Are Aliens Really Building a &#039;Megastructure&#039; Around Tabby&#039;s Star?

Geschreven door peter om 12:45 Stuur door

Vrijdag 9 juni 2017

The Famous "Wow!" Signal Probably Wasn't Chatty Aliens After All

The Famous "Wow!" Signal Probably Wasn't Chatty Aliens After All

BY IAN O'NEILL

It's hard not to be a little disappointed that a comet seems to have been behind the Wow! signal.

COMMONS/ART MONTES DE OCA/GETTY

It looks like one of the most famous signals in the history of searches for intelligent extraterrestrials wasn't triggered by chatty aliens after all – it was likely caused by a mischievous comet that was in the wrong place at the wrong time.

On Aug. 15, 1977, Ohio State University's Big Ear radio telescope was fixed on three star systems called Chi Sagittarii in the constellation of Sagittarius as part of a SETI (search for extraterrestrial intelligence) project when it detected something weird.

For 72 seconds, a powerful burst of radio waves erupted from deep space. On reviewing the computer printout from that observing session a few days later, astronomer Jerry Ehman noticed the strange clump of letters and numbers. To the untrained eye, the digits are nothing more than a random computer burp. But to Ehman, the message was clear: An unprecedented narrowband radio signal had been received from deep space, and it looked artificial. Excited by the find, Ehman circled the cluster of letters and numbers, writing an exuberant "Wow!" on the printout.

"I mean, without thinking, I wrote "Wow!"" Ehman recalled during a 1994 interview. "It was the most significant thing we had seen."

As time went on, Ehman became skeptical that Big Ear had detected an alien transmission, saying: "Even if it were intelligent beings sending a signal, they'd do it far more than once." After dozens of investigations into that same region, he had settled on the idea that the signal was more likely a radio signal bouncing off space debris, like a defunct satellite, than anything SETI related.

Astronomers exhaustively continued to seek out natural explanations, but the popular view of the signal always tended toward the improbable (yet possible). Nearly four decades later, the "Wow!" signal has remained the most captivating pieces of evidence that alien life – an intelligent, transmitting alien civilization, no less – might exist in our galaxy.

But over the years, SETI astronomers have been frustrated by the lack of replication. Science is a stickler for replicating results, so while the Wow! signal was certainly interesting, until more Wow! signals are found, the 1977 detection was nothing more than an anomaly and a mysterious addition to the SETI annals.

Last year, however, Antonio Paris, an adjunct professor at Florida's St. Petersburg College and a former analyst for the U.S. Department of Defense, had an idea that would assess the Wow! signal's cause and, from November 2016 to February 2017, he tested his hypothesis.

Paris had been trying to find alternatives to the "alien explanation" of the Wow! radio burst, and he realized that the explanation might be a little closer to home.

Big Ear was tuned to a very specific radio frequency for good reason. The universe is filled with neutral hydrogen and, in this natural state, radiates radio waves at a frequency of 1420 megahertz. Any self-respecting alien astronomer would know this. By SETI logic, if we know 1420 megahertz is the most abundant radio emission in the known universe and they also know it, perhaps it is the perfect frequency to transmit on as there is some guarantee that other intelligent beings are observing at that frequency. There's an entire electromagnetic spectrum to transmit from, why not narrow down the odds from the get-go?

However, Paris pondered another possible emitter of 1420 megahertz radiation: comets. Comets contain large quantities of water ice and therefore release neutral hydrogen gas into space as they orbit the sun. At the time of the Big Ear observation, there were no known comets in the Chi Sagittarii observing region. But many comets have been discovered since then – might an undiscovered comet have "photobombed" the Big Ear 1977 observations?

Paris identified two cometary candidates, comets 266P/Christensen and 335P/Gibbs, which were discovered in 2006 and 2008 respectively that, after historic orbital analysis, would have placed them in the general vicinity of Chi Sagittarii on Aug. 15, 1977. And it just so happened that 266P/Christensen was soon making a return visit to the same patch of sky. So, between November 2016 and February 2017 an exhaustive observing campaign was carried out. This time, the detection was replicated, and it appears that aliens had nothing to do with the infamous Wow! signal.

"The investigation discovered that comet 266/P Christensen emitted a radio signal at 1420.25MHz," Paris writes in a study published in the Journal for the Washington Academy of Science. "All radio emissions detected were within 1° (60 arcminutes) of the known celestial coordinates of the comet as it transited the neighborhood of the "Wow!" Signal."

As part of the study, Paris also studied the emissions from a random selection of three other comets – P/2013 EW90 (Tenagra), P/2016 J1-A (PANSTARRS), and 237P/LINEAR – and found that, yes, they also produced a strong 1420 megahertz radio signal.

In short, this could be the last nail in the coffin for the alien explanation of the Wow! signal.

"The results of this investigation, therefore, conclude that cometary spectra are detectable at 1420 MHz and, more importantly, that the 1977 "Wow!" Signal was a natural phenomenon from a solar system body," Paris concludes, bluntly.

{ http://science.howstuffworks.com/ }

Geschreven door peter om 12:33 Stuur door

Vrijdag 9 juni 2017

Zes planeten rondom TRAPPIST-1 hebben een aardachtige samenstelling

Zes planeten rondom TRAPPIST-1 hebben een aardachtige samenstelling

Tim Kraaijvanger

Zes van de zeven planeten in het planetaire systeem van TRAPPIST-1 hebben een aardachtige samenstelling. Dit concluderen wetenschappers op basis van duizenden simulaties van de planetenbanen.

TRAPPIST-1f is de enige planeet die anders is dan de rest. Deze exoplaneet bestaat voor 25 procent uit water. Dit is bijzonder, omdat de planeet ongeveer even groot is als de aarde, maar wel iets lichter is dan onze wereld. Omdat TRAPPIST-1f zo groot is, zorgt de luchtdruk ervoor dat water in stoom verandert. Vandaar dat het waarschijnlijk te warm is voor leven zoals we dat op aarde kennen.

“Het doel van de zoektocht naar exoplaneten is om planeten te vinden die lijken op de aarde en wellicht leefbaar zijn”, zegt onderzoeker Billy Quarles van de universiteit van Oklahoma. “Al duizenden jaren zoeken astronomen naar buitenaardse werelden waar leven mogelijk is.”

TRAPPIST-1 is een interessant systeem op zo’n veertig lichtjaar van de aarde. Het bestaat uit een moederster en zeven planeten die qua grootte vergelijkbaar zijn met de aarde. Zeker drie van deze planeten bevinden zich in de leefbare zone (en kunnen in theorie dus vloeibaar water herbergen).

De simulaties van Quarles laten zien dat zes van de zeven exoplaneten wel aardachtig zijn. Dit betekent dat ze grotendeels uit steen bestaan, net als onze planeet. De beste kandidaat voor leven is TRAPPIST-1e. En omdat de planeten zo dicht bij elkaar staan, kunnen eventuele levensvormen zich in theorie gemakkelijk van de ene naar de andere planeet begeven.

Bronmateriaal:

"OU Astrophysicist Identifies Composition of Earth-Size Planets in TRAPPIST-1 System" - Universiteit van Oklahoma

{ https://www.scientias.nl/ }

Geschreven door peter om 12:19 Stuur door

Vrijdag 9 juni 2017

Brachten kometen veel xenon naar de aarde?

Brachten kometen veel xenon naar de aarde?

