Unprecedented: 7,000-Year-Old Submerged Archaeological Site Found Off The Coast Of Florida

An ancestral burial site belonging to native America culture has been found under the ocean near Key Manasota (Manasota Key Offshore, MKO), on the west coast of the Florida peninsula, local secretary of state Ken Detzner recently announced.

The research carried out so far shows that during the Early Archaic Period, when the sea level was much lower than at present, the area where the Cay is located was not submerged and there was a small freshwater lake where the ancient Floridians buried their deceased.

The site near the community of Venice was first discovered by an amateur diver in June 2016, who reported the find to the Archaeological Research Office (BAR) pointing towards the existence of possible human remains in the area.

A carved wooden stake discovered by divers. Image Credit: Ivor Mollema/Florida Department of State

As it is illegal to excavate any site where there are burials, underwater archaeologists had to use other techniques and tools. Experts used sonar and magnetometers for their research and, after a year and a half, they are finally able to claim that the area, with less than an acre of extension (around of 4 thousand square meters), was firm land not covered by the sea during the Early Archaic Period.

Florida Secretary of State Ken Detzner said in a statement that the archaeological site called MKO is located on the continental shelf, off the west coast of the state, in what was once a freshwater lake, when sea levers where much lower than at present.

As the sea level rose, that lake was submerged by the waters of the Gulf of Mexico and covered by material known as “peat.” This is a brown material consisting of partly decomposed vegetable matter forming a deposit on acidic, boggy, ground; This peat remained intact in the seabed, which helped preserve the ancient remains.

Underwater archaeologists mapped the entire site.

Image Credit: Ivor Mollema/Florida Department of State

According to Detzner, BAR archaeologists have done “an incredible work of documentation and research that can help understand the native peoples better.”

The Secretary of State stressed that “out of respect for the individuals buried there and their possible alive descendants,” divers and other persons are prohibited from accessing the site, already protected by the laws of Florida and controlled by representatives of the forces of order that perform frequent patrols.

Timothy Parsons, director of the Historical Resources Division of the State Department, said that the MKO deposit is “a revelation for the world of archeology.”

Ryan Duggins, supervisor of underwater archeology at the BAR, considered “inspiring” the fact that found a submerged field under the Gulf of Mexico “so well preserved.”

“This will forever change the way we approach offshore archaeology.” 

Image Credit: Ivor Mollema/Florida Department of State

“We now know that this type of site exists on the continental shelf,” said Duggins.

On behalf of the Seminole people, Paul Backhouse, head of tribal historical conservation, expressed his satisfaction at being able to elaborate a plan with other institutions that will “allow the ancestors to continue resting in peace without human interference for the next 7 thousand years.”

“We are truly humbled by this experience,” Duggins explained in a statement.

“It is important to remember that this is a burial site and must be treated with the utmost respect.”

Unusual Heat Anomaly Detected In The Gulf Of Mexico

An unusual observation has been noticed in the Gulf of Mexico as a persistent heat anomaly continues to appear on multiple instruments and weather maps.

Is an underwater volcano starting to erupt or is a hydro thermal vent possibly? The last reading was 133 degrees!

One of the largest underwater volcanoes, a so-called asphalt volcano, resides in the Gulf of Mexico and is discovered in 2003 by a research expedition to the Gulf of Mexico.

But they not only discovered the underwater volcano, also they discovered alongside the asphalt were areas soaked with petroleum and methane hydrate, also spewed from the volcano.

Is it possible that the strange heat anomaly comes from this huge underwater volcano and could it be a sign of an underwater eruption or a sign that the volcano has come back to life?

  

STASI: Don’t worry, chances of an alien cyber-attack are much lower than total human annihilation

Cyber-attack anyone? Never mind the Russians — what about the Martians?

Two astrophysicists, whose heads are more in the clouds than in outer space, have just published a research paper proposing that aliens could/might cyber hack attack the Earth causing chaos, mass destruction or maybe universal (like the whole universe) good times. And it's getting a lot of international, and perhaps even inter-species, attention.

The non-peer reviewed paper, (in other words not written for other astrophysicists to evaluate it), by Michael Hippke of the Sonneberg Observatory in Germany and John Learned, of the University of Hawaii, says this cyber attack could come from something as simple as a friendly message about possible communication between us and E.T.

Or as they put it: "A complex message from space may require the use of computers to display, analyze and understand. Such a message cannot be decontaminated with certainty, and technical risks remain which can pose an existential threat. Complex messages would need to be destroyed in the risk averse case."

STASI: Alien invasion would play out like 'Independence Day'

Not so fast, brother. I asked two people who know more about this stuff, than, well, anybody if that makes any sense.

Hell, they said, if aliens wanted to attack us, they don't need to hack our computers, they'd just bio-germ us into non-existence. So rest assured, there is no risk, repeat no risk of E.T.s hacking your Instagram account and posting naked pictures of themselves.

Retired Army Col. John Alexander, a former Green Beret and founder of the Advanced Theoretical Physics Group, who ran the military's psychokinesis group (bending metal with the mind) and author of the book UFOs: Myths, Conspiracies, and Realities, told me, "While hypothetically possible, the probability is so remote as to not be worth any concern, let alone time and effort in countering it." Ouch.

"E.T. alien cyber-attacks don't make sense on any level. They don't need to sow discord as we already have that on our own. If they were to invade, a biological attack makes far more sense. If E.T. understands the physics of getting to Earth, they also understand biology. Therefore, if control or depopulation is the goal, bio-warfare is far easier than mano-a-mano ala Hollywood. Why risk a fight when they could wipe us out without loss of any of their lives. They could also repopulate using cloning technology and just raise a docile herd."

SpaceX rocket launch sparks confusion, rumors of alien takeover

Dr. Alexander believes the real threat comes more from AI that we create ourselves than from a cyber hack attack from outer space.

