ONE OF THE TRAPPIST-1 PLANETS HAS AN IRON CORE

by Matt Williams

In February of 2017, a team of European astronomers announced the discovery of a seven-planet system orbiting the nearby star TRAPPIST-1. Aside from the fact that all seven planets were rocky, there was the added bonus of three of them orbiting within TRAPPIST-1’s habitable zone. Since that time, multiple studies have been conducted to determine whether or not any of these planets could be habitable.

In accordance with this goal, these studies have focused on whether or not these planets have atmospheres, their compositions and their interiors. One of the latest studies was conducted by two researchers from Columbia University’s Cool Worlds Laboratory, who determined that one of the TRAPPIST-1 planets (TRAPPIST-1e) has a large iron core – a finding which could have implications for this planet’s habitability.

The study – titled “TRAPPIST-1e Has a Large Iron Core“, which recently appeared online – was conducted by Gabrielle Englemenn-Suissa and David Kipping, a senior undergraduate student and an Assistant Professor of Astronomy at Columbia University, respectively. For the sake of their study, Englemenn-Suissa and Kipping took advantage of recent studies that have placed constraints on the masses and radii of the TRAPPIST-1 planets.

These and other studies have benefited from the fact that TRAPPIST-1 is a seven planet system, which makes it ideally suited for exoplanet studies. As Professor Kipping told Universe Today via email:

“It’s a wonderful laboratory for exoplanetary science for three reasons. First, the system has a whopping seven transiting planets. The depth of the transits dictates the size of each planet so we can measure they sizes quite precisely. Second, the planets gravitationally interact with one another leading to variations in the times of the transits and these have been used to infer the masses of each planet, again to impressive precision. Third, the star is very small being a late M-dwarf, about an eighth the size of the Sun, and that means transits appear 8^2 = 64 times deeper than they would if the star were Sun-sized. So we have lots of things working in our favor here.”

Together, Englemann-Suissa and Kipping used mass and radius measurements of the TRAPPIST-1 planets to infer the minimum and maximum Core Radius Fraction (CRF) of each planet. This built on a study they had previously conducted (along with Jingjing Chen, a PhD candidate at Columbia University and a member of the Cool Worlds Lab) in which they developed their method for determining a planet’s CRF. As Kipping described the method:

“If you know the mass and radius very precisely, like the TRAPPIST-1 system, you can compare them to that predicted from theoretical interior structure models. The problem is that these models generally comprise of possible four layers, an iron core, a silicate mantle, a water layer and an light volatile envelope (Earth only has the first two, its atmosphere contributes negligible to mass and radius). So four unknowns and two measured quantities is in principle an unconstrained, unsolvable problem.”

This artist’s concept shows what each of the TRAPPIST-1 planets may look like, based on available data about their sizes, masses and orbital distances.

Credits: NASA/JPL-Caltech

Their study also took into account previous work by other scientists who have attempted to place constraints on the chemical composition of the TRAPPIST-1 system. In these studies, the authors assumed that the planets’ chemical compositions were connected to that of the star, which can be measured. However, Englemann-Suissa and Kipping took a more “agnostic” approach and simply considered the boundary conditions of the problem.

“We essentially say that given the mass and radius, there are no models with cores smaller than X that can possibly explain the observed mass and radius,” he said. “The core might be bigger than X but has to be at least X since no theoretical models could explain it otherwise. Here, X would therefore correspond to what we could call the minimum core radius fraction. We then play the same game for the maximum limit.”

What they determined was that the minimum core size of six of the TRAPPIST-1 planets was essentially zero. This means that their compositions could be explained without necessarily having an iron core – for instance, a pure silicate mantle could be all that’s there. But in the case of TRAPPIST-1e, they found that its core must comprise at least 50% of the planet by radius, and at most, 78%.

Compare this to Earth, where the solid inner core of iron and nickel and a liquid outer core of a molten iron-nickel alloy comprise 55% of the planet’s radius. Between the upper and lower limit of TRAPPIST-1e’s CRF, they concluded that it must have a dense core, one which is likely comparable to Earth. This finding could mean that of all the TRAPPIST-1 planets, e is the most “Earth-like” and likely to have a protective magnetosphere.

As Kipping indicated, this could have immense implications when it comes to the hunt for habitable exoplanets, and might push TRAPPIST-1e to the top of the list:

“This gets me more excited about TRAPPIST-1e in particular. That planet is a tad smaller than the Earth, sits right in the habitable-zone and now we know has a large iron core like the Earth. We also know it does not possess a light volatile envelope thanks to other measurements. Further, TRAPPIST-1 appears to be a quieter star than Proxima so I’m much more optimistic about TRAPPIST-1e as potential biosphere than Proxima b right now.”

This is certainly good news in light of recent studies that have indicated that Proxima b is not likely to be habitable. Between its star emitting powerful flares that can be seen by the naked eye to the likelihood that an atmosphereand liquid water would not survive long on its surface, the closest exoplanet to our Solar System is currently not considered a good candidate for finding a habitable world or extra-terrestrial life.

In recent years, Kipping and his colleagues have also dedicated themselves and the Cool Worlds Laboratory to the study of possible exoplanets around Proxima Centauri. Using the Canadian Space Agency’s Microvariability and Oscillation of Stars (MOST) satellite, Kipping and his colleagues monitored Proxima Centauri in May of 2014 and again in May of 2015 to look for signs of transiting planets.

While the discovery of Proxima b was ultimately made by astronomers at the ESO using the Radial Velocity Method, this campaign was significant in drawing attention to the likelihood of finding terrestrial, potentially-habitable planets around nearby M-type (red dwarf) stars. In the future, Kipping and his team also hope to conduct studies of Proxima b to determine if it has an atmosphere and determine what its CRF could be.

Once again, it appears that one of the many rocky planets orbiting a red dwarf star (and which is closer to Earth) might just be a prime candidate for habitability studies! Future surveys, which will benefit from the introduction of next-generation telescopes (like the James Webb Space Telescope) will no doubt reveal more about this  system and any potentially habitable worlds it has.