Tim Kraaijvanger

Het xenon in de xenonlamp van jouw auto heeft een buitenaardse oorsprong. Het edelgas is namelijk door kometen naar de aarde gebracht.

Xenon is in 1898 ontdekt, toen het edelgas als residu achterbleef tijdens het verdampen van vloeibare lucht. Het wordt gebruikt in bacteriële lampen, elektronenflitsers en in verschillende xenonlampen. In de atmosfeer van de aarde komt een klein beetje xenon voor: 0,05 ppm (deeltjes per miljoen). Dit betekent dat 0,000008% van de atmosfeer uit xenon bestaat. In vergelijking: onze atmosfeer bestaat voor ruim 78% uit stikstof en voor bijna 21% uit zuurstof.

Het zwaarste stabiele edelgas heeft negen verschillende isotopen. Maar waar komen die vandaan? Wetenschappers hebben daarvoor ESA’s Rosetta-ruimtesonde gebruikt. Dit ruimtevaartuig vloog de afgelopen jaren om de komeet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko. De wetenschappers zagen hoe deze komeet xenon lekte, omdat de komeet de zon naderde en dus opwarmde. Het edelgas zat blijkbaar opgeslagen in het miljarden jaren oude komeetijs.

De onderzoekers hebben de samenstelling van xenon op 67P geanalyseerd en beweren in een nieuw paper dat het xenongas de ‘missing link’ is waar lang naar werd gezocht. De samenstelling van xenongas op aarde komt overeen met de signatuur van xenon op de komeet. De wetenschappers concluderen dat 22% van al het aardse xenon een kometaire oorsprong heeft.

Bronmateriaal:

"Comets may have delivered significant portions of Earth's xenon" - Eurekalert

{ https://www.scientias.nl/ }

Geschreven door peter om 12:15 Stuur door

Vrijdag 9 juni 2017

NEW CIA DOCUMENT REVEALS CARL JUNG ACCUSED THE AIR FORCE OF WITHHOLDING INFORMATION ON UFOS

NEW CIA DOCUMENT REVEALS CARL JUNG ACCUSED THE AIR FORCE OF WITHHOLDING INFORMATION ON UFOS

ARJUN WALIA

When a number of UFOs violated Washington airspace in 1952, the entire country went on alert and the news spread nationwide. Shortly after the incident, President Harry Truman was forced to hold a press conference to address the event. After that conference, as well as the big UFO wave proceeding the atomic bomb, the subject was engulfed in secrecy.

Similar to the recent leaks revealing the extent of the NSA surveillance programs, the UFO subject went into the category of unacknowledged and waived Special Access Programs. According to a 1997 U.S. Senate report, these programs are “so sensitive that they are exempt from standard reporting requirements to the Congress.”

Former head of the CIA Roscoe Hilenkoetter put it best in 1960 when he told the nation that “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.” (source)

Today, it’s a different story. A number of governments and government agencies, as well as thousands of Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests, have all released previously classified files confirming the existence of UFOs. To compliment these, hundreds (if not thousands) of high-ranking whistleblowers have also shared their stories.

The topic is currently leaving the realm of the fringe and entering into the mainstream at a rapid pace. Just as there was evidence for UFOs, there is also evidence that some of them are indeed extraterrestrial in origin.

This is all becoming normalized, and more and more people are starting to open their mind to the possibility, and evidence, that the government (and those who puppet it) is withholding information about intelligent extraterrestrial visitation to our planet.

The Document

The declassified document comes as part of the batch of thousands that were recently released by the CIA. These documents deal with a number of subjects, ranging from CIA parapsychology experiments to information about UFOs.

One of the documents, written by a “Fred A. Kirsch,” reads as a “sanitized copy approved for released.” In other words, it’s been cleared of (what they deem as) information too sensitive for public access. It reads as follows:

“This is a reply to the letter criticizing Dr. Carl Jung for his belief in flying saucers and his charges that the Air Force has been covering up the truth about these objects. I would like to point out that Dr. Jung is not the first person of integrity and reputation who has made such charges. He is merely the latest.”

The document goes on to name other people as well, including Hillenkoetter:

Exactly the same charge has been made by Admiral Delmar Fahrney, former director of the naval guided missile research program, and by R.M., Hillenkoetter, former chief of the Central Intelligence Agency. . . .

If Jung were the only responsible person to make such charges, we could brush the whole thing off as nonsense. However, when a number of pilots, radar operators and other trained observers agree that UFOs are real, a serious reappraisal of the situation is in order.

It’s not anywhere near as significant as all of the other documentation and information that’s out there pertaining to the UFO subject, but nevertheless stands as another great example of how the CIA has been keeping tabs on the phenomenon.

To learn more about other aspects of this phenomenon, you can sift through the exopolitics section of our website.

This document clearly states, and further validates the many who have also argued, that Jung really believed in this phenomenon and supported the extraterrestrial hypothesis as a possible explanation for the existence of UFOs.

He even wrote a book about the subject titled Flying Saucers: A Modern Myth of Things Seen in the Skywhere he speculates about their nature, approaching the subject from a psychological rather than personal standpoint.

According to The Guardian, Jung had studied UFOs for more than a decade and stated that he “cannot even say whether they exist or not,” and that he was risking his “hard-won reputation for truthfulness, reliability and capacity for scientific judgement.”

He has also been quoted as saying, “In the course of years, I have gathered together a considerable mass of observations, included in which are reports by two eyewitnesses known to me personally (I have never seen anything!). I have also read on the question. However, I can only say for certain: these things are not a mere rumour: something has been seen.”

He then goes on to discuss what the above CIA document mentions:

What astonishes me the most is that the American Air Force, despite all the information in its possession and its so-called fear of creating panic, seems o work systematically to do that very thing (witness the Orson Welles radio play at New Jersey) since it has never yet published an authentic and certain account of the facts, only occasionally allowing information to be dragged out of it by journalists.

I also found a link to these quotes from this Princeton blog post.

It’s quite amazing to see just how many ‘credible’ people have been speaking up about this topic after examining the evidence, for decades, and now we know that this long list includes Carl Jung.

{http://www.collective-evolution.com/ }

Geschreven door peter om 11:54 Stuur door

Vrijdag 9 juni 2017

Royal Canadian Air Force Causes UFO Scare Over Lake Ontario

Royal Canadian Air Force Causes UFO Scare Over Lake Ontario

Brett Tingley

Social media and local news outlets throughout upstate New York were swamped with reports of strange lights over Lake Ontario on the evening of May 23rd. Just around dusk, a formation of eerie floating lights appeared over the Canadian side of the lake, prompting curiosity from hundreds of local residents.

Many social media users believed the lights could be drones.

Many social media users speculated the lights could be drones.

Eyewitness Kate Caven told local Buffalo news station WIVB that residents throughout the Lake Ontario region were perplexed about the source of the lights, which seemed to hover in the air above the lake:

Some people were concerned maybe they were distress signals, but we couldn’t see any boats. And then some people mentioned maybe a meteor shower, but again they weren’t really moving. So that’s pretty much what most people were saying other than UFOs or aliens. I joked around with my friend Matt who was with me, if they were coming to take us, I was ready, that that wasn’t a bad way to go out if I could see an alien.

It sure wouldn’t be, Karen. Shortly after the reports came in, however, the Royal Canadian Air Force (RCAF) claimed responsibility for the sighting. According to an RCAF spokesperson, the lights were training flares dropped by a Hercules Model 8 CCC-130H aircraft in the 424th squadron out of 8 wing Trenton, Ontario, who were conducting a search and rescue exercise in the area.