Even Bill Birnes, who starred in History Channel's "UFO Hunters," and is the author of the upcoming, "UFOs and The White House: What did Our Presidents Know and When did They Know It?" said, "Art from as far back as the Middle Ages, notations in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicles, and stories from other cultures all point to the presence of some types of anomalous craft in the skies. Even Ezekiel is specific about what is flying above him. If aliens wanted to take over this planet, why worry about computer code?"

Alien obsession around the world

And he continued, "An advanced species looking to inhabit Earth would concern themselves more with the DNA code and seek gradually to hybridize our race. Hybridizing our species, which I believe is already taking place, is the most efficient and logical way to take over a planet."

So in other words, why would aliens from deep space bother hacking our Facebook pages when they can just steal our DNA?

Kendrick Lamar says he was ‘probably’ abducted by aliens as a kid

Birnes, who has devoted his life to researching UFOs and the aliens aboard them, believes, "We have already become a hybridized species-when our planet was first visited hundreds of thousands of years ago."

We are the extraterrestrials.

Damn! It's just my luck I got to be one of the short greys and not one of tall ones with the giant eyes who never have a bad hair day.

{ http://www.nydailynews.com/ }

Newly Discovered Tardigrade Species Is Not Cute

Not all water bears are created equal.

By Yasmin Tayag

The darling of the microscopic world is the tardigrade, a hardy little microbe that’s so tiny it’s invisible to the naked eye. Nicknamed the “water bear,” this minuscule metazoan can survive some of the harshest climates in our universe, like deep oceans, red-hot geothermal vents, and even the walls of space-bound rockets. But that’s not why humans like them so much. We love them because, up close, the tardigrades we’re familiar with are plump, doughy, and altogether very cute.

But tardigrades are not a species but rather an entire family of organisms, and not all of its members evolved such pleasing aesthetics. On Wednesday, in the journal PLoS One, researchers led by Daniel Stec, Ph.D., from the Jagiellonian University in Poland report the discovery of Macrobiotus shonaicus sp. nov., a newly discovered species of tardigrade.

In this video uploaded by study co-author and Keio University biologist Kazuharu Arakawa, Ph.D., one can’t help but notice this tardigrade is not as cute. If the tardigrades we’re used to seeing look like little water bears, this one looks like a mid-length water bear turd with legs or a small, impaired platypus … if you’re feeling generous.

Alas, like humans among all the great apes, not all tardigrade species can be so lovable. The tardigrade type you’ve probably cooed over is the eutardigrada, images of which are commonly used as visual shorthand for the tardigrade class as a whole. Indeed, close-up shots of eutardigrades themselves, a subclass of over 700 species, make them seem quite cute.

But there are many species of tardigrades, found all over the world and probably beyond. The new species, M. shonaicus sp. nov., is actually one of 168 known tardigrade species in Japan alone.

The researchers found this aesthetically impaired little guy in a similarly homely place: a scoop of moss from a car park in Tsuruoka-City, Japan, where Arakawa rented an apartment nearby (“specific permission was not required,” the authors note). Using phase contrast light microscopy and scanning electron microscopy, they snapped close-up shots of the new species, revealing a scary mouth, scary claws, and really scary eggs.

Here it is in its entirety, looking rather bland:

Here’s its scary mouth:

Here are its freaky claws:

The eggs are the pièce de résistance. Close up, they’ve got a bulbous middle that narrows into a floppy opening crowned with wild, ragged filaments. They do not look unlike a ripe pimple caught mid-pop.

These scary eggs, however, were key to the organism’s classification as a new species. Though the organism as a whole is most similar to M. anemone from the United States, M. naskreckii from Mozambique, and M. patagonicus from Argentina, the researchers determined that M. shonaicus’ eggs put it into a class of its own.

“[It] can be easily distinguished from these species by the presence of thin flexible filaments on terminal discs of the egg process,” they write, describing the flailing, itchy-looking things in the image above. The eggs, furthermore, have a solid, poreless surface, putting them in a subclass known as the persimilis. The new classification is as follows:

In the biological world, it’s not easy to earn your place as a unique species with its own classification. Perhaps it’s for the best, then, that M. shonaicus has so many, uh, unique features, even though its overall appearance leaves much to be desired.

{https://www.inverse.com/ }

A Bus-Size Asteroid Will Whiz by Earth Friday

This NASA graphic shows the orbit of asteroid 2018 DV1 in relation to Earth. The asteroid will fly within 70,000 miles (113,000 kilometers) of Earth on March 2, 2018.

Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

Friday's asteroid flyby comes on the heels of another close encounter by the asteroid 2018 DU on Sunday (Feb. 25). That asteroid got within about 196,000 miles (315,000 km) of Earth during that flyby.

The Virtual Telescope Project is also tracking another asteroid, called 2017 VR12, as it makes its own close flyby of Earth on March 7. The asteroid will be nearly 870,000 miles (1.4 million km) from Earth at its closest point during the flyby.

According to the Minor Planet Center, asteroid 2017 VR12 is 492 to 1,542 feet (150 to 470 m) wide. That size, combined with its flyby distance to Earth, qualifies the object as a "potentially dangerous" asteroid. But that doesn't mean you should panic; NASA classifies any near-Earth asteroid that is larger than 492 feet across in an orbit that approaches within 4.6 million miles (7.5 million km) as a potentially hazardous object.

Email Tariq Malik at tmalik@space.com or follow him @tariqjmalik and Google+. Follow us @Spacedotcom, Facebook and Google+. Original article on Space.com.

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Silicon-based life on Earth? Only artificially, so far — but maybe natural on other planets

Scientists have successfully nudged a strain of bacteria to create carbon-silicon bonds for the first time. Such research will help flesh out our understanding of silicon-based life — which doesn’t appear on Earth but could on other planets.

Quartz, or rock crystal, the second most abundant mineral in the Earth’s crust, is a mixture of (mostly) silicon and oxygen. The first most abundant mineral, feldspar, also contains (mostly) silicon.
Image credits Stefan Schweihofer.