Further Reading: arXiv

{ https://www.universetoday.com/ }

On January 6, 2016 I wrote an article here at Mysterious Universe titled “UFO TV: A Show Worth Watching.” While I’m not a fan of the likes of Star Wars, Star Trek, etc., etc., I do like some sci-fi, mainly when it’s got a lot of conspiracy attached  to it. My article was focused on what is without doubt one of my all-time favorite shows, The Invaders, which ran from 1967 to 1968. It starred actor Roy Thinnes as David Vincent, a man who – after a UFO encounter in the dead of night – tries to warn the world of an alien menace and to wipe out the extraterrestrial presence in our midst. I said in that article:

“A great combination of the best parts of The Fugitive, The Twilight Zone, and Invasion of the Body Snatchers, The Invaders was a show years (actually, decades) ahead of its time. It easily eclipsed the simplistic, mindless and cheap to make, “shoot ’em up”-style science-fiction output that seemed (and still seems) so popular on certain TV channels. It oozed a high degree of menace, a sinister atmosphere, thought-provoking plot lines, and – at the heart of it all – human-looking hostile aliens bent upon the infiltration of our society and the ultimate destruction of the Human Race.

“I recall first watching the show as a young kid in the mid-1970s [thinking back, it may have been a bit later], utterly enthralled by David Vincent’s near-solitary quest to expose to the world the dark truth of the alien threat among us – while all the time pursued by definitive Men in Black-style extraterrestrial assassins. I thought: this is great! The show was then repeated some time in my teens, and prior to purchasing the DVD set a couple of years ago, I was probably in my late-twenties when I last watched the show. And, I’m pleased to say that The Invaders still stands the test of time, now close to 50 years after it first aired (the show ran for two-seasons: from January 1967 to March 1968).”

Roy Thinnes continued to make supernaturally-themed shows, such as The Horror at 37,000 Feet and Satan’s School for Girls. And, then, there’s The Norliss Tapes. Like the two aforementioned movies, The Norliss Tapes was also made in 1973. And, it was largely brought to life on American television by Dan Curtis – the man behind The Night Stalker, The Night Strangler (both starring Darren McGavin as journalist Carl Kolchak) and Dark Shadows.

The Norliss Tapes – a pilot for a show that never took off – is, in many ways, very much like The Invaders (and The Night Stalker, too). In The Invaders, Roy Thinnes was the alien-hunting David Vincent. In The Norliss Tapes, he was David Norliss, an author investigating the world of the supernatural. The approach was actually quite a good one.  The plan is for Norliss to write a book that debunks paranormal phenomena. But, he gets far more than he bargained for and admits to being too frightened to write the book. So, instead, Norliss chronicles each adventure on a series of cassette tapes, hence the title of the show. Of course, because the TV movie didn’t get picked up as a series, we only get to see, and hear, what went on with the first case.

In the pilot, Norliss goes missing from his home –  after investigating a strange affair involving a man back from the grave and a demon called Sargoth. It’s up to a friend and colleague, Sanford Evans (actor Don Porter), to go through the first tape and try and figure out what has led to Norliss’ disappearance. It’s easy to see Dan Curtis’ touch in all of this. And, it’s safe to say, if you are a fan of the exploits of Carl Kolchak, you’ll enjoy this too. Co-starring Angie Dickinson, The Norliss Tapes is a show I like a lot. I guess, that’s because I first watched it as an excited kid, as I did with the likes of other 1970s-era movies, such as Don’t Be Afraid of the Dark, Gargoyles, Race with the Devil, Something Evil, and the TV mini-series, Salem’s Lot – all of which I still watch a couple of times a year. A nostalgia kick? For sure, but they’re good too!

You can find The Norliss Tapes on DVD, but the prices are pretty outrageous, and most of the available copies are used. The good news, though, is that you can watch the whole thing on YouTube (see above). Maybe, one day, The Norliss Tapes will be resurrected with a new cast. But, this time around, cassette tapes ain’t gonna cut it!

{ http://mysteriousuniverse.org/ }

Is a new type of UFO appearing across the globe? Last month, Mysterious Universe reported on a floating “humanoid” UFO seen in Brazil, that had strange similarities to other “humanoid” UFO’s filmed and photographed in different parts of the world. A new video has just surfaced, this time in Houston, Texas, that shows a ‘floating tower’ shaped UFO in steady flight across the night sky. While there is no mention of a humanoid nature to this UFO in the video, the shape is undeniably similar.

The video, as reported by the Daily Star, was shared to MUFONand picked up by the YouTube channel TexasUFOs. It shows a shape longer than it is wide, floating perpendicular to the ground.  It moves at a constant, steady rate. The object doesn’t seem to be making any sound, but it is hard to tell over the ambient noise with no knowledge of distance from the camera.  According to the Star, the witness described the UFO like this:

Object was moving north-northwest and was keeping the same elevation and didn’t move like balloons.

Much larger, vertical structure like a floating tower with a pointed tip at the top.

Some comments suggested that the object is a drone carrying some sort of “contraption”, though what that could be is hard to say. The Daily Star headline suggests that it’s some sort of top secret military drone. Other than YouTube comments, however, there doesn’t seem to be any base for those claims.

Pareidolia is the recognizing of familiar patterns, like a humanoid shape, where they’re not. Rorshach inkblot tests are a great example.

A similar sighting was also reported earlier in April, 2018, in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. Filmed on a beach, the video shows another ‘floating tower’ or ‘humanoid’ UFO hovering in the sky. When compared with the Brazil ‘humanoid’ case or the Sydneyand Abu Dhabi cases it’s easy to see the similarities between these and the two recent sightings in the USA. It’s impossible to say with any certainty what these objects are. The ‘humanoid’ shape is almost certainly a case of pareidolia, but because of that it’s even easier to see the similarities.

Certainly we can say that, in the last 12 months, there have been at least five sightings of UFOs that share a strange tower shape. There have been comparisons drawn between these and the fabled “Black Knight” satellite of UFO lore. We have to be careful, however. As our drone technology increases, it will become increasingly more common to see unidentified things in the sky, and just as there’s a divide between interpreting classic flying saucer UFOs as either alien spaceships or top-secret military craft, so too will there be a divide between seeing UFOs like these as mysterious and unexplained or as previously unseen drones, either military or civilian.

The Black Knight satellite picture that was captured by NASA

Then there’s that supremely strange possibility that whatever the UFO phenomenon is, it changes how it presents itself  based on the culture and expectations of the present day, demons and fairies become little green men, become grays, become floating humanoids. Maybe our species will always see strange things in the sky, ever slightly out of the reach of explanation.