Smoke trails can be seen trailing behind each descending flare.

However, there are some alleged inconsistencies in the RCAF’s story. The RCAF spokesperson’s statement claims the flares were dropped around 9:30 p.m., yet some social media commenters noted that they observed the flares hours earlier. Other commenters noted that the lights appeared to move up and down in the air above the lake. Of course, the mind sometimes sees what it wants to see, and at such a distance, it could be difficult to judge movement.

After the RCAF claimed similar exercises are routine, some residents wondered why flares aren’t a more common sight.

Meanwhile, according to a few sources, the U.S. Coast Guard reportedly initially ruled out basic flares as the source of the phenomenon. However, a quick comparison with images of artillery flares indeed shows a clear resemblance to the Lake Ontario lights. While a government UFO cover-up makes for great headlines, this case is likely exactly what the RCAF says it was.

Artillery illumination rounds are commonly used in military operations.

TAGS: Canada, flare, Royal Canadian Air Force, UFO Conjectures, UFO explained, UFOs

HLN.be - Het Laatste Nieuws ( NL)

Geschreven door peter om 11:46 Stuur door

Vrijdag 9 juni 2017

The Next Great Aircraft - Triangle UFOs?

The Next Great Aircraft - Triangle UFOs?

A MUFON field investigators and witnesses we are exposed to pssoble military aircraft, sometimes secret aircraft not yet declssified. Recently Florida MUFON went through a UFO Flap involving large triangle craft gliding silantly over the Greater Tampa Bay area. Here are just a few of the collection of witness testimonies.

Case 60636

I was at home and went outside around 10:30pm to make a call and as always, I look up at the sky. I caught something out of the corner of my eye and turned to face it. I thought it was an aircraft at first since Im airline crew.

As, I continued to study the aircraft, I realized it wasnt making any sound, had no lights. It appeared to by gliding about 500 feet up and was reflecting the orange glow of the street lights.

I became anxious and excited as I watched the object disappear behind the trees. I wanted to see more.

Case 60634

"I live in a condo on the first floor overlooking a small lake. I usually sit on my screened-in porch every night to watch planes. I live fairly close to two airports and I've enjoyed watching planes since I was a child. The sighting

of this object actually took me by surprise a little because there was no sound. If I hadn't been watching for planes I never would have seen it. When I saw it my immediate reaction was UFO because it was like nothing I had ever seen before. The whole sighting lasted no more than about 4 seconds. There were no running lights, no sound and the shape unlike any plane. It was very large, a boomerang-type shape but with more rounded edges, (I think 5) very white but dim lights on the underside which seemed to illuminate the craft. Without the lights I would not have been able to see it because it was the same color as the night sky and was very camouflaged, almost transparent-looking. It made no sound at all and looked like it was gliding more than flying through the air. It flew from left to right heading in a southeasterly direction, moving parallel to my porch. I lost sight of it when it went behind the trees on our property. For a while I remained on the porch looking for it, hoping it would come back. It did cross my mind at one point that perhaps it was an experimental aircraft headed towards MacDill Air Force Base which is in the direction it was flying. It certainly seemed to have stealth-like technology and almost appeared as if it was cloaked. The longer I stayed on my porch watching the skies the more apprehensive I became and decided to come in the house. My heart was pounding, I was shaking and it took me a while to calm myself down."

Both of these cases were considered Identified flying Objects with the possibility of being the B2 steaalth bombers on apprach to MicDill Air Force Base. This is certainly a possibility but as the years have go by we have recieved numerus reports of these strange, very large "Boomarang" stype craft. Witnesses often never get a very close look at one but when they do, it really is hard to catigorize as a B2 and the flight characterisitics often go way beyond that of the known capabilities of the B2.

{ http://www.floridamufon.org/ }

ARTICLES of MUFON ( ENG)

Geschreven door peter om 11:33 Stuur door

Vrijdag 9 juni 2017

NASA breekt zich het hoofd over mysterieuze kuil in 'Zwitserse kaas' op Mars - HLN.be

NASA breekt zich het hoofd over mysterieuze kuil in 'Zwitserse kaas' op Mars - HLN.be

joeri.jpg?7.5.0.20170602 Door: Joeri Vlemings

© NASA.

STERRENKUNDE NASA doopte het terrein op Mars het "Zwitserse kaas-gebied". Het landschap op de recente foto hierboven van de 'Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter' - al elf jaar aan de slag op de rode planeet - vertoont inderdaad een zekere gelijkenis met de gaten in een kaas. Maar wat vooral opvalt, is de merkwaardige veel grotere en diepere kuil in de bodem van de rode planeet. Wetenschappers krabben zich in de haren: wat is dit?

Het 'Zwitserse kaas-gebied' is gelokaliseerd in de zuidelijke hemisfeer van Mars. Het bevroren kooldioxideterrein telt verscheidene ondiepe putten, 'kaasgaten' veroorzaakt door sublimatie die bepaalde stukken droogijs gasvormig maakt. Heel Mars bulkt van de kraters en depressies, onder meer door meer dan een half miljoen meteorietinslagen en door vulkaanuitbarstingen. Maar dit gat gaat veel dieper, dwars door het ijs en het stof heen.

Wetenschappers vragen zich af of die onverklaarbare put het gevolg is van een zware inslag op Mars dan wel of de bodem er is ingezakt met een bijna perfecte cirkel als resultaat. De diameter van de kuil wordt geschat op enkele honderden meters.

{ http://www.hln.be/ }

Geschreven door peter om 11:16 Stuur door

Vrijdag 9 juni 2017

AMAZING! PROOF OF 'ALIEN LIFE' REVEALED AS SAMPLES FROM ISS SURFACE!

AMAZING! PROOF OF 'ALIEN LIFE' REVEALED AS SAMPLES FROM ISS SURFACE!

The search for extraterrestrial lifeforms goes ever so forward as science gives long leaps of progress, enabling humanity to explore the far reaches of the cosmos.

One remarkable discovery regarding alien lifeforms was made recently as microbial life from cosmic dust, and comet debris was found scattered on the surface of the International Space Stations (ISS).

The astonishing claims are set to rock the world of space science and have been hailed as one, if not the “most significant scientific development of the century”.

Samples taken from the surface of the ISS windows are thought to contain living creatures related to plankton or algae, Russian scientists have confirmed in the past few days.

We are closer than ever to acknowledge the existence of life outside our planet.

This could also prove that life on Earth could have evolved from organisms that came from the far reaches of the universe. Watch the following video to know more!

Originally published by:

http://www.express.co.uk/news/science/814639/aliens-exist-scientists-breakthrough-ISS-samples-space

RELATED ARTICLES

This is an amazing find by accident and may trigger research of growing organism in space for astronauts. Planktons are found on the surface of sea or river. These planktons are microscopic organisms which may be a protozoan, crustacean, diatoms, eggs

Geschreven door peter om 10:55 Stuur door

Vrijdag 9 juni 2017

NEW STRANGE LIGHTS OVER POPOCATEPETL VOLCANO, 2017

NEW STRANGE LIGHTS OVER POPOCATEPETL VOLCANO, 2017

Volcanoes have been a favorite site for alien hunters over the years. Now a strange series of lights above the Popocatepetl volcano in Mexico have got conspiracy theorists excited once again. The sightings, they say, suggest aliens are studying Earth's geothermal activity so that they can understand how it works.