You may not think of it much, but silicon is actually really common here on good ole Earth — it’s the second most common element in our planet’s crust after oxygen. About nine-tenths of crustal rocks contain silicon in the form of silica or other silicates. The processor that’s allowing you to read ZME Science contains silicon — the glass panes on your windows, too. It’s so ubiquitous in our planet’s chemical makeup that a geologist can tell you which volcanoes will explode, and which would simply ‘flow’ on eruption, just by looking at how much silicon its magma contains. Sitting just one step away from carbon in the periodic table, silicon shares most of the properties that made carbon ideally suited for organic use.

Which makes the following point that much more curious: life as we know it simply isn’t that big on using silicon. It pops up here and there, in the tissues of certain plants or the shells of some marine organisms, but surprisingly little overall. Instead, Earthlings much prefer carbon.

Research from the California Institute of Technology, however, may put the element back on biology’s menu. The team successfully coaxed E.coli into producing a protein that can form carbon-silicon (C-Si) bonds. Their work sheds more light on why the latter element seems to be shunned by Earthly life, and where we might find organisms that don’t feel the same way.

Silly cons

The team started by engineering a strain of E. coli bacteria to produce a protein normally found in bacteria from Icelandic hot springs which can bind silicon to carbon. When the team first used their engineered strain to produce the protein in question, the compound proved to be very inefficient. Successive iterations and natural mutations, however, resulted in an enzyme that could forge organic silicon molecules some 15 times more efficiently than any chemical process the team could apply to the same goal. Using this molecule, the team produced twenty organic C-Si compounds, all of which proved to be stable.

So, by this step, they had proven that life can incorporate silicon — it’s just that it doesn’t particularly want to.

“You might argue, gosh, it’s so easy for a biological system to do it, how do you know it’s not being done out there?” says coauthor Frances Arnold. “We don’t really know, but it’s highly unlikely.”

Arnold was referring to other planets in this context, but the point he’s trying to make can also be applied to Earth. Do we know beyond a doubt that there isn’t silicon life on Earth? Well, no. But we have reasonable grounds to assume that there isn’t.

The issue here is a problem of availability. Silicon is much more common on Earth than carbon, but virtually all of it is extremely costly for life to access. Silicon is so prevalent in the crust because it’s a huge fan of oxygen, and it will bind with any available atom of the gas to form rocks. All of the silicon compounds that the team fed their bacteria to make these new compounds were manmade and life wouldn’t have any chance of finding them in the wild.

Carbon, on the other hand, is very stable chemically. Its relative lack of interest in hooking up with oxygen is especially useful for life, as it can use the atom to create huge molecules without much risk of them oxidizing and breaking apart. It also allows carbon to exist in a pure state (graphite for example) in nature, while silicon can’t — this is a very important distinction, as in molecular ‘economy’, this means carbon can be acquired at a much, much lower price (energy expenditure) than silicon. Finally, when you burn carbon you get a gas that can then be re-used by life; silicon lacks this perk.

But it can be quite shiny, as these silicon optic pieces showcase.

Image credits Crystaltechno / Wikimedia.

Finally, silicon-based life couldn’t use water as carbon-based life does; the two simply don’t have chemistry. Instead, it would have to substitute another liquid, such as methane, for the job — but that’s not stable under normal conditions on Earth, either.

In the end, the heart of the matter isn’t that silicon can’t be a foundation for life — it’s just that, on Earth, carbon can do the job much more easily, at greater efficiency, and at a lower cost. The ‘job’ here being life.

However, that’s not to say silicon-carbon bonds aren’t useful. We produce such compounds in the lab all the time and use them in products ranging from electronics to pharmaceuticals. The team hopes that their bacteria can help produce these substances much faster, much more cheaply, and with a lesser environmental footprint. It could also open the way to whole new materials.

“An enzyme can do what chemists thought only they could do,” Arnold says.“The chemical bond could appear in thousands and thousands of different molecules, some of which could be useful,”

“They’re all completely new chemical entities that are easily available now just by asking bacteria to make them.”

Silly life

Beyond the immediate practical considerations, the research also begs the question: is Earth-based silicon life feasible? The results showed, at the very least, that silicon isn’t harmful to life as we know it. Perhaps, if life had ready access to the element, it would incorporate it more in its structures and processes, despite its limitations.

And that invites the question of whether life can be made to incorporate elements that we’ve never seen it use before.

“What happens when you incorporate other elements?” Arnold asks. “Can nature even do that?”

“Presumably we could make components of life that incorporate silicon—maybe silicon fat or silicon-containing proteins—and ask, what does life do with that? Is the cell blind to whether carbon is there or silicon is there? Does the cell just spit it out? Does the cell eat it? Does it provide new functions that life didn’t have before?”

“I’d like to see what fraction of things that chemists have figured out we could actually teach nature to do. Then we really could replace chemical factories with bacteria.”

One particularly well-suited solution to the limitations of silicon on our Earth is to move the context to another planet. Any seasoned lover of sci-fi, and I proudly count myself among their number, has run into the idea of silicon-based aliens at least once. For now, the “alien life” part remains in the domain of fantasy, but the chemistry behind that idea is very firmly lodged in the domain of science. For example Titan, Saturn’s largest moon, sports a chilly average temperature of -179° Celsius (-290° Fahrenheit), very little oxygen (that’s locked in water ice), and an abundance of methane rivers and lakes.

[Read Further] Yes that’s weird, but the weather gets even weirder on other planets — even simple rain.

In this context, silicon would be much better suited as a biochemical base for life than carbon. In what is perhaps a sprinkling of cosmic irony, however, Titan sports a lot of carbon (even more than Earth), but precious little silicon — and most of it is buried deep, near the moon’s core. But it goes to show that there are worlds out there where silicon is the way to go, not carbon. Overall our chances of finding silicon-based life, or life that incorporates silicon, are pretty slim. And that, again, comes down to the fact that carbon is the more stable of the lot. In the grand scheme of things, there can be silicon life out there — but it will probably be pretty rare.

