Chandra May Have First Evidence of a Young Star Devouring a Planet

This artist's illustration depicts the destruction of a young planet or planets, which scientists may have witnessed for the first time using data from NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory, as described in our latest press release. If this discovery is confirmed, it would give insight into the processes affecting the survival of infant planets.

RW Aur A is a star about 450 light years from Earth, making it relatively nearby. Since the 1930s, astronomers have studied RW Aur A and been curious about why the optical light from this star changes over time. In recent years, scientists have observed that this variability has increased, with the star dimming even more and for longer periods of time.

To investigate this mystery, a team of astronomers used Chandra to get information in the X-ray band of the electromagnetic spectrum. X-rays are generally emitted by more energetic and hotter phenomena than their optical light counterparts and can reveal information about different elements, including iron.

The Chandra data suggest that the most recent dimming event from RW Aur A was caused by the collision of two "planetesimals" (that is, infant planetary bodies still in the process of formation), including at least one object large enough to be a planet.

Because the X-rays come from the hot outer atmosphere of the star, changes in the X-ray spectrum — the intensity of X-rays measured at different energies — over these three observations were used to probe the density and composition of the absorbing material around the star.

The team found that the dips in both optical and X-ray light are caused by dense gas obscuring the star's light. Also, a Chandra observation in 2017 showed strong emission from iron atoms, indicating that the disk contained at least 10 times more iron than in the 2013 observation during a bright period.

The Chandra spectra from the 2013 and 2017 observations are shown in an inset in the graphic. The sharp peak on the right side of the 2017 spectrum is a signature of a large amount of iron.

The researchers propose the excess iron was created when the two planetesimals collided. If one or both planetary bodies are made partly of iron, their smash-up could release a large amount of iron into the star's disk and temporarily obscure its light as the material falls into the star.

A paper describing these results led by Hans Moritz Guenther (MIT's Kavli Institute for Astrophysics) appears in the most recent issue of The Astrophysical Journal and is available online. The other authors on the paper are Til Birnstiel (Ludwig-Maximillians-University Munich), David Huenemoerder (MIT), David Principe (MIT), Christian Schneider (Hamburger Sternwarte), Scott Wolk (Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics), Franky Dubois (Astrolab IRIS), Ludwig Logiie (Astrolab IRIS), Steve Rau (Astrolab IRIS), and Siegfried Vanaverbeke (Astrolab IRIS). NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama, manages the Chandra program for NASA's Science Mission Directorate in Washington. The Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory in Cambridge, Massachusetts, controls Chandra's science and flight operations.

Fast Facts for RW Aur A: Credit  Illustration: NASA/CXC/M.Weiss; X-ray spectrum: NASA/CXC/MIT/H.M.Günther Release Date  July 18, 2018 Category  Normal Stars & Star Clusters, Neutron Stars/X-ray Binaries Coordinates (J2000)  RA 05h 07m 49.5s | Dec 30° 24´ 05.1" Constellation  Aurigae Observation Date  4 pointings from Jan 2013-Jan 2017 Observation Time  75 hours 33 minutes (3 days 2 hours 33 minutes) Obs. ID  14539, 17644, 17764, 19980 Instrument  ACIS References  Günther, H.M. et al, 2018, AJ. (accepted) Distance Estimate  About 450 light years

{ http://chandra.harvard.edu/ }

Un porte-avion américain suivi pendant des jours par un ovni, selon un rapport du Pentagone

© Handout Old Source: Reuters

Un militaire sur l'USS Carl Vinson communique avec l'USS Princeton, en octobre 2001 (image d'illustration)

Selon un rapport du Pentagone cité par la presse américaine, un ovni de la taille d'un avion de ligne mais de la forme d'un «œuf allongé», est apparu à proximité d'un porte-avion américain, plusieurs jours durant en 2004.

Un rapport du Pentagone révélé par  la chaîne de télévision américaine KLAS fin mai et amplement cité par la presse anglo-saxonne, livre de nouveaux détails sur un objet volant non identifié (ovni) qu'ont observé, plusieurs jours durant en 2004, des militaires américains au large de la côte californienne. Le New York Times avait publié une vidéo de l'incident en question en décembre dernier, dans un article traitant du programme d'étude des ovnis financé aux Etats-Unis par le Pentagone.

