See Juno Probe's Amazing Up-Close Views of Jupiter's Great Red Spot (Photos)

NASA’s Juno spacecraft captured this raw image of Jupiter’s Great Red Spot during a close flyby on July 10, 2017.

Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/SwRI/MSSS

You can now feast your eyes on the first up-close photos of Jupiter's famous Great Red Spot ever taken.

On Monday night (July 10), NASA's Juno spacecraft zoomed just 5,600 miles (9,000 kilometers) above the mammoth storm's cloud tops — closer than any probe had gotten before.

"For generations, people from all over the world and all walks of life have marveled over the Great Red Spot," Juno principal investigator Scott Bolton, from the Southwest Research Institute in San Antonio, said in a statement before the flyby. "Now we are finally going to see what this storm looks like up close and personal."

The images that the probe's JunoCam instrument snapped during the close encounter have come down to Earth, NASA announced today (July 12), and the agency is urging anyone who's interested to have a go at processing the photos. You can do so on the mission's JunoCam page.

Another raw photo of Jupiter’s Great Red Spot captured on July 10, 2017, by the JunoCam imager aboard NASA’s Juno spacecraft.

Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/SwRI/MSSS

The Great Red Spot has been swirling for centuries; astronomers have been monitoring it since 1830, NASA officials said. The storm is about 10,000 miles (16,000 km) wide, making it considerably bigger than the entire Earth. (Earth's diameter is about 7,900 miles, or 12,700 km).

But the Great Red Spot used to be even bigger; the storm has been shrinking for decades, though the rate at which this is occurring has slowed recently.

Another raw JunoCam image of Jupiter’s Great Red Spot captured during Juno’s July 10 flyby, which brought the probe within 5,600 miles (9,000 kilometers) of the storm’s cloud tops.

Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/SwRI/MSSS

Juno launched in August 2011 on a $1.1 billion mission to investigate Jupiter's composition, interior structure, formation and evolutionary history. The probe reached Jupiter on July 4 of last year, settling into a highly elliptical orbit that takes 53.5 Earth days to complete.

Juno collects most of its data during its closest passes by the solar system's largest planet. The Great Red Spot photos were taken during the latest such encounter — the sixth science flyby Juno has performed. (The spacecraft has actually performed seven close flybys, if you count the one that occurred during its orbital arrival, when Juno's science instruments were off.)

Juno's mission is scheduled to run through at least February 2018.

Follow Mike Wall on Twitter @michaeldwall and Google+. Follow us @Spacedotcom, Facebook or Google+. Originally published on Space.com.

Editor's Recommendations

• Photos: NASA's Juno Mission to Jupiter
• Jupiter's Great Red Spot: Photos of the Solar System's Biggest Storm
• How NASA's Juno Mission to Jupiter Works (Infographic)

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MEXICAANSE PILOOT KOMT UFO'S TEGEN TIJDENS LANDING ( VIDEO )

Of er steeds meer UFO’s voor komen of dat ze zich vaker in de buurt van vliegtuigen begeven, is niet helemaal duidelijk, maar ze worden steeds vaker dichtbij vliegtuigen gesignaleerd. 

Ongeveer een week geleden is een piloot van een klein vliegtuig bezig met de voorbereiding voor een landing in de Mexicaanse plaats Toluca wanneer er meerdere vreemde objecten langs zijn cockpitraam vliegen. 

Wanneer je als piloot in een vliegtuig zit en er vliegen onbekende objecten rakelings langs je cockpitraam, dan zit je toch niet echt lekker ontspannen in je stoel. 

Zo zagen die objecten eruit die deze vlieger in Mexico langs zag komen.

Hierna volgen de beelden en als je goed kijkt, zie je meerdere objecten langs het raam van de cockpit vliegen op hele kleine afstand van het vliegtuig. 

 

Wat we niet weten is of deze piloot de volgende dag is gebeld door Marcel Hulspas namens de Stichting Skepsis om hem te vertellen dat hij discolichten heeft gezien. 

Enkele dagen later gebeurt er iets vergelijkbaars, maar nu met een drone in de Engelse stad Manchester. 

De man vliegt met zijn drone boven het Heaton Park met daaraan een camera gemonteerd die opnames maakt. 

Dan zijn er dingen te zien zoals op de volgende afbeelding.

En net zoals met het vliegtuig in Mexico zie je ook hierna in de bewegende beelden diverse objecten langs de drone schieten. 

Voor zover ons bekend heeft nog niemand een verklaring gevonden voor deze vreemde objecten. 

 

Naast vliegende objecten die worden gefilmd vanuit vliegtuig of drone zien we ook regelmatig opnames van UFO’s bij vliegtuigen die vanaf de grond worden gefilmd. 

Enkele dagen geleden filmden en fotografeerden meerdere mensen in Londen UFO's in de buurt van de aanvliegroutes naar vliegvelden en nu is er een vergelijkbare opname uit Slovakije.

Hierna de bewegende beelden en het betreft hier meerdere UFO’s die zich in de buurt van een passagierstoestel ophouden. 