Still, for now, research into C-Si bonds could usher in a new method of cheaply producing what, today, are relatively pricey compounds. And organic silicon compounds could have very valuable uses in medicine and other applications. So, while we look and pine for silicon-based life out in the universe, we stand to gain a lot from studying it on Earth.

The paper “Directed evolution of cytochrome c for carbon–silicon bond formation: Bringing silicon to life” has been published in the journal Science.

{ https://www.zmescience.com/ }

The moon may have formed from a giant spinning donut of vaporized rock

 BY TIBI PUIU

The moon could have formed from a seething, spinning cloud of vaporized rock, which scientists call a ‘synestia’. Scientists at the University of California, Davis and Harvard University claim that this novel lunar formation model ties several loose ends that competing and more established formation theories could not resolve.

This artist’s rendering shows the hot, molten Moon emerging from a synestia, a giant spinning donut of vaporized rock that formed when planet-sized objects collided.

Credit: Sarah Stewart/UC Davis based on NASA rendering.

According to the mainstream lunar formation theory, early in our planet history, Earth collided with a Mars-sized object called Theia. The highly energetic collision threw molten rock and metal into orbit which eventually coalesced, forming the moon. For more than 20 years, this has been the canonical model for the formation of the moon and modern planet Earth. But, compelling as it may be, this model is likely wrong, according to Simon Lock, a graduate student at Harvard’s Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences.

Modern analyses show that both the Earth and the moon have nearly the same isotopic “fingerprint”, suggesting they both formed from an identical source. What’s more, trajectory models suggest that there’s a very narrow range of collisions that might be able to get enough mass into orbit. “There’s only a couple of degree window of impact angles and a very narrow range of sizes…and even then some impacts still don’t work,” Lock said in a statement.

“Our model explains, for the first time, how the Moon acquired its distinct composition. The Moon has a very similar composition to Earth in the major rock-forming elements (e.g., Al, Mg, Si) but depleted in elements that are more easily vaporized. Because the Moon formed within the synestia, surrounded by hot vapor, it inherited its composition from Earth but only retained the elements that are more difficult to vaporize. The more volatile elements remained in the vapor of the synestia. When the synestia cooled and contracted inside the Moon’s orbit, it took all the more volatile elements with it. We have shown that the pressures and temperatures at which the Moon would have formed inside the synestia would give it a composition similar to that observed in our Moon. Ours is the first model to be able to quantitatively explain the Moon’s composition,” Lock told ZME Science.

“Our model can also help explain why Earth and the Moon appear to have formed from the same material and why our Moon is so big,” he added.

Lock, along with colleagues from Harvard and UC Davis, have devised a new model that is better able to account for these inconsistencies. It relies on a new type of planetary object called synestia — a rapidly spinning mass of molten and vaporized rock, with some matter belonging to the body in orbit around itself. The whole thing looks a lot like a giant planetary-sized donut made of vaporized rock. “Synestia” comes from “syn-,” “together” and “Hestia,” Greek goddess of architecture and structures.

The term “synestia” was coined by Lock and Sarah Stewart, who is professor of planetary science at the University of California, Davis. Both researchers are academically focused on studying what happens when planet-sized objects smash into each other. Particularly, the two are interested in what happens during the collisions of massive spinning objects.

Any rotating object has an angular momentum which needs to stay conserved. The law of conservation of angular momentum states that when no external torque acts on an object, no change of angular momentum will occur. If the net torque is zero, then angular momentum is constant or conserved.

It’s the conservation of angular momentum that can explain why an ice skater can increase the angular acceleration by bringing his or her arms and legs close to the vertical axis of rotation. Because the moment is conserved, when the skater decreases rotational inertia, the rotation rate must increase. Ultimately, the skater’s angular momentum is the same. And when two ice skaters catch ahold of each other, the angular momentum of each skater adds up — again, per the law of conservation of angular momentum, the summed angular momentum must remain the same. As a nice bit of trivia, it’s because of this law that the solar system is flat.

Now, imagine what happens when your two skaters are actually two planets that crash into each other. When Lock and Stewart modeled what happened to Earth-sized rocky planets after a collision with other large objects over a range of high temperatures and high angular momentum, they found this completely new planetary structure.

“The main challenge in this research was breaking our preconceptions about what the aftermath of giant impacts should look like. Two of the most significant ‘Eureka’ moments were that the realization that impacts were creating a very different type of planetary structure, synestias, and that the synestia was so large that the Moon would be forming inside the vapor of the synestia,” Lock told ZME Science.

Out of the Earth-synestia, chunks of molten rock which were injected into orbit following the impact formed the seed for the moon. Synestias likely don’t last long — not more than a couple hundred years — because they can’t sustain their heat for too long, and shrink rapidly, finally collapsing into a molten planet. And while the Earth-synestia gradually shrank, vaporized silicate rock rained into the proto-moon, which explains how the moon inherited its composition from Earth. At the same time, because it formed at high temperatures (4,000-6,000°F), the moon lost the easily vaporized elements which is why the moon also has a distinct composition.

The synestia model answers many long-standing questions about Earth’s and the moon’s formation, but this work is still in its infancy. Much more work must be completed to refine the model further. For instance, scientists would like to know how the vapor that formed the moon flowed and behaved in more detail.

“The study of forming Moon-formation from a synestia is still in the preliminary stages. We have shown that each of the steps to form the Moon from the synestia are feasible, but there is a lot more detailed interrogation of each of these steps yet to do. Also, by better constraining the chemical and isotopic composition of Earth and the Moon, we can find new tests of our model to see whether it truly can produce a Moon that looks like our own,” Lock said.