The active Popocatepetl Volcano is located 60 km southeast of the Mexican capital, Ciudad de Mexico; it is situated on the borders of the Mexican states of Morelos, Puebla, and Mexico, is located about 60 km southeast of Mexico City.

Were the volcanoes portals for extraterrestrial bases? This question haunts most ufologists since it is even common to see UFOs coming in and out of their mouths. The most recent sighting occurred on the volcano Popocatepetl located in Mexico.

The volcano is a constant target of this type of phenomenon, and there are hundreds of images to confirm this. The most famous were what was filmed by the television network Televisa, where a UFO of kilometer proportions was recorded entering the active volcano.

RELATED ARTICLES

{ http://www.disclose.tv/ }

Geschreven door peter om 10:40 Stuur door

Vrijdag 9 juni 2017

NASA's 'Mars batmobile' revealed: Radical concept has a detachable lab to look for life on the red planet and can reach 70mph

NASA's 'Mars batmobile' revealed: Radical concept has a detachable lab to look for life on the red planet and can reach 70mph

Radical concept has been unveiled by NASA at the at the Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex
Could be the inspiration for future rovers for the first manned missions to the red planet
Electric vehicle has six wheels and is made entirely of carbon fibre and aluminium
Designed to accommodate four astronauts, it has its own detachable laboratory

By Mark Prigg For Dailymail.com

At first glance, it looks like the Batmobile.

But in fact, this radical vehicle was designed to scour Mars in search for alien life.

The radical concept has been unveiled by NASA at the at the Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex, and could be the inspiration for future rovers for the first manned missions to the red planet.

Scroll down for video

A full-sized Nasa Mars rover has been in development since late 2016, and it looks a lot like the Batmobile. The angular concept vehicle has six wheels, is made entirely of carbon fibre and aluminium, and is battery-powered

NASA'S BATMOBILE

Measures 28 feet (8.5m) long, 13 feet (4m) wide, and 11 feet (3.4m) tall

Estimated weight of 5,000 pounds (2,250kg)

Rear area is a detachable lab, while the front area is a cockpit for scouting

Made entirely of carbon fibre and aluminium

Six wheels that measure 50 inches (1.3m) tall, 30 inches (75cm) wide

Battery powered using solar panels

Top speed of 60-70 miles per hour (95-110kph)

The full-sized Nasa Mars rover has been in development since late 2016, and it looks a lot like the Batmobile.

The angular concept vehicle has six wheels, is made entirely of carbon fibre and aluminium, and is solar-powered.

It was designed to accommodate four astronauts and has its own detachable laboratory.

'While this exact rover is not expected to operate on Mars, one or more of its elements could make its way into a rover astronauts will drive on the Red Planet.' NASA says.

The builders of the scientifically-themed Mars rover concept vehicle, Parker Brothers Concepts of Port Canaveral, Florida, incorporated input into its design from NASA subject matter experts.

It rover operates on an electric motor, powered by solar panels and a 700-volt battery.

The rover separates in the middle with the front area designed for scouting and equipped with a radio and navigation provided by the Global Positioning System.

The back section serves as a laboratory which can disconnect for autonomous research.

Following several weeks on display at Kennedy's visitor complex, the Mars rover concept vehicle will be displayed at several locations.

From July through August, it will be displayed at several locations during a tour along the East Coast.

The Mars rover concept vehicle will then return to the visitor complex to be part of the new Astronaut Training Experience attraction opening in the fall of this year.

According to Rebecca Shireman, assistant manager of public relations for the Kennedy visitor complex, the 'Summer of Mars' program will provide a survey of NASA's studies of the Red Planet.

'It's an all-encompassing effort to review the history of our efforts to explore Mars and look ahead to what is being planned,' she said.

'We hope this will encourage young people to want to learn more about being a part of the effort to go to Mars.'

Its six wheels are 50 inches (1.3m) tall, 30 inches (75cm) wide, and are specially designed with air ducts to let the coarse red sands of Mars slip through, Business Insider reports.

The 28 feet (8.5m) long, 13 feet (4m) wide, and 11 feet (3.4m) tall vehicle has not been officially weighed, but its developers estimate it reaches 5,000 pounds (2,250kg).

The rover looks similar to the Batmobile from Batman Begins

Marc Parker, a designer and builder of the new rover, told Business Insider that the buggy is a six-wheeled, all-electric vehicle that was created 'with every intention' of overcoming rocky obstacles on Mars.

He said that the rover could hit top speeds of 60-70 miles per hour (95-110kph), but would not disclose its cost.

'What we actually came up with was a dual-purpose vehicle. It actually separates in the middle,' he said.

'The rear section is a full lab, the front area is a cockpit for going out and doing scouting.

'The lab section can actually disconnect ... and be left on its own to do autonomous research.

The rover separates in the middle with the front area designed for scouting and equipped with a radio and navigation provided by the Global Positioning System.

The rover was designed to accommodate four astronauts to explore the surface of Mars and acts as a portable laboratory. Its six wheels are 50 inches (1.3m) tall, 30 inches (75cm) wide, and are specially designed with ducts to let the coarse red sands of Mars slip through

'That way the scout vehicle can go out to do its thing without the fuel consumption and extra weight, then come back later.'

Unfortunately, the sci-fi concept will never touch down on the red planet.

Nasa is taking it on a cross-country tour of the US for the agency's upcoming 'Summer of Mars' event, Mr Parker said.

The educational programme is designed to inspire the public about space exploration.

Mr Parker and his brother Shanon started work on the rover in November after Nasa approached them with the idea.

Their company, Parker Brothers Concepts, normally builds 'outlandish' vehicles for movie and TV productions.

But Nasa did not fund the rover, Mr Parker said, which instead relied on financing from a private company involved in the project.

'We're also filming for a reality television series that's going to be coming out about this build,' Mr Parker said.

It took the Parker brothers around five months to construct the vehicle from late November 2016 through to early April 2017.

The back section serves as a laboratory which can disconnect for autonomous research.

The builders of the scientifically-themed Mars rover concept vehicle, Parker Brothers Concepts of Port Canaveral, Florida, incorporated input into its design from NASA subject matter experts.

The small team consisted of the company's two owners plus a few of their employees, as well as a number of suppliers they deal with.

'Me and the guys, we averaged about 80 to 100 hours a week, each,' Mr Parker said.

'We worked 10-, 12-, 14-hour days, seven days a week since late last year.

'If I thought about how many hours we put into this thing, I'd probably cry. It's way too many.'

Read more:

{ http://www.dailymail.co.uk/ }

ALIEN LIFE, UFO- CRASHES, ABDUCTIONS, MEN IN BLACK, ed ( FR. , NL; E )

Geschreven door peter om 01:48 Stuur door

Vrijdag 9 juni 2017

Expert: We’ll Find Alien Life in the Next 10 to 15 Years, but It Won’t Be Intelligent

Expert: We’ll Find Alien Life in the Next 10 to 15 Years, but It Won’t Be Intelligent

by Kristin Houser

The Search for Life

From highly trained scientists toiling away at research institutes to amateur enthusiasts gazing upward from their backyards, humanity boasts no shortage of people looking for life beyond Earth. Add to that the massive size of the universe — estimates range in the trillions of galaxies — and probability dictates that we should have already encountered another species by now.