Lire aussi

L'armée chilienne déclassifie la vidéo d'un OVNI après deux ans d'enquête

Selon ce rapport, l'objet, de la taille d'un avion de ligne et de forme ovale, a été repéré une première fois par le radar de l'USS Princeton, un porte-avion américain, alors qu'il volait à 60 000 pieds (plus de 18 000 mètres). Il a alors subitement plongé vers la surface de l'océan, pour l'atteindre en quelques secondes seulement. Peu après, l'ovni s'est éloigné à une vitesse si impressionnante que les membres d'équipage ont pensé qu'ils s'agissait d'un missile balistique.

Deux jours plus tard, toujours selon le rapport du Pentagone, l'objet est à nouveau apparu près de l'USS Princeton et a cette fois été pris en chasse par deux F-18. Mais les pilotes ont expliqué qu'ils avaient été incapables de l'intercepter, l'ovni s'étant brusquement rendu invisible. Il pouvait cependant toujours être détecté, à cause de l'onde visible à la surface de l'eau créée sous lui, «d'environ 50 à 100 mètres de diamètre». 

L'engin a été décrit par un des pilotes comme étant «blanc uni, lisse, sans bords, uniformément coloré, sans nacelles, pylônes ou ailes» et ressemblant à «un œuf allongé ou un Tic Tac». D'après le rapport du Pentagone, un avion de surveillance E-2C Hawkeye a réussi à détecter l'objet mais sans pouvoir le «verrouiller», ce qui laisse penser qu'il était capable d'esquiver le radar.

Le rapport se conclut en confirmant que l'engin ne correspondait à «aucun avion ou véhicule aérien actuellement connu dans l'inventaire des Etats-Unis ou de toute autre nation étrangère».

• Lire aussi : Ovnis : le Pentagone reconnaît finalement l'existence de son mystérieux programme d'étude (VIDEO)

International

Raconter l'actualité

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This Week's Top Space Stories!

Photo Credit: Retro Space Images/NASA via collectSPACE.com

Photo Credit: Shutterstock

Photo Credit: Roberto Molar-Candanosa, courtesy of Carnegie Institution for Science

Photo Credit: NanoRacks/NASA

Photo Credit: Retro Space Images/NASA via collectSPACE.com

Photo Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

Photo Credit: ESA/Planck Collaboration

Photo Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/SwRI/MSSS/John Landino

Photo Credit: Blue Origin

9. A successful test

On July 18, Blue Origins launched its New Shepard suborbital space vehicle in a test, pushing the rocket to its limits with a series of challenges.

[Full Story: Blue Origin's New Shepard Vehicle Aces Test of Crew-Escape Motor]

Photo Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

Physics professor unveiled: "Face on Mars" clearly has a mouth full of teeth

Several studies and scientists have argued on the basis of strictly scientific criteria that the "face of Mars" was indeed built by a very highly developed Mars civilization from the past of Mars. An exact analysis also reveals a mouth full of "teeth".

Why do we ignore such important discoveries and fail to report on them and highlight their importance simply because they contradict established science?

The anomalous features of the so-called "Mars Face" feature, as seen in the 1976 Viking image, were refuted 20 years ago with reference to a 1998 Mars Global Surveyor image. Ten years later, in 2008, however, a much higher-quality image was achieved with details that were identical to the original from 1976.

By means of comparisons, we show how this 2008 picture can better identify the identified anomalous details.

The following picture was taken by NASA in 1976

Among them an image of Mark Carlotto, an image scientist with 30 years of experience in satellite remote sensing and digital image processing, who studied optics, signal and image processing at Carnegie-Mellon University from 1972-1981 and received his doctorate in electrical engineering there. He has held several positions in science and industry. Here are some of the peer-reviewed essays he wrote and co-authored before this one.

Below is a screenshot of a section of the study describing what happened to the picture that was published in 1998.

NASA released the image on April 5, 1998, with low contrast to make the feature look flat, faceless and without three-dimensional depth. The lack of tonal value details is surprising.

The study then continues to compare a decade later with a picture that seems very strange because they look so different.

What's really going on here? Is NASA changing its images?

Below you can see the MRO CTX image: B01_010143_2216, received on 24 September 2008, from a distance of just over 311 km. This image has not been edited and is shown here as it was received from the MRO HiRise website.

According to the authors, the following picture shows "clearly an 'eyeball' in the eye socket and 'teeth' in the mouth area".

