcribe the QR code into machine readable format, and then scanned it. The result was rather boring:
The Pentagon in Washington, DC, is the largest building on Planet Earth – standing 71 feet (22 meters) high with each of the five sides measuring 921 feet (281 meters) in length. Astronomers studying the mysterious Hexagon which is located at Planet Saturn’s north pole have discovered new data which forced them to increase its measurements – the Hexagon is 20,000 miles (32,000 km) wide and about 180 miles high. If this Hexagon is the headquarters of Planet Saturn’s military, we’re gonna need a bigger Space Force.
Fortunately, astronomers agree that the hexagon is a jet stream moving at about 200 mph (320 km/h) with a circular vortex spinning in the middle. First discovered by the Voyager 1 and Voyager 2 missions in 1980 and 1981, it was believed to only be as high as Saturn’s troposphere (lowest level of atmosphere). Cassini arrived in 2004 and its measurements seemed to confirm that of its predecessors. However, scientists decided to withhold final judgement until Saturn’s spring when the clouds changed to allow Cassini’s Composite Infrared Spectrometer (CIRS) to take better measurements. With Saturn’s year spanning 29 Earth years, spring didn’t arrive until 2009 and low temperatures didn’t allow accurate readings until 2014. (Is Saturn having climate change issues too?)
Nothing happens fast on Saturn, so it took the astronomers three more years of data collection and analysis to find out that that the hexagon is a towering monstrosity.
“As the polar vortex became more and more visible, we noticed it had hexagonal edges, and realized that we were seeing the pre-existing hexagon at much higher altitudes than previously thought.”
Credit: JPL/NASA
In a statement from the European Space Agency, Sandrine Guerlet of the Laboratoire de Météorologie Dynamique in France and co-author of the study published in Nature Communications, described the surprising discovery that the hexagon stands 180 miles tall. It seems hard to believe that a jet stream could maintain such a distinctive shape over such a large area and at such a high altitude, but there it is. Why?
“This could mean that there’s a fundamental asymmetry between Saturn’s poles that we’re yet to understand, or it could mean that the north polar vortex was still developing in our last observations and kept doing so after Cassini’s demise.”
The researchers found that Saturn’s south pole has no such hexagon anywhere at any height. That could mean the poles are different in ways not yet understood. One theory as to how a cloud could maintain such a solid, well-defined shape through multiple levels of atmosheres is a process called evanescence, where waves travel can travel upwards with only minor loss of strength, thus maintaining their shape. But why a hexagon? Lead author Leigh Fletcher of the University of Leicester answers that one.
“We simply need to know more. It’s quite frustrating that we only discovered this stratospheric hexagon right at the end of Cassini’s lifespan.”
Ah, yes … Cassini self-destructed in an atmospheric plunge on September 15, 2017. NASA has future missions to Saturn and its moons planned but none budgeted for. Since Cassini took over 6 year to get to Saturn, we’re not looking at getting new data for a while. Until then, Saturn continues to be the most stylish planet with its iconic rings and its huge polar hexagon.
At least we don’t have to worry about the Saturn Space Force … that will probably come from Enceladus.
Wikipedia notes: “North American Aerospace Defense Command…known until March 1981 as the North American Air Defense Command, is a combined organization of the United States and Canada that provides aerospace warning, air sovereignty, and protection for Northern America.Headquarters for NORAD and the NORAD/United States Northern Command (USNORTHCOM) center are located at Peterson Air Force Base in El Paso County, near Colorado Springs, Colorado. The nearby Cheyenne Mountain Complex has the Alternate Command Center. The NORAD commander and deputy commander (CINCNORAD) are, respectively, a United States four-star general or equivalent and a Canadian three-maple-leaf general or equivalent.”
It’s a little-known fact that now and again highly controversial tales surface concerning NORAD and nothing less than alien bodies. Of course, it’s not at all out of the question that the collective tales are simply that: tales. Indeed, as interesting as such stories are, they parallel sensational claims of (A) the U.S. Government having Bigfoot bodies hidden away at secret sites, of (B) extraterrestrial corpses held at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, Dayton, Ohio, and of (C) alien corpses hidden at the world’s most well-known secret base: Area 51. The stories are intriguing and eye-opening. But, so far, at least, no evidence of such bodies existing – and kept hidden behind closed doors – has ever surfaced. Worse, some of the stories come from people unwilling to share their full, real names – which effectively renders the stories useless, even if they do have some validity to them. All of which brings me back to the matter of NORAD and alien bodies.
In early 1968, Suzanne, then of Gallipolis, Ohio was told an amazing story by her father. According to the tale, Suzanne’s father decided to come clean on something that he knew of the UFO phenomenon. It was something amazing and which, if true, had a bearing on national security.. Suzanne’s father said that in 1965 and while employed at NORAD, he saw, under circumstances that he declined to explain, a series of black-and-white, aerial photographs of three small, large-headed bodies strewn around a desert floor, and which also showed a large amount of silvery, bright debris. The location, Suzanne’s father said, was New Mexico, and the photos were taken in 1947. This strongly suggests the now-famous Roswell affair of 1947 – although, admittedly, Suzanne’s father made no reference to Roswell at all. Suzanne was warned by her father not to reveal what he had told her until after his death – which occurred in 1981. Such was the concern, and even fear, in her father’s voice, however, Suzanne chose to remain silent until the late-1990s.
A very similar account surfaced from Kevin Randle and Don Schmitt – who have both dug deep into the intricacies of the Roswell affair. Commenting on those who had either direct or indirect access to actual crash- recovered exhibits of alien technology or alien remains, Schmitt and Randle stated the following in their 1991 book, UFO Crash at Roswell: “There are others, however, who have firsthand experiences, but who did not see the bodies. They, through their work with the military, saw files containing notes about the crashes and photographs of the bodies. One of those is a man who said he worked at NORAD in Colorado Springs. In the course of computerizing some of the files, he came across one labeled: USAAF (United States Army Air Force) Early Automation. The file dealt with the recovery of several small bodies and included black and white photographs of them. The man said the bodies were small, no more than four or five feet tall, with big heads.”
NORAD jets
There’s no doubting the fact that both accounts have similarities. First and foremost, there is the NORAD connection. Second, both men – Suzanne’s father and the Schmitt-Randle source – claimed, during the course of their work at NORAD, to have seen photos of small, unusual bodies. In both cases, the photos were black-and-white. Of course, none of this proves anything at all – indeed, one story may well be a fabrication, or an elaboration, based on the other. Like the stories coming out of Area 51 and Wright-Patterson, the NORAD tales are intriguing. But, right now, that’s all they are. Unless you know better…
UFO sightings in Washington, D.C. caused a stir in the White House in 1952.
(Credit: Bettmann Archive)
1952 was the year America caught flying-saucer fever.
So when a rash of strange sightings was reported in the skies over Washington D.C. that summer, the press and the public demanded answers. Were these unexplained radar blips, crafts that in some cases outran jets, part of a nuclear-armed Soviet invasion—a very real threat at the height of the Red Scare? Or were they evidence of something far more mysterious?
The Washington, D.C. sightings of July 1952, also known as “the Big Flap,” hold a special place in the history of unidentified flying objects. Major American newspapers were reporting multiple credible sightings by civilian and military radar operators and pilots—so many that a special intelligence unit of the U.S. Air Force was sent in to investigate. What they found—or didn’t find—along with the Air Force’s official explanation, fueled some of the earliest conspiracy theories about a government plot to hide evidence of alien life.
UFO mania takes hold
It all started in 1947, when a search-and-rescue pilot named Kenneth Arnold reported nine “saucer-like things…flying like geese in a diagonal chainlike line” at speeds exceeding 1,000 m.p.h. near Mount Rainier in Washington State. Within weeks, “flying saucer” sightings had been reported in 40 other states.
In the name of national security, Air Force General Nathan Twining launched Project SIGN (originally named Project SAUCER) in 1948, the first official military-intelligence program to collect information on UFO sightings. Its investigators dismissed the vast majority as hoaxes or misidentifications of known aircraft or natural phenomena.
But a few cases remained “unexplained.”
By 1952, the UFO-investigation unit was called Project Blue Book, led by Captain Edward Ruppelt at the Wright-Patterson Air Force Base in Dayton, Ohio. Ruppelt and his team would probably have continued to investigate a couple dozen sightings a month if not for the April 1952 issue of LIFE magazine. Just above its knockout cover shot of Marilyn Monroe ran an equally eye-catching headline: “There is a Case for Interplanetary Saucers.”
The article, written with Ruppelt’s full cooperation, explained the Air Force’s national-security interest in UFOs. And it made a convincing case—through the colorful retelling of 10 unexplained UFO “incidents”—that these unidentified objects were extraterrestrial in origin. As one rocket scientist working on “secret” projects for the U.S. told LIFE: “I am completely convinced that they have an out-of-world basis.”
According to The Washington Post, the number of UFO sightings reported to the Air Force jumped more than sixfold, from 23 in March 1952 to 148 in June. By July, the precise conditions were in place for a wildfire of UFO mania: widespread Cold War anxiety, mainstream press coverage of unexplained UFO incidents and a healthy dose of “midsummer madness.” All that was needed was a spark.
The Washington National Airport, 1953.
(Credit: PhotoQuest/Getty Images)
Mysterious radar blips buzzing over the White House
Shortly before midnight on Saturday, July 19, 1952, air-traffic controller Edward Nugent at Washington National Airport spotted seven slow-moving objects on his radar screen far from any known civilian or military flight paths. He called over his supervisor and joked about a “fleet of flying saucers.” At the same time, two more air-traffic controllers at National spotted a strange bright light hovering in the distance that suddenly zipped away at incredible speed.
At nearby Andrews Air Force Base, radar operators were getting the same unidentified blips—slow and clustered at first, then racing away at speeds exceeding 7,000 mph. Looking out his tower window, one Andrews controller saw what he described as an “orange ball of fire trailing a tail.” A commercial pilot, cruising over the Virginia and Washington, D.C. area, reported six streaking bright lights, “like falling stars without tails.”
When radar operators at National watched the objects buzz past the White House and Capitol building, the UFO jokes stopped. Two F-94 interceptor jets were scrambled, but each time they approached the locations appearing on the radar screens, the mysterious blips would disappear. By dawn of July 20, the objects were gone.
‘I tried to make contact with the bogies’
Nobody bothered to tell Ruppelt, the Air Force’s lead Project Blue Book investigator, about the sightings. He found out a few days later when he flew into Washington, D.C. and read news reports. Ruppelt tried to get out to National and Andrews to interview radar operators and air-traffic controllers, but was denied a government-issued car or even cab fare. Frustrated, he flew back to Ohio with nothing.
The very next Saturday, the UFOs were back over the nation’s capital. Again, Ruppelt found out through a phone call from a reporter, and immediately called on two Air Force colleagues to check out the situation at National. The same radar blips were back, and radar operators wondered out loud if the dozen or so objects on their screens couldn’t be caused by a temperature inversion, a common phenomenon in D.C.’s hot, muggy summer months.
A temperature inversion occurs when a layer of warm air forms in the low atmosphere, trapping cooler air beneath. Radar signals can bounce off this layer at shallow angles and mistakenly show near-ground objects as appearing in the sky. Ruppelt’s Air Force colleagues, however, were convinced that the objects on the radar screen weren’t mirages, but solid aircraft.
To be safe, two more F-94 jets were scrambled to chase down the unidentified targets appearing on radar screens at both National and Andrews. A game of high-speed Whack-a-Mole ensued, where the jets would race to a location targeted by radar, only for the blips to vanish. Finally, one of the jet pilots caught sight of a bright light in the distance and gave chase.
“I tried to make contact with the bogies below 1,000 feet,” the pilot later told reporters. “I saw several bright lights. I was at maximum speed, but even then I had no closing speed. I ceased chasing them because I saw no chance of overtaking them.”
Captain Edward Ruppelt, standing, and General John Samford, seated to the right of him, discussing the reports of unidentified flying objects with other Air Force officers at a 1952 news conference.
(Credit: Bettmann Archive/Getty Images)
Averting mass panic with a disputed theory
The next day, newspaper headlines across America screamed “Saucers Swarm Over Capital” and “Jets Chase D.C. Sky Ghosts.” The publicity and public panic over the sightings were so great that President Harry Truman himself asked aides to get answers. When they called Ruppelt, he said it could have been caused by a temperature inversion, but more investigation was needed to fully explain both the radar images and credible eyewitness accounts.
But before such an in-depth investigation could take place, the Air Force called a press conference, the longest such news event since World War II. The Air Force brass had decided, without consulting Ruppelt or the Project Blue Book team, that the best response to the sightings was to feed the press and the public an easy-to-swallow explanation.
Dodging specific questions about what pilots and radar operators had seen in the skies over the Capitol, Major General John Samford came back again and again to the temperature-inversion theory. Never mind that Ruppelt had since come to the opposite conclusion.
“The investigators had ruled out the inversion,” says Alejandro Rojas, editor of the UFO news site OpenMinds. “They had examined that situation. The radar operators said, ‘Inversions happen. We know what inversions look like. This is not an inversion. This is not the same thing at all.’”
To Ruppelt’s disappointment, the Air Force’s press conference worked exactly as planned. The papers reported the temperature-inversion story and the public largely seemed to accept it. In his 1956 book, The Report on Unidentified Flying Objects, Ruppelt reports that after the press conference, UFO sightings dropped from 50 a day to 10.
Skeptics, however, weren’t satisfied with the pat government response. Many accused Air Force and Project Blue Book investigators of devious behavior and secret knowledge. It wasn’t until Project Blue Book documents were made public WHEN that UFO sleuths could see that the closest thing to a government cover-up of UFO sightings in the nation’s capital was actually a conspiracy of ignorance.
“The Washington UFO flap perfectly illustrates the real government ‘cover-up’,” says Nick Pope, a UFO journalist who used to run UFO-investigations unit for the British Ministry of Defense. “It’s not a situation where the authorities conspired to keep some terrible truth about UFOs from the people, but rather, the government doing its best to keep people from realizing that they didn’t have all the answers.”
De dag dat UFO’s over het Witte Huis vlogen en de luchtmacht het weer de schuld gaf. Kreeg Washington buitenaards bezoek?
De dag dat UFO’s over het Witte Huis vlogen en de luchtmacht het weer de schuld gaf.Kreeg Washington buitenaards bezoek?
iOp zaterdag 19 juli 1954 zag luchtverkeersleider Edward Nugent zeven objecten op zijn radarscherm. Ze bevonden zich ver uit de buurt van vluchtpaden van militaire en burgervliegtuigen. Hij grapte dat hij een ‘vloot vliegende schotels’ zag.
Twee andere luchtverkeersleiders zagen op dat moment een vreemd fel licht in de verte dat plotseling met grote snelheid wegschoot.
Op de nabijgelegen Andrews Air Force Base werden dezelfde ongeïdentificeerde objecten waargenomen.
Oranje vuurbal
Ze bewogen zich in eerste instantie langzaam voort en bleven bij elkaar in de buurt, om vervolgens weg te schieten met snelheden van boven de 11.000 kilometer per uur.
Eén luchtverkeersleider zag een ‘oranje vuurbal met een staart’. Een piloot maakte melding van ‘zes felle lichten, als vallende sterren zonder staart’.
Toen de objecten over het Witte Huis en het Capitool vlogen, kwam er abrupt een einde aan de grapjes.
Twee F-94’s stegen op om de objecten te onderscheppen. Toen ze aankwamen, verdwenen de mysterieuze radarstipjes plotseling.
Gedwarsboomd
Edward J. Ruppelt, die voor de Amerikaanse luchtmacht onderzoek deed naar UFO’s en die Project Blue Book leidde, werd niet geïnformeerd over de waarneming.
Hij probeerde de luchtverkeersleiders te interviewen, maar werd daarbij gedwarsboomd. Hij gaf uiteindelijk op.
Een week later verschenen de UFO’s opnieuw boven de hoofdstad. Radarbeheerders vroegen zich af of de stipjes mogelijk werden veroorzaakt door termperatuurinversie.
Ruppelts collega’s binnen de luchtmacht waren er echter van overtuigd dat de objecten op het radarscherm geen illusie, maar echte vliegtuigen waren.
Paniek
Opnieuw werden twee F-94’s ingezet. Eén van de piloten zag de felle lichten in de verte en zette de achtervolging in.
“Ik probeerde contact te maken,” zei de piloot later tegen journalisten. “Ik zag meerdere felle lichten. Ik vloog op maximum snelheid, maar kwam niet dichterbij.”
De kranten stonden er bol van en al snel sloeg de paniek toe. De luchtmacht besloot het volk te vertellen dat de waarnemingen het gevolg waren van temperatuurinversie, terwijl dat duidelijk niet het geval was.
De kranten namen de verklaring over en het volk was weer rustig.
Hole That Caused Leak in Russian Spacecraft Possibly Traced to Assembly or Testing: Report
Hole That Caused Leak in Russian Spacecraft Possibly Traced to Assembly or Testing: Report
By Mike Wall, Space.com Senior Writer
Space station astronauts patched a small hole in the upper orbital module of the Soyuz MS-09 spacecraft (left) on Aug. 30, 2018. Russian space officials have said that hole was likely caused by a drill here on Earth; investigators are currently trying to figure out exactly what happened.
Credit: NASA/Space.com
The Russian Soyuz spacecraft responsible for last week's leak aboard the International Space Station (ISS) may have received its wounds here on Earth, on the grounds of its manufacturer, according to a new report from Russian news agency TASS.
ISS controllers noticed a slight pressure drop on the night of Aug. 29 and alerted crewmembers about it the next day. The astronauts traced the issue to a 2-millimeter (0.08 inches) hole in the upper "orbital module" of the crew-carrying Soyuz, which arrived at the station in June.
Cosmonaut Sergey Prokopyev, the Soyuz commander, soon patched the hole with epoxy, apparently solving the problem. Pressure levels have been steady ever since, NASA officials have said. (The leak never put crewmembers in any serious danger, officials have stressed.) [Russia's Crewed Soyuz Space Capsule Explained (Infographic)]
The cause of the hole remains under investigation, however. Early speculation centered on a possible micrometeoroid strike, but now human error is strongly suspected. Indeed, the hole's circular shape suggests a drilling mishap, as do nearby marks on the module wall.
The incident may have occurred during the final assembly or testing of the Soyuz, according to the new report, published today (Sept. 6) by the Russian news agency TASS. Both of these activities take place at facilities run by the Soyuz's builder, Russian aerospace company Energia, in the city of Korolyov, near Moscow.
"One of the possibilities is the spacecraft might have been damaged in the final assembly hangar. Or it could happen at the control and testing station, which carried out the final workmanship tests before the spacecraft was sent to Baikonur," an unnamed source in the aerospace industry told TASS, which stressed that it has not confirmed such suspicions.
Soyuz spacecraft — which have been astronauts' only ride to and from the ISS since NASA's space shuttle program retired in 2011 — launch from Baikonur Cosmodrome, in Kazakhstan.
The Soyuz passed pressure-chamber tests before going to Energia's final-assembly hangar, the source told TASS. And the assembly and testing facilities are tightly controlled spaces, he added. (TASS referred to the source as a "he.")
"Only those with proper security clearance are allowed to enter," the source said. "Also, at the entrance to the hangar and the control and measurement station there are security guards checking all those who come and go."
Energia is conducting an investigation into the Soyuz incident. And Dmitry Rogozin, the head of Russia's federal space agency, Roscosmos, has vowed to find the person or persons responsible.
The orbital module is a spherical portion of the Soyuz that allows more gear to go up with the spacecraft. Unlike the lower crew capsule, the orbital module does not survive re-entry into Earth's atmosphere.
"The part of the site that draws the most attention is the underground burial chamber of a Nubian king who conquered Egypt in 715 B.C.," writes National Geographic's Nora Rappaport. She quotes Turchik on the benefits of his chosen photographic technology, which allows him to "fly over and gain this connection between all the other burial sites, between the pyramid and the temple, and get an understanding of what that is from the air.”
Just as you'll visit the pyramids if you take a trip to Cairo, you'll visit the pyramids if you take a trip to Mexico City — but the pyramids of the still-impressive, still-mysterious ancient city of Teotihuacán. "Helicopters illegally fly over this area for foreign dignitaries, but we were told we might be the first to have filmed the pyramids with a drone," writes the uploader of the video just above. He and his collaborators shot it early one morning for a Boston University research project on "what the ruins of a pre-Aztec metropolis can teach us about today’s cities." History and urbanism buffs alike will want to read the accompanying article, but even just a glance at these clips tells you one thing for sure: whether old and long-ruined or relatively new and thriving, every city looks good from above.
Un homme a photographié de mystérieuses lumières bleues dans le ciel. Beaucoup pensent qu’il s’agissait d’un OVNI.
Lorsque Rolf Ernst a regardé le ciel nocturne au-dessus de Gundelsheim il y a un peu moins de trois semaines, il a vu quelque chose d’inexplicable. Environ 50 lumières bleues volaient entre Heidelberg et Nuremberg. Il a regardé cette scène pendant cinq minutes. Après cela, les lumières n’étaient plus visibles. Maintenant, le témoin se demande ce qu’il a vu cette nuit-là. En raconte son histoire au journal echo24.de le 18 août 2018, il s’est rendu compte qu’il n’était pas le seul à les avoir vus.
« Quels étaient ces objets volants étranges ? », s’est questionné le témoin tout en publiant une photo de son observation. Dès lors, des journalistes ont enquêté sur l’origine de ces lumières bleues. Ces lumières non identifiées pourraient avoir une explication rationnelle selon eux.
Au cours de cette enquête, ils ont constaté que ces lumières n’avaient pas été seulement visibles à travers Gundelsheim – et pas seulement le 18 août. A plusieurs reprises, des personnes ont signalé avoir assisté à ce même phénomène sur le site Web ufowatch.de. A chaque fois, il s’agissait d’une multitude de petites lumières qui se déplaçaient de manière uniforme, mais très rapidement dans le ciel.
Ces OVNI ressemblaient à ce qu’avait observé Rolf Ernst. Certains témoins ont même filmé ces lumières surnaturelles.
La photo de Rolf a été transmise à plusieurs observatoires. « Malheureusement, nous n’avons aucune information à ce sujet », a déclaré Volker Lang de l’observatoire Robert Meyer situé à Heilbronn. De plus, des sites d’information ont tenté de résoudre ce mystère, en vain.
Andreas Dobler de la Schwäbische Sternwarte de Stuttgart croit tenir une explication : « Pour nous, cela ressemble à un départ nocturne de ballons à LED. »
Ces objets sont souvent lancés dans le ciel pendant les mariages ou les anniversaires malgré le fait qu’ils soient interdits.
Cette explication vous semble-t-elle satisfaisante ?
The unique swirl patterns may be produced by ancient magma tubes.
An image of the Reiner Gamma lunar swirl from NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter. Image credits NASA / LRO / WAC science team.
If you prop up a telescope and look at the Moon, you’re likely to see some curious-looking shapes dotting its surface. Many people take them to be craters left over from meteorite impacts, since this is, after all, the Moon.
That would be jumping to conclusions, however, according to a team from the Rutgers University. These bright, undulating shapes are known as ‘lunar swirls’ and up until now, they were somewhat of a mystery.
Cheesy swirls
One of the most striking features of these swirls is that they come hand-in-hand with powerful — but localized — magnetic fields. These swirls, as well as their strange magnetism, have been known for decades. Efforts to map magnetic activity on the Moon (it doesn’t have a magnetic field of its own) during the Apollo 15 and 16 missions were the first to identify these swirls as sources of magnetism back in 1979.
Since then, try as we might, we just couldn’t make heads or tails of the swirls. Each new tidbit of information only seemed to compound the problem further. For example, the swirls are less pronounced and less intricate at higher altitudes. Every swirl has its own magnetic signature, but there are also magnetic fields on the Moon that are completely distinct from swirls. To top it all off, the swirls show geological signs suggesting they’re new formations (they’re much less weathered than the surrounding rocks) — however, they’re definitely not new formations; we’ve seen them up there for decades now.
Reiner Gamma (60 km width, same swirl as above), seen by the Clementine spacecraft. Image credits NASA.
“The cause of those magnetic fields, and thus of the swirls themselves, had long been a mystery,” said planetary scientist Sonia Tikoo of Rutgers University-New Brunswick.
“To solve it, we had to find out what kind of geological feature could produce these magnetic fields – and why their magnetism is so powerful.”
Computer modeling allowed the team to discover that, in order to fit the observed magnetic signature, each swirl has to form close to or directly above narrow structures that are close to the surface and can create a magnetic field. One structure that would fit this description are lava tubes, or lava dikes — the products of ancient volcanic activity, the team explains.
These tubes are left-overs from the same basalt lava flows which, 3 to 4 billion years ago, created the dark and wide basalt plains seen over the lunar surface. This would explain why those underground formations became magnetized. The magnetic fields generated by the tubes would also deflect incoming solar wind particles, helping to insulate the swirls from weathering effects.
When Moon rock (regolith) is heated to around 600° Celsius (875° Kelvin or 1,112° Fahrenheit) in an environment that lacks oxygen but has a magnetic field, it becomes ‘imprinted’ with this field itself — it becomes magnetized. Heat causes some minerals in the rock to break down, releasing iron, which becomes magnetized across the same direction as the surrounding field.
This process doesn’t usually take place on Earth, because there’s a lot of oxygen here. It can’t take place on the Moon today, because it lost both its lava flows and its magnetic field. However, according to some of the team’s prior research, the lunar magnetic field persisted up to 2 billion years longer. So their hypothesis fits the timeline.
“No one had thought about this reaction in terms of explaining these unusually strong magnetic features on the Moon,” Tikoo said. “This was the final piece in the puzzle of understanding the magnetism that underlies these lunar swirls.”
The team hopes that the next mission to the Moon will study these swirls directly, and confirm or disprove their hypothesis.
The paper “Lunar Swirl Morphology Constrains the Geometry, Magnetization, and Origins of Lunar Magnetic Anomalies” has been published in the Journal of Geophysical Research: Planets.
Life on Mars? 40 Years Later, Viking Lander Scientist Still Says 'Yes'
Life on Mars? 40 Years Later, Viking Lander Scientist Still Says 'Yes'
By Leonard David, Space.com's Space Insider Columnist
NASA's twin Viking landers touched down on Mars in 1976 to hunt for signs of life on the Red Planet. Forty years later, scientists are still arguing about what the landers' observations mean.
Credit: NASA
In 1976, NASA's twin Viking landers touched down on Mars in an attempt to answer a weighty question: Is there life on the Red Planet?
Gilbert Levin was the principal investigator of the Vikings' Labeled Release (LR) life-detection experiment. The instrument got positive responses at both landing locales. However, scientists did not reach a consensus on whether his results were proof of life.
Now, more than four decades after the Viking landings — and with a lot more information about Mars in hand — Levin believes that NASA hasn't properly followed up on the Viking landers' results.
Gilbert Levin, Mars maverick.
Credit: Gilbert Levin
"I am certain that NASA knows there is life on Mars," he said this past July on David Livingston's popular online program "The Space Show."
Levin called for a re-examination of Viking LR data by an objective panel. But there's more.
Over the past 40 years, a succession of orbiters, landers and rovers has gathered evidence that life exists on Mars today, Levin said.
There is "substantial and circumstantial evidence for extant microbial life on Mars," he said on "The Space Show."
Methane spikes
As an example, Levin noted that NASA's Curiosity rover has found cyclical and seasonal spikes in Mars methane. More than 90 percent of the methane in Earth's atmosphere is generated by microbes and other organisms.
"This is really hard to ignore as evidence for life," Levin said.
However, water-rock chemistry can also produce methane, so it's not persuasive evidence of life, Curiosity mission team members and other scientists have said.
NASA's Curiosity rover used an instrument called SAM (Sample Analysis at Mars ) to detect seasonal changes in atmospheric methane in Gale Crater. The methane signal has been observed for nearly three Martian years (nearly six Earth years), peaking each summer.
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech
Curiosity has also discovered organic molecules in 3-billion-year-old sedimentary rocks near the surface. Organics are the carbon-containing building blocks of life as we know it. But again, they're not convincing evidence of life by themselves; naturally occurring organics have also been spotted on asteroids, for example.
Water, water and more water
Mars Express’ MARSIS radar instrument made 29 dedicated observations in a 200-kilometer-square area near Mars’ south pole between 2012 and 2015, indicated on the map at left. The readings turned up a bright radar reflection indicative of liquid water, shown as blue on the map at right.
(Context map: NASA / Viking; THEMIS background: NASA / JPL-Caltech / ASU; MARSIS data: ESA / NASA / JPL / ASI / Univ. Rome; R. Orosei et al 2018)
An enhanced color image of a part of Mars' massive valley, Valles Marineris.
Image: nasa
Readings from ground-penetrating radar suggest the presence of liquid water about 1.5 kilometers (1 mile) beneath the Martian surface.
(ESA / NASA / JPL / ASI / Univ. Rome; R. Orosei et al 2018)
Then there's the July 2018 news from the European Space Agency's Mars Express mission: The orbiter apparently spotted an underground lake beneath a mile of ice near the Red Planet's south pole.
Various spacecraft have found evidence of water on Mars over the years, Levin said, and now "we are deluged with an underground lake … so water is no longer the problem."
Levin also pointed to Curiosity imagery that can be interpreted as depicting fossilized stromatolites, structures that are built by colonial microbes here on Earth. There are intriguing similarities between ancient sedimentary rocks on Mars and structures shaped by microbes on Earth, he said.
Everything that we have learned about environmental conditions on Mars, Levin said, would permit terrestrial microorganisms to survive — and that includes the harsh radiation, the low pressure and the frigid temperatures.
As for present-day life on the Red Planet, "it's getting to the point where the shoe is on the other foot," Levin said. "It's very hard to image a sterile Mars." [Ancient Mars Could Have Supported Life (Photos)]
More knowledge
Viking veteran Ben Clark, now a senior research scientist at the Space Science Institute in Boulder, Colorado, said "it's about time to start earnestly searching for signs of [Mars] life again."
Clark developed a Viking-carried instrument that measured the composition of Martian soils.
"From what we have learned since Viking about the past history of Mars, it was even more eminently suited for the origin of life than we knew when the search began," Clark said. "A Viking lesson learned is that you had better understand the environment well before designing tests for biological activity."
Astrobiologist Dirk Schulze-Makuch, a professor at the Technical University Berliny, also said the Viking life-detection experiments were conducted before scientists really understood the Red Planet.
"Life is intrinsically linked to its environment," Schulze-Makuch told Space.com. Not having that information in hand, we cannot home in on optimal search and life-detection strategies, and "that, of course, also applies to the icy moons," he added, referring to ocean-harboring worlds such as the Jupiter moon Europa and the Saturn satellite Enceladus.
"If it would have been known at the time of the Viking mission about Mars what is known today, they probably would have come up with the conclusion that microbial life likely exists on Mars," Schulze-Makuch said.
"I think the consensus is shifting more into the direction that the extraordinary claim would be that 'Mars is and was always lifeless,'" he added, referring to astronomer Carl Sagan's famous saying that "extraordinary claims need extraordinary evidence."
Nevertheless, Schulze-Makuch said that any declaration of life on Mars still requires overwhelming evidence before being scientifically saluted. "Just think about how long it took before it was accepted that there was and still is liquid water on Mars!" he said.
The biological package carried by the Viking 1 and Viking 2 landers to search for evidence of life.
Credit: NASA
Better-informed instruments
John Rummel is familiar with Levin's steadfast life-on-Mars position.
"The Mars science community would have benefited greatly if Gil Levin had aspired to a leadership position in science after the Viking lander missions had completed their life-detection experiments," said Rummel, who twice served as NASA's planetary protection officer and is a former chair on planetary protection for the agency's Committee on Space Research.
New missions with better-informed instruments looking for life were possible then, Rummel said, but they needed a strong advocate who had the sort of data that Levin possessed.
"Fundamentally, there is nothing new about Mars that wasn't possible with Viking, but it is a long way from Chryse or Utopia [the two Viking landing spots on Mars in 1976] to the sub-polar-cap lake now claimed by the Italians," Rummel, who's now based at the SETI (Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence) Institute, told Space.com. "If Levin had stayed fully engaged, we might have already tried to go there."
Beyond the science debate
Astrobiologist Chris McKay, of NASA's Ames Research Center in Silicon Valley, is a longtime Mars investigator.
The science community is in general agreement, McKay said, that the Viking LR experiment did not detect life. The reactions noted by that instrument and the other results from Viking can be explained by reactive chemicals called perchlorates, he said.
Perchlorates were first detected in Martian soil by NASA's Phoenix lander in 2008, nearth the Red Planet's north pole. Further observations by other spacecraft strongly suggest that perchlorates are widespread throughout Mars.
That perchlorate explanation, however, is tentative, McKay said. "We cannot rule out that Gil Levin is correct and that there are dormant life-forms in the Martian soil," he said.
If so, that finding has implications beyond the science debated. "Are we confident enough that the Martian soil is lifeless to send astronauts … and then to bring those astronauts back to Earth? I say no," McKay said. "It seems to me that the standard of proof must be higher for these activities, and we have not reached that standard yet."
But McKay thinks Levin is right in continuing to insist that the possibility of life be considered.
"Life may not be the scientifically preferred explanation, but it cannot yet be disproven," McKay concluded.
Leonard David is author of "Mars: Our Future on the Red Planet," published by National Geographic. The book is a companion to the National Geographic Channel series "Mars." A longtime writer for Space.com, David has been reporting on the space industry for more than five decades.
De NASA weet dat er leven is op Mars. Volgens deze Vikinglander-wetenschapper kunnen we het bewijs niet langer negeren
De NASA weet dat er leven is op Mars. Volgens deze Vikinglander-wetenschapper kunnen we het bewijs niet langer negeren
In 1976 kwamen twee Vikinglanders aan op Mars om daar te speuren naar leven. Volgens Gilbert Levin, die deel uitmaakte van het Vikingprogramma, is dat ook daadwerkelijk gevonden.
Levin claimt dat de NASA de resultaten van de Vikinglanders niet goed heeft onderzocht.
“Ik ben er zeker van dat NASA weet dat er leven is op Mars,” zei hij.
Ook nu nog
In de afgelopen 40 jaar hebben sondes, landers en rovers bewijs verzameld waaruit blijkt dat leven ook nu nog op Mars bestaat, aldus Levin.
“Er is substantieel en indirect bewijs voor microbieel leven op Mars,” zei hij.
Hij merkte op dat NASA’s Marsrover Curiosity methaanpieken heeft gevonden op de rode planeet. “Meer dan 90 procent van alle methaan in de aardatmosfeer wordt geproduceerd door microben en andere organismen,” klonk het.
Niet negeren
“Dit kun je gewoon niet negeren als bewijs voor leven,” zei Levin.
In juli dit jaar liet de Europese ruimtevaartorganisatie ESA weten dat er een ondergronds meer was ontdekt op de rode planeet.
Foto’s
Door de jaren heen hebben verschillende ruimtesondes bewijs voor water op Mars gevonden, merkte Levin op. “Water is dus niet langer het probleem.”
Hij wees daarnaast op foto’s van Curiosity waarop volgens hem gefossiliseerde stromatolieten zijn te zien, structuren die op aarde worden achtergelaten door microben.
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Conspiracy theorists claim Novichok crop circle predicted Dawn Sturgess’ death as giant sign for chemical weapons appeared in nearby field just hours before
Conspiracy theorists claim Novichok crop circle predicted Dawn Sturgess’ death as giant sign for chemical weapons appeared in nearby field just hours before
Just before the 44-year-old died, a strange pattern appeared in a wheat field near her hometown of Amesbury. But was the strange formation an artistic prank or something much more sinister?
By Anthea Gerrie
Was it a hoax by pranksters with highly sophisticated compasses and tools - or a terrifying message from outer space?
A giant crop circle - a geometric formation that appears in a field without explanation - showing the symbol for chemical weapons, was spotted just hours before Dawn Sturgess died of Novichok poisoning in July.
CROPCIRCLECONNECTOR.COM
This Novichok crop circle appeared near Salisbury in July
Like former Russian intelligence officer Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia, who fell critically ill in Salisbury in March, Dawn collapsed after coming into contact with the same poison in Amesbury - just eight miles away.
While the Skripals survived, Dawn tragically died on July 8 - eight days after first being taken to hospital.
Novichok is designed to be among the deadliest nerve agents ever made, created by Russian scientists who developed it between 1971 and 1993.
Once in contact with the human body it causes uncontrollable shaking, breathing becomes impossible and eventually victims die of heart failure.
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Dawn Sturgess died from Novichok poisoning soon after a crop circle appeared
Yesterday cops released a European Arrest Warrant for Russian spies Alexander Petrov and Ruslan Boshirov - almost six months after the Skripal poisoning.
But crop circle enthusiasts believe there was an ominous sign sent from a greater power which foretold her death.
They say it appeared as she lay on her deathbed, after the news broke of her poisoning but before she took her final breath.
So was this an act of some extraterrestrial power or a man-made hoax?
War signs in England's fields
The Novichok crop circle was spotted on an isolated hill near Amesbury, Wiltshire where Dawn lived, on July 7, the day before she died.
It consisted of three circles forming a triangle linked to a small inner circle - the international symbol for chemical weapons - within a huge outer circle measuring 175 feet wide.
These men are wanted over the attempted hit on the Skripals in Salisbury
Photographer Matthew Williams says he was first on the scene of the formation after being tipped off by an anonymous source. He denies having any involvement in it's creation.
Matthew, who was the first person to be prosecuted for destruction of a farmer's crop when he was caught creating a circle in 2000, tells Sun Online: "The circle was created the day before the untimely passing of Dawn Sturgess."
"It would never be intended in any other way than to warn of the use of such weapons and to highlight the plight of the victims."
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Photographer Matthew Williams has previously made crop circles
Roeland Beljon, who has been researching crop circles for 24 years, believes formations can be created by the power of thought - and he thinks this could be true of the Novichok circle.
“The formation near Amesbury could be a hoax or the real phenomenon," he tells Sun Online.
"It doesn't really matter whether the connection between the formation and the poisoning was intentional.”
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Lucy says crop circles are built on lines of energy
Monique Klinkenbergh, owner of the Crop Circle Exhibition centre in Hampshire, agrees that the interest in the poisonings could have caused a related shape to appear, saying that if people talk or think a lot about a subject it can appear as a pattern in the fields.
The mother-of-four tells Sun Online: “To know whether a crop circle is ‘authentic’, you have to be the very first in the circle to look for any signs of people having been present.”
Monique gave up her job as an art publisher to research crop circles
Mysterious crop circle appears in Essex on the eve of the solar eclipse in bizarre aerial footage
"If the crop has been carefully laid in an intricate pattern it's likely to be real - whereas you can tell if it's just been flattened crudely with a board as man-made circles are."
Alien messages and energy lines
Crop circles appear predominantly in Wiltshire, Hampshire and adjacent counties but have been spotted as far east as Essex and as far north as Yorkshire.
While nobody can say for certain why Wiltshire sees the most common sightings, it's believed it could be down to the fact it's one of the most spiritual places in the country.
Energy lines are believed to run through the county, which is the reason why ancient people built Stonehenge and Avebury Circle there.
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An intricate crop circle found in Wiltshire in 2000
Monique Klinkenbergh, who has opened a museum about crop circles in Wiltshire
Magical healing powers
Some researchers, including former professor of architecture Michael Glickman, say the formations are too geometrically complex to be man-made, while others suggest forces of nature cause them to occur.
“We know an electric force is involved in the formation of crop circles,” says Lucy Pringle, who has been researching crop circles for 28 years and claims sitting in one healed her injuries.
Lucy Pringle says being in a crop circle healed her shoulder injury
"I had damaged my right shoulder playing tennis the previous evening," she tells Sun Online.
"As I was sitting relaxing in the circle, I became aware of energy rippling through my shoulders.
"I gently moved my right shoulder and found to my amazement that I could move it without pain.
"I stayed where I was and let the energy continue to flow, until my shoulder was completely mobile and free of pain.”
Notable crop circles - and where to see them
Some of the most impressive circles include:
The Julia Set - 151 individual circles forming a comma shape 900 feet along appeared in a field opposite Stonehenge on a Sunday afternoon in 1996, stopping traffic.
The Galaxy - a formation of 409 individual circles arranged in a giant spiral which appeared on Milk Hill, also in Wiltshire, in 2001
The Martinsell Hill, Wiltshire, formation of July this year containing 140 identical triangles forming a five-pointed star within a circle.
Angry farmers with £120k losses
While some farmers whose land becomes damaged by crop circles make light of it, others are not so tolerant.
Tim Carson, who has had more than 100 circles appear on his land in Pewsey Downs, Wiltshire, claims they have cost him £120,000 in damaged crops - and he's had to spend thousands more on replacement products.
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Crop circles may look pretty, but they can cost thousands of pounds' worth of damage
It has been harvest time since the chemical symbol circle's arrival in July, wiping away a trace of the intricate pattern.
So how it first ended up in the fields of Wiltshire, for now, remains a mystery.
Zenuwgas-graancirkel verschenen in Groot-Brittannië na vergiftiging. Was dit een onheilspellend teken?
Zenuwgas-graancirkel verschenen in Groot-Brittannië na vergiftiging. Was dit een onheilspellend teken?
Vlak nadat Dawn Sturgess in juli werd vergiftigd met zenuwgas, verscheen er een gigantische graancirkel in een weiland met het symbool voor chemische wapens.
Dawn zakte net als de voormalige dubbelspion Sergej Skripal en zijn dochter Joelia in elkaar nadat ze in contact was gekomen met het gifgas.
Hoewel de Skripals de aanslag overleefden, overleed Dawn op 8 juli, acht dagen nadat ze naar het ziekenhuis was overgebracht.
Symbool
De graancirkel werd ontdekt in de omgeving van Amesbury in Wiltshire, op de dag voordat de vrouw overleed.
De formatie bestond uit drie cirkels die een driehoek vormden en die verbonden waren met een kleinere cirkel in het midden; het internationale symbool voor chemische wapens.
Fotograaf Matthew Williams kreeg naar eigen zeggen een anonieme tip over de graancirkel. “De cirkel is een dag voor het overlijden van Dawn Sturgess gemaakt,” zei hij tegen The Sun.
Roeland Beljon, die al 24 jaar onderzoek doet naar graancirkels, zei dat formaties kunnen ontstaan als gevolg van gedachtekracht.
Aandacht
Graancirkelonderzoekster Monique Klinkenbergh zei dat de graancirkel kan zijn ontstaan vanwege alle aandacht voor de vergiftigingen.
Als mensen veel over een bepaald onderwerp praten of nadenken, kan het als patroon in een weiland ontstaan, zei ze.
Graancirkels verschijnen vooral in Wiltshire, Hampshire en nabijgelegen graafschappen.
Energielijnen
Dat daar zoveel formaties verschijnen zou te maken hebben met energielijnen die door het land lopen.
Sommige wetenschappers, zoals oud-professor Michael Glickman, zijn van mening dat de formaties te complex zijn om door mensen gemaakt te kunnen worden.
Anderen zeggen dat ze ontstaan door natuurkrachten. “We weten dat een elektrische kracht betrokken is bij het ontstaan van graancirkels,” zei Lucy Pringle, die al 28 jaar onderzoek doet naar dit fenomeen.
Did Google Earth just expose NASA? Bizarre 'pyramid structure' spotted on moon
Did Google Earth just expose NASA? Bizarre 'pyramid structure' spotted on moon
AN ANCIENT civilisation that lived on the moon has been exposed after a pyramid structure was discovered on the surface, according to wild claims online.
Mysterieuze piramidevorm ontdekt op de maan. Kijk en oordeel zelf
Mysterieuze piramidevorm ontdekt op de maan. Kijk en oordeel zelf
Op internet is er aandacht voor een vreemde vondst op de maan. De Argentijn Marcelo Irazusta claimt op Google Earth een piramideachtige structuur op het maanoppervlak te hebben ontdekt, zo schrijft de Daily Star.
Hij stelt in een video op zijn YouTube-kanaal dat deze onregelmatigheid niet op natuurlijke wijze kan zijn ontstaan.
Anderen lijken het met hem eens te zijn en claimden dat het Amerikaanse ruimteagentschap belangrijke informatie voor ons achterhoudt.
Leugens
“Wanneer zullen mensen de leugens van de NASA doorprikken?” vroeg iemand zich af. En een ander zei: “Wat een vondst. Ze gaan hem zeker onder het tapijt vegen.”
Weer iemand anders schreef: “Piramides op de maan. Wauw, dit kan de wetenschap doen veranderen.”
Er waren ook sceptische reacties. Zo beweerden sommigen dat de software verantwoordelijk is voor de piramidevorm.
Piramide
Vorig jaar zei UFO-jager Mark Sawalha een piramidevorm te hebben ontdekt op de maan, en wel op een foto van de NASA.
“Je ziet op een foto van de Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter van de NASA in het midden van de krater Eudoxus een object dat eruitziet als een piramide,” zei hij.
Sawalha ontdekte eerder ook al vreemde objecten op de maan.
W.Y. Evans-Wentz was born in Trenton, New Jersey in 1878 and developed a deep interest in the world of the paranormal at a young age. It was an interest that he never lost. Indeed, it stayed with him until his death, in 1965. As well as being a respected anthropologist, Evans-Wentz was someone who was also fascinated by Buddhist teachings and beliefs. Evans-Wentz was a prestigious writer and publisher, having published, in 1927, an English version of widely acclaimed and still extensively read, The Tibetan Book of the Dead. As for his own books, they were as notable as they were varied, one of the most revered being The Fairy-Faith in Celtic Countries. It’s a book which is packed with fascinating accounts of old, supernatural encounters between the people of Ireland, Wales, Scotland, the Isle of Man, and Brittany, and magical entities that have variously been referred to as elementals, fairies, goblins, sprites, and the “wee folk.” One story collected by Evans-Wentz stands out.
The story was personally shared with Evans-Wentz by a colleague at England’s Jesus College at Oxford University – a university which Evans-Wentz studied at as a young man. The story told to Evans-Wentz was as bizarre as it was undeniably sensational. The man in question was Irish and a former resident of County Kerry, one who had chosen Oxford University as his place of education. According to the curious story told to Evans-Wentz, it was in the first week of December 1910 that the man and a friend were heading home from a night out in the Irish city of Limerick. Given that it was a fair distance away, and darkness was already on the land when they went out – never mind during their return – they chose to travel on horseback, something which would make the journey to Limerick, and home again, an easy one. It turned out, however, that fate had other things in store for the two twenty-three-year-olds. Very strange and unforgettable things.
It was as they approached Listowel – a 14th century market town in County Kerry – that the pair couldn’t fail to see a powerful, brilliant light at a distance of around half a mile from them. Suddenly, the light was joined by another one that was practically identical in appearance, and also in size, which was somewhere in the order of around six feet in height. As the two men sat on their horses, and stared in amazement at these curious displays of light, they saw something incredible happen: within the flames that were contained within the two lights, they could see a pair of what were described as radiant beings with “human form;” the flames having transformed into the entities. The lights then moved towards each other and unified as one. The figures within, Evans-Wentz was told, then strode out of the lights and towards the two men. Incredibly, they seemed to be glowing. In other words, the brilliance they gave off was not a reflection from the balls of light that surrounded them. No, they were radiating the glowing eeriness themselves.
Such was the brightness, the two friends were unable to make out if their visitors of the night were male or female, or one of each. But, they were clearly humanoid and had noticeable halos around their heads. Not surprisingly, they quickly headed home, their galloping horses getting them there in a timely fashion.
Now, we get to the next part of the story: note that the two witnesses saw a pair of lights that transformed into radiant beings with “human form.” This issue is very similar – if not practically identical – to a story told by Contactee Orfeo Angelucci in the 1950s. It was the night of May 23, 1952 and as he drove home from work, not long after midnight something very strange happened. As he drove down Victory Boulevard, Angelucci was shocked and amazed to see “slightly above my line of vision,” a red, glowing, oval-shaped object that was “about five times as large as the red portion of a traffic light.” It seemed to carefully maintain its distance from Angelucci’s car, as if beckoning him to follow – which he did. He drove across a bridge spanning the Los Angeles River, and looked on, mesmerized, as the object came to a halt, hovering over the intersection at a “lonely, deserted stretch of road called Forest Lawn Drive.”
Without warning, the red-colored ball suddenly shot away at high speed – but not before two, smaller, fluorescent green objects, about three-feet in diameter, flew out of it and headed directly for Angelucci. They hung, magically, only a few feet above his car for a few minutes, after which something dramatic allegedly occurred. Emanating, apparently, from between the two green balls of light, said Angelucci, was the sound of “a masculine voice in strong, well-modulated tones and speaking perfect English.” Stressing that he should not be afraid, the disembodied voice explained to a shocked Angelucci that he was in direct communication with “friends from another world.” Angelucci was also told: “Man believes himself civilized, but often his thoughts are barbaric and his emotions lethal. We do not say this as criticism, but state it only as fact. Thus it is best to approach all planetary visitors with friendly, welcoming thoughts.” Angelucci went on to have other encounters of the Contactee variety and became a well-known figure in 1950s-era Ufology.
There is no doubt that there are notable parallels between both stories. Some might say that the two events – 42 years apart – were caused by the very same phenomenon. But, there is another connection that just might get to the heart of the matter. Just like W.Y. Evans-Wentz, Orfeo Angelucci was born in Trenton, New Jersey. In light of this, I have to wonder if Angelucci may have taken a deep interest in the writings of someone who just happened to be a local author (namely, W.Y. Evans-Wentz) and, subconsciously, weaved parts of the Evans-Wentz saga into his own. At the very least, it’s a theory to ponder on…
With all our science experiments, big machines, and monumental discoveries, it’s easy to forget that we, as a species, are still pretty dumb. Not in a “we were so focused on if we could, we never stopped to think if we should!” type of way (though that’s probably true as well), just in terms of sheer metrics: cold, dispassionate, void-of-opinion numbers. Here’s a quote from Dr Mauro Raggi, from Sapienza University in Rome, that illustrates the numerical quality of our dumbness pretty nicely:
“At the moment, we don’t know what more than 90% of the universe is made of.”
Yep. All the math we have to explain how the universe works does so quite nicely, except for one little, teeny-tiny, problem. The math only accounts for 4% of the universe. The other 96% of the observable universe is just sort of invisible. It’s referred to as the “dark sector” of the universe, and that’s what Dr Raggi and other scientists at the National Institute for Nuclear Physics are trying to observe. The dark sector is made up of dark matter and dark energy, and it’s referred to as “dark” because it’s never actually been detected, it’s only been predicted by equations which have, so far, been pretty spot-on.
Yep, no idea what most of that nonsense is up there.
According to theGuardian, scientists at the National Institute for Nuclear Physics are about to flip the on-switch of a machine that will hopefully give a glimpse into the illusive and, as of yet, only mathematically predicted “dark sector” that makes up 96% of the universe. The machine is called PADME, an acronym for Positron Annihilation into Dark Matter Experiment, which is such a great name that they should have foregone the acronym entirely.
If successful, this experiment would change modern physics and our understanding of the universe. According to Dr Raggi:
“If we find this force it will completely change the paradigm we have now. It would open up a new world and help us to understand the particles and forces that compose the dark sector.”
Along with proving the existence of dark matter, they say there’s a chance, albeit a remote chance, that such experiments could find a fifth fundamental force of the universe which dictates how dark matter behaves. It’s called the “dark force,” because for every of a name like Photon Annihilation into Dark Matter Experiment there’s a real stinker to balance it out.
So far we know of four fundamental forces of nature: the electromagnetic force, gravity, the strong force, and the weak force. The electromagnetic force refers to electrons behave and, consequently, magnetism and electricity. The strong force binds the nucleus of atoms together, weak force is observed in radiation, and gravity is slowly crushing us all. The dark force would add another to that list, but it’s complete speculation whether it’s even a reasonable thing to look for.
PADME will blast a stream of positrons—a form of antimatter—at a sheet of diamond. When the positrons hit the diamond sheet they will immediately collide with electrons and explode in a faint flash of light. If the team is correct, the amount of energy released will occasionally be lower than normal, this would be due to “dark photons” being created by the hypothesized “dark force.”
Bryan McKinnon, a research fellow at Glasgow University is part of a separate team searching for the mysterious dark sector. He says:
“It would definitely be a huge thing in physics if some evidence of a dark sector was found. Right now, it’s labelled as such because it’s the stuff we don’t understand. If a door can be opened, what will come out? That’s guesswork right now.”
The dark photon, if it exists, is effectively a portal. It lets us peer into the dark sector to see what is happening. It won’t open the floodgates, but it will allow us to have a little look.”
You know it’s a good time when the portal-talk starts.
It’s a good time for the weird side of the universe. Last week scientists successfully induced chemical changes in antimatter for the first time, and now people are about to start shooting antimatter beams at diamonds hoping to open portals to a dark sector. Things are getting weird, and at this rate, there’s a non-trivial probability that we all ascend as cosmic god-sorcerers in the not-so-distant future. There’s a better chance that we’ll just do some new and improved math, though.
As a follow-up article to my previous one on how we might go about finding proof of what happened outside of Roswell, New Mexico in the summer of 1947, I thought about sharing with you another possible scenario. It is, however, a scenario that most ufologists will not want to hear or even consider. In fact, a case can easily be made that it would be Ufology’s worst nightmare. And what might that worst nightmare be? Well, I’ll tell you. It’s the possibility (or the theory) that the Roswell evidence (bodies, wreckage, top secret files, and photos) no longer exists. In that scenario, all that is left is institutional memory. Barely that, even. Not a scrap of paper, not a section from an autopsy report, not a piece of the legendary “memory metal” said to have been found at the Foster Ranch. But, how could such a thing happen? Well, the answer to that question is this: it depends on what actually happened on the old ranch.
It goes without saying that if an alien spacecraft really did crash in New Mexico in early July 1947, then the recovered, material evidence would have been potentially priceless. It would have been preserved and studied not just for years, but for decades. Arguably, it would still be studied to this very day – albeit at a top secret level. If the bodies were of alien creatures, then at least some of them would have been autopsied, while others may have been purposefully left intact. No doubt, those same autopsies would have been photographed and filmed. On the other hand, let’s say it was suspected that the bodies fell more into what, today, we would term “Artificial Intelligence.” There would be equally good reasons for preserving the bodies. The time would likely come when we could finally understand and grasp the likes of extraterrestrial A.I. The advances in A.I.-based research would have been incredible, providing, of course, we could understand the technology. But, of one thing we can say for sure: A.I. entities would be preserved, as would be the almost-certainly-voluminous files on the studies of the bodies. The same goes for the likes of the aforementioned “memory metal,” for “power-plants,” for “drive-systems,” and much more. What all of this boils down to is the following: if aliens crashed near Roswell 71 years ago, somewhere there has to be a massive body of material, files, photos and more hidden away from everyone.
Now, we come to the far more controversial theory of all: that there is no evidence, no wreckage, no bodies, nothing. That there is absolutely zero to find. It’s all gone, destroyed, burned, and shredded. Such a thing is not at all impossible. That is, if you are open to the possibility that, yes, something came down on the Foster Ranch, but it wasn’t extraterrestrial.