{ http://mysteriousuniverse.org/ }

Recently, a group of planetary scientists announced that they intend to save the world. However, their focus wasn’t on concerns over climate change, nor the perils of mutually assured self-destruction at the hands of nuclear devices… their concern has to do with a far less easily predictable terror: catastrophic asteroid impacts.

Perhaps most chilling of all is that the team of scientists, working together with former astronauts, warn of serious gaps in our current defensive strategies that would attempt to offset such a threat, and warn that as things currently stand, Earth “will be hit.”

Earth has a long history of run-ins with massive space rocks. The geological record shows us today not only that massive impacts with space objects have occurred, but also that mass extinctions have been associated with them, as evidenced by the extinction of dinosaurs coinciding with an asteroid impact nearly 66 million years ago. Known today as the Cretaceous-Tertiary (K–T) extinction, this event resulted in die-offs of nearly 75% of all plant and animal species existent on Earth at the time.

Enter the B612 Foundation, whose focus is assessing and planning for the eventual threat of asteroid impact. The group is comprised of former astronaut Ed Lu, along with his colleague Rusty Schweickart, as well as a number of scientists and others with relevant professional backgrounds. Danica Remy, president of the B612 organization, is also head of the organization’s Asteroid Institute program.

New Zealand Herald reports that “NASA was directed by Congress in 2005 to find 90 percent of asteroids that were at least 140m in diameter and has since determined that, of those so far observed, none pose an immediate threat.” However, only several tens of thousand asteroids are presently being tracked around Earth, while millions of others exist that aren’t presently the subject of any tracking or monitoring.

Experts say that Earth might be able to successfully deflect or break apart a significantly large asteroid with nuclear weapons, or in some cases using other systems that would include spacecraft to deflect or remove the object from Earth’s path or even a system of powerful lasers to neutralize the threat.

According to B612 President Remy, it’s not a matter of whether we’ll be hit, noting that, “It’s 100 percent certain we’ll be hit, but we’re not 100 percent certain when.”

There is some evidence that suggests a similar event may have occurred more recently, though on a far smaller scale. In 2017, a paper titled “Widespread platinum anomaly documented at the Younger Dryas onset in North American sedimentary sequences,” examined deposits where concentrations of rare-earth elements were documented along the Younger Dryas boundary, which dates to roughly 12,800 years BP. The presence of an unusual platinum spike is similar to an iridium anomaly found along the Cretaceous boundary; platinum, iridium, and certain other elements, while uncommon here on Earth, are more abundant in asteroids. Hence, the paper’s authors argue that this could indicate an extraterrestrial source for the platinum, consistent with an impact. While the impact theory of the Younger Dryas event 12,900 years BP remains controversial, the accumulation of supporting data in recent years does lend itself to the theory’s credibility.

Aerial view of Pingualuit crater in Nunavik, northern Quebec, Canada.

Other notable examples in modern times include the famous Tunguska incident of 1908, where what is believed to have been a massive space rock exploded in midair over Siberia. Even without a direct impact, the resulting blast over the Siberian tundra leveled trees over an area spanning more than 750 miles, which would easily have decimated any major population center.

If what history has shown is any indication, the threat presented by asteroid impacts is all-too-real. The widespread dangers associated with such an event are justifiable grounds for raised awareness and a renewed focus, as far as how catastrophic effects associated with such an impact might be mitigated. The future of humanity–and all life on Earth–may depend on it.

{ http://mysteriousuniverse.org/ }

The only thing bigger than this news would be that Stephen Hawking recorded one last appearance on “The Big Bang Theory,” but a paper on the multiverse written and finished just weeks before his passing qualifies as a close second.

“The usual theory of inflation breaks down in eternal inflation. We derive a dual description of eternal inflation in terms of a deformed Euclidean CFT located at the threshold of eternal inflation. The partition function gives the amplitude of different geometries of the threshold surface in the no-boundary state. Its local and global behavior in dual toy models shows that the amplitude is low for surfaces which are not nearly conformal to the round three-sphere and essentially zero for surfaces with negative curvature. Based on this we conjecture that the exit from eternal inflation does not produce an infinite fractal-like multiverse, but is finite and reasonably smooth.”

That’s the abstract from “A smooth exit from eternal inflation?”, a paper authored by Stephen Hawking and Thomas Hertog and published this week in the Journal of High-Energy Physics. It attempts to resolve a complicated conundrum of Hawking’s own creation – the possible existence of an infinite number of universes. This idea – named the Hartle-Hawking theory after Hawking and his previous partner-in-multiverses, physicist James Hartle – messes with the idea of parallel universes by proposing that other universes are far different than our own, with some being similar variations with minor alterations in developmental paths while other looking nothing like ours – no planets, no creatures, etc. While that sounds like an infinite number of fun places to visit, it implies that each has its own laws of physics, which makes it impossible to predict what universal variation we live in.

“Neither Stephen nor I were happy with that scenario.”

Or as Hawking more poetically put it:

“The usual theory of eternal inflation predicts that globally our universe is like an infinite fractal, with a mosaic of different pocket universes separated by an inflating ocean.”

Thomas Hertog told the BBC that this is a mess which only the brain of Stephen Hawking could get us out of. Even so, it took both of them 20 years of work and the development of new mathematical techniques from string theory to reach their conclusion that there exists a finite number of universes and they all share the same laws of physics. That would eliminate the previous idea of “eternal inflation” mentioned in the paper’s title, which theorized that the real big bang was followed by an exponential expansion of space (cosmic inflation) into an infinite number of unique “pocket” universes – an inflation that occurred a mere seconds after the Big Bang, was rapid at first and now slowly and infinitely continues.

This may not be a big deal to you, but Hertog points out that it will make the work of physicists much easier by explaining why our universe, despite pockets of chaos (we’re looking at you, Washington), is surprisingly orderly.

“This paper takes one step towards explaining that mysterious fine tuning. It reduces the multiverse down to a more manageable set of universes which all look alike. Stephen would say that, theoretically, it’s almost like the universe had to be like this. It gives us hope that we can arrive at a fully predictive framework of cosmology.”

It sure would be nice to see Stephen saying it on an episode of “The Big Bang Theory” called “The Eternal Inflation” and watch Sheldon’s head explode from the inflation one more time.