And yet, we still have no evidence that we aren’t alone in the universe.

However, according to astronomy researcher Chris Impey, this hunt for life beyond Earth may soon yield results. In an interview with Futurism, he revealed that he believes that we are less than two decades away from finding extraterrestrial life…but it may not be the kind of life we were hoping for: “I put my money on detecting microbial life in 10 to 15 years, but not at all detecting intelligent life.”

Hide and Seek on a Cosmic Level

While Impey is skeptical that intelligent life is within our sights, he does have a couple of suggestions as to where we should focus our search for extraterrestrial lifeforms, intelligent or not. The first is our own backyard, or, more accurately, our own solar system.

While Impey tells Futurism he doesn’t rule out the possibility that life still exists on Mars, he says that those lifeforms are likely below the surface and are, therefore, much harder to detect. As such, he asserts that we have a better chance of finding evidence of life that used to exist on the Red Planet: “If we actually get Mars rocks back here to Earth from a place that we think could have been habitable in the past, then we might find evidence of prior life.”

Other bodies in our solar system could potentially host life as well, according to Impey, including the water world Europa (one of Jupiter’s several moons). He thinks future missions targeting the satellite could yield helpful—if not entirely conclusive—results, asserting that they should at least give us “some better idea if that ocean could have life in it.”

Of course, our solar system is just one very small corner of a very massive universe, so we’d be remiss if we didn’t look beyond it for signs of life. To narrow down the scope of our search, Impey suggests targeting the many exo-Earths we’ve already uncovered. Instead of focusing on the planets’ surfaces, though, we should research their atmospheres.

In the next few years, we’ll be able to use the James Web Space Telescope and other detection devices to look for biomarkers such as oxygen and methane in the atmospheres of these Earth-like planets, says Impey. “This biomarker experiment…could find evidence of microbial life indirectly,” he explains. The research should help us pinpoint the planets that are “the closest to Earth as possible, not in distance, but in character,” he adds, and since Earth is the only place we know life exists, finding the most Earth-like planets is our best bet for finding life.

Any Life Is Better Than No Life

Even if Impey is right, and humanity is still decades away from finding intelligent alien life, the discovery of microbial life on Mars, Europa, or one of the thousands of exoplanets we’ve identified would still be a huge development. It would mean Earth isn’t unique, that something else living is out there.

We could use the knowledge we glean from studying this microbial life to narrow down our hunt for other, more complex organisms. By providing valuable insights into how other living beings are able to survive on worlds far different from our own, this microbial life could help in our quest to become a multi-planetary species. Even the discovery of past microbial life would be helpful, as it could serve as something of a cautionary tale, providing us with the opportunity to learn and ensure we don’t meet the same fate.

As Impey notes, thanks to dramatic advances in technology, we’ve never been better equipped to discover life beyond Earth than we are right now: “Every new SETI experiment done now is about as good as the sum of all previous SETI experiments put together.”

However, even if all of the currently planned experiments and missions came up short, Impey doesn’t envision humanity giving up the hunt for extraterrestrial life any time soon: “The first SETI experiment was in 1959, so obviously it has been going on for over half a century without any success. The people who do it don’t seem put off by failure.”

This interview has been slightly edited for clarity and brevity.

References: CalTech, Chris Impey, Space.com

{ https://futurism.com/ }

Geschreven door peter om 01:32 Stuur door

Vrijdag 9 juni 2017

IETS MEER DUIDELIJK IN HET RAADSEL VAN DE KLEINE WITTE VLIEGENDE BOLLEN ? ( VIDEO )

IETS MEER DUIDELIJK IN HET RAADSEL VAN DE KLEINE WITTE VLIEGENDE BOLLEN ? ( VIDEO )

Niet alleen in ons land, maar overal ter wereld zien mensen kleine witte bollen door de lucht vliegen.

Formeel zijn het UFO’s, maar tot nu toe heeft nog niemand echt nog een antwoord op wat voor dingen dat nu eigenlijk zijn.

Misschien komt het omdat het zomer is en er meer blauwe luchten zijn, maar de laatste weken is er een soort permanente stroom van waarnemingen overal ter wereld van vliegende ronde witte bollen ook wel orbs genoemd.

Zoals de volgende in Iran die wij al eerder lieten zien.

Maar, ook in Nederland komen deze voor, zoals onlangs in Heerde:

Zo zijn er talloze opnames te vinden van overal ter wereld, maar nog nooit was er iemand in geslaagd om deze bollen in wat meer detail vast te leggen.

Maar, daar is nu verandering in gekomen door iemand in Turkije en wel uit Antalya.

Hij is er in geslaagd om een dergelijke witte bol te filmen, maar ook om deze dichterbij te halen zodat we wat meer informatie krijgen.

En dichterbij ziet zo’n witte bol er als volgt uit:

xxx

Dan wordt duidelijk dat het wel degelijk om een solide object gaat wat voor het grootste deel schijnt te bestaan uit een soort groot licht.

Vooral het onderste gedeelte van het object verandert nog wel eens van kleur zoals te zien op het volgende plaatje waarbij het onderste deel er nu roodachtig uit ziet.

xxx

Het object zonder in te zoomen, ziet er zo uit:

xxx

Hier volgen de bewegende beelden zoals ze enkele dagen geleden zijn opgenomen.

Wanneer we wat rondkijken op het Youtubekanaal van deze man, dan zien we dat hij meerdere keren dit soort objecten heeft weten vast te leggen. Niet alleen in Antalya, maar ook enkele keren in Istanboel.

De eerste keer dat hij een dergelijke opname maakte, was in december 2013 en die zag er zo uit:

De video’s hebben alle kenmerken van een echte opname, maar helemaal zeker weet je het niet. Bovendien kunnen we ook het commentaar van de man wat hij af en toe in de video geeft, niet verstaan.

Maar, als we er vanuit gaan dat deze opname echt is, dan is het toch wel heel bijzonder dat hij ze zo kan filmen en ook dat hij dat inmiddels meerdere keren heeft kunnen doen.

Het blijkt keer op keer dat sommige mensen altijd UFO’s zien en andere mensen nooit.

{ http://www.niburu.co/ }

NineForNews. nl ( new ipv NIBURU.nl) (NL)

Geschreven door peter om 00:22 Stuur door

Vrijdag 9 juni 2017

Blackout: Strange Phenomena That Occurs During Solar Eclipses

Blackout: Strange Phenomena That Occurs During Solar Eclipses

Micah Hanks

This August 21, 2017, a rare total eclipse of the sun will be visible across much of the United States. Already being dubbed as “The Great American Total Solar Eclipse,” it is expected to be seen across the country in a line crossing roughly between Oregon and South Carolina, as the sun disappears behind the moon, resulting in a sudden drop in temperature and the temporary onset of twilight.

Throughout history, a variety of mythological interpretations existed about what caused solar eclipses. For instance, in ancient China, it was often professed that a massive dragon had eaten the sun; hence why the ancient Chinese word for eclipse– chih–also means “to eat.”

Eclipse photographed by the crew of Apollo 12.