Just about everyone in Ufology knows that in early July 1947 a press-release was prepared stating that personnel from the old Roswell Army Air Field had recovered a “flying disc.” A day later, it was all seen to be a big mistake: just a weather-balloon; nothing to get excited about. While I certainly don’t think the weather-balloon theory is valid, the fact is that if it was a case of a big mistake, and a major embarrassment, there would have been no reason to preserve the materials after the mistake was shown. After all, why keep the remains of a weather-balloon? Not only that: in all probability, there would be little paperwork generated for a quite-literally overnight sensation that was quickly snuffed out.
The same goes for the U.S. Air Force’s theory that a Mogul balloon – which were designed to monitor for early Soviet atomic detonations high in the atmosphere – was the culprit. Mogul balloons were nothing unique, at all. They were huge arrays of regular, balloon-based technology. Again, there would have been no need to save the remains of a huge Mogul balloon. And, the fact that the whole affair was caused by a domestic device would have meant that, yet again, any and all generated documentation might have been scant. Now, we come to the matter of a highly controversial scenario for Roswell; one in which bodies and wreckage were found and documentation was created, but that, today, no longer exists – at all.
In 2005, I wrote a book titled Body Snatchers in the Desert. It was a study of the claims of a number of elderly people – including whistle-blowers – who claimed to know what they said was the truth of the Roswell controversy. Namely, a series of top secret flights that took place in New Mexico in the summer of 1947. They were, I was told, high-altitude-based experiments that involved huge balloon-arrays, lifting-body-type aircraft, rocketry, and – the most controversial aspect of all – human “test-subject” used against their will; people taken from asylums, hospitals and other facilities – none of who would be missed. People attached to the controversial Paperclip program (that brought huge numbers of Nazi scientists to the United States) worked on the project, as did Japanese scientists. It’s a theory that was expanded on significantly in my 2017 book, The Roswell UFO Conspiracy.
All the people I interviewed told the story from their own perspectives: some claimed to have seen the mangled bodies of handicapped people used in the experiments. Others said they had read files on what amounted to a series of ill-fated flights, one of which came down on the Foster Ranch, Lincoln County, New Mexico in July 1947 and led to the legends of the crashed UFO and the alien bodies. When certain figures in government learned what was afoot, and that the line had been crossed to just about the worst degree possible, the program was hastily shut down. More important from the perspective of this particular article, the people I spoke with maintained that all of the files were destroyed – chiefly because the program failed and because of the illegality of certain operations. For the most part, I was told, the files were specifically burned to protect the guilty and to prevent the story from reaching the media. And, after the wrecked devices/arrays were studied to see what went wrong, they too were destroyed. When snippets of the story did reach the public and the press, the whole thing was covered up under a mass of fabricated tales of crashed UFOs and deceased extraterrestrials.
Now, it’s important to note that while I don’t think I was fed disinformation or outright lied to by my various sources, I can’t prove it; I have to remain open-minded. But, I will say this: the scenario presented in my two Roswell books is the only one which allows for (a) a significant event having occurred; (b) the recovery of bodies and wreckage from the ranch; (c) a huge cover-up of the facts; and (d the complete destruction of any and all documentation that told the truth of Roswell.
Basically, it all comes down to this: if the Roswell affair had extraterrestrial origins, everything is ordered to be preserved. If the Roswell incident was a dark and disturbing military experiment, everything is ordered to be destroyed. I doubt that most ufologists will sit well thinking that, just possibly, the only things left from Roswell might be old memories and nothing else at all. But, that just might be where things really stand.
During a lightning storm in Hungary a UFO was hit by one of the lightning strikes.
Or is it the other way around, the UFO pulls a lightning strike to itself since it looks like the UFO is waiting for the right moment to be connected with a lightning strike, around the 1.22 mark in the video. It is said that UFOs use the lightning strikes as an energy source.
The UFO seemed unaffected by the lightning strike.
Three UFO Lights Recorded Over Albany, New York On Aug 31, 2018, Video, UFO Sighting News.
Three UFO Lights Recorded Over Albany, New York On Aug 31, 2018, Video, UFO Sighting News.
Date of sighting: Aug 31, 2018 Location of sighting: Albany, New York, USA Source: MUFON #94655 Watch as three glowing lights fly in a triangle formation over New York this week. They move together as if they are watching out for one another or in military formation. The speed and the formation of they are in makes me wonder if they are a single large craft. You see, often UFOs are described as having three glowing propulsion systems on their bottom and I wonder if this is what we are seeing now? Scott C. Waring Eyewitness states:
My brother in law who would like to remain anonymous sent me 4 videos filmed on August 31st in Albany NY of Triangle light formations and orb type UFOs moving in a straight line over the city at about 10:10pm. I have sent the 4 videos to Secure Team but I also wanted to post a report to MUFON. I still have all 4 videos and would like to submit them! If you have any other questions please feel free to contact me! I might be able to talk my brother in law into speaking with you to give you more details!
Faster Than Light? Neutron-Star Merger Shot Out a Jet with Seemingly Impossible Speed
Faster Than Light? Neutron-Star Merger Shot Out a Jet with Seemingly Impossible Speed
By Mike Wall, Space.com Senior Writer
The simulated radio images in this not-to-scale artist's illustration show superfast jets blasting from the black hole created by the merger of two neutron stars, a dramatic event observed in August 2017. In the 155 days between two observations, the jet appeared to move 2 light-years, a distance that would require it to travel four times faster than light. This "superluminal motion" is an illusion created as the jet is pointed nearly toward the Earth; it is actually moving at about 97 percent light speed.
Credit: D. Berry, O. Gottlieb, K. Mooley, G. Hallinan, NRAO/AUI/NSF
The dramatic neutron-star merger that astronomers spotted last year generated a jet of material that seemed to move at four times the speed of light, a new study reports.
"Seemed" is the operative word here, of course; the laws of physics tell us that nothing can travel faster through space than light. So, the superluminal motion was an illusion, which was caused by the jet's (still very fast) speed and the fact that it blasted almost directly at us, researchers said.
"Based on our analysis, this jet most likely is very narrow, at most 5 degrees wide, and was pointed only 20 degrees away from the Earth’s direction," study co-author Adam Deller, of the Swinburne University of Technology in Australia, said in a statement from the National Radio Astronomy Observatory (NRAO), a facility of the U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF). [Gravitational Waves from Neutron Stars: The Discovery Explained]
"But to match our observations, the material in the jet also has to be blasting outwards at over 97 percent of the speed of light," he added.
Deller and his colleagues — led by Kunal Mooley, of the NRAO and the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena — used a variety of radio telescopes to study the aftermath of the neutron-star collision, a historic event known as GW170817.
GW170817 was the first documented collision of two neutron stars, the superdense remnants of massive stars that have died in supernova explosions. GW170817, which occurred about 130 million light-years from Earth, also opened the era of "multimessenger astronomy": it was the first event ever detected via both gravitational waves (the ripples in space-time first predicted by Albert Einstein a century ago) and electromagnetic radiation.
The name GW170817, by the way, is a nod to those gravitational waves, as well as the date astronomers observed the event — Aug. 17, 2017.
Scientists think the merger generated a powerful explosion that ejected a shell of material far out into space. Inside this shell, the merged neutron stars created a single black hole, which began sucking up lots of gas and dust. This material formed a fast-spinning disk around the black hole; before long, twin jets began blasting from this disk's poles, research team members said.
It had been unclear whether these jets broke through the debris shell created by the original explosion. But the observations by Mooley and his team — made 75 days and 230 days after the initial detection of GW170817 — indicate that this did indeed happen.
At first, the jets interacted with the expelled debris to form a sort of cocoon, which moved much more slowly than the jets themselves. But the jets eventually broke free into interstellar space.
"Our interpretation is that the cocoon dominated the radio emission until about 60 days after the merger, and at later times the emission was jet-dominated," study co-author Ore Gottlieb, a theorist at Tel Aviv University in Israel, said in the same statement.
This illustration shows the aftermath of the neutron-star merger. Ejecta from an initial explosion formed a shell around the black hole formed from the merger. A jet of material propelled from a disk surrounding the black hole first interacted with the ejecta material to form a broad "cocoon." Later, the jet broke through to emerge into interstellar space, where its extremely fast motion became apparent.
Credit: Sophia Dagnello, NRAO/AUI/NSF
Now for the faster-than-light part: In the 155 days between the two observations, the jet pointing toward Earth seemed to jump ahead by 2 light-years — a distance that suggests it was traveling at four times the speed of light. But again, this was just an illusion.
The new results suggest that neutron-star mergers are important sources of short-duration gamma-ray bursts, study team members said. Merger-generated jets need to be nearly aligned with Earth for these eruptions of high-energy light to be detected, they added.
“The merger event was important for a number of reasons, and it continues to surprise astronomers with more information,” Joe Pesce, NSF program director for NRAO, said in the same statement. "Jets are enigmatic phenomena seen in a number of environments, and now these exquisite observations in the radio part of the electromagnetic spectrum are providing fascinating insight into them, helping us understand how they work."
The new study was published online today (Sept. 5) in the journal Nature.
File photo: A UFO hunter has claimed to have spotted unidentified flying objects floating above a Trump golf course in Scotland.REUTERS/GETTY IMAGES
Four lights spotted over President Donald Trump's Scotland golf course this week sparked conspiracy theories about unidentified flying objects.
Four disc-shaped lights were allegedly spotted in the skies over the Trump Turnberry golf course in Scotland on August 16, moving in a straight-line path. An image of the suspect objects was posted to UFO Stalker, a platform that records global sightings.
The picture shows four objects in the Scottish clouds, looming over a small sand bunker and the nation’s flag. In the background are some picturesque mountains and the Ayrshire coastline.
“My niece was at Trump Turnberry golf course and took a picture of the golf course from the balcony of her room on August 16, 2018 at 7:56 pm Scotland time,” the UFO stalker stated.
“She emailed the picture because I like to play golf, and when I looked at it closely I saw four strange disk-shaped objects in the background which she said she had not noticed when taking the picture,” the description continued. “Can you help me identify these UFOs? Any ideas?”
Alleged UFO Sighting on Trump Turnberry golf course, Scotland, on August 16, 2018.
UFOSTALKER.COM
The Trump facility, which did not immediately respond to a request for comment, promises “an experience like no other” on its website but makes no mention of having to deal with aliens.
Unfortunately, one commenter under the post was quick to dispel with claims of a paranormal discovery. “Reflections of indoor lighting fixtures?” she wrote.
Trump, unlike Democratic consultant John Podesta has made no indication he believes in little green men. He has, however, pushed for a space force as a sixth branch of the Armed Forces.
“We stand at the birth of a new millennium, ready to unlock the mysteries of space, to free the Earth from the miseries of disease, and to harness the energies, industries and technologies of tomorrow,” the president stated in his inauguration speech in 2017.
Later, in December 2017, White House press secretary Sarah Sanders smirked when asked if Trump believed in the existence of UFOs. “I will check in on that and would be happy to circle back,” she said, responding to a question on a UFO program once managed by the Pentagon. That month, The New York Times revealed that $22 million had been spent on the "Aerospace Threat Identification" scheme.
It seems, based on a search of UFO Stalker, Scotland is a hotbed of unidentified flying objects. There are more than 240 results based around regions of the country stretching back years.
In one, from July 20, 2018, an individual claimed to have witnessed an “orange ball” with a “purple shield around it.” Another, from May, spotted a “dome-shaped object with something in it.” And a third Scottish disclosure described a “triangular shaped object” with “illuminated visible rings.”
So, unfortunately for Trump, the truth may be out there.
Four UFOs were allegedly spotted over Trump's Scotland golf course, but it may have just been reflections of light.
REUTERS/GETTY IMAGES
Correction: This story and headline have been updated to reflect the skepticism surrounding this "spotting."
38 UFOs Pass Across The Moon And Was Filmed by Astronomer In Italy
38 UFOs Pass Across The Moon And Was Filmed by Astronomer In Italy
This event was captured on July 29, 2018 in Rome, Italy by Alessio and submitted to TBV Investigations who have just released the footage following there investigations. The witness states: "It was the day after the Red Moon (or Blood Moon) and the weather was clear. To record the passage of the Moon I used the follow equipment:
-Sky-Watcher Maksutov SkyMax 127/1500 OTA -T2 ring -Pentax HD DA AF 1.4x rear converter -Pentax K-70
As wide as 2 Earths – like nothing seen on any other world – Saturn’s hexagon was thought to be a feature of the lower atmosphere, where Saturn’s weather happens. Now there’s evidence it extends high above the cloudtops.
The Cassini spacecraft used its wide-angle camera to capture this image of the ringed planet Saturn on April 2, 2014. You can see Saturn’s hexagon – an odd six-sided feature – surrounding its circular north polar vortex.
Space scientists have been fascinated by the hexagonal feature at Saturn’s north pole since the Voyager mission first discovered it in 1981. The hexagon – a jet stream in Saturn’s atmosphere, moving at some 200 mph (320 km/h) — was believed to be a feature of Saturn’s lower atmosphere, or troposphere, only. Now, however, as the seasons have passed on Saturn, this bizarre hexagon – which is wider than two Earths – appears to have changed. Writing in the peer-reviewed journal Nature Communications on September 3, 2018, scientists said they now have evidence that the hexagon extends to about 180 miles (300 km) above Saturn’s cloudtops, up into this world’s stratosphere, at least during Saturn’s northern spring and summer.
The new work is a long-term study, using data from the Cassini spacecraft, which arrived at Saturn in 2004 and began observing the hexagon in 2006. Cassini’s mission to Saturn ended in 2017, but scientists are still mining the mission’s data (and will be for years to come). Leigh Fletcher of the University of Leicester, U.K., lead author of the new study, said:
The edges of this newly-found vortex appear to be hexagonal, precisely matching a famous and bizarre hexagonal cloud pattern we see deeper down in Saturn’s atmosphere.
While we did expect to see a vortex of some kind at Saturn’s north pole as it grew warmer, its shape is really surprising. Either a hexagon has spawned spontaneously and identically at two different altitudes, one lower in the clouds and one high in the stratosphere, or the hexagon is in fact a towering structure spanning a vertical range of several hundred kilometers.
Cassini captured images in 2012 that were used to create this animation of Saturn’s northern polar hexagon.
Image via NASA/JPL-Caltech/SSI/Hampton University/ESA.
When Cassini arrived at Saturn in 2004, it was summer in that world’s southern hemisphere and winter on the northern half of the globe. Cassini saw a broad, warm, high-altitude vortex at Saturn’s southern pole, but none at the planet’s northern pole.
In the years since Cassini’s arrival at Saturn, the seasons shifted on Saturn, whose orbit around the sun and, thereby, seasonal cycle, lasts 30 years. In Cassini’s later years at Saturn, as summer approached that world’s northern hemisphere, scientists did see a polar vortex at Saturn’s north pole. The new work suggests this vortex forms high in the atmosphere too, also sitting hundreds of kilometers above the clouds, in Saturn’s stratosphere.
Just as on Earth, Saturn’s troposphere – a lower layer of the atmosphere – is home to most of the planet’s weather. The north polar hexagon was thought to reside in Saturn’s troposphere and to be, essentially, a weather feature. A statement from the European Space Agency (ESA) explained:
This feature was discovered by NASA’s Voyager spacecraft in the 1980s and has been studied for decades; it is a long-lasting wave potentially tied to Saturn’s rotation, a type of phenomenon also seen on Earth in structures such as the polar jet stream.
Its properties were revealed in detail by Cassini, which observed it in multiple wavelengths – from the ultraviolet to the infrared – using instruments including its Composite Infrared Spectrometer (CIRS). However, at the start of the mission this instrument could not peer further up in the northern stratosphere, which had temperatures around -158 degrees Celsius [-252 Fahrenheit] – some 20 degrees [68 F] too cold for reliable CIRS infrared observations – leaving these higher-altitude regions relatively unexplored for many years.
Co-author Sandrine Guerlet from Laboratoire de Météorologie Dynamique, France added:
One Saturnian year spans roughly 30 Earth years, so the winters are long.
Saturn only began to emerge from the depths of northern winter in 2009, and gradually warmed up as the northern hemisphere approached summertime.
As temperatures warmed around Saturn’s north pole, Fletcher and colleagues were able to study the polar vortex in infrared light. Guerlet said:
We were able to use the CIRS instrument to explore the northern stratosphere for the first time, from 2014 onwards. As the polar vortex became more and more visible, we noticed it had hexagonal edges, and realised that we were seeing the pre-existing hexagon at much higher altitudes than previously thought.
Brightness maps of the stratospheric hexagonal vortex at Saturn’s north pole via NASA/JPL-Caltech/University of Leicester/GSFC/L.N. Fletcher et al. 2018.
Scientists are fascinated by the differences between Saturn’s two poles. They said there was no hexagon at the south pole, either at the cloud tops or above, when it was observed early in Cassini’s mission during southern summer. The northern vortex is also nowhere nearly as mature as the southern vortex, as it is cooler and displays different dynamics from its southern counterpart. Fletcher said:
This could mean that there’s a fundamental asymmetry between Saturn’s poles that we’re yet to understand, or it could mean that the north polar vortex was still developing in our last observations and kept doing so after Cassini’s demise.
The long-running Cassini mission came to an end in September 2017.
… understanding how and why Saturn’s north polar vortex has assumed a hexagonal shape will shed light on how phenomena deeper down in an atmosphere can influence the environment high up above, something that is of particular interest to scientists trying to figure out how energy is transported around in planetary atmospheres.
Saturn’s northern hemisphere passed its summer solstice in May 2017, shortly before Cassini plunged into Saturn’s atmosphere, ending its mission. The north polar region is expected to continue developing as the northern hemisphere moves toward its autumn equinox in 2024.
However, there is no spacecraft at Saturn now to obtain close observations of any subsequent changes in Saturn’s atmosphere. In this way, as in so many others, Cassini is missed.
Bottom line: The hexagon at Saturn’s north pole – a jet-stream-like feature – was thought to occur in a lower layer of the atmosphere, the troposphere, where most of Saturn’s weather occurs. By mining Cassini spacecraft data, as the season shifted toward summer in Saturn’s northern hemisphere, European scientists found that the hexagon extends to about 180 miles (300 km) above Saturn’s cloudtops, into this world’s stratosphere.
Late-night comedians skewered Vice President Mike Pence in August when he announced preliminary plans for a new branch of the U.S. military dubbed the “Space Force.” Jimmy Kimmel likened the idea to a Michael Bay action movie, while Jimmy Fallon quipped that the Space Force’s chain of command would go “E.T., Yoda, then Groot.”
But, as a new book by astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson and researcher-writer Avis Lang demonstrates, the militarization of space is no joke.
In Accessory to War, Tyson and Lang chronicle how war-makers have long wielded knowledge of outer space as a weapon. This bloody history features Christopher Columbus exploiting his awareness of an upcoming lunar eclipse to threaten natives on the island of Hispaniola with divine retribution, as well as the United States using satellite intelligence to fight the Gulf War.
“As for America’s forthcoming wars,” Tyson and Lang predict, “they will be waged with even more formidable space assets.”
But just as militaries have long used space science and space-based technology to their advantage, astronomers and astrophysicists have reaped the rewards of military investment. James Cook, a captain in the British Navy, for example, established an observatory in Tahiti. Observations of Venus passing across the face of the sun in 1769 from that observatory helped astronomers pin down the distance between Earth and the sun. During the Cold War, U.S. military satellites designed to watch for nuclear detonations discovered gamma-ray bursts, some of the most spectacular explosions in the universe (SN: 1/10/15, p. 15).
Tyson and Lang’s millennia-long world history is sprawling. The book is exhaustively researched, almost to the point of information overload. It’s easy to get bogged down in parenthetical asides about minor characters or paragraph-long lists. The book is the antithesis of Tyson’s starry-eyed, bite-sized Astrophysics for People in a Hurry and may end up on the shelves of more history buffs than astro nerds.
Still, Accessory to War lives up to much of the promise of a Neil deGrasse Tyson read: Written from Tyson’s perspective, the narration is rich with wry humor and vivid descriptions of cosmic goings-on. For anyone who is, like Tyson, “smitten by the cosmos,” the book is a stark reminder that astrophysics has been both a benefactor and beneficiary of human conflict — and that the final frontier will likely be the battleground of many future skirmishes.
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HIDDEN DEPTHS Beneath Jupiter’s clouds, the planet’s magnetic field (illustrated) behaves differently in the northern and southern hemispheres.
If Earth’s magnetic field resembles that of a bar magnet, Jupiter’s field looks like someone took a bar magnet, bent it in half and splayed it at both ends.
The field emerges in a broad swath across Jupiter’s northern hemisphere and re-enters the planet both around the south pole and in a concentrated spot just south of the equator, researchers report in the Sept. 6 Nature.
“We were baffled” at the finding, says study coauthor Kimberly Moore, a graduate student at Harvard University.
The new look at Jupiter’s magnetic field comes courtesy of NASA’s Juno spacecraft, which has been orbiting the planet since July 2016 (SN: 6/25/16, p. 16). Relying on nearly 2,000 measurements of the field outside the planet, Moore and colleagues created maps detailing how the field emerges by calculating how it extends to roughly 10,000 kilometers below the cloud tops.
SPOT CHECK Jupiter’s magnetic field (illustrated as lines) emerges from a wide zone (red) in the northern hemisphere and partly re-enters in a concentrated spot (blue) south of the equator.
K.M. MOORE ET AL/NATURE 2018
The results “complicate our picture of Jupiter’s interior,” Moore says. Planetary magnetism arises from electrically conductive fluids within a planet. Typical simulations for how these fluids generate magnetism can explain a field that resembles that of a bar magnet, such as Earth’s or Saturn’s, as well as those that are messy all over, like the ones at Uranus and Neptune. Jupiter’s split personality is harder to explain.
One possibility is that the extreme temperature and pressure near Jupiter’s core create a soup of rock and ice partly dissolved in liquid metallic hydrogen. Here, the interplay of turbulent layers might generate a convoluted magnetic field. Or perhaps squalls of helium rain closer to the clouds stir up conductive layers below, contorting the field before it emerges from the clouds.
For 70-plus years, the so-called field of "scientific ufology" has been a misnomer for truly viable UAP/AAO/UFO research and investigation. The effort to ascertain the nature and capabilities of these mysterious objects has been stymied by the mercurial aspect of their tricksterish manifestation, and the prohibitive cost of viable, diagnostic technology. What we've been left with, for decades, is a bewildering, growing pile of anecdotal reports that are impossible to analyze effectively—garbage in/garbage out. It's like we've been driving the car of UFO science forward by using the rear-view mirror to see where we're headed. Something has to change, and perhaps this perplexing conundrum may have finally been solved.
UFO Data Acquisition Project (UFODAP) in the The San Luis Valley, CO involves the deployment of pan/tilt/zoom video cameras and multi-sensor data acquisition sensors to properly record real-time UAP/AAO/UFO events. These instruments will document anomalous aerial objects at our first location, America's most active UFO "hot spot," the San Luis Valley, CO. The system will grow from two initial cameras to a three camera system with data sensors to be added as time and funding permit. Multiple cameras and sensors allows for all-important "triangulation." The triangulation feature will permit an evaluation and determination of object size, distance, altitude, speed and acceleration.
The system's cameras will be controlled by customized, motion tracking software and our triangulation software. When anomalous movement is detected by the automatic motion detection software, the system will go into record mode as the cameras coordinate their function and follow the moving objects, zooming in for better identification. With multiple cameras, the triangulated position of the object will also be located on Google maps for precise GPS location and tracking. This position will be recorded along with coordinated video and data from the cameras and the other sensors.
This amount of scientific information has never before been publicily accomplished in UFO event detection, and this is the first time a project of this size and scope has been initiated in the private sector.
UFODAP is also slated to include recording sensors to determine changes in the Earth's magnetic and gravitational fields. Electro-magnetic detectors and other measuring equipment will be encased in environmental enclosures—all operated over the Internet under automatic control of our unique customized software. These enclosures protect the gear from minus -40F degrees to 120F degree environmental conditions.
The gofundme funds will be used to procure and build more of these sensing equipment packages, pay for installing and maintaining the initial field equipment, and will also help offset Internet service costs and pay other costs incidental to advancing the project.
It is our goal to expand a growing network of these triangulated sensor systems to other hot spots around North America and then the world. Some possible additional locations include: San Pedro, CA; Mt. Adams, WA: Dulce, NM; Pine Bush, NY; White Sands, NM; Black Hills, SD: Bridgewater Triangle, New England, etc.
We are scheduled to begin installation in the San Luis Valley—our first location—in mid-September 2018
Our engineer, Ron Olch, has spent over 5,000 hours and written 10K +lines of code and done a masterful job developing these sophisticated software programs and the hardware interface. All of this work over with an intensive four-year effort. The UFODAP team is excited and eager to finally become operational so thank you for your interest and for YOUR kind support!
Below is an example of the UFODAP motion tracking software identifying motion and then tracking the acquired object, in this case, an airliner going into Burbank Airport (w/ the bounding box targeting feature enabled). Events will be recorded both w/ and without bounding boxes.
The “Mona Lisa” has her own room in the Louvre, where she attracts six million visitors each year. Her room is frequently crowded with frenzied guests attempting to catch a glimpse of her enigmatic smile. Over a year ago, Boston physician Dr. Mandeep R. Mehra was in that endless line, hoping to do the same. During the long wait, he pondered the details of La Giaconda’s strange looks — her yellowing skin, her thinning hair, and of course, her lopsided smile.
In that time, he came to a realization: This woman is ill.
“I had the chance to just stand there for an hour and a half staring at nothing but this painting,” Mehra, medical director of the Heart & Vascular Center at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, tells Inverse. “I’m not an artist. I don’t know how to appreciate art. But I do sure know how to make a clinical diagnosis.”
Over the next year, Mehra dug into the history of Lisa Gherardini, the woman in the legendary portrait, as well as the public health records of historical and modern-day Florence, where the painting was created. As he outlines in a new paper in the Mayo Clinic Proceedings journal, Gherardini suffered from an ailment that is still common — and quite treatable — today.
“I don’t know how to appreciate art. But I do sure know how to make a clinical diagnosis.”
When you are stuck in a small room at the Louvre, looking very closely at the “Mona Lisa,” says Mehra, you start to notice a lot of strange details.
Take, for example, the inner corner of her left eye: There’s a small, fleshy bump there, just between her tear duct and the bridge of her nose. Her hair is oddly thin and lank, and her hairline is receding behind her veil. She has no eyebrows, whatsoever.
If you look closely at her eyes, you’ll notice they are oddly yellow — far more so than her skin.
The right side of her neck has a slight but pronounced bulge, and her face is slightly puffy.
And on her right hand, folded delicately over her left, there’s a noticeable bulge between her index and forefinger.
“It became clear to me that there was something wrong with her,” says Mehra.
There have been countless theories explaining why the “Mona Lisa” looks the way she does. Most historians agree that she is Lisa Gherardini, a woman in her late twenties and wife of Francesco del Giocondo, a wealthy Florentine silk merchant. But beyond that, not much else is known for sure. “People have proposed many theories,” says Mehra. “He was Leonardo Da Vinci himself in feminine form. Or his rendition of what an ideal form of a woman should look like.” But after spending some time with the “Mona Lisa,” he was not convinced.
“As I began to look at this painting with some great depth, it became clear that neither of those two theories could be supported because he would never have allowed those imperfections and the accuracies of the imperfections to emerge if that was the case,” he continues.
Da Vinci, after all, was not only one of the most celebrated painters of his time but also an exceptional anatomist. When it came to capturing small details, he did not mess around. And so the bulges on the eye and neck, the lank hair, the yellowing sclera could not have been accidental.
“I knew I was looking at a masterpiece by an extraordinary artist who would have captured every small embellishment in an incredible way,” says Mehra.
Da Vinci was an astute anatomist, as illustrated by his famous 'Vitruvian Man.'
As Mehra outlines in his paper, each of the physical abnormalities he spotted on the “Mona Lisa” has a known medical correlate.
The bump next to her eye, for example, is likely a xanthalesma, a yellowish cholesterol deposit under the skin, usually near the eye. Similarly, the bulge on her hand is probably a type of fatty benign tumor known as a lipoma or a xanthoma, if it’s rich in cholesterol.
The bulge on her neck, meanwhile, could be the beginnings of a goiter, an abnormal enlargement of the thyroid gland. “It’s not an aquiline neck,” says Mehra. “You don’t actually see the trachea.”
“So, I’m basically looking at a receding hairline, loss of eyebrows, a swelling in the neck, coarse, thin hair,” he says. Then there’s the xanthalesma and the lipoma or xanthoma. “And I’m looking at a slightly edematous, swollen woman with no hair throughout. That, to me is a classic picture of clinical hypothyroidism, or an underactive thyroid gland.”
Put that way, it looks plain as day. Poor Lisa.
Clinical hypothyroidism. Plain and simple.
This diagnosis — common in women who had just had a baby, like Ghirardelli — even explains the perplexing smile of the “Mona Lisa.” While previous historians had tried to chalk it up to Bell’s Palsy, a form of temporary facial paralysis that weakens the muscles in one of half of the face, Mehra says this explanation doesn’t hold because there’s no unevenness in the rest of her face.
His hypothyroidism diagnosis, however, accounts for her inscrutable expression, and casts a certain sadness over the portrait.
“The more characteristic reason for why that smile is not a full-blown smile or is partially asymmetric is probably hypothyroidism,” he says, “because when you have hypothyroidism you’re a little depressed, and your facial muscles are puffy and weak. You can’t even bring yourself to a full smile.”
To back up his diagnosis, Mehra examined life in 16th-century Florence, looking for evidence that hypothyroidism might have been a common ailment.
Sure enough, he found that the food being eaten at the time — largely vegetables — was heavily deficient in iodine, which is necessary for maintaining thyroid health. Furthermore, many of the vegetables Renaissance Florentines ate, like cauliflower, cabbage, and kale, were goitrogens, or “goiter-promoting foods,” he says. Other studies on paintings by Renaissance masters back up his theory: About one-third of the paintings by Da Vinci’s contemporaries, like Caravaggio or Raphael, depict people with thyroid problems, says Mehra.
The problem Lisa Ghirardelli faced was not, it seems, isolated to the era in which she lived. Digging through public health records, Mehra discovered that thyroid deficiency remains an issue in some parts of modern Italy. “As recently as 1999 there are populations of people in iodine-deficient areas in Italy that had as much as 60 percent incidence of thyroid swelling,” he says.
Thyroid problems persist, even in some parts of modern Italy.
The hypothyroidism diagnosis means that Ghirardelli’s life would have been uncomfortable, and increasingly so. “It’s slow. It happens over time,” says Mehra. People with hypothyroidism have trouble sleeping and difficulty regulating their body temperature; they become depressed and find it hard to think, and later become sedentary, and unable to exercise. It can be life threatening, but only in the very long term. Ghirardelli, for her part, is known to have lived to the ripe age of 63.
Da Vinci, a man of science, might have realized that his subject was ill, though it’s impossible to know. What is clear is that he deliberately depicted her with all her strange and compelling imperfections, which is perhaps the reason why the “Mona Lisa” has captivated onlookers for over five centuries.
“He was an incredibly accurate artist,” Mehra says. “I would call him a forensic artist. Almost a scientific artist. He didn’t just look at art and show what he thought would be eye-pleasing. He wanted to depict the form as it happens naturally, and that was his greatness.”
MISSCHIEN WEL HET BESTE BEWIJS VOOR BUITENAARDS LEVEN, OOIT? ( VIDEO )
MISSCHIEN WEL HET BESTE BEWIJS VOOR BUITENAARDS LEVEN, OOIT? ( VIDEO )
Voor heel veel mensen zijn buitenaardse wezens sciencefiction en iets dat niet echt bestaat.
Mensen die daar toch in geloven zijn aluhoedjes die wel een joint teveel gerookt zullen hebben, maar toen kwamen de kinderen.
Het mooie aan kinderen is dat ze spontaan zijn, dat ze dingen vertellen zoals ze die zien en ervaren en dat ze absoluut geen agenda hebben.
Als je dan ook onafhankelijke getuigen wilt die die jou precies kunnen vertellen wat er op een bepaald moment is gebeurd, dan weet je dat je met een kind aan het goede adres bent. Als er dan ook nog eens een hele klas is die unaniem hetzelfde verhaal vertelt, kun je gevoeglijk aannemen dat wat zij vertellen de waarheid is.
Terug in de tijd naar het jaar 1994 en de basisschool in Zimbabwe, waar op een dag in september iets bijzonders gebeurde. Veel zullen het verhaal al wel kennen, maar hierna een geheugensteuntje uit een eerder artikel:
In 1994 gebeurde er iets heel bijzonders bij een school in Rwanda in Afrika. Een gebeurtenis die het leven van veel mensen voorgoed zou veranderen.
Voor het verslag van die gebeurtenis lenen we wat tekst van Ufowijzer:
Een incident dat in 1994 voorviel op de Ariel school in Ruwa, Zimbabwe, toen 62 kinderen tussen de 8 en 12 jaar oud, meldden dat ze tijdens hun speelkwartier die morgen een UFO en ‘vreemde wezens’ hadden gezien.
“Het was die morgen speelkwartier en ze waren buiten op het schoolterrein,” zegt Nickerson. “Ze zagen één zilver hoofdvoertuig waar omheen zich vier andere objecten bevonden. Het kwam naar beneden op een heuvel naast het speelterrein van de school dat zonder hekken was. De grens ervan was de rand van het speelterrein, daarna werd het kreupelbos en heuvelachtig. Ze renden naar de rand van het speelterrein om te kijken was dat voor ding was. Ze zagen een klein wezen dat rondliep bovenop het voertuig terwijl er een ander wezen naar beneden kwam naar de kinderen toe. Hij was helemaal in het zwart, met een strak zittend pak aan. De kinderen vertelden dat hij grote ogen had, ‘zoals rugby ballen’.
De kinderen hadden direct oogcontact met dit wezen. Er lijkt de een of andere vorm van communicatie tussen het wezen en de kinderen te zijn geweest over de staat van de wereld – wat wij de planeet aandoen, de vernietiging die we veroorzaken. Maar niet alle kinderen bleken deze boodschap te hebben gekregen. Enkele kinderen waren getraumatiseerd, anderen waren opgewonden. De jongere kinderen waren degene die overstuur waren, omdat zij vooraan in de groep stonden.
Ze renden allemaal schreeuwend terug naar hun onderwijzers. Die geloofden hen in eerste instantie niet. Maar toen de kinderen thuis kwamen en het aan hun ouders vertelden, kwamen die naar school en wilden weten wat er was voorgevallen. Kort daarna werd de kinderen gevraagd te tekenen wat ze gezien hadden. Ze deden dat afzonderlijk. De tekeningen waren allemaal hetzelfde.”
Tijdens onze dagelijkse zoektochten naar interessante zaken, stuitten wij op de video onderaan dit artikel. Hij is al wat ouder van zo’n vijf jaar geleden met daarin fantastische opnamen.
Het laat onder andere zien wat die kinderen aan hun juf vertellen in september 1994, vlak nadat het incident heeft plaatsgevonden. De kinderen noemen hun naam en vertellen wat ze hebben gezien.
Verderop in de video zie je hoe ze door onderzoekers enkele maanden later opnieuw worden ondervraagd en dan komen er dingen uit, die eigenlijk onomstotelijk bewijzen dat er buitenaards leven is.
Alle ondervraagde kinderen beschrijven de inzittenden van de gelande UFO als klein, ongeveer zo groot als zij zelf waren en datgene wat bewijst dat we hier met buitenaardsen te maken hebben is de manier waarop ze allemaal de ogen beschrijven of tekenen.
Geen mens op aarde ziet er als volgt uit:
En iedere keer blijkt dat de ogen iets zijn wat de kinderen bij blijft. Er is een kind dat de ogen omschrijft als “evil” en er een heel ongemakkelijk gevoel bij kreeg. Andere kinderen ervaren dat weer niet en zouden ze graag nog een keer willen zien om ze te vragen wat ze hier op aarde komen doen.
Wat de getuigenis van de kinderen heel bijzonder maakt, is dat ze op band staan en zijn opgenomen vlak nadat het incident heeft plaatsgevonden. Van latere interviews zou je nog kunnen stellen dat de kinderen misschien zijn beïnvloed, maar dat is zeker niet het geval vlak na de gebeurtenis als alles nog vers in hun geheugen staat en ze precies kunnen vertellen wat ze hebben gezien.
Twijfelaars aan buitenaards leven raden wij aan om 30 minuten de tijd te nemen om onderstaande video te bekijken. Grote kans dat je er daarna heel anders tegenaan kijkt.
Are extraterrestrials watching the current president … or at least keeping an eye on his cherished Scottish golf course while he’s away? That’s one of the possible explanations for a report with a photo of four UFOs flying over the Trump Turnberry resort in Ayrshire, Scotland. There are plenty more, although not enough to make a tell-all UFO book … yet.
It was on August 16 at 7:55 pm that the photograph of the alleged UFOs was taken as they appeared to fly or hover over Turnberry, one of the three courses at the resort located on the coast of the Firth of Clyde in South Ayrshire in southwestern Scotland. According to The Scottish Sun, an unnamed (what a surprise) person described as a “golf fan” emailed the picture taken by an equally unnamed relative of his. (See the photo here.)
“My niece was at Trump Turnberry golf course and took a picture of the golf course from the balcony of her room. She emailed the picture because I like to play golf, and when I looked at it closely I saw 4 strange disc shaped objects in the background which she said she had not noticed when taking the picture. Can you help me identify these ufos? Any ideas?”
Trump Turnberry Hotel and golf course
Not surprisingly, there are plenty of ideas since Scotland has a number of famous UFO encounters, the president has seemingly been followed by UFOs before and … “Space Force!” Scotland has the Robert Taylor Incident or Dechmont Woods Encounter (Taylor claimed an attempted abduction), a recent sighting over Kippen (looks like a kite with a flare or sparkler) and a number of them in Bonnybridge, part of the so-called Falkirk Triangle which averages around 300 UFO sightings per year.
During his campaign, then candidate Trump was followed by a UFO while in his helicopter and by two while flying from New York to Washington for his inauguration. And of course, he recently announced plans for a “Space Force” to conduct space warfare, which may or may not include battles with extraterrestrials. The president was not at the golf course on August 18, so the UFOs photographed then were likely not part of a security detail or drones trying to capture pictures — before being shot down by the security detail or the Space Force.
So, what are the UFOs in the golf fan’s photo? The top vote-getter is reflections of interior lights in the window. That’s possible, although the photographer seems to be close enough to the balcony rail to suggest she was outside. Since she didn’t see the UFOs while taking the picture, bugs, birds or lens anomalies are also possibilities.
It’s unlikely that the president will have any comments on the UFOs. Any thoughts on what they might be? Anything that will move the needle which is currently buried at ‘reflections’? Do ETs play golf? Would you welcome ETs at this time? Would the president?
A golf fan shared a picture of the mysterious objects, seen in the sky above a Scottish flag at Trump's Turnberry club in Ayshire
A glowing triangular object has been filmed in the sky above El Paso, Texas. At the start of the video another object is visible leaving a trail behind. Since the glowing triangle stays motionless in the air, it seems as if it is observing the first object.
Witness statement: I was on my way to work the morning of August 31, 2018 at 6.25 in the morning. I stared at the sunrise as usual because I have to stop a red light, right before I get on the freeway to work.
After a few minutes I glanced to the right and saw a glowing triangle and thought it was weird. So I took several pictures and a short video with my Samsung Galaxy S8 and did zoom in on the object and luckily it worked perfectly.
The witness has submitted the video to Mufon case 94699.
The lost city of Atlantis... hidden in plain sight?
The lost city of Atlantis... hidden in plain sight?
if there is a world that remains unexplored....it is the ancient history of man....we have signs hidden in the deserts...burried in the jungles and swallowed by our oceans......and we have mythology...a time when the world was more beautiful..more dangerous...more mysterious..
the fella in this vid has a great theory about Atlantis...check it out
google map views of Richat Structure
check this website too...same theory..more of the "mythology"
Ces images proviennent de Colombie, on y voit ce que certaines personnes pensent être un ovni dans le ciel…
Nous sommes dans le nord-est de la Colombie, les habitants auraient vu une étrange lueur dans le ciel aux alentours de 21h le 20 janvier 2017. Ils pensaient voir une sorte d’étoile très brillante dans le ciel. Une vidéo a été prise montrant en effet un phénomène lumineux assez étrange. L’apparition à durer environ trois minutes d’après les témoins. Notre étrange lumière aurait effrayée de nombreux témoins qui étaient sur place.
L’objet semble circulaire et est très lumineux. Il augmente de plus en plus en intensité avant de diminuer. Sa couleur passe du blanc au jaune. L’intensité semble très important à son maximum, l’énergie dégagée devait être très importante.
Les hypothèses pour expliquer cet ovni sont assez variées. Certains y voient un appareil extraterrestre, d’autre d’une comète ou une météorite. Ce n’est pas les premières images de ce type. La plupart du temps, il s’agit de météorite ou de phénomène similaire.
Même si certains ufologues pensent à un appareil venu d’ailleurs, il ne pourrait s’agir que d’un phénomène naturel. Il est clair qu’étant donné le nombre de témoins, il ne s’agit pas d’une supercherie, mais dans tous les cas rien ne prouve que notre ovni est un engin volant artificiel.
On ne connaît pas encore tous les phénomènes naturels et certains sont suffisamment étrange pour faire imaginer à autre chose. Ici, notre ovni est surement une météorite, ce qui en fait quand même un objet venu d’ailleurs…
Paul says his whole family was mystified by the object.
Picture: Paul Steinberg/SuppliedSource:Supplied
Un homme et sa famille ont été stupéfaits après avoir repéré trois lumières non identifiées rouges vives qui planaient silencieusement dans le ciel. Il affirme qu'il n'y avait pas « d'explication ordinaire » pour ce qu'ils ont vu.
Une famille, qui vit à Melbourne, en Australie, a prétendu avoir vu quelque chose d’explicable planant au-dessus de leur maison au cours du week-end du 1er au 2 septembre 2018. Le témoin a même réussi à prendre une photo de cet objet mystérieux.
Paul Steinberg a déclaré, au site Internet news.com.au, qu’il était dans l’allée de sa maison située à North Caulfield avec sa fille vers 20h le samedi soir. C’est à ce moment-là que le père et sa fille ont tous les deux repéré un incroyable OVNI.
« Il volait juste sous les nuages. Cette forme ressemblait à trois feux rouges placées dans une formation triangulaire. Ils se déplaçaient tous en silence vers l’ouest », a déclaré M. Steinberg.
« Il se déplaçait silencieusement dans le ciel et nous ne pouvions pas comprendre ce que c'était et il nous a fallu quelques instants pour nous rendre compte que cela allait très vite. »
Il a appelé sa femme et ses deux autres enfants qui se trouvaient à l'extérieur. Il a déclaré qu'ils avaient tous vu l'objet voyager à ce qu'il estimait être une vitesse d'environ 500 km / h.
L’homme, âgé de 45 ans, sa femme et trois de ses enfants âgés de 11 à 18 ans ont tous vu les lumières rouges vives se déplacer en silence.
« Nous voulions écarter toutes les explications habituelles que nous connaissions comme les satellites, les avions, les drones et mêmela planèteVénus, quiaété très brillanterécemment », a déclaré M. Steinberg.
« Nous sommes despassionnésd’avions et d’astronomie et nousobservons des choses comme des satellites assez souvent.Hélas,cela ne nous a pas permis detrouver une explication rationnelle. »
Il a dit que même si l'OVNI était à environ 1,5 km au-dessus d'eux, les lumières étaient toujours facilement identifiables, ce qui l'a amené à croire que, peu importe ce que c'était, cela devait être très grand.
« Si c'était un drone,ilétait vraiment très haut et vraiment gros », a poursuivi M. Steinberg.
« Tout ce que je voyais, c’était les lumières mais elles étaient siproéminentes.Puisque nous étionscapable de distinguerces lumières si clairement, celadevaitêtreénorme. »
Il a déclaré que l’objet avait parcouru la distance entre la maison familiale et le parc Albert, situé à environ 8,5 km de là, en moins de deux minutes.
«Ilétait très stable et silencieux la plupartdu temps, mais quand il s'est éloigné, il a commencé à bouger de manière irrégulière, de haut en bas et de gauche à droite », a déclaré M. Steinberg.
« Pendant la période au cours de laquelle nous lesregardions, les lumières ont parfois disparu avant de réapparaître dans un endroit différent.»
Le père de famille a précisé que l’OVNI a dansé dans le ciel pendant environ 10 minutes avant de disparaître complètement.
M. Steinberg a affirmé que la façon dont il se mouvait, la vitesse à laquelle il se déplaçait et le fait qu'il se ne faisait aucun bruit, font que lui et sa famille n'avaient jamais rien vu de tel auparavant.
Cependant, le PDG de l’Association régionale de l’aviation australienne (« Regional Aviation Association of Australia », ou RAAA), Michael Linke, a déclaré à news.com.au qu’il y avait probablement une explication plus terrestre à cette étrange observation.
« C'était plus que probablement un avion », a-t-il déclaré. « En fonction des vents dominants, vous ne pourriez pas entendre le moteur.»
Cet OVNI rappelle le fameux TR-3B, un avion ultra-secret et furtif développé par le gouvernement Américain. L’existence de cet appareil n’a jamais été officiellement confirmée.
The RAAA said it was most likely a plane with winds covering up the sound of the engine.
WETENSCHAP & PLANEETEen team van wetenschappers uit Rusland en Zuid-Korea dat de wolharige mammoet weer tot leven wil wekken, is ter voorbereiding begonnen aan een poging om een uitgestorven paardensoort te klonen. Het gebruikt daarvoor de resten van een veulen dat 40.000 jaar begraven lag onder het ijs van de Batagaikakrater in Jakoetië, de koudste plek van Rusland.
De onderzoekers zullen proberen om een levende cel te vinden in het karkas, dat perfect bewaard bleef in de permafrost. “Het spierweefsel van het dier is onbeschadigd en we hebben enkele stalen kunnen nemen voor biotechnologisch onderzoek”, aldus dr. Semyon Grigoriev, die aan het hoofd staat van het laboratorium van het lokale Mammoetmuseum. (lees hieronder verder)
APDe Batagaikakrater, waar de resten gevonden werden.
Zuid-Koreaans professor en kloonexpert Hwang Woo Suk vult aan: “Als we een levende cel vinden, kunnen we die zo veel kopiëren als we willen en er zo veel embryo’s mee maken als nodig. We zullen een van de embryo’s vervolgens inplanten bij een surrogaatmerrie, die het kan voldragen en het ter wereld kan brengen. Het zou de eerste keer zijn dat zoiets lukt.”
Bij het weer tot leven wekken van een mammoet zal een olifant worden gebruikt als draagmoeder. Maar volgens de onderzoekers zou het makkelijker moeten zijn om de verdwenen paardensoort terug te brengen met de hulp van een moderne merrie. “Er zijn zo veel paarden, dat we een goede selectie kunnen maken van eicellen. En er zijn verscheidene paardensoorten die nauw verwant zijn met deze uitgestorven soort. Tussen de mammoet en de olifant is er veel minder gelijkenis. Daar zit een miljoen jaar aan evolutie tussen.”(lees hieronder verder)
APEen onderzoeker draagt de resten van het gevonden paard naar beneden.
Het klonen van de uitgestorven paardensoort aan de North Eastern Federal University zien de wetenschappers als een “eerste stap” in het tot leven wekken van de mammoet. “Het zal ons helpen om de nodige technologie te ontwikkelen”, klinkt het.
De vrouw op wie alle ogen gericht zijn, is Hae Hyun Kim. Zij slaagde er al eerder in om een levende cel te oogsten uit bevroren weefsel: van een hond die de eigenaar in de diepvries had gestopt. Ze gebruikt een gepatenteerde technologie (NT-1) die de cel beter maakt en herstelt. “Het is niet eenvoudig, want water kristalliseert in de cel en vernietigt ze”, klinkt het. (lees hieronder verder)
EPA
EPA
Het veulen in kwestie werd vorige maand gevonden bij een zoektocht naar bevroren resten van een wolharige mammoet. “Er is geen schade aan het karkas, zelfs het haar van de manen en de staart bleef perfect bewaard en dat is erg zeldzaam voor zulke oude resten”, aldus dr. Grigoriev.
20 dagen
Het veulen was een mannetje en moet ongeveer 20 dagen geweest zijn toen het stierf. Het ziet er nu donkerbruin uit, maar was bij leven lichtros. Zijn haar was zwart en hij had een donkere streep langs zijn ruggengraat. Het gaat om een equus lenensis, een soort die tussen 30.000 en 40.000 jaar geleden de regio bevolkte. “Nooit eerder werd zo’n jong prehistorisch paard gevonden en dan nog eens zo goed bewaard.”
Look through the stock photos of Egypt and it’s rare to find any that don’t include pyramids – the defining monuments of that country. Yet Egypt must have had a history before that, right? These were the people who roamed the deserts and followed the Nile before the pharaohs. The people who came up with the idea of the pyramids and the Great Sphynx in the first place. What were THOSE people like?
Well, now we have another clue. Archeologists digging in Tell el-Samara, a Nile Delta area in the Dakahlia province about 140 km (87 miles) north of Cairo, discovered the remains of a village that dates back 7,000 years to a time 2,500 years before the pyramids. That makes this Neolithic village one of the oldest ever found in Egypt.
Satellite image of the Nile Delta
“Analysing the biological material that has been discovered will present us with a clearer view of the first communities that settled in the Delta and the origins of agriculture and farming in Egypt.”
In a statement on Facebook by the Ministry of Antiquities, ministry official Nadia Khedr points out that this was clearly a farming village but one that predates the development of the extensive canal systems that transformed the Nile Delta into the fertile farmlands that exist today. Studying how these people survived and farmed using the rare rainfall could reveal the spark of ingenuity that created the canals … and eventually the pyramids.
Chief archaeologist Frederic Gio led a joint French-Egyptian excavation team which uncovered storage silos (photos hereand here) containing the organic remains of food plants and animals, indicating humans spent some time there. That plus the pottery and stone tools also discovered in the silos helped date the settlement to 5,000 BCE. Besides predating the pyramids, this was also was before – although as we now know it was not long before – the first signs of the development of manmade mummification of human corpses around 3700 BCE.
Egyptian farmers
So, this new discovery predates mummification, King Menes – the first pharaoh who was believed to have united Upper and Lower Egypt and founded the First Dynasty – and the pyramids. What else does it tell us about the ancestors of these people? That apparently will have to wait until the next excavation season begins. Meanwhile, the organic materials found in the silos will continue to be studied and hopefully offer clues about the first settlers of the Nile Delta.
One of these days, Egypt is going to need some new stock photos.
Last week, at his A Different Perspective blog, Kevin Randle wrote an interesting article on one of the more intriguing figures in the Roswell affair of July 1947. It was focused on the words of the now deceased Major Edwin Easley. For those who may not know too much about the history of the Roswell controversy, Easley – who died in 1992 – was the Provost Marshall at the old Roswell Army Air Field when the “Roswell incident” took place. He was a man with a significant position in the military, and someone who had a great deal of responsibility too. As was the case with so many of the Roswell witnesses, Easley spoke about what he knew of the Roswell event later in life. In the case of Easley, we’re talking about very late in life.
The collective interviews that Kevin Randle had with Easley make for intriguing reading. In part, because of what he, Easley, had to say. But, also because of what Easley was determined not to say or discuss. Easley’s words were, and still are, important because of his rank and his credibility as a military officer with the rank of Major. A look at the interviews show that Easley was very uneasy about speaking on what went down on the Foster Ranch, Lincoln County, New Mexico, a couple of hours’ drive from the city of Roswell.
A clearly wary Easley told Randle that he could not talk about what happened, that he had sworn to President Harry Truman that he would not disclose what he knew (although, Randle takes the far more likely and reasonable scenario of one of Truman’s aides having arranged the non-disclosure). Randle asked Easley if the theory he, Randle, was pursuing – the extraterrestrial theory – was the correct one. Easley, in careful words, said that it was not the wrong path to take. This is all very notable. And, Kevin’s article provoked a lively debate in the “Comments” section of Kevin’s blog.
In that same “Comments” section, you’ll see debate on that President Truman angle, on references to “creatures” that Easley mentioned when his life was near its end, and more. But, it’s not so much the Easley affair itself that is the subject of today’s article. Rather, it’s the matter of how, or if, such interviews can help us solve the case, once and for all. It’s important to note that I respect those in the Roswell research who have spent significant time and money to try and get to the heart of the mystery. There is, however, a problem. At least, from my perspective there is. Yes, it’s a good thing – a very good thing – when old-timers come forward telling us what they know about what really happened at the Foster Ranch, more than seventy years ago. But, after more than seventy years, testimony is still all we really have.
We have zero evidence for any theory for Roswell. Ufologists have not proved that aliens crashed on the ranch. I have been unable to prove that a secret experiment was the cause of the legend, but I do believe that’s the answer. The U.S. Air Force concludes that the debris came from a secret Project Mogul balloon. The USAF admits, though, that it has not uncovered any specific documents that actually prove a Mogul balloon came down. The same goes for the Air Force’s “Crash-test dummy” report to explain away the tales of alien bodies: the USAF believes that dummies were the source of the legends of extraterrestrial corpses found in Lincoln County, NM, but no official papers have surfaced to specifically prove that. The Government Accountability Office (GAO), in the 1990s, was also unable to uncover anything specific on Roswell.
So, where does all of this leave us? Well, I’ll tell you: it leaves us with the words of old men and old women. And that’s all. We debate on their words endlessly. But, regardless of how extensive those debates might be, we still don’t have any kind of proof for what happened 71 years ago. The fact is that if the collective field of Ufology is to break the secret of what actually took place back in the summer of 1947, it will take more than just debate and interviews. And it doesn’t matter how significant that testimony is, it will never, ever be enough.
Ufologists need to take a new approach to solving Roswell. I have to admit that I don’t know what that new approach might be. I do know, though, that regardless of how dedicated ufologists in this specific field are, and regardless of how many interviews have been conducted, they have failed to achieve what they sought for: the Roswell truth, the bodies, the craft, the wreckage, and the old files. And, that goes for my research too; not just for the pro-E.T. investigators or the Mogul and dummy proponents. Now, don’t misinterpret my words: the brief statements made by the like of Edwin Easley are significant, very significant. But, the important thing is they don’t open doors. And, to solve the case, or to take it much further, we need to open doors.
There are dozens and dozens of books out there on the JFK assassination of November 1963 and on the Jack the Ripper affair of 1888. They are filled with interviews, and with decades-old statements (in the Ripper mystery dating back more than a century). But, no one has been able to make a cast-iron, undeniable, 100 percent provable case for who Jack was or who whacked JFK. Roswell is in that very same category, when it comes to research, interviews, blogging and book-writing: we have got so far, but now we’re stuck. As in completely stuck. We’re forced – time and again – to go over old interviews, to readdress what those interviewees told us, and to provoke near-endless blog comments. Of course, we could go on like that forever. But, that’s not preferable. It’s time for the Roswell UFO research community to come together and try and figure out how we might get the truth. There has to be a way, but so far no one has found it. I hope it can be found.