{ http://mysteriousuniverse.org/ }

Black Dome City Found On Jupiters Moon Ganymede May 2018, Photos, UFO Sighting News.

Date of discovery: May 4, 2018

Location of discovery: On Jupiters moon Ganymede, Khensu crater.

NASA source: https://images.nasa.gov/details-PIA01090.html

I found this black dome city on one of Jupiters moons today. Its located on the moon Ganymede and is called Khensu crater, but clearly it is not a crater, but a semi-transparent domed city. Much like the black eyelids of the grey aliens, this material is made this way to allow some light to pass through, but to filter dangerous radiation from the sun and universe. Also, it may have been created by the greys themselves. 

Scott C. Waring

{ http://www.ufosightingsdaily.com/ }

Alien Statue And Building Found On Mars In NASA Photos, May 2018, Video, UFO Sighting News.

Date of discovery: May 2018
Location of discovery: Mars
Source photo 1:

https://mars.jpl.nasa.gov/msl-raw-images/msss/01441/mcam/1441MR0071280100702877E01_DXXX.jpg
Source photo 2:

https://mars.jpl.nasa.gov/msl-raw-images/msss/01433/mcam/1433MR0070800040702654E01_DXXX.jpg

This alien statue on top of a hill was found by Streetcap1 of Youtube this week. It has a rectangle head, and a hat or ears that flop over like a rabbit or stocking cap. Clearly has signs of intelligent design. 

Also he found a structure on top of a hill in another photo. The roof of the structure is turned diagonal so debris and sand will fall off easily. Also is a large open window ware below the roof. Absolute evidence that aliens once thrived on Mars. 
Scott C. Waring

Did Someone Photograph A Half Human—Half Animal ‘Monster’ In Argentina?

What on Earth have people spotted walking on the streets of Santa Fe, in Argentina?

A bizarre creature, described as half human and half animal has been photographed in the South American country, sending the internet into a frenzy.

People who spotted the mysterious creature say that it couldn’t be identified, as it mauled two dogs, creating panic among the inhabitants of Totoras, Santa Fe.

The photograph, taken at night, and is somewhat blurred, has circulated on social networks to warn about the danger the mysterious creature represents.

In an audio broadcast, it is detailed that the ‘monster’ killed a pit bull and a German shepherd who confronted the unidentified monster.

Reports indicate that soon after it disappeared.

Obviously, the image didn’t take long to go viral, triggering many rumors and theories.

There are even those who compare it with the Demogorgon, the monster of the popular Netflix series ‘Stranger Things’.

Others have compared the massive creature to illustrations of werewolves of the Harry Potter Saga.

“Here in the Philippine it is called ASWANG a man transforms into a monster dog it is a demon it can even shift into a cat or a big bird,” wrote some users on social networks, while others compared it to mythical creature like the Chupacabra—a blood-sucking animal which, according to folklore, feasts on livestock.

It seems that for now, we can only explain the creature using fictitious representations, but does that mean it’s a hoax?

Well, not necessarily but the image is a fake.

As it turns out, it’s a fake, and a bad one at that.

The original image (drawing) was taken from the internet (it is from Harry Potter) and fused into another image. Adding a bit color, adjusting shadows and BAM! You got yourself a mystery.

The original image was taken from this one:

Notice the similarity with the image from the article from NOVAand El Perfil who ran the news?

Let’s flip the image a bit:

See the similarity now?

Now, all the artist had to do was remove the background and implement the alleged ‘monster’ into the picture.

And there you have it a perfect recipe served for an image and news article that quickly spread among Argentinian news outlets and made its way around the world.

So, don’t worry, the creature isn’t real, it’s just one of the many hoaxed images that quickly go viral due to their nature, and mystery surrounding them.

{ https://www.ancient-code.com/ }

‘Secret’ Map Shows ‘Flight Path Of UFO That Crashed in The Welsh Mountains’

One of the most famous UFO stories can be traced back to the Welsh mountainside.

Knowns popularly as the Welsh Roswell, the UFO sightingoccurred in 1974 in the Berwyn Mountains.

On January 23, 1974, on the Berwyn Mountains in Llandrillo, Merionethshire, Wales, lights and noises were observed by locals which people couldn’t explain.

The old map which claims to show the route taken by RAF jets and a UFO in the Berwyn Mountains incident.

Image Credit: Daily Post Wales/Russ Kellett.

According to scientific evidence, the event was generated by an earthquake combined with sightings of a bright meteor widely observed over Wales and northern England at the time.

However, not many were convinced by those explanations. UFOlogists at the time claimed how a UFO had crashed in the mountainside, and the British Government covered up the military’s recovery of a crashed spaceship.

During the UFO sighting, the Institute of Geological Sciences reported that a magnitude 3.5 earthquake was felt at 8:38 p.m. over a wide area of northern Wales and as far as Liverpool, England.

But despite talks of meteors and earthquakes, people were convinced they had witnessed an unidentified flying object in the sky, and according to former Ministry of Defense employee and UFO investigator Nick Pope, the UFO wreckage was likely taken to RAF Rudloe Manor.

Now, nearly half a decade later, a mysterious map has surfaced, which allegedly shows the flightpath of the mysterious UFO that crashed into the Welsh mountainside, and UFO Researcher Russ Kellet has gone public with it.

According to Kellet, the map was given to him by witnesses of the UFO incident, and it clearly shows the path of the UFO before it crashed.

As noted by Metro, one of the witnesses claims to have seen an object on the hillside and ‘Saw bright red light, like coal fire red. Large perfect circle. Like a big bonfire.’

But despite many people claiming to have seen UFO’s in the sky, Sceptics argue that both the noise and the activity that followed were caused by earthquakes and meteors.

However, Kellet claims that five witnesses gave him the map which features red dots where the incident is said to have occurred, with black dotted lines leading to the dot from the west show the alleged path of RAF jets and UFO, reports Metro.

“The five saw a strange object and got out to have a look, but the military were there and told them to leave,’ Mr. Kellett said. They moved to a better position and started to take photos. They were all friends and four were in the military during World War Two. Afterward, they started doing their own research and the map is a result of what they found out and shows the flight paths.”

“It was very strange and I was a little bit spooked. I’ve carried the map around for a long time as part of my research. I’m getting older now and just wanted to put it out there to see what people make of it and if there was anybody else who could shed light on what happened,” concluded Kellet.