 

Mocht iemand een verklaring hebben voor wat hier allemaal gebeurt, dan horen we dat graag.

Maar, ook in ons land gebeurt wel het nodige zoals het volgende op 11 juli 2017 in Vianen zo tegen middernacht:

fel oranje (het leek vlammend) bollen die in rechte formatie met dezelfde snelheid en dezelfde afstand van elkaar vlogen van richting oost naar west. 

Vanuit arm lengte gezien hadden ze ongeveer de grote van een stuiver.(zie filmpje). 
Ze vlogen op grote hoogte, althans zo leek het en verplaatsten zich sneller dan een vliegtuig zo leek het. 
Ik heb een aantal jaar geleden deze bollen ook al een keer gezien, alleen waren dat er meer (6 stuks in formatie) alleen deze vlogen dynamisch.

{ http://niburu.co/ }

“Nobody has proven that it is a fraud. We are going to present preliminary evidence that will determine in the eyes of the media, that these are true specimen. And if there are still doubts that this is real, the obligation of Peruvians and the whole world is to preserve these bodies to find a true answer.”

If those three-fingered humanoid mummies allegedly discovered and revealed to the public in Peru over the past two months could count off for roll call, they’d need two hands. At a press conference this week in Lima, mummy spokesperson and journalist Jaime Maussan announced that there are now five confirmed bodies so far – bodies that he and Gaia.com, his partners in the recovery, are calling “The Mummies of Nazca.” Which will they run out of first – mummies or fingers?

During the press conference, Maussan presented a number of X-rays of what he claimed were skeletons inside the mummies which resemble plaster statues more than the more familiar cloth-wrapped mummies of Egypt and movies. As in previous teaser videos for the pay-to-view series from Gaia.com on the mummies, he claims they are over 1,700 years old, which is also the speculated age of the famous Nazca lines, conveniently connecting the two without actually proving it.

Jaime Maussan (Ruptly)

This is the first time that anyone involved with the mummies has revealed how many have been found, possible relationships between them and what species they resemble.

“Apparently the body of a baby with the same characteristics according to the first analysis could be related. However, now it is necessary to perform a DNA test to be able to determine the relationship between the two. Those are two bodies and there are three of which seem to have characteristics that are closer to reptiles than to humans. That is, we have five bodies.”

Five bodies, at least one a baby, and three that look like reptiles. This has Reptilian fans sweaty, while the elongated skulls have the grey believers salivating. No one can explain the tree-fingered hands and three-toed feet, which has prompted some to declare this a new species among aliens as well as humanoids. That body count of five doesn’t seem to include the headless mini-mummy revealed earlier this week, unless that’s the baby.

One thing that has remained the same in all of these teaser videos is some variation of this statement:

“… now it is necessary to perform a DNA test …”

The rest of us knew that from day one. What are they waiting for … other than all four episodes of the series to run first?

Stay tuned and be grateful you can count to 7 without removing your shoes.

Tags

• alien 
• Bizarre mummy 
• Nazca lines 
• Paranormal 
• Peru 
• Reptilians

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Are these ancient rock drawing PROOF that aliens visited Earth?

ANCIENT rock art in could prove aliens once visited Earth, according to conspiracy theorists.

The Secret History of Flying Saucers – Part Two

'They're living organisms of some sort'

Asteroids may have been giant mudballs in the early solar system

Hayabusa 2 will collect samples from an asteroid

Akihiro Ikeshita/JAXA

By Sam Wong

Before there were asteroids, there were giant mudballs hurtling around the solar system.

The most common type of asteroid, called carbonaceous asteroids, may have delivered water and organic molecules to Earth, and could even be the precursors of rocky planets. They are thought to have formed from ice, dust and mineral grains called chondrules in the disc of dense gas and dust that birthed our solar system.

But not much is known about their history, and they have some unexplained characteristics. These rocks appear to have been altered at relatively low and uniform temperatures, so they must have had some way to lose heat from within. Some have proposed that water flowing inside the early asteroids cooled them down, but soluble elements don’t appear to have been moved around, as would be expected if water had been present.

Modelling early asteroids as mud makes more sense, says Philip Bland at Curtin University in Perth, Australia, and his collaborator Bryan Travis at the Planetary Science Institute in Tucson, Arizona.

Muddy mixture

When the ice, dust and chondrules came together, they wouldn’t have been compacted under pressure into rock straight away, says Bland. Instead, the ice would have been melted by decaying radioactive atoms present among the dust and gas, turning the mixture into a sludgy mud.

Their model shows that these mudball asteroids likely formed from dusty material left over after the sun’s formation, and that convection would take place, allowing the interior to lose heat easily. Soluble and insoluble elements would be mixed together, preserving the primitive chemistry of the asteroid. “It turns out that that explains many more features of interest than if it’s a rock,” says Bland.

The mud would have turned to rock later on, perhaps aided by gravitational pressure once the asteroid got big enough, or by impacts with other objects.