Mysterious Lights Over San Diego Spark UFO Visitation Speculation
Mysterious Lights Over San Diego Spark UFO Visitation Speculation
Residents of San Diego were startled with the mysterious lights that appeared in the sky above their city. Twitter was flooded with photos and videos of the strange glowing orbs that made some to speculate the lights were of extraterrestrial in origin.
Many observed floating-balls like object over the downtown skyline. Various residents had observed the strange aerial activity looking from La Mesa to downtown. Some others mentioned, “extraterrestrial lights” randomly appearing in the air of Pacific Beach in San Diego.
Did aliens visit San Diego? Several UFO enthusiasts think so, but a Navy spokesperson said otherwise. According to the official Navy report, the lights were merely part of a flare training exercise. However, despite this straightforward explanation, many others expressed doubt at it, who said that the official word was unbelievable.
Is the truth out there in San Diego? Let us know what you think in the comment section below.
Daniel Burns@DBurnsOfficial
What’s happening over the downtown skyline? Looking from La Mesa to downtown. Looks like floating balls of fire? @CBS8#ballsoffire#whatsthat
Why Unidentified Aerial Phenomena Are A National Security Risk And Also An Opportunity For Progress
Why Unidentified Aerial Phenomena Are A National Security Risk And Also An Opportunity For Progress
A career’s worth of intelligence work for the U.S. Government has taught me one key lesson: national security is a lot like playing a game of chess. You have to anticipate your opponent’s every move in order to remain one step ahead.
Disclosing your strategy will be used against you. But if you recognize certain opportunities, you can win the match.
When I headed the government’s highly sensitive Advanced Aerospace Threat Identification Program (AATIP), I worked with a team to assess whether a particular chess piece — in this case in the form of an unfamiliar aerial technology — was a threat to our side of the chess board.
If it was, we had to know how to counter it.
Since the Government views Unidentified Aerial Phenomena (UAP) as a potential national security issue, they’re secretive by necessity. They don’t want to reveal any information to a potential enemy.
But there are risks to keeping that information classified.
Say the person who first learned how to harness fire never shared it with the next generation, or the person who invented the telescope threw it away when he was done using it. What if the creator of the wheel decided it was too labor intensive for others to build and decided, “Forget it”?
As a species, we’re meant to evolve. And we needed those advancements to get to where we are today. Reports of strange crafts with seemingly inexplicable properties have been circulating within the U.S. Government for at least 70 years, which suggests it isn’t going away. There is “something out there.”
Declassifying certain information about UAP and sharing it with the public could lead to new technological discoveries, new forms of medical research, and a broader view of how humanity understands reality.
Here’s why:
A government must assume anything is a threat until it has been proven otherwise.
When determining whether an unknown entity is friend or foe, the U.S. Government looks at factors including capabilities, intentions, vulnerabilities, and exploitability. A close look at these factors reveals just how little UAPs are understood.
Advancements in our understanding of physics at the quantum level have helped shed faint light on the potential science behind UAPs. But these advancements have also shown us that UAPs have superior technical knowledge as well.
If these capabilities fell into the hands of a foreign adversary, it would be a decisive game-changer.
Likewise, the intentions of UAPs haven’t been made clear to us at this point. There could be a number of reasons for their presence, ranging from peaceful curiosity to a probe for battlespace preparation. The possibilities are numerous.
UAP vulnerabilities, however, remain a complete mystery. Some have hypothesized that there’s a correlation between UAPs and our nuclear capabilities, while others have suggested that nuclear-generated electromagnetic pulses are a potential weakness.
Regardless, we still don’t really know what vulnerabilities UAPs might have short of speculation. Right now, it’s anyone’s guess.
From a national security perspective, exploitation is the holy grail of endeavors. It’s critical to determine whether UAP technology could be reverse-engineered and used to our benefit, but we can’t exploit such technology unless we first understand it.
When it comes to UAPs, the U.S. knows less than it should, and perhaps much less than our adversaries.
The potential rewards outweigh the risks.
There is always a risk involved when it comes to communicating national security issues to the public. But it’s subjective. The significance of that risk depends on who you ask.
If you ask a military leader, for example, they would say government secrecy about advanced aerospace phenomena is crucial because you want to avoid broadcasting your capabilities and intentions to your potential enemy.
A politician would view UAPs completely differently. They may ask, “Is this something potential voters need to know, or will concealing it cause my constituents to lose faith in me? How does this discussion affect the voters and my ability to represent them?”
A religious figure, on the other hand, would likely be more concerned with the religious and philosophical implications UAPs might have on his or her faith.
There are countless examples throughout history of individuals challenging the prevailing systems of power with radical scientific ideas.
When Galileo told the church hundreds of years ago that Earth was not the center of the solar system, for example, they nearly killed him for it.
As someone without a political or religious agenda, I’m free to say the rewards outweigh the risks in this situation. For example, in December 2017 our team at To The Stars Academy of Arts & Science helped release U.S. military footage of UAPs. No government imploded, no religion dissolved.
Like Galileo, our mission is simple. Collect and disseminate the truth about the unknown. As long as the risks don’t compromise national security, the rewards can benefit all.
Scientific truths help push society forward.
At this point, there’s no question about whether UAPs are out there — they are. People can choose to either continue to live with their heads buried in the sand, or they can take a proactive approach to the phenomenon.
Centuries ago, when mankind first stood on the shores of a beach and contemplated sailing across the horizon, the chorus shouted, “You’re crazy! You’re going to fall off the Earth! There are sea monsters!”
But now, in the 21st century, people travel across oceans every day. What our ancestors thought were sea monsters are great white sharks, blue whales, and giant squid. It turns out that they’re just another part of our natural environment.
Once people committed to discovering the truth for themselves, it was no longer mystical, it was just nature.
But because government processes demand secrecy when it comes to classified information, false knowledge about UAPs spreads rapidly. Secrecy empowers people selling their snake oil and YouTubers profit from peddling their ill-informed narratives about UFOs. Soon people start believing Elvis lives on the mothership — just as they once believed you could fall off the edge of the Earth.
The more knowledge people have, the better they will be able to master their own destinies, and not be held hostage to the monsters of their imaginations.
The trumpets of the Apocalypse are heard again, now in Canada and Indonesia
The trumpets of the Apocalypse are heard again, now in Canada and Indonesia
People around the world have been reporting eerie, haunting and almost apocalyptic like sounds. According to witnesses of this unexplained phenomenon, they hear humming and loud booms, grinding metal, trumpet-like noises coming from the sky.
But do these sounds really come from the sky or something else is going on?
An in-depth investigation on this issue conducted by Linda Molten Howe has shown that the secret of these sounds is inside the Earth.
And again these sounds have been heard. This time strange apocalyptic trumpet-like sounds are heard in the sky in Downtown Calgary, Alberta, Canada on November 2, 2017 at 9:30 pm local time and one day earlier, on November 1, 2017 similar sounds are heard from several locations in Indonesia.
This image of Saturn's famous north polar hexagon, captured by the Cassini orbiter, was first published in 2012.
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/SSI/Hampton University
The weird hexagon swirling around Saturn's north pole is much taller than scientists had thought, a new study suggests.
Researchers have generally regarded the 20,000-mile-wide (32,000 kilometers) hexagon — a jet stream composed of air moving at about 200 mph (320 km/h) — as a lower-atmosphere phenomenon, restricted to the clouds of Saturn's troposphere.
But the bizarre structure actually extends about 180 miles (300 km) above those cloud tops, up into the stratosphere, at least during the northern spring and summer, a new study suggests. [Stunning Photos: Saturn's Weird Hexagon Vortex Storms]
The hexagon, which surrounds a smaller circular vortex situated at the north pole, has existed for at least 38 years; NASA's Voyager 1 and Voyager 2 spacecraft spotted the sharp-cornered feature when they flew by Saturn in 1980 and 1981, respectively.
Scientists started to get much more detailed looks at the hexagon in 2004, when NASA's Cassini spacecraft began orbiting the ringed planet. But Cassini's hexagon observations were pretty much confined to the troposphere for a decade after its arrival; springtime didn't come to Saturn's north until 2009, and low temperatures in the stratosphere continued to compromise measurements by the probe's Composite Infrared Spectrometer (CIRS) instrument for another five years.
Brightness maps of the stratospheric hexagonal vortex at Saturn’s north pole, as seen by the Composite Infrared Spectrometer instrument aboard the Cassini spacecraft. From left to right, the panels date to Aug. 17, 2013; Oct. 18, 2014; June 9, 2016; Sept. 20, 2016 (top row); Nov. 8 2016; Feb. 12, 2017; April 17, 2017; and Aug. 26, 2017 (bottom row).
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/University of Leicester/GSFC/ L.N. Fletcher et al. 2018
"We were able to use the CIRS instrument to explore the northern stratosphere for the first time from 2014 onwards," study co-author Sandrine Guerlet of the Laboratoire de Météorologie Dynamique in France, said in a statement from the European Space Agency (ESA).
Those observations have now been newly analyzed. And they revealed a surprise: the presence of a familiar shape high above the clouds.
"As the polar vortex became more and more visible, we noticed it had hexagonal edges, and realized that we were seeing the pre-existing hexagon at much higher altitudes than previously thought," Guerlet added.
The formation of a stratospheric hexagon appears to be tied to the warming brought on by the change of seasons, the research team wrote in the new study. Indeed, Cassini spied a vortex high above the south pole during its early years at Saturn, when that hemisphere was enjoying summer. (Saturn takes 30 Earth years to orbit the sun, so seasons on the ringed planet last about 7.5 years apiece.)
But the southern stratospheric vortex wasn't hexagonal. And neither, for that matter, is the vortex that spins around the south pole lower down, in the tropospheric clouds, the researchers said.
"This could mean that there's a fundamental asymmetry between Saturn's poles that we're yet to understand, or it could mean that the north polar vortex was still developing in our last observations and kept doing so after Cassini's demise," study lead author Leigh Fletcher, of the University of Leicester in England, said in the same statement.
A Cassini view of the hexagon in grayscale, captured in late 2016.
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Space Science Institute
That demise came on Sept. 15, 2017, when mission team members steered Cassini into a fiery death in Saturn's atmosphere. The long-lived orbiter was low on fuel, and the team wanted to make sure Cassini never contaminated the Saturn moons Titan and Enceladus — both of which may be capable of supporting life as we know it — with microbes from Earth.
The asymmetry between north and south is just one vortex-related mystery that scientists are chewing on. Another is the northern feature's striking shape: It's unclear why the jet stream should form into a hexagon. Earth's jet stream has done no such thing, for example.
The $3.9 billion Cassini mission — a joint effort of NASA, ESA and the Italian Space Agency — also dropped a lander called Huygens onto Titan's surfacein January 2005. As the new study shows, data gathered during the mission could still help solve some of the ringed planet's perplexing mysteries, even though Huygens and the Cassini orbiter are no longer with us.
"The Cassini spacecraft continued to provide new insights and discoveries right up to the very end. Without a capable spacecraft like Cassini, these mysteries would have remained unexplored," ESA Cassini-Huygens project scientist Nicolas Altobelli said in the same statement. "It shows just what can be accomplished by an international team sending a sophisticated robotic explorer to a previously unexplored destination — with results that keep flowing even when the mission itself has ended."
The new study was published online Monday (Sept. 3) in the journal Nature Communications.
TRAPPIST-1 Worlds Are Rocky and Rich in Water, New Research Uncovers
TRAPPIST-1 Worlds Are Rocky and Rich in Water, New Research Uncovers
By Nola Taylor Redd, Space.com Contributor
An artist's impression of the seven planets of the TRAPPIST-1 system. Most are rich in volatile materials such as water.
Credit: M. Kornmesser/ESO
The seven planets orbiting the ultracool dwarf star TRAPPIST-1 are mostly rocky, with some potentially holding more liquid water than Earth.
New research reveals the density of the worlds within this crowded system to a greater precision than ever before. The findings reveal that some of the planets could have up to 5 percent of their mass in liquid water form, about 250 times as much water as found in Earth's oceans.
"All the TRAPPIST-1 planets are very Earth-like — they have a solid core, surrounded by an atmosphere," Simon Grimm, an exoplanet scientist at the University of Bern in Switzerland, told Space.com by email. Working with a team of researchers, Grimm precisely modeled the densities of the seven worlds. [Meet the 7 Earth-Size Exoplanets of TRAPPIST-1]
In addition to narrowing down the composition of the exoplanets, the researchers also found that one of the worlds could boast some familiar characteristics.
"TRAPPIST-1e is the exoplanet which is most similar to Earth in terms of mass, radius and energy received from its star," Grimm said.
A special system
In 2016, astronomers at The Transiting Planets and Planetesimals Small Telescope (TRAPPIST) in Chile identified three planets around the dim star TRAPPIST-1. Less than a year later, NASA announced the discovery of even more worlds, for a total of seven. All of the exoplanets orbit in the habitable zone of their star, the region where water can remain liquid at the surface. The TRAPPIST-1 system boasts the largest number of rocky worlds ever found in a habitable zone of a single star and lies only 40 light-years from Earth. [TRAPPIST-1: How Long Would It Take to Fly to 7-Planet System?]
Intrigued by the system, Grimm and his colleagues decided to measure the system using a technique known as transit-timing variations (TTVs). By observing small variations in the amount of time it takes a world to pass between its star and our viewpoint, called a transit, TTVs allow researchers to make some of the most sensitive observations of planetary masses and densities.
"Using TTVs is currently the only method to determine the masses and therefore the densities of planets like the TRAPPIST-1 system," Grimm said.
Other methods don't work because the planets are too lightweight or the star is too faint, he said. The method allows astronomers to determine the mass of the planets relative to the stellar masses. Combined with the radii measured as the planet transits its star, the technique reveals the densities of each world.
The researchers relied on data captured by NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope and several of the European Southern Observatory's instruments in Chile to make detailed observations that could reveal the variations in planetary orbits.
If one planet traveled around its star alone, then the only gravitational pull it would feel would come from the star. But when a system holds two or more worlds, the planets interact gravitationally, tugging on one another with a force related to their masses. These shifts depend on the planets' mass, distance and other orbital parameters.
At the same time, crowded systems like TRAPPIST-1 make it more challenging to tease out the effects of individual planets, as each world tugs somewhat at its neighbors. The TRAPPIST-1 planets are easier to measure because they orbit in sync; together, the seven exoplanets form a resonance chain connecting them all together and suggesting a slow, peaceful evolution.
"The TRAPPIST-1 system is special because all the planets are in a resonance condition," Grimm said.
Grimm took a simulation that he had previously used to calculate planetary orbits and adapted it to TTV analysis. Using more than 200 transits, his team modeled the mass and densities of the worlds, simulating the orbits of the planets until their modeled transits matched what was observed.
The researchers found densities of the worlds ranging from 0.6 to 1.0 times Earth's density. The seven worlds are rich in water, with water levels on some reaching as high as 5 percent of the total mass. In comparison, only about 0.02 percent of Earth's mass is contained in water.
TRAPPIST-1b and c, the innermost worlds, are likely to have rocky cores and be surrounded by dense atmospheres thicker than Earth's. Lying close to their star, the hottest worlds probably have thick, steamy atmospheres, while the most distant ones could be covered in ice.
TRAPPIST-1d is the lightest of the seven planets, weighing about 30 percent of Earth's mass. Its low mass could be caused by a large atmosphere, an ocean or a frozen icy layer.
TRAPPIST-1f, g and h lie far enough from their host star that water could be frozen into ice across their surfaces. The thin atmospheres would probably lack the heavier molecules found on Earth.
Then there's TRAPPIST-1e, the most Earth-like of the group. As the only planet slightly denser than Earth, TRAPPIST-1e likely has a denser iron core, and may lack a thick atmosphere, ocean or ice layer.
The researchers cautioned that the new results, which were published in the journal Astronomy & Astrophysics, do not directly say anything about habitability. However, by helping researchers to better understand the conditions involved in the crowded system, the new research helps to make strides in understanding whether the worlds may be capable of supporting life.
Observation d’OVNI : Un “vaisseau spatial extraterrestre” ABATTU dans le ciel écossais
Observation d’OVNI : Un “vaisseau spatial extraterrestre” ABATTU dans le ciel écossais
Les chasseurs d’ALIENs étaient sur le qui-vive lorsqu’un OVNI a été abattu au-dessus de l’Écosse dans une vidéo qui fait actuellement le tour sur les médias sociaux.
Les théoriciens du complot ont cru avoir décroché le jackpot lorsqu’une vidéo montrant quelque chose d’étrange qui circulait dans le ciel nocturne au-dessus de Kippen, en Écosse.
La vidéo bizarre, qui a été tournée le 1er septembre, montre quelque chose flottant dans le ciel avec une matière étrange qui semble s’en échapper.
Les théoriciens du complot ont cru que c’était un OVNI qui avait été abattu.
La vidéo a été tournée par une femme anonyme en Ecosse qui l’a envoyée à la chaîne populaire UFO Today.
La description sur la vidéo se lit : “L’objet laissait tomber beaucoup de matière incandescente en volant. Elle savait ce qu’était cet objet, mais elle était sûre qu’il ne s’agissait pas d’un objet fabriqué par l’homme.”
“Il ne faisait pas de bruit du tout. Quand j’ai analysé les images, j’ai remarqué que l’objet éjectait beaucoup de matière.”
Beaucoup d’adeptes d’UFO Today étaient convaincus qu’il s’agissait d’une véritable activité ufologique.
YouTuber David Leach a écrit : “Excellente séquence. Il y a beaucoup de fuites. Vers la fin, on dirait qu’un petit OVNI se détache et monte.”
Starman 2710 a ajouté : “C’est passé à travers le portail trop vite et ça a perdu le contrôle ?”
AKIJPN a poursuivi : “On dirait qu’un objet volant qui perd le contrôle ! Incroyable.”
Cependant, il semble y avoir une explication plus logique à ce phénomène étrange.
Selon les gens du pays qui ont pris le site internet Reddit d’assault, les observations étranges sont en fait causés par des gens qui attachent des bougies à des cerfs-volants.
Il semble qu’il y ait eu plusieurs cas au cours du dernier mois où les résidents n’étaient pas trop préoccupés par une invasion extraterrestre.
L’utilisateur de Reddit ‘Space Pecs’ a déclaré que c’est “la troisième fois ce mois-ci” qu’un cerf-volant avec des bougies a été déployé.
Bory Truro a répondu : “Je n’avais pas beaucoup d’indices au début, mais maintenant que vous le mentionnez, on dirait que quelqu’un a collé une bougie sur un cerf-volant.”
We have all heard the mysterious tales of ships and planes going missing without a trace in the infamous Bermuda Triangle, sometimes called the Devil’s Triangle.
The Bermuda Triangle is the greatest unsolved mystery of the modern age
The Bermuda Triangle covers about 500,000 square miles of ocean off the southeastern tip of Florida to Puerto Rico and the island of Bermuda in the North Atlantic Ocean. It has long stumped scientists and unsettled sailors.
Over the years, a variety of paranormal culprits have been blamed. But there has been a lack of any plausible or scientific explanations for the vanishings.
British Scientists May Have Finally Cracked the Mystery Behind the Mysterious Region
A team of scientists at the University of Southampton claims that they have discovered what was responsible for all of the missing boats and planes: “rogue” waves measuring 30 meters (nearly 100 feet) high.
These rogue waves, which last for several minutes, were first observed by satellites in 1997 off the coast of South Africa.
The research team used indoor simulators to recreate the monster waves
The team built a model of the 542-foot vessel USS Cyclops, which went missing in 1918 claiming 300 lives. It did not take long before the model was overcome with water during the simulation. Scientists explained that these monster waves can snap a boat, such as the Cyclops, in two.
Crystal Clear Footage Of Alien Walking Inside UFO Goes VIRAL
Crystal Clear Footage Of Alien Walking Inside UFO Goes VIRAL
Stunning footage of an Alien walking inside a UFO has been captured by an amateur camera man as the jaw dropping footage has gone viral across social media. The grainy footage reveals an object with blue lights behind some trees, but as the camera zooms in, a gray figure can be seen walking around inside it.
UFO fanatics, Blake and Brett Cousins posted the eerie footage as part of a live phone in, but little did they know that the video would explode across the UFO community with many followers claiming it was a Grey Alien.
One view said: “You know how the ship looks like it’s landed behind the tree, it looks like they were stationed there because the one walking by looks like it was wearing an orange space suit.”
The Daily Star reports: Believer, Brett, likened it to something from famous alien movie Close Encounters, before claiming there is no CGI at play.
“It didn’t even look like a human at all.
“It possibly might be something with the government but it’s unexplainable.
“In my opinion these things come from another planet.”
Another fan then called up offering a different explanation.
“I just watched this four times and this Alien Grey, he moves a lot like a human.
“He looks like he’s wearing some sort of leggings or pants and his movements are very similar to a man’s – it looks like he’s working on the controls of the ship.”
Not everyone was as convinced by the footage, however.
“Nothing but light and mirrors,” one commented.
And another agreed, writing: “Looks like someone camping and using fluorescent tube lanterns to light the camp site.”
Meanwhile, a set of crop circles appearing in the English countryside has caused a stir.
Open Minds UFO Radio - David Marler: Investigating Historical UFO Cases
Open Minds UFO Radio - David Marler: Investigating Historical UFO Cases
Open Minds UFO Radio: David is a UFO researcher and author. He’s had a lifelong interest in the subject of UFOs and joined the Mutual UFO Network (MUFON) as a field investigator trainee in 1990. Since then he held several positions within MUFON before becoming an independent researcher. Since then he has written a highly regarded book on triangle shaped UFOs, Triangular UFOs: An Estimate of the Situation, and has been featured on several television programs. David has one of the most extensive personal libraries of UFO books, journals, magazines, newspapers, and case files from around the world that covers the last 65 years.
David continues to research the UFO phenomenon and has made substantial progress on unveiling new information on historical cases such as the “Battle of Los Angeles” UFO incident in 1942 and the Farmington, New Mexico mass UFO sighting in 1950. In this episode, we discuss why old cases remain significant in UFO research and why credibility is so important to the integrity of UFO investigations.
Strange UFO Sighting Over Beach In Netherlands Appears On Camera
Strange UFO Sighting Over Beach In Netherlands Appears On Camera
There are a whole range of possibilities when it comes to UFO photos and videos, so many that it would be boring to list them all here. Everything from video editing, to staged, natural and ordinary objects being mistaken for extraterrestrial outer space technology.
In this video we see young adventurers having a good time in their off road vehicles spot something flying through the air, and naturally intrigued, video record it. We can suspend criticism of the shaky quality of the video, because they are amateurs and they are recording from their vehicles, which we see and hear. Forgiven.
It’s a good bet that the subject of their inquisitiveness isn’t video editing, but an actual thing in the sky. It’s the “what is it” piece of the puzzle that we should be solving. The sky is blue, with a gauzy overlay of high cirrostratus clouds. It’s a delightful sunny day. We are not going to impugn the reputations of those involved. Have they captured the scout of an invading Vogon Destructor Fleet? Shouldn’t they be running for cover (even if only to give them the false sense of security a few minutes before the earth is vaporized)? Meh…probably not.
The flight trajectory looks almost like the object is wind born…hmmm. Also, hate to say it, but we’re seeing quite a few of these types of videos lately. Especially after birthday parties and weddings, perhaps? Are you getting the drift of where this is going? If you guessed mylar party balloons, which can hold helium for a really long time, you’re not just getting warm, you’re spot on.
Everything about the flying thing in the video screams “Hey, dudes, I’m a balloon. Get over it!” Look, up in the sky! It’s a bird! It’s a plane! It…it’s a balloon! Yet, the fun will never be over with UFO videos. We are all entitled to our analyses. Some might argue that the unidentified object is not traveling in a straight line, but is zig-zagging. They can prove it by the way it moves against the clouds. Some true believers might cite other subtle cues, possibly claiming high speeds that a floating balloon would be impossible to achieve, or what looks like a brief descent and then quick elevation. It’s actually hard to predict what UFOlogists can come up with to “prove” a thing on film (“film” being an outdated term, really) is actually the flying vehicle of little green men.
Videos like this one give us endless sport in the game of “what is it?” with critics debunking, and believes re-bunking! As long as there are amateur videographers without a proper zoom lens and a tripod capture strange things flying or floating through the skies, whipping out their cell phones from the backs of moving off road vehicles on bumpy roads, there will be no dry spells when it comes to enjoying home UFOmovies.
RUSSEN DENKEN DAT ER STIEKEM EEN GAT IS GEBOORD IN SOYUZ MODULE
RUSSEN DENKEN DAT ER STIEKEM EEN GAT IS GEBOORD IN SOYUZ MODULE
Nadat eerder deze week NASA volkomen voor joker stond door astronaut Chris Hadfield een oude afbeelding te laten versturen van een gat in de romp van een ruimtemodule, wordt de ruimte soap nog erger.
De Russen denken nu dat het gat in de Soyuz module niet is veroorzaakt door een kleine meteoriet, maar heel goed het resultaat kan zijn van sabotage.
Eerder deze week schreven wij een artikel over een klein gat dat ontstaan zou zijn in de aan het ISS gekoppelde Soyuz module en naar aanleiding daarvan ontvingen wij enkele reacties (dank!).
De eerste:
Die astronaut, Chris Hadfield, mag dan een foto van het gaatje in de ISS twitteren, hij is helemaal niet aan boord van het ISS. (Zie bijlage, huidige bemanning)
Ik denk... ik laat het FF weten! Haha.
Een andere lezer stuurt het volgende:
In het onderstaande artikel schrijven jullie hoe Nasa voor joker staat i.v.m. de foto die ze gebruikten ter illustratie. Deze foto komt van een vorige missie met de Solar Max uit de jaren '80.
De band Remedy drive heeft deze foto weer gebruikt voor hun cover van het album Commodity. Of de ruimtevaart nou een hoax is of niet, dit soort artikelen maakt Niburu niet echt geloofwaardig i.v.m. het slechte onderzoek dat wordt gedaan.
Volgens mij zijn jullie een van de weinigen in de alternatieve media die snapt dat Trump voor de Cabal/Deep State werkt en niet voor de burger. Hierdoor kom ik graag op jullie site maar dit soort artikelen schaad de kwaliteit van jullie site naar mijn idee.
Op onze vraag hoe hij aan deze informatie komt, ontvingen wij het volgende:
In de bijlage een tweet van het space station over de foto.
Het blijft sowieso een vreemd verhaal over dat gat. Ze hadden ook een foto van het gerepareerde gat kunnen sturen...
Terug naar het officiële verhaal met de verklaring dat het gaatje in de Soyzuz module, gekoppeld aan het ISS ruimtestation, veroorzaakt zou zijn door een micro meteoriet.
Nu komt er een nieuwe twist in het hele verhaal, want het hoofd van de Russische ruimtevaartbureau, Dmitry Rogozin, zegt dat dit gaatje weleens het resultaat kan zijn van sabotage.
Het betreffende gaatje is namelijk niet veroorzaakt door een kleine meteoriet, maar door een boor. De enige vraag die voor de Russen nog openstaat is of dit gat erin is geboord op aarde of terwijl de Soyuz aan het ISS is gekoppeld.
Volgens Rogozin zijn er meerdere pogingen ondernomen om een gat te boren en heeft degene die het heeft gedaan geen vaste hand.
Theoretisch zou het ook nog een productiefout kunnen zijn, maar dat lijkt erg onwaarschijnlijk, ook omdat er nooit eerder dit soort problemen zijn geweest met de Soyuz schepen.
De Russen zullen in ieder geval een onderzoek instellen, zowel op aarde als in de ruimte. NASA onthoudt zich van verder commentaar en verwijst naar de Russen omdat zij zich bezighouden met het onderzoek.
Een Russisch parlementslid, Maxim Surayev, suggereert dat het misschien wel is gedaan door een astronaut die heimwee heeft en zo snel mogelijk naar de aarde terug wil keren. Surayev weet waarover hij praat, want naast parlementslid is hij ook astronaut en heeft zelf, zo zegt hij, twee missies naar het ISS meegemaakt.
“Als dit gedaan is door een astronaut, dan is dat slecht nieuws. Ik hoop echt dat het een productiefout is, maar dat zou ook triest zijn, want er is nog nooit iets dergelijks voorgevallen in de geschiedenis van Soyuz schepen”.
AFP PHOTO / European Southern ObservatoryIllustratiefoto.
WETENSCHAP & PLANEETHet planetair stelsel rond de dwergster TRAPPIST-1, op zo’n veertig lichtjaar van de aarde, blijft meer en meer intrigeren. Sommige van de zeven exoplaneten zouden zelfs meer vloeibaar water hebben dan onze aarde, bericht Space.com. Tot 250 keer meer zelfs.
Een nieuw onderzoek wierp meer licht op de samenstelling van de zeven exoplaneten (planeten die rond een andere ster dan de zon draaien, nvdr) rond TRAPPIST-1. “Alle planeten rond TRAPPIST-1 zijn heel aarde-achtig: ze hebben een solide kern, omringd door een atmosfeer”, vertelde Simon Grimm van de Universiteit van Bern aan Space.com. Daarnaast vond het team rond Grimm dat één planeet in het bijzonder op aarde leek: exoplaneet TRAPPIST-1e. De planeet zou een gelijkaardige massa en radius hebben, en krijgt een vergelijkbare hoeveelheid energie van de ster waarrond hij draait.
Eerder werd al gevonden dat de exoplaneten waterrijk zijn, iets dat in het onderzoek bevestigd wordt. In sommige gevallen bestaan de planeten tot vijf procent van hun totale massa uit water. Ter vergelijking: slechts 0,02 procent van de massa van de aarde bestaat uit water.
De onderzoekers waarschuwen dat er nog niets is gezegd omtrent effectieve levensvatbaarheid van het systeem. Het is wel al geweten is dat de planeten in de levensvatbare zone rond de ster draaien, wat vloeibaar water op het oppervlak mogelijk maakt. Het waren wetenschappers onder leiding van Michaël Gillon van de Luikse Universiteit die de eerste vondsten rond TRAPPIST-1 hebben gedaan. Hun eerste publicaties dateren van mei 2016.
AFP PHOTO / European Southern ObservatoryPlaneet TRAPPIST-1e zou het meest lijken op onze aarde.
Saturn’s massive hexagonal storm may be even more impressive than we realized.
Scientists have studied the remarkable six-sided vortex in the planet’s north pole since it was first discovered by the Voyager spacecraft back in the 1980s.
This low-altitude storm sits deep within Saturn’s clouds, and data captured during the Cassini data has now revealed a higher altitude counterpart that emerges as summertime approaches.
The findings mean the ringed planet may be home to two of the unusually shaped storms stacked atop one another at different layers of the atmosphere – or, it could be one massive structure that stretches hundreds of miles high.
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Saturn’s massive hexagonal storm may be even more impressive than we realized. Scientists have studied the remarkable six-sided vortex in the planet’s north pole since it was first discovered by the Voyager spacecraft back in the 1980s. Now, they've found another
‘The edges of this newly-found vortex appear to be hexagonal, precisely matching a famous and bizarre hexagonal cloud pattern we see deeper down in Saturn’s atmosphere,’ says lead author Leigh Fletcher of the University of Leicester, UK.
‘While we did expect to see a vortex of some kind at Saturn’s north pole as it grew warmer, its shape is really surprising.
‘Either a hexagon has spawned spontaneously and identically at two different altitudes, one lower in the clouds and one high in the stratosphere, or the hexagon is in fact a towering structure spanning a vertical range of several hundred kilometres.’
The Cassini spacecraft had previously spotted a warm high-altitude vortex in Saturn’s south pole during the summer.
But, despite the presence of the lower storm, no high-altitude storm was seen in the north.
A long-term study across multiple wavelengths captured by Cassini’s Composite Infrared Spectrometer (CIRS) and other instruments, however, revealed new details on the northern hemisphere as the long winter came to an end.
‘One Saturnian year spans roughly 30 Earth years, so the winters are long,’ adds co-author Sandrine Guerlet from Laboratoire de Météorologie Dynamique, France.
‘Saturn only began to emerge from the depths of northern winter in 2009, and gradually warmed up as the northern hemisphere approached summertime.’
From 2014 until the end of the Cassini mission, the researchers used the CIRS instrument to investigate this region, Guerlet said.
‘As the polar vortex became more and more visible, we noticed it had hexagonal edges, and realized that we were seeing the pre-existing hexagon at much higher altitudes than previously thought.’
Data captured during the Cassini data has now revealed a higher altitude counterpart that emerges as summertime approaches. This means there could be two storms stacked atop one another – or, it could be one massive structure that stretches hundreds of miles
SATURN'S HEXAGONAL STORM
The mysterious six-sided hexagon on Saturn's North Pole has long captivated astronomers, and is thought to be nearly 20,000 miles (32,190 km) wide.
The hexagon is made of a band of upper-atmospheric winds which creates its shape.
A polar cyclone can be seen at its centre.
First seen by Voyagers 1 and 2 more than 30 years ago, the hexagon it thought to be fixed with Saturn's rotation.
Last year, the Cassini spacecraft provided scientists with the first close-up, visible-light views of a behemoth hurricane swirling within the hexagon.
Thin, bright clouds at the outer edge of the hurricane were estimated to b travelling at around 330mph (150 metres per second).
The discovery suggests there are very different processes at work at Saturn’s two poles.
While the north pole is home to two hexagonal vortices, no such shape was seen in the south.
The northern storm is also much cooler, giving rise to different behaviors.
‘This could mean that there’s a fundamental asymmetry between Saturn’s poles that we’re yet to understand, or it could mean that the north polar vortex was still developing in our last observations and kept doing so after Cassini’s demise,’ Fletcher said.
Though it’s unlikely, the researchers say the two hexagon-shaped storms could be a single towering structure. They could also be two separate entities.
‘One way that wave “information” can leak upwards is via a process called evanescence, where the strength of a wave decays with height but is just about strong enough to still persist up into the stratosphere,’ Fletcher says.
The Cassini spacecraft had previously spotted a warm high-altitude vortex in Saturn’s south pole during the summer. But, despite the presence of the lower storm, no high-altitude storm was seen in the north - until now
Mysterious Hurricane at Saturn's North Pole
‘We simply need to know more. It’s quite frustrating that we only discovered this stratospheric hexagon right at the end of Cassini’s lifespan.’
Scientists are now working to better understand how lower-altitude phenomena influence the regions higher above.
‘Saturn’s northern hexagon is an iconic feature on one of the most charismatic members of the solar system, so to discover that it still holds major mysteries is very exciting,’ says Nicolas Altobelli, ESA Project Scientist for the Cassini-Huygens mission.
‘The Cassini spacecraft continued to provide new insights and discoveries right up to the very end.
‘Without a capable spacecraft like Cassini, these mysteries would have remained unexplored.
‘It shows just what can be accomplished by an international team sending a sophisticated robotic explorer to a previously unexplored destination – with results that keep flowing even when the mission itself has ended.’
Planet Nine DOES exist: 'Eternally optimistic' astronomers say we WILL find evidence of the mysterious world but warn it could be 'essentially invisible' to current telescopes
Planet Nine DOES exist: 'Eternally optimistic' astronomers say we WILL find evidence of the mysterious world but warn it could be 'essentially invisible' to current telescopes
Researchers have argued a ninth planet exists in the solar system for years
While evidence for it stacks up, no telescope has yet been able to spot it
Experts say it could be essentially invisible to existing observatories
It is one of the biggest mysteries in the universe - and could be hiding in plain sight.
Many astronomers are still convinced 'Planet Nine' exists beyond Jupiter.
'Every time we take a picture,' Surhud More, an astronomer at the University of Tokyo told the Washington Post, 'there is this possibility that Planet Nine exists in the shot.'
While evidence for its existence stacks up, no telescope has yet been able to spot it.
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Astronomers are still convinced a mysterious 'Planet Nine' exists beyond Jupiter. 'Every time we take a picture,' Surhud More, an astronomer at the University of Tokyo told the Washington Post, 'there is this possibility that Planet Nine exists in the shot.'
Michael Brown, an astronomer at the California Institute of Technology, says he feels 'eternally optimistic' that someone will soon find it - but experts say it could be essentially invisible to existing observatories.
'It might be lingering bashfully on the icy outer edges of our solar system, hiding in the dark, but subtly pulling strings behind the scenes: stretching out the orbits of distant bodies, perhaps even tilting the entire solar system to one side,' NASA said.
Astronomers have debated whether an elusive ninth planet orbits beyond Pluto for years, but a recent study may finally prove the mysterious world is real.
Researchers spotted a distant rocky object that they suggest was pushed into an 'extraordinary orbit' by the gravitational pull of an uncharted planet.
They say that their finding bolsters the ever-convincing case that a so-called 'Planet Nine' exists.
Planet Nine was first theorised by experts at Caltech in 2016 when they spotted that a group of icy objects on the edges of the solar system have tilted orbits.
They suggested the orbits of these lumps of ice - so-called Trans-Neptunian objects (TNOs) - were warped by the gravitational pull of a ninth planet in the solar system.
An undiscovered world may be lurking in the outer reaches of the solar system. Astronomers have debated whether an elusive 'Planet Nine' (artist's impression) orbits beyond Pluto for years, but a new study may finally prove the mysterious world is real
The objects had elliptical orbits that pointed in the same direction and were tilted 30 degrees 'downward' compared to the plane in which planets circle the sun.
While Planet Nine has never been spotted, a number of astronomers - including scientists at Nasa - have since released research that supports the theory.
In a new paper a group of experts led by the University of Michigan describe a distant object that they spotted in 2014 that could be as large as a dwarf planet.
WHAT IS MYSTERIOUS 'PLANET X'?
Astronomers believe that the orbits of a number of bodies in the distant reaches of the solar system have been disrupted by the pull of an as yet unidentified planet.
First proposed by a group at CalTech in the US, this alien world was theorised to explain the distorted paths seen in distant icy bodies.
In order to fit in with the data they have, this alien world - popularly called Planet Nine - would need to be roughly four time the size of Earth and ten times the mass.
Researchers say a body of this size and mass would explain the clustered paths of a number of icy minor planets beyond Neptune.
Its huge orbit would mean it takes between 10,000 and 20,000 years to make a single pass around the sun.
The theoretical Planet Nine is based on the gravitational pull it exerts on these bodies, with astronomers confident it will be found in the coming years.
Those hoping for theoretical Earth-sized planets proposed by astrologers or science fiction writers - which are 'hiding behind the sun' and linked with Doomsday scenarios - may have to keep searching.
The rocky body, dubbed 2015 BP519, peaked the team's interest because its orbit is unusually tilted away from the plane that most objects that orbit the sun lie.
They used computer simulations of the solar system to explore how this strange trajectory may have arisen.
Simulations where our star system had eight planets did not reproduce 2015 BP519's tilted orbit.
When researchers added a ninth planet that matched the properties of those proposed by the Caltech researchers, the simulation reproduced 2015 BP519's current orbit almost exactly.
'It's not proof that Planet Nine exists,' Professor David Gerdes, an astronomer at the University of Michigan and a co-author on the new paper, told Quanta.
'But I would say the presence of an object like this in our solar system bolsters the case for Planet Nine.'
This image shows the orbit of 2015 BP519 (blue) as well as other TNOs as comparisons. For each orbit, the darker regions on the curve show where an object falls below the plane of the solar system. 2015 BP519 has the highest inclination of any extreme TNO discovered to date
The study adds to piling evidence for the existence of Planet Nine, though astronomers remain latched to their telescopes in search of the object.
In October 2017 Nasa weighed in on the debate, highlighting five different lines of evidence pointing to the existence of the object.
It said that imagining that Planet Nine does not exist generates more problems than it solves.
In 2016, researchers examined the orbits of six objects in a distant region of icy bodies stretching beyond Neptune. The objects had orbits that point in the same direction and are tilted 30° 'downward' compared to the solar plane in which the eight planets circle the sun
Dr Konstantin Batygin, a planetary astrophysicist at Caltech in Pasadena, whose team is closing in on finding Planet Nine, said: 'There are now five different lines of observational evidence pointing to the existence of Planet Nine.
'If you were to remove this explanation and imagine Planet Nine does not exist, then you generate more problems than you solve.
'All of a sudden, you have five different puzzles, and you must come up with five different theories to explain them.'
Researchers are now using the Subaru Telescope in Hawaii in the hopes of finding Planet Nine, and hope that its detection will also shed light on its origin.
In 2016, Dr Batygin published a study that examined the orbits of six objects in the Kuiper Belt - a distant region of icy bodies stretching from Neptune outward toward interstellar space.
His findings revealed that the objects all had elliptical orbits that point in the same direction and are tilted 30 degrees 'downward' compared to the plane in which the eight planets circle the sun.
To investigate this further, the researchers used computer simulations of the solar system with Planet Nine included, and showed that there should be more objects tilted at 90 degrees to the plane of the eight planets.
The team realised that five objects already known to astronomers fit the bill.
Following this study, two more clues emerged about Planet Nine.
A second article by Dr Batygin's team, led by Ms Elizabeth Bailey, showed that Planet Nine could have tilted the planets of our solar system during the last 4.5 billion years.
Dr Batygin said: 'Over long periods of time, Planet Nine will make the entire solar-system plane precess or wobble, just like a top on a table.'
Finally, the researchers demonstrate how Planet Nine's presence could explain why Kuiper Belt objects orbit in the opposite direction from everything else in the solar system.
Dr Batygin said: 'No other model can explain the weirdness of these high-inclination orbits. It turns out that Planet Nine provides a natural avenue for their generation.
'These things have been twisted out of the solar system plane with help from Planet Nine and then scattered inward by Neptune.'
The researchers now hope to find Planet Nine itself using the Subaru Telescope at Mauna Kea Observatory in Hawaii, which they describe as the 'best tool' for the job.
Dr Batygin added: 'I think Planet Nine's detection will tell us something about its }.'
Planeet X bestaat echt. Astronomen zeggen dat we spoedig bewijs zullen vinden voor de mysterieuze wereld
Planeet X bestaat echt. Astronomen zeggen dat we spoedig bewijs zullen vinden voor de mysterieuze wereld
Veel astronomen zijn ervan overtuigd dat Planeet X of Planeet Negen zich schuilhoudt ergens voorbij Jupiter. “Elke keer als we een foto maken is er een kans dat hij erop staat,” zei astronoom Surhud More van de Universiteit van Tokio.
Hoewel er steeds meer bewijzen komen voor het bestaan van de mysterieuze planeet, is er nog geen astronoom geweest die hem heeft weten te spotten.
Experts denken dat het hemellichaam met bestaande telescopen simpelweg niet waar te nemen is.
Onontdekte planeet
Uit een recente studie blijkt dat er hele sterke aanwijzingen zijn voor de mysterieuze wereld.
Onderzoekers ontdekten een rotsachtig object met een ongewone omloopbaan, dat volgens hen wordt beïnvloed door de zwaartekracht van een nog onontdekte planeet.
Hoewel Planeet X nog nooit is waargenomen, zijn er veel astronomen – waaronder NASA-wetenschappers – die ervan overtuigd zijn dat hij bestaat.
Versterkt de zaak
Computersimulaties lieten zien dat de vreemde omloopbaan van het object, 2015 BP519 geheten, kon worden verklaard door een negende planeet in het buitenste deel van ons zonnestelsel.
“Het is nog geen bewijs dat de planeet bestaat, maar het versterkt de zaak wel,” zei professor David Gerdes van de Universiteit van Michigan tegen Quanta Magazine.
Astronoom Michael Brown van Caltech zei optimistisch te zijn dat iemand het hemellichaam spoedig zal vinden.
Meer problemen
In oktober vorig jaar mengde de Amerikaanse ruimtevaartorganisatie NASA zich in de discussie. Volgens het ruimteagentschap zijn er diverse aanwijzingen dat de planeet bestaat.
“Zeggen dat de planeet niet bestaat levert meer problemen op dan het oplost,” aldus de NASA.
Evidence of Communications with Extraterrestrial Intelligence
Evidence of Communications with Extraterrestrial Intelligence
As we approach Open Disclosure of the Extraterrestrial presence on Earth, the next logical question will be “How do we understand and communicate with intelligent ET races?”
Evidence shows however, that some ETs have already been preparing humanity for environmental changes and open ‘Contact’ for many decades, using various forms of communication, both subtle and direct.
This has taken many forms: From physical contact with Abductees, Contactees, and certain Military personnel, communicating verbally, telepathically or via projected imagery; through to the complex geometric and SETI-like symbolism of the genuine Crop Formations.
In his Lecture presentation, Alan Foster discusses the above, and highlights the need for humanity to examine all the available evidence of ‘Contact’, in order to understand the various forms of communication and interaction.
This also furthers our awareness that humanity has untapped capabilities yet to be developed.
The critical design review for the B-21 Raider, a major milestone, is set to wrap up by the end of 2018.
(Air Force)
WASHINGTON — The U.S. Air Force’s super secret B-21 bomber program is gliding toward a major development milestone known as the critical design review, which is set to wrap up by the end of 2018, the director of the Air Force’s Rapid Capabilities Office said Monday.
“We’ve been through the preliminary design review, so we’re on a path to go into a more critical design and move on with the production of not only the test aircraft, but if I have my way, make sure that we get the development done properly leading up to an on-time start of production,” Randall Walden said at a Mitchell Institute for Aerospace Studies event. Walden’s office, the RCO, is in charge of developing the B-21 and ensuring the program’s success.
“From my perspective, this is about producing 100 bombers, not about just getting through development,” he added. “Development is a phase that leads into the fielding of this critical need. So my focus is getting the production started, but I can’t do that until we understand what the design looks like.”
There have been some challenges with airflow and wing design early in B-21 production, but those shouldn't be game-stoppers, Rep. Rob Wittman says.
By: Aaron Mehta, Valerie Insinna
Walden also acknowledged later that, while B-21 Raider production has not started, the office has begun component testing and put a subscale model of the bomber through wind tunnel tests.
He declined to detail the scale of the model or where it has been tested, but noted that there are relatively few wind tunnel facilities in the United States, such as the Propulsion Wind Tunnel Facility in Arnold Air Force Base, Tennessee.
“Any aircraft program that’s going to go through development, you’re going to do wind tunnel testing, and we’re no different,” he said.
“You’re going to go from an estimate on a piece of paper and drawings to the right things that it would take to get you to build out the system, and wind tunnel testing is one of them. We’re following that logic because it makes sense from an engineering point of view.”
On Twitter, multiple aerospace wonks, including Jeremiah Gertler of the Congressional Research Service and Tyler Rogoway of The Drive, noted that the wind tunnel tests had likely happened far earlier into the program to enable the first B-21 unit to begin fielding around 2025.
Ahh, so you're saying that this is something that probably occurred earlier than these comments today would indicate. That's a good point, you're completely right.
(And thanks, you guys also post great stuff as well.)
Jeremiah Gertler@MilAirJJ
Remember also that a 2025 IOC isn't just one bomber, but a unit. Seven years from model to 5-10 built? Also, a recent wind tunnel model wouldn't really fit the spending curve. @Aviation_Intel is on point.
The Air Force wants to buy at least 100 B-21s. It awarded Northrop Grumman a cost-plus engineering and manufacturing development contract in October 2015, which was estimated to have a value of a $21.4 billion in 2010 dollars. The service has said each aircraft is set to cost about $550 million in 2010 dollars, and it is using a separate fixed-price contract vehicle for the production phase.
Warden said Monday that four bomber pilots from Air Force Global Strike Command are embedded within the program office to provide feedback to improve the B-21 and to help relay information to command head Gen. Robin Rand, who meets with Warden every month for a status update on the program.
And although the RCO is located in Washington, D.C., it also relies on engineers and experts from the Life Cycle Management Center at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, Ohio, and the Air Force Sustainment Center at Tinker Air Force Base, Okla., he said.
Beyond that, very little information about the program is publicly available due to its high level of classification, including the total value of contracts given to Northrop.
Last year, Gen. Stephen Wilson, the Air Force’s vice chief of staff, told lawmakers that the B-21 had completed its preliminary design review and was proceeding on cost and schedule.
And in March, Rep. Rob Wittman, R-Va., chairman of the House Armed Services Committee’s Seapower and Projection Forces Subcommittee, expressed satisfaction with the trajectory of the program, even as he noted that the Pratt & Whitney-built engine was experiencing growing pains.
The issue, according to Wittman, seemed to center around the flow of air through the B-21 engine. Pratt & Whitney has not divulged the model of engines used to power the Raider, but it is thought that the bomber will use a variant of the F135 built for the F-35.
Those engine problems were found as the program began moving from paper design to testing real hardware, and have since been resolved, said Warden.
“Prior to anything being built, it’s predictive. So engineering predictions are made; the moment you start getting some insight into actual lab testing, it informs you to what the answer should be. So once we had that data, it was fairly easy to go: ‘Here’s the path we’re on,’ ” he said.
“We’re in that phase today of getting a good feel for each of the components, how they’re going to be integrated in and the engineering associated with that integration.”
Correction 6/27/18 at 1:51 p.m. EST: A previous version of the story misstated the location of Tinker AFB, which is in Oklahoma.
Jupiter’s Great Red Spot used to be “great” — the hurricane-like storm swirling above the planet’s surface is twice as wide as the Earth and has been going strong for 150 years.
Now, it’s great for another reason: According to a team of researchers from NASA and several U.S. universities, the Great Red Spot contains the first evidence of water on Jupiter.
The team published its research in The Astronomical Journal on August 17.
High-tech telescopes located on the remote summit of Maunakea in Hawaii were used to collect data for the research project. Image Credit: Kelly Fast / NASA
TWO TELESCOPES. ONE CONCLUSION.
Two instruments located on Mauna Kea, a dormant volcano in Hawaii, made possible the team’s discovery of water in Jupiter’s atmosphere.
Using radiation data collected by these two instruments, the researchers determined that the Great Red Spot has three distinct cloud layers, and that the layer highest above the cloud tops is likely composed of frozen water.
“By formulating and analyzing data obtained using ground-based telescopes, our team has detected the chemical signatures of water deep beneath the surface of Jupiter’s Great Red Spot,” said researcher Máté Ádámkovics in a press release.
All told, the researchers think Jupiter could actually host much more water than we have here on Earth.
LOOKING AHEAD.
There’s a lot that this discovery of water in Jupiter’s Great Red Spot could tell us.
For one, it could help us understand how our solar system formed and why Jupiter’s atmosphere is so darn turbulent. If NASA’s Juno spacecraft, which is currently orbiting Jupiter and looking for signs of water, confirms the results of this study, we could then use the same technique to estimate the total amount of water on Jupiter and our solar system’s other gas planets: Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune.
And, of course, there’s always the hunt for extraterrestrial life to consider.
“[W]here there’s the potential for liquid water, the possibility of life cannot be completely ruled out,” said Ádámkovics. “So, though it appears very unlikely, life on Jupiter is not beyond the range of our imaginations.”
Mysterieuze vierkante UFO verschijnt in lucht boven Amerikaanse staat. Deze getuige slaagde erin foto’s van te maken
Mysterieuze vierkante UFO verschijnt in lucht boven Amerikaanse staat. Deze getuige slaagde erin foto’s van te maken
Op Facebook is een UFO-waarneming verschenen. Javion Hill (35) uit de Amerikaanse staat North Carolina geloofde in eerste instantie niet in UFO’s, maar daar lijkt nu verandering in te zijn gekomen.
Hij maakte diverse foto’s van een mysterieus object tijdens een storm op 18 augustus.
Op de foto is een vierkant object te zien boven de bomen. Langs de randen van het object zijn lichten te zien.
Iets abnormaals
Hill vertelde aan de Charlotte Observer dat hij zo bang was geworden dat hij die avond niet kon slapen.
“Ik was op weg naar huis en had mijn vrouw aan de telefoon,” zei hij. “Het leek alsof er een tornado aan kwam, dus ik wilde een foto van de wolken maken voor mijn vrouw.”
“Toen zag ik iets abnormaals en dacht ik: ‘Mijn god, wat is dat?’,” vervolgde hij. “Ik begon er zoveel mogelijk foto’s van te maken.”
Verdwenen
Hill stapte bij de eerstvolgende afrit uit zijn auto om een filmpje te maken, maar toen was het object al verdwenen.
North Carolina staat in de top 10 van staten waar de meeste UFO-waarnemingen worden gedaan. Sinds 1940 zijn daar al ruim 7500 UFO’s gespot.
Hill zei dat het mogelijk een vaartuig van het leger was. Sommigen stellen dat er in de regio experimentele vliegtuigen worden getest, zoals de TR-3B.
Een stuk groter
Ene Eric White zei in een reactie dat hij in hetzelfde gebied ook iets heeft gezien wat ‘in het niets verdween’.
Hill zei verder nog dat het object in werkelijkheid een stuk groter was dan op de foto. “Ik geloofde tot dat moment niet in UFO’s,” zei hij.
It was less than a week ago when the world learned that NASA instruments detected a leak in the space station that was eventually blamed on a tiny meteorite that penetrated the hullof the Soyuz spacecraft docked there and was fixed, after an astronaut plugged it with his finger, with a patch and some glue. That interesting and funny story has turned mysterious and sinister as new reports suggest the hole was not made by a meteorite penetrating from the outside … it may have been made intentionally by someone drilling from the inside. Sabotage?
“We are considering all the theories. The one about a meteorite impact has been rejected because the spaceship’s hull was evidently impacted from inside. However it is too early to say definitely what happened. But, it seems to be done by a faltering hand… it is a technological error by a specialist. It was done by a human hand – there are traces of a drill sliding along the surface. We don’t reject any theories.”
Dmitry Rogozin, CEO of Russia’s state space corporation Roscosmos, made that statement after an anonymous source within the Russian space program told the news agency RIA Novosti that “the appearance of a hole” was due to “negligence” – possibly by an employee of Energia, the maker of the Sooyuz capsule, who may have accidentally punctured the hull and secretly sealed it with glue so that it passed pressurization tests before launch. Whoa!
And that’s not the strangest suggestion. Former cosmonaut Maxim Surayev, now a politician, said it’s possible a homesick ISS crew member could have drilled the hole in order to cause a problem that would force the crew to be sent home early.
“We’re all human, and anyone might want to go home, but this method is really low. If a cosmonaut pulled this strange stunt—and that can’t ruled out— it’s really bad.”
Needless to say, the Russians aren’t happy about this and Rogozin is furious.
“It is a matter of honor for Energia Rocket and Space Corporation to find the one responsible for that, to find out whether it was an accidental defect or a deliberate spoilage and where it was done — either on Earth or in space.”
The good news is, even though this means the mysterious hole in the Soyuz spacecraft has now been patched twice – once on Earth and once in space – it’s still safe to fly because the section with the hole is destroyed during reentry.
The bad news is … this is either a cover-up of an accident or a deliberate act of sabotage to what is currently the only spacecraft being used to transport crew members to and from the ISS. That’s somewhat good news for Elon Musk and SpaceX, although his newly named crew members won’t be ready until at least late 2019. So the ISS crews must still depend on the Russian space program and Soyuz, with what may be shoddy contractors. And it’s still a possibility that the ISS has a cosmonaut with a problem.
Unless it’s an America astronaut …
Once again, science fiction plots become space travel realities.
It’s a bird! It’s a plane! Wait a minute … it’s a giant flat rectangle in the sky. Is it a plain?