“It may be possible to observe synestias in upcoming exoplanet surveys, but the lifetime of terrestrial synestias is so short and the possibility of observing one is quite low,” he added about the possibility of witnessing a synestia in the making.

“Forming the Moon within the vaporized Earth is a fundamentally new environment for Moon formation. This model changes the emphasize of the study of Moon formation from a particular impact to the properties of the synestia produced by the impact. There are a range of very different impacts that could have formed our Moon.”

If you’d like to learn more about the synestia moon formation model, Lock made a website explaining it in great detail. You’re welcome to check it out. 

Scientific reference: Simon J. Lock et al. The origin of the Moon within a terrestrial synestia, Journal of Geophysical Research: Planets (2018). DOI: 10.1002/2017je005333. <

{ https://www.zmescience.com/ }

PENTAGON UFO BOMBSHELL: Former defence minister claims US IS storing 'ALIEN UFO parts'

A FORMER minister of defence has sensationally claimed the remains of recovered alien technology are being secretly stored away from public view and claims the US has weapons to bring down UFOs. Paul Hellyer, a former Canadian Minister of Defence alleges the US Government has been in contact with extraterrestrials for years, and claims Washington has obtained flying saucer technology, but has covered it up.

Grootste vliegtuig ter wereld is breder dan een voetbalveld - HLN.be

Het is haast een surrealistisch beeld, het vliegtuig met twee rompen en een lange rechte vleugel in het midden van de Californische woestijn. De Stratolaunch, met een spanwijdte van maar liefst 117 meter, wordt het grootste vliegtuig ter wereld. De 28 wielen moeten meer dan 590 ton (het gewicht wanneer het vliegtuig geladen is) dragen, terwijl zes Boeing 747-vliegtuigmotoren al dat gewicht de lucht in moeten krijgen.

Lees ook

Transport met een smile: is dit het ‘vriendelijkste’ vliegtuig ter wereld?

Het kolossale gevaarte vliegt tot een hoogte van zo’n 11 kilometer. Daar wordt de raket met satelliet afgevuurd naar een lage baan om de Aarde. Paul Allen hoopt met het vliegtuig de kostprijs van zo’n lancering stevig te drukken, want voor het afschieten van dergelijke raket vanaf een lanceerplatform op de grond is veel brandstof - en dus veel geld - nodig.

 Stratolaunch Systems

Een bedrijf tekende in anderhalf jaar geleden al een contract met Stratolaunch Systems. Met het vliegtuig van Allens bedrijf wil Orbital ATK zijn Pegasus XL, dat gebruikt wordt om kleine satellieten te vervoeren, naar de ruimte brengen.

Mijlpaal

Maar daar is het dus nog even op wachten: de Stratolauch moet nog uitgebreid getest worden. Het van zijn stellingen halen en naar buiten rollen was alvast een eerste mijlpaal. Gisteren werden de motoren getest. Oorspronkelijk waren de eerste testvluchten al voorzien voor 2016 en 2017, maar zoals dat met projecten van zo’n omvang gaat, werden die al uitgesteld naar volgend jaar. Dan kan het paradepaardje met vleugels groter dan een voetbalveld eindelijk de lucht in.

Droom

Paul Allen, volgens Forbes een van de rijkste mensen ter wereld, beschreef in zijn memoires Idea Man al hoe hij als kind geobsedeerd was door de ruimtevaart. Hij droomde van het ontwerpen van raketten die Mars zouden verkennen. “Andere interesses kwamen en gingen, maar mijn obsessie met raketten is gebleven”, schreef hij. “Na Apollo legde NASA de nadruk op onbemande raketten. De ruimtevaart verloor zijn stempel, maar nooit mijn interesse.”

Stratolaunch Systems

AFP

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{ https://www.hln.be/ }

US Fighter Jets And A UFO Apparently In A Dogfight Over Lincoln County, Nevada

Two planes and a third object were captured on photos silhouetted against the sky above a patch of desert in Lincoln County, Nevada. Many believe that the dramatic photos show US fighter jets battling a UFO over Area 51, an alleged top-secret alien site.

UFO researchers Tim Doyle and Tracey Su captured the photos while they were camping out 12 miles from the military base.

They claimed that they spotted the two fighters soaring above and they decided to take pictures. Then a third shape appeared when they looked back at the images later.

The pair believed the trio were involved in a plane dogfight.

Tim described the UFO as similar to a triangular unmanned drone because it was probably too small to have a person inside it.

Tim added that it definitely looked as though the three crafts are interacting with each other.

The US Air Force base, located approximately 80 miles from Las Vegas, is thought to be the home of experimental aircraft development and testing.

The CIA only acknowledge its existence after a Freedom of Information request in 2013.

Many conspiracy theorists claim the highly secretive facility has been used for reverse engineering of a crashed alien spacecraft at Roswell in 1947.

{ http://www.latest-ufo-sightings.net/ }

Mysterious Lights appear in the Sky over Milwaukee - FOX6 News

On Tuesday morning, February 27, 2018 strange moving lights appeared over Milwaukee and were captured live on TV from FOX6.

They quickly explained that it was just a huge flock of seagulls but not everyone is convinced because a few days earlier another mysterious light fell from the sky over Milwaukee and they believe that both events are connected to each other.

Elisabeth Zillinskas who recorded the bright light over Milwaukee on February 24, 2018 states that she has no idea what exactly fell from the sky, it is a complete mystery.

{ http://ufosightingshotspot.blogspot.com/  }

{http://nationalufocenter.com/ }

Filer’s Files #8 – 2018 Portals Are Opening - PART II

UFO Sightings in the United States

Arizona Lights

Fountain Hills — While on vacation in the Phoenix area in March 8, 2014 at 4:40pm  my girlfriend was taking random pictures of homes. I had watched a documentary on the Phoenix Lights and noticed six white spots in a slight V pattern in the sky in her photo. Comparing the photo she took to the Phoenix Lights we noticed similarities. We have no idea what is in the picture, but it is quite obviously something. I have examined this photo many times an am no further ahead in explaining it.