“I think it’s a very exciting idea,” says Tom Davison at Imperial College London. “From the way they’ve presented it, it’s almost inevitable that this would happen in at least some bodies.”

Matching our meteorites

Sara Russell at the Natural History Museum in London says the mudball model aligns well with what is found in meteorites. “We see from our meteorite collection that chondrules within a single sample are the same size as each other,” she says. That’s difficult to explain without this model, she says.

Two space missions are currently en route to asteroids formed in the early universe that could be former mudballs: NASA’s Osiris-Rex and Japan’s Hayabusa 2 (depicted above). Both of these will map the asteroids in detail and return a sample to Earth, potentially allowing us to test this idea.

Understanding how asteroids formed will help us explain how organic chemistry evolved in the solar system, and could even help in the search for life elsewhere, says Bland. “It will help us make more sophisticated models of where we can look for habitable worlds around other stars,” he says.

Journal reference: Science Advances, DOI: 10.1126/sciadv.1602514

More on these topics:

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• solar system

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The best way to detect aliens may be by finding their footprints

Sign of life: Mars rover tracks

NASA/JPL-Caltech

By Mika McKinnon

To detect traces of alien life, try to find their footsteps. The first signs of life on another planet may not be a complex signal captured by an antenna or images of a scampering creature on an alien horizon, but a track left in long-dried mud.

On Earth, palaeontologists study traces left behind when an organism interacts with its environment. A team led by Andrea Baucon at the University of Modena, Italy, suggests that astrobiologists should follow suit and search not just for living and fossilised creatures, but also the traces they may have left behind.

“You have a heck of a lot more chance of finding the trace of an organism than you do the actual organism itself,” says Lisa Buckley, a palaeontologist at Peace Region Palaeontology

Research Centre in British Columbia, Canada. “One animal will leave countless traces in its lifetime, but it’s only ever going to leave one body fossil.”

Expanded search

Baucon says the odds of finding alien life would be increased by hunting for footprints, infilled burrows, excrement or other signs that something living disturbed the sediments of Mars, Saturn’s moon Titan or other solid surfaces in the solar system.

Traces mean that evidence of soft-bodied organisms – which lack a skeleton that can mineralise into fossil – can also be preserved, expanding the types of creatures found in the geological record.

Furthermore, they could reveal the behaviour of extraterrestrial life forms. On Earth, fossilised footprints show the gait of long-extinct dinosaurs and burrows indicate the habits of clams. Traces on other planets could provide hints about how alien organisms interact with their environments.

Traces of life

Baucon and his team tested the concept by hunting for signs of life in high-resolution photography of the solid bodies within our solar system. They didn’t find aliens, but they did discover traces of life: human boot prints on the moon and rover trails meandering over Mars. However, trace fossils won’t always be as easy to identify as solid footprints in lunar dust.

“Just because an organism leaves the trace, doesn’t mean that all traces are beautifully preserved and easily recognisable,” says Buckley. “Unless you actually find the animal dead in its tracks or you actually see the animal making the trace, you can never be 100 per cent sure that specific animal made that trace.”

The only evidence of soft-bodied organisms may be trace fossils

Auscape/UIG/REX/Shutterstock

It can also be hard to tell if traces are marks left by a life form or merely the relic of a purely geological process. A simpler organism is more likely to leave a simpler trace that can be confused with something that is not biological, like a squiggle or a crack in the rock, says Buckley.

Geological processes like metamorphism, weathering or erosion can also alter the rock, obscuring or altering traces. Definitively identifying traces is challenging enough on Earth without factoring in the many unknowns of an alien environment.

These techniques could open up new ways to discover alien life – if we can spot traces when we find them, that is. Would we recognise a footprint if we had never seen a creature with legs?

Journal reference: Earth-Science Reviews, DOI: 10.1016/j.earscirev.2017.05.009

More on these topics:

• alien life
• astrobiology

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Forget Mars: Humans may live here one day

By Linda Hervieux

NASA image shows the hazy atmosphere of Saturn's largest moon, Titan.  (AP Photo/NASA/JPL-Caltech/Space Science Institute)

Move over, Mars: Titan could be the best place for a human colony. As far as extraterrestrial bodies go, Saturn's largest moon is surprisingly like Earth, with a dense atmosphere that could shield delicate earthlings from radiation, reports New Scientist.

Titan's candidacy as a settlement isn't new, but a fresh analysis shows the yellow moon has valuable energy sources that could power a settlement.

Per Science Alert, Amanda Hendrix and Yuk Yung write that once propulsion issues of getting there are tackled, Titan is the "optimal location in the solar system for an off-Earth human settlement." Some 808 million miles away, self-sustainability on Titan is key.

Robots and even humans could one day make nuclear power by using radioactive decay there. The scientists say solar power could come from a US-sized solar farm, even though Titan is nearly 10 times farther from the sun than Earth is.

Titan's strong winds could also be put to use, if humans learn to build strong-enough turbines. Powerful tides created by Saturn's pull could be harnessed for hydropower, though little rain adds complications.