A North Carolina man posted photographs on Facebook of what appears to be a giant square or rectangular UFO with lights around its edges hovering over Lake Norman – the 50 square mile manmade lake north of Uptown Charlotte that’s often called North Carolina’s inland sea. Is ET looking for a place to fish, waterski or get a greyish tan?
“I was on my way home with my wife on the speaker phone, and it looked like there was a tornado coming, so I was trying to take a picture of the clouds for my wife. But then I saw something that wasn’t normal and I was, like: ‘Oh my god, what is that?’ I started trying to take as many pictures of it as possible while I was driving.”
Although we appreciate the effort, it’s always better to pull off the road before taking UFO pictures. The Charlotte Observer reports that Javion Hill claims he took the photo on the dark and stormy night of August 18. Actually, Hill says he did pull over but the UFO was gone. (On the other hand, his wife was happy he made it home safely.)
If parts of this story sound vaguely familiar, on May 29 of this year, a video made the rounds of what was first said to be a giant UFO traveling over the same Lake Norman. That one was farther away and the daytime photo was blurry, but it caused the usual slurry of UFO fury until Goodyear admitted that it wasone of their blimps.
The August 18 photos by Jason Hill are clearer but dark because of the hour and the storm clouds. Since the quadrangular shape doesn’t match a blimp or any other known conventional aircraft, the speculation immediately moved to the experimental military side … and the first name that always pops up in those discussions is the TR-3B, the alleged Black Manta triangular spacecraft that is seen everywhere and confirmed nowhere. That’s entirely possible, since North Carolina has two Air Force bases east of Charlotte. However, the object Hill captured on his phone appears to be rectangular rather than 3-sided and it doesn’t have the one-bright-light-per-corner configuration often seen in alleged TR-3B photos.
What does the only confirmed eyewitness think?
“I was worried for my safety. I didn’t believe in UFOs until that moment.”
Should we? Going back to Hill’s original accounting of the event, he said he was “trying to take a picture of the clouds” for his wife. With his cell phone. Which is rectangular. And could have edge lighting. Going too fast for you? Yes, it’s entirely possible Hill was taking pictures of his phone’s reflection in the window. Or perhaps an illuminated rearview mirror or visor. Remember, It was a dark and stormy night with tornado warnings and Hill was driving. And when he stopped (and possibly rolled down his window), the UFO was gone.
With no other photographs by any other witnesses of the latest Lake Norman hovering UFO, for now the needle on the meter is hovering over “misinterpretation.”
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In special reports, this week’s files cover: A Valid “Alien Threat,” 1909 UFO Reports, and Mars Bottle.
Unidentified Aerial Phenomena sightings were reported over California, Florida, Maryland, Michigan, Missouri, New Jersey, New York, Ohio, Texas, Utah, and West Virginia.
Unidentified Aerial Phenomena sightings were reported over Argentina, Croatia, Denmark, Eire, France, Georgia, Peru, Philippines, Puerto Rico, Slovenia, South Korea, and Spain.
The Filer Research Institute feels the scientific study of UFOs is for the benefit of humankind and is an important endeavor. The US Air Force investigated UFOs publicly for more than twenty years under Project Blue Book; and I continue this advanced research. I believe the God of the universe has spread life throughout the cosmos and UFO’s are visiting us in ever-increasing numbers.
Forward these files to your friends and neighbors.
Special Projects
A Valid “Alien Threat”
Timothy Green Beckley has entitled “UFO Hostilities and the Evil Alien Agenda: Lethal Encounters with Ultra terrestrials Exposed,” The book claims Secret Government Findings Claim There Is A Valid “Alien Threat”
– UFOS COULD DOOM LIFE ON EARTH!
Here is irrefutable proof that UFOs could be perilous to your health, your well-being and even your life – and in an extreme case scenario could doom all of humanity.
PENTAGON ADMITS TO PHYSIOLOGICAL STUDY OF UFO WITNESSES
In a series of rather astonishing disclosures, the New York Times revealed in a provocative front page article that the military had spent upwards of $22 million dollars in recent years on the study of UFOs and the creation of an “advanced aerospace threat identification program.” Sightings have persisted long after the official closure of Project Blue Book – something UFO researchers have long suspected but could not prove.
Part of this multi-million dollar “Black Project” bundle was spent on an exhaustive study of the physiological and psychological effects of UFOs on witnesses. And while this hush-hush scrutiny of observers has to date never been released, an independent study indicates there is a PATTERN OF HORROR – that UFOs are no laughing matter and represent a TERRIFYING THREAT TO US ALL!
Because of the frightening nature of its fully documented findings, this may well be the most startling book you will ever read on the subject of UFOs!
“I want scientists everywhere to start looking at the evidence,” declared the late Dr. James McDonald, a respected physicist. “The matter is urgent. It must not be delayed. The world better wake up to flying saucers before it is too late.”
Indeed, the world’s safety could be at stake as this large formatted, fully illustrated, 450 page volume clearly indicates!
One high ranking military attaché with CIA connections has stated when it comes to the true nature of the UFO puzzle: “The UFO phenomenon has three separate yet related aspects: 1) – It produces real material-world events, detectable by radar and sometimes leaving behind physical traces. – 2) It is a psychic phenomenon that profoundly alters the consciousness of those exposed to it. – 3) It is apparently surrounded by deception activities which mimics it, produced by human groups. We tend to consider these elements as mutually exclusive, but they’re not; all three are explainable by demonic activity and invocation.”
Timothy Beckley
CASE HISTORIES OF UFO ATROCITIES – FROM STRANGE DISAPPEARANCES TO BIZARRE DEATHS – ARE HERE TO BE EXAMINED.
** From the “Foo Fighters” who dogged our fastest planes of WWI and II, to the battalions of well-armed soldiers who walked into a strange ground level cloud cover never to be seen again, global conflict seems to bring out the most hostile manifestations of the UFOs. From time to time America’s bravest have been seen marching into oblivion. Many top secret aerial skirmishes have victimized pilots and passengers; some planes have “gone down” without a trace; hundreds have been killed – including famous Hollywood celebrities!
** There have been terrifying incidents of flaming destruction that have incinerated individuals or rendered them helpless. In one case UFOs left a military fort and its sentries smoldering, while entire coastal towns in Brazil have been “burned out,” by what are called by the locals chupa-chupas.
** Learn about a cursed “Lethal Lake” in Texas where dozens of people have mysteriously died, while other vacationers have vanished completely on land and underwater. Entire towns have been known to disappear in association with UFOs, while unsuspecting individuals have walked off wilderness trails in front of onlookers only to slip into a parallel universe inhabited by hobgoblins, men-in-black and other cross-dimensional terrors.
** Alert yourself to paralyzing episodes of alien acts of aggression that have blacked out power systems, erased memories and crippled human beings.
Hundreds of ALARMING CASES are detailed here – and it is evident there is NO PLACE TO HIDE!
Beckley has assembled the usual suspects from among his team of collaborating writers, all of whom have collectively covered the subject of hostile aliens as thoroughly as one could wish. The resulting tome is 450+ pages of terrifying case histories, photos and art that will leave you wishing for a warm, fuzzy “ET-like” creature to land and relieve you from the dark truths you must confront as you read this gut-wrenching volume of alien evil and human helplessness.
A PRAGMATIC SCIENTIST GRAPPLES WITH THE HOSTILITY QUESTION
The late Dr. James McDonald realized that several close encounters had caused a negative impact on some UFO witnesses. UFOs had also, on many occasions, disabled the engines of automobiles and aircraft, thus creating potentially serious situations.
Dr. James E. McDonald (1920-1971) was a leading member of the University of Arizona’s Institute of Atmospheric Physics. His hypothesis that UFOs were extraterrestrial instruments on information gathering missions and his belief that the scientific reports of the time, including 1968’s Condon Report, were superficially done led him to investigate sightings and to combat governmental impediments against his research.
“UFO Hostilities and the Evil Alien Agenda” reprints a statement McDonald submitted to the House Committee on Science and Astronautics at the July 29, 1968, Symposium on Unidentified Flying Objects, held at the Rayburn Building in Washington, D.C.
“Official statements have emphasized,” McDonald writes, “for the past two decades, that there is no evidence of hostility in the UFO phenomena. To a large degree, this same conclusion seems indicated in the body of evidence gathered by independent investigators. The related question as to POTENTIAL hazard is perhaps less clear.”
McDonald then listed several types of UFO encounter that were potentially hazardous, as when the UFOs seem able to stop a moving car dead in its tracks, to inflict mild radiation exposure and on occasion to inflict more serious physical injuries.
The careful scientist admitted that he knew of at least two cases that involved “overt hostility” on the part of the aliens. One involved a young boy in Beallsville, Ohio, who had to be treated for burns at the local hospital after encountering an oval-shaped object with lights on it. The craft emitted a flash that set the young boy’s jacket on fire.
McDonald writes. “My conversations with persons who know the boy, including his teacher, suggest no reason to discount the story, despite its unusual content.”
Another “overt hostility” case known to McDonald involved burn injuries of an even more serious nature, but he declined to give the details in his report to Congress. McDonald died in 1971 from his own hand, said to be motivated by his wife’s decision to leave him for another man and the ridicule the scientist suffered for his outspoken belief that UFOs are genuine alien spacecraft. His death is still considered “questionable” nearly 50 years later.
Diary of a CIA Operative by Alvin E. Moore
One of the chapters contributed by publisher and editor Beckley concerns Alvin Moore, one of the better credentialed figures in the field of Ufology.
Moore was educated at the U.S. Naval Academy plus the George Washington School of Law and Louisiana State University. He worked as a patent engineer and attorney for the Werner von Braun team of space scientists. He was also a nautical scientist in the employ of the Navy and a CIA intelligence officer. Beckley would later publish a book by Moore called “Diary of a CIA Operative.” Moore spent nearly 25 years researching mysterious events attributable to UFOs and extraterrestrials.
“His conclusions are utterly shocking,” Beckley writes, “and certainly deserve further investigation despite attempts by so-called ‘serious UFOlogists’ to sweep this aspect of the phenomenon under the cosmic rug.”
According to Moore, aliens known as “Skymen” have been coming to Earth and exploiting it for many years. Some of them have homes in caverns on the moon, Mars, Jupiter as well as among the asteroids. Many more originate from much nearer to the Earth’s surface, from “Sky Islands,” or even from within the hollows of our planet and possibly underwater hangars. Sky chemicals and electrostatic gravity-like force of the alien Sky Islands and Skycraft have caused legions of accidents. Skymen have kidnapped a multitude of people and have long extracted blood from animals and men, as well as committed mysterious murders.
One of the case histories Moore collected and wrote about was this one:
On the night of May 10, 1951, police found a young woman screaming on a street corner in Manila. She was crying out that she was being bitten by something and seemed to be fighting something in the air around her. She said she was being bitten by something that looked like a man with big bulging eyes, wearing a black cape, and able to float in the air.
Clarita Villanueva shows bite mark on her shoulder caused by mysterious creatures with large, bulging eyes.
After she was locked up she began screaming that the thing was coming at her through the prison bars causing punctures that looked like teeth marks being formed on her arms and shoulders. The next morning, in the presence of policemen and Medical Examiner Dr. Mariana Lara, the screaming girl was again attacked by an invisible being leaving severe bite marks near her throat..
“A number of persons who have been captured by alien ‘Skymen’ have reported their extraction of ‘blood samples,’” Moore said. But the aliens’ need for the blood probably goes beyond the mere taking of samples for medical reasons. Still, the samples’ ultimate purpose remains unknown. The late abduction pioneer Budd Hopkins, in his 2003 book “Sight Unseen: Science, UFO Invisibility and Transgenic Beings,” writes at length about events like alien ships that appear in broad daylight on a family’s front lawn to carry out an abduction, yet the whole event remains completely hidden from the neighbors.
A SERIOUS CASE OF RADIATION BURNS
Artist Carol Ann Rodriguez depicts the Cash-Landum UFO being escorted by a U.S. military helicopter. All the witnesses suffered serious radiation burns.
The Cash-Landrum case, involved two middle-aged Texas women in the wrong place at the wrong time. We relied partially on the account given by Jerome Clark in his encyclopedic “The UFO Book.”
“On the evening of December 29, 1980, near Huffman, Texas,” Clark writes, “three occupants of a 1980 Oldsmobile Cutlass observed a remarkable sight.
Betty Cash, Vickie Landrum, and Vickie’s seven-year-old grandson, Colby, on their way home to Dayton, were driving through the southern tip of the east Texas piney woods when they noticed a large light above the trees some distance ahead.
“The light was briefly lost to view,” Clark continued, “but they saw it again when after rounding a curb they found themselves on a straight stretch of two-lane road on Highway FM 1485. This time it was approaching them, floating above the road at less than treetop height and belching flames from its bottom. Cash and the Landrums were only about 130 feet from the object.”
Landrum told Cash to stop the car, fearing they would get burned if they got too close, Meanwhile, it was impossible to simply drive away because the road was narrow and the shoulders soggy. Betty Cash, who was driving, knew that the car would get stuck if she tried to turn around. Since there was no other traffic on the lonesome stretch of road, she stepped out of the car, as did Vickie Landrum. Vickie returned to the car as soon as she heard Colby screaming in fear.
“The object, intensely bright and a dull metallic color,” writes Clark, “was shaped like a huge upright diamond, about the size of the Dayton water tower, with its top and bottom cut off so that they were flat rather than pointed. Small blue lights ringed the center and periodically, over the next few minutes, flames shot out of the bottom, flaring outward, creating the effect of a large cone. Every time the fire dissipated, the UFO floated a few feet downwards toward the road. But when the flames blasted out again, the object rose about the same distance. The witnesses said the heat was strong enough to make the car’s metal body painful to touch.”
The object moved higher over the treetops, the witnesses claimed that a group of helicopters approached the object and surrounded it in a tight formation. Cash and Landrum counted 23 helicopters and later identified some of them as tandem-rotor CH-47 Chinooks, routinely used by military forces worldwide.
The UFO and the helicopters were then “lost to view,” according to Clark, and the three resumed their journey. The whole incident had taken 20 minutes.
But what followed for Cash and the Landrums after their return home was unexpected sickness and misery.
Cash began to suffer a headache and nausea that would not go away, and large knots formed on her neck and scalp. Soon they became blisters. Also, her skin was reddening and her eyes swelled. She threw up repeatedly and experienced severe diarrhea. The Landrums were experiencing similar symptoms, though not as intensely.
A severe hand wound caused by a hostile UFO.
Cash’s friends soon feared she was near death because she had lapsed into near-unconsciousness. She was taken to the emergency room at Parkway Hospital on January 3, 1981. She could not walk and had lost large patches of skin and clumps of hair. The Landrums improved slightly, though the sores on their skin and the damage to their eyes persisted. Vickie suffered periodic sickness over the next few years and Colby had problems with chronic illness, sores and hair loss.
“A radiologist who reviewed the victims’ medical records for the Mutual UFO Network,” writes Clark, “concluded ‘We have strong evidence that these patients have suffered damage secondary to ionizing radiation. It is also possible that there was an infrared or ultraviolet component as well.’”
Cash and Landrum undertook a long and frustrating campaign to get compensation for their injuries from the government but were unable to prove that either the diamond-shaped craft or the military helicopters were the property of any governmental or military entity.
Cash died at the age of 71 on December 29, 1998, eighteen years to the day after her close encounter.
Landrum died September 12, 2007, seven days before her 84th birthday.
THE TIP OF THE PROVERBIAL ICEBERG
The foregoing has been just the tip of the iceberg in terms of chronicling the cases that demonstrate the negative aspects of the UFO and alien phenomenon, and Beckley has gathered a selection of writers to cover the subject thoroughly and objectively.
The hostile aliens attack us even with noxious smells and odors, as Tim R. Swartz explains in one chapter. A writer using the pseudonym Hercules Invictus gives an overview of the wicked among the Greek gods on Olympus, while Hispanic writer Scott Corrales covers the evil aliens and their intrusions into the Spanish-speaking regions of the Americas. Allen Greenfield recounts folkloric encounters with fairies that seem suspiciously like meetings with the ubiquitous diminutive gray aliens.
No one wants to abandon the cherished idea that the aliens are potentially here to save us from ourselves. But, as this book’s back cover claims, there is irrefutable proof that UFOs could be perilous to your health, your well-being, and even your life – and in an extreme case scenario could doom all of humanity. Because of the frightening nature of its fully-documented findings, this may well be the most startling book you will ever read on the subject of UFOs. Hundreds of alarming cases are detailed here and it is evident that there is no place to hide.
Note: According to the UK Daily Star News, Adolph Hitler was allegedly under the control of Reptilian aliens who directed him to destroy millions of Jews because of their high intelligence. William Tompkins stated many aliens are helpful to mankind but Reptilians spread a fog or cloud cover to downgrade human interest in science and the alien threat and create a false interest in football and other sports. They often start wars and spread disease to keep the human population lower. John Keel author of the ‘Mothman Prophesies” claims the aliens are devils. Thanks to Timothy Buckley and https://spectralvision.wordpress.com/tag/dangerous
Project 1947 UFO Reports from 1909
Sandusky, Ohio Daily Register – July 23, 1909
LIGHT IN SKIES
Attracts Attention of Night Owls Many Looked for Airship to Alight
A light believed by many to have been attached to an airship, attracted a great deal of attention in the northeastern skies about 11 o’clock Thursday night. One minute it would be large and brilliant and the next small and dim. It would remain apparently stationary for awhile and then speed along in an easterly direction at a rapid rate.
(Thanks to John Hudson)
Wilmington, Delaware MORNING NEWS – 2 August 1909
SEE AIRSHIPS AT NIGHT
People of Middletown Tell Tales of Ghostly Dirigible with Lights
MIDDLETOWN, August 1. — A mysterious airship which flies only at night is causing considerable excitement and keeping the people of Orange county residing between Goshen and Newburg up nights in their efforts to get a look at it. For the past month persons who have been out late at night have reported seeing an airship, but few believed the stories.
For a week or more the flying machine had not been seen, but at 11 o’clock last night it made its appearance near Goshen. It was flying high in the air and carried a light which attracted attention.
It flew very fast and was last seen traveling in the direction of Newburg. Those who have seen the machine say it is shaped like a balloon and has wings on each side and a cigar-shaped car underneath. The sound of a motor was distinctly heard by those who saw the machine.
(Thanks to Carl Feindt)
Willimantic (CT) Chronicle – 11 Aug, 1909
Mars Bottle
Date of discovery: Aug 26, 2018
Looking though the gigapan Mars photos, I found something that closely resembles an ancient clay bottle. It’s very similar to this 2,000 year old Roman bottle which I include into the photo for you to compare. Again I am showing you a NASA Mars photo which has been altered by NASA into a False Color…which makes the surface look red and brown. But in reality, Mars surface looks more similar to a desert on Earth. NASA adds False Color to hide from the public the fact that Mars is more hospitable than they want you to know. This way, there is no other country racing to Mars and NASA will have no competition…which gives them a lot of time to get there. Scott C. Waring Source photo: http://www.gigapan.com/gigapans/210673
Moon Dark Moving Spots
Three dark spots on the moon or nearer to Earth
Moving across. I was taking a few photos of the moon with my new telescope and a few dark anomalies showed up. Maybe you have seen these before and you will know what they are. The 1st photo of the moon, DSC06272A, is pretty clear and devoid of anything unusual. The 2nd, DSC06274A, was taken just a few seconds later, and has these dark anomalies showing up.
Love and Light, Thanks to Dan Johnson
We Are Not Alone. September 4, 2018: 12 – 1 PM:.
Please note the new time for We Are Not Alone (12 noon – 1 PM). Join us then when our guest will be Chase Kloetzke, the MUFON Director of Investigations and Star Team Director. We will discuss everything from MUFON’s role in bringing about UFO disclosure and her books on the subject to the possibility of ET being other dimensional instead of extraterrestrial – perhaps both. Remember after the broadcast this show is available as a podcast from this website: click on Talk Shows–Tuesday Forum–(select date).
“We Are Not Alone” is a two time award winning radio show on WHFR.FM and is a member of the MUFON Radio Network the first Tuesday of each month at 1:00 PM EST Go to http://streema.com/radios/play/23020 All shows are archived at WHFR’s website. Click on “Talk Shows” then the “Tuesday Forum” button and the date of the show. We Are Not Alone is also archived at my website which is http://www.ufoimplications.com/radio_archive.html
Jeff Rense show will have me on at 10 PM September 4, 2018, at Rense.com
Planned Parenthood
The Holocaust was the systematic, bureaucratic, state-sponsored persecution and murder of six million Jews by the Nazi regime and its collaborators. The origins of the as Lucy Dasidowisc claims is that Adolf Hitler planned the extermination of the Jewish people as early as 1918. Some claim he was abducted by Reptilians who planned the extermination and war as a method in keeping world population down. The 1918 influenza pandemic was the most severe pandemic in recent history. It was caused by an H1N1 virus with genes of avian origin. ‘It spread worldwide during 1918-1919. It is estimated that about 500 million people or one-third of the world’s population became infected with this virus. The number of deaths was estimated to be at 50 million worldwide with about 675,000 occurring in the United States. Since the beginning of the epidemic, 39 million have died of AIDS or HIV-related causes.
Since Roe vs. Wade 1973 Supreme Court ruling when seven judges in the court recognized for the first time in history that the constitutional right to privacy “is broad enough to encompass a woman’s decision whether or not to terminate her pregnancy” Sixty million American babies have been legally aborted or about a fifth of the population. The government will continue handing hundreds of millions of dollars to Planned Parenthood a company that executes over 328 thousand human children every year. The government has taken active measures to prevent the severing of the abortion industry’s tax payer pipeline. Members of Congress continue to fund Planned Parenthood. This is no longer just a Democrat initiative. The Republicans are also funding the Democrat Party while they fund abortions. Planned Parenthood, despite being a publicly subsidized organization, is somehow allowed to funnel millions back into the coffers of Democrat campaigns. This alone is enough reason to defund them. Though the sixty million of dead babies since 1973 should be an even more pressing concern. Last year Planned Parenthood aborted 328,348 babies and it managed to increase its taxpayer funding while recording another $77.5 million in profit.”.
It’s true that Trump partially underfunded the organization a few months ago. By changing certain Health and Human Services rules, Planned Parenthood will be deprived of 50 million tax dollars this year of over $500 million each year. That’s fine, but it’s not even a drop in the bucket. It still leaves about half a billion dollars on the table. Trump did about as much as he could on his own. Congress needs to act on the rest, and it has not. We gave Republicans total control of the government and they have not even managed to stop the insanely unethical practice of funding abortion conglomerates.
Thousands of families wish to adopt children but are unable to do abortions, large costs and difficult paperwork often costing $50,000 to 60,000 for an adoption. Some 20% are adopted from other countries. A better way should be found to protect the lives of the unborn.
The Government’s subsidizing of the abortion industry is wrong .
Liberty Museum
The Liberty Museum’s
central display shows an artist depiction of inside propulsion system of Unidentified Flying Object. Jennifer Stein, Frank Chille and myself spoke at the Liberty Museum. Face book page VIP Panel – Travis Audience Joseph.Foster@MillenniumOSS.com
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- Gemiddelde waardering: 0/5 - (0 Stemmen) Categorie:FILER FILES - overzicht met foto's met dank aan Georges Filer en WWW.nationalUFOCenter.com (ENG)
Filer’s Files #35 – 2018 A Valid “Alien Threat” - PART II
Filer’s Files #35 – 2018 A Valid “Alien Threat” - PART II
UFO Sightings in the United States
California Object
Keyes — On the way home there was a bright object in the sky on August 29, 2018. Once home I observed the object seemingly getting brighter then dimming until it disappeared. Five minutes later the object reappeared in the sky but a little lower on the horizon. When the object did disappear there appeared a slight fuzzy glow where it had been in the sky. It was if the object was moving directly away from my vantage point off the west coast. I’ve seen launches from Vandenberg that resemble this but according to their site there were no launches. In the attached photos it’s the light that appears just above the house across the street. Thanks to MUFON CMS
Florida Lights
Largo— About midnight at work tonight, on August 12, 2017, I saw something that I can’t explain. Give your opinion of what you see in these pictures I took. These pictures are in no way tampered with, Anyone else see these objects in the sky? On top of getting pictures of what look like UFO’s, the skull shaped clouds atop of the moon just makes it top the cake. I saw some type of twinkle/flickering lights in the sky and took my camera phone out. And these are the results. I’ve felt eerie since taking and looking at these. Has anyone else in my area seen this? Anymore pics out there? After 1 minute, with getting Goosebumps and all the hairs on my body standing up, the objects just vanished within a blink of an eye. The was no movement at all! They just disappeared! Thanks to MUFON CMS
Maryland Object
Greenbelt Lake — On August/23, 2018 at 9PM, I felt drawn to visit Buddy Attick Park despite never having this urge at night previously, and the park being closed for the day. I parked in the parking lot of the park in pitch black, noticed one person leaving and walked to the park bench in total darkness. Bluish white and orangish white light appeared to “dance” with each other, as if in a ballet/musical production. I *may* have a few minutes of missing time, unsure, minimal if so. The sighting lasted maybe 5-10 seconds but it was absolutely unambiguous that it occurred.
They were star like points of light, one with slight bluish-white coloration, one with orangish-white coloration. A very bright white light flashed on tree tops on north side of lake following the sighting
I felt intense static electricity in the air shortly before the sighting started, my hair stood straight upland I had an overwhelming feeling of anticipation that something out of the ordinary was about to happen. A milky white residue left behind by small round objects on my car of two separate sizes impacting the glass (marble size and golf ball size. Thanks to MUFON CMS
Michigan Object
Detroit— Monday August 27th I was watching the news at 11:34 p.m. when I seen a bird fly by. I rewind the tape to see what kind of bird it was and it wasn’t a bird it was some object flying back and forth and it flew back in front of the screen,
I still don’t know what it is.
If it’s a bug it’s the biggest bug I’ve ever seen in Michigan but it flew in front of the screen and there’s six to eight frames where it looks like it has antennas and legs and wings I don’t know what it is,
Thanks to MUFON CMS
Missouri Lights
Branson– On August 26, 2018, saw a beautiful sunset decided to take some footage of it with my cell phone. I noticed other people were taking pics too. It was an unusually bright sunset which caught our attention. I didn’t see the orbs until I uploaded the video and watched it on my pc when I saw the orbs. Toward the end of the video, the orb on the right descends below the tree limb while the others remain hovering. Not much else to describe. Watch the video and look at the pics to see the orbs. Or whatever they were. Thanks to MUFON CMS
New Jersey Object
Hazlet— I was sitting in my yard with my wife when I noticed how nice the clouds looked on July 27, 2018, I snapped a picture with my cell phone and noticed a black object in the picture which is circled. Snapped another picture the next day with a plane going over and the object was there again. I cannot identify what I have seen and hoped MUFON could help. Thanks to MUFON CMS
New York Object
Cedarhurst— While driving to JFK airport on August 29. 2018, I noticed a very odd looking Ariel craft moving in my direction across the sky.
I stopped to observe closer as a past almost over head there was no sound as if it was floating and had appendages
Thanks to MUFON CMS
Ohio Triangle
Huron — I live on a golf course on Lake Erie a quarter mile from the water. I was out on my patio early evening and looking up the sky and noticed that there was an overcast sky. I saw this strange looking grayish vapor like cloud that almost looked like a short jet stream. There were no planes in the air and the altitude was somewhat low. It appeared to me that it was out over the lake. I took a picture of the cloud and then I took two more within 5 seconds after that. Then the cloud and all objects were gone. This was not photo shopped or Faked in any way, Thanks to MUFON CMS
Texas Triangle
Laredo— One night as I was throwing out the trash, I was looking up at the sky and saw a light far away on January 3, 2018. At first I thought it was an airplane moving straight until suddenly it completely turned the other way around moving around faster than any plane. I told my brother to come and decide what it was. He simply said it could be a drone but I doubted since it was very high up in the sky and moved fast. Minutes later another light appeared much closer following the other. I told my brother to record them.
Then another object appeared coming out behind the house incredibly more shocking than the other two as this one was just super close to me and I could see its triangular detail. Bright white lights that would pulsate separately on the corners. Also there was a light in the middle of the black craft and as it came closer to me.
I almost thought I was paralyzed. Also because of the light becoming bigger I could see slits on the sides of the UFO. It was actually also shiny, almost like a reflecting mirror. It was bigger than an airplane. Then it turned around and headed to the west, fading away quickly. My left arm under my hand had a weird pink but perfectly shaped oval spot. Thanks to MUFON CMS
Santa Clara –I was getting cleaning supplies the I notice a strange triangular shape I quickly pulled up the star map and it was between Sagittarius and Mars I look over and see stuff moving in the air they looked like octopi then I start seeing lights disappear in the sky I come back with my dad with me and all the lights that disappeared were there again and all those octopi things weren’t there the only thing that was there was the triangular multi colored UFO. Thanks to MUFON CMS
West Virginia Moon
Berkeley Springs — I was taking pictures of the moon with my cell phone through my telescope’s eyepiece when all of a sudden a black object with no lights and a black tail flew across the shot in about 2 to 3 seconds. My telescope is located in my living room which faces west. It was focused on the moon rising over the mountains. It was still relatively low in the sky, so the moon looked very large through the lens. The lens was the lowest magnification- 25mm.
I was clicking the shutter button on my phone continuously and I managed to capture pictures before, during, and after the object flew in the path of my lens. The object flew much, much faster than any plane. Thanks to MUFON CMS
Worldwide UFO Sightings
Argentina Object
I was at El Hornocal in Jujuy, on Friday August 25th, with friends.
We took many pictures and in one of them an object appears and it is not a picture defect or any other known object.
It is very strange. Thanks to MUFON CMS
Croatia Object
Makarska Omiš— Many UFOs or USOs came vertical from the sky and immersed in the sea.
Not far from the event, there was a light earthquake magnitude 4,5 on the same day I have make this photos with my smart phone. Photo was taken on February 3, 2018. Thanks to MUFON CMS
Denmark Object
Odense— UFO was recorded from my apartment with a HD video camcorder pointing in westerly direction back in 2011. I was filming the passing clouds and did not see the dark grey object passing by while filming. I forgot the footage and 7 years later on August 24, 2018, I found the old footage again and now discovered this black UFO flying past the camera while emitting condensation fog. This object flew in a straight line without engine sound. Actually I had a similar live sighting in same period, also with a small black or dark-grey object that also flew in a straight line. Thanks to MUFON CMS
Eire Object
Dublin— I was watching the Euronews channel with my wife, and spotted a UFO flying very fast over Croke Park Stadium in from top right over the stadium and disappear in the far side middle of the stadium while the news reader were reporting on the Pope’s visit in Ireland on August 25, 2018. I have a Sky decoder that can pause, rewind and replay video. So, I rewind and replay this in normal speed with my camcorder and slow down the speed to show the object flying more clearly. This is too fast for a plane, and you can see on the video that it’s moving over the stadium with an angle from top right to middle left in the sky above. It changes direction which is clearly not a shooting star. CMS
Georgia Light
Kutaisi— I was visiting with my sister and children on August 26, 2018. We left the house and went to our house on foot. It was dark outside, at 22 hours. The sky was a bit cloudy, as we walked and talked, I looked at the sky with the stars. A cloud appeared in the sky in the sky with a purple glow for a few seconds. Then the cloud dissolved in the sky. There were no sounds and no wind My sister did not see anything, we were sober. The object was up to 30 meters in size and the height of clouds. Searching on the network, I found an image made on February 11, 2018, exactly as I saw it. Thanks to MUFON Thanks to MUFON CMS
Peru Disc
Machu Picchu— My wife and I have returned from a trip and ordering the photos I see an object present in one of the pictures on August 28, 2018.
The photos were taken by a tourist with a few seconds between them. We did not see anything but in the second photo, is it a bird? stain, UFO? etc
Thanks to MUFON CMS
Philippines Disc
Paranaque — It was back in 1992, my Eldest brother called me and my brother outside and said there was a UFO following him. Then we went outside to see a bright orange-yellow star like object. As it got closer the glow disappeared and as it came we first thought it was a comet but with no tail just a bright dot. As it came closer it reveal itself to be a flying saucer.
It became low at around a hundred feet or lesser. Then it slowly moved and hovered on the left side of our house and then slowly moved towards the top of our house. The saucer was big and had hieroglyphics of some kind of language on its side,
It slowly ascended and turned upside down revealing its top to be a dome of some kind. Then it moved and increased to moderate speed and made a U-turn and disappeared, The Saucer was glowing orange and yellow was searching for something and made no sound at all. Thanks to MUFON CMS
Puerto Rico Object
Naguabo— An object was ascending from the mountain and appears in the photo.
Its path was changing in zigzag while ascending and its apparent size increased a little bit when it was at the highest altitude.
I saw the object when reviewing the photos.
Thanks to MUFON CMS
Slovenia Object
No Pri Litiji — My sister saw it while going to school with a car. First she thought it was a meteor, but it was moving up so it wasn’t one. She told this to mother but she couldn’t see it while driving. it looked like a white zeppelin but it was more lens shaped. More than five UFOs were on the same place above Slatna forest. At the end it looked like a flame. It was moving with a speed or airplane or maybe slower. If I took a flame and UFO together it looked like a fish. It was moving to south fast. about 1 kilometer away and looks like a ventricular cloud. CMS
South Korea Cylinder
I feel the UFO was following me.
It was an orange light UFO first hovering along a long change circle.
The photo was taken September 18, 2018. Thanks to MUFON CMS
Spain Objects
Canary Islands — UFO sighting made by my mother in an airplane over the island of Lanzarote on January 5, 2018, 15 minutes after the departure. She says that varied objects of speed and from time to time stalled at the speed of the plane and therefore seemed fixed to her. She says the phenomenon was kind of bright balls with several shape changes. The sighting lasted about 4 minutes. The objects at the end began to form horizontally before accelerating vertically at an incredible speed and disappeared. She alone saw the phenomenon and did not comment on the event for fear of the reaction of people.
I have put together a DVD of the last twenty years of Filer’s Files for you with hundreds of great photographs and UFO sightings that will explain the phenomena and the importance to your life and your family. Additionally, I have included my book within the DVD that includes George Ritter’s exciting abduction story told by Linda Moulton Howe. Broadcaster David E. Twichell joined me to write the book. We are asking for a donation of only $50 that includes next year’s subscription and our book. Please include your e-mail address and mailing address.
Our research is uncovering amazing truths by solving challenging projects deemed too difficult by other firms. We have had some success in finding missing persons. We could use your help in getting more results from our research. I have put together a DVD of the last seventeen years of Filer’s Files for you with hundreds of great photographs and UFO sightings. Additionally, I have decided to include my book within the DVD that includes George Ritter’s exciting abduction story told by Linda Moulton Howe. Broadcaster David E. Twichell joined me to write the book. We are asking for a donation of only $50 that includes next year’s subscription and our book. Please include your e-mail address and mailing address.
Have been digging through the giant DVD you sent recently. As a relatively recent joiner, I was unaware of the years’ worth of consistent reports of the same types of objects all over. This has been very educational. Just wanted to thank you for all you’ve done. Bruce W. Freeman Attorney at Law
Sign me up right now for Filer’s Files.
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If you're still mourning Gillian Anderson's retirement from The X-Files, unsure how to cope without seeing her chasing down aliens armed only with her government-issued sidearm and healthy skepticism, UFO might be the cure for what ails you.
Released today from Sony Entertainment, UFO, written and directed by Ryan Eslinger, sees Anderson returning to the genre that made her famous, this time as a math professor who plays sidekick to a talented young student during his attempt to unravel an intergalactic communiqué.
SYFY WIRE spoke with Paul M. Sutter, an astrophysicist at Ohio State University and UFO's scientific consultant, to chat about science, aliens, and making the flick.
Sutter, who also hosts the Ask a Spaceman podcast, describes his universe-encapsulating day job as trying "to understand how stuff in space works. I have a few different specialties. I'm mostly a cosmologist. I study the whole entire universe as a single physical object. So I study the big bang, I study the large-scale structure of the universe. I study the birth of the first star. I study the voids, the vast empty regions between the galaxies. There's a lot of fertile ground out there."
How does one become a UFO consultant?
I actually have no idea, even though I did it. It's not like I applied and called every producer in Hollywood saying, "Hey, if you need science advice, you know where to find me." In this case, it was a connection of a connection of a connection of a connection.
The director was looking around and the director had a relationship with Ohio State University and the University of Cincinnati. He was looking around for someone to help him out with the mathematics and the science in the script as he was developing it. The producer was aware of this issue and the producer's dad is really well connected to Ohio State and knew some of the cool science and art collaborations that I'd been working on the past few years and thought I might be just the right guy.
So he called his son who called the director, Ryan. Ryan called me, and it was nerd love at first sight. It was such an unexpected connection but something I absolutely enjoyed and consider myself very lucky to be a part of.
For the movie, what did your work as a consultant entail?
It started with the script with writer/director Ryan Eslinger, as he was putting the finishing touches on the script there were some parts where the characters have to do some math and he wanted to make sure the math was right. There were parts where the characters had conversations about scientific topics, and he wanted to make sure the science was right. And there were a few places where the knowledge of science was key in order to move the plot forward and he wanted to make sure that this page connected to that page and that it all made sense and was motivated from real, grounded science.
That was the pre-production work. Once production got started, I worked with the set designers and prop people to figure out whiteboards and chalkboards and quizzes and assignments. The most surreal thing I did, second most surreal thing I did, is Gillian Anderson, who plays a math professor, I had helped Ryan shape some of her lines where she had to lecture in front of the class. And she'd also write on the board some equations at the same time she's talking. So she asked Ryan to ask me to make a video of doing that so that she could pretend to be a math professor. And that was something else.
So if she comes off in that scene as a 30-something bald guy who's kind of sarcastic, that's just method acting.
Let's talk about aliens and real-life UFOs a little bit. In your estimation, what do you think the likelihood is of there being life, not necessarily intelligent life, but life in our solar system?
Oh yeah, that's absolutely fascinating, just to entertain the notion that there's even a slim chance that there might be life right here in our neighborhood that we could go visit and talk to and shake hands or tentacles, or however it might work out mechanically, it's so tantalizing. That drives researchers.
I'm personally fascinated by and curious about it even though that's not my line of research. For a long time, we thought "this is it," the Earth is the only place with liquid water. Mars is super dry and dead, maybe it was alive at some point but that was three billion years ago so that hardly counts and that's it.
Now, with these sub-surface oceans around Europa and Callisto and Enceladus and maybe even Pluto it's like there's more liquid water in any one of these worlds than all of Earth. And life as we know it requires water, it also requires a whole bunch of other things but hey, we're checking off the first box in the checklist for hunting for life and that itself is cause for celebration. I hope so. I hope there's life.
What's your take on the Fermi Paradox?
I think the Fermi Paradox is an expression of our sheer inability to cope with the true time and distance scales when we have to start talking about things like galaxies and universes.
We're probably not alone. There's probably other life orbiting other stars. Some of them are probably intelligent. Some of them are probably in our own galaxy now. But for all intents and purposes, we are totally, 100 percent, completely isolated. Space is just too big.
It's almost like we're living on a really tiny island in a vast ocean and there are other islands out there, but we don't have the ability to get there.
We don't have a canoe. No outriggers, no sails, nothing.
Do you feel like the search for extraterrestrial life is a worthwhile pursuit on its own or do you feel like it's more important as an inspiration for getting people interested in the sciences?
Oh yeah, of course, astrophysicists and cosmologists are interested in a whole bunch of things. Some astrophysicists are hunting for life on other worlds, some astrophysicists are trying to understand how stars live and die, some astrophysicists are trying to understand how galaxies emerge.
So, of course, we all compete with each other for funding and we'd all like our personal slice of the pie to be a little bit larger than the slice of our competitors. But we do recognize that of the entire astrophysicist community recognizes that this is a valid question that over the past few decades has moved from the realm of philosophy and speculation into the realm of science.
This is a question that we have the capability to answer with the scientific method and if it is a valid scientific question then it is up for grabs as a legitimate exercise of science.
One of the focuses of the movie is mathematics. If we did encounter other intelligent life, do you feel like math would be the best foundation for developing communication with them?
There are some things that we recognize in nature that we're pretty sure are universal. That if you have any conception of logic whatsoever, that you would eventually arrive at the same conclusion. You may have different structures to represent those but the basic understanding would still be there. So perhaps mathematics is a truly universal, cross-species language. There's only one way to find out which is to actually meet someone else and give it a shot.
Maybe the better route is through common physics, things we can observe about the universe that we know that nobody else will disagree about because it's so unambiguous. Maybe that's the best route. Maybe it's little of column "A" and a little of column "B."
Can you give an example of a universal observation we might be able to use?
This is actually something that is highlighted in the film is this concept of the Fine Structure Constant.
This is a number, it's just a raw number that appears in physical theory. And the very interesting thing about this number is that it doesn't have any use. It's not measured in terms of meters or pounds or light years, it's not tied to any choice of measurement system it's just a raw number that appears in nature.
So, we're guessing that if you're intelligent and you're a fan of science and you're doing the whole science thing and you're discovering basic truths about the way nature operates, that you will eventually also discover this Fine Structure Constant because it will appear in your mathematics too, regardless of how you formulate your mathematics. Perhaps this, a common understanding of something that appears to be ubiquitous and universal, is the key that unlocks the door.
One of the common things in television and movies is when we do discover aliens they look sort of like us. Do you think there's any good reason to believe that would be the case?
As far as I understand this, there are two lines of thought here. One line of thought is to look at the variety of life on the Earth and there's some really weird stuff going on, like things in the oceans and even when we dig into our ancient past there are some true freak shows of nature. So, an alien, evolving with a completely different set of circumstances and environment and evolutionary path, would look totally different from us. Perhaps, unrecognizably so, to the point that we wouldn't even know we were looking at life if we were staring it in the face.
Or, maybe life follows convergent evolution, maybe the right special sauce that made us, us, is the only special sauce available throughout the universe and that if we met some aliens, maybe it would be likeStar Trek where they're basically us but they have some weird forehead.
The perfectly preserved remains of a baby horse belonging to a now-extinct species made headlines when they were unveiled to the world last week. Now, researchers in Russian and South Korea say that the 40,000-year-old foal, discovered in the Siberian permafrost, could be cloned back to life. If they are successful, the achievement would mark an important milestone towards the ultimate goal of resurrecting the wooly mammoth.
The 40,000-year-old horse was found buried beneath 30 meters of permafrost, which preserved it so well that its tail, mane, and hooves were still attached.
According to Semyon Grigoriev, the head of the Mammoth Museum in Yakutsk, the foal was only 20 days old when it perished. But thanks to the astonishing conservation power of the permafrost from the “Mouth of Hell” — the tadpole-shaped, one-km-long crater where the horse was found, initially created by the Soviets when they cleared the forest in the area — researchers were able to recover muscle tissues from the animal.
These undamaged samples could prove extremely valuable to biotech research — among them, a project that aims to resurrect the now-extinct Equus lenesis, also known as the Lena horse.
Hwang Woo Suk flew in from Seoul, South Korea to personally supervise the DNA extraction process from the foal. If they find viable, undamaged cells, these could be used to clone this unique animal.
“We are trying to make a primary culture using this baby horse,” said Suk, a former professor at Seoul National University. “If we get live cells from this ancient baby horse, it is a wonderful promise to people in terms of cloning.”
Suk is a pioneer of stem cell research, who has fallen out of grace in the scientific community after he was found guilty of falsifying some of his findings. He admitted to using eggs from paid donors in a study that claimed to recover stem cells from a cloned human embryo. Bringing an extinct species back from the dead may be a way for the scientist to redeem himself.
Credit: Michil Yakovlev/SVFU.
Previously, the South Korean researchers obtained living cells from a dead pet dog frozen by its owners. That was quite an important achievement because water crystalizes and destroys the cells.
Just like they would clone any other animal, the scientists plan to transplant genetic information from a specialized cell into an unfertilized egg cell whose genetic information has been destroyed or physically removed. The mare of a horse species similar to the extinct Lena will be used as a surrogate.
Once they are confident enough in their abilities, scientists plan to do the same for a wooly mammoth with an elephant as the surrogate.
Most of the world’s wooly mammoths were killed around 10,500 years ago, the prime causes are still up for debate. Human hunting, climate change or both have been identified by scientists as prime suspects. But on a small island off the coast of Alaska, an isolated population of wooly mammoths lingered on for thousands of years. They too died around 5,600 years, and with them, their entire species went extinct.
In 2014, a team of international researchers uncovered a 43,000-year-old female from the Siberian tundra which still had well-preserved muscles, kidneys, and even blood.
However, the differences between a mammoth and an elephant are much more significant than those between a modern-day horse and the extinct Lena.
Credit: Wikimedia Commons.
As such, cloning the Lena horse would be an immense breakthrough for scientists looking to bring back species back from the dead. There’s a lot of ground to cover though and, right now, people are probing in the dark. For instance, no one has been able to recover a living cell from ancient tissue before — which is the current plan. That would be unique in itself.
Previously, scientists led by George Church, professor of genetics at Harvard University, merged elephant and mammoth DNA — another important step for cloning the extinct beasts. While DNA can survive for a long time under the ‘freezer’, it’s far from being perfect — it’s impractical for cloning purposes since many bits and pieces have been damaged by the environment, which is why the researchers had to piece together the mammoth DNA with bits from the elephant.
RELATED800 Year Old "Extinct Big Squash" Revived With Ancient Seeds
The object was spotted during a rainstorm in the US state of North Carolina last month.
Javion Hill, 35, posted several pictures on his Facebook page and said he was driving along US 74 southwest of Charlotte on August 18 when he saw the display.
The unidentified item resembles a kind of rectangular aircraft with lights activated along the edges – which UFO enthusiasts and conspiracy theorists claim is an advanced new spy plane known as “TR-3B”.
But others claim the picture looks like the reflection of a call phone on the dash.
“I was on my way home with my wife on the speaker phone, and it looked like there was a tornado coming, so I was trying to take a picture of the clouds for my wife,” Hill told the Charlotte Observer.
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UFO? An alien hunter posted this picture from North Carolina last month
“But then I saw something that wasn’t normal and I was, like: ‘Oh my god, what is that?’
“I started trying to take as many pictures of it as possible while I was driving.”
Hill then pulled his car over at the next exit and tried to get video, but the “aircraft” disappeared.
When asked to speculate, Hill said it was possible the aircraft he saw was a military plane of some sort.
UFO conspiracy theorists have claimed the US military is working on a secret anti-gravity spy plane.
GETTY
CONVINCED: Hill (left), said he took the pictures on August 11
There is only anecdotal evidence that such a plane exists.
Some UFO observers claim to have seen an aircraft of this type over Antelope Valley in the southern California desert.
“I was worried for my safety,” Hill added.
“I didn’t believe in UFOs until that moment.”
The sighting came just two weeks after a video emerged showing what appeared to be a strange object hovering over the Lake Norman area.
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SPOTTED: There are hundreds of UFO sightings every year
“I was worried for my safety”
Spotter
North Carolina is home to multiple military bases, including Fort Bragg, Pope Air Force Base and Camp Lejeune Marine Corps facility.
Kevin Knuth, who is now a professor of physics at the University of Albany, believes there is “plenty of evidence” to support the existence of UFOs in our universe.
The former NASA worker says humanity needs to “face the possibility” UFO sightings may be “visitors from afar” and insists more research needs to be done on the topic as it would benefit mankind.
Photograph of mysterious 'angular aircraft' hovering over North Carolina freeway sends UFO enthusiasts wild with speculation it could be a top-secret US government plane
Photograph of mysterious 'angular aircraft' hovering over North Carolina freeway sends UFO enthusiasts wild with speculation it could be a top-secret US government plane
Javion Hill, 35, was driving southwest of Charlotte on the night of August 18
He then noticed a strange aircraft hovering above in the night sky
The aircraft, which had lights on a rectangular perimeter, then vanished
UFO conspiracy theorists say aircraft could be new spy plane known as TR-3B
North Carolina is in the top 10 states where most UFO sightings are reported
The truth is out there - especially if you’re in North Carolina.
For at least the second time this summer, a local resident says he saw a UFO in the skies above the Tar Heel State.
Javion Hill, 35, posted a photograph on his Facebook page showing a mysterious object in the sky during a rainstorm near Charlotte.
Hill, a resident of Kings Mountain, North Carolina, said he took several photos on the night of August 18 as he was driving along U.S. 74 southwest of Charlotte.
The object resembles a kind of rectangular aircraft with lights activated along the edges - which UFO enthusiasts and conspiracy theorists claim is an advanced new spy plane known as 'TR-3B'.
However, some online have said the picture looks suspiciously like the reflection of a cell phone on the dash.
Javion Hill, 35, posted several photographs on his Facebook page showing a mysterious object in the sky during a rainstorm near Charlotte
‘I was on my way home with my wife on the speaker phone, and it looked like there was a tornado coming, so I was trying to take a picture of the clouds for my wife,’ Hill told the Charlotte Observer.
‘But then I saw something that wasn’t normal and I was, like: “Oh my god, what is that?”
‘I started trying to take as many pictures of it as possible while I was driving.’
Hill then pulled his car over at the next exit and tried to get video, but the aircraft disappeared.
Moments later, it began pouring rain.
Hill said he was so unnerved by what he saw that he could not fall asleep that night.
When asked to speculate, Hill said it was possible the aircraft he saw was a military plane of some sort.
UFO conspiracy theorists have claimed that the U.S. military is working on a secret anti-gravity spy plane that hovers - the TR-3B.
There is only anecdotal evidence that such a plane exists.
Some UFO observers claim to have seen an aircraft of this type over Antelope Valley in the southern California desert - not far from Edwards Air Force Base.
Hill (left), a resident of Kings Mountain, North Carolina, said he took the photos on the night of August 18 as he was driving along U.S. 74 southwest of Charlotte
'I was worried for my safety,' Hill said.
'I didn’t believe in UFOs until that moment.'
The sighting of the unusual aircraft came just two weeks after a video emerged showing what appeared to be a strange object hovering over the Lake Norman area.
The footage recorded by Jason Swing on May 29, is extremely shaky but when the video isn't bouncing up and down it shows, clear as day, a large object that appears to be hovering in mid-air.
During the short clip Swing posted to YouTube he announces 'This is a spacecraft.' The clip is accompanied with a brief explainer of the video.
'It had been raining all morning. Rain finally stopped so we went (to) pick up a boat from Lake Norman,' Swing says in a post with the video. 'When (I) came around the corner I saw this thing sitting still very close.'
The sighting of the unusual aircraft came just two weeks after a video emerged showing what appeared to be a strange object hovering over the Lake Norman area. Though viewers thought it was a UFO, the tire company GoodYear said it was its blimp
The video garnered over 150,000 views and then it received an additional boost in viewers when on Thursday the YouTube video channel 'The Hidden Underbelly 2.0,' a site focused on UFO and creature videos picked it up.
While some people were excited about the possibility of the large object being a UFO, others wondered if the government was behind the large flying object.
GoodYear, the tire manufacturing company, saw the video, and claims, as much as some wish it were a UFO, that the object seen in the shaky footage, is its blimp that was in the the Charlotte area on May 29, for NASCAR's Coca Cola 600.
The GoodYear Blimp's account shared: 'We don’t want to get in the way of a good story, but that’s definitely us. We left the Charlotte area 5/29 after covering the Coke 600.'
North Carolina is also the home to multiple military bases, including Fort Bragg, Pope Air Force Base and Camp Lejeune Marine Corps facility.
7 Ancient Sites That Are Thought To Have Been Built By Aliens
7 Ancient Sites That Are Thought To Have Been Built By Aliens
You might not believe in aliens but chances are you’ve heard a lot about them. Theories about aliens and their influence over our world are something that will never die out.
There are tons of different places and things in this world that could be summed up by ‘blaming aliens’ when you actually break them down. Below I am going to go over some of the most interesting ancient sites that many believe even now were created by something or someone not of this world. Have you heard about any of these before?
7 Ancient Sites That Are Thought To Have Been Built By Aliens:
These are straight white lines etched into the desert. While they might seem random or meaningless they join together in some peculiar ways. They create several different animals and are thought to be messages from aliens here to their ships above. These drawings are at least two millennia old and are without a doubt unexplainable.
While the pyramids are well known many don’t take the time to think about how they were created. At almost five thousand years old rock and things of the sort should not have been movable at least not on the scale that was done to create such amazing things. How the Egyptians managed to pull this one off is something we will wonder about for years to come.
There have been lots of theories about alien involvement and are documentaries about it all over the web. Perhaps there is more to it than you might think.
3. Teotihuacan
This ancient city in Mexico is well known for its temples and was built over two thousand years ago. It is something many find to be otherworldly in general and could have been built by many different cultures, not just one. Considering how old it is and how advanced the entire thing is in itself, many believe it had to have some kind of extraterrestrial influence.
4. The Face on Mars
Yes, there is a strange face on Mars. It made headlines when it was first noticed and is still the topic of a lot of conspiracies even now. This face was first spotted back in 1976 and seems to have been created by someone or something, somehow. Many believe aliens built this face on Mars and we truly know nothing about it.
That being said, using a higher resolution camera, the face doesn’t seem to be present at all. Depending on who you are this either feeds into the conspiracy or breaks it apart. What do you think about the face on Mars? You can click hereto learn more about it.
The Sacsayhuaman is basically a fortress, it is made out of giant stones and took a crew of 20-30,00 men 60 years to complete. It almost looks as if something from a fairytale and is a literal work of art. It is thought that it must have been created through ancient people working with those from outside of our world. While no such link can be proven, the future may reveal more than you think.
6. Stonehenge
Stonehenge is in England and consists of a lot of stones that make up some kind of circle. It is not something we know much about and its meaning is something many ponder over even now. The stones seem to be aligned with solstices as well as eclipses and are quite unique. This one also comes with tons of different origin theories one of which being aliens. You can click here to learn more about all of these different theories.
Easter Island is also a complete mystery. The whole place is full of large stone figures that look like faces. No one knows who made them, how they got where they are, or anything else.
They are said to have been created by the Rapa Nui people but realistically, they should not have been capable of such back in that time period. These figures are over a thousand years old. Many believe something or someone from another planet may have played a big part.
Was Young, Wet Mars Once Close Enough to the Sun to 'Dance' with Venus?
Was Young, Wet Mars Once Close Enough to the Sun to 'Dance' with Venus?
By Nola Taylor Redd, Space.com Contributor
A wet Mars could have started off near the orbit of Venus before gravitational interactions early in its life drove the Red Planet out to its current orbit.
Credit: NASA/GSFC
Billions of years ago, liquid water flowed across the Martian surface. As the Red Planet lost its atmosphere, it also lost its ability to hold on to that water — or so most theories propose. Now, a new model suggests that Mars would have started off warmer and wetter if it had begun closer to the sun and slowly moved outward.
"Mars starts off on top of Venus; then it dances outward towards Earth," Cole Brown, a researcher at Penn State University, told his colleagues. Working with planetary scientist Darren Williams, also of Penn State, Brown modeled an early solar system where Mars started off in a warmer place. He found that the process was unlikely, but possible — just over 10 percent of the worlds starting out this way successfully worked their way out to where Mars orbits today. He presented the results in June at the 232nd meeting of the American Astronomical Society in Denver.
"After Mars would escape Venus, that's where things would get interesting," Brown said. [How Did the Solar System Form?]