Comparison of Viking single image 70A13 with 2008 MRO CTX image B01_010143_2216

It seems that there are a lot of people who are firmly convinced that we are visited by ETs and that this is hushed up. People aren't stupid, and all these people just don't believe that for no reason.

The truth is out there, and it has enormous effects on perception, consciousness, spirituality, historiography, and science.

This matter really does not leave any aspect of humanity untouched.

NASA Scientists Claim the Face & Pyramid on Mars is Real "NASA is Covering Them Up"

{ https://www.disclose.tv/ }

reactions

1. The real perspective of Cydonya Face. Fill the void (mirror) and you have the real Cydonya Lord

New Look Inside Sun's Atmosphere Yields Clues About Mysterious Solar Wind

Tucker Carlson Tonight July 20, 2018 - Nick Pope on UFOs ans risks to Air travel

{ https://www.youtube.com/ }

Are these UFOs? Eerie videos showing mysterious lights over China spark rumours of extra-terrestrial activities

• Strange lights appeared to be moving in a line above Chongqing, China
• The dots were said to look like smoke rings as they flashed on and off
• Residents were baffled as they wondered if aliens were visiting the city
• A UFO expert claimed the footage could be of a rocket zooming into the sky

By TIFFANY LO FOR MAILONLINE

Chinese residents claimed to have sighted UFOs after several mysterious lights were seen flashing in the sky of Chongqing.

The strange bright dots appeared to move in a line as one disappeared and another one emerged in front of it. The eerie scenes from Wednesday have been captured in videos, which are trending on Chinese social media platforms.

While the rumours of extra-terrestrial activities were circulating among Chinese web users, a leading UFO expert claimed that the footage could be of 'a rocket zooming into the atmosphere'.  

Video emerged online shows mysterious lights moving in a linear motion in the sky in Chongqing, China (left). It disappeared and reappeared in front of one another (right)

The series of baffling videos were posted yesterday on Weibo, a Twitter-like social media platform.

They showed several orange-red lights following each other in a linear motion.

Some web users claimed the scene looked like a cell splitting in the sky, whilst others said aliens were visiting China.

Weibo user 'wangshuashuadishua' said the phenomenon resembled 'a person making smoke rings while walking'; while 'BIM' gushed 'the aliens finally made their visit to China, they used to go to America only'.

There were also web users claiming to have seen the same mysterious pattern appearing above other cities, including Shanghai in east China and Xinjiang Autonomous Region in north-west China.

Residents of Chongqing wondered if aliens were visiting the city after sighting the unusual lights on Wednesday night (left). Web users claimed it was also seen in other cities (right)

One influential science blogger, known as 'Steed's scarf' on Weibo, has another theory.

'Steed's scarf', who has more than 4.5 million Weibo followers, believed that the lights came from a moving plane and they were the aircraft's navigation lights.

In a post on July 19, he wrote: 'If you watch the footage carefully, the lights actually appeared in pairs. It came from a dark-coloured aircraft, so it was difficult to spot.

'The lights appeared a few seconds on the camera but as the plane kept moving, another pair of lights appeared. So it looks like one following each other.' 

Leading British UFO expert Nigal Watson, the author of Haynes UFO Investigations Manual, told MailOnline that the footage 'could be of a rocket zooming into the atmosphere'.

'The pulses of light are either blasts from its engines or reflections. Similar lights were filmed elsewhere in China, suggesting it was something of this nature,' he said.

Chinese authorities are yet to comment on the matter.

{ http://www.dailymail.co.uk/ }

ONTVOERDE PROFESSOR HEEFT FOTO'S VAN BUITENAARDSEN ( VIDEO )

Er zijn genoeg verhalen van mensen die zeggen ontvoerd te zijn door buitenaardsen, maar nooit zie je eigenlijk foto’s van die wezens. 

Dat ligt anders bij de oud professor Maurizio Cavallo uit Italië, want hij heeft wel degelijk opnames van de buitenaardsen die hem hebben ontvoerd. 

{ http://niburu.co/ }

If you thought that Roswell was/is the most controversial of all alleged crashed UFO cases, you would be wrong. There is also the matter of the much-debated claims of a UFO crash at Aztec, New Mexico in March 1948. It’s a story which was made famous in Frank Scully’s 1950 book, Behind the Flying Saucers, a book which turned out to be a huge seller. Many researchers of the UFO phenomenon (although certainly not all, such as Scott and Suzanne Ramsey) dismiss Aztec as nothing but a hoax, one perpetrated by a shady businessman / conman named Silas Newton.