Apart from traditional beliefs about eclipses, there are a number of different unusual phenomena that have been observed during eclipses as well. For instance, the so-called “eclipse shadow-band anomalies” that occur as the sun passes behind the moon have been recorded by astronomers over the years. Researcher J.L. Codona described them thusly in a 1991 article in Sky and Telescope:

“[The bands resemble] mysterious gray ripples are sometimes seen flitting over the ground within a minute or two of totality. The bands are initially faint and jumbled; but as totality approaches, they become more organized, their spacing decreases to a few centimeters, and their visibility improves. After totality ends the bands can reappear and become progressively fainter and more disorganized until they disappear. Shadow bands seem to move perpendicularly to their length, but this is only an illusion. It stems from a lack of features that allow the eye to track motion along the length of the bands.”

It was suggested by Codona that this particular anomaly may likely result from a “twinkling effect” resulting from the appearance of the solar crescent that appears very thinly just prior to, and immediately after, the total coverage of the sun by the passing moon. Codona said the focal source of the light anomaly was likely atmospheric “turbulence” as little as a few hundred feet above ground.

Another unique phenomenon associated with eclipses is the “Allais effect“, in which minor changes in the behavior of a Foucault pendulum occur as the sun passes behind the moon. In 1954, economist Maurice Allais was experimenting with pendulums over the course of a 30-day period, during which he observed and recorded their movements.

Allais at work with his pendulums.

During this time, an eclipse of the sun occurred, under which conditions Allais noticed that the movement of the pendulum appeared to quicken; although the effect was very minor, it was nonetheless noticeable, and has allegedly been reproduced several times over the years, despite there being controversy over what, precisely, causes the so-called Allais effect.

Going back to ancient times, on at least one occasion in history an eclipse was even believed to have brought an end to a war. In his Histories, Herodotus wrote of a prediction made by Greek philosopher Thales, who lived between 624-547 BCE, that a solar eclipse would occur on the date of May 28, 585 BC.

According to Herodotus, “day was all of sudden changed into night. This event had been foretold by Thales, the Milesian, who forewarned the Ionians of it, fixing for it the very year in which it took place. The Medes and the Lydians when they observed the change, ceased fighting, and were alike anxious to have terms of peace agreed on.”

Though the celestial event brought an end to the conflict between the Lydians and the Medes, it is well known that the ancient Greeks studied solar eclipses and other celestial phenomenon, and were adept at predicting them.

Obviously, while people in the ancient world were fascinated–and often frightened–by solar solar eclipses, these rare celestial phenomena are still very intriguing to us today, and even manage to boast a few unanswered questions. For more information about the upcoming 2017 solar eclipse, and where it can be seen, check out Space.com’s full rundown about it here.

TAGS: Allais Effect, Herodotus, solar eclipse

Geschreven door peter om 00:14 Stuur door

Vrijdag 9 juni 2017

UFOs in Videos from Bermuda Triangle May Be Organisms

UFOs in Videos from Bermuda Triangle May Be Organisms

Paul Seaburn

When Joshua P. Warren talks, the paranormal world listens. So, when this ghost researcher, author, museum owner, Bermuda Triangle expert and all-around guru of the unusual issued a press release on June 6th, it received massive attention. The title, “New Form of UFO Filmed in Bermuda Triangle,” was only a teaser.

A new type of UFO has been discovered, and filmed multiple times, in Puerto Rico. One researcher, Joshua P. Warren, thinks it may be a living organism, so he calls it an “Organic UFO,” or “OUFO.”

If that’s not enough to get you excited, the next four words should:

Leaked Homeland Security footage …

The ‘footage’ is a video from 2013 of a saucer-shaped object flying at up to 120 mph both above and below the water near the Rafael Hernandez Airport in Aguadilla, Puerto Rico. The video was analyzed extensively by the Scientific Coalition of Scientists for UFOlogy (SCU) – a think tank of scientists and researchers dedicated to exploring unknown anomalous phenomena – which released a 162-page report in 2015 confirming that the video was authentic. But what was it a video of?

In his capacity as Director of the Bermuda Triangle Research (where does he find time to do all that he does?), Joshua Warren has seen many more videos of objects that resemble the one in the thermal video and he has an idea.

But we’ve got many other recordings of these anomalies, and I believe they may have even been documented in sculptures by the ancient Taino Indians in Puerto Rico.

The Taino Indians were mostly wiped out in Puerto Rico and on the other Caribbean Islands just 50 years after the arrival of Columbus. In the video that accompanies the press release, Warren refers to cemís – icons made from wood, stone or clay that symbolized the spirit of the god Yucahú. Warren points out that the sculptures closely resemble the UFOs in the videos. Were these icons products of the imagination or drug-induced hallucinations of the Taino Indians or were they accurate depictions of something they actually saw in the sky?

Warren thinks it’s the latter. Not only that, he thinks the ill-formed, blobbish shapes of the UFOs comes from not being solid ships but living organisms. For the Taino Indians, this implies that the ‘spirits’ may have been real space aliens that communicated with them directly or in the same spiritual or psychological way as hallucinations did. Since their religion was replaced by Christianity, their culture and language mostly destroyed and their descendants either killed, wiped out by diseases or integrated thought intermarriage, there’s no way to tell.

Joshua Warren is making the rounds promoting his new theory of Organic UFOs and adding that this could be an explanation for those who claim they can summon UFOs. If it were anyone else, these conjectures might be met with raised eyebrows, but Joshua Warren is a respected researcher.

After you’ve watched the video, does Warren convince you that the Bermuda Triangle may by home to Organic UFOs?

TAGS: alien, Bermuda Triangle, Joshua P. Warren, Organic UFO, Paranormal, ufo

ALIEN LIFE, UFO- CRASHES, ABDUCTIONS, MEN IN BLACK, ed ( FR. , NL; E )

Geschreven door peter om 00:07 Stuur door

Donderdag 8 juni 2017

NASA Discovers Jupiter is Much Weirder Than We Thought

NASA Discovers Jupiter is Much Weirder Than We Thought

Brett Tingley

Nearly six years ago, NASA launched the Lockheed Martin-built Juno spacecraft on a trajectory to Jupiter. Juno entered orbit around the gas giant last year, and the data from the first round of Juno’s observations have begun to come in. What those data reveal are a surprising new look into a mysterious planet full of otherworldly phenomena. “What we’ve learned so far is Earth-shattering. Or should I say, Jupiter-shattering,” Juno’s principal investigator Scott Bolton stated in a press release. Don’t quit your day job, Scott. Leave the humor writing to the experts.

Juno has revealed that Jupiter has many more secrets to reveal.

The Juno data show that Jupiter is surrounded by a massive and dynamic magnetic field up to ten times stronger than Earth’s. The strange characteristics of Jupiter’s magnetic field indicate that it may extend far close to the planet’s surface than is typically observed in other planets’ magnetospheres, and NASA scientists aren’t sure why.

Jupiter’s mighty magnetic field makes for some strange atmospheric phenomena.

The Juno data show Jupiter to be a chaotic, violent world wracked by planet-sized storms that rage for thousands of miles through the thick Jovian atmosphere. NASA scientists poring over the Juno data also discovered a giant band of ammonia that cuts across Jupiter’s equator and extends all the way down through the gas giant’s atmosphere to Jupiter’s core. That ammonia band separates Jupiter’s two hemispheres, the poles of which differ greatly.

Thick clouds of pure ammonia swirl around Jupiter’s equator.

Jupiter’s north pole is wracked by strange and mysterious auroras which seem to be composed of entirely different energetic particles than the auroras on Earth. These auroras are far more powerful than Earth’s and seem to be constant.

At Jupiter’s south pole, Earth-sized cyclones spinning dangerously together in tight formations which curiously remain clustered around the pole.