Titan could even be a crash pad on the road to more-distant exploration; ample methane-laced lakes may be mined for rocket fuel. "As a resource for long-term, solar-system-wide civilization, Titan would be a pivotal place," a Johns Hopkins University researcher tells New Scientist.

Researchers concede, however, that there are many unknowns, including Titan's geology. And, they say, Earth's own technology will have to improve before it can be exported.

(Mars is more toxic than previously thought.)

This article originally appeared on Newser: Forget Mars: Humans May Live Here One Day

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There's A Compelling Reason Scientists Think We've Never Found Aliens, And It Suggests Humans Are Already Going Extinct

The International Space Station  AP

Unchecked climate change would eventually lead to widespread devastation on Earth.

Rising seas would inundate coastal cities like Miami, searing heat would increase human mortality, and acidic oceans would become inhospitable to fish and coral, leaving behind little but rubbery masses of jellyfish.

These consequences of human activity could be the thing that prevents our civilization from advancing much further. In a particularly extreme scenario, it could even wind up wiping us from the face of the Earth.

That may sound unlikely, but it's the answer some scientists are giving to a perplexing question: Why haven't we encountered intelligent alien life?

The Fermi paradox
We live in a galaxy with between 100 billion and 400 billion stars, each potentially surrounded by planets. Until recently, we thought there were about 200 billion such galaxies in our observable universe, each containing hundreds of billions of stars and trillions of planets — but new NASA research indicates there are probably at least 10 times as many.

Even if habitable planets are rare and life is exceedingly unlikely to arise, those mind-boggling numbers suggest there should still be other intelligent life somewhere in the universe. If just 0.1% of potentially habitable planets in our galaxy harbored life, there would still be a million planets with life.

So, as the Nobel Prize-winning physicist Enrico Fermi famously asked of our alien neighbors, "Where are they?"

NASA astronaut Karen Nyberg looking down on Earth through windows in the ISS. NASA

Why haven't we heard from aliens or found any evidence of their existence? That question is known as the Fermi paradox, and there are several potential answers (most are fairly disconcerting).

One hypothesis is that before intelligent life manages to spread beyond its original planet to other nearby planets, it runs into a sort of "Great Filter."

As the philosopher Nick Bostrom explains, this idea suggests there are several "evolutionary transitions or steps" that life on an Earth-like planet has to achieve before it can communicate with civilizations in other star systems. But an obstacle or barrier may make it impossible for an intelligent species like ours to get through all those steps. That would explain why we haven't heard from or seen any other life.

Bostrom writes:

"You start with billions and billions of potential germination points for life, and you end up with a sum total of zero extraterrestrial civilizations that we can observe. The Great Filter must therefore be powerful enough — which is to say, the critical steps must be improbable enough — that even with many billions of rolls of the dice, one ends up with nothing: no aliens, no spacecraft, no signals, at least none that we can detect in our neck of the woods."

Humans' Great Filter
Climate change caused by the development of advanced civilization could very well be that filter in our case. David Wallace-Wells suggested this possibility in a recent feature for New York magazine:

"In a universe that is many billions of years old, with star systems separated as much by time as by space, civilizations might emerge and develop and burn themselves up simply too fast to ever find one another.

"Peter Ward, a charismatic paleontologist among those responsible for discovering that the planet's mass extinctions were caused by greenhouse gas, calls this the 'Great Filter': 'Civilizations rise, but there's an environmental filter that causes them to die off again and disappear fairly quickly,' he told me. 'If you look at planet Earth, the filtering we've had in the past has been in these mass extinctions.'

"The mass extinction we are now living through has only just begun; so much more dying is coming."

Scientists are currently debating whether we are now in the midst of the Earth's sixth mass-extinction event or approaching it. Either way, the situation is dire — the existential risks posed by a worst-case climate-change scenario are real.

If those risks become serious enough to act as humans' Great Filter, it may be too late for us to communicate with anyone else in our universe.

Read the original article on Tech Insider. Copyright 2017.

Read next: Scientists are questioning the idea that the human lifespan has a limit

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Bodies of FIVE alien-beings discovered at ancient Peru site

IN BIZARRE footage a UFO expert claims the mummified remains of five “alien” bodies were discovered near ancient artwork.

By Zoe Drewett

During a press conference held in Lima, Peru, UFO enthusiasts and journalists discussed the alleged discovery of alien remains near the ancient Nazca Lines.

Mexican Ufologist Jaime Maussan claimed that a total of five bodies have been discovered in the past two months and said the remains possess qualities “closer to reptiles than humans”.

He said the bodies are over 1,700 years old, the same date the Nazca Lines – huge etching of figures carved into the Earth only visible from the air – are believed to have been created.

Maussan included X-rays of the mummified remains to dispute claims made after the initial discovery in June that they had been faked and made from plaster cast.

“Nobody has proven that it is a fraud. We are going to present preliminary evidence that will determine in the eyes of the media, that these are true specimen,” he said.

“If there are still doubts that this is real, the obligation of Peruvians and the whole world is to preserve these bodies to find a true answer.”