Source:Daily Post Wales

{https://www.ancient-code.com/ }

SPAIN DECLASSIFIES 1,900 PAGES OF TOP-SECRET UFO FILES

{ http://www.livingist.com/ }

{ https://nationalufocenter.com/ }

Filer’s Files #17 2018 Life After Death - PART II

UNIDENTIFIED FLYING OBJECTS – THE REALITY, THE COVER-UP AND THE TRUTH

Unidentified Flying Objects, or UFOs as they are commonly known, have been witnessed by millions of people all over the world and have been recorded in history books, myths, legends and traditions for thousands of years. However, many accounts that are recorded in ancient texts are dismissed as mere myths and legends, while UFO sightings that have taken place in the last few centuries have been classified as misinterpretations of natural phenomena, illusions, or conspiracy theories.

History has shown us time and again that a plethora of so-called ‘myths’ have their basis in reality. It is possible, and indeed likely, that stories and legends were a way for people to explain real—and perhaps perplexing—events using the knowledge and beliefs of their time. In support of this theory, a number of events described in mythology, which were once considered mere fairy tales, have now been proven through archaeology to have existed. A famous example is the city Troy, which is central to Homer’s ‘The Iliad’. Long considered to be a city of myth, Heinrich Schliemann’s discovery of the actual site in 1868 elevated it to a place in history. Nevertheless, the remainder of The Iliad is still viewed as a myth and fantasy without any serious attempts being made to investigate whether or not there may be more truth behind the tale.  The same goes for many accounts of ‘flying machines’, which we find reference to in countless mythologies from numerous different cultures around the world.

Many cultures contain pictorial and written records of ‘flying machines’, yet these are usually dismissed as myth and legend.

(Wikimedia Commons)

It is common to see people selectively decide what is real and what is not and all of this on the unsubstantiated assumption that ancient people were primitive and had little to no knowledge compared to us today. On the contrary, many ancient civilizations, like the Sumerians, Indus Valley, and Egyptians existed with complex social structures, legal systems, art, astronomy, mathematics, and technology, some of which is still not fully understood today. The Antikythera Mechanism, for example, is a 2,200-year-old mechanical device that is still not completely understood despite decades of research by top scientists around the world.

Ancient Astronaut Theory

The topic of flying objects and supernatural beings from out of our world is one in which we find multiple references in mythologies.  All of these myths and legends, along with archaeological evidence such as rock art depictions, have created a wave of theories that gave birth to the ‘Ancient Astronaut’ perspective, which links all of these ancient references and depictions to UFOs, and posits that extra-terrestrials visited Earth and made contact with humans in antiquity and prehistory, influencing the development of human cultures, technologies, and religions.

Unfortunately, there are numerous charlatans who have tried to ‘cash in’ on this movement for profit or publicity, or who have diminished it with caricatures of little green men, resulting in the ancient astronaut perspective being widely criticized and attacked for its lack of credibility. Consequently, what is in fact a plausible and possible explanation for what we see in ancient art and texts, is now rarely examined by scholars, who fear being ridiculed or having their professional career seriously undermined. 

UFOs in art: “Battesimo di Cristo” 1710; Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge

(Wikimedia Commons)

UFO sightings in recent history

But let’s leave the ancient past for a while and examine just the last 80 years of human history. Millions of people all over the globe have witnessed unidentified flying objects. Many have been recorded in detailed reports witnessed by police, pilots, astronauts, government officials, pilots, military personnel and, of course, ordinary citizens. Some of the more well-known cases were witnessed by thousands of people at one time. Historical records make it evident that UFO appearances magnified during and after World War II, including the example of the famous ‘Foo Fighters’.

While most sightings can be explained either by celestial phenomena, airplanes, planets, weather phenomena, military exercises, or in some cases drug use or mental instability, there still exists a small percentage that cannot be accounted for by any of these explanations. This is what makes the phenomena important and not to be ignored, particularly considering that sightings are frequently reported around military bases and airfields and are therefore, at the very least, a matter of both national security and air safety.

It is an undeniable fact that there are cases of unidentified objects in our skies. It has been acknowledged by the major governments from all over the world simply through the very fact that official research has been conducted on the matter in the US, UK, Russia, Europe, China, South America, and many others. All of this research, in every single case, concluded that there is a percentage of phenomena that cannot be explained.

In the past decade, many countries have declassified their UFO research files, releasing thousands of documents through the Freedom of Information Act and making numerous UFO cases available in the public domain. One recently released document from the UFO files in Britain, revealed how Churchill, concerned about the UFO issue, ordered a shutdown of information for at least 50 years to prevent mass panic and the potential to undermine religious beliefs. The document in question was also published on the BBC news site in 2010.

By doing careful research on the topic, passing over obvious scam and fake stories, it is clear to see that unidentified flying objects do exist. So the question is not whether they exist or not, but rather, what are they? Are they of terrestrial or extra-terrestrial origin? And what is their purpose?

UFOs and the limits of science

Many prominent scientists have already stated that other civilizations must exist in the Universe, and that it would be statistically impossible for this not to be the case. However, with our knowledge of science and technology today, we cannot yet support the means for  interstellar travel, and since we have not discovered intelligent life in our solar system, the assumption is made that there must be no way that extra-terrestrials could have travelled to Earth. However, this argument is of course flawed because it is based within the framework of our own understanding of the universe, and does not take into account the capabilities of civilizations that may be millions of years ahead of our own.  It also hinges on the following assumptions:

1. We know everything about physics and reality and therefore there is no way that such distant travel can be achieved.
2. We are using our means to try to contact other civilizations (e.g. SETI’s attempts to pick up radio or communication signals) and since we don’t perceive any signals of OUR type, nothing must exist.
3. We are looking for organic forms of life exactly like us and for planets with the exact same conditions as ours.

It is clear that these arguments show the arrogance of mankind, a mankind that may just be an infant in the Universe. And this is not new. During the history of humanity, in every single period of time, we believed that we knew the truth, only to have it replaced later on by new ‘knowledge’. 

There is nothing new to be discovered in physics now. All that remains is more and more precise measurement,
Lord Kelvin, 1901, physicist

Quantum physics, still a relatively new and unexplored field in Science, has shown that reality could be completely different to what we believe it to be. Powerful telescopes have shown distant planets in solar systems that could possibly sustain life. Theories of wormholes and warp drives have shown that at a theoretical level we could achieve interstellar travel. Yes, we would require incredible amounts of energy to even think of trying to achieve something like this, so according to our standards today it is impossible to achieve, but in theory it can be achieved.