I should have sent this to you sooner, but I wasn’t aware of your organization and only found out from a friend while telling this story. The photo was taken on a Samsung G3 cell phone with no filter. Thanks to MUFON CMS

Arkansas Lights

Mena — The following describes an initial Light Event witnessed on February 18, 2017, reported to MUFON by phone, and was investigated by MUFON’s Special Assignment Team (SAT). Due to the fact that this location, Board Camp Crystal Mine, near Mena, Arkansas, has been the site of ongoing phenomenon and investigation since the February 18, 2017, this event was not publicly reported online until now. The reporting parties are the property owners and/or witnesses of numerous events are reporting for the benefit of public education and scientific research. On the night of February 18, 2017, at the property known as Board Camp Crystal Mine, , the 3 eye-witnesses were standing on a hill gazing out over the crystal mine property. About 10 pm, about 900 feet away the witnesses saw a glow of white light appear at the treetops of the horizon silhouetting the treetops from behind. Three large white vertical beams of light appeared out of the glow, seeming to be 30 feet wide and seeming to shoot up to about 300 feet high above the ground. The beams were described as being flat across the top, and appeared for 10 seconds, then disappeared. There were no lights at ground level and no sound of a vehicle or animals. Three large floodlights could have made the lighting but no equipment was noticed. The next morning, the 3 witnesses visited the crystal mine but, there was no evidence of a human visitation, but all metal objects such as fence posts and tools were noticed to be affected, characterized by movement of the objects from their previous positions.

MUFON was contacted and the witnesses were phoned by Arkansas state investigator Race Hobbs. Because of the credibility of the witnesses and the strong physical evidence left behind after the Light Event occurred, MUFON sent the SAT to investigate, led by Chase Kloetzke. Race Hobbs accompanied the SAT. During the SAT’s examination of the metal objects with various devices recording readings for radiation and electromagnetism (EM), it was confirmed that the metal objects at the Event Site were not only magnetized but also polarized, and EM and radiation levels were increased. Thanks to MUFON CMS

California Object

San Jose — Saw a flying disc in sky on February 16, 2018.

They changed direction, changed colors, got video and stills.

First thought in orbit, they followed Orion’s Belt 25-40 degrees left, 40-50 degrees up from street.

Thanks to MUFON CMS

RanchoSanta Margarita — We had just finished playing tennis at 11am on February 18, 2018, when one of the players looked up and said “What is that?”

We observed the object for about 5-10 minutes. At first I thought it was silver balloons, but they weren’t gaining altitude or being moved by the wind. And then, based on height and distance from us, it seemed too big to be balloons.

It reminded us of this, but we couldn’t see the movement caught in this video because of distance.

The photo was taken from their video, but very much reminds us what we saw. Thanks to MUFON CMS

Florida Lights

LeHigh Acres — I was outside taking a picture to send to my brother during the Christmas holidays on December 2, 2017.

That’s when I noticed the object after the picture was taken. I then looked in the sky and nothing was there.

Thanks to MUFON CMS

Davenport — My girlfriend and I were returning home from a friend’s a few blocks away on January 1, 2018

It was now New Year’s morning and we noticed the object right away. It was in the sky even after we returned home and looked out the back door to the yard it was still there. It was the largest craft I’d ever seen. And I’ve seen a few. Thanks to MUFON CMS

Massachusetts Object

Maisen — I was taking pictures of the heavy spraying of chemtrails and I noticed what I thought was a spec on my phone’s screen on February 20, 2018

Upon further review it’s obviously some type of a craft. It was never visible to my naked eye, I looked right up after I noticed it on the camera and there was nothing in that part of the sky.

I never saw it except on my picture. If you look at it closely there is some type of an aura around it. Thanks to MUFON CMS

New Jersey Chemtrails

Toms River — I was sitting on the couch watching TV on February 7, 2018 at 16:30  and noticed a lot of planes putting out abnormal chemtrails criss crossing in about 6 to 9 lines. Two even made a cross in the sky. I started to take some photos, and then sat back down. I kept looking to the sky’s outside of my friends window when to my amassment I saw a strange black object fly in a straight line amidst the chemtrails fading in the sky. Two days later sitting in my car February 9, 2018, waiting for my girlfriend while watching planes put down more chemtrails, I saw two bright none flashing orbs That is three different sightings within three days, Thank you David Thompson.

North Carolina Light

Carolina Beach –On February 6th, 2018, at 10 pm, I was at the beach with my dog, looking at the stars. I was surprised to see a pulsating, then spinning object, randomly changing white, blue and green, hovering east over the ocean, for 5 minutes. I took a couple of videos with my phone that pulsated for about 2 minutes and changed to a cube spinning on its corner. At one point, a smaller light appears at the upper right of the object, but it only lasts for about a second. It then slowly moved north/northeast for about a minute. I lost sight of it when it started getting smaller, giving me the impression that it was moving further out to sea. Thanks to MUFON CMS

Tennessee Orbs

Gatlinburg — My son sent me this picture as he took it upon entering the Smokey Mountains without seeing the objects in the picture on February 18, 2018.

I asked him if that was a ufo and he said, “no he was sending a pic of the mountains.” I will attach the original pic and the zoom pic.

Thanks to MUFON CMS

Washington Diamond

Hurricane Ridge Lodge — This photo is from the webcam at the Hurricane Ridge Lodge.

The elevation at a little over 5,200 feet. I captured the photo, and saved it.