"A Mars cannon"
The Martian surface is gouged by river-like features and spreading deltas, all of which seem to suggest liquid water once sat on the surface. At almost 4 billion years old, these features are almost as old as the planet itself, hinting that liquid water was short-lived on the Red Planet.
Four billion years ago, the young sun was dimmer, shining at only about 75 percent of its current brightness. By itself, the newborn star wasn't hot enough to keep Mars warm if the planet were sitting in its current orbit, an average of 142 million miles (229 million kilometers) from the sun, about 1.5 times as far as Earth (1.5 astronomical units, or AU).
For the planet to have been warm enough to hold water, an atmospheric blanket would have been required, Brown said. With a significant greenhouse effect, an atmosphere would allow the Red Planet to keep liquid water on the surface. Over time, researchers assume that the atmosphere was lost; spacecraft such as NASA's Mars Atmosphere and Volatile Evolution (MAVEN) mission are hunting for clues about the disappearing atmosphere.
But Brown wasn't content with this solution. "There may be another way to accomplish this result [of liquid water]," he said.
Brown and Williams noticed that the region near Venus would have been about the right temperature for a planet to hold on to water when the sun was young and dim. Using computer models, they found that the two planets could have evolved together over the course of about 100 million years — a brief enough time for liquid water to form on the surface. The two worlds would have remained tidally locked, keeping an unchanging face pointed toward each other for that brief period of time, until instabilities in their orbit finally drove them apart.
After the escape, Mars would have passed near Venus for multiple orbits. Gravity would have driven Venus inward and sent Mars spiraling outward. In this setting, it wouldn't have taken long for the Red Planet to interact with Earth — and that's where things get difficult.
In the first simulations of this scenario, gravitational interactions with Earth managed to drive the Red Planet out to its current position. But Brown and Williams noticed that the Red Planet occasionally came within 40 Earth radii of our planet — closer than the orbit of the moon. Unfortunately, the original models didn't include a moon, so they didn't chart the potential chaos. So, the pair went back and included a moon in the next iteration.
"It's kind of like if you shot a Mars cannon at the Earth-moon system," Brown said.
The pair ran 10,000 simulations with Mars entering the system at various speeds. They found that the closer Mars came to Earth's surface, the more likely it was to affect the moon — sometimes even driving it out of the system completely. In these simulations, only rarely did Mars come in close enough to affect the system, but "it's a risk we need to be aware of," Brown said.
The close encounters raised some interesting questions. The leading theoryfor the moon's origin involves a Mars-size object colliding with Earth early in the life of the solar system. The collision would have carved out a chunk of the terrestrial surface that, along with the fragments from the impactor, coalesced into the moon. The process is similar to the one simulated by Brown and Williams, though without the catastrophic impact.
"This almost tells that story, but it does not," Brown said.
The odds are slim that Mars started out near Venus. In more than half of the simulations, a traveling Mars collided with either Venus or Earth, which would have obliterated the Red Planet and any signs of water on the surface. Nearly 20 percent of the time, the Red Planet was ejected from the solar system completely, while another 10 percent of the time, it was tossed into the sun. Only 13 percent of the time was it able to successfully dance between Venus and Earth to arrive at its current position.
For now, the researchers are continuing to explore ways that Mars could have successfully moved into the outer solar system and whether Mars and Venus could have been stable while tidally locked.
Life on Mars? 40 Years Later, Viking Lander Scientist Still Says 'Yes'
Life on Mars? 40 Years Later, Viking Lander Scientist Still Says 'Yes'
NASA's twin Viking landers touched down on Mars in 1976 to hunt for signs of life on the Red Planet. Forty years later, scientists are still arguing about what the landers' observations mean.
Credit: NASA
In 1976, NASA's twin Viking landers touched down on Mars in an attempt to answer a weighty question: Is there life on the Red Planet?
Gilbert Levin was the principal investigator of the Vikings' Labeled Release (LR) life-detection experiment. The instrument got positive responses at both landing locales. However, scientists did not reach a consensus on whether his results were proof of life.
Now, more than four decades after the Viking landings — and with a lot more information about Mars in hand — Levin believes that NASA hasn't properly followed up on the Viking landers' results.
Gilbert Levin, Mars maverick
Credit: Gilbert Levin
"I am certain that NASA knows there is life on Mars," he said this past July on David Livingston's popular online program "The Space Show."
Levin called for a re-examination of Viking LR data by an objective panel. But there's more.
Over the past 40 years, a succession of orbiters, landers and rovers has gathered evidence that life exists on Mars today, Levin said.
There is "substantial and circumstantial evidence for extant microbial life on Mars," he said on "The Space Show."
Methane spikes
As an example, Levin noted that NASA's Curiosity rover has found cyclical and seasonal spikes in Mars methane. More than 90 percent of the methane in Earth's atmosphere is generated by microbes and other organisms.
"This is really hard to ignore as evidence for life," Levin said.
However, water-rock chemistry can also produce methane, so it's not persuasive evidence of life, Curiosity mission team members and other scientists have said.
NASA's Curiosity rover used an instrument called SAM (Sample Analysis at Mars ) to detect seasonal changes in atmospheric methane in Gale Crater. The methane signal has been observed for nearly three Martian years (nearly six Earth years), peaking each summer.
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech
Curiosity has also discovered organic molecules in 3-billion-year-old sedimentary rocks near the surface. Organics are the carbon-containing building blocks of life as we know it. But again, they're not convincing evidence of life by themselves; naturally occurring organics have also been spotted on asteroids, for example.
Water, water and more water
Then there's the July 2018 news from the European Space Agency's Mars Express mission: The orbiter apparently spotted an underground lake beneath a mile of ice near the Red Planet's south pole.
Various spacecraft have found evidence of water on Mars over the years, Levin said, and now "we are deluged with an underground lake … so water is no longer the problem."
Levin also pointed to Curiosity imagery that can be interpreted as depicting fossilized stromatolites, structures that are built by colonial microbes here on Earth. There are intriguing similarities between ancient sedimentary rocks on Mars and structures shaped by microbes on Earth, he said.
Everything that we have learned about environmental conditions on Mars, Levin said, would permit terrestrial microorganisms to survive — and that includes the harsh radiation, the low pressure and the frigid temperatures.
As for present-day life on the Red Planet, "it's getting to the point where the shoe is on the other foot," Levin said. "It's very hard to image a sterile Mars." [Ancient Mars Could Have Supported Life (Photos)]
More knowledge
Viking veteran Ben Clark, now a senior research scientist at the Space Science Institute in Boulder, Colorado, said "it's about time to start earnestly searching for signs of [Mars] life again."
Clark developed a Viking-carried instrument that measured the composition of Martian soils.
"From what we have learned since Viking about the past history of Mars, it was even more eminently suited for the origin of life than we knew when the search began," Clark said. "A Viking lesson learned is that you had better understand the environment well before designing tests for biological activity."
Astrobiologist Dirk Schulze-Makuch, a professor at the Technical University Berliny, also said the Viking life-detection experiments were conducted before scientists really understood the Red Planet.
"Life is intrinsically linked to its environment," Schulze-Makuch told Space.com. Not having that information in hand, we cannot home in on optimal search and life-detection strategies, and "that, of course, also applies to the icy moons," he added, referring to ocean-harboring worlds such as the Jupiter moon Europa and the Saturn satellite Enceladus.
"If it would have been known at the time of the Viking mission about Mars what is known today, they probably would have come up with the conclusion that microbial life likely exists on Mars," Schulze-Makuch said.
"I think the consensus is shifting more into the direction that the extraordinary claim would be that 'Mars is and was always lifeless,'" he added, referring to astronomer Carl Sagan's famous saying that "extraordinary claims need extraordinary evidence."
Nevertheless, Schulze-Makuch said that any declaration of life on Mars still requires overwhelming evidence before being scientifically saluted. "Just think about how long it took before it was accepted that there was and still is liquid water on Mars!" he said.
The biological package carried by the Viking 1 and Viking 2 landers to search for evidence of life.
Credit: NASA
Better-informed instruments
John Rummel is familiar with Levin's steadfast life-on-Mars position.
"The Mars science community would have benefited greatly if Gil Levin had aspired to a leadership position in science after the Viking lander missions had completed their life-detection experiments," said Rummel, who twice served as NASA's planetary protection officer and is a former chair on planetary protection for the agency's Committee on Space Research.
New missions with better-informed instruments looking for life were possible then, Rummel said, but they needed a strong advocate who had the sort of data that Levin possessed.
"Fundamentally, there is nothing new about Mars that wasn't possible with Viking, but it is a long way from Chryse or Utopia [the two Viking landing spots on Mars in 1976] to the sub-polar-cap lake now claimed by the Italians," Rummel, who's now based at the SETI (Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence) Institute, told Space.com. "If Levin had stayed fully engaged, we might have already tried to go there."
Beyond the science debate
Astrobiologist Chris McKay, of NASA's Ames Research Center in Silicon Valley, is a longtime Mars investigator.
The science community is in general agreement, McKay said, that the Viking LR experiment did not detect life. The reactions noted by that instrument and the other results from Viking can be explained by reactive chemicals called perchlorates, he said.
Perchlorates were first detected in Martian soil by NASA's Phoenix lander in 2008, nearth the Red Planet's north pole. Further observations by other spacecraft strongly suggest that perchlorates are widespread throughout Mars.
That perchlorate explanation, however, is tentative, McKay said. "We cannot rule out that Gil Levin is correct and that there are dormant life-forms in the Martian soil," he said.
If so, that finding has implications beyond the science debated. "Are we confident enough that the Martian soil is lifeless to send astronauts … and then to bring those astronauts back to Earth? I say no," McKay said. "It seems to me that the standard of proof must be higher for these activities, and we have not reached that standard yet."
But McKay thinks Levin is right in continuing to insist that the possibility of life be considered.
"Life may not be the scientifically preferred explanation, but it cannot yet be disproven," McKay concluded.
Leonard David is author of "Mars: Our Future on the Red Planet," published by National Geographic. The book is a companion to the National Geographic Channel series "Mars." A longtime writer for Space.com, David has been reporting on the space industry for more than five decades.
Crew members found a small hole in this Russian Soyuz capsule, which is currently docked at the International Space Station.Image: NASA
Russia’s state space corporation is currently investigating what caused a small hole to appear in one of the country’s Soyuz spacecraft that’s currently docked at the International Space Station. The opening caused pressurized air to leak out of the vehicle last week. Originally, Russia thought a small meteorite strike might have caused the hole, but now, the country’s space corporation believes it was made from inside the Soyuz, possibly with a drill. And Russia isn’t discounting the idea that the hole could have been made intentionally — either on Earth or in space.
“We are considering all the theories,” said Dmitry Rogozin, the head of Russia’s Roscosmos state space corporation, according to TASS. “The one about a meteorite impact has been rejected because the spaceship’s hull was evidently impacted from inside. However it is too early to say definitely what happened.” Rogozin goes on to say that it looks like the hole was a “technological error” made by a specialist with a “faltering hand.” “There are traces of a drill sliding along the surface,” he said.
Roscosmos has since convened a State Commission to investigate the cause of the hole. Rogozin noted that understanding its origin was “a matter of honor” and that the investigators would figure out if the hole was the result of a defect or if it was made on purpose. “Now it is essential to see the reason, to learn the name of the one responsible for that. And we will find out, without fail,” he said, according to TASS. NASA declined to go into detail about the investigation. “NASA will support the commission’s work as appropriate,” the space agency said in a statement to The Verge.
NASA and Roscosmos first noticed that pressurized air was leaking out of the ISS around 7PM ET on Wednesday, August 29th. However, the leak was so small that NASA did not even alert the crew until the following morning, opting to let them sleep instead. On Thursday, the crew on board the ISS found the cause of the leak: a 2-millimeter hole inside one of the two visiting Soyuz spacecraft. This particular vehicle has been docked to the space station since June 8th, when it brought NASA astronaut Serena Auñón-Chancellor, Russian cosmonaut Sergey Prokopyev, and German astronaut Alexander Gerst to the ISS.
On Thursday, Prokopyev plugged up the hole using epoxy on a gauze wipe, according to NASA. The fix did the trick, and the space station’s cabin pressure has since stabilized. NASA has been monitoring the pressure levels ever since, and the six crew members on board the space station were able to return to a normal schedule on Friday.
This isn’t the first time that Russia has considered sabotage when investigating a spacecraft failure. In 2012, then-head of Roscosmos Vladimir Popovkin hinted that a foreign country may have been to blame for the failure of a Russian spacecraft Phobos-Grunt. The probe was supposed to explore one of the moons of Mars but instead got stuck in Earth’s orbit and eventually fell back to our planet. But it’s not just Russia that’s conspiracy-minded either. When one of SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rockets exploded in 2016, the company said that it seriously considered sabotage by rival rocket company, the United Launch Alliance, according to Washington Post reporter Christian Davenport. (Neither the SpaceX failure nor the Phobos-Grunt incident turned out to be sabotage.)
But the Soyuz hole is curious. If it was created on Earth, how did it just now start leaking after two months in space? It’s possible that a technician on the ground drilled a hole in the wrong place, realized the mistake, and then tried to patch it up with something that just got dislodged last week. “Perhaps they filled it up with putty or did some attempt at repair but didn’t do a great job with that and after a couple months in space, that repair thing popped out or eroded away,” Jonathan McDowell, an astrophysicist at Harvard and spaceflight expert, tells The Verge.
Or it’s possible that the technician didn’t realize a mistake had been made, and the hole got temporarily plugged anyway. The hole was found behind an insulation panel, according to McDowell, which may have provided coverage during launch and the first couple of months in space. Then something knocked it out of the way, exposing the hole to the inside of the ISS.
Ultimately, there are many different possibilities for how this hole was made on the ground, according to McDowell, and sabotage should be the last option considered. “It seems really implausible the hole wasn’t there at launch,” says McDowell.
Update September 4th, 12:30PM ET: This article was updated to include a statement from NASA and information on plausible scenarios from McDowell.
Russia’s top space official casted doubt on Monday on the official reason the International Space Station lost air pressure last week, and by Tuesday, further questions surfaced over the cause of a hole in the Russia-made Soyuz capsule, which had to be patched up by astronauts 250 miles above the Earth.
Dimitry Rogozin, appointed as director of Roscosmos by President Vladimir Putin in May, first publicly considered that hole might be the result of sabotage:
“We are considering all the theories. The one about a meteorite impact has been rejected because the spaceship’s hull was evidently impacted from inside. However it is too early to say definitely what happened. But, it seems to be done by a faltering hand… it is a technological error by a specialist. It was done by a human hand — there are traces of a drill sliding along the surface. We don’t reject any theories,” he said.
Rogozin added, “It is a matter of honor for [Soyuz makers] Energia Rocket and Space Corporation to find the one responsible for that, to find out whether it was an accidental defect or a deliberate spoilage and where it was done - either on Earth or in space. Now it is essential to see the reason, to learn the name of the one responsible for that. And we will find out, without fail,” he pledged.
When asked for comments on the matter, a NASA official said that “Roscosmos has convened a State Commission to conduct further analysis of the possible cause of the leak” and referred Inverse to the Roscosmos press office.
The hole is in part of the capsule that isn’t used to carry astronauts back to Earth. Russia’s state-run media agency, TASS, reported on Tuesday that the capsule might have been damaged during terrestrial tests on the ground at the Baikonur Cosmodrome, Russia’s testing and launch site. The anonymous source speculated to TASS that an accidental drill hole might have been patched up during testing, but when the glue dried up in space, it fell out, and air pressure was lost.
Meanwhile, theories of the hole being caused in space seemed fade by Tuesday in Russia: “Why should any of the crew try to do that? I would not like to use the word nonsense, but all this does not fit in well with logic,” Russian rocket designer Alexander Zheleznyakov told TASS when asked if any of the ISS crew might have made the hole in the spacecraft’s hull. “Judging by what I saw on the photos, it must have been done on Earth. The hole is in a place that is very hard to get to. Drilling it would not be easy.”
In the early hours of Thursday morning, astronauts aboard the ISS awoke to learn that the orbiting lab and occasional badminton court was slowly losing pressure. Flight control in Houston and Moscow identified the issue on Wednesday evening, but they decided the leak was minimal enough that they allowed the crew to sleep through it. It was patched up the next morning.
A live feed from the ISS broadcasted a Houston ground control official commenting, “Right now Alex has got his finger on that hole and I don’t think that’s the best remedy for it,” reported The Telegraph.
Canadian Astronaut and former ISS inhabitant Chris Hadfield said that the space station has a leak repair kit with tape, epoxy, and putty, among other hole-patching supplies. “Grab it and use what works,” he posted on Twitter. “In this case, very small hole. I understand they used a thumb, then a swab with epoxy, then tape.”
The Soyuz spacecraft is produced by Russian firm RKK Energia and is the only spacecraft model that currently carries humans between Earth and the International Space Station. SpaceX, Boeing, and NASA are developing their own capsules. Just a month ago, NASA announced that it would test the Boeing-made CST-100 Starliner capsule in mid 2019 and it would test the SpaceX Crew Dragon capsule in April 2019. The NASA/ESA-operated Orion spacecraft, which is being built by Lockheed Martin and Airbus and would carry four people to and from the ISS, is also in development. These new capsules would reduce US dependence on Russia’s Soyuz capsule.
SpaceX wants to give rise to a human settlement on Mars.
Starting small with a couple of spaceships and expanding out into a sprawling metropolis, a colony on the red planet is partially the vision of Paul Wooster, principal Mars development engineer for SpaceX. Speaking at the 21st Annual International Mars Society Convention in August, Wooster detailed how SpaceX is grappling with some of the big questions that come with taking on one of the biggest projects in human history.
“The idea would be to expand out, start off not just with an outpost, but grow into a larger base, not just like there are in Antarctica, but really a village, a town, growing into a city and then multiple cities on Mars,” Wooster said. The convention notes that Wooster is a long-time supporter that attended early conferences and also served as a founding member of the Mars Society.
SpaceX founder Elon Musk detailed the company’s plans to reach Mars at the International Astronautical Congress in Adelaide, Australia, in September 2017. A newly designed “BFR” rocket that measures 348 feet tall will produce liftoff thrust of 5,400 tons from 31 Raptor engines. SpaceX will launch two rockets and their corresponding spaceships to Mars in 2022, filled with supplies for future missions. The company will send four more in 2024, two of which will ferry the first humans to the planet to set up an outpost.
Musk's BFR slide in its whole.
Wooster explained that each spaceship would carry around 100 tons of supplies, meaning the six ships would ferry around double the mass of the International Space Station to Mars. The ships would probably serve as the home for the first humans initially, as they work to extract resources and become self-sufficient fast. The humans will be tasked with extracting at least one tonne of ice per day, part of which will help make the methane fuel to bring the humans and rockets back to Earth.
The six ships are the first steps to permanent Martian cities. The humans will then need to consider establishing surface power, developing landing pads, habitats, greenhouses, additional life support, and all the other amenities to encourage a functioning settlement.
“All the capabilities you need to have a growing population on the surface,” Wooster said.
The BFR.
The humans will also have to consider tasks like setting up a suitable recycling system — no word on whether they’ll use color-coded bins. Another future issue is surface mobility, with artist concepts detailing pressurized rovers and a space suit for moving around the surface.
There are also questions about what they would be doing in their day-to-day life, once the settlement is stable. Researchers could learn more about the history, geology and climate of Mars. Teams could dive sub-surface, looking at questions about whether there ever was life on Mars — and if there is still life on Mars.
“These types of things are real opportunities for pretty much anyone in the broader Mars-related community to engage in,” Wooster said. “SpaceX is focused on getting the transportation architecture set up as quickly as possible, but it’s really to enable all these other types of activities.”
Mainstream historians will tell you that the Great Pyramid of Giza was a glorified tomb for the Egyptian pharaohs. The only original monument left of the original Seven Wonders of the World, this structure was created with impeccable mathematical precision, and is a unique, mysterious feat of construction and engineering.
There’s only one problem; the Great Pyramid has none of the characteristics of tombs: including extravagant artifacts, ornate wall art, sealed entrances, elaborate coffins, or even mummies themselves. It was, however built with unique – the same materials that are used for electrical conductivity today. These facts are leading more and more historians to believe the pyramids may have had a far more useful purpose. ..that pyramid of Giza was not at all a tomb, but a power plant: generating and transmitting electricity to the civilization surrounding them. Sound impossible?
DEFINITION / FACTS
To start, it’s important to comprehend the tremendous effort that went into creating these monuments. The Great Pyramid of Giza is one of among no less than 118 of these structures in Egypt alone – and that doesn’t even include those pyramids in other parts of the world. Given our current understanding of how early civilizations built their monuments, it would have taken no less than 20 years to build these so-called “tombs”– and that’s if no less than 20,000 workers worked DAILY. To this day, historians STILL can’t prove exactly HOW – or WHEN – they were built, since the blocks weigh an average of 2.5 tons, and we are boggled by how ropes, pulleys, and waterways somehow moved and lifted these enormous blocks. No one can duplicate the effort with the same materials; it remains a mystery.
This leads us to ask what resting place for the dead could possibly be so important that it would warrant such phenomenal effort, time, and precise engineering? Even without knowing that they have nothing in common with regular tombs, you only need to stand before them to realize… that’s a lot of work for a cadaver! Naturally, we make conclusions based on the assumption that ancient civilizations were more primitive than us… but what if intellectual evolution isn’t always linear… can advanced technology be lost, and rediscovered centuries later? Is it possible that an ancient culture had knowledge of – and used – electrical power?
THE BAGHDAD BATTERY
To know for sure, let’s look at another case where the technology of power generation appears to have been used – and then, forgotten. We know Edison and Tesla brought electricity into common use at the turn of the 19th century. Yet, In Iraq in 1934, three artifacts were found together: a ceramic pot, a tube of copper, and a rod of iron which – when combined with a liquid acid – can be used to create chemical reactions that produce an electric charge. Known as the Baghdad -or Parthian- battery, these materials date back 2000 years.
Ten years after their discovery, someone using grape juice with similar materials to successfully generate a few volts of electricity. This process has since been demonstrated on the Discovery Channel’s program Myth Busters, where lemon juice activated the electrochemical reaction between the copper and iron, producing 4 volts of electricity. Nowadays, you can simply search online to find instructions on how to create your own battery using these chemical principles… but historians have long assumed that thousands of years ago.. there was no knowledge of this technology… that this archeological find is mere “coincidence” even though we’ve long marveled over artifacts with intricate gold plating – which requires electricity to be created.) Quite simply, energy generation happens as result of simple chemical principles, and can be done by anyone 4 basic materials.
MATERIALS
So here are some important facts about the structure and materials of the pyramids: For starters, it contains angled tunnels which lead not only into the pyramid, but deep underground, to areas claimed to still be unexplored. What tomb needs a shaft directed into the earth?
We also know that centuries ago, there were enormous swivel doors that weighed no less than 20 tons, but miraculously, was so well engineered, it could be entered with the push of a hand. Since No Egyptian tomb has ever been found to be deliberately accessible, what was their interest in continuing to “visit” the mummies – or could such a door have served the purpose of containing and insulating the space inside
Though you’d almost never know it, The Great Pyramids of Giza were once covered in white, polished limestone, referred to as “casing stones”. The cuts made in this reflective stone were angled perfectly, so it would have had a smooth, flat appearance. This would have made the giant structures brightly reflect the light of the sun like a mirror. It also would have made perfect insulation inside the structure.
A large earthquake in 1303 AD disrupted the casing stones, so they were removed to use on other structures. Today, all that remains is the inner core of the pyramid. The image of the incredible amount of light that would have reflected from the monument raises curiosity… as does the reason for the insulation. Was there a desire to draw attention to their dead? …to keep the mummies warm . or cool? Or something else?
Next, the material, Dolomite was used on the inner surfaces. Dolomite is known to increase electrical conductivity directly relative to the amount of pressure on it: high pressure creates more electrical current.
Next, Lining the passageways and underground tunnels of the pyramids is granite, which is slightly radioactive. Granite contains high amounts of quartz crystal and metal, a well-known conductor of piezo-electricity, piezoelectricity occurs as result of stress or pressure on the quartz.. as demonstrated by the Wristwatches which can be charged simply by rapidly shaking them. This Granite actually ionizes the airinside the pyramid, creating a chemical reaction which – again – increases the conductivity of electricity. When such electrons are given the chance to bypass sections of rock via a metal wire, quite large currents can flow.
Another important material used is to construct them is the mysterious mortar – half a million tons of it – which holds the giant stones in place. Though it’s been analyzed many times, modern technology has yet to exactly recreate the same gypsum – which comes from sediment –used on the pyramids. This gypsum can withstand tremendous pressure, and astoundingly, is even stronger than the stones themselves. Clearly, it has thus contributed to keeping the monument intact for thousands of years – but could there be another reason why they used a material which could withstand such high pressure?
So Limestone, dolomite, granite… supposedly constructed for a tomb, are in fact, analogous to the exact materials we use to make electrical wires. They also share a relationship with pressure, which increases their electro-conductivity. We must ask if there might be other reasons why the ancients constructed the monuments with electrical properties that would withstand the high pressure? …
DESIGN
North west of the Pyramid of Djoser at Saqqara is an area called The Serapeum. Here there are 20 huge granite “boxes” – each weighing 100 tons – classic Egyptologists say to be the coffins of the pharaohs. Yet, The granite here came from 500 miles away, and each box is so large and so heavy, that there is no possible way it could fit through the existing tunnels and entrances. These supposed “sarcophagi” were therefore somehow built into the structure with such precision, they are within a 10,000th of an inch of being perfectly flat. Since these supposed “sarcophagi”- or coffins – are clearly way too large for a human being, the accepted theory is that they were – yes, believe this – bull coffins…, for their “pharaoh’s prized bulls.”
Each and every one of these huge “boxes” also has a giant lid carved from the exact same stone. In the meantime, any electrical engineer will explain that a container serving as an an energy capacitor – or battery – must be made entirely of the same substance so there is no interruption in the magnetic field.
Could These boxes could be just that? If so, the centuries-old granite sarcophagus on display in an Egyptian museum that was thought to be “unfinished. ” Unlike those in the pyramids… This one is actually cracked – suggesting that perhaps, it was not unfinished, but simply abandoned because the crack which occurred would have interrupted the magnetic field, permitting it from successfully serving its purpose. So there is clear evidence to support the possibility of an electrical – unless you want to believe the bull … coffin. Theory.
To add to the mystery, in 1993, a mysterious, and inaccessible room was discovered underneath the pyramid, after remaining hidden for thousands of years. Appearing to have deliberately been concealed by the structure’s engineers, the room came to be called “the Queen’s chamber” – and was finally explored in 2011 with a small, remote camera to reveal…. a long-lost mummy? Hardly… it contained carefully crafted copper wire … and more importantly, there were instructions painted as symbols onto the floor, which appeared to show a clear wiring diagram.
Look at any battery, from those used in large power plants to the smallest pellet batteries used in wristwatches, and you’ll see that they require a metal – such as copper – to create the chemical reaction known as “potential difference”. you can run an electric current through a copper wire, and the coil will produce a short-range magnetic field. Add a second coil, and the power is transferred from one coil to the other – – works in an electric toothbrush, works well over short distances. In the right conditions, A windowless room with Copper pieces could create a higher potential on one wall which transfers energy to the lower potential on the other wall, consequentially releasing electromagnetic energy into the confined space.
Sadly, these wires have since disappeared entirely, and mainstream Egyptologists claim there is no functionality whatsoever to the room – as they also claim there is no functionality of anything in the structure beyond the ways it serves as a tomb. A good place to note, that the foremost Egyptologist Zahi Hawass was indicted for theft of Egyptian antiquities.
WATER
It could still be argued that the electrical materials used to construct the Great pyramid are simply coincidental.. an energy generator still requires a catalyst from another source. Perhaps then, this explains why the pyramids are geographically located over the most natural power generators: underground rivers and aquifers. Physio-electricity could be harnessed from the power of the current as water flows . since it’s been proven that thousands of years ago, the Nile river passed directly by where the structures now stand. Of course, this debates the age of the pyramids themselves… along with weathering on the nearby Sphynx, which indicates that they endured tremendous water erosion, and would indicate that the monuments are actually double the age they are currently assumed to be. Perhaps that would explain why there is no mention of the pyramids or of their creation in any of the Egyptian writings….
So if water was a source of power, it would have traveled up the limestone based on the principle of Capillary Action, which happens when a small area of a substance that gets wet absorbs into the entire area. This is how the water travels over water flowing near or underneath the pyramid could have been absorbed as it passed over the limestone, even traveling upward to the top of the structure. The quartz in the tunnels of the pyramids would subject to the stress, or vibration, creating Piezoelectricity The high force, the speed of the rising water and the pressure would be analogous to filling a syringe… generating electromagnetic energy within the structure by the materials within, and conducting it upward to the capstone… But why?
The pyramid has the Geographical location magnifies the electromagnetic forces on the planet, where Telluric currents are at their strongest. Electromagnetic field at the bottom of the pyramid would rise to the upper layers. We don’t know for sure what capped the pyramid, but there is speculation that the actual cap may have been gold – explaining, why it has long since been missing. Gold could have created a conductive path for energy to be directed upwards – directing it high into the ionosphere
If the reason for the superconductive materials used to create this monument was energy… then the potential for something even more amazing would have be possible: electricity … without any artificially integrated conduction material or means … could have transmitted wirelessly through natural means through the air and to the surrounding area. Sound far-fetched?
One bold and extraordinary man swore this was possible,… and he may have shown us how
TESLA’S EXPERIMENT
We know of Nikola Tesla as the solitary genius responsible for the Electric engine, radio, laser, radar, and for creating a tremendous competitive spirit in Thomas Edison. We know that he Sought above all to serve mankind, not to self indulge for profit. In fact, despite his extraordinary contributions, He is scarcely known or credited for his genius. At the 1893 World’s Fair, Tesla transmitted electricity naturally to light a bulb he held in his hands, and that he created the Tesla coil, which is used more for show than the function it was intended to serve. Most importantly, we know that Tesla Claimed adamantly that he had perfected the method of harnessing and transmitting free, wireless energy from a source using the electromagnetic nature of the earth.
In the patent he filed in September in 1897 he claimed that at 30,000 feet altitude there was a stratum of “rarified air” that would conduct electric currents at high voltages. His proposed system was a transmitter (left) consisting of a high voltage resonant transformer (C,A) which increased the voltage produced by an alternating current generator (G) to millions of volts. A wire (B) suspended by a balloon (D) would transfer the current to the atmosphere. At the receiving point (right), a similar balloon-borne electrode (D’ ) would receive the electricity and a transformer (C’, A’ ) would reduce the voltage to a convenient potential to be used by consumers
In an experiment the last week of July in 1903, nearby residents claimed to have witness Tesla successfully conduct his experiment at the Wardencyffe tower – while Tesla himself later shared how his new method of conductivity had lit up the night sky as if it were a giant fluorescent tube. It’s even been said – though that he successfully wireless transmitted pictures and sounds, though all of his work has been mercilessly destroyed, this cannot be proven.
Sadly, all his technology was confiscated shortly after, apparently, the money he owed was far more important to his financers than the potential of providing free energy to the planet. Tesla died in poverty, and the US government destroyed his tower claiming it was being used by German spies… the implications of the world having free power may have changed our history forever.
PYRAMID WIRELESS
Let’s Compare Tesla’s technology to the pyramids: the location, the height, the electromagnetic materials,
we’ve seen induction between copper wires work for short distances, For long distance transfer.. the same principle can be applied when Acoustic energy is converted to kinetic energy, and the Frequencies match.. In the way a sound wave that matches the unique resonant frequency of a glass will shatter it. So if there is a Magnetically oscillating current -and you create a second possessing the same frequency – wirelessly transmit, including through walls. The frequency which would have been released from the pyramid would have to have to have been matched in the surrounding area…
Perhaps this would explain the obelisks – . These tall monuments Contain a pyramid-shaped quartz stone on the top. The quartz on the obelisks would vibrate as a result of the Vibrations propagated by the great pyramid, generating piezo-electricity,
This would also explain the ancient carvings found in Egypt which so clearly indicate light sources, it’s boggling to think anyone would argue it. In the Hathor temple, the Dendera light is one such image, which perfectly resembles modern electrical technology, showing a wire inside of a bulb like area, and a box which appears to be a receiver. Across from this carving is a similar image, but the system appears to be falling into the hands of a reptilian looking being – as though it is warning of the potential of abuse of the technology. Mainstream historians scoff and make more primitive conclusions but still, the pyramids show No signs of soot from flame torches. Instead, there are multiple carvings which show these “antennae”- like objects that appear to be a transmitter, near another object shaped like the famous symbol, the ankh which appears to be a receiver. Given what we know, it seems so much more believable that the great pyramid functioned Using the same principles and conditions as Tesla sought to demonstrate… that they conducted and direct electromagnetic energy into the Ionosphere, where it generated and transmitted electricity wirelessly to receivers within civilization.
CONCLUSION
We’ve long believed that the pyramids were just tombs – but this theory raises more questions than it answers: why do they have nothing in common with other tombs? Why the unique construction materials make to build it – including the very materials required for conducting power?
Why the oversized granite “boxes”: proven to have never contained mummies? … Or the ones that are clearly too large for humans? Why the alignment with the North Pole, the 20-ton swivel doors, intricate tunnels and chambers, shafts and tunnels that still hold areas yet undiscovered? Why is there no soot from fire torches anywhere inside the structure? Why the strange, intricate tunnel system the tunnels and labyrinths protruding deep into the earth, still eluding understanding by an advanced civilization?
More and more people are accepting the possibility that the great pyramid of Giza had a more important function then we understand.. We know there is a heightened Electromagnetic measurement around the pyramid equivalent to that made in an electrical storm. We also know that They are unique eight-sided- precise cuttings and the strange heat spots are observable only from space Unique electric materials, including copper, and design that suggests high pressure, water power … powerful magnetic structure and placement in the center for the continents, the alignment with the stellar constellations, and the unique art which shows clear depictions of wired light sources… suggest there is a lot more to the history than we’ve been told.
Some theories go so far as to suggest that The Arc of The Covenant was the cherished property king Ramses sought when he pursued Moses from Egypt.. and that it contained these secrets.
All these circumstances make the likelihood high that the pyramid was created to be a compact energy generator and broadcasting system transmits electricity wirelessly. The implications for this understanding of electrical power by an ancient culture are huge: re-writing history as we know it. Do you think that free energy could be transmitted wirelessly around the world? And if you whether or not you do believe, do you think that if it really could, we’ know about it? Written and Narrated by Elisabeth Firestone info@BestNarrator.com
Witness spotted a disk shaped empty space on the top of a clouds while flying over Canada
Witness spotted a disk shaped empty space on the top of a clouds while flying over Canada
You see, a UFO will leave a gap in the clouds no matter what! Even when its cloaked like it is here. Yes, the UFO is still there and from its size it looks to be about a half a mile across.
Javion Hill says he took this photo on U.S. 74 southwest of Charlotte on Aug. 18. Javion Hill
Giant Square-Shaped UFO Photographed
A strange and large square-shaped UFO was photographed on August 18th.
Javion Hill drove southwest of Charlotte, NC when he took the mysterious photo and posted it on his Facebook page later.
Here, the lights have a slightly pink color on the craft.
Javion Hill
He believes he witnessed an experimental military craft. Hill told the Charlotte Observer that there was something frightening about the experience. He also claimed that he didn't sleep that night anymore.
“I was on my way home with my wife on the speaker phone, and it looked like there was a tornado coming, so I was trying to take a picture of the clouds for my wife. But then I saw something that wasn’t normal and I was, like: ‘Oh my god, what is that?’ I started trying to take as many pictures of it as possible while I was driving,” said Hill.
Jupiter is the biggest planet in our solar system, but had delayed growth early on. Scientists weren’t sure why, but now might have an answer.
Spectacular view of Jupiter from the Juno spacecraft, acquired April 1, 2018.
Image via NASA/JPL-Caltech/SwRI/MSSS. Citizen scientists Gerald Eichstädt and Seán Doran created this image using data from the spacecraft’s JunoCam imager.
Jupiter is sometimes called the king of the planets in our solar system, due to its enormous size. It has some 300 times Earth’s mass. Jupiter is thought to have become the largest planet early in our solar system’s history. Still, questions remained about how quickly (or not) Jupiter kept growing, with earlier evidence suggesting Jupiter’s growth was delayed for about two million years. The reason for this delay was unknown. Now, astrophysicists in Switzerland think they have an answer. Their work was published August 27, 2018, in the peer-reviewed journal Nature Astronomy.
Especially interesting is that it is not the same kind of bodies that bring mass and energy [to Jupiter].
In other words, these scientists used computer modeling to show that – billions of years ago, early in our solar system’s history – Jupiter underwent a delayed growth phase as material of varying sizes and typesaccreted onto it.
Artist’s concept of a very young Jupiter. Scientists think that Jupiter, Earth and the other planets in our solar system formed from a disk of gas and dust surrounding the young sun.
Image via Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory.
Planets – like Earth or Jupiter – are thought to grow by accretion from the gas-and-dust clouds, or nebulae, surrounding young stars. That is, they grow as small bits of material in the cloud collide, stick together, and become increasingly bigger. Once the planets themselves get big enough, they begin to sweep up even more material from the solar nebula, via the power of their gravitational pull.
So what happened during these different phases of Jupiter’s growth? It’s thought that, during the first million years or so, Jupiter’s planetary core was built rather quickly from small, centimeter-sized pebbles of rocky material. During the next two million years, there was a slower accretion of larger, kilometer-sized rocks called planetesimals. A lot of heat was released during this period as the planetesimals collided with the young, growing planet. As explained by Alibert:
During the first stage the pebbles brought the mass. In the second phase, the planetesimals also added a bit of mass, but what is more important, they brought energy.
Jupiter continued to grow after this, reaching 50 Earth masses after about 3 million years. This led to the beginning of the third phase, where runaway concretion of gas fueled the continued growth of Jupiter, until the planet reached a staggering 300 Earth masses. This is the Jupiter we know and love today.
But why exactly was there the period of slowed growth? First, the researchers found that the period where Jupiter was between 15-50 Earth masses lasted longer than previously thought. The collisions with the larger planetesimals were intense enough that the atmosphere was heated sufficiently to prevent rapid cooling, contraction and further gas accretion. The growth process was therefore delayed. As noted in the new paper:
Pebbles are important in the first stages to build a core quickly, but the heat provided by planetesimals is crucial to delay gas accretion so that it matches the timescale given by the meteorite data.
Scientists now think they know why Jupiter’s growth went through 3 distinct stages. This diagram depicts the 3 stages of Jupiter’s growth, in millions of years.
Image via Nature Astronomy/Yann Alibert (Universität Bern) et al.
Below are the three stages of Jupiter’s growth, in brief. Note that they relate to the image above:
Stage 1: until 1 million years: Jupiter grows by accretion of pebbles (blue dots). Large primordialplanetesimals (big red dots) show high collision velocities (red arrows) leading to destructive collisions (yellow) and producing small, second generation planetesimals (small red dots).
Stage 2: 1-3 million years: The energy resulting from the accretion of small planetesimals prevents rapid gas accumulation and thus rapid growth (gray arrows).
Stage 3: beyond 3 million years: Jupiter is massive enough to accrete large amounts of gas.
The new formation scenario described by Alibert and team also fits nicely with previous data taken from meteorites. Based on analysis of the meteorites, scientists had concluded that the solar nebula in the primordial early solar system had somehow been divided into two different regions over two million years. When Jupiter had grown to 20-50 Earth masses, it acted as a barrier, disturbing the dust disk (debris disk) surrounding the young sun. This created an overdensity – a greater than normal density – within the dust disk, trapping pebbles outside its orbit.
As a result, material from farther out could not mix with other material closer in to the sun, at least not until Jupiter grew enough to scatter those pebbles inward with its gravity.
Image via NASA/SwRI/MSSS/Gerald Eichstädt/Seán Doran.
Beyond Jupiter, the researchers also say that their new results can also be used to help solve some long-running puzzles about the formation of Uranus and Neptune, as well as some similar exoplanets. This could be especially relevant to the so-called hot Jupiters, which are gas giant planets the size of Jupiter or larger that orbit much closer to their stars – and other gas giants found in other solar systems.
How did those planets grow even larger than Jupiter and why do many of them orbit so much closer to their stars (i.e. the hot Jupiters)? Maybe this new research will help shed some light.
Bottom line: Scientists have found that Jupiter, the largest planet in our solar system, went through “growing pains” as it was forming, with a period of time where its growth had slowed down considerably. Scientists involved in the new study now think they understand why.
“The Tantalizing Connection Between Volcanoes and Extraterrestrial Life in the Outer Solar System” –Today’s Top Space Headline
“The Tantalizing Connection Between Volcanoes and Extraterrestrial Life in the Outer Solar System” –Today’s Top Space Headline
All in all, Rosaly Lopes, planetary geologist at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, has toured 63 active volcanoes and lava lakes — research that helps her better understand such infernos on other planets and moons across the solar system. That dangerous region in Ethiopia, for example, is dotted with yellow and green hot springs that bear striking similarities to Jupiter’s sulfur-studded moon, Io. And Laki, an ancient volcano in Iceland — which last erupted over 200 years ago, spewing a poisonous fog that smothered the globe for nearly a year — looks remarkably similar to a feature on Saturn’s moon Titan.
In 1979, Sicily’s Mount Etna lurched to life, sending a plume of ash and several chunks of molten rock skyrocketing into the air. The outburst was unexpected. And for Rosaly Lopes, continues Shannon Hall in Quanta, a 22-year-old graduate student in planetary science at the time, it was a close call. She and her colleagues had left the summit that morning to work roughly a mile downhill. But others were caught in the terrifying blast, which killed nine people. A man died on his honeymoon. A little boy’s parents were both killed.
“It was a very sobering experience,” Lopes said. But she returned to the summit the next morning, and in the ensuing decades, she has traveled to volcanoes on every single continent. With every trip, she has an evacuation route in mind and knows that if the volcano unexpectedly erupts, she should look skyward to carefully dodge the falling lava bombs. But for many of those volcanoes, lava is not the only danger. She visited a lava lake in Ethiopia a year before several researchers were shot and killed there. She braved the numbing cold of Antarctica to gaze at Mount Erebus, which holds a lava lake that puffs steam and launches lava bombs. And she hoped to visit Nyiragongo, a lava lake in the Congo, earlier this year, but an Ebola outbreak forced her to delay her plans.
Lopes knows these alien features of Jupiter and Saturn’s moons nearly as well as she knows their terrestrial doppelgängers — in part because she discovered most of them. As a planetary geologist at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), she analyzed images from the Galileo mission to Jupiter, identifying 71 active volcanoes on Io — a feat for which she has been recognized with a Guinness World Record. She later found icy volcanoes on Saturn’s moons. And today she focuses her efforts on the tantalizing connection between volcanoes and extraterrestrial life in the outer solar system.
Quanta’s Hall spoke with Lopes about volcanoes across the solar system and the open questions she hopes to soon answer.
Jupiter’s moon Io is the most volcanically active body in the solar system. Left: The dark regions in this image from the Galileo spacecraft show areas of recent volcanic activity. The large dark region toward the center of the image did not exist five months before this picture was taken.
The first mission you worked on at JPL was Galileo. Tell me a little about Jupiter’s moon Io — why is it so exciting?
I was a student when Voyager spotted volcanoes on Io. It was such a sensation because it was beyond what we had seen on Mars, Venus, Mercury and the moon. That this little moon could actually host volcanic activity is pretty phenomenal when you consider that it’s about the size of Earth’s moon. It should have been dead long ago. But it’s not. Instead, Io is a volcanologist’s paradise, with over 150 detected active volcanoes.
But these volcanoes look different that those on Earth. Although Io has mountains, the mountains are not active volcanoes. The volcanoes are calderas on the ground where lava bubbles away. What’s more, when I started working with our highest-resolution data from Galileo, we noticed that several of these calderas showed a pattern with hot edges — a signature of a lava lake. In a lava lake, the crust cools pretty fast, forming this skin of cooler lava on top of the molten lava. That skin then sloshes around and hits the caldera walls where it breaks up and reveals the molten lava underneath. So it’s quite common to actually see hot areas near the margins of the calderas.
But it was a surprising find because lava lakes are very rare on Earth. Although we only have a few, I have now visited nearly all of them, including Mount Erebus in Antarctica.
Photo of Lopes in 2014 above one of the lava lakes at Ambrym, an exceptionally active volcano in the Pacific island nation of Vanuatu.
Have those places helped us understand Io?
Oh yes. We joke that the Danakil Depression — a surreal landscape in Ethiopia that is covered by bright yellow and green hot springs full of sulfur and sulfur dioxide — is like Io on Earth. Not only do the colors resemble Io, but it also has a very active volcano, Erta Ale, with a spectacular lava lake. And that lava lake has helped inform our studies on Io. Like a lot of things, unless you see something up close it can be hard to really understand it. But we saw the lava lake’s hot edges and watched how the crust moved and sunk — all while taking a number of temperature measurements.
Those measurements are key because there is still an open question about the composition of lavas on Io. And while we have no direct measurements on Io, we can use temperature as a proxy because we see on Earth that different lavas melt at different temperatures. Unfortunately, temperatures measured on Io are just on that borderline between basalt — like the lavas you find in Hawaii and elsewhere on Earth — and lavas that are called ultramafic — like the primitive lavas on Earth that erupted mostly billions of years ago.
But if Io’s lavas are truly primitive, then we could study Io in order to better understand what happened on Earth a long time ago. It also makes me wonder if lava lakes were a lot more prevalent in Earth’s past than they are now.
Erta Ale, a volcano in the north of Ethopia, contains a lava lake that has been active for at least five decades.
It sounds like Io is different from Earth in a number of ways — why?
Io, under the surface, is a very different world than Earth. Our planet is the only known body that has plate tectonics, but Io is heated by tidal heating — caused by the gravitational push and pull between Jupiter and the other big moons. So the guts of Io’s volcanoes may be really quite different from those on Earth.
Luckily, volcanoes — the process by which planets and moons lose heat — can help shed light on Io’s interior. There are several different models, for example, of how that gravitational push and pull heats the interior of Io. Of the two extreme models, one of them suggests that tidal heating is mainly dissipated in the deep mantle, forming large convection cells that rise up toward the poles where volcanoes ultimately form. But the other extreme model suggests that tidal heating is mainly dissipated in the shallow asthenosphere [the uppermost region of the mantle], forming convection cells that rise up toward the equator, thus leading to more volcanoes there instead. Then, of course, there are some models in between the two extremes.
In 1999, I wrote a paper that looked at the number and distribution of active volcanoes — only to find that more volcanoes are located in the equatorial regions. That said, not all volcanoes are created equal. What’s more, we used data from the Galileo mission, which did not have a good view of Io’s poles.
So a few colleagues and I decided to take a second look. We’re currently working on a second study — led by Julie Rathbun at the Planetary Science Institute — that doesn’t just look at the distribution of volcanoes but also at their relative heat flow using three different data sets from space missions. That paper has yet to be published, but in it, we argue that the correct model is not one of the extreme models — where heat dissipates in either the mantle or the asthenosphere — but some combination of the two.
Could these studies help us potentially understand rocky exoplanets?
Oh yes. Many exoplanets are thought to be super-Ios, where volcanism is still occurring on a large scale thanks to tidal heating. And many exoplanets are also thought to be ocean worlds. Those two characteristics bring about the possibility that life could have evolved there, since you have two of the necessary ingredients: heat and water.
Another question that I’m quite curious about is whether we will find an exoplanet that hosts plate tectonics. So far, Earth is the only known place in the solar system with plate tectonics, and scientists still argue about why or how plate tectonics got kick-started here. Is it the presence of water, which lubricates the movement of the subducting plates? Is it because the crust has a certain thickness relative to the size of Earth? We think the Martian volcanoes, for example, are so much bigger because the Martian crust is thicker relative to the size of the planet. Because plate tectonics couldn’t start on Mars, volcanoes kept erupting in the same places and growing to enormous proportions.
But if we found another world with plate tectonics, it would shed light on the problem and be a big find.
Video: Rosaly Lopes explains why it’s worth exploring the huge variety of volcanoes on other worlds.
More recently, you’ve switched gears to focus on Saturn’s moon Titan. Is Titan volcanic?
That is still a little controversial. But I think that Titan does host cryovolcanoes, or ice volcanoes, which erupt slushy ices instead of molten rocks. We used the radar instrument on the Cassini spacecraft to find features that look dramatically similar to volcanoes and lava flows. I think the best example is a region that contains one of the tallest peaks of Titan, Doom Mons — named after Tolkien’s Mount Doom — and the deepest pit discovered so far on Titan, Sotra Patera. Those features, which are surrounded by flowlike features, simply look volcanic. In fact, they remind me of the Laki complex in Iceland — although Laki of course is not a cryovolcano.
In addition, there have been several indirect hints that Titan is still alive. A postdoc of mine, Anezina Solomonidou, found a change in brightness on the surface that coincided with the area I just mentioned. That could be attributed to degassing. Additionally, Titan’s atmosphere has methane. But methane is destroyed by sunlight — a strong hint that it could be replenished from the interior thanks to those cryovolcanoes.
There are still so many outstanding questions that we really need a new mission to Titan. It is such a fascinating world. Titan has a liquid ocean under its ice crust. It has lakes of liquid methane and rivers of liquid methane. It could still have active cryovolcanoes. It has organic materials that we think make their way through fractures in the ice crust and down into the ocean. Titan is really wild. I love Io, but I think that Titan is actually the most fascinating place in the solar system — not only geologically, but also because life could have evolved there.
Do scientists think that Titan’s subsurface is habitable?
I recently put together a team that will try to answer that exact question. The project was funded this May, and we will spend the next five years studying whether Titan’s subsurface ocean could be habitable, and then whether the material from the ocean could come to the surface and potentially contain detectable biomarkers.
Some team members, for example, will try to decipher if there are organisms that can survive the pressure and cold temperatures below Titan’s icy surface. To me, one of the most fascinating parts is that my colleagues will conduct experiments that simulate Titan’s ocean in order to find out what kind of bugs — as I call them — could actually survive. These bugs are bacteria like E. coli. And they’re quite hardy in that you can actually train bugs to survive high pressures like this. And it doesn’t mean we’ll have that exact bug on Titan, but maybe we’ll have something like it.
Now, of course you might think that life is sealed off from discovery, but here is where cryovolcanism comes in. Those icy volcanoes will bring that material from that ocean to the surface and the atmosphere — where we could potentially detect it. And it is true that we have not detected any volcanic activity on Titan directly, but that does not mean that the material cannot come back to the surface. Even if there is no cryolava, for example, gases could still be released — and with those gases, biosignatures. So the project will also look at what kind of biosignatures those bugs would produce and where we would go to detect them.
How optimistic are you that life exists beyond Earth?
I can’t be sure one way or another because we have a sample of one. But I treat it mostly as an experimentalist. We have to predict where and how we would find life on another planet, and we have to go look because that is really what’s going to tell us. If we find some kind of life on another world, there is no doubt it will be the most magnificent discovery in science. And several of us can contribute in small ways toward that grand goal.
WETENSCHAP & PLANEETRusland heeft vandaag een onderzoek opgestart naar een lek in capsule die aan het Internationaal Ruimtestation ISS hangt. Door een gaatje in de wand was de druk aan boord vorige week donderdag een beetje weggevallen. Het Russische ruimtevaartbureau Roscosmos sluit ondertussen niet uit dat iemand bewust een gat in de capsule zou hebben gemaakt.
Eind vorige week was er in het ISS een noodsituatie omdat er zuurstof lekte uit een scheurtje van ongeveer twee mm in de Sojoez-MS-09 die aan de spacemeccano hangt, en die voor transport naar en van het ISS zorgt. Aanvankelijk dacht men dat het gat door de inslag van een micrometeoriet was veroorzaakt. Vandaag sloot directeur-generaal Dmitri Rozogin van Roscosmos die verklaring al uit.
Daarna opperde hij menselijk falen, bijvoorbeeld bij raketbouwer Energija of bij tests op de lanceerbasis Bajkonoer. Uiteindelijk sloot Rozogin zelfs het bewust veroorzaken van een lek niet uit.
Er zijn volgens de topman van de Russische ruimtevaart meerdere pogingen geweest om van binnenuit een gat te maken in de Sojoez die aan het Russische segment van het ISS hangt. “Wij onderzoeken de versie van een op de Aarde (veroorzaakt probleem), want er zijn sporen van een boor die door de wand is gegaan. Maar er is ook een ander versie die wij niet uitsluiten: een doelbewuste interventie in de ruimte.”
Het door Russische kosmonauten uiteindelijk gedicht gat lijkt door een “weifelende hand” te zijn veroorzaakt, aldus Rozogin. “Waar gaat het om, een fabricagefout of een doelbewuste daad”, vroeg hij zich volgens het Russische staatspersbureau Ria Novosti af.
Plakband
Op de vraag waarom het scheurtje sinds de aankomst van de Sojoez in juni niet is opgemerkt, antwoordde Rozogin dan weer: “Stel dat een slordige werknemer een fout heeft gemaakt. Dan werd hij bang en dichtte hij het gat met speciale lijm. Het bleef lange tijd onopgemerkt. Dan droogde de lijm op en was ze weg”.
Volgens het Amerikaanse ruimtevaartbureau NASA is het scheurtje, in een deel van de Sojoez dat niet voor de terugkeer naar de Aarde bestemd is, aanvankelijk met thermoresistente plakband afgedicht geweest. Een Russische commissie moet uitklaren wie verantwoordelijk is. “We zullen het vinden”, beloofde Rozogin.
Ondertussen zijn er verificaties bij alle ruimtetuigen van het type Sojoez en Progress (voor onbemand transport naar de ruimtekolos), zei een bron uit de Russische ruimtevaartsector aan Ria Novosti.
In het ISS wonen en werken momenteel twee Russen, drie Amerikanen en één Duitser van het Europese Ruimtevaartbureau ESA. De Amerikaan Drew Feustel is gezagvoerder. Als het gat niet werd gedicht, zou het ISS in achttien dagen tijd zonder zuurstof hebben gezeten en hadden alle bemanningsleden kunnen stikken.
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Sabotage in de ruimte? Russen sluiten bewust lek in ISS niet uit
Sabotage in de ruimte? Russen sluiten bewust lek in ISS niet uit
Bron: BELGA
Rusland heeft dinsdag een onderzoek opgestart naar een lek in een aan het Internationaal Ruimtestation ISS hangende Sojoez waarbij eind vorige week - zonder gevaar voor de zeskoppige bemanning - drukverlies is ontstaan. Het Russische ruimtevaartbureau Roscosmos sluit ondertussen niet uit dat iemand bewust een gat in de capsule zou hebben gemaakt.
Eind vorige week was er in het ISS een noodsituatie omdat er zuurstof lekte uit een scheurtje van ongeveer twee mm in de Sojoez-MS-09 die aan de spacemeccano hangt, en die voor transport naar en van het ISS zorgt.
Aanvankelijk dacht men dat het gat door de inslag van een micrometeoriet was veroorzaakt. Maandag sloot directeur-generaal Dmitri Rozogin van Roscosmos die verklaring al uit. Daarna opperde hij menselijk falen, bijvoorbeeld bij raketbouwer Energija of bij tests op de lanceerbasis Bajkonoer. Uiteindelijk sloot Rozogin zelfs het bewust veroorzaken van een lek niet uit.