“It now seems quite clear that Earth is not the only inhabited planet. There is evidence that the bulk of the stars in the sky have planetary systems. Recent research concerning the origin of life on Earth suggests that the physical and chemical processes leading to the origin of life occur rapidly in the early history of the majority of planets within our Milky Way galaxy–perhaps as many as a million–are inhabited by technical civilizations in advance of our own. Interstellar space flight is far beyond our present technical capabilities, but there seems to be no fundamental physical objections to preclude, from our own vantage point, the possibility of its development by other civilizations.”

 Carl Sagan, Ph.D. (Late Professor of Astronomy and Space Sciences, Cornell University)

Reluctance to engage with the UFO subject

The reason that the scientific community is not dealing seriously with UFOs is because the topic has been extensively ridiculed both by the media and in academic circles, with false information spread everywhere.  For similar reasons, military personnel, astronauts, pilots, and other categories of professionals do not want to talk because, either they have been forced to sign confidentiality agreements, or because of fear that their careers would be destroyed. This is why we have seen many examples of ‘death bed confessions’.

One such case was with astronaut Gordon Cooper, who told the world about his experience encountering a UFO during his flight in the Mercury capsule in 1963. Before he died he stated: “for many years I have lived with a secret, in a secrecy imposed on all specialists in astronautics. I can now reveal that every day, in the USA, our radar instruments capture objects of form and composition unknown to us”.

While great efforts have been made to ridicule and disparage anyone who lends support to the existence of UFOs, the fact remains that there are numerous high-profile cases that are supported by solid evidence, and which should not be dismissed.

Recorded UFO sightings with extensive witness support

Below I present a very limited list constituting strong evidence for the existence of unidentified flying objects in the last 60 years.

1. November 1942 – LA Incident, known as the Battle of LosAngeles

It all happened in the early hours of February 25 in 1942. An aircraft flew over LA County that sparked an air raid alert (it was in the midst of WWII). Searchlights and guns were locked onto the aircraft for about an hour. The picture below appeared in the LA Times in a story about the Battle of LA It clearly shows a night time defensive response to an air raid. The aircraft was not hostile and obviously was not damaged by the attack. The Government stated that the craft they were shooting at was unidentified.

The Battle of Los Angeles UFO Incident

2. December 1980 – Rendlesham Forest Incident, Suffolk UK

This incident involved a group of American servicemen stationed at a military base in Suffolk that contained a storage centre with nuclear weapons.  There had been three consecutive night of sighting objects in the sky over the base, in some cases shining a light down upon the nuclear weapons storage. On the third night, approximately two dozen servicemen were sent into the forest to investigate one set of mysterious lights. The men reported seeing a spacecraft on the ground in close proximity to them and three extra-terrestrial beings. One serviceman claimed to have touched the craft.  The whole incident was filmed and photographed by one of the servicemen, but all photos and videos were removed by the US military. When the British Government released the UFO files, the Rendlesham incident papers were missing – as reported on BBC.

Rendlesham Forest UFO Incident, Suffolk UK

3. NOVEMBER 1986, JAPAN AIR LINES FLIGHT 1628 OVER ALASKA

In November, 1986, a Japanese crew of a jumbo freighter aircraft witnessed three enormous unidentified objects while flying over Alaska, USA. This sighting gained international attention when the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) announced that it was going to officially investigate this sighting because the Air Route Traffic Control Center in Anchorage, Alaska, had reported that the UFO had been detected on radar. The UFOs in this case were tracked on both ground and airborne radar, witnessed by experienced airline pilots, and confirmed by a FAA Division Chief.

Illustration of the object, with the Boeing 747 airplane on the right. Credits: UFO Reporter

4. APRIL 1990 – BELGIUM UFO WAVE, PETIT RECHAIN BELGIUM

The Belgium UFO wave began in November 1989. The events of 29 November would be documented by no less than thirty different groups of witnesses, and three separate groups of police officers. All of the reports related to a large object flying at low altitude. The craft was of a flat, triangular shape, with lights underneath. This giant craft did not make a sound as it slowly moved across the landscape of Belgium. The Belgium UFO wave peaked with events on the night of 30/31 March 1990. On that night, unknown objects were tracked on radar, chased by two Belgian Air Force F16s, photographed, and were sighted by an estimated 13,500 people on the ground – 2,600 of whom filed written statements describing in detail what they had seen. Following the incident, the Belgian air force released a report detailing the events of that night.

Belgium UFO wave, Petit Rechain Belgium

5. MARCH 1997 – PHOENIX LIGHTS, ARIZONA, US

The Phoenix Lights (also identified as “Lights over Phoenix”) was a UFO sighting which occurred in Phoenix, Arizona, and Sonora, Mexico on Thursday, March 13, 1997. Lights of varying descriptions were seen by thousands of people between 19:30 and 22:30 MST, in a space of about 300 miles (480 km), from the Nevada line, through Phoenix, to the edge of Tucson. Witnesses claim to have observed a huge square-shaped UFO, containing five spherical lights or possibly light-emitting engines. Fife Symington, the governor at the time, was one witness to this incident; he later called the object “otherworldly.”

Phoenix Lights, Arizona, US

6. OCTOBER 2004 – OSAKA AIRPORT, JAPAN

On the night of August 30, a cluster of multi-colored lights was seen floating in the sky above Osaka. Several people reported to Twitter that they saw a group of lights forming a triangular shape and flashing green, red and white in the night sky above Izumi city in Osaka Prefecture. The sightings caused a commotion on Twitter after one user wrote: “Everyone in Osaka, go outside! There’s a UFO!” prompting others to grab their cameras and snap up photos of mysterious luminous object.

Osaka airport UFO Incident, Japan

7. NOVEMBER 2006, O-HARE AIRPORT, USA

At approximately 16:15 CST on Tuesday November 7, 2006, federal authorities at Chicago O’Hare International Airport received a report that a group of twelve airport employees were witnessing a metallic, saucer-shaped craft hovering over Gate C-17.