YOUTUBE

The well-preserved “alien” remains unveiled last month allegedly measured 5ft 6ins tall, had three long fingers and an elongated skull.

Conspiracy theorist Maussan has long been criticised for “hyping up” the existence of aliens on Earth with dubious evidence.

British UFO author Nigel Watson slammed the extraterrestrial evidence as “a plaster cast model” describing it as “110% fake” in The New York Post.

And one dedicated debunker in Peru claims the discovered creatures’ hands are made of a mixture of bones, including children’s bones.

YOUTUBE

Those at the conference reportedly forked out a staggering £232 for the privilege of attending and seeing the “aliens” up close, leading to more criticism of the theory.

However conspiracy theorists in Georgia might agree with Maussan.

They say a painting that hands on the wall of the Svetitskhoveli Cathedral shows a crowd of people surrounding the Son of God as he is nailed to the cross – as well as what appears to be UFOs.

They claim the “flying saucers” are evidence extraterrestrials have visited Earth.

• Alien spaceship? Huge ‘flying saucer’ filmed hovering over town baffles internet
• ‘Aliens watched the crucifixion of Jesus – this PROVES it’ Bizarre biblical claims emerge
• NASA makes HUGE announcement about manned mission to Mars

{ http://www.dailystar.co.uk/ }

On Tuesday, NASA’s Juno spacecraft zipped by Jupiter’s Great Red Spot, and, for 12 minutes, it stared down into the ancient, roiling storm.

By Wednesday afternoon, Juno had transmitted the clearest digital images yet of the Great Red Spot, which were then captured by NASA’s 230-foot wide Deep Space Network antennas, enabling the space agency to release humanity’s closest ever view of the crimson mystery.

NASA scientists don’t have time to immediately process all the photos themselves, so the space agency made the raw images available for anyone to process and share with curious Earthlings everywhere. Space fanatic and graphic designer Jason Major just processed and tweeted out an image of the Great Red Spot, shown below; hundreds more images are rolling in and being uploaded by NASA.

Juno passed just 5,600 miles above the Great Red Spot, shooting the storm with JunoCam’s wide field of view to create long panorama-like images. When the spacecraft neared Jupiter’s equator, JunoCam boasted an impressive resolution of nearly two miles (really, three kilometers) per pixel, and about 30 miles per pixel (50 kilometers) when shooting images over the poles.

View image on Twitter

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They're here! My first processed raw map-projected image of #Jupiter's Great Red Spot from @NASAJuno's P7 flyover on July 10-11 #GRSflyover

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Before Juno, the best shots of Jupiter came from the Voyager 2 spacecraft, which passed by the gas giant nearly 40 years ago, in 1979.

NASA scientists have yet to comment on the storm, but it’s certain that they’re scouring the images as they drop down into the agency’s Deep Space Network satellite dishes, strategically spread out around the globe in California, Spain, and Australia, to ensure that they don’t miss any incoming storm data.

It’s unknown if the storm’s baffling behavior will be cleared up, along with colliding systems around Jupiter’s south polar region and elsewhere. At the very least, JunoCam has given us an opportunity to look into the eye of the Great Red Spot, a curiosity that humans have been watching from afar for nearly 200 years.

A close-up of the Great Red Spot, shot by the JunoCam, captured on Earth by NASA, and processed by citizen-scientist Sean Doran. Photos via Sean Doran

Written by Mark Kaufman

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Is this ‘smoke vortex’ a sign of alien life?

By Linda Massarella

Modal Trigger

Weather experts have been left baffled by a solid black ring which appeared in the sky -- but a former UFO investigator claims it's a Smoke Vortex.SWNS.com

Alien hunters say a fresh sighting of​ a mysterious black ring in the sky shows earthlings may not be alone in the galaxy.

The latest “smoke vortex” – believed by some to be a Unidentified Flying Object — was seen by Kimberley Robinson, who was driving in Yorkshire, England Sunday with her boyfriend.

The 22-year-old captured a photo of the strange black mark on her camera’s phone.

“We hadn’t ever seen anything like this before,” she told a local reporter after uploading the photo to social media. “We have looked into it and no one knows what it is.”

The photo shows ​what appears to be ​a giant ​black ​smoke ring, but local fire authorities said there had been no reports of fire in the area.

A similar black ring was spotted hovering over Disneyland in California last year and in 2015, footage emerged of a 320 feet-wide ring of smoke floating over Kazakhstan​​.

Modal Trigger SWNS.com

Nigel Watson, the author of “UFOs of the first World War,” said he believes the rings are being made by flying objects from another planet.

“Smoke rings in the sky like this one look very spooky and unusual,” he told the MailOnline.

Prominent UFO blogger Scott C Waring said he’s convinced the these marks are made by a type of extra-terrestrial space craft.

“Ring UFOs are super rare, but they have been seen,” he said about the Disneyland sighting.

He said it “causes the family to worry about an alien invasion.”