Storms seem to congregate around Jupiters south pole, and NASA astrometeorologists aren’t sure why.

Juno lead researcher Scott Bolton says in a NASA press release that the polar storm clusters suggest that we might not know as much about the gas giant as we thought:

We’re puzzled as to how they could be formed, how stable the configuration is, and why Jupiter’s north pole doesn’t look like the south pole. We knew, going in, that Jupiter would throw us some curves. But now that we are here we are finding that Jupiter can throw the heat, as well as knuckleballs and sliders. There is so much going on here that we didn’t expect that we have had to take a step back and begin to rethink of this as a whole new Jupiter.

Juno’s observations show that Jupiter is about as far from habitable as a planet could be (except for that newly discovered one that’s nearly as hot as the Sun, that is). As our orbital spacecraft and instruments improve, we are beginning to see that we know so, so little about our closest galactic neighbors. Soon after the Juno data came in, two tiny new Jovian moons (technically moonlets) were discovered. Sure, moonlets, intense magnetic storms, and cyclone clusters might not be little green men and women, but each new discovery puts us one step closer to understanding more of our mysterious universe.

TAGS: juno, Jupiter, jupiter atmosphere, Moons of Jupiter, nasa, space

Geschreven door peter om 23:57 Stuur door

Donderdag 8 juni 2017

Ingrediënt van leven ontdekt rond jonge zonachtige sterren

Ingrediënt van leven ontdekt rond jonge zonachtige sterren

Tim Kraaijvanger

Wetenschappers hebben sporen van methylisocyanaat ontdekt in het meervoudige stersysteem IRAS 16293-2422. Dit is een chemische bouwsteen van leven.

Eerder troffen astronomen suikermoleculen aan rondom het meervoudige systeem. Ook deze suikermoleculen zijn bouwstenen van leven.

IRAS 16293-2422 is een drievoudig stersysteem op 400 lichtjaar van de aarde. Het bestaat uit twee sterren die 47 astronomische eenheden (AE) van elkaar verwijderd zijn. In vergelijking: 1 AE is de afstand van de aarde naar de zon, oftewel ruwweg 150 miljoen kilometer. Een derde ster bevindt zich op een afstand van 750 AE. De drie sterren zijn ongeveer even zwaar als de zon, alleen wel veel jonger.

Cadeautjes
“Dit stersysteem blijft maar cadeautjes geven! Eerst hebben we hier suikers ontdekt, en nu methylisocyanaat,” vertellen Niels Ligterink (Sterrewacht Leiden) en Audrey Coutens (University College London). “Deze familie van organische moleculen is betrokken bij de synthese van peptiden en aminozuren, die – in de vorm van eiwitten – aan de basis staan van leven zoals wij dat kennen.”

GIFTIG

Methylisocyanaat bevat koolstof-, waterstof-, stikstof- en zuurstofatomen. Het is een zeer giftige verbinding en de belangrijkste doodsoorzaak na de industriële giframp in Bhopal in 1984. Direct na de ramp kwamen meer dan tweeduizend mensen om het leven.

ALMA
Twee teams van astronomen hebben de Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array in Chili ingezet om het prebiotische complexe organische molecuul methylisocyanaat te ontdekken. ALMA is het grootste astronomische project op aarde. Het bestaat uit 66 antenneschotels en is ontwikkeld om het licht van de koudste objecten in het heelal te bestuderen. Dit licht heeft een golflengte van ongeveer een millimeter en bevindt zich daarmee tussen infrarood licht en radiogolven.

De onderzoekers vonden de chemische vingerafdrukken van methylisocyanaat in de warme, dichte binnengebieden van de cocons van stof en gas rond de drie sterren.

Hoe is leven ontstaan?
“We zijn heel enthousiast over dit resultaat. Deze protosterren vertonen sterke overeenkomsten met de zon in haar jonge jaren, onder omstandigheden die heel geschikt zijn voor de vorming van aardachtige planeten,” reageren hoofdauteurs Rafael Martín-Doménech en Víctor M. Rivilla van een van de twee papers over de ontdekking van methylisocyanaat. “Hoe is het leven op onze planeet ontstaan? Door prebiotische moleculen op te sporen, zijn we misschien weer een stapje dichterbij een antwoord op deze vraag gekomen.”

Niet uniek
Gelukkig is methylisocyanaat ook niet zo uniek en dat is goed nieuws voor de zoektocht naar buitenaards leven. “Onze laboratoriumexperimenten laten zien dat methylisocyanaat inderdaad op ijsdeeltjes kan worden gevormd, onder omstandigheden die vergelijkbaar zijn met die in de interstellaire ruimte,” zegt onderzoeker Niels Ligterink. “Dit impliceert dat dit molecuul – en daarmee ook de aanzet tot peptide-verbindingen – waarschijnlijk rond de meeste jonge zonachtige sterren aanwezig zal zijn.”

Bronmateriaal:

"Detection of methyl isocyanate (CH3NCO) in a solar-type protostar" - Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
"The ALMA-PILS survey: Detection of CH3NCO toward the low-mass protostar IRAS 16293-2422 and laboratory constraints on its formation" - ESO
Via ESO

{ https://www.scientias.nl/ }

Geschreven door peter om 21:02 Stuur door

Donderdag 8 juni 2017

Oudste moderne mens ooit ontdekt in Marokko

Oudste moderne mens ooit ontdekt in Marokko

Caroline Kraaijvanger

Blijkbaar loopt onze soort al 100.000 jaar langer op aarde rond dan gedacht.

Wetenschappers ontdekten de fossiele resten op de archeologische vindplaats Jebel Irhoud in Marokko. Al in de jaren zestig van de vorige eeuw werden hier fossiele resten van moderne mensen teruggevonden. Lang bleef echter onduidelijk hoe oud ze precies waren. Dit nieuwe onderzoeksproject – dat al in 2004 begon – resulteerde in de ontdekking van nieuwe fossiele resten. In totaal werden er zo’n 16 nieuwe fossiele resten aangetroffen. En tevens zijn onderzoekers erin geslaagd om die pas ontdekte resten te dateren. De resten die al in 1960 werden teruggevonden – aangeduid als Irhoud 1 tot en met 6 – zijn eveneens gedateerd. “Irhoud 3 is de oudste Homo sapiens die nauwgezet is gedateerd: het is de eerste van onze soort,” benadrukt onderzoeker Renaud Joannes-Boyau.

Jebel Irhoud.

Foto: Shannon McPherron / MPI EVA Leipzig.

300.000 jaar oud
De resten van de moderne mensen die in Marokko zijn teruggevonden, blijken zo’n 300.000 jaar oud te zijn. Daarmee komt de oorsprong van onze soort in één klap zo’n 100.000 jaar verder terug in de geschiedenis te liggen.

Een deel van een kaak die recent in Marokko is teruggevonden.

Afbeelding: Jean-Jacques Hublin / MPI-EVA, Leipzig.

Enkele stenen gereedschappen die in Marokko zijn teruggevonden.

Foto: Mohammed Kamal / MPI EVA Leipzig.