The object was first spotted by a ramp employee who was pushing back United Airlines Flight 446, which was departing Chicago for Charlotte, North Carolina. The employee apprised Flight 446’s crew of the object above their aircraft. It is believed that both the pilot and co-pilot also witnessed the object.

Several independent witnesses outside of the airport also saw the object. According to the Chicago Tribune’s Jon Hilkevitch, “The disc was visible for approximately two minutes and was seen by close to a dozen United Airlines employees, ranging from pilots to supervisors, who heard chatter on the radio and raced out to view it.”

O-Hare Airport UFO Incident, USA

8. MAY 2007, UFO FLEETS, LIMA, PERU

The incident took place on May 2007 at 14.00 local time in Lima Peru. A series of moving lights resembling an armada of flying objects appeared in the skies. The story was reported on the news and was seen by thousands of people.

UFO Fleets, Lima, Peru

9. JULY 2010 – XIAOSHAN AIRPORT, CHINA

An unidentified flying object that disrupted air traffic in Hangzhou for an hour on Wednesday, 10^th of July 2010. A flight crew preparing for descent first detected the object around 8:40 p.m. and notified the air traffic control department. Aviation authorities responded within minutes, grounding outbound flights and diverting inbound ones to airports in Ningbo and Wuxi. Eighteen flights were affected. A spokesman from the Civil Aviation Administration of China (CAAC) confirmed to ABC News that the matter is under investigation. He declined to disclose further details. A day after the sighting, however, an anonymous source told China Daily that authorities already discovered the identity of the UFO after an investigation but could not publically disclose the information because “there was a military connection.”

Disclosure

Many would say that the above examples constitute irrefutable proof that extra-terrestrial UFOs exist. So why isn’t the public told about it?  Imagine the implications that disclosure would have and what it would mean. Acknowledgment of extraterrestrial civilizations having visited Earth would mean that many of the myths and legends of the past are in fact based on reality. It would suggests that humanity has been influenced for millennia by otherworldly beings, beings that in the past were considered gods. Disclosure would entirely topple the status quo and the balance of powers in society, and turn upside down what we know about the history of mankind.

The acknowledgement of the UFO phenomena is an event with the power to bring a global revolution in every sector of our lives today – technology and energy supply, communication and environmental concerns, society and religion.  Is this what governments and corporations are afraid of – a shift in balance and their loss of their positions of power and control? Or is it that the powers that be are afraid of re-writing our human history?

“When the long awaited solution to the UFO problem comes, I believe that it will prove to be not merely the next small step in the march of science, but a mighty and totally unexpected quantum leap.” 

 Dr J. Allen Hynek, Scientific Advisor to the U.S. Air Force

Videos to watch

{ http://alien-ufo-sightings.com/ }

UFO SIGHTINGS: MUFON’S MOST BIZARRE EYEWITNESS ALIEN ENCOUNTERS AND TESTIMONIES

UFO sightings are a daily occurrence for MUFON, the Mutual UFO Network, and the organisation is always on alert for more alien encounters. Here are some of the most bizarre eye-witness accounts of UFOs.

The Mutual UFO Network was established in 1969 and has since grown to become one of the world’s largest bodies of dedicated UFO hunters.

MUFON’s goal is to study, track and gather data on daily UFO encounters from around the world.

The UFO hunters said: “As the world’s oldest and largest UFO phenomenon investigative body we aim to be the inquisitive minds’ refuge seeking answers to that most ancient question, ‘Are we alone in the universe?’”

The bulk of MUFON’s work relies on user submitted reports which the organisation claims to meticulously review before publishing.

UFO sightings: MUFO collects eye-witness reports of alleged alien spacecraft

UFO sighting photo: This alleged alien ship was pictured flying over Nevada, United States

2. Teardrop UFO in Nevada – Case 83759

Thousands of miles away in North Las Vegas, US, a witness submitted a report of what appeared to be a teardrop-shaped object flying some 500 feet above the ground.

The MUFON testimony claims the witness was outdoors shooting photographs of airplanes landing at Nellis Air Force Base in southern Nevada.

The testimony reads: “The UFO is too far away, about two miles, to say what it was. It was like a bright light, but when I blew it up, it looked like a smoky goldfish cracker.

“I blew it up to about 200 percent and it looked like a cloud of circular smoke. I probably don’t have the best equipment to say what it was.

“And with so few pixels, well, we don’t have enough solid evidence other than its descending path, which can be calculated by time to say, yes this was a UFO. But the object started up at 1,000 feet and pulled a 45-degree descent.

“And then, just disappeared.”

Nevada MUFON State Director Sue Countiss closed the case as an Unknown UAV.

3. Square UFO over the Philippines – Case 83456

The next case presents another oddly shaped object floating over a city but this time over Angeles City, northeast of Manila.

This UFO was spotted by a “trained US Marine observer” who was sipping a cup of coffee at 5.45am local time on May 1, 2017, during the encounter.

The witness said in their report: “I heard my dogs carrying on outside and went to investigate.

“At first, I thought they had barked at nothing, when I suddenly caught sight of the object.

“I watched it only for 30 seconds or so before realising that it wasn’t a plane, helicopter, or hot air balloon and ran into the house and grabbed my cell phone as it was the closest camera available.”

The case was investigated by Chase Kloetzke who closed it as an Unknown UAV.

UFO sighting: An eye-witness spotted this strange object over the Philippines

4. Low-flying triangle over California – Case 83410

A California witness claims to have seen a triangle-shaped object with seven, blinking lights pass over Fresno, US.

The UFO encounter took place on April 26, 207 around 9pm local time.

The eye-witness recollected: “I looked up in the sky and saw a triangle-shaped craft with seven white lights blinking all at the same time heading west.

“It was very clear and seemed too large to be an aircraft.

“I thought it might be a drone at first glance. But it was too large and too high in altitude to be a drone.

“The object made no noise. It seemed to be well above 500 feet at about 80-degrees above the horizon when we first spotted it.”

Adding: “After the event, I realized I may have viewed a possible UFO.”

The case was closed for MUFON by field investigator Hady Felfly as an Unknown UAV.

Source www.express.co.uk

Also published on Medium.