Alien theories aside, the recent Yorkshire sighting may have been caused by a nearby World War II battle re-enactment – complete with pyrotechnics – that was staged in the area earlier in the day.

“We had our WWI re-enactment on the Saturday and our WWII one on the Sunday, and that plume is actually from the WWII battle,” Sarah Clarke, an organizer for the Yorkshire Wartime Experience, told Express.co.uk.

• ALIENS ,  
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• WTF

Ian Purcell captured this object on video as it traversed the sky above Shawnigan Lake.

(Ian Purcell image)

VIDEO: UFO spotted near Shawnigan Lake

Witness took 10-minute video of object

ROBERT BARRON

In the 13 years Ian Purcell has lived in his home near Shawnigan Lake, he said he has never seen an object like he saw in the sky on June 27.

Purcell said he grabbed his video camera and began recording what appeared to be some sort of silver flying machine that was coming from the east before it arced around and started heading back in the direction from whence it came.

Purcell filmed the object’s progress across the sky for almost 10 minutes and then posted it on YouTube.

The video can be viewed here

or at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AGZeecQoDUE

“It’s a very clear view of some sort of very odd ship with many engines clearly visible,” he said.

“It was definitely not from this Earth.”

Purcell said he lives about 45 kilometres from Victoria Airport and has watched thousands of planes at various distances over the years.

He said that whatever the object was, it would have to be at least the size of a large jet liner, based on reference points and distance, and had at least six engines that he could see.

“I could see different lights that looked like jets appearing and disappearing and at the nose, too,” Purcell said. “This is some of the best footage I have ever seen on a clearly visible UFO. I’m definitely going to keep my video camera nearby and fully charged from now on.”

Jon Willis, an associate professor from the department of physics and astronomy at the University of Victoria, said that after viewing a segment of the video, he believes the object is most likely man made.

“However, as an astronomer, my main expertise in these cases is being able to confirm that what is being observed is not a common celestial misidentification, like the moon, Venus, or a solar effect such as a parhelion (sun dog),” he said.

“Beyond that, I would caution that my expertise is very limited; no better than any other member of the public.”

Commenters on the YouTube video have suggested several explanations, including that it could be a large silver inflatable balloon that got loose.

{ http://www.ladysmithchronicle.com/ }

Cloverdale UAP Project: Investigating the “Spooklights” UFO phenomenon in Alabama

Posted by: Richard Hoffman 

Most ufologists are keenly aware of the frequent reports of what people often refer to as “orbs” which lacks much clarity. The term is often used to describe objects that turn out to be everything from Chinese lanterns, to ball plasma, and even navigation lights on aircraft. The term is also used to describe lens flares created from pointing cameras towards a bright light source, an out of focus light, and is also a dust particle that floats in front of a camera with a bright light seen in ghost investigations.

There exists another class of objects that science has yet to fully explain which seem to be a naturally recurring phenomena that are seen in certain geographic areas with increased frequencies (almost nightly) than the objects previously mentioned. In 1973, Piedmont, Missouri experienced a rash of sightings of luminous phenomena and documented by Dr. Harley Rutledge in his book, Project Identification. Dr. Rutledge had a team conduct a field study over a period of years, capturing scientific data, video and photographic evidence in the hopes of learning more about its nature. His summary report of these lights are consistent with other observations in other areas.

Missouri was not the only location that experienced this phenomena in 1973. In Cloverdale, Alabama, a small town located in the northwestern part of Alabama, similar lights were being seen almost nightly and appeared to be balls of luminous lights of varying colors. Residents saw these objects so frequently that they just ignore them – “it’s those dang lights again”. The Cloverdale phenomena continues to appear even today. Wyatt Cox, a former native of the area, now residing in South Carolina has documented and classified many hundreds of sightings that him a friend observed in his book, Spooklights, The Amazing Cloverdale, Alabama Spooklight Mystery.

Wyatt has done an excellent job in creating a classification system for the variations seen (e.g., colors tend to be blue, yellow/orange, white). The lights vary in size, speed and duration based on the colors noted. White lights are generally seen during warmer months, where yellow/orange lights tend to be seen during cooler months (October through April). The Spooklights, now referred to as “Earthlights” by Wyatt, tend to be 8 foot in diameter (the blue and white ones are 2-4 feet in diameter), travel in straight line paths (east to west or reversed), and can be at ground level and rise to altitudes of several thousand feet. They move at 20 mph, but can also stop and then proceed in their path. The lights can go out and then come back on as they proceed on their path and they generally disappear by fading out.

Wyatt Cox

Every serious UFO researcher and field investigator needs to get a copy of the books mentioned here along with the works of William Corliss on Luminous Phenomena. Corliss has done an excellent job of categorizing, referencing and even illustrating the myriads of types of luminous phenomena observed on the earth. Both Corliss as well as Cox see these objects as naturally occurring phenomena, not alien spacecraft. They are very similar to the lights in Hessdalen, Norway, the Marfa Lights, the Paulding Lights, Crossett Lights, Gurdon Lights and dozens of other areas around the globe and it this author’s opinion that it can explain a vast number of UFO sightings even outside of these geographic areas reported by witnesses as “orbs”.