There is an interesting aspect to the Newton / Aztec story, which is worth noting. By his own admittance, and after the Aztec story surfaced, Newton was clandestinely visited by two representatives of “a highly secret U.S. Government entity,” as the late UFO researcher (and CIA employee) Karl Pflock worded it. Those same representatives told Newton, in no uncertain terms, that they knew his Aztec story was complete bullshit. Incredibly, though, they wanted him to keep telling the tale to just about anyone and everyone who would listen.

This led Pflock to wonder: “Did the U.S. Government or someone associated with it use Newton to discredit the idea of crashed flying saucers so a real captured saucer or saucers could be more easily kept under wraps?” Far more intriguing, though, is the next question that Karl posed: “Was this actually nothing to do with real saucers but instead some sort of psychological warfare operation [italics mine]?”

Pflock – a CIA intelligence officer, and a Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense in the Reagan Administration – was not just fascinated by the Aztec saga of 1948, per se. He was also fascinated by the possibility that someone in the government, the intelligence community, or the military – and maybe even a combination of all three – had created the story to hide something else. Or, at the very least, had encouraged the telling and retelling of the Aztec story for psy-op-basedreasons.

I know just how fascinated Karl was when it came to Aztec and the claims of Newton and that “highly secret U.S. Government entity.” I first met Karl in 2003 – at a UFO gig in the small town of Aztec, New Mexico. For a number of years, the conference was a yearly event. But, no more. Karl and I were in touch by landline and fax (how quaint) as far back as the mid-1990s. When Karl and I finally met, he near-immediately suggested that we should write an Aztec-themed book. Karl’s reasoning was that he knew the story very well, and, via the provisions of the Freedom of Information Act, I had uncovered hundreds and hundreds of pages of material – chiefly from the FBI – on the Aztec controversy. He thought we would make a good team, and particularly so now that I lived in the U.S. – and specifically in Texas, which is, of course, not at all far from New Mexico, where Karl resided and where the 1948 crash supposedly happened.

As I listened, Karl told me that his idea was, essentially, to make the book a biography on Newton, but with the Aztec affair being the main thrust. I thought it was a good idea and Karl suggested we prepare a synopsis. Which is exactly what he did. The book was going to be called Silas the Magnificent: A True Tale of Greed, Credulity, and (Maybe) Government Chicanery and Cover-up in 1950s America. Note that the book makes no mention of UFOs in its title and sub-title.

Unfortunately, the project was permanently derailed when Karl fell sick with Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis, also referred to as Lou Gehrig’s disease. He unfortunately died from the effects of ALS on June 5, 2006, at the age of just sixty-three. Karl is gone, but the synopsis still exists. It would have made a good book. And, very possibly, it just might have revealed more of the psy-op/disinformation aspect of Aztec and of other crashed UFO yarns of bygone decades.

✅The Secret Recovery of Aztec UFO in 1948 Documentary HD

{ https://mysteriousuniverse.org/ }

Oumuamua actually is a comet or eventually a spaceship” that arrived from out of our solar system then we may now be looking at the second object of this class.

Comet C/2017 S3 has an eccentricity of 1.0000787, which makes its orbit hyperbolic. Its inclination is about 99 degrees to the plane of the solar system. This makes it very unlikely that it a comet from our own solar system, kicked into a hyperbolic, sun-escaping orbit by a close encounter with Jupiter.

This strange comet suddenly flashed on July 2, 2018.

The gas cloud around the comet's nucleus is about 4 arc minutes wide," says Jäger‎. That means the comet's atmosphere is 260,000 km in diameter, almost twice as wide as the planet Jupiter.

Barely a week later, the comet fizzled, dimming almost as much as it had brightened. Then it exploded again, its green atmosphere ballooned in size, large enough to swallow Jupiter twice.

Michael Jaeger captured the comet's newly-formed tail on July 20, 2018 see GIF animation below.