{ http://alien-ufo-sightings.com/ }

In 1947, in a cave one mile west of the Dead Sea, a Bedouin shepherd stumbled upon large clay jars filled with ancient scrolls. A series of further excavations of the neighboring caves by archaaeologists in the 1950s revealed these scrolls were a small fragment of the 800-plus manuscripts we now know as the Dead Sea Scrolls. These are the only known surviving Biblical documents written before the second century — and according to a discovery announced Tuesday, they may contain more revelations than previously known.

Using NASA-developed technology, a team of researchers led by archeologist Pnina Shor of the Dead Sea Scrolls Project were able to decipher texts on the scrolls that couldn’t be read with a naked eye. The text was found on fragments originally excavated from Cave 11 in 1956 — and since their discovery, they’ve sat in cigar boxes, their purpose unknown. However, on Tuesday, Shor and her team announced that not only were there unseen words on the bits of parchment, but the revealed text on at least one of the 2,000-year-old fragments “raises the possibility that it belonged to a still unknown manuscript.”

These findings were presented at an international symposium held in Jerusalem and organized to mark the 70th anniversary of finding the scrolls. “The Dead Sea scrolls are a universal cultural heritage,” Shor wrote in an abstract presented at the conference. “As such, it is our duty to safeguard the scrolls and preserve them for future generations, sharing them with the public and with scholarly communities worldwide.”

The process of text identification was kicked off by Ph.D. student Oren Ableman, who worked through 82 fragments found in Cave 11 — a site where portions of Paleo-Hebrew manuscripts belonging to Leviticus, Job, and Psalms had already been found. At first glance, most of these fragments appeared blank, but infrared microscopes and multispectral imaging revealed words that were, according to Shor, “invisible to the eye.”

Multispectral imaging is a NASA-developed technology that captures image data within wavelengths that range across the electromagnetic spectrum. Its receptors for red, green, and blue allow it to extract high-resolution information that the human eye can’t pick up and, while it was designed for space-based imaging, it’s been used on various analysis of documents and paintings.

And because there are still 20 boxes of hundreds of parchment and papyrus fragments taken from these caves still unexamined and in storage, the hope is that this technology can reveal new wonders in the coming years. The implications of what can be found are huge because what has already been discovered has been game-changing. “These texts paint a picture of diversity and complexity within Jewish religious life and philosophy,” states the Israel Antiquities Authority. “They have revolutionized our understanding of the world from which rabbinic Judaism and early Christianity emerged.”

{ https://www.inverse.com/ }

After the Yellowstone supervolcano’s last two massive eruptions around 630,000 years ago, gargantuan clouds of ash and smoke filled the sky, blotting out the sun and cooling the oceans by about 3 degrees Celcius. Even considering the dire need to keep global temperature rise below 2 degrees Celcius, that’s a frightening prospect. But according to a new study recently published in Geophysical Research Letters, we should have plenty of time to prepare for an impending volcanic winter.

In order to examine the effects of tectonic movement on supervolcano eruptions, researchers Haley E. Cabaniss, Patricia M. Gregg, and Eric B. Grosfils created a computer model of the Taupo supervolcano in New Zealand. Then, they adjusted the variables in the model, checking to see how the volcano would respond to different amounts of seismic stress with different levels of magma. Regardless of the tectonic activity, they found that supervolcanoes will likely remain stable for hundreds or thousands of years when their magma reservoirs are growing.µ

That is, when a volcano’s magma reservoir is being actively augmented, the timescale for an eruption shortens to hundreds or thousands of years. But volcanoes can lie dormant for far longer. Yellowstone’s most recent (less massive) eruption resulting in lava flow was around 70,000 years ago. When volcanoes are dormant, they aren’t being supplied with magma, so they remain indefinitely stable.

“When new magma starts to rejuvenate a supervolcano system, we can expect to see massive uplift, faulting and earthquake activity,” Gregg said in a statement. “Even then, our models predict that the system would inflate for hundreds to thousands of years before we witness catastrophic eruption.”

Gregg said that geological activity preceding an eruption could include tectonic uplift of tens to hundreds of meters. And these signs don’t suggest the volcano would even erupt that soon. Rather, they indicate that the supervolcano’s reservoir is being filled with magma, and it could erupt in hundreds or thousands of years — plenty of time to prepare for damage control.

“People need to keep in mind that sites like Yellowstone are very well-monitored,” Cabaniss added. “Our models indicate that there should be plenty of warning.”

{ https://www.inverse.com/ }

When NASA’s InSight lander(https://www.inverse.com/article/44379-mars-insight-lander-which-nasa-rover-is-best) lifts off on Saturday, it’ll have an enormous task ahead of it: analyzing Mars’s mysterious interior and measuring “Marsquakes.” There’s a lot riding on this little lander, since there’s debate about what’s actually going on inside the red planet, a planetary scientist tells Inverse.

Once InSight arrives to Mars on November 26, it’ll use its instruments to get right to work. The thing is, scientists only have some educated guesses about Mars’s subsurface—nothing is really that certain. We know that Mars probably has an inner and outer core, which together encompass about 900 and 1,200 miles (1,500 kilometers and 2,000 kilometers) of space. But there’s still the question of how—and if—“Marsquakes” exist, and what causes them.

“Until the last few years, we were pretty sure Mars’ interior was essentially dead,” Tanya Harrison, director of research at Arizona State University’s Space Technology and Science (NewSpace) Initiative, explains. “We didn’t think Mars had a magnetic field, which meant the core was solid. We also hadn’t seen any evidence of volcanic activity anytime in the geologically recent past.”

According to Harrison, two things changed these prevailing ideas about the red planet: the observation of aurorae by NASA’s MAVEN probe and the detection of methane emissions.

“These are clues that Mars might not be as dead on the inside as we once thought,” Harrison says.

If there truly are Marsquakes, InSight would be the first lander to detect them. Since Mars does not have plate tectonics that shift around like the ones here on Earth, they could be caused by the magma from volcanoes or even meteorites striking the planet. Using its SEIS instrument, InSight will try and get to the bottom of this.

“[NASA’s] Viking landers had seismometers aboard, but they didn’t really come into contact with the ground,” Harrison says.

No matter what InSight finds in its two-year sojourn, one thing is true: even if Mars isn’t really “dead inside,” it’s still extremely goth. Stay tuned on May 5 to watch the lander lift off from Vandenberg Air Force Base on board a United Launch Alliance Atlas V 401 rocket.

{ https://www.inverse.com/ }

Carl Jung and UFOs: Ancient Alien Art

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