One of many time-lapsed photos of an Earthlight.

Similar to the field study conducted by Dr. Rutledge, a scientific field investigation is being planned for the Cloverdale area this fall. We are seeking to secure the best equipment possible (spectroscopes, gravimeters, magnetometers, cameras capturing images in multiple parts of the EM spectrum, and other data collection tools) along with trained users of that equipment to see what we can learn. Plans include the possible use of a drone to see if we can get close-ups of the lights, equipped with sensors. The outcome will be to deliver a report on our findings and sharing our data collected. We have already begun collecting geological data, earthquake zone data, and weather data for the area.

For further information or interest in the study, please contact this author by writing him at ufoxprt@gmail.com.

{ http://www.openminds.tv/ }

Witness allegedly captures military UFO chase video

A California witness at Landers reported that a group of people at a UFO conference watched and videotaped a military jet “chasing” two lights sources that may have been two independent objects, according to testimony in Case 84123 from the Mutual UFO Network (MUFON) witness reporting database.

Witness illustration.

(Credit: MUFON)

The sighting occurred about 10 p.m. on May 21, 2017, at the conference in Joshua Tree, CA, that included one participant shooting video with night vision goggles.

“Luckily one of my participants caught this and many of our other sightings (from all three nights no less), with his black-and-white night vision video camera,” the witness stated. “His additional footage of some of the other incredible sightings will be posted at a future date once they are compiled.”

The witness described the event.

“At just before 10 p.m. (did not note exact time), some of my participants and I saw a large, amber-colored light low to the horizon just behind Giant Rock from where my whole group of about 50-plus people were gathered and using 15 pair of night vision goggles. A contingency of about 20 of us ran to get a better view of it. To the naked eye it appeared to be a large, orangish (amber) light, that, quoting some of the 20 people; ‘flew like a bumble bee.’”

Image from witness video allegedly showing a UFO on left and military aircraft on right.

(Credit: MUFON)

One of the guests had a good look.

“One guest came running with a pair of the goggles in hand and got a good look at it. She said that through the goggles it looked like ‘a large diamond-shaped UFO.’ She drew a picture of it, attached here. This object then flew behind a small hill right behind the entire Sky Watch larger group. As those of us who ran off walked back to join the others, three military jets flew over in the direction of the object now gone from sight behind the hill. Some of us commented that if they were following it, meaning the jets, they were a few minutes too late.”

The group then heard the sound of a low flying jet from behind the hill.

“Suddenly clearing the top of the hill and right over our heads, came a very fast military jet chasing a faster, large, red-glowing light. The military jet had both red and white blinking strobe lights and glowing afterburners and was very loud as it flew directly above our heads. The large red light had no blinking lights and no sound at all. It became clear to all 50-plus witnesses, this was no jet. Those folks present who looked with the aid of the goggles said they were seeing either two lights, or one object with two light sources on it.”

Image from witness video shows UFO.

(Credit: MUFON)

The witness reviewed the video.

“After extensive review of the footage, I am nearly certain it shows two UFOs (fast moving lights), flying in perfect, locked tandem with one another. It appears you can see stars between them in the background, suggesting that these are two separate objects. As is usually the case, this footage, while incredible, does not do the sighting justice. The video is in black-and-white night vision, not full-color, naked-eye vision, and does not have any sound, so you are unable to hear the palatable excitement of 50-plus witnesses screaming and cheering.”

California MUFON Chief Investigator Earl Grey Anderson is investigating. Please remember that most UFO sightings can be explained as something natural or man-made. The above quotes were edited for clarity. Please report UFO activity to MUFON.com.

 { http://www.openminds.tv/ }

NASA bekent: we hebben het geld niet om mensen op Mars te zetten

Caroline Kraaijvanger

En daarom is er dus nog geen datum geprikt voor die allereerste bemande Marslanding.

Dat de Amerikaanse ruimtevaartorganisatie droomt van een bemande Marsmissie is geen geheim. Maar wanneer die dan precies plaats moest vinden? Dat bleef eigenlijk altijd een beetje vaag. Je zou je dan ook bijna af gaan vragen of NASA het eigenlijk wel kan: mensen op Mars zetten.

Met dit budget gaat het niet
Tijdens een bijeenkomst van het American Institute for Aeronautics and Astronautics kwam Bill Gerstenmaier, dé man als het gaat om de bemande ruimtevaart binnen NASA, met een ontnuchterende reactie op dat vraagstuk. Nee. NASA kan met de huidige budgetten geen mensen op Mars zetten.

Verrassend
Misschien komt dat een beetje als een verrassing. Want NASA heeft ons lang voorgespiegeld dat een bemande missie naar Mars prima mogelijk was. Als het budget jaar na jaar – in lijn met de inflatie – een beetje bleef stijgen en het gloednieuwe Space Launch System en ruimtevaartuig Orion in gebruik zouden worden genomen, gold: the sky is the limit. Dan moesten we mensen op Mars kunnen zetten en weer heelhuids terug kunnen brengen.