“Boor door de wand”
Er zijn volgens de topman van de Russische ruimtevaart meerdere pogingen geweest om van binnenuit een gat te maken in de Sojoez die aan het Russische segment van het ISS hangt. “Wij onderzoeken de versie van een op de Aarde (veroorzaakt probleem), want er zijn sporen van een boor die door de wand is gegaan. Maar er is ook een ander versie die wij niet uitsluiten: een doelbewuste interventie in de ruimte.”
Het door Russische kosmonauten uiteindelijk gedicht gat lijkt door een “weifelende hand” te zijn veroorzaakt, aldus Rozogin. “Waar gaat het om, een fabricagefout of een doelbewuste daad”, vroeg hij zich volgens het Russische staatspersbureau Ria Novosti af.
Speciale lijm?
Op de vraag waarom het scheurtje sinds de aankomst van de Sojoez in juni niet is opgemerkt, antwoordde Rozogin dan weer: “Stel dat een slordige werknemer een fout heeft gemaakt. Dan werd hij bang en dichtte hij het gat met speciale lijm. Het bleef lange tijd onopgemerkt. Dan droogde de lijm op en was ze weg”.
Volgens het Amerikaanse ruimtevaartbureau NASA is het scheurtje, in een deel van de Sojoez dat niet voor de terugkeer naar de Aarde bestemd is, aanvankelijk met thermoresistente plakband afgedicht geweest. Een Russische commissie moet uitklaren wie verantwoordelijk is. “We zullen het vinden”, beloofde Rozogin.
Ondertussen zijn er verificaties bij alle ruimtetuigen van het type Sojoez en Progress (voor onbemand transport naar de ruimtekolos), zei een bron uit de Russische ruimtevaartsector aan Ria Novosti. In het ISS wonen en werken momenteel twee Russen, drie Amerikanen en één Duitser van het Europese Ruimtevaartbureau ESA. De Amerikaan Drew Feustel is gezagvoerder.
Long Yellow UFO Docked At Space Station On Live Cam, UFO Sighting News.
Long Yellow UFO Docked At Space Station On Live Cam, UFO Sighting News.
Date of discovery: Feb 14, 2014
Location of discovery: International Space Station
This post is dedicated to Streetcap1, may you rest in peace brother.
This is the raw footage of what Streetcap1 caught docked at the space station on live Internet cam back in 2014. This UFO is the best UFO ever recorded at the space station, and there are a thousand videos out there. Streetcap1 was watching the live cam on the Internet when he noticed that a long canoe-like space ship was actually docked at the space station. The door that attaches from the space station to the Soyuz capsule is under it. With two and a half minutes of NASA footage, we can all agree that this is the most amazing catch ever at the ISS. I remember Streetcap1messaged NASA asking what it was, but of course NASA never replied.
Mysterious Square-Shaped UFO Photographed Over Charlotte, North Carolina
Mysterious Square-Shaped UFO Photographed Over Charlotte, North Carolina
A mysterious square-shaped UFO was photographed on the night of Aug 18, 2018 by Javion Hill as he drove southwest of Charlotte, North Carolina.
He posted the image of the square UFO on his Facebook page on Aug 28, 2018 and while he believes what he saw may have been an experimental military craft, Hill told the Charlotte Observer that there was something frightening about the experience and he didn't sleep that night.
Hill said “I was on my way home with my wife on the speaker phone, and it looked like there was a tornado coming, so I was trying to take a picture of the clouds for my wife.”
“But then I saw something that wasn’t normal and started trying to take as many pictures of it as possible while I was driving, then I pulled over at the next exit to try and get video, but the aircraft had vanished; a heavy rain followed instantly.”
George Knapp the Secret UFO Conference That No One Knows About
George Knapp the Secret UFO Conference That No One Knows About
COAST TO COAST AM.
George Knapp was joined by legendary ufologist Jacques Vallee, who discussed a recent discrete gathering of international UFO experts that was not mentioned to the public. He revealed that the two-day conference was organized by the French version of NASA, known as CNES, and featured 30 presentations to about 100 attendees. According to Vallee, the focus of the conference revolved around determining the best way to gather and research UFO cases as well as how to synthesize that data. He attributed the event to a change in the French scientific community, where a new generation has emerged that is willing to take a fresh look at the UFO phenomenon. Unlike UFO research in the United States, which is beset with ideological disputes, Vallee noted, this examination of the phenomenon centered around “a good long look at the data.”
A Brief History Of Some Of Australia’s Weirdest UFO Encounters
A Brief History Of Some Of Australia’s Weirdest UFO Encounters
Thanks in so small part to movies like Close Encounters and Signs, the imagery of UFO encounters and alien abductions is deeply tied to the American mid-west. Aliens rustle amongst fields of corn. Strange sounds emanate from big red barns. People in plaid shirts recount grabbing the shotguns out of their pickups because they saw some strange lights up in the sky and wish to respond the only way they know how. But the American heartland doesn’t have a monopoly on UFO sightings — hell, neither does the entire contiguous United States. People believing that aliens are real transcends all borders; possible UFO sightings crop up all over the world constantly, even in our tiny, huge corner of the world.
Arguably the biggest incident in the Australian UFO mythos is the Westall UFO encounter. According to a combined 200 students and teachers, on April 6, 1966, a UFO was spotted hanging around over two different schools (Westall High School and Westall State School) for about 20 minutes, before landing in a nearby paddock and eventually flying off again.
The object was described as being a silvery disc with a purple hue, roughly the size of about two cars. One of the explanations put forth is that they saw a weather balloon but, 50 years later, we still have no concrete idea what all these people saw.
Studio 10 spoke to a bunch of the witnesses for a special 50th-anniversary show and a bunch of them are still pretty adamant about what they saw:
The man described seeing a blue-grey disc around 25 feet in diameter rise out of a nearby lagoon before flying off. Upon inspection, a section of the lagoon the size and shape of the saucer appeared to have formed a whirlpool ‘devoid of all plant life’. Afterwards, dead reeds started to float to the surface, forming the ‘nest’ from which the incident takes its name. According to Pedley, when he told the owner of the sugarcane farm on which the incident happened, the owner said that, a few hours before Pedley saw the saucer, his dog had been acting strangely, barking in an agitated fashion and running in the direction of the lagoon from which the saucer supposedly emerged.
Pictured: It’s definitely aliens.
Albert Pennisi, the owner of the neighbouring sugarcane farm, reportedly told a journalist from Sydney that he had been dreaming of UFOs all week before the event. Hell yeah, dude.
Next, we cast our beady eyes on South Australia in the year 1988, when a family driving through the Nullarbor claimed to have their entire car lifted off the ground by — you guessed it — fuckin’ aliens.
According to a wonderfully detailed dive into the story by the ABC, the Knowles family was making the long drive from Perth to Melbourne when they were ‘tormented’ by a large glowing sphere of light for 90 minutes. The glowing ball chased them before landing on the roof and lifting them clear off the ground, as described by a police spokesperson at the time:
It apparently picked the car up off the road, shook it quite violently and forced the car back down on the road with such pressure that one of the tyres was blown.
One of the family members in the car reported hearing their voices distort as if time was slowing down, either a symptom of shock or just the coolest UFO shit in the world. If that’s not creepy enough, here’s what the mum told reporters happened after it picked them up:
I wound down the window and I felt this thing on the roof… all of this smoke stuff started coming into the car, the car was covered in black stuff. It was a small light and all of a sudden it became big like this, like a big ball.
I think we can all agree: what the fuck.
Five years later, we had the Cahill Abduction, in which a woman driving back to Melbourne from the Dandenong Rangesclaimed to have been abducted by aliens in Narre Warren North. Kelly Cahill (not her actual name) and her husband Andrew reported seeing what looked like a blimp with a ‘ring of orange headlights’.
Cahill said that, as they got closer, she became blinded by the light coming from the object and then woke up later, noticing that she had lost an hour of time. It doesn’t end there though: she claimed to notice a new, triangular shaped mark on her stomach and, after a few weeks, began to recall more and more details of the abduction.
Cahill described seeing ‘skinny black figures with bulging red eyes’, in addition to seeing people in two other cars who also witnessed the abduction — although none of these people have spoken to the media outside of UFO researchers.
Pictured: Cahill’s depiction of the aliens, which are REAL.
Keen-eyed UFO enthusiasts may have spotted a rather prominent omission from this list, which is, of course, the disappearance of Frederick Valentich in 1978. Valentich and his Cessna 182L disappeared after he reported being followed by a flying object that he described as “not an aircraft“.
I didn’t get into this one because someone else has already done the hard work for me, in the form of our Australian mysteries podcast, the All Aussie Mystery Hour (available on iTunes and Spotify). Mel and Jose get way, way deep on this one and it is well worth your time if you reckon aliens are either a) real or b) fake but super cool.
The fascinating 'UFO landing pad' in the Argentinian desert
The fascinating 'UFO landing pad' in the Argentinian desert
The fascinating 'UFO landing pad' that has been built in the middle of the Argentinian desert. Photo / Nora Aliessi
Daily Mail
By: Jennifer Newton
This fascinating 'UFO landing pad' has been built in the middle of the Argentinian desert by a man who claimed aliens told him to construct it.
It's a collection of white and brown rocks in the shape of a star, known as an 'ovniport' - and it appeared in the small town of Cachi in the province of Salta, MailOnline Travel reports.
It is believed to have been built by Swiss man Werner Jaisli, who travelled to the area in search of extraterrestrials.
Visitors flock to the site - and no wonder. Because it's stunning.
It is believed to have been built by Swiss man Werner Jaisli, who travelled to the area in search of extraterrestrials.
Photo / Nora Aliessi
A fact that's highlighted by aerial images.
After travelling to Argentina, Jaisli is reported to have claimed he received a 'telepathic message' from aliens telling him they needed a place to land on earth.
He told Argentine newspaper El Tribuno: 'They landed about 100 metres above our heads and projected on us a beam of light that made us both see their own brightness.
'The funny thing is that it did not affect our vision. Something began to bubble through my brain: it was an order. They asked me telepathically to build the airport.'
He is thought to have immediately got to work, making a large star in 2008 with 36 points that measures 48 metres in diameter.
Jaisli also made a smaller star and it took him until 2012 until his work was complete.
As well as tourists, the site is also popular with UFO enthusiasts, who believe they may be able to contact beings from another world from the site.
Visitors flock to the site - and no wonder. Because it's stunning.
Photo / Nora Aliessi, Flickr
However, soon after the ovniport was built, locals around Cachi stopped seeing Jaisli, who had a large beard and would often wear a Druid outfit.
It is unclear where he travelled to but some locals joked that he may have been abducted by aliens.
However, it is thought he actually went to Bolivia - with another theory that he travelled back to Switzerland.
Orbitz entices UFO enthusiasts with extraterrestrial tourism posters.
According to the travel fare aggregate Orbitz, “we are not alone,” and they have a list of places aliens may have already visited on Earth you can visit too.
“We selected 10 intriguing sightings from across the globe and created vibrant posters illustrating and explaining the events that took place,” according to an Orbitz representative. “Sightings of Unidentified Flying Objects has happened for millennia. Is it life from other planets? Are we alone in the universe? Have a look at these engaging posters and decide for yourself.“
The alleged events of extraterrestrial visitation Orbitz have decided to highlight in their posters span from Ancient Egypt in 1440 B.C., to Norway in 2009. The collection includes the famous Roswell, New Mexico event when alien visitation went awry. In 1947, an alleged alien spacecraft crashed outside of Roswell in 1947. However, the majority of the rest of the events featured in the posters are much more obscure, including the most recent incident.
In 2009, witnesses saw and photographed a beautiful giant glowing swirl in the skies. Many speculated that a massive portal to another dimension had been activated. Astronomers and scientists said it was a rocket mishap and the swirl effect was due to rocket fuel leaking in a swirling pattern as the rocket spun in the air.
The later is the most likely explanation, and examples of similar rocket failures including the swirling phenomenon have been recorded before. Of course, there are those who are skeptical of this more mundane theory, which is understandable. It is more fun to think it is a dimensional portal.
The following is a list of the posters with explanations of the events they are portraying:
DISKS OF FIRE, Ancient Egypt, 1440 BC
The scribes of Pharaoh Thutmose III report unearthly fiery disks floating over the skies.... Do they come in peace to observe, or to do battle? Their origins and intentions? Unknown.
GALACTIC GLOBE FALLS TO EARTH, Italy, 91 BC
Roman writer, Julius Obsequens, reports a potential threat from outer space. Terrifying noises come from the sky as a globe of fire gyrates towards earth, lands, and then rises again, making its way east.
JUDGEMENT DAY, Germany, 776
Saxon invaders besieging the Sigiburg Castle flee in horror when they encounter a spacecraft in the skies. Eyewitnesses report the craft to bear the likeness of two large flaming shields.
THEY CAME FROM THE STARS... TO FIGHT FOR PLANET EARTH, Germany, 1561
Citizens of Nuremberg witness an epic battle. Blood-red circular arcs and globes fly back and forth, fighting each other for more than an hour, until all the crafts fall to the earth and burn with black smoke.
THAT'S NO MOON, England, 1801
Reports emerge of a mysterious moon-like globe appearing in the sky, which bathes Hull in a mysterious blue light. Suddenly and without warning, it splits into seven fireballs. No traces are left behind.
SHE CAME FROM OUTER SPACE, Japan, 1803
Local fishermen spot an unusual vessel adrift and tow it to land. A woman with red and white hair appears. She speaks a language utterly foreign to them. They return her and her vessel to the sea, and she drifts away.
THEY'RE HERE, USA, 1947
In Roswell, New Mexico, the US Armed Air Forces encounter a crashed flying saucer and capture its alien occupants. The millitary engage in a cover-up, and continue to deny the encounter to this day.
YOU CAN RUN, BUT YOU CAN'T HIDE, USA, 1952
In Flatwoods, West Virginia, eyewitnesses see a bright object cross the sky and land. They gather a group to investigate and encounter a 10 foot mutant, who glides towards them hissing. They run for their lives.
ATTACK OF THE TENTACLED TORMENTOR, South Africa, 1996
In Erasmuskloof, Pretoria, a glowing disc emitting bright green tentacles is spotted by police. A helicopter is dispatched and a chase ensues. The mysterious craft makes a vertical ascent and evades capture.
A spiralling light is spotted in the night sky. The light vanishes, as what looks to be a wormhole opens up. Russian authorities claim the anomaly is the result of a failed missile test, but many doubt this explanation.
According to The Washington Post, UFOs are “suddenly a serious news story.” If more people are open to the possibility Earth may be a tourist stop for aliens, then it only makes sense Earth-bound tourist would want to see what the aliens found so great about the places they have allegedly visited.
The civilization of Venus described in a declassified report
The civilization of Venus described in a declassified report
The possibility of life on Venus leads to a revolution in thought, because many of us believe that the solar system is an oasis in the desert with only one Earth. So how can we accept the idea that our space brothers are there, near the nearby planet, and reach out and wait patiently and calmly for the green lights to light up in our minds? (Article published at UFO Spain Website)
The Earth Has Been Hit by 144 Major Earthquakes in the Last Week And No One Is Talking About It
The Earth Has Been Hit by 144 Major Earthquakes in the Last Week And No One Is Talking About It
solar minimum?? planetary alignments??? pole shift??? this is a week old ...there was some major quakes...are there more to come???
The debate regarding the impact of the human population on the world around us has been an ongoing one, reignited each time we witness a significant shift in the climate or the environment as a whole. In fact, this whole situation has become so commonplace in our society that it no longer phases us the…
this guy in the vid has a good take on it....he also speaks about the upcoming planetary alignment...they gonna line up again on the other side of the sun in october....thats twice in a year....unheard of......
Nieuwe animatie brengt klimaatverandering op huiveringwekkende wijze in beeld
Nieuwe animatie brengt klimaatverandering op huiveringwekkende wijze in beeld
Caroline Kraaijvanger
“Het maakt niet uit hoe je het visualiseert; het ziet er eng uit.”
Aan het woord is Antti Lipponen, onderzoeker aan het Finse Meteorologisch Instituut. Hij zette de zogenoemde GISS Surface Temperature Analysis (kortweg GISTEMP) om in onderstaande animatie.
In de animatie zie je de temperatuurafwijkingen die in individuele landen tussen 1880 en 2017 werden gemeten. Er is sprake van een afwijking als het kouder of warmer is dan normaal in een specifieke periode en op een specifieke plek het geval is. De term ‘normaal’ verwijst hierbij naar de gemiddelde temperatuur die op die plek en in die periode tussen 1951 en 1980 werd gemeten.
Verandering In de animatie is goed te zien dat er in de laatste jaren van de negentiende eeuw en beginjaren van de twintigste eeuw sprake is van een lagere temperatuur dan ‘normaal’. Maar dat verandert als we het einde van de twintigste eeuw naderen. En aan het begin van de 21e eeuw kleuren huiveringwekkend veel landen donkerrood.
Nog een animatie Het is niet voor het eerst dat Lipponen met een pakkende animatie omtrent klimaatverandering op de proppen komt. Een jaar geleden presenteerde hij onderstaande animatie die eveneens duidelijk laat zien dat landen stuk voor stuk warmer worden. En niet zo’n klein beetje ook.
Met de animaties komen de op data gefundeerde waarschuwingen van wetenschappers tot leven. Je kunt met eigen ogen zien hoe de aarde warmer wordt. De animaties zijn bedoeld als wake-upcall. Niet alleen voor de burger, maar met name ook voor politici, die na het alom bejubelde Parijse klimaatakkoord te hebben gesloten er eigenlijk nog weinig aan hebben gedaan om dat klimaatakkoord handen en voeten te geven.
The description on the video reads: “The object was dropping a lot of glowing material while flying. She did know what this object was, but she was sure this was not something man made.
“It did not produce any sound at all. When I analysed the footage I noticed the object ejected a lot of material.”
Many of UFO Today’s followers were convinced the footage was of genuine UFO activity.
YouTuber David Leach wrote: “Excellent viewing. Leaking a lot of material. Near the end it looks like a smaller UFO breaks off and goes upward.”
UFO sighting: ‘Alien spaceship’ shot down over Scotland
(Image: GETTY • YOUTUBE)
Starman 2710 added: “Came through the portal to fast and lost control?”
AKIJPN continued: “Definitely looks like some flying object is flying loosing its control. Amazing.”
However, there does seem to be a more logical explanation for the strange phenomenon.
According to locals who have taken to the social news aggregator site Reddit, the strange sightings are actually caused by people attaching sparklers to kites.
The UFO was actually a kite
(Image: YOUTUBE)
There have apparently been several instances over the last month with residents not too concerned of an alien invasion.
Reddit user Space Pecs said it is “the third time this month” that a kite with sparklers has been launched.
Bory Truro replied: “Didn't have much of a clue at first, but now that you mention it, it does look a lot like someone stuck a sparkler on a kite.”
Another alleged UFO sighting near Charlotte has appeared on Facebook and in this case, it was posted by a husband and father who says he doesn’t necessarily believe in UFOs.
Javion Hill, 35, of Kings Mountain, North Carolina, says he took several photos of the object during a storm on the night of Aug. 18, as he drove on U.S. 74 southwest of Charlotte.
The images feature something square hovering above the treeline, with its edges fringed in lights. Hill told the Charlotte Observer the craft frightened him to the point that he didn’t sleep that night.
“I was on my way home with my wife on the speaker phone, and it looked like there was a tornado coming, so I was trying to take a picture of the clouds for my wife,” says Hill.
“But then I saw something that wasn’t normal and I was, like: ‘Oh my god, what is that?’ I started trying to take as many pictures of it as possible while I was driving.”
Hill says he pulled over at the next exit to try and get video, but the aircraft had vanished. A heavy rain followed instantly, he said.
Hill says it’s possible what he saw was a military craft. Conspiracy theorists maintain many UFO sightings in the region are actually an experimental military spacecraft known as the TR-3B, an anti-gravity craft that hovers. Some believe the craft is from one of the state’s military bases, which include Fort Bragg, Pope Air Force and Camp Lejeune.
Military.com reports the TR-3B “doesn’t exist officially.”
Reaction to Hill’s photo has included mostly questions, but at least one person, Shelby native Eric White, said he also saw something in the same area that “vanished in thin air.”
Hill says what he saw is actually bigger than what is seen in the photo.
“I was worried for my safety,” he said. “I didn’t believe in UFOs until that moment.”
NASA Just Gave the Opportunity Rover a Survival Deadline on Mars—Here's What That Means
NASA Just Gave the Opportunity Rover a Survival Deadline on Mars—Here's What That Means
By Meghan Bartels, Space.com Senior Writer
An artist's depiction of the Opportunity rover on the surface of Mars.
Credit: NASA
NASA on Thursday (Aug. 30) announced a deadline for its recovery of the Mars rover Opportunity, which has been silent for months while battling a dust storm, and some scientists intimately familiar with the project say that new timeline doesn’t do the grizzled robot justice.
The rover, which launched in 2003 and landed on Mars in January 2004, has been giving its humans the cold shoulder since June 10, when a fierce dust storm enveloped the Red Planet and blocked the sun from the robot's solar panels. The storm has started to die down, so the team hopes that with enough time, the rover should be able to power on again and get back to work after its long hibernation.
But scientists familiar with the mission say that NASA's new schedule doesn't offer the hardworking rover that time. "Opportunity has everything going for her," Tanya Harrison, a planetary scientist at Arizona State University and a science team collaborator on Opportunity, told Space.com. She said that depending on how the timeline aligns with Martian weather, "We're not giving it a fair shot." [Send the Opportunity Mars Rover Your Support (and a Postard)]
Here's NASA's plan: First, the team will wait until the tau — a measurement of how much dust clouds the air — lowers to 1.5. (At the peak of the storm, the tau was likely around 10, a level one rover expert called "terrifying.") Then, the team will begin a 45-day active-listening period, during which they will send commands up to the rover that should force it to respond.
Finally, if the silence continues, the team will transition into passive listening, eavesdropping on Mars-observing antennas for chance signals from Opportunity. Regardless of when that 45-day period ends, the team will continue passively listening through the end of January, John Callas, Opportunity project manager at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, told Space.com. (NASA's original release about the decision said simply that the team would be given "several months" for passive listening after the period of active listening ends.)
But at the end of January, the rover's time will be up, and with it, the Mars Exploration Rovers mission, which originally consisted of Opportunity and its sister robot, Spirit. "We're not ending the mission after 45 days," Callas told Space.com. "But I'm not going to keep full staffing around for six months or eight months if the chance of success is low."
Dust in the wind
These side-by-side images of Mars show the planet appeared in May 2018 (left) and in July 2018 after the planet's surface was completely covered by a massive dust storm. NASA used images from the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter to create these views.
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS
If this year's dust storm is indeed the end of Opportunity, no one will be able to say the rover wasn't a survivor. Opportunity and Spirit, which landed on the planet in 2004, were expected to last only 90 Martian days (each about 40 minutes longer than an Earth day), on the planet's surface — in part because scientists expected that dust would slowly bury the robots, according to Don Banfield, a planetary scientist at Cornell University who works with the Mars Exploration Rover team. But Spirit lasted for seven years, and Opportunity was approaching its 15th year at work when the storm hit. [Mars Dust Storm 2018:What It Means for the Opportunity Rover]
Banfield said that this storm is serious business, one of the biggest observed from the Martian surface to date. Although the storm is clearing, it's difficult for scientists to predict how tau, their crucial measure of light penetrating to the surface, will fare. "Getting that last little bit of dust out of the air takes a good amount of time," Mike Seibert, a former flight director for the Mars Exploration Rovers program, told Space.com.
There's also one big problem with the Martian skies clearing: All that dust has nowhere to go but down. "I think that's the real scary thing right now is that we know that the dust is going to fall out of the sky, but it has to go somewhere," Banfield said. Dust sitting on Opportunity's solar panels will block the rover's power supply just as effectively as dust in the air does, and, according to Seibert, engineers have no way to figure out how dusty the panels are.
One factor could rescue Opportunity's solar panels from that fate, a phenomenon that surprised scientists when they first observed it early in the rovers' careers: a predictable seasonal cycle of winds that are strong enough to blow dust off instruments and rovers. Those wind events should begin, in terrestrial time, in November and last until January, said Harrison, who began her work with the Mars Exploration Rovers team by producing Martian weather forecasts when there were still twin robots.
But it's not yet clear how that will align with the 45-day window opening after the atmosphere hits 1.5 tau — so, from what NASA has stated publicly so far, engineers trying to reach the rover may not be able to send it active commands at the times when those commands are most likely to work.
The overwhelming team consensus Harrison has heard is that active listening should continue through dust-cleaning season, "which, in the grand scheme of things, is not that long from now," she said. "You're not going to suddenly be saving tens of millions of dollars by cutting the mission short."
Twin rovers, different fates
Harrison and Seibert were both struck by the timeline Opportunity is being offered in comparison to how its twin, Spirit, fared nearly a decade ago, when its travels came to an abrupt end. "We did everything we could have done: Spirit was in much worse condition going into that fourth winter than Opportunity was going into the dust storm," Seibert said. "Spirit had much less of a chance of actually returning to contact with Earth than Opportunity does now."
In April 2009, Spirit got stuck in a position that meant the robot lost power when winter came, likely freezing vital electronics on the rover. The team left the robot alone over the Martian winter, but in July 2010, NASA began an intensive, 11-month-long listening campaign that blended active and passive listening, Seibert said.
Anywhere from three times a week to daily, the team would call Spirit, performing what they nicknamed a "sweep and beep" maneuver. That included one procedure to force the rover's radio to a specific frequency and a second to cue a signal. Sessions usually lasted an hour but occasionally stretched as long as 5 hours, and they took place day and night to fit the Martian schedule.
Between those active-listening sessions, engineers with the Deep Space Network, which communicates with Martian missions, automatically scanned their feeds for signals that may have come from the trapped rover. [10 Amazing Mars Discoveries by Rovers Spirit & Opportunity]
After nary a whisper, NASA declared the rover permanently dead in May 2011. That decision came after a meeting with all the senior team members, which Seibert said he remembers well. "It was a very purely democratic discussion," he said, adding that he was the first to hesitantly suggest giving up on Spirit, focusing the mission's resources on Opportunity alone.
"It hurt to say, but in my mind, I was OK saying it, because we had done so much to try to recover Spirit and the odds were so much against that rover," he said. And back then, the team still had a piece of the mission at work. "Mars Exploration Rovers continued on. It was just losing half of the spacecraft, but there was still plenty to do."
"Shock and awe and sadness"
But there's no longer a second active rover, and Opportunity scientists and engineers have been publicly speaking out about how demoralizing the rover's silence is. Earlier this week, they realized that NASA was deciding how to proceed, with one rumor suggesting that the rover would be given 30 days of active listening after tau reached 1.5. On the evening before the meeting deciding the rover's fate, they enlisted mission allies to launch a Twitter campaign showing public support under the hashtag #SaveOppy. And they saw a flood of responses, which Harrison thinks may have influenced the managers' decision.
But even a 45-day period isn't satisfying to her or Seibert, who said that he hasn't seen the same sort of exhaustive efforts for Opportunity as he and his colleagues conducted for Spirit. "It just seems like it's an easier thing to say we're done than putting the extra effort into soldiering on in the face of adversity," Seibert said. "It still seems like it's walking away early."
NASA doesn't seem to be effectively communicating with current team members about their decisions either, said Harrison, who added that the team didn't get a heads-up about the Aug. 30 announcement. "It seems pretty arbitrary, because [a] tau of 1.5 is still relatively high and we're not sure where that number came from. That information has not been released to the team," she added.
(In addition, tau measurements may not be particularly precise right now. Banfield mentioned that tau is more difficult to measure with confidence when the rover itself is out of order, because Curiosity is on the opposite side of the planet, forcing scientists to rely on images taken by orbiters.) [Top 10 Discoveries by Mars Rovers Spirit & Opportunity: A Scientist's View]
But Callas, JPL's project manager for Opportunity, said NASA has to draw the line somewhere, as sympathetic as he is to his grieving colleagues. "It's just like a loved one that's missing in action — the more time that passes, the less likely you are" to hear anything, he said. "I mean, you still hold out hope, and we are. We'll still listen. But we have to be realistic, too, as difficult as that is emotionally."
Other Opportunity team members may not be there yet, still focused on hoping for the best for the robot they've tended to for more than a decade. And the emotional strain is reaching beyond engineers in mission control.
"It's killing me not to be there and not to be in the trenches with that team working on the problem," Seibert said. He's told friends still working with the mission to call when they get a signal, so he can jump on a plane and foot the bill for celebratory drinks. "I really hope I get that phone call soon."
Space.com senior writer Mike Wall contributed reporting to this article. Email Meghan Bartels at mbartels@space.comor follow her @meghanbartels.
Amatrice, the epicenter of the 2016 Italian earthquake.
Credit: Youtube, Wikimedia Commons.
An aftershock is like an echo — a smaller earthquake that occurs soon after a larger one, hitting the same area as the main shock. Large magnitude quakes can generate aftershocks of varying magnitudes over a period of months. For people living and working around the site of an earthquake, the subsequent days and weeks are filled with anxiety — when will there be a new one?
Seismologists have crafted models that fairly accurately predict when an aftershock is going to take place and how violent (i.e. magnitude) it will be. Now, researchers at Google and Harvard have teamed up to produce an artificial intelligence system that can also predict where the aftershock will hit next.
The collaboration devised an AI that was fed a database of 131,000 earthquakes and the location of their subsequent aftershocks. The machine learning algorithm was instructed to spot the patterns in this complex landscape of variables upon variables.
There are a lot of things that shape a seismic event — from the composition of the ground to the interactions between tectonic plates to the ways seismic waves propagate through the Earth. Making sense of all the intricate layers upon layers can be maddening. However, this sort of high-volume pattern matching is what machine learning algorithms excel at. Such AIs are currently being used by tech giants like Facebook, Amazon, and Google to sell you virtual assistants or to show search results.
“After earthquakes of magnitude 5 or larger, people spend a great deal of time mapping which part of the fault slipped and how much it moved,” said Brendan Meade, a Professor of Earth and Planetary Sciences at Harvard University.
“Many studies might use observations from one or two earthquakes, but we used the whole database…and we combined it with a physics-based model of how the Earth will be stressed and strained after the earthquake, with the idea being that the stresses and strains caused by the main shock may be what trigger the aftershocks.”
Meade was first inspired to neural networks to predict aftershocks several years ago during his two sabbaticals at Google in Cambridge. At the time, deep learning algorithms were not as established as they are today but the idea immediately sounded too good to pass.
RELATED8.3 Magnitude Earthquake strikes Chile
After years of work, Meade and colleagues came up with a model which has much better predictive power than anything before it. On a scale of accuracy from 0 to 1 — where 1 is a perfectly accurate model and 0.5 is essentially the accuracy of flipping a coin — the new AI system scored 0.849 while the previously most precise model scored only 0.583.
The neural network was able to work so well thanks a little quirk it managed to uncover all by itself. The complex calculations take into consideration a factor known as the “von Mises yield criterion”, which predicts when a material will break under a stress. It’s been mostly used by engineers in the field of metallurgy. Now, it has also found its place in earthquake science, the authors reported in the journal Nature.
“This is a quantity that occurs in metallurgy and other theories, but has never been popular in earthquake science,” Meade said. “But what that means is the neural network didn’t come up with something crazy, it came up with something that was highly interpretable. It was able to identify what physics we should be looking at, which is pretty cool.”
Another advantage of the new AI is that it works for different types of faults. Because it’s generalizable, the system can just as well predict aftershocks around slip-faults, such as those seen in California, or shallow subduction zones, as seen in Japan.
Before you get overly excited though, be aware that this AI has a number of important limitations. The system only works with aftershocks caused by permanent changes to the ground, so-called static stresses. Aftershocks, however, can also be triggered by dynamic stresses that do not permanently change the applied load and thus can trigger earthquakes only by altering the mechanical state or properties of the fault zone.
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The AI is also too slow to work in real-time, which is a must-have considering that most aftershocks occur in the first day following an important earthquake.
Going forward, the researchers hope to overcome these challenges one by one. What’s more, Meade also has his mind set to predicting the magnitude of earthquakes themselves — something which is still considered highly esoteric and, perhaps, impossible to do.
“I think there’s a quiet revolution in thinking about earthquake prediction,” he said. “It’s not an idea that’s totally out there anymore. And while this result is interesting, I think this is part of a revolution in general about rebuilding all of science in the artificial intelligence era.
“Problems that are dauntingly hard are extremely accessible these days,” he continued. “That’s not just due to computing power — the scientific community is going to benefit tremendously from this because…AI sounds extremely daunting, but it’s actually not. It’s an extraordinarily democratizing type of computing, and I think a lot of people are beginning to get that.”
Celebrate Labor Day tonight (Sept. 3) by watching a bright-green cometapproach the sun in a live webcast by the Slooh online observatory.
Comet 21P/Giacobini-Zinner will make its closest approach to Earth on Sept. 10. That same day, it will swing by the sun, appearing bigger and brighter as solar radiation strips particles from its icy surface, creating that characteristic comet "tail."
Astrophotographer Alexander Vasenin captured this photo of Comet 21P/Giacobani-Zinner from Moscow Oblast, Russia, on Aug. 18, 2018, at 12:32 a.m. local time (2132 GMT on Aug. 17).
Comet 21P is a periodic comet that orbits the sun about once every 6.6 years. It is the source of the Draconid meteor shower, which happens every year in October when Earth passes through the trail of debris that Comet 21P leaves behind as it orbits the sun.
When Comet 21P flies by Earth on Sept. 10, it will be 36 million miles (58 million kilometers) away. "On the night of September 3rd, the comet will lie just over 1 degree from bright star Capella in Auriga, making it far easier to spot," Slooh officials said in a statement.
While the comet can be seen with small telescopes and binoculars, it won't be quite bright enough to spot with the naked eye, according to EarthSky.org. "The comet is expected to reach a visual magnitude of 6.5 to 7. That means it will not be visible to the eye … but nearly," EarthSky.org reports.
During the Labor Day webcast, Slooh astronomers Paul Cox and Paige Godfrey will join Slooh's storyteller Helen Avery to talk "all about comets and what they mean to us ground observers," Slooh officials said.
Email Hanneke Weitering at hweitering@space.com or follow her @hannekescience.
Software Engineer Hacks a Knitting Machine to Create Massive Stellar Map
Software Engineer Hacks a Knitting Machine to Create Massive Stellar Map
By Chelsea Gohd, Space.com Staff Writer
Australian software engineer Sarah Spencer hacked a 1980's knitting machine to create "Stargazing: a knitted tapestry" to show the universe in a totally unique way.
Credit: Sarah Spencer
By hacking a domestic knitting machine, a software engineer advanced modern knitting and made a massive equatorial star map in tapestry form.
Australian software engineer Sarah Spencer spent years hacking and programming a 1980s domestic knitting machine for fun. This hobby grew into much more, however, as Spencer developed a new computer algorithm that did something never before accomplished with such machines. Her accomplishment — knitting with bird's-eye backing using one knit per pixel in three colors — might not mean much to anyone outside of the knitting community. But this achievement allowed Spencer to make something truly out of this world.
"As a woman in tech, I wanted to create something which would engage young minds in an area of STEM (science, technology, engineering, mathematics)," Spencer said in a statement emailed to Space.com. So, with her souped-up knitting machine, Spencer set her sights on Electromagnetic Field Camp (also known as EMF Camp), a geeky festival in the United Kingdom focused on tech and creativity. She aimed to create an astronomy-based piece to showcase at the event. [Constellations of the Night Sky: Famous Star Patterns Explained (Images)]
After 15kg of wool and over hrs of knitting, I’m finally ready to fly to the UK. Now I just need to pack the entire universe into my suitcase! I’ll see you all soon
At 6 p.m. GMT on Aug. 31 at EMF Camp, Spencer unveiled the fruits of her labors — "Stargazing: a knitted tapestry." The piece features all 88 constellations as seen from Earth, as well as the equatorial line with the zodiac constellations running along it, stars scaled according to their real-life brightness, the Milky Way galaxy, the sun, Earth's moon and all of the planets within our solar system. Spencer made sure to put the planets, sun and moon in specific, strategic positions so that the heavenly bodies indicate a specific date in time.
Spencer, of course, includesthe Southern Cross constellation in this tapestry, as this constellation is depicted in the Australian flag, on "Stargazing."
But wait, there's more!
Australian software engineer Sarah Spencer hacked this 1980's knitting machine to knit an incredible equatorial star map.
Credit: Sarah Spencer
Spencer entered "Stargazing" into REAio, a hackathon at REA Group in Melbourne, Australia. With a team of 18 excited hackers, Spencer electrified the tapestry, lighting up eight of its constellations. While the engineer said she hopes to one day light up all of the constellations on "Stargazing," successfully electrifying some of them snagged the Marvin award for Technical Excellence at the hackathon.
Spencer hopes that "Stargazing" "inspires EMF Camp attendees to go out and look up at the stars," she told Space.com in an email.
"Stargazing: a knitted tapestry" consists of locally sourced Australian wool that matches the blue color of the outfits of the accomplished Australian women depicted in portraits on display as part of the 2018 Archibald Prize at the Art Gallery of New South Wales, Australia. Spencer wanted her universe to be "dressed in a similar ultramarine blue to celebrate the achievements of all women in the fields of science," she said in the statement.
The piece stretches out to about 9 feet (2.8 meters) tall and 15 feet (4.6 m) wide. The astronomical tapestry, which took Spencer a whopping 100-plus hours to complete, weighs in at 33 lbs. (15 kilograms).
An American airman has won a legal bid to force military health chiefs to pay for the treatment of an illness allegedly caused by a UFO encounter in Suffolk.
Airman First Class John Burroughs was involved in an incident in Rendlesham Forest in December 1980 which has become known as "Britain's Roswell".
He was exposed to huge doses of radiation whilst investigating a mysterious craft and claimed this left him in need of "lifesaving" heart surgery.
After decades of being "stonewalled", he has finally persuaded the US Veteran's Association (VA) to pay for his treatment.
His lawyer hailed the dramatic legal about-turn as a "de facto" admission that UFOs exist and can cause "physical injury".
John Burroughs claims a UFO encounter ruined his health(Image: Youtube)
Burroughs told Mirror Online: "I was not looking for anyone to believe me.
"All I have been concerned about was getting care for my illness. That was all that mattered."
The Rendlesham Forest incident is one of the great unsolved UFO encounters of the 20th century.
Several members of the United States Air Force witnessed a strange craft flying overhead on three consecutive nights.
Burroughs and a colleague Jim Penniston ventured from their base to inspect the UFO at close range, with Penniston describing a strange silver craft covered in symbols which resembled heiroglyphics.
Rendlesham Forest has become so famous that it now hosts a UFO trail(Image: Flickr)
Shortly afterwards, Burroughs fell ill with symptoms resembling radiation exposure.
But the real problems started in 2011, when doctors were astonished after the mithral valve of his heart had failed - something which usually happens to men much older than 50-year-old Burroughs.
"I couldn't work and was going downhill fast," he continued.
Neither Burroughs nor his doctor were able to access his medical records, which were classified.
Burroughs even claimed the Air Force denied he was employed with them at the time of the UFO incident.
He asked for the help of presidential candidate Senator John McCain, who was also unable to get his hands on all the medical records.
Finally, Burroughs' legal team found two documents from the British Ministry of Defence which showed high levels of radiation were detected at the site where he encountered the mystery UFO.
The US Veterans Association and Department of Defence then agreed to pay for his treatment.
"I'm still trying to work out what I saw," Burroughs said. "I think this is a phenomenon the government is aware of, but are still trying to work out exactly what it is.
"We had a very weird experience. There is clearly something strange going on."
Nobody has fully explained what happened at Rendlesham Forest(Image: Flickr)
Burroughs' lawyer said the ruling was effectively an admission that UFOs are real.
"In citing the [MoD radiation documents] and in granting John Burroughs full disability for his injuries in Rendlesham Forest, the US Government has by de facto acknowledged the existence of unidentified aerial phenomena which, in John Burroughs' case, resulted in physical injury," Pat Frascogna said in an email.
Nick Pope, a researcher who spent several years investigating UFOs as a employee at the MoD, told us: "I think this development is hugely significant, whatever you believe about UFOs.
"One moment the US government was saying that nothing happened, but the next, John Burroughs and his attorney get hold of a formerly classified report that says John was probably irradiated by something in Rendlesham Forest."
However, Pope is still baffled about what exactly happened that December night in 1980.
Retired police detective Gary Heseltine, who now edits ezine UFO Truth Magazine, has spent many years investigating the incident and is the UK's leading authority on police UFO sightings.
He said: "The legal victory John Burroughs has secured with the Veterans Administration is nothing short of sensational. It's implications for the reality of UFOs as real and almost certainly of ET origin are huge.
"For the VA to acknowledge that John was exposed to radiation from a UFO/UAP during the Rendlesham Forest incident is unprecedented. Not only does it validate what the actual witnesses have been saying for 35 years but should also put paid to the ridiculous sceptical arguments that have been regularly repeated in the mainstream media that have always lacked genuine foundation."
We have asked the Veteran's Association for comment.
So what do you think about the alien encounter? For more extraterrestrial activity check out our UFO news.
Advanced Extraterrestrial Civilizations – Their Technology And Capabilities: What Can They Achieve?
Advanced Extraterrestrial Civilizations – Their Technology And Capabilities: What Can They Achieve?
What kind of technology could we expect to find on an alien planet?
Cynthia McKanzie – MessageToEagle.com – “Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic, “Arthur C. Clarke once wrote a long time ago.
In this article we take a look at who could be out there and what kind of advanced technology they could posses.
“Soon, humanity may face an existential shock as the current list of a dozen Jupiter-sized extra-solar planets swells to hundreds of earth-sized planets, almost identical twins of our celestial homeland.
This may usher in a new era in our relationship with the universe: we will never see the night sky in the same way ever again, realizing that scientists may eventually compile an encyclopedia identifying the precise co-ordinates of perhaps hundreds of earth-like planets,” Dr. Michio Kaku said.
On these Earth-like planets there could be livings similar to us, or maybe totally different and perhaps even light years ahead of us when it comes to technology.
So, naturally we might wonder how advanced the physics of extraterrestrial civilizations could be.
Several scientists, among them Dr. Micho Kaku have debated how to classify extraterrestrial civilizations.
“Although it is impossible to predict the precise features of such advanced civilizations, their broad outlines can be analyzed using the laws of physics. No matter how many millions of years separate us from them, they still must obey the iron laws of physics, which are now advanced enough to explain everything from sub-atomic particles to the large-scale structure of the universe, through a staggering 43 orders of magnitude, “Dr. Kaku said.
How Can We Rank Extraterrestrial Civilizations?
How “alien” are extraterrestrial worlds?
Specifically, we can rank civilizations by their energy consumption, using the following principles:
1) The laws of thermodynamics. Even an advanced civilization is bound by the laws of thermodynamics, especially the Second Law, and can hence be ranked by the energy at their disposal.
2) The laws of stable matter. Baryonic matter (e.g. based on protons and neutrons) tends to clump into three large groupings: planets, stars and galaxies. (This is a well-defined by product of stellar and galactic evolution, thermonuclear fusion, etc.) Thus, their energy will also be based on three distinct types, and this places upper limits on their rate of energy consumption.
3) The laws of planetary evolution. Any advanced civilization must grow in energy consumption faster than the frequency of life-threatening catastrophes (e.g. meteor impacts, ice ages, supernovas, etc.). If they grow any slower, they are doomed to extinction. This places mathematical lower limits on the rate of growth of these civilizations.
Recalculating: NASA Developing GPS For Space Using Artificial Intelligence
Recalculating: NASA Developing GPS For Space Using Artificial Intelligence
Every good space crew needs a great astrogator. Charting a course through stars and debris fields is a lot harder than driving through a city because there is no infrastructure to use as a guide, but NASA is working to solve that problem.
In the history of space travel, astronauts have operated on a Point A to Point B system. Staying on course is important, but it's not like they are up there turning giant steering wheels and checking the direction of the wind like space pirates. To prevent future astronauts and space tourists from getting lost as trips out of our atmosphere become more frequent, a team at NASA's Frontier Development Lab (FDL) is developing a sort of "non-global" GPS system that uses artificial intelligence to give directions.
According to Futurism, a team at FDL found that an AI could identify a location if it were first taught using photographs. By showing the program enough photos of the surface of moon or exoplanet, the team would be training it to build a virtual model, so when a lost traveler took a photo of his/her surroundings, the AI would cross-reference it with the virtual map and be able to give directions to a desired point.
To test the system, the team developed a system to simulation the surface of the moon and provided the AI with 2.4 million images of it. During a presentation to conclude FDL's summer program, the team reported that the test was successful, and revealed that the next step would be to use actual photos of Mars-not merely a simulation of the planet- to see how the artificial intelligence would do. In science fiction, characters sometimes use probes to fly around and create three-dimensional models of a space, which is kind of what the FDL team is doing in a more plausible (by 2018 standards) way. This kind of system would make exploration and colonization of other planets a lot easier, but we suspect that changing landforms and visibility conditions would make it harder for the AI to recognize locations solely based on images.
Normally hidden from prying eyes in the Moscow region’s forests, the mysterious ‘Tesla Tower’ has been captured from above by an RT Ruptly drone. The research site is home to a massive impulse generator, one of the most powerful in the world.
RT’s Ruptly was allowed to take exclusive drone footage of the Marx generator, better known as the 'Tesla Tower,' constructed back in the 1970s by the Russian Electrical Engineering Institute. The aim of the Soviet project was to have a machine to test insulation and the effects of lightning on aircraft. It was also intended to be used in the study of the weaponization of electro-magnetic pulses (EMP), as well as the effects of a nuclear or solar blast on vehicles and electronics.
The structure – which rises above a forest near Moscow – is home to one of the world's most powerful lightning machines, which is capable of creating 150-meter artificial lightning bolts.
The generator is so powerful that it could discharge – although just for 100 microseconds – as much energy as all the facilities in Russia, including nuclear ones.
The alien-like structure has been off limits to the public, but its intriguing design has not stopped bloggers from writing about it and visiting the facility in the town of Istra, 40 kilometers west of Moscow.
The research center has conducted many tests since Soviet times. Despite its reputation as an abandoned site, the ‘Tesla Tower’ has been active all these years. Among the latest tests carried out were lightning protection tests for Russia’s Sukhoi Superjet aircraft.
WETENSCHAP & PLANEET In het Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare bij Rome zullen wetenschappers deze maand een toestel aanzetten waarmee gezocht zal worden naar een mogelijke vijfde natuurkracht. Die zou de poort kunnen zijn naar een groot deel van het heelal dat tot nu toe verborgen bleef voor ons.
De beste theorie van de werkelijkheid die fysici momenteel hebben, verklaart maar 4 procent van het zichtbare universum. De rest is een mysterie dat bestaat uit donkere materie en donkere energie.
“Momenteel weten we niet waaruit meer dan 90 procent van het universum is opgebouwd”, aldus onderzoeker Mauro Raggi van de Universiteit Sapienza Rome in de Britse krant The Guardian. “Als we die nieuwe natuurkracht vinden, kan dat alles ondersteboven gooien wat we nu weten. Het zou een heel nieuwe wereld openen en ons kunnen helpen om de partikels en krachten te begrijpen waaruit de donkere sector van de kosmos is opgebouwd.”
Momenteel kennen we maar 4 natuurkrachten: de sterke kernkracht (die atomen bij elkaar houdt), de zwakke kernkracht (die een rol speelt bij straling), de elektromagnetische kracht (die ons onder meer toelaat om te telefoneren) en de zwaartekracht (die ons letterlijk met onze voeten op de grond houdt). De vijfde natuurkracht zou niet alleen het gedrag van de onbekende deeltjes in de donkere materie sturen, maar zou ook een subtiel effect kunnen hebben op de krachten die we al kennen.
Tijdens het experiment – dat luistert naar de naam Padme: Positron Annihilation into Dark Matter Experiment – zal geregistreerd worden wat er gebeurt als een diamanten schijf van een tiende van een millimeter dik beschoten wordt met een stroom antimateriepartikels (positronen).
Als de positronen de schijf raken, smelten ze meteen samen met elektronen en verdwijnen ze in een kleine uitbarsting van energie. Die laatste bestaat uit twee lichtpartikels (fotonen). Als de vijfde natuurkracht echt bestaat, zal er echter iets heel anders gebeuren. In plaats van twee zichtbare fotonen zal er maar eentje vrijkomen, samen met een ‘donker foton’. Dat laatste zou dan het equivalent zijn van een lichtpartikel in de donkere sector.
Onzichtbaar
In tegenstelling tot een normaal lichtdeeltje, zal het donkere foton niet te detecteren zijn door Padme. Maar door de energie en de richting van de afgevuurde positronen te vergelijken met wat er uit voortkomt, kunnen de wetenschappers zeggen of er een onzichtbaar deeltje is gevormd en te weten komen wat de massa daarvan is. Normale fotonen hebben geen massa, maar donkere fotonen wél. Als we de massa kennen en de partikels waarin het donkere foton zich kan opsplitsen, zouden we voor het eerst een blik krijgen van dat waaruit het grootste deel van het heelal is opgebouwd.
Het experiment zal nog zeker tot het einde van het jaar lopen en er zijn plannen om Padme in 2021 te verhuizen naar Cornell University. Die heeft een nog sterkere deeltjesversneller dan Italië.
Zoektocht
De Universiteit Sapienza Rome is overigens niet de enige instelling die met de zoektocht bezig is. Ook de Thomas Jefferson National Accelerator Facility in het Amerikaanse Virginia zoekt. “Het donkere foton – als het bestaat – is in feite een poort”, aldus onderzoeker Bryan McKinnon. “Het zal de sluizen niet openzetten, maar het zal ons wel toelaten om een kijkje te nemen in de donkere sector.”
Wat we daar zullen aantreffen is niet duidelijk. Het zou zelfs kunnen dat er helemaal geen vijfde natuurkracht ís. Donkere materie zou ook gewoon vorm kunnen krijgen door de zwaartekracht en kunnen bestaan uit één type deeltje. Maar het zou ook een heel rijk universum kunnen zijn, waar nieuwe soorten onzichtbare deeltjes en krachten wachten om door ons ontdekt te worden.
Het internationale ruimtestation ISS is geraakt door een kleine meteoriet, die de nodige schade heeft veroorzaakt. Volgens NASA werd er door een lek lucht weggezogen en de instantie is druk bezig om dit euvel te herstellen. Er zou geen onmiddellijk gevaar zijn.
Hoe zoiets er in de praktijk uit ziet is te zien op de volgende afbeelding, waarop zichtbaar is dat op een bepaald moment alle vijf -parkeerplaatsen bij het ISS bezet waren.
Het is de aan het ISS gekoppelde Soyuz module waar de problemen door zijn ontstaan. Volgens de Russische techneuten is er een scheurtje in het schip ontstaan van ongeveer 1,5 mm door de inslag van wat men noemt een micro meteoriet.
Hierdoor wordt lucht en zuurstof vanuit de ISS gezogen, iets dat natuurlijk niet te lang moet duren. Op dit moment bevinden zich zes astronauten aan boord van het ISS en is men druk bezig met het uitwerken van plannen om het probleem op te lossen.
Gelukkig hadden de astronauten het betreffende gat snel gevonden en om te zorgen dat er niet teveel zuurstof zou ontsnappen hield één van de astronauten zijn vinger op het gat. Even later werd er de altijd betrouwbare duct tape overheen geplakt en klaar is kees.
Vol trots stuurde astronaut Chris Hadfield een tweet de wereld in, met daarin een afbeelding van het bewuste gat.
Het probleem is alleen dat de foto die Hadfield rondstuurt van het gat volkomen identiek is aan het plaatje op het album van een rockband die Remedy Drive heet. Het album heet Commodity en kwam op 23 september 2014 uit.
Dit alles is ontdekt door een dame die de onderstaande video heeft gemaakt en ze komt daarin nog met een aantal bijzondere dingen zoals de datum waarop dat album is uitgebracht; één van de meest occulte data in een jaar.
Wij op onze beurt ontvingen de video van Don Quijotte (dank!), de website waar men gelooft dat alles in de ruimte nep is, het ISS er dus niet hangt, en de aarde plat. Het onderstaande lijkt in ieder geval wederom een aanwijzing dat dat allemaal niet zo’n gekke gedachte is.
Ongetwijfeld zal NASA straks met een onzinverhaal komen dat ze dat plaatje van dat album hebben gebruikt omdat er geen goede foto van het gat zelf was te maken of iets dergelijks.
Strange horseshoe-shaped anomaly in the sky hit by lightning
Strange horseshoe-shaped anomaly in the sky hit by lightning
During a thunderstorm, a very strange horseshoe-shaped object becomes visible when it is apparently hit by a lightning strike.
I have no explanation for this phenomenon but could it be a horseshoe-shaped UFO, since similar horseshoe-shaped UFOs have been photographed in the past.
Cloaked UFO Spotted Hiding On Top Of Cloud In Canada Under Passenger Jet, Photos, UFO Sighting News.
Cloaked UFO Spotted Hiding On Top Of Cloud In Canada Under Passenger Jet, Photos, UFO Sighting News.
Date of sighting: April 21, 2017
Location of sighting: Quebec, Canada
Source: MUFON #94608
Wow! This person witnessed a disk shaped empty space on the top of a clouds while flying over Canada last year. I have never seen such a ring on the top of the clouds before, but many reports of them below the clouds have been recorded.
You see, a UFO will leave a gap in the clouds no matter what! Even when its cloaked like it is here. Yes, the UFO is still there and from its size it looks to be about a half a mile across. If the UFO flew through the clouds, it would leave a perfect hole visible, much like the O'hare airport sighting witnessed by many approve workers and pilots as they saw a disk rise up into the clouds leaving a gaping hole that was visible for over 15 minutes.
This is another great sighting that is absolute proof that UFOs do visit our skies and hover slowly observing the inhabitants below.
Scott C. Waring-Taiwan
Eyewitness states:
There is a circle in the clouds? Maybe fuel from a UFO?
Calvin Parker interviewed by Linda Moulton Howe on August 20th, 2018.
Calvin Parker interviewed by Linda Moulton Howe on August 20th, 2018.
Welcome to Phenomenon Radio. The show that covers thought-provoking breakthroughs in the fields of UAP UFOs to discover fascinating truths first-hand accounts and investigative insights into the expanding confluence of physical and mental exposure to this worldwide phenomenon. Hosted by Emmy award-winning investigative journalists Earthfiles reporter and editor Linda Moulton Howe and world-renowned experiencer of the 1980 Rendell's from bit waters incident John Burroughs and now leading off tonight's program here's Linda Moulton Howe
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- Gemiddelde waardering: 0/5 - (0 Stemmen) Categorie:ALIEN LIFE, UFO- CRASHES, ABDUCTIONS, MEN IN BLACK, ed ( FR. , NL; E )
Zonlicht weet Marsrover Opportunity eindelijk weer te bereiken
Zonlicht weet Marsrover Opportunity eindelijk weer te bereiken
Vivian Lammerse
En dus zal binnenkort duidelijk worden of Opportunity de stofstorm heeft overleefd.