Then I put it in Photoshop to enlarge it and cropped it to just the object. See both photos taken on February 12, 2018

Thanks to William Puckett, Director Http://www.UFOsnw.com

Worldwide UFO Sightings

Australia Object

Miranda NSW — Taking my grandson down my drive to meet his mother, I looked up to see this object in the sky on July 29, 2014. It didn’t look like a plane, so I asked my grandson, “What do you think that is?” (It’s on the video). He wasn’t sure. I knew it was something significant. Firstly it was pink, travelling straight across my vision boomerang shape. Not one person has an explanation. I took video and photos with my iPhone 5 at the time, and when I zoomed in was really amazed at what I saw. So I keep looking up! I have my own theories as to how this all unfurls. Thanks to MUFON CMS

Canada Tear Drops

Calgary — I was traveling back to Calgary from visiting my sister in Winnipeg on a Westjet flight at 40,000 feet. I glanced for a second outside and seen two white kind of tear drop things flying off in the distance. I had my iPhone in my hand and quickly took one pic before the two objects were gone. They were white in color with no exhaust trails which made them look real bizarre. I knew it had to be two UFOs. Sighting lasted maybe 7 seconds. It was incredible!

Thanks to MUFON CMS

Costa Rica Disc

Quepos –1. I was a passenger in the front seat of a friend’s car on the Pan American Highway on my way to go fishing in Quepos, Costa Rica, at approx. 4:25pm on January 31, 2018.
2. I decided to take a vacation photo of the palm trees though the windshield as we were driving.
3. I observed an object moving erratically on the screen of my tablet camera, when I looked up, the object was not visible. Yet as soon as I again looked at the tablet, the object was observable and moving erratically and at high speed. 4. The object was invisible to the naked eye and could only be seen with the aid of the camera lens on the tablet screen. I never even really saw it until later in the evening, when I got a chance to look at the pictures. Thanks to MUFON CMS

Dominican Republic Orb

Punta Cana — I was at a resort in just starting my vacation lying in the sun by a swimming pool and looked up at a perfectly clear sky on February 12, 2018.

I noticed an object that was moving across the sky, I thought it was an airplane because of how high up it was.

The object stopped and hovered for at least an hour before I lost interest in the object so I took some video and pictures.

Thanks to MUFON CMS

France Disc

Houssen — I looked out the window and saw a low-flying object, while I reached the camera, the UFO flew about 500 meters at an altitude of about 30 meters and began to drop to a height of 10 meters. On February 10, 2018

I will not describe what a UFO was in detail, in the face, it could disappear and become invisible, such as a portal or masking. Five minutes later I cycled to the field for the last time I saw the UFO.
But after a while, then began to occur paranormal things always, then I found a dozen different types of UFOs.   Thanks to MUFON CMS

Korea Lights

Hwa Jeong Duk Yang Ku — Last May, one night I looked up to the sky to see the stars in front of my house. Then, suddenly I happened to see the blinking slowly flying object in the sky around at 9 p.m. At first, I thought it was a helicopter it didn’t make any noise. After that incidence, in fact, I could often see it 2 or 3 times a week on average.
Once I climbed up the mountain and succeeded to see it very closely. Its shape is a black right triangle with three blinking lights on its three corners with a faint red light in the center. It’s bigger than a helicopter but not bigger than a plane. It shows up every night regardless of the weather searching. It has a traveling routine orbiting the town and flies over the mountains and military facilities. – It follows me wherever I go See Korean UFO hunter on YOU TUBE. The real Area 51 is in Korea! Thanks to MUFON CMS

Mexico Light

Cancun — When zooming in on the photo I took, I could see what looks like an outer shape to the object,

Photo taken on February 19, 2018. Thanks to MUFON CMS

 New Zealand 1909

Otago Daily Times told its readers on Monday 26 July 1909 that:

SUPPOSED AIRSHIP. SEEN AT KELSO

 The mysterious “airship” has been seen again, this time in broad daylight. On Saturday Mr. Gibson, of Kelso [S45°54’, E169°13’], telephoned us stating that at noon on Friday [23 July 1909], the school children be held in the air a strange machine, which they described as shaped like a boat, with what seemed like the figure of a man seated in it. The “airship” approached from the direction of the Blue Mountains [S45°55’, E169°22’], circled high over the school, and then disappeared in the direction whence it came. The phenomenon was also observed by Mrs. James Russell, of Kelso. Possible depiction of craft.

Our Kelso correspondent telegraphed as follows; – “There is not the slightest doubt that the airship was seen at Kelso yesterday at noon. I have eye witnesses to prove this. It is cigar or “boat” shaped and pointed at each end. Those who saw it had no idea of the probable height of it above them. It did not appear to be very long in build, but was very broad. The children who saw it say that it had a pontoon-shaped part above the boat and a short pole or mast, in the centre. It flew over and past the school ground, turned round, and went back the way it came. It was flying along very easily, and had no trouble in turning. It came from the direction of the Blue Mountains and over The Wooded Hill above Kelso, and seemed to make back direct to the mountains again. It was seen by at least five persons, and their statements are all in accord.”

This daylight account, which mentions an aviator, was circulated throughout New Zealand by the UPA wire service. It created great public interest and launched the “Kelso Airships” as a media phenomenon.

UK/England Disc

Cornwall — I was on holiday we stopped to take some pictures of the beautiful countryside and I noticed a lot of strange objects in the pics on July 1, 2018 24, 2017. I know there was no sound and no sighting by eye but they are there in the pics the other one I was taking pics as we were driving past an RAF airbase and there seems to be ufos in those also one being chased by a plane or something also we never saw with our eyes but they are in the pics, you have to zoom in but they are there. Thanks to MUFON CMS

Gainsborough — I had just bought a new camera and was trying it out by swizzling around and napping pictures to see if the was any blurring on August 3, 1998.. I took about 10 pictures doing the same thing I only looked at the first couple and they seemed good quality. so I downloaded them into a file on my computer and never thought any more about it.
then I acquired a program called Picasa which found lots of photos on my computer looking through them I spotted this one I thought it might have been a bird in flight and passed it by. I have never bothered to much about it and it might be nothing at all, I will let you judge. Best Regards Derek

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I have put out these files for twenty years; and I’m a disabled veteran with poor eyesight due to cataracts and macular degeneration so forgive any spelling errors. As you read this I’ve had heart surgery on my clogged arteries at Deborah Hospital on December 5, 2017. I plan on continuing these files as the operation is successful but has taken a couple weeks to recover. It has been a pleasure writing these files for twenty years, that I feel is the most important endeavor of mankind. We could use your help  in paying for web costs, Wi-Fi , internet, etc.