Landen
Maar Gerstenmaier zet nu dus een streep door die optimistische beweringen. Hij doet dat in reactie op een heel redelijke vraag die tijdens de bijeenkomst van het American Institute for Aeronautics and Astronautics vanuit het publiek komt: Waarom heeft NASA nog geen datum geprikt om mensen op Mars te zetten? “Ik kan daarvoor geen datum prikken en de reden is dat we – met het beschreven budget dat dus grofweg elk jaar 2% stijgt – geen oppervlaktesystemen voor Mars kunnen bouwen,” aldus Gerstenmaier. Het is met deze budgetten dus prima mogelijk om Orion en SLS af te maken en uiteindelijk naar Mars te vliegen. Maar de atmosfeer van Mars binnengaan, afdalen in die atmosfeer en vervolgens heelhuids op het oppervlak van de rode planeet landen: dat is – met het voorgespiegelde budget – een brug te ver.

Marsrover Curiosity op het oppervlak van Mars.

Afbeelding: NASA.

Marsrovers zijn anders
Misschien vraag je je af waarom dat zo lastig is: NASA heeft in het verleden toch al verscheidene Marsrovers heelhuids laten landen? Correct. Maar dat is niets in vergelijking met het laten landen van een bemande ruimtesonde, legt Gerstenmaier uit. “Als je kijkt naar de rovers die op Mars geland zijn, dan zie je dat ze grofweg 1 metrische ton wegen.” Een bemande lander zou ongeveer 20 keer meer wegen. “En dat is de minimale massa die we op het oppervlak van Mars moeten kunnen zetten.” En NASA weet nog niet hoe dat moet. Natuurlijk kun je dat uitvogelen, maar: dat kost geld. En dat geld is er dus niet. En daarom is het lastig om een datum te prikken voor een bemande landing op Mars.

Moeten we de rode planeet dan voorlopig maar helemaal uit ons hoofd zetten? Zeer zeker niet. Want het krap zittende NASA is niet de enige die droomt van een missie naar Mars. Ook bijvoorbeeld SpaceX en Blue Origin zien zo’n bemande Marsmissie wel zitten. En Elon Musk (SpaceX) durfde daar eerder wel al een voorzichtige datum voor te prikken: ergens in 2025 zou het moeten gaan gebeuren.

Bronmateriaal:

"AIAA"
De afbeelding bovenaan dit artikel is gemaakt door NASA / John Frassanito and Associates

{  https://www.scientias.nl/ }

Moon Express wil in 2020 al materialen van de maan gaan halen

Caroline Kraaijvanger

Het bedrijf ziet de maan als het achtste continent dat – in navolging van de zeven op aarde – zo snel mogelijk moet worden uitgebuit.

Moon Express is voornemens nog dit jaar een lander op de maan te zetten en zo de Google Lunar X Prize in de wacht te slepen. Maar terwijl de voorbereidingen voor die allereerste private maanlanding nog in volle gang zijn, kijkt het bedrijf ook alvast verder. Want Moon Express is niet van plan om het bij die ene landing te laten.

De lander die de zuidpool van de maan ergens tussen 2017 en 2020 moet gaan verkennen.

Naar de zuidpool
Dat blijkt uit de nieuwe plannen die het bedrijf op de site bekend heeft gemaakt. Kort nadat de eerste commerciële maanlander voet op de maan heeft gezet, wil Moon Express de allereerste commerciële expeditie naar de zuidpool van de maan opzetten. Tijdens deze expeditie zal opnieuw een lander voet op de maan zetten. Die lander moet onder meer uitzoeken welke waardevolle mineralen de zuidpool van de maan herbergt.

In 2020 wil Moon Express materiaal van het maanoppervlak halen en naar de aarde brengen.

Sample return
In 2020 is het dan vervolgens tijd voor het echte werk. Tijdens deze derde expeditie zal wat materiaal van het oppervlak van de maan worden gehaald en naar de aarde worden gebracht. Het belooft de allereerste commerciële sample return mission te worden. En als die missie volgens plan verloopt, lijkt niets Moon Express nog in de weg te staan om ook de kostbare grondstoffen die de maan herbergt naar de aarde te halen.

Moon Express heeft er nooit een geheim van gemaakt dat het erop uit is om elementen die op aarde schaars (en dus duur) zijn van de maan te halen en op aarde te gaan verkopen. Maar dat het bedrijf dat al zo snel wil gaan doen, is verrassend. Het is tenslotte zo 2020. Maar laten we niet teveel op de zaken vooruit lopen. Eerst maar eens zien of het bedrijf er later dit jaar in slaagt om die lander heelhuids op de maan te krijgen. Overigens is Moon Express natuurlijk niet het enige bedrijf dat dit jaar nog naar de maan wil. Er zijn nog vijf teams in de race voor de Google Lunar X Prize. Lees er hier alles over!

Bronmateriaal:

"Expeditions" - Moon Express

{  https://www.scientias.nl/ }