Comet C/2017 S3 (PANSTARRS)

Comet PANSTARRS (C/2017 S3) Exploded Again! Stay Tuned for the Unexpected

Comet PANSTARRS Brightens 16X in 24 Hours on it's August Approach (650)

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

Black UFOs Size Of Car Shoot Past SpaceX Falcon Heavy Rocket Launch, July 2018, UFO Sighting News

Date of sighting: July 2018

Location of sighting: SpaceX Launch site

I was watching the SpaceX launch of the Falcon Heavy when I noticed that some dark black objects shot past the rocket at incredible speed. The object were 1000X faster than birds and 20X faster than a jet, so what the heck could it be other than alien craft that are investigating and observing the progress of Elon Musk. The  UFO was the size of a minivan and there were several of them. Now my estimate of its size is very conservative. Being about 5+ meters long, the UFO could be as large as 8 meters in comparison with the width of the rocket. Why were they moving so fast? So they wouldn't be noticed by the human eye. Well, most human eyes, but apparently not fast enough. 

 

Scott C. Waring  

{ http://www.ufosightingsdaily.com/ }

Glowing White UFOs At International Space Station During Space Walk, July 10, 2018, UFO Sighting News

Date of sighting: July 10, 2018
Location of sighting: Earths orbit at Space Station
Source: MUFON #93505

This video is part of a MUFON report that came in today. In the video we see several white UFOs that move past the space station during a space walk this week. The UFOs are there to observe how humans do things on the outside of the space station and in stressful environments. Watching humans under stress teaches aliens a lot about us, including how we may react to meeting a real alien. 
Scott C. Waring

{ http://www.ufosightingsdaily.com/ }

Project Blue Book: The Longest-Running Top-Secret Government UFO Program You've Never Heard Of

By Madison Dapcevich

Project Blue Book! All UFO Files Declassified

Project Blue Book An Insider Speaks Brigadier General Stephen Lovekin, Esq

PROJECT BLUEBOOK Classic UFO Documentary 1970s

{ http://www.iflscience.com/ }

Blood Moon 2018: Longest Total Lunar Eclipse of Century Occurs July 27

Wandering Star May Have Disrupted Outer Solar System's Order

UFO intrigue: How the UK dealt with 'real-life X-Files'

By James Rogers | Fox News

UFO documents reveal how UK handled 'mania'

Previously unseen documents reveal how officials at the U.K.'s Ministry of Defence handled the 'UFO mania' of the late 1990s.

The truth is out there … and it’s not from another planet. Previously unseen documents reveal how officials at the U.K.’s Ministry of Defence handled the “UFO mania” of the late 1990s.

In 1997, there was massive spike in interest around UFOs, fueled by the 50^th anniversary of the purported UFO incident in Roswell, NM. and the global popularity of the “X-Files” TV series.

Set against this backdrop, over-worked officials at the Ministry of Defence sought to cut their commitment to investigating UFO reports, the Guardian reports.

• LOST 'MINIATURE UFO' WRECKAGE DISCOVERED IN MUSEUM

The documents were obtained from the MoD by Dr. David Clarke, a principal research fellow at the U.K’s Sheffield Hallam University. “The new papers show the UFO desk head in 1997 ‘wanted to get rid of’ an issue they considered a ‘diversion from their main duties’,” Clarke wrote in a blog post. “Within the files civil servants, intelligence officers and military staff debate how the British Government should respond to growing public interest in the phenomena and what they called ‘the media’s obsession with UFOs’.”

The UFO documents

(Dr David Clarke/Sheffield Hallam University)

The files run to more than 2,500 pages and some of the more sensitive papers, declassified from “secret,” are heavily redacted, according to Clarke. “What has survived the censor’s pen paints a fascinating picture of the arguments that raged behind closed doors in Whitehall around the 50^th anniversary of the UFO mystery in 1997,” he wrote.

One RAF Wing Commander, for example, urged caution on shifting focus away from UFOs. “He argued that as MoD had not carried out any study of the UFO data they had collected since the 1970s it was not credible – and also politically risky – to continue to claim UFOs posed no ‘threat to the realm’,” Clarke explained.

• MILITARY ENCOUNTER WITH UFO REVEALED IN 2015 FOOTAGE

In 1996, the MoD commissioned a defense contractor to produce a comprehensive report on UFO sightings, which were carefully described as Unidentified Aerial Phenomena (UAP).

The report, which analyzed a database of sightings between 1987 and 1997, was delivered in 2000. The study duly found that sightings could be explained by a variety of known phenomena, both man-made and natural. The incidence of relatively rare natural phenomena was also noted.