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Ex-Canadian Transport Minister: US Has Technology for Shooting Down UFOs

Paul Hellyer, a whistleblower and alien conspiracy theorist, says that the US not only traded technology with aliens for years, but even possesses technology capable of shooting down extraterrestrial spaceships.

The United States has developed technology capable of downing alien spaceships, says Hellyer, a 94-year old Canadian engineer, politician, writer, commentator and alien conspiracy theorist.

"I do believe they have developed two or three kinds of weapons that are capable of disabling and bringing down UFOs," he told the Daily Star.

According to Hellyer, the United States has been exchanging technology and even salvaging technology from the advanced lifeforms.

"That is the primary purpose of the anti-ballistic missile shield, the weapons are ones that can be aimed in either direction to control the situation on Earth but equally, if not more important, to shoot down UFOs," he told the Daily Star.

© AP PHOTO/ JORDAN STRAUSS/INVISION

Robbie Williams Claims He Has Seen a UFO Close Enough to Hit With Tennis Ball

What makes this claim particularly noteworthy is the fact that Hellyer was once minister of national defense of Canada from 1963 to 1967 and minister of transport from 1967 to 1969.

In 2014, Hellyer told RT that there are at least four different alien species that have visited Earth for thousands of years. Some of them are actually interacting with the US military at an Air Force base in Nevada. According to Hellyer, the US military have been exchanging technology with "Tall Whites," as he describes the alien race, since the 1960s.

According to the Daily Star, he cited former US Air Force serviceman Charles James Hall, who has written about his alleged encounters with aliens at a Nevada base, as having told Hellyer they had a hangar for a "mother ship that came into the side of a mountain on the nights of a full moon."

However, despite having weapons capable of shooting down a UFO, there is no need to do that, as the aliens are actually friendly and are more concerned about the way humans treat their planet.

"They are friendly, most observers believe, so why would we shoot at friends?" he asked.

It's also possible that the US has not shot any UFOs because, as Hellyer said in 2013 in another interview for RT, that would spark an "interstellar war."
On the other hand, if the alien world turned out to have oil…

{ https://sputniknews.com/ }

Can Earth be hacked by aliens? Scientists say messages from space could destroy life as we know it

Scientists warn that in the event we receive any complex messages from extraterrestrial life forms, they should be destroyed to avoid a potential threat.

By India Ashok

Why haven't we found alien life?

Recent advances in science and technology have allowed alien hunters to scour the far reaches of space for any signs of alien life. Although we have yet to identify any evidence of extraterrestrial life, either microbial or intelligent, some scientists believe that there may be a potential threat to humanity from aliens.

In a new research paper, astrophysicists Michael Hippke and John Learned argue that telescopes designed to search for alien signals, could pick hazardous messages from intelligent extraterrestrials. According to the researchers, aliens could launch a virus or cyberattacks to shut down our computer systems.

•  Powerful black holes explosions may have transformed Neptune-like exoplanets into rocky super-Earths
•  The Arctic is now hotter than ever – despite it being the peak of winter
•  Massive 1,400-year-old banquet hall uncovered in Japan's ancient capital city

The researchers also suggested that aliens could "gift" us with an artificial intelligence (AI) system that may trick humans into developing self-replicating nanobots and eventually deploy them to wreak havoc on our planet. The researchers argue that it would be cheaper for aliens to "send a malicious message to eradicate humans compared to sending battleships".

In one scenario, the researchers argued that a message from aliens could be a panic-inducing statement like "We will make your sun go supernova tomorrow". According to the researchers, if such a threatening message is received in just one location, it may be possible to contain and even destroy it. "If it is received repeatedly, perhaps even by amateurs, containment is impossible," the researchers wrote in a paper available online on arXiv.

In another scenario, the scientists argue that humans could be tricked into begetting their own demise by aliens offering the "gift" of knowledge. For instance, aliens could transmit a message that reads: "We are friends. The galactic library is attached. It is in the form of an artificial intelligence (AI) which quickly learns your language and will answer your questions. You may execute the code following these instructions..."

In this scenario, the researchers suggest that even if the utmost care is taken to isolate the AI – by flying the system to the moon and wiring it up with explosives so it can be shut down immediately in the event of a threat, the AI would still likely have some human contact.

"Even in a military-style, adamant experiment, there will still be humans involved who go home after examination work with their own feelings. Even if everything is officially secret, whistle-blowers might get some news out to the public," the researchers wrote. "Quickly, there could be a community on Earth in favor of letting it out for religious, philosophical etc. reasons.

"If the AI promises to cure cancer, or offers a message of salvation, a cult could form. Maybe (or maybe not) a majority of the population would be in favor of releasing the AI. Should, or even could, a democratic government work against the majority of its people? Dictatorships are unstable and eventually overthrown; the AI will be eventually released. Then, the worst possible result would be human extinction or some other unrecoverable global catastrophe."

The scientists warn that in the event we receive any complex messages from extraterrestrial life forms, they should be destroyed to avoid a potential threat.

But is it even likely that we would receive messages from an alien civilisation in a language that we understand?

"In movies, extraterrestrials often communicate with us in colloquial English. But a real message from space is likely to be no more understandable than a digital TV signal would be to Guglielmo Marconi," Seth Shostak, an astronomer at the SETI Institute, wrote in an op-ed in NBC News. "An alien transmission is unlikely to be a Trojan horse — but it would at least tell us that there's someone outside the gates."

{ http://www.ibtimes.co.uk/ }