Afrika
En dat zet onze kijk op de evolutionaire geschiedenis van onze eigen soort op zijn kop. Zowel genetische informatie als fossiele resten wijzen erop dat onze soort in Afrika ontstond. De oudste resten die ons tot voor kort van moderne mensen bekend waren, waren zo’n 195.000 jaar oud en werden aangetroffen in Ethiopië. “Het feit dat er 100.000 jaar eerder al Homo sapiens waren en dat ze in Marokko voorkwamen, verandert ons begrip en de hypothese omtrent de verspreiding van onze soort door Afrika,” vertelt Joannes Boyau. Onderzoeker Jean-Jacques Hublin voegt toe: “We dachten altijd dat de wieg van de mens 200.000 jaar geleden in Oost-Afrika stond, maar onze nieuwe gegevens onthullen dat Homo sapiens zich rond 300.000 jaar geleden over het hele Afrikaanse continent verspreidde. Lang voor Homo sapiens Afrika verliet, verspreidde deze zich binnen Afrika.”

De evolutie van de moderne mens is nog altijd in nevelen gehuld. Dat is te wijten aan het feit dat er maar relatief weinig oude fossiele resten van moderne mensen zijn teruggevonden. Daarnaast is het best lastig gebleken om die weinige fossiele resten accuraat te dateren. Daarom zijn deze nieuwe ontdekkingen ook zo waardevol. Ze onthullen heel veel over onze soort: een soort die blijkbaar al veel langer op aarde rondloopt dan gedacht.

Bronmateriaal:

Nature -> The age of the hominin fossils from Jebel Irhoud, Morocco, and the origins of the Middle Stone Age - doi:10.1038/nature22335
Nature -> New fossils from Jebel Irhoud, Morocco and the pan-African origin of Homo sapiens - doi:10.1038/nature22336

ALIEN LIFE, UFO- CRASHES, ABDUCTIONS, MEN IN BLACK, ed ( FR. , NL; E )

Geschreven door peter om 20:55 Stuur door

Donderdag 8 juni 2017

How Social Media Users Decoded a Simulated Message from Extraterrestrials

How Social Media Users Decoded a Simulated Message from Extraterrestrials

Humanity won’t share a language with an alien civilization, so how can we decode a message from ET if we receive one? One astrophysicist says: crowdsource it.

by Emerging Technology from the arXiv

In 1961, a small group of scientists met at the Green Bank radio astronomy observatory in West Virginia to discuss the search for extraterrestrial intelligence. One of the organizers was Frank Drake, who used the conference to present his now famous Drake equation describing the likelihood of intelligent life elsewhere in the universe. But Drake also used the occasion to carry out a less-well-known experiment.

The question he addressed was the following. If humanity received a message from the stars, how could we decode it given that it we have no language in common? Similarly, if we want to send a message, how should we compose it?

To explore this issue, Drake created a message of his own and challenged the participants at the conference to decode it. He received a single reply written in the same code, clearly indicating that the message had been understood. Afterward, an amateur electronics magazine published the message, and about a year later, Drake received a letter with the correct solution from a reader of this magazine.

seti-decrypt.png?sw=600&cx=52&cy=2&cw=780&ch=438

That points to an interesting idea. If we ever receive a message from the stars, one option would be to release it via social media and exploit the world’s combined brain power to decode it.

Last year, one researcher tested this idea by doing exactly that. Rene Heller from the Max Planck Institute for Solar System Research in Germany created a simulated message from an alien civilization and released it on Twitter and Facebook for the world to decode. “On Tuesday, 26 April 2016, I submitted a fake SETI message to the social media Twitter and Facebook and called it the SETI Decrypt Challenge,” say Heller.

Today, he publishes the results of this experiment, showing how people joined forces to crack the seemingly alien code.

The challenge that Heller set is to imagine that Earth has received a message in the form of series of radio pulses from a fixed, unresolved source about 50 light years from Earth. These pulses have been received in a narrow band around an electromagnetic frequency of 452.13 MHz, a frequency that is pi times the emission frequency of neutral hydrogen atoms.

Heller has placed an audio version of the message here. And the question he asks: what does this message say?

Heller constructed the message using some techniques that have already been used in messaging extraterrestrial intelligences. The message consists of a number of pictures that can be constructed by arranging the data in an array of particular dimensions.

These dimensions are 359 by 757 pixels (both prime numbers) and are defined at the beginning of the message by sequences 757 0s and 359 1s. This encodes the first page of the message, which is otherwise blank. In total, the message contains seven pages (another prime number).

The next page is a list of numbers from 0 to 756 which uses a standard system of data encoding called little endian which defines things like the data being written from left to right and so on.

The third page lists the first 757 prime numbers in the same way. “Pages two (simple counting) and three (prime numbers) were meant to establish that we are talking binary and that we use numbers to describe and interpret the images,” says Heller.

The fourth page starts by defining two more numbers. The first is the wavelength used to transmit the message in units of the modified Planck Length. This number is 1.6368 x 10³⁴ and acts as a kind of spatial yardstick.

The second number is 1.1677 x 10⁵². This is a temporal yardstick that, with some careful thought and simple mathematics, leads to the number 50—the distance of the transmitting civilization in light years. “As we know that the message comes from a star 50 light years away, our alien friends are telling us that they know their distance to us as well,” says Heller.

The rest of page four displays a sine wave, or more precisely the function—sin(x).

The first two lines of page five encode the numbers 6.048 × 10³⁴ and 4.2038 × 10⁵². These represent the distance 2.45 meters in units of the modified Planck constant and a time of 180 years in units of the temporal yardstick. The rest of this page displays an image of an alien specimen with the clear implication that it is 2.45 meters tall with a life span of 180 years.

The sixth page shows an image of the device used to send the transmission; actually a picture of an Earthbound radio telescope called the Square Kilometer Array.

The final page encodes two numbers equivalent to a distance about 100 times larger than the Earth-moon distance and six billion years. It also displays an image of four astronomical objects, one of which is next to an image of an alien. The implication here is that this depicts ET’s home planet, which is a billion years older than ours.

Heller released this message on social media on April 26, 2016, and it didn’t take long for the world to respond. Heller received the first correct solution by e-mail the following day, and the number of responses increased as news of the challenge spread.

On May 6, Heller received the largest number responses after the Daily Mail and the Huffington Post reported the challenge. At this, a group on Reddit posted the answer, which probably distorted the result Heller got after this. In total he received, 66 correct solutions, two of which were from high school students.

That’s interesting work that has clear implications for the way humanity should deal with a message from the stars. The astronomical community is already committed to publicly releasing any message it receives from extraterrestrials.

But Heller’s work shows that this is not just lip service to the people who pay for astronomy. It shows that the global community is capable of decoding such a message and should be given the chance. “Distribution in the social media would not only offer an efficient means of decryption but also offer an unprecedented opportunity to unite humans all over the globe in a common scientific and cultural effort,” he concludes.

The participants of the first SETI meeting at Green Bank in 1961 would surely agree.

Ref: arxiv.org/abs/1706.00653: Decryption of Messages from Extraterrestrial Intelligence Using the Power of Social Media—The SETI Decrypt Challenge

{ https://www.technologyreview.com/ }

Geschreven door peter om 20:33 Stuur door

Donderdag 8 juni 2017

LOCKHEED MARTIN'S 'KILL VEHICLE' (1999) - I CAN ONLY IMAGINE WHAT THEY ARE TESTING NOW

Wow! I have never seen this before. That is crazy.

One of the most fascinating things in the world for me is hidden technologies. It's just overwhelming to think about the kind of things they probably have now. I literally think that they had star wars technology when the first movie came out.

{ http://www.disclose.tv/ }