Het begint eindelijk weer op te klaren op de rode planeet, waar marsrover Opportunity al een tijdje in een slaapconditie verkeert. Door een enorme stofstorm op Mars werden de activiteiten van de op zonne-energie werkende marsrover opgeschort. En sindsdien konden de wetenschappers geen contact meer met de rover leggen. Maar nu de stofstorm alsmaar aan het afnemen is, is alle hoop er op gevestigd dat de rover binnenkort toch weer contact zal opnemen.
MEEVALLER
Opportunity gaat op dit moment al veel langer mee dan voor mogelijk werd gehouden. Zo werd de rover gebouwd voor 90-daagse missies, maar gaat hij al 60 keer langer dan dat mee. Bovendien werd de rover ontworpen om ongeveer 1000 meter af te leggen, maar heeft de rover er op dit moment al 48 kilometer op zitten.
Zonlicht Beelden van de plek waar Opportunity zich op dit moment bevindt, laten zien dat er binnen een straal van 3000 kilometer geen storm meer woedt. “De zon is op dit moment door de waas aan het heenbreken,” zegt onderzoeker John Callas. “Binnenkort zal er genoeg zonlicht aanwezig zijn voor Opportunity om de batterijen weer op te laden. En wanneer het taulevel (een maat voor de hoeveelheid deeltjes in de Mars-hemel, red.) lager wordt dan 1,5 zullen we actief gaan proberen contact te leggen met de rover.” Zo zal het team commando’s gaan proberen te sturen via de antennes van NASA’s Deep Space Network.
Staat Wat de staat van de rover precies is, kunnen de onderzoekers op dit moment alleen nog maar naar gissen. “Als we na 45 dagen nog steeds niets hebben gehoord, moeten we er sterk rekening mee gaan houden dat de kou en het stof een storing hebben veroorzaakt waar de rover waarschijnlijk niet van kan herstellen,” vertelt Callas. Toch is er genoeg hoop dat de marsrover de stofstorm wel heeft overleefd. “We zullen voor de komende maanden aandachtig blijven luisteren,” zegt Callas.
Zelfs als het team wel iets terug hoort van Opportunity, is dit geen garantie dat de rover weer volledig de oude zal worden. Zo zouden de batterijen bijvoorbeeld veel vermogen kunnen hebben verloren, of kan de storm schade hebben veroorzaakt aan de rover zelf. Toch zijn de onderzoekers voorzichtig optimistisch. Dit is namelijk niet de eerste keer dat de rover een hobbel in de weg tegenkomt. En elke keer wist de rover weer op te krabbelen. Zo verloor de rover in 2005 en in 2017 beide voorbesturingen en werkt ook het flash-geheugen niet meer. Maar niets heeft de rover op dit moment nog kunnen tegenhouden om zijn missie te kunnen voorzetten. “In een situatie als deze hoop je op het beste, maar plan je voor het ergste,” besluit Callas.
De ontdekking kan meer inzicht geven in het ontstaan van de grootste planeet in ons zonnestelsel.
Astronomen ontdekten de waterwolken met behulp van het Keck Observatory en NASA’s Infrared Telescope Facility, beiden te vinden in Hawaii. De observaties suggereren dat de waterwolken zich op grote diepte in Jupiters Grote Rode Vlek bevinden. Op die plek is de luchtdruk vijf keer hoger dan aan het aardoppervlak en liggen de temperaturen net boven het vriespunt van water.
Lagen De observaties onthullen voor het eerst dat er in de Grote Rode Vlek sprake is van een duidelijke gelaagdheid. Helemaal bovenin vinden we ammoniakwolken, daaronder – op veel grotere diepte – ammoniumwaterstofsulfide-wolken. En nog dieper de waterwolken.
Een model van de verschillende lagen in Jupiters Grote Rode Vlek.
Afbeelding: Bjoraker et al.
Elementen De diepte waarop de waterwolken zijn aangetroffen wijst er – in combinatie met metingen van een ander zuurstofdragend gas (koolstofmonoxide) – op dat er op Jupiter 2 tot 9 keer meer zuurstof te vinden is dan op de zon. Dat zware elementen – zoals zuurstof, maar ook koolstof, stikstof, zwavel en zuurstof – veel vaker voorkomen op Jupiter bewijst dat de planeet op een andere manier is ontstaan dan de zon (die voornamelijk uit waterstof en helium bestaat. Astronomen denken dat Jupiter – en ook Saturnus – ontstonden door middel van accretie: het gas waaruit de zon gevormd werd, condenseerde tot materiaal dat samenklonterde en op de één of andere manier ongeveer 1 kilometer grote objecten vormde die planetesimalen worden genoemd. Die planetesimalen kwamen in botsing, klonterden samen en vormden de kern van de gasreuzen. Zodra die kernen ongeveer tien keer de massa van de aarde hadden, waren ze in staat om gas uit de zonnenevel aan zich te binden en uit te groeien tot een echte gasreus. In grove lijnen hebben onderzoekers dus een aardig beeld van het ontstaan van de gasreuzen, maar wat ze niet weten, is waar de planetesimalen ontstonden. “En dus waar de gasreuzen gevormd werden,” vertelt onderzoeker Imke de Pater.
De verhouding tussen de verschillende elementen in de gasreuzen kan daar meer inzicht in geven. Zo onthulde de Galileo-missie – waarbij de Galileo-sonde in Jupiters wolken dook – dat zware elementen als koolstof, zwavel, stikstof en edelgassen ongeveer vier keer overvloediger op Jupiter voorkomen dan op de zon. Maar de sonde ontdekte ook dat zuurstof – in de vorm van water – op de plek waar deze in Jupiters atmosfeer dook, juist veel minder overvloedig voorkwam. In de Grote Rode Vlek lijkt zuurstof tussen de 2 en 9 keer overvloediger voor te komen dan op de zon. Dat is nogal een brede marge, té breed om iets over de geboorteplaats van Jupiter te kunnen zeggen. Want, als er 3 tot 4 keer meer zuurstof op Jupiter te vinden is dan op de zon, is de gasreus waarschijnlijk voorbij de baan van Neptunus ontstaan (waar planetesimalen een mengsel van gesteente en amorf waterijs vormen). En als er meer dan negen keer zoveel zuurstof op Jupiter te vinden is als op de zon, zou de gasreus in de omgeving van zijn huidige locatie zijn gevormd (waar planetesimalen een mengsel van kristallijn ijs en gesteente vormen, waarbij zware elementen gevangen zitten in de ijskristallen). Vervolgonderzoek moet onderzoekers in staat stellen om de overvloedigheid van zuurstof op Jupiter nauwkeuriger vast te stellen. En vervolgens kunnen er dan ook conclusies worden getrokken omtrent de geboorteplaats van de gasreus.
Hubble fotografeert spectaculair poollicht op Saturnus
Hubble fotografeert spectaculair poollicht op Saturnus
Caroline Kraaijvanger
Het poollicht danst over de noordpool van de gasreus.
Astronomen bestudeerden het poollicht op de noordpool van Saturnus met behulp van ruimtetelescoop Hubble, gedurende een periode van zeven maanden. Het onderzoek geeft meer inzicht in Saturnus’ enorme magnetosfeer – het gebied rond de gasreus waarin geladen deeltjes beïnvloed worden door het magnetisch veld van Saturnus. Op aarde ontstaat het poollicht wanneer door de zon uitgezonden deeltjes de interactie aangaan met het magnetisch veld. Dit magnetisch veld beschermt de aarde tegen zonnedeeltjes, maar kan ze ook gevangen houden en via de magnetische veldlijnen naar de magnetische polen leiden. Daar gaan ze de interactie aan met zuurstof- en stikstofatomen die zich in de bovenste lagen van de aardatmosfeer bevinden. Die interactie veroorzaakt de kleurrijke, flikkerende poollichten zoals wij die kennen.
Hubble in ultraviolet.
Afbeelding: ESA / Hubble, NASA & L. Lamy (Observatoire de Paris).
Maar ook op andere planeten in ons zonnestelsel kan het poollicht dus ontstaan. Eerder is het poollicht aangetroffen op Jupiter, Saturnus, Uranus en Neptunus. Omdat de atmosfeer van deze planeten – in tegenstelling tot die van de aarde – voor een groot deel uit waterstof bestaat, kunnen die poollichten echter enkel op ultraviolette golflengtes worden waargenomen. Voor Hubble geen probleem, zo blijkt wel uit de prachtige foto hieronder.
Deze foto bestaat eigenlijk uit twee afbeeldingen. Het poollicht legde Hubble in 2017 vast. Vervolgens plaatste men dat poollicht op een kiekje van Saturnus – gemaakt in zichtbaar licht – dat in 2018 is geschoten.
Afbeelding: ESA / Hubble, NASA, A. Simon (GSFC) & OPAL Team, J. DePasquale (STScI), L. Lamy (Observatoire de Paris).
De beelden die Hubble van het poollicht op Saturnus heeft gemaakt, onthullen dat er nogal wat variatie zit in het poollicht (zie ook het filmpje hieronder). Het heeft alles te maken met de zonnewind en de rotatie van Saturnus (de gasreus heeft maar elf uur nodig om een rondje rond de as te voltooien).
Het is alweer elf jaar geleden dat astronomen voor het eerst melding maakten van een snelle radioflits (ook wel Fast Radio Burst of kortweg FRB genoemd). De snelle radioflits werd al in 2001 door het Parkes Observatory vastgelegd, maar pas in 2007 – tijdens een analyse van gearchiveerde data – ontdekt.
Buitenaards In de jaren die volgen, worden er nog meer snelle radioflitsen ontdekt. Natuurlijk roepen de ontdekkingen de vraag op hoe deze radioflitsen ontstaan en waar ze precies vandaan komen. Maar er is ook twijfel; alle flitsen worden door het Parkes Observatory gevonden en dus vragen sommige astronomen zich af of ze wel een buitenaardse oorsprong hebben en niet het resultaat zijn van een foutje in het instrument. In 2014 veegt een nieuw onderzoek die twijfels van tafel. Er is een nieuwe snelle radioflits ontdekt en dit keer door het Arecibo Observatory. “Nu, met de ontdekking van een radioflits door Arecibo zijn we er zekerder van dat FRB’s astrofysische fenomenen zijn,” stelde onderzoeker Laura Spitler. Maar de oorsprong van snelle radioflitsen bleef een mysterie. “We krijgen geen grip op wat het is,” erkende Spitler in 2014.
Het Parkes Observatory nam de eerste snelle radioflitsen waar. Afbeelding: Diceman Stephen West
De feiten Maar wat wisten astronomen in 2014 dan wel? Nou, ze zagen dat de radioflitsen maar kort aanhielden: hooguit enkele milliseconden. Verder wisten ze dat er een enorme hoeveelheid energie bij vrijkwam: soms wel meer dan onze zon in duizenden jaren tijd genereert. Verder was er alle reden om aan te nemen dat een snelle radioflits een eenmalig verschijnsel was; vervolgwaarnemingen in dezelfde richting als waarin de radioflits was waargenomen, leverden niets op. Dat laatste deed astronomen dan ook vermoeden dat deze radioflitsen ontstonden tijdens een extreme, catastrofale gebeurtenis, zoals een botsing tussen twee zware objecten.
Aliens? In een poging het ontstaan van snelle radioflitsen te kunnen verklaren, werden natuurlijk ook de aliens van stal gehaald. Want waren de radioflitsen misschien een poging van hun kant om met ons in contact te komen? Inmiddels hebben de meeste astronomen die verklaring wel verworpen. Zo ook Seth Shostak, verbonden aan de Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence (SETI). In een eerder dit jaar verschenen blog schrijft hij dat het niet aannemelijk is dat aliens zo’n energierijk communicatiesignaal versturen dat zelfs in andere sterrenstelsels te zien is. Want wat is het nut daarvan? “Het is alsof je op de zinkende Titanic gebruik maakt van een vuurpistool dat zo’n helder signaal afgeeft dat het zichtbaar is vanaf Mars,” zo schrijft Shostak. Wat het idee van een buitenaardse beschaving die radiopulsen gebruikt om te communiceren echter nog veel overtuigender tegenspreekt, is het feit dat er dagelijks naar schatting duizenden van zulke snelle radioflitsen ontstaan. Een overtuigende aanwijzing dat dit het werk van moeder natuur is.
Op herhaling Dat de snelle radioflitsen maar één keer, heel kortstondig acte de présence geven, maakt het natuurlijk een stuk lastiger om te achterhalen waar en hoe ze precies ontstaan. De opwinding is dan ook groot als onderzoekers in 2015 voor het eerst getuige zijn van een zichzelf herhalende FRB: FRB 121102. Het idee dat snelle radioflitsen ontstaan tijdens een catastrofale, eenmalige gebeurtenis komt op losse schroeven te staan.
Dwergsterrenstelsel Maar hoe ontstaan de snelle radioflitsen dan? In een poging dat mysterie op te lossen, richten onderzoekers hun pijlen op dat ene exemplaar dat herhaaldelijk van zich laat horen: FRB 121102. En vorig jaar lukte het onderzoekers eindelijk om de bron van deze snelle radioflits te lokaliseren. De radioflits bleek afkomstig te zijn uit een dwergsterrenstelsel dat op maar liefst drie miljard lichtjaar afstand staat. Daarmee was nog lang niet duidelijk hoe deze snelle radioflits precies ontstond. Maar het feit dat deze het levenslicht ziet in een klein sterrenstelsel zette astronomen wel aan het denken. Het dwergsterrenstelsel bevat relatief weinig verrijk gas, waardoor er veel meer zware sterren ontstaan dan in ons sterrenstelsel. “Mogelijk is de snelle radioflits afkomstig van het ineengestorte overblijfsel van zo’n zware ster,” speculeerde onderzoeker Jason Hessels vorig jaar. Maar er bleven nog genoeg andere hypothesen over. Zo kon het ook goed zijn dat de snelle radioflits ontstond nabij een zwart gat dat gas uit de omgeving verorberde. Kortom: de oorsprong van de snelle radioflits bleef in nevelen gehuld.
Een actief zwart gat. Afbeelding: NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center / CI Lab.
Extreme omgeving Begin dit jaar kwamen onderzoekers echter weer een stapje dichter bij de oplossing van dit inmiddels jaren oude mysterie. Astronomen stelden vast dat de bron van de repeterende snelle radioflits zich in een zeer extreme omgeving bevindt. Ze trokken die conclusie op basis van een analyse van het licht van de radioflitsen. Dat licht blijkt sterk gepolariseerd te zijn – wat betekent dat het een voorkeursoriëntatie heeft. Daarnaast is het licht ook ‘gedraaid’, wat weer te wijten zou zijn aan een sterk magneetveld. Het gaat daarbij om een extreme draaiing: 500 keer groter dan ooit bij een andere bron van radioflitsen is gezien. Een dergelijke extreme draaiing is tot op heden alleen waargenomen in de nabijheid van een superzwaar zwart gat (zoals dat in het hart van onze Melkweg bijvoorbeeld). De astronomen vermoeden dan ook dat de bron van deze radioflitsen – waarschijnlijk een neutronenster – dicht bij een zwaar zwart gat staat. Een andere mogelijkheid is dat de neutronenster zich in een energierijke nevel of een supernovarestant bevindt.
Veel vragen Nog steeds weten we dus niet hoe deze snelle radioflitsen precies ontstaan. Wat we ook niet weten, is hoe FRB 121102 zich verhoudt tot die andere (eenmalige) radioflitsen. Is FRB 121102 echt bijzonder en ontstaat deze op een andere manier dan die eenmalige radioflitsen? Of zijn die andere radioflitsen helemaal geen eenmalige verschijnselen, maar moeten we gewoon wat langer wachten alvorens ook zij nog een keer acte de présence geven?
Er zijn meer waarnemingen nodig om al die prangende vragen te kunnen beantwoorden. En zoals het er nu naar uitziet, zijn die waarnemingen ons wel gegund. Wetenschappers vermoeden dat er elke dag duizenden detecteerbare snelle radioflitsen ontstaan. De vraag is dan ook niet of, maar wanneer we zullen ontdekken hoe deze nu nog mysterieuze radioflitsen precies het levenslicht zien.
The space station sprung a leak, a fireball shot over Western Australia, and a NASA astronaut candidate quit — it's Space.com's best news stories of the week.
Photo Credit: NASA
1. Potential astronaut quits
A little over a year after he was chosen to join spaceflight training, NASA astronaut candidate Robb Kulin resigned for personal reasons.
Legendary mathematician Katherine Johnson, whose calculations led NASA to its first human spaceflight and whose story was told in the feature film "Hidden Figures," turned 100 years old this week.
Physicists at CERN have observed the Higgs boson decaying into two bottom quarks for the first time — these observations are a major support of the Standard Model.
Photo Credit: National Astonomical Observatory of Japan
6. Monster galaxy
Researchers took a close look at an ancient monster galaxy 12.4 billion light-years from Earth. They found that it forms stars 1,000 times faster than the Milky Way.
Causing momentary panic, ground control operators discovered a tiny air leak on the International Space Station. Luckily, the crew seems to have repaired the leak, which did not pose an immediate risk to the astronauts.
Alien life on Milky Way's 'water worlds' could be possible, scientists believe
Alien life on Milky Way's 'water worlds' could be possible, scientists believe
University of Chicago and Pennsylvania State researchers say alien life could be found on water planets after all
By Neil Murphy
Life can be supported on water planets
(Image: Reuters)
Alien life could be discovered on so-called 'water worlds' that are radically different from our own planet, new research claims.
Scientists from the University of Chicago and Pennsylvania State claim that the unique carbon make-up of ocean planets could support life for a longer period than was initially thought - giving a boost to the search for extraterrestrial life.
A computer model created by physicists showed that water planets have enough carbon to allow life to flourish and do not have too many minerals and elements.
It had been believed that water planets were unable to replicate the cycling of carbon and minerals that makes life on planet Earth habitable.
A newly discovered exoplanet, Kepler-452b, comes the closest of any found so far to matching our system
(Image: NASA/Ames/JPL-Caltech SWNS.com)
Earth photographed from one million miles way
(Image: PA)
The Astrophysical Journal found that ocean planets could stay in the "sweet spot" for habitability much longer than previously assumed.
"This really pushes back against the idea you need an Earth clone—that is, a planet with some land and a shallow ocean,' said Edwin Kite,assistant professor at UChicago and the report's lead author.
Life needs an extended period to evolve so scientists usually look for planets that have both some water and some way to keep their climates stable over time.
But this model doesn't work on a water world, with deep water covering the rock and suppressing volcanoes.
Diagram comparing our own solar system to Kepler-22(Image: Reuters)
"The surprise was that many of them stay stable for more than a billion years, just by luck of the draw,' Kite said.
"Our best guess is that it's on the order of 10 percent of them."
"How much time a planet has is basically dependent on carbon dioxide and how it's partitioned between the ocean, atmosphere and rocks in its early years,' said Kite.
"It does seem there is a way to keep a planet habitable long-term without the geochemical cycling we see on Earth."
The scientists simulations looked at solar systems similar o our own but say similar results may be found for red dwarf planets because they
Scientists say they 'can't rule out' alien life on Jupiter after new discovery
Scientists say they 'can't rule out' alien life on Jupiter after new discovery
The discovery of water in Jupiter's Great Red Spot suggests the possibility of alien life.
By Tyler MacDonald
A team of researchers just discovered water clouds in Jupiter's Great Red Spot. Following the discovery, scientists say they "can't rule out" alien lifeon the planet.
"Water may play a critical role in Jupiter's dynamic weather patterns, so this will help advance our understanding of what makes the planet's atmosphere so turbulent," said astrophysicist Mt dmkovics.
However, dmkovics cautions that the presence of water on Jupiter doesn't mean it is a precursor to life.
"And, finally, where there's the potential for liquid water, the possibility of life cannot be completely ruled out," he said. "So, though it appears very unlikely, life on Jupiter is not beyond the range of our imaginations."
The team hopes to eventually learn just how much water is on the planet and the role it plays.
"Water may play a critical role in Jupiter's dynamic weather patterns, so this will help advance our understanding of what makes the planet's atmosphere so turbulent," dmkovics said.
The research team made the discovery using specially designed software to analyze data obtained from Jupiter.
"When I initially began, I started by running the data through. The code was already written and I was just plugging in new data sets and generating output files," said researcher Rachel Conway. "But then I began fixing errors and learning more about what was actually going on. I'm interested in everything and anything that's out there, so learning more about what we don't know is always cool."
The findings were published in the Astronomical Journal.
Audio About Australia’s Largest Mass UFO Sighting Resurfaces, Revealing Spooky Details
Audio About Australia’s Largest Mass UFO Sighting Resurfaces, Revealing Spooky Details
We live in a vast and endless universe, so the odds of us being completely alone in it are slim. Now that technology is becoming increasingly advanced, we are discovering more and more Earth-like planets in far-off corners of the universe that have the potential to support life. As a result, it’s only a matter of time before we discover aliens too.
While we may be closer than ever before to making contact with E.T., there have been recorded incidents of extraterrestrial events on our planet for millennia. In fact, aliens are even mentioned in the Bible. It’s also been suggested that the Ancient Egyptians were able to build the pyramids with primitive technology because they had extraterrestrial help.
Despite these incidents, there is still no absolute and universally accepted proof that aliens exist. But thanks to science fiction, when most of us think of aliens, we automatically assume that they are a lot more advanced than us humans, and it’s for this reason that many of us believe it’s not outwith the realm of possibility for them to have already made contact.
One of the most famous examples of alleged alien contact happened in 1947 when a UFO appeared to crash over a ranch near Roswell, New Mexico. A picture of the incident was published by the local paper and a national frenzy ensued, with many people believing that undisputable evidence of alien life had finally been found – that was until the military got involved.
They offered a logical explanation for the seemingly out of this world picture of the crash, explaining that it was nothing more than a conventional weather balloon. However, interest in the case was renewed in the 1970s when ufologists began to speculate about whether or not this was a part of an elaborate cover-up and that aliens had indeed crashed in Roswell in 1947.
Another famous UFO sighting, often dubbed “Australia’s Roswell”, happened in 1966 when Westall High School’s pupils and their teachers allegedly saw an object they couldn’t identify flying down onto a nearby wild grass field. The mysterious UFO then ascended back into the sky and flew away in a north-westerly direction over Clayton South, Victoria.
The UFO was first spotted around 11:00 am when pupils at the school were engaging in sports outside when they saw what they later described as a grey saucer-shaped craft, which was slightly purple in color and around twice the size of a car.
However, descriptions of the UFO do vary quite considerably because there were around 350 witnesses. Andrew Greenwood, a science teacher, told The Dandenong Journal that the craft he saw was silvery-green in color.
Needless to say, those present did not all immediately witness the UFO. They simply gathered when news of its existence spread and watched it for around 20 minutes. As the UFO left the grassy field, it was reportedly being circled by two planes – further solidifying witnesses’ belief that what they were witnessing was a bona fide alien craft.
The alleged presence of the planes also caused some confusion over whether there was just one UFO or not, with some witnesses claiming that there were three. The story was further sensationalized by newspaper reports at the time, with some pupils said to have “collapsed and became ill with fright” when they saw the craft or crafts in the field.
Extensive interviews were carried out after the incident took place to get to the bottom of what really happened. Because there were so many people present, a mass hallucination or mix up on that scale simply wasn’t plausible, and the Victorian Flying Saucer Research Society took out a newspaper ad in an appeal for more eyewitness descriptions.
Now, a fascinating interview from the time has resurfaced. Conducted by Dr. James E. McDonald, who was famed for his work investigating extraterrestrial phenomenon, according to Fox News, it was with Westall school science teacher Andrew Greenwood. And because he was an adult at the time, it provides a reliable insight into what actually happened.
To hear the incredible interview for yourself, check out the video below:
Describing the interview, McDonald said, “Greenwood told me the UFO was first brought to his attention by a hysterical child who ran into his classroom and told him there’s a flying saucer outside.”
“He thought this child had become deranged or something so he didn’t take any notice, but when the child insisted that this object was in the sky he decided to go out and have a look for himself.”
When Greenwood arrived outside to investigate what had upset the child, he saw a group of pupils looking towards the northeast area of the school grounds, and as he walked over, he saw a UFO hovering next to a power line.
During the interview, Greenwood said the UFO was around the size of a car, round and silver and had a metal rod sticking out of its side. He said that as he looked up, more people arrived to watch the spectacle as planes began to circle it.
“He called it the most amazing flying he had ever seen in his life,” McDonald added. “The planes were doing everything possible to approach the object and he said how they all avoided [a] collision he will never know.”
“Every time they got too close to the object it would slowly accelerate, then rapidly accelerate and then move away from them and stop. Then they would take off after it again and the same thing would happen.”
The teacher said that this game of “cat and mouse” continued for around 20 minutes in front of around 350 stunned witnesses. He said that the UFO disappeared quite suddenly and when it did, all of the pupils were ushered back inside.
The headmaster then told the pupils and his staff not to discuss the phenomenon that they had seen with anyone.
“He gave the school a lecture and told the children they would be severely punished if they talked about this matter and told the staff they could lose their jobs if they mentioned it at all,” McDonald explained.
While various conspiracy theorists have argued that the government tried to cover up the incident by once again claiming that it was caused by a balloon, namely a research balloon like the one pictured below, Greenwood insisted it was the headmaster.
He was reportedly so “scared” and “disturbed” by what he saw that he hid inside the school until the UFO was gone.
“When the Royal Australian Airforce contacted the headmaster he told them to ‘go and jump in a lake’,” McDonald said.
A number of witnesses also said that after the event they were warned by several men in black suits not to speak about it.
Prior to the incident, Greenwood “was a complete skeptic himself. He had never even considered the possibility of their existence.”
“When he asked the physical education teacher to describe what she had seen herself so that he could compare it with his own observation, she just wouldn’t say anything,” McDonald revealed.
Pictured above are two witnesses recalling the event as adults.
At the time of the incident, a newspaper described the sighting as “important” because circular patches were found in the grass above where the UFO had been hovering. However, just like the Roswell UFO incident, the reality of what happened that morning in 1966 remains impossible to prove, but one thing’s for sure – the 350 pupils and staff present definitely saw something.
Cassini Snaps Best Ever Images of Saturn’s ‘Flying Saucer’ Moon Atlas
Cassini Snaps Best Ever Images of Saturn’s ‘Flying Saucer’ Moon Atlas
Just five weeks after beaming home images of a giant space ravioli, NASA’s Saturn-orbiting Cassini spacecraft has shown us a “UFO.”
Well, sort of. On Tuesday (April 12), Cassini snapped the best-ever photos of Saturn’s bizarre moon Atlas, whose humped middle and broad equatorial ridge make it look like a flying saucer. (The “ravioli” moon, by the way, is the Saturn satellite Pan, although some people think it looks more like an empanada.)
Cassini took the new photos during a flyby that brought the probe within just 7,000 miles (11,000 kilometers) of Atlas at closest approach.
“These images are the closest ever taken of Atlas and will help to characterize its shape and geology,” NASA officials wrote in a description of the images Thursday (April 14). “Atlas (19 miles, or 30 kilometers across) orbits Saturn just outside the A ring — the outermost of the planet’s bright, main rings.”
During its nearly 13 years in the Saturn system, Cassini has revealed just how weird, wonderful and varied the ringed planet’s bevy of 60-plus moons is. For example, the probe has captured amazing images of Iapetus, which looks like a walnut, and Mimas, which is a dead ringer for the Death Star from the “Star Wars” films.
And Cassini discovered geysers of water ice, organic compounds and other materials blasting from the spherical satellite Enceladus’ south polar region. Scientists have since concluded that this stuff is coming from a huge, potentially habitable ocean of liquid water buried beneath the moon’s icy shell. (Just Thursday, researchers announced that this ocean appears to harbor enough chemical energy to support life.)
The $3.2 billion Cassini-Huygens mission — a joint effort of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency — launched in October 1997 and arrived at Saturn in July 2004. (Huygens was a piggyback lander that touched down on the surface of the huge Saturn moon Titan in January 2005.)
But the Cassini orbiter’s work is nearly done. Later this month, the probe, which is low on fuel, will begin the “grand finale” phase of its mission — a series of 22 orbits that will take it between Saturn’s cloud tops and the edge of the innermost ring.
Then, on Sept. 15, Cassini will plunge into the planet’s thick atmosphere in a death dive designed to ensure that the spacecraft doesn’t contaminate Enceladus or Titan (both of which may be capable of supporting life) with microbes from Earth.
These Stunning Designs Show What Our Future on Mars Might Look Like
These Stunning Designs Show What Our Future on Mars Might Look Like
By Chelsea Gohd, Space.com Staff Writer
Max Rymsha, from the Ukraine, was one of the winners in the HP Mars Home Planet Rendering Challenge. They won for their piece "Between the Red Mountains" as part of the Rendering challenge.
Credit: Courtesy of HP, Inc.
A recent contest challenged participants to create utopian designs of future human Mars settlements, and their creations are stunning.
In the HP Mars Home Planet Rendering Challenge, over 87,000 people from all over the world flexed their creative muscles to design the perfect colony on the Red Planet. Last summer, when HP launched the challenge, the participants started working on their designs, and the winners were announced on Aug. 14.
The participants' designs were judged on originality, creativity, rendering quality and Mars physics (or how the design would realistically work on the actual Martian surface), HP included in a statement. The designs must take into account atmospheric conditions, gravity, the soil, the surface terrain, radiation, drinking water, and air, the statement added.
Open to the public, this challenge had three competitions: Concept, 3D Modeling and Rendering. The participants could submit their designs to one of five categories in either architecture/civil engineering or vehicles/mechanical engineering: still rendering (GPU rendered), still rendering (CPU rendered), animated rendering (GPU rendered), animated rendering (CPU rendered), and virtual-reality or real-time executable. [How Living on Mars Could Challenge Colonists (Infographic)]
Jorge Moreno Fierro, from Columbia, was one of the winners in the HP Mars Home Planet Rendering Challenge. They won "Innovation in Design" for their BIO SYSTEM as part of the Conceptual Design challenge.
Credit: Courtesy of HP, Inc.
Rustam Shaikhlislamov, from Russia, was one of the winners in the HP Mars Home Planet Rendering Challenge. They won for their Long Range Universal Platform as part of the MARS Multi-utility Vehicle as part of the 3D Modeling Challenge.
Credit: Courtesy of HP, Inc.
Xabier Albizu, from Spain, was one of the winners in the HP Mars Home Planet Rendering Challenge. They won for their MARS Multi-utility Vehicle as part of the Conceptual Design challenge.
Credit: Courtesy of HP, Inc.
Bijay Balia Hembram, from India, was one of the winners in the HP Mars Home Planet Rendering Challenge. They won for their piece "Martian Hybrid Power Plant" as part of the Rendering challenge.
Credit: Courtesy of HP, Inc.
Bijay Balia Hembram, from India, was one of the winners in the HP Mars Home Planet Rendering Challenge. They won for their piece "Martian Power Generating Machines" as part of the Rendering challenge.
Scientists Map Out How to Nudge Small Asteroids into Earth’s Orbit
Scientists Map Out How to Nudge Small Asteroids into Earth’s Orbit
A University of Glasgow team explores the subtle art of capturing asteroids without killing everybody.
Image: Kevin Gill
The notion of an asteroid headed for Earth is typically seen as a bad omen. On the flip side, some scientists and entrepreneurs increasingly see this scenario as a potential opportunity. Deliberately redirecting asteroids to our planet’s vicinity could enable us to study them up close, or even mine them.
Given that these objects are packed with valuable resources, building a collection of them nearby could spark major advances in spaceflight, to say nothing of the scientific research that might result from easy access to these extraterrestrial bodies.
A recent paper published in Acta Astronautica suggests that asteroids could be captured in Earth’s orbit with aerobraking, a maneuver that uses atmospheric drag to decelerate and position objects in stable trajectories around a planet. Aerobraking has helped place interplanetary spacecraft in orbit around Mars and Venus, and to slow down spacecraft returning to Earth.
Led by Minghu Tan, a PhD student at the University of Glasgow, the paper immediately addresses the most obvious concern with this scenario: What if there’s some mistake in the redirect process and an asteroid accidentally impacts Earth? It’s bad enough that the dinosaurs were oblivious to their doomsday space rock, but it would be especially embarrassing if we humans smack ourselves in the face with one.
Tan and his co-authors suggest mitigating this risk by selecting asteroids under 30 meters in diameter for aerobraking, as they’d burn up in the atmosphere if the maneuver failed. Tan also told me, in an email, that a redirected asteroid might collide with spacecraft in orbit around Earth. That’s why “accurate guidance and control strategies would be required,” he said.
Assuming that such guidance measures would be in place, the paper maps out two possible strategies for capturing small asteroids with low-energy aerobraking techniques. In each case, Tan and his co-authors envision a rendezvous, far from Earth, in which a spacecraft applies enough force to put an asteroid on a path to graze our planet’s atmosphere, initiating the capture.
The spacecraft could stay coupled with the asteroid on its journey, in case mid-flight course corrections were needed. The team identified the asteroid 2005 VL1 as a particularly good potential target for such a mission, because it has the ideal size and speed to be redirected, and it theoretically would not lose as much mass during aerobraking as other candidate asteroids, making it an economical choice.
Other concepts for asteroid redirect missions have tried to assuage the possibility of accidental impacts by choosing targets that are farther from Earth. Directing an asteroid into orbit around the Moon, a strategy NASA has considered, seems less existentially perilous than aerobraking them in Earth’s atmosphere, but both scenarios have advantages and drawbacks.
Ultimately, the rewards of asteroid capture missions will have to outweigh current risks before these futuristic concepts come to fruition—but it never hurts to get all the math worked out in the meantime.
This artist’s concept shows Pioneer venturing out into interstellar space. Both Pioneer 10 and 11 carry a plaque bearing a message from Earth.
(Credit: NASA)
The Pioneer and Voyager spacecraft famously contain messages to anyone who might someday find them. Both Pioneers carry a plaque, while the Voyagers carry a phonograph record. An enormous amount of effort went into creating these objects, but could an alien observer truly understand the messages we have sent to the stars?
While we cannot take anything for granted when it comes to how these messages might or might not be interpreted, let’s assume that the beings who might find the spacecraft can at least see or hear with eyes or ears similar to our own. Each message was designed with not only the information it was to carry in mind, but also the means to establish understanding through common denominators found throughout the universe.
The Pioneer plaque is a gold-anodized aluminum plate with these images engraved onto it.
(Credit: NASA Ames Resarch Center [NASA-ARC])
The Pioneer Plaque
Pioneer 10 and 11 each carry a 6 x 9-inch (15 x 23 centimeters), gold-anodized aluminum plaque. The plaque is affixed to support struts close to the spacecraft’s bus (main body). Carl Sagan and Frank Drake played key roles in designing the plaque and Linda Salzman Sagan, Sagan’s wife at the time, was the artist who actually drew the images engraved on the plaque.
The most striking feature of the plaque are the figures of the man and the woman overlying the silhouette of the Pioneer spacecraft itself. While this does clearly convey our physical size and shape, as well as that sexual dimorphism is present in humans, the facial features of the couple have little detail and the sort of sensory organs are being depicted (the couple’s ears are barely shown at all) might be unclear. The man and woman both have their mouths closed, and viewers might not understand that these are even mouths at all. Given how the image is drawn, an observer could also be forgiven for not understanding that both the male and female have hair on their heads.
The couple both have a bland expression (which may have been an attempt to avoid anything that could be interpreted as hostile) and the man is seen raising his right hand with the palm facing the viewer. While this gesture clearly conveys a greeting when viewed by another human, an extraterrestrial may have no way of interpreting this gesture. (Could you interpret a gesture made by an antelope … or a praying mantis?) It does show, however, that humans have opposable thumbs, as well as the general range of motion of the upper limbs.
With regards to the scientific data presented, the top left of the plaque shows the hyperfine transition of neutral hydrogen as a means of conveying to the reader baseline units of time (0.7 nanoseconds, the frequency of the transition) and distance (21 cm, the wavelength of the light released by the transition). If one is able to deduce that the image is that of hydrogen, the time and distance should be understandable.
The plaque also contains a map of our sun relative to 14 pulsars as well as the center of our galaxy, conveying both the distances to the pulsars and their frequency in binary notation. As this image conveys copious objective data, a spacefaring species might well be able to easily interpret it.
Finally, the plaque contains a map of the solar system. The solar system map is likely among the more easily interpreted parts of the plaque, with Pioneer shown to have originated from the third planet. The plaque was created at a time when Pluto was still considered the ninth planet (before the discovery of other trans-Neptunian dwarf planets such as Eris and Sedna, among others), but it would still direct the reader’s attention to Earth if they were able to figure out that our solar system was the one depicted.
The Voyager golden record (left) is a 12-inch gold-plated copper disc. Its cover aluminum electroplated with an ultra-pure sample of uranium-238.
(Credit: NASA)
Voyager’s Golden Record
The Voyager record asks more of whoever finds it but gives more information in return. These phonographs, attached to the spacecraft bus, feature a cover illustration and over 90 minutes of audio on the reverse side. The cover illustration features the same image of hydrogen and the same pulsar map as found on the Pioneer plaque. Of critical importance, the Voyager records convey instructions on how to play them, such as how to affix the attached stylus, at what rate of rotation the record must be spun, and the proper waveform of signals generated by the record. It also explicitly tells the reader how to know if they are viewing the images properly via an engraving of what the first image (a circle) should look like. While this may seem very daunting, the challenge is primarily technical and might well be easily overcome by an advanced spacefaring species.
An alien species might well find more difficulty in interpreting the audio samples, music, and images contained on the record. There are over 50 greeting messages in different languages. While the specifics of the messages are likely to be uninterpretable, they would at least convey to the listener the diversity of the creatures who created the Voyagers.
Similarly, the musical selections chosen demonstrate a wide range of human musical styles (ranging from works of Beethoven and Stravinsky to those of Chuck Berry, among others). While the lyrics of “Johnny B. Goode” are probably gibberish to an extraterrestrial, the beat and rhythm of the song would convey a tremendous amount to an alien listener.
Of perhaps the greatest importance are the 115 images encoded on the record. The first six images, if decoded properly, provide immense technical data for the reader regarding mathematical definitions, scales and sizes, as well as additional information regarding our location and how to find us. Images of the sun and its spectrum, as well as some of the planets in our solar system, could help the discoverer of the Voyagers to find us should they decide to pay the Earth a visit. There are also approximately 20 medical and scientific diagrams including the structure of DNA and detailed images of human anatomy. These images could likely be interpreted correctly given their concrete nature.
The Voyager record also contains a plethora of images of humans engaged in a variety of activities (including eating, looking through a microscope, and even going on a spacewalk). While many of these images would be hard to interpret (e.g., a picture of a woman licking an ice cream cone or a photo of a string quartet) the images would at least convey that humans have created a complex civilization with some degree of advanced technology.
The Big Picture
As Marshall McLuhan famously said, “The medium is the message.” While the recipients of the Pioneer plaque or the Voyager record might never understand everything we are trying to convey, the fact that these messages were placed on interstellar spacecraft carry (both for them and for us) a deeper message — that humans created these spacecraft and that we want to tell the universe who we are.
APArchelologen hebben een van de oudste dorpen in de Nijldelta ontdekt, van voor de tijd van de farao's.
WETENSCHAPArcheologen hebben een van de oudste dorpen in de Egyptische Nijldelta uitgegraven. Het dorp dateert uit de tijd voor de farao’s, aldus het Egyptische ministerie voor Oudheden. Het neolithische dorp was ontdekt bij opgravingen ten noorden van Caïro, in het gebied Tal al-Samara in de provincie Dakahlyia.
De archeologen vonden onder andere beenderen van dieren en keramiek, zo zei de leider van het Egyptisch-Franse team, Frederic Gio. De vondst toont aan dat er ook al samenlevingen gevestigd waren in de Nijldelta tot 5.000 jaar voor Christus. De afgelopen maanden maakte Egypte verschillende ontdekkingen bekend. Archeologen vonden in de stad Minja een necropolis met duizenden sarcofagen en kunstschatten.
Egypte wil zijn toerismesector nieuw leven inblazen. Die sector is een belangrijke bron van inkomsten voor het land, maar heeft het moeilijk door de politieke onrust sinds de opstand tegen dictator Hosni Moebarak in 2011. Dit jaar nog gaat een nieuw museum bij de piramiden van Gizeh open. Tegen 2020 moet het museum volledig klaar zijn. Onder andere schatten uit de tombe van farao Toetanchamon zullen er worden getoond.
Not counting the Olympics opening ceremony or the World Cup finals, there are few events in the universe more spectacular than the collision of two stars. We know this because it was just one year ago that astronomers for the first time witnessed the collision of two neutron stars – a binary couple of extremely dense white dwarfs that send out gravitational waves and possibly gold. While waiting patiently for a shipment of gold to arrive from this merger located about 130 million light-years away from the galaxy NGC 4993 in the constellation Hydra, astronomers may want to first listen for messages from extraterrestrials. A new study proposes that other species seeing this spectacular collision may be intelligent enough to produce a signal near it that other awe-struck observers would see since we and they are staring in that general direction. Far-fetched? Like the philosophy of SETI, it’s worth listening to.
In a paper published in The Astrophysical Journal Letters, physicist Yuki Nishino from Kyoto University begins by marveling himself at the neutron star collision witnessed after its gravitational wave GW170817 was detected on August 17, 2017. That wave, first picked up by the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory (LIGO) in the U.S. and the Virgo Interferometer in Italy, pointed astronomers to the neutron star collision that created it.
“We were really impressed by the rapid growth of multi-messenger astronomy associated with [the neutron star merger detected last August], and started thinking about interesting possibilities far beyond traditional astronomical studies.”
He and co-author Naoki Seto speculated that civilizations far more advanced than us (not a stretch of the imagination) would not only see the neutron star collision after it occurred but are probably smart enough to see the build-up to it. Knowing that the spectacular event would be bright enough and powerful enough to be observed throughout the universe, they could conceivably started considering how a technologically advanced alien civilization beyond our galaxy might piggyback on the bright signals created by colliding neutron stars to catch our attention.
OK, so an advanced civilization might figure out how to predict binary neutron collisions and send messages coordinated with the event to any other civilizations watching. One question is … why? Would it be a warning to watch out for flying debris? Astronomers believe these explosions could spit out entire planets. Could they be letting us know there’s a shipment of gold and other metals on its way? If they’re really advanced, they’re probably sending us a bill for the gold.
Perhaps the message is a “goodbye” or “We were here!” epitaph to let others know of their existence. Nishino tells Space.com likes that one.
“I think one of the basic grounds for developing an advanced civilization is a profound desire to leave behind information.”
If that’s one of the basic grounds for developing an advanced civilization, what messages are WE leaving behind?
Saturn's Stunning Swirling Northern Lights Caught By Hubble
Saturn's Stunning Swirling Northern Lights Caught By Hubble
Astronomers using the NASA/ESA Hubble Space telescope have taken a series of spectacular images featuring the fluttering auroras at the north pole of Saturn.
The observations were taken in ultraviolet light and the resulting images provide astronomers with the most comprehensive picture so far of Saturn’s northern aurora. Hubble observes energetic lightshow at Saturn’s North Pole.
In 2017, over a period of seven months, the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope took images of auroras above Saturn’s North Pole region using the Space Telescope Imaging Spectrograph. The observations were taken before and after the Saturnian northern summer solstice. These conditions provided the best achievable viewing of the northern auroral region for Hubble.
The video shows how the auroras in Saturn’s northern regions vary over time. The variability of the auroras is influenced by both the solar wind and the rapid rotation of Saturn.
Americans were seeing things in the sky during the summer of 1947. A private pilot, Kenneth Arnold, was searching for a missing Marine Corps plane near Mount Rainier, Wash., when he saw nine “extremely shiny” objects “shaped like saucers” flying at 10,000 feet. Around that same time, a rancher in Roswell, N.M., found debris scattered across his land. Soon the Air Force’s 509th Bombardment Group at Roswell Army Air Field agreed among themselves that the rancher had found a crashed flying saucer—before announcing that the discovery was really a weather balloon. (The Air Force later revealed it was part of a secret program to monitor Soviet nuclear tests.)
The public was confused, curious and a little afraid. At St. Joseph’s Church in Grafton, Wis., something crashed into the lightning rod on the church roof. The Rev. Joseph Brasky went outside and found a warm metal disc, 18 inches in diameter, with “gadgets and some wires.” The mysterious craft looked like a circular saw blade.
It was.
Father Brasky, like many other practical jokers that summer, wanted to have a little fun at the expense of the media. Hoodwinked reporters were subjected to his collection of trinkets, including “bass bottles”—beer bottles outfitted with the head of a fish—and Fish Tales, his self-published book of angling stories. But though many unexplained sightings were proved to be hoaxes, they continued beyond that summer. Something, it seemed, was in the sky.
"Around 8:15 on the first night of the carnival, among the aerialists and rides, his searchlight spotted a 'glowing disc.' And this was not a one-time occurrence."
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In April 1949, the Rev. Gregory Miller, the pastor of Saints Peter and Paul Church in Norwood, Ohio, wrote to the Archdiocese of Cincinnati with two requests. The parish school needed an expansion. Also, the nuns who taught at the school had been living at nearby Regina High School, but their quarters were “becoming crowded,” and they needed a new residence at the parish. Father Miller had a plan to deal with both challenges: He would hold a festival that August to raise money for the building fund.
The Saints Peter and Paul Jitney Carnival was approved for Aug. 19 through 21. The Sensational Kays and The Three Milos, two famous high-wire acts, were booked. There would be free entertainment—but also “fun for a nickel.” An Army surplus searchlight, owned by the parish, was used to attract crowds. The light was operated by Sgt. Donald R. Berger of the University of Cincinnati’s Reserve Officers’ Training Corps.
Manning a military searchlight in late August was no comfortable task, but Sergeant Berger’s job would become more difficult than he ever imagined. Around 8:15 on the first night of the carnival, among the aerialists and rides, his searchlight spotted a “glowing disc.” And this was not a one-time occurrence. Nine times in the following months, the parish searchlight would illuminate the impossible: a flying saucer. Unlike Father Brasky’s saw blade, the case at Saints Peter and Paul remains unsolved.
Making Sense of Mystery
The early days of flying saucer reports were full of practical jokes—along with serious, confounding sightings from military officers and pilots. Readers, and most reporters in the media, were not sure how to juggle such a contrast. From the start, the problem with flying saucers has been, among other things, a semantic one: If U.F.O. stands for unidentified flying object, then any attempt to categorize a sighting makes it an identified flying object—something else entirely.
Even today, whenever we talk about U.F.O.s, we are engaging in endless conjecture. We are always trying to imagine what they might be. With our eyes to the heavens, squinting at fast-moving discs and sporadic lights, the mind wanders. Yet in the mid-20th century, enough people reported strange objects in the sky that the government took notice. Project Blue Book, the Air Force’s official study of U.F.O.s, compiled over 15,000 sightings between 1947 and 1969. Nearly 700 were labeled unexplained, but another 1,000 were categorized as unknown. While the difference remains debatable, and is likely a result of poor terminology, the conclusion is clear: Although most U.F.O. reports were easily and eventually explained, a small number were scientifically curious and enigmatic.
"U.F.O.s and faith both occupy a surreal space: the porous border region between the prosaic and the profound."
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Scientifically curious and enigmatic, though, does not make for great entertainment. Aliens do. The rest is cultural history. From the rise of the contactee movement (people who claim to have had contact with extraterrestrials) to popular films like “Close Encounters of the Third Kind” and TV series like “The X-Files,” U.F.O.s have become interchangeable with aliens. If an object courses through the sky, we reason, someone, or something, must be flying it.
These sightings are certainly interesting to U.F.O. buffs, but what do they have to do with the Catholic Church—beyond a few priests who saw strange objects in 1949? U.F.O.s and faith both occupy a surreal space: the porous border region between the prosaic and the profound. Imagine a woman sees a glinting disc in the night sky. She first thinks it is a star, but then watches it bounce and bobble and speed into the distance. She might scratch her head and move on, but if she keeps thinking about that light, she must make a decision based on conjecture. Either she saw something entirely reasonable and typical—a plane, the planet Venus, a spotlight aimed at the sky—or she accepts that she has an unknown experience. And once she accepts the fragility of her perception, she opens the door to even more possibilities.
Thinking about U.F.O.s can be an exercise in theological speculation, a way to consider what might happen if the prosaic instantly became profound. Such speculation is healthy for Catholics, particularly because it can reveal how we might seek to neuter our faith of its mystery. In the same way that we might rush to explain a strange light in the sky, we might seek to explain God in purely rational and realistic terms—a theology of convenience. Because the church has hesitated to offer firm teachings on the existence of aliens, theologians and philosophers have filled that space with wonder. As early as the 14th century, the French priest John Buridan, in a response to Aristotle’s De Caelo (“On the Heavens”), wrote, “It must be realized that while another world than this is not possible naturally, this is possible simply speaking, since we hold from faith that just as God made this world, so he could make another or several worlds.” Father Buridan’s suggestion here is that all things earthly—and cosmically—are possible through God.
Astronomers have had to parry questions about aliens for years. Guy Consolmagno, S.J., the director of the Vatican Observatory, has tried to be firm with U.F.O. enthusiasts, writing on his personal website in 2013, “I do not know of any credible evidence at all that there has ever been contact of any form between extraterrestrial aliens and Earth. Period. I cannot imagine a circumstance where such contact could be kept secret for very long. And I say this, not only as an active astronomer for 40 years, but also as someone who knows lots of people in the SETI [Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence] community (who would love to have such evidence), and as someone who’s been an officer in the American Astronomical Society and in the International Astronomical Union. If there was something like this going on, we’d all be talking about it. There isn’t, and we aren’t.”
Michael Burke-Gaffney, S.J., a Canadian priest who is an astronomer and professor at St. Mary’s University in Halifax, Nova Scotia, had an extensive personal interest in U.F.O.s—even covertly investigating them for Canada’s National Research Council and the Royal Canadian Mounted Police. In 1966, after the noted astronomer and ufologist J. Allen Hynek penned an infamous letter to Science magazine offering seven reasons why U.F.O.s merited scientific study, Father Burke-Gaffney responded with his own letter. He takes a more cautionary tone. Until we identify mysterious “atmospheric phenomena,” he asks, should not scientists strive “(i) to exhort people to have patience, and (ii) to remind them that, up to the present, U.F.O.s have furnished no evidence of extraterrestrial beings, and (iii) to point out that the existence of extraterrestrial little green men is no more firmly established than that of leprechauns?”
There is no official Vatican position on U.F.O.s and aliens, although in 2014 the Vatican Observatory co-hosted a conference on the subject with the University of Arizona’s Steward Observatory, called “The Search for Life Beyond the Solar System: Exoplanets, Biosignature and Instruments.” The next year, Pope Francis gave an interesting responseto a question about extraterrestrial life: “In every case I think that we should stick to what the scientists tell us, still aware that the Creator is infinitely greater than our knowledge.”
Of Skeptics and Sightings
George Coyne, S.J., was director of the Vatican Observatory from 1978 to 2006, when he retired to focus on teaching. He is known for examining the intersections between faith and science, earning him the respect of religion skeptics like Richard Dawkins and the late Stephen Hawking. Father Coyne told me he is “very skeptical of all U.F.O. sightings of which I am aware.” I asked him if extraterrestrials are worthy of serious theological or scientific inquiry, and he pointed me toward a paper he had written for the anthology Many Worlds: The New Universe, Extraterrestrial Life, and the Theological Implications.
Father Coyne’s essay, “The Evolution of Intelligent Life on Earth and Possibly Elsewhere: Reflections From a Religious Tradition,” offers a route forward. Father Coyne warns we should not study U.F.O.s in the hopes of somehow understanding the mysteries of God.
When we view God as “explanation” for the world, Father Coyne writes, using the “rational processes of science” in a manner not appropriate to their purpose—we ignore Scripture and tradition, which shows “God revealed himself as one who pours out himself in love and not as one who explains things.” Though science and faith intersect, we should not expect science to reveal a proof for faith. Perhaps, Father Coyne writes, we should look to the limitations of science and consider the “very nature of our emergence in an evolving universe and our inability to comprehend it, even with all that we know from cosmology, may be an indication that in the universe God may be communicating much more than information to us.”
“I do not know of any credible evidence at all that there has ever been contact of any form between extraterrestrial aliens and Earth. Period."
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In this conversation, U.F.O.s are too prosaic and tenuous to be of use. As for extraterrestrials, Father Coyne argues that theologians must consider that the idea of life elsewhere in the cosmos “strains [the] anthropocentric revelations of God to his people.” He asks good questions without easy answers: Did God also redeem extraterrestrials from their sin? Did Jesus give up his life for them so that they might also be saved?
Searching
Father Gregory Miller had been at Saints Peter and Paul since 1938. His brother Norbert was a priest at nearby St. Vincent Ferrer Church. A third brother, Cletus, was a longtime priest at a third Cincinnati-area parish, Annunciation Church.
Cletus was with Gregory at Saints Peter and Paul on Oct. 23, 1949. By that date, Sgt. Berger, the searchlight operator, had seen an object similar to the one seen on the night of the August carnival on two subsequent occasions, and he was back at the church with the two priests, as well as Sgt. Leo Davidson of the Norwood Police Department, Robert Linn, the managing editor of The Cincinnati Post, and Leo Hirtl, a columnist for that newspaper. According to Mr. Berger’s observation log (published by Leonard Stringfield, an Ohio U.F.O. researcher), the men saw the flying disc in the sky, and then saw two groups of five triangular objects coming out of the disc.
Mr. Hirtl was skeptical, claiming that they had seen geese that glowed in the light. Father Miller stood by his story, even getting into an argument years later with Mr. Hirtl on the Cincinnati TV station WCPO during a special program on “flying saucers.”
Father Cletus agreed with his brother. He described the smaller objects as shaped “like the apex of Indiana arrowheads.” At the time, Father Cletus was dean of the Institutum Divi Thomae—a unique graduate research institute established by the Archdiocese of Cincinnati. The research was directed by Dr. George Sperti, previously a director of the Basic Science Laboratory at the University of Cincinnati. Dr. Sperti, a Catholic, later told Cincinnati Magazine in a 1972 interview that one of the goals of the institute was to demonstrate that there is “no conflict between religion and science.”
Under the direction of Dr. Sperti and Father Miller, the institute was responsible for an interesting array of inventions. It developed Preparation H, Aspercreme, a tanning lamp, a meat tenderizer and even a method of freeze-drying orange juice—while working on their central goal of cancer research. U.F.O.s were not in their repertoire.
"The sightings near Cincinnati continued through the winter and into the spring."
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The sightings near Cincinnati continued through the winter and into the spring. One relatively consistent witness was William Winkler, who owned a printing company—but also was a “dabbler in things scientific,” according to The Cincinnati Post. “It’s not a flying saucer. Maybe it’s a base for flying saucers,” he conjectured. Mr. Winkler sent a letter about the sightings directly to General Vandenberg—the Air Force chief of staff—complaining about bungling F.B.I. agents and asking forgiveness for his handwritten letter (“My secretary has gone for the day.”).