This opened the door for the MoD to start scaling back its UFO-related operations. The DI55 department, which had secretly collected data on potential UFO sightings since 1967, closed at the end of 2000. The MoD’s UFO Desk closed in 2009.

• STEPHEN HAWKING'S SEARCH FOR ALIENS GETS A BOOST

It appears, however, that the writing was already on the wall for the MoD’s UFO operations long before the report was finished. In a document dated April 16 1998, the report’s author writes: “I am particularly looking ahead to my expected recommendation, that DI55 should no longer be involved in UAP monitoring.”

“It was the end-game,” Clarke told Fox News. “They created a definitive study that would draw a line under their involvement in the subject.”

The academic notes that in 1997 MoD officials were clearly swamped with reports of UFO sightings. At that time, the Ministry even had a UFO hotline that members of the public could call. “The workload on the subject had trebled as a result of what was going on in popular culture,” he said.

• WE COULD FIND ALIENS BY SPOTTING THEIR SATELLITES

The hotline eventually closed in 2009.

“All our historic files which refer to UFOs have either been released, or are in the process of being released to The National Archives,” explained the MoD, in a statement emailed to Fox News. “The MoD continues to have no opinion on the existence, or otherwise, of extra-terrestrial life and does not investigate reported unidentified flying object sightings.”

• Follow James Rogers on Twitter @jamesjrogers

{ http://www.foxnews.com/ }

Astronaut Scott Kelly Battled a Gallon-Sized Ball of Urine and Acid on ISS

By Matthew Phelan

Asked by Reddit to name the creepiest thing he’s ever dealt with in space, former astronaut and retired US Navy captain Scott Kelly didn’t hold back. In the video, posted Wednesday, he revealed it was a huge floating orb of sulfuric acid and astronaut pee.

“I had to clean up a gallon-sized ball of urine mixed with acid,” Kelly told Biography.com in a video interview produced with Reddit. “Essentially, the sulfuric acid that is mixed with the urine basically keeps the toilet from clogging up.”

“If you could imagine, something like Drano.”

The specific piece of hardware that Kelly’s referring to here is the International Space Station’s E-K pre-treatment toilet tank. The E-K introduces astronaut urine to a mixture of water, sulfuric acid, and chromium oxide — the latter of which helps to prevent oxidation and gives the solution an alien-like (but also, maybe, less gross) purple color. The top photo on this article doesn’t actually depict the urine-acid ball but approximates what it might look like; the green orb is actually an experiment Kelly once ran on the ISS using water, green food coloring and an antacid tablet designed to visualize water’s complex physics in zero gravity.

Nearly all varieties of stainless steel contain at least 10.5 percent chromium, and it is the invisible surface layer of chromium oxide created by these oxidation reactions that helps to keep that steel from rusting (that is, oxidizing). You can imagine how important adding more of that chemical might be for restroom facilities inside of a hermetically sealed can of human beings orbiting the Earth.

While you’re here thinking about it: the ISS had a major overhaul to its bathroom system in 2008, installing a system that actually harvests all wastewater and recycles it into potable drinking water. This wastewater includes: all of the astronauts’ urine, the water used to brush their teeth and conduct other personal hygiene activities, and even the excess moisture in the air.

During the so-called Year-Long Mission (Ron Howard voice: “It was 11 months.”), NASA estimates that Kelly consumed somewhere around 193 gallons (730 liters) of water recycled from the team’s urine and sweat (as well as his own).

Kelly is, of course, only one in a long line of space plumbers. This lucrative, high-demand trade job has also been performed by Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency astronaut Aki Hoshide; cosmonaut Oleg Kononenko; and Italian European Space Agency astronaut and Italian Air Force pilot, Samantha Cristoforetti.

While the urine-acid orb might be the creepiest or grossest thing that Kelly has ever experienced in space, it’s very likely not the nastiest thing anyone has ever dealt with up there. That distinction would have to go one of the innumerable horror stories to come out of the Soviet space station Mir — which was plagued by hidden orbs of watery mold, fires, porthole-damaging fungal infections, and the occasional power failure. (Mir was like an RV driven by a touring 80s hardcore band. It was gross and it ruled.)

If you think you can handle it, you can watch the rest of Kelly’s admittedly less scatological AMA answers here.

{ https://www.inverse.com/ }