At this time, Project Grudge, a precursor of Project Blue Book, had taken an interest in the Norwood sightings and sent a few members of their Office of Special Investigations to the parish. Those agents, along with two professors from the University of Cincinnati—D. A. Wells, from the physics department, and Paul Herget, from the astronomy department—were with Father Gregory Miller at the sighting on Dec. 20. Both scientists were dismissive, telling the Cincinnati Post that it was “an optical illusion” or an “illumination of gas in the atmosphere.” Mr. Herget explained, “We need an explanation to squash people’s fears.”
Mr. Herget might have said too much. The investigator Leonard Stringfield interviewed R. Ed Tepe, then-mayor of Norwood, who was also present at the Dec. 20 sighting. He explained that Mr. Wells was “there with camera and protractors and was in frequent ‘hush-hush’ with the Air Force investigators,” before calculating that the size of the disc “was approximated to be 10,000 feet in diameter.” In context, his comments sound like a cover-up.
“The last word is up to experimental science. There is nothing else to do for the theologians but wait.”
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Mr. Stringfield also claims that Father Miller had film of the object, taken during the sighting on Oct. 23 by Sgt. Davidson. The film was reportedly shown to a closed audience at the studios of WCPO in 1952 but, like so many other elements of the Norwood case, has since vanished.
According to David Clarke in his book How UFOs Conquered the World: The History of a Modern Myth, that same year Domenico Grasso, S.J., a Vatican theologian, said the Holy See had debated the existence of alien contact after the flurry of U.F.O. sightings, concluding: “The last word is up to experimental science. There is nothing else to do for the theologians but wait.”
Whatever the Miller brothers saw, it was attracted to that searchlight. That seems like too convenient a metaphor, but how else do we think about the unexplained? Between August 1949 and March 1950, a U.F.O. visited Saints Peter and Paul Church. That is all we know. The moment we identify it, it stops being a mystery.
In the months after the sighting ended, Father Miller was back to writing the archdiocese. A section of the school boilers needed to be replaced. They needed to renovate the pews, choir stalls and church throne. That November he hoped to raise money to resurface the blacktop on the school playgrounds and parking lot by holding a turkey raffle and bazaar. No searchlight was required.
About once a week, Jean-Christophe Terrillon wakes up and senses the presence of a threatening, evil being beside his bed. Terror ripples through him, and he tries to move or call out.
But he is paralyzed, unable to raise an arm or make a sound. His ears ring, a weight presses down on his chest, and he has to struggle for breath.
''I feel an intense pressure in my head, as if it's going to explode,'' said Mr. Terrillon, a Canadian physicist doing research in Japan. Sometimes he finds himself transported upward and looking down on his body, or else sent hurtling through a long tunnel, and these episodes are terrifying even for a scientist like him who does not believe that evil spirits go around haunting people.
Called sleep paralysis, this disorder -- the result of a disconnect between brain and body as a person is on the fringe of sleep -- is turning out to be increasingly common, affecting nearly half of all people at least once. Moreover, a growing number of scholars believe that sleep paralysis may help explain many ancient reports of attacks by witches and modern claims of abduction by space aliens.
''I think it can explain claims of witchcraft and alien abduction,'' said Kazuhiko Fukuda, a psychologist at Fukushima University in Japan and a leading expert on sleep paralysis. Research in Japan has had a headstart because sleep paralysis is well-known to most Japanese, who call it kanashibari, while it is little-known and less studied in the West.
''We have a framework for it, but in North America there's no concept for people to understand what has happened to them,'' Professor Fukuda said. ''So if Americans have the experience and if they have heard of alien abductions, then they may think, 'Aha, it's alien abduction!' ''
Sleep paralysis was once thought to be very rare. But recent studies in Canada, Japan, China and the United States have suggested that it may strike at least 40 percent or 50 percent of all people at least once, and a study in Newfoundland, Canada, found that more than 60 percent had experienced it.
There, as in Japan, people have a name for the condition and some scholars believe that people are therefore more likely to identify it when it happens to them. In Newfoundland, it is called ''old hag'' because it is associated with visions of an old witch sitting on the chest of a paralyzed sleeper, sometimes throttling the neck with her hands.
Sleep paralysis seems to have been described since ancient times, and an episode appears in ''Moby Dick'' and perhaps also in the 18th century Henry Fuseli painting, ''The Nightmare,'' which shows a goblin sitting on the stomach of a sleeping woman. What is striking is that although the symptoms of sleep paralysis are generally very similar, the images in the hallucinations and the interpretation of them seem to vary.
Europeans seem to have interpreted ancient sleep paralysis as assaults or abductions by witches taking them off for a forcible ride on a broomstick. Chinese called it ''gui ya,'' or ghost pressure, and believed that a ghost sat on and assaulted sleepers.
In the West Indies, sleep paralysis was called ''kokma'' and meant a ghost baby who jumped on the sleeper's chest and attacked the throat. In old Japan, it sometimes seems to have been interpreted as a giant devil whose foot came down on the sleeper's chest.
''People will draw on the most plausible account in their repertoire to explain their experience,'' said Al Cheyne, an associate professor of psychology at the University of Waterloo in Canada. ''Trolls or witches no longer constitute plausible interpretations of these hallucinations. The notion of aliens from outer space is more contemporary and somewhat more plausible to the modern mind. So a flight on a broomstick is replaced by a teleportation to a waiting spaceship.''
Dr. Cheyne said that in a survey he had worked on involving more than 2,000 people identified as experiencing sleep paralysis, hundreds described experiences similar to alien abduction.
''A sensed presence, vague gibberish spoken in one's ear, shadowy creatures moving about the room, a strange immobility, a crushing pressure and painful sensations in various parts of the body -- these are compatible not just with an assault by a primitive demon but also with probing by alien experimenters,'' Dr. Cheyne said. ''And the sensations of floating and flying account for the reports of levitation and transport to alien vessels.''
In recent years there has been a huge increase in the number of people who insist that they have been kidnapped by alien creatures from outer space, perhaps subjected to medical experiments and then released again. These claims have been a bit of a scientific puzzle, because they strike most people as utterly wacky and yet they are relatively widespread. One well-publicized (and widely criticized) Roper Poll published in 1992 suggested that nearly four million Americans reported experiences akin to alien abduction.
Surprisingly, one study found that these people were no more fantasy-prone than the general population and had slightly higher intelligence. Many shun publicity and show signs of feeling traumatized and humiliated.
Several scholars have found that people are more likely to report alien abductions when they have been exposed to movies or books about the idea. Simon Sherwood, a researcher on sleep paralysis in England, said that in one case study he gathered, a regular sufferer of sleep paralysis watched an alien film and then had a hallucination of ''little blue aliens'' inserting a metal probe into his forehead.
The growing professional literature on sleep paralysis has often mentioned the parallels with reports of alien abductions. Still, many scholars are reluctant to research the connection for fear of tainting their reputations. Others say that a connection is plausible but unproved.
Tomoka Takeuchi, a Japanese expert on sleep paralysis who is conducting research at Brock University in Ontario, Canada, said that a connection might eventually be demonstrated scientifically but added: ''I hesitate to speculate too much.''
Those who believe in alien abductions deny that sleep paralysis could be behind it all. John E. Mack, a Harvard University Medical School professor who is the most prominent defender of the possibility of abductions, argues that sleep paralysis simply does not fit the evidence. He notes that at least a few abduction reports come from remote places where people are not exposed to movies or tales of U.F.O.'s, and that many happen in daylight and involve people who seem to have been awake and alert.
Other defenders of abduction theories say aliens may be clever enough to use sleep paralysis in their kidnappings.
Sleep paralysis researchers say that as many as 60 percent of intense abduction experiences were linked to sleep, and some of the reported symptoms -- noises, smells, paralysis, levitation, terror, images of frightening intruders -- are very similar to those of sleep paralysis.
Still, sleep paralysis cannot be a full explanation because some reports of alien abduction do not involve sleep. Leonard S. Newman, a psychologist at the University of Illinois at Chicago who has studied alien abductions, argues that they are false memories -- in some cases triggered by sleep paralysis but at other times by daydreams or fantasies.
''People, especially when they are hypnotized, can easily weave together images, dreams, fantasies and things that they might just have heard or read about into elaborate pseudo-memories that they are confident are real,'' Professor Newman said in an E-mail interview.
So what is sleep paralysis?
Even after many years of study, particularly in the last decade, it remains mysterious. Experts have trouble even saying definitively whether a person is asleep or awake during sleep paralysis.
''In the classic definition, you are awake,'' said Emmanuel Mignot, director of the Center for Narcolepsy at Stanford University Medical School. ''But in practice, there's a gradient between being awake and being in REM sleep,'' he said, adding that sleep paralysis lies in a murky place on that slope.
During REM sleep -- the period when rapid eye movement takes place -- the body essentially turns itself off and disconnects from the brain. This is a safety measure, so that people do not physically act out their dreams, and it means that people are effectively paralyzed during part of their sleep. Even automatic reflexes, like kicking when the knee is tapped, do not work during REM sleep.
Sleep paralysis seems to occur when the body is in REM sleep and so is paralyzed and disconnected from the brain, while the brain has emerged from sleep and is either awake or semiawake. Usually after a minute or two the spell is broken and the person is able to move again, as the brain and body re-establish their connection.
Just what is going on in the brain during sleep paralysis is unclear. The person experiencing the paralysis certainly feels completely awake and ''sees'' the room clearly, but laboratory experiments in Japan show that sometimes people experiencing sleep paralysis do not even open their eyes.
Sleep paralysis sometimes runs in families and appears to have a genetic component. Although it is normally harmless, some scholars believe it may be linked to a pattern of unexplained deaths among Hmong and other groups in Southeast Asia. The victims are usually healthy young people who die in their sleep, sometimes after fighting for breath but without thrashing around, and their faces show grimaces of terror.
Among ordinary people, sleep paralysis occurs most often after jet lag or periods of sleeplessness that interrupt normal REM patterns. Men and women seem to suffer it at equal rates, and although it is most common in the teen-age years, it is reported at all ages.
Aside from witchcraft and alien abduction, sleep paralysis is also sometimes mentioned as a possible link to shamanism and to dream interpretation and even to near-death experiences. But for many sufferers, the growing research in the field is reassuring simply because it demonstrates that they are not alone in their terrifying night-time paralysis and hallucinations.
''Sometimes I'm just glad that I didn't live a long time ago,'' said Mr. Terrillon, the Canadian physicist in Japan. ''Because maybe people who had this in the olden days were put in madhouses.''
India Will Launch Its Own Astronauts to Space by 2022, Government Says
India Will Launch Its Own Astronauts to Space by 2022, Government Says
By Meghan Bartels, Space.com Senior Writer
India's GSLV Mk III rocket, which the country's space agency plans to use for human missions to space, most recently launched on June 5, 2017.
Credit: ChineE Nouvelle/Sipa/Newscom
Indian engineers have a new, ambitious timeline for putting its astronauts in space, according to a recent set of comments from government leaders, who say the country will achieve the feat by 2022.
According to reports by the Hindustan Times, the timeline was a surprise to the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO), but the agency has been working on human spaceflight issues since 2004 and said it doesn't expect to have trouble meeting the schedule.
"Our country has made great progress in space," Prime Minister Narendra Modi said during a speech on Aug. 15 to mark the country's independence day, according to a translation by the Planetary Society, a nonprofit organization dedicated to promoting space exploration and science. "But our scientists have a dream. By 2022, when it would be 75 years of Independence, an Indian — be it a man or a woman — will go to space with the tricolor flag in their hands."
The newly scheduled mission series is being called Gaganyaan. So far, only one Indian has been to space: Rakesh Sharma, who completed a mission in 1984 and who is planning to advise the current effort. But unlike Sharma's flight, this series of missions — which is due to begin in 2020 with uncrewed test flights before progressing to crewed flights — will be entirely overseen by ISRO.
The agency has already developed the rocket it would use for these flights, the GSLV Mk III, which has launched twice to date. Earlier this year, the country also tested the escape system for its crew module.
But the team behind Gaganyaan have plenty of tasks left to tackle, including selecting and training crewmembers, perfecting a spacesuit design, preparing launch pads and developing the astronauts' expertise in bioscience. The government estimates the project could create 15,000 jobs, according to the Hindustan Times, and it could cost the equivalent of about $1.3 billion.
After ISRO is satisfied the technology is ready for humans to use, the agency would send a crew of three astronauts to orbit for five to seven days at an altitude of between 180 and 250 miles (300 and 400 kilometers), according to the Hindustan Times. That altitude is about the same as the one used by the International Space Station as it orbits Earth.
ZE ZIJN ER NOG STEEDS, WANT VELEN ZIEN ZE VLIEGEN ( VIDEO )
ZE ZIJN ER NOG STEEDS, WANT VELEN ZIEN ZE VLIEGEN( VIDEO )
Je moet tegenwoordig wat beter je best doen om te proberen de echte UFO waarnemingen van al die neppers te onderscheiden, maar ze zijn er nog steeds wel.
Na een barrage van nep UFO video’s lijkt het op dat gebied iets rustiger geworden en komt er weer wat meer ruimte voor echte waarnemingen.
Het lijkt erop alsof de rage van het maken van nep video’s van UFO’s een klein beetje over is. De afgelopen jaren is de wereld overspoeld door nepbeelden van mensen die speculeren op de nieuwsgierigheid van lezers of kijkers en op die manier veel geld hebben verdiend aan advertentieklikken.
De laatste tijd zie je minder van dat soort dingen verschijnen, waarschijnlijk omdat het publiek een beetje “UFO moe” is geworden van de zoveelste, soms heel knap gemaakte, nepopnames.
En dat is natuurlijk heel jammer, want vaak zijn de echte waarnemingen iets minder spectaculair dan de nagemaakte en verdwijnen die helemaal naar de achtergrond.
Vandaag daarom wat aandacht voor enkele waarnemingen die wel echt lijken te zijn. De eerste vond plaats boven New York op 29 augustus 2018 en is aangemeld bij Mufon onder nummer 94490.
Een man loopt buiten en ziet boven zijn hoofd iets vreemds door de lucht vliegen. Hij pakt zijn telefoon en probeert wat opnames te maken. Dit lukte slechts voor ongeveer 20 seconden voordat het object weer uit het zicht verdwenen was.
Het zag er als volgt uit:
Wat het ook is dat daar vliegt, het is iets dat gemaakt is door een intelligente levensvorm en niet iets dat spontaan is ontstaan in de natuur zoals een vogel. De man die dit filmde dacht eerst dat het om een helikopter ging, maar dat bleek niet het geval.
En als je over een object praat ter grootte van een helikopter dan valt eigenlijk ook een drone als mogelijkheid weg. Ook gezien de vorm lijkt het niet echt op een drone.
Vraag is wat het dan wel is.
De volgende is ook interessant omdat het hier lijkt te gaan om een echte waarneming. Een voorval dat plaatsvond op 25 augustus 2018 in El Hornoval Jujuy in Argentinië en is eveneens aangemeld bij Mufon onder nummer 94500.
Het is één van die waarnemingen die eigenlijk per ongeluk gebeuren. In dit geval gaat het om mensen die met vakantie zijn en er wordt op een gegeven moment een foto genomen van een vrouw.
Wanneer men de foto bekijkt dan staat er iets op dat verdacht veel lijkt op een zogenaamde retro UFO, de klassieke vliegende schotel vorm. Dat het object niet helemaal scherp is komt volgens ufoloog Scott Waring omdat het waarschijnlijk met een enorme snelheid vliegt.
De waarneming vond plaats in het uiterste noorden van Argentinië bij een hoge bergketen die uiteraard ideaal zijn voor buitenaardsen om in dat soort locaties ondergrondse bases te vestigen.
En tenslotte, een vreemde opname die is gemaakt in Bessoncourt in Frankrijk op 1 augustus.
Het is gefilmd vanuit een auto op een parkeerplaats en je ziet minutenlang een vreemd langwerpig voorwerp in de lucht hangen. Dan op een gegeven moment lijkt het zelfs alsof het een soort thrusters gebruikt.
Wie of wat het is, is zoals heel vaak niet duidelijk.
Summer may be over but the travel services site Orbitz thinks anytime is a good time to visit places where extraterrestrials have dropped at some time in history. To promote travel to these locations, Orbitz has issued classic alien and UFO movie-style posters describing the ET or UFO connection to each one. Ten in all, they range from the ancient to the current and include many forms of flying objects and alien beings. Best of all, Orbitz gives the encounter at each location a cool movie title name.
Before checking Orbitz’s selections, what famous, infamous or little-known-but-still-interesting UFO or alien sites would be on YOUR list?
Finished? Let’s see how your selections compare with the experts in all forms of travel, not just paranormal. Orbitz’s selections are in chronological order, so you’re free to rank them, as well as your own picks, in order of preference. To make it fun, let’s assume money is no object.
Disks of Fire
This is probably a trip to Egypt and the Valley of Kings to visit the tomb of Thutmose III. According to one translation of the Tulli Papyrus written by his scribes around 1480 BCE, unknown “fiery disks” appeared in the sky and “fish and other volatiles rained down from the sky,” making this one of if not the first known references to UFOs.
Galactic Globe Falls to Earth
This is a trip to Rome where first century BCE writer Julius Obsequens reported seeing “a round object, like a globe, a round or circular shield, took its path in the sky from west to east” and “a globe of fire, of golden color, fell to the earth gyrating. It then seemed to increase in size, rose from the earth and ascended into the sky, where it obscured the sun with its brilliance.”
Judgement Day: The Night The World Nearly Ended
Travel to the River Lenne in the beautiful Sauerland hills of western Germany where a Saxon attack on the Sigiburg Castle in 776 was said to be thwarted when UFOs said to resemble two large flaming shields appeared in the sky.
They Came From The Stars… To Fight For Planet Earth
Combine a trip to the River Lenne with a stop in Nuremburg to celebrate the alleged 1561 celestial phenomenon over Nuremberg when many witnesses reported seeing flying globes, flying blood-red crosses and a flying spear before the flying globes took sides and seemed to attack each other for over an hour until a mutual destruction ended with them falling to Earth.
That’s No Moon: A Visit from an Unearthly Enemy
The historic English port of Hull is where, in June 1801, many newspapers reported a UFO resembling a giant moon with a black bar across the middle flying overhead, then splitting into seven smaller globes of fire which disappeared, reappeared as a whole, split into five balls, then disappeared again, leaving Hull bathed in a mysterious blue light.
She Came From Outer Space: Beware Her Cosmic Beauty
No trip to Japan would be complete without stopping in Hitachi province on the eastern coast of Japan where in 1803 a strange ship allegedly washed ashore and a young, attractive woman with red and white hair emerged, speaking a strange language. Fishermen put her back in the boat and she disappeared. The first Unidentified Floating Object?
They’re Here …
Roswell, New Mexico. 1947. Crashed flying saucer. Need we say more? If you haven’t been there yet, Orbitz will help you check it off your bucket list.
You Can Run, But You Can’t Hide
Check off a UFO and a cryptid sighting with a visit to Flatwoods, West Virginia, where in 1952 eyewitnesses claimed to see a bright object cross the sky and land and possibly release a 10-foot-tall monster or alien hissing mutant with a round red face and a pointed head.
Attack of The Tentacled Tormentor
It’s on to Erasmuskloof, a suburb of Pretoria in South Africa, where in 1996 multiple witnesses saw a pulsating light contained a red triangle and emitting bright green tentacles. Over 200 police officers and a helicopter allegedly chased it until it disappeared into the sky.
Spiralling Lights Haunt Scandinavian Skies
Any trip to Norway should include a visit to Trøndelag where in 2009 a huge lighted spiral appeared in the sky of this and neighboring counties. Was it a failed Russian rocket, a wormhole opening, a test gone wrong at the Large Hadron Collider or an alien spacecraft?
They all sound like great excursions … and good movies too. Were any of these sites on your list? What would you add? Check out the posters at Orbitz and start saving your bitcoins.
Mass UFO sighting over San Diego, California 29-Aug-2018
Mass UFO sighting over San Diego, California 29-Aug-2018
Strange bright lights over Rosarito in Baja, California on 29th August 2018!
Here are some witnesses reports:
Ryan Hase Lasted maybe 30 minutes. Facing the ocean. Lights were super bright and twinkly. Formed patterns in the sky. Very surreal.
Jeff Ermoian Shot from the balcony of our apartments this evening. My wife Sherri came outside when she heard our friend Marisol excitedly calling her. I grabbed my cel phone and got this long segment.
Shot by Jeff Ermoian. Unusual lights, mostly all stationary above Pemex in Baja California. Pemex was until recently the only gasoline supplier in Baja. This part of the coast usually has one or two ships nearby.
Shot by Jeff Ermoian. Kay Dee I saw this strange thing in the air over Baja MX. That’s all I’m saying. Watch the video for yourself
RollsChoice Adhesive Pen San Diego, California August 29 2018 At first 2 lights appeared then disappeared. Reappeared. Disappeared. Followed by a string of them moving around and disappeared and came back one final time.
UFO' Movie Delves into Math of Universe Navigation (Exclusive Clip)
UFO' Movie Delves into Math of Universe Navigation (Exclusive Clip)
BySarah Lewin, Space.com Associate Editor
In a new clip from the upcoming movie "UFO," releasing digitally and on DVD Sept. 4, characters discuss how aliens could use physical constants to navigate across space.
In the movie, Gillian Anderson (known for "The X Files") stars as a mathematics professor, and the other leads include Alex Sharp as a college student investigating UFO sightings near U.S. airports with his girlfriend (played by Ella Purnell), as an FBI agent (played by David Strathairn) pursues them. The film's science advisor (who has a cameo in this clip!) was Space.com columnist Paul Sutter.
The clip, embedded above, discusses a novel idea for space travel: If a fundamental constant of the universe called the fine structure constant was different in different locations, beings could use the changing constant to navigate through space.
The fine structure constant relates to the strength of the electromagnetic force between elementary particles. Research has at times suggested that this constant might vary across the universe — so space travelers could use it to triangulate their location, the characters discuss in the clip. That process could work similarly to how pulsar navigation would work, she adds. In that method, navigators would observe the regularly pulsing neutron stars to figure out their own locations. (A pulsar navigation experiment was recently testedon the International Space Station.)
While we're not sure exactly how navigation by fundamental constant fits in to the movie's suspenseful UFO-spotting premise, we're eager to find out.
Email Sarah Lewin at slewin@space.com or follow her @SarahExplains.
Jupiter is without a doubt inhospitable, but it does have one thing going for it — increasing evidence that it’s rich in water.
Astrophysicist Gordon L. Bjoraker of NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center recently published a paper in the Astronomical Journal, outlining how he and his team of researchers detected signatures of water emitting from Jupiter’s Great Red Spot. By studying the giant storm with ground-based telescopes, they were able to observe molecular hydrogen and oxygen at infrared wavelengths, backing up theories that Jupiter could actually be abundant in water.
Jupiter’s Great Red Spot
Water probably isn’t the first thing that comes to mind when you think of the enormous gas giant, but it isn’t all that unfathomable if you think about. Back in 1973, the Pioneer spacecraft swung by Jupiter and detected a magnetic field with features similar to Earth’s, leading researchers to wonder if the gaseous planet had a core, and if so, what was it made out of?
Follow-up spacecraft have since detected chemical elements that indicate Jupiter’s core could be 10 times the mass of Earth, and made up of rocky material and water ice. We’ve also witnessed strong thunder and lightning coming from Jovian clouds, which, as far as we know, only occurs in the presence of moisture.
“The moons that orbit Jupiter are mostly water ice, so the whole neighborhood has plenty of water,” said Bjoraker in a press release. “Why wouldn’t the planet – which is this huge gravity well, where everything falls into it – be water rich, too?”
Researchers believe that the Great Red Spot, which stretches about 10,000 miles (16,000 kilometers) in diameter and extends 200 miles (300 kilometers) into Jupiter’s atmosphere, is composed of three layers of clouds. It has a top layer that’s made up of ammonia, a middle layer that’s a mix of ammonia and sulfur, and a third layer that houses water ice and liquid water.
To find evidence of this theory, Bjoraker and his team of researchers used data from the W.M. Keck Observatory’s high-powered infrared spectrometer, as well as the IShell 1.1-5.3 micron spectrograph at the NASA Infrared Telescope Facility. Combined, these two instruments were able to probe the storm and detect light at infrared wavelengths, revealing which chemical elements were protruding through its clouds.
Taken by Juno during one of its fly-bys in 2017, this color enhanced image shows a close-up of the massive storm.
Not only did they find signatures of ammonia, sulfur, hydrogen and oxygen, but they also detected methane gas, which they used to study where exactly the clouds lie in the atmosphere. Since it doesn’t get cold enough on Jupiter for methane gas to freeze, it doesn’t get a chance to accumulate in mass amounts, making its abundance more or less the same throughout the planet.
“If you see that the strength of methane lines vary from inside to outside of the Great Red Spot, it’s not because there’s more methane here than there,” said Bjoraker, “it’s because there are thicker, deep clouds that are blocking the radiation in the Great Red Spot.”
NASA’s Juno Spacecraft
By comparing the amount of methane emitting from the Great Red Spot to other areas of the planet, the team was able to determine that the lowest clouds sit just above the point where water freezes in the atmosphere — suggesting that water-rich, vaporous clouds begin forming as soon as the temperature allows them to. Based on the location of the deepest cloud layer, and successfully finding the predicted elements in the Great Red Spot, the team is confident that they found water-rich clouds, and that water on Jupiter could actually be quite plentiful.
Of course, the exact amount of water lurking in Jupiter’s atmosphere, and in its hypothetical core, is unknown. But thankfully, we have NASA’s Juno spacecraft to help us find out. Orbiting Jupiter since July 2016, the craft is using its infrared spectrometer and microwave radiometer to search for signs of water and its abundances. And since Juno is able to peer deeper into the storm than any other craft, the researchers are hoping that it will deliver similar results.
Finding out how much water Jupiter holds will not only give clues to its mysterious composition, but will also help us understand the early years of our solar system, when turbulent planet formation was just beginning.
Hubble telescope spots 'northern lights' on Saturn
Hubble telescope spots 'northern lights' on Saturn
The gas planet's aurora was seen dancing across its north pole
Nicole Mortillaro · CBC News
This image is a composite of observations made of Saturn in early 2018 of the auroras on the planet's north pole region, made in 2017. In contrast to the auroras on Earth, the auroras on Saturn are only visible in the ultraviolet — part of the electromagnetic spectrum blocked by Earth’s atmosphere. Therefore, astronomers have to rely on space telescopes like the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope to study them.
(ESA/Hubble, NASA, A. Simon (GSFC)
Over a period of seven months in 2017, the Hubble Space Telescope photographed a beautiful display of northern lights over Saturn's north pole.
Here on Earth, people experience the northern lights (southern lights in the southern hemisphere) when fast-moving particles from the sun travel along the solar wind and interact with the planet's magnetic field.
Auroras, also called the northern or southern lights, are caused by charged particles moving down toward the poles and then interacting with molecules of nitrogen and oxygen which transform the sky into bright bands of green, red and violet lights.
The northern lights dance above Wood Buffalo National Park in Alberta.
(Nicole Mortillaro/CBC News)
Earth is not the only planet to experience this spectacular phenomenon. The giant outer planets — Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune — also get northern and southern lights.
Here on Earth, people can look up and appreciate the colourful display, but it's a little different with planets like Saturn which are mostly made of gas. Because these planets contain mostly hydrogen, the displays can be seen mainly in ultraviolet light.
The image, observed with the Space Telescope Imaging Spectrograph in the ultraviolet, shows the auroras surrounding Saturn’s north pole region. The variability of the auroras is influenced by solar winds and the rapid rotation of Saturn.
(ESA/Hubble, NASA & L. Lamy Obse)
To capture the northern lights, Hubble used its Space Telescope Imaging Spectrograph over the months before and after Saturn's northern summer solstice, when the poles are tilted toward the sun.
The Hubble Space Telescope spotted northern lights dancing above Saturn's north pole. Credit: ESA/Hubble, NASA & L. Lamy
(Observatoire de Paris) 0:19
Though Saturn's auroras have been photographed before by Hubble, these new images reveal the auroras peaking in brightness around dawn and just before midnight.
This had never been observed before. Scientists believe the phenomenon has something to do with solar winds interacting with the planet's magnetosphere during the solstice, as well as the speed at which Saturn rotates, roughly once every 11 hours.
While Earth's auroras stretch upward around 100 to 500 km into the atmosphere, Saturn's auroras can reach heights of more than 1,200 km.
Ultraviolet image of the spectacular auroras sighted over Saturn’s north pole.
Crop circle : Comment des youtubeurs ont berné des “experts” en extraterrestres
Crop circle : Comment des youtubeurs ont berné des “experts” en extraterrestres
Pour les adeptes du paranormal, les crop circles qui apparaissent dans les champs de blé seraient l’œuvre d’aliens. Pour les sceptiques, ils seraient d’origine humaine. Pour trancher le débat, des youtubeurs ont réalisé une petite expérience instructive.
Cette fois, ils ont frappé à Sarraltroff (Moselle). Ils ? Les extra-terrestres bien sûr ! C’était le 9 juin et comme à leur habitude, ils ont laissé une trace de leur passage dans un champ de blé : un immense crop circle ou cercle de culture en français ou encore agroglyphe. Le dessin géant est formé d’épis couchés par “une technologie alienne”. Il est composé de plusieurs cercles disposés de manière énigmatique voire ésotérique et dont la « géométrie parfaite” ne peut s’apprécier que vue du ciel.
Selon les exégètes de la chose, cette géométrie est d’ailleurs trop parfaite pour être l’oeuvre de simples êtres humains. La preuve, donc, qu’il s’agit bien d’une production extra-terrestre… Le champ est alors devenu un véritable lieu de pèlerinage New Age, chargé “d’énergie”, “de vibrations” et autres fluides cosmiques obscures.
Malheureusement – pour les exégètes – ce crop circle a bel et bien été réalisé par des humains ordinaires… ou presque. Effectivement, le 24 août, de joyeux youtubeurs ont révélé qu’ils étaient les auteurs de l’agroglyphe de Sarraltroff. Ces mordus de science, sont surtout adeptes de la zététique, l’étude rationnelle de phénomènes prétendument extraordinaires (paranormal, pseudo-sciences, pseudo-médecines etc…). Ils étaient aidés par deux ufologues sceptiques, rompus à l’analyse des phénomènes supposés extra-terrestres. Armés de simples mètres rubans pour les mesures et de quelques bières, les membres du commando ont agi en pleine nuit à la lueur de leurs torches frontales.
Une planche sous le pied tenue à chaque extrémité par une ficelle, ils ont écrasé minutieusement les blés dans le champ d’un agriculteur complice (voir les explications de la méthode dans la vidéo). L’opération a duré à peine une heure. Et à la différence d’insaisissables extra-terrestres, les youtubeurs ont tout filmé. Les séquences sont diffusées et largement commentées sur Astronogeek, la chaîne Youtube d’Arnaud Thiry, l’initiateur du projet (trois épisodes sont prévus).
Note :Début de conception du Crop Circle à 21 min 24 secondes
“L’objectif n’était pas de se moquer de ceux qui croient aux extra-terrestres, nous assure Arnaud Thiry. Nous voulions tester la méthode qui permet aux experts d’affirmer si un crop circle est une oeuvre extra-terrestre ou humaine.” Une véritable expérience en aveugle. En d’autres termes, est-ce que ces experts, ne connaissant pas l’origine du crop circle, sont capables de déterminer, comme ils le prétendent, s’il a été produit par des humains. La réponse est clairement non. “Tous ceux qui sont venus sur place ont affirmé qu’il s’agissait bien d’une réalisation extra-terrestre », confirme Arnaud Thiry.
« Ce crop est tellement élaboré. C’est vivant, comme dans les cathédrales ou devant un menhir. Un humain n’aurait pas pu le faire. »
Umberto Molinaro, le plus populaire d’entre-eux, est lui aussi tombé dans le panneau. Ce conférencier français, auteur de quatre livres sur le sujet, s’est rendu sur place. Entouré de nombre de ses fidèles qui le suivent notamment sur Facebook ou lors d’une émission diffusée sur la chaîne Youtube CTVM TV, il a pu observer le nouveau “message” laissé par ceux qu’il appelle tantôt “les Etres de Lumière” tantôt “les Galactiques”.
Ainsi, interrogé par une journaliste du Républicain Lorrain, il ressort l’argument de la complexité du motif : » Ce crop est tellement élaboré. Chaque cercle est lié aux autres par des rapports particuliers. C’est vivant, comme dans les cathédrales ou devant un menhir. Un humain n’aurait pas pu le faire. » L’occasion d’improviser avec ses amis une séance collective de captation d’énergies et de vibrations assurément cosmo-telluriques.
Alors forcément, quand deux mois plus tard il apprend que les cercles de culture ont été réalisés non pas par des Galactiques, mais par des humains, il change de version. Il affirme notamment qu’il n’a jamais dit qu’il s’agissait d’un “vrai crop circle” (d’origine extra-terrestre).
Contacté par téléphone il nous confirme : “Je n’ai jamais authentifié ce crop circle. Pour le faire il faut prélever de la terre et analyser sa résistivité.” (sic). Il poursuit : “J’ai tout de suite vu que c’était un faux.” Pourtant, sur Facebook et sur Youtube, l’expert français n’a pas cessé de gloser sur l’authenticité de l’oeuvre, assénant, photos à l’appui, tous les indices qui permettent de distinguer la main de l’Etre de Lumière du pied de l’être humain.
Outre la complexité du motif, les partisans de l’hypothèse extraterrestre évoquent par exemple la présence de blés coudés. Il s’agit en fait de tiges qui se redressent partiellement vers le ciel. Le phénomène serait l’oeuvre “d’une résonance vibratoire” caractéristique de la technologie alien. Pourtant, comme l’ont montré les youtubeurs, la technologie terrestre consistant à aplatir le blé avec une simple planche de bois, produit les mêmes effets. Le blé coudé s’explique par l’héliotropisme, littéralement une attirance pour le soleil, qui pousse une plante vivante, dépendante de la photosynthèse, à s’orienter naturellement vers la lumière.
Mieux encore, Umberto Molinaro commente la présence de mouches mortes collées sur les épis de blé. Là encore, il s’agit pour lui des effets secondaires de la méthode extra-terrestre. Et pour l’affirmer avec plus de force, il fait appel à une autorité dans le domaine : Valentin, un jeune homme décédé depuis plusieurs années et en contact direct avec les Galactiques… L’explication de Valentin relayée par Umberto Molinaro est alors limpide : “Les insectes sont immobilisés sous les effets vibratoires. Ca les scotche sur place. Ils n’ont plus la force de réagir.”
Au téléphone, le malaise est perceptible. Umberto Molinaro nous confie qu’il a été piégé. Il accuse les youtubeurs d’avoir étudié sa technique pour l’induire en erreur. Mais comme le montre la vidéo, la bande de sceptiques n’a fait qu’écraser le blé en suivant la méthode de la planche de bois abondamment décrite sur Internet. Mieux, le rapport VECA, rédigé par Gilles Munsch du Groupe d’études et d’informations sur les phénomènes aérospatiaux non identifiés (GEIPAN) au Centre national d’études spatiales (CNES), révèle tous les éléments qui permettent de montrer qu’un crop circle a été réalisé par l’homme.
Un rapport consultable par tous car en accès libre sur Internet. Gilles Munsch est d’ailleurs venu lui-même, à titre personnel, sur le champ de Moselle : “En quelques minutes il a conclu que c’était l’oeuvre d’humains. Il m’a même décrit comment ils avaient procédé, dans quel ordre ils avaient dessiné les cercles. J’ai du rapidement lui avouer que c’était nous”, raconte Arnaud Thiry.
Coincé par la simplicité de la démonstration, Umberto Molinaro s’emporte et lâche un argument inattendu : “Quand j’emmène des gens sur un crop circle, on est à un autre niveau. On n’est pas là à chercher le vrai et le faux parce qu’on s’en fiche. Ce qu’on retrouve dans un vrai ou un faux crop circle n’est pas lié au crop circle lui-même. On est lié déjà à quelque chose de plus grand que nous.”
Cette histoire de vrai ou faux extraterrestres pourrait faire sourire, faisant passer les adeptes des crop circlespour de doux rêveurs. Mais une vidéo filmée en caméra cachée par Arnaud Thiry sur le site de Moselle, montre un toute autre visage de l’univers parallèle dans lequel ils évoluent : celui de “vibrations” ou encore “d’énergies” bienfaitrices laissées par les Galactiques et qui seraient dotées d’un pouvoir guérisseur.
L’une de ces adeptes de la théorie extra-terrestre explique ainsi qu’en venant sur le crop circle « vous pouvez vous reconnecter avec votre ADN ». Elle évoque même le cas d’une femme qui aurait guéri de son cancer ! Une autre conseille d’abandonner les “médicaments chimiques” et la médecine conventionnelle.
When you return to school after summer break, it may feel like you forgot everything you learned the year before. But if you learned like an AI system does, you actually would have — as you sat down for your first day of class, your brain would take that as a cue to wipe the slate clean and start from scratch.
AI systems’ tendency to forget the things it previously learned upon taking on new information is called catastrophic forgetting.
That’s a big problem. See, cutting-edge algorithms learn, so to speak, after analyzing countless examples of what they’re expected to do. A facial recognition AI system, for instance, will analyze thousands of photos of people’s faces, likely photos that have been manually annotated, so that it will be able to detect a face when it pops up in a video feed. But because these AI systems don’t actually comprehend the underlying logic of what they do, teaching them to do anything else, even if it’s pretty similar — like, say, recognizing specific emotions — means training them all over again from scratch. Once an algorithm is trained, it’s done, we can’t update it anymore.
For years, scientists have been trying to figure out how to work around the problem. If they succeed, AI systems would be able to learn from a new set of training data without overwriting most of what they already knew in the process. Basically, if the robots should someday rise up, our new overlords would be able to conquer all life on Earth and chew bubblegum at the same time.
But still, catastrophic forgetting is one of the major hurdles preventing scientists from building an artificial general intelligence (AGI) — AI that’s all-encompassing, empathetic, and imaginative, like the ones we see in TV and movies.
In fact, a number of AI experts who attended The Joint Multi-Conference on Human-Level Artificial Intelligence last week in Prague said, in private interviews with Futurism or during panels and presentations, that the problem of catastrophic forgetting is one of the top reasons they don’t expect to see AGI or human-level AI anytime soon.
Catastrophic forgetting is one of the top reasons experts don’t expect to see human-level AI anytime soon.
But Irina Higgins, a senior research scientist at Google DeepMind, used her presentation during the conference to announce that her team had begun to crack the code.
She had developed an AI agent — sort of like a video game character controlled by an AI algorithm — that could think more creatively than a typical algorithm. It could “imagine” what the things it encountered in one virtual environment might look like elsewhere. In other words, the neural net was able to disentangle certain objects that it encountered in a simulated environment from the environment itself.
This isn’t the same as a human’s imagination, where we can come up with new mental images altogether (think of a bird — you can probably conjure up an image of what a fictional spherical, red bird might look like in your mind’s eye.) The AI system isn’t that sophisticated, but it can imagine objects that it’s already seen in new configurations or locations.
“We want a machine to learn safe common sense in its exploration so it’s not damaging itself,” said Higgins in her speech at the conference, which had been organized by GoodAI. She had published her paper on the preprint server arXiv earlier that week and also penned an accompanying blog post.
Let’s say you’re walking through the desert (as one does) and you come across a cactus. One of those big, two-armed ones you see in all the cartoons. You can recognize that this is a cactus because you have probably encountered one before. Maybe your office bought some succulents to liven up the place. But even if your office is cactus-free, you could probably imagine what this desert cactus would look like in a big clay pot, maybe next to Brenda from accounting’s desk.
Now Higgins’ AI system can do pretty much the same thing. With just five examples of how a given object looks from various angles, the AI agent learns what it is, how it relates to the environment, and also how it might look from other angles it hasn’t seen or in different lighting. The paper highlights how the algorithm was trained to spot a white suitcase or an armchair. After its training, the algorithm can then imagine how that object would look in an entirely new virtual world and recognize the object when it encounters it there.
“We run the exact setup that I used to motivate this model, and then we present an image from one environment and ask the model to imagine what it would look like in a different environment,” Higgins said. Again and again, her new algorithm excelled at the task compared to AI systems with entangled representations, which could predict fewer qualities and characteristics of the objects.
Image Credit: Emily Cho
In short, the algorithm is able to note differences between what it encounters and what it has seen in the past. Like most people but unlike most other algorithms, the new system Higgins built for Google can understand that it hasn’t come across a brand new object just because it’s seeing something from a new angle. It can then use some spare computational power to take in that new information; the AI system updates what it knows about the world without needing to be retrained and re-learn everything all over again. Basically, the system is able to transfer and apply its existing knowledge to the new environment. The end result is a sort of spectrum or continuum showing how it understands various qualities of an object.
Higgins’ model alone won’t get us to AGI, of course. But it marks an important first step towards AI algorithms that can continuously update as they go, learning new things about the world without losing what they already had.
“I think it’s very crucial to reach anything close to artificial general intelligence,” Higgins said.
“I think it’s very crucial to reach anything close to artificial general intelligence.”
And this work is all still in its early stages. These algorithms, like many other object recognition AI tools, excel at a rather narrow taskwith a constrained set of rules, such as looking at a photo and picking out a face among many things that are not faces. But Higgins’ new AI system is doing a narrow task in such a way that more closely resembles creativity and some digital simulation of an imagination.
And even though Higgins’ research didn’t immediately bring about the era of artificial general intelligence, her new algorithm already has the ability to improve the existing AI systems we use all the time. For instance, Higgins tried her new AI system on a major set of data used to train facial recognition software. After analyzing the thousands and thousands of headshots found in the dataset, the algorithm could create a spectrum of any quality with which those photos have been labeled. As an example, Higgins presented the spectrum of faces rankedby skin tone.
Higgins then revealed that her algorithm was able to do the same for the subjective qualities that also find their ways into these datasets, ultimately teaching human biases to facial recognition AI. Higgins showed how images that people had labeled as “attractive” created a spectrum that pointed straight towards the photos of young, pale women. That means any AI system that had been trained with these photos — and there are many of them out there — now hold the same racist views as do the people who labeled the photos in the first place: that white people are more attractive.
This creative new algorithm is already better than we are when it comes to finding new ways to detect human biases in other algorithms so engineers can go in and remove them.
So while it can’t replace artists quite yet, Higgins’ team’s work is a pretty big step towards getting AI to imagine more like a human and less like an algorithm.
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Solar minimum: A mini ice age coming soon?
Solar minimum: A mini ice age coming soon?
Apparently, the sun is approaching a "solar minimum" again, which would mean several years of cooling for the earth. The result would be a mini ice age lasting several decades.
Already once, between 1645 and 1715, the earth experienced a so-called mini ice age due to a solar minimum, which is also called "Maunder Minimum". In these 70 years, global temperatures fell by an average of 1.3 degrees Celsius. The result: poor harvests, hunger, and revolts.
Now, according to scientists, such a new solar minimum is to come, as the sunspot activities show. Scientists report that the sun was free of sunspots for 133 days this year. This means that the sun is empty for most of the year. Experts further warn that this is a sign that the solar minimum is on the way.
"The sun is flawless again. The face of the sun is empty for the 133rd day of this year," wrote the Space Weather website.
"The sun minimum has returned, bringing additional cosmic radiation, long-lasting holes in the sun's atmosphere and strange pink northern lights," the website continued.
The sun follows a cycle of about 11 years, where it reaches a solar maximum and then a solar minimum. During a solar maximum, the sun emits more heat and sun particles and is covered with sunspots. Less heat in a solar minimum is due to a decrease in the magnetic waves of the sun. It is not expected that our sun will change to a solar minimum by about 2020, but it seems to be moving in this direction a little earlier, which could turn out to be bad news for lovers of warm weather.
It is known that low solar activity has effects on the weather and climate of the Earth, and it is also correlated with an increase in cosmic radiation reaching the upper part of the atmosphere. The empty sun is a sign that the next solar minimum is approaching and there will be more and more immaculate days in the next few years," wrote a meteorological website called Vencore Weather.
Geological evidence proves that the Great Sphinx is 800,000 years old
Geological evidence proves that the Great Sphinx is 800,000 years old
One of the most mysterious and mysterious monuments on the surface of the planet is, without a doubt, the Great Sphinx on the Giza Plateau in Egypt. It is an ancient building that has astounded researchers since its discovery and to this day no one has been able to date the sphinx accurately, as there are no written records or mentions of it in the past.
Now two Ukrainian researchers have put forward a new provocative theory in which they suggest that the Great Sphinx of Egypt is about 800,000 years old. A revolutionary theory supported by scientific knowledge.
The authors of this paper are scientists Manichev Vjacheslav I. (Institute of Environmental Geochemistry of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine) and Alexander G. Parkhomenko (Institute of Geography of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine).
The starting point for these two experts is the paradigm shift initiated by West and Schoch, a "debate" to overcome the orthodox view of Egyptology, which refers to possible distant origins of Egyptian civilization, and on the other hand physical evidence of water erosion that is present at the monuments of the Giza Plateau.
Manichev and Parkhomenko explain: The problem of dating the construction of the Great Sphinx of Egypt still exists despite the long history of research. Geological approaches in conjunction with other scientific methods make it possible to answer the question of the relative age of the Sphinx.
The visual examination of the sphinx led to the conclusion that water from large waters, which partially flooded the monument, played an important role in the formation of undulating depressions on its vertical walls. The morphology of these formations shows an analogy to similar cavities formed by the sea in the coastal zones.
The genetic similarity of the compared erosion forms and the geological structure and petrographic composition of the sedimentary rock complexes lead to the conclusion that the decisive factor for the destruction of the historical monument is rather the wave energy than the sand abrasion in the aeolian process.
Extensive geological literature confirms the existence of long-lived freshwater lakes in different periods of the Quaternary from the Lower Pleistocene to the Holocene. These lakes were scattered over the areas bordering the Nile. The absolute marking of the upper large erosion cave of the sphinx corresponds to the water surface level reached in the early Pleistocene. The Great Egyptian Sphinx had thus already stood on the Giza plateau at this geological (historical) time.
Hadden de farao’s een lijntje met buitenaardsen? Mysterie rond graf van Toetanchamon
Hadden de farao’s een lijntje met buitenaardsen? Mysterie rond graf van Toetanchamon
In 1922 legde Howard Carter het graf van Toetanchamon bloot. In één van de kamers, de Schatkamer, stuitte het team van Carter op een zogenoemde ‘vijfde magische steen’ met daarop een vloek.
Hoewel het graf van andere farao’s slechts vier van deze stenen bevatte, werd in het graf van koning Toet een vijfde gevonden.
Is de vijfde steen een aanwijzing dat er nog iets verborgen ligt in het graf?
Onduidelijke redenen
In 2015 zei egyptoloog Nicolas Reeves te vermoeden dat er nog een verborgen grafkamer moest zijn.
Op scans ontdekte Reeves een scheur waar zich volgens hem mogelijk een deur zou bevinden.
Hij kreeg toestemming om onderzoek te doen in het graf, maar vlak voordat het project van start zou gaan werd de toestemming om onduidelijke redenen weer ingetrokken, vertelt egyptoloog Ramy Romany.
Gevleugelde schijf
Volgens sommige onderzoekers ligt Achnaton, één van meest controversiële farao’s en de vader van Toetanchamon, begraven in één van de verborgen ruimtes.
Achnaton voerde een aantal revolutionaire veranderingen door. Waar Egypte tot dan toe een veelgodendom had, voerde hij het monotheïsme in. De enige god was Aton, de zonneschijf.
De onderzoekers stellen dat die schijf mogelijk geen zonneschijf was, maar een buitenaards wezen. In geschriften wordt gesproken van een ‘gevleugelde schijf’.
Hier op aarde lopen wij steeds meer risico door het toenemende aantal vuurbollen in de lucht, of beter gezegd, al dan niet exploderende meteorieten.
Nu zijn er problemen bij het ruimtestation ISS, veroorzaakt door ruimtepuin, wat ons doet denken aan de laatste “marker” van remote viewer Ed Dames aangaande de komst van Nibiru.
Het internationale ruimtestation ISS is geraakt door een kleine meteoriet, die de nodige schade heeft veroorzaakt. Volgens NASA werd er door een lek lucht weggezogen en de instantie is druk bezig om dit euvel te herstellen. Er zou geen onmiddellijk gevaar zijn.
Hoe zoiets er in de praktijk uit ziet is te zien op de volgende afbeelding, waarop zichtbaar is dat op een bepaald moment alle vijf parkeerplaatsen bij het ISS bezet waren.
Het is de aan het ISS gekoppelde Soyuz module waar de problemen door zijn ontstaan. Volgens de Russische techneuten is er een scheurtje in het schip ontstaan van ongeveer 1,5 mm door de inslag van wat men noemt een micro meteoriet.
Hierdoor wordt lucht en zuurstof vanuit de ISS gezogen, iets dat natuurlijk niet te lang moet duren. Op dit moment bevinden zich zes astronauten aan boord van het ISS en is men druk bezig met het uitwerken van plannen om het probleem op te lossen.
Wat dit verhaal voor ons interessant maakt is dat het ons erg doet denken aan de laatste voorspelling van remote viewer Ed Dames. Of beter gezegd, datgene wat door hem voorspeld is als laatste teken voordat de planeet Nibiru gaat verschijnen.
In de aanloop naar deze ultieme Killshot zijn er door Ed Dames in totaal vijf van dit soort "ijkpunten" aangegeven. Hiervan zijn er inmiddels drie uitgekomen en dus twee nog niet.
4) Nog voordat bekend was dat Noord Korea beschikte over kernbommen, vertelde Ed Dames dat één van de aanwijzingen dat de grote zonnestormen op het punt staan los te barsten het moment is waarop Noord Korea daadwerkelijk gebruikmaakt van een kernbom. Geen test, maar daadwerkelijk gebruiken op een agressieve manier. Moet nog gebeuren.
5) De laatste aanwijzing die zal plaatsvinden net voordat de storm komt is de gedwongen landing/noodlanding/crash van een Space Shuttle. Dit is de term die Dames altijd heeft gebruikt, omdat op het moment dat hij kwam met deze voorspelling de Space Shutlle enig in zijn soort was. Inmiddels is de Shuttle met pensioen, maar zijn er talloze andere militaire objecten in de ruimte die er qua uiterlijk hetzelfde uitzien. Het zal dan waarschijnlijk één van deze objecten zijn die Dames heeft gezien. Moet nog gebeuren.
Gezien de recente ontwikkelingen is er steeds minder kans dat Noord Korea daadwerkelijk kernbommen zal gooien, maar toch komt er een opmerkelijk bericht van Ed Dames waarin deze meedeelt dat zijn vierde voorspelling wel degelijk is uitgekomen.
Wat hij stelt, is dat mensen goed moeten kijken naar wat hij heeft gezegd destijds via de nationale radio en ver voordat bekend was dat Noord Korea beschikte over kernwapens.
We geven hier letterlijk de Engelse tekst zoals Dames die destijds op de radio gebruikte:
"North Korea would use a nuke in anger, resulting in the loss of human life".
Wat Dames nu zegt, is dat mensen er altijd gemakshalve maar vanuit gingen dat Noord Korea daadwerkelijk een kernbom zou gebruiken op een tegenstander. Dat heeft hij inderdaad niet gezegd. Sterker nog, Dames heeft zelf op de radio verklaard dat hij zelf dacht dat er een ontploffing ondergronds of op de grond zou plaatsvinden en niet een bom afgeleverd via een raket.
Waarmee er dan nog één voorwaarde blijft open staan en dat is het ruimtevaartuig/object dat een soort noodlanding op aarde zal maken.
We weten ook dat als onderdeel van de komst van deze planeet het aantal asteroïden en meteorieten aanzienlijk zal toenemen en het is dan ook niet onwaarschijnlijk dat het ISS een keer getroffen gaat worden door een groot brok ruimtepuin. Dat hierdoor dusdanige schade zal ontstaan dat het niet meer te repareren is en dat men besluit een soort noodlandingsscenario in werking te stellen voor het ISS en/of de astronauten.
Het is uiteraard speculeren, maar voor zover ons bekend is het nog niet eerder voorgekomen dat er lekkage is ontstaan in het ISS, veroorzaakt door rondzwervend ruimtepuin.
En tenslotte:
Onze vaste columnist Evert Jan Poorterman is het vaak niet eens met andere Nibiru onderzoekers.
Vandaar hier de mening van Evert Jan, naar aanleiding van ons artikel eerder deze week over de mogelijke gevolgen van de passage van de planeet Nibiru:
Geachte redactie,
er komt GEEN hemellichaam langs de ‘aarde’... omdat de tweede ster zijn weg koerst door de ‘astroïdengordel’ en dat is hier behoorlijk ver vandaan. Ik heb het al eerder gesitueerd; bevinden we ons aan de ‘verkeerde’ kant van de Zon, aan de kant van de passage van de ster, dan bedraagt de afstand ongeveer 340 miljoen kilometer ofwel 2.16 AE (AE = Astronomische Eenheid ofwel afstand Gaia-Zon als maat voor de afstanden in ons stelsel) van de Zon. Wij draaien op een afstand van 1 AE om de Zon en dat is 150 miljoen kilometer! Zitten we aan de ‘goede’ kant van de Zon dan kunnen we daar dus 150 miljoen kilometer bij op tellen en bedraagt de afstand 490 miljoen kilometer. En dat is heel ver! Nancy Lieder mag dan bekender zijn maar haar 23 jaren verbleken bij mijn 32 jaren dat ik der al mee bezig ben... en nogmaals; Amerikanen zijn gek... en als zij denkt dat de ‘planeet’ (die een ster blijkt te zijn...) langs onze planeet scheert, heeft zij de teksten van Zecharia Sitchin niet goed gelezen! En dat geldt overigens voor 99,99% van de ‘onderzoekers’... van dit onderwerp. Waar rook is... is ook vuur! Dus als er drie dagen ‘duisternis’ te verwachten zijn, zijn er ook drie dagen van ‘licht’ te verwachten. Tenzij de hele planeet Gaia in duisternis wordt gehuld. En waardoor dan?! Het gaat me niet om de redactie steeds af te katten, maar om de beste informatie naar buiten te brengen en ja... dan moet ik zwamneus Masters en mevrouw Lieder soms even corrigeren!
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...
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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 74 jaar jong.
Mijn hobby's zijn: Ufologie en andere esoterische onderwerpen.
Op deze blog vind je onder artikels, werk van mezelf. Mijn dank gaat ook naar André, Ingrid, Oliver, Paul, Vincent, Georges Filer en MUFON voor de bijdragen voor de verschillende categorieën...
Veel leesplezier en geef je mening over deze blog.
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UFO researchers release video of strange craft hovering in sky over Carolina town
hrs of knitting, I’m finally ready to fly to the UK. Now I just need to pack the entire universe into my suitcase! I’ll see you all soon 
The tapestry is installed and the planets in the sky have now aligned with those in the knitting
![The Pioneer plaque is a gold-anodized aluminum plate with these images engraved onto it. (Credit: NASA Ames Resarch Center [NASA-ARC])](http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/crux/files/2018/08/Pioneer10plaque.